The Villainization of Retail Employees
Somewhere along the line, you’ve probably heard the old cliché “ the customer’s always right.”
Please, for the sake of yourself or for your customers, disregard this statement. Nobody is always right, but if anyone is right, it’s usually the employee.
We’re currently in a time when many of our public-facing, at-risk employees are also minimum wage workers. While the doctors and nurses on the frontline should always be applauded, other workers have been on the clock since the pandemic became a public health concern. These are the grocery store clerks, baristas, and servers who have been deemed essential (though that status is questionable for some). Sadly, these people are also becoming human punching bags, enduring criticism from the general public.
More than ever, we need to remember these workers are people. During this time, many companies are taking a stand and supporting their workers in the face of irate customers. Other companies place the need to make money ahead of the safety and ethical treatment of their employees.
Shooting the Messenger
In June of 2020, a San Diego Starbucks employee refused to serve a customer who wouldn’t wear a mask in the store. As a result, this customer posted her encounter on social media. It seemed as if she expected support from the public, but the exact opposite happened. A GoFundMe was started for the barista received over $100,000 as a result.
Fortunately, Starbucks has supported the employee and he plans to continue working as a barista. Starbucks had implemented a mask policy, and allowed employees to uphold this policy. While this policy provides some comfort to nervous customers, it places a large burden on the store employees. The focus of a barista should be brewing coffee, not policing mask wearers.
The current pandemic has highlighted the fact that customer-facing workers have to deal with shenanigans. Some of the frustrations customers experience are understandable. Often issues stem from adhering to public health guidelines, not the employees who maintain these standards in their stores or offices. Sadly, as the messenger of these messages, they become punching bags for frustrations.
When it comes to interacting with employees, I am no saint. Even during the pandemic I find myself getting frustrated as I wait in longer lines and struggle to social distance in crowded aisles. I was in Target and found myself annoyed by the employees stocking shelves and blocking movement in the middle of a Saturday. Never did I feel the need to confront an employee, because they’re following management’s orders and trying to keep food on shelves when people are stocking up. Still, this probably didn’t make me the most pleasant person to talk to.
At the very least, I am able to recognize the challenges faced by employees. Around the country, many people fail to recognize the burdens they encounter daily. Retail employees have been ignored, confronted, and assaulted when they request customers wear masks or obey simple guidelines. Depending on the company, employees have been told serve customers without masks by corperate or management. Seemingly, the people who interact with the public the least are the one who’ve determined employees need to put themselves in compromising situations for the sake of the sale.
The Dehumanization of Workers
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen an increase in people documenting and posting poor retail experiences. This is an attempt to gain public support while publicly shaming employees who haven’t catered to every customer need. As I was writing this article, another story of retail debauchery emerged online. A manager at a Louisville Kroger store was publicly shamed for not upholding a mask policy and allegedly ignoring a customer complaint of assault. Andy, the manager, did speak to the offending customer.
We don’t know all of the details to this story, and while a uniform mask policy should be upheld for all customers, corporate offices could have dictated Andy’s response. We also know Andy is a store manger, likely someone who needs his job, and not someone trying to become a public figure of scrutiny.
Similar instances of shame have occurred in retail environments for decades. Thanks to sites like Yelp! and Google, people have been able to air their grievances for the public to see under the pretense that they’re entitle to a certain experience.
This type of behavior is becoming too common, and customers seem to forget employees are people. They aren’t defined by their job, and they aren’t awful humans if they’ve made poor decisions while working. Right now we’re putting employees in the position where they need to address compromising situations with little guidance. If one or two customers get upset, that doesn’t make the employees failures.
Complaining about poor service or a bad product can be acceptable, but there’s no need to berate the nearest person wearing a nametag. Pretty much every major retail brand has a support line or service desk. Go there, talk to the people paid to help, and don’t expose innocent employees online due to minor grievances.
These incidents of exposing employees often go viral, telling one side of the story. They‘re also likely to blow up in the posters’ faces when they don’t receive public support. Only point is proven in this process: often, the customer is very wrong.
