Why do businesses allow their employees to chew gum?

[Rabrrrrrr]

It's like a goddamn epidemic nowadays. Can't go anywhere without having to listen to some fucking cow ignorant sales clerk chomping away.

And what the hell happened with teaching sales clerks to say "Yes" instead of "yeah", and "Would you like?" instead of "Do you want?" and looking customers in the eyes when speaking to them?

Thank God - again - that I worked in a retail store that respected our customers enough that if any employee was chewing gum, they'd be written up, and a couple write-ups, they were gone. It was also a place that respected our customers enough that male employees that didn't shave were sent home to shave, so they looked decent. We were taught that when someone asked us where something is, no matter what we were doing we were to take them there or, in case were checkers who couldn't leave our station, we CALLED SOMEONE OVER to escort the customer to the place where the item was, not just point vaguely in a broad sweeping arc covering half the store, and leaving the customer to wonder just which few arcseconds of that arm motion the sales clerk actually meant. And once we were there with the customer, we HELPED them sort through all the possibilities, if they needed it, and even took it off the shelf for them just to be nice. Becuase they are, you know, A CUSTOMER.

And dammit, we wore shirts and ties. And the women dressed decent, too.

And that was just a fucking grocery store.

But man, would employees get ripped a new asshole if they were caught with gum in their mouth. And rightly so. It has to be one of the rudest things a person can do to a customer.

And it's not just sales clerks; it's people working the phones, too! And those in customer service, who need to talk to customers.

People - you CANNOT talk adequately with gum, or anything else, in your mouth. You might THINK you can, but you can't.

[azmouse]

1. I dislike the use of "You guys"

As in "What can I get for you guys?" when a server takes the order in a restaurant.
I've been female all my life. I'm not a 'guy'. Not now, not ever.
So don't call me one. :rant:

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. Ooh, and the familiar use of my first name

by sales people I don't know. You will call me by my last name; preferably you will call me by my title.

But not everyone knows I have a title, and that's okay - but I desire, please, a "Mr. XXXXXXXXX", not my first name like we've known each other forever. Especially if you are younger than me.

:grr:

[LaraMN]

4. Uh-huh, especially when they can't pronounce it.

If you don't know me well enough to pronounce my name properly, you've no business calling me by it.

[DS1]

5. Dude, your name is Rabrrrrrr XXXXXXXXX?

You poor bastard.

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. Yep. I'm actually the 9th in the series of unknown Rabrrrrrrs.

[DS1]

7. I think I'm going to call you RVI_IX

Pronounced, Rivicks

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. Crap, I wish I had 499 r's in my name, then.

[DS1]

10. It's the glasses, isn't it

:D

[skygazer]

3. I hate it when they say, "no problem"

instead of "you're welcome." And I hate gum chewing too. When my kids were young, I wouldn't allow them to chew gum. Ever. They no doubt thought I was an evil Nazi but I don't care - I hate listening to that.

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. And "uh huh" and "unh unh". Fuckers, just say "yes" or "no"!

And look at me when you do it!

And say "Thank You" after I bought something from you, you ungrateful blatherscapes! From now on, I'm taking a shilelagh to anyone who doesn't say thank you.

[leftofthedial]

11. yeah!

and we weren't allowed to chew gum UPHILL BOTH WAYS!!

Damned whippersnappers.

[fishwax]

41. haha

:)

[Burma Jones]

12. I so look forward to the day when I never have to talk to a person

when I have to purchase anything, we're almost there now.......

Back when I worked retail, I dressed like Kermit the Frog and let customers spit in my mouth, and I thanked them for it by God....

[Oeditpus Rex]

13. I just hate it when

kitchen staff threaten me with a meat cleaver. :grr:

[Rabrrrrrr]

14. Or when the guy at the table next to you explodes

or throws up on the help.

[Oeditpus Rex]

16. That, too

[nini]

15. I thought it was just me with the gum chewing thing

it's soooo tacky.

customer service and decent manners is a thing of the past in many places these days.

[Starlight]

17. You certainly expect a lot from people earning minimum wage.

If you want great service from employees in suits, you need to shop in swanky stores, not Walmart. :wtf:

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. Ah, yes... the old "you can't expect manners from the poor" salvo,

"because it's rich white oppression saying that people that should have manners and treat each other with respect".

Yeah, well, that's crap.

I worked minimum wage at the grocery store when I started there, AND at the drugstore, where we also had to wear a tie and treat our customers like human beings, and I never once thought to myself, "Wait- I'm working minimum wage, I should get a free pass from society for anti-social behavior!"

I don't see why manners needs to become a class issue - respect, civility, and manners should be available to all, and from all.

[Bill McBlueState]

23. it's not that they're poor

It's that they get the same shitty paycheck regardless of whether they say "yeah" or "yes." Why care about customer service when your employer obviously doesn't give a shit, having built their reputation on low prices no matter the cost? I find that low-wage employees at small, locally owned businesses are much more pleasant to work with than anyone at the big boxes.

I'm sure most of these "poor" people in retail have excellent manners, but what motivation do they have to extend any courtesy to shoppers?

[Starlight]

26. Forcing low wage employees to wear suits and firing them for chewing gum

has absolutely NOTHING to do with your BS "manners are a class issue" argument. :eyes:

[Rabrrrrrr]

27. Where are they being forced to wear suits? So far as I know,

the only suit wearing people I've come across are in suit stores, or high end department stores or jewelry stores.

:shrug:

I had to wear a tie at my low wage job in the grocery store, and I didn't find that to be economically destructive to me at all. Nor did I find not being able to chew gum to be somehow an oppression against my class.

