Dinner and a show at Friday's. LONG

[The cat whisperer]

This is the story of a possible sucky customer and a rather sucky employee. So, my boyfriend, roommate and myself decided to go to Friday's today. Uneventful if somewhat bland meal. No idea what was about to happen or the event we all but had ring side seats for. We're waiting to pay and receive the to-go order we placed for our other roommate when we (by which I mean the entire restauraunt) suddenly heard a server yell f*** that b****! We look toward the ruckus. And, there is a customer and server being seperated by who I assume to be a manager and the customer's friends. As in this male server was trying to literally strangle this female customer. The server goes storming into the kitchen ripping off his shirt. By now the entire place is quite. The manager is talking to the woman. From what I could gather the server had accused the woman of trying to walk out on a beer or maybe the whole tab. The manager is apologizing about the server and they enter into a discussion about what she will or will not be paying. The server comes flying back into the dinning room and tells the lady she needs to call her people because he will be waiting for her in the parking lot and he was going to get his money. More curse words fly. They get into another shouting match and the lady dials 911. Once again the manager and the customer's friends have to step into the middle of the fray. At this point the hostess all but drags the server out of the restauraunt. At this point I think the manager just compts the meal. Which is understandable to me. Remove part of the equation and you can diffuse the situation.

Our server comes over and is all but falling over herself to apologize. I joke and say at least there was a dinner and a show, because I know how embarrassing a situation like that can be. It's happened at my establishment more times than it should (although we tend to be employee v. employee). We get our change and credit card back and leave. The women are ahead of us being escorted by the manager. The first lady stops at the door and says she doesn't feel comfortable walking out while the server is out there. I'm thinking 'he knows the cops are coming. He could not possibly still be out there.' Oh, how wrong I was. Not only was he still out there he was still yelling threats about how he was going to "handle her" and banging on the window . And, we have to walk past him to the car. We actually detour around another car just for distance. The manager tells him to calm down or he will be spending the night in jail. The server said he was in jail before and he wasn't afraid to go back. At this point we scramble into the car and drive off. Down the road we see two cop cars racing toward the restauraunt.

Part of me wishes we would have stayed or left our number with someone. But, there were plenty of other witnessess (sp). Has anyone else seen an employee so throughly snap? I know there was probably a lot more to the whole thing, but once an employee starts to be threatening they loose all ground. The same if a customer suddenly tried to attack an employee. Thoughts?

[Seanette]

I *really* hope that restaurant starts doing a better job of screening employees!!!!

[Customer Beating Robot]

I am not so quick to come to the defense of the customer. Yes, the employee should not have lost his temper to that degree, but what really happened?

Did he bring her the bill and she starts disputing some drinks on the bill? He works with her calmly trying to get it sorted out. She may have copped the famous customer attitude that she is the customer and she is always right. Okay, he is holding his tongue fighting back the urge to scream and decides to go get a manager. Manager comes over, the lady talks about how rude the server was, the food wasn't right, the drinks were watered down, etc. And to put icing on the cake, the waiter was staring at her chest all night, despite being ugly as a dog and there is no way she would ever even look at someone like him if he hadn't been serving her food.

The fact is that we don't know what the customer said. Now sure, he should never take it that far, but we all have our breaking points. We don't know what she did to instigate the situation. I find it interesting that the manager didn't fire him on the spot. The manager must have known something more to the story. Most employees aren't just going to snap over something that trivial. There is more to the story. She may have called the server a low down dirty thief.

[lordlundar]

True, there is certainly more to the story. There always is. And I would lie if I say I'm the calmest person around a screaming customer. But the fact that this server started issuing death threats to the customer and literaly tried to kill the customer, irregardless of the reason, is going WAY too far.

Don't forget that CW said of a possibly SC and a certainly sucky (more like homicidal) server.

Wanna bet the police were called again when this moron went in to find out why he was fired?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Has anyone else seen an employee so throughly snap?

I haven't personally seen this happen, but I've heard of it happening twice.

The first time, it was an employee who used to work on the salesfloor and was a little bit unstable. My aunt used to work with her in a factory and said this particular coworker would just go on streaks where she'd start cursing like a Tourette's patient. Well, one day she snapped at a customer and told her to f--- off and may have said other things, so naturally she was shown the door.

