why am i doing this again? oh right...

[chainedbarista]

for tuition.

yesterday was a double feature suckfest; two for the price of one.

first feature:

the patronizing hag too important to repeat an item.

she walks in, coated in self importance (how important can you be if you're the 'errand girl,' anyway??), and arrogantly tells me to make drink x, y and z.

rattling off everything as quickly as she can, she turns away from me, as if the sight of a lowly 'servant of the food industry' offends her in some way.

i ask her to repeat the second drink in the order and suddenly, i've become some sort of mentally challenged lowlife:

me: 'sorry, what was the second drink again? i missed that...'

her: *looks at me as if i'm a pile of dog waste she just stepped in* 'i said a GREEN TEA WITH MELON...' in a manner that states 'you are stupid AND worthless; how dare you even exist in the same space as me??'

me: *wtf? who shat in your cereal this morning, hag??* 'o...k.' *writes up order and rings it in in silence*

feature two:

why i have a low opinion of humanity in general:

'i'm too *insert reason here* to clarify my order.'

this person walks up to the register, sour look on her face. i start taking the order, which starts off ok, then takes a 90 degree plummet into hell.

her: 'i want a grande espresso macchiato.' *stares at me sullenly*

me: i grab the standard cup for an espresso macchiato, a drink which has shots and foam, no milk or anything else, a grande usually means three shots for this drink, and not a grande cup, but...

her: 'no, no NO! i said i wanted a GRANDE!' *she's practically spewing fire at this point, enraged for no real reason.*

me: *more wtfness. um...?* 'i'm getting it; this is the standard cup...' *90 degree plummet has begun* *i didn't say it in an angry tone, more of a confused 'what did i do' manner, it was probably more the look of 'what in the hell did i do to you' that set her off)

her: 'what is your problem with me? everytime i come in here, you give me nothing but attitude...where is your manager!'

me: *continuing wtfness; who let the mental patients out today, anyway??* 'i'm taking your order...'

her: 'i want your manager; i'm tired of your attitude' *er, right back at you, hag* 'every time i come in here, you're rude to me, and i've already told your manager I WANT YOU FIRED! where is your MANAGER??'

shift: 'can i help you? what seems to be the problem?'

her: 'HER! everytime, every time i come in here, she gives me attitude; i want her FIRED!' *angrily gesturing at me* 'she has some sort of problem with me!'

me: *wtf again; i have NO idea who you are!*

shift: 'please calm down; we'll get your order today (meaning it's free).'

her: 'what is her problem??' *continues to gesture at me*

me: *has had enough of this crap* 'i don't have a problem with you; i have no idea WHO YOU ARE.' (not yelled, was said with emphasis, because, i truly don't know who this person is)

shift: 'i understand you're upset, we'll get your drinks today, but there's no reason to point at my employee like that; please calm down.'

her: *sulks like an angry child* 'fine. i want a grande espresso macchiato and an iced caramel macchiato.' *the second drink is important, and will come into play again shortly*

shift: 'ok, we've got it for you. thank you.' *she hands off the drinks to our barman, a great guy who does pretty well with nasty people*

him: 'ok, we have the espresso macchiato and a caramel macchiato on ice.' *he's joking with her during drink making, she manages to calm down a bit*

her: *sees the iced drink* 'NO! i wanted the blended one!' *starts fuming again*

me: *near the pastry case, about ten feet away* *WTF again?? you order the wrong drink and it's still OUR FAULT?* *gah*

he apologizes, makes the drink he was supposed to without knowing hands it off; she grabs them, walks out angrily but not without shooting me one last look of hatred.

me: *wtf wtf WTF??*

sometimes, the pay just isn't enough; for the fourth time in three months, i've considered quitting. after four years of swallowing down abuse like this, i'm not sure i can handle it much longer...

[DarthRetard]

Everyone does have their breaking point, but you know, sometimes you have to endure a lot of little pain in the ass instances to get your overall goal acheived. PM if you want to talk.

