YEC kids

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Seniors by and large that I run into are inflexible, set in their ways, unable to embrace change, can't absorb modern skills, and most dammingly - show a blatant lack of respect for anyone younger than themselves. Especially to anyone working a service job. (I work night desk at a hotel and the worst, rudest customers are always over 50.)

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Basically I guess I'm saying that I'd have a lot more respect for the elderly if most of them weren't so arrogant.

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...and RUDE! I find that, in my job as a retail service provider, the most polite people are those in their teens, twenties and thirties.The worst people for me to deal with in my job are men, 40-60.What I sell are specialty food products, and I know a lot about them.I look like I could still be in college even though I'm 35, and our uniform at work is a company t-shirt and jeans. I am also a woman.So, sometimes I get treated not as the highly-trained and very knowlegeable food expert that I am. Instead, it's common for men in that age group to interrupt frequently when I am explaining something, or otherwise not take me seriously. Or, they sometimes seem to have a hard time putting themselves in the hands of someone they view as below them in status or importance.After I speak to them for a few minutes about olive oil (or whatever), things often change a little, as they then realize that I don't speak like a kid but as a professional.I did have a man actually tweak my nose once when I was attempting to get him to use the coffee grinder correctly.I was not amused.[This message has been edited by schrafinator, 09-30-2003]

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What did he say when he regained consciousness?

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Har har har. I wish.Actually, I'm not allowed to deck the guests in the deli.I consider my persona at work a kind of character that I play there. She's a lot like me, to be sure, but believe me, I wouldn't take from people the crap I have taken from some of them unless I was being paid to do so.Giving service well, particularly in the food business, is a hard job, especially in this country where giving service is seen as an undesireable, low-status job. People in America are taught to aspire to be the one who is served, not the one giving service. And for many people, treating people they see as "lower status" like shit is one of the "perks" of being "higher status". It's also true that said shit rolls downhill, and people who get abused all day by their own bad bosses or spouses, or whatever, come to the deli and end up taking out their frustration on the floor staff because they can. Finally, it's also true, IMO, that Americans just tend to be rather rude, poor-manered people in general.That is not the case in other cultures. In particular, waiters in France come to mind. It takes several years of apprenticeship to be a fully-trained waiter in France, and they are considered to be highly skilled professionals, and their salaries reflect this.Basically, if you shop in discount chain stores that don't spend the money (and it's quite expensive to do so) to train their staff and give the kind of competative pay and benefits to retain excellent, professional people, you get what you pay for.

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My complaint about younger people (teenager or thereabouts) in service jobs is that they're idiots. Does this need explaining?

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They are often not idiots, just untrained. Blame the management or the owners of the business, not the front line staff.

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And what was his response to the lecture on proper light switch usage?

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Actually, I was helping him get all of his ground coffee out of the machine, because he was neglecting to use the little cleaning lever thingy that makes sure the chute empties. If you don't use it, quite a lot of coffee is left behind.Most people ignore the list of directions on the machine, and also ignore the three additional signs on and around the coffee grinder regarding the cleaning lever, so I try to keep an eye out to help people. My assumption always being, of course, that people intend to take home all the coffee that they just ground in the machine. That guy just decided he needed to put me in my place, apparently.I didn't deck him, but I did tell him that he might not want to do that again as my nose was a little runny.seriously, though, at my workplace, giving great service is considered one of the actual bottom lines for the organisation, along with great food and great finance. Here's an article about us:Page not found - Winning Working Places[This message has been edited by schrafinator, 10-03-2003][This message has been edited by schrafinator, 10-03-2003]

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The wonderful thing about retail and service jobs is that, no matter what, the person on one side of the counter is convinced that the person on the other side is the stupidest person in the history of all mankind. And vice versa.

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Hee hee hee. That's funny! Pretty true, too, except that I have to say that I understand where each side is coming from.How can you blame people for not knowing what a proper cappucino is when most places do not make them properly? How can you blame the person at Starbucks for thinking so many of their customers are idiots for not knowing that a cappucino is supposed to be half foam when the description of what it is is right there on the board?The front lne staffers are most likely not stupid. Just untrained. Blame the management and/or the owners.[This message has been edited by schrafinator, 10-03-2003]

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OTOH, I can't imagine anyone who isn't already on the list for a rest home for the terminally stupid - of any age - who would tweak ANY salesperson's nose in a store. No matter how cute the salesperson might be. That's taking condescension to pathological extremes, IMO.

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THANK you! I felt this way, too.

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My only irritation with the "younger set" comes from dealing with a certain subspecies of that ilk. Percy, I'm sure you know the type: the salesclerk in the computer store or wherever who treats a certain age group (like, anyone over 30) as being already senile and ready for assisted living. I usually lose my temper and say something along the lines of "A) it's not the years, it's the mileage, Junior. And B) I already know more about this sh*t than you in your dead-end, minimum-wage job will ever learn. Now show me the two pieces of hardware I asked for or get someone who can." For some reason, I never get any discounts in those places.

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I said it to Percy, I'll say it again; if you shop at stores which don't train their staff to give good service, then you take your chances.Training and educating the staff is expensive and is the first thing to be cut, in many businesses, to make more money or to offset losses.At my workplace, which is a tiny place in an out of the way location with hardly any parking, we know we can never compete with the high volume of chain grocery or fancy food stores. People come to us because we give a superior service experience; we are their unpretentious, cheerful, knowledgeable, professional consultants in the world of good food. Sure, we are also more expensive because we pay people well and spend a lot of money on training, but you get what you pay for.

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1) Because of interfering or otherwise constricting edicts from the old-fart manager, we're unable to do what you want us to do, even if it's something that any reasonable person could expect. Often we'd like nothing more than to make you happy, with a refund, or opening the pool after hours, something - after all our paycheck doesn't go up or down when the business makes more or less money, so we have no real incentive to make them money - but the manager has made it pretty clear that our attempt to please the customer in this regard will cost us our jobs. I run into this problem a lot.

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Wow, the more I hear things like this the more grateful I am that I work where I do.It's exactly the opposite at my business. Every single frontline staffer is authorized to do whatever it takes to make the customer happy in the case of a complaint. Of course, we are given guidelines to deal with scammers and so we don't give away the shop or anything, but that is the policy. It makes us more money in the long run because a properly-handled complaint or special "breaking of the rules" can often turn a customer who is ready to never come back into one who will become a lifelong customer.

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2) You've asked us for something totally unreasonable and idiotic, and there's a lot less chance of a confrontation if we just act like an idiot instead of telling you what an idiot you are.

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That is true, and I have used this tactic several times.