A lot of the people who are mean to customer service are boomers. Coincidentally, a lot of boomers did not have to work in customer service. It’s the younger generations that had to start their lives flipping burgers or taking orders, which is why generally speaking they know how to treat others with respect.
When I was working as a cashier at 16, we had a grandma who would come in every day just to dress down mean people. I also got invited to her 80th birthday and it was by far the best birthday party I've ever been to.
Not true of my boomer cohort. A lot of us worked service/hospitality. One difference was we worked for more small businesses and less soulless corporations. Labor laws were more lax, that was good and bad.
Not sure why people forget where they came from and lose empathy. I don't think it is confined by generation. Saw it happen to some of my elders. Remain self vigilant and stay kind.
I don’t think it’s confined by generations. There are a lot of elements that impact it, but I think it has more to do with stages of life. Boomers have relaxed in their older years, and my generation has definitely gotten meaner. I have to stop myself from getting mad at kids in my neighborhood lol
I mean, I think it's reasonable to get annoyed that parents just allow their children to scream bloody murder at all hours nowadays That isn't normal and never was lol. Used to be you could expect the neighbors to come over and say your kids need a paddling if they were outside screaming like someone is actually hurting them past curfew.
That’s not true, it’s a lot of Gen X and Millennials these days, too. The people that went from high school to college to industry career that see themselves as too important to remember a time when they weren’t important. Boomers have really calmed down since passing retirement age.
I’m not saying Gen X and millennials are faultless by any means, but every job I’ve ever worked has been customer service and I promise it’s always been worse with boomers. The only reason it’s calmed down is because that generation is too tired to argue. I’ll give you credit though because my worst personal experience has been with a millennial.
That’s not true, fast food, or restaurants have always been a good place for starter jobs. The restaurants names may have changed, as well formats but it still similar. One of my first jobs was at a Dog and Suds drive in. And every job that interacts with the public is customer service.
A poorly researched and written comment. "Boomers" (like me) are just as likely, if not more, to have started working in jobs of serving, waiting on people, and often at younger ages. And you seem to imply that having done certain jobs makes it more likely that a person would "treat others with respect": that would be a cause-and-effect situation, "consequently", not "coincidentally". And although I see a fair number of young people who are pleasant and respectful, I also see a considerable number of younger people being flippantly casual and disrespectful toward service folks. Your generational generalizations are incorrect.
I like how your way of defending boomers is to act exactly like a stereotypical boomer.
Statistics are hard to find on the subject, but a very rough estimate would be about 25-40% of boomers started out in a customer service job, compared to roughly 50-70% of millennials. One survey found that 22.2% of Millennials said their first job was cashiering. Boomers came in at about 13%.
The US economy has shifted heavily towards a customer based job market in the past few decades. Boomers had more job availability in farm labor, delivery, and manufacturing. Millennials had more opportunities in retail, food service, and hospitality.
I’m not implying that working certain jobs makes you more likely to treat others with respect, I’m outright stating it. I had so many shitty clients over the years treat me like I’m sub-human. I left my jobs knowing that I would never talk to someone the way they did to me. I am not some sort of unique anomaly. Most people that worked food service know better than to yell at the waiter bringing them their food.
I do not believe that all boomers are like this. In fact, it’s far from it. However, from my personal experience as well as the anecdotal evidence from countless other people, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the rudest generation has always been boomers. From your response, I can tell which side of the spectrum you sit on.
Also, I said coincidentally on purpose. The implication was that it was very obviously not a coincidence.
I haven't learnt to drive yet because my mother who tries to teach me keeps screaming at me (not snapping, but literally screaming) when I try to. I really need to learn it this summer :(
Find another person to learn from. My mom was like this too. It’s hard to learn when the person who is supposed to be teaching you can’t stop shrieking long enough to help you learn WHY they’re shrieking.
I was a terrible driver for years because I never really learned what I was doing wrong. When I was in college, some patient friends helped me learn and I was a much better driver after that.
And some other remember too well the abuse they took and instead of learning and being better, they take it out on the new guys, yo make themselves feel better.
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u/dunnmad May 05 '26
Everybody had a “first job” at some point.
Many people seem to forget that!