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Is this illegal harrassment at work? What should he do?
My friend works for Goodwill as a retail cashier. He has twice been screamed at and called a ****** (he is gay but not out at work) by customers. I tell him that is unacceptable and amounts to a hostile work environment, because his boss says all he can do is smile and thank the customer for his business. He is not allowed to tell the customer not to come back for example. I led customer service organizations and would never allow a customer to abuse an employee. Emps have to deal with people in a bad mood, who are angry, etc. but not abuse such as that. It happened again yesterday and his manager said "Well you do sort of present yourself that way...you should get rid of those colored glasses for example..." Which is OBVIOUSLY blaming HIM for this. I think the manager is way out of line. I don't believe Goodwill has a policy that allows this, if someone came in and shouted at a black cashier "N___er!" they'd be kicked out of the store.
So the problem I see is that his manager allows the environment to continue. Yes customers will do this kind of thing but no employees don't have to tolerate that and to tell him he must, to blame him even partially for the situation are both inappropriate and unacceptable. Oh our town has a civil rights ordinance that protects gays. What should he do? I told him to talk to a lawyer and then to approach his HR department.
I guess I failed to communicate people coming into the store and as he checks them out they SCREAM an anti-gay epithet into his face. He is wearing glasses with a colored frame not sunglasses and supposedly this means he is gay. The hostility of the environment is increased in that he is told he cannot tell the customers to leave, ask another clerk to check the out, or do anything but smile.
Actually this store is in a part of town habituated by substance abusers and mentally ill homeless folks, it is actually quite common to see unprovoked behavior. I might add that last night he talked to his fellow coworkers who all told him it's bull that the manager does not stand up for him, and that when someone used a racial epithet that way they've seen the customer barred from the business for it. I know him well he doesn't provoke people he's as quiet and decent a guy as I know. It seems to me he is the only one, and only because it is about being gay, who is required to take this kind of abuse. And I did customer service for 45 years, there is a difference between dealing with upset, angry, or even rude customers, which does go with the territory, and customer who are being abusive. I told my employees they didn't have to take abuse, they could hang up on an abusive caller. Same for face to face transactions.
6 Answers
- 8 years agoFavorite Answer
Tell him to check the employee manual. Management should do something about it; NO ONE has a right to abuse someone like that. It's a public place and it could probably even be classified as hate speech. Some states classify that kind of thing as an assault and you can press charges. Short answer is no, he should not put up with that. Thick skin or no, it's a basic human right to be able to go to work and not have to put up with that. Sounds like management is lazy. Go over their heads.
Source(s): Dealt with it before and wish I'd done something about it years ago. - ?Lv 78 years ago
Being yelled at twice by a customer is not even close to harassment. Sounds like your friend REALLY needs to grow a thicker skin if he's going to have a job in the real world.
Customer service people have to deal with crappy customers sometime; that's the job. The manager is under no legal obligation to tell customers not to be rude, and TWO incidents don't define a work environment.
So, your friend has the option of putting up with being yelled at twice, or finding a better job.
- Dan HLv 78 years ago
Harassment like you are describing comes from management or co-workers, not from customers.
He's a customer service representative and he is responsible for calming customers down and serving them to the best of his ability. If this is happening regularly, he may be doing something that is setting them off and it is his responsibility to change his behavior.
I can't believe that someone would walk in off the street and yell at a cashier unprovoked. Time for some self reflection on his part.
- ?Lv 78 years ago
When someone is being rude to me I simply stop what I am doing until their behavior conforms to societal norms. I don't say anything, just stand there, in total silence. If the customer wants to be waited on, he'll figure it out.
I agree that a boss should not allow his employees to be subjected to that sort of treatment, but some employees set themselves up for it and would require frequent interventions by the boss. The employee needs to do everything reasonably within his power to not set himself up for that kind of treatment.
- garrytooLv 78 years ago
You or I don't know what's going on and you making a decision on what's going on is wrong if you didn't see what happened. Maybe he is not cut-out for retail work and wearing sun-glasses at work they should just have stopped at the beginning.
