Public Rudeness

Rude

[rood]

-Adjective, rud -er, rud -est

1. Discourteous or impolite, esp. in a deliberate way: a rude reply.

We have all come across a rude person before in our life. Whether it was a friend not sharing as a child or a coworker treating you like crap, we've all been there. But how we deal with it is what makes the situation either calm down or escalate to more problematic levels of tension.

That being said, those who work in retail are very limited as to what they can do in situations where the customer is being rude. They could choose to defend themselves, or they could choose to simply let it roll off their shoulders. The majority of the time, they are encouraged to smile and nod, letting the customer get away with whatever rude behavior that they have been displaying. There's really no other way around it unless you're in a position of some sort of power in the store.

I've got a few stories, just as I'm sure you or your friends who work or ever have worked in the service or retail industry may have. As you may or may not know, I used to work at a fairly well-known pizza chain when I was in high school. I often worked nights, as I was at school during the day, and this meant I'd get people coming in for their dinner.

One particularly quiet night, I was working the front when I saw a woman approaching the store with cell phone in hand. She opened the door, walked up to the desk and stood there. I walked over to the counter, as that was what I was supposed to do, and asked her what I could get for her. She swiftly replied by snapping her hand up in between her and myself, extending a single finger to show that I was meant to wait for her.

Yes, I was irritated, but really there was nothing I could do but wait for the woman to finish up her phone call. Afterwards, she ordered her pizza and left. But I could not understand why someone would walk all the way up to the place where you order your food, only to hush the cashier and make them wait when there's clearly more important things (such as cleaning up the store) that could be being done.

While it was not the worst thing to ever happen, it was still rude of her--in my opinion--to stand at the counter while chatting on the phone. It just puts the cashier in an awkward position. The thoughts that run through our heads are mostly, "What the heck do I say?" "How do I deal with this person?" "Does he/she honestly expect my best if I can't even get theirs?"

So please, if you're going to go up to a service counter, hang up the phone. Not only does it make the cashier feel weird for not being able to serve you the best way possible, but it makes you look like a complete bitch.

Just some food for thought.

-Manda-