Well, let’s be fair. One may have been hyperbole, the other was presented as actually happening. I’m willing to give him that. My primary impression is the guy has some anger management problems and a fair bit of paranoia but he isn’t psychotic.
I could be wrong.
His ranting about PERSONAL ATTACKS ON MY PERSON was way over the top, and he needs to learn to deal with things like what was in the OP as they happen or let them go and calm the fuck down. (Wouldn’t have been as fun, though.)
Also, I see he ponied up the bucks to join our wretched hive of scum and villianry, so now he can search (if he chooses) for some of the glorious trainwrecks of yore and see where he fits into the scope of the Dope.
See, I disagree. Reporting the rude kid to her manager, and causing her (hopefully) to get a richly deserved ass-chewing is exactly what’s needed here to ‘teach [her] how to act’ – assuming that she wants to keep her job. I agree that the vitriol in the OP was over the top, unproductive and a bit scary, but I definately don’t think that the ticketseller was only mildly rude, or that her rudeness should have just been ignored.
I just don’t agree with people saying the ticketseller wasn’t rude or was only mildly rude. When you are in contact with the public like that, you just don’t say shit like that. Somebody with one eye comes up to buy a ticket, is she allowed to talk like a pirate and say “Arr!” How about a dwarf? Call them Shorty? How about somebody with a horribly disfigured face? Is she allowed to scream in fright and tell them how incredibly ugly they are? When you deal with the public, you need to learn to keep some of your private opinions private.
Her behaviour that she chose was inappropriate and pointless - she went out of her way to be offensive to customers, and that just is not cool.
I would complain to the manager. I’ve been young and I did a lot of stupid things when I was young. The important thing to remember is, “I WAS YOUNG.” That is when I learned what was not appropriate to say in a business environment. I learned I wasn’t in school and I couldn’t shoot my mouth off about politics or anything else that I thought at that time. I wouldn’t let it ruin my night, but I’d call the manager over and mention the comments and hopefully the young person working would learn that you can’t make these type of comments to customers. Then, it would die. I’d enjoy my free soda or movie pass and the employee would learn something about life.
While your points on “rude behaviour”, as described by yoursef above are quite valid, they just don’t apply to anyone with half a grain of common sense. I used to work at a movie theatre. It was a damn boring job in the Box Office, and anything to reduce my boredom on slow nights was a relief.
Yes it is rude to poke fun at someone in an obvious way, and granted, one should moderate one’s comments when dealing with the public.
On the other hand, I got away with all sorts of crap while working the door (yes I was multi-functional - usher, cashier, doorperson, and pit monkey). I spent an entire cheapo night ripping tickets and telling people “Cinema 5, follow the yellowbrick road” or “Cinema 2, over the river and through the woods”. I also started new line-ups in the pit (candy bar) by calling out “Can I kill someone over here?”. Nobody ever noticed, and it amused me.
In otherwords, I don’t think the wage slave in the box-office was rude, she was bored, and trying to keep herself from passing out with the boredom. She did however, have the misfortune of choosing the one person in about (from experience) 50,000 who would freak at a harmless comment.
Yeah, you and the “ticket-cunt” were bored assholes with a skewed sense of customer service work ethic. But, hey, as long as you pleased yourself, right?
OK, I’ll respond to that very obvious bait. My loss. I don’t know where you work, and don’t really care.
There’s “customer service”, which is accepted in the real world of business, and then there’s customer service which is “expected” in the magic world of business.
In the real world, people have personalities, and toss these wonderful things called “quirks” or “eccentricities” into interactions with other humans. In the magic world, people (known to users as wage slaves, service monkeys, or servants) cater to their every whim to make the “experience” as pleasant as possible.
Normal humans enjoy the real world experience. Superior humans find the ultimate most displeasureable part, and keep bitching about it for years.
Note to self: Next time VegemiteMoose wants popcorn, he/she/they/who cares gets the recycled bag.
BTW, since it’s the pit, [bender] ** BMSMA** [/bender]
Well, my bad. Anyone interested in continuing this amusing discussion should know, I work overnight Friday, and will be back on this thread Sunday night after sleep.
If you said “Follow the yellow brick road to me,” I would laugh. If you told me my husband was a cheap bastard who didn’t deserve to have a woman, I would call your manager over and have a word. I have a great sense of humour, and I extend it to people in service positions, also (why wouldn’t I? They’re people, too, and any time I laugh is a good time). I also know the difference between a service person exhibiting personality and being rude. The service person in the OP obviously doesn’t, or she was being rude on purpose. Either way, this was a learning opportunity for her.
I can relate to that – I’ve worked customer service, and never felt the need to suppress my personality. I can even remember a time or two when I made jokes that were not well-received. The thing is, I never said anything that I could count on offending the person I was addressing – if offense was taken, it wasn’t my intention to give it.
A direct insult is another thing. The ticket-cunt insulted both the OP and his wife. Making critical remarks about people’s relationships is simply not done in that context.
The customer-service angle in a pure-entertainment business is much more important than in retail. People are paying specifically to have a good time. That’s the product. If people go see a movie together, it’s a togetherness thing. Implying that they ought not to be together is not a fucking personality quirk. It fucks up the product as much as sneezing on a burger does.
The particular circumstance of the comments made to the OP have nothing to do with the offense. Every time a couple goes out in public, there’s an opportunity for the people who deliver service to them to measure their choices against their own standards. Every time I’ve gone to the movies with a woman, there’s been some aspect of the pairing that’s not for everyone. The ticket booth person may well think “Wow, she’s old enough to be his mother.” “Ew, that girl has dreadlocks and unshaven pits.” “That guy’s a full foot shorter than her – is that the best she can do?” “Boy, is she fat!” But the job requires that you don’t say anything that might spoil the product that you’re providing, which is an enjoyable evening out.
Hell, even when it’s been as clear to me as it is to everyone involved that the date is a disaster, the people who deliver the service have done their best to ensure that, for their part, they’re making the process as enjoyable as possible. Even when my date was being a total bitch at dinner, complaining about every little thing, and I myself have wanted nothing more than to get through it and get far, far away, the waiter has behaved as though everything was perfectly normal and tried to make things go as smoothly as possible – because that’s the job. (And I made sure to tip him far more than is usually expected, and discreetly apologized for my date’s behaviour when I had the opportunity, because properly socialized people recognize that polite behaviour is required by both parties to the contract.)
Boredom does not excuse rude behaviour. If you work at a movie theatre, you’re being payed so that people can enjoy themselves. Nobody expects you to be a personality-free robot, but there is an obligation not to shit all over people’s night out. You want to deride people’s romantic situation? Fine. Do it behind their back, if it passes the time for you. But the theatre patrons deserve the (probably insincere) “Enjoy the show!” that they’re paying for.
As someone who has occasionally gotten way too upset over something trivial becuase I was just having a bad day, I sympathize. Out of curiousity, what was that snappy comeback you used on the theater bitch?
