DISQUS

Daniel Miessler · 2 years ago

Sadie,

Thanks for the comment, but I can tell the difference between "having a bad day" and "playing a role". I think most everyone else can too.

Cheers,

-Daniel

johnny · 2 years ago

a high percentage of teenagers are surly and hate their jobs. as far as i know this has always been the case. retail businesses tend to have a high rate of turnover and don't have a lot of options for filling their low-paying positions.

yes, customer service often sucks. but complaining isn't going to change that. your best bet is getting on some prescription meds or taking up meditation so that you won't be so personally annoyed by other people's stupidity.

ben · 2 years ago

This is not actually a problem that you encounter often. I see vanishingly few people as you describe working in client-facing role.

JS · 2 years ago

Personally, all I care about is if they get my order right and give me the correct amount of change, and generally don't screw anything up. To me, that's what they're there for. I really could not care less about the person's "attitude", unless they are openly hostile. That's the sort of thing that people with nothing better to do complain about. When I go to Starbucks, I expect to get a cup of coffee, I don't expect to like the personality of the person behind the counter nor the positioning of their headwear.

Also, you're wrong about the person behind the counter not liking you. Really, he just doesn't give a shit about you at all. He forgot about you the moment you walked out the door. Believing otherwise is just being self-important.

Tim · 2 years ago

I never expect professionalism at a fast food joint. Perhaps at a nice gas station... but if you're working at Mcdonald's, I half expect your goofy looking hat to be pinned to the top of your head 'cause you don't want to mess up your hair.

You don't give a shit about me and I don't give a shit about you. Just give me my order and don't (spit|jerk off|pee) in it.

/tim

Brad Wolfe · 2 years ago

I try not to frequent any establishment that has horrible service. I would say that 80% of the places that I buy food/music/drinks at are locally owned for that reason. When I go to these places, I feel as if my business is appreciated and the person behind the counter actually has an interest in what they do. Take, for example, the coffee shop that I frequent. There are 6 or 7 branches of this place total, and everyone that works at any given branch will be friendly, take an interest in getting your order correct, and make you feel as if your order is actually important to them. Since I have been going there, they have also maintained a fairly steady cast of employees. I just can't see why anyone would frequent any place that allows their employees to be assholes and unprofessional. It is bad for business and for the company's reputation.

bea · 2 years ago

Wow... you actually care about the corporate image of a place like Starbucks seriously? You care about the hats of the people that serve you drinks? The idea that working at a chain establishment assigns you to a 'culture' is just sickening. Do you think Starbucks owns its employees? As long as someone is performing their job adequately, who cares about their attitude? Get a hobby, read a book, find something significant to whine about.

Zeth · 2 years ago

"I don’t like this place, I don’t like this job, and I don’t like you. I tolerate you because I need money in order to pretend to be something I’m not. I’m not playing your stupid “act nice” game. I don’t jump through hoops for nobody."

Wow sounds like IT :)

I am British so here things are different. We kind of like that dispassionate approach, as long as they make a decent cup of tea, I do not really care about the rest. If someone is having a bad day and hates their job? Well welcome to the world, mine's milk and no sugar.

I am not sure I want happy-clappy assistants trying to give me a "positive experience", that kind of thinking is for McDonalds and brothels, I visit neither.

Steven G. Harms · 2 years ago

I'm absolutely baffled that you had so few people take your side in this matter. Let me do so.

The modern service industry has abused us, one and all, from actually expecting service, let alone service with a smile. Heck, it's a strange sort of blame the victim Stockholm syndrome going on in the dectractors' posts.

1. Let's remember that this "fellow with poor emotional/psychological state" would be this "fellow emotional/psychological state and NO FREAKING JOB" if it weren't for people like Mr. Miessler patronizing his establishment. He has a vested interest in Miessler not going to Seattle's Best or It's a Grind or the Segafredo next door.

2. The individual is not acting as an individual here. He's acting as an extension of a shared stock trust. Miessler asserting X or Y about him outside of his capacity as a worker would be some sort of sociopathy ( person as means to an end ). This person was working in which they are paid to suborn their right to end versus means by their employer.

You try keeping a job in a place where you're not meeting your customer's expectation of service in corporate america. Enjoy your severance.

3. (@bea) The moment you step into your workplace, you are signing into a cultural institution. You can't join the marines without a haircut, you can't make it on Wall Street without a suit, and you can't be a legitimate master programmer without a pair of flip-flops and a coffee-stained copy of the K&R. It's just the rules. Some of us have environments where blue suits are required, others have places where jeans and iPod are the norm, and yet others have to wear aprons and silly hats. Don't like the regulations? Change your situation. Go to school, save your pennies, etc.

An institution doesn't OWN you, they OWN your labor to which they assign a valuation called your pay-rate. Do they pay you out of goodness and love of fluffy clouds and rainbows?

4. Miessler doesn't care per se about the "Starbucks brand asset". If he did, he'd be working for them in Seattle. Rather, a company's brand is an emissary of the culture of the brand: Norah Jones, pseudo-Deco paintings, a standard calibre of coffee, etc. Employees are ambassadors of the brand and the employer / manager has the right to expect and has spent money training the employee to be a GOOD ambassador of that brand.

IF through the culture of the region said employee chooses to ignore this directive or to cop attitude with the patron, it's within the patron's every right to complain.

4. All customers are, par definition, sociopaths, they are all driven to get their needs satisfied in the marketplace using market means ( namely currency ). Historically the choice of preference for sociopaths has been murder and theft, Miessler has simply asserted that the store must delivery on the social interaction promised by the brand's marketing assets. This is actually a pretty fair trade as some of the attitude I've gotten from service staff would have merited a running through not more than 2 centuries ago.

Steven G. Harms · 2 years ago

Incidentally, I think I would take Urkel's advice on being ultra-smooth...

http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0772137/Ss/07721..., Jaleel

Steve · 2 years ago

Chick-Fl-A seems to be better about this than other fast food chains.

I think a lot of the time it is because of the managers for not doing their job (intentionally or unintentionally) of trying to bring up moral by creating a positive work atmosphere and not getting rid of chronic or uncorrectable bad attitudes.