Say Cheesed Off

No. Fuck off.

For those of you lucky enough not to be in the know about this one, I’m talking about a Network Rail poster campaign. There’s an example up by one of the entrances in Victoria station. It depicts a young man having a mug shot taken – presumably he has just been arrested. His placard says “Say Cheesed Off”. The inference is that he was arrested for swearing at some Network Rail drone.

Which is where the problem arises. It is clearly wrong to physically attack someone because you are frustrated. People in the service industry do have a right to work without the threat of violence. Arguably, they also have the right not to be insulted as part of their work – although you would have thought that as professionals they would be able to cope with a frustrated commuter calling them a wanker. But what they don’t have a right to complain about – and what they should just learn to shut their fucking faces about – is belly-aching when people swear.

See, there is a big difference between punching someone, calling someone a fucking cunt and pointing out that a situation is fucking ridiculous and you are pissed off about it. The latter comment is true; you are threatening no-one, you are insulting no-one. Yes, you it is arguably better to phrase your words more carefully and you probably don’t *need* to swear. But anyone who commutes in London will know just how frustrating it is to have to force yourself into some rancid fuck’s armpit on a delayed train because the fucking rail system still can’t sort itself out. Sometimes – the recent collapse of the London transport system because of a couple of flakes of snow, for example – the situation is fucking ridiculous, and you are well within your rights to say that you are pissed off.

In fact, you could argue that by swearing, your words – and your feelings – are expressed far more effectively, giving the customer service representative a good idea of what the public and the customers actually think. Which is one of the problems with this growing idea that you cannot show any anger whatsoever when you are getting a shitty service. Companies just don’t understand how people feel, and therefore cannot change anything despite the rage of their customers. An inability to swear, or show your anger and frustration, doesn’t help to defuse situations. In fact it makes things a lot worse most times.

Working in a customer service position is always difficult. You are exposed to the public, and they can sometimes be frustrated, irrational, angry and insulting. But guess what? It is part of your job to deal with that. I know, I’ve been in the situation and dealt with it. I worked in retail for years. So if you are a customer service bod, and you encounter someone who tells you they are fucked off, swallow your negative response and listen to them. Once you have heard their problem, try to help them. That is your job.