One of the very worst things about my job (and, I suspect, most of the jobs involving handling the public) is the fact that the customer is always right.
A couple of nights ago, I had a guy on my bus who spoke little to no English who was asking me a question I could not understand. Basically he wanted to go to a place I was sure was located on another route (in fact, the other route to Leigh) and communicating this to him proved very difficult. Eventually, he made his was back into the station, probably with no better idea of what was going on. Not an ideal situation.
As I reversed off, one of the older passengers decided to proclaim, loudly, that the guy should not have been "in this fucking country" as he couldn't speak the lingo. As a representative of my company, the most diplomatic answer I could think of was "I think that's a bit harsh..." (long silence) "...maybe he's on holiday?"
"What, in fucking Warrington?"
Another passenger joins in. "He could be seeing his family!"
"Well if he's seeing his family, that means there's even more fucking foreigners here!"
I decided to keep quiet. Old misguided fools won't open their fucking minds probably ever, nevermind as the result of a mere bus driver's rage. In this case, speaking out wasn't worth my job. A real bollock blow to me was that the angle I was forced to come from probably sounded like I actually thought it's okay for the guy to be here, but only on the basis he's on holiday.
The customer is always right, but mostly he's a fucking idiot.
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