Do you ever encounter an outright slug at work, and take your work stress home?

So Im a college student, it’s finals week, Im cramming, im stressed. Not to mention starting something new to me with a new job, and…thats stressful. So with that said…

I served a kid’s scoop of ice cream to this grouchy, silently mad, frowney faced woman today, for her little grandchild. It’s Cold Stone, we got “grownups” sizes, which are essentially: tennisball, baseball, and softball. But what she ordered was a kid’s scoop. A kid’s scoop is more like golf ball, it’s not very much ice cream. It’s a scoop of ice cream damnit, that’s what it is lol, you get a little ice cream for your little one, you put some delicious candy in it and you get on your way with your life.

Not this lady. She ordered a kids scoop, I made the kids scoop sprinkles and everything just like the little kid asked, and I handed the ice cream to the tallest person most able to reach the ice cream. She was frowning and complaining with her eyes before the kid even had a chance to dig in. And she said “Is that ittt?”, and I said, “Yeah, you ordered a kid’s scoop right? That’s a kid’s scoop”. And I rung her up, the whole time the kid whining and stomping his feet like a rich spoiled brat. I looked over at my coworker like “should we just give her a free dollar or two’s worth of ice cream to shut them up and get them outta here”, and he shook his head no, so I just rung her up and she stormed out with her whiny brat. As soon as she walked out I was like sighing a breath of relief that she and her tension were gone, and we both agreed we were glad she was gone.

Then not a minute later the husband comes in alone with that half eaten ice cream and says “Hey this isn’t enough, I come to Cold Stone all the time…” I’m thinking: yeah you’re spoiled you’re used to the jaded employees who got beaten-down by people like you and now they over-portion, and give away hundreds of dollars worth of free ice cream, which is exactly what my boss told me not to do like two days ago. He continued… “I know what enough is, and this isn’t it, come on make some more will ya”. Knowing this guy was the arguing type, who wanted to win, so he could please his whiny family, I said “Sure that’s no problem, but just know you ordered a kid’s scoop, I made a kid’s scoop, and you paid for a kid’s scoop, that’s a kid’s scoop in your hands”. And he said “Let me teach you a little something about….” which is when I was thinking to myself “I don’t need some guy hustling and jostling me around making me feel bad with his whole demanding vibe to think he can come across as ANYBODY I want to learn from….” he said, “Let met teach you a lesson about customer service from a customer’s point of view: the customer is always right”. So I said “Look this is how my boss specifically taught me how to do this, this isn’t free ice cream, it’s a business, I gave you the portion you paid for, don’t get mad at me, get mad at my boss”, and I could see he was about to interrupt me yet again to try to win using the “The customer is always right” tactic. So I just said, wanting him to just get out “But you know what, sure, you’re right, you be right, you’re the customer”, my heart beating really fast, stress going through the roof, and when he knew he was getting away with it he started smiling and being all friendly and my coworker capitalized on the opportunity to be the friendly hero, and they both agreed about how stingy the boss must be, and the customer said, you guys are doing a good job, its your boss who’s stingy, you take care now. And he got away with a free tennis ball amount of ice cream. $3.25 or so. Theft…

I went home feeling completely stressed out of my mind never wanting to deal with that again, but then I started to remember: survival of the fittest, I used to do this, I’ll find a way, etc. But it stressed me out, and it’s keeping me up at night! I kinda just wanted to see what that story looked like in type, and just put it out there. Maybe you guys have a story, maybe a “lesson” lol, which is the last thing I want after today…maybe nothing, but its all good.

I guess what Im asking is: has a stressful situation like that, where you tried to do the right thing, ever kept you up at night? I know this is really trivial but I had to get it out of my head somehow, I was hoping someone else may be able to relate.