Things corporations make their employees do because they thing customers like it (hint: we donât)
Things corporations make their employees do because they thing customers like it (hint: we donât)
1) Verbally greeting every person who enters the store. I swear to God, the poor cashier at my local Dollar General is going to lose her voice. She probably has nightmares that include âWelcome to Dollar General!âÂ
2) Force them to wear uniforms. All it takes for me to identify an employee is a name badge, or maybe a vest or something. Thatâs it. My retail purchasing brain will not crumble into righteous offense if your employee isnât shoved into a hot, uncomfortable poly/cotton polo and gut-cinching khaki pants. There is nothing about that ensemble that creates a âprofessional work atmosphere.â Itâs Wal-mart, buddy. No one is looking for a professional work atmosphere at the place they go to buy toilet paper.Â
3) Forcing restaurant employees to take their meals in âthe break roomâ, even when they buy the food from the restaurant they work in. If I see staff eating at one of the open restaurant tables in the corner, you know what I think? Nothing. Theyâre people eating, just like everyone else in there. They say expectations can create behavior, so maybe we should step back and wonder if the monster-customer isnât a creation of the corporate world assuming every customer is a monster and catering to it.Â
Iâd like to add:
4) Banning employees from having a water bottle even when theyâre stuck at a till or booth and cannot leave to get a drink. If itâs under the counter, I donât see it (and itâs already a mess under counters as it is, putting a water bottle into that chaos wonât do anything). And if someone takes a drink from one, I donât even register it because staying hydrated should be seen as normal.
5) Forcing employees to apologize for anything and everything, from stock issues to not carrying items to customers breaking shit. Demanding this from employees just strengthens the idea that retail workers are lesser beings who are never allowed to say no or call out assholes while making customers feel like theyâre superior and can do no wrong.
6) Banning employees from talking to each other. As long as theyâre aware of things and can drop it to help a customer, whatâs the big deal? Itâs a way better experience to walk into a place and see the employees talking and laughing than into a place thatâs silent outside of the radio where the employeesâ eyes are glazed over because they arenât allowed to have a human connection while on the clock.
7) Forcing employees to stand for their entire shift, even banning leaning against the counter, even when there are no customers. There is nothing unprofessional about sitting.
8) Forcing employees to SIT for their entire shift. (Mainly in call center work Iâve found). Sitting in the same uncomfortable position at the computer for hours on end is not good for anyone, there is no reason why employees shouldnât be able to stand up and stretch. Weâre not toddlers, someone standing to stretch isnât going to disrupt the entire call center for goodness sakes.
i firmly believe that âcustomers like itâ is just a thinly veiled excuse for american corporationsâ exerting this level of control over workers. Iâm absolutely certain that a no-talking-to-fellow-workers rule is a calculated attempt to prevent workers from unionizingâi believe that it was common in factories 100 years ago to have such a rule, specifically to make worker uprisings more difficult.
