h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

added text. we are all here together whether we like it or not. our journey on this planet is together, so make someone elses day and tell them you appreciate how they are contributing to your life, even if they are a shop clerk, if they didnt do the job, you just might have to some day. smile at them because they are making your life easier. if there wasnt stores you would have to make your own bread, and if there wasnt restaurants, you would have to cook your own meals. and the telephone operator who trying to get your connection through, wouldnt be doing that job if we didnt have to connect with people. etc etc the list goes on. ouur life now is about convenience, that we forget that there are real people out there in the world, and some people could just be having a bad day!!! brighten the world with the smile that we are given, help others when they need it. take care wildiris

Hiya wildiris, if you'd like to write something on your space, one of us ACEs will pop along and greet you formally

i would love the hand with my personal space, i was there and dont quite get it. will try again tomorrow. would appreciate the help. thanks wildiris take care

Ive just read the long list of complaints and compliments about the poor old sales people. And in summary both sides are right, sometimes u get a pain in the ass customer and other times the workers cant be bothered. I mean most of the time there ok but sometimes they cock up or are just thick, but u can garentee that those who are plain dumb when they serve u wont be there next time u shop cause the'll have gained the sack. Selling stuff is a boring crappy job and those people that do and are polite desevre some credit.

I have seen it from both sides,perhaps if there was a 10 year intensive training course with rigorous selection tests to pass every week,and perhaps the same for the shop assistants,perhaps not.
its not easy
ian

Courtesy isn't dead, it's just been really poorly for a long time. I feel one of the biggest problems comes from peoples egos. How many times have you quoted "D'ya want fries wiv that?" to denote the bottom of the evolutionary scale. For many people their job defines who they are, I can only assume that they have very little going for them. "I am/my partner is . .A bank manager, if I were to treat you as an equal then that would make you as worthwile and important as a bank manager, therefore I will treat you like a machine because I'm better than you". HELLO, REALITY CHECK. We are all people, that's it. Nothing more, nothing less. I am no better than you and you are no better than me. I don't care how much you earn, how many kids you have, what your job title is, what car you drive, how much your clothes cost, or what qualifications you have. You are only a person, treat me the way you would like me to treat you and we'll all get along a whole lot better.

In my past I have worked as a highstreet PC salesman, a vacuum cleaner salesman, a dustman, a bomb disposal specialist, and I now work in a nicely paid and titled job in IT. I have been the same person throughout all my jobs, would you have treated me differently when I was carrying a dustbin to when I was wearing a suit?

Aw hell, bring back conscription.
For people to have to live and work with people from all walks of life. Teach the racists that people are people, teach the snobs(this doesn't mean the wealthy) that people are people, teach those with a rough start that they can be as good as anyone else, teach people to appreciate what they've got, and not what they want.

I'll get me coat

Should have been "Force people.........."
Ta

I am a brain (less) shop assistant.
I am also a student in sixth form- I work hard at the weekends, and i AM polite, i DO smile, take people to what they want to buy, say please and thank you.
However, this does NOT stop people (are they?) from being horrible. I have been called a mean and horrible person, I'm looked down upon for being polite (obviously a brainless pushover!) and an equally polite collegue of mine has been slapped, yes slapped (warming to his soapbox!) around the head by a customer before!
Now, I've only been in this job 10 months, so maybe after 10 years I wouldn't be polite, but jaded and bitter and twisted
I love my job!
Have a nice day now!
GB

I remember dishwashing... Oh, boy, do I remember dishwashing!

As a restaurant manager, I remember a "fun" night that began by needing 3 watiresses, a hostess, a dishwasher, and a cook. We had 2 waitresses and a cook. And, of course, me.

That night, I learned how to wash a few dishes. (I already knew how, but knowledge doesn't automatically translate to need.) They didn't really need me on the floor constantly, and my cook was excellent. My manager (as in General Manager) screwed up, and changed the schedule mid-week. Naturally, the people that were supposed to be there had no idea that they would be missed...

Personally, I think that the person who came up with the idea that restaurant manager should wear white shirts should be hung, drawn, quartered, and flogged for six hours. That particular shirt never made another shift...

Hundreds of years ago I worked in a pizza restaurant, and we used to make up dialogue that the customers would use. It was very good entertainment, and quite often very accurate after awhile.
The nice thing was that I got an excellent understanding of how most people think; and now lead a quite happy life due to my understanding of other peoples' motivation in certain circumstances.
And, kissing up a little usually helped with the tips...

When you get a dialogue with a customer: the little jokes they tell you, which they think are original, and you havent heard thousands of times before...ones like when they hand you some money, and say 'I just printed these off this morning', or when you ask them whether they want some help packing, and they say 'no, just paying'

I'm still chortling after that one!

How about when they try and chisel you out of the change and act like since you are working for tips you can do without the odd pennies. Most of those folks are driving a new vehicle!

Ah! I never worked for tips before: evil golden arches and the supermarket I work for now dont allow tips

I haven't worked in retail since I was a teenager, but one thing does not appear to have changed. In shops, in common with all other areas of life, people (ie the customers) expect rights, but do not accept that they have any responsibilities. As a "Saturday Boy," I was treated, not as if I had come from the bottom of the barrel, but had crawled from under it. And all for £1.98 for nine hours' work...

I'm still a teenager... and I understand what you are saying, so I take some secret pleasure from seeing the customers surprise when a polite well-mannered person emerges...even if I do get riled by the rude ones!

Though I do do it for more than £1.98!

I can't figure out how this thread came to be attached to this page, but I'll throw my 2p-worth in anyway...

When I was working as a trainer twelve years ago, I had to keep up a "supportive" facade all day; people still joke about how I would storm into the pub at teatime and demand a stiff drink because "my face hurts from smiling at idiots all day"...

And why does everyone assume that treating assistants like machines is disrespectful? Pass by any bank and you'll dee that people will choose to queue up to use the cash machine outside rather than go in and approach an empty teller window. People prefer machines - take it as a compliment!

(dee = see )

Why not!

I know what you mean about the smiling thing! Sometimes I get so sick of smiling at moronic idiots [usually with a phd!] who are rude and as thick as a constipated sheeps stool! [Can you tell I've been at work today ]

We have to be friendly and approachable...[shudder] People do like machines: and don't really like it when you get your pre-programmed responses wrong [like saying would like some cashback when you should be saying if youd like to check the amount and sign....not that I ever do that of course ]

FwT

Wanting to smack a customer. I've been there. I was working for
a communications outfit programming some very specialized systems
that (in this particular case) would control the entire comms
system for the customer's company.

The customer kept INSISTING that the system do this or that even
after I had explained slowly and carefully that this system was
not even capable of those tasks or features. Then I wasconfronted
with that now-infamous "the customer is always right" line.

I put my pen down on the desk, stood up and leaned across the
table until I was nose-to-nose with the client. I sais slowly and
deliberately, "You are NOT always right. I am the expert. About
this, *I* am always right. It can't do that unless you want to pay
several thousand for the custom programming."

Then I sat back down, picked up my pen and said cheerfully, "So,
shall we get back to designing your system?"

I had no more problems with him after that. As a matter of fact,
he gave us very good word-of-mouth advertising.


Grim

(Not just in name, but in nature.)