I work in a restaurant. The phone rings.

Customer: “Hi. What time do you close?”

Me: “Ten o’clock.”

Customer: “And what time do you stop taking orders?”

Me: “9:59.”

At 10:06, another customer walks in. My boss is standing over my shoulder.

Customer: “Hey, can I still order?”

Me: *Eyeballing my boss cautiously* “I’m sorry, but we’re—”

Boss: *Cutting me off* “[My Name], go do [task].” *To the customer* “Sorry about that, man. What can I get for you?”

The cooks in the kitchen stared daggers at [Boss] and then quietly declared a revolt. I made myself scarce as I cleaned up and clocked out.

I work for a city pool and the majority of the staff is very professional. However, there are the odd few that try and fail. We have just hired a bunch of people, and there is this one guy who can’t seem to get his schedule right. He is supposed to start guarding at five so the staff can switch over and swimming lessons can start. More than once, he is late, causing delays and confusion. My boss even offers to switch his shift if he can’t make it on time. He always maintains that he can do it but is eventually given a warning.

One day, the phone rings two hours before his shift starts.

Me: “Thank you for calling [Pool]. This is [My Name]; how may I help you?”

Coworker: “Hi, [My Name], it’s [Coworker]. What time does my shift start again?”

I sigh internally because it has been the same start time for months.

Me: “Hi, [Coworker], 5:00 pm is when you’re scheduled to start.”

Coworker: “Oh, not 5:30?”

Me: “No, 5:00 pm.”

Coworker: “Okay, so, my lab for school is running until 5:30. I’m calling because I see you’re done at 5:00. Would you be able to stay until 5:30 for me?”

Me: “Normally, I would. However, if you look closer at the schedule, you’ll see I’m instructing at 5:15, so I can’t stay later.”

Coworker: “Oh, really? What about [Coworker #1]? Could they stay?”

Me: “He is also instructing at 5:15.”

Coworker: “Ohhh, what about [Coworker #2]?”

Me: “Again, if you look at the schedule, you will see that we are all instructing.”

Coworker: “Oh, okay, okay. Do you know of anyone I can call who would come in until I get there?”

Me: *Pause* “Sorry, you want to call someone to come in for a half-hour?”

Coworker: “Yeah. Someone will, right?”

Me: “Uh… no, I can’t think of anyone that would do that.”

Coworker: “Oh, well, you don’t start teaching until 5:15 right? Could you guard until then, and I’ll see if I can leave my lab fifteen minutes early?”

Me: “Uh, yeah, I can do that, but fifteen minutes early would be 5:15. That doesn’t give you a lot of time to get down here.”

Coworker: *Thinking for a moment* “You know what, never mind. It’ll be fine. I’ll be there for 5:00.”

Me: “Okay, are you sure?”

Coworker: “Yeah, I’ll work it out.”

Me: “Okay, so we’ll see you at 5:00?”

Coworker: “Yep.”

I wasn’t convinced, so I called my boss to let him know what happened and to be prepared. Sure enough, the coworker then called my boss to let me know he wouldn’t be there until 5:30. It wasn’t until 5:45 that he finally showed up, and my boss told him that he was fired.

I work at a large electronics retailer with a very well-known computer repair and technical service department. I work in the computer department. I am approached by a very irate-looking customer.

Me: “Can I help you with anything today, sir?”

Customer: “You sure as h*** can! I been waitin’ up there fer yer [Technical Service] fer forty-five minutes! I got things to do!”

Me: “Well, that is an oddly long time to wait; usually, they are much quicker than that. What is it that they are doing for you?”

Customer: “I BEEN WAITIN’ ON THEM FER FORTY-FIVE MINUTES! THEY BEEN ALL KISSY-KISSY IN LINE!”

The customer holds up his minutely folded receipt.

Customer: “When I signed this, I considered that a contract for service! I HAVE [Electronics Retailer] IN A CONTRACT!”

Me: “Well, sir, again, they usually don’t take that long. Let me go up and talk to them and see what the issue is.”

I accompany the man, who continues to yell about people in line and such, up to the support counter. I try the entire way to figure out what kind of service he’s waiting for to be done.

Customer: “I was guaranteed twenty minutes by the gal! I been waitin’ for over forty-five!”

As I approach the counter, I see that they are well backed-up due to call-outs, and I get immediately waved over behind the counter by one of my tech coworkers.

Coworker: “He hasn’t been waiting that long. He’s been up here ten minutes; I’ve been counting.”

Me: “Okay… what all is he waiting to have done?”

Coworker: “Just to get his new computer set up. There are at least three customers waiting ahead of him.”

Me: “Okay, I’ll talk to him.”

I go back to the customer, who’s not far away.

Me: “Sir, how long did you say you’ve been waiting?”

Customer: “For f***’s sake! Far too long! I WAS GUARANTEED TWENTY MINUTES BY THE GAL!”

Me: “Well, as you can see, they are quite backed up—”

Customer: “THEY BEEN LETTIN’ PEOPLE GO AHEAD OF ME!”

