My husband is a GM for one of the major fast food chains. He's been with them for five years. He had twenty years of experience in casual (sit-down and family style) restaurants prior to beginning fast food. I don't know, maybe it's the impersonality and drive-thru mentality of the fast food industry. But the customers are so easily rude, greedy, dishonest, and just downright mean!
Last night, the store (they don't even refer to the fast food establishment as a restaurant -- it's a store) had a customer who insisted on being given the GM's cell number. This man calls my husband and proceeds to unload at him. I can only hear my husband's end of the conversation. But, I'm sitting there, cringing to hear how he's crawling to this guy. It really turns my stomach to think he's forced to grovel to anyone like this. But, no offer of gift cards or returned money will satisfy this guy. He wants, not just this day's ticket back, but something for some incident he claims happened a couple of weeks ago as well. My husband even told him to come in for another meal -- AND a gift card! This guy STILL insisted on the District Manager's number, whom he proceeded to call claiming that my husband was rude and hateful to him. You just know the DM gave him something like a $50 gift card. That's what usually happens in these cases.
I just don't know what gets into people. In 25 years in the food industry, fast food is the only place my husband has encountered this kind of behavior. Don't these people have family or friends who worked in fast food when they were younger, if not themselves? Don't they realize they are hurting real people with real families? Can you imagine what it was like for our nine year old to listen to his father groveling to anyone? What about those poor souls who get fired over someone like this guy? It's a mystery to me how people can go through life behaving this way with no thought to fallout they leave in their wake.
Last night, the store (they don't even refer to the fast food establishment as a restaurant -- it's a store) had a customer who insisted on being given the GM's cell number. This man calls my husband and proceeds to unload at him. I can only hear my husband's end of the conversation. But, I'm sitting there, cringing to hear how he's crawling to this guy. It really turns my stomach to think he's forced to grovel to anyone like this. But, no offer of gift cards or returned money will satisfy this guy. He wants, not just this day's ticket back, but something for some incident he claims happened a couple of weeks ago as well. My husband even told him to come in for another meal -- AND a gift card! This guy STILL insisted on the District Manager's number, whom he proceeded to call claiming that my husband was rude and hateful to him. You just know the DM gave him something like a $50 gift card. That's what usually happens in these cases.
I just don't know what gets into people. In 25 years in the food industry, fast food is the only place my husband has encountered this kind of behavior. Don't these people have family or friends who worked in fast food when they were younger, if not themselves? Don't they realize they are hurting real people with real families? Can you imagine what it was like for our nine year old to listen to his father groveling to anyone? What about those poor souls who get fired over someone like this guy? It's a mystery to me how people can go through life behaving this way with no thought to fallout they leave in their wake.
