I came across a website called The Customer Service Army, a group that exists to ultimately foment the proliferation of better Customer Service. In response, I thought of a group that could be called Pirate Jenny, to encourage better management and customers.
Confessions of a Former Bookstore Employee
For those of you unacquainted with the reference, "Pirate Jenny" is a song from Brecht and Weill's Threepenny Opera, in which a young woman, working as a maid in a hotel, suffered bad pay and treatment while concealing her true identity. It could make for some very illuminating reading if you have never worked the clerk's side of the counter.
I will grant you the resolution of the song is grisly, but ask yourself if any reasonable person working under degrading conditions might gradually, even unwittingly succumb to animosity over time. Would the individuals who mistreat employees do so if they honestly believed their victims had viable recourse? The lynchpin of “Pirate Jenny” is the fact that those who abuse her do so because they assume they can do so with impunity.
For a very long time I worked at a couple of chain bookstores, most recently the first Borders Books to open in Texas. At the outset I loved my job and loved helping people. After Borders Books went public, all of that changed. They cut the staff back to a skeleton crew and summarily stripped us of everything that made us a quality business. There was simply no time to spend extra energy or attention with each customer because we were understaffed. The customers were enraged and they took the brunt of their anger out on us.
There was reason to believe that management was trying to sandbag the most experienced and efficient among us because they wanted to cut our salaries. Even the smallest oversight was magnified into a hanging offense so they could sack us. A once relatively pleasant job had become a nightmare. We were subjected to the wrath of customers who couldn't be bothered to complain to management. Management was treating us abominably despite the fact that we had once operated like a very fine efficient machine, giving 120% daily.
Article comments
1 - Mohjho
Christopher
"You to work with the customers you have, not the customers you wish you had."
Quote by the Secretary of State we wish we had, not the Secretary of State we have.(had):)
You think your under appreciated for helping people, try being a nurse...or a teacher. Much more responsibility and it smells worse.
Seriously, I found that working in the children's book section much more enjoyable than any other parts of a book store. The books make more sense, the artwork is first rate, and the customers more fun and appreciating.
You think there may be a correlation between company cost cutting and the foul mood of customers? The bookstore I worked in years ago was private and I was able to focus on individual problems at my discretion. I found it a positive experience.
2 - Christopher Soden
Dear Mohjho
I have been so alienated from retail that I can't imagine ever subjecting myself to that sort of abuse again, but yes I can see how working for a private bookstore would have it all over a chain, even a fairly erudite one such as Borders.
The difference between nursing, teaching and the sales position you mentioned is discretion and leverage. I was so utterly aghast at the shift in policy at Borders Books once we went public. Suddenly, we were frantic not to lose a single sale, no matter how obnoxious the clientele. Employees quit in frustration and no one was hired to replace them. We were understaffed, which only made the customers angrier, and the people responsible for making these changes never had to suffer from the animosity and fallout these policies caused.
At least when patients or pupils act disgracefully nurses and teachers have recourse. At a retail store most customers assume their spending dollar puts us in fealty to them. I was fortunate in the sense that when I finally worked up the moxie to leave, I didn't have to worry (too much) about rent, etc. How much courage does it take to insult someone who is struggling to make ends meet? Who simply can't afford to say, "Leave", or "Apologise", or "Don't you dare talk to me that way." And frankly, there's not enough money in the world to compensate someone for being treated like shit. I can't speak for the rest of the country, but there are FAR too many Texans who confuse arrogance with class, and there probably always will be.
Cheers,
Christopher
3 - RJ Elliott
Retail is horrible work. Hell, the entire service industry is, at least for front-line staff.
At a convenience store/gas station, the employees are literally expected to run (often alone) a mini-Walmart for seven bucks an hour. They have to work the cash register, the lotto machine, the gasoline pump reader, handle both credit card and debit card payments as well as cash transactions, stock shelves, order new product, clean both inside and outside the store (including some of the most vile restrooms on the planet), prepare food, make fresh coffee, deal with drunks and shoplifters, run the serious risk of a violent robbery, etc. - all while being treated like contemptible subhumans by most of the customers. Oh, and in the chaos of it all, Gawd forbid you forget to card a 20-year old buying a quart of Old Milwaukee, lest you wind up in jail and/or the unemployment line.
Or how about working at a hotel? Front desk staff are screamed at over rates they did not set. Or guests have their travel agent book their room, which the travel agent screws up by reserving a smoking room when the guest really wanted a non-smoking room (just as one example), but the guests yell at the front desk for their travel agent's error. Front desk staff are expected to leave the front desk abandoned while they plunge some fiber-challenged guest's shit out of his/her toilet. And if the guests are having a party and being loud, and other guests are complaining about it, the employee is expected to play police officer and "force" the drunken, rowdy guests to quiet down. Butwhen they try to do this, verbal taunts and overt threats often ensue. When the real cops are finally called, it's a no-win: The police are annoyed at having to deal with another "bullshit" call, the evicted guests have murder in their eyes as they exit the lobby, and the complaining guests demand their money back for the inconvenience. All this fun, for maybe nine bucks an hour.
Every line of work has its downsides. But working in the menial, low-paying service industry has to be the absolute worst.
4 - brianx
i am fortunate enough to work in a non-chain bookstore, and rudeness or condescention from the customer is not tolerated! our official line is: "We aren't in business to make people unhappy; if we are making you unhappy, please take your business elsewhere." God bless my boss!!
I do understand tho, having worked for a corporate photo lab (Eckerd: you're gone, i'm still here! ha-ha!) where the customer was always right even if they were insane. the only job i ever quit without notice-- in the middle of my shift.
only people who have never had a service job (and taken it seriously) consider it to be "unskilled labor".
5 - RJ Elliott
Amen!
6 - Liz
I agree. I work the front desk at a hilton chain hotel and let me just say, that I don't make nine dollars an hour.
When the guests aren't screaming at you, your managers are treating you like a slave.
If you forget one stupid little thing it's catastrophic.
I can write letters type up memos and do extra little things for my managers and guests...make baskets, put the wine they like in their room... pick out the perfect room for every guest, make coffee, check high balance reports, be a mini post office, and all while on the phone with someone making a reservation, sending a fax for a guest, and helping people with directions.
I'm a secretary, and information center for 111 rooms of people, and 4 managers.
under appreciated? I think so.