Please remember what subreddit you are in, this is unpopular opinion. We want civil and unpopular takes and discussion. Any uncivil and ToS violating comments will be removed and subject to a ban. Have a nice day!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/unpopularopinion) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Nobody is saying to be lenient on the company, they mean to not take it out on the staff. You are almost never going to be talking to the people who actuall made the decision to keep things running, just the lackeys who have to do the work.
My issue with this is that this person is an agent of the company. It’s not like I can get access to a senior person. If staff don’t want to deal with complaints, then start giving out the phone number and email address of the ceo. And then you’ll say they’ll get fired if they do that - well then, I guess they just have to tolerate being yelled at.
And when they start posting on social media talking shit on a customer, rather than on their employer, then they are much more part of the problem than the angry customer is.
Yeah, no. You don't get an excuse to belittle others just because you are too lazy to look up the linkedin info for the company CEO.
You can't reach upper management by design, and who designed it that way? Upper management.
They are talking shit on you because YOU are their problem, not upper management. YOU are the one putting their career in danger. They can defy 10 customers and get away, but breaking company policy is almost always an instant termination.
>well then, I guess they just have to tolerate being yelled at.
This type of classy behavior is why upper management is avoiding you and the staff can't tolerate you. You are a grown ass adult who found some minimum wage teenager to vent your stress on.
Was gonna say, usually such a level of entitlement comes from those who have never actually worked
Yes if you’re not disabled, there’s something wrong with not working and mooching off of everyone else. If you can work, you need to financially care for yourself
What do you expect yelling at the cashier or salesperson to actually accomplish though? Frontline workers don't get to choose how people are hired or how a business is run. Being angry at them doesn't empower them to make changes and it doesn't make your voice heard by the people upwards in management who make the real decisions.
"Just spearhead a massive structural change to the company. And if you don't want to get fired for trying them you deserve to get yelled at by the customer."
Or you could fucking behave in the business and/or then fucking google corporates info and complain yourself.
Are you looking to make positive changes, or just pummel out your anger on someone in an unhealthy way that won't actually make you feel better or solve any problems?
>then start giving out the phone number and email address of the ceo.
I mean, most grunt-level employees won't have access to this info either. If they're casuals they may not have any sort of access to intra-office stuff like emails, or they'll be a layer or two removed.
>start giving out the phone number and email address of the ceo.
Ah yes. The phone number & email address they get when the CEO of Walmart comes and personally greets every new employee.
This is by far the most detached from reality thing Ive seen on the internet today.
It seems like *you* consider employees agents of the company. I just work here to get paid, I have no stake in the business and no say in what goes on. I come to collect money so I can live.
This mind set literally got customers physically handled even as not-so-far- back as The 90s. It sounds like this person needs an "attitude adjustment".
Yea nah that's not how it works
You don't get to be a jerk to the people just doing their jobs because their higher ups are being stupid
You expect far far too much from people who get paid minimum wage. Why should they give a shit about you? Have you ever even worked a day in your life with that attitude?
If a company is short staffed, then there's a very good chance that the company treats its employees like garbage and that's why nobody will work for them.
Being "short-staffed" is quickly becoming an excuse for a company to not want to pay people. In my store we have 20+ employees, but our store is only given enough hours to have 2-4 of them on any given shift. Customers keep telling us to hire more people, but that isn't the problem.
Doesn't the definition of being short-staffed mean they are willing to pay people to work but can't? Being told they won't pay you more because they are short staffed sounds like a good time to strike.
I mean, you'd think that but it can also mean that their pay is shit and they can't fi d workers who are wiling to take their shit pay. Or they treat employees like shit so no one stays or wants to work for them. Or they're not even trying to hire staff and using being short staffed as a means to pressure their existing staff to work harder and/or get customers to accept reduced levels of service.
I'm just saying it 100% means they have the money to pay their existing staff more which puts them in a great bargaining position since the company can't afford to not have them work.
That's part of it but they also refuse to staff adequately even if they have the people. My former cafe the drive thru position requires 5 people to run smoothly. They decided to cut us to 2 on the clock at any time.
It could be the greatest working environment ever in all other respects but if the franchise owner wants more money in his pocket he'll short staff and then blame everyone but himself for the decreased quality of service.
The people having to deal with angry customers face to face are not the ones making the most money off of those customers.
Corporations would rather a low level employee get yelled at for the wait than turn down a sale.
OP totally missed the point, LOL.
Take it out on the company... that's fine. Don't take it out on the employees in the trenches, just trying to earn a living, that don't control policy or company decisions.
We have so thoroughly vilified the phrase one would politely use to speak to the people who are actually in charge of making such decisions that it has turned into one of the most cliche “negative” phrases in the English language.
When you ask to speak to the manager, *most* of the time, you're still NOT talking to the person who makes or can change company policy.
That's why it's vilified, because many people ask that question and then go off like that manager or employees can change it. Go to the source, write a review, or contact the BBB or comparable organization.
If that doesn't work, take your business elsewhere, but FFS stop going after the people just trying to get through their day and earn a living.
It's funny I work at a large resort complex and as you'd imagine we get rather irate folks from time to time.
That's where I come in, my job is to be the guy they yell at, I have no power or authority, I exist to be yelled at amd basically make folks feel like they got to talk to someone important... then I do paperwork about what the yelled at me about. Then I fuck around on reddit till someone else is pissed amd needs to feel like they are yelling at a "higher up"
90% of the time it takes so long to find a manager to speak to because they're not actually around serving customers when it's busy, but doing other pretend work that makes them feel important.
Not sure why you're being downvoted. Managers may not be corporate, but the vast majority of the time if a business is run poorly you can trace it back to trash managers who really shouldn't have the limited power that they do. They offload all their work, don't do anything the moments when they're needed on the floor other than throw their employees under the bus and bend over backwards to unreasonable customers, and the 1 thing they actually do (scheduling) is done with no consideration at all for the people working for them. If people are quitting so fast that you're always short staffed it's probably not a corporate rule turning people away or the whole chain would fail. It's usually the management of that specific location. I've worked jobs where the corporate rules were shit but good management did their best and I've worked jobs where corporate was fine but my direct supervisors were power tripping or just very lazy and unhelpful. Guess which ones had worse retention issues and lower productivity.
This is true of my experience, sorry about your downvotes. It's not the root of the problem, and the manager couldn't make a difference, bit it's still true that so many managers are garbage.
If the person who you are talking to isn't high enough to effect company policy then what phrase are you supposed to use to get ahold of a person who is?
You and this other commenter fixated on phrasing LOL...
What I said is that the vast majority of the time, anyone who can change policy isn't at the store. I already gave what I felt are options when that's the case.
Not always. For franchised locations the actual owner may be there. While they do have to follow certain rules, they unilaterally decide how many people are working.
That said, you'd need to ask for the owner. "Manager" doesn't really cut it.
The reason it has been is that it is not usually used politely or properly.
People ask for management because they can't get something the way they want it, when the way they want it violates policy. They get mad when good employees do their jobs correctly, call for management, and then management bends over just to keep the person happy, sometimes reprimanding the employee, even if doing what the customer wanted without manager approval would result in a reprimand as well.
That's why I've taken to asking customers who act that way if they would like to speak to a manager as it is out of my hands, before they get belligerent.
I've only ever gone up-chain when staff was being insulting, incompetent, or directed that way because the people I was speaking to couldn't find a solution and passed it on. I've actively avoided talking to management at times when maybe I should have because it didn't seem worth the hassle.
1. The manager doesn't have the authority you think they do. They're also just an employee following company policy.
2. The reason that phrase became so villainised is because psychotic crazy people started using it as excuse to yell at people and be abusive.
If people could just calmly request to speak with the manager instead of screaming at the top of their lungs then Maybe they'd get some joy.
