Have you ever witnessed an altercation at your place of business, and wondered if that is normal to do to people? It’s always a weird feeling seeing harassment take place in a place you’re very comfortable being in and being around those people. Never knowing when to jump in or what's going to happen next, your body almost freezes at the sight of what's going on. Seeing someone scream at my manager and tell her to take it outside, my body froze up and all I could do was watch.
Waiting close to 25 minutes for your food at a fast-food place is not normal, but when the line is to the street it is. A women saw the line was to the street but continued to get into the line knowing it would take a while. On this day, we were very short staffed only having 3-4 people working a 6-person job. We were already very behind on the targeted time for the day.
On a website called everfi it stated, according to recent research from SHRM, workplace incivility is on the rise, with 66% of US employees saying they had experienced or witnessed incivility in the month before the survey was conducted—57% said they had experienced or witnessed it in the prior week. This is to high of a percentage and should definitely be 0%. No one should have to experience anything harmful in their workplace and should enjoy their day at work.
I always wonder what goes through people's heads whenever they are yelling at someone. Do they not understand that some people, even when they try their hardest, just might not be enough to satisfy your expectations, but that doesn’t mean you have to take your anger out on them. People need to learn to cope with their anger, calming themselves down and relaxing over a little inconvenience that could easily be turned around and made into something that works. Talking and listening to each other and actually understanding what's coming out of the other person's mouth can solve a lot of problems.
I understand that the customer is always right, but what if they aren't right. Us as the workers of the establishment have to go through countless training exercises and take classes just to be told we are wrong? We know more then anyone when it comes to our place of work, so how can the customer always be right when they know nothing about what they are ordering.
If the wrong thing is said and someone feels threatened, I feel the workers should be able to fight back. Standing for what’s right is the best thing you can do as long as your safe. If people work together the world would work so much smoother. People try to fight to solve problems and that isn’t the way anything should be solved.
How this can be prevented is the question all the workers that have seen or gone through this type of problem have been asking. There are many ways I found to prevent verbal harassment in the workplace on a website called workplace fairness. Some of them are start training the employees for times where they will experience harassment. Regular training sessions can help employees and management recognize, prevent, and respond to harassment. Another way to prevent harassment is creating policies for whenever anyone thinks a customer is harassing them or one of their co workers. Employers should create and enforce comprehensive anti-harassment policies that define unacceptable behaviors and outline reporting procedures. There are many ways to prevent this from happening, but many just dont put the time or effort in to do it.
People inside that building do not want to get yelled at more than they already do. Their boss or manager definitely yell at them enough as it is and if someone else does then they might stop working as hard or even worse they might quit the job. A lot of what employees look forward to in the day is talking to the customers and just having a good time with someone they've never met before. Driving around that corner and immediately yelling and screaming, just being in a bad mood is something no one ever looks forward to.
In my experience, a women waited close to 30 minutes for some food. We had 4 people working the shift and weren't getting any of the food out on time, but no one complained since we are trying our best. The women call the store while in line to get her food, telling us to hurry up and she has stuff to do so we should’ve had her food out to her already. It was her time up at the window and before we could open the window she was already yelling and screaming at us. Saying things like, you guys are making me late, I can’t believe i had to wait in this line, hurry up, and the worst one of all we can take this outside and solve it that way. Saying these things to a fast-food worker try their hardest is unexceptional. We are simply doing our job at the best of our ability. When she saw how long the line was, she could’ve kept driving and went on with her day but instead she wanted to ruin other people’s day instead.
If any harassment of any kind is ever happening to you, there is always someone or multiple people willing to talk it out with you and stop whatever is happening. I found a website called synthro that helps identify and respond to harassment issues. Even if you don’t know if it’s harassment, reach out just to verify. You never know what you may be dealing with, and it’s better safe then sorry.
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