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It took me two months of working at one of my work’s ‘worst’ locations and I feel like I have lost all my patience with people lol. Like, manners don’t exist here. If you don’t act tough you won’t make it here. I feel like a monkey trying to fight other monkeys to stay on top of the monkey rock.
And this is towards our clients, not my colleagues. They are nice.
Have you tried being a bit of an asshole back? I don’t mean just being rude, but familiar like in the way that their friends might give them grief in a joking way, without all the typical customer service framing.
My work moved a store from a small city to a small town once and there was a bit of a cultural difference between the locations. I could swear at my clients and say things that would have gotten me complaints from in the city, but at the new location, everyone loved it. If I treated them with the typical sort of customer service the people in the city preferred, it came off as fake. They wanted “genuine” people (not actually genuine, just the appearance of feeling of it, which is why I say it was cultural). Most of our clients were long-haul truckers, ranchers/farmers, and mill workers.
I don’t come off as a tough guy or particularly masculine at all, I just started responding to their crap with half-joking grief and eventually learned it was better to just dish some out from the beginning. Swearing also helped a lot.
I don’t know the specifics of your work and it could be a completely different situation, but maybe there is something about this location that is different from the other stores and approaching your clients differently would help ease the pressure? Likewise, maybe they’re just assholes for some reason.
Well we get those people too. Typical blue collar workers with their heart on their sleeve. I don’t really mind them, they are straightforward but friendly.
We get frustrated people too. I don’t mind them either. The system can be frustrating.
The people I talk about are just rude people. Trying to intimidatie you, yelling, physical threats, trying to get it their way by walking all over you, not listening to what you tell them, refusing to take out earphones for example.
Basically they just try to do some powerplay to stay on top of the situation. I learned quickly not to accept that because if you give them a finger they will take your hand.
It’s a bit sad because I am a naturally calm person but I find myself in dick swinging contests more often these days.
Ah yeah, that type. I just didn’t serve them until they quit their shit, but I was lucky enough not to have a boss present that could scold me for it. Just turn your back and walk away kind of moments.
What do you think brings so many more of them to that one location?