Beaten with a ruler.

[Jet]

So its labor day, busy as heck and I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to help everyone. This older gentleman comes walking by me as I'm talking to another customer and whacks me twice on the stomach with a metal ruler and says "Come show me the good stuff boy" (btw I work at an electronics retailer) Kind of stunned I let him wander off and finish helping the lady I was with. I walk over to help the gentleman who is looking at monitors and he greets me with two more smacks of the ruler to my arm. I'm getting a bit angry at this point "Please don't do that." "Oh? You don't want to be hit?" (Well of course not, who wants to come into work and get beaten with a metal ruler) So I help him out, explaining everything about 3-4 times until he finally decides and gets ready to leave. Once again, smacks me twice in the arm again with the metal ruler. Grrr just irritating.

[Brighid45]

Okay--how on earth did this guy get to hit you multiple hits THREE SEPARATE TIMES? No one has the right to smack employees with anything, much less a metal ruler! No way should you have to put up with that!

If that ever happens again, yell for a manager or security or whoever will get the nimrod hitting you to STOP. What the hell gets into people?

Not that I condone violence to customers in any way shape or form, but I would have been sorely tempted to show that old fart the 'good stuff' all right . . . what a jerk!

[Kyree]

....I would have slapped that guy back.

[ArenaBoy]

This man should be thrown into the

If not he should endure the gauntlet and then say "That's the good stuff buddy." Where do people think that they have the right to that kind of crazy stuff? I wonder if that man knows of assault and battery?

[DGoddessChardonnay]

WTF????

Next time you encounter that, call for management IMMEDIATELY. If you can, get away from the assailant. When they arrive, explain what happened and that you want the police called and the guy arrested.

If management doesn't want to do that, if you can get to a phone, call them yourself and as soon as you can, talk to HR. Failure of management to ensure a safe work environment is punishable by law.

And I do believe being slapped with a ruler does fall under the category of "hostile work environment." It also falls under the category of "physical assault."

Just because you are on an employer's time does NOT mean that you give up your rights as a human being.

And that's my

[Think Blue]

I would have grabbed the ruler and smacked him in the face, no one has the right to do that, what a jackass.

[chainedbarista]

i probably would have reacted by grabbing it and throwing it, then chewing his sorry ass out, followed by a not so gracious invitation to leave and never return.

stupid old bastard.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

When I first saw the title of this thread, I wondered if the person with the ruler was a nun.

Then I saw it was a guy.

I would've called security (or the manager) and had the guy escorted out. Hitting an employee, with the hand or anything else, is not an acceptable way to get their attention.

[BusBus]

I know hindsight is 20/20, but geez, don't let someone do that to you. No one has the right to touch you, let alone hit you. Although I hope that there isn't a next time, if he does return, refuse him service and maybe even have been banned from the store. Or just smack him back a bit

-BusBus, who doesn't condone violence against customers

[dispatch]

IMHO calling for management and blah blah blah would entail filling out a statement for the company, police, ect, ect, and turned it into a much bigger scene and made the day that much longer.
best course of action would be if you see him again with the ruler ask him to lose it or leave

[Ringtail Z28]

I probably would've decked the guy. A customer has no right to lay their hands or any object on you.

[Pagan]

Why, oh why, do complete strangers think they have the right to touch you in any way? I know don't condone violence, but I have a tendency to hit back when somebody hits me! And then my mouth gets into the act....oy!

[Becks]

Wow. You think there's a security tape of that? If there is, get management to see it and get him banned. Maybe someone knows him and can get him arrested.

[One-Fang]

Technical definitions of assault and human rights etc aside, I think a few of these suggestions are a bit extreme. I'd have just asked him not to do it, and walked off if he didn't stop.

It's a whack with a ruler. It's not like it's painful. Just annoying.

I think the assault laws are getting a little weird when one person can be done by another for putting a supportive hand on their shoulder (unwanted, but not done with harmful intent). IMHO, "assault" requires pain. Anything else is merely invasion of personal space. An annoyance, but not worth decking someone or calling the cops over.

[Special Patrol Group]

I know hindsight is 20/20, but geez, don't let someone do that to you. No one has the right to touch you, let alone hit you. Although I hope that there isn't a next time, if he does return, refuse him service and maybe even have been banned from the store. Or just smack him back a bit

That's what uset me the most working in retail. Something really nasty would happen, I wouldn't stick up for myself properly and later on I'd be seething about it, wishing I'd done things differently.