"The Customer is Always Right"

[Sugar Smack]

Two years ago, I landed a good job. I'm 35 years old, and have worked shit jobs most of my life; jobs in the service industry (food service and retail). I've worked in two Convenience stores, two book stores (one private, one corporate-owned), one fast-food place, and at least a dozen others where I've waited on people.

In the past two weeks, I've started wondering whether or not there was some Studs Terkel-type of study on those in the service industry. I've been through several Drive-Through fast food places for my boss the past couple of weeks. THESE PEOPLE ARE MISERABLE. I understand it. However unreasonable the request or however nasty the customer, you have to "Smile," or his meal is free.

You're given a uniform. You stand on your feet all day long. You come home smelling like oil and condiments. You apologize for the industry's mistakes, only to be barked at by both customer and manager. Your manager is inevitably literal-minded and cannot even catch the nuances of humor. As much as you feel a little gratified that you're smarter, you still know you're alone.

Hard-luck humor prevails at these places. People are afraid of getting fired, so they shrug off a lot at the injustices. How many of you are stuck in this situation? If my job were to fold, I'd probably have to go do this again. And I would, if it meant my survival. But who has to go through this daily? The horrible schedules, the long hours, and the humiliation?

I would like to hear your stories. I'll share mine with you. You are all such good writers, and there are so many thoughtful people on this forum. Thanks in advance!!:)

[JanMichael]

1. Nickel and Dimed

It's the closest book about service jobs that I know of.

[JanMichael]

2. kick

The problem is that many people just don't seem to care about the conditions of servive workers.

[Cleita]

3. Having done service jobs either when in school or as

a second job, one positive thing I found was that my fellow workers at the service jobs were much nicer and had better senses of humor than the ones in my better paying jobs.

[solinvictus]

4. Quincy's Family Steakhouse was..

a regional chain here in Alabama and the southeast. Back in 1992, I worked as a server there for about three months. The customer base was a mixed and I usually worked a split shift between lunch and dinner. During weekends, I worked the ghost town that was the breakfast bar and dinner.
The vast majority of customers were shits, pure and simple. On Sundays, the after church crowd would come in droves, trash entire sections, and leave either small or no tips. My worst experience was a large table full of "good Christians" who were having an after church gathering. Hearing the tabletalk, all of the adults were professionals who apparently did not believe in disciplining their children at all. The kids ran wild, spilled food on the table, knocked over each others drinks and made huge messes. Of that entire section with over a dozen people, not one person could be bothered to leave a tip. I guess they felt I was being punished by God as a waiter.

[Rex]

6. I have tons of relatives that are church goers

IMO, they don't think or feel anything toward you other than impressions on the surface. From their POV you rank below them on some Godforsaken, make-believe hierarchy. I'm so happy I wasn't forced to go to church as a kid. I've seen it help and hurt people and I don't want any part of it.

My first job was at McDonalds, I ALWAYS had to restock the dam frig when the trucks showed up and I hated it from the day I started to the day I found a better job. I think minimum wage was $3.25 (1987) back then. What is it at now?

[Cleita]

8. I always found the church groups the rudest and most

inconsiderate no matter what I was doing, whether serving tables, acting as a tour guide or campground host. I never figured out why. It seems good manners would be welcome in heaven as well as on earth.

[tammywammy]

11. I worked customer service in an amusement park for 3 years

during the "Southern Baptist" weekend, we has more incidents of stealing than the rest of the year. I always loved paging "Any sponsor of La La Baptist Church" and when someone finally arrived taking them over to where the kid sat in an office for stealing.
And my 4 years working in coffee shops, Sunday afternoons were the worse. The church crowd was always so mean to us...like they were punishing us b/c they spent the morning in church.

[Imajika]

5. When I was in High School and University..

..I did these crap jobs. Not fast food, but low end retail jobs. Fast food I'd imagine is even worse.

Because I experienced working at these types of places, I always make an extra effort to be nice to the people I encounter doing this kind of work.

I worked as a cashier in a couple drugstores back in the day - mostly just for beer money, but also to buy anything extra special that the parents wouldn't buy for me. So I don't know what it is like to depend on such a job.

