The people who have worked in the retail or service industry will tell you that the job itself is not that bad, but what makes it unbearable are the people. If it’s not the coworkers and managers, it will definitely be the customers.
This now former Starbucks barista had his fair share of crazy customers and since he was leaving his job anyway, he took the opportunity to ruin a woman’s day after he had to bear her entitlement every morning.
More info: Reddit
Talking back to a rude customer is every service worker's dream and this one was able to fulfill it
Image credits: Dom J (not the actual photo)
The man worked at Starbucks and on his last day, he not only talked back to a regular customer Karen but also confessed a secret to her
Image credits: Ketut Subiyanto (not the actual photo)
The secret was that every time she would say her drink was wrong, he would only pretend to remake it but would give her the same one
Image credits: Alex Green (not the actual photo)
The Karen would be very happy and would compliment the second drink
Image credits: Vetch31415
So when she found out that it was always the same, the Karen had a proper meltdown, asking for a manager and calling corporate
The story takes place on the last day of the Original Poster’s (OP) work as a Starbucks barista. Anyone who has worked in the service industry at least for a bit will have stories about weird, rude and stupid people they had to serve.
The OP is no exception and he actually had a regular customer. She would come every morning and her order would be a double-tall vanilla latte with 3/8ths a pump of vanilla. And she would always return the first cup that was made, no matter who did it.
It’s ridiculous to ask for 3/8ths a pump of vanilla and it’s practically half anyway, so the OP would never redo the drink, but would pretend to and then hand the Karen the original he had made, which would get compliments from the customer.
It just so happened that on the OP’s last day, the woman came in 2 times and while the barista didn’t do anything to annoy her in the morning, when she came the second time, he allowed himself to be a little snarky. Not only that, but he confessed that he never redid her drinks but gave her the same one, which she always thought was perfect.
Bored Panda got in touch with the Redditor and he described to us what was the feeling like, "Immense satisfaction and a little anxiety to be honest. It is so drilled into us to have to just sit and take that kind of nonsense from people. I felt very satisfied because I could see on her face that she knew I was telling her the truth that I’d been handing her back the same drink for months and months. I also knew no one could punish me. It was a moment of very rare, but sweet Karmic Justice."
The woman had a proper meltdown and talked not only to the manager but also corporate and didn’t leave for 2 hours, but didn’t get what she wanted so she cussed at the barista in front of all the kids at the Starbucks and left.
The OP knew that she would react poorly but the intensity surprised him, "I didn’t anticipate her spending two hours trying to find any avenue possible to punish me somehow. It was a little startling to see a grown woman 15 years my senior to act like that in front of teenagers."
But he regrets nothing. And it was a good show for his coworkers, "My coworkers all went into the back afterward because they couldn’t contain themselves. Half were shocked and half laughed with glee. She was universally disliked and well known among all of us coworkers."
The barista explained in the comments why Starbucks customers are especially demanding: “It’s the ‘Starbucks Experience’ that corporate worked so hard to push. ‘Got an unreasonable request? Great! We’ll do whatever you say as long as you leave happy!’”
But the OP doesn't have to bare insufferable customers at Starbucks anymore as he told us that he works at a "Cannabis farm as it had recently become legal and [his] family has been in farming for generations."
Also, he has been written up many times and actually was surprised that he wasn’t fired and has more stories to come, as he promised in the comments.
People are curious to hear more because they loved this story and felt the satisfaction of talking back to an unreasonable customer and knowing that you won’t get punished for it.
The Redditor told us that he felt that people shared his satisfaction of justice being served and he was glad "that other retail workers could live vicariously through [him] as everyone has 'that customer.'"
These kinds of stories aren’t too frequent because service workers are taught to not talk back to customers and they will actually face serious consequences if they do, so you have to really not care about them to speak your mind to a rude Karen.
Image credits: Olena Bohovyk (not the actual photo)
But it seems that businesses are taking the rule of always complying with the customer too far as it is done at the expense of a worker’s nerves and pride. And it’s not getting better, because people are realizing they can get away with anything.
Christine Porath, a professor of management at Georgetown University and a consultant who helps leading organizations create thriving workplaces, researched the phenomenon and found that 76% of respondents experience incivility at least once a month. 78% witness incivility at work at least once a month, and 70% witness it at least two to three times a month. 73% report that it’s not unusual for customers to behave badly. 78% believe that bad behavior from customers toward employees is more common than it was five years ago. 66% believe bad behavior from customers toward other customers is more common than it was five years ago.”
That means that it’s so bad that even people who don’t work in the industry have noticed it, which naturally raises the question of what made customers change for the worse.
The professor explains that according to her data, it’s mostly stress, “The pandemic, the economy, war, divisive politics, the changing nature of work, and continued uncertainty are all taking a toll.” And while the stress is increasing, our self-care is decreasing and people are just having a hard time regulating their emotions.
People are also experiencing more negative emotions and are lashing out after bottling them up. Not only that, but people are losing touch with each other, “The feeling of lacking community is exacerbated when people don’t feel valued, appreciated, or heard — which applies to the vast majority of employees.”
What also makes us disconnected from people is technology. It has a vast variety of effects. As Medium explains, “Theories about why incivility is rising range from the anonymity of social media platforms, which have made us more emotionally disconnected from each other to stressful working environments, which are causing people to take their workplace traumas back to their personal lives.”
Christine Porath found that we may ignore the service workers because we’re scrolling online or listening to music. We are affected by the negativity and by comparing our lives to others who seem to have it all together.
Lastly, Professor Porath thinks that many people are rude not out of malice, but they simply lack self-awareness and they don’t realize how others perceive them.
The worst part is that rudeness is contagious. Organizational behavior expert Trevor Foulk compares it to a common cold, which is easy to catch and then pass on to others.
Despite that, maybe businesses should still allow their employees to stand up for themselves when they are being berated. The Runner thinks so and gives 5 reasons why. Firstly, customers can have unreasonable requests and inadequate reactions, so the employee has to have a right to react accordingly. Also, some people need to get a taste of their own medicine to realize that they can’t get away with being nasty people.
Another reason is that customer service work doesn’t require qualifications, so it usually pays minimum wage and that is not enough for workers to put that much effort into the service they provide. They are not paid enough to suffer emotional abuse and sometimes you can only stop it by matching the abusers energy.
While maybe businesses should allow employees to stand up for themselves, the Redditor adds that there is responsibility from the customer's side as well, "There are some people that should be embarrassed by their actions and how they treat those serving them. They aren’t giving us their money, they’re giving the company money. So the threat of going somewhere else is just so silly. Remember, if you’re rude to a service worker; know we will exact our revenge one way or another."
Do you think that employees should always be allowed to talk back to customers? Do you think the OP shouldn't have done it even on his last day of work? Let us know what you thought about the Starbucks barista’s story and if you think it should become common practice.
The best thing was that the barista was leaving his job anyway and people online loved that he went out with a bang
