What are things you can’t stand about people—particularly when it comes to your job?

The Necromancer's Lair
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When you work in the service industry, it definitely opens your eyes to see how dumb many people are, and it makes you wonder how they got through life. :sweat_smile:

Recent interactions I’ve had that had me puzzled a bit:

I once got a call from a guy who asked if the library had any books. Um… I wasn’t aware that there are libraries out there that are bookless? :sweat_smile:

I’ve had a ton of people try to get me to fill in their personal information for them. Like the last time was a guy who needed to fill out a paper to get a passport and he acted like he didn’t know what to do, as in what to write in the boxes. I’ve also never had a passport but, you know, I’m sure if you read the fine print, you can figure it out. Or at least use Google. Google has been my best friend since middle school. Haha

I’ve also had a few people who didn’t know how to work a computer. Now, granted, many of them were older folks (like 50-70) but there’s a part of me that can’t fathom how these people went through life without knowing how to work a computer. I mean, the basic computer has been around for nearly 100 or so years. Then actual computers were a thing in the 70s-80s. Not to mention modern computers and access to the internet which didn’t become a thing until 30+ years ago. Even if you didn’t have one, most people probably had to use one for work or at least at some point in their life, right? I don’t know. This is probably the one that blows my mind the most. Like even if you’ve never used one, you can self-teach yourself through random clicking stuff. I’m not tech-savvy at all, but that’s how I learned how to use a phone… when I didn’t get one until I was 19. :sweat_smile:

One that bothers me, though, is people assuming you speak their language. I live in a town where the majority are Spanish-speaking folks and the library here is filled with activities and events for anyone in the Spanish community. So, we get a lot of them. However, I’ve had multiple people come up to me and speak Spanish without knowing I don’t or do speak it. They just assume I do. And, I mean, I don’t have a problem if people ask me first: “Do you speak Spanish?” Because you never know what language someone speaks. But it’s when they come up right to you and just try to have a conversation or ask you a question in a language you can’t speak without them even knowing about it. Now, I have had to come across that barrier when making phone calls, but I assume based on what books or media they checked out. If they checked out all Spanish stuff (media and books) I’m going to safely assume they speak Spanish and pass the overdue list to someone who speaks it. But if they have English stuff checked out (movies, CDs, audiobooks, books, etc.) with maybe a mixture of Spanish stuff, I’ll assume they can speak English (which I’ve come across some who don’t and had to pass the phone over).

I also don’t understand why people leave important information at home. So, to check something out, we need your library card or an ID. I’ve had a lot of people say they left their library card at home. That’s okay. But then you ask for their ID and they’re like, “I left that at home, too.” Like, what about your wallet? Do you not keep it in there? Do you not have a wallet? Do you go to the store and forget money? Like, it’s one thing if you come to the library not expecting to get anything because you have to print something off and then decide to go look at books. But most of these people don’t do that. They browse and then check something out. And if you knew you had to check something out, you should’ve also remembered to bring your library card or an ID, especially if this isn’t your first time coming here.

Anyway…

What are things you can’t stand about people, whether who you work with or customers?

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I haven’t worked in retail long, but I always didn’t like the whole customer is always right thing.

Sometimes the customer is wrong and it sucks that we can’t tell them their wrong because that will cost us our jobs.

Then you have rude hardasses who love to make your already miserable life even more miserable.

I HATED retail and just thinking about it makes me physically ill.

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YESSS. When I worked at a hotel before ditching that job for my current one, I knew right then and there that the customer is definitely not always right. Sometimes, they can be. But not “always.” :roll_eyes:

Exactly. Though, I’ve always hinted at it depending on how I phrase it. Like, during one of my night audit days where the hotel was overbooked, a guy came in at like 2-3am with a reservation that he claimed was made “weeks ago” and when I apologized and said we were sold out, he threw a fit and was like, “You sold someone my room?” I told him, out front, “Unfortunately, if you don’t check-in early enough, your reservation isn’t guaranteed. To ensure a guaranteed room, you should call during the afternoon and check-in over the phone if you know you’re going to be this late. Otherwise, it’s first come, first serve. Sorry.” I even told him there wasn’t much I could do anyway since I wasn’t the one to check anyone in–the hotel was sold out way before I got there…

Yup. Those the worst ones. And not only the ones who yell at you for doing your job, but like even the people are quietly rude. Like, when working at the hotel, I had tons of people come up to me and just stare at me. Assuming I know what they’re thinking. It isn’t until I ask, “How can I help you?” when they’re like, “Santiago.” Then I have to put the pieces together myself. “You… have a reservation?” Then there’s a silent yes added.

Couldn’t agree more. And even though I’m still in the service industry (considering I am in customer service), this job is far better than hotels or probably most other retail jobs. I’m at least in a better mindset. I was seriously depressed working at the hotel.

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See, it things like that that make me glad I am not working in retail.

People suck majorly.

Thanks for agreeing with me.

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I think body odor and spasmodic movements of the leg.

