Nobody wants to work anymore? Maybe it's the increasingly hostile customers?

[ck4829]

The labor shortage blame game has bounced between employers, workers, and jobless benefits.

Business owners have accused workers of being lazy, or disincentivized by expanded federal unemployment benefits - while workers say they're not paid enough for what they do, and are seeking better pay, benefits, and schedules.

But in a poll of restaurant workers from earlier this year, eight in 10 said that they had experienced hostile behavior from customers who didn't want to follow COVID-19 safety protocols. About half said they were considering leaving their jobs, and of that group, four in 10 said this was because of customer hostility and harassment.

Workers increasingly said they felt they were risking their lives (Because of the pandemic) only to be abused by rude or aggressive customers. Some of these workers had to police COVID-19 safety rules in stores and ask shoppers to wear masks or provide proof of vaccination.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/shoppers-partly-blame-americas-crippling-150224116.html

[Sherman A1]

1. Having worked Retail Grocery for 4+ decades

I can attest to the increasing number of obnoxious customers. This started pretty much in the 1980s and has grown progressively worse over the years. There are many factors in play when one looks for reasons as to why this situation has come to pass, but it is certainly present and frankly service workers don’t get paid enough to take the abuse to often dished out by customers.

[multigraincracker]

5. The two big grocery chains in my area,

Meijers and WallyWord. I try to only shop at Meijers because they have a union. I've talked to workers at both chains and the ones at Meijers seem a lot more content.

[Sherman A1]

7. Happily I was in a Union Shop

The benefits are much greater overall, even during the many years of the “part time disposable workforce” labor model which Walmart “gifted” the sector in the 1980s.

Happy to have been Union and happy to be retired from it all.

[multigraincracker]

8. Thanks to my union, I have been retired for 20 years

and having a great life. I volunteer to continue paying my union dues. I'm 72 and retired at age 52.
Just got my update on my retiree benefits and I will now get new glasses every year, it was every 2 years, and my dental benefits have expanded too, for 2022.

[shanti]

28. I'll add another pro-Union post

Retired 10 years ago at age 55 after 21 years and so grateful for the pension. It makes a world of difference. Couldn't have done it without my medical insurance being full covered until Medicare (now).

[multigraincracker]

2. Good for CBS news.

Just saw a story about how 1/3 of those that quit their jobs went on to start their own businesses.
Boy does that put a hole in the "they are lazy and don't want to work" message that the Libertarian and Radical Free Market crowd are screaming. Looks like it might be the opposite reason they are dropping out of the job market.

[OldBaldy1701E]

19. They are just angry

Because these people are going into competition against them as opposed to slaving away for them.

[Kaleva]

3. Other businesses are also having a hard time finding workers.

Construction, trades, and manufacturing,

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Which explains the massive hiring in retail this fall

Employers don't know how many new employees will drop out from fear, stress, or covid illness.

By January, after sales disappoint, many will be laid off.

[TheBlackAdder]

33. First person my daughter met, not even a customer or someone she knew, starting berrating her. . .

.

to the point of crying. The woman laughed and said that she hopes my daughter has a nice day at work.

Of course, she didn't. She was opening a mall kiosk that sold French macarons and was all by herself.

.

[Haggard Celine]

6. What makes the situation with rude customers worse is

that too many employers don't want to back up their employees when they encounter such people. Restaurants are especially bad about this. I used to have to deal with customers who would complain just so the manager would give them a free meal or give them a discount, and of course the manager would blame me, the waiter, for pissing them off. That sort of thing causes resentment and low morale from workers. I hope things are getting better for staff at restaurants and other stores. Maybe that's one good thing that has come from all of this.

[Sedona]

9. Its not just retail and hospitality

I'm a Realtor and the clients are becoming more belligerent. I have had two sellers and two buyers this year refuse to close days before a transaction is set to complete, opening themselves (and me!) up to a whole host of lawsuits. The last one (same person buying and selling) left me with ZERO income for the month of October after hundreds of hours of work for this person.

My colleagues are seeing the same behavior. People think they can just breach a binding contract with no consequences.

On edit: In 15 years in the biz I've never had this happen once, now four times in 2021. WTF?

[XanaDUer2]

24. No, it's not

public libraries are warzones. Admins don't give a shit. Morale is low and burnout is common.

[DallasNE]

10. Just Another Facet Of The Ugly Trump Legacy n/t

[lastlib]

11. So much for that useless NRA trope, "an armed society is a polite society."......

Every time some gun-humper puts that one out there, I ask him, "you mean like Somalia?"

We have more guns than ever before, and the people who most likely carry them are The. Absolute. RUDEST, and most belligerent, human beings I could meet.

