Don't run from the little people...

Post Reply New Topic

Anyone who has a phobia about people, or a certain type of people, should not work in a customer service job. There are plenty of jobs that don't involve interacting with random members of the public. There are also plenty of jobs that require working alone. It's that simple. She should have realized that her phobia could interfere with her ability to serve customers and chosen a different job.

That was an unfortunate incident, but it doesn't sound like she was hurling abuse and demeaning epithets at him. There are a lot of really weird phobias out there. I've heard of people afraid of chickens, balloons, and antique furniture.

While these phobias are certainly the hardest to understand, for the sufferer they can be very debilitating. How is your employer supposed to know you're terrified of little people if you don't tell them? And who would admit to that willingly?

This is the kind of story that's amusing to everyone but those involved.

The problem with hoping for satisfaction from the local restaurant or even upper management is that pretty much every large companies legal team trains all the employees to never comment on a situation that could be misconstrued and lead to a lawsuit. If you apologize apparently you run the risk of having been deemed to have admitted guilt, and the person you apologized to has a better lawsuit case. It happens. Companies have less financial risk when they keep their mouths closed.

Really backwards, isn't it?

As a result, it is virtually impossible to get a simple apology of acknowledgement of error.

Except in the case of missing fries or the like.

The entire situation is sad. The employee has a phobia that should be treated, or that should keep her from working up front with customers. The customer faced real embarassement and distress. One disability run head long into another. And corporate lawsuit-mitigation policies keeping everyone from saying and doing what human decency demanded they should have.

I thank you, Cameo!

I don't buy her story at all, it sounds contrived. I think she responded in a selfish, overly-dramatic way. She should be held accountable there is no excuse for having a phobia for another human being.

I have a funny story actually. When I was in an underground parking lot with a bunch of my Japanese relatives (in Canada) and we were really lost - we couldn't find the way out and it was late and it was closing and we were very worried. Then we saw these guys moving very fast and so we said, they know where they're going - lets follow them! So we were hurriedly following them and they started running, and we anxiously sped up so we wouldn't lose them. Then after a point my uncle said -stop! They're running away from us! And we looked and yes they were running away from us and very scared about it. I think a few of my uncles, who are fairly young I guess, looked like maybe we were part of an Asian gang or something (little aunt included!). We all found this extremely funny given how arty and reserved we all actually are.

I guess I found this funny because its in the media, Asian gangs.

But there is no such media about little people being gun wielding or such so its a whole other thing.

What a strange news article.

That may be true, but look at it like this. The customer's a dwarft and the employee was African American. If the shoe were on the other foot and the customer was African American and the employee was a dwarf, it will be a different tune. An employee would never be able to say, "I have a phobia of African Americans. I ran away in sheer terror because I was afraid. The sight of AAs scares me to death." The employee would be fired and McDonalds would be sued for racial discrimination.

If someone has an issue like this, they shouldn't be working with the public because chances are at some point, you will encounter a dwarf. I don't buy her story. Even with a phobia it doesn't make you react like that...insuch an offense, embarrasing way. If I managed that franchise, I would go out of my way to make amends to him like giving him free Happy Meals for a month.

I've never seen a dwarf, and the last thing that crosses my mind when I apply for jobs is that I might see one...

Besides, even if the employee ran laps of the restaurant screaming "holy f**k! a Dwarf! Argh!" there's no reason to do anything other than give her a slap and/or just walk out of the restaurant.

If I could sue everyone who'd simply been offensive to me...

I've spent many years working in customer service - retail and restaurants for the most part. It became clear early on that there was no category of people that you could expect not to see. Maybe it was just the towns and the businesses I worked for, but if I had had a phobia about any kind of person, it would have become problematic in relatively little time. Yes, I have interacted with at least several customers who happened to be dwarves.

What about customers with no heads? Does anyone ever expect this demographic to stagger through the doors?

Well, I've seen customers with incomplete heads. Seriously, there was a guy who used to come into a record store I worked at who was missing part of his head. I think it was the upper left corner. One of his eyes was barely existent as a result; he wore a patch sometimes. That's the most memorable one, although I've seen at least one other dent-headed person.

In emergency medicine, decapitation is classified among "injuries incompatible with life".

dent-headed ...

Ever see other kinds of deformity?

Compared to people with dented heads, nothing else is remarkable enough to remember right now.

Seriously, what is wrong with our society these days?