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Today I (18f) was working the drive thru at my fast food job. A man came up to the window, I can't remember exactly what he did to annoy me. I think that when I asked for clarification about his order. It turned out he had originally wanted a different item, even though when I was taking his order i had already corrected it, repeated back to him what I had put on there, and he said it was right. So this was the second time I needed to fix it. I tried to remove the item myself, but for since I had already taken off an item from the old correction, I had to get manager approval this time. I was really annoyed at this point, because this usually doesn't happen. I informed the customer it would take a moment, and I apologized, but I probably used a passive aggressive tone, sorta saccharine, it often is harder for me to properly mask my frustrations in a customer service voice as the day went on.
The way it works at my job is that I have to pay out customers at the window AND take orders from both lanes. So I as I closed the window I shouted to get the manager so he could use his code to take off the item. Meanwhile the cars were piling up as I tried to get him.
The manager came and took the item off, left, and I fixed it and finished paying the order out. I apologized about the inconvenience, probably sounding pretty insincere given that the inconvenience was his fault, in my eyes, for not listening when I repeated the item back to him the first time. The guy apologized again, and said that he was hard of hearing. Then I said something along the lines of "Oh, okay." He drove off soon after, but I was filled with guilt knowing that, because I was reminded of my own dad.
My dad is hard of hearing, and it's a large source of shame for him, though he won't admit it. He tries to hide it whenever he can, and often pretends he can hear me, my family, and people we meet in public, even when he can't. Just last night he was venting to my mom about how people at work have treated him differently since his hearing worsened and he got hearing aids.
What I'm trying to say with this is, maybe the guy drove off and forgot all about me, or maybe his disability was a tender spot for him like with my dad. All I can think now is that my dad WOULDN'T have admitted to his issue because of his pride, and if I met him without knowing who he was I would have thought he was just another clueless customer. Just because of something he couldn't control.
I wanted to tell my mom about this experience, but I was too ashamed and she gets stressed easily. I also didn't want to tell my dad, at first I told myself to avoid reminding him of his problems, but also because I know it will lower his opinion of me.
I'm not sure what I want from this. What I did was obviously wrong, and there's no way to go back and fix the mistake or apologize to the guy. I barely remember his face out all of customers I saw today, but I do remember his embarrassment at causing me inconvenience, and wondering if it ran deeper. Thank you for reading. Even typing this has been helpful to me.
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Most fast food restaurant employees are required to be strict and not being too friendly with customers so that customers do not deliberately want to bully restaurant employees. Not all customers are kings. This has all been told and agreed upon by the fast food company.
ReplyThe journey shapes our thoughts, and your maturity is growing. Keep up the good work.
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