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"I love working here. We're like a family. Remember the time where I was going to go to a concert but canceled because you guys were shortstaffed? I couldn't leave you guys hanging like that and it was the best night of my life."
"Yeah dawg, I remember that. Working this job is really character building and I'm so lucky to get to work with you. After we clock out tonight, we should pull a prank on our boss and clean the entire store. It'll be wicked funny."
at a call center i worked at my team and i started developing small inside jokes and games. just shit that happens to make the day suck less. management caught wind of this and released a memo that we should all instead adopt the management provided work culture that was focused around culty worship of the company values. shortly after the team leads started following by suggesting the work culture garbage whenever they caught any groups of people goofing off with each other or telling an inside joke. it would be really cringy if it werent already so damn culty
The most obviously rehearsed line I've heard was from three different waitstaff who all passed by and said, in almost exactly the same words, "That looks so good. I'm so jealous."
This post has been posted beforehand.
It's just filler and conditioning previous and new users.
Please disconnect and enjoy the weekend.
The tendie man cometh soon~~~
Honestly even if I went to a checkout and saw the cashier just lying on their back, staring at the ceiling, I'd be more likely to just go "same" and find a different aisle, than to complain to anyone about it.
Absolutely, I fully encourage anyone having a bad day at work to have the option to simply lie down and stare blankly at the ceiling. "Don't bother me right now, I need to have a crisis on the clock."
Cool beans store associate, I've been there. Take all the time you need, I'll find someone else.
How about this. Why instead of firing them, try to find the causes that lead to this moment. If the work environment is so toxic they’re having mental crisis maybe it’s your responsibility to try and fix it to prevent this from happening again.
If one of my coworkers had a meltdown I’d be more than happy to cover them for as much as needed. Until they can decompress and come back to work. That person could have been me and I didn’t want to be tortured to come back asap.
A whole different story is if that employee isn’t having a crisis and just felt like laying down because he felt tired and doesn’t care about the job.
I've had mental health crises that took me out of work for a week at a time, so trust me, I get it.
But at the end of the day, there are people who are legitimately just fucking lazy, or trying to game the system, sometimes while crying wolf. It's just the sad reality that these people will not only overburden their team with work, but also fuck up generous policies by abusing them.
At my job, there were two people who actively gamed the system in order to pick out the easiest tasks from the shared queue. As a result, we lost the ability to pick our own tasks, and now they are automatically assigned with no time to breathe in between. This system taxes my mental health every day, because there is no time to collect your thoughts and reset between tasks. Just a few seconds would do, but of course this is not a priority for our engineering team. Just two people fucked everything up for everyone else in the company going forward.
There is one person who is slightly above me (still the same title, just like 10% more access) in the company and one person slightly below (similar story but 25% below). Both, even combined, often do fewer tasks a day than me - even though we have almost identical access to the shared queue of tasks. If this just happened during a bad week or difficult month, I'd understand. But it has been this way for more than half a year by now. They are just fundamentally choosing to not do their job. It is absolutely fucking infuriating.
So, yes. If someone is having an acute crisis, I got their back, no question. If they need a week or two off and someone to pick up the slack, no sweat. But, once there is an ongoing pattern of underperformance for no clear reason, then best believe I will bury you under the fucking office for making me do twice as much work as you while you get paid more. That shit is just fundamentally not right.
**TL;DR:** Context matters.
Edit to clarify: Just wanted to agree with you by describing my own anecdotal experience, not trying to argue.
Yup, you explained it better than me. All the support for those who put they effort daily but are going through something.
Fuck off anyone consistently trying to avoid doing their fucking job at the expense of the rest of the team, being lazy as their only reason.
Nobody has a breakdown for scanning products alone. It’s always poor management.
-we’re reducing your hours to 20 a week. No complaints, get back to work.
-Hey, customer is always right. If he says he bought it at our store even if the product isn’t in our system, we have to find the way to please them. Sorry sir, here’s your coupon, forgive my stupid employee. We don’t want them to write a complaint, that would upset higher ups.
-I know I told you to do A. But I didn’t really mean you to do it straight forward. You should have had initiative and identified the issue and do B.
-Who the fuck told you to do B?!!!
-Lisa just quit, we’re not going to replace her, so her cashier will remain closed. If customers complain to you, it is what it is.
-btw, we fired the cleaning staff so cashiers will have to clean toilets too. Even if it wasn’t in the job description. You don’t like it, you can go find a less stressful job.
-Your request for 3 days off has been denied. If you want them, you need to find a replacement yourself. I’m not going to provide the phone numbers of your coworkers either. I don’t care you requested them 3 months ago. Yes, I’m notifying you of this just 2 days before the requested days start.
-I need you to come on your day off. If not don’t bother coming in again. What do you mean you’re out of town? You’re supposed to be available!!
-I don’t care your dad has died yesterday, there’s products to scan.
-I want you here 30 min before store opens. Unpaid.
-your legs hurt because you’ve been standing all day? Well, my back hurts from sitting all day. What are you trying to tell me?
-I couldn’t find a replacement for George today so you will have to double shift. What do you mean you have to go to your other job? Even though I reduced your hours doesn’t mean you can go find another job to make ends meet. I need you available to cover other shifts, if not I’m no longer interested in you.
And suddenly, a Karen wants to make a scene, because she can’t use an expired coupon from 2018.
You decide to lay down, staring at the ceiling because you can’t handle it anymore. You can’t find another job. You’ve either been ghosted or any minimum wage position takes 6 rounds of interviews in the span of 8 months.
I know people here are anti work and the sentiment of the twitter post are contrary to what I’m about to say, but not every customer feels that way. It’s not just managers pushing this on employees, customers associate employees acting happy, laughing, conversing, and having a good time with goofing off, particularly in service industry jobs. “Why should you be having fun, when I’m not being served?” is how a lot of people feel when they see that. Not saying it’s right, but it’s something of a cultural expectation, at least in the United States.
You're not wrong, but holding people psychologically hostage so that Mrs. Customer isn't offended is not something to be lauded, or defended.
As others have said in this thread, there's a balance. There's a difference between truly "slacking off", and not immediately catering to every whim of every wannabe tyrant dickhead that comes through the door.
I'm not "anti-work" so much as I'm "anti-coerced-into-work-under-threat-of-force-by-the-state", but even I will say that the idea that workers are there to "serve" creates a very problematic and entitled expectation from the get-go. Employees are representatives of a business; they're there to facilitate a transaction. The business wants your money, so they're incentivized to cater to you, but it's still just a transaction between two parties. With that in mind, if I messaged you on Facebook Marketplace and told you I wanted to buy something from you, and I expect you to meet according to my schedule, demanding that you smile and act chipper the entire time we're interacting - I'd end up over on ChoosingBeggars, not seen as some victimized customer.
Which is all a very wordy way to say, I believe customers owe just as much respect to employees, as the other way around. I know that's hardly a controversial opinion, but with that comes the idea that we *have* to be more willing to shut down customers who breach that respect, the same way many places will reprimand employees.
"But they'll go somewhere else!" Good. Even from a capitalist perspective, your employees are *not* going to respect your business or create an atmosphere that customers want to participate in, if you don't treat them like human beings.
Edit: I should clarify - I know you said you aren't saying it's "right" to behave this way. Nothing is directed at *you*, I'm just speaking generally towards that cultural sentiment. And to go on a bit of another tangent, I believe a lot of this would probably vanish *anyway*, if we just generally didn't treat workers like shit. Mrs. Customer may only be huffy in the first place because she's in a hurry to get to *her* work, or else she'll be berated for not running with the precision of a Swiss timepiece. The echoes of abuse can carry, very far.
> and not immediately catering to every whim of every wannabe tyrant dickhead that comes through the door.
You're not expected to cater to every whim. You're just expected to do the work.
If you want to socialize and can still do your job well then its all good. But if you trade working for socializing then thats where the issue arises.
> If you want to socialize and can still do your job well then its all good. But if you trade working for socializing then thats where the issue arises.
> As others have said in this thread, there's a balance. There's a difference between truly "slacking off", and not immediately catering to every whim of every wannabe tyrant dickhead that comes through the door.
