I was walking the floor as I usually do during our lunch rush when I noticed a woman standing near the bar area looking around intently. I knew she wanted one of two things, either the bathroom, or me. I smiled and asked her “Ma’am, can I help you find something?”

“I need to speak with the manager or owner.” She said. The entire time she was looking at me like I had just crawled out of the sewer. I wear our restaurant’s T-shirt and jeans as my uniform, we are a very casual dining location, but I am always clean and well groomed.

“Yes ma’am, I am the manger what can I do for you?” I tried to disarm her with a smile, I could tell from her body language she wasn’t happy at all.

“No I need to speak with someone in charge.” Clearly thought I couldn’t be whom she sought.

“That is me ma’am, I am the GM here, the owners are not here currently.” I needed to redirect this conversation and get it going into problem solving mode quickly. You don’t have a lot of time before someone loses patience with you in these situations, even if they are the ones dragging the conversation through the mud. “What seems to be the problem?”

“I need another waitress.” When the word waitress came out of her mouth it sounded as though she was trying to spit it out like poison.

“I can arrange that ma’am, but I would like to know why first.” I was going to give her new waitress no matter what, but I did have to know why so I could address the problem for the future with her current waitress.

“No, you don’t need to know why, just replace her.” Now that irratated me. It strikes a cord within me, her telling me that I didn’t need to my job the right way, but instead her way.

“I’ll tell you what ma’am, you tell me where you are sitting, and I will replace your waitress, but so that I can address the problem I will need you explain what your problem with her is, unless it is a personal problem from your past.” I figure I am going to give her an out, a way she can simply say that she doesn’t want to talk about. She doesn’t take it.

“That woman just discriminated me!” She hissed this at me, I am starting to think of her as a snake in my mind, it helps to keep me smiling.

“In what way ma’am?” I asked her.

“She was taking the table’s food order and passed me up, for a man.” She hissed the word man out in her snake like voice.

“So you believe that the waitress discriminated against you because you were a woman?” I said the words deliberately, trying to point out that it was doubtful that a woman would discriminate against her because she was a woman. She became unglued at this point. She hissed some words at me, but I literally could not understand them, as they were in rapid fire Spanish and the hissing didn’t help. I stood for a moment and waited for her to calm down.

“You are not going to do anything?” Was the next sentence I could understand from her.

“Ma’am I said I am going to get you a new waitress, what else would you like me to do?” I was a little confused as I had already conceded to her initial demand.

“I want her fired for discrimination!” This was hissed so loudly that many of the customers turned to face us.

“Ma’am I cannot bring a discrimination suit against one of my employees based on the fact that she took a man’s order prior to yours.” Your eyes bugged out and she stormed back to her table. The table was C5, that’s right, the cursed table (see http://www.authspot.com/Journals/C5-The-Cursed-Table.586475 for more on the cursed table). I sighed and found a new server for the table. I then went and located the old server and had her tell me the tale.

It turns out that the woman had arrived to the party last. So the server had wanted to give her extra time to look at her menu, so had taken her order last, or at least had attempted to take her order last. By the time she had made her way around to her she was angry and would not talk to her. I went to the new server and told her the story so that she would be prepared. Also I told her to comp the woman’s meal. I then told her I was going to talk to the lady and explain what had happened.

“Andrew, please don’t go talk to her.” She pleaded with her eyes as well as her words. “I just got her calmed down, and I think she thinks your the devil or something.” I laughed and told her that I had to go and talk to her, it was my job. When I approached the table the other customers saw me and got a little nervous, perhaps fearing another confrontation. The lady and I spoke briefly, she was almost cordial and certainly not rude. She denied that it had happened as the waitress had said and told me that she and her company would no longer be dining in our establishment.

A few weeks later the same group came in sans the snake lady. I was informed that she was a big wig from out of town, I was also informed that they would continue to come and eat at my restaurant, as they loved it here. I told them they were more than welcome, as long as they left the “big wig” at the office. We both laughed and moved on with our lives.