... oops.

[apocalypsos]

Spotted on Not Always Right, from a coffee shop ...

(Note: I’m a customer and overhear this exchange while waiting in line.)

Barista: “Here’s your change… have a nice day.”

Customer: “You know, you haven’t smiled once.”

Barista: “Sorry.”

Customer: “I’m so sick of the attitude of people in the service industry! Is it so hard to give your customers a smile as you’re pouring water through beans? You all are so arrogant, it makes me sick!”

Barista: *eyes begin to well up*

Customer: “Why aren’t you smiling?!”

Barista: “…because my father died last night.”

(At this point, you could hear a pin drop. The customer is literally glared out of the shop, forgetting her coffee.)

Comments

[shinga.livejournal.com]

omg that makes me want to cry

[backinblack.livejournal.com]

I don't UNDERSTAND people. Even if I got the WORST SERVICE IN THE WOOORLD the most I would do would be to politely ask for a manager, or call later with a complaint. Randomly harassing someone because THEY'RE NOT SMILING OMFG and going off strikes me as freaking psychotic. I hope that bitch feels guilty until she's dead.

[sabra-n.livejournal.com]

*facepalm* I had a guidance counselor in high school who wouldn't let me leave her office until I smiled for her. Because clearly that would make me the happy peppy creature she wanted me to be. (She also, incidentally, gave phenomenally bad college advice.)

[missburnout.livejournal.com]

That sounds creepily like my own guidance counselor. She also suspected one of my friends of being a druggy, one for being depressed/suicidal, another one that cut herself, all because we weren't the popular kids. Ugh.

[lovedbythesun.livejournal.com]

As someone who works in the service industry right now, people who tell me to smile make me want to punch their teeth out.

[janissa11.livejournal.com]

OUCH.

I admit, a part of me wonders if the barista was a theater major. But another part is just horrified. I would have HISSED that woman out of the shop.

[scribblinlenore.livejournal.com]

Oh my God. This is why I think everyone in the world should be required to work in a service-related job at least once in their life, so they don't go around acting like this kind of moron. Why does anyone think they're owed a smile? Good grief. And that poor barista! My heart hurts for her.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

But some people who work in service jobs then feel entitled to spill out their rage on other people in service jobs (and tell me that they've worked whatever job for FIFTEEN YEARS and they'd NEVER do whatever heinous thing I just did). This makes me think that some people should just be stranded on deserted islands, because they're never going to get over their sense of entitlement, and at least the palm trees won't understand their whining.

[cissa.livejournal.com]

I just got one of those. She called me a liar for accurately stating shipping charges. I gave her a link to the USPS site, which lists the charges.

At least she went away then. :P

[miladygrey.livejournal.com]

I am a naturally cheerful person. I smile a lot. 90% of the time I can summon something resembling a smile for the customers. But the instant someone tells me to smile, my reaction is to either snarl, or bare my teeth in a scary feral grin.

You have not earned my smile, random bookbuyer. It may be bestowed upon you, and you should be grateful!

[liz-w.livejournal.com]

I actually had this happen to me in a class -- I came in late, didn't have my assignment, and the professor was having a hideous week and I was apparently the straw that broke the camel's back (and up until that point had pretty much always been the star pupil), and she ended up screaming at the class for five minutes about how unprepared and unprofessional we all were while I sat in my chair and cried. At the end of class I went up to talk to her, and she snapped, "What is up with YOU?" and I stammered out, "My father died on Sunday." Literally all the blood drained out of her face, I thought she was going to faint. She still remembers that day and is probably more traumatised about it than I am!

[jade-starlight.livejournal.com]

Dude, I hate it when customers tell me to smile. I usually do, but sometimes I'm tired, or having a horrible day, or fighting off a bad headache and smiling just makes me angry. Then I have to keep from killing people and making a big mess.

Plus, I have this thing with wanting to do the exact opposite of what I've been told to do.... *eg*

[andraste]

Having once been extremely unprofessional to a customer the day I found out my dad had cancer, I can only marvel that the barista managed to come to work, make coffee and give correct chance.

(Two years on my dad is cancer free, and I often wish I could get in touch with that customer and tell her how grateful I am that she understood why I yelled at her once I explained what was going on. Every now and again customers don't suck.)

[cissa.livejournal.com]

NO ONE should tell anyone to smile.

NO ONE.

[fyrdrakken]

It is of course horrible for the barista that she ran into one of the mandatory-smiles brigade at such a painful time, but I'd like to hope that the customer was so rightfully shamed by this incident that she'll lay off demanding obsequious expressions from those around her in future. Because really, who among us who've gotten the, "Smile, it's not so bad!" crap from perfect strangers hasn't wanted such a perfect rejoinder to flatten them with?