Overheard today: a TSA agent yelling across the room to another “I don’t trust anyone as far as I can throw a dead person body”. He said this in front of a number of passengers waiting on line to go through the security checkpoint.
Overheard on another day: a manager at a retail store reaming out an employee for being late for her shift in front of customers.
Overheard yet another day: an employee bitching to another employee about how bad his job is and that he’d just like to go home and smoke up.
See anything wrong with any of the above?
While the workplace has become more casual than it has been in the past, some things are just not appropriate. As a consumer, I don’t want to hear employees’ problems aired in front of me. It’s not of my business and frankly, it makes me question if I ever want to return to that place of business (excluding the TSA – no choice there).
Outbursts like these need to be brought to the attention of managers and managers need to deal with it appropriately. If it’s the manager who is acting inappropriately, then it needs to go up the chain until the issue is resolved. It’s not fair to subject customers to how much someone hates their job, how poorly an employee is performing or even how much disdain employees have for humankind.
And I’m not afraid to let management know about such gaffes:
Then again, I’m always there to give a well-deserved compliment for outstanding service.
It’s easy to understand that, in a poor economy, why employees are frustrated. Lack of finances, job freezes, etc. can leave any employee feeling helpless, but that is no excuse for poor customer service. And managers need to mitigate the “lucky you have a job” mentality and set the example for what customer service should be.
Otherwise, they’ll be hearing from someone like me.