[marty]

Don't let it get you down; imagine how miserable these people must be with their own lives to have to try to get others down. I've never seen a truly happy person act that way to anyone, server or no.

The fact that you're sticking with it and paying your own way through makes you infinitely better than those morons. Best way I've found to deal with them? Grit your teeth and keep on smiling, let them know they can't get to you like they want (easier said than done, I know, but it pays off to see you ruin their plans to make someone else's day hell.)

[Myra]

I know we've all got to have a job, but like I told Husband when he worked at the Pizza Restaurant of Doom, no job is worth the stress that makes you want to commit violent acts. You could always look for something else on the DL when off from this job. Nobody would think any less of you. I used to have to work with snobs as well, and let me tell you, I'd rather work with normal dumb people rather than rich dumb people any day. Nothing like not only having brain-numbing stupidity thrown at you, but they think they're better than you too.

I feel your pain, and good luck! Something else to remember - your manager backed you. That is completely awesome and a rare thing, as we all know!

[crazylegs]

I dealt with someone like the second person whilst at the record store, whose rage knew no bounds, it was only when I took my current job and started talking about her that a collegue who used to work in mental health piped up and said the woman had serious mental issues so you may have ended up with someone from care in the community coming to your till.

Hang in there, it *will* be worth it in the end.

[PorkChop]

I know how you feel.

I have worked at my c-store for about year and a half. There have been days were I just wanted to walk out and never come back. There was one Saturday were everybody who came in (even the regulars who are normally nice) had a bug up their ass. People would go apeshit if something rang up wrong or if we retrieve the wrong brand of smokes. I wouldn't walk out anyways because I like my co-workers and I wouldn't screw them over. Plus, don't ever burn your bridges.

I am in school full time, I want to get into forensic science when I grow up! I keep telling myself that working here is only for a limited time only! This isn't going to be the rest of my life. I have three years and that seems so long!

So you keep on truckin!

[chainedbarista]

thanks, guys and gals; it means a lot to me!

yesterday was just a bad day coupled with few other issues i'd rather not talk about (non-work related).

i'm just tired of the attitudes people throw our way (anyone in the service industry, food, medical, emergency, security, etc.); it may seem like monkey work to them, but it does pay the bills, meaning we're not freeloaders (which they should try to remember, rather than treat us like we're complete idiots).

no one is there to be a whipping boy/girl for someone to take their anger out on, in any way, shape or form; this woman seemed to think i had some vendetta against her, when i don't even know who she is! simply crazy...

[Peppergirl]

Im sorry you had a bad day. She was a real bitch.

Are you friendly with the co-worker who was kissing her ass? Maybe it's just me, but that would have offended me, assuming he just watched her treat you the way she did.

If I were the co worker, I would have made the drink and done my job, but I'd be damned if Id have joked with her or made any banter of any kind, especially after treating my co-worker so disgustingly.

[chainedbarista]

no, he was in the back, but he's not ass kissy, just better with smoothing things over. it's probably best he wasn't aware until after the fact, because the shift (who's also our am) wasn't happy with the woman's behavior at all, and he wouldn't have been either.

people like that are why i limit my public time outside of work; they're tiring mentally and physically and anger me too easily.

[marasbaras]

It's probably best that the second guy was trying to smooth things over. Sounds like that bitch was a rage-filled freak.

I don't know how any of you do it. If I had to work front lines, there would be deaths. Many, many deaths.

[Lady Heather]

Grown-up SC's are just brats that never grew up, and were not told "NO!" often enough. I usualy deal with the kid version of SC's. Nothing like having a 13 year old that's a foot shorter try to talk down to me. At least with the kids I can laugh it off, or have them banned from the mall. When it's a Grown-up SC I usually wait for it to be over and then tell my boss what happened. Then we make fun of them and there sad little lives, because the only way they can make themselves feel better is to pick on poor inoccent retail associates.