Brittany could feel anger boil inside her. How could someone be so rude? She never asked for this.
It also wasn’t as if they were being nasty in a quiet way – they were trying to get her to agree with them and go along? The situation turned worse when she went to her boss and was told to “suck it up.”
Brittany Spencer had been working as a waitress for the past two years she thought she had seen it all.
Every kind of person came and went through Fat Joe’s Bar & Grill in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. And when an elderly couple walked through the doors, she didn’t think anything of it … at first.
However, when they took their seats, their expressions changed. Straight away Brittany knew they were going to be difficult.
The couple looked around the diner with disgust slapped on their face, as if they had just stepped into their worst nightmare. Fair enough, this wasn’t a Michelin star restaurant but the food was good.
Brittany dismissed her first impressions. She knew she could cheer them up with her bubbly personality.
But she had no idea wrong she was. She approached and offered them menus. There wasn’t enough a hello back as she handed them menus. The woman scrunched her nose like she smelt something awful. This was going to be a difficult table.
She walked away but when she turned around, she saw the couple was pointing and laughing at another customer in the corner of the diner.
The target of their bile was a regular and very pleasant customer. What was their problem? Little did Brittany know she was about to find out.
The couple were deep in conversation and were unaware that Brittany standing behind them, waiting on another table.
Brittany’s ears perked up and she listened in to their conversation. The words that flowed out made Brittney’s stomach launch into her throat. How could they say something like that? It was beyond wrong.
As Brittany came to them to take their order, they asked her what thought about the “other customer”.
They asked Brittany if she thought it was disgusting and wrong as they clearly did, questioning also why they would let “someone like that” into the restaurant. Their old faces were filled with nothing but vile judgment.
“Sorry, but I can’t serve you. And I don’t agree with what you said,” she told them before walking away.
However, she couldn’t just leave it at that and asked her manager if the table could be assigned to another employee instead. But things were about to get even more twisted.
Her manager refused, essentially telling her that she could “suck it up or go home”.
Brittany knew she couldn’t serve the table with customers who held such horrible opinions on a human being, not to mention making one of their regulars feel uncomfortable. So she grabbed her bag and stormed out the door. What came next, shocked her.
That evening Brittany shared what had happened on Facebook.
People responded applauding Brittany for standing up for herself, and some even called out the diner where the event took place. As she shut up her laptop and nestled into her bed, Brittany lets out a sigh of relief knowing she did the right thing.
The next day, management told Brittany she was fired! Bursting with anger, she grabbed her laptop and went straight to Facebook.
She updated everyone on the disgusting development. The reactions were explosive. “But I’ll always choose my morals over money. See ya!” The owner of the diner had a much more different opinion.
The co-owner of the diner commented that Brittany was fired because she refused to do the job she was hired for.
For all his years in the industry, he had heard plenty of conversations he didn’t agree with, but you just get on and do your job. Their “neutral” stance, however, didn’t calm the stormy waters.
Brittany, and others, said that allowing hate speech to occur in your establishment without any response was turning a blind eye which she sees as the same as saying the hateful things oneself.
Brittany knew she made the right decision. As for the current situation and ideals of the diner?
Thee received so much hate, they had to temporarily take down their Facebook page – it is, however, up again. Also, not long after the situation went viral, a couple of in-person protests forced the restaurant to call the police.
They claim that the event hasn’t affected their day to day business and will continue with the same moral approach. There was one key element that they conveniently left out – that many people overlooked.
Brittney acted with enough professionalism that she simply asked to switch tables – which is not a monumental request.
The boss’s reaction (suck it up) not only reveals the attitude towards their employee’s comfort but that any business is allowed to refuse service – like customers trying to force opinions on someone who just wants to take your meal order.
