I used to work at Greggs - I can sympathise with the decision to ban mobile phone and headphones at the till
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
The Croydon branch put a sign up in its window that said staff will be “refused service” to those who are trying to grab their sausage roll and go without even glancing at them, and as a former employee of the UK’s favourite bakery, I stand in solidarity with my Greggs counterparts.
I worked at my local store on the outskirts of Glasgow from the age of 17 until I was about 19 or 20. It’s been just about a decade since my Greggs era but the feeling of being ignored by customers at the till is still visceral.
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Hide AdI have complete understanding for those who are uncomfortable in customer service settings. Neurodivergent people may find it more comfortable to have a buffer between themselves and staff members for those moments of interaction, and as a staff member you can understand the want or need to grab your items and go as quickly as possible and you can identify these situations.


But it’s not those customers that are irking staff members. Personally, I have memories of a very small handful of people speaking at volume on the phone while trying to ask for four or five items from behind the counter.
God forbid the staff member in question has to ask you something about your order, let you know that their item is no longer available or there is something to ask during the payment process. You are treated as if you’ve personally offended them for doing your job and some even take the opportunity to berate you for it.
Not only are you made to feel as if you’ve ruined their day for interrupting their conversation that could not wait until the end of customer interaction - a process that would normally take a handful of minutes - but it also causes issues for the other customers. It’s adding unnecessary queues at busy times and leaving you standing waiting for a pause in the customer’s conversation to interject while the lunch rush begins to pour in.
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Hide AdBelieve me, staff members are just as keen to keep your ordering and paying interaction as simple and straightforward as possible. It’s there in the name - fast food. And mobile phones and headphones hinder this sometimes and can make buying a sausage roll an unnecessarily unpleasant experience for both customers and staff.
In a post-Covid lockdown world, it can sometimes feel like people are re-learning how to interact with customer service workers. I feel lucky to have left customer service before this shift. So, while a blanket ban on tech at the Greggs till may seem extreme to some, I can completely sympathise with workers who are at the end of their tether.
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