I’ll preface this by saying I understand I have a lot of privilege to be able to just leave the US and get financial support from my parents through university. Many people have to put up with this nonsense daily just to afford basic necessities so I’m very grateful and want to be a part of the labour movement as much as possible.
I’m a university student in the UK, but I grew up in the US. Throughout high school I worked, and I’m still working part time throughout uni.
Last month, when I was back in the US seeing my family over the holidays, I took a few shifts at my high school job for some extra cash whilst my parents were working. The owner of the place has become a family friend, it’s a small business and he’s always treated me fairly.
In my maybe thirty total hours of work back in the US, I can’t fully count on two hands how many times customers would have tantrums over something completely out of my or any other staff member’s control. This is a family entertainment business, where groups of adults to toddlers can have fun for a couple of hours. You would think that you wouldn’t want to shout at employees that you will have with you for the next two to three hours. Instead, grown boomers act like they’re six instead of 60, and throw literal temper tantrums because the internet can lag, or because they have to be charged for property that was handled with obvious negligence.
My job in the UK is at a university corner shop, selling meal deals and coffee, but also things like merchandise with the university’s logo on it and materials that people may need for their course like journals or calculators. Smaller than your typical Primark or Asda, but quite a bit of traffic from uni students. Have had one rude comment about a till being card only, but I have worked roughly 100 hours and haven’t been abused once. If a customer is even just verbally abusive, we are able to call a manager, campus security, or even police, depending on the severity.
If some of these customers from the States treated me even a quarter as abusively in the UK as they do there, they would be charged with a multitude of crimes and likely arrested. It was absolutely shocking to me to go back to the US and realise that I just kinda have to take abuse there as a worker. It’s so wrong and I feel like many Americans don’t realise how shit of a deal they have with their labour protections compared to the rest of the world.