Kitty

I'm reminded of a time in high school during student body elections, when some of my friends began posting signs around the school to encourage students to write in a vote for the pokemon blastoise. And no one really took it seriously until the school did a psa over the morning intercom not to vote for blastoise and to take the election seriously.

After that everyone in the school, now realizing they had the ability to actually mildly disrupt the proceedings of those in power, agressively and obsessively began campaigning for blastoise. 'A vote for blastoise is a vote for blastoise. Vote Blastoise.' Became the most common thing to hear in the hallway. Some people even made tshirts with a tshirt press. Eventually a human was elected but only because the school didnt count the blastoise votes. Real voter fraud happening here. I bet the boring human class president only got like 3 votes in total but I'll never know how much my hero Blastoise was cheated.

I think people also often forget that power dynamics don't always fully favor the customer, and sometimes power dynamics can be tilted in the favor of the customer service worker and subsequently abused. Able bodied customer service workers can be, and often are, ableist to disabled customers. White customer service workers can be, and often are, racist towards customers of color. Customer service workers who are men can be, and often are, sexist towards customers who are women. Customer service workers who are non-immigrants can be, and often are, xenophobic towards immigrant customers. Shall I go on? That's obviously not an exhaustive list and I could very well go on.

When I worked retail I had a co-worker scream at a little old lady and kick her out of the store because she spoke to him in a language he didn't speak. I saw her face as she was leaving and she looked so shaken up like she was about to cry. I've overheard so many of my co-workers calling customers racial slurs behind their back. Once again, I could go on, but I feel like my addition here is already getting long enough.

One customer being mean to you isn't justification for being to another.

You will often deal with customers who don't speak the same language you do. Being patient is going to go a lot further than being mean.

When a customer has a bad experience with another representative there going to approach you thinking you're going to be mean to them.

When you don't spend the time listening to customers they don't feel heard. If you don't spend time explaining things fully they won't know.

Yes it's soul crushing when a customer walks in demanding a manager. It's also soul crushing when you ask for help and it's denied.

Get ready for double crossing, kidnapping, chase scenes, manipulation of the heroes, and lots of treachery!

Bonus:

I'll do you one better- if the 4 day work week had a different 4 days for employees on a company or even individual scale, you have 20% less work traffic Monday through Friday. I suspect taking that edge off for non-work commuters (like those buying groceries) could reduce crashes even further with less cars on the road at peak times.

Even better than this, public transportation infrastructure could reduce the number of cars by letting people on local work commutes travel more efficiently in busses or trains.

Spin the wheel again. That’s who’s trying to protect you.

(If you have zero idea about a name you got, spin until you see someone you recognize.)