Bigotry a daily headache for some workers

Customer-service workers say there’s a growing need for training to combat abusive customers

Bobby Jackson remembers the day he visited a customer and faced blatant bigotry.

He was making his usual rounds, visiting cardiologists to speak about the pacemakers and defibrillators that Jackson sold as a sales manager for a medical-devices company. But one doctor only saw him for his race.

“He said, ‘You must have gotten hired as affirmative action,’” Jackson, 53, an African-American, recalled. “I responded with, ‘That’s not necessary. Let’s not make this personal.’”

In the midst of a national conversation about restaurant or store workers singling out customers unfairly based on their race, religion or sexuality — witness the Starbucks case in Philadelphia in April in which a manager called the cops on a pair of black customers because they didn’t buy anything — there’s been little attention paid to the flip side: abusive, racist customers mistreating employees.

Recently, the issue has been getting more attention due to a spate of bias incidents against workers that have been captured on video, including an anti-immigrant rant by an attorney enraged because some of the workers at a New York restaurant spoke Spanish.

Such outbursts may make jobs in stores and restaurants, already known for long hours and low pay, less desirable.

“I think it does raise people’s awareness of the abuse customer service representatives go through,” says Andy Challenger, vice-president of the employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Most workplaces put employees on notice that anger or bigotry toward co-workers is unacceptable but are less clear about how to handle a customer who is abusive to an employee because of a person’s race, religion or sexuality.

“The classic training for customer service (and) employees in restaurants is the customer is always right,” says Challenger. “I know a lot of companies do training on what to do with upset or angry customers. I don’t know if as many do an explicit emphasis on racist customers and how to treat them.”

But the need for such training is growing.

“We’re seeing a rise in hate across our country, and that conduct sometimes spills over into ... stores and work sites,’’ says Kristen Clarke, president and executive director for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “This is a moment that requires employers think about what actions they can take to make sure that all employers are aware of their rights.’’

Employers have an obligation to make sure their workers don’t encounter a hostile or unsafe work environment, including mistreatment based on factors like gender, age, national origin or race, says Corbett Anderson, assistant legal counsel for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Anderson says steps that an employer can take against a hostile customer “could include talking to the person, making clear their behavior is unacceptable and not going to be tolerated. And it can move on to restricting the person’s access to the premises.”

MICHAEL BRYANT/AP In the wake of protests against Starbucks after a manager called the police on two black men, more people in the customer-service industry are coming forward to report racist or bigoted incidents.

JUSTIN STUTTE A customer wrote an anti-gay message to Justin Stutte after he served her and her son at a restaurant. He says he was fired two days later after a co-worker posted the message on social media.