A male re-emigrant, who lived in London for 12 years, shared his sister's story on social media about her last day at her previous job in a store in Riga. According to him, similar situations in the service industry occur frequently, but they are rarely taken seriously, and many are starting to perceive it as 'part of the environment.'
“Unfortunately, there are many such cases. They are often referred to as everyday trivialities, as if it is normal when you work in the service industry. But it is not normal,” said Davis.
He cites a message from his sister that she sent to her manager in case a complaint needed to be filed.
According to her, it all started when a customer brought a jacket to return. He walked past, said “step aside” and threw the jacket on the table. Then he began mumbling something in Russian about how the receipt was in his pocket.
The employee asked him to explain in Latvian. From the situation, she understood that it was about a defective product and began looking for a form to fill out, but she couldn't find it right away.
“I felt that he was leaning too far over the counter. He got very angry at the question: ‘Can you speak in Latvian?’ He said in Russian that I was obliged to speak to the customer in Russian. I apologized that I couldn’t respond and continued speaking in Latvian,” she said.
After that, the man began to express outrage: “How can you live and work in Riga and not know Russian? It’s the language of Riga!”
The employee replied: “I’m sorry, but I am Latvian and I don’t know Russian very well.”
The man became even angrier, started insulting her and saying that she was incompetent and shouldn’t work there, demanding to see management.
According to the woman, his aggressive body language made her feel that he might follow her. Then her colleagues came to help. They explained to the customer that employees are not obliged to know Russian, but the man continued to insist that she was lying and simply did not want to speak to him in Russian out of principle.
All this time she spoke in Latvian, while the man spoke in Russian. According to her, he probably understood Latvian but refused to respond in it out of principle.
To avoid escalating the situation, her colleagues served the customer in Russian. In the end, the man left somewhat calmly, although he continued to condemn the employee and said that such people should not work in such places and that he was being “judged because of his nationality.”
“Although I did not judge anyone. But let it be so. An amusing fact - in the end, he said goodbye in Latvian, like a little sun,” the message shared by Davis on social media states.
Manas māsas pēdējās darba dienas piedzīvojums.
— Dāvis Viļums (@DavisVilums) March 1, 2026
Diemžēl daudz šādu notikumu, daudz par tiem runā sadzīviski, liela daļa to saprot, ka tā ir daļa no vides, ja strādā apkalpojošā sfērā, bet diemžēl tas kaut kā arī ir normalizēts un neviens nav par to pasargāts.
TAS NAV NORMĀLI!!! https://t.co/Ugka7qbGHI pic.twitter.com/OpJQhGggm7
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