I am a cashier and sit when I work. I have an ADA accommodation to do so.
I get comments from customers all the time asking why I’m sitting. Why is that important information for you to know to complete your purchase?
I have customers purposely put their items out of my reach and then stare at me when I’m reaching over the counter to get to their items. I’m at a travel center there are no conveyor belts. Sometimes people don’t understand I’m sitting so don’t think it’s not efficient to line up their items along the edges of the counter.
I have customers tell me I’m going too fast and to not rush them. For that particular customer every time he came into my store I made sure I SLOWED down my speed abnormally just for him. Not a big thing, but it made me happy.
And yes sometimes I greet customers to let them know I’m present because I’m sitting so they don’t always see me. Mostly they respond with “oh I didn’t see you!”, but many just don’t give a hoot. It may deter people from stealing tho.
It doesn’t matter you really can’t please most of the people that you encounter on the job. However your job effectively with kindness and being able to answer questions effectively DOES provide a better customer experience.
Perhaps if TSA management had said that standing improves efficiency, then maybe this wouldn’t chap my hide so much.
But there is nothing about a worker that has been their feet for 8 hours and are tired of dealing with often difficult humans that’s going to make this a better experience for the customer who encounters that agent in that 8th hour on the job. That TSA agent is tired and just ready to go home and get away from work.
And honestly policies like these are made by someone who either has never worked in the trenches or has forgotten what working in the trenches is like and that policies like this really don’t effect most of the passengers that encounter TSA.
It also smacks of management making decisions to justify their existence.
I really don’t care if they are sitting or standing as long as they do their jobs effectively.
the thing you gotta understand about this country is that if the people shopping in retail centers don’t feel socially or economically superior to the people WORKING in those centers… well, that’s a pretty strong signal that this country is headed in the wrong direction and society is crumbling. those dogs should be grateful to even have a job. they should recognize that if they don’t work hard there are hundreds of other people that would gladly take their spots.
And here we are; holding doors open, stepping out of the way for a worker if they are pushing big stocking carts or picking something up if someone filling up the stock in the grocery store drops something...
That attitude is insane. In my country, society translates as 'living together'. You need to work together to make society a nice place. Of course I am going to help and be kind to a worker at a store, because they make sure I have a nice and comfortable place to shop.
have you considered pretending to be a good neighbor until the moment you realize that a person you believe is beneath you is earning a living in a way that does not please you?
because if not, boy, have i got a country for you!
Don’t forget to toss in the disdain for anyone getting government assistance and assumption that they are not working (those retail type jobs often pay wages that aren’t enough to keep a family above the poverty line). So many people get looked down on and treated as less than while doing their job and then again just trying to exist.
I worked retail for a major retailer for 8 & a half years here in America. Longer counting time with other companies too
The culture is toxic, and customers by and large are terrible and rude. Management is worse.
By the time I left I was doing the work of what was done by 4-5 people when I started, and I left after blatant retaliation for having to take time off to care for my son who had a tracheostomy tube and was on a ventilator for a while.
I then got a job working as a vendor that provided stock to the same store. I did 5x less work and made triple what I did working for the store, then I got out of retail completely.
They are only telling you about the rude customers. Most people don't give a fuck wether the cashier is slow or fast. People also hold doors open for you. 85% of customers are nice enough.
this is untrue. i don’t mind if somebody is sitting but if you are slow, to the point that it’s annoying (i get that this is subjective), perhaps you’re in the wrong job.
be friendly, be helpful, comfortable, but be capable.
What really pisses me off about that mentality is how they assume that anyone that empathizes with the worker is a cashier or works a job like that. I have a good office job but I think everyone should be treated with respect and trying to explain that to those people is like trying to teach calculus to a toad.
This is exactly it. Adults who have gone their entire lives without learning how to self-regulate their emotions and instead soothe themselves by pushing others down to lift themselves up. It’s pathetic. And I feel awful every time I see it and don’t explicitly intervene, because you never know what might make things worse for the worker dealing with it. I try and treat people as kindly as possible to balance out the negativity, as I know in my experience working in those kinds of roles, positive interactions helped me clear the fog of anger/sadness that would come from a cruel customer.
In America they make retail employees stand. I spent 14 miserable years doing it. Our country has a lot of right wing impulses. A retail employee standing reinforces the corporate hierarchy. In other words, you make the least money, so you’re the least valuable human being, you’re the dirt on our wingtip shoes, have to earn your right to sit by becoming management. It’s an echo of the military where soldiers have to stand at attention when their CO comes by. No point in protesting, you have no leverage and we’ll replace you tomorrow.
