This story is just about the cruelest thing I believe I have ever witnessed. The villains of this story are my brand-new coworkers at a rather small but popular salad bar joint.
It is my first day, and I am informed that the girl who was supposed to train me has gone into labor. Not only am I not going to be trained, but they are going to “throw me to the wolves” and see how I do. I do rather well, I like to think; the job is easy enough as almost everybody orders salad bar. There are menu options, but they are limited and also come with the salad bar, and it helps that we are famous for our sweet tea. The night is flying by and I am having fun.
Then, I notice some of the waitresses standing in front of the door, staggering around with their hands out and eyes closed as if groping for something, and laughing uproariously. Curious, of course, I trot over to see what the joke is.
To my everlasting horror and shame, they are making fun of a woman standing outside the door who is quite obviously blind.
I run out.
Me: “Ma’am, can I lead you inside?”
No response. But I noticed that she was signing — as in American Sign Language. This woman was blind and deaf and just standing on the sidewalk of our restaurant!
I didn’t know the etiquette, but I knew she was freaking out, so I gently took her hand and put it on my arm and she calmed down. I led her in and seated her in the booth. At this point, I will thank God for regulars, because a bunch of them knew what was going on.
Turns out the waitress who was giving birth was also a caretaker for this woman after she got off of work. [Woman] always met [Waitress] outside and then came in for a steak sandwich and a sweet tea while she waited for the waitress to finish her shift.
I shot off a quick phone call to my sister who (Thank God again!) majored in ASL. My sister rushed over to my new job and sat down with [Woman]. Both were equally tickled pink, as my sister rarely got to practice her ASL with someone who was also blind. My sister told [Woman] that [Waitress] had gone into very premature labor, and in the emergency, no one had thought to call her!
Eventually, we were able to contact the right people to help this poor woman out. My manager was also really great with her.
Nothing ever happened to those waitresses, though I did read each and every one of them the riot act and tell them all that I’ve never been so ashamed to be a human being.
I did not last long at that job, as I couldn’t stand being surrounded by such cruel people. On applications, when giving a reason for leaving, I put “Irreconcilable differences with my coworkers”!
