Is it wrong for employees to not help customers when they are off the clock?

Question

My roomate has a part time job at a super market. Her car is in the shop, so I have been taking her back and forth to work. Today when she got off, we needed to pick up some things so we went shopping in her store. She still has her uniform on and we are walking around the store shopping and talking. This guy walks up asks where the flour was, he didnt say excuse me or anything. He just cut right in the middle of our conversation, so she told him what aisle and we went on with our conversation. Then he got mad and yelled well arent you supposed to take me to it, instead of running your mouth with her. When she told him that the reason she didnt take him to it was because she was not working he just said oh and walked away. No apology or anything. Is it employees job to cater to customers when they are a customer themselves? I mean he wouldnt have stopped to ask me a question like that, why her when she was a customer to?

And would it have been wrong for her to give him a piece of her mind for being so rude? I mean even if she was working, I could have been a customer that she was helping.

Well, its not like we planned to shop when she got off work. It just happened. And she works in retail and I am sure most of us have worked in retail at one point or another and you know its a ***** dealing with nasty people all day. How can you take pride in that?

From, what you guys are saying we should have taken our bussiness elsewhere. I dont think the owners of that super market chain would agree.

You know something, there were signs that she wasnt working despite her uniform. For one she had her pocketbook. She didnt have on a name tag, her shirt was out and her buttons were un done. And if I remember correctly she was jingling my car keys around, I remember that because it was annoying me and I was asking her to stop right when he walked up. She certainly did not look like a store employee would on the clock. At the very least he could have asked if she worked there before anything.

Answer 1

Honestly, she really had no obligation to answer him at all. She is an employee, customer satisfaction is only her problem when she is being paid for it to be her problem. I would have just walked away and ignored him. He could report her but what can the manager do? She was not working. If I were you guys, I would be like some of those customers who think the world revolves around them and went and complained to the manager. LOL.

Answer 2

It's reasonable for the man to think that she would be working if she was wearing her uniform and in the public part of the store. From his perspective it may very well have looked like she was having a conversation with you when she was supposed to be working. I agree that perhaps the situation wasn't dealt with appropriately, but in the future perhaps your friend could avoid this by wearing a jacket over her uniform or changing her shirt or something so people won't mistake her for on duty. If that guy thought she was avoiding work he might not have been the only customer who thought so, and that could have hurt the store's reputation.

I think it was quite demanding of the man to ask your friend to take him to the item. Perhaps if someone asks your friend a question while she is off the clock again, she can say something like, "I'm sorry sir, I'm not working here, I'm a customer. I'd be happy to take you to the front of the store where a store employee can help you." But honestly, even that might reflect badly on the store if she's in uniform. Better to not appear to be in uniform, and then there will be less of a doubt.

Answer 3

I think that customer overreacted when she didn't take him to where the flour is and I think you're reaction over him asking her at all.

She was wearing her uniform, even though she wasn't as tidy as she should have been. Some people only search for someone in a uniform and don't bother checking other details. I think he made an honest mistake asking her in the first place, but yelling at her was very rude and he should have apologized.

Answer 4

No, it isn't wrong fro employees to not help costumers. BUT, your friend was wearing the uniform, so it was a simple error on the part of the guy, and no matter how much of a jack **** he was, your friend would have been wrong if she had given him a piece of her mind because she is still an employee there, and on or off the clock, if you a person is in uniform they are representing the company and any bad behavior is out of the question.

OMG, it "bleeped" out a r s e:P

Answer 5

Well, the guy wasnt completley wrong because she did have on her uniform but I dont think your room mate was wrong either. However, she should have directed him to customer service instead of telling him where it was located. That would have avoided the whole take me to fiasco. I do understand that sometimes you cant avoid shopping in the store you work in with your uniform on. If it cant be avoided, do you take your bussiness elsewhere? I agree, the supermarket managers and owners, would prefer for you to just shop with the uniform on, as long as your spending money.

Answer 6

Customers are rude...it's a given. I worked at a store with a walkie-talkie and without fail whenever I was about to go on my break or clock out (IE being done for my day) a customer would come up to me and need help. You're not allowed to turn them away because they will walk directly to your manager and get you in trouble...so it's easier to waste two minutes and help or find someone that IS on the clock to help them.

Once she's in the uniform, she's kind of obligated to help...just like when I was wearing my walkie-talkie.

Answer 7

It was the uniform.
Your friend is not the only one who is treated like that. It applies to security guards, restaurant workers, anybody in uniform in a hospital, and oh yes, also members of the police.

Welcome to one of the realities of the working world of uniformed people..

After a few of those incidents, one develops a matter of fact approach to the "public". Your friend had obviously been there,done that. She is now jaded, unaffected by the discourteous and bad behavior of the man.

Yes, they are around and on good days, they never come around and you will have an overall great day and chat unbothered with your friend while shopping.

Answer 8

Like it or not, as long as your friend is wearing her uniform, she is a representative of the place where she works. The customer had no way of knowing that she was off (although he was in the wrong for being rude about her not taking him to the spot); since she was still in her uniform, how COULD he know? That *is* why they have uniforms, after all - to stand out as someone who can help.

Your friend would have been JUST as wrong to have given him a piece of her mind WHILE SHE WAS IN UNIFORM. I suggest that in the future, your friend take something to change into as soon as she clocks out if she doesn't want to be asked questions by customers.

Answer 9

I too work in a grocery store, and the best rule is to take off as much of that clothing as you can while shopping after hours I have learned.
Let's face it, "People are damn rude".
When your in any field of retail people expect you to bend over backwards.
I get stopped constantly while just trying to get to the time clock, or when on my way out to lunch. We only get a half hour, so I try to politely explain I can find someone to assist them.
It amazes me how we as retail workers have to always keep it together on the clock or off, and it's too bad that people are so freakin' rude and unethical. The saddest part is, if you really go out of your way for someone they never comment to a manager or write a nice letter, but they are the first to complain to someone if you don't fit their standards of impoliteness.
It's a hard field to be in, I try my hardest to be in happy mode all the time when I am at work, and remind myself it's better than flipping burgers.
She is in the right and you shouldn't have to feel bad, your just one of the small percentage of ethical beings left.

Answer 10

Yea, she should have taken her uniform off just to avoid this, there are always going to be annoying customers around who get a kick out of being a jerk to store employees b/c it makes them feel more worthy or some sick sh*t.