Lived Experience Forum

[jamesle2015]

Had a look it's interesting
I would say manager is an annoying shade of red....a lot of managers would be red.....but in red there would be various shades.
..........its not that clear ......you can be red but you still need to show respect for worker.....
I don't like to be too busy but sometimes there's no choice I must keep going...i prefer things at an even pace

[jamesle2015]

The other thing is if you need to put others down to boost yourself up in front of people.......to me that is a sign of weakness.....and most people can see what is going on........would give others a bad impression of you as a manager

[jamesle2015]

But I can't do anything....when you work for people the customers always.....most of them.....give more 'respect' to the manager whether they deserve it or not......
anyone who face customers knows this

[Ali11]

@jamesle2015 It sure can be a frustrating situation when a customer responds more positively to a manager merely because it came from a manager, rather than when you gave them the same information. Have you had that experience before?

Some workplaces empower all staff to reply to customers as if they are the decision maker, which usually just involves training to communicate with confidence and therefore encourage 'respect'. Obviously the situation at your workplace may be very different to that description, but is there anything you could learn from the way your manager communicates to customers or the colour personality tendencies that could help do you think?

[jamesle2015]

When I mentioned the customer responding more positively to manager it is not only about answering their questions its also how they generally react.

I think it is true for most retail employees especially in small businesses.

As in the previous example I mentioned about the annoying customer making the comment about 'making him sweat' - referring to me - the comment was about me but he was making it to the manager.

Depends on the situation - if manager is not micromanaging the counter I can answer the customers' enquiries by myself and usually everything is fine or if they call I can answer the phone. Of course if manager is standing there a lot of the customers will

prefer to go through manager - they believe manager knows a lot more and will give the

right answer to them but that doesn't mean I can't give the answer ...

Part of it may be they see I am not there every day so they assume that I don't care or

I don't know as much which is not true but people make a lot of false assumptions.

A big problem for me for this job is it is very very boring and repetitive - the job as well

as the customers - people don't change much the attitude is always about the same - if they are annoying maybe that is how they were raised by their parents or whatever the problem is but they shouldn't inflict themselves on people who are working hard to serve the community.

What can I do? I must endure I have no choice.

[jamesle2015]

Of course everyone has bad moods or difficult problems for their life but we

must exercise self control - that is when we go to work we should try to get along with colleagues and not inflict our personal problems on them

This is important for good workplace. There is already enough stress sometimes

from the 'bad' customers attitude or complaints or bad timing.

I can't go on too much about workplace if I start giving more specific examples eventually someone will work out what sort of retail I do

[jamesle2015]

I hate customers that interfere - 'commenters' -

customers who are at the next counter position but they listen to what is happening

in my transaction then they make comments. So annoying - why do they do that?

They shouldn't make comments - sometimes the comment might not be much but it's still annoying

But other times they think they are 'experts' and know more than me - unbelievable

they know nothing but still want to comment - what kind of people are they?

[Ali11]

No need to disclose what type of retail, @jamesle2015, that same scenario plays out in a few retail industries unfortunately. Almost anything telco related, technology related or musical instrument related could be good examples. Customers who feel they're experts and want to share their knowledge or show off, or customers who only want someone senior because it gives the appearance of more knowledge even if it's not the case. A friend worked in a camera store years ago and while she had a photography degree and a wealth of experience, customers would still ignore her and ask a male team member questions, then wait for the male team member to ask our friend for the correct info, still ignoring her. It's a great question, how do we change society so people can be more aware of how they're affecting others, or more compassionate for retail staff who often deal with the same questions or issues day in and day out. What do you feel helps you in those situations, do you walk away for a moment and get a breath, or do you have music playing at work that helps your mood?

[jamesle2015]

when the 'commenters' interfere I can't do anything because manager is there.

do you think next time it happens I should tell the 'commenter' to 'let us handle it'..

problem is it depends on who the 'commenter' is -

if its a regular customer they think they are special and they might complain about me to the managers later when I'm not there - depends on the 'commenter' some people

can accept it and apologise but for other people it will be a big problem

i work in two places so i think it would be easier for me to try and cut them off in workplace 'one' - workplace 'one' has a good atmosphere as I can get along with the manager I work with ...when you work in two places you can notice a big difference

in the atmosphere......then it depends on the situation - if it is a short comment maybe it is not too bad only a few words - the worst thing is if they go on and on for a few minutes ........

i don't understand why people want to show off in public - who cares who are they 'showing off' to? I don't care I find it irritating and I am sure the next customer in the queue wishes they would shut up - or most of them would there are always exceptions....

people are busy and they want to leave the shop as soon as possible as they have other things to do so why waste time by 'commenting'

compassion for retail staff - i have an idea let's start a blog but I have no idea

what to call it....need to generate followers though

I don't think it would be acceptable to start one in here though 🙂

[Ali11]

@jamesle2015 Yes, perhaps here is not the place but that is some excellent thinking. Encouraging more compassion in the world sure is a positive thing.

To find a suitable name, perhaps you could start writing a list using word association for the traits or actions the blog is trying to encourage – compassion, kindness, understanding, united, etc. Your blog could be a fun place to capture all your thoughts and tell the other side of every encounter.

How do you think you would feel writing a story encouraging compassion after each shift? Does that sound manageable?