I, (18 f), work later in the morning at a fast food restaurant, & every morning we get a pretty good crowd of seniors.
I just switched from nights to mornings so I’m not very familiar with the regulars. There’s this one old man who comes in often according to my coworkers & he has a problem with this one homeless guy who comes in a lot to buy coffee & something small to eat.
While I was serving someone in the drive-through, I could see the old man staring & giving dirty looks to the homeless man, & it started to bother me, but I didn’t know what to say.
My manager asked me to do a coffee round because when she does it the old man always complains about the homeless man being in the restaurant & I’m pretty abrasive & can’t stand when people are rude to others. When I reached his table he didn’t say anything about the homeless man but he did give me a dirty look when I reached the homeless man & gave him a refill on his coffee.
A few minutes later the homeless man stood up & walked near the front to get more cream/sugar for his coffee. The old man came storming up & started yelling at him saying “get out of here! You don’t belong in here! You’re here all the time & I’m sick of seeing you!”
I slammed my hands on the counter & said “that’s enough! Just because you have different financial situations doesn’t make you better than him! He’s a paying customer & he’s minding is own business. If you have a problem with him being here & keep giving him dirty looks or say one more rude thing then you can get out because we don’t tolerate harassment here.”
Then he said something about how I should respect old people & have better customer service skills so I told him “respect is earned not given” & then the old man sat down.
When he finished his coffee he said he was never coming back so I said “okay bye have the day you deserve!” & gave him a smile while waving.
I understand I should’ve spoken to him nicer because two wrongs don’t make a right but I hate my job & am sick of dealing with the disrespect that comes with working in fast food, especially from people who think I should respect them just because they’re elderly. Plus, the day prior, I put in my two weeks notice.
So am I the asshole for yelling at him?
OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole:
I think I might be an asshole because I yelled at an elderly man while I was working today. I think people should judge on what I said & how I said it to the elderly man.
TOP COMMENT
NTA, you worded everything well IMO. No name calling or swearing, and you defended someone who wasn’t hurting anyone. I imagine the manager will apologize to the old man but hopefully say something along the lines of “but we can’t tolerate that kind of behavior.” The customer isn’t always right.
REPLY
NTA.
I remember as a small child the anger and sadness I felt when I saw a homeless man getting kicked out of Mc Donald’s while he was just eating and not bothering anyone. I can still feel how strongly unjust that felt and how much it upset me.
If a 6 year old girl from a sheltered middle class upbringing can understand that homeless people belong and they need kindness, not being treated as an outcast, then senior guy with all of his life experience CERTAINLY should know better. Most of us are much closer to homelessness then we would like to admit and since karma has a funny sense of humor, I hope for that rude guy that he learnt a lesson from your interaction before karma checks her receipts and decides to step in.
RESPONCE
NTA – customer service is a thankless job. And also you’re so right… It’s exhausting seeing people harass others without consequence. You said your manager asked you to go over there because they didn’t even want to deal with this person? And they knew you had an “abrasive personality?” Sounds like they wanted you to deal with him pretty much how you did. Or they knew that you had already put your 2 weeks in so anything you said would have been a little consequence to your job.
