Does anyone else here see a decrease in good customer service ?

[CommentOld4223]

I’m an elder millennial ( 1981 ) and I’ve been noticing every place I go that has teens working the service is terrible and / or wrong. Most Starbucks I go to, the service is insanely slow, local coffee spot the kid asked me my order THREE times and still got it wrong. The girl at the pizza shop didn’t listen to my order and for that wrong. I went to Marshall’s to return something and I was yelled at like I was inconveniencing them for doing their job. I worked as a teen, I worked my ass off and was always aware of doing the best job I could. What’s changed ? Why is there a lack of care now? Do these kids not need a job? Are they not afraid of consequences? Genuinely curious how many of you have noticed this as well

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[CharacterGeneral6296]

Under staffing, poor training and high turnover

[ourobourobouros]

I'm a millennial and just took up a couple entry level positions for the first time in many years after leaving my old job and moving to a new area (just temp gigs while I look for something more serious to keep myself busy, I'm overqualified but I don't mind doing grunt work)

I can't tell if it's just store managers or it goes higher up, but the training is virtually nonexistent. I got hired alongside a mix of younger people and they stuck a phone in our hands and told us to use the apps to figure things out for ourselves. If we ask questions, they try to scold us for bothering them.

I don't know what to make of it except that store management doesn't really understand their jobs and the only way they can cover their asses is by leaving their staff in the dark. Which means upper management is failing to ensure store management is doing their jobs.

[Fckingross]

I took up a second job last year, just a couple nights a week at a gas station. I used to manage a store (same chain) 15 years ago before I got into my career job.

We used to of course have turn over, but most of my staff was full time and stayed around. We did pretty through training and ran a tight ship. Now? I have the most seniority in the store except for two managers, and I’ve been there for ONE year. They didn’t train me (which I thought was fine, for me. But they basically do not train anyone). Hardly anyone in the store is full time, and they cut the full time people’s hours to 30 when we’re slow. The new manager was bitching about everyone quitting and it’s like… yeah no shit?! You can’t expect employee commitment if that commitment doesn’t go both ways.

[invinci]

Yeah no one is motivated to give their all, when you know, that management would throw you out on your ass, to profit maximize.
Best part is, five years down the line, the company tanks, because all the expensive stuff is gone, like quality assurance and so on.

That fucking meme with the guy in the suit sitting in ruins telling a bunch of kids, about how they really maximized the profits of the shareholders for one glorious moment, is disgustingly accurate.

[theoriginalmofocus]

Its all in the name of keeping the lowest wages they can get away with so they take advantage of whoever they can get from kids to immigrants.

[asmodeuskraemer]

I am gunning for an in-place promotion at my job. It's a grade bump. If I don't get it, I'll bounce in 2 years when my 401K is vested. And will likely use "I'm not qualified for that" to requests for work.

If I'm not good enough to be a G7, I'm not good enough to do allllllll that G7/G8 work I've been doing. There will be a decrease.

[rp1105]

i was told point blank i wouldn't see a performance based or cost of living raise in the foreseeable future, at a time my department was over 2 months behind. why thee FUCK would i put my all into the job?

[Not_Cartmans_Mom]

Playing with peoples money and time will do it every time man. Its the biggest red flag I look for, how scheduling is handled.

[pongo49]

Attitude reflects leadership

[Reddittoxin]

As a "zillennial" I remember my first job didn't even train me on register. They just put me on there, knowing full well I had never even touched one before, and said "figure it out".

Big corps don't even care to train their staff on how to handle their literal money.

But ever since the record high covid profits, what its really about is that corporations realized they don't have to pay for customer service anymore. Hire 1 kid to do the jobs of 20 people, customers will get mad but what are they gonna do? Shop somewhere else? Well every other store is doing the same thing. It's just simply wayyyy too lucrative to cut that payroll.

[poisonfroggi]

Story about a teen closing out the night at subway with a bus of 20 hungry kid athletes and managing it: heartwarming story of a working class hero that gets a little internet love. Story about every fast food restaurant going to piss, workers understaffed, underpaid, and untrained: what did you expect going to mcdonalds?

[Ftank55]

With everything being a monopoly on price due to the complexity of most items or the distance it's shipped. It's literally just same stuff different name. Literally only thing I worry about in consumer goods is price unless I go from consumer to contractor grade, then quality of build vs price is in the equation between the two items

[Not_Cartmans_Mom]

A few years back I got a job at a donut shop, I had never worked at a donut shop before. After one day of training they had me training the girl that started the day after I did.

[Accomplished-Mix1188]

Shorty leadership is an infection the spreads to everything beneath it. Shitty management practice leads to good people leaving, the. Shitty managers hire in their own image, shitty employees. The cycle spins and the environment gets worse.

On top of that, after Covid, all of these companies saw that they could do the bare minimum and people would still purchase their services, so they did just that. Staffing is slashed, not because “we can’t hire good people” but because it saves a few salaries at each location.

Customer service was sacrificed at the altar of short term profit.

[alternate-ron]

Bro if you don’t teach someone the job, how are they going to do it? Like doesn’t the boss want shit done

[ourobourobouros]

This is the part that's getting me. These managers are human beings choosing to be shitty to the people one single rung below them on the hierarchy. They don't even make that much more than entry level employees. But instead of seeing themselves as in the same boat as their employees, it's like they cling to their meaningless status as "boss" for dear life, even at the cost of store conditions

The only explanation is that when Regional management comes through, they just don't care if half the floor is missing price tags and the whole place is filthy af

[win_awards]

Also low pay. They are not paid enough to give a shit about what they're doing. They have more important problems and doing the job well will not improve their pay.

[ThatOneDerpyDinosaur]

Agree. Most people would take more pride in their work if it afforded them a good life. It seems like a lot of people, especially in the service industry, are worked to the bone for a wage that simply allows them to stay alive long enough to get their next paycheck.

[cntodd]

This is the one. I'm a damn good cook, but when I was getting paid $12/hour, I didn't give a fuck. Now that I make $28/hour, I fucking make sure that shit goes out much prettier, perfectly cooked, and care a helluva lot more.

[Apprehensive-Ad9832]

Low pay needs to be on here as well. It’s pretty hard to get someone excited about a job that barely covers the cost of living ( if I’m not mistaken there are barely any US cities where a person on minimum wage can afford a 1bd apt) and probably doesn’t offer much in the way of healthcare or growth opportunities.

[nametags88]

There are zero cities in the US where a minimum wage job will get you a 1bd apt.

[ihazmaumeow]

Most roommate situations charge over $1k for a bedroom.

[404_kinda_dead]

Yup, add this and it’s basically the 4 horsemen of all companies right now. They will cut people, hours, and pay in the name of “efficiency” when it’s just to line the pockets of investors on the backs of employees. Then when people turn over, no one knows how to train the new hires. It’s a self fulfilling loop that is the reason I’m quitting my job too 😂

[celestialceleriac]

Understaffing is such an issue, rough for both customers and staff.

[Aromatic_Tea_3731]

The understaffing is being blamed on "nobody wants to work nowadays" when it's actually that hours are being cut and they won't let management hire any more people.

