This week was very interesting.
A friend of mine noticed a Wikipedia page with my name attached to it and a somewhat detailed biography of me written there. Since I didn't write the biography and it was relatively accurate, I was a bit flattered that someone bothered to spend there time to research me and write the thing, it was long and quite detailed. Today, Wikipedia removed my biography saying that I was not notable enough to warrant one on their site.
While most people would be insulted, I agree. Some people let fame and notability get to their heads. Some thrive on the fact that everyone knows every intimate detail of their lives and they build their lives around this false and disturbing concept of self importance.
I do not consider myself a notable person, I'm a regular guy who works hard to try to make the world a better place. I host a radio show, I'm "known" by lots of people, but at the same time, I'm humbled by the fact that anyone listens. I'm known to ask people who tell me that they listen to my show "why?".
I was embarrassed by the Wikipedia article and I'm glad Wikipedia had the good sense to remove it, but I thank the person who posted it for caring.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
The Clerk and the Customer (A Horror Story)
I'm not perfect, I never pretend to be perfect and on my radio show (http://www.truetalkradio.com) my flaws come out pretty clearly. Being not perfect, I could understand and empathize with the imperfections of other people and possibly forgive them for some of their indiscretions.
The other day I was in a kosher restaurant standing in line waiting to order. I was third in line, two guys, both religious, with kippas and tsitsis hanging out, were together were standing in front of me and the order clerk was nowhere to be found. The two guys started talking about how they were in a rush and the clerk wasn't there. One guy turned to his friend and said, 'ah the hell with it' and proceeded to walk around the counter and start punching things into the clerks cash register.
Now if you never worked for a retail store, you probably wouldn't know that the clerk is responsible for all cash in his drawer. If any money is missing at the end of the day, and his cash doesn't balance, the clerk is personally responsible to replace that money out of his pocket. So most cashiers are pretty touchy when it comes to other people touching their cashes.
Coincidentally, the clerk came out as the guy was playing with his cash. He calmly and politely asked the guy to please not touch his cash and to go back to the other side of the counter and he would be more than happy to serve him. The customer then did the unthinkable. He unleashed a long string of profanities (very bad words) followed by, and I'm going to use a direct quote, "we should all learn our place in the world, you are a $12 an hour food jockey, I'm the customer. You serve me, it's like I'm the master and you are the slave."
The clerk, surprisingly, kept his cool and told the customer that he would not serve him. The customer then proceeded to flip out. First he tried to stare down the clerk in an aggressive fashion, the clerk just stood there and met him eye to eye. Then he said 'get me my food, you damn 40 year old bachelor'. where the clerk politely asked him to leave the restaurant.
The customer refused to leave and was getting more agitated as the minutes passed. The clerk called the next in line and the customer went ballistic.
"I'm going to teach you a lesson" he bellowed at the clerk, "I'm going to prove to you that I'm the master and you're my bitch!"
With that the customer proceeded to call a number on his cellular phone. The clerk stepped back, leaned against the wall behind him and watched. The customer said "You're just a lowly clerk, you can't decide who gets served and who doesn't. Know your place in life, know who the boss is."
The customer then left the restaurant. Two minutes later the restaurant phone rang, the clerk answered. By the sounds of the one side of the conversation I heard, it was the owner of the restaurant ordering the clerk to serve the customer. The clerk adamantly refused, never explaining himself, but invited the owner to come down to the restaurant to serve these guys or inviting the clerk to come out. He said that he would never serve these two again and hung up.
He proceeded to serve the other customers in line in a professional and calm way. When we started talking to him about the incident, he didn't answer, asking us to drop it and just order. It was amazing how calm he remained.
Five minutes later the owner of the restaurant walked in laughing with the two customers. They walked up to the counter, the clerk looked at the two guys, the owner stood behind him.
"Serve them" said the owner. "No." responded the clerk. The stare down started again. "I'm telling you one more time, serve them" said the owner. The clerk turned and walked out of the room. The owner followed him to the back. Minutes later another employee came out and took the customer's order. The customers got their food at the end and after a few short profanities about the clerk, turned and left.
This story has been running around in my head since it happened. I didn't believe it then and even now, after a few days and talking about it on the show and writing about it I still find it horrifying.
There are three incredibly disturbing factors in this story.
The first I want to talk about is the sense of entitlement the customer felt over the clerk and the attitude used to degrade and demean a service person.
