People are stupid.
There, I said it.
If you`ve ever worked with people regardless of what your wage is, though I imagine more than $10.25 an hour helps to ease the pain, you can agree with this statement.
When I say people are stupid, the context is that the people I interact with while at my job have what I like to call selective thinking understanding processing initiative disorder, S.T.U.P.I.D. for short. You may think it`s a little harsh to judge the people that I interact with, but after an entire shift dealing with people that make you want to slash your wrists with a pen, you become a little cynical.
To be honest, I just came up with S.T.U.P.I.D. because I wanted to find a more accurate way to address my complains with the general public. Calling them Stupid wouldn`t suffice, because that just implies that they are ignorant when really the problem is listening and comprehension.
Whenever I go to work, I can only think about how paradoxical this is compared to when I was in school.
I remember sitting in class as a child being graded on my reading and compreshension skills, the ability to read a statement and then understand and comprehend said statement. If my workplace was a classroom and the people I interact with were being graded, it would be a poor show indeed!
If I were to be handing out grades, I`d have enough A`s left over to supply all of Canada.
Get it, aaaah!
One of the biggest problems people have is stopping to process simple instructions.
Seriously, using a debit machine with a chip card isn`t rocket science! I relay this instruction ``Please wait for the debit machine to prompt you before you insert your card.`` 7 times out of 10, this instruction is disregarded and the card is thrust in with brute force into the innocent debit machine. A chorus of```Well it`s the machine`s fault`` then follows.
Another example of failing to listen would be when I ask ``So you have bags today,`` and the response is ``No I have bags.``
At one point, both of these errors was excusable. Other stores don`t prompt you before you use debit and a customer is commonly asked if they need bags not if they have any, I reasoned.
However, after 3 years of this I could no longer delude myself.
These people simply weren`t listening. This isn`t just with an elderly customer, who has to be asked 12 times to present their airmiles card, but with people too young to own hearing aides.
Today, I had one for the record books.
Preface; our debit machines are being replaced. As such, the new machines are installed and covered with a plastic bag because they aren`t yet operational and the old functional machines are kept by our registers. These machines are portable because they`ve been removed from their stand and are plugged in via. a cord.
For nearly 3 hours, customers would see the plastic bag covering the ``debit machine`` and being to hyperventilate, assume that they wouldn`t be able to pay using plastic and would have to leave their groceries.
This was not the case.
Instead of asking ``Oh, is there a working debit machine, I see this one isn`t functional`` they said ``OMG, IS YOUR DEBIT DOWN!``
Again, I reasoned that this was fairly reasonable, although I was miffed that reasoned that as a place of business, we were used to accepting debit and credit cards and would surely have found a solution that wouldn`t hinder overall sales, I still had faith in humanity.
This is a sign, I made it. Isn`t it purdy!
Above you will see my sign, isn`t it purdy!
I`m no Monet, but I get the job done. So, read the sign.
Let`s go back to the third grade shall we, read the sign children. Think about it. Now, what does the sign mean.
What`s that! It means that Debit IS working! A+ children.
Seriously, I think more people actually asked if Debit was working with this up.
They glanced over my sign and as a result, thought the message was ``Debit isn`t working`` and continued to pester me.
Ok I reasoned, I can see that.
So I made a new sign.
 |
Stupid proof right...nope!
|
I don`t even think we need to discuss what happens next. Same result.
So you see, it`s not that these people were stupid, they were being S.T.U.P.I.D. because they were simply not thinking, understanding or processing the situation.
Oh minimum wage, how I hate thee.
Do you understand the woes of customer service, comment with your stories!
Much love,
Cam
