🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Customer-facing industries like hospitality and retail come with their own challenges exposing how the customer is not always right.
A viral video on Reddit shows a disgruntled customer throwing their hot coffee at an employee because she wasn't handed her change correctly.
The video shared by Reddit user u/KevElwood has stocked up 33,400 upvotes and over 2,900 comments within a day of being posted.
The video shows the cashier dropping the money on the counter, stirring a fiery exchange.
The customer can be heard saying, "hand me the goddamn money in my hand."
"I didn't throw it at you, don't throw it at me," she continued.
Commenters have shared similar experiences under the video, discussing the disputes they had with customers while they were working customer-facing jobs.
"I had a man do that to me at a hot dog joint because I made him repeat his order since he and his 5 friends were making too much noise," shared a Redditor.
At the end of the heated dispute in the video, the cashier greeted the woman, "have a lovely day."
The customer didn't take to this very kindly and threw a cup of coffee in her face instead, and said "F**k you," as she left the store.
Another user said, "I remember being 16 working at McDonald's and an old lady threw pennies at me after thinking the penny she gave me was a dime and accusing me of being 9 cents short. Fun times."
In a 2018 study, "The Effects of Experienced Customer Incivility on Employees' Behavior Toward Customers and Coworkers," conducted by Haemi Kim and Hailin Qu at Oklahoma State University, there's evidence that customer treatment of employees can impact workers. The review was published in the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, as well as online in Sage Journals.
The article exhibits that 98 percent of employees report experiencing incivility at work, with around 50 percent enduring it at least once a week.
Employees who are forced to deal with rudeness from customers are more likely to feel burnout and struggle with work, according to the study.
Redditors agree with these sentiments, adding that authorities do not significantly curb workplace violence, which is a larger systemic issue.
"Managers have to support the employees. Fire customers," suggested a Redditor.
"Burnout is crippling our healthcare services right now. ERs being shut down across the province. Nurses with ridiculous patient ratios," said another.
"Students actively choosing alternative pathways to avoid becoming family doctors ... We're driving off a cliff and our politicians are actively steering the car," they continued.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the U.S. Department of Labor reports that employees at a higher risk of workplace violence are those who exchange money with the public.
The department's website recommends employers and their workers "establish a zero-tolerance policy toward workplace violence."
A Redditor corroborated this technique, saying, "when I worked retail, I would refuse to interact with rowdy customers. just deny them service entirely, ignore what they had to say."
"I had to call the cops once or twice for people who were still heated after, but the best way to prevent escalation is to not even touch the situation at all. just walk away," they continued.
The video has sparked debate among users claiming this was a "Karen" moment.
"I don't get paid enough to play therapist to customers that have issues or deal with entitled Karen's," said one person.
However, others seemed to find this less amusing and commented that the race and gender of the customer in the video influenced the reactions of viewers.
"When a white person does something bad all the comments will say oh she's mentally ill or something. As soon as it's a black person everyone say oh she's racist, all blacks are bad," read a comment.
Numerous other cases of workplace violence inciting heated altercations have been documented. A girl was shot dead by a passer-by after she threw a cup of water at a McDonald's employee, prosecutors alleged.
There was a case in Florida in which a man killed a hotel employee after being denied entry into a nightclub, police said.
Among several scuffles at airports, there was one incident where a man pushed his girlfriend aside and lunged at two airport workers.
