"Have a nice day!!" The SC version

[customersruinmylife]

We are still baffled by this one.

A co-worker was serving the SC at the bar and was nothing but polite to him. The only thing he treated her with was a series of grunts and mumbles. CW is a very, very sweet girl, so being mean to her is like being mean to a puppy.

CW: Hi there, what can I get you?
SC: *mumble mumble*
CW: I'm sorry, can you say that again?
SC: I. WANT. FOOD.
CW: OK, what can I get you?

They did the order. Not once did he say please or thank you, and whenever she misheard his mumbles, he would let out a large sigh and start the whole order again. Finally, she managed to complete the order.

CW: OK, so there's your change. We will bring your meal to you in about ten minutes. Thank you very much.
SC: *grunts and walks away*

CW ended up covering the floor while someone went for their break. She took out the SC and his wife's meal.

CW: There you go guys, I hope you enjoy your meal.
SC: *grunts*

She went back about five minutes later to check they were OK, and cleared their empty plates away very quickly.

The SC and his wife are about to leave. CW is now back behind the bar. SC is now walking towards the door.

CW: Have a nice day guys, see you later.

The SC suddenly found his voice, because he spoke as clear as day. He walked right up to CW.

SC: Can I give you a little bit of advice??
CW: .....
SC: You need to work on your fucking manners! You rude fucking bitch!

They stormed out.

We all talked about it after it happened. She was nothing but polite to him, even when he was being rude to her! She was a lot nicer than I would have been if it had been me serving him.

[Magpie]

He felt patronized because she kept being polite after he was so rude? Of course, that actually makes a kind of sense. There's also the possibility that he was ticked that he hadn't annoyed her enough, (since she kept being polite), and wanted to get to her that little bit more.

[QASlave]

When I see that type of behavior, I always wonder what is their life makes them so damn miserable to the world. I mean, being a prick just takes too much effort if you ask me. I'm too lazy to be a miserable prick.

[flutes_and_fabric]

I have two replies. First is about the post. That guy was a jerkwad. Now, the next pretty much unrelated one:
Have you ever noticed that as a waiter you have a fake waiter voice. It's always like, an octave higher than your normal one. I was just thinking about this cause recently my friends and I (all waiters in the present or past) were eating lunch at Hooters (nothing really to do with the story, just thought I'd mention it) and we got to talking about our fake teacher voices (we're all teachers, scary to think of us not only in public, but at hooters, right) and then we started talking about our fake waiter voices. The teacher voices are lower, and the waiter ones are higher. It was just interesting at the time. Not so much now.

[Hobbs]

Wow, I never thought I'd see a real life example of Kick the Dog

[trailerparkmedic]

Flutes & Fabric--I have a fake phone voice, and I knew lots of other call center people who had them too. I think it's interesting that this isn't limited to just being on the phone but to other jobs!

And the SC... this is why I hate people. I mean, how does the rude person call the nice person rude?

[sirwired]

I have two replies. First is about the post. That guy was a jerkwad. Now, the next pretty much unrelated one:
Have you ever noticed that as a waiter you have a fake waiter voice. It's always like, an octave higher than your normal one. I was just thinking about this cause recently my friends and I (all waiters in the present or past) were eating lunch at Hooters (nothing really to do with the story, just thought I'd mention it) and we got to talking about our fake teacher voices (we're all teachers, scary to think of us not only in public, but at hooters, right) and then we started talking about our fake waiter voices. The teacher voices are lower, and the waiter ones are higher. It was just interesting at the time. Not so much now.

I have a "leaving a message at work voice"... it's slightly higher, and enunciates very clearly, especially when it comes to reading out my phone number and/or e-mail address.

However, when I am just talking on the phone at work (as in, having a two-way conversation), I use my regular voice.

I guess I have a third that I use when giving a presentation, which generally tends to be louder.

SirWired

[Anakah]

I have a fake voice too! lol I make mine higher for some reason. Or if I am angry or they say they can't hear me I try to make it deeper! Or I've noticed when our guy employees answer the phone they deepen their voices.
I guess I make mine softer so that I sound nicer? I don't know but that is neat. My co worker has her fake one too. And I've told her about it and we both laugh after.

And yes, to the OP the guy was a jerk and just wanted someone to feel as miserable as he did. I hope he was banned for that.

[TonyF]

Add me to the long list of workers who use a fake voice at work.

I guess some people like that man think it's rude. Well, would you rather me use my normal voice?

I wouldn't either.

[Merriweather]

We are still baffled by this one.


CW: There you go guys, I hope you enjoy your meal.
SC: *grunts*

The SC and his wife are about to leave. CW is now back behind the bar. SC is now walking towards the door.

CW: Have a nice day guys, see you later.

The SC suddenly found his voice, because he spoke as clear as day. He walked right up to CW.

SC: Can I give you a little bit of advice??
CW: .....
SC: You need to work on your fucking manners! You rude fucking bitch!

They stormed out.

I can only come up with one logical explanation (and that only explains, doesn't excuse it, and of course SC's aren't often logical.

Were they an elderly couple? I do still occasionally run across people, mainly elderly, mainly male, who have held some position of power (high ranking military officer, head of a large formal organization, in the UK someone with a title, etc) who still expect all those who "serve" them in any way to be totally formal, complete with a chorus of "yes sir", "no sir", "of course, sir", "whatever you say, your lordship", etc.

If that were the case, perhaps they thought your CW was being overly familiar, and not treating them with the respect they (think) they so deserve. I think it's more rare in the US than the UK, but either way, does happen occasionally.

As I said, that could only explain it, not excuse it. No matter how much a person is used to being treated with formal terms of respect, no matter how deserving of it they may be, the way he spoke to your CW shows he has no "real" class at all.

[customersruinmylife]

Were they an elderly couple? I do still occasionally run across people, mainly elderly, mainly male, who have held some position of power (high ranking military officer, head of a large formal organization, in the UK someone with a title, etc) who still expect all those who "serve" them in any way to be totally formal, complete with a chorus of "yes sir", "no sir", "of course, sir", "whatever you say, your lordship", etc.

They were not that old. My guess would be around about their late fifties.

As for the fake voice, I have one too. It is horribly sweet and high pitched. I don't even know how it developed.

[The Gatekeeper]

I will also echo the off topic sentiments regarding the "work" or "phone" voice. I believe there are actually a couple of people on this site who've heard it, and found it highly amusing.
I've had several friends call me at work over the years, especially when I had a particularly cheesy phone greeting script to follow. Many of them laughed their a**** off when I was done.

Actually just last week I was recording the outgoing message at my current work place and I had to stop and rerecord it due to all the laughing in the back ground.

[Cymberleah]

A high pitched voice is more child-like and thus less threatening, which is why most females tend to pitch their voice higher.

A low pitched voice is more 'manly', which is to say powerful. Which is why most guys will pitch their voices lower, or women in a leadership position.

[bainsidhe]

It's possible the SC found CW's lack of understanding the mumbled phrases to be rather insulting. I've had some people get upset because I'm not talking clearly, yet when I try to enunciate they feel I'm being patronizing. Some people simply go out of their way to be miserable.

Hope CW gets over it soon. It's unfortunate, but such customers make you stew about it for a while.

[Pairou]

I sound (and look) like a child, despite being 21. And when I was still in high school and answered customer calls at work, I'd make my voice lower and sound older. If I answered the phone now, I'd make it lower. Mine is too high-pitched!