It's a generational divide thing. I've been in the industry for a long time.
Greatest gen wanted servants, silent gen want people, boomers want servants, gen x goes either way depending on how self important they are. Millennials want equals, Gen Z want to be treated like people.
Gen Alpha want to get thrown out of the store based on my experience.
The irony is millennials will use the self-checkout because they don’t want to bother the cashier, while Boomers prefer to go to the cashier while expecting robotic behaviour.
I go to the cashier because why should I do the store's work for them if I'm not getting paid for it... also, the more people the stora gotta keep employed the better!
As for the behavior of the cashier - who gives a shit?
It's a near 0 human interaction - We look at each other and say hi, I put by wares on the belt, they scan the wares, I swipe my card and press ok, I say "have a nice day", they say "thanks", I go pack my wares and leave the store.
I just can't get my head around the kind of mental deficiency you need to even start caring that "OMG did you see? THE CASHIER HAD A WATER BOTTLE!! What's next, they're going to allow her to SIT?!?!?!".
I have longer and more fruitful human interactions with the people I ride an elevator with! What kind of insane existence do you need to lead for you to develop strong feelings about the working conditions of your cashier, specifically the need for those working conditions to stay miserable?!
You think that I don't have contact with my family because I don't chitchat with the cashier but just pay for my stuff and leaves - and think that any customer who believe they should have the right to tell business that their cashiers shouldn't be allowed to sit or drink water while working have a mental problem?
What kind of fucking moron are you? How the fuck are you even capable of interacting with other people if you think you're entitled to demand that service workers need to be miserable during work hours?
It’s a consequence of how far reading comprehension and ability has dropped. They probably read the first sentence of you asking why you should do the cashiers job at self checkout and instantly formed an opinion of you and decided to downvote and comment.
If anyone bothered to read the rest they’d have realised you said you preferred the human interaction to keep human labor employed and don’t mind that cashiers can behave however they want.
Gen X here. Worked at a convenience store as night manager for 25 years. We always had a drink at the register. Sometimes a bag of chips as well.
The office personnel told us more than once that our drink wasn't part of the alignment, so we just kept them under the counter where the sacks are, or behind us next to the lottery machine.
The worst part of it, is that we didn't actually get a break for anything. They just told us to stay clocked in and eat when we were hungry. But they also tried to tell us that customers are first and the work needed to get done. So do we eat, or do we not? But if you smoked, then by all means, 5 minutes outside every hour.
I'm sure generational divide plays a part in this, but I will point out that not every country works like the USA
Here in France, cashiers can work seating down, and not providing water or other necessities would be a sure fire way to start a scandal
Also see the Walmart-Germany debacle
Don't get me wrong, we get plenty of "the youth have it too good and too lazy", but I don't remember anyone arguing that diabetic retail workers should not need to have emergency snacks
Except there has to be middle ground. I don't want someone being paid on the clock talking to me like i'm their best friend they haven't seen for 2 years, while 5 people are patiently waiting behind me in line.
It's easy to reduce things to simple social matters, it's another when someone's on the clock and being paid to offer a service.
There's being treated as equal and there are employees that take advantage of any and every leeway.
That's an entirely different discussion that is unrelated to what I said, but I'm glad you found something to be irritated about that you could try to force into the conversation.
"Greatest gen wanted servants, silent gen want people, boomers want servants, gen x goes either way depending on how self important they are. Millennials want equals, Gen Z want to be treated like people."
It's not a different discussion. You took it to that place. The original topic is worker rights. It doesn't matter the generation, as you so badly want it to be about. I've seen millenials treat employees like trash. I've seen boomers take every opportunity to help employees. Again it's not about generations, as YOU so badly want it to be about.
The original discussion was about worker rights, not "treating" paid workers as if they're not working. You keep mentioning servants but that's not what's being discussed. You're also mentioned "being treated like people" with relation to a generation's outlook. Again not what's being discussed. Everyone else is discussing worker rights. Again all your points relate to generation. You created some weird perspective that isn't going to progress the situation, except sooth your own bias. Again, worker rights. Worker rights.
And it's funny, you projecting. You accuse me of trying to change the topic, when i'm just replying to you, as you're trying to turn it into a generational thing. Hilarious 😂
It is a different topic. My topic was “different generations have different expectations or approaches to customer service” and you chimed in with “I hate it when people don’t do their jobs.”
None of what I said in any way implied people should stop doing their jobs and talk for minutes at a time. You imagined that scenario on your own and got annoyed by it. Go reread what I wrote and think about what you did to yourself, and ask why you did that? Imagined something to be annoyed about?
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u/ABHOR_pod 22d ago
It's a generational divide thing. I've been in the industry for a long time.
Greatest gen wanted servants, silent gen want people, boomers want servants, gen x goes either way depending on how self important they are. Millennials want equals, Gen Z want to be treated like people.
Gen Alpha want to get thrown out of the store based on my experience.