I'm a 2IC for a small but popular retail chain in Western Australia. We've mostly avoided the pandemic thanks to having a pretty clued in Premier (think Governor but Australian), but recently because of the omicron outbreak we've had to start wearing masks again.
Don't get me wrong, wearing a mask sucks. It makes it hard to breathe, and I can get a pretty sore throat after 9 hours of wearing one. But you know what? I push through, because I don't want to put myself or anyone else at risk.
Our area manager has a KPI that says he cannot have more than 6 customer complaints per month, or else he loses his bonus. They don't have to be valid complaints, just complaints. Unfortunately, this means he has told us to just ignore people who don't wear masks, and never to ask them to wear one if they don't want to, so as to avoid a customer complaint. We're also not allowed to not serve customers who won't wear masks, otherwise we get put on leave until the mask mandate is over.
I had one guy walk in today, mask in hand, holding a coffee. I ask him to put his mask on, because most people just forget. We're not used to wearing them, so I never get angry at someone for forgetting.
This lovely gentleman decides that this underpaid and overworked retail worker and her colleagues should be taught a lesson. He launches into a full blown rant at us calling us “cowards” and “sheep” and that what we're doing is “illogical” and “spineless”. Now when I'm running a shift, I don't let my employees get abused. I don't give a shit who it is or how much money they're spending, they can fuck right off if they're going to abuse my employees. I ask him to leave.
He's already been rung up, but he won't leave without giving us a real piece of his mind. God I was so close to saying “you can leave now or I can get the police to escort you out.” He finally left, and after I made sure that everyone was okay, I went out back and just sat down for a good 10 minutes as I recovered.
It really just put into perspective how horribly abusive retail really is. Customers can do whatever they really want to us short of physical assault and management cares more about the bonus they get than the well-being of their employees. That's half the reason I became a manager in the first place, because I want to ensure that I train people to not take shit from managers, and to teach them that they have rights.
Rant over lmao. Fuck retail management.