Archived What would you do if a guest hit you?

[GrumpyAP]

Can we get a mod in here to put this horse out of its misery?

 

[3LetterDevil]

Fortunately, there's a counter between me & the guests I have to deal with, but if a guest ever decided to cross it and put their hands on me, it would be on like Donkey Kong, I don't care if my job would be in jeopardy. On the flip side, where I work, the odds are that the guest would be trying to hold us up for controlled meds or something and would most likely be armed and, in that case, I'd duck behind the counter and take my chances they were too strung out to actually hit me. The layout of our pharmacy isn't conducive to actually robbing us for drugs, though, since the counter is too high where the drugs are and too far away from them where it's actually low enough to cross...

 

[commiecorvus]

Can we get a mod in here to put this horse out of its misery?

So far folks haven't got too out of hand...

The problem with a subject like this is how quick it can escalate.

 

[RedDog]

My first store was not in a good place and had lots of crazy people, crimminals etc. Back then when AP would stop some one more than half the time it would turn into a brawl so they would call certain people from the store to back them up when they stopped some one. Being ex military and pretty big guy I would always get asked to help out if things went south. When those people got violent we would throw them a beating. Only one time were we ever questioned about excesive force. Granted that was like 1999 or so. My next store was in completely opposite enviroment and nothing like that ever happened. In any case if some were to hit me I would put them down. Target never payed me enough to take a beating.

 

[redeye58]

If someone hit me, they'd better make it count because they'll get degreaser in the eyes followed by a breadstick pan over the head.

 

[paidtosmile]

For some reason I've always thought about this scenario in my head : I'm cashering and someone doesn't like the way I'm bagging, so they smack my hand. I would tell them they needed to leave/go to someone else's lane.

What would you do...?

This has actually happened to one of my cashiers when i was up front, but I was there to intervene right away. The cashier was bagging a package of socks with some chemies or something (this was a while ago, I don't quite remember what the items were), and the old woman slapped at the cashiers hands and told her to "bag better." Not just a swat, like a HARD slap. It left a long-lasting red spot on my cashiers arm. I heard it loud and clear from half way across the front end, so I immediately intervened and asked her not to put her hands on my team member. She wanted to speak with the "supervisor at customer service" I told her that was me, I had seen the entire the situation, and that "we have a zero tolerance policy for verbal and physical harrassment that applies to both team members and guests, and we will ask any guest who is harassing team members to leave the building."

In response to the OP:

I'd think that if a situation is escalating to the point where the guest is going to get violent, it should have gotten out of hand long enough before that time that you can call over a team lead or LOD/AP.

 

[anathema]

Please, it's a fist fight, not a hold up. I somehow doubt you've never been confronted face-to-face in your whole life.

Wrong you are. 22 years ago when I managed in food service I as on the receiving end of a loaded gun during a robbery.

Shut your face.

The proposed scenario is being assaulted, not robbed. You don't need specific experience in a scenario where someone wants to physically hit you at work, which is what you implied. I said that it's NOT a holdup, which is obviously different. Please work on that reading comprehension before replying.

I made no explicit implications. You are the one who needs reading compression.

Well, first, explicit implications makes no sense, the two are mutually exclusive. Second, you said you would need to be confronted in order to know what you would do, which implies someone has never been in a situation where they were confronted face-to-face. You told me I was wrong and that you have been, which makes no sense, because you would be agreeing with me that you actually have been confronted, although you did give an example outside the scope of the original question. Then you maturely tell me to shut my face.

I'm not going to reply to this anymore because I don't like having to explain every minute detail to someone who can't follow a simple string of words and form a semi-coherent thought.

 

[Deli Ninja]

For some reason I've always thought about this scenario in my head : I'm cashering and someone doesn't like the way I'm bagging, so they smack my hand. I would tell them they needed to leave/go to someone else's lane.

What would you do...?

All things considered, I feel like I would stop, stare at the guest for a moment, void the transaction, log out of the register, and go hide in the TMSC for a few minutes. I'd be on backup... and Target doesn't pay me enough to be deliberately touched by guests in any way, shape, or form.
I can deal with a friendly touch to the shoulder or a shake of the hand as a "thank you" but I'm pretty sure anything else would make me feel uneasy at the very least.

 

[buliSBI]

I had a couple guests hit my stationary line of carts with their cars. And they just glared at me like I did something wrong, and just drove off.

 

[Dreamwolf31]

It's these people who would complain about having no carts in the store. I love to sit by the fire door with the glass window and observe all the idiots driving around.

 

[Dying Sun]

if a guest ever laid hands on me, they better make the first swing count cause after that all bets are off. they will hit the floor like a ton of bricks. theres a reason my name is Dying sun because something like that would send me into a supernova. and if target fires me good I know a good lawyer who loves cases like this.

 

[Kompa]

I'd flex them into an endcap.

I'm sorry, these are just so easy to make up.

 

[redeye58]

What's left of 'em would wind up on a shelf in my walk-in, complete with "expiration date".

 

[commiecorvus]

So you might 'Crown' them with the 'Wave'?

 

[sher]

I think a woman wanted to hit me (and a few coworkers once). I walked away the moment she said something that was beyond what I'd consider appropriate for someone to say and still be referred to as a guest. She was mad about the most ridiculous thing. Her friend's home burned down and the friend was staying with her, in her home. The friend went to church that day (I remember this woman's sob story with such detail), and she and her daughter were out trying to buy the woman some clothes as a surprise. She didn't know her size and was pissssed that we didn't have some sort of size chart. She was like "she's this tall so about 5'x and she weighs probably about xxx lbs" and we were like, well, tell us which of us (for some reason there were a ton of SL tms on the floor that day) her body is closest to and we can try to figure this out. Also the return policy is blah blah blah.

She was not having it. She was yelling and crying and gesturing wildly with her arms. I tried to tell her that no chart would help her because they all use measurements of bust, hips, waist. Then she got louder. I raised an eyebrow and walked away. Took my 15. I don't think I'll ever be in a situation where I'm being hit by someone unless it comes out of nowhere. You raise your voice and I'm out.