That stuff used to bother me too. I didn't understand why people felt like it was okay to talk to people that way but then I realized it wasn't personal. Its never about you, it's about them and their inability to cope when things don't go their way. I was in retail for 20 years and watched people get uglier and more abusive over the years. It went from 1-2 nutbags a week to 1-2 a day, sometimes more. So many people just can't handle themselves like adults it when things go wrong and it actually became kind of funny to me after a while when people would throw fits over small things that could easily be fixed if they just calmed down.
I can understand why the customer was upset and I'm sure you do too. I wouldn't be happy either if I was in their shoes. But that doesn't make it okay and it will never be okay to act like that. The best thing to do is exactly what you did. Let them scream and get it out of their system, empathize and offer a solution if you can when they've calmed down, but don't let it get to you. You give them power if you let them get under your skin and some people will take advantage of that. Don't waste a second stressing over people who can't control themselves.
Let your manager deal with the situation he created.
And take a breath. You did good.
You should have said one moment please. Then hand the phone to your manager and let him deal with this customer. You're part-time. Take yourself out of the equation.
Sorry you had to put up with this. Take advice from this retail veteran: let these peoole scream in the wind. You don't have to listen to them. Really you don't. Especially when they're on the phone and can't see you. Try never to take it personally. If you want you can start another task at the same time so you won't focus on what they say. Say hm hm once on a while to pretend you're listening and let the words fly above your head. Imagine them as a toddler throwing a tantrum, you wouldn't pay attention to that would you?
Yeah honestly I would've just set the phone down and done something more productive for awhile. She can yell at nothing. I'm not gonna sit there and let someone yell at me
I would’ve stopped her and gave her the managers info.
Especially part time, you aren’t getting me to give that much of a fuck.
Plus be on her side “yeah this lessons guy fucks up pretty much every shift I work haha, tried to talk to the manager about him multiple times myself. I get it but I’m the lowest employee here, I can offer you my managers contact info 😁😁”
Like fuck that I’ll back up my team if they do their job but if I worked with incompetence like this, I wouldn’t hesitate to throw them under the bus if they’re leaving me out to dry.
Omg like I tried doing that bc my coworker is really good at battering peoples temper down by relating to them n ive been taking notes but she did not want to let me get in a single word likeee 🙄
Yeah everyone telling OP to take it-that's part of the problem. These "people" get away with it because to them we have accepted it. They need to be called out early and often!
honestly in the past when we've got crazy ppl on the phone we'll put them on speaker if no ones in the store and we all just kind of try not to laugh which def breaks the tension 😭 I was just unlucky enough to be working alone that day
What was the point of saying “I know this isn’t your fault” if it wasn’t immediately followed by asking for you to put your manager on so she can let loose on him instead??
abusive power trip? kind of makes me wonder how she is around her kids. my manager wasn't in the store at the time so i couldnt give him the phone anyways but she said she was coming in irl the next day to speak to him so she couldnt have saved all that for tomorrow?? awful person
My dad used to say "I'm not shouting AT you, I'm shouting THROUGH you", meaning that whilst he knew the person that he speaking to wasn't to blame, he still needed to raise his concerns. This, I think, is what the lady was trying to do here but by all accounts she didn't go about it in the right way.
Sorry you had to put up with this, purely because your manager doesn't have a backbone.
Had this happen the other day. Guy called the store to complain about one of the other stores always being closed when tried to go in. Like ok, and what do you want me to do about it? I'm not the guy scheduled to work there, I don't make the schedule, I'm not a manager or anything. So he then gets even more pissed and is like I want to speak to a manager, ok let me go grab him. It doesn't take but 10 seconds to walk to his desk and grab him to talk on the phone, the guy had already hung up. I swear they only want to complain to people who can't do anything cause they're like "If I talk to the manager, they might fix it, so I can't complain about the issue anymore"
If you were unable to get a word in, you should have hung up.
For most of my life, I worked jobs with out customers. During that time, I did sometimes think, "if I complain to this employee, that will make it harder on the boss/owner because their employee will be mad about taking complaints. Of course, I see now that I was TOTALLY WRONG to think that and to complain to front line employees! But, this might be what this woman is thinking.
