I work for a popular pharmacy chain. I am deaf. My grandma’s dog ate my hearing aids. (Don’t worry: the dog was fine. But my hearing aids were NOT.) I was nearly completely deaf for almost seven months until I got a cochlear implant.
During this time, I used a transcription app on my phone to help me communicate with customers a little better. I had worked there for nearly two years at that point, and most of them knew me and were willing to speak slower, look at me when talking, repeat themselves, etc. Some even learned a few basic signs, and a couple defended me in front of customers who would announce (I assume loudly) that I had no business working customer service while being deaf because it defeated the purpose.
Despite all the times customers refused to talk to me because I wasn’t normal — not kidding: the most USED excuse was “I’m in a hurry. I need someone who can understand me!” — it never bothered me too much because of these angel customers, my fabulous boss who went all momma bear on ANYONE who tried to mess with me or blame me for things CLEARLY not my fault, and my colleagues who would often step into a conversation a customer was having AT me and then getting mad when I didn’t respond, with a simple, “Oh, she’s deaf. You have to look at her so she can read your lips.”
I was recently offered a promotion at a different store across town, and I thought it’d be a great opportunity. Aware this store had a weirdly low customer service score, I thought to bring everything I had to raise those scores.
A week into my new role, I got a text from my new boss. (I CAN hear on the phone now, but my implant picks up too much static to properly sort through the words, so most of my conversations are still via texts and emails.) She told me she had three complaints filed against me, all within the last two days.
The weirdest thing was that every single one of them was anonymous. Complaints don’t HAVE to have a name, but it’s very strange to not leave one since most customers want retribution from corporate, so they leave their name and contact information to make sure corporate can let them know their issue is taken care of.
I was FLOORED. I kept thinking, “Hey, maybe I accidentally treated a customer very poorly that day my friend died and my closing manager called in sick, so I had to work two thirteen-hour shifts in a row, with no time to grieve? That would make a lot of sense.”
Not one to back away from accountability, I asked:
Me: “What happened? What’d I do?”
She sent me a screenshot of the complaints, one at a time.
At first, I was… confused? Then flabbergasted. Then outright irritated and seriously TICKED. OFF.
Complaint #1: “She greeted me very loudly. When I asked if she could help me find something, she walked right past me. When I finally caught up to her, she said very loudly, ‘I’m sorry! I’m deaf!’ I felt very disrespected!”
Was she upset because I spoke loudly? (Being deaf means you can’t hear yourself talk, which means that sometimes, you have a loud voice.) Or was she upset because I apologized for inconveniencing her normalcy with my own disability?
I do remember this customer. I do not recall the situation the same way she did, but I also remember her smiling and thanking me for my help on her way out. Was it a dream? Maybe.
Complaint #2: “I was looking for bleach, but you never have it. I saw what appeared to be the new manager blocking the aisle, just yapping away with her female employee. When I tried to get her attention, she didn’t greet me, and when she met my eyes, she ignored me. I just wanted to buy bleach! Why does she have to make it so hard?!”
Wait, was this the customer that I walked to the bleach, only to find that we were out, so I offered to check the back, only to learn the warehouse never sent us any, even when they said they did, so I offered to call another store nearby and ask them, only for her to say it wasn’t necessary?
It didn’t occur to me until several weeks later that I wasn’t wearing a name tag that day. My new position required a specific name tag, and it had to be specially ordered, so I was waiting for it to arrive. I had only been there for a few days at that point. How did she know I was the manager on sight?
The last complaint was my favorite. (READ: I hate people.)
Complaint #3: “I was at the register getting checked out when the alarm to the back room sounded. I peeked around the corner and saw the new manager just standing there, not turning off the alarm. Someone told me she was deaf, and I thought to myself, ‘Wow, what a safety hazard.'”
Again, no name tag. How did she know? Also, when the alarm initially went off, I was actually two aisles away, not just “standing there, not turning off the alarm.”
I spent the next two weeks greeting my employees, friends, and family that way. “How are you doing? How’s the new job?” “I’m a safety hazard. Yourself?”
Fast forward to several weeks after this conversation with my boss, and all of a sudden, two employees quit on the same day with no notice. (I’m still convinced they planned this.) That night, I got a message from the previous manager of my new store.
Previous Manager: “I heard [Ex-Employee] quit today and said some terrible things about you in front of customers. Are you okay?”
Me: “Yeah, it’s nothing I haven’t heard before. I should tell you about the formal complaints I got a while back. Boy, I was upset. Cried my eyes out.”
Previous Manager: “Wait, complaints? Were they anonymous?”
Me: “How’d you know?”
Previous Manager: “I never had proof, but due to certain suspicious behaviors, I always suspected [Ex-Employee] to be filing complaints about his teammates under the guise of being a customer. They were always anonymous and always about the same two colleagues.”
Me: “Wait. So, you think [Ex-Employee] might’ve filed these complaints about me, as well?”
Previous Manager: “There’s no way to tell for sure, but I wouldn’t put it past him. The complaints are too specific to be from a customer, and they all have the same kind of wording. ‘I think his name is—’ ‘Pretty sure her name was—’ Stuff like that. I told someone in the district leader’s office my theory, but they said they couldn’t do anything about it without proof. Why? What’d he say about you?”
Me: “He took my disability — something that people use as an excuse to hold me back, something so personal to me — and used it to make me feel small and insignificant, then looked me straight in the eye and said, ‘D***, that’s just wrong. What’s wrong with people?’”
Previous Manager: “There’s something seriously wrong with that guy. Good thing he’s never coming back.”
Me: “Yeah, but now who am I supposed to beat to a bloody pulp?”
He laughed. I was not kidding.
