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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   34139 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 12, 2025

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But you are not their neighbor. That implies they know you already. You are a stranger. A potential customer. This is their place of work, not a place to make friends. As an ex customer service worker myself I really want to stress this. People suck to deal with. The workers generally don't want to make friends with you. They want you to engage in the transaction that they are being paid for, so they can earn their money and go home.

To be fair, this is not the case at all times and in all places. It generally corresponds with scale and culture, and is much more the case in a big-chain shop than it is the case in, say, a little tea shop in a small town.

It generally corresponds with scale and culture, and is much more the case in

Absolutely it can I agree. But even in a small tea shop in the Cotswolds if you go in, and ask them how the labor relations are between management and staff, after saying you don't want to buy anything, I'm not sure you'll get much of an answer.

Oh, yes. I meant the propensity for idle chat / relationship-forming, and the baseline emotional response to customers.

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