Any other customer service people having a significantly shittier time lately?

... Dude. People are so fucking rude right now. Like jfc, who raised these people. No one deserves this kind of shit, service industry or not. If you need someone to gripe at, you're welcome to leave a comment if it helps. (I also have terrible social anxiety that the pandemic has made worse so I totally get that, omg. I was wiping everything down at one point that came into the house. Went without gloves once back at the start, came in and had an absolute breakdown because scrubbing my hands almost raw wasn't clean enough.)

BUT.

As for music, I'd highly recommend something along dark electro/cyberpunk. Hyper, OwlVision, Ocillian, chunks of the Ruiner OST, just take your pick. Loud and very bass heavy.

God it’s so weird right now, I wish everyone would just understand that we’re all going through a global trauma and have a little patience! siiiighs Alas. I appreciate the open offer for rants, my social anxiety also tells me “don’t reach out!” hahah but the sentiment is much acknowledged and appreciated. I debated pretty hard whether to even make a thread but I just neeeeeded it, and a thread I made feels like the one place I can just talk abt me hahah

In regards to washing up.. lol, I just washed my entire arms in the sink bc it somehow became 9:30pm and I need to shower but also know I should eat first lest I become dizzy as hecc and just having clean hands didn’t feel clean enough. tbh my handwashing has probably tripled, and I go through nearly a whole box of gloves in one workday. Hand sanitizer immediately before and after going anywhere. Suddenly am uncomfortable sitting on the ground. And that’s.. weird for me. Because outside the context of the pandemic I never worried about germs at all.

Hey, the offer's there. c:

Everything's so weird right now, why not address the anxiety weirdly too.

Gotta use hand sanitizer because you touched the new things of Clorox wipes that you just opened to wipe down the bottle of hand sanitizer. Shit like that. The spray hand sanitizer still does wonders for easing my own anxiety when I bring in soft surfaced things that I can't immediately wash. I wore gloves going out, changing for each store because I was driving myself around and touching the steering wheel while gloved was absolutely a no go, until the weather got really hot here. Having little pools of hand sweat in the fingertips of gloves defeated the purpose. XD

Before the pandemic, I still used hand sanitizer - once when the errands were done - and washed my hands when I got home. Now it's like, "I cannot touch anything, Mother, I shall contaminate EVERYTHING. Including myself." Then stand there like a surgeon with their hands up while the hand sanitizer dries.

Pools of sweat in the gloves, too real XD honestly whatever makes ya feel better, tbh. I'd be lying if I said I didn't sanitize my hand sanitizer bottle XDD

"Why not address the anxiety weirdly too" is an oddly inspirational phrase, like all the validation in the world for having been so completely and utterly fucked these past few months. tbh although the pandemic has multiplied our anxieties, I'm proud of us both for taking it seriously and protecting ourselves and those around us! Carefulness is the right move.

Heat said no. XD But hey! InSpIrAtIoN! I'll take it. XD

... Not to get too onto the topic of being careful but the main inspiration for me, for that, is I had to watch a parent on a respirator for a week and a half nearly. It's not an experience I want to repeat. Ever.

That’s a very good reason to be careful <3 I hope carefulness has eased your anxieties somewhat!

I’m taking a week off work for my crisis, think that’s a healthy idea.

casually replies 2 days later

I also had the symptoms of Covid-19 myself way back in October. Like take a symptom, ask me if I had it, I'll probably answer yes.

Sounds like a good plan to me. A mental health week.

(Dude, I'm so bad with reply times on forums. It's laughable.)

PREACH! I work for Kroger as the Food Service Manager for Deli/Bakery and it is hell on Earth!

Edit: [useless angry rant removed] Sorry, I'm just so frustrated. I'm not even an optimist and somehow I still thought the world would turn out better than this...

tbh the fact that the virus can be asymptomatic, combined with how many people take trips around the world every day, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was slowly working its way around for a while.

2 more workdays left til my week off XD another late reply but alas, I didn’t wanna read my own post hahah

Does your state/store have a mask mandate?

Also same, I never could’ve expected.. this. It’s really making me cynical about human nature. Well, not as like an inherent “good and bad” kind of way, but like, the way that people will let their survival instincts turn them into monsters that lash out at other people, without ever acknowledging that they’re experiencing a fear response/anxiety at all. It’s like a fucked up social experiment in real time.

Lol sorry, nah, I deleted it for pretty much the same reason you put yours in a spoiler. I didn't want to read it again or have anyone else actually read it, for that matter...I was just in a really salty mood and decided to shout about it right here. But you didn't deserve to read all my negativity (it wasn't directed at you, of course, but still). I was just commiserating with you and complaining about stupid people and a stupid, broken system. The pandemic and politics are making me bitterly angry, hateful and hopeless and I don't want to be that way. I've always been on the cynical side but this is toxic af.

Anyway, thanks for doing all the right stuff and I'm really sorry you have to put up with all that BS.

Well I’m glad you recognize that your feelings are crossing over into the toxic zone, that’s really important to be aware of! If you do need to rant that’s quite alright too, each new day brings a little more BS (with both the pandemic and politics, absolutely—do you live in the US too?) so it makes sense that you’re angry. tbh if you weren’t at least a little angry I’d be concerned lol. It’s healthy to talk about those feelings so truly, this thread is open if ya need to!

It is soooo hard being naturally cynical during all this.. potential trigger for mild s**cidal thoughts under the spoiler, no pressure to read—

It’s just crazy cuz I express my anxieties at work (not quite in so many words) and people will say, “just breathe,” “yeah people are rude huh,” weird normal replies like that and I feel like, how is everyone else handling this like it’s normal at all? (Rhetorical question, it’s mental illness, that’s why I’m like this lolol but howwww??)

gives everyone virtual hugs from NY

I truly give anyone who has to deal with face-to-face customer service credit to where it's due. I honestly cannot fathom how much patience you must have when dealing with a-holes on a daily basis. Seriously, how hard is it to be polite to someone? A simple "Thank you," or holding open the doors to a McDonald's brings a smile to people's faces (believe me, it does work.) Living in the hardest-hit state during this time was so surreal - working from home since March but started to travel back to work once a week since maybe mid-June...my boss said maybe I should come in twice a week and I basically told him that I don't feel comfortable doing that and he was cool about it. He knows that my dad was hospitalized with COVID-19 (thank God he recovered but he did develop AFIB from it along with losing his sense of smell/taste every now and then) and I also had it but not to such a serious extent that my dad experienced it.

Anywho, the bottom line before I get off track again is one word: GRATITUDE. It's not such a hard thing to express, people, especially when there are others who are putting themselves at risk just so you can be comfortable and safe.

Oh yeah. I work tech support and I feel like people are starting tickets just to take out their frustration and social isolation. They want you to call them, and then just end up trying to talk about the pandemic with you and I'm like... Okay I need to be helping other people right now bye!

My friend works customer service (so does everyone else I mention in this post except for me) and it's been a mixed bag for him. Most people are cooperating with the mask ban and wearing their masks inside stores and workplaces. Except for bars. And restaurants, as of DeSantis lifting the ban a few days ago.

We know there's no choice that most of us have in our state other than (1) get out or (2) ride out the wave while being in contact with as few people as possible. That means less runs to the corner store and more making things at home. I've accepted that I also can't risk going back to work anywhere that isn't remote, as I have had 25 years of untreated celiac that I haven't had a colonoscopy for yet and I've just now reached the point where I can lift more than 30 pounds.

That also means I have to treat my social media marketing for my small business like a full-time job, typing for 40 hours a week while I'm not streaming. I never get to rest and put my phone down. We're breaking even but the good part is that I can leverage the 'clout' I'm getting to help a couple local small businesses (who make stuff I can't produce).

Basically, I'm trying to help a bunch of people who are working jobs that aren't paying living wages develop side hustles. We're all trying to work together to pull ourselves out of this. People are starting to notice that the quality of things that they're getting from Amazon and chain stores are going down and are warming up towards the idea of buying things online.

My partner has his vacation for the first time in 4 years this week and he's going to use part of that time to produce more designs for the store, too.

I've been working with to make ear savers for her masks, and people are weird about designing masks, too. People don't want to wear them and a lot of people are so crushed by the pandemic that they can't even work towards solutions to the problem of uncomfortable PPE. Her masks have come a long way in the past couple of months and have been more comfortable than anyone else's that I've tried.

We've got custom comic-book masks in a storefront, now, too, which is nice.

I'm afraid that until this crap with the masks is over, people will act even more shitty to workers in your position. :( some 2 nights ago, i was at the corner store to buy some extra stuff, and this guy came in with no mask apparently. In Romania, we're not allowed in public transportation or stores and clinics without a mask on. There are signs everywhere. Doesn't matter you stay in 2 seconds. So, the cashier told him to put a mask on or she won't be selling him anything. and he refused, and he caused a whole scene. Scenes of any kind are not that common, but they do happen. The funny thing is that he actually had the mask with him, maybe pulled under the chin or something. Long story short, he called the customer support line or something, for the store, even though he was wrong! the nerve of that guy! if i heard this story from some other by-stander, i wouldn't have believed it! His reasoning was that he was staying for less than 5 minutes and that he's a bit crazy! >.> well, guess what? even the homeless put that thing on their faces if they want to go in the store. cashiers refuse to sell to unmasked people. Most stores have security guards that check the temperature of the clients and don't let you in without your face covered. Only in the drug store you can go unmasked to buy a mask (or more).

I'm sorry you're having to deal with so many twatwaffles. I really can't believe how people treat service workers sometimes. Seriously, do they not realize that without these people they wouldn't be able to literally live their lives and get their stupid overpriced food and coffee and shit?

I'm not working right now, although I've worked in the service industry before, and I hated other humans during that time. I could totally be employed right now, but I can't stomach going back to food service or retail.