Then there was bi-polar Joan who snapped at a co-worker and told her she was going to kick her ass. She was fired on the spot, and as she was being escorted out she was screaming and ranting and making threats toward the managers who were escorting her out. I was on vacation when this happened, and I wish I could've seen it.

As for this particular story, it is possible the customer tried to pull a fast one and get out of paying her tab. But that is no excuse for the server to go off and start making threats toward her. The restaurant should've done a more thorough background check on that guy before they decided to hire him.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I dont' recall witnessing anyone "snap" per se, but I heard about two incidents at the Olive Garden where I used to work.

One of my co-workers, a nice but volitile waiter, had snapped, and been fired, from his previous job for basically scaring a customer out of the dining room and chasing him out into the parking lot. This customer was a complete asshole, and kept demeaning and belittling my co-worker, and calling him "boy." (Just an fyi, my coworker was white, but it's deameaning to any grown man to be referred to in this fasion by a hostile person.) After about an hour of this, my coworker lifted up the guy's table and slammed it down on the floor, causing glasses to fall over and food to jump out of plates.That got the asshole's attention. I do not know what he said, but I think it involved a promise to deliver an ass kicking. Customer fled, waiter chasing after through the parking lot, beating on the sides of the guy's car as he trundled through the parking lot on his way to the exit.

The second Olive Garden meltdown occured when one of our idiot managers, a silly, stupid little bit of incompetent fluff, kept hassling one of our hostesses, a tough talking, wiry pistol of a woman who came to us directly from Harlem. Hostess was coming down with the flu, and had the chills. Idiot manager had insisted she come in anyway (way to spread contagion, Idiot.). Hostess standing by the door all night in January, Idiot Manager wanted her to shed her sweater. Hostess told manager that "tonight is not a good night to give me a hard time, okay? I feel like shit." Idiot manager did not take hint and kept it up. Hostess went postal and went after manager, resulting in manager ending up hiding in deep freeze crying while the waitstaff tried to control the hostess. Got fired, of course, but after that, the rest of us considered that hostess a war hero.

[Customer Beating Robot]

Depending on the circumstances, I think someone is justified in going off. For instance, being called boy all night. Now, I can take a lot, but I am not going to be referred to as boy for over an hour. Now if is just boy and nothing else, I might let it slide. But if someone is yelling boy every few minutes and then berating me for some stupid reason and showing off to his friends and family, then he might see me snap.

I can think of many many reasons I would snap. Someone flings poo at me for instance. I wouldn't say it is never okay to snap. You should certainly control yourself as much as possible. I am just saying that we all have a point at which we should be expected to snap.

Verbal threats are one thing. We all say stupid stuff when we are pissed. Just as long as nothing physical is involved, I would just let the employee calm down and then take into account his history and the circumstances. Certainly if he is a good employee, with very few problems, and just this once he threatened to kick someone's ass because they kept throwing food on the floor and told him to eat it like the dog he is, then yeah, I would give him a pass.

Now, of course it is never okay to hit anyone. And never okay to lose your cool. But if it happens, I can sympathize. In some cases, I would be more scared if they didn't snap.

[Kiwi]

I can think of many many reasons I would snap. Someone flings poo at me for instance.

I just broke rule number one

I once saw a waiter and a manager wrestle a customer to the ground, much screaming and swearing insued, from what we could gather, the party had slowly done a runner and this was the last guy, he started to run and when the waiter tried to stop him, he called him a racial insult

so the waiter tackles the guy and the manager jumps on in and helps pin him while another waiter calls the cops.... best dinner show ive ever seen we were mesmorised!

[draftermatt]

I went off on a coworker, a couple times actually. Once I was doing dishes and the guy threw a meatball at my head. I asked him to join me outside, manager seperated us. Same place, guy kept shoving me, same result.

At the auto parts warehouse, I knew a guy was getting fired that day, he ripped an exhaust pipe from my hand and I went off. No idea what I said but the whole store heard me. Barely got a talking too.

I've never really seen it though. I've let workers vent when the last customer/manger/co-worker is being a douche. I've always been a sounding board though.

[Tria]

In some cases, I would be more scared if they didn't snap.

Which leads up to: Don't bug the woman who suddenly goes calm amidst a flury of insults....