Anyone else work in a job where they have to deal with members of the public?

[emanymton]

Oh, come on you can’t leave it there!
Details, man/woman details!

 

[zoooo]

On a bad day I hate: old people who can't hear you because they haven't bothered with their hearing aids, smelly people who haven't washed for weeks, people with gnarled long overgrown discoloured fingernails and dirty hands who expect you to touch them, lazy bastards who can't be bothered to pack their own bags, and charmless lads who expect you to be grateful that they're flirting with you.

But fortunately most people are really nice and polite, especially kids for some reason.

 

[equationgirl]

When I worked in a university library, we would sometimes get sworn at if we didn't have the book people wanted to their essay the night before the deadline, but the worst I got called was 'stupid fucking bitch'.

 

[Poot]

I've worked with the public plenty. I think being bar staff is easily the worst for dealing with shocking rudeness. People (especially middle aged men who think they're god's gift) think they have a right to speak to you and touch you exactly as they see fit. When is it ever OK to pinch someone's arse or comment on people's tits? And just because you're waving £20 at me doesn't mean you'll get served first. Am I supposed to be impressed or something?

 

[starfish2000]

I work on the Railway, I'm on evening peak this coming week which means I'll get abused verbally about every 10 mins......its like water off a ducks back now

 

[strung out]

worked in shops for 8 and a half years now. some people can be cunts but the majority are fine, i love working with people so i enjoy it

 

[Agent Sparrow]

I totally sympathise with anyone going through the sort of thing my clients go through, some real shockers as I'm sure you can imagine. It's just frustrating when you've got 100 people and they all expect you to give up a day to go to court with them etc. I have to explain that I can't because it isn't cost effective and that just makes them think I'm some money mad sharky lawyer which fucks me off no end cos I could easily put 10-15 grand on my salary by giving up legal aid work and heading to, I dunno, Knightsbridge rather than Essex. I understand that clients place their trust in me and 99/100 we have a good working relationship but the really demanding ones do my head in a bit because they know they're not paying anything most of the time but they still expect me to fuck off every single other client I have to devote myself entirely to their dispute about a dog or some shite.

Thing is, ideally you should have the time and resources to go the court with them. I've never had to receive legal aid before, so it's quite a surprise that's not a given. Obviously you can only do what you have time for, but it sounds as though the system is something to justifiably get angry with. Not much consolation for you though if you've been called a cunt though.

As for me, even despite a brief stint in forensic mental health, I think I've always had worse experience with some staff then some clients.

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

I'm a trainee solicitor working in legal aid because I was an idealist but, nowadays, I would happily cull about 80-90% of the locals. For people paying nothing at all for thousands of pounds of legal work they have insanely unrealistic ideas about how much time can be devoted to their cases; everyone seems to think they're involved in the fucking trial of the century.

Some day a real rain is gonna come...

leave the profession.

seriously.

if you can't understand that to them it is the trial of the centry then you are clearly in the wrong job. I mean what does it matter if a few dole scum go down eh....

cunt.