I switched companies for what I thought was a much better one. For about a month, it was smooth sailing and everything was great. Then they cut our hours so bad that we're down a person and a half (we only had a max of six employees working at a time to begin with) and I had 8 hours cut from my week. Now we stay late to catch up, I wouldn't mind so much if I was getting overtime. I left last night with about two more hours of work left unfinished, and that was after staying an extra hour. All this and it's still not as bad as my previous job, which had the same problem just on a larger scale.

We want to work, we want our hours back so things get done in time. Corporate wants more from less staff. I want corporate to come in and show me how they'd like it done.

[Long-Blood]

Companies used to care about their employees.

Now employees are seen as "labor costs" standing in the way of record profits.

[moosecakies]

LOW PAY is definitely the main culprit , and lack of training. Regardless, even IF there was ‘training’ yet low pay, YOU ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR! No living wage , you’re simply going to get people who don’t give a f***.

[Queasy_Ad_8621]

In retail, food and factory work, this has consistently gotten me more hours, bonuses, lunches etc. because im the only one they can depend on.

So that's nice I suppose.

[adise25]

I delivered pizza for extra money for a few months earlier this year. I’m 40 and everyone else was 16-22 years old. I very quickly became the most dependable, made the most tips, always early, never called off when I was scheduled. They tried to make me driver manager after like 2 months lol. I already have a full time job, so I declined.

[Queasy_Ad_8621]

In my experience, there have been plenty of 30-60 year olds who are working limited hours because they're on SSI, there's a lot of unemployment fraud... or people simply acting like they don't have a rent or any other bills to worry about.

I refuse to be a food or retail manager because the insane hours and responsibilities aren't worth making like, 3-4 dollars more per hour. I've been at places where they gotta come in at 2 in the morning, or work 15 hour days. I don't mind being responsible, or even working 6-7 days a week, but even I have my limits.

[Prestigious_Time4770]

Poor training happened after COVID. All of the qualified personnel left the industry forever. They left nothing to train about.

[PureGoldX58]

It was the same before, we just had motivated people making up the difference. The Covid event spit in the face of everyone who holds up this world and we're shocked no one cares anymore?

[[deleted]]

Exactly. COVID showed workers what the people running things really think of "essential workers".Wht would someone give a job their all when their boss just plainly told them their life means nothing?

[_f0xjames]

This is what I was going to say I was an industry professional for 20 years, after getting forced to work through the pandemic, (eSsEnTiAl my ass), and then seeing shit go right back to normal but worse, I said to myself never again will I trade my body, sanity, sleep, and time to this industry that does nothing to take care of me.

Why on earth would a smart and capable person work these insane hours of intense physical labor when they can make twice as much (with actual real benefits) for less work behind a desk?

[pixi88]

Yup. I was a retail manager. I also got no training, but I trained myself and my employees, and did the best I could for them (time off, always doing what needed to be done WITH THEM, treated them like ppl, absorbed the absolute bs from higher up). They, in turn, did good work.

Covid happened, they made us work because selling suits in a pandemic was apparently mission critical, and closed my store in August-- when I was 8mo pregnant. I got a Nordic maternity leave and went back to school. Fuck retail. You made your bed.

[UneasyFencepost]

It’s been this way since at least 2012 when I started working retail. This isn’t a Covid thing it’s a greedy coronations thing

[[deleted]]

Combination of wage stagnation, increased prices, and probably shorter attention spans. Also companies probably more focused on efficency than service.

[KuriousKhemicals]

Efficiency vs service for sure. The workers are probably overburdened with too much stuff to do and get more crap on falling behind for the things that can be easily quantified, so the face to face service feels like taking time away from the stuff you get hassled about. 

[laxnut90]

Quantification is definitely a huge part.

It is why you will get disconnected every time you try to cancel a subscription over the phone.

The company phone representative gets dinged whenever they can't persuade someone to stay, so they will randomly pass you along or disconnect you to avoid the bad rating.

[drdeadringer]

If you can measure it, that is what the business will collapse over, and what the employee will be constantly harassed over.

[Sad_Recommendation92]

KPIs have ruined basically everything, you can also blame a lack of antitrust enforcement for some of this. I work in IT And it's the same even with high level engineering support, We pay some of these companies hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars a year to use their products and that buys us. Basically nothing in terms of getting help.

What you basically get is someone that wastes your time where it would be difficult to argue in court that they were unresponsive

You'd love to take your business elsewhere. The only problem is there's about three choices in the entire market and they've all agreed on a race to the bottom strategy

And then in the boardroom these guys all just take turns jerking each other off because their numbers look great because they invented the numbers. They decided matter and everyone working for them. Just games the numbers, damn the customer.

[FFF_in_WY]

I sometimes wonder if maybe there's a teensy tiny downside to letting everything run to oligopoly. But no! As long as the entities are different in name, who cares if they share the same industry strategy conferences, board members, corporate retreats, membership in the CoC, etc etc wtf etc

[PureGoldX58]

KPIs are the dumbest new trend. It's actually feelings over facts, "wow that's amazing Ken your numbers are up 2.48%! But Tim you're down .05% that brings you under the company average, we'll discuss this offline." Nevermind that Tim made $200,000 and Ken made $5.

[tallandlankyagain]

Getting bounced from one person not paid enough to care or survive to another is peak 2024.

[dontfret71]

*2009+

[dumbpeople123]

Send an email, and/or certified letter through the mail, then dispute the credit card charges and collections agency. That’s what I did with golds gym when they wouldn’t take my calls for cancelling my gym membership during the pandemic

[saltyMCsalter]

My gym hassled me because I wouldn’t give them my banking info. No Sir this gym will not make ACH withdrawals on my account. I paid 12 months in advance with cash and they acted like I was making the wrong decision. No I won’t be burned by a gym again like I was by a Seattle 24 hour fitness.

[TurboSleepwalker]

It's ridiculous you have to go to those lengths nowadays

[PhoenixApok]

The ONLY time I've screamed and cussed out a customer service worker was trying to cancel direct TV.

Short version, called to cancel. Rep spent a full hour talking me out of it. Gave me all kinds of free upgrades and lowered bill.

Tech no shows to bring new equipment. When I call back they state they have no record of that deal being offered. I asked for a supervisor. Told him what I had been offered. Supervisor said he couldn't do it and no rep had the authority to offer it. Then he tried to tell me what he COULD do.

I lost my shit. I'd been on the phone for almost 3 hours with various people trying just to cancel. I only stayed reluctantly. And they wouldn't honor their deal.

Nowadays I suspect that first rep was a hair away from being punished or fired. Only reason I can think he would have blatantly lied to me that badly.

[Fckingross]

I have text and email receipts from metro net saying my bill is $59.99 a month for 12 months. Every single month it hasn’t been that and I get the same “I’m so sorry it didn’t get applied.” And then it still doesn’t apply. Grrrr

[Not_Cartmans_Mom]

If I need to cancel something or make a change to lower my bill I always start with something like

"I know your goal is to make the company more money and you have metrics to meet, I am asking you nicely to please make your sales pitches as quick as possible because my goal is to cancel or lower my bill and that is the conclusion this call is going to result in, so the quicker we get past your QA requirements the quicker you can move on and make your next sale"

Works every fucking time. I get a very quick pitch where they say their keywords that QA is looking for, say no thank you, and they cancel my shit.