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I worked in a retirement home’s kitchen dishwashing and serving where our ‘customers’ (we called them residents) were always the same, in addition to a few familiar faces when family would come to visit.

So, this was beneficial because you generally got to know and understand everyone and their bullshit. Who needs their food cut up, who needs extra sour cream, who would like to sit in the back, whose generally quite mean, who is nice.

I experienced some annoyances. Some of the older men, especially in the morning, would make sexual advancements towards me. Some of my other female co-workers experienced men grabbing them. We also had a man who would flash literally everyone. Was fucking awful and we were instructed to basically throw his food into his room and run lest he come around the corner with his peen out. We didn’t have many male co-workers, but they also experienced their fair share of sexual harassment from female residents.

All of the above was pretty annoying, but throughout my five-years of working there, it was not constant and after a while you knew who to avoid. Most importantly, not every resident was like this. Most of them were not. Those experiences, though, were pretty traumatic.

I have to say though, the people who really piss me off are managers. Most managers are disgusting. They horde their employment benefits, cut corners to get their bouns’, and exploit both their employees and residents for financial gain.

At the end of my five years, I was working seven days a week, ten-hour shifts, and would sometimes even have to come back for more work if scheduling conflicting. A few things broke the camel’s back.

  1. My dad was in and out of the hospital at the time. I was the only one living with him, so I had to discover all of these issues, call the police, and have him be taken away. This was mid-COVID so I didn’t even get to go and see him. After the second time he went to the hospital, in which I discovered him on the ground barely functional and delusional. After, I texted into work and basically told them that I was so upset by what had happened I would not be able to work for that day.

They didn’t reply. Didn’t let me know if it was okay, didn’t ask how I was, didn’t ask how my dad was, nothing.

Just one thing, right? Fuck them.

The second thing happened a week after I came back.

  1. One of the residents had their children visiting from out-of-state. There’s no good way of putting this, but one of their children collapsed in the parking lot and died from a heart attack. A co-worker of mine attempted CPR but was unable to revive him, and he passed on.

She was a sobbing mess. She could barely hold a tray to help deliver food. She couldn’t take orders or speak. She needed to go home.

They wouldn’t let her go home.

I was done with them after that.

The thing that pisses me off is greed. People are so disgustingly greedy and it’s everywhere. I will run up and down the stairs fifty times to get a resident their special order. I will stand there and take a resident screaming at me because we ran out of strawberry ice-cream. I will set each and every table even if my back hurts so bad I can barely stand straight. But I will not stand complete apathy from managers towards employees. It’s gross and cowardly.

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Oh I wish I could go into this, because the things some people say and do just blows my mind on a regular basis.

But … data protection. Plus I don’t want to be an a-hole and badmouth people who were in genuinely tough situations. I don’t work with customers per se, but I need to frequently liaise on behalf of people who are in some serious situations.

Suffice to say, the entitlement of some people----especially foreigners coming to so-called “developing” countries—is just out of this world.

I can’t go into any detail, but I’ve had people file complaints because their own refusal to answer questions and follow basic advice leads to them getting into financial trouble, or even issues with the law.

I’ve had people who repeatedly refuse help and turn us away, and then later in press interviews say we didn’t help them (but conveniently left out the part where it was them who refused assistance).

I’ve had people demand we bend actual rules and laws to solve their problems. Some people actually think they can knowingly and deliberately break immigration laws and then expect their government to smuggle them out of the country! And get angry when we don’t!

I’ve had some people ask me why their government hires Asian people (me) to work in their government. Mind you, THEY ARE IN an Asian country. How are you gonna be racist and at the same breath expect me to get you out of some serious trouble?

I could go on.

Funny thing is, it’s mostly your average joes who get difficult. Not to say that high-profile figures, professionals, etc. are never demanding, but they tend to at least have some awareness of how procedure works.

also, I might delete this post later so don’t be surprised if it suddenly disappears.

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OH MY GOD don’t even get me started on the inappropriate comments.

I’ve had people (read: old, white men) ask me (read: Asian girl) questions like “Why is a girl like you working at a place like this?”

I’M IN DIPLOMACY AND CONSULAR AFFAIRS! My job requires a security clearance! What am I supposed to work as? A SUGAR BABY???

ETA just for clarification before I accidentally get anyone fired or investigated, these comments never come from colleagues or anything.

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Sickening. My least favorite comments always had to do with my body. I was a plus-sized teenager and very self-conscious (still am) about my body and how others perceive it. I got a lot of, “Oh, I like bigger girls.” “Bigger women give the best BJs” “Your boobs are small for a big girl”.

Absolutely grotesque and it made my relationship with my body a lot harder to manage healthily.

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That is horrible!
What is wrong with some people?!

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I honestly don’t know, but it’s gross. It’s even worse when no one does anything to stop it. No one should be objectified sexually because of their race or body structure, and the fact that it can happen unchecked is what the real problem is, imo.

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We truly live in a society…

Honestly, I don’t know if I could deal with being in such a situation. I would have quit so long ago and find a better place. However, disgusting people or assholes in general are EVERYWHERE you look.

