Nobody Likes A Saucy Cashier

I live in a small town. Everyone recognizes everyone even if they don’t know their names, eventually. This employee has worked cashiering and food prep at a restaurant for more than a year at the same place. She sucks at taking direction but not usually enough to complain about. I go there about twice a month, and it’s always her.

I prefer a burger with a certain specialty bread but found last time that the bread turns into goo and snot with the normal mayonnaise, which is the only sauce for that burger.

Me: “I’ll have a [burger], no mayo.”

Employee: *Dramatic sigh* “Just say ‘no sauce’!”

Me: *Surprised* “Uh, okay. No sauce.”

The burger is slathered with ketchup and it is an AWFUL taste, because I don’t know anyone who wants their bacon dipped in ketchup, and because the bread was liquified during transit. I throw it away. A couple of weeks later, I decide to be more specific.

Me: “I’ll have [burger], no mayo, no ketchup, no mustard—”

As I’m listing, the same employee interrupts me with a major attitude problem. 

Employee: *Angry, almost yelling* “You don’t have to list everything! Obviously! Just say, ‘No sauce!’ And [burger] only comes with mayonnaise!”

Me: *Matching her tone, but louder to speak over her in return* “Apparently, I do, since last time I got a ball of ketchup and snot with bacon instead of a [burger]! Now as. I. Was. Saying. No mayo, no ketchup, no mustard, no teriyaki, no ranch, nothing liquid in the burger. Only the [solid/non-sauce ingredients]. Or as someone here who prefers to language-police everything told me, ‘No sauce.’”

Employee: *Embarrassed, quieter* “Oh, uh, so… Whatever!”

Whereas before, that employee would hand off the food, on my approach, she stomps off. Her manager passes me the container.

Manager: “Sorry about that. Uh, we are still training her…”

Me: *Still kind of pissed* “In what world does ‘no sauce’ mean ‘slather this in ketchup even though that’s not normally on it’? And why is it okay to shout over people like that? She has worked here for more than a year, so it sounds to me like she is either beyond teaching or intentionally defiant.”

The burger was correct. The next time I came by, a different person was handling orders, and I haven’t had any problems since then. I asked after her and was told she was moved to janitorial duties since she couldn’t be trusted cashiering or in food prep.