Why I'm nearing a mental breakdown (a saga of suck)

[RealUnimportant]

Regarding the door lady, I wonder if the security tapes might show her pushing one trolley and an accomplice pushing another with the more expensive "mistake" doors on...

[Jester]

One of them, I don't know which one, had just decided to pull my hair- hard enough to startle me and cause a small amount of pain.

They all grinned at me. I couldn't tell which one who had done it, so I couldn't just lunge at them (I had to physically restrain myself from attacking them). Because I couldn't do anything, I could feel myself shaking. I snapped "Who did that!?" and they just laughed. Fighting back tears, I snarled "Don't you ever come back to this store again!" and they just walked away laughing.

In situations like this, never ask questions. No one is going to admit anything. Rather than asking who did it, as they will never tell you (unless they're a group of scared six year olds), come back up with fire in your eyes and look at them as a group and say, "Don't you dare do that!" or "If you ever do that again you'll have to learn how to chew with someone else's teeth" or "Do that again and that will be the last mistake you make" or "The next time that happens the cops will be here and you will be charged with assault." Statements, not questions. Position of strength, not weakness, no matter how you feel about what just happened. If you portray strength, they will see strength, and will react as if you were the stronger one. Human nature. Cowards defer to strength, and these guys were clearly cowards to pull that maneuver.

He did the age-old "don't worry, I printed it this morning" joke that I LOATHE. I've hated this fake-money joke for ages, but after the treatment of the past week, I couldn't even fake a laugh or a smile any more.

I've said this a few times in here recently, but it bears repeating:

Do not take the shit your customers do personally. At worst, this guy was trying to be funny and failing. He doesn't know about your recent personal problems, nor should he be made aware of them. Most people, even lame jokers like this, would probably sympathize with you if they did know, but it's not their place to know what is going on with their cashier. They are there to buy something, and while they may well make lame jokes, it is our job to just deal with it and move on. They are not, after all, assaulting you.

Is it annoying? Of course. But part of our job in customer service is to fake it, even if we fake it badly. So just smile and nod vacantly, and move on. The hair pullers were worthy of making a major case of. The bad joker was not. He was just lame, not malicious. So just sigh inwardly and move on.

The less of this shit you take personally, the happier you'll be. I've been doing this for 28 years now....I have a vague idea of what I'm talking about.

That being said, your response to him, while not what I would advise, was not that bad. But his reaction to it was utterly ridiculous and unwarranted. So fuck him, and hopefully the camel he rode in on will give him a venereal disease the next time he fucks it.

Poor camel.


Pregnant Girl: being pregnant entitles you to some special treatment, yes. It helps if you ask for it if you feel you need it. But to expect people to do everything for you just because you had a guy stick his penis in you and now you have something to show for it is utterly ridiculous. (Outside of a baby shower, anyway.)

All the while, she was absolutely slagging off the cashier who served her, calling her an idiot and demanding that I bring her down to the desk right now!!!! I asked who served her, and she said it was my colleague Bee. I said "Oh...well...I'm really sorry that happened, you know, human error does occur sometimes, and I know that Bee has been very poorly recently..."

Really fucking poorly. As in, she'd had a mini stroke. And yet she was back at work. Yeah!

Bitchy McLunatic however snapped over me "I don't CARE if she's ILL, I want this fixed NOW blah blah-"

Me: *interrupting* "She had a stroke."

This goes back to my earlier comment that the customer doesn't care about staff's personal life. It sucks, but it is reality.

My advice to you is, in the future, rather than explain why a coworker may have been off of their game, just apologize to the suckass customer that they weren't satisfied with other staff, and process the transaction. Don't get specific about the coworker, unless the customer is insulting and abusive when speaking of them that they go over the line, at which point you hit them with a double whammy: "Look, lady, I know you probably don't care, but Sandra's mother just died. But you are so rude that I just will not serve you anymore. Leave the store, and come back another time." But I generally advise the earlier bit about not over explaining. That goes back to not getting so personal with the guests, or taking them so personally. They're idiots, sure, but just get them the fuck out of the store without all the drama they're looking for. "Sorry that happened. Will that be paper or plastic?" Short, succinct, impersonal, and to the point. And cuts them off at the knees. What are they gonna complain about now? That you did your job? Fuck 'em.

I almost said I didn't realise handling inbred lunatics was part of my job.

Sadly, it IS part of our job. In my case, handling inbred DRUNKEN lunatics is part of the job, but for the most part, I deflect them and get through the day. Again, the key is not taking their idiocy personally.

In short, fuck 'em.