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customer service
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2020-03-05
The Sounds of a Casino
Living in Las Vegas and working in a hotel and casino, I got used to a few things; the sounds of the slot machines and the (albeit unpleasant) aroma of cigarettes and cigars. After being brought back to work after the shutdown, what I immediately noticed was how much quieter the casino floor was with all of the restrictions in place. There was a limit to how many guests we could have in, and social distancing meant only every other machine could be used. While wearing a mask and having plexiglass in front of my station, I had to get used to projecting my voice so that guests could hear me while I was trying to help them. Even now, I still wear a mask and have to actively make an effort to be heard. -
2020-03-01
Covid-19 Life
When covid first began, it did not have a huge impact on my life and the lives closest to me. The two week quarantine was more of a vacation rather than a punishment to me and my friends. However, as the months went by and I was the only one that had to go back to work due to being an "essential worker" while my friends did not was a blow to me personally. I continued to work 40 hour weeks and lost thousands of dollars monthly due to the low pay and being in a sales job. My friends were in the restaurant business so they continued to get unemployment and made more than me. This was a very annoying to me. I would never hold that against them since I would have done the same thing if given the opportunity. As time went on, it became a different type of annoyance from dealing with people who refused to wear a mask and gave constant issues to me and my coworkers. Our company had rules and while I had to wear the mask 8 hours a day, the customers did a fraction of that and still would constantly complain. I understand they can be annoying but it did not affect their breathing like they claimed. I had a couple compare themselves to Rosa Parks by "refusing to wear a mask to make a change" which got under my skin. The way the American government went about preventing covid was done in a terrible manner and I am extremely glad we are past the true heart of the pandemic. -
2020-07-03
Bad science, bad business practices
The attached article is about a plant nursery in Snohomish, Washington that banned its employees from wearing face masks on June 3, 2020. This business did not take safety precautions for its employees seriously, and actively encouraged and promoted unsafe practices. This is something that is worth being documented in the JOPTY due to the fact that the stereotype of Western Washington state is that it is very liberal, very progressive. But there are still many pockets of areas that still are not. It’s important to remember that this stereotype isn’t true. I think this is also something that is another example of the general public not taking the lives and significance that service industry/customer service workers seriously. -
04/14/2021
Liana Smith Oral History, 2021/04/14
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2021-10-04
Restaurant Employees' Experience during COVID-19
Restaurant Employees’ Experience during COVID-19 The norms of life pre-COVID are not the norms we are experiencing now. We all get accustomed to our ways of living, and then our lives have changed in a blink of an eye. I am a server in a restaurant and walk out each shift with cash in my hands. March 19, 2020, my life changed. I was a college student that lived day today when it came to my income, and for six weeks, I did not have an income to help with the bare necessities of living. However, I was very fortunate that my parents were the lucky ones that still had jobs, and they were able to help me until the restaurants opened back up. I have learned the importance of saving money. The experience of working in a restaurant during COVID-19 was unlike any experience I had in the past. Everyone was required to wear a mask, and the interaction with the guests was unnatural. The guests not being able to see our expressions and not hearing us clearly, I felt we lost the customer service our guests expected. It was challenging to breathe with the masks as the restaurant industry is fast-paced, and at times we would get overheated, nauseous, and did not feel well. I was always ready to go home so I could take off my mask. To-go sales now are a much more significant part of the restaurant business. The challenge with the increase in to-go orders is the design of the kitchens. They are designed to handle the projected sales based on experience, and when to-go sales became unlimited, the time to prepare meals doubled in time, and guests were unhappy. Many did not understand that the kitchen can only produce some much product per hour. It eventually got to the point that the restaurant would have to turn off their phones because the kitchen was at the maximum number of orders that they could produce. Trying to keep the guests happy was a challenge. If we took unlimited to-go orders, then the cook times were doubled. However, if we limited the number of to-go orders, the guests would also be unhappy. It will be interesting to see if the restaurant industry gets back to the norms of pre-COVID. -
2021-10-04
Before & After
This is a quick reflection on some aspects of how life is different now due to covid-19. -
2021-02-14
Essential vs. Expendable Workers
When the pandemic broke out, I was caught in the whirlwind of being an essential worker. I was a manager at my local McDonalds, so I've seen just how cruel people can be, and how corporations have continued to neglected their workers. Many people are minimum wage workers, and its frightening to know that such a large population is suffering so much, only to receive little appreciation and change. Through my personal story, I hope to have readers step in the shoes of a minimum wage worker than a pandemic, so when they step out, they'll raise awareness on the issue of lack of support and care for minimum wage workers. -
2020-12-08
Being Lowe’s safe by wearing our mask.
