Being yelled at by an employer is an embarrassing experience. It belittles workers and can make them feel uncomfortable in a work environment—and, given their place in the company, they may feel unable to speak up if they believe the yelling was unjustified.
Recently, a user on TikTok has sparked discussion with their resolution for this issue: customer reviews.
“You are going to make a junk email, or an email that your work doesn’t know about,” says TikTok user Arianna (@sapphic.snail). “You are going to go onto Google reviews and you are going to leave a review saying that you saw a manager yelling at an employee. Describe the manager—if they’re wearing a name tag, you can even put their name.”
@sapphic.snail If it was bad enough, leave multiple reviews from different emails lol #fyp #retail #foodservice #psa ♬ original sound – Arianna
“They read those reviews. Especially smaller stores, they read those reviews,” she continues. “I promise, you will get an apology the next day.”
There are added benefits to doing this, she says.
“Not only all of that, but I guarantee they are going to be a lot nicer to you, and they’re going to be a lot nicer to all the other employees,” she concludes.
In a 2019 report from Marketplace, “about half of the workers polled reported having been yelled at by a co-worker, while more than a third admitted to yelling themselves.”
This yelling, the article states, can create a hostile work environment, leading to unhappy and unproductive employees.
“People have more depression and mental health problems,” explains Robert Sutton, an organizational psychologist at Stanford University quoted in the story. “They’re more likely to get physically sick, they’re less likely to work hard, they’re more likely to be less creative and they’re more likely to make mistakes.”
While Arianna’s method differs from the advice of employment experts, who suggest having a private meeting with your boss to discuss issues, TikTokers were enthusiastic about the idea, both sharing their own experiences and their suggestions for how the method could be improved.
“If you have surveys on your receipts get one that someone left from around that time and fill out the survey,” offered a user.
“Have you friends do it. No email required,” detailed another.
“…If you’re a customer & see an employee being abused in the workplace SAY SOMETHING,” declared a third. “Stick up for service workers who can’t bite back on the [clock].”
The Daily Dot reached out to Arianna via Instagram direct message.
