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Dealing With Rude Workers
Posted: Apr 8th, '19, 20:44
by Moi
I had to go to this office to ask about some papers I got and the worker that helped us was pretty rude.
He wasn't directly rude to me, but he was rude to my mom.
Like there was no need to be rude to her.
My mom's a really nice person.
I tend to smile and laugh as a defense mechanism, so as soon as we left the building, I just laughed and laughed and laughed.
My mom kept saying "It's not funny >__>"
She's right. It wasn't funny.
Like I'm sorry he had to do his job.
Must be so frustrating to answer questions and clear up confusion.
So disappointing because the last worker we got was so nice and seemed like he actually cared.
I never really know what to do after a worker is rude to me.
I tend to get an anxiety attack and sometimes cry, but I don't usually report them.
I tend to take in the consideration that maybe they're usually nice but something bad happened to them that day or they're going through things.
How do you deal with rude workers?
Re: Dealing With Rude Workers
Posted: Apr 8th, '19, 20:50
by Sanssouci
It drives me nuts when people are rude when the person wasn't being rude to them. I mean, I get that it's work and they don't want to be there. But still. You're going to be there either way, so why not try to have it go as nice and smooth as possible for everyone, you know? When it happens to me I try to stay calm, and nice, and finish up as fast as I can. I don't complain about them or anything in case something was a misunderstanding or in case it's an unusually bad day for them. If someone is rude to them first though, then I don't blame them for being rude back.
Re: Dealing With Rude Workers
Posted: Apr 11th, '19, 02:35
by Moi
I'll never forget this story I read about this very thing.
I'm going to be paraphrasing it as I don't remember it 100%.
There was a cashier that was having issues doing their job and this customer got angry and rude and it turned out that the cashier's mom had committed suicide that very morning and they went into work and had trouble with doing anything.
Since then, I try to take that into consideration.
Maybe they're sick, maybe they're having a bad day, maybe someone they loved died, etc.
I'm also just used to people being hateful to me xD
Re: Dealing With Rude Workers
Posted: Apr 11th, '19, 05:00
by Akili Li
When a worker is rude to me I go the route of being instantly that sort of stereotypical super-sweet motherly figure thing, like "Oh, you poor dear, you must be having a simply awful time of it, if you're reduced to lashing out at customers! How terrible for you," et cetera.
I find it separates them out pretty quick.
The ones who have no real reason to be rude feel patronized and get all defensive and hate it but you've essentially just called them out on it so they have nowhere to go with it. (Hint: don't ever actually use the phrase "bless your heart" on them, because that's a declaration of war.)
The ones who really HAVE had a rough time of it lately are usually really grateful for the understanding -I've had a couple of people burst into tears and cry on my shoulder, and that's actually kind of good because if the manager/shift boss comes over and starts making trouble I can always do the whole routine of "isn't this place so amazing, you all make me feel like family here, I'm so flattered, this is my favorite place to come, it just feels like a real community; if one of your workers feels such loyalty that they come in while dealing with all this, you must be someone amazing to inspire that kind of closeness," et cetera.
Which typically turns them right around from "Must contain potentially problematic worker/situation" into flipping right into "I have a chance to play the hero" mode. Which means that poor fried worker actually gets a chance to decompress a little.
It's worked great so far.