Douchebag Coworkers Make Fun of A Hearing/Visually Impaired Customer, RHUer Shines Through

In honor of a first timer's awesome response to a stressful situation for a customer, and to the retail balls she displayed to her douchebag coworkers, I proudly present the retail Balls Award!

-----------------------------------------------------

Hey all long time lurker first time poster. Y'all can call me 2Idjit (as in 2 idijit 2 quit).

I thought I would put forward a tale from about 12 years ago, making me 18. This story is just about the cruelest thing I believe I have ever witnessed. The villains of this story were my brand new coworkers at a rather small but popular salad bar joint.

It was my first day and I was informed that the girl who was supposed to train me had gone into labor so not only was I not going to be trained, but they were going to 'throw me to the wolves' and see how I did. I did rather well, I like to think: the job was easy enough as almost everybody ordered salad bar. There were menu options but they were limited and also came with the salad bar and it helped that we were famous for our sweet tea. So the night was flying by and I was 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 was. And to my everlasting horror and shame they were making fun of a woman standing outside the door who was quite obviously blind.

I ran out and said, "Ma'am, can I lead you inside?"

No response. But I notice that she's signing. As in American Sign Language. Holy shit on a biscuit 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 (now called BirthinServer or BS) was also a caretaker for this woman after she got off of work and she always met her outside and "Shirley" would get a steak sandwich and a sweet tea while she waited for SB! I shot off a quick phone call to my sister who (Thank God!) majored in ASL. My sister rushed over to my new job and sat with "Shirley" both were equally tickled pink as my sister rarely got to practice her ASL on someone who was also blind. Thank god (again) we were able to contact the right people to help this poor woman out.

My manager was also really great with her and through my sister told Shirley that BS had gone into very premature labor and in the emergency no one thought to call her!

Nothing ever happened to those waitresses, though I did read each and every one of them the riot act and told them all that I've never been so ashamed to be a human being and ended the spiel with my now famous closing statement, "Y'all can go to hell, Y'all just go to hell and die... in that order!"

Needless to say I did not last long at that job and on applications when giving a reason for leaving I had to put "Irreconcilable Differences With My Coworkers"!

Ever want to just kill your coworkers with fire?

--2Idjit

Comments

[Lab Rat]

I'm curious, how do you go about communicating with a person who's both blind and deaf? Is it a modified version of ASL?

[Karebear]

Think of the story of Helen Keller. Her teacher taught her by signing into Helen's palms. I'm guessing it's like that, but I could be wrong. That's just what I have seen done with customers I have had that were deaf and blind.

[danny]

@lab rat

My first thought was that she is legally blind and could see at close range. Karebear is probably right.

[Crazy Cashier]

I think when my mom did it she said she signed the alphabet/spelling it out into the person's hand.(although that might have just been because she didn't know normal signing.

I hope all those waitresses get paralyzed from the neck down . Blind jokes are very very rarely funny. ( I think I've heard one or two that are funny. And of course blind people making blind jokes) Most of the time it just makes me want to lecture the person. Although I like to joke that's why visually impaired/blind people are given canes ,so that we can hit people with them.( not that I ever would)

It's good that you and your sister were able to help.

[Squirrel bagger]

Good karma for life to you and your sister, and may those coworkers find out what the 10th circle of hell is.

[2idjit]

hey 2idjit here, yes the modified asl is in the palm. I believe some of it is different than standard asl though.

[TimmieHoe]

That is disgusting, I hope karma bit them all in the ass. I am ever so slowly going deaf due to problems as a child, and I feel for anyone who is deaf or going deaf. Except the crazy lady who came into my work....better email RHU that lovely story.

I have seen people make fun of deaf and blind AND autistic people, it's horrific and cruel. I've always made an effort to give them (the deaf/blind/autistic)extra good service. Heck I even help the elderly whos hands will shake or need a walker!

[Bug]

Hell is too nice for people who make fun of the disabled...

I've had a group of deaf individuals come to my store and told by a co-worker to "just ignore them and they'll go away." I was appalled! I didn't know sign language but I tried to help them anyway. (earning an eye-roll from my co-worker) Even though we couldn't hear, the group just seemed so happy to see someone smiling and not trying to treat them like second class citizens.