Amethyst
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2008
- Messages
- 12,683
At my nearby Planet Fitness, the manager tries hard to hire nice young people to work behind the counter. I often see the manager sitting with/counseling his employees about how to handle this and that.
Well, the manager wasn't there yesterday, and I watched/overheard with growing upset as a customer berated two young assistant managers for nearly 10 minutes by the clock.
The customer was a very large woman; about my height; twice my weight. She was accompanied by her teen daughter. I have literally never heard such unending verbal abuse in a public place. I'm not sure, but I think the issue was that her electronic card didn't scan, so they wouldn't let her use the gym. She, however, was in a hurry and wanted to work out right then.
The male employee was on the phone, so the woman poured her bile on the petite young woman, who spoke so softly that I couldn't hear her. You could hear her all over the gym! "Don't you take that tone with me. You're talking to me like I'm ignorant. I'm NOT ignorant." "Who do you think you are? I wasn't talking to YOU. I was talking to my dawrder." "I guess this must be my day to deal with b----s. I've been dealing with b-----s all day."
The woman was clearly enjoying creating a scene. Her small eyes darted around the gym, to see who was looking. I wanted very much to go over and ask her to keep her voice down, but I was intimidated.
Finally she went away, and I went to the front desk to offer sympathy and praise the young people for their self-restraint. They were so grateful. I honestly think they thought I was coming over to scold about the uproar. A couple of other customers also came over to show their support.
I felt like a coward. Does anyone think I could have intervened earlier? Or was it best to just let the managers deal with the customer?
Well, the manager wasn't there yesterday, and I watched/overheard with growing upset as a customer berated two young assistant managers for nearly 10 minutes by the clock.
The customer was a very large woman; about my height; twice my weight. She was accompanied by her teen daughter. I have literally never heard such unending verbal abuse in a public place. I'm not sure, but I think the issue was that her electronic card didn't scan, so they wouldn't let her use the gym. She, however, was in a hurry and wanted to work out right then.
The male employee was on the phone, so the woman poured her bile on the petite young woman, who spoke so softly that I couldn't hear her. You could hear her all over the gym! "Don't you take that tone with me. You're talking to me like I'm ignorant. I'm NOT ignorant." "Who do you think you are? I wasn't talking to YOU. I was talking to my dawrder." "I guess this must be my day to deal with b----s. I've been dealing with b-----s all day."
The woman was clearly enjoying creating a scene. Her small eyes darted around the gym, to see who was looking. I wanted very much to go over and ask her to keep her voice down, but I was intimidated.
Finally she went away, and I went to the front desk to offer sympathy and praise the young people for their self-restraint. They were so grateful. I honestly think they thought I was coming over to scold about the uproar. A couple of other customers also came over to show their support.
I felt like a coward. Does anyone think I could have intervened earlier? Or was it best to just let the managers deal with the customer?