An 11-minute video of a Wisconsin woman ranting about poor service at an Appleton Bath and Body Works took the internet by storm in early October.
The video has been received with light humor and has even sparked various internet memes without many people considering the serious issue at hand; there is far too much disrespect and degradation towards service workers.
The video in question features the YouTube user Az4angela expressing the possibility of her boycotting Bath and Body Works after an upsetting visit to the store where they did not have the candles she was searching for.
Despite the video’s description including the YouTube star’s guarantee that, “this situation did happen but I did EXTREMELY OVERREACT for the purpose of YouTube. It is meant to be funny,” Az4angela states which Bath and Body Works the situation happened in and she specifically calls out the manager’s name without any consideration towards the manager’s privacy or safety.
Although the YouTube user claims to be a nice person, she verbally assaults the manager regarding her as a “bitch” and threatens to call her district manager where her “ass will get reamed.”
This is a prime example of people taking service workers for granted. Although it is an order taker’s job to provide hospitality and correctly record your order and a cashier’s job to scan and bag your items, it is the responsibility of the customer to remember that service workers are people who deserve just as much of respect as any other person.
Too many times people feel entitled to degrade service workers to be less than human which is downright disgusting and shameful.
It is widely known that people talk down to cashiers, waiters and fast food workers, and it is not a secret that people with these types of jobs experience a lot of abuse from the consumers whether it be an upset customer screaming about an onion wrongfully in their burger or a distressed customer demanding to have a product that is no longer in stock.
It is embarrassing for humankind that there are articles such as this one to remind us all that service workers are people who deserve to be treated as such. Outside of their jobs they have families, feelings and aspirations such as the rest of us.
If you still feel entitled to demean service workers for their type of work after reading this article, you should be ashamed of yourself for seeing other people as anything less.
Next time your waiter serves your food or a cashier rings up your items, don’t forget to thank them for doing their job with a smile on their faces despite them working somewhere many people do not find ideal.
Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.