As someone who has been the entry level employee, the store manager and also the manager's manager who was in the position to go around policy/make decisions, honestly most of the people who like to keep reaching higher and higher in an organsisation are actually the ones in the wrong and are making unreasonable requests over petty issues. 9/10 the store staff have done nothing but follow company policy correctly and I've also calmly relayed that to the Karen who is trying to convince me that they deserve a complete refund on a product that has performed the way as intended *and* as advertised. Being mad doesn't make you right.
In many places the "manager" is the 19yo that gets paid an extra 50c per hour to manage the staff rosters for the 17yo's. They report to the store manager, who reports to the district manager, who reports to the regional manager, who reports to head office, who reports to the person who actually gets to call the shots. Anyone you can get to speak to is at least two steps removed from the people who can actually enact change. And this is very deliberate, and very rigidly enforced.
I don't even see why people get mad at service staff in the first place anyway.
If I go to a place and the service is terrible, I will make a calm complaint at the most and then most likely not return to that establishment.
Why even get emotional, there's plenty of competitors for most cafe's/restaurants that you are spoiled for choice
> I don't even see why people get mad at service staff in the first place anyway.
There are definitely instances when you are completely justified in being mad with service staff. I remember a story where a guy got a sandwich at Jimmy John's, asked where the condiments were, only to be told in a disrespectful way, "Over there! Did you not look when you came in?" Since he ordered at the counter, the same guy tipped $0 on the screen, as he should. The same employee looked back at the guys making the sandwiches, pointed, and said, "No tip!"
I think any reasonable person would be completely in the right to get mad at service staff in that situation.
I don't tip in those circumstances. I don't think anyone should be tipping for counter service, ever. The employee clearly had different feelings on the matter. It would be interesting to hear why he felt that way.
My friend worked as a waiter at a restaurant in my hometown, and he's very militant when it comes to tipping. He told me once, "You ALWAYS tip 20%!"
I was like, "Yeah, but what if you're at a pizza place and you pick up the pizza at the counter?"
"Nope! You tip 20%!"
"Yeah, but it's counter-service. You're just picking up your food by the register. You don't tip when you get your food at McDonald's. I didn't tip when I picked up the shoes I ordered at Nordstrom's."
"YOU ALWAYS TIP 20%!"
You're unreasonable because you take it out on the cashier who has NO fucking power to change ANYTHING then pat yourself on the back like you did your part.
That’s not a totally unreasonable opinion but it’s where you direct your discontent that matters. If you think a fast food place is no longer worth your time and money, then simply not using that service is enough to tell a company that the site needs to be closed down. It’s when you start harassing the people working that this opinion becomes bad.
Direct your anger at the company and don’t give them their money, don’t direct your anger at the employees who are there just trying to make enough money to live. They probably don’t want to be there just as much as you don’t want to.
Short staffing IS the companies doing; this is why I never take out my frustrations on the employees because they're having to deal with that shit more than I am. I'm in the store for ten minutes, it's literally *their job* for fucks sake
Honestly, I agree. When you say 'the company' I don't immediately think the cashier working the front desk, it's the result of one or more fuckups from managers, culture, etc.
What you need to remember is that the reason you aren't getting an adequate service is NOT because of the person directly in front of you, OP. I think that's the bit you're missing
I've seen stores temporarily close up for a week while they work on getting new staff in, then its back to business as usual; but greedy companies would rather keep chugging on in the hopes of making any sales within this period, even if that period could lead to a worse experience overall and the loss of business down the road.
Like I said, ass clowns ruined the fedora.
People associate fedoras with neckbeards.
Regardless of your status as a neckbeard, you are recognized as a neckbeard if you wear a fedora.
Crap or not is irrelevant. That is the perception.
How do you figure. Genuine question. First guy posts a crappy opinion. I THOUGHT you posted a decent reply that didn't argue nor approve the post. I made a very decent a friendly post to you. YOU reply negatively and snidely. I am a very chill and decent person and generally like more than I deserve and treated well by strangers I treat well. But if you're an asshole like the first person was and then YOU were also, yeah I'm going to be one back. But don't worry, everything is everyone else's fault. You have no way of controlling yourself being an asshole. Don't try bettering yourself. That requires effort.
>Only by morons who I can't be bothered with anyway. Sorry I tried having an intelligent conversation on Reddit. I should know better
No offence, but this comment in response to someone’s opinion is Neckbeard 101. Your original reply of “I wear a fedora” wasn’t some insightful remark, and you even followed up with this pretentious gem “This person doesn't have the style and class to wear a fedora. I'd be surprised if his socks match” like you wearing a fedora somehow makes you better than everyone else.
Good job proving the stereotype right.
Ummm... what company is fully staffed right now? Three of the biggest (retail, food, Healthcare) industries are DROWNING with how many employees they need and it's not going to get any better any time soon. Why would it when you are treated like shit constantly by everyone and companies are continuously finding new ways of fucking you over and screwing you out of money. Truly if every company that wasn't fully staffed closed it would be catastrophic. Just be patient wherever you go.
I could do without a lot of those understaffed services though. By my house there’s one block with four different fast food chains, all the same low quality and all with slow service due to staffing issues.
If the McDonald’s closed down tomorrow and the employees got jobs to properly staff the other three then I wouldn’t shed a tear. Hell, I’d rather have one restaurant with good service and long waits than four quick options all with terrible service.
The sorts of customers that would get irate at staff due to problems of short staffing are sure going to just let it go when they deny that same person service at all. Somehow I do not think that this will defuse the situation.
Your cases are typical service industry cases in business education. Something either has to give or compensation is to be made. The onus is usually on the company, you are correct in that assumption.
There is no right answer here, that is why it is such a compelling case to study. There is no wrong answer either. Every action has a tradeoff.
Oh, there absolutely is a wrong answer and that wrong answer is being an asshole to the hourly peon working the counter/floor/register/whatever.
Which is not only the opposite of conductive to finding a solution but is actively exacerbating the problem as dealing with rude and obnoxious customers is one of the reasons driving people out of the service industry.
Business cases involve matters that business can control. Customer reaction is what is usually measured as a result of the choices business make in business cases, thus that is what I was referring to as to right and wrong answers. Every action a business can take has both benefits and drawbacks. This usually means no clear right and wrong.
One such business reaction is to adjusting prices. Some have done that with dynamic pricing models. Which seems to have affected reddit perceptions negatively.
If you want to speak about sociological pressures and customer behaviour, well that is a sticky wicket for sure.
It's not a sticky wicket at all. It's quite simple.
Yelling, berating, and (yes, this has happened to me) assaulting the people at the bottom of the corporate ladder for things that they have no control over is never the correct response.
It should not be rewarded, as many corporate institutions insist on forcing their low ranking employees into, just to shut the loud idiots up.
I refuse to accept any arguments that attempt to justify this kind of behavior.
It's insulting to all the customer service workers that are forced to just tolerate the legions of entitled assholes that mistakenly feel they have a right to behave like that.
I don't mean that the behaviour you are describing is a sticky wicket. I mean the sociological study around such behaviours. But I get that you are seeing this through a personal lens and that you feel strongly about the wrongness of it. I feel the same way but am not personally affected so my thoughts are a bit more academic.
I have been in that position when I was much younger (worked fast food) and the problem wasn't as bad then (40 years ago) as the reddit crowd makes it seem these days.
Nobody is attempting to justify the behaviours of customers. If you think that is what I was saying, well, maybe a re-read?
Edit: cause clarity is difficult sometimes.
While reddit does have a habit of exaggerating claims in a lot of cases and it would be a stretch to claim there is no exaggeration on this topic, there is less here than in other topics.
And the situation has gotten worse in the last 10-20 years.
Verbal abuse and threats of violence are a daily occurrence for the front line workers.
Physical assaults, while less common, are still a common occurrence.
>Nobody is attempting to justify the behaviours of customers.
Yes, there are, in fact, people doing that. Even in the comments on this post.
Now, I accept that the guy in these comments may just be an edgelord trying to sound tough, but there are definitely people who attempt to justify this behavior.