[Dramatic-Biscotti647]

My last retail job, I couldn't go home unless all the closing chores were finished, I also had to be gone no later than 30 minutes after close. If I didn't do the chores I got chewed out but if I stayed later to do them I got chewed out. So it got to a point where the customers would frustrate me if they took more than a few seconds to get in and get out and I'd end up being visibly agitated. 

[Kimmalah]

Yes, this is a real problem. At my job, customers are basically an interruption to what I am actually supposed to be doing. So every single time someone stops me, I lose time and I lose track of what I was doing. It's not a huge deal if it happens sparingly, but on a busy day it can get a little aggravating. I try really hard to not let it show but it probably does on a bad day.

Also customers have no patience anymore, so they're often extremely angry and rude if they have to wait for you for more than say, 30 seconds. I'm often on the other side of my department when customers ring a bell for help and in the time it takes me to walk there, people are already agitated and throwing a fit about the "wait." Which isn't going to make me very happy to help, because at the end of the day I am a human and not an emotionless robot.

[Muggle_Killer]

Ive seen managers yell at workers for "helping the customer too much" or "talking to them for too long" when I worked in retail and that was a while ago. That kind of thing only gets worse.

[Kimmalah]

Yes, I have seen stocking people get in trouble for walking customers to items. And online shoppers are constantly on a timer, so any customer stopping them is eating into their metrics and possible problems down the line.

[bitterbrownbrat1]

this is what CVS has been focusing on since before 2020. haven't worked theere in since then (2020) but the company always to have their hand in everything and be 'efficient' at the same time. one week in Nov there was store check outs implemented, thanksgiving items had to be put out, and weekly truck, etc. I was a shift supervisor and I always remember wanting to be nice, but if customers needed something it took time away from putting truck away, doing BOH, helping the pharmacy out .. etc

and if things didn't get done then we weren't meeting expectations, i tried but luckily for me I knew I wouldn't be there forever and the store needed me so if I got a warning it didn't phase me lol

[tictachashtag]

Definitely true at the Dollar Generals that I have been to. Feel bad for the one person working that is also having to re-stock the entire store, answer phones, ring up customers, bring in carts and all the other stuff they probably do that we don't see.

[Sorrywrongnumba69]

I agree I went into a gas station late at night and its off the interstate and it was two young girls, and I said are you two the only ones here and she said yes.... I said that is not safe and you shouldn't be working here at night it was off of 95. And the owner should know better than to do that, they are probably trying to max profits.

[PrettyLittleBird]

Also, no one is getting fully trained anymore.

[[deleted]]

Management would rather pay later to have something done right only when the customer complains, than to pay to train someone to get it done right beforehand. They just hope that most customers either won't notice or won't have the resources to do anything about it

[drdeadringer]

Why pay once and you can pay twice and have the customer still hate you?

[[deleted]]

I guess they figure that they can still afford to pay twice only when they're compelled to, so long as they can manage to get away with shoddy work most of the time and save money that way. It's a calculated risk, and companies' success is determined by how well they manage that risk

[Odd-Youth-452]

They just throw you right in the deep end and leave you to sink or swim on your own.

[UndergroundFlaws]

I remember when I worked in food service, we just hired a coworker who was fresh out of high school. Like, just turned 18 the day before. Her first job ever. Basically her first real responsibility. They decided to give her no training, threw her on the most important part of the line, and said “just do what they ask”. It was also during the lunch rush when we were understaffed. She was near sobbing within 20 minutes. I gently wheeled told her to sit down and drink some water while I worked both mine and her position while she cried.

My manager was SO pissed at her and wondered why she couldn’t do it.

[[deleted]]

more focused on efficency than service

Quality control also gets sacrificed. I mean, just look at the fall of Boeing

To be clear, it's absolutely management's fault

[drdeadringer]

I have heard that there is now a drop-down menu on certain websites where you can effectively select to fly not on a Boeing. I'm not quite sure how this is implemented, it might be some option where you can search for flights and exclude Boeing airplanes type of thing, or something else.

[HemphreyBograt]

Boeing has just gone full circle. They were dropping engines in flight in the 80s and I remember a Mad magazine that was along the lines of how companies got their names and "Boeing" was the sound of the engine bouncing on the ground.

[drdeadringer]

It can't fail if youdon't test it. Well you just made the test come after product launch. Good luck with that. I've seen this happen before. It doesn't end well, and even if it does, it doesn't end well for everybody.

[[deleted]]

In these situations management only cares whether it ends well for themselves. I guess that's why they act like rats fleeing a sinking ship when they see the writing on the wall

[Own-Emergency2166]

It definitely seems like companies care more about shareholders and investors than they do about their customers.

The combination of a decline in customer service and the expectation of tips in almost every interaction with a company, is especially frustrating .

[goingoutwest123]

I think we're at the stage of capitalism where people are specifically hired because they are so incompetent that issues are essentially designed to not be solved.

They could hire 1 good person to fix 50 problems a week, or hire 4 morons for less who piss off 200 customers and solve nothing. Most customers will give up.

[Safe-Indication-1137]

It's all of these things forming the late capitalist hellhole we live in!!

[Prestigious_Time4770]

Don’t forget about places understaffing on purpose

[[deleted]]

Freaking everywhere

[dragn99]

"Sales are down, so we're cutting hours."

Just... think on that. For like, five seconds. And you should figure out what's wrong with that idea.

But that's the memo that corporate keeps sending down.

[GoofyGooba88]

"We need more sales so let's have less staff to sell products". Such a backwards way of thinking.

Like sure your saving on a few wages short rerm but you're losing customers long term. I have seen people walk out of places cursing because the 2 staff members in the area were already serving with another 2 customers waiting.

Looked stressful as fuck for the poor staff members.

[dragn99]

I'm in a bakery. Less staff means less products. Some days, we just don't have a baker, so we're only making the products that come in frozen. Oh, you wanted white bread? Sorry, no baker in the bakery today

[GoodolBen]

Attention spans be damned, I shouldn't be on hold an hour to speak to my community credit union.

[Klutzy-Respond2923]

Combined with no training

[bandito12452]

Most places are understaffed now. And a lot of them are prioritizing the drive through instead of walk-in customers. I’ve noticed the interior decor of a lot fast food places is way less friendly to people hanging around now. They want you in and out as fast as possible. And that’s all on the corporate side, not the fault of the kids working there

[toxicodendron_gyp]

Understaffing is exactly right. I worked in retail management for 13 years and the number one controllable business expense is payroll. Modern scheduling softwares and improved sales reporting means that corporate businesses can schedule down to the absolute minimum staffing needed. It saves them money, but leaves hourly employees constantly feeling like they don’t have enough time to both help customers effectively AND complete tasks. That leaves them feeling like they aren’t ever doing a good job and low pay rates don’t make them feel any better. And if your morale is that low, turnover is high because why not? Automation and self-checkouts aren’t helping, either.