:shrug:

[Starlight]

32. In your fantasy, apparently. Read your own posts.

:silly:

[Rabrrrrrr]

37. Okay, I did just re-read my own posts. Never did I say

to put people in suits.

[trof]

19. Because we can't smoke any more.

It's nicotine gum.
bastids
:-(

[eyepaddle]

20. You're not the dude from negativepositive are you?

http://negativepositive.org/

The rants are both impressive for their force of conviction and literary style.

And if you ain't you just might enjoy the site!

[Rabrrrrrr]

21. OMG! That's guy's a genius!

I love his rant on adults who buy word search books - that's been a real hook in my craw for years, wathcing all those barely illiterate fat smoking poorly-dressed middle-aged bitches on the subway with their big hair and their excessive perfume doing word searches like they're proving what a fucking rhodes scholar they are.

Thanks for the link!! This guy rocks!

And no, it isn't me. I wish it were!

And I wish I had a collection of all the rants I've had here on DU. It's so sad they're locked up in the archives and would take a team of people I can't afford to retrieve them all.

[BuelahWitch]

22. So they stay out of the bathroom

Chewing gum keeps you from drinking so much. If you don't drink so much you don't have to go pee so often.
Simple bodily function issue ;)

[Deja Q]

24. I miss those days too. Except for uniforms. Sartorial conformity, yuck.

But do some name-dropping, which stores do allow it and which don't? I suspect the upper-class stores (Marshall Fields, et al) don't allow it and middle- or lower-class joints (Marshall's, et al) do...

[bridgit]

25. gum i don't mind so much, it's when they snap it with that vapid look...

x(

[ET Awful]

28. You're starting to sound like Abe Simpson

:evilgrin:

[SteppingRazor]

29. Tell you what... as soon as retail chains start paying a decent wage...

They can get employees to stop chewing gum.

As long as they continue to pay out less-than-subsistence wages with no benefits, why should employees have any pride in their workplace?

[Rabrrrrrr]

38. But why must it be tied to wages?

That's what I don't get. Someone upstream is positing that view as well, and I don't understand it.

If, as I assume, in the liberal tradition we believe all people to be equal in terms of their legal rights, and also their ethical and moral rights as human beings; and if, in the liberal tradition, we believe that this equality is for all people regardless of their class, economics, gender, social status, sexual orientation, race, culture, etc.; and if, in the liberal tradition, we believe that a person's status says nothing about their value as a human being; and if, in the liberal tradition, we believe that every person is capable of great things, no matter their handicaps and/or social/economic/gender/etc. status; then doesn't it seem reasonable to expect that someone working for low wages is just as capable as a higher income person of not chewing gum on the job? Or not being rude? Or not being helpful?

To say that a low wage-earning person should be given a free ride on this is to say, "We can't hold them to the same standards of social behavior that we hold ourselves, because they are poor". Where is this attitude different than the attitudes of the upper class in Dickensian England? I'm glad my workplaces were never that rude that they said, "Okay, you people on minimum wage, you can dress like slobs because there's no reason for you to have any pride in how you look or act or the quality of your work, because you're poor."

[SteppingRazor]

39. I think you're missing the point...

It has nothing to do with the fact, in and of itself, that retail workers are poor. It has to do with the fact that, if one is paid a higher wage, one has more loyalty to one's employer, likely takes more pride in one's work and, therefore, will be nicer.

Tying this to wages doesn't suggest that poor people are rude. It suggests that better service comes with higher wages, something that should be common sense, I think.

[AlienGirl]

42. It's not just about wages, it's about respect

The company doesn't respect its employees, because they know they can always just hire some more, so they don't pay a living wage or offer any incentive to take pride in the work. The customers, particularly well-off ones, don't respect the minimum-wage clerks, whom they regard as a lower form of life (actual quote from one customer: "I am a PROFESSIONAL person, I can buy and sell you!"). So what motivation does a sales clerk have to respect the customers?

Tucker

[imperialismispasse]

30. I was at Target the other day with my GF

She was looking for something, dont remember what. We walked up to a girl with a Target shirt on and asked where it was. She looked my girlfriend right in the eye and said "I dont know". Then stared blankly. My girlfriend said "Is there any one here who does know?" She said "I dont know" and walked away. :wtf:

[underpants]

31. Wrigley's Orbit specifically CitrusMint

A must

[eyepaddle]

40. I just discovered that flavor.

No doubt it is teh bomb!

I don't chew gum in public much (usually in the car after coffee, when I can't brush my teeth immediately)

I will confess that I have never even once in my life been bothered in the slightest by somebody else chewing gum.

Halitosis on the other hand....

[Heidi]

33. Shudder. It's not only annoying. It's tacky

beyond words, and disrespectful of anyone on the listening end of the gum-chewer's chewing. :scared: <---- The best I can do in the absence of a "shudder" smiley.

[Dulcinea]

34. I loathe & detest gum.

Nothing says "trailer trash" like popping, cracking & chomping gum like a cow chewing cud. It's absolutely my pet peeve.

If it was my world, people could smoke where they wanted, but gum cracking in public would be punishable by having their teeth knocked out. Smoking may be unhealthy, but it doesn't make annoying noises!

[Rabrrrrrr]

36. I'm with you on that - I'd trade the smoke for the gum ban

Though then we might have sales clerks who stop their grocery rining every few seconds to take a puff...

But yes, smoke is more easily tolerable than the gum snappin' cud-chewin' slurred speachin' behavior.

[RevCheesehead]

35. because it's not acceptable to chew on your coworkers?

:)