Megan McArdle

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RHIP

05 Dec 2007 03:56 pm

Many of us get bad service in cafes. Some of us are even forced to choke down some gnarly grilled cheese sandwich when we clearly and specifically asked to have it toasted. But how many of us can get the miscreant behind the sandwich counter fired? Congressmen, that's who.

Comments (10)

Hmm, I'd say that if the guy lipped off to you, the customer, the way this fellow if reported to have done, then yes, you could get him fired as well. That element completely changes the picture.

Frankly, the idea that the remark is only fire-worthy if it is racist (as the auther of the linked post seems to believe) fails to convince me. Any cafeteria worker stupid enough to mouth off to a congressman after getting his order wrong frankly deserves to be fired.

Basically agree with Ken Begg. What the employee allegedly said to a customer would potentially be a firing offense at any well-run McDonalds location. I don't see why the location being the Capitol Cafe, and the customer being a congresscritter, should cause us to lose sight of this fact. If you've been driven to the point of snapping insults, tell your manager that you need five minutes, then go lock yourself in the employee washroom and yell at the mirror until the moment passes.

I didn't get from the article that Battle mouthed off. My interpretation was that there was a micommunication over the definition of "toasted."

"No, I wanted it toasted."

"It is toasted."

"No, this is clearly grilled, redneck honkey."

"Uh...wha?"

I am just going to let this story play into my pre-existing bias that politicians are [content blocked].

Thorley Winston
Hmm, I'd say that if the guy lipped off to you, the customer, the way this fellow if reported to have done, then yes, you could get him fired as well. That element completely changes the picture.

I agree, it was pretty misleading to suggest that the Congressman got him fired (and according to the article linked to my name, he didn’t even make a complaint) for messing up a sandwich order. Making a racial slur at your customers in public is generally the sort of thing that would result in an immediate termination without the customer in question having to say a word.

Sorry - misread the article and thought Souder called Battle a redneck honkey, not the other way around. Agree with the other comments now. He should've been fired.

Megan McArdle

It's not clear that he did call Battle a redneck honky; neither he nor the congressman has confirmed.

Calling Souder a redneck is an insult to all us rednecks, but "honky" is simply a racial slur for "white". But the exact words don't matter. If the worker gets your order wrong and then mouths off at you when you complain, that is reason for firing, with or without racial slurs.

Does the Capitol Cafe have the same customer service model as Dick's Last Resort? Maybe Souder just wasn't in on the joke.

Businessman: It says one hundred percent guaranteed, you moron!

Brad Hamilton: Mister, if you don't shut up I'm gonna kick one hundred percent of your ass!

Earnest Iconoclast

I'm surprised that someone hasn't posted how people who work in food service are saints to put up with their moronic, evil, etc... customers. The more I read sites where food service employees post their feelings about their customers, the less sympathy I have for them.

As far as the topic of the post... who cares?

EI

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