Needs To Give Them The Fahrenheit 411

(At my store, the drive-thru sends employees outside with iPads to take orders when it’s busy, since this saves a lot of time by letting us move down the line instead of taking one car at a time at the speaker box. We still try to go out even in inclement weather, but we do have a ton of special equipment to make rain, snow, and cold much more manageable, and we rotate employees out in 20-minute shifts if they need it. Also, no one is ever forced to go outside in bad weather; we will send someone else or just take orders on the headsets if our other choices decline. I’m outside taking orders one particularly nasty day, when it’s 10 degrees Fahrenheit, snowing, and windy. I’m perfectly happy, since it’s less hectic outside even when it’s busy, and I’m wearing about four layers and a heated vest, and have hand warmers in my gloves, so I’m actually pretty comfortable. I approach the next car to take their order, and the woman driving looks horrified.)

Customer: “Oh, my! Why are you out here in this weather, dear?”

Me: “I’m taking orders today, ma’am. I love snow, so this is actually pretty exciting!”

Customer: “I can’t believe they would make a young lady work out here in these conditions! This is just terrible!”

Me: “Actually, they never force anyone to be out here. In fact, I was scheduled to work inside, but I volunteered to come out since I like it. Plus, I’m actually very warm. My vest and gloves are both heated.”

Customer: “This treatment of employees is just appalling! I can’t give my money to a company like this; I’m going elsewhere. You quit while you can, dear. You don’t have to let them treat you this way.”

(She pulled out of the line and drove off, and I assumed that was the end of it, but she apparently took a photo of myself and my coworker, who is also a young woman, working outside in the snow as she left. She posted that photo to Facebook later that day and caused a huge fuss about “proper treatment of employees.” I appreciate her concern, but she created a mess for us because she failed to mention everything I had told her, which caused unrest with some other customers that took some time to fix.)