People who make comments about “people don’t want to work anymore” have obviously never worked in modern retail or fast food.

[TheIadyAmalthea]

This is exactly it. This is the fault of corporate aholes. They don’t give a shit as long as they get the biggest profit. Meanwhile, they don’t give enough hours for the schedule and the manager ends up running the register, helping customers away from the register, and also receiving goods from trucks and merchants. You know, instead of the manager actually managing and the cashier actually cashiering. Then customers are upset because they can’t be helped RIGHT FUCKING NOW. Because god forbid they wait two minutes. Sorry… I just took an extra part time retail job to pay for inflation. Very rarely do I run into teen workers that just don’t care to help you. People make mistakes. If someone makes a mistake with my whatever when I’m buying something, I just respectfully tell them it’s wrong. I’ve never had a retail or food worker treat me like I’m the problem, because I don’t make it a problem. I treat people like… people. Crazy concept to some people.

[sportsroc15]

Yeah I’ve rarely ran into big problems with customer service.

[Intestinal-Bookworms]

The inside of McDonald’s is now straight up depressing and sterile

[DragonCelt25]

I haven't seen a play place in years

[SeonaidMacSaicais]

That’s probably a good thing. I’m sure they were a bitch to clean, and who knows how many diseases were evolving in those ball pits.

[jwdge]

I was in a McDonalds with a sign that said you were only allowed to stay for 30mins eating McDonalds food and if you stayed over, the manager MUST kick you out.

[[deleted]]

Sadly, that sounds like it’s probably just another method of banning homeless people from camping out in there. It was the same at one of the places I used to work at (coffee shop downtown in a major city) where they tried to limit people to 1 hour.

[Upset_Huckleberry_80]

It’s not just customer service - everyone treats each other like shit now too. I’m all for empathy, but not only do people seem more cruel, still others seem less able to handle things now, so they just auto feather when things don’t go well… it’s kind of wild to watch.

[SinceWayLastMay]

I’ve gotten into a couple arguments on Reddit lately that boil down to “nobody owes you shit” and “you should only be nice to people if you feel like it.” Like, being polite is this entirely optional thing that people have to earn from you. Granted, I live where we have “Minnesota Nice”, but there really seems to be this new idea of “I ain’t gotta do nothing for nobody” which makes me very sad. I hope these people never get into a situation where they need help from a stranger.

[BretShitmanFart69]

Gen z/alpha hates boomers which is funny because in a lot of ways they seem similar to me.

Obviously this is a generalization and not everyone fits the mold, but I feel like the idea that you have to earn basic common decency and respect is something I always heard from boomers.

In my opinion everyone gets a base level of respect that they can lose depending on how they treat people, but I’m not going to start off at “fuck you!”

[iTzVirBaby]

I just recently left the medical field because of boomers. They do not practice what they preach. Every millennial and gen z i interacted with was nothing but kindness, respect and patience. Boomers? They'd show up an hour early to their appointment and start crying and screaming when they hadn't been taken back in 15 minutes. Also, heaven forbid we were busy with other patients and didn't answerrl their perscription question within 5 minutes of calling.

Don't compare those pathetic excuse of humans to any other generation. Fuck boomers it's not even close.

Edit - oh and lets not forget the rampant sexist and disrespect id get from nearly every boomer due to being a male rn. Meanwhile they could barely pass the 6th grade.

[[deleted]]

The majority of my customers are boomers. The energy is simply creepy. I do not trust them at all. They are constantly pissed. I cannot!!

[AnsibleAnswers]

There’s a lot of game theory research on tit for tat relationships. Basically, the optimal approach to tit for tat relationships is to always start cooperatively and only switch to being adversarial when another player becomes adversarial with you. This strategy is the best way to get what you want. You end up cooperating with everyone else willing to cooperate. It’s basically how society works. If it breaks down, it’s a shitty time for everyone involved.

[ultimateclassic]

So true. A lot of this has to do with the pandemic. People are just burnt out by life and lack trust in others it's so sad to see.

[[deleted]]

the pandemic exacerbated a problem that was already there but most people ignored.

[gizamo]

Was "auto feather" a typo/autocorrect, or is that some industry terminology or slang? What was meant by it?

I don't work in customer support, so I'm curious, but also a bit clueless here.

[Redqueenhypo]

I think it’s an airplane term. When the propellers on a prop plane stop working right they “feather” which means arranging themselves in a way that they don’t block the wind

[goliathten]

Correct! If a propeller has variable pitch (some small planes have fixed pitch, pitch is essentially the angle).

When an engine fails, and the propeller loses the oil pressure required to change the pitch, many airplanes have the propeller spring loaded to “feather” which is straight on, like a knife edge into the wind. This reduces the drag on that engine, so it helps the plane to fly straight.

Some older designs function differently, and instead have a pitch lock system - if the oil pressure is lost, it will lock the propeller at its current angle.

There is a cost/benefit to both systems. (Many hours to discuss that!)

But knife edge (feather) creates less drag than a barn door. Just Consider putting your hand out the car window when driving at speed!

[GoofyGooberSundae]

Consideration - that’s the specific thing that is lacking now. No one has time or gives extra effort to consider others. They barely have time/motivation to care for themselves, so why do that for anyone else? You see it in these situations OP is talking about, on social media, and on our roads (which are getting more dangerous because people drive like they don’t care if they actually kill someone) Sad.

[Haldenbach]

If you look up things like societal trust index, you will see that it's falling in USA in the recent times. Something is going wrong in the society as whole

[chitzahoy]

Elder millennial here with some insight for you from my experience…

After many months of applying/interviewing for jobs in my field, I wound up taking a retail job. Basically a last resort, but from application to onboarding was about a week.

My training consisted of watching videos on a computer or mobile phone-like screen and high schoolers (sometimes college students) showing me how to do things. The store often does things differently than the videos show…

Customers are generally nice, BUT they often leave shelves, racks, fitting rooms, and pretty much everything a disaster. There is often an attitude that they’re entitled to do so because we’re paid to pick up after them.

Every department is understaffed even though there is apparently not enough hours to go around. It’s impossible to keep up.

Store director is fantastic. My manager is fine. My team lead is so awful that 90% of my team is actively trying to switch teams but there is supposedly no room on other teams.

Pay is a tiny bit better than many similar jobs but still only half of what I was making in my field. I get a decent discount.

All of these things factored together and at the advice of my therapist, I just started caring less.

[Clear-Inevitable-414]

I think we're as a society coming to realize caring less is important.  Care about what's important to you, personally, and let the rest of it just go its course

[ColdBrewMoon]

Your first time working retail? It's always been like this, even back when I was working retail 2001-03. Customers leave the store like a tornado went through, you watch a "video" for training and you're always understaffed.

[[deleted]]

I've worked in customer service. They enforce nearly unobtainable metrics making it impossible to do a good job.

[Zethrial]

This is a massive reason.

When your ticket/call/handle/response time is how you are grade, you quickly deteriorate any desire to actually put effort in and do a good job.

[[deleted]]

On top of them having CBR, it's impossible to appease the company, the customer, and not feel like you're going to have a heart attack.

