Work Horror Stories!

[Smeljthe]

Hey all! I'm fairly new to this forum, and I felt like contributing in some meaningful way haha. I wanted to start a thread about work horror stories, from tales of horrible customers, to tales of horrible coworkers/bosses. Anyways I'll start us off with something more recent.

Bit of backstory:

I'm a 24 year old Trans Girl (on HRT for about 6 years now) and I'm extremely passable. However on day's I'm super depressed I tend to go to work in boy mode. For those that aren't aware of the term, it just means I dress in more masculine clothes, don't do my makeup, etc. The sandwich shop I work at neighbours a college campus, and a few large corporate buildings. So our clientele is pretty mixed. There is a frequent customer of mine whom is always very friendly and flirtatious, let's call him Dan. Dan will often come in and rant and rave about his day at work, sometimes he'll sit there asking me about mine. He usually comes in around the same time, which I'm assuming is his lunch, 2pm. However I should note that since working at this location I'd never actually served Dan while in boy mode, the story following is his reaction to seeing me for the first time.

I was just about done cleaning the counters, disinfecting the till, and cleaning the tables. We can have up to 6 customers in our store at any given time with distanced seating. This isn't really a big deal though because people are less comfortable eating inside our store, and the majority of our customers are takeaway. Dan waltzes in at his usual time of 2pm, and proceeds to walk up to the counter and beckon me. I had my back turned as I was pulling fresh buns out of the oven to put on the cooling tray. As I turned I seen his expression melt from his usual perky/goofy smile, to a nose curled grimace. The next words kind of put me in shock and I still have panic attacks remembering it. "What the fuck dude, you're a faggot?". I couldn't believe that I'd just heard that from his mouth. Someone who is usually so kind to me, someone who's a regular, just do a complete 180. I move to the city to avoid this kind of bereavement. He started accosting me, saying that I was "fooling" patrons into believing I was a woman for tips. That I was some kind of sick fetishist that the company allowed to work in their stores. I was a deplorable human being. It was too much, I just broke down in tears and went into the back room. My coworker served him instead, all the while he ranted about me to them. My manager eventually came to check on me and asked if I wanted him blacklisted from the store. I told my manager that I didn't want to make a big fuss over it, but deep down inside I was completely torn apart.

This wasn't the first time I encountered a bad customer in my years in customer service, but it really drove home a point to me. People might put on a face, and they might treat you like you're worth something, only for them to turn around and stab you in the back the moment you fail to meet their standards. I need to be a little more guarded I guess!

Anyways, that's one from me! Let's hear something from you!

[robersora]

^
oh, this sounds horrible. Just because he never learnt to cope with his sexuality he completely broke. Please don't let yourself get down by this incident!

[Blockio]

If I had heard this story two years ago, I'd have assumed that you were lying, back then I didn't believe that people were genuinely this stupid in real life

But yeah, don't let the ramblings of some crazy asshole get to you, people like that just aren't worth the time spent thinking about them

[silvermoonlight]

I second the others guys a narrowed minded asshole at worst and best utterly uneducated...and I am totally guilty of this back in the late 90's I knew a guy who worked in forbidden planet I'd brought stuff in there, and we used to talk sci-fi. Then he came in dressed as a woman and I had no idea how to react and I made a bad joke like I don't know what you are and distanced myself from him. I was 16 and very stupid and all my dad had ever told me was about transvestites and not in a positive way.

I'd had no education on transgender what so ever and I've always looked back on that moment with a lot of guilt and wished I could have turned back the clock and embraced him as a friend and said congratulations on your transition, the reason I'm writing this is people can change they can learn to better themselves, and they can get educated so maybe the person you met though horrible may come around and be better given time.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

I had an extremely passable trans person visit my current place of regular employment. (I work as an optician selling and repairing glasses between film gigs.) My manager is super conservative dude and not very good at customer service, so I was glad that he didn't even seem to notice that she was trans. (Using preferred/presented pronouns.)

This other customer came in to pick up some glasses he ordered last week. (It usually takes about a week to 10 days to finish an order after the order is placed.) His glasses came in the wrong frame, and he got upset about it. I was gonna let him rant and cool off, then apologize over the mixup and remake the glasses at no extra charge. But upon hearing the ranting my manager had to butt in and take over for me. The argument escalated to the point where my manager was repeating the phrase "I don't see color," (the customer is a black man, and my manager's a white dude) while the customer was yelling "Get out of my face!" The customer's wife was also there, and she seemed pretty chill. I ended up smoothing things over and taking care of the situation with her while my manager and the customer went at it for a little while longer.

My manager desperately needs to learn that "I don't see color" is never a good thing to say to deescalate tension with a customer. It only makes people more upset. He's stressing me out.