A new gender trend has emerged in the workplace, and for once, it’s not about women being paid less.
New research from digital youth engagement platform Year13 has revealed that twice as many young women as men are leaving their jobs due to customer mistreatment.
Women are also more likely to leave their jobs due to stress.
“It is shocking that one in eight teenage girls and young women report that they have been fired from a job due to customer abuse,” Year13 co-founder Saxon Phipps told news.com.au.
“It is an important reminder to keep an eye on youth workers this summer, many of whom are inexperienced and do not easily forget incidents of abuse they have experienced,” Phipps said.
While nearly 75 percent of those surveyed said they got their first casual job so they could achieve financial independence, nearly one in five said it was to help their family with living expenses.
Two in five young Australians found a job in a large supermarket or fast-food chain, while 36 per cent said their first paid gig was in a café or pub.
But it is these customer-facing roles that are leaving young workers vulnerable to threats and abuse.
Coffs Harbor local Maddie, 19, said she recently quit her job at a café chain because she was fed up with the way she was treated.
“Customers would become very upset about the price of our products, they would not look at me or even speak to me directly when I took their orders, and I was subjected to verbal abuse and condescending behavior,” she said.
“This job gave me a lot of experience with people but the stress and anxiety it brought every day was definitely something I would never want to experience again.”
Brisbane woman Zara told Year 13 she regularly faced abuse from customers while working in retail.
“It’s like they (customers) think because we look young it’s easy to manipulate and harass us,” he said. “But comparing 18+ women and men, I don’t think I’ve ever heard or seen older people being harassed, it felt like all customers respected them.
“So it was definitely more female-oriented. But unfortunately, for the Under-18s, it was a largely level playing field. It’s as if the younger the person, the meaner they are for some reason.”
Vonnie, 21, told news.com.au it’s not just abuse that forces young women to leave jobs, she has left multiple jobs for a variety of reasons including “poor communication” and travel.
“I worked as a disability support worker. The commute was too far for a job that was not as rewarding, the Melbourne woman said.
“I worked for a company that had very poor communication systems and was not able to accomplish what I asked for,” she said.
“I’ve even worked at some jobs where the turnover was so high and quick that I became a supervisor within a matter of months because the environment was so toxic.”
She is now working as a barista in a café and is very happy.
Ellie Kate, 22, told news.com.au in May that she quit her recruitment job because she was fed up with the stress.
“I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. I put a lot of pressure on myself,” she said.
Ms. Kate was also running the business, but she found that she spent too much time thinking about work and looking for ways to make more money.
To add to the tension, she is also now working as a barista.
“I can come home, I’ve made money for the day and so I can do other fun things… and I don’t feel guilty about it,” she said.
Similarly, Kelsey Grace was climbing the corporate ladder when she decided to take the jump and spend all her savings on opening a bar.
The 25-year-old had worked in marketing for five years and even relocated to Melbourne to further her career, but after returning from holidays, she realized she needed a change because she ” It’s burnt.”
“I think for everyone in corporate jobs there’s always this thing you’d love to do,” he told news.com.au.
Recruitment expert Roxanne Calder said she has noticed that women are leaving jobs at a “higher rate” than men and believes this is due to women lacking self-confidence.
“Men are better at winging it,” Ms Calder said.
She said women are more likely to resist negative feedback, struggle to regain confidence after mistakes, and are also less likely to apply for jobs in the first place because they don’t feel qualified. .
She said that where men would see a job ad and think ‘I can do most of those jobs’, and so put it off, women wouldn’t even apply.
“Women will say they’re not sure they can do it,” she said.