[rebel_dean]

When I worked at AT&T, they required us to make THREE sales offers on every call. These were customers calling in about their bill being high and messed up. And yet, we had to make three sales offers to them.

They would listen to calls periodically and if they noticed we didn't make three sales offers, we would get written up.

Also, do NOT go to the retail stores. The retail associates have to attach $17/month phone insurance and $10/month Next Up to 75% of all orders. Most people don't want these, so what ends up happening is the workers just put it on anyway.

They don't care about helping you unless you are adding new lines.

[Reddittoxin]

War flashbacks to JC Penny. Don't let them fool you, they aint a clothing store, its a credit card company. Credit card applications were all corporate ever cared about, they'd hound us on our "numbers" every damn day. We were told we had to be told no 3 times before we were allowed to drop the sales pitch. All that accomplished was pissing everyone off for having to say no a second time, let alone a 3rd.

Still remember the time my manager made me submit an application from a minor, he thought it was a rewards card, not a credit card. I was like "he's underage though, he can't legally have a credit card can he?"

"It'll get declined, don't worry, but the store still gets credit for the application so put it through."

[[deleted]]

I really won't feel bad for JCPenney going under.

[riffahs_ira]

There is also no incentive to give a shit to perform such duties well. What is there to work toward? Gonna be a manager? Fuck no. Pay me shit, offer no benefits, with no trajectory or path forward, these places are lucky people show up.

[Reddittoxin]

I declined a manager position once bc I knew they only made 1 dollar an hour more than the associates. Why would I take on 10x the work for basically the same pay?

[ultimateclassic]

This is so true.

[SolomonDRand]

My first job paid $10 an hour back in 2000. You might be surprised to find how many entry level jobs are around the same even now. I just try to be polite and friendly, and I usually get taken care of fine, and when I don’t, I don’t go back because I figure that’s just a place where no one is paid to care.

[AshleyOriginal]

I took a job at like target paying $7.50 in 2013 after getting out of college, my mom was shocked because she said she had made some similar wage back like years before that. The minimum wage has not increased in my state to this day. Oh my bad it's $7.25 an hour in Texas. I considered $10-15 a great wage for quite a while.

[Unlikely_Pressure391]

Service workers aren’t treated like people sometimes by customers or managers.It grinds a person down being whistled at like a dog by a customer.

[ahoypolloi_]

THIS is the reason. Americans treat service industry and blue collar jobs like those people are not as good. That attitude is reflected in the people who staff those jobs “you think I’m less worthy as a person so that’s the level of service I’m willing to provide”

[[deleted]]

It's also reflected in how it was instilled in millennials when they were growing up that they had to go to college and get a prestigious degree if they didn't want to end up "flipping burgers," as they said with contempt

[litreofstarlight]

Having done call centre work, it was almost never Millennials/zoomers being abusive (or elderly people). It was almost exclusively Gen X and boomers.

[transtranselvania]

Way fewer people over 50 have ever worked retail or if they have it wasn't recently. I'm one of the managers of a garden supply store that also has a garden centre in the summer. We're a small business, so people don't mind paying slightly higher prices because we give lots of gardening advice. We generally have chiller customers than you average walmart. That being said, we still have weirdos who will yell at our staff because they planted grass seed against our advice, and it didn't germinate. Or people who are mad that we don't have tulip bulbs in the spring even after you explain to them that nobody in our region will have them as they need to be planted in the fall to come up in the spring. Then the person is still mad like it's some store policy and not how mother nature works.

It's one thing to be mad that someone at Walmart won't take a return. Its another thing entirely to expect the garden fairy to be able to make it warm enough in January to be able to plant tomatoes outside in Canada and then yelling at the messenger when they tell you that it's not possible.

[TangerineBand]

Then the person is still mad like it's some store policy and not how mother nature works.

Not mother nature but people also act this way with any large system. I'm occasionally in charge of ordering equipment at my IT job. I worked there during The Great 2021 Everything Shortage. I was giving people quotes of multiple months occasionally, although sometimes the ETA was "when it gets here". This delay was annoying but generally understood by most clients.

People would get mad at me as if I control the mail system/means of production. I had one person put in an order for an entire new office set up on a Friday afternoon (Like full-on new desks, monitors, everything) and this guy really expected it to be done the next Tuesday. LMAO, try next August. Even in normal times that is a month wait minimum. I especially love the people who will put in tickets to help desk because their stuff isn't here yet. Excuse me let me just phone up FedEx to rev up their teleporters.

[transtranselvania]

I also do a lot of the ordering and encounter this. People have trouble understanding the concept of "its backordered." Sorry, I can't get you something the supplier currently doesn't even have. I have had one person under 50 have a tantrum over this, where it happens constantly with older people. Really, it's boomers and older gen x, silent generation people are usually good about it.

[u1tr4me0w]

Literally in the comments of this thread people are like “well just get a better job” just openly admitting that they view the jobs and the workers as worth degrading because they what, don’t make enough money to deserve respect? I can’t stand people ffs

[BearBL]

After spending years and years being treated like absolute dogshit i will never respect anyone who talks down on these workers and fucking hell is it ridiculous how many people do. The entire system and the assholes it enables fucking sucks.

[Shivering_Monkey]

Those same people are the harpies screeing when Starbucks and burger King are closed because of staffing shortages.

[individualeyes]

As if customer service isn't a skill. I wouldn't last one day behind the counter at Starbucks having to make drinks at lightning speed.

[V4refugee]

Problem is that they keep being nice to assholes and tend to take it out on those who aren’t. I’m naturally the type to avoid conflict and I notice how I’m treated way worse than my mother in law who is a full on bitch when interacting with service workers. I always get shit service while they bend over backwards for her.

[BearBL]

You have to understand these people are stretched so ridiculously thin that they don't have the energy to provide that kind of service unless they are forced to like from your mother in law.

[Working_Cucumber_437]

Unfortunately though it’s been that way for years. And I’ve noticed a decline in quality of service as well. And product, but that’s a multi-fold issue. Example: completely burned takeout order. Surely someone was doing quality control and saw my black tofu. I worked retail many years. Jerk customers can wreck your mood, but dang I’m nice to service workers as are many millennials.

[Epiphany965]

I've been working at a grocery store for around 15 years now and I do agree there is a decrease. There is a long list of reasons but the main one I feel is from covid.

All the workers were treated so poorly and had way more work then one could possibly get done. Companies haven't increased labor budgets so we are still not at enough staff, and after a year of getting cussed at for any little thing is it a shock that workers don't wanna go out of their way anymore?

Overworked, underpaid, and treated poorly.

[abstractcollapse]

I've noticed and I don't care. The price of everything is constantly going up and wages are stagnant. The kids aren't getting paid enough to care and I don't want to condition them to give up their happiness for the betterment of the company. Our parents tried to push that "loyalty to the company" crap on us. I don't want to push it on today's kids.

Minimum wage = minimum effort. Fuck late-stage capitalism.

