So I was at lunch today with a fellow summer research student. Anyone living in a city will understand that 12:30 is a hellishly busy time at restaurants. Now this place is quite efficient at grinding people through and getting them their orders. So my friend and I sit down and our food is brought out. As we engage in normal chattering, I notice a rather large – check that; extremely large woman stomping her way back towards the registers.
She approaches the register and immediately begins yelling – I mean wild incoherent blah yelling. The place is really loud, and we weren’t THAT close, so I couldn’t make anything out, but you didn’t need audio to get the picture. This woman was given the wrong dish – heaven forbid. The part that annoys me is that she doesn’t even try to be polite about, she immediately flips shit. I know how hard it must be to not get your precious order just perfect, but statistically speaking, it is bound to happen several times a day in a place THAT busy. Speaking of food, I don’t think this lady needed to be stuffing her face with anymore Pompei for awhile, hell, I thought she was going to have a heart attack – I could envision her choked arteries screaming for mercy.
No more they say, no more.
So the teller says something, backs off – and the crazy woman moves on to her next victim. I felt so bad for this guy. Not only is he trying to get tons of orders put in the right spot for pickups, but he has to deal with an insane behemoth breathing down his neck. It truly is not hard at all to politely say, ‘excuse me, this is not right, could I please get it redone.’
It reminded me of my days working in retail, the time I realized that adults can be just as infantile and absurd as a five-year old. A truly unsettling thought - and unfortunately quite true.
So my friend and I began talking about the perils of running our own practices. I would not be surprised to see someone going nuts after seeing a bill they weren’t prepared for. Now being frustrated is one thing, but there is never a cause for the explosion I witnessed today. I could care less if I lose a few patients that are completely insane. If they are legitimately upset or were mislead, then I will work with them, but if they attempt to belittle myself or the staff, then I will kindly show them the door.
I know you can’t discriminate patients based on health issues, but I don’t know what the rule is about assholes. I might have to look something up.
I will leave you with an immortal quote:
"We're living....IN A SOCIETY!!"
-George Costanza
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