One of my DH's staff members needs to learn a few things

[oreos]

My DH is a manager in a retail store. The other day, they had a new 16 year old girl starting. When DH introduced himself as the guy in charge, the first thing out of her mouth was "You're fat, you should lose some weight".

 To say this to anyone is appalling. To say this to you're boss, though, is extra insane!

For the record, DH just ignored the comment.

I don't see this girl lasting too long in a job that involves customer interactions.

[Deleted]

TO which my response would have been "youre fired"

[secretlyevil]

What pp said.

[meggers5]

Why didn't he fire her?

[secretlyevil]

Maybe she wanted to get fired?

[oreos]

Oct 23, 2014 12:39:38 GMT -5 meggers5 said:

Why didn't he fire her?

Various reasons.

- Large retail store (approx. 200 employees), DH was on charge during that shift but the area doesn't fall into his departmental "jurisdiction" 
- My area has labour shortages, so retail businesses have to pretty well take what they can get

I imagine if she said something to a customer, she could have been fired on the spot.

[josieposy]

Labor shortage or no, her ass can go!

ETA: the odds that they'll get much actual work out of her I'm gonna guess are pretty slim anyway.

[downtoearth]

Wow, that is terrible! Did she grow up with wolves? What parent wouldn't be appalled that their child says crap like that?

[msmerymac]

At the very least I would have asked her to repeat herself and then asked if she thought that was an appropriate comment. I mean, it's inappropriate to ANYONE, let alone a superior (or a customer).

[ttt]

::insert African American proverb here:: 

I don't feel that my culture has words powerful enough to deal with this situation. 

[Velar Fricative]

Nononononononono. I've had to terminate people when staffing was tight. Frankly, if they're dead wood they'll be of no use to me while "working" anyway, so that's one less person to supervise. And speaking of supervision, I can't have someone spewing nonsense to customers because that will reflect poorly not only on them, but on me and on their co-workers. No thank you.



ETA: Also, he needs to tell whoever is in charge of that jurisdiction what happened so that if he can't fire her, they can.

[oreos]

Oct 23, 2014 12:51:54 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Nononononononono. I've had to terminate people when staffing was tight. Frankly, if they're dead wood they'll be of no use to me while "working" anyway, so that's one less person to supervise. And speaking of supervision, I can't have someone spewing nonsense to customers because that will reflect poorly not only on them, but on me and on their co-workers. No thank you.



ETA: Also, he needs to tell whoever is in charge of that jurisdiction what happened so that if he can't fire her, they can.

I have no idea if the girl is still employed or not. At this point, it wouldn't surprise me if she's already quit because working is "hard".

I haven't asked for a follow-up to this story yet, I'll have to find out if anything's happened.

[iammalcolmx]

Oct 23, 2014 12:37:52 GMT -5 @missusbee said:

TO which my response would have been "youre fired"

[panicked]

If he can't fire her, he should alert he who can have the "you need a filter" talk.

[Velar Fricative]

Oct 23, 2014 12:56:54 GMT -5 oreos said:

Oct 23, 2014 12:51:54 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Nononononononono. I've had to terminate people when staffing was tight. Frankly, if they're dead wood they'll be of no use to me while "working" anyway, so that's one less person to supervise. And speaking of supervision, I can't have someone spewing nonsense to customers because that will reflect poorly not only on them, but on me and on their co-workers. No thank you.



ETA: Also, he needs to tell whoever is in charge of that jurisdiction what happened so that if he can't fire her, they can.

I have no idea if the girl is still employed or not. At this point, it wouldn't surprise me if she's already quit because working is "hard".

I haven't asked for a follow-up to this story yet, I'll have to find out if anything's happened.

Please do! We must see this to the end.

[secretlyevil]

HR dept? Or something in her file? Some kind of consequences?

[oreos]

Oct 23, 2014 13:10:08 GMT -5 secretlyevil said:

HR dept? Or something in her file? Some kind of consequences?

There is an HR dept. but I'm guessing this isn't really worth pursuing too deeply. Most of the new hires are temporary seasonal, so they'll be gone come January. 

[oreos]

I get lots of random anecdotes from my DH. My office job is super boring in comparison.

Yesterday, he had an elderly woman (a customer) yell at him because she was mad to see "blacks, asians and non-whites" working at the store. I'm paraphrasing, but she said that these people are to blame for Ebola coming here. There was more, but I can't remember the details of everything else.

[WOT?*]

Oct 23, 2014 13:20:37 GMT -5 oreos said:

I get lots of random anecdotes from my DH. My office job is super boring in comparison.

Yesterday, he had an elderly woman (a customer) yell at him because she was mad to see "blacks, asians and non-whites" working at the store. I'm paraphrasing, but she said that these people are to blame for Ebola coming here. There was more, but I can't remember the details of everything else.

I worked retail for a lot of years and have seen and heard and dealt with a lot.  Shit still surprises me.  (Although, sadly, the above doesn't really surprise me.)

[oreos]

Oct 23, 2014 13:37:39 GMT -5 WOT?* said:

Oct 23, 2014 13:20:37 GMT -5 oreos said:

I get lots of random anecdotes from my DH. My office job is super boring in comparison.

Yesterday, he had an elderly woman (a customer) yell at him because she was mad to see "blacks, asians and non-whites" working at the store. I'm paraphrasing, but she said that these people are to blame for Ebola coming here. There was more, but I can't remember the details of everything else.

I worked retail for a lot of years and have seen and heard and dealt with a lot.  Shit still surprises me.  (Although, sadly, the above doesn't really surprise me.)

Yeah, I just think about how much crazy I encounter during a one-hour shopping trip. I can't imagine how much you'd be exposed to spending 50-60 hours per week in a retail store.

[Deleted]

At age 16, I'd give her a sharp learning curve about what is appropriate on the job. Ideally you get a bit of a filter by that age, but a first/early job could be that one opportunity where they learn a lot about functioning professionally. She'd be on my radar though for following up with any documentation required to let her go without regret.

[cinnamoncox]

At 16, any chance she has some social skills deficits? Like legit special needs, not just wasn't taught manners? Because anything but "nice to meet you" or something similar would be weird to say when first meeting one's boss.
That sounds like something a four year old would say right out the gate (don't ask how I know)