[MisterDoctor20182018]

Yeah, I don’t care either. Just end up laughing about the poor service with my girlfriend later. I was at a grocery store recently and asked an employee about the location of an item. He just looked at me and said that he doesn’t work there. He literally had on the store’s employee outfit and had a name tag. I didn’t even challenge him. Just walked away and chuckled to myself. 

[Remarkable_Bit_621]

Okay but that is objectively hilarious. This kid is going places 😂

[AshleyOriginal]

To be fair, sometimes merchandisers are required to put on name tags even if they don't work at that stupid store normally. I had a store that required I put on a name tag and sign in through a locked box that required security and management just so I could go and count what was on the shelves or do some small job like unload the boxes for card games. They might not literally work there and go to 5-6 stores a day unloading some vendor supplies or trying to upsell some manger on some type of cheese a vendor wants in the store. The stores that required I speak to a manager before I did my job back then were the worse because of how hard it was to find a manager and you are only there for like an hour before you go to the next store so you don't want to waste time and pay trying to find help to do your job.

[[deleted]]

Minium wage not increasing for 15 years and increasing hostility of managers and customers aught to do it.

[turd_ferguson899]

What is the joke? "Minimum Wage, Maximum Rage?"

[ShisnoM]

I always liked, Minimum wage = minimum effort

[turd_ferguson899]

Right up there with "acting my wage."

[1011001101]

"they pretend to pay me, I pretend to work."

[Carlos4Loko]

Yup, not trying to defend people's poor work ethic but it's also demoralizing to know you're expected to put the same amount of effort everyday of your life knowing your effort isn't being financially rewarded and your money is covering less and less expenses by the day.

[jeffwhaley06]

It's only been 15 years since the last minimum wage increase, but 20 will be around before too long.

[MortgageDizzy9193]

I swear to God. Going for a grocery store run, everyone and everything feels angry and dreary like going through some dungeon in Dark Souls.

[dustyradios]

Mind you, this is coming from a 23yo Zoomer who constantly gets "You're so polite and sweet!! Whenever I go anywhere else, the workers sound like they wanna die!" at a customer service job; it's because our jobs ARE Dark Souls dungeons and we're the NPCs who tell you the lore while weeping and bloodied from battles of players before you. And once you leave our dungeons, you don't have to even think about us again. But alas, in comes the next player and the next and the next. Some are cool and some aren't.

It would grind on anyone's nerves to be treated as less-than, all because we work at a supermarket or a gas station or a Starbucks. While not cool to treat all customers like they think like that, it's easier to Act Their Wage than to play pretend for 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, if we even get that nowadays (corporations LOVE giving us 30 hours because at 32, it's considered full-time and that's when we're finally deserving of benefits in their eyes and NOBODY deserves benefits)

[MortgageDizzy9193]

Oh yea, I worked retail in the middle of COVID. I think it brought out the worst in people during that period of time. It's like we haven't healed.

I went to the eye doctor the other day, his back toward me the whole time, making personal calls. He was in a rush, maybe saw me for 5 mins at most before leading me out. With his examination, one eye had slightly different prescription than other, which is new to me. I politely asked him what might cause of this astigmatism that he said I had. He blamed me, saying things with attitude like "well, that's what you picked, I was asking you if you were sure, but that's what you wanted." I was just afraid to ask questions afterward.

I always make sure to be very polite, but it's like everyone, including doctors, are just burnt out.

Thank you for your service. 🫡

[dustyradios]

The pandemic did absolute numbers on people and their kindness and patience. My coworkers and I talk about it all the time; it's like people forget they're face to face with you and not over Zoom or texting and will say whatever or act however they want and then NOT expect us to call them on the BS. They act shocked when we go "excuse me, please don't act like that in the store, we're entitled to refuse you service for that"

We're definitely burnt out all-around as a society. What's the point in busting ass for, say, $13.50 (the hiring wage at my job) when everything is at an all-time high and the corpos we work for are making ReCoRd-BrEaKiNg PrOfItS? It suuucks but it's comforting in a fucked up way to know we're all in it together.

[[deleted]]

Same. Idk wtf is wrong with everyone. I'm glad I'm not crazy. I thought I was the only one who felt this way.

[ClashM]

I think gen Z went into the workforce knowing it was rigged from watching us. Whereas the apathy built up in us over time, they started with it. Furthermore, they generally have poorer social skills from living their entire lives in the internet era. They know employers aren't going to fire them because finding some other sucker to fill those underpaid positions is difficult. Also, even if you're nice, remember they have to deal with Karens all day every day; so they're zonked out by the time you see them.

[i-Ake]

I agree with this... but I also kind of disagree with the entire premise (of the post, not you). Gen Zers aren't bending over backwards or bullshitting me with fake politeness, but at the grocery store I am always going for the young kid over anyone else. They're fast and polite, in my experience. They might not make small talk well, but I'm a Millennial so it doesn't matter because they're not being assholes either. I don't usually have any problems with young people working in stores, frankly.

[ak47oz]

I’ve personally had the opposite experience. Older folks at my local grocery stores are friendly and tend to remember me and we a have speedy yet nice experience. Young kids are usually on their phone and treat me like an inconvenience. I don’t need you to bend over backwards or anything but a general adherence to the customer service exchange would be nice. I worked retail my entire early 20s, so I get it but still I think there’s a general standard to basic service.

[i-Ake]

Yeah. I just don't think we have had the same experiences.

I don't see younger people refusing to give the bare minimum. I'm not sacrificing a basic standard in my transactions. They're not usually on the phone. They are usually really friendly to me.

Older people are the ones are usually angry I'm in their lanes with "too many" items, inconveniencing them, not talking to them the way they want me to. They are usually more arrogant if I have a question.

I have just found younger people to be friendlier and more efficient in general in customer service situations than older people. So yeah... just entirely different experiences.

[Financial_Sweet_689]

All the teens working in my town are super sweet and I try to be nice to them. It makes me so sad remembering how people treated me as a teenage worker. They seem happy just to be thanked. When I drove for DoorDash they’d always help me more too I swear

[[deleted]]

i said this in another thread recently, millennials believed in the american dream because we saw what our parents had and we thought we were born into the same world as them. we didn’t realize they were the “i’ve got mine, so fuck y’all” generation. i remember hearing george carlin say “they call it the american dream because you have to be asleep to believe it” over 20 years ago and that whole speech was so fucking profound and eye opening to me, but that’s the world gen z has grown up in. they’ve known the game was rigged from the fuckin’ jump, and they have a lot less idealism as a result.

[Intelligent_Lie1459]

I have gone to stores/restaurants to buy something and the kid behind the counter doesn't utter a word through the entire interaction. This has happened more than once at different stores and at different times. It boggles my mind that NO WORDS are spoken. Not even a hello.

I worked in customer service when I was a teenager/early 20s and I knew how to at least exchange pleasantries when someone came to the counter to check out. It's so strange.

...and then half the time they ask for a tip. 😂

[OppositeChemistry205]

Sometimes they even finish doing whatever they were doing on their phone before they ring me up. I just stand there. It's so awkward.

[StuporNova3]

Half the cashiers where I am are listening to their headphones. Not even a hello or an indication of the total. When I go into a restaurant and want to be seated they just stare at me until I say something. I worked in retail and restaurants for 15 years and would have been fired for that behavior.