Sometimes social distancing is hard to do at all times. It is especially important to wear a mask when unable to stay 6 feet away from others since covid-19 spreads mainly from people who do not acknowledge the 6 feet requirement and have close contact with one another. While masks offer protection to yourself it also provides protection to those around you. Lowe’s provides its employees with Lowe’s specific make to stay safe. Lowe’s also provides masks to the public who do not have a mask. All one has to do is go to customer service and ask for a mask and we will happily provide one. With this there are some customers that come into the store without a mask and refuse to wear one. We still have to provide great customer service while being safe. In these situations we have to do our best to practice social distancing. -
2020-12-08
Staying Lowe’s Safe During COVID-19
This is one of the many ways Lowe’s is doing its part to make sure their employees and customers are safe. Throughout the store these signs are a great reminder that everyone needs to comply with the requirements of maintaining a 6 foot distance to protect themselves and others from the spread of the illness. The placement of these are in prime locations where the store sees the most traffic. Social distancing is important for not just everyone but especially those who are at higher risk for severe illness for coronavirus. Social distancing crushes the curve, which means that these protective practices slow the rate of infection. As employees we are motivated everyday by our managers to enforce social distancing as much as we can to make customers feel safe while shopping in our store. Along with the signs we also have an automated message that plans periodically to remind the customers to social distancing and how important they are to us and always to have a Lowe’s safe day. -
2020-03-15
Peace in a Pandemic
I chose my work uniform because I chose to work during the peak of the virus. I got to experience everyone's viewpoint and opinion concerning the virus, and show kindness to everyone who wished to engage with the world during an unprecedented time in modern history. The experience working during the pandemic was completely different from the business and rudeness I experienced serving customers at the height of the holiday season of 2019. People were generally pleasant and seemed to care for the employees working and the other customers in or around the store. This experience made me reevaluate a lot of my priorities in life, such as family and friends, because life is short and while i'm on this earth I should do my very best to love and serve everyone who I come in contact with. -
2020-04-09
Conversation with my pharmacy friend
My friend is a pharmacy student in Nashville and was shocked at how students were being treated by employers and professors. She was also shocked by the news and information being presented to clients. This exchange explains why so much disinformation spread as this started. This is Part 1 of our conversation. #NortheasternJOTPY -
2020-04-18
Some people don't care about grocery store rules
A small story about my tales of working at a grocery store during our pandemic. As of the last couple of weeks, my grocery store has had a limit on certain items like meat, water, eggs, toilet paper, etc. I was working in at customer service this day and I was making sure things were in order, wasn't really busy anyway. We had this couple come up to me and ask if I was ready to check them out and I directed them to a register, but before they walked away I realized they had 2 cases of water and 5 things of chicken. I informed them of our limit on those specific items right now, even though we had signed by each of these items explaining the same thing. The husband told me " What if I just come back in and buy the rest, are you going to stop me?". That really caught me off guard because it was such a disregard for basic rules. I told him still, he has to put some of it back, he kept joking around he was gonna put it back or come back in. He played it off like I wasn't paying attention by just putting the water back. He put it on some random shelf right behind him too. He still got into line with all the chicken. I told another cashier to tell them the same thing. So as they checked out they had 2 more cashiers tell them. I was told the guy said him and his wife would split the order so they could get all the chicken. I can't imagine just wanting something so bad you gotta just bend around the rules to get it, especially when those rules are in place to make things fair to other people. In the end, he had to put the 3 extra chickens back because of a manager getting involved. I don't know why people can't respect simple rules.