Finger waving cashier in Carrefour

That makes me laugh, nice one Pam.

I find they are rude in a lot of supermarkets i go to funnily enough carrefour is the worst culprit.
They obviously have no positive reinforcement system for staff, perks for being customer friendly.
I’m glad to be returning to green old England in October.

I joined this site ten minutes ago and already I am disappointed. As with all the other sites it seems to be populated by a bunch of Brits moaning about the French. Why the majority of you live here in the first place continues to confound me.
If you cannot get good customer service here, sort a problem equably or find a loo to use whilst on the road there is likely something fundamentally wrong with your demeanour.

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I assure you the comment i make is a genuine one i would make anywhere, working in hospitality i expect the same Curtious staff as would be expected of me.
I do not live here, but that is inconsequential.
Have a nice day

I was not specifically commenting on your input but the broad spectrum. That said I firmly disagree with you and could equally well say the same about customer service in the UK which sadly lacks on occasion. After years working in the hospitality and retail trades myself I have always found that, with rare exception, you get what you deserve. As you do not live here why are you even commenting? I would assume also therefore that you do not speak French and do not understand the French courtesies. Having to deal with a bunch of Brits all summer who can be rather discourteous themselves is not a justification for being impolite but goes some way to explaining it.
If ‘have a nice day’ indicates that you are American, that would explain why the lack of obsequious behaviour here galls you. If it does not indicate that you are American I do not appreciate the sarcastic phrase.

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@letstryagain

Hi could you please put your full name… it is one of the requirements of membership of this forum… and you will see that we all do this…

it helps to keep things friendly, as well… :grin:

Hello,

I will happily put my full name although I am not sure that I will be here that long as I see that the lady I replied to on this thread has remarked within another that the French are all agressive.
I joined hoping to find positive people who celebrate the life that they are fortunate enough to lead here in France but instead it seems to be populated by a bunch of whingeing Brits. Not everyone of course but many. I realise that life here is not perfect but to my way of thinking, having lived in the USA, Bermuda, Singapore and Turkey it has a great deal to offer.
Anyway I shall be patient and perhaps I have just got off on the wrong foot. I hope that this site is one which contributes to life in France rather than running it down otherwise I may as well have stayed where I was.

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Damian, I find, like you, that negotiating these on-line platforms isn’t easy, especially for those of us who are relative newcomers, as am I. I’m well aware that I have made many faux pas along the way, some inadvertently, some with more than a tinge of mischief or malice in my heart. Once or twice I’ve been “given my marching orders” for being too willing to over-correct others whether it’s a matter of opinion or fact that they’re offering.

By the tone and content of your own posts it seems clear to me that you are probably someone of firm convictions and a well-developed sense of justice and amity where Anglo-French relations are concerned; and widely travelled and experienced too, You will make a valuable contribution if you can be persuaded to stay; and you will find this a great community, with widely different and sometimes very divergent voices, eloquently expressed and worth their weight in gold. The quality of advice and support for people in a tight spot is second to none, and the humour is exquisite at time, as is the level of (digitally very difficult) empathy and tenderness. Some forum members, who may be facing problems alone, need the latter. And this forum as a source of that is unmatched in my experience.

Best wishes, Peter

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As i said ANYWHERE

The problem here may be that different cultures have different expectations. You can’t really expect to impose your own culture’s normes on other cultures, there is sometimes going to be a mismatch.
As a generalisation, I would say that employees here don’t see themselves as an employer’ puppets and don’t consider it their job to take the flak for the company’s mistakes. They are individuals, they do their job in their own way, and they will listen to your complaint and maybe they’ll agree with you and maybe they won’t. I don’t mind that approach. If you get a smile, you know it’s a genuine one.

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Well said Anna Watson. Somebody who appreciates differences in cultures gets my vote. This is surely what life is about. Travel, learn and respect others. If you don’t like it then time to move on.

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Anna, while I agree with your comments about not expecting things to work in France as they do elsewhere your observation regarding how French workers view their relationship with their employers would suggest that the employers are failing to engender a team spirit, or sense of belonging in their employees. You do not have to be an “employer’s puppet” to take pride in being part of an organisation which delivers a good customer service.

Of course a lot depends on how you deal with the act of making a complaint and how you interact with any employee handling your issues - what goes around comes around, as they say.

FWIW so far I haven’t had any (more) negative experiences in France, compared with the UK.

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Without wanting to get into a discussion that will go too far off-topic - I think it’s the vast differences in droit social / employment law between France and the UK that put the employer/employee relationship on a very different footing. When I used to teach business English, one of the lessons took the form of a discussion on good companies versus bad companies; I would have expected anglo-saxon students to approach this from the point of view of customer service and as you say, a company you would be proud to work for, but invariably French students approached it from the angle of, is the company a good employer, does it offer good working conditions and a good salary package and good prospects. I think this is significant that in France, providing employment (and thus supporting society and the economy) is generally seen as the primary function of a business, followed by providing a service to clients, followed by making a profit, quite different from anglo saxon priorities. Employers invest heavily in their employees in terms of social contributions and providing mutuel cover and job security and funding ongoing training for personal development etc; you can’t really blame them for feeling they’ve done their bit and the employee ought to be grateful, and I suspect most employers feel it’s not also their job to find ways to “engender team spirit”. As for employees, once they’ve bagged a CDI they will stay there because they know which side their bread is buttered, The job is a means to an end not an end in itself, once they have it they can get loans and mortgages and look forward to a secure future with a good pension at the end of it; but I’m not sure how much identifying with that particular organisation or taking pride in being part of it, comes into anything.

Maybe Macron’s reforms will start changing the employer/employee relationship and there will be a bit more gratitude and less sense of duty/taking for granted on both sides, and it will become important for employees to love the company as well as work for it, but call me cynical, or wrong, but as things stand I just don’t see it. I see employer/employee in France as a contractual arrangement between two parties with separate interests, and nothing more.

I totally agree with this.

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Very interesting points raised by both Paul and Anna which I fundamentally agree with. There is however perhaps one aspect which is not covered by that distinction between employee/employer relations here in France and in the UK and elsewhere and that is the character of the individual. Wherever we find ourselves in the world there will be some who will do their best out of a sense of personal pride and others that will do as little as possible to get by. This pertains to all aspects of the job, be it customer interface or something else. I have had a CDI contract here in France and I performed my task conscientiously, irrespective of the fact that I had scant regard for the management. Was this due to my personal character or due to the fact that my attitudes had been nurtured in a UK business environment?

Ah well, only you or someone who knows you well can answer that :grinning:
But I guess that’s why customer service is less predictable in France, because it does depends on the individual. They haven’t been groomed to smile at everyone so if they don’t feel like smiling at you, they won’t. Fair enough, and fortunately there are those who do choose to smile and be pleasant.