Well arent you the caring one...

[tinkerbell89]

A couple of weeks ago this happened to my co-worker.

She was working away, by herself as the other member of staff on duty in our department was in the stock room. At the time, we were on a 20% off all items promotion. This is all relevant lol. A bunch of middle aged guys came in and purchased something. There was about 5 or 6 of them, and they surrounded her,stroking her hair and touching her hand as they paid. She tried to remain professional but was understandably shaken. The men finally left when one of the guys from menswear came down and saw their behaviour, and they were escorted out the doors by security.

You think this is the suck? Oh no no.

The 20% promo ran on Thursday & Friday, and this incident happened on the Thursday approx 4pm.

On Saturday at noon, Im working and I receive a phonecall from our sister department store, which also stocks my label. There was a customer there requesting I reserve a scarf and pair of gloves for her until she came along to us, I did so happily. The customer appeared an hour later. This is where the suck begins....

She marches in, and asks for the items reserved. I fetch them for her and check they are the right item etc. She confirms she is happy with them. Here comes the clincher. She wants them at 20% off. I apologise and tell her the 20% promo was on Thursday & Friday. She goes off on one. Turns out, she was in the store on thursday, at the same time as the creepy guys. She saw the 19 yr old sales assistant being "sleazed all over" (her words). But instead of going to one of the other tills to purchase the items (we are a 5 floor department store, there are LOADS of other tills) and perhaps tell someone to help the poor sales assistant trapped with the sleazy gits, she decides to leave. Fair enough, her choice. But that does not mean she should get to waltz in and demand her discount 2 days late

We called over our manager, and she gave the lady 20% off, but only because she noticed that the customer was wearing one of our brand coats from a few seasons ago, so she knew she was a return customer, and didnt want to lose her!






Another suck; crazy lady who tried on a jumper, and handed it to the sales assistant "folded and rolled into a ball" (Customers words!) and asked for it to be held for her until the weekend. She came to pick it up that Saturday, and her first words when I approached her with it was "Oh NO!! Its not on a hanger is it?!?!" like this was the worst thing that had EVER happened to her...
I was like WTF? She then bitched about how the hangers stretched the jumpers (bullshit btw, our jumpers are £90, u think we are gona stretch them??!) and how she wanted it kept rolled in a ball. I explained to her that the member of staff didnt know her wish for it to be left off the hanger, and even if she had, wouldnt have been able to oblige as it is our company policy to make sure all reservations are hung neatly and labelled clearly to avoid confusion. The woman left, without buying the jumper...

[spookysonata]

So she saw this poor girl being harassed and just turned around and left? What an asshole. God help her if she needs assistance from a stranger someday.

Isn't there a name for that social reaction?

[Salted Grump]

I think it's called 'bystander syndrome' where, in a crowd of onlookers, at the scene of an accident, will almost always think 'well, someone else is calling <insert emergency line here> or is a doctor, so I don't want to tie up the lines, or get in a professional's way.'

It's also a great way to let someone get hurt/die because you can't be arsed to try out a nifty feature called 'Redundancies'

[lupo pazzesco]

Isn't there a name for that social reaction?

I believe it's called Bystander Effect, or Kitty Genovese Syndrome, after the poor woman who was murdered in New York years ago. Apparently there were dozens upon dozens of witnesses, yet none called for help or came forward because they assumed someone else would. I studied it in my Criminology class, but I can't recall all the details off the top of my head right now.

[Hobbs]

I believe it's called Bystander Effect, or Kitty Genovese Syndrome, after the poor woman who was murdered in New York years ago. Apparently there were dozens upon dozens of witnesses, yet none called for help or came forward because they assumed someone else would. I studied it in my Criminology class, but I can't recall all the details off the top of my head right now.

"...They watched as her assailant walked away. Now, we must all fear evil men. But there is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men."

One of my favorite quotes.

[Bramblerose]

on sucky 2: KNitting does stretch over a hanger (even if you use a non-stretchy yarn like linen). Not in week, however.

[Kheldarson]

"...They watched as her assailant walked away. Now, we must all fear evil men. But there is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men."

One of my favorite quotes.

I love that movie.

But yeah, Kitty was assaulted and killed as her apartment building watched. When they were asked later why they didn't call for help, everybody pretty much said it was because they figured somebody else was calling. So they shouldn't tie up the phone lines for one emergency when there could be others needing to come through.

As for the OP, I don't think she was dealing with bystander syndrome. She just didn't want to get involved at all because that would have required her to care about somebody else.

[Mordecai]

The story about Kitty Genovese is real?! I remember reading about it in Watchmen, but I thought it was created just for the book.

It really pissed me off, too. I know CS doesn't support violence, but I wouldn't have minded breaking the guys kneecaps.

[BookstoreEscapee]

The story about Kitty Genovese is real?! I remember reading about it in Watchmen, but I thought it was created just for the book.

Yep, true story.

I took a class in high school called Conscience of Man (sorry, Human Conscience because we must be politically correct - this was in 1991). Mostly we studied the Holocaust, but also discussed Kitty Genovese, the US Civil Rights movement, and some other topics (I remember we watched Mississippi Burning and The Accused).

On topic: she was wearing a coat that was at least a year and a half old and that makes her a "return" customer? 10 bucks says the last time she was in the store was when she bought that coat.

[Jester]

The story about Kitty Genovese is real?!

Very real. I have read about it here and there, but have not read many detailed accounts, nor seen the movie based on it.

But the details are very disturbing. The squeamish should stop reading here.

At 3:15 am on March 13, 1964, Catherine "Kitty" Genovese was returning home from work. She had just parked her car and was walking to her apartment building when a man attacked her stabbing her several times. Many neighbors heard her screams, and many of them witnessed what was happening. No one lifted a finger to help her, or a phone to call the police, though a few shouted at the assailant, who fled.

Bloody from her wounds, Kitty struggled to walk down the street, perhaps trying to get to a police call box. Many of the lights that had gone on went out, and people went back to doing what they were doing, again not attempting to help the injured woman. The assailant came back and attacked her a second time. A second time she cried out, and the situation repeated itself, with people aware she was being attacked, but no one doing anything other than yelling out their windows. A second time, the attacker fled.

Kitty found her way into the back door of one of the neighborhood apartment buildings, struggling to go on. At this point, her attacker returned for a third time, following her trail of blood to where she lay. He sexually assaulted her, robbed her of her money, and then finished what he had started, killing her with his third attack on her.

The entire event from start to finish was about 32 minutes, at which time the only person that attempted to help the 5'1" 105 lb. Kitty Genovese was Kitty Genovese herself. She never had a chance, especially with her loving, caring neighbors.

This case was the epitome of people "not wanting to get involved." Talk to your local cops about this mindset....you will find it is far more prevalent than you would believe.

[Broomjockey]

That's also the incident that lead to the idea of "Diffusion of responsibility." When you're the only person, you feel 100% responsible for what happens, with 4 people, you feel about 25% as responsible, and so on. It's why at work, when the boss says "I need someone to do X, I don't care who" it rarely gets done.

[Jester]

It's why at work, when the boss says "I need someone to do X, I don't care who" it rarely gets done.

And it is that very idea that led to a policy at one of my former restaurants. Very simply, if every anyone said "That's not my job," they were fired on the spot. As the management put it, if it was in the restaurant, it was everyone's job. A bit extreme? Perhaps. But I agreed with it, and more importantly, SHIT GOT DONE.