I love my job. You don’t hear that very often, but there you go. It’s true you know. The complexity of rotas and staffing and balancing the directives from above with the pragmatism of the shopfloor is all meat and drink to me. I love the challenges it brings me.
There’s a ‘but’ of course, attached to this. You know me well enough. Today that ‘but’ came courtesy of a number of calls and conversations with staff both where I was working and at our satellite branch. The same story, again and again of encounters through the week with an abusive customer.
Each person individually disclosed details in a pattern that came to feel more and more familiar. The same concerns and fears and anger of words used, actions taken and other customers abused have been disclosed through the day, and I’ve had to ask each person to write it all down and send me all the details so that I can properly log it and present it with a bow to the appropriate people who can ban the individual concerned.
“But we think management should know about this and do something about it!” I’ve heard several times today. I’ve had to reiterate that I am management, and this is how I am dealing with it – because I know how the process works and how important evidence is.
I may want to rush round and defend people in a blazing row, but I know it won’t actually solve anything. Tough calls to hear, tough calls to make. But I’m paid to do it, so there we are.
