Don't run from the little people...

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...or you might get sued.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,341949,00.html

This is interesting, because there really are two equally-valid sides here. I mean, if you're scared of something that's not dangerous, than, of course, you shouldn't be -- but a phobia is a phobia, no matter how irrational; phobias are irrational by their very nature! So, how can you tell someone, "You can't have that type of phobia." I mean, to use an analogy, I have Asperger's Syndrome even though it's not what I ordered. The fact is I have it, regardless of will and therefore culpability for its negative effects, and there's pretty much nothing that can be done about that. So, shouldn't the little person accept the McDonald's employer the way they are (having the phobia), just as the little persons expects everyone to accept him the way he is? I mean, fair's fair! No disability rightly gets first billing as being "less preventable" than another. That would be stupid.

On the other hand, I definitely understand Mr. Wade's offense at being screamed at and run from. McDonald's should have screened the employee better during hiring, or course. I don't know, this case is just kind of interesting to me. Can businesses be sued for ignorance? As in, McDonald's allowed a person with this phobia to work for them, even though they didn't know it, so were they wrong for not knowing? Should they have said during the interview, "Give us a complete list of your phobias"? I'm asking specifically about the moralities of the issue firstly, but also about the legalities. Will Mr. Wade win? Can I sue someone who runs away from me because my AS makes me awkward?

Last edited by Ragtime on 26 Mar 2008, 4:49 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Well, if it's an individual employee's problem that isn't company policy and McDonald's did its best to correct the problem, I don't see this man's right to sue. I mean, if the manager said that he supported the phobic employee, that would be a different issue.

A phobia is a phobia for Christ's sake. That dwarf is stupid if he is suing someone for something they can't help. It's like suing someone for being small!

Little people, bigot world topic

I hope that woman runs right into recurrent, lifelong nightmares where she has to serve big macs to a whole restaurant full of little people.

She should definitely apologize to that man. The Roloff family should definitely do something and get involved here.

I hate how lawsuit-happy the world is these days.

Yeah, he is owed an apology. A free Big Mac, whatever.

But tens of thousands of dollars or more for what, emotional suffering? Yep, money makes it all better.

Maybe a happy meal would suit him

"Wade said he has no intention of filing s lawsuit. He said he is working with an attorney because he wants to go through all the right channels to make sure McDonald's will be sure their workers receive disability awareness training."


This was posted on the local news website.

It seems to me that he was never looking for a freebie but rather an apology.

When nothing happened at the local store he spoke to the regional franchise office and then had to endure more humiliation being compared to a snake or spider. Their response was to do nothing to the employee, no reprimand, no move to the back counter, no, "we were not aware that she had this phobia but we will be addressing it personally to make sure this doesn't happen again to you or anyone"...NOTHING! not even an apology.

I think his motivation in this would be to make sure this never happens again. At least not at that store. Imagine if you were the parent and came in with your child who was a little person and the clerk acted that way. It would have been traumatic for both of you. How would that child recover? What could you say to make them feel better? Get used to it kid this is going to happen a lot? NO! So let’s say he's looking out for the next little person that comes behind him.


McDonald's had so many chances to make this good, at the store, at the regional office, at the corporate level but instead they did nothing. What kind of message does that send to their consumers and their employees? They validated her fear, said it was acceptable to act in such a manner and did nothing to help her or the customer feel better about the situation.


I'm sorry he's not suing for money. I personally think he deserves every penny he could get. That would send a message..you can't just dismiss your customers and treat people this way. I don't care if you’re a little person, African American or handicapped. Her behavior was wrong, their behavior was inexcusable.

Well, the Fox version is very misleading then, isn't it? Should have known better and I usually do with crap media outlets like them.

Thanks, jediknight, for the link to the more comprehensive story.

The way I see it, he was insensitive to the employees disability... she, being phobic, had no control over her reaction to his height... by insisting on an apology, he was attempting to force her to overcome her disability for his benefit...

I would hope Mr. Wade is just going to get their attention, and make sure McDonald's trains its staff on the full variety of customers they can receive. That would be the mature thing to do here.

(Hopefully, Mr. Wade will be the bigger man -- hardy har har... )

He has every right to sue. She was out of control, caused a scene, and probably caused him emotional distress.

Like I said, based on the original posted story, it was unclear that the franchise's management failed to do the right thing. I personally think a company cannot be responsible for its employees' personalities/disabilities. Think about it, a grown person (16+) running away screaming from a dwarf?? That borders on disability, really. It's common practice for fast food chains to employee disabled people and I've seen situations where there is little support for building social skills with the public. So, they may do things that are just out of the ballpark weird.

On the other hand, based on the fuller story that was posted after that quoted comment of mine, ShadesofMe, I see that McDonald's actually supported the employee's actions and didn't offer a comment to the customer until later questioned. Not only that, but he paid for food he never got because of the failure of the restaurant to help him.

Would you say that about an Aspie whose odd behavior in a certain circumstance scared an NT into thinking he might be up to no good? Think about it from the other perspective. There are two sides to every story.

In the McDonald's story, they both have equally valid points: their confrontation was the result of 2 natural traits clashing in an unfortunate way. It was no one's fault, unless you want to implicate McDonald's for not screening-out this employee during the hiring process.

But thats different. She was reacting this way about his Appearance, not how he was acting.

It would not suprise me if those 'get-rich-quick' spam emails included lawsuits as a part of their scheme.