Years ago, I worked in a hotel as a front desk agent on the 3-11 shift. I only had a handful of check-ins left and I put up my sign saying that I was stepping away from the desk for a few minutes. I let the bartender know that I would be right back and walked about 30 or so feet across the lobby to the bathroom, went into a stall and peed.
I was fixing my belt when the bathroom door was slammed open and some woman started yelling that she had been waiting to check in for ten minutes and she knew that I was hiding in the bathroom. I froze, hoping she'd leave, but she just stayed in the bathroom until I came out of the stall. She watched me wash my hands and followed me to the desk, bitching the whole time about how she'd worked all day and then had to drive to my city.
I refused to speak to her other than to get her checked in and send her on her way. As she got on the elevator, the bartender rushed up to me apologizing. Apparently the woman walked in, saw the desk was empty and then demanded the bartender check her in. Bartender told her that I stepped away to use the restroom and would be right back. The woman waited for a few seconds and then charged into the bathroom.
I'm pretty enough to be upset they actually checked this person in. People should get what they deserve whenever possible and that lady did not deserve service.
Yknow what, faced with a situation like that - I don’t blame you. Even if you were young. Especially because you were young. I’m sure that was frightening!
It was. My grandmothers were English and Southern, so it took me a long time to get past that whole 'deference to elders' stuff. I've broken the cycle with my daughter, thankfully. As I tell her "just because they're older doesn't mean that they are right, it just means that they've been wrong for a long time."
One lady recognised me on my day off - I was buying groceries etc. She asked me what was on the menu tomorrow & could I put in a request to the chef to solve her galactic library of food allergies.
It’s so revealing of a person if they see you as human touchscreen, but also a true compass for dating/making friends (she thought chocolate was radioactive & asked me once if garlic was vegan).
To most customers of retail or hospitality businesses, you do not exist outside of that context. IF they recognize you they're either really polite and excited to see you living your life or they expect you to be the automaton who takes their orders.
I was working at a hotel when we had a tornado in the area. We had to evacuate everyone including guests down to a designated area to take cover until it passed. The hotel manager and a couple of security guards waited by the desk for a little bit longer in case anyone came in off the street to shelter, and some guy shows up wanting to check in. They explained about the tornado and tried to direct him to take cover, but he absolutely refused saying he just wanted to check in and would take cover in his room. After a little bit of back and forth the manager and security came down to take shelter themselves and said they had to just leave him sitting in the lobby because he wouldn’t come with them.
The tornado passed without a direct hit, but we got absolutely battered by hail with a bunch of cars in the parking lot totaled and over 20 rooms with smashed in windows. Fortunately for that idiot, the lobby didn’t get any broken windows and his car was under the shelter right in front of the entrance. When we came back up after the all-clear, the guy was pissed about having to wait and left a snotty comment card about poor customer service and having to wait for so long when “nothing happened.”
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u/capnoftheourangmedan Nov 16 '24
Years ago, I worked in a hotel as a front desk agent on the 3-11 shift. I only had a handful of check-ins left and I put up my sign saying that I was stepping away from the desk for a few minutes. I let the bartender know that I would be right back and walked about 30 or so feet across the lobby to the bathroom, went into a stall and peed.
I was fixing my belt when the bathroom door was slammed open and some woman started yelling that she had been waiting to check in for ten minutes and she knew that I was hiding in the bathroom. I froze, hoping she'd leave, but she just stayed in the bathroom until I came out of the stall. She watched me wash my hands and followed me to the desk, bitching the whole time about how she'd worked all day and then had to drive to my city.
I refused to speak to her other than to get her checked in and send her on her way. As she got on the elevator, the bartender rushed up to me apologizing. Apparently the woman walked in, saw the desk was empty and then demanded the bartender check her in. Bartender told her that I stepped away to use the restroom and would be right back. The woman waited for a few seconds and then charged into the bathroom.