Can't hang up bc I'd be scared if she decided to come in person immediately and then do whatever while I was alone at the store. We've had crazy things happen here bc we live in a high karen area😭
Once the yelling starts, I would just hang up. I can get away with it at my work, but you might want to clear that up with a higher up first so you don't get written up/ fired for not wanting to be treated like dirt.
is there any other job you can work for minimum wage? like literally anywhere else? if your boss won’t back you up and allow you to not be verbally abused by customers, it really isn’t worth it. i’m sorry you went through that. if you’re allowed to, i would just say to the customer i’m sorry about what happened and i understand that it’s upsetting, but this conversation is becoming abusive, and i’m not going to be able to continue it and hang up.
After that happened + combined with a billion other things, I am looking to leave :( i've already mentioned to him before that this job is really impacting my mental health and on top of that i get sick every other month, which could be coincidence but i have a bad feeling its due to exhaustion. There's not a lot of other jobs in the area that arent target/grocery/fast food so that's why I've been hesitant on pulling the plug, but I think this is a sign I need to go either back to grad school or start commuting longer. I wish I just had a normal ft job but the market is so bonkers trash...
One time, I had a Karen. Horrible human who treated me like verbal punching bag. Once she was finished, trying not to cry, I told her that if I had to be the punching bag so your family doesn't have to, so be it...but don't ever talk to me like that again. She was stunned speechless. It was glorious, and not another word was said.
No one has the right to scream at you regardless of reason. You don’t have to listen to it. You aren’t getting paid to be their therapist or their punching bag. I would’ve set the phone down and let her scream to the ether because I’m not listening to that shit, and neither should you. Pick it back up when the screeching stops and tell her how to get ahold of the manager and then hang up.
That stuff used to bother me too. I didn't understand why people felt like it was okay to talk to people that way but then I realized it wasn't personal. Its never about you, it's about them and their inability to cope when things don't go their way. I was in retail for 20 years and watched people get uglier and more abusive over the years. It went from 1-2 nutbags a week to 1-2 a day, sometimes more. So many people just can't handle themselves like adults it when things go wrong and it actually became kind of funny to me after a while when people would throw fits over small things that could easily be fixed if they just calmed down. I can understand why the customer was upset and I'm sure you do too. I wouldn't be happy either if I was in their shoes. But that doesn't make it okay and it will never be okay to act like that. The best thing to do is exactly what you did. Let them scream and get it out of their system, empathize and offer a solution if you can when they've calmed down, but don't let it get to you. You give them power if you let them get under your skin and some people will take advantage of that. Don't waste a second stressing over people who can't control themselves. Let your manager deal with the situation he created. And take a breath. You did good.
You should have said one moment please. Then hand the phone to your manager and let him deal with this customer. You're part-time. Take yourself out of the equation.
Thank you for saying this, I really needed to hear it <3
That kind of sounds like giving them all the power to me.
Sorry you had to put up with this. Take advice from this retail veteran: let these peoole scream in the wind. You don't have to listen to them. Really you don't. Especially when they're on the phone and can't see you. Try never to take it personally. If you want you can start another task at the same time so you won't focus on what they say. Say hm hm once on a while to pretend you're listening and let the words fly above your head. Imagine them as a toddler throwing a tantrum, you wouldn't pay attention to that would you?
Yeah honestly I would've just set the phone down and done something more productive for awhile. She can yell at nothing. I'm not gonna sit there and let someone yell at me
I would’ve stopped her and gave her the managers info. Especially part time, you aren’t getting me to give that much of a fuck. Plus be on her side “yeah this lessons guy fucks up pretty much every shift I work haha, tried to talk to the manager about him multiple times myself. I get it but I’m the lowest employee here, I can offer you my managers contact info 😁😁” Like fuck that I’ll back up my team if they do their job but if I worked with incompetence like this, I wouldn’t hesitate to throw them under the bus if they’re leaving me out to dry.
