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Retail customers sometimes witness a ten-second interaction and confidently invent an entire workplace culture behind it.

This employee voluntarily joined the tills to help colleagues during a queue, expecting nothing more dramatic than routine returns.

After hearing one disposal request and one compliment, a customer concluded that the staff were being mistreated.

Suddenly, the checkout lane had its own HR department.

Customer told me to be nicer to my staff.

“At work yesterday (clothes and homeware shop) I hopped on the tills and was serving customers.

A woman returned an online purchase and then said to me ‘ I really think you just need be a bit nicer to your staff’.

Huh?

Me ” I’m Sorry…what?”

Customer ” You should really be nicer to your staff.”

I was gobsmacked.

Literally no idea where this came from, the only interactions I had with other staff while she was there were the following : ” Hi Josh can you pop that in the bin please?” for actual customer information that could get us sued under GDPR rules, and, “Hey Sarah, love your jumper!”

I’m not even full management and I didn’t need to hop on tills I did it to help out the staff on tills. I was passing through another department and saw there was a queue.

Really ****** me off as I have pushed towards a nicer work environment where I am because I have worked under proper horrible militant managers who were borderline bullies and made working life hell.

They were totally confused by this.

Seriously why say that?

And for the record they are not “my staff” they are my colleagues.

Honestly, worst part about working retail is the general public.”

Let’s see what folks had to say on Reddit.

This person had a lot to say.

Another reader shared their thoughts.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a bank employee who immediately resigns after being denied a bonus.

And this individual spoke up.

The employee had done nothing harsher than protect customer information and compliment a colleague, so the criticism came completely out of nowhere.

The irony was especially rich because she actively promoted a kinder workplace and viewed the staff as colleagues rather than subordinates.

One online return somehow included a complimentary performance review nobody requested.