What I found after awhile, and considering the companies always had this dopey "customer is always right" motto - was to be as indifferent as possible and infact give the customer EVERYTHING they wanted. If the policy said I should give refunds or exchanges, I never questioned the customer at all. If the company is always going to take the customer's side over the employee, and that is precisely what they will do if a customers complaint gets far enough up the ladder, then I figured I'd go ahead and make sure the company paid as much as possible for that policy. The policy was to make the customer happy, and that's sure as hell what I'd do Hell, customers could bring me crap they didn't even buy at my company and I'd return or exchange it. If a customer seemed like they wanted a discount and I was allowed to give a certain percentage off - I'd always give it to them without hardly any prompting. If a customer asked for more than I was technically allowed to give them under the rules, I'd just nod and pass them along to someone else. Why the hell should I make any effort for a company that will never take my side? I just found there was no point at all watching out for the company at these types of jobs, because they'd never support you - and infact dispose of you in a heartbeat if a customer bitched enough.

I remember a couple employees tried to stop kids from shoplifting on a few different occassions (the kids would actually grab stuff and run out the door), and then for their efforts the employees got canned when the parents complained. Now, knowing that the company will never back me up in such instances, why would I even bother? It got to the point where I saw people pocketing stuff right in front of me and I just went on about my business of collecting a paycheck. I'm pretty sure I became known as "that cool clerk at the drug store who doesn't care what you take" - but hey, if the company cares so little about their staff, why should I stick my neck out?

Sorry, this is not the kind of detailed story you were looking for I am sure, but it is an interesting topic and I wanted to respond.

Drug stores were bad enough, but man, I really do feel especially sorry for fast food staff. The customers are so often complete asses, and I am sure the employee rarely if ever gets the support of the company they work for when a customer whines.

Honestly, it takes a stronger person than myself to do that kind of work at this stage. Thinking back, I probably actually did far, far more work as a drug store stock clerk/cashier than I do now. And I make massively more money now. Yeah, I have more responsibility, but really the people doing that kind of job actually do far more real work I think. I guess that's the way it is in life much of the time, the higher up you go, the less work you actually do.

Imajika

[CornField]

7. I worked a short stint at a taco joint

Shortly after my mom died, I took a job at the taco place as a second job to help my dad pay off some of her medical bills. It was a really crap job and I got stuck opening most weekends.

We made our own tortilla chips from rounds. To do it, you stood at this wooden table and placed the butt of a knife (the handle) against your stomach. The tip of the knife fit into a groove on the table so that blade was pointing straight up. Then you could grab a stack of the tortilla rounds and cut them into halves... then the halves into halves as well. Presto! Tortilla chips ready to be fried up.

One Saturday morning I was running on very little sleep. (My other job was as a journalist and I had attended a controversial county meeting which lasted way into Friday night.) I set up at the table to make the chips. As I brought the second or third stack of rounds down the blade, I felt my finger begin to burn... I had almost completely cut off the top portion of my left ring finger.

I ended up in the emergency room and had my wedding rings cut off because the finger had swollen so much. It was a few days later when I found out that my manager had recommended the company not pay the workmen's compensation claim. According to her, I was abusing drugs and that caused the accident, not the precarious working conditions.

[tjdee]

9. McDonald's hires people out of jail, which I was surprised by, and

they were not the crazed psychos I knew they weren't but secretly thought they were. One guy told me to put ice cream on my pancakes and he became my very best friend. :)

I worked there for less than a month, but it was a good experience because I got to be with people I never would have socialized with otherwise.

Though--I must say that some of them took it very seriously and one in particular looked down on me because it was an "in between" job for me, not a career. But he was a weirdo.

[rocktop15]

10. Worked at Starbucks for a while.....

....talk about a corporate enviroment. Everything was structerd including the conversation the "baristas" are supposed to initiate with the customer. I got fired after 5-6 weeks because I told them I couldn't make it to work because I had other plans. Ehhh it was a part time job to let me get some spending money.

[Cleita]

12. That excuse would get you fired from any job.

You need a list of good excuses to take days off, like falling into poison oak, or flat tires if you want to sleep in. :evilgrin: