And the other 17% were on long term sick leave, unemployed or have short term memory.
This is such a clock baity heading. Yes the public at times can be awful! Circle K in particular sees all walks of life, and some of those people have bad days, mental problems or are just bad people. And yes that May include you dear reader.
In reality that’s part of a job and job. It’s up to employers to diminish its effects and they have a duty of care. But they also can’t discriminate again the mentally I’ll or a certain segment of population (of say rude teenagers due to agism).
The way I see it is people need to be less soft (post traumatic growth vs post traumatic stress) and realise this is life. Or government need stricter laws and anti abuse legislation (which protects staff, employers and the public).
Thought it’d be higher.
I’ve worked retail for 5 months and surprisingly nothing I would call “harassment”, definitely a load of rude c*nts but if you just smile and nod instead of pandering to them like most workers do, they get even more angry and it’s very entertaining.
I think anyone who deals with the general public gets harassed.
Seems like a low number remembering back to when I worked in retail.
I’ll paraphrase this article “Please stop abusing our workers. You are making their exploitation at our hands more obvious and they are leaving to get better jobs”.
Well ye, no surprises there.
Most people are sound. Unfortunately you can’t just ban every single annoyance, even though it would be nice.
The vast majority of retail workers I encountered are either quite positive (esp students) or neutral at worst.
So ye, if you like making their day miserable, perhaps you should stay home?
I work in retail and I’m surprised by that number. I rarely encounter anything I would call harassment. People on the tills do get more of it though, I’m just a grunt on the shop floor.
Loads of rude cunts though. People who just say something like “Eggs?” and walk off without so much as a thanks when you tell them or show them where something is. Manners cost nothing.
Not surprising, when I worked in retail you’d deal with at least one cunt a day.
>Half of Irish retail workers witnessed customers physically assault a colleague
That’s shocking and depressing. I always thought it was only America that had terrible customers
I feel like anyone who works in retail (depending of course on the specific area of retail) will experience harassment or abuse from customers at some point or another.
I worked in retail for about 6 months during Covid when I lost my job and it happened on two occasions. I imagine if someone had worked retail for a few years they’ve probably run into it a few more times. If it’s acceptable to abuse anyone in this country it’s definitely retail staff.
This is why I don’t want to go back into retail, I’m far too much of a dickhead to let someone harass me in work.
I’ve been sworn at, spat at, and screamed at. You couldn’t ever convince me to go back to retail
My experience in retail is like with everything based on poor leadership and management. A customer being shitty with you is one thing and honestly you can move on fairly quickly but then a manager can make it a bigger deal, lick the customers ass and make you feel as though you have really done something wrong. Harassment in itself is poorly defined but the article not making reference to leadership makes it a bit of a waste.
Harassment is bad but it’s rare enough where I can ignore it in my case, what does my head in though is people who come in to the shop sour, as if we’re forcing them into the shop to buy whatever it is they need, no please no thank you and just grunts for communication.
When I worked in retail many years ago the only ppl who I would say harassed me were the management. I still to this day have never been managed by anyone worse than Retail management .
The number I want is how many bastards are doing it to the workers? Then who are they? And finally, can they be radiotagged so shops can lock them out automatically, and they can just mill around the town centre with their angry eyes like dying suns, snapping at each other. Like seagulls.
While I think retail workers get a tough time. I’m calling BS on this. I’d love to know how they define harassment
Worked in retail for years. The vast majority of customers I dealt with were grand, polite and friendly enough.
But there were a fair amount of entitled moany pricks out there too. I’ll never forget being reduced to tears by some aul bastard and his wife who accused me of stealing from them, and called me awful names at the top of their voices. It was two adults having a tantrum. I was only 18 at the time. I had a nice manager who stepped in and (politely) told them to fuck off.
17% too jaded to notice anymore
When I worked in xtra vision I had men shout at and threaten me. I had children throw things at me and piss on the floor. One man threatened to stab me when I rang him and asked him to return kill bill vol 2.
It was in a super dodgy area and there was a pub next door so the kids came in while their parents drank next door.
Worst place I ever worked.
I thought this was only an American thing. No lower form of scumbag than those who torment low wage workers.
When I worked in a charity shop I had only two cases of harrasment, strangely enough both from the same lady.
I think working in retail should net you a pension and PTSD counciling for life. I didn’t do it for long, but I whitnessed some of the most uppity cunts you could imagine.
It wasn’t often, but at least once a day you’d have someone who would have something go wrong with their purchase – a defective product, a minor price issue, out of stock item etc. Most people would go “meh” and not a problem. But for some reason, a certain group of people seem to think the issue was a slight against them, and go on the offensive. As if we did whatever it was, to attack them in some way.
I can’t imagine how bad it must’ve been working in Retail, dealing with that AND the crazies who were anti-maskers/anti-vaxers.
That said, the majority of people are grand. But it just takes one screaming spitting zomboid to ruin your day. That and a manager who’ll just pander them and blame everything on you.
Literally a case of don’t shoot the messenger. Lowest paid workers seem to have to deal with the most abuse sadly.
Here RTE, let me fix that……83% of retail workers experiencing hardship
So many people are so fucking angry at people they see as less than them.
So many people are on a fucking hair trigger.
It’s all one circle of shit.
—
I’ve been working retail for about 15 years.
I go fucking nuclear if someone harasses or verbally abuses my staff. I dealt with it for too long, and I’ll be damned if I’ll let them go through it too.
I couldn’t tell you how many people I’ve booted out of that shop for getting aggressive with teenage staff. Absolutely disgusting carry on.
There are no consequences for these shitheels, but if I had my way I’d install a big tv in the window and broadcast the bastards, full face picture, to show what they did.
31 comments
Surprised it isn’t higher to be honest
How deep does the breakdown go?
And the other 17% were on long term sick leave, unemployed or have short term memory.
This is such a clock baity heading. Yes the public at times can be awful! Circle K in particular sees all walks of life, and some of those people have bad days, mental problems or are just bad people. And yes that May include you dear reader.
In reality that’s part of a job and job. It’s up to employers to diminish its effects and they have a duty of care. But they also can’t discriminate again the mentally I’ll or a certain segment of population (of say rude teenagers due to agism).
The way I see it is people need to be less soft (post traumatic growth vs post traumatic stress) and realise this is life. Or government need stricter laws and anti abuse legislation (which protects staff, employers and the public).
Thought it’d be higher.
I’ve worked retail for 5 months and surprisingly nothing I would call “harassment”, definitely a load of rude c*nts but if you just smile and nod instead of pandering to them like most workers do, they get even more angry and it’s very entertaining.
I think anyone who deals with the general public gets harassed.
Seems like a low number remembering back to when I worked in retail.
I’ll paraphrase this article “Please stop abusing our workers. You are making their exploitation at our hands more obvious and they are leaving to get better jobs”.
Well ye, no surprises there.
Most people are sound. Unfortunately you can’t just ban every single annoyance, even though it would be nice.
The vast majority of retail workers I encountered are either quite positive (esp students) or neutral at worst.
So ye, if you like making their day miserable, perhaps you should stay home?
I work in retail and I’m surprised by that number. I rarely encounter anything I would call harassment. People on the tills do get more of it though, I’m just a grunt on the shop floor.
Loads of rude cunts though. People who just say something like “Eggs?” and walk off without so much as a thanks when you tell them or show them where something is. Manners cost nothing.
Not surprising, when I worked in retail you’d deal with at least one cunt a day.
>Half of Irish retail workers witnessed customers physically assault a colleague
That’s shocking and depressing. I always thought it was only America that had terrible customers
I feel like anyone who works in retail (depending of course on the specific area of retail) will experience harassment or abuse from customers at some point or another.
I worked in retail for about 6 months during Covid when I lost my job and it happened on two occasions. I imagine if someone had worked retail for a few years they’ve probably run into it a few more times. If it’s acceptable to abuse anyone in this country it’s definitely retail staff.
This is why I don’t want to go back into retail, I’m far too much of a dickhead to let someone harass me in work.
I’ve been sworn at, spat at, and screamed at. You couldn’t ever convince me to go back to retail
My experience in retail is like with everything based on poor leadership and management. A customer being shitty with you is one thing and honestly you can move on fairly quickly but then a manager can make it a bigger deal, lick the customers ass and make you feel as though you have really done something wrong. Harassment in itself is poorly defined but the article not making reference to leadership makes it a bit of a waste.
Harassment is bad but it’s rare enough where I can ignore it in my case, what does my head in though is people who come in to the shop sour, as if we’re forcing them into the shop to buy whatever it is they need, no please no thank you and just grunts for communication.
When I worked in retail many years ago the only ppl who I would say harassed me were the management. I still to this day have never been managed by anyone worse than Retail management .
The number I want is how many bastards are doing it to the workers? Then who are they? And finally, can they be radiotagged so shops can lock them out automatically, and they can just mill around the town centre with their angry eyes like dying suns, snapping at each other. Like seagulls.
While I think retail workers get a tough time. I’m calling BS on this. I’d love to know how they define harassment
Worked in retail for years. The vast majority of customers I dealt with were grand, polite and friendly enough.
But there were a fair amount of entitled moany pricks out there too. I’ll never forget being reduced to tears by some aul bastard and his wife who accused me of stealing from them, and called me awful names at the top of their voices. It was two adults having a tantrum. I was only 18 at the time. I had a nice manager who stepped in and (politely) told them to fuck off.
17% too jaded to notice anymore
When I worked in xtra vision I had men shout at and threaten me. I had children throw things at me and piss on the floor. One man threatened to stab me when I rang him and asked him to return kill bill vol 2.
It was in a super dodgy area and there was a pub next door so the kids came in while their parents drank next door.
Worst place I ever worked.
I thought this was only an American thing. No lower form of scumbag than those who torment low wage workers.
When I worked in a charity shop I had only two cases of harrasment, strangely enough both from the same lady.
I think working in retail should net you a pension and PTSD counciling for life. I didn’t do it for long, but I whitnessed some of the most uppity cunts you could imagine.
It wasn’t often, but at least once a day you’d have someone who would have something go wrong with their purchase – a defective product, a minor price issue, out of stock item etc. Most people would go “meh” and not a problem. But for some reason, a certain group of people seem to think the issue was a slight against them, and go on the offensive. As if we did whatever it was, to attack them in some way.
I can’t imagine how bad it must’ve been working in Retail, dealing with that AND the crazies who were anti-maskers/anti-vaxers.
That said, the majority of people are grand. But it just takes one screaming spitting zomboid to ruin your day. That and a manager who’ll just pander them and blame everything on you.
Literally a case of don’t shoot the messenger. Lowest paid workers seem to have to deal with the most abuse sadly.
Here RTE, let me fix that……83% of retail workers experiencing hardship
So many people are so fucking angry at people they see as less than them.
So many people are on a fucking hair trigger.
It’s all one circle of shit.
—
I’ve been working retail for about 15 years.
I go fucking nuclear if someone harasses or verbally abuses my staff. I dealt with it for too long, and I’ll be damned if I’ll let them go through it too.
I couldn’t tell you how many people I’ve booted out of that shop for getting aggressive with teenage staff. Absolutely disgusting carry on.
There are no consequences for these shitheels, but if I had my way I’d install a big tv in the window and broadcast the bastards, full face picture, to show what they did.
17% are being looked at very suspiciously now