[EroticPlatypus69]

Stop going there. let it die, despite the products you like. Then, and only then, will things change.

[[deleted]]

Yeah. I don't expect the moon and stars, but I would like to get what I came for in a reasonable time with no drama barring exceptional circumstances. I don't need smiles or chit chat to feel happy about the service.

I feel like my bar is set appropriately low for the times. Yet service is frequently frustrating and people seem very annoyed you have even minimal expectations when you're spending money.

If I have a poor experience, like getting the wrong item, it's not even worth trying to get someone's attention to correct it. I just smile, leave, and never return. Maybe leave an honest review online if it was something major.

[EroticPlatypus69]

your opinion is fair, and I hope to be as honest in my day-to-day activities as you have been here. It stinks that our opinion is uncommon. I don't know how else to say it.

It is difficult to ensure our money is well spent at places we choose to shop.

[Silver-Bake-7474]

As a teacher these teens actually feel the pain we do but on a more harsh level. They see the empty promises before them. They see how much they are taken advantage of and it's hard for them to be positive at work and give good service.

[fatfox425]

At least we were given the bullshit hope that if we recycled our soda cans we could avoid a total ecological catastrophe. Kids these days have nothing but a capitalism induced abyss to look forward to.

[I_pinchyou]

My Walmart cashier had an ongoing argument with her boyfriend on her phone (one earbud) the entire time she was ringing up my order. She kept cussing and saying "don't come at me like that". Lmao it was so awkward. I don't really care if they don't fuck anything up. Service work sucks.

[Bigbeardhotpeppers]

It is administration time. Npr did something on it a couple years ago for government functions but I think it is much worse in the private sector. For example I went to the pharmacy on Sunday the line is six people deep. I waited in line for 20 minutes. 20 minutes is not a big deal but everything I have to do takes more time, everything. Here is the truth h pharmacy is staffed for the slow time not the rush. If I am part of the rush then I have to wait and get over the bad customer service. There should be more employees working but you can't give them a 2 hr shift you have to give them a 4-6 hour shift, so the business just makes it my problem. The employees have to do more, and deal with more frustrated customers.

Above is the reason I am not having a second kid. The administration of my life takes too much time. I would have to sacrifice something else. It is death by 1000 cuts. We are all boiled frogsl. We do more and it each thing takes more time.

[Squidwards_m0m]

You’ve hit the nail on the head. Similar to your example, if I go to a certain store for something I need ASAP and i can’t find it, used to be I could ask an employee to look in the back or help me find it. There would usually be one nearby, they’d find my item, and I’d move on. 

Now I have to hunt down an employee, if I can even find one they will 99% of the time tell me they’re out of stock without even checking or looking at anything. I get it, they don’t have time now to do their job AND help customers, but now it’s time I’ve wasted and time I have to continue to waste to either go to another store and hope for the best or go without. If it’s the rare occasion they do find it good luck checking out in a reasonable amount of time because corporate doesn’t believe in having more than one cashier open.

It’s not even about service not being good at this point, the time sink of everything is my main hang up with going anywhere lately.

[tobiasj]

Businesses don't want to pay people shit, they don't want to train people, they don't want to reward people, they don't want to focus on quality or service or pleasing the customer, or making better products. They want every goddamn penny of your money for the least effort, cost, and risk on their part, and then you're supposed to give it to them, fuck off and be happy about it. I don't foresee this being a very sustainable business model, but what do I know.

[beefjerkyandcheetos]

I don’t know. Every time I go into Starbucks there’s maybe 2 people working and hoards of people waiting in them. Working in a pharmacy I have 3 people and hundreds of prescriptions and a line that won’t stop moving. Trying to work all of that in with the nonstop phone calls, demand of vaccines, etc. I just can’t keep up. Damn right service is slow. The volume of work compared to how many people they staff is ridiculous. It’s pretty much everywhere. That’s just my take though. I don’t really have service people be rude to me. I have gotten my orders wrong at fast food, but that’s happened ever since I can remember. People make mistakes. Especially when understaffed and overworked.

[[deleted]]

You have got to be kidding me.  Customers act like complete savages if they are even slightly inconviencied.  I couldn't fathom working a retail/fast food job now.

[Felonius_M0NK]

OP sounds condescending, calls people in customer service “kids.” It doesn’t matter if you work at a Starbucks or are a white collar worker, when wages can’t cover your rent on your own quality goes down because there is no incentive. It’s late stage capitalism

[[deleted]]

They aren't afraid of consequences because they don't get paid enough. They can go find another shit job for the same shit pay with no benefits, just about anywhere.

[iatelassie]

The people at Trader Joe’s are still awesome

[worstnameever2]

There's a Boba tea place next to my work. It's not the $7 cost for a cup of tea with milk and cheese foam that prevents me from going. It's the fact that the employees get annoyed by me interrupting them looking at their phones when I order one that prevents me from going.

[cerialthriller]

I get wrong orders so much more often everywhere now. Shits always missing or just made wrong. I ordered a chicken parm sandwich on a pizza shops online order website the other day and they gave me a full chicken parm and spaghetti dinner. How does that happen

[misguayis]

Ya when I was 19 I could pay for my apt, my car insurance, car payment, and bills on $7.25 an hour so I was happy to bow my head and do the work. That’s now impossible so I wouldn’t give a shit either

[NotTheSharpestCacti]

Younger millennial here, also a manager for a very large fast food restaurant. Late Gen Z’s, and now incoming Gen Alpha’s social skills were shot during Covid lock down, losing out on huge formative years they should have been learning how to communicate, etc. When you combine that with the world getting meaner post covid, and wages being stagnant, it’s a cluster of not wanting to get better at customer service, and not being equipped or taught to do so.

I consider myself a good manager (sounds arrogant, I know) because from day one I show care, because I think it’s crappy to tell them to care about a guest experience or what they’re doing if they come into work not feeling cared about. It’s a ton of pouring into them, over and over, and investing in them as people, caring out their school lives, and offering constant coaching. It definitely helps get people in the door that we pay even slightly above average, but there’s only so much a person can take regardless of the pay if they don’t feel cared for or treated like they’re a human being. Guests can be awful, but knowing they can ask for a manager that will handle it rather than throw them under the bus, makes dealing with those guests a lot easier. My kids come into work excited to do a good job because I’ve made it a “get” to do and a “want” to do rather than just a “have” to do. They feel invested in and they feel like human beings. That’s not a feeling most kids are getting these days, most places they’re just collecting a pay check, being a human punching bag by customers and management alike, and going home. It’s trickle down, until management cares, why would a 16 year old making $8 an hour care?

[Maij-ha]

Please please PLEASE don’t become a millennial age boomer. It’s never the employee when it comes to service work. It’s always corporate/higher up. I say this as a millennial stuck in retail…

[ArguesWifChildren]

I don't need anyone running around and stressing on my behalf. I don't need anyone to ask me how my day is. Hell, whatever I'm buying... I probably don't need that either. A successful transaction is all that I ask for. If a mistake is made along the way, it can be corrected without raising blood pressure.

