What would you do if you were in a situation where you were purchasing an item and at that same time, the person who is serving you is having an argument with another employee? There are many of these instances that happen when you're at the register and these employees start yelling back and forth at each other. I remember I was in a store once and the employee actually started swearing! I mean its none of my business, but at the same time, it is very much my business because the employee is the one serving me. I told them to agrue when I'm gone or else I want to speak with their manager. What would you do now?
I have seen this happen myself. I was in the supermarket around 10 years ago and an older employee was shouting the odds at this young girl who was clearly new. Well, I've never been one to keep my mouth shut so I marched right up to this woman and told her that she was being unprofessional and should keep her grudges off the shop floor. Then, I went and found a manager and told them exactly what I saw. OK, we all have issues with our colleagues from time to time but to be publicly berating them is something else entirely.
This happens in the stores where I live from time to time. I just give them "looks," until they remember that there are customers standing there. Honestly this doesn't rile me nearly as much as the employees who yak to each other, and never acknowledge my presence at all! I have had cashiers talk to each other the whole time they're ringing up my purchases, and not even say, "thank you" when they hand me my change! That's when I call management!
Lucky me, I was the employee being yelled at, lol I was working in the deli of a mom and pop grocery store. I was brand new and was just starting to catch on. A customer came up, and I was trying to get his order. The owner was in the deli with me, and starts complaining about me to the employee. He had asked for something I wasn't familiar with. I didnt go back to work the next day.
I'm sorry that you were the one being yelled at I have the same experience where I work as well. There's an older lady that I work with who insists that everything be in a particular way to her liking. If I move the pen into the drawer, she will yell. She's always yelling at me and other employees in front of customers, in fact she actually swore at a customer during one of these fits and was suspended! Its really quite upsetting working with her. :'( Did you quit? Or did you just not go in that day?
I quit by just not going in. I was on the fence about what I should do. Rationally, I should have gone in until I had another job. But when I woke up in the morning, the thought of that old man being seriously screwed that day became my priority. The old guys daughter and I were the only people left that hadn't quit. And when you sell as much BBQ out of the deli, it becomes one of the worst and busiest departments to work in.
It's unprofessional and unacceptable. I don't cope well with confrontation or being near confrontation. I will typically simply walk out (abandoning anything I might have bought) and email the store later to complain. There is always somewhere else to get what I want and no need to deal with that type of crap while shopping.
I... would be nice to them? I know people value professionalism and getting good service, but if someone is getting upset in front of me, I would care more about smiling at them and trying to cheer up their day a little bit than care about "showing them!" what's right. I find that trying to empathize with people who act this way has a nice effect of cheering up everyone, and when faced with someone being nice to them, they tend to naturally apologize to you about it and, as such, realize by themselves that they should not have done that. Plus, if the employee was yelling or being yelled at, it can be that they are at their wit's ends and under a lot of pressure. They're still humans, not service machines. I'd much rather let them off the hook and see them being apologetic and grateful and relieved and all sorts of good thing than go around and make sure that my frustration makes things escalate even more.
I like the way that you've worded this, it makes me a see a completely different view. I definitely agree to try to make their day better now. From a personal experience, I do feel a lot of pressure when someone is yelling at me while I'm serving a customer, most of the time I brush them off and go back to the customer. But what would you say if that sales person started taking their anger out on you? What would you do if they started arguing and swearing at you?
That's a good question. In the case of inter-employee problems, I have no clue what is going on and for all I know the person in front of me is just a victim of a bad team/management/etc, but if they pass their anger on me, I know I am not responsible for what is happening and I might be a bit less conciliatory. I cannot say for sure, because it never happened to me -- I had employees of restaurant and customer service people being rude at me, and this, I have no patience for, I just give up and leave, most of the time. But if I could see they were just snapping at me because they had gotten screamed at? Hard to say. If it would be one snap, I'd just have a shock face and not say something and hope they'd realize themselves it's wrong. If they just start ranting at me for no reason... I don't think I'd just let them? Really hard to say. What would you do?
I would end up arguing back and forth. Probably tell the manager what happened and let them handle it from there
I never involve myself in other people's business these days. If employees are yelling at each it''s none of my concern. When it [the arguing or quarreling whichever it is] affects the quality of the service I get, I'll firmly ask that person/employee to attend to their issues later. That works all the time.
That sort of behaviour is completely unacceptable and the employees should be sacked for gross misconduct. Standards among staff in shops has definitely fallen in the last few years and this sort of incident is fairly commonplace. As well as shouting at each other i have witnessed employees moaning about their job and their employer in front of the customer as well as eating, drinking, chewing gum and chatting on the phone. All of these acts are completely unprofessional and will drive trade further away.
That would be very highly unprofessional and would create for a very awkward situation. I'm glad to say I have yet to come across anything of that nature. I may be forced to have a quiet word about it, but if they persisted, I would definitely consider putting in a complaint.
I would not do anything about it. If there is a manager anywhere near, they will hear it shortly and then it's their responsibility to deal with it. I would probably just quietly go through the line and leave them alone. If they are paying any attention to anything other than their argument they will know that the customers are not happy about it.
I find that if you pay someone only minimum wage and then treat them like crap (many fastfood chains do that to their employee), then nobody should uphold them to being "professional". They are a little bit better off than slaves, and it should be up to their boss to uphold a better working environment rather than just sack them and get new employees to treat badly.
That's true. I guess that you would have to see the situation in order to fully understand what is happening. During training, we are always told to hold back any anger from anyone else and to treat the customer as if nothing happened. We are supposed to put aside differences and start anew. If we cannot do this, then we are told to hand the customer over to someone else and step aside until we are calmer to work. This is retail business, so one bad customer experience and you can lose a loyal customer. I have had this happen to me once, and I told the salesperson that they should really not take their anger out on me. Like I said above, if they cannot handle the pressure, step aside, but there is no excuse for yelling at an innocent bystander. I agree that it is unacceptable. I do agree with all except chewing gum. After my breaks, I usually chew some gum in order to get my breath back to an acceptable scent (haha). My tolerance of gum chewers would depend on how the person is chewing the gum, if it is distracting then there is an issue, if it is hardly noticed, then that is fine. Chatting on the phone is definitely a big one as well as texting. I have a horrendous colleague who is extremely lazy and is always texting on his phone on the sales floor. He is actually getting paid $4 more than I am whereas he does absolutely nothing and the managers are doing nothing about it. Its very irritating.
Yes, that sounds like the most reasonable and most neutral thing to do! And yeah. I know that, working with people, sometimes you kind of wish they would get told off because, well. Always two sides to the medal. *sigh*
I dealt with this last night. We went to a restaurant for Mother's Day. The young lady who waited on us was very rude. I had a question about the special, and she didn't know the answer. Instead of finding out she snarled, "I don't know. Just pick something!" Another waitress called her over and the two of them started having at it. The owner came and took my order himself, apologizing to me (while they continued yelling). We took our food to go, and got out of there. I was ready to skip it all together, but the owner was nice, so I didn't want to leave him hanging. He gave us a free appetizer and we went home to eat in peace and quiet.
I would avoid such places, although I have seen in happen and it usually happens in a certain type of shop. I am quite good at ignoring things, paying and then leaving. While it's not acceptable, it's up to the management to intervene and I would not because it could get nasty and dangerous. I see it as a sign of the times where people don't have manners or know what is correct behavior in society, but it's not my place to correct them either.