Me: “Well, sometimes they have scheduled appointments they have to make. May I just see your receipt to verify who guaranteed you twenty minutes?”

The customer hands me his uber-folded receipt.

Customer: “Sure, but they broke their guarantee!”

I take a look at the receipt, first at the employee number and then the time stamp on the transactions. It reads 17:06. I have been working with him for nearly five minutes already.

Me: “How long did you say you’ve been waiting, sir?”

Customer: I was guaranteed twenty minutes by the gal; it’s been over twenty minutes!”

He has noticeably changed from “over forty-five minutes.”

Me: “Well, sir, if they did guarantee you a twenty-minute wait, then they are still within that time period. The receipt says the transaction ended at 5:06 pm. I have, on my watch, 5:21 pm. So, they still have five minutes left.”

Customer: “Really? Is that the stance you’re going to take?”

Me: “Well, I’m afraid that time doesn’t lie, sir. You are still within that time frame.”

Customer: “If that’s the way you’re going to be, then you’re gonna lose a lot of business!”

The customer then took his receipt in a huff and went to sit on the bench, just like that. He probably extended his wait by acting so childish, since no tech really wanted to work with him.

My wife and I are up late and realize we need a particular tool for a recipe, some kind of particular special pan. I don’t know; she’s the baker. We happen to live near a bunch of stores so, at eleven pm, we head out… only to find most of the stores are closed. This is shocking since usually, businesses here are open twenty-four hours, but we have forgotten that tomorrow is a federal holiday.

We pull up to our last-ditch-effort store at about 11:55 pm. The lights are still on and I can see employees inside, so we are hopeful. I exit the car and read the opening times on the door.

Me: “D***, they closed at 11:30 pm.”

Wife: “Oh, well, we’d better just go home. We can try again the day after tomorrow.”

Suddenly, one of the employees approaches the door and peeks out apprehensively.

Employee: “Uh, hello. Can I help you?”

Me: “Sorry for bothering you; we were just leaving. We were late, oh well.”

Employee: “What is it you’re looking for?”

My wife mentions the particular pan name.

Employee: “Oh, we have some of those. If you come in and wait by the register, I’ll grab it for you and ring you up.”

Wife: “Are you sure it’s okay? It’s past hours.”

Employee: “Yeah, come in.”

We are let inside and we wait by a particular register as directed, and the employee comes back with the pan. The transaction concludes successfully.

Wife: “Seriously, thank you so much. You’re not going to be in trouble, right?”

Employee: “No trouble at all. Thanks for offering to go, but I figure if it’s truly just one thing, it’s all good.”

As it was the type of store with a survey on the receipt, we wrote a vague but positive review for the employee.

This story is part of our Feel Good roundup for September 2020!

Read the next Feel Good roundup story!

Read the Feel Good roundup for September 2020!

I am a medical assistant, which is essentially a personal assistant to a doctor or other medical provider. When you check in at a clinic, often it is a medical assistant that gets you back into a room and asks you questions before you see your provider.

On this particular day, I am working with a physician’s assistant. We are looking at our schedule and note that [Patient #1] is ten minutes late for his appointment, but [Patient #2] is at the clinic and ready to be roomed. To top it off, the appointment reason indicates that it should be a very easy issue to address and therefore should be a quick in-and-out.

After rooming [Patient #2], I notice that [Patient #1] is marked in my schedule as ready to room and that he’s had this status for five minutes. It is now twenty minutes into a thirty-minute appointment, meaning he was a whole fifteen minutes late. The provider and I agree that with [Patient #2] being relatively easy, we can see [Patient #1] in the next appointment slot — originally [Patient #2]’s — and that we should, theoretically, end up more or less on time.

I quickly turn over my second exam room and go get [Patient #1]. This is where it all falls apart.

Me: “[Patient #1]?”

[Patient #1] grumbles as he gets up and walks to me.

Patient #1: “It’s about time!”

I put on a cheery smile and resist the urge to remind him that he was late.

Me: “I appreciate your patience. We’ll be right this way.”

Once we are in the exam room, he glares grumpily at me.

Patient #1: “Why are you guys always running late around here?”

I still try to be non-confrontational.

Me: “I couldn’t tell you about other providers, but sometimes we just have things come up. We do our best, of course.”

I start asking him questions pertaining to his visit.

Patient #1: “You medical people always demand that we show up fifteen minutes early and bring all of our cards and fill out paperwork, but you can’t manage to be on time? I just don’t get it.”

I think, “If you HAD been on time, this wouldn’t be a problem!”

Me: “Well, as I said, I appreciate your patience with us.”

I finish rooming the patient about ten minutes into the [Patient #2]’s appointment slot. The provider goes in almost as soon as I’m done. She ends up spending a full forty minutes because he keeps complaining to her about being late and brings up other medical issues that are not related to the appointment visit. All in all, we end up being about twenty minutes behind. As he is leaving:

Me: “I hope you have a great rest of your day!”

Patient #1: “Next time, you need to be on time!”

The next time he is late, he’s not getting worked in. Ugh!

Related:
Berate For Running Late