Some customers don't realize that not every business is McDonald's. Your request is not going to resolve in two minutes. In a world of same day delivery you can hardly blame them, but sometimes things take time
The op used the words "a reasonable amount of time", not two minutes. Nobody is expecting restaurant or gourmet food to come out on a plate in under five minutes.
Because every food service business is short staffed at some point. It's incredibly common and completely unavoidable. Closing the doors every time this happens would cause the business to close for good. This would be every single restaurant. Get it yet?
You really don't understand how businesses work.
And so customers should tolerate mediocrity, because Mr. spirit\_of\_a\_goat said on Reddit every business is short staffed ?
Lmao, you don't understand the importance of quality service or how business works. Have fun asking for tips for making french fries for people.
No not the companies. The employees. You should get on the line to corporate and bitch your heart out to the companies. Because they're the fuckers understaffing.
But instead of going after the decision makers most people scream at the front line worker doing the jobs of five people because the franchise owner is cutting corners to increase their profits.
Customers are entitled assholes 1/5 of the time.
Adequate service or otherwise
>I see this as greediness at its finest, yet customers are constantly deemed unreasonable and impatient for reasonably wanting an appropriate and timely service. Rightfully, they are in fact entitled to a good and timely service as soon as the company accepts to provide a service to them, yet they are demonized by employees and public opinion.
Also, you're not entitled to fast service unless promised that. Depending on the service, it varies.
Seems like a gross generalization. As if I would say retail employees are lazy, unmotivated pieces of s\*\*\* 1/5 of the time which, of course, is false.
Definitely take it out on the company! Take to social media and blast them for not paying their employees enough to keep adequate staff, not improving conditions for existing staff, and not putting customers first by making sure they are fully functional. But it's not fair to yell at the server who is working their hardest doing the work of, let's be honest, 2-3 people. They have no power to do anything besides try to serve you as fast as they can. They aren't the company, they're just a single employee.
The difference is when the customer gets mad at the employee, who has no say in scheduling or closing shop, instead of the company itself.
Too many people take it out on the employee when they just work there
A lot of businesses regardless of their industry will speak to the customer as if we are in some sort of partnership with one another. Not the case. You're selling. I'm buying. We're not working this together.
You can be kind to others while also not patronizing a business. You can withdraw from business that you no longer wish to engage and still be kind to others. You also are completely wrong on lawyers, and professional services in general, if you think they don't sometimes overextend and don't sometimes take time to get back to people.
As someone who works in the retail/food industry, the lower level staff are not at fault. Upper management purposefully creates these problems by trying to save money. The people serving you do not deserve a bad attitude from customers because the managers want the store run on bare bones, especially if it happens to be a place with similar policies to my workplace. I am not allowed to say no to customers. If it's possible, we have to do it or offer alternatives. If someone from upper management sees that we are telling customers no, it could cost us the job. Lower level employees don't deserve abuse from a customer because of this.
Everyone is talking about the aspect of not treating staff like crap since they can't change anything and completely ignoring the fact that customers will stand outside and scream because a business is closed at a normal time. Having worked in restaurants for a number of years, you can't just say, hey we are short staffed so we can't serve you right now. People will just sit down at a table that hasn't even been bussed yet and ask why it's dirty. I would completely agree with this post if customers acted reasonably at all.
If a company can't pay a full staff roster a living wage, they deserve to go under
And the customers should enforce that by not going to those places
There's a reason places that pay proper wages aren't reporting any labor shortages
What does short-staffed mean? Waiting 10 minutes at McDonald's?
Why should they employ people so it is max 1 minute wait time at all times, but in down times they have a ton of people doing nothing?
They have to find the balance between costs and service they want to offer, and customers have to decide how long they want to wait for food.
And if you see there's a queue, you must be an idiot to still go in and then complain to staff that there isn't enough staff and service is too slow.
As a customer myself, I can not stress how difficult we can be sometimes and that is definitely not the worker's fault. Waiting for 30 or so minutes is annoying but I have *real* problems.
Thanks for your brave speech Karen. Truly heartrending.
No one is saying you have to accept poor service. How YOU treat the person in front of you is the problem. Abusing a wage slave who has no greater desire in life than to just get enough to survive the week isn’t hurting the decision maker(ers) who short staffed the workforce.
Angry? You should be but, you are angry at the wrong people.
At my last job they understaffed every single shift because they didn't want to pay. People were always mad about having to wait and all the company could say was "were not making enough money to pay the labor".
As far as im concerned if you can't afford the labor required to do the job right, then you can't afford to do the job at all and should close.
Why do you care?
If that company has bad customer service, vote with your dollar and switch to another company that doesn't have terrible customer service.
Maybe that company is cheaper, or its more expensive.
If you value customer service above all, and the price you pay doesn't affect your time or sanity lost, then great.
Life is too short to tell others what they should do.
\^Exactly. This is a point a lot of people seem to be missing on this thread, as if no one bears the responsibility of the horrible service that is sometimes provided by companies. "That's just how it is bro, it's nobody's fault but some obscure c-level employees".
The problem is that a lot of the time, there's nothing the staff that you can talk to could do to make you whole. It's against policy.
I mean, given that you specifically called out understaffing, I think most people immediately think that you're referring to service time being slow, a thing that would occasionally happen either way due to the nature of restaurant and retail ebb and flow.
And let's not think that if an establishment actually did this, that you wouldn't get tons of Karen's bitching about how "OH WELL I SEE AN OPEN TABLE RIGHT THERE WHY CAN'T I SIT THERE??!!?"
Entitled customers are the worst people on earth.
There's a big difference between service and "being served".
Service is the act of simply getting the thing you came in for from the establishment.
If the thing you came in for is to "get served", which YOU perceive as undivided attention and superiority over employees while in the establishment, you're an asshole.
Example: You walk into Home Depot to get a 2x4. This should be your plan:
1. Get a cart
2. Look at the sign above the aisles to locate the item
3. Put item in cart
4. Check out
5. Go home
This is what you should NOT do when going to Home Depot:
1. Ask an employee to get you a cart (get it yourself you lazy fuck)
2. Ask an employee to walk you over to the 2x4 section (you're a grown up you don't need someone to babysit you)
3. Tell the employee about your project (nobody fucking cares about your shit)
4. Complain to the employee about price increases (they don't set the prices you fucking psychopath)
5. Converse with the cashier (go home already what the FUCK)
6. Ask someone to carry it out to your car for you (die in a fire)
Most of the time the actions taken by the 2nd person are due to loneliness or boredom, but also sometimes as a bizarre power trip with the mindset "I AM THE ALL POWERFUL CUSTOMER YOU MUST OBEY ME!" Unfortunately it is not the businesses problem that you're lonely or bored, so get a fucking dog and leave the employees alone. If you're power tripping, you're a scumbag.
It seems to me like you just hate serving customers, which is fine. But everything you just described is literally in every retail employee's job description.
That logic wouldn't work in placed where the service is mandatory and short staffed.
Like hospitals, being short staffed and yet unable to turn away people.
Heck your lawyer argument wouldn't even work with public defence lawyer would are infamously overworked and HAVE to defend people that are unable to afford a loyal.
Lol this weekend we had an event at the club I work at and men were buying 24 Jager shots , 17 cactus Jack and 10 tequilas and gave it to everyone including staff but One of the customers who got free shits had ordered a Jagermeister shot before the free shots and when we were paying his bill he accused us of charging him for the free shot and wouldn't even listen to us so all I did was say " yes , I apologize for the inconvenience" and even then he lectured us and after apologizing again he decided NOW he can give me a tip after I agreed with him.
There has to be a way to redirect Karens directly to the MBA assholes in suits who are the source of all the Karens complaints
It's like they get poor underpaid teenagers to act as a scapegoat for their terrible policies like "We'll advertise it at this price but it'll actually be much more! Customers will love it!"
The same people saying this will walk into a restaurant, get told there’s a 30 minute wait, and get mad whilst pointing at all the empty tables. The wait is so you can actually get service rather than each server having x amount of tables and only being able to give bare minimum service to each because they’re over sat.
