Saturday, August 9, 2014


The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

 

On Tuesday of this week I was standing in the customer service line at Walmart and overheard a young lady being treated unjustly by a manager and another worker. The line at customer service was backed up with at least 10 people in line and I was the sixth person in line. The young lady was the only person working behind the counter at this time, but what upset me most was I overheard the manager say to the other worker, “she need to be working by herself because she can get some exercise” and they both laughed. Of course it was obvious the young lady had more weight on her than some people, but this was no reason to attach her in such a way of not giving her some assistances with the customers in line.

 

This incident made me feel not only did the manager not care for the young lady, but nor did she care about the customers standing in line. Therefore I made sure the manager, and the other worker heard me say to my son, “this young girl is doing a great job in being polite with the customers even though she has all these people in her line”. Then a lady in front of me said, she sure is. I then stepped over to the manager and said, could you tell me who I can call and tell them about how well this worker is doing under pressure with all these people in her line. At first they just looked at me, then the manager said you can call the 1-800 number but am about to get her some help. I said that would be nice since we have been standing here for about 20 minutes and still have a way to go before we reach the counter. I wish you all could have seen the look on their faces. Lol!!

 

But the main thing is the young lady should have been treated fairly in the first place. However in order for this to have occurred the manager should have given her help right away and not judged her by her appearances. Furthermore for all the manager and the other worker knew the young lady could have an unknown reason for her weight. Nor should they have assumed that a person that look overweight is a person that does not exercise.    

2 comments:

  1. Edith,
    Excellent Post! This is a perfect example of how people make hurtful comments about others in regard to their size. I applaud you for pointing out to the manager (in a nice way) what a great job this employee was doing despite the long line. Assuming someone who is overweight does not exercise is an assumption that is prevalent in our society. For example, she could have a medical problem that contributes to her weight. You never know. Thank you for pointing out that weight is an area of prejudice we may not think about.

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  2. Edith, wow just rude!! I agree with Celeste, just because a person is overweight doesn't mean they are lazy. This example has brought to light so many other examples in the customer service industry - where workers talk about other coworkers in front of patrons and they don't realize that it is bad for business! No one wants to hear other people bash others. Thanks for the example and I love how you advocated for that woman in a nice and suttle way as to not stir the pot but to point out that she was doing her job and doing it well!

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