There are always a lot of jokes about management. Truley inspired satire like Dilbert have been lambasting management for years. All of that is funny and much of it is true, but in taking the plunge into the management world of late has leveled upon me some startling realizations. People use management as their punching bag, their stress ball, their megaphone.
I recently was the subject of one such customer who took it upon herself to scream at me throw her memembership cards at me because there was no available bathroom for her son to use. I understand that kids have emergencies and I understand that they have to go when they have to go but the situation I was in, I was in a strange store in a different town with no public restrooms and no instructions that customers were allowed in back where the safe, money, all of the employees things, extra product, new movies, security systems and operations manuels are. Based on this, I said that there wasn't a customer bathroom. From this point on not only did she scream at me but also had her husband come in and scream at me, and tell all of the customers what a cold hearted bastard I was for not letting a 9 year old into the back room where we kept the $3000 at, and "he's the manager!"
I must now clarify by saying that I explained to her the situation, that I was from out of town covering the store and based on that could not let anyone in the back room. She challenged that I wouldn't be fired if I let someone back there when the case is exactly that I WOULD be fired if I were to let someone back there. I tried to explain this to her as well, very calmly as witnesses will attest but this was not good enough for her as she screamed "oh yeah a nine year old is going to steal something!" She may have been right, he probably wouldn't have. But if he had, well I would be gone. Oh I was also blamed for the child shitting in his pants. I have a difficult time buying this one since she left, went home, collected her husband( apparently leaving these kids on their own, a funny practice for such concerned parents given that they were all younger than the nine year old), and came back all within five minutes. It seems that if she lived that fucking close then your average nine year old would have the control to hold it for the two and a half minutes it takes to get home. Maybe if she hadn't spent so much time yelling at me the first time the allegedy shitting wouldn't have allegedly occured. No I am going to play devil's advocate for a second and believe that the kid did poop in his pants...I was nine once. I never had a shitting in my pants problem. When ever I did have an accident, it was usually because I played too long and ignored it or, more likely, that one of my parents kept putting me off. Most people, even at nine, have the redimentary bowel control to wait for five minutes. If the kid was sick and was having diarreah problems then he probably shouldn't have been out in the first place. I am having a hard time understanding how this child's bowel movements have become my problem. What if the toilet was broken or hadn't existed at all? Would it have been my problem then? Would I have had some hand in the breaking of it or its abject lack of existence? No. So why the fuck do I get blamed when the rules say that I can't take anyone in the backroom or I get fired?
As mentioned above, I attempted to explain both times while I was being villified that I was covering there from another town and had not been told that anyone could go back there so that I HAD to follow Corperate audit rules and not allow anyone back there. This leads me to the main point of this, which is simply that people assume that because some one is a manager, they have the power to violate corporate policies or indeed that they are the writers of that policy. To this end it is common for the manager to be screamed at with furvor unseen since God got upset with Moses. I have never understood what people hope to accomplish by screaming and belittling other people. In the above situation, had the lady been calm and perhaps said it was an emergency and that her son was having trouble, then I would likely have let him go back to the bathroom and just hung out in the backroom until he was finished and then escort him out (as I found out from the store manager, this is indeed what they do when people ask to use the bathroom but she realized that no one told me that and I was doing what I should have). As it was she took the opportunity to abuse me and the more she yelled the more my willingness to help her in any way dwindled. I don't understand what makes people react this violently to other people.
I see this mentality everywhere I go. Obviously I deal with it personally at the video store but every place of business go through these things. My question is this: What makes the average person believe that the mistake that has happened to inconvienced them will be rectified if they make those responsible feel as worthless as they possibly can? This makes NO sense whatsoever.
Now I understand the frustration one feels when things get fucked up all day and it seems that incompetence runs rampant wherever you turn. i understand that. On the other hand I also understand that everyone who works at a place is a human being and that they are just as prone to make mistakes as I am. If a teenaged employee counts your change incorrectly or cocks up your Big Mac, does it mean he is an idiot? No it means that he is having just as bad a day as you are and doesn't need you yelling at him to make it worse. Just explain the problem calmly and get it worked out.
In closing I think that the crux of the problem here is the simple fact that people like to vent and not everyone has a website on which to print rambling essays to bitch about what bugs them. They can't take the agression to their family and friends because then they will have to deal with reprocussions. There are no reprocussions from yelling at a register jocky because they AREN"T ALLOWED TO DEFEND THEMSELVES. No matter what abusive shit you sling at them, they can't defend themselves, their only recourse is to call the manager who must then take his or her own helping of abuse until finally the customer is content and free of his burden. This leaves the clerk and the manager stewing with pent up hostility which they then distribute on the poor bastard who runs the counter at the fast food joint they go to for dinner, and the whole cycle starts over again...
If you liked what I had to say and want to praise me or you are pissed because I didn't let your no sphincter control kid use the bathroom, email and let me know....
© 1997 primus3@juno.com
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