Hiring A Bunch Of Whistleblowers

(I’m one of the two managers on duty at a pet store, and I have just stepped out of the office near the registers. The other manager is nearby and talking with one of our groomers, but I glance up when I see a male customer leave the building and suddenly come stomping back in.)

Customer: *yelling at my male cashier* “Did you just whistle at me?”

Cashier: “No?”

(The customer barges into my cashier’s space at the register, getting inches from his face, yelling about his attitude, and I rush in to intervene. Though I’m female and far smaller than my cashier, I try to step in between them.)

Me: “Is there a problem?”

Customer: *ignores me and keeps yelling at my cashier* “Where’s your manager?”

Me: “I’m a manager. What’s the problem?”

Customer: *finally directs his anger at me* “Do you let all your employees behave like that?”

Me: “Behave like what? What happened?”

(The customer seems to realize that he actually doesn’t have an answer to my question, and he storms back out of the store. At first, I’m glad to see him leave, but then my cashier decides to be really stupid.)

Cashier: *cheerfully and loudly* “Good-BYE!”

(I groan inwardly. Sure enough, the customer comes storming back in again.)

Customer: *at me* “Do you seriously let your employees behave like this? Being all smarta**?”

(I just want the guy out of my store so I don’t have to explain to the police why he and my cashier got into a fistfight. By now, the other manager has reached the register and seems to silently agree with me.)

Me: “No, sir.”

Other Manager: “Not at all, sir.”

Cashier: *cheerfully* “What did I do?”

Customer: *making wild and threatening gestures at my cashier* “You! Stop talking! I’ve had it with your attitude!”

Cashier: *still smiling* “I didn’t do anything wrong!”

Me: “[Cashier], shut up.”

Other Manager: “We’ll deal with [Cashier], sir.”

(The customer continues to rant about our cashier’s attitude, the other manager and I keep attempting to placate him, and our cashier continues to butt into the conversation, which riles the customer up and starts the cycle all over. After a few rounds of back-and-forth, the other manager and I win out. The customer finally leaves.)

Me: *spinning to practically snarl at my cashier* “The guy was a huge jerk, but you were not helping!”

(Right on cue, the work phone rang. I was the unlucky one who answered, and sure enough, I had to endure another earful from the same customer about “that kid with the attitude.” The cashier ended up quitting for unrelated reasons a few weeks later to sell home security systems. We heard he nearly got in another fist fight on one of his first days. Also, that “whistle” the customer heard? We puzzled out later that it wasn’t the cashier; it was the other manager’s ringtone.)