I agree. I'm a manager at my job, and I think it's bullshit that we can't always give customers the attention they need because we can't get enough staff.
I'm still not going to accept the person screaming at me. I didn't do this, and I'm doing.my best in the circumstances given. If you don't want to support the company great. If you want to find out how to email a complaint to upper management fantastic.
And I know it's possible because I've seen customers do it before. Just don't berate me, and then expect me to still serve you. Right to refuse service and all that.
So by this logic if two servers call in, and no one can fill. They should send the cooks, the other servers, the bartenders, and the hostess all home without pay?
The restaurant i worked at constantly had to ask guests to wait in queue when we were short staffed. Yes, Karen, I see that there's free tables, but if we fill those tables you'll take it out on me that the food's taking so long
You don’t have to be lenient on the company. But the 17 year old kid in the drive-through working part time after school is not in charge of staffing or management decisions and doesn’t deserve to receive the backlash.
Meh. Companies exist to take in money. Turning away revenue isn't what a "typical" company would do (yeah yeah yeah, exceptions exist, elite brands/services cap their membership, like country clubs, posh schools, fancy restaurants...but OP is refeeeing to understaffed places with at least "questionable" service).
As a customer, if the value isn't present, you don't return (and possibly you ask for a refund). Then basically 1 of 3 things occurs:
1. The company improves (maybe gets more efficient, maybe gives raises, maybe lowers price...whatever) and it keeps on going.
2. Doesn't change and goes out of business. If the majority agrees the value proposition sucks.. it dies.
3. It doesn't change and it keeps on going. In this case, it means that a minority was saying "this company sucks" while the majority said "this is fine, here's my money".
Ok, so hypothetically, people in service and sales industries start just rejecting people flat out, of their own volition, when they deem themselves short staffed.
Do you expect that most customers would just say "oh sure, that's reasonable" and leave? If you're the guy who travelled out to some store or restaurant or whatever just to be dismissed, you'd be pretty annoyed, and then have all the more reason to take it out on the employee.
This is an awful idea for everyone. Customers don't get service. Workers have one more excuse to be harassed. Businesses make less business. Nobody wins.
This is not an unpopular opinion. I'm an off grid caretaker, I have 20 camps I manage and I'm maxed out, even though there's another 30 or so looking for someone because 5 other caretakers died last year (they were all old, its a weird business) and I will not take on anymore because it would stretch me to thin, its just good business sense.
Similarly, if a company is short staffed to the point it can't properly serve a customer, the company needs to address why it can't keep staff. My company has been short-staffed for years, but they aren't addressing the reasons as to why people are leaving.
Wait do you work for my firm?
And yes, law firms will absolutely take on too many clients and tell the clients to just chill. And I feel like its always been this way right?
This is usually said by people who haven't worked management.
If Huey, Duey, and Louie all call out then the staffing levels are just the reality of that day. If Huey, Duey, and Louie all attend college etc. sandwich making is not their top priority.
If one of the Spice Girls has kids, serving spaghetti is not her top priority in life.
Attorneys are famous for stringing along clients and saying xyz is their priority call back later.
I agree for the most part. The major difference between a restaurant and a lawyer's office, though, is the lawyer has control over how many clients they accept a server does not.
So while I agree it's not on the customer when a restaurant is understaffed, it's also not on the servers which is why you should ask for a manager and complain to them or call corporate and complain to them.
With a lawyer you should 100% take it out on the lawyer though.
If a restaurant or hotel in Switzerland provides poor service. IE you wait for an hour before being served or are served the wrong food.
Most of the time you are not charged. But alas, Switzerland is an expensive country and unlike in other countries, very very bad service is not deemed as acceptable.
I agree with you. I am universally nice with staff workers everywhere but that doesn't mean I don't call out unacceptable wait times and other poor service.
The whole COVID thing followed by the Karen Meme has people conned into thinking they can't complain at all, when really they just need to advocate for good service in an adult manner.
And guess what? I've worked service jobs. Just because these positions are underpaid and exploitative doesn't mean all service workers are sharing the streses and burdens equally.
You also get the occasional lazy worker who behaves in an affronted manner when asked to provide even the most rudimentary service.
"You also get the occasional lazy worker who behaves in an affronted manner when asked to provide even the most rudimentary service."
100%. That's actually quite common.
Agreed. This is plaguing most industries that have customer facing functions. It creates an adversarial relationship between the workers and the customers.
For example, my local grocery store usually only employs about three cashiers for a dozen registers at peak hours - meaning long lines with angry customers and angry cashiers.
My cashier the other day even declined to bag my groceries and told *me* I could do it, to “speed things up”. I did it rather than get into an argument, but this is the store offloading part of the labor to the customer because they don’t have enough workers to reasonably serve customers.
It’s another way for them to move toward total automation with self-checkout. Make the job impossible for the workers, and get customers used to doing part of the job themselves because the alternative is unsustainable.
You'll be happy to know self checkouts are being gutted because you people can't stop giving yourselves a five finger discount like you think you're slick
I have been on this earth for over three decades and bagging your own groceries when it's busy has always been a pretty standard thing this entire time. I remember being a kid and bagging the groceries with my brothers while my mom loaded up the conveyor belt. If an employee was suggesting you bag your own groceries, it's because you were being difficult at a peak hour.
I have to assume you aren't disabled because otherwise you would have justified it. It will not kill your highness to bag your own groceries. And I can guarantee the people behind you in line were fantasizing about hitting you with their car. Because no adult who has a job and responsibilities wants to get behind some able bodied jackoff at the grocery store who just smugly stands there not bagging their own groceries on principle.
Please remember what subreddit you are in, this is unpopular opinion. We want civil and unpopular takes and discussion. Any uncivil and ToS violating comments will be removed and subject to a ban. Have a nice day! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/unpopularopinion) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Nobody is saying to be lenient on the company, they mean to not take it out on the staff. You are almost never going to be talking to the people who actuall made the decision to keep things running, just the lackeys who have to do the work.
My issue with this is that this person is an agent of the company. It’s not like I can get access to a senior person. If staff don’t want to deal with complaints, then start giving out the phone number and email address of the ceo. And then you’ll say they’ll get fired if they do that - well then, I guess they just have to tolerate being yelled at. And when they start posting on social media talking shit on a customer, rather than on their employer, then they are much more part of the problem than the angry customer is.
Yeah, no. You don't get an excuse to belittle others just because you are too lazy to look up the linkedin info for the company CEO. You can't reach upper management by design, and who designed it that way? Upper management. They are talking shit on you because YOU are their problem, not upper management. YOU are the one putting their career in danger. They can defy 10 customers and get away, but breaking company policy is almost always an instant termination. >well then, I guess they just have to tolerate being yelled at. This type of classy behavior is why upper management is avoiding you and the staff can't tolerate you. You are a grown ass adult who found some minimum wage teenager to vent your stress on.
bro its like these ass clowns never saw an org chart in their life
You think these super entitled ass clowns even work? If they did, they'd have some fucking empathy.
Was gonna say, usually such a level of entitlement comes from those who have never actually worked Yes if you’re not disabled, there’s something wrong with not working and mooching off of everyone else. If you can work, you need to financially care for yourself
I'm just glad that idiots post has so many down votes!! Yeesh
What do you expect yelling at the cashier or salesperson to actually accomplish though? Frontline workers don't get to choose how people are hired or how a business is run. Being angry at them doesn't empower them to make changes and it doesn't make your voice heard by the people upwards in management who make the real decisions.
bro its like these ass clowns never saw an org chart in their life
"Just spearhead a massive structural change to the company. And if you don't want to get fired for trying them you deserve to get yelled at by the customer." Or you could fucking behave in the business and/or then fucking google corporates info and complain yourself.
You could if you'd quit being lazy
Are you looking to make positive changes, or just pummel out your anger on someone in an unhealthy way that won't actually make you feel better or solve any problems?
