A True Story About Working With The Public

I’ve decided to do something a little different this week to take a break from my fiction stories. This week I am presenting you with my nonfiction one shot about some of the rudest encounters I’ve experienced while working in retail/restaurants over the course of my five plus years working with the public. If you like this type of story please consider giving it a like and I’ll try to do more nonfiction stories as well. Anyways now on to my story.

If you have ever worked with the public you have encountered at least one rude customer that will stick with you forever. While in these situations, if you are anything like me, would have had to force a smile and a genuine sounding apology eventhough nothing about the situation is your fault. Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could actually say what you wanted to when handling a rude customer? I know I have. Let me give you some examples that you may or may not be able to relate to.

Example number one takes place at my first job when I was sixteen years old. I was a hostess at a local pizza restaurant that was two minutes away from my parents house. It was the busiest night we had that summer and there were two of us on as hostesses. It was so busy that there had to be one of us taking phone calls while the other person greeted and sat people. Since we only had one computer between us and we both were putting in orders we had to write some of the phone orders down before putting them into the computer.

Two older ladies came in to pick up their take out order in the middle of our dinner rush. When we looked up their order in the computer we realized that in the mad rush their order had never been put into the computer but we had written it down. Once we had realized what had happened I politely apologized to them and explained the situation to the ladies and told them that their food would be ready in a few minutes. One of the ladies was understanding and sat down at our bar area to wait. The other lady on the other hand was so upset that she threatened to go some place else (which I wish she had after the following events). The other lady she was with convinced her that it would be quicker to eat here than any other place so they decided to wait. I thought that that would be the end of my interaction with them, but unfortunately it was not. After a few minutes of me taking more phone orders and sitting other people the unhappy lady started to yell at me to let me know how unhappy she was. She started screaming words like “How could you let this happen? This is unacceptable!” It got to the point where my coworker had to get our manager to calm her down. Once he had given them their food for free and apologized to them again they seemed content. Until a few minutes later when the unhappy lady snidely asked “How old are you?” With a glare.

It took all of my will power not to say “Old enough to not throw tempertantrums, unlike you.” Instead I forced my voice not to shake while I was on the verge of tears and said. “Sixteen.” Then I walked away before she could say another word to me. Once they had received their free meal the attitude changed completely and walked out of the restaurant laughing.

I have another example that happened at a different hostessing job I had during the summer going into my freshman year of college. This restaurant was more upscale than my first job was and would do a Saturday brunch. This particular Saturday was starting out slowly so there were plenty of options for tables. A black haired, woman who looked to be in her late forties to early fifties walked in with a man in a wheelchair who looked to be in his sixties. I greeted them with a positive attitude and asked where they would like to sit. The woman said she wanted a table with a window in the back close to the restrooms. I assured them they could have that spot and started to walk them to their table with a view of the ocean. About halfway to the table the woman suddenly stopped pushing the wheele chair to lift up her sunglasses so they rested on top of her head as she asked, “Do you even eat?” (I have a super fast metabolism so I’ve always had a petite frame). After pausing a moment to process what I just heard I managed to get out a “Yes.” With my best fake smile. Now the smart-ass in me wanted to say “No I actually learned how to use photosynthesis to my advantage and I rely on the sun for sustenance.” Of course I would have been fired if I had spoken to a customer like that but it would have been funny to see her reaction.

I have many other examples of my experiences with rude people (and I’m sure there’s more to come) but my final one I will share happened over this past summer at my most recent job. At the beginning of the summer at the store I worked at we were requiring everyone regardless of vaccination status to wear a mask. Moat of the people I would gently remind were very nice about it and would either take a mask we provided or wear their own. There was one Saturday when I was working wear I saw a woman walk in on her phone without a mask. I waited until she was fully in the store and was off the phone before approaching her. I watched her read the signs on the door and walk past the area where we were providing masks giving her plenty of time to put on a mask without being asked to. I calmly walked over to her who was quite clearly from out of town and warmly greeted her and asked “Do you have a face mask?”

She stared at me like I was speaking an alien language for a long time before replying “No.”

I gently explained to her that our store requires face masks and before I finished she cuts me off by saying “Why do I have to wear a face mask?”

I paused a moment so I didn’t accidentally say “Because the rules apply to you just like they apply to every other person in this store.” Instead I replied by saying “It’s the owners choice and if you don’t have your own mask we-” and before I could finish speaking she interrupted me again by saying.

“I don’t want to hear it.” And dramatically threw up her hands and stormed out of the store.

Feel free to share your experiences with working with the public in the comments below. I hope you enjoyed my story.

Stay tuned for next week! Thank you for reading!

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