Customers are always right, or so they say. Retail workers always put customers first but what about the times when the customer is in the wrong? Jaanvi Nayee looks at a new campaign to protect staff from abuse and talks to those in the front-line suffering from unwanted and frightening advances.
Monica just wanted a student job to help with university rent. She did not expect to be traumatised by the people she would be serving.
The 21-year old from Portugal, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, works at a bar in London and experiences abuse at almost every shift.
“Harassment from customers in this place and environment is daily, and especially during the night, it happens multiple times in just a couple of hours. Not only physically but verbally and mentally.”
Her experiences are shocking and sickening.
In an interview with The Hillingdon Herald, she said: “There is a big variety of harassment, starting from trying to give me money to go dance with them, following me everywhere during my break, touching me when I have to pass in the middle of the club, waiting for me at the end of my shifts outside, trying to get my number and social media - and when the answer is no getting extremely mad and trying to come inside the bar, cat calling, mocking me/abusing me verbally when I’m doing entries at the club and their ID are not correct enough for making them enter or their friends enter, and much much more. These are just the daily ones.”
She says it is extremely difficult to even ask for help in this sort of situation, especially if security haven’t seen any incident happen.
However, help from another quarter may now be at hand - in the shape of a campaign introduced in 2020 in order to protect retail workers from this sort of abuse.
The Union of Shop Distributive & Allied Workers is campaigning for better legal protection for retail staff. The union wants to see a new law with stiffer penalties for those who assault workers.
When this comes into play, the hope is that retail workers will feel so much safer because in current times, there seems there is not very much they can do to protect themselves when situations arise.
Monica went on to explain more about dealing with harassment.
“When it comes to this kind of harassment, it is very hard to deal with it. We only have five hours of work, and both the bar and entries are super busy where no one can wait and things have to be done quickly. Although multiple times I called security, and explained to them the situation, they never really acted on it properly, and even though my boss says that ‘I don’t need to take crap from anyone’ unfortunately if that was the case, most people/guys wouldn’t come inside the club.”
Meanwhile, a young restaurant worker, who will also remain unnamed to protect her identity, says she has had to “deal with such rude and verbally abusive customers".
She said: "Harassment or abuse from customers happened much more when I first started out because I would try to explain that I was new and didn’t know much yet but they just wouldn’t understand any of that and they wouldn’t care that we are under a lot of pressure from managers.”
For young people especially, speaking to workers in such degrading manners can severely damage their mental health.
The restaurant worker, who is aged 17, said: “We also have delivery drivers who are so rude and have no regard for our personal space. We have to take their order numbers to pack the right order and give it to them and once this man just refused and shouted at me, telling me to get the food which I physically couldn’t do without the order number. He started to swear at me quite loudly in front of many customers. The verbal abuse in fast food is insane. Of course we do get other types of abuse from customers but for me specifically, I suppose I have been luckier than my colleagues to only be verbally harassed and abused.”
She added: “From customers, the abuse is usually from people who come in really early in the morning or really late at night and they just treat you like you are rubbish. Getting paid £7.50 to deal with so much verbal abuse from customers is just not enough and we as workers do not deserve that, especially working in such a fast paced environment with so many responsibilities. The managers can either make the shift amazing or dreadful but for me, working at the front counter means I have to deal with all sorts of customers. I once tried to help a customer because her chips were cold and when I sorted it out, later she came over to the counter and shouted at me in front of everyone.
"I have a lot of mental breakdowns when this sort of thing happens and the only reason I stay is because I make so many friends and one of the saddest things is to see them leave. Of course money helps but even over 18 year olds barely get paid minimum wage so what we have to deal with, especially from customers, is just not worth it.”
As sickening as it is, the situation for retail workers can become so much worse. Monica gives some examples below. “I’ve had people follow me after my shift home”.
She said she had to get escorted to safety “and no actions were taken after this event, which was very traumatic. It’s important to remember that when it comes to students everyone excuses everything. ‘They were drunk, they are sorry’ , and then it’s fine. But unfortunately it’s never fine for those who are being harassed, because it just sticks with us.”
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