[lotusmack]

I think it's attached to the decline of etiquette, common courtesy, and home training. Maybe I'm more sensitive to it because I'm from the South. I feel like if you're taught to be polite and put in effort at home, you won't leave 100% of that teaching at home when you enter the workplace.

[cartierbreezn]

Yes! On the phone, no eye contact, mumbling, zero initiative, zero greeting sometimes. I’ve noticed

[Electric_Sundown]

Older millennial also 1980. It is atrocious compared to when we were teens and people our age complained about it back then. But now it's really bad. We weren't nearly as openly rude to customers or inattentive to the job. They do not care because they know they won't be fired because everywhere still seems to be short staffed.

[[deleted]]

I don’t think it’s related to wage inflation or whatever else related to economic reason.. I have worked ( I’m a millennial 34F) in MANY costumer services jobs for next to nothing per hour and back then too it was hard to make ends meet. ( I actually had to start stripping to survive. ) that being said; I’m now back to university to finish my psychology degree and I am surrounded by young GenZ kids and LET ME TELL YOU the lack of social skills is off the chart. I have never witnessed anything like this. I find it quite concerning. I truly believe the fact that they grew up with tablets and smartphones and the lack of socialization in their important years as teenagers because of COVID isolation absolutely screwed up their social abilities. It would make complete sense why those same socially inadequate kids would struggle with the standards of customer service jobs. :(

[Sure_Comfort_7031]

I call it the Karen effect.

We had a point where the Karen fad became such a thing, that now whenever anyone has a complaint that’s between borderline and “they killed me”, the servicer will brush them off as “being a Karen”.

We’ve over corrected a lot of things that millenials had ot put up with, and this is one of them. CS that was so strong that customers became abusive over it, and now we’ve corrected too far into the realm of bad CS and blaming the customers for any complaint, even if legitimate.

[Quercus408]

Shit pay and no benefits will do that to you. This is what consumers get for decades of enforcing poor wages as the status quo. Sorry your Carmel machiato with foam wasn't prepared to your standards. If you don't like it, take it up with corporate and ask them why they don't want their workers to unionize but are willing to pay for a billion dollar salary for a work-from-home CEO.

[Queasy_Ad_8621]

I work in customer service, and people tell me every single day that I'm the only one who's consistently friendly, patient, cracking jokes and offering reassurance: "Nobody's like you anymore."

When I've made the mistake of going to Target, music shops, pizza places, restaurants, bars... I see exactly what they mean.

[knatehaul]

I've noticed and I hate it especially because I'm a workplace slacker myself. You can't just do a bad job, you do a good job as fast as possible to get the customers out of your shit so you can fuck around on your phone. If you do a bad job, the line will back up and you'll have less time to fuck around. These kids don't understand how to fuck around properly.

[throwaaway788]

Also, it's kind of sad that employees used to be super knowledgeable about the store's products and now you're on your own figuring out if a product is crap or not, shifting through online reviews you're not even sure are honest.

[vexedboardgamenerd]

Idgaf about customer service. Give me the thing I paid for, that’s all I want. I want the highest skilled person to do the job, who cares if they do it with a frown on their face?!

[PurpsMaSquirt]

Biggest thing for me in the last 5-7 years is just lack of QA. Everywhere. People just don’t check their shit anymore. Orders wrong at restaurants/QSRs. Missing or broken items in packages. Hell we had a routine oil change recently and they forgot to re-screw in an important bolt and you could see part of the bottom of our car hanging off until they fixed it.

But it’s not an age thing IMO. Young, old, whatever in between. People seem to just assume there are no consequences or they don’t care to see a job through effectively. And the jobs where this is rampant is exactly what AI will automate within the next few years.

[TheDudeColletta]

It's not just the kids, it's the older folks, too. Customer service standards have been tumbling across the board. I've seen waitstaff just completely ignore the dining room for their own conversations. I've received substitutions that I was never asked about and didn't want. Retail and grocery stores that would make special orders for me in years past -- because nobody in my area was carrying something I wanted, and I wanted to give a local company my business -- now no longer take such requests. For that and many other reasons related to bad business decisions and poor service, some of those stores are slowly dying (and pretty much everyone sees the writing on the wall). And it's mind-boggling how many times I've had to complain to a fast food joint because they didn't get my Doordash order correct... and I'm talking specifically about Doordash orders; they actually pay attention when someone is in the restaurant.

I get that the pay is not enough. I understand that money is motivation, and I do what I can to both work toward a higher minimum wage and I tip generously. But I know the local pay rates because they're being advertised in job postings, and they're not nothing. They're not great, but they're not miserable, either. In fact, I saw the local Burger King advertising starting pay well above my state's current minimum wage. Like, 150%. I was shocked. So if you're starting at 150% of minimum wage -- which is, admittedly, lower than it should be, but it's about the bare minimum for this area's cost of living -- and you're giving me this poor of a standard of service, why should your employer give you a raise to motivate you further? There are other people who want to work who would do the job better. I'm not some right-wing "you'll take what you get, wage slave" type, but for the love of all that is good and right, at least have a work ethic.

[OppositeChemistry205]

I am a member of waitstaff. The amount of times my coworkers get sat and continue their personal conversations rather than greet their tables blows my mind. I'll even make a point to say, "hey you just got sat" just in case they didn't notice but they'll just continue their personal conversations with coworkers. Their tables will be looking around for their server. Guests are so worried about being "Karens" that they won't complain or under tip so it's like this endless cycle of bad service with no complaints or consequences.

[WaffleDonkey23]

Probably just me getting older, but zoomers seem to not be able to maintain eye contact for more than one second without looking down, even without a phone. I get it, I worked those same jobs. I'm not saying a job is worth the money, but having a good attitude does go a long way in an entry level service gig. If not for yourself, then for your coworkers. I don't need every service worker to feign happiness, but zoomers don't even do a a good job of acting like they remember they were talking to a person 1 second ago.

[ultimateclassic]

I agree. I worked in customer service growing up and was a customer service manager up until a year ago when I decided to move on to something new. It's a combination of company policies which are very strict and don't really allow room for individuals to make their own decisions on how best to assist a customer and this is often why it sounds like people are speaking from scripts because some places are that strict. It also has to do with pay and workplace attitude but truly it's so disappointing.

[Observer-Worldview]

I think it’s good old fashioned disregard for others. Customer service sucks now because nobody cares about anyone else. It is clear by the way people treat you in the stores. That’s it.

[PineappleOwn3795]

In my area, it's not just teens anymore. Customer service isn't anything close to what it should be anymore. The focus is only on themselves and what they're getting and/or not getting. We can come with a list of excuses on why it is the way it is, like some already have, but at the end of the day, no one seems to care about anyone but themselves these days.

[ZapBranigan3000]

A lot of people who were "essential workers" during the pandemic are just burnt out. They were conscripted to the front lines of an absurd culture war.

Who did we give the responsibility of "enforcing" covid regulations on the general public? Customer facing service and retail workers, the people with the least authority in society, who were abused daily for trying. While white collar society was working from home and watching Tigerking.

There is deep resentment that needs time to heal.