Life in the service industry is rough. But hey, we live in the service economy so whaddyagonnado?
See the "Customer Rage" survey as reported in USA Today for how we deal with customer service workers. People are fed up and they're taking it out on each other.
The number of households experiencing "customer rage" — they were very or extremely upset about the company response when they complained — jumped to 68% from 60% in the last survey, in 2011.
More of us are expressing that rage by yelling and cursing at customer-service representatives than two years ago. Yelling rose to 36% from 25% of the time, while cursing jumped to 13% from 7%.
Pity the poor flight attendant, locked in a metal tube 35,000 feet above the earth and forced to deal with some of the worst of humanity.
Pity the poor server who works for tips while earning the tip wage who is forced to deal with surly diners.
Pity the airline pilot who has to deal with drunken passengers who don't like that their flight is delayed and get fightin' mad about it.
Sure, we all have our own horror stories of bad service (Comcast anyone?) but please take a minute to see it from our side of the table.
Follow the maitre'd by the silly little squigglies to your table while we serve up some more tales of service industry woe.
I'm not sure which is worse, being unable to recline your seat mid-flight or being forced to make an unscheduled visit to O'Hare Airport. But these are the realities of plane travel today.
See the sordid tale of United Airlines Flight 1462 from Newark to Denver Tuesday. This flight saw some of the worst of humanity on display with two passengers going at it full tilt boogie.
The fight was over one passenger's use of The Knee Defender, which keeps airline seats from reclining. See the picture for how the device works.
Apparently, one passenger was unhappy with the fact that she couldn't recline and alerted the flight attendant.
Things escalated after the other passenger refused to remove the device. There was an argument, some water in the face and an unexpected deplaning by both passengers in Chicago.
I'm not sure which is worse, being a Kardashian or hanging with Stephen Baldwin's daughter Hailey.
There's the poor server at Mercer Kitchen in New York who allegedly wouldn't serve alcohol to model unholy spinoff of the Kardashian empire Kendall Jenner.
Jenner then allegedly walked and, when chased down, threw some 20s at the server and walked off.
Okay, this comes from Page Six but still. Hey International Business Times picked it up too.
Also, too, the server is an actress who once appeared on Skins on MTV. So she could be looking for some free pub. She did tweet about the incident but later took it down.
Fortunately, the crack sleuths folks at Page Six salvaged it.
“That horrible moment you chase a Kardashian down the street because she forgot to pay her bill, to be thrown money in your face.”
I'm not sure which is worse, having to work for
United Airlines or having to fly out of Dulles.
One man, allegedly drunk, forced an altercation with a pilot because his flight was delayed. The passenger apparently verbally assaulted the pilot and followed that up with several slaps.
The man was charged with simple assault and public intoxication in Loudon County Court.
I'm not sure which is worse, being on the bad end of poor customer service or being the service worker who bears the brunt of anger caused by someone or something else. Clearly we are all mad as hell but service workers don't need to take it any more either!