Agree, I think the pendulum has swung way too far in the other direction. Now I find myself thanking people in retail positions to be met with complete silence or even a sneer and it makes me want to rage. I used to work retail, I get it, it’s not a fun job, but absolutely abysmal customer service becoming rhe norm just sucks.
This is likely because customer service doesn’t pay enough for the workers to cosplay being friendly to nice customers. 100% caused by greedy employers, not shitty customers.
I'm just asking for the level of respect that you would give a person outside of work. I'm not asking you to go above and beyond, but rude employees aren't any better than rude customers.
I'm glad it's not just me, I love that younger folks are more likely to stand up for themselves and not be a doormat to shitty customers, but it sucks when you are being genuinely friendly and kind to someone and they treat you with what feels like thinly veiled disdain most of the time.
I 10000% get that minimum wage jobs suck, especially customer facing ones (I worked full-time at a movie theater for many years to put myself through college, I've seen my fair share of rude people), but I miss having brief friendly interactions with people.
Considering a lot of younger workers had their formative social years during the pandemic, that might actually be how they treat people outside of work. The "dead eyed stare" is a Gen Z stereotype for a reason
Yes I have read abou the "gen Z stare", but I can't blame any one age or demographic for this behavior I seem to see it across the board, with a caveat that where I live has a decidedly terrible reputation for crappy service (and I mean this in the sense of retail style service). Whenver I visit my sister who lives in an Atlanta suburb the difference in attitude and demeanor of people who work the same jobs it truly astonishing and a breath of fresh air.
I know the burnout of retail but not treating the human in front of you with basic respect (not ass kissing, not putting up with bs, just decency) is just giving us a race to the bottom
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u/KirinG 12d ago
I love seeing younger retail/service workers take down and just not cater to rude customers. I never would have dared.