Springblossom said:
People who immigrate to a different country but can't be bothered to learn the language, so they just make their kids learn it and use them as a walking translator. At my old job, I got a lot of Hispanic people who would do that, either coming up to the register and using their kid as a translator, or just sending the kid in with a giant list and a $100. Actually, pretty much anyone who insists that a pre-first grade kid should place their own orders.
People who go into a restaurant with a long line, and when they get to the front, stare at the menu like they've never seen one before and go, "Hmmm...now what do I want?" For that matter, pretty much anyone who holds up a long line for no good reason.
As to that last one, Blossom, I can totally relate. I was in catering for about 3 years (worked a cafe, couple of restaurants, and a kids daycare) and the shit that people would pull is pretty amazing. I think the worst experiences I had was when I was a chef/coffee monkey/server-upper in a Debenhams restaurant. As some of you may well know Debenhams is a big department store chain and in the UK is mostly frequented by disgruntled parents and yuppies.
During that time I learned that for all their appearances, underneath their perfumed, stupid-hatted guise, yuppies are really just animals; primal, touchy and specific to their needs, with the reasonably pleasant/irrational dickhead factor being on a hair trigger.
I had these people shout at me, swear at me, personally insult me, threaten management, tell me I'm 'lucky to have a job' or 'dole fodder' for reasons usually as trivial as running out of beans for breakfasts. I made one guy a coffee, and minutes later he came back and threw the whole mug, contents and all, at me because he 'didn't like it'...needless to say I didn't like getting more coffee burns either, but apparently people in retail are just fleshy punching bags for everyone else with no rights to stand up for themselves. During this amazing 10 months of jobbage I got called - 'fat bitch', 'fucking useless', 'stupid twat', 'go back to the nasty place you came from' (I'm from BUCKS living in DORSET, is my accent really that out of place, or do I just look like a badger?), 'go back to the dole office', and my personal favourite - 'What's the matter? Did your daddy hit you too hard!?'. Seeing as that I genuinely was abused by my father, it took every last amount of restraint not to vault over the counter and Glasgow kiss that wanker to hell.
The best part was that my managers didn't back me up at all. They were sycophantic twats with ridiculous company loyalty, simpering to the customers and throwing free shit and refunds at them because I'd DARED to tell them we would be getting more bacon in 5 mins or so instead of RIGHT NOW. I worked hard as I always do as, despite not caring for the company I worked for, I like to do a job well; because of this the managers would take advantage by piling extra hours/days on me with no notice, or withholding my break on a 10 hour shift. Despite that shit being illegal, I didn't care too much as I needed the money pretty badly.
I did, however, stand up for myself. The list of personal complaints that customers had made about me (usually through me telling them to go and fuck themselves, or calling them jumped-up yuppie cuntrags) was up to about 14 before I got fired (for what was basically stress-induced illness from working there in the first place). I was gunning for at least 20, so I was pretty disappointed.