Sometimes, I worry about humanity because of shit like that.
I am truly sorry that happened to you. You don’t deserve it and nobody does.

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My friend, who works in the Middle East at a business corporation selling different materials (won’t go into great detail, as I’m not sure how he would feel about it) says that this is a common problem when he has to deal with foreign customers–but especially Americans, which doesn’t surprise me.

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Me working in a southern US Starbucks kiosk:

Constantly being asked to smile. Ah yes, cleaning out the drain filled with spoiled milk with my bare hands is so thrilling that I must smile while doing it.

Customers would go up to my male coworkers and say things like, “*Oh you clean the windows so well!” as if boys are incapable of cleaning.

“Hey, don’t forget to do this task for me,” says the assistant manager leaning against the counter doing nothing during our busy hour when I’m making drinks.

“Oh, just let the boys do that. Girls shouldn’t take out the trash.” Mind you I liked taking out the trash. I could throw heavy things and slam the dumpster shut and get all of my pent up customer service anger out :joy:

The stalking and sexual harassment that customers + coworkers would do. I got followed into the freezer by a coworker, he trapped me in there, and started talking about having sex with his wife and how I was just like her. One of my coworkers had a customer stalk her. He started buying her gifts, showing up to her yoga classes; she found him snooping outside of her house more than once. She ended up quitting and moving. My manager stopped putting his real name on his name tag, because he had customers looking him up and harassing him on Facebook (our manager was stereotypically gay and very proud of it).

A woman in a wheelchair was talking and rolling without paying attention, rammed into our display cases, broke over $200 worth of cups, and started cheering and clapping about it. Then lectured us that our display cases were too close together (they were 10ft apart, at least) and were inappropriate for handicapped people like her. Then when my coworker and I went to clean things up, she said to me, “oh she’s a big girl, she can clean it up by herself. Go make me a [insert coffee here].”

“Can I get a grande cappuchino with three extra shots, no foam and make sure you wait 2 minutes for the foam to settle and then use the back of a spoon to scoop all of the foam out, made with 1/2 breve and 1/2 soymilk, with 1 pump of sugar free vanilla, 1.5 pumps of caramel, poured into a venti cup, topped with 1 swirl of caramel sauce and the cinnamon dolce sprinkles, and don’t put a lid on it.” Ughh.

I’m sweeping the floors, and then a customer walks through my pile, opens the door, and a rush of cold air blasts it all back over the floor again.

“Hey, how are you?” “Give me a [insert drink here].”

working on xmas eve “I’m so sorry you have to work today! Why are they making you work on a holiday?” customer says while sipping from a drink they just bought from us on xmas eve.

This was way too long :joy:

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I worked 3 jobs at the same time this summer, and I would get treated by people differently depending on what the job was and how much I was making, which I think is pretty interesting.

Was paid student wage while working fast food, and my least favourite thing is how people feel entitled to speak to fast food workers. At the drive-thru I’ve had smoke blown in my face, gotten cussed at because we’re out of a certain item, and been hit on. A lot. By very old, very crusty-looking men.

I made a bit above minimum wage as a sport summer camp coach, teaching kids baseball. I’m good at baseball, good with kids, and in a position of direct authority there, so I only really had one or two parents who were especially rough. Other than that, though, the kids loved me, so the parents did too. I was treated with respect.

Working as a private lifeguard, people weren’t just polite and respectful—I was in charge. Of everything. At sixteen years old I’ve had men in their forties hosting employee appreciation parties tell me that the pool’s my domain, and whatever I say goes. I’ll get tips and food. Parents come up and thank me. Never any disputes.

I just think it’s really interesting to see how people treat you based on your job, and how you’re looked down on when you make minimum wage. The same people who’d give me crap in fast food are polite when I’m coaching their kids, and downright complacent when I’m watching their pool. It actually makes me really angry to realize how shitty people are treated based on their job—coming from someone who’s held a bunch of different positions.

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Originally the customer is always right thing cane from employees not telling customers that they shouldn’t wear certain clothes.

Imagine going to a department store and getting insulted by the staff for your clothing choices.

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I am planning to get into a museum curator job. I don’t know a lot of people who do this but I suspect the people will be nicer than somewhere like Starbucks.

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I just hate people in general. (Not personhood, behaviors.) Large crowds of people do dumb things while they think they are doing great.

I also notice a trend to hate things that I do or things I absolutely refuse to do.

But the biggest peeve is don’t accuse me of something I’m not doing.

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I absolutely love it when customers fail to understand that I’m the only one running the department and that when I say “I’ll be there as soon as I can”, I mean “Hey just wait there until I get there. You are currently # in queue. So why the hell are you coming back over here to ask me again?”

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When I was working, I guess, indifference and everything now attitudes. I had worked for senior executives and in the CEO office at some point, everything was so now-now, fake-fake and corporate bs. If you’ve seen the movie Office Space, you’ll kind of get a picture of the higher ups I had to work with.