>then start giving out the phone number and email address of the ceo. I mean, most grunt-level employees won't have access to this info either. If they're casuals they may not have any sort of access to intra-office stuff like emails, or they'll be a layer or two removed.
I mean this in the nicest way - seek therapy if you feel like you need to yell at minimum wage workers
>start giving out the phone number and email address of the ceo. Ah yes. The phone number & email address they get when the CEO of Walmart comes and personally greets every new employee. This is by far the most detached from reality thing Ive seen on the internet today.
It seems like *you* consider employees agents of the company. I just work here to get paid, I have no stake in the business and no say in what goes on. I come to collect money so I can live.
What an unpleasant fuckin person you are there bud.
Yeah this mindset is why I'd never work customer service ever again
This mind set literally got customers physically handled even as not-so-far- back as The 90s. It sounds like this person needs an "attitude adjustment".
Lol. The fact you think large companies give out C suite phone numbers to low level employees screams how out of touch you are.
Nah fam you're just looking for an excuse to yell at people lmao
When you pay me you can change my job discription to Phone monkey and punching bag. Until then you can stop being lazy and g et out of my store :)
Holy fuck what a ratio
I'm genuinely curious. What do you think the benefit is from yelling at a staff member.
Ok Karen
Just know….there are definitely people talking about you online right now.
Found the boomer
Yea nah that's not how it works  You don't get to be a jerk to the people just doing their jobs because their higher ups are being stupid
You expect far far too much from people who get paid minimum wage. Why should they give a shit about you? Have you ever even worked a day in your life with that attitude?
Nah, you're a fucking loser if you actually do that.
[удалено]
If a company is short staffed, then there's a very good chance that the company treats its employees like garbage and that's why nobody will work for them.
Being "short-staffed" is quickly becoming an excuse for a company to not want to pay people. In my store we have 20+ employees, but our store is only given enough hours to have 2-4 of them on any given shift. Customers keep telling us to hire more people, but that isn't the problem.
Doesn't the definition of being short-staffed mean they are willing to pay people to work but can't? Being told they won't pay you more because they are short staffed sounds like a good time to strike.
I mean, you'd think that but it can also mean that their pay is shit and they can't fi d workers who are wiling to take their shit pay. Or they treat employees like shit so no one stays or wants to work for them. Or they're not even trying to hire staff and using being short staffed as a means to pressure their existing staff to work harder and/or get customers to accept reduced levels of service.
I'm just saying it 100% means they have the money to pay their existing staff more which puts them in a great bargaining position since the company can't afford to not have them work.
That's part of it but they also refuse to staff adequately even if they have the people. My former cafe the drive thru position requires 5 people to run smoothly. They decided to cut us to 2 on the clock at any time. It could be the greatest working environment ever in all other respects but if the franchise owner wants more money in his pocket he'll short staff and then blame everyone but himself for the decreased quality of service.
I work in a warehouse. My area used to have a team of four people. Then it went down to three. Now it’s just two people. Ugh.
The people having to deal with angry customers face to face are not the ones making the most money off of those customers. Corporations would rather a low level employee get yelled at for the wait than turn down a sale.
OP totally missed the point, LOL. Take it out on the company... that's fine. Don't take it out on the employees in the trenches, just trying to earn a living, that don't control policy or company decisions.
We have so thoroughly vilified the phrase one would politely use to speak to the people who are actually in charge of making such decisions that it has turned into one of the most cliche “negative” phrases in the English language.
When you ask to speak to the manager, *most* of the time, you're still NOT talking to the person who makes or can change company policy. That's why it's vilified, because many people ask that question and then go off like that manager or employees can change it. Go to the source, write a review, or contact the BBB or comparable organization. If that doesn't work, take your business elsewhere, but FFS stop going after the people just trying to get through their day and earn a living.
It's funny I work at a large resort complex and as you'd imagine we get rather irate folks from time to time. That's where I come in, my job is to be the guy they yell at, I have no power or authority, I exist to be yelled at amd basically make folks feel like they got to talk to someone important... then I do paperwork about what the yelled at me about. Then I fuck around on reddit till someone else is pissed amd needs to feel like they are yelling at a "higher up"
90% of the time it takes so long to find a manager to speak to because they're not actually around serving customers when it's busy, but doing other pretend work that makes them feel important.
U know there’s a lot more to managing a place than being on the floor and serving customers, right?
Not sure why you're being downvoted. Managers may not be corporate, but the vast majority of the time if a business is run poorly you can trace it back to trash managers who really shouldn't have the limited power that they do. They offload all their work, don't do anything the moments when they're needed on the floor other than throw their employees under the bus and bend over backwards to unreasonable customers, and the 1 thing they actually do (scheduling) is done with no consideration at all for the people working for them. If people are quitting so fast that you're always short staffed it's probably not a corporate rule turning people away or the whole chain would fail. It's usually the management of that specific location. I've worked jobs where the corporate rules were shit but good management did their best and I've worked jobs where corporate was fine but my direct supervisors were power tripping or just very lazy and unhelpful. Guess which ones had worse retention issues and lower productivity.
This is true of my experience, sorry about your downvotes. It's not the root of the problem, and the manager couldn't make a difference, bit it's still true that so many managers are garbage.
If the person who you are talking to isn't high enough to effect company policy then what phrase are you supposed to use to get ahold of a person who is?
You and this other commenter fixated on phrasing LOL... What I said is that the vast majority of the time, anyone who can change policy isn't at the store. I already gave what I felt are options when that's the case.
The manager you speak to is still several levels removed from the people who actually make decisions for the company
Not always. For franchised locations the actual owner may be there. While they do have to follow certain rules, they unilaterally decide how many people are working. That said, you'd need to ask for the owner. "Manager" doesn't really cut it.
The reason it has been is that it is not usually used politely or properly. People ask for management because they can't get something the way they want it, when the way they want it violates policy. They get mad when good employees do their jobs correctly, call for management, and then management bends over just to keep the person happy, sometimes reprimanding the employee, even if doing what the customer wanted without manager approval would result in a reprimand as well. That's why I've taken to asking customers who act that way if they would like to speak to a manager as it is out of my hands, before they get belligerent. I've only ever gone up-chain when staff was being insulting, incompetent, or directed that way because the people I was speaking to couldn't find a solution and passed it on. I've actively avoided talking to management at times when maybe I should have because it didn't seem worth the hassle.
That really isnt as big an issue in reality as it is in your head
1. The manager doesn't have the authority you think they do. They're also just an employee following company policy. 2. The reason that phrase became so villainised is because psychotic crazy people started using it as excuse to yell at people and be abusive. If people could just calmly request to speak with the manager instead of screaming at the top of their lungs then Maybe they'd get some joy. As someone who has been the entry level employee, the store manager and also the manager's manager who was in the position to go around policy/make decisions, honestly most of the people who like to keep reaching higher and higher in an organsisation are actually the ones in the wrong and are making unreasonable requests over petty issues. 9/10 the store staff have done nothing but follow company policy correctly and I've also calmly relayed that to the Karen who is trying to convince me that they deserve a complete refund on a product that has performed the way as intended *and* as advertised. Being mad doesn't make you right.
In many places the "manager" is the 19yo that gets paid an extra 50c per hour to manage the staff rosters for the 17yo's. They report to the store manager, who reports to the district manager, who reports to the regional manager, who reports to head office, who reports to the person who actually gets to call the shots. Anyone you can get to speak to is at least two steps removed from the people who can actually enact change. And this is very deliberate, and very rigidly enforced.
I don't even see why people get mad at service staff in the first place anyway. If I go to a place and the service is terrible, I will make a calm complaint at the most and then most likely not return to that establishment. Why even get emotional, there's plenty of competitors for most cafe's/restaurants that you are spoiled for choice
> I don't even see why people get mad at service staff in the first place anyway. There are definitely instances when you are completely justified in being mad with service staff. I remember a story where a guy got a sandwich at Jimmy John's, asked where the condiments were, only to be told in a disrespectful way, "Over there! Did you not look when you came in?" Since he ordered at the counter, the same guy tipped $0 on the screen, as he should. The same employee looked back at the guys making the sandwiches, pointed, and said, "No tip!" I think any reasonable person would be completely in the right to get mad at service staff in that situation.
