Logan's Blog

The world is so unpredictable. They say there are more good people then bad, and most of the time I believe that, but it only takes one ugly encounter to make you really second guess that. I’ve experience my fair share of angry costumers and all you can really do about that is try to talk to the person to calm them down. Well what happens when you are the costumer, and you see that same encounter? This is my story of my first-time experiencing that situation, but I was just a witness.

I was at a drug store in my home town, waiting in line to buy a few things. It was a busy day, and the line was long, so I did what any respectful person would do, I waited. About three people had been cashed out and left, but there was still two people ahead of me. While minding my own business, I heard the women in front of me start mumbling to herself. She was losing her temper because of the long line up and saying the cashier wasn’t moving fast enough, and a few other disrespectful things. It was finally her turn to be cashed out, but that wasn’t good enough for her. The women began shouting at the cashier. She was insulting the young women on her weight, saying she was to out of breath to do her job properly. After hearing this I felt myself growing very angry. The cashier ignored, rang her through and sent her on her way, but that wasn’t good enough for the woman. She continued to insult and belittle the girl, that’s when I decided to get involve. “You should be ashamed or yourself!” I told the women. This didn’t sit well with her; her insults then were geared towards me. After a few minutes of bickering the women was asked to leave by a manager.

I’m not going to say my behaviour in the situation was all that appropriate. Arguing with someone who just can’t agree that they are wrong not only wastes your time, but everyone else’s as well. The best way to deal with a problem like that is to keep your calm and explain why that person’s behaviour is not acceptable. If they give a nasty response back, you simply ignore, reassure the person who is being attacked that they are doing a lovely job, and go about your own business. Everyone deserves someone to stand up for them but learn from my mistakes and do it the right way. #rudepeople

Some people have a sensitive button, well we all have a sensitive button, but some people just like to push this button a little bit more then others. I’ve been working in costumer service for many years now and have had my fair share of disagreements and angry people. It is all about how you handle yourself and the situation, to determine how it turns out. I’m going to share with you one of my experiences facing these dilemmas and how I kept my cool.

One day I was minding my business ringing through groceries like I did every time I went to work. Up until getting my job at my local grocery store, I never realized how serious people take their grocery shopping. An older woman and her daughter approached my lane, I did my usual greeting, “Hello, how are you?” she then responded with “Fine.” After the first interaction I knew it wasn’t going to be a good one.

Everything was going smoothly. Her cart full of groceries was coming to an end, when I noticed there was still four cases of pop waiting for me to slide them over my nifty scanner.            

“Excuse me madam, would you be able to just lift those cases up onto the belt for me, or I can come around and lift them for you.” This line was the breaking point. After I asked her for the cases, my intelligence began to be insulted. Now don’t get me wrong, lifting those cases is annoying and no one wants to do it, but to the people I was working for it was not acceptable to do it any other way. The women began to threaten me. She took jabs at my age, and generations mental states. After explaining that I’m not allowed to do it any other way, and I was very sorry, but I can lift it if shed like, she told me if I can’t ring it through without them being moved, then she was getting them for free. At this point I may have looked a bit annoyed, this may have caused what’s to come. I proceeded to walk around the till, and see if my scanner would reach the pop, and then… her daughter leaped at me, and began to threaten me, and my life. This was quite unexpected, since her daughter was very quiet before that point. After this incident I backed off and got a manager to come handle the problem from then on.

Unfortunately, this type of situation was not new to me in this job. I often, along with the other ladies I worked with had several people like this a day. Now you may think this would cause me to want to quit or never get a part time job again, but it is the total opposite. These situations made me realize that these scenarios are never going to change. There are many individuals in the world like this and that’s something that’s never going to change, its how you, yourself handle it that decide how the story ends. I chose that day, and any other day to kill people with kindness. the best way to squash an uncomfortable encounter is to keep a smile on your face and wait for it to be over. #killthemwithkindness

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton