Rant Thread II

[Fruitbat]

Originally Posted by Grausamkeit

I think I need more coffee. My brain feels like jelly.

We went shopping today and I fucking hate shopping. All the lights and noise stress me out.

Oh you and me both. I hate shopping... with a passion.


Hey Carrion - do you wanna come around my father's house for father's day?

We need a few things first - a fast boat, a fast car and a couple of hot guys and a few beers - and we only need these things for the hell of it - because my father doesn't live....

[Grausamkeit]

Originally Posted by Fruitbat

Oh you and me both. I hate shopping... with a passion.

I have to have a specific list so I can get in and out as fast as possible. Otherwise it all goes to hell.

[Angelic Dissonance2]

NONE OF YOU ARE FUCKING RANTING PROPERLY!!!!1!! FOOD should be a basic human right, not a priviledge. People shouldn't have to fucking starve to death--much less LIVE as a under-nourished individual doomed to do poorly in school because you can't focus. It takes nutrients to focus. Ever wonder why the upper-middle class has 'smart' children...??? IT'S BECAUSE THEY CAN FUCKING AFFORD TO FEED THEM, CLOTHE THEM, AND Figure the fuck out how to encourage them to do their best....

Poor kids don't get that shit. We don't get anything, except free lunch. And that's a lie--it's fucking 1/2 sand, 1/2 tofu shit painted and dyed and stained and flavored to SEEM like food, and almost CERTAINLY spiked with tryptophan.
Do Biology/Health teachers REALLY expect us to believe that we can almost as much as we god-damn want ANYWHERE else, and not feel a thing, but when we eat their shitty little portions of LIES, we feel like we just shot up a fucking turkey dinner???? DO YOU REALLY EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THAT DROWSINESS IS A SIDE-EFFECT OF REFRIED BEANS!??!?!?!?!?

[Angelic Dissonance2]

Fuck that shit.

[Mr.Doobie]

Y'know, working as a cashier has taught me a thing or two about humanity.

It's taught me there's a vast number of people who are, in their heart of hearts, complete selfish assholes, who want nothing more than a little slave that they can kick around and treat like dirt. These people are very often well loved members of the community, they're soccer mom's, PTA members, the Grand Poobah of whatever homoerotic men's club is popular in the area. They're even involved in politics, they're often members of family oriented, special interest groups responsible for ratings on CDs, censorship, creationism being taught in schools, if it sucks the fun out of living, these people are probably behind it somehow.

"The customer is always right" is a shit rule. No one should have to sacrifice their self-respect to earn a living.

[Angelic Dissonance2]

^I like this rant.^

Not too long ago, I read a book by Barbara Ehrenreich called Nickel And Dimed.
It follows her journey as she takes on the role of the real working class--the 'invisable poor', just trying to make it from scratch in a new town. In one chapter, she finally lands a job at Walmart.

The horrors she descibes during this period of employment are more than enough to convince me that I'd rather work almost anywhere else in the world.
The weird 'family' shit that they do is something straight out of one of those '70s films about brainwashing.

It's really an excellent read; I'd recommend it to anybody.

G.netters in particular are going to appreciate the chapter where she works for a maid service....

[Grausamkeit]

It's weird that 'horrors' would be used to describe working at Walmart. I was an overnight cashier there about 4 years back and it was actually one of the better jobs I had.

I worked at a well-known restaurant on the boardwalk in Kemah and they made us all parade around in tight shirts and ass cheek-hugging shorts. It was great money, though(until it hit the seasonal slump). My other waitressing job my boss let me wear my New Rocks, we wore longer shorts or pants that weren't skin tight and loose hawaiian shirts.

Fuck working retail, though. That shit sucked ass. I'm sorry you're currently having to experience 'retail hell', Doobz.

[Ben Lahnger]

Originally Posted by Mr.Doobie

"The customer is always right" is a shit rule. No one should have to sacrifice their self-respect to earn a living.

Having worked much of my adult life in retail as either a sales associate or as a retail manager, I identify with much of what you said. I was always happiest when I worked for bosses or district managers who were supportive of not letting customers walk all over you.

No business actually believes "the customer is always right" is literally true, even though they parrot it back to the customers and quote it to their employees as if it's a philosophy. I've actually confronted district managers with the line, "So, if customers are always right, when they tell us that we should sell them everything for half price, we should just do it?" And they say, "No, of course not. Be reasonable." And I say, "Well, using the word 'always' in saying the customer is always right is the unreasonable part." So that's when you get a clarifying statement about the phrase just meaning trying to convey a very customer friendly service environment.

But it ends up in practice as being a license for businesses allowing customers to treat employees rudely, as if they were subservient beings. That's why I admire greatly places that don't actually promote that "customer is always right" line.

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema recently made some headlines because they have a rule that customers are not allowed to talk on cell phones or text message while watching a movie in their theaters (as it is a distraction to other customers), and after giving a young lady two warnings, on the third offense they kicked her out of the theater WITHOUT a refund! She called their office back and left an angry rant on their voicemail, and they made a PSA announcement out of her rant to show on screens before their movies. Clearly, this customer was WRONG, and the general public ate it up when Alamo displayed her shameful behavior.

Nearly 2 million people have watched this video, and almost all of the comments in all the places I've seen it posted show the general public take the businesses side, not the customers. I'm posting the video here ... you should watch it. It'll make you feel better.

Don't Talk - Angry Voicemail (Uncensored) by Alamo Drafthouse

[Mr.Doobie]

Originally Posted by Grausamkeit

It's weird that 'horrors' would be used to describe working at Walmart. I was an overnight cashier there about 4 years back and it was actually one of the better jobs I had.

I worked at a well-known restaurant on the boardwalk in Kemah and they made us all parade around in tight shirts and ass cheek-hugging shorts. It was great money, though(until it hit the seasonal slump). My other waitressing job my boss let me wear my New Rocks, we wore longer shorts or pants that weren't skin tight and loose hawaiian shirts.

Fuck working retail, though. That shit sucked ass. I'm sorry you're currently having to experience 'retail hell', Doobz.

I have two going on three jobs right now, all to help me pay for my college and just generally survive. My first is working as a cashier at some little country store, my second is unloading trucks at K-Mart, and my third upcoming job doesn't sound that bad, I'll be driving really nice cars up onto a podium for auction.

The work doesn't bother me, the customers do. Our society has this attitude that if you're working, then you need to smile, be polite, be patient, be caring, and you should just be happy you have a job. This is great, except society doesn't expect the same thing out of customers. Customers feel free to treat people in positions like mine like we're scum that just crawled out of a sewer, and all we're expected to do in retaliation is smile and stick our nose a little bit farther up their ass. I just think it's pretty shitty that the world of retail treats the most immature, snotty people like royalty. Society's attitude towards the relationship between customer and employee is incredibly spoiled.

It's bad enough when your customers are older then you, but when your customer is your age, it's worse. College age kids who have their mommy and daddy pay for everything are some of the worst customers imaginable, especially when you're working on campus. They've likely never had to work a single goddamn day of their life and they come waltzing in, see you, a kid their age, having to work because your mother is poor as shit, and they think this is fucking hilarious and you're some monkey in a cage that they can make dance for them. And you have to. Because the customer is always right. You can't tell them to go fuck off and kick their teeth in, even though they're long overdue for that kind of treatment, because you're subservient to them.

Older people are just aggravating and annoying and mostly oblivious to this, these college bastards are cruel dicks and they know it and they don't give a shit.

I shudder to think that these people are pursuing degrees in fields like nursing or psychology, and that one day they're going to be responsible for other people, and they're probably going to be very well-loved members of the community.

[Murder.Of.Crows]

Yeah, pretty shitty. The only job that people treated me kindly was when I was a bartender. No one wanted to fuck with you, not only can you have the bouncer through them out, cops called on them, and generally their lives fucked up for a night, but your also the one holding the liqueur.

[Catch]

Aaaauuuugh! Whatever, everyone has a problem these days.

[Grausamkeit]

Originally Posted by Mr.Doobie

I have two going on three jobs right now, all to help me pay for my college and just generally survive. My first is working as a cashier at some little country store, my second is unloading trucks at K-Mart, and my third upcoming job doesn't sound that bad, I'll be driving really nice cars up onto a podium for auction.

The work doesn't bother me, the customers do. Our society has this attitude that if you're working, then you need to smile, be polite, be patient, be caring, and you should just be happy you have a job. This is great, except society doesn't expect the same thing out of customers. Customers feel free to treat people in positions like mine like we're scum that just crawled out of a sewer, and all we're expected to do in retaliation is smile and stick our nose a little bit farther up their ass. I just think it's pretty shitty that the world of retail treats the most immature, snotty people like royalty. Society's attitude towards the relationship between customer and employee is incredibly spoiled.

It's bad enough when your customers are older then you, but when your customer is your age, it's worse. College age kids who have their mommy and daddy pay for everything are some of the worst customers imaginable, especially when you're working on campus. They've likely never had to work a single goddamn day of their life and they come waltzing in, see you, a kid their age, having to work because your mother is poor as shit, and they think this is fucking hilarious and you're some monkey in a cage that they can make dance for them. And you have to. Because the customer is always right. You can't tell them to go fuck off and kick their teeth in, even though they're long overdue for that kind of treatment, because you're subservient to them.

Older people are just aggravating and annoying and mostly oblivious to this, these college bastards are cruel dicks and they know it and they don't give a shit.

I shudder to think that these people are pursuing degrees in fields like nursing or psychology, and that one day they're going to be responsible for other people, and they're probably going to be very well-loved members of the community.

I tried having two jobs at one time and failed miserably at it. Good on you if you can work that and more successfully.

I can sympathize with you about the stuck up rich kids and olde people, too. When I was 7 months pregnant with my son an olde lady wanted me to climb up a ladder that was sitting next to me to get a sunchair down for her. I told her that I would call someone to help her since I wasn't allowed to climb ladders in my condition. She tried to coerce me to climb that ladder rather than making her wait, I told her I would call my manager to help her if she needed it that bad.

The little rich kids who lived in that neighborhood that I worked in were rude and obnoxious, but they didn't exhibit that air of outright entitlement that the older people with money did. Like you were beneath them and it wasn't their problem if you were pregnant when they wanted something. Some of the older gentlemen were nice, though. They got a kick out of my Bettie Page bangs(which I no longer have).

The photolab was nice, though. Maybe it was the labcoat, but people treated me with much more respect when I started working in that part of the store.

[Ben Lahnger]

Originally Posted by Catch

Aaaauuuugh! Whatever, everyone has a problem these days.

You know, I used to have you on ignore precisely because you frequently show this level of empathy and sensitivity to your fellow man.

Well, thanks to this comment, I just want you to know that I am firmly committed to not giving a shit whenever you post any of your own petty complaints, which always seem to be plenty and frequently seem to be trivial. And, to emulate you, I may even comment after your remarks to that effect.

[Grausamkeit]

Originally Posted by Catch

Aaaauuuugh! Whatever, everyone has a problem these days.

Word Salad, yummy, yummy!

Seriously, though my empathy > your apathy.

[BlacKat]

Ah WalMart...most fucked up summer job I've had. For starters, they couldn't give us a constant shift. No, your hours changed every day. You might be working till 10 one day and getting there at 7 the next. Needless to say, it wreaked havoc on my sleep schedule.

The bad part though, was the one co-worker. No, not just your ordinary run-of-the-mill ass. This guy was a serious pervert. Every single women who had worked with him had filed a complaint. He'd describe in detail what he wanted to do to them. It was at the point where I wouldn't go into the back room unless someone else was working there (we were in a small section with our own back room). I also got treated to a general discussion between several employees (including our manager) of the inherent instability of non-heterosexual women. Management just didn't care.

The customers were actually nice, for the most part. There was the occasional entitled dumbass, but 98% of the people were decent. I did notice that the dumbasses were 100% white, 80% male, and generally over 50. Never had any problems with the teens or young people. Had the occasional problem with a little kid, but that counts as the parents being idiots - the kids were just being kids. Still, I was glad to get away from that environment.

[Saya]

Originally Posted by Murder.Of.Crows

Yeah, pretty shitty. The only job that people treated me kindly was when I was a bartender. No one wanted to fuck with you, not only can you have the bouncer through them out, cops called on them, and generally their lives fucked up for a night, but your also the one holding the liqueur.

Bartending was one of my worst jobs. I had a rant about it typed out but I just hate remembering it, I was 19 and just not ready to deal with seedy people.

After working at call centers, I enjoyed working retail. Managers were sometimes assholes but my direct supervisors were awesome, and I could probably count on one hand all the mean customers I had.

[honeythorn]

Mr Doobie's rant is the reason I do not and have only once worked in a job involving serving people.

That was a part time waitressing job, and to be fair it was the best job I've ever had. The regular customers were a laugh, all the staff would have a fairly good time every night, even on large functions and weddings. There were very few bad customers to be honest. Sadly the restaurant closed down when the owners son took over and ran it into the ground . I really miss that place.

I refuse the customer is always right rule. I would be willing to lose a job over it to be honest. Because no one should be allowed to treat you that way full stop, customer, manager, owner or otherwise. Before now I have ponted out to other customers when shopping, that they have been wrong when being a twat to an employee. No it's none of my business, but I will sure as hell make it my business if I can see that the customer is wrong and being a cunt about it.

[Grausamkeit]

Originally Posted by BlacKat

Ah WalMart...most fucked up summer job I've had. For starters, they couldn't give us a constant shift. No, your hours changed every day. You might be working till 10 one day and getting there at 7 the next. Needless to say, it wreaked havoc on my sleep schedule.

The bad part though, was the one co-worker. No, not just your ordinary run-of-the-mill ass. This guy was a serious pervert. Every single women who had worked with him had filed a complaint. He'd describe in detail what he wanted to do to them. It was at the point where I wouldn't go into the back room unless someone else was working there (we were in a small section with our own back room). I also got treated to a general discussion between several employees (including our manager) of the inherent instability of non-heterosexual women. Management just didn't care.

The customers were actually nice, for the most part. There was the occasional entitled dumbass, but 98% of the people were decent. I did notice that the dumbasses were 100% white, 80% male, and generally over 50. Never had any problems with the teens or young people. Had the occasional problem with a little kid, but that counts as the parents being idiots - the kids were just being kids. Still, I was glad to get away from that environment.

Heh, the conversations you can't get involved in because you'll be shouted down by the 'right' people. Don't you just love it when they start saying dumb shit like "homosexuals are so slutty!" How the fuck do they know? Our next assignment in Psych is filling out this 'Heterosexual Questionaire' that has a bunch of hilarious and insulting questions like 'what do you think caused your heterosexuality?' and 'If you've never slept with someone of the same sex, is it possible that all you need is a good Gay lover?' 'why do heterosexuals feel compelled to seduce others into their lifestyle?'

I wonder how many people will find it acceptable to ask those questions of the gay community, but not of the heterosexuals?

[Saya]

Originally Posted by Grausamkeit

Heh, the conversations you can't get involved in because you'll be shouted down by the 'right' people. Don't you just love it when they start saying dumb shit like "homosexuals are so slutty!" How the fuck do they know? Our next assignment in Psych is filling out this 'Heterosexual Questionaire' that has a bunch of hilarious and insulting questions like 'what do you think caused your heterosexuality?' and 'If you've never slept with someone of the same sex, is it possible that all you need is a good Gay lover?' 'why do heterosexuals feel compelled to seduce others into their lifestyle?'

I wonder how many people will find it acceptable to ask those questions of the gay community, but not of the heterosexuals?

Quite a few, and not even people you'd think would think of themselves as homophobic. I'm only recently becoming more open about being queer, I came out to a few people when I was 18 and got branded a slut, or as one girl (WHO IS BISEXUAL) told me I was just saying it for attention because I'm too much of a prude to like girls. And not to mention guys thinking that meant that I'm totally up for threesomes and letting them watch me be with girls.

[Grausamkeit]

I hate that shit! Just because two girls get together it doesn't mean they need a dick to come between them.

[BlacKat]

That incident also generated a lovely case of Things I Wish I Had Said. In particular to one of the guys: "You know that second date you were looking for? It's never happening." Wish I'd had the courage at the time to say why, but I was pretty stressed at the time and didn't have the extra mental energy.

[Grausamkeit]

Don't get me started on Things I Should Have Said. I'll be berating myself till dawn. I always think of the best things to say hours or days(weeks?) later. My brain is slow and all its juices(what there are) are being expended on school.

[BlacKat]

Don't we all. Although I think this is more a case of things I would have said if there hadn't been Consequences. Already feeling shitty at work + management clearly doesn't care = not a good time to come out.

As an only semi-related note - what is it with people that think they can tell random people to smile? Makes me want to slap them and then see if they start smiling.

[Grausamkeit]

Originally Posted by BlacKat

Don't we all. Although I think this is more a case of things I would have said if there hadn't been Consequences. Already feeling shitty at work + management clearly doesn't care = not a good time to come out.

As an only semi-related note - what is it with people that think they can tell random people to smile? Makes me want to slap them and then see if they start smiling.

I told one of my Catholic bosses that I was a Pagan(well, I thought I was till I quit believing in illogical shit). She almost had a conniption right there.


I find that if you're a woman, people think that it's okay to tell you to 'smile' because 'you're pretty when you smile'. It's just outdated, sexist bullshit. I've yet to hear of any number of men complaining of women telling them to smile so that they look pretty. We have a vagina so it must be our duty in life to smile, look pretty and please men, right?

[BlacKat]

Of course! Although I've found it also gets combined for me with ridiculous notions about childhood (along with some plain misreading of my age). People assume a young woman can't possibly have anything in her life worth being upset over, and thus any displays of negative emotion are insignificant and easily blown over. Not sure how much this affects young men - I suspect there's some gender difference, but I don't know how far.