Your “Opinion” Is Colored With Flaws

(The customer in this story is an old acquaintance of the company CEO. He will show up randomly with odd demands like a few cans of oil or to have weldings done. In addition to being a deadbeat payer and generally wasting everyone’s time, the customer is also rude and prejudiced.)

Customer: “Oi! Is [Company CEO] in? I need to ask him a question.”

Me: “He’s at a meeting now; I don’t know when he’ll be available.”

(I’m hoping that the customer will just leave, but he just loiters in our office, making small talk, even though there’s a waiting area in the hall. The CEO comes out of the meeting room, still talking with one of our foremen, who is a person of color.)

Customer: “Oi! [CEO], I need some…”

CEO: “Hi, [Customer]. Sorry, I’m busy right now; I’ll be coming down to talk to you in five minutes, okay?”

(The CEO goes upstairs; the customer keeps hanging around.)

Customer: “There are just too many [racial slur]s around these days. I’m sorry if that offends you; it’s just my opinion. I hope none of you is a foreign worker.”

(My coworker, who has a citizenship but was born in Argentina, and is the CEO’s cousin to boot, chimes in.)

Coworker: “No hay problema: estamos todos de aquí!”

(“No problem: we’re all natives,” in Spanish!)