Omg like I tried doing that bc my coworker is really good at battering peoples temper down by relating to them n ive been taking notes but she did not want to let me get in a single word likeee 🙄
Yeah everyone telling OP to take it-that's part of the problem. These "people" get away with it because to them we have accepted it. They need to be called out early and often!
honestly in the past when we've got crazy ppl on the phone we'll put them on speaker if no ones in the store and we all just kind of try not to laugh which def breaks the tension 😭 I was just unlucky enough to be working alone that day
will def try this next time!!
What was the point of saying “I know this isn’t your fault” if it wasn’t immediately followed by asking for you to put your manager on so she can let loose on him instead??
abusive power trip? kind of makes me wonder how she is around her kids. my manager wasn't in the store at the time so i couldnt give him the phone anyways but she said she was coming in irl the next day to speak to him so she couldnt have saved all that for tomorrow?? awful person
My dad used to say "I'm not shouting AT you, I'm shouting THROUGH you", meaning that whilst he knew the person that he speaking to wasn't to blame, he still needed to raise his concerns. This, I think, is what the lady was trying to do here but by all accounts she didn't go about it in the right way. Sorry you had to put up with this, purely because your manager doesn't have a backbone.
thanks! the concerns were already raised and my other coworker has tried to help them too, so i do think the customer was penting up her anger as well
Ehh, that is still shit.
Had this happen the other day. Guy called the store to complain about one of the other stores always being closed when tried to go in. Like ok, and what do you want me to do about it? I'm not the guy scheduled to work there, I don't make the schedule, I'm not a manager or anything. So he then gets even more pissed and is like I want to speak to a manager, ok let me go grab him. It doesn't take but 10 seconds to walk to his desk and grab him to talk on the phone, the guy had already hung up. I swear they only want to complain to people who can't do anything cause they're like "If I talk to the manager, they might fix it, so I can't complain about the issue anymore"
what a loooserrr
If you were unable to get a word in, you should have hung up. For most of my life, I worked jobs with out customers. During that time, I did sometimes think, "if I complain to this employee, that will make it harder on the boss/owner because their employee will be mad about taking complaints. Of course, I see now that I was TOTALLY WRONG to think that and to complain to front line employees! But, this might be what this woman is thinking.
Can't hang up bc I'd be scared if she decided to come in person immediately and then do whatever while I was alone at the store. We've had crazy things happen here bc we live in a high karen area😭
Call 911 if you ever feel unsafe. No job or a Karen's feelings is worth it!
I'd have told her to call back when the manager was available and I would've hung up.
Once the yelling starts, I would just hang up. I can get away with it at my work, but you might want to clear that up with a higher up first so you don't get written up/ fired for not wanting to be treated like dirt.
is there any other job you can work for minimum wage? like literally anywhere else? if your boss won’t back you up and allow you to not be verbally abused by customers, it really isn’t worth it. i’m sorry you went through that. if you’re allowed to, i would just say to the customer i’m sorry about what happened and i understand that it’s upsetting, but this conversation is becoming abusive, and i’m not going to be able to continue it and hang up.
After that happened + combined with a billion other things, I am looking to leave :( i've already mentioned to him before that this job is really impacting my mental health and on top of that i get sick every other month, which could be coincidence but i have a bad feeling its due to exhaustion. There's not a lot of other jobs in the area that arent target/grocery/fast food so that's why I've been hesitant on pulling the plug, but I think this is a sign I need to go either back to grad school or start commuting longer. I wish I just had a normal ft job but the market is so bonkers trash...
One time, I had a Karen. Horrible human who treated me like verbal punching bag. Once she was finished, trying not to cry, I told her that if I had to be the punching bag so your family doesn't have to, so be it...but don't ever talk to me like that again. She was stunned speechless. It was glorious, and not another word was said.
This is how it is handled.
No one has the right to scream at you regardless of reason. You don’t have to listen to it. You aren’t getting paid to be their therapist or their punching bag. I would’ve set the phone down and let her scream to the ether because I’m not listening to that shit, and neither should you. Pick it back up when the screeching stops and tell her how to get ahold of the manager and then hang up.
I can't believe some people are half defending this behavior!