Floored By How Many Customers Go Up There

Our fast food restaurant has two floors. The second floor is favored the most by customers, especially during the summer months, because it has a spectacular view of the nearby city and the air conditioning up there is much cooler. For some odd reason, the franchise owners have never made any expenditures to fix the AC on the lower floor.

I’m part of the closing shift, and it’s my responsibility to do a good deep clean of the second floor every night. Two hours before closing, I put a large sign at the bottom of the stairwell that says:

Sign: “Upper section closed. Please do not enter.”

At the top entrance of the stairway, I block the entrance with a row of chairs.

I can’t tell you how many times in the four years I’ve been there I’ve come around and found someone eating at one of the tables after I’ve closed the floor off, meaning they just walked directly past the “no entry” sign that was smack in the middle of the entrance, stepped over the chairs at the top entrance, walked over a freshly mopped floor tracking dirt everywhere, taken a chair off the table, and sat down!

The responses I get after letting them know the area is closed (while looking daggers at them) will always be almost laughable.

Customer #1: “Oh, sorry, I didn’t know it was closed.”

Customer #2: “I have a health condition and I get dehydrated with heatstroke easily.

Then take the meal to go?

Customer #3: “Who the h*** do you think you are? You aren’t the manager!

Sir, you do NOT want me to go get him; he’s been here for fourteen hours.

Customer #4: “I asked the manager already. He said we could sit up here if we’re quiet.”

The best one is yet to come. We were due for an inspection by the corporate office the following morning and obviously, the shift leader told me that she wanted that entire level clean enough for a hospital to have a surgical procedure in it. I wasn’t playing around this time: besides the sign at the bottom of the stairway, I dumped a pile of chairs in a turning corner that was halfway up the stairway and then placed three large bussing trolleys at the top entrance of the stairwell. I couldn’t have made it more obvious that that section was closed.

I was stripping and waxing the floors — anyone who has had to strip and wax a floor knows how ultra slippery it gets; anti-slip shoes are an absolute must — when I heard someone scream, “WOOOOOOAHH!” followed by a loud thud. I looked to see a dazed woman sprawled out on the floor with food items scattered every which way. Too pissed to see if she was injured, I stood staring at her with a “told-you-so” look on my face and pointed toward the stairwell entrance.

That actually wasn’t the best part. The best part was that this idiot had the gall to sue the restaurant for slip and fall because I didn’t put a “wet floor” sign out. It was tossed.