Food Jockey

                My first encounter with a rude customer came a month after I began working at Fuddruckers.  It happened on a Saturday, which is one of the busiest days in the fast food business.  It was right in the middle of the dinner rush and the restaurant was packed.  I was working the expo line and unknown to me there was an overflow of dessert orders at the bakery.  I was working on the expo counter by paging people and calling out order numbers over the microphone and seeing that the customers picked up their orders.  Neil and his friend Jake, who had just began working at the restaurant, were holding their own at the bakery but got called over to the expo line because the amount of orders was over-

whelming.  It was simply that type of night and these nights always brought the worst customers and on this night I had an encounter with a rude asshole.

                Jamie was working register and asked me to get her some extra glasses.  I went over to the register by the bakery in order to get the glasses for Jamie and for me I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Just as I’m about to take the glasses over to Jamie this prick come up to the bakery, slams his pager down on the counter, and begins yelling at me about waiting twenty-minutes for two hot-fudge sundaes.  I glanced at his ticket and low and behold the guy way lying through his teeth, he had been waiting only six minutes.  He looked right at me and said, “You dumb shit, I’ve been waiting twenty minutes.  Get the fucking manager.  I should take you out back and kick you ass.”  The manager on duty, Jim, came out and the asshole continued his tirade on him.  The man had to have been in his forties and here he was acting like a fourteen-year-old.  Jim told me to make the sundaes and make the man happy.  He told me to just stay calm and not matter what not to sink to the asshole’s level.  It took every bit of patience in me to endure the man’s behavior. 

                I began to make the sundaes and the man stood at the counter and continued his tirade, “Hurry up before I kick your ass for real you idiot.”  I gave him the sundaes and he looked at me like I didn’t speak English.  He then said, “I said chocolate sundaes.”  The son of a bitch was lying again and once again Jim came out an the man said, “I want my money back and I think this guy should be fired for being incompetent.”  Jim asked why the man was still upset and he said, “I ordered chocolate sundaes and he gave me two hot-fudge sundaes, he is either deaf of just plain stupid.”  I could tell from the look on Jim’s face that he knew the man was both a piece of shit and a liar but he obliged the man and gave him his money back.  By this time I was absolutely furious and I was ready to knock the fat asshole’s head off.  My thoughts were the man should have been told to get out and not come back.  Was the man a paying customer?  Yes.  However, he had no right to treat me or anyone of the staff in that fashion.

                After the man left I went back to the managers office and sough Jim out.  When Jim saw me I said, “That son of a bitch of a motherfucker, he was lying through his teeth.  He told me he wanted two hot-fudge sundaes and after I made them he then said he wanted chocolate sundaes.”  Jim’s reply was “I know he was lying Spencer, I had to do that because it’s my job to keep the customer happy.  I’m sorry you had to go through that but that happens with this job.”  Jim told me he was glad the way I handled the situation in the way I didn’t snap and launch into a tirade at the asshole, as he would have deserved.

                When I went back to the expo counter Brad asked me if I was all right and I said, “I’ll live.”  Brad told me “Try not to let people like that get to you.”  Jake on the other hand was pissed off at the way the guy had acted.  Jake said, “I was ready to jump over the counter and smash that fat fucker’s face.  Throwing the pager down and talking to you like that.”  I did understand that rude customers was simply part of the job while working in the restaurant business and this particular experience is one that happens everyday in restaurants.  People like this are simply either trying to get a reduction on their tab or they’re trying to get out of paying their tab.  On this day I understood that this experience was part of the job but I did not appreciate being cussed at or threatened.  This particular customer was an asshole and that’s all there is to it.  This would go for all the rude customers.  The purpose of a restaurant is to make money and to serve the public but it should not mean that staff should have to tolerate anyone like the man I just mentioned.  Restaurant workers are people and not party favors; they are not there for people to treat as personal slaves.  Even though I didn’t like this particular experience I would have plenty more experiences like it, experiences like this were part of the job.  It didn’t mean I had to like it but in the position where you’re serving the public there’s nothing you can do.