I don't know why I keep reading this or responding, but I do. I've read every single post, responses, replies, quotes, etc. You are one of those people that don't actually listen to the person that you're talking to. You just wait for them to shut up so that you can talk about the same thing that you've said 100 times. WE HEAR YOU!!!! And I'll use caps if I want to, you have made me angry and I want you to pay attention instead of just regurgitating the same thing over and over and over again.
I have been working in some form or another since I was 12 (33 years ago). I started delivering local newspapers, then it was babysitting, clerk in a gas/conveinence station, video store clerk, line cook at a crappy take out place, receptionist at engineering company, outdoor parking attendant at sports complex in rain, snow, 100 degree and 30 degree weather (luckily that turned into me being a business manager for that same company 4 years later, but I digress) waitress at a seasonal pizza place on the boardwalk where I ended up going to the hospital 3 times in 4 months for heat stroke, burns, etc ( it's actually still one of my favorite jobs), clerk at a linen supply company (thank goodness I didn't have to work in the laundry part because it was so hot in there, yet people were lining up to work there from all over this country and those overseas) bartended and waitressed at a place where I absolutely hated the place and the customers, but it was literally the only place in my town that was hiring and couldn't drive anywhere because of medical issues, then the dreaded drug store where customers were amazing and corporate was horrid (if you didn't get a perfect score on the CSE, you were written up, whether you had anything to do with it or not and you were expected to put away an entire 16 palet load of deliveries away in 48 hrs with you as a supervisor and one cashier to my last "regular job" as a bartender who worked a minimum of 8 hours, sometimes up to 14 hours in the summer without a lunch or break, where some of the male bartenders actually peed in a bucket outside because you literally couldn't get out of the bar and where the owner actually threw stuff around when he was mad, one time almost hitting his wife in the head with a tap handle.
Whew...I've worked a lot of places and as it turns out, they were all customer service jobs. What does all this mean? I know what it means like to be judged based on a smile or a comment or a cough or anything. We are there to serve the customer, that's where CUSTOMER SERVICE comes from. I've had times where I've said "Hey, how are you?" only to get the response of "Give me a Miller Lite" or "Give me a menu" or any other thing that doesn't answer how you are or acknowledge that I'm a human. Guess what...it doesn't freaking matter. You're there to do a job. You're there to follow the guidelines that are set up for you by your employer.
Customers that come in to most businesses don't care about you unless they are regulars and then even that's iffy. Customers come in to any place to be served and to get a product or service. They don't care if you're having a bad day, they don't care if your boss is a jerk or corporate sucks or any of that. Most of them don't give a crap whether you or some bozo are there to wait on them. I've heard the "oh it's a shame that you are working on a holiday" while they're also complaining that their coupon won't work because it's a holiday. Nobody cares.
And honestly, as a customer, I could care less if there are smudges on the window, a little drop of tea or many of the other things that a mystery shopping company might tell me to report based on what the company is requesting that we report about, but I'll be damned if I don't do my job when the report specifically asks if there's smudges or stains or whatthefreakever else they ask about because that is my job. It's the one that I choose, because like Bobby Brown, it is my prerogative.
@expretDOTorg wrote:
@Jenny Cassada wrote:
YOU ARE NOT LISTENING! ..., unfortunately, is YOUR problem.
First of all, there's no need to shout at me, just take a chill pill, Jenny and don't take things so personal.
You say you are not micromanaging, yes you are!! You want to spot every smudge and every crumb and dare the busy, stressed, exhausted staff not see it!
There are MS's that are realistic and HUMANE and don't write about every peep and poop, like when staff cough because they are sick and not paid when off sick having to pay the bills. I even remember the MS that I served while coughing, not ONCE did the MS even asked me how I was, no "How are you... why are you not staying home to get well.." etc. I had many chats with customers about all sorts of things including holiday destinations, their job (one MS was dressed as a builder and must have done MS work on the site, so I asked him about his job, he then mentioned this in his report and rewarded me, that's how I realized with the report he was the MS).
So, there are lots of even sometimes personal chit-chat, but the MS didn't even esquire about my well being while I coughed and just commented that staff should not work while ill. Such ignorance in this.
I dare you to sit in a Pret during the busy coffee and lunch rush which in the U.S. is much less busy then in the UK, and just very few customers like I have posted on my blog, notice this and the intense stress staff go through.
So, yeah, do your job, report every crumb because the company wants profits and doesn't care for mental health of their staff. Survival of the fittest, whoever breaks will be replaced. That's Pret also has one question on their return to work sheet after sickness, the question "Are you having work related anxiety".
I had work related anxiety but never ticked the box because of how Pret targets those who break.
I take my hat off customers like this who have a rare "epiphany" on what Pret staff go through!
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