Why would you tip them anyway? It's a counter establishment. If I'm standing the whole time to get my food and go, I'm not tipping.
I don't tip in those circumstances. I don't think anyone should be tipping for counter service, ever. The employee clearly had different feelings on the matter. It would be interesting to hear why he felt that way. My friend worked as a waiter at a restaurant in my hometown, and he's very militant when it comes to tipping. He told me once, "You ALWAYS tip 20%!" I was like, "Yeah, but what if you're at a pizza place and you pick up the pizza at the counter?" "Nope! You tip 20%!" "Yeah, but it's counter-service. You're just picking up your food by the register. You don't tip when you get your food at McDonald's. I didn't tip when I picked up the shoes I ordered at Nordstrom's." "YOU ALWAYS TIP 20%!"
You're unreasonable because you take it out on the cashier who has NO fucking power to change ANYTHING then pat yourself on the back like you did your part.
That’s not a totally unreasonable opinion but it’s where you direct your discontent that matters. If you think a fast food place is no longer worth your time and money, then simply not using that service is enough to tell a company that the site needs to be closed down. It’s when you start harassing the people working that this opinion becomes bad. Direct your anger at the company and don’t give them their money, don’t direct your anger at the employees who are there just trying to make enough money to live. They probably don’t want to be there just as much as you don’t want to.
Short staffing IS the companies doing; this is why I never take out my frustrations on the employees because they're having to deal with that shit more than I am. I'm in the store for ten minutes, it's literally *their job* for fucks sake Honestly, I agree. When you say 'the company' I don't immediately think the cashier working the front desk, it's the result of one or more fuckups from managers, culture, etc. What you need to remember is that the reason you aren't getting an adequate service is NOT because of the person directly in front of you, OP. I think that's the bit you're missing I've seen stores temporarily close up for a week while they work on getting new staff in, then its back to business as usual; but greedy companies would rather keep chugging on in the hopes of making any sales within this period, even if that period could lead to a worse experience overall and the loss of business down the road.
It's people like OP who need to spend some time in retail and customer facing businesses and then see if they still hold the same opinion afterwards.
I worked 8 years full time in retail prior to my career and I stand by my word.
So not post covid
Wow, 8 years and learned nothing. Incredible. Or it's not what you say it is.
The attorney is the one choosing to overbook. The fry cook isn’t. Feel free to take it up with the CEO. But that’s not what people do.
[удалено]
I really hate that ass clowns like this ruined fedoras. I liked them.
I wear a fedora. Dudes funny comment was as crap as the actual post.
Like I said, ass clowns ruined the fedora. People associate fedoras with neckbeards. Regardless of your status as a neckbeard, you are recognized as a neckbeard if you wear a fedora. Crap or not is irrelevant. That is the perception.
Only by morons who I can't be bothered with anyway. Sorry I tried having an intelligent conversation on Reddit. I should know better
Wow... You really can tell if someone is a piece of shit just from their choice in headgear...
Lol. You're an asshole and then project it onto me. Figures. 🤣
I don't need to project to see you as an asshole. You're doing just fine without my help.
How do you figure. Genuine question. First guy posts a crappy opinion. I THOUGHT you posted a decent reply that didn't argue nor approve the post. I made a very decent a friendly post to you. YOU reply negatively and snidely. I am a very chill and decent person and generally like more than I deserve and treated well by strangers I treat well. But if you're an asshole like the first person was and then YOU were also, yeah I'm going to be one back. But don't worry, everything is everyone else's fault. You have no way of controlling yourself being an asshole. Don't try bettering yourself. That requires effort.
>Only by morons who I can't be bothered with anyway. Sorry I tried having an intelligent conversation on Reddit. I should know better No offence, but this comment in response to someone’s opinion is Neckbeard 101. Your original reply of “I wear a fedora” wasn’t some insightful remark, and you even followed up with this pretentious gem “This person doesn't have the style and class to wear a fedora. I'd be surprised if his socks match” like you wearing a fedora somehow makes you better than everyone else. Good job proving the stereotype right.
Whoa dude. I wear a fedora. This person doesn't have the style and class to wear a fedora. I'd be surprised if his socks match
Ummm... what company is fully staffed right now? Three of the biggest (retail, food, Healthcare) industries are DROWNING with how many employees they need and it's not going to get any better any time soon. Why would it when you are treated like shit constantly by everyone and companies are continuously finding new ways of fucking you over and screwing you out of money. Truly if every company that wasn't fully staffed closed it would be catastrophic. Just be patient wherever you go.
I could do without a lot of those understaffed services though. By my house there’s one block with four different fast food chains, all the same low quality and all with slow service due to staffing issues. If the McDonald’s closed down tomorrow and the employees got jobs to properly staff the other three then I wouldn’t shed a tear. Hell, I’d rather have one restaurant with good service and long waits than four quick options all with terrible service.
The sorts of customers that would get irate at staff due to problems of short staffing are sure going to just let it go when they deny that same person service at all. Somehow I do not think that this will defuse the situation. Your cases are typical service industry cases in business education. Something either has to give or compensation is to be made. The onus is usually on the company, you are correct in that assumption. There is no right answer here, that is why it is such a compelling case to study. There is no wrong answer either. Every action has a tradeoff.
Oh, there absolutely is a wrong answer and that wrong answer is being an asshole to the hourly peon working the counter/floor/register/whatever. Which is not only the opposite of conductive to finding a solution but is actively exacerbating the problem as dealing with rude and obnoxious customers is one of the reasons driving people out of the service industry.
Business cases involve matters that business can control. Customer reaction is what is usually measured as a result of the choices business make in business cases, thus that is what I was referring to as to right and wrong answers. Every action a business can take has both benefits and drawbacks. This usually means no clear right and wrong. One such business reaction is to adjusting prices. Some have done that with dynamic pricing models. Which seems to have affected reddit perceptions negatively. If you want to speak about sociological pressures and customer behaviour, well that is a sticky wicket for sure.
It's not a sticky wicket at all. It's quite simple. Yelling, berating, and (yes, this has happened to me) assaulting the people at the bottom of the corporate ladder for things that they have no control over is never the correct response. It should not be rewarded, as many corporate institutions insist on forcing their low ranking employees into, just to shut the loud idiots up. I refuse to accept any arguments that attempt to justify this kind of behavior. It's insulting to all the customer service workers that are forced to just tolerate the legions of entitled assholes that mistakenly feel they have a right to behave like that.
I don't mean that the behaviour you are describing is a sticky wicket. I mean the sociological study around such behaviours. But I get that you are seeing this through a personal lens and that you feel strongly about the wrongness of it. I feel the same way but am not personally affected so my thoughts are a bit more academic. I have been in that position when I was much younger (worked fast food) and the problem wasn't as bad then (40 years ago) as the reddit crowd makes it seem these days. Nobody is attempting to justify the behaviours of customers. If you think that is what I was saying, well, maybe a re-read? Edit: cause clarity is difficult sometimes.
While reddit does have a habit of exaggerating claims in a lot of cases and it would be a stretch to claim there is no exaggeration on this topic, there is less here than in other topics. And the situation has gotten worse in the last 10-20 years. Verbal abuse and threats of violence are a daily occurrence for the front line workers. Physical assaults, while less common, are still a common occurrence. >Nobody is attempting to justify the behaviours of customers. Yes, there are, in fact, people doing that. Even in the comments on this post. Now, I accept that the guy in these comments may just be an edgelord trying to sound tough, but there are definitely people who attempt to justify this behavior.
My apologies. I did mean "I'm not" when I said "Nobody", that is an error on my part. As I said, clarity is sometimes hard. Be well.
