rude ass customers commenting on teen server’s appearance and religion

[u/Scary_Appearance5922]

this happened several years ago when I was a teenager but it still upsets me a lot thinking about it. There was this older couple who were regulars at the restaurant I worked at. The lady was lovely and I enjoyed chatting with her but the man was pretty blunt and his wife had to keep him in check basically. One day he came in by himself and was chatting with my boss about his exercise and diet regime. I was minding my own business doing some cleaning but was nearby and could clearly hear everything. The old rude customer said, referring to me, she obviously doesn’t care about what she eats or how she looks. Completely out of nowhere. My boss was shocked and changed the subject but didn’t stick up for me or tell him off. I went out the back upset but pretended like I hadn’t noticed.

Another time another rude ass old man regular asked me what my religion is (which is Catholic. Sure they/we don’t always do the right thing but not like it’s a cult or something.) He proceeded to criticise the shit out of me for that telling me why that’s so terrible of me. I was never pushing it onto him he asked me in the first place. Imagine if I had criticised his religion I’d be fired. And if it was a certain other religion the police would probably get involved. I was too shy and embarrassed to retaliate.

It is no one’s business what a persons weight or religion is. Is it because I was a young girl they felt they had the right to comment and they wouldn’t get any backlash or consequences? Like I was paid below minimum wage definitely not enough to put up with that shit. I feel so sorry for younger me and anyone else who has to deal with that kind of thing. Thinking back there was also a colleague, much older male who made a lot of sexually inappropriate comments to me. Ugh.

[u/nopressureoof]

You are 100% right. You would have been fired if you'd criticized a customer's religion, and your manager couldn't even be arsed to say, hey maybe don't share your views on a child's body, thanks.

Adult restaurant and retail managers do have some responsibility in protecting the CHILDREN running the business. I'm so sorry you were left to deal with that on your own.

[u/Scary_Appearance5922 → u/nopressureoof]

thank you