Displaced Aggression (Chapter 10)
Displaced Aggression:
Any behavior that intentionally harms a substitute target rather than the provocateur.
Anyone who has worked in retail will tell you all kinds of stories of displaced aggression. People have their problems, and that’s perfectly fine. We all have bad days or just times that are rougher than others. Yet, it seems like those who work at stores end up dealing with a blunt force of it. It can be tiny things, like their boyfriend being a jerk, to big things like dealing with domestic abuse or their family member is in jail. I’ve worked at Walmart for a few months, and there’s one night I won’t ever forget. There was a woman who went through my line. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Yet, as she got closer, you could tell she was mad. When someone comes through my line mad, I typically don’t talk much to not anger them anymore. Well, she didn’t care. She started yelling at me for things I had nothing to do with (the price of things, where things were located, etc). I apologized, as per company policy. But it didn’t stop there. She then started to yell at me about her son being a dead-beat dad, not supporting the child he had. I was just her punching bag for the majority of the time I checked her out. Even when I told her the total, she was extremely grouchy about all of these things I had no control over. It really took a toll on my attitude for the day, making it hard to be as cheerful with the other customers.