I don't give a rats petunia how much money you make, what kind of car you drive or what social status you think you have in life. People are people, human beings deserve dignity and respect. In this case, the clerk had done nothing wrong. He asked a customer not to touch his cash register, he is responsible for the money, this is his living, his livelihood, nobody has the right to touch it. For the customer to go off on him, the way he did, and this guy seemed like a fairly normal person, is repulsive, regrettable and quite disgusting.
Customers in the store were disgusted, many screaming at this guy to shut up. The clerk must be commended for keeping his cool, but imagine yourself facing this kind of tyrannical ranting. Imagine being on the receiving end of such a personal attack. How would you react? I probably would jump across the counter and throttle the customer, I would find it very hard to keep my cool. As a customer I'm ashamed to say, that besides exchanging some verbiage with the customer, I did nothing to interfere with the chain of events. It's shameful that I didn't step forward and help calm the situation, but all of us in the restaurant were in a state of shock. The scenario was quite unbelievable.
The second issue that repulses me is the reaction of the restaurant's owner. He didn't even ask the clerk for an explanation. He just came in, laughing with the customer, and demanded the clerk serve him. This kind of disrespect of staff is typical of most Kosher establishments, but in this case, quite gross and fairly disturbing. The clerk was an older person, probably in his mid to late 30s, I don't know his financial situation nor do I know why he chose to be a clerk in a kosher restaurant, but one has to assume he needs the job to survive.
As an employer I hire people and trust that they make decisions that will benefit the company and are based on solid background. Since this clerk didn't seem to have any mental deficiencies (unlike the customer) and since he had been working at this establishment for quite a while, I find it infinitely impossible to believe that the owner of the establishment would embarrass and degrade him like that. To me that's shameful.
Incidentally all of us in line walked out when the owner tried to force the clerk to serve the customers.
The third issue that really saddens me is that these two guys were "religious", wearing kippas and tsitsis.
This event took place during the three weeks, a time of careful contemplation, a time of mourning and a time of repentance. It is during these three weeks that we work to make the world a better place, to break down the boundaries between us and to attempt to usher in the age of moshiach.
It is said that the second Jewish Temple was destroyed because of unwarranted hatred between Jews. The story of Karmtza and bar karmtza (http://www.ou.org/yerushalayim/tishabav/kamtza.htm) is the oft quoted story when it comes to Tisha Baav and the three weeks. Their dispute was the catalyst for the destruction of the temple.
That said, religious people do not act in the manner that this guy acted in, so one can only assume he was an impostor. Impostors give religious people bad names. Imagine the other customers, none who were religious, experiencing this kind of show and basing their opinions of religious people on this customer.
This is the type of event that is stopping moshiach from coming. This is the type of event that divides us as Jews, as humans and as civilized individuals. Until we have the ability to get over ourselves, we could never make the world a better place.
The other day I was in a kosher restaurant standing in line waiting to order. I was third in line, two guys, both religious, with kippas and tsitsis hanging out, were together were standing in front of me and the order clerk was nowhere to be found. The two guys started talking about how they were in a rush and the clerk wasn't there. One guy turned to his friend and said, 'ah the hell with it' and proceeded to walk around the counter and start punching things into the clerks cash register.
Now if you never worked for a retail store, you probably wouldn't know that the clerk is responsible for all cash in his drawer. If any money is missing at the end of the day, and his cash doesn't balance, the clerk is personally responsible to replace that money out of his pocket. So most cashiers are pretty touchy when it comes to other people touching their cashes.
Coincidentally, the clerk came out as the guy was playing with his cash. He calmly and politely asked the guy to please not touch his cash and to go back to the other side of the counter and he would be more than happy to serve him. The customer then did the unthinkable. He unleashed a long string of profanities (very bad words) followed by, and I'm going to use a direct quote, "we should all learn our place in the world, you are a $12 an hour food jockey, I'm the customer. You serve me, it's like I'm the master and you are the slave."
The clerk, surprisingly, kept his cool and told the customer that he would not serve him. The customer then proceeded to flip out. First he tried to stare down the clerk in an aggressive fashion, the clerk just stood there and met him eye to eye. Then he said 'get me my food, you damn 40 year old bachelor'. where the clerk politely asked him to leave the restaurant.
The customer refused to leave and was getting more agitated as the minutes passed. The clerk called the next in line and the customer went ballistic.