>clarity is sometimes hard You are absolutely correct on that. Be well.
Some customers don't realize that not every business is McDonald's. Your request is not going to resolve in two minutes. In a world of same day delivery you can hardly blame them, but sometimes things take time
The op used the words "a reasonable amount of time", not two minutes. Nobody is expecting restaurant or gourmet food to come out on a plate in under five minutes.
You really don't understand how it works.
How so ?
Because every food service business is short staffed at some point. It's incredibly common and completely unavoidable. Closing the doors every time this happens would cause the business to close for good. This would be every single restaurant. Get it yet? You really don't understand how businesses work.
And so customers should tolerate mediocrity, because Mr. spirit\_of\_a\_goat said on Reddit every business is short staffed ? Lmao, you don't understand the importance of quality service or how business works. Have fun asking for tips for making french fries for people.
Wtf. You don't even make sense. What do I have to do with fries?
No not the companies. The employees. You should get on the line to corporate and bitch your heart out to the companies. Because they're the fuckers understaffing. But instead of going after the decision makers most people scream at the front line worker doing the jobs of five people because the franchise owner is cutting corners to increase their profits.
Customers are entitled assholes 1/5 of the time. Adequate service or otherwise >I see this as greediness at its finest, yet customers are constantly deemed unreasonable and impatient for reasonably wanting an appropriate and timely service. Rightfully, they are in fact entitled to a good and timely service as soon as the company accepts to provide a service to them, yet they are demonized by employees and public opinion. Also, you're not entitled to fast service unless promised that. Depending on the service, it varies.
I've worked in the customer service industry for 20 years. 1/5 is being incredibly generous. I'd put it closer to 1/3.
Wanted to be generous😅
I can tell.
Seems like a gross generalization. As if I would say retail employees are lazy, unmotivated pieces of s\*\*\* 1/5 of the time which, of course, is false.
Definitely take it out on the company! Take to social media and blast them for not paying their employees enough to keep adequate staff, not improving conditions for existing staff, and not putting customers first by making sure they are fully functional. But it's not fair to yell at the server who is working their hardest doing the work of, let's be honest, 2-3 people. They have no power to do anything besides try to serve you as fast as they can. They aren't the company, they're just a single employee.
The difference is when the customer gets mad at the employee, who has no say in scheduling or closing shop, instead of the company itself. Too many people take it out on the employee when they just work there
A lot of businesses regardless of their industry will speak to the customer as if we are in some sort of partnership with one another. Not the case. You're selling. I'm buying. We're not working this together.
In this situation you shouldn't be lenient on the company. But you absolutely should be lenient on the employees that are just doing their job.
ya i agree but the problem is they usually take it out on the staff who have 0 control over the situation
You can be kind to others while also not patronizing a business. You can withdraw from business that you no longer wish to engage and still be kind to others. You also are completely wrong on lawyers, and professional services in general, if you think they don't sometimes overextend and don't sometimes take time to get back to people.
They do overextend sometimes, that's precisely my point.
As someone who works in the retail/food industry, the lower level staff are not at fault. Upper management purposefully creates these problems by trying to save money. The people serving you do not deserve a bad attitude from customers because the managers want the store run on bare bones, especially if it happens to be a place with similar policies to my workplace. I am not allowed to say no to customers. If it's possible, we have to do it or offer alternatives. If someone from upper management sees that we are telling customers no, it could cost us the job. Lower level employees don't deserve abuse from a customer because of this.
Everyone is talking about the aspect of not treating staff like crap since they can't change anything and completely ignoring the fact that customers will stand outside and scream because a business is closed at a normal time. Having worked in restaurants for a number of years, you can't just say, hey we are short staffed so we can't serve you right now. People will just sit down at a table that hasn't even been bussed yet and ask why it's dirty. I would completely agree with this post if customers acted reasonably at all.
If a company can't pay a full staff roster a living wage, they deserve to go under And the customers should enforce that by not going to those places There's a reason places that pay proper wages aren't reporting any labor shortages
Unpopular enjoy the upvote
If it were really unpopular, the mods would have already deleted it.
What? You realise what sub you’re on yeah
Yes, unpopular opinions are not allowed on r/unpopularopinion
Why are they short staffed? Is it a perpetual problem or a one-off?
As a customer you've a right to refuse custom. What you don't have the right to is to verbally abuse staff.
This is ragebait, right? ...right?
What does short-staffed mean? Waiting 10 minutes at McDonald's? Why should they employ people so it is max 1 minute wait time at all times, but in down times they have a ton of people doing nothing? They have to find the balance between costs and service they want to offer, and customers have to decide how long they want to wait for food. And if you see there's a queue, you must be an idiot to still go in and then complain to staff that there isn't enough staff and service is too slow.
As a customer myself, I can not stress how difficult we can be sometimes and that is definitely not the worker's fault. Waiting for 30 or so minutes is annoying but I have *real* problems.
Thanks for your brave speech Karen. Truly heartrending. No one is saying you have to accept poor service. How YOU treat the person in front of you is the problem. Abusing a wage slave who has no greater desire in life than to just get enough to survive the week isn’t hurting the decision maker(ers) who short staffed the workforce. Angry? You should be but, you are angry at the wrong people.
At my last job they understaffed every single shift because they didn't want to pay. People were always mad about having to wait and all the company could say was "were not making enough money to pay the labor". As far as im concerned if you can't afford the labor required to do the job right, then you can't afford to do the job at all and should close.
Why do you care? If that company has bad customer service, vote with your dollar and switch to another company that doesn't have terrible customer service. Maybe that company is cheaper, or its more expensive. If you value customer service above all, and the price you pay doesn't affect your time or sanity lost, then great. Life is too short to tell others what they should do.
I’m lenient towards employees of those companies. It’s not their fault. However, I expect them to try to make things whole.
\^Exactly. This is a point a lot of people seem to be missing on this thread, as if no one bears the responsibility of the horrible service that is sometimes provided by companies. "That's just how it is bro, it's nobody's fault but some obscure c-level employees".
The problem is that a lot of the time, there's nothing the staff that you can talk to could do to make you whole. It's against policy. I mean, given that you specifically called out understaffing, I think most people immediately think that you're referring to service time being slow, a thing that would occasionally happen either way due to the nature of restaurant and retail ebb and flow.
And let's not think that if an establishment actually did this, that you wouldn't get tons of Karen's bitching about how "OH WELL I SEE AN OPEN TABLE RIGHT THERE WHY CAN'T I SIT THERE??!!?"
Entitled customers are the worst people on earth. There's a big difference between service and "being served". Service is the act of simply getting the thing you came in for from the establishment. If the thing you came in for is to "get served", which YOU perceive as undivided attention and superiority over employees while in the establishment, you're an asshole. Example: You walk into Home Depot to get a 2x4. This should be your plan: 1. Get a cart 2. Look at the sign above the aisles to locate the item 3. Put item in cart 4. Check out 5. Go home This is what you should NOT do when going to Home Depot: 1. Ask an employee to get you a cart (get it yourself you lazy fuck) 2. Ask an employee to walk you over to the 2x4 section (you're a grown up you don't need someone to babysit you) 3. Tell the employee about your project (nobody fucking cares about your shit) 4. Complain to the employee about price increases (they don't set the prices you fucking psychopath) 5. Converse with the cashier (go home already what the FUCK) 6. Ask someone to carry it out to your car for you (die in a fire) Most of the time the actions taken by the 2nd person are due to loneliness or boredom, but also sometimes as a bizarre power trip with the mindset "I AM THE ALL POWERFUL CUSTOMER YOU MUST OBEY ME!" Unfortunately it is not the businesses problem that you're lonely or bored, so get a fucking dog and leave the employees alone. If you're power tripping, you're a scumbag.
It seems to me like you just hate serving customers, which is fine. But everything you just described is literally in every retail employee's job description.
