@MasterPlanSoftware said:
This was exactly my point, thank you. People like abbydonkrafts and perdidopunk are so full of themselves that they feel they have the right to demean people for no reason.
Note that I never said that the clerk is an idiot. In fact, I made certain to point out that I'm not demeaning to anyone, and I'm certainly not a condescending or demeaning person in my daily dealings with people employed in customer service or retail positions. I make a point to always speak in a very polite tone, and to be patient if I'm waiting for a cashier to complete a transaction or some such thing. My biggest gripe, like I stated earlier, is when people in these positions take an attitude that I as a customer am somehow inconveniencing them, either just by being there to pay for an item or service, or by say, asking for certain denominations of money back as change. People should take pride in the work they do, and if they work directly with customers, then they should pride themselves on providing efficient and friendly service. I pride myself on being responsive to user requests and inquiries, maintaining very quick turnaround time on deliverables, and ensuring that the code I deliver is of high quality. Why shouldn't someone in a customer service position be expected to deliver service of a similar quality level?
The fact of the matter is that a lot of people working in retail positions are extremely cynical and standoffish with customers. Maybe this isn't as prevalent in other areas of the world. I live in NJ. People are assholes here. I understand that many or most customers in any store here often act like complete jerks toward the employees, and that as a result those employees might put up a rather thick defensive layer of standoffishness. Does that mean that when a customer approaches, smiling, and says, "Hi!" while holding out $13.50 for an $8.47 purchase, he should receive nothing but a scowl in return? I would think that being ready with an easily handled amount of cash for payment would make the clerks job easier.
The times that I've seen clerks get most annoyed are when older folks make purchases by carefully counting out exact change. Yes, this does slow down the line, but at the same time, the older person standing there is trying to be polite and is actually counting up the money for the clerk, which should really be the clerk's job. Why should some 17 year old punk feel that he has the right to stand there and scoff at an old lady for trying to pay for something with exact change?
Back to my original rebuttal about effort put forth in school - I really do believe that people should be qualified enough to perform the job they are hired for. If a person is hired to be a cashier, then he or she should should possess the basic skills of addition and subtraction required to count change out for a customer. This is the one prequisite skill for this position. Lacking that skill is not an excuse to be put off when a customer presents an odd combination of money for a purchase in hopes of receiving a certain amount of change back. A clerk should never be rude or curt with a customer, and vice versa. As I stated earlier, if a clerk has trouble figuring out why I handed him or her $13.50, I will kindly point out that I'm looking for a five and three pennies back on my $8.47 purchase. This is not demeaning.
I won't deny that I do enjoy the lofty position of academia, but it has nothing to do with sitting in an ivory tower and looking down on other people. Perhaps stating that people who apply themselves academically "work harder" than those who don't was a faux pas; my intention was to point out that it takes many years of discipline and hard work to earn a degree in a technical field, and it takes five minutes to fill out an application to work at Kohl's. Perhaps the clerk at Kohl's has been working very hard on something, and perhaps he or she hasn't. I'm inclined to believe that a 17 year old cashier in a department store who can't count change has not been working very hard, since the only thing that kids have to work on is school. Even athletes, musicians, artists, and others who might not be so focused on academics can still do well in school, with only a modicum of extra effort. I've spent plenty of time pursuing all of these things and I managed to pull through with all of them pretty well. I don't attribute this to having supernatural abilities or something; it just takes diligence and hard work. Anybody with normal mental function can learn basic math. In fact, I maintain that anyone can learn advanced calculus. All it takes is the will to do so. If anything, I think this is the least demeaning position I could take toward those who are not as well educated as I am. They're not idiots, they're not incapable, they just haven't put forth the effort to learn the same things that I have. That doesn't give them the right to perform poorly as an employee or to disrespect customers, any more than my college degree gives me the right to treat them like inferior people (it doesn't, and I don't).
In short, MPS, please read carefully and consider what a person has written before eagerly marching off to war against him. Please don't put words in my mouth and insinuate that I'm disrespectful toward anyone, except for maybe those who make a point to insult me in a childish, backhanded way. I shouldn't always have to completely qualify every single statement I make to avoid being picked apart. This isn't a court of law.