"I'm going to teach you a lesson" he bellowed at the clerk, "I'm going to prove to you that I'm the master and you're my bitch!"
With that the customer proceeded to call a number on his cellular phone. The clerk stepped back, leaned against the wall behind him and watched. The customer said "You're just a lowly clerk, you can't decide who gets served and who doesn't. Know your place in life, know who the boss is."
The customer then left the restaurant. Two minutes later the restaurant phone rang, the clerk answered. By the sounds of the one side of the conversation I heard, it was the owner of the restaurant ordering the clerk to serve the customer. The clerk adamantly refused, never explaining himself, but invited the owner to come down to the restaurant to serve these guys or inviting the clerk to come out. He said that he would never serve these two again and hung up.
He proceeded to serve the other customers in line in a professional and calm way. When we started talking to him about the incident, he didn't answer, asking us to drop it and just order. It was amazing how calm he remained.
Five minutes later the owner of the restaurant walked in laughing with the two customers. They walked up to the counter, the clerk looked at the two guys, the owner stood behind him.
"Serve them" said the owner. "No." responded the clerk. The stare down started again. "I'm telling you one more time, serve them" said the owner. The clerk turned and walked out of the room. The owner followed him to the back. Minutes later another employee came out and took the customer's order. The customers got their food at the end and after a few short profanities about the clerk, turned and left.
This story has been running around in my head since it happened. I didn't believe it then and even now, after a few days and talking about it on the show and writing about it I still find it horrifying.
There are three incredibly disturbing factors in this story.
The first I want to talk about is the sense of entitlement the customer felt over the clerk and the attitude used to degrade and demean a service person.
I don't give a rats petunia how much money you make, what kind of car you drive or what social status you think you have in life. People are people, human beings deserve dignity and respect. In this case, the clerk had done nothing wrong. He asked a customer not to touch his cash register, he is responsible for the money, this is his living, his livelihood, nobody has the right to touch it. For the customer to go off on him, the way he did, and this guy seemed like a fairly normal person, is repulsive, regrettable and quite disgusting.
Customers in the store were disgusted, many screaming at this guy to shut up. The clerk must be commended for keeping his cool, but imagine yourself facing this kind of tyrannical ranting. Imagine being on the receiving end of such a personal attack. How would you react? I probably would jump across the counter and throttle the customer, I would find it very hard to keep my cool. As a customer I'm ashamed to say, that besides exchanging some verbiage with the customer, I did nothing to interfere with the chain of events. It's shameful that I didn't step forward and help calm the situation, but all of us in the restaurant were in a state of shock. The scenario was quite unbelievable.
The second issue that repulses me is the reaction of the restaurant's owner. He didn't even ask the clerk for an explanation. He just came in, laughing with the customer, and demanded the clerk serve him. This kind of disrespect of staff is typical of most Kosher establishments, but in this case, quite gross and fairly disturbing. The clerk was an older person, probably in his mid to late 30s, I don't know his financial situation nor do I know why he chose to be a clerk in a kosher restaurant, but one has to assume he needs the job to survive.
As an employer I hire people and trust that they make decisions that will benefit the company and are based on solid background. Since this clerk didn't seem to have any mental deficiencies (unlike the customer) and since he had been working at this establishment for quite a while, I find it infinitely impossible to believe that the owner of the establishment would embarrass and degrade him like that. To me that's shameful.
Incidentally all of us in line walked out when the owner tried to force the clerk to serve the customers.
The third issue that really saddens me is that these two guys were "religious", wearing kippas and tsitsis.
This event took place during the three weeks, a time of careful contemplation, a time of mourning and a time of repentance. It is during these three weeks that we work to make the world a better place, to break down the boundaries between us and to attempt to usher in the age of moshiach.
It is said that the second Jewish Temple was destroyed because of unwarranted hatred between Jews. The story of Karmtza and bar karmtza (http://www.ou.org/yerushalayim/tishabav/kamtza.htm) is the oft quoted story when it comes to Tisha Baav and the three weeks. Their dispute was the catalyst for the destruction of the temple.
That said, religious people do not act in the manner that this guy acted in, so one can only assume he was an impostor. Impostors give religious people bad names. Imagine the other customers, none who were religious, experiencing this kind of show and basing their opinions of religious people on this customer.
This is the type of event that is stopping moshiach from coming. This is the type of event that divides us as Jews, as humans and as civilized individuals. Until we have the ability to get over ourselves, we could never make the world a better place.
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