24/10/2022
Are people ruder than ever?
Lockdown is over, restrictions have eased and yet business owners like hairdresser, Maggie Mendez, have never felt so burnt out from people’s attitude.
“People are so much more antisocial and tired, they are closed off and its resulting in a level of rudeness”, she said.
Her business partner Megan is also feeling the pinch of rude clients since reopening in September of 2021.
“Every day we are hearing people complain about the prices, the appointment book, no one seems to be happy.”
In a Sydney Morning Herald study conducted earlier this year it was mentioned that this is a period in history where “any issue can draw sharp lines between us”.
“Something deeper is going on here when it leads not merely to flashes of disagreement but to a more permanent alienation.”
This can be extended to families and friends, internet arguments that might end up in profile banning, students not agreeing with professors and more. However, one industry that has had one of the biggest shifts in relationships is customer service.
Stanford Professor, Dr. Hans Steiner said in her recent scholar article that despite anger “being a part of everyone’s emotional compass” the coronavirus “put everyone to the test”.
With all of us facing some sort of social isolation through the lockdowns, uncertainty about the illness itself and mass deaths across the globe our bodies went into fight or flight.
In fact, during the pandemic, Lifeline received a historic number of calls in its 58 years of operation. Despite the lockdowns being over, mask mandates being dropped and social distancing being a thing in the past, many are still not happy.
The owners of the Westmeadows Salon reflected on an incident with the government mandates which was “one of the rudest incidents I had ever seen in the salon”, said Megan.
“I had a customer who had acute asthma but was covid negative, however when she coughed, another client told her to leave so harshly that my customer left in tears.”
Hospitality is another sector being hit by the COVID agitation.
Maddy Gates, a waitress in Melbourne, said that “people feel more entitled to everything nowadays” and work is becoming unbearable.
Meanwhile, McDonalds worker, Roberto Castiglia, says that customers are swearing and abusing the staff every day.
“Yesterday, when I took an order out to a car, that had been waiting for a little over two minutes I was told to F-off.”
Meanwhile, Isabella Sammartino, daughter of two parents who run a café she works in says “after being in lockdown for years, people think they can do whatever they want, acting more entitled.”