Unnecessary Rudeness:

I was at Johnny Rocket's last night, picking up some dinner to go. The family in front of me were some of the worst behaved people I've ever met. The woman tried to pay with a check. When informed that the restaurant didn't take checks (this is a small place, basically a counter which serves sandwiches, burgers, and shakes, so them not taking a check is hardly a surprise), the woman proceeded to get angry at the cashier. "But they told me you took a check. I came in and asked. They said you took a check." The cashier: "No. We've never taken checks."

Then the husband starts getting into. He gets up in the cashier's face, pointing his finger and saying "you told her you took checks. I know she's not lying because I waited outside while she went inside." The cashier responded "well, who did you speak to?" The woman doesn't know. Now, there are about five people working here. She (and the employee) remember that she spoke to an employee about whether they had booster seats, but she "can't remember" whether she asked her about the check thing. Um, what? The guy really starts going at it now, pointing and yelling. Did I forget to mention that he's holding his crying baby, who can't understand why Daddy's so upset?

Anyway, the cashier got permission from the owner to take the check, and they finally left.

Now I see two possibilities here. Either the check was bad, and they just wanted to make enough stink so that the place would take it, or the woman went in to ask about the check but forgot to ask. Now, ordinarily I think that lying through your teeth about this sort of thing is a bad idea, but the husband was scary enough that I didn't blame her if that was the case. I hope she wasn't going to go get hit when they got home.

It did sort of make me wonder. Why is it that people believe that when being on hte other side of the counter enables them to say anything they want to you? Working at the movie theater, I had people say some things to me that I considered to be beyond rude. After telling a woman that I couldn't give her any popcorn (since, you know, the concession stand was closed and all the popcorn was in the trash can. Honestly, I'd have given it to her, but I was afraid that all the cleaning products on it would have killed her and I'd have gone to jail for involuntary manslaughter or criminal negligence or something), I was told, "well, that's why you work at a movie theater." Leaving aside the fact tht I was 17 years old, what the hell gave her the right to say that to me? Maybe my family's on welfare and I'm trying to earn enough to get us off. Maybe I'm mentally disabled and can't find a better job. Maybe I like the job. Is it any business of hers? Another time, a woman accused my manager of "smoking pot upstairs." This was a woman who came throught the employees only door (clearly marked) and up to the office after we were closed because she'd lost her purse. I told my manager she should have pressed charges against the woman for trespassing.

My solution: the Involuntary Service Corps. Rather than a military requirement for all citizens, everyone must spend the year after their high school graduation working at some crappy customer service job. Whether they must answer phones as a tech support person, work behind the counter at McDonald's, or sell clothes at the Gap, no one will be able to buy his way out. And they'll have to work for the wages that people usually make at these jobs. Oh, technically it's probably unconstitutional and unworkable and so on, but wouldn't it make people nicer to everyone in customer service?