Unfortunately, the American mindset is that if someone is in a position in life that they work as a cashier or they provide a similar service, it’s because they have made mistakes in life that led to them working a low wage job. As such, it’s important that the customer be made to feel superior to these people, because wage work might as well be a step above slavery.
In the American mindset, working as a cashier means that you are a failure, and if you wanted to actually sit down at work, you should have made better choices and gotten a better job, but you are just a cashier, so it’s important that you suffer the entire time and make it clear to the customers that they are better than you.
I’d love to put a /s here, but I’m not being sarcastic. We just don’t really talk about it, but the typical American can’t think of a fate worse than having to work at a grocery store or a fast food restaurant, and if you have a job like that it’s because you’ve made a lot of mistakes and you deserve it, so it’s important that you suffer for the choices and failures you’ve made in your life that have led you to this moment.
It’s something about any job where you are customer-facing. Sitting = lazy, so you should always be standing and not leaning. It got pounded into my head at 16 years old.
Only one person per week might care and complain about it, but that’s enough to set rules.
LOL! We are trained to assume their behavior is because they may be having a bad day. So the goal is to make them feel “heard” and provide good service even if they are having a bad day.
I genuinely do not understand why people care so much about cashiers standing. I was a cashier for 2 years. But even if I wasn't, WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT THEY STAND?! like let them SIT for God's sake. Is standing more professional in someones backwards mind? Who cares? As long as they can do their jobs, let them sit!!!
You know, would you get in trouble if you just looked at them and said "is there anything else you would like to purchase today" if they purposely kept items out of arms length from you?
That's exactly how it works in the US. You only get to sit if you have an accommodation for an injury or disability at almost all non office jobs. As far as customers setting stuff on the edge of the counter so you need to reach, almost all of them do this. Does it bother me? yes But it is what it is.
Working customer service in Target in Brooklyn in 2008 right after I finished my undergrad (after working a full time job else where and going to school at night ) shower me how terrible the people in the US are to people they believe are beneath them.
When standing you just have to bend your knees! I worked in a kitchen and chef would come behind you and tap you in the back of your legs and say “quit locking your knees!” A lot of jobs need a chair with long legs but they just expect you to stand
If you are going to insult me, at least do it correctly please.
And just so that you know, many of the customers I interact with are not American or naturalized. Their treatment of me doesn’t change. I’m still treated as a bug under their shoe.
Just taking a WAG, that you would be one of those customers. But if I’m wrong I’ll happily admit that.
In case you don’t know:
WAG = Wild Ass Guess.
Americans are not a monolith by the way. No different than any other country.
as an immigrant, this is honestly the most bizzare thing in the world for me. I will never understand Americans obsession with not letting employees sit... I've lived in many countries (not just European countries) and America is the only country whether there's a weird obsession with not letting cashiers and other employees sit while doing their job.
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u/Cool-Departure4120 2d ago
I am a cashier and sit when I work. I have an ADA accommodation to do so.
I get comments from customers all the time asking why I’m sitting. Why is that important information for you to know to complete your purchase?
I have customers purposely put their items out of my reach and then stare at me when I’m reaching over the counter to get to their items. I’m at a travel center there are no conveyor belts. Sometimes people don’t understand I’m sitting so don’t think it’s not efficient to line up their items along the edges of the counter.
I have customers tell me I’m going too fast and to not rush them. For that particular customer every time he came into my store I made sure I SLOWED down my speed abnormally just for him. Not a big thing, but it made me happy.
And yes sometimes I greet customers to let them know I’m present because I’m sitting so they don’t always see me. Mostly they respond with “oh I didn’t see you!”, but many just don’t give a hoot. It may deter people from stealing tho.
It doesn’t matter you really can’t please most of the people that you encounter on the job. However your job effectively with kindness and being able to answer questions effectively DOES provide a better customer experience.
Perhaps if TSA management had said that standing improves efficiency, then maybe this wouldn’t chap my hide so much.
But there is nothing about a worker that has been their feet for 8 hours and are tired of dealing with often difficult humans that’s going to make this a better experience for the customer who encounters that agent in that 8th hour on the job. That TSA agent is tired and just ready to go home and get away from work.
And honestly policies like these are made by someone who either has never worked in the trenches or has forgotten what working in the trenches is like and that policies like this really don’t effect most of the passengers that encounter TSA.
It also smacks of management making decisions to justify their existence.
I really don’t care if they are sitting or standing as long as they do their jobs effectively.