[whathehell]

12. Maybe because no one wants to pay anymore?

[Grokenstein]

13. This tweet/thread from a year and a half ago has only become more relevant.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[GoneOffShore]

14. It comes from 'The customer is always right' mentality of corporations and business owners

'Oh, we have to give them a discount, otherwise they'll complain on Yelp/FB/Google'

No. The customer is very often wrong, and doubles down on that by abusing the person providing service.

[Joinfortmill]

15. There are also more choices now...lots of online jobs.

[Orrex]

16. Throughout the pandemic I've polled many businesses...

Across the board, chain locations have indicated that their corporate offices have forbidden them to take any action, or even make any statement, against customers who ignore covid safety protocols.

Corporations would happily risk the health and safety of their workers rather than risk a negative comment on Facebook by some no-mask fuckhead.

Who can blame employees for speaking out against the abuse that they’ve been coerced in to accepting?

[ForgoTheConsequence]

17. "I WANT TO SPEAK TO THE MANAGER"

"Sorry, the manager just quit you're on your own. Douchebag"

I don't blame them, customer entitlement is out of control.

[DownriverDem]

18. Also add

how bad the employers treat the employees too.

[marble falls]

20. It's local government's fault for not enforcing the laws that states aren't passing ...

... masking and mandatory vax should be clear and uniform across the nation.

[JanMichael]

34. Wouldn't that be a federal problem?

Uniform vaccination and masking across the Nation is only going to happen with Federal guidance and enforcement.

Expecting all of the local governments like the Town of Podunk Nowhere to do it is unrealistic.

[marble falls]

35. In the end it's a local government's fault. This a local problem if the counties, state ...

... of Feds aren't stepping in.

[Sympthsical]

21. Saru Jayaraman talked about exactly this on Bill Maher last night

That workers are just done after the pandemic, because of how they've been treated while earning such a shit wage. Her insights were really good.

[OldBaldy1701E]

22. That is one of the reasons I will starve in a ditch

Before I work in retail or customer service ever again. Out of four places I have done such work, only one was tolerable because the manager was a good person who brooked no shit from anyone when they went the 'rude' route. The times I watched him say, "That is not going to happen." when approached about some ludicrous complaint that was created solely so that the asshat could get free stuff. He had my back and he knew that I would not 'go there' unless someone had already leaped through the door. The fact that this was an 'upscale' establishment just made this happen more often, not less. We had people physically assaulted in that place, one time over a loaf of bread. Never again.

[OneBro]

23. But, but undocumented workers . . .

Employers complaining about worker shortages and worker demands for living wages are likely the same employers who usually hired undocumented workers and treated them poorly while paying them poorly. THEN those employers supported Trump as he waged war on undocumented workers and their families. NOW they are caught between vile MAGA customers and newly empowered workers with options.

[modrepub]

25. General Anger Seems To Correlate With Online/TV Time

I'm not a facebook or news show TV watcher. But it seems to me that the best way for either social media or TV shows to attract folks and keep folks engaged is to make them angry or scared. The longer they keep you engaged the better their bottom line. No one on the business side seems to care that constantly enraging or scaring your audience probably isn't helpful for society as a whole.

[CaptainTruth]

26. I've been saying this for a long time. Who wants to face Covidiots all day?

And for low wages?

Not me.

[Skittles]

27. I have gone my entire life....

without EVER being rude to a clerk or waitstaff or ANY kind of worker.....WTF is with this new breed of people, UGH

[Iggo]

30. They're not new. There's just more of 'em.

Perpetuated by a more available sympathetic ear and amplified by social media.

Used to take a ton of work to be that kind of asshole. Now it’s a couple of clicks.

[Iggo]

29. There is no labor shortage.

[ProfessorGAC]

31. Saru Jayaraman Was On Maher Last Night

She discussed this very point.
More agitated customers, people telling a server to pull down her mask to she how pretty she was before they decided how much to tip, AND....
Servers responsible for enforcing mask mandates risking angering the person into a lower tip, when those servers rely on tip income!
Part of her analysis uses this to explain the mass resignations in the food service industry.

[Brainfodder]

32. Inflation and the erosion/stomping of the American Dream IMHO are also strong factors!

Mean assholes feeling empowered because their types are being "pressed" strongly, yeah, let's work on that?

Media wise, huge edge Republicans, all I see really is status quo maintenance.

Cannabis is still schedule 1, still... still... still?

Leadership can't even fix basic things apparently, so pessimism is in high gear, and I am feeling it, but our media feels like it is steering cattle in their preferred direction, watch it with that in mind?

Bad actors all over the place, and so willing for bucks, which most should already have more than their fair share, ah sharing....