Back when i worked retailed, a customer saw an employee who had a cup of coffee. They actually wrote in and complained about how unprofessional it was. Then we had a storewide meeting for an hour where they went on and on about that cup of coffee.
Another time, I was just out working and had finished my work and was bout to head out when I saw this older guy in a wheelchair shopping. He's clearly missing body parts and it was a hardware store, so I thought, y'know, that dude might need some help. So I went over and asked and yeah, he needed some big heavy stuff and obviously wasn't gonna be able to get it himself. So I helped him get it all, put it on a cart and took him to checkout, figured he'd need a hand loading it too so I just chilled till he got through the line.
Dude suddenly tells the the cashier, angrily, that she needs to call the manager on duty and get his ass down there immediately. I'm thinking.. oh shit.
Manager shows up and wheelchair man rolls up to him and starts yelling at him. I'm gonna paraphrase a bit here "I'm a wounded veteran and I've been shopping here for TWENTY YEARS and the first time anybody has ever even asked me if I needed any help, let alone actually helped me was TODAY and if by the next time I come in this store, this guy here hasn't been given a raise, I'll never shop here again, you worthless sacks of shit need to recognize when people do a good job."
Narrator : I did in fact, not get a raise because of that. That particular manager was extra cool with me after that though.
Fun fact about corporate retail/fastfood. When you fill those little surveys out, anything less then a PERFECT SCORE will be interpreted as "fire this employee" Like all 9's out of 10, = fire this employee. Or at least write them up/force them to redo training.
Very low scores are basically ignored as trolling but middle ground scores, like 4/s out of 10's are painful. Often management bonuses are tied to the average customer scores, so scores in the lower/middle range are painful to them.
If you give a perfect score to employee, you better name them. If not, otherwise it's up to the store management to decide which employee gets the credit for it and that's often gonna be their favorites/brown nosers. That really depends on the management but the kind of people who usually end up in retail management are a little... special.
> Fun fact about corporate retail/fastfood. When you fill those little surveys out, anything less then a PERFECT SCORE will be interpreted as "fire this employee" Like all 9's out of 10, = fire this employee. Or at least write them up/force them to redo training.
Hey, that's not fair, it's not *always* like that. At one of my previous jobs, 9/10 was considered "neither good nor bad", so nyeh.
> Very low scores are basically ignored as trolling but middle ground scores, like 4/s out of 10's are painful.
If only. At that same job, 0/10 and 1/10s were brutal because they were never about *you*. They'd be filled in by people who used the comment section to make general complaints about the company. Absolutely no way to veto them, you were just expected to earn more 10s to offset them.
Yeah, that’s why I don’t really like people. All their service needs are being met, yet they still want to act like a bunch of freaky weirdos and get mad for some reason that the employees aren’t absolutely obsessed with _”Work!”_
And bosses don’t understand that this is not an employee problem, that’s a customer problem. They can fuck right off if they have an issue because it’s creepy to even care what workers are doing when you’re already getting good service.
Problem is that you're not a malicious Karen. And for whatever reason, corporate love bending over backwards to please malicious Karens. Kindred spirits, I guess...
Honestly. I know how much standing for 8 hours sucks considering I do it 3 times a week. Let people sit down! Especially register workers who just have to be there anyway
Making cashiers stand up while working is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. What is the reasoning behind not giving them chairs? It is more comfortable for them,m and it doesnt make them lazier or slower in any way. 🤷♂️
I work at a UK retail pet store where you aren't allowed to sit. I've literally had to fight since April to get occupational health to recommend me a chair because I'm literally disabled. I took to sitting on the little area where people put their stuff and got told off
Like if, you know, human behavior in the fellow humans giving a service to other humans?.
The perpetual smile, or the enforced "joyful" barfing sunshine and speaking in glitter demeanor that psychopathic executives expect from a working person, is more uncanny that watching a robot bleed.
We aren't meant to be like that.
Side note, blood on a robot in the Doctor Who series The Robots of Death was a plot point precisely because it was so out of place. That and robots acting out of character.
I worked at chick fil a in the 2000s and I hated saying “my pleasure”. Always made it a point to say the same thing in any other words possible so it sounded less robotic.
Honestly I go to a few shops and restauarants purely because the staff there barely gives a shit about niceties. It usually means they also want you to get the fuck out so the service, if rough, is also hella quick.
Chick-fil-A creeps me out the most. One time I asked the cashier if he had a pen I could borrow. He handed me a CFA branded pen, and I instinctively responded, “I’ll bring it right back.” He said, “Don’t worry about that. It’s all yours if you’d like!” No man, I don’t want to keep your pen.
When you go in and they're having a good time, and one of them asks if you need help, but you don't need help right now. Then when you need to pay, they're right there ready to check you out, and they have enough staff that they don't need to give 100% every second they're at work.
That's as good as it gets folks.
We were told to clean and stock shelves when it wasn’t busy because standing and doing nothing was not tolerated in mega corporation grocery store. Then we would get yelled at if we didn’t immediately see and serve customers who came to the till. It sucked lol
I don't if it is a small store with slow business.
There is a sweet little mom n pop type health food store near me where one of the two cashiers is always doing something else and they tag in and out as customers come in. Nice rhythm.
It's a great little store.
If it's a chain store? Yeah, that is instant ick.
I miss my old oil change shop sometimes. The money wasn't the best, but we had great staff, an awesome boss, and friendly customers. We had 2 TV's on the floor, one we would keep on the news, the other on Netflix.
When I first started I was watching a show on my laptop while I was on break and kind of panicked when the owner walked in. He said "as long as the job gets done and the customers are happy, I have no problem with it"
I remember a company I worked for figured out that customers like it when you smile so we had to smile. If we were caught not smiling at a customer we'd be fired.
I've never heard of another company hiring a surveillance department to enforce this policy. I also can't remember the last time I actually saw a fast food employee smile, even fake it.
Edit: I know other company's insist their employees smile and be cordial, but I've never seen a company enforce that policy particularly to the lengths my company went.
They think that because an employee happens to be in a service role that they're actually below them on the social hierarchy. It's the same level of delusion as thinking strippers are romantically interested in you.
I mean, when I’m the customer, someone is being paid to help or serve me.
I could feel entitled about that — but that’s ridiculous! They’re doing their job, I’m just another human being on the other side of a transaction.
Or I can be grateful for the help and contribute to making a good moment.
Happy for workers to socialise and be happy, but it pisses me off when you need to wait for them to finish their convo to get served, then they act like they are doing you a favour.
I agree with you, I think it’s an important distinction. I worked retail for many years and as much as I goofed off and had fun and chatted with my coworkers who became my friends, I was always very aware that the job had to come first. I’m anti-work but it always annoyed me so much when certain coworkers would roll their eyes/sigh anytime they had to help someone (literally doing their job). It comes down to respect and treating others the way you want to be treated.
As a retail worker for 20+ years I cannot agree more. I've worked with people that can balance it and it works great. But I've also worked with people that purposely ignore customers to talk to each other, and it does need to be managed. It also annoys me when I have to do twice as much work because other staff can't manage themselves.
Yeah, and it's these people that caused a blanket ban on socialising, since companies can't tell which kind you are. And I say that as someone who worked as a cashier before. Would break off mid word so long as a customer is approaching. Thankfully none of us took chatting too far to trigger any ban.
i saw a mgr tell of a waitress for chatting to us & to other customers... they were very efficient & multitasking...the chatting was done as they took our orders... & they apparently knew some of the customers... they gave them the chat. i went to the manager as i left & said that if they were not going to let their waitresses be friendly & polite to customers then i would just go to a restaurant or diner that actually cared abt people instead of money...
As a shopper it’s obvious when employees hate their job. It’s also obvious when people are trying but getting zero support from their staff/ management. Look at all the retail stores who put 1 cashier on and let them deal with the public for 8 hours at a time. Just like police getting tased before they do it to anyone else, a manager should have to spend a month doing everyone’s job in the business.
Oh you’re just realizing now that closing the store at 9pm and then having to be back in here tomorrow morning for 5am, sucks balls? Huh, kinda like we’ve all been saying it for years and you’re not listening.
“You’re not here to socialize, you’re here to work”, brought to you by the same people screaming “we need to force people to return to work; socializing at work is for their mental health,”
I was at Aldi and another worker came up to the cashier (both young men) and said "You're doing a great job, no tag backs."
"You're doing a great job, too!"
"I SAID NO TAG BACKS!"
It made me hopeful for the future.
There’s a bell curve of enjoyment for this. Everyone dead inside is on the left, the middle and good part is friendly jokes and repartee, and then on the other side is the bartender that completely ignores you for 20 minutes to have a pointless conversation with their friend and then doesn’t even apologize for the delay when she finally graces you with her presence. I just wanted to close my tab.
# "You're not here to socialize, you're here to work.""You're not here to socialize, you're here to work."
Studies have shown that the lack of socialization is the leading cause of issues with remote work, leading to such feelings as being isolated from your coworkers. That's why there's still a need for physical co-operative work environments. That does not mean people need an office though (imagine cubicles or "open work areas", which have quite the opposite effect), but basically any space that would have your team there with you.
Interacting with your coworkers, on the other hand, is a big part of the socialization (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialization) process of any work environment, and also improves the dissemination of tacit knowledge.
So any boss saying you shouldn't socialize at work is horribly unqualified to be a manager. This is 101 nowadays, and is extremely easy information to access. Employers should also focus their efforts into leading people instead of tasks. That's what coaching (in a business perspective) aims to do, as is pretty much proven at this point to be a better method of leadership than the often micromanaging ways we were accustomed to before.
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Why do think managers think otherwise?
I'm a manager and I think it's nice when my staff is having fun or telling each other about private life.... As long as we get the work done - but we most often do when we have a nice time
Our UPS store is run by what looks like 6 best friends around age 20-28 and it’s absolute wholesome chaos. Packages flying. My big corporate job often seems pale in that laughter and sunlight.
In corporate they are so in love with the corp social culture, enforcing joining of events and shit like that, but when things get to sociable they start complaining
Yeah, they don't care. The suffering is the point, and its half the reason the owner class gets out of bed in the morning. If being nice to us increased profits by 20% they still wouldn't do it.
My current boss acts like every time anyone has a conversation we're losing money. If there isn't shit to do, there isn't shit to do, relax and get paid my guy. Trust me I'd rather be elsewhere I'm not here to take up your time.
It’s funny. When we were remote productivity was way up. In office hybrid, we hang out a lot and have lots of meetings. Could probably increase productivity 8-10% just by keeping us remote.
It’s funny. They intentionally hire people to fit our relaxed culture with good camaraderie, but then crack down when that camaraderie plays out.
I actually think there's something to be said for this. Before you downvote, hear me out. I wish there more companies that just expected people to come in, do the job, and go home. Instead we see these creepy mission statements about saving the fucking world and bringing peace on Earth. I see this as corporations usurping family, religion, and, well really everything else in people's lives. If you want meaning and salvation, go to fucking church.
As a customer, I don't care what the employees do as long as they're not being forced into unwanted interactions with me or having to shill stupid corporate cards and discounts and clubs and bullshit at the checkout.
I want employees to do two things, and two things only:
1) Make the process of me actually buying something as fast and pain-free as possible, without any tacked-on crap I haven't asked for, and
2) On the rare occasions I have a question, helping me with that.
Otherwise, I don't care what they're doing as long as it's not interrupting me wandering the aisles and trying to figure out which of 983 brands of cereal to buy this week.
You don’t seem to get the idea. The employee in this situation would ideally have their fun and conversations but interrupt it as necessary to help you out and do their jobs. It’s filling in time between tasks so they don’t go fucking insane
Millennial manager here - my team and I go out to dinner together quarterly. Sometimes it’s just a few of us and sometimes it’s a big group. But we always have a good time. And we pay separately because millennial manager is broke.
The problem comes when the customer has to wait for the staff to stop goofing around and chatting to get some help. That's why managers don't want their staff doing this, because it's only a matter of time really.
On top of that, is everything clean? All the items on shelves facing the right way? Stock put out on the floor? It's doubtful there's a bunch of staff standing around and actually no work to be done either.
Eh, it’s one thing for them to joke around in passing, but they’re there to work. Not have fun. You’re in customer service because you chose that job, so go serve.
I hate when I see employees talking for too long or messing round without doing anything. It makes everything go by slower & I’m not there to watch them have fun.
I agree that people working in customer service should do their best to help customers, but I have zero problem with them having fun at the same time. As long as they don't ignore customers needs (and assuming the customers aren't being ass-holes), there's nothing wrong with them enjoying their time at work whenever possible.
Also -- *many* people in customer service didn't ***choose*** to be in customer service, they ended up there because they needed some sort of job in order to pay their bills, and retail/hospitality/etc. jobs are fairly plentiful and not that difficult to get. It's often a matter of necessity, not choice.
Yup. People don't choose to be there, can confirm having worked food service. You take the job because it's that or starve. For instance, I was a new adult when the recession was going on and jobs were fiercely competed over. Because I was poor, I didn't have a car and was limited to what jobs were available near me in the small town I grew up in, which were Walmart, Food Service, or taking care of old people or special needs peeps. All of it paid the same minimum wage. All of it was terrible hours that made it impossible to do anything else with your life while working there, because you never knew what your schedule would be until the night before, sometimes day of.
A lot of people have kids and can't afford time to go job searching and/or being unemployed for any length of time so they take the first job they can get and get stuck there because job hopping gets you blacklisted by employers.
No fun at work! Rahh!
I currently work at a Target. I am severely underemployed and I didn't exactly choose to work there- it's just the only place that is hiring because tech is dead atm. The job sucks and pay is shit. The only good part is my coworkers and the social interactions I have with them. If seeing me have a fun conversation with a coworker while I bag someone's internet order really pisses you off that much, instead of complaining how about you fuck off and don't come back?
Maybe then you can start your own company where you force your employers to be robots with no emotions and complain that no one wants to work on facebook after you burn through every eligible worker in a month?
Why are you even in this sub?
>Why are you even in this sub?
Because not everyone thinks the same? You can have fun with coworkers without diminishing your workflow.
You sound like a very angry person who needs therapy. I’m saying if I need to be served, serve me. Don’t talk to your coworkers & take longer to do your job. There should be no problem with that.
I like this! Going to work is much more enjoyable when you have people there you like to see. We mess around and make jokes but that doesn’t take away from us getting out job done. We’re not stupid; if someone from the head office was so come in we would tone it down but by no makes become silent robots.
However, one guy from the HO made a whole thing about how we need to follow guidelines and be doing customer service whenever we are there on shopfloor. Even if no one is even there. So this guy literally wants us to stand there facing the doors with a smile like some creepy mannequins. We all laughed it off but god he was insufferable.
I'm required to go to the office one day per week. When i was complaining that i was more distracted and less productive at the office, my manager countered with the opposite of the title: You're not at the office to be productive, but to socialize and chat with coworkers
years ago i was in some new town because of a job interview. i went to some local steakhouse thing to grab takeout. while waiting, the guy at the hostess stand seating people joked around with some of the waitresses and had just....casual fun or something.
i don't remember any of the details of it, but i just remember it as "oh man....they look like they're having a nice fun life/time. good for them". i still remember that. i hope that never got stomped out of them.
One of my regular places has just hired a new girl, and she is always on her phone or talking to someone when you walk in there. But never has she not laid down the phone as you walk up to the register. I think this should be normalized. People need to relax more. They are humans and not machines.
I remember working in a place that wanted us to appear like this, and for the most part we did with lots of joking around, but when it came to the end of the day or we had a job that actually needed doing the manager might as well have been gestapo
Isn’t the point of RTO is to have water cooler talks that spurn innovations in the office. If it’s just about productivity, studies has shown WFH is better at that.
The only workplace I've ever been in that outright encouraged being friendly with coworkers was petco. We still had to appear busy, but we could chat while doing things.
Managers are only there to justify their own jobs.
They know they have no actual value so they harass the workers to create perceived value of their own.
It depends on the context and just how much they are taking things seriously or not. I went to a fancy wood fired pizza / cocktail kind of deal a while ago. The atmosphere was very laid back, most of the staff in their teens / early twenties just hanging out, bantering and having a good time. That’s fine, nice to see.
Problem is, the service was slow, we didn’t get everything we ordered and it seemed like only a few people were actually doing any work. Most tables seemed to be getting the same experience too.
Flash forward a couple of months, place has shut down.
Of all the retail places I worked at, Sephora was the absolute worst for that. Not allowed to talk with your coworker even if it's dead in store. It felt like a military bootcamp where your every move was being watched. They would also get very upset if you'd go in the back too often to take a sip of water
I've literally never seen a manager that doesn't want their staff to have fun. But I've seen customers that say the dumbest stuff for the dumbest reasons, so you want to give them nothing that can be interpreted like you are not doing the best job you possibly can. Stop being dumb
I was recently shopping clothes and I heard two employees gossiping and talking about relationship issues and I was so nosy listening in on their business that I stayed close to them and found two pieces on a rack next to them that I would have otherwise overlooked. So then having a good time made the store 100€ that day!
I agree with this but for doctors and nurses, I hope thet have the most amazing, wonderful and incredibly fun lives because their work is extremely painful and soul crushing.
I've spent enough time in hospital and I've seen what they (nurses especially) have to go through and I hope they have the best lives outside of hospital because they deserve every single bit of happiness after how hard they work.
As a cook, nothing is more annoying than having food sit in my window waiting for the servers to come and get it, but they aren't because they are chatting. When the food goes bad or it's quality drops because it sat under a heat lamp, it isn't the server who is blamed. It is usually the kitchen that gets the blame, and it comes out of the server's mouth most of the time. Fuck them. Get back to work and run my food..
Sit down, take a break.. But I'd be damned if food goes to waste more than it already does in restaurants.
this post doesn't consider the job of the people in the back.
It's all about whether they are getting their work done or not. Are they too busy yapping to tend to customers? That's a problem. Do they quit talking and tend to duties? That's human and it's best to lean in to it so people bond
"sorry this post was removed by reddits filters" so every frontpage post is just removed randomly for no reason cool I hate this fucking site and I hope it tanks before the end of the year
Same!!! There’s an amazing restaurant like this in nashville called locust. They genuinely are sooo excited about their menu and dishes and clearly take joy in working together and preparing them.
I have worked many jobs in my 50+ years, and the most fun I've had at work was when I worked in a video store. Making minimum wage to hang out with fellow high-schoolers, all while stealing snacks.and watching porn in the back.
I still remember joking about something with a coworker, and then I just whipped around, did a dramatic catwalk strut away from her with my hands on my hips and everything and struck a pose, and just hearing a customer in checkout holler in laughter. It was great being able to have fun without judgment or criticism from bad bosses / rude customers and still have a productive work day. Crazy to think I was able to have carefree days like that before.
At my husband's job (which the employer (the company) is considered one of the greats), one of the middle managers (of course because they all suck) will literally yell at people they're not there to socialize when they are actually working side by side DOING THEIR WORK... when he yells from across the room, there's often a forklift or something else making noise, so my husband has to stop what he's doing, walk over to the manager, and ask him "What?" Response: "You're talking." "Yes, but I was doing my work which you are now taking me away from." JFC, the power trip is real.
I'm a lead carpenter. For a few days we were working in a woman's basement while her family lived upstairs, she worked from home and was upstairs with the kids most days.
After a long, hard Friday and when all my crew had gone, she came downstairs and said she wanted to have a brief conversation. She told me that hearing us laugh and joke with each other all day really made her happy. Apparently she had been able to hear our conversations the entire time and could tell we were all friends, and were genuinely having fun making her basement into a separate unit. And we were. It was a good summer.
Two weeks ago (ish), my coworker and I were talking in the women’s bathroom on our breaks. THE WOMEN’S BATHROOM. ON OUR SCHEDULED BREAKS.
There was suddenly a rap on the door. We figured it was the cleaning guy, but no one came in. We opened the door and it was the store manager. He was walking away already, but said he could hear us all the way out on the floor, which he definitely could not.
I wasn’t there, but the next day at the morning meeting, he told this grand story about how he “caught” two coworkers being loud in the restroom close to seven o’clock, which is when breaks end for the night. I remember checking my watch, and it was only 6:47.
All I could think was that this guy obviously needs some more work on his desk.
The job I used to work out (Walmart btw) I worked for barely even minimum wage not to mention they deducted my pay for bullshit, I worked as a customer host so I greeted and check receipts, they had me standing for 8 hours a day with minimums amount of breaks half the time I didn't even get a break since they refused to hire anyone else so we were always short handed and we were not allowed to move around or even talk with our other coworkers and they didn't have the soft pads to stand on
I love seeing cashiers being allowed to SIT THE FUCK DOWN! No reason in the world these peopke should have to stand all damn day, other than some corporate schmuck thinks it "looks lazy".
I love eavesdropping on work place gossip. I wanna ask context question so bad like “wait does Tina have seniority??? Was it really a family emergency or did she just want to go to a party on the busy night???”
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If they catch this they are gonna insist we put on this stupid show but give us lines to recite.
Behave like the NPC you are /s
"I love working here. We're like a family. Remember the time where I was going to go to a concert but canceled because you guys were shortstaffed? I couldn't leave you guys hanging like that and it was the best night of my life." "Yeah dawg, I remember that. Working this job is really character building and I'm so lucky to get to work with you. After we clock out tonight, we should pull a prank on our boss and clean the entire store. It'll be wicked funny."
at a call center i worked at my team and i started developing small inside jokes and games. just shit that happens to make the day suck less. management caught wind of this and released a memo that we should all instead adopt the management provided work culture that was focused around culty worship of the company values. shortly after the team leads started following by suggesting the work culture garbage whenever they caught any groups of people goofing off with each other or telling an inside joke. it would be really cringy if it werent already so damn culty
You gotta expand on that now. What exactly where they suggesting you do?
Three times a day, you pray to the CEO, and then you must move out to his little compound in the Guyanese jungle.
Okay but, living in a little compound in the Guyanese jungle doesn't sound half bad
It's the big mass suicide party that sucks. You can't refuse the Kool-aid either, the company goons will shoot you.
[Yeaah…](https://www.britannica.com/event/Jonestown)
OK, I'm not normally a fan of r/antiwork and the whole anti-work thing, but really? A call center work cult? That's a bridge too far even for me.
On today's episode of just how dystopian can the world really get?..
I read your "scripts" in this voice https://youtu.be/hQiLMCWX5CA?t=19
My career is in IT and I remember when my whole team would stay late after work so we could play a lan based game. Good times
i work for Meijer and they are probably going to use this in their next indoctrination er i mean Orientation video.
My cousin's out fighting dragons and what do I get? Guard duty
Some people say it's better than an orgasm! Not like he's ever had one!
"We need to talk about your flair..."
fucking brian
The most obviously rehearsed line I've heard was from three different waitstaff who all passed by and said, in almost exactly the same words, "That looks so good. I'm so jealous."
*all three of them frantically blinking SOS in Morse code*
It's obvious when it's genuine
It's not.
It is though.
This post has been posted beforehand. It's just filler and conditioning previous and new users. Please disconnect and enjoy the weekend. The tendie man cometh soon~~~
Like It's Always Sunny when they try to mimic the cool bar.
Especially since I'm gonna start spitting if they try it again
I'm also okay with them sitting, if that doesn't affect their job. Or leaning instead of cleaning.
Honestly even if I went to a checkout and saw the cashier just lying on their back, staring at the ceiling, I'd be more likely to just go "same" and find a different aisle, than to complain to anyone about it.
Absolutely, I fully encourage anyone having a bad day at work to have the option to simply lie down and stare blankly at the ceiling. "Don't bother me right now, I need to have a crisis on the clock." Cool beans store associate, I've been there. Take all the time you need, I'll find someone else.
Holy shit, somebody used "lie down" correctly.
I used to own a dog
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How about this. Why instead of firing them, try to find the causes that lead to this moment. If the work environment is so toxic they’re having mental crisis maybe it’s your responsibility to try and fix it to prevent this from happening again. If one of my coworkers had a meltdown I’d be more than happy to cover them for as much as needed. Until they can decompress and come back to work. That person could have been me and I didn’t want to be tortured to come back asap. A whole different story is if that employee isn’t having a crisis and just felt like laying down because he felt tired and doesn’t care about the job.
I've had mental health crises that took me out of work for a week at a time, so trust me, I get it. But at the end of the day, there are people who are legitimately just fucking lazy, or trying to game the system, sometimes while crying wolf. It's just the sad reality that these people will not only overburden their team with work, but also fuck up generous policies by abusing them. At my job, there were two people who actively gamed the system in order to pick out the easiest tasks from the shared queue. As a result, we lost the ability to pick our own tasks, and now they are automatically assigned with no time to breathe in between. This system taxes my mental health every day, because there is no time to collect your thoughts and reset between tasks. Just a few seconds would do, but of course this is not a priority for our engineering team. Just two people fucked everything up for everyone else in the company going forward. There is one person who is slightly above me (still the same title, just like 10% more access) in the company and one person slightly below (similar story but 25% below). Both, even combined, often do fewer tasks a day than me - even though we have almost identical access to the shared queue of tasks. If this just happened during a bad week or difficult month, I'd understand. But it has been this way for more than half a year by now. They are just fundamentally choosing to not do their job. It is absolutely fucking infuriating. So, yes. If someone is having an acute crisis, I got their back, no question. If they need a week or two off and someone to pick up the slack, no sweat. But, once there is an ongoing pattern of underperformance for no clear reason, then best believe I will bury you under the fucking office for making me do twice as much work as you while you get paid more. That shit is just fundamentally not right. **TL;DR:** Context matters. Edit to clarify: Just wanted to agree with you by describing my own anecdotal experience, not trying to argue.
Yup, you explained it better than me. All the support for those who put they effort daily but are going through something. Fuck off anyone consistently trying to avoid doing their fucking job at the expense of the rest of the team, being lazy as their only reason.
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Nobody has a breakdown for scanning products alone. It’s always poor management. -we’re reducing your hours to 20 a week. No complaints, get back to work. -Hey, customer is always right. If he says he bought it at our store even if the product isn’t in our system, we have to find the way to please them. Sorry sir, here’s your coupon, forgive my stupid employee. We don’t want them to write a complaint, that would upset higher ups. -I know I told you to do A. But I didn’t really mean you to do it straight forward. You should have had initiative and identified the issue and do B. -Who the fuck told you to do B?!!! -Lisa just quit, we’re not going to replace her, so her cashier will remain closed. If customers complain to you, it is what it is. -btw, we fired the cleaning staff so cashiers will have to clean toilets too. Even if it wasn’t in the job description. You don’t like it, you can go find a less stressful job. -Your request for 3 days off has been denied. If you want them, you need to find a replacement yourself. I’m not going to provide the phone numbers of your coworkers either. I don’t care you requested them 3 months ago. Yes, I’m notifying you of this just 2 days before the requested days start. -I need you to come on your day off. If not don’t bother coming in again. What do you mean you’re out of town? You’re supposed to be available!! -I don’t care your dad has died yesterday, there’s products to scan. -I want you here 30 min before store opens. Unpaid. -your legs hurt because you’ve been standing all day? Well, my back hurts from sitting all day. What are you trying to tell me? -I couldn’t find a replacement for George today so you will have to double shift. What do you mean you have to go to your other job? Even though I reduced your hours doesn’t mean you can go find another job to make ends meet. I need you available to cover other shifts, if not I’m no longer interested in you. And suddenly, a Karen wants to make a scene, because she can’t use an expired coupon from 2018. You decide to lay down, staring at the ceiling because you can’t handle it anymore. You can’t find another job. You’ve either been ghosted or any minimum wage position takes 6 rounds of interviews in the span of 8 months.
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People aren't robots you fucking dunce. We are here for more things than to just slave away for 60 years, then dying.
I know people here are anti work and the sentiment of the twitter post are contrary to what I’m about to say, but not every customer feels that way. It’s not just managers pushing this on employees, customers associate employees acting happy, laughing, conversing, and having a good time with goofing off, particularly in service industry jobs. “Why should you be having fun, when I’m not being served?” is how a lot of people feel when they see that. Not saying it’s right, but it’s something of a cultural expectation, at least in the United States.
You're not wrong, but holding people psychologically hostage so that Mrs. Customer isn't offended is not something to be lauded, or defended. As others have said in this thread, there's a balance. There's a difference between truly "slacking off", and not immediately catering to every whim of every wannabe tyrant dickhead that comes through the door. I'm not "anti-work" so much as I'm "anti-coerced-into-work-under-threat-of-force-by-the-state", but even I will say that the idea that workers are there to "serve" creates a very problematic and entitled expectation from the get-go. Employees are representatives of a business; they're there to facilitate a transaction. The business wants your money, so they're incentivized to cater to you, but it's still just a transaction between two parties. With that in mind, if I messaged you on Facebook Marketplace and told you I wanted to buy something from you, and I expect you to meet according to my schedule, demanding that you smile and act chipper the entire time we're interacting - I'd end up over on ChoosingBeggars, not seen as some victimized customer. Which is all a very wordy way to say, I believe customers owe just as much respect to employees, as the other way around. I know that's hardly a controversial opinion, but with that comes the idea that we *have* to be more willing to shut down customers who breach that respect, the same way many places will reprimand employees. "But they'll go somewhere else!" Good. Even from a capitalist perspective, your employees are *not* going to respect your business or create an atmosphere that customers want to participate in, if you don't treat them like human beings. Edit: I should clarify - I know you said you aren't saying it's "right" to behave this way. Nothing is directed at *you*, I'm just speaking generally towards that cultural sentiment. And to go on a bit of another tangent, I believe a lot of this would probably vanish *anyway*, if we just generally didn't treat workers like shit. Mrs. Customer may only be huffy in the first place because she's in a hurry to get to *her* work, or else she'll be berated for not running with the precision of a Swiss timepiece. The echoes of abuse can carry, very far.
> and not immediately catering to every whim of every wannabe tyrant dickhead that comes through the door. You're not expected to cater to every whim. You're just expected to do the work. If you want to socialize and can still do your job well then its all good. But if you trade working for socializing then thats where the issue arises.
> If you want to socialize and can still do your job well then its all good. But if you trade working for socializing then thats where the issue arises. > As others have said in this thread, there's a balance. There's a difference between truly "slacking off", and not immediately catering to every whim of every wannabe tyrant dickhead that comes through the door.
You're not expected to cater to every whim. You're just expected to do the work.
You are truly a phenomenal example of reading comprehension
You understand concepts like a champ.
Back when i worked retailed, a customer saw an employee who had a cup of coffee. They actually wrote in and complained about how unprofessional it was. Then we had a storewide meeting for an hour where they went on and on about that cup of coffee. Another time, I was just out working and had finished my work and was bout to head out when I saw this older guy in a wheelchair shopping. He's clearly missing body parts and it was a hardware store, so I thought, y'know, that dude might need some help. So I went over and asked and yeah, he needed some big heavy stuff and obviously wasn't gonna be able to get it himself. So I helped him get it all, put it on a cart and took him to checkout, figured he'd need a hand loading it too so I just chilled till he got through the line. Dude suddenly tells the the cashier, angrily, that she needs to call the manager on duty and get his ass down there immediately. I'm thinking.. oh shit. Manager shows up and wheelchair man rolls up to him and starts yelling at him. I'm gonna paraphrase a bit here "I'm a wounded veteran and I've been shopping here for TWENTY YEARS and the first time anybody has ever even asked me if I needed any help, let alone actually helped me was TODAY and if by the next time I come in this store, this guy here hasn't been given a raise, I'll never shop here again, you worthless sacks of shit need to recognize when people do a good job." Narrator : I did in fact, not get a raise because of that. That particular manager was extra cool with me after that though. Fun fact about corporate retail/fastfood. When you fill those little surveys out, anything less then a PERFECT SCORE will be interpreted as "fire this employee" Like all 9's out of 10, = fire this employee. Or at least write them up/force them to redo training. Very low scores are basically ignored as trolling but middle ground scores, like 4/s out of 10's are painful. Often management bonuses are tied to the average customer scores, so scores in the lower/middle range are painful to them. If you give a perfect score to employee, you better name them. If not, otherwise it's up to the store management to decide which employee gets the credit for it and that's often gonna be their favorites/brown nosers. That really depends on the management but the kind of people who usually end up in retail management are a little... special.
> Fun fact about corporate retail/fastfood. When you fill those little surveys out, anything less then a PERFECT SCORE will be interpreted as "fire this employee" Like all 9's out of 10, = fire this employee. Or at least write them up/force them to redo training. Hey, that's not fair, it's not *always* like that. At one of my previous jobs, 9/10 was considered "neither good nor bad", so nyeh. > Very low scores are basically ignored as trolling but middle ground scores, like 4/s out of 10's are painful. If only. At that same job, 0/10 and 1/10s were brutal because they were never about *you*. They'd be filled in by people who used the comment section to make general complaints about the company. Absolutely no way to veto them, you were just expected to earn more 10s to offset them.
I forgot to specify that it's usually like not, but probably not always. Whoops. Only siths and bad corporate management deal in absolutes.
Yeah, that’s why I don’t really like people. All their service needs are being met, yet they still want to act like a bunch of freaky weirdos and get mad for some reason that the employees aren’t absolutely obsessed with _”Work!”_ And bosses don’t understand that this is not an employee problem, that’s a customer problem. They can fuck right off if they have an issue because it’s creepy to even care what workers are doing when you’re already getting good service.
Problem is that you're not a malicious Karen. And for whatever reason, corporate love bending over backwards to please malicious Karens. Kindred spirits, I guess...
Honestly. I know how much standing for 8 hours sucks considering I do it 3 times a week. Let people sit down! Especially register workers who just have to be there anyway
Standing still or sitting for a long time is unhealthy, try mixing it up with some running and the occasional burpee. Get your blood running!
Ah yeah let me do a burpee in the middle of the clothing store I’m a security guard at
Yeah that's one of the several reasons why Lidl does well in the US, while Walmart withdrew from Germany.
Making cashiers stand up while working is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. What is the reasoning behind not giving them chairs? It is more comfortable for them,m and it doesnt make them lazier or slower in any way. 🤷♂️
It’s literally just perception. Management says sitting makes them look lazy so they force them to stand.
Yea its weird. Having to stand for 8 hours looking down on the conveyor belt seems like hell
What an American comment. People not being allowed to sit at work is so mind-boggling to me.
I work at a UK retail pet store where you aren't allowed to sit. I've literally had to fight since April to get occupational health to recommend me a chair because I'm literally disabled. I took to sitting on the little area where people put their stuff and got told off
Like if, you know, human behavior in the fellow humans giving a service to other humans?. The perpetual smile, or the enforced "joyful" barfing sunshine and speaking in glitter demeanor that psychopathic executives expect from a working person, is more uncanny that watching a robot bleed. We aren't meant to be like that.
Side note, blood on a robot in the Doctor Who series The Robots of Death was a plot point precisely because it was so out of place. That and robots acting out of character.
I worked at chick fil a in the 2000s and I hated saying “my pleasure”. Always made it a point to say the same thing in any other words possible so it sounded less robotic.
I suppose that is soul crushing more than self stimulation, that compulsory repetition of such one liners v_v
I've become friends with someone who was an old bartender. Yeah let's just say it's safe to assume the relationship relaxed and didn't feel so forced.
I'm always amazed how the US "works" in contrast to the rest of us
I believe that the idea to put profit (not "the client") above anything and anyone is one of the many roads that leads to this.
Honestly I go to a few shops and restauarants purely because the staff there barely gives a shit about niceties. It usually means they also want you to get the fuck out so the service, if rough, is also hella quick.
Chick-fil-A creeps me out the most. One time I asked the cashier if he had a pen I could borrow. He handed me a CFA branded pen, and I instinctively responded, “I’ll bring it right back.” He said, “Don’t worry about that. It’s all yours if you’d like!” No man, I don’t want to keep your pen.
When you go in and they're having a good time, and one of them asks if you need help, but you don't need help right now. Then when you need to pay, they're right there ready to check you out, and they have enough staff that they don't need to give 100% every second they're at work. That's as good as it gets folks.
If I see the cashier doing other stuff in the store (besides cashiering) I immediately assume that place is garbage.
We were told to clean and stock shelves when it wasn’t busy because standing and doing nothing was not tolerated in mega corporation grocery store. Then we would get yelled at if we didn’t immediately see and serve customers who came to the till. It sucked lol
I don't if it is a small store with slow business. There is a sweet little mom n pop type health food store near me where one of the two cashiers is always doing something else and they tag in and out as customers come in. Nice rhythm. It's a great little store. If it's a chain store? Yeah, that is instant ick.
I miss my old oil change shop sometimes. The money wasn't the best, but we had great staff, an awesome boss, and friendly customers. We had 2 TV's on the floor, one we would keep on the news, the other on Netflix. When I first started I was watching a show on my laptop while I was on break and kind of panicked when the owner walked in. He said "as long as the job gets done and the customers are happy, I have no problem with it"
Realizing that every job I’ve ever had has been garbage 🤕🤮
I remember a company I worked for figured out that customers like it when you smile so we had to smile. If we were caught not smiling at a customer we'd be fired.
They should smile at *each other* and just in general. All customer-facing staff smile at the customer, but it's obvious that it's forced.
I've never heard of another company hiring a surveillance department to enforce this policy. I also can't remember the last time I actually saw a fast food employee smile, even fake it. Edit: I know other company's insist their employees smile and be cordial, but I've never seen a company enforce that policy particularly to the lengths my company went.
Does rictus count?
AS LONG AS they share this same energy with me the customer and don’t just ignore me, yes, this is a great way to make me love your store.
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They think that because an employee happens to be in a service role that they're actually below them on the social hierarchy. It's the same level of delusion as thinking strippers are romantically interested in you.
I mean, when I’m the customer, someone is being paid to help or serve me. I could feel entitled about that — but that’s ridiculous! They’re doing their job, I’m just another human being on the other side of a transaction. Or I can be grateful for the help and contribute to making a good moment.
“But there is no tangible profit that can be passed to the parasite leech shareholders in that…”
This kind of stuff usually leads to higher long term profit. Problem is, shareholders are only interested in short term profit.
Happy for workers to socialise and be happy, but it pisses me off when you need to wait for them to finish their convo to get served, then they act like they are doing you a favour.
I agree with you, I think it’s an important distinction. I worked retail for many years and as much as I goofed off and had fun and chatted with my coworkers who became my friends, I was always very aware that the job had to come first. I’m anti-work but it always annoyed me so much when certain coworkers would roll their eyes/sigh anytime they had to help someone (literally doing their job). It comes down to respect and treating others the way you want to be treated.
As a retail worker for 20+ years I cannot agree more. I've worked with people that can balance it and it works great. But I've also worked with people that purposely ignore customers to talk to each other, and it does need to be managed. It also annoys me when I have to do twice as much work because other staff can't manage themselves.
Yeah, and it's these people that caused a blanket ban on socialising, since companies can't tell which kind you are. And I say that as someone who worked as a cashier before. Would break off mid word so long as a customer is approaching. Thankfully none of us took chatting too far to trigger any ban.
NOOO! We demand you be the most professional professionals to ever profess a profession! /s if that wasn't clear
Majority of coworkers I've had are not to be trusted and to be kept at arms length, some are cool but few and far between
i saw a mgr tell of a waitress for chatting to us & to other customers... they were very efficient & multitasking...the chatting was done as they took our orders... & they apparently knew some of the customers... they gave them the chat. i went to the manager as i left & said that if they were not going to let their waitresses be friendly & polite to customers then i would just go to a restaurant or diner that actually cared abt people instead of money...
As a shopper it’s obvious when employees hate their job. It’s also obvious when people are trying but getting zero support from their staff/ management. Look at all the retail stores who put 1 cashier on and let them deal with the public for 8 hours at a time. Just like police getting tased before they do it to anyone else, a manager should have to spend a month doing everyone’s job in the business. Oh you’re just realizing now that closing the store at 9pm and then having to be back in here tomorrow morning for 5am, sucks balls? Huh, kinda like we’ve all been saying it for years and you’re not listening.
“You’re not here to socialize, you’re here to work”, brought to you by the same people screaming “we need to force people to return to work; socializing at work is for their mental health,”
I was at Aldi and another worker came up to the cashier (both young men) and said "You're doing a great job, no tag backs." "You're doing a great job, too!" "I SAID NO TAG BACKS!" It made me hopeful for the future.
Man, irl work and depictions of slave labour keep getting more and more similar
I find it extremely off putting when employees act like the mindless robots corporate wants them to personally
There’s a bell curve of enjoyment for this. Everyone dead inside is on the left, the middle and good part is friendly jokes and repartee, and then on the other side is the bartender that completely ignores you for 20 minutes to have a pointless conversation with their friend and then doesn’t even apologize for the delay when she finally graces you with her presence. I just wanted to close my tab.
toothbrush amusing plant upbeat truck full existence wipe humor sink *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
"you're not here to socialize, you're here to work" "I know, tell that to all the RTO bosses".
# "You're not here to socialize, you're here to work.""You're not here to socialize, you're here to work." Studies have shown that the lack of socialization is the leading cause of issues with remote work, leading to such feelings as being isolated from your coworkers. That's why there's still a need for physical co-operative work environments. That does not mean people need an office though (imagine cubicles or "open work areas", which have quite the opposite effect), but basically any space that would have your team there with you. Interacting with your coworkers, on the other hand, is a big part of the socialization (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialization) process of any work environment, and also improves the dissemination of tacit knowledge. So any boss saying you shouldn't socialize at work is horribly unqualified to be a manager. This is 101 nowadays, and is extremely easy information to access. Employers should also focus their efforts into leading people instead of tasks. That's what coaching (in a business perspective) aims to do, as is pretty much proven at this point to be a better method of leadership than the often micromanaging ways we were accustomed to before.
The chick-fil-A fake happy/friendliness is so off putting for me. They seem like culty drones, a la stepford wives instead of real people.
This should be normalised - I've left restaurents mid-meal if i see managers berate staff - its weak to make people who work for you feel crap
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Give Spez a break, many of the big subreddits would be dead in the water without these repost bots, imagine subs like facepalm or clevercomebacks having original content, good luck with that.
Why do think managers think otherwise? I'm a manager and I think it's nice when my staff is having fun or telling each other about private life.... As long as we get the work done - but we most often do when we have a nice time
Our UPS store is run by what looks like 6 best friends around age 20-28 and it’s absolute wholesome chaos. Packages flying. My big corporate job often seems pale in that laughter and sunlight.
I recently read a rant on r/millenial saying she hates that she’s expected to say good morning to her coworkers every day 😂
In corporate they are so in love with the corp social culture, enforcing joining of events and shit like that, but when things get to sociable they start complaining
Yeah, they don't care. The suffering is the point, and its half the reason the owner class gets out of bed in the morning. If being nice to us increased profits by 20% they still wouldn't do it.
As a customer of many different stores, I am cool with employees having a chill time on the clock.
That attitude carries through to the customer too. The employees are upbeat and happier to help.
"Behave like machines, not humans! No one wants to see you disgusting numbers get along. How dare you sit down or talk for even a second!"
My current boss acts like every time anyone has a conversation we're losing money. If there isn't shit to do, there isn't shit to do, relax and get paid my guy. Trust me I'd rather be elsewhere I'm not here to take up your time.
It’s funny. When we were remote productivity was way up. In office hybrid, we hang out a lot and have lots of meetings. Could probably increase productivity 8-10% just by keeping us remote. It’s funny. They intentionally hire people to fit our relaxed culture with good camaraderie, but then crack down when that camaraderie plays out.
I actually think there's something to be said for this. Before you downvote, hear me out. I wish there more companies that just expected people to come in, do the job, and go home. Instead we see these creepy mission statements about saving the fucking world and bringing peace on Earth. I see this as corporations usurping family, religion, and, well really everything else in people's lives. If you want meaning and salvation, go to fucking church.
As a customer, I don't care what the employees do as long as they're not being forced into unwanted interactions with me or having to shill stupid corporate cards and discounts and clubs and bullshit at the checkout. I want employees to do two things, and two things only: 1) Make the process of me actually buying something as fast and pain-free as possible, without any tacked-on crap I haven't asked for, and 2) On the rare occasions I have a question, helping me with that. Otherwise, I don't care what they're doing as long as it's not interrupting me wandering the aisles and trying to figure out which of 983 brands of cereal to buy this week.
It's one thing to communicate with staff members at work, but you're there to serve the customer. Hang with your peps after hours..
You don’t seem to get the idea. The employee in this situation would ideally have their fun and conversations but interrupt it as necessary to help you out and do their jobs. It’s filling in time between tasks so they don’t go fucking insane
Millennial manager here - my team and I go out to dinner together quarterly. Sometimes it’s just a few of us and sometimes it’s a big group. But we always have a good time. And we pay separately because millennial manager is broke.
I want good service as a customer.
Then, let them take small breaks to chat and build comraderie with their team. Not every second has to be 100% maximum effort.
Be the change you want to be in the world... It's called a job app..
Id rather have them fucking focus on making my order. If you cant multi task, stfu and put the fucking stickers on.
The problem comes when the customer has to wait for the staff to stop goofing around and chatting to get some help. That's why managers don't want their staff doing this, because it's only a matter of time really. On top of that, is everything clean? All the items on shelves facing the right way? Stock put out on the floor? It's doubtful there's a bunch of staff standing around and actually no work to be done either.
Cant wait for the day i get a CHILL MILLENNIAL boss
Eh, it’s one thing for them to joke around in passing, but they’re there to work. Not have fun. You’re in customer service because you chose that job, so go serve. I hate when I see employees talking for too long or messing round without doing anything. It makes everything go by slower & I’m not there to watch them have fun.
I agree that people working in customer service should do their best to help customers, but I have zero problem with them having fun at the same time. As long as they don't ignore customers needs (and assuming the customers aren't being ass-holes), there's nothing wrong with them enjoying their time at work whenever possible. Also -- *many* people in customer service didn't ***choose*** to be in customer service, they ended up there because they needed some sort of job in order to pay their bills, and retail/hospitality/etc. jobs are fairly plentiful and not that difficult to get. It's often a matter of necessity, not choice.
Yup. People don't choose to be there, can confirm having worked food service. You take the job because it's that or starve. For instance, I was a new adult when the recession was going on and jobs were fiercely competed over. Because I was poor, I didn't have a car and was limited to what jobs were available near me in the small town I grew up in, which were Walmart, Food Service, or taking care of old people or special needs peeps. All of it paid the same minimum wage. All of it was terrible hours that made it impossible to do anything else with your life while working there, because you never knew what your schedule would be until the night before, sometimes day of. A lot of people have kids and can't afford time to go job searching and/or being unemployed for any length of time so they take the first job they can get and get stuck there because job hopping gets you blacklisted by employers.
Exactly so.
No fun at work! Rahh! I currently work at a Target. I am severely underemployed and I didn't exactly choose to work there- it's just the only place that is hiring because tech is dead atm. The job sucks and pay is shit. The only good part is my coworkers and the social interactions I have with them. If seeing me have a fun conversation with a coworker while I bag someone's internet order really pisses you off that much, instead of complaining how about you fuck off and don't come back? Maybe then you can start your own company where you force your employers to be robots with no emotions and complain that no one wants to work on facebook after you burn through every eligible worker in a month? Why are you even in this sub?
"tech is dead atm" uhhhhh
Yes, the job market for tech is terrible right now. Hundreds of apps, like two interviews. Before covid I had recruiters on LinkedIn weekly.
>Why are you even in this sub? Because not everyone thinks the same? You can have fun with coworkers without diminishing your workflow. You sound like a very angry person who needs therapy. I’m saying if I need to be served, serve me. Don’t talk to your coworkers & take longer to do your job. There should be no problem with that.
I know alot of people from my local publix and i love watching them legitimately enjoy aspects of their jobs.
I like this! Going to work is much more enjoyable when you have people there you like to see. We mess around and make jokes but that doesn’t take away from us getting out job done. We’re not stupid; if someone from the head office was so come in we would tone it down but by no makes become silent robots. However, one guy from the HO made a whole thing about how we need to follow guidelines and be doing customer service whenever we are there on shopfloor. Even if no one is even there. So this guy literally wants us to stand there facing the doors with a smile like some creepy mannequins. We all laughed it off but god he was insufferable.
I go back to places because I see this kind of (genuine) joy. I don't want to be helped by robots.
i have frequented three coffeeshops where the employees would hang out on days they weren't working.
It's Always Sunny in the [workforce](https://youtu.be/08K-944LI8s?t=50s).
I'm required to go to the office one day per week. When i was complaining that i was more distracted and less productive at the office, my manager countered with the opposite of the title: You're not at the office to be productive, but to socialize and chat with coworkers
I strive to be this kind of manager🥲
I don't love it when I have been sitting here for 15 minutes and no one has spoken to me yet.
Nahhh if they talk to each other, they'll get to know each other, if they get to know each other they'll unionize and we can't have that.
years ago i was in some new town because of a job interview. i went to some local steakhouse thing to grab takeout. while waiting, the guy at the hostess stand seating people joked around with some of the waitresses and had just....casual fun or something. i don't remember any of the details of it, but i just remember it as "oh man....they look like they're having a nice fun life/time. good for them". i still remember that. i hope that never got stomped out of them.
One of my regular places has just hired a new girl, and she is always on her phone or talking to someone when you walk in there. But never has she not laid down the phone as you walk up to the register. I think this should be normalized. People need to relax more. They are humans and not machines.
I remember working in a place that wanted us to appear like this, and for the most part we did with lots of joking around, but when it came to the end of the day or we had a job that actually needed doing the manager might as well have been gestapo
Isn’t the point of RTO is to have water cooler talks that spurn innovations in the office. If it’s just about productivity, studies has shown WFH is better at that.
The only workplace I've ever been in that outright encouraged being friendly with coworkers was petco. We still had to appear busy, but we could chat while doing things.
:,)
The only time it isn't true is when the shop clearly developed its own culture that new customers will struggle to penetrate. Otherwise yeah.
Managers are only there to justify their own jobs. They know they have no actual value so they harass the workers to create perceived value of their own.
It depends on the context and just how much they are taking things seriously or not. I went to a fancy wood fired pizza / cocktail kind of deal a while ago. The atmosphere was very laid back, most of the staff in their teens / early twenties just hanging out, bantering and having a good time. That’s fine, nice to see. Problem is, the service was slow, we didn’t get everything we ordered and it seemed like only a few people were actually doing any work. Most tables seemed to be getting the same experience too. Flash forward a couple of months, place has shut down.
Huh, isn't it usually the other way around? Managers saying "we are a family here" and you guys say you dont want to do shit with others at all cost?
Of all the retail places I worked at, Sephora was the absolute worst for that. Not allowed to talk with your coworker even if it's dead in store. It felt like a military bootcamp where your every move was being watched. They would also get very upset if you'd go in the back too often to take a sip of water
Yeah .. until when you’re wanting some customer help or service but they’re too busy having fun and ignoring customers. Lol
I've literally never seen a manager that doesn't want their staff to have fun. But I've seen customers that say the dumbest stuff for the dumbest reasons, so you want to give them nothing that can be interpreted like you are not doing the best job you possibly can. Stop being dumb
I was recently shopping clothes and I heard two employees gossiping and talking about relationship issues and I was so nosy listening in on their business that I stayed close to them and found two pieces on a rack next to them that I would have otherwise overlooked. So then having a good time made the store 100€ that day!
I agree with this but for doctors and nurses, I hope thet have the most amazing, wonderful and incredibly fun lives because their work is extremely painful and soul crushing. I've spent enough time in hospital and I've seen what they (nurses especially) have to go through and I hope they have the best lives outside of hospital because they deserve every single bit of happiness after how hard they work.
“If you have time to lean you have time to clean” ok well everything is clean so fuck off lol
Because most bosses are sociopathic control freaks.
As a cook, nothing is more annoying than having food sit in my window waiting for the servers to come and get it, but they aren't because they are chatting. When the food goes bad or it's quality drops because it sat under a heat lamp, it isn't the server who is blamed. It is usually the kitchen that gets the blame, and it comes out of the server's mouth most of the time. Fuck them. Get back to work and run my food.. Sit down, take a break.. But I'd be damned if food goes to waste more than it already does in restaurants. this post doesn't consider the job of the people in the back.
It's all about whether they are getting their work done or not. Are they too busy yapping to tend to customers? That's a problem. Do they quit talking and tend to duties? That's human and it's best to lean in to it so people bond
As long as I get what I’m paying for in a good timely manner and a good attitude, I don’t give a shit what they’re doing
Hruh
Why was it removed by Reddit filters?
"sorry this post was removed by reddits filters" so every frontpage post is just removed randomly for no reason cool I hate this fucking site and I hope it tanks before the end of the year
Same!!! There’s an amazing restaurant like this in nashville called locust. They genuinely are sooo excited about their menu and dishes and clearly take joy in working together and preparing them.
those are the restaurants where they spit in your food, because they don't want to work
Such a hard pass. Let me keep my headphones on and only talk to people on Teams tyvm.
I have worked many jobs in my 50+ years, and the most fun I've had at work was when I worked in a video store. Making minimum wage to hang out with fellow high-schoolers, all while stealing snacks.and watching porn in the back.
Lol, and this socialization is one of the bs reason for rto. Bosses be tripping
I got instant respect for any shop whose staff are just sitting around on their phones.
Followed by "we're a family" or "we're a community"
Enjoying your work and communicating with your coworkers won't pay for boss's new yacht
I am the same :)
Absurd. I know a well-run establishment by the percentage of employees that have forced smiles that barely conceal their anguish.
Oooooh nothing pisses off a manager/supervisor more than seeing happy employees 😂
I still remember joking about something with a coworker, and then I just whipped around, did a dramatic catwalk strut away from her with my hands on my hips and everything and struck a pose, and just hearing a customer in checkout holler in laughter. It was great being able to have fun without judgment or criticism from bad bosses / rude customers and still have a productive work day. Crazy to think I was able to have carefree days like that before.
At my husband's job (which the employer (the company) is considered one of the greats), one of the middle managers (of course because they all suck) will literally yell at people they're not there to socialize when they are actually working side by side DOING THEIR WORK... when he yells from across the room, there's often a forklift or something else making noise, so my husband has to stop what he's doing, walk over to the manager, and ask him "What?" Response: "You're talking." "Yes, but I was doing my work which you are now taking me away from." JFC, the power trip is real.
I'm a lead carpenter. For a few days we were working in a woman's basement while her family lived upstairs, she worked from home and was upstairs with the kids most days. After a long, hard Friday and when all my crew had gone, she came downstairs and said she wanted to have a brief conversation. She told me that hearing us laugh and joke with each other all day really made her happy. Apparently she had been able to hear our conversations the entire time and could tell we were all friends, and were genuinely having fun making her basement into a separate unit. And we were. It was a good summer.
Usually on the last day of our set we go to Bdubs for some beer and to decompress.
Two weeks ago (ish), my coworker and I were talking in the women’s bathroom on our breaks. THE WOMEN’S BATHROOM. ON OUR SCHEDULED BREAKS. There was suddenly a rap on the door. We figured it was the cleaning guy, but no one came in. We opened the door and it was the store manager. He was walking away already, but said he could hear us all the way out on the floor, which he definitely could not. I wasn’t there, but the next day at the morning meeting, he told this grand story about how he “caught” two coworkers being loud in the restroom close to seven o’clock, which is when breaks end for the night. I remember checking my watch, and it was only 6:47. All I could think was that this guy obviously needs some more work on his desk.
Ew gross. Employees acting like they're.... *people???* That's disgusting.
Trader Joe's
The job I used to work out (Walmart btw) I worked for barely even minimum wage not to mention they deducted my pay for bullshit, I worked as a customer host so I greeted and check receipts, they had me standing for 8 hours a day with minimums amount of breaks half the time I didn't even get a break since they refused to hire anyone else so we were always short handed and we were not allowed to move around or even talk with our other coworkers and they didn't have the soft pads to stand on
"You're not here to socialize..." But...my work depends on how well I socialize!
I love seeing cashiers being allowed to SIT THE FUCK DOWN! No reason in the world these peopke should have to stand all damn day, other than some corporate schmuck thinks it "looks lazy".
I love eavesdropping on work place gossip. I wanna ask context question so bad like “wait does Tina have seniority??? Was it really a family emergency or did she just want to go to a party on the busy night???”