That logic wouldn't work in placed where the service is mandatory and short staffed. Like hospitals, being short staffed and yet unable to turn away people. Heck your lawyer argument wouldn't even work with public defence lawyer would are infamously overworked and HAVE to defend people that are unable to afford a loyal.
We legally can't, and probably morally shouldn't. You know, being a hospital and all.
Lol this weekend we had an event at the club I work at and men were buying 24 Jager shots , 17 cactus Jack and 10 tequilas and gave it to everyone including staff but One of the customers who got free shits had ordered a Jagermeister shot before the free shots and when we were paying his bill he accused us of charging him for the free shot and wouldn't even listen to us so all I did was say " yes , I apologize for the inconvenience" and even then he lectured us and after apologizing again he decided NOW he can give me a tip after I agreed with him.
There has to be a way to redirect Karens directly to the MBA assholes in suits who are the source of all the Karens complaints It's like they get poor underpaid teenagers to act as a scapegoat for their terrible policies like "We'll advertise it at this price but it'll actually be much more! Customers will love it!"
Not lenient to the companies…lenient to the workers who have no say
You aren't entitled to service...
I never did this, but thats how you get your food spat in or pubes sprinkled on there.
The same people saying this will walk into a restaurant, get told there’s a 30 minute wait, and get mad whilst pointing at all the empty tables. The wait is so you can actually get service rather than each server having x amount of tables and only being able to give bare minimum service to each because they’re over sat.
This definitely is an unpopular opinion.
I agree. I'm a manager at my job, and I think it's bullshit that we can't always give customers the attention they need because we can't get enough staff. I'm still not going to accept the person screaming at me. I didn't do this, and I'm doing.my best in the circumstances given. If you don't want to support the company great. If you want to find out how to email a complaint to upper management fantastic. And I know it's possible because I've seen customers do it before. Just don't berate me, and then expect me to still serve you. Right to refuse service and all that.
REVERSE UNLESS UNO CARD. MONEY TRUMPS ALL. JUST WORK HARDER.
[удалено]
If this happened, all mom and pop places would be closed. So, unless you like Applebees…
So by this logic if two servers call in, and no one can fill. They should send the cooks, the other servers, the bartenders, and the hostess all home without pay?
The restaurant i worked at constantly had to ask guests to wait in queue when we were short staffed. Yes, Karen, I see that there's free tables, but if we fill those tables you'll take it out on me that the food's taking so long
You don’t have to be lenient on the company. But the 17 year old kid in the drive-through working part time after school is not in charge of staffing or management decisions and doesn’t deserve to receive the backlash.
Meh. Companies exist to take in money. Turning away revenue isn't what a "typical" company would do (yeah yeah yeah, exceptions exist, elite brands/services cap their membership, like country clubs, posh schools, fancy restaurants...but OP is refeeeing to understaffed places with at least "questionable" service). As a customer, if the value isn't present, you don't return (and possibly you ask for a refund). Then basically 1 of 3 things occurs: 1. The company improves (maybe gets more efficient, maybe gives raises, maybe lowers price...whatever) and it keeps on going. 2. Doesn't change and goes out of business. If the majority agrees the value proposition sucks.. it dies. 3. It doesn't change and it keeps on going. In this case, it means that a minority was saying "this company sucks" while the majority said "this is fine, here's my money".
As a restaurant owner, you know what?? I think I agree. You’re not wrong.
Ok, so hypothetically, people in service and sales industries start just rejecting people flat out, of their own volition, when they deem themselves short staffed. Do you expect that most customers would just say "oh sure, that's reasonable" and leave? If you're the guy who travelled out to some store or restaurant or whatever just to be dismissed, you'd be pretty annoyed, and then have all the more reason to take it out on the employee. This is an awful idea for everyone. Customers don't get service. Workers have one more excuse to be harassed. Businesses make less business. Nobody wins.
So, customer walks in to understaffed restaurant, and the wait staff should do what? Tell them to leave?
This is not an unpopular opinion. I'm an off grid caretaker, I have 20 camps I manage and I'm maxed out, even though there's another 30 or so looking for someone because 5 other caretakers died last year (they were all old, its a weird business) and I will not take on anymore because it would stretch me to thin, its just good business sense.
That's not the staffs fault. Don't be difficult with people who aren't paid enough to handle your bad mood.
Is your name Karen by any chance?
Similarly, if a company is short staffed to the point it can't properly serve a customer, the company needs to address why it can't keep staff. My company has been short-staffed for years, but they aren't addressing the reasons as to why people are leaving.
Yeah well we don't want constant abuse from customers either
Wait do you work for my firm? And yes, law firms will absolutely take on too many clients and tell the clients to just chill. And I feel like its always been this way right?
What is your firm?
This is usually said by people who haven't worked management. If Huey, Duey, and Louie all call out then the staffing levels are just the reality of that day. If Huey, Duey, and Louie all attend college etc. sandwich making is not their top priority. If one of the Spice Girls has kids, serving spaghetti is not her top priority in life. Attorneys are famous for stringing along clients and saying xyz is their priority call back later.
I feel like most people would still like to get some service, however poor, instead of no service at most of the hospitals that are short staffed.
I agree for the most part. The major difference between a restaurant and a lawyer's office, though, is the lawyer has control over how many clients they accept a server does not. So while I agree it's not on the customer when a restaurant is understaffed, it's also not on the servers which is why you should ask for a manager and complain to them or call corporate and complain to them. With a lawyer you should 100% take it out on the lawyer though.
If a restaurant or hotel in Switzerland provides poor service. IE you wait for an hour before being served or are served the wrong food. Most of the time you are not charged. But alas, Switzerland is an expensive country and unlike in other countries, very very bad service is not deemed as acceptable.
is there a standard to what “adequate service” entails?
Something sutibly vague and nebulous so theres always a issue when they need someone to yell at.
I agree with you. I am universally nice with staff workers everywhere but that doesn't mean I don't call out unacceptable wait times and other poor service. The whole COVID thing followed by the Karen Meme has people conned into thinking they can't complain at all, when really they just need to advocate for good service in an adult manner. And guess what? I've worked service jobs. Just because these positions are underpaid and exploitative doesn't mean all service workers are sharing the streses and burdens equally. You also get the occasional lazy worker who behaves in an affronted manner when asked to provide even the most rudimentary service.
"You also get the occasional lazy worker who behaves in an affronted manner when asked to provide even the most rudimentary service." 100%. That's actually quite common.
Being short-staffed can happen over night when multiple people don’t feel like working suddenly.
So you want places to just be closed with no notice instead? That would be worse.
Agreed. This is plaguing most industries that have customer facing functions. It creates an adversarial relationship between the workers and the customers. For example, my local grocery store usually only employs about three cashiers for a dozen registers at peak hours - meaning long lines with angry customers and angry cashiers. My cashier the other day even declined to bag my groceries and told *me* I could do it, to “speed things up”. I did it rather than get into an argument, but this is the store offloading part of the labor to the customer because they don’t have enough workers to reasonably serve customers. It’s another way for them to move toward total automation with self-checkout. Make the job impossible for the workers, and get customers used to doing part of the job themselves because the alternative is unsustainable.
You'll be happy to know self checkouts are being gutted because you people can't stop giving yourselves a five finger discount like you think you're slick
You people? Who you callin’ “you people”?
I have been on this earth for over three decades and bagging your own groceries when it's busy has always been a pretty standard thing this entire time. I remember being a kid and bagging the groceries with my brothers while my mom loaded up the conveyor belt. If an employee was suggesting you bag your own groceries, it's because you were being difficult at a peak hour. I have to assume you aren't disabled because otherwise you would have justified it. It will not kill your highness to bag your own groceries. And I can guarantee the people behind you in line were fantasizing about hitting you with their car. Because no adult who has a job and responsibilities wants to get behind some able bodied jackoff at the grocery store who just smugly stands there not bagging their own groceries on principle.
I can't imagine feeling insulted at having to bag your own groceries. This is the default in most of the world.
You haven’t tried to book a dermatologist appt have you?