At Last-- Someone Defends the Public Employee

It's rare that people stick up for a person who's in a public job. Having been yelled at, verbally abused, and physically threatened in my many public library jobs, I can always appreciate the plight of the worker bee. SITUATION: You're stuck working with the public, which might not be as bad as, say, being Brittney Spears' personal assistant ("Um, Brit, I don't think that's a good idea, either..."), but it's never 100% pleasant. Remember the "My tax dollars pay your salary!" line? That one usually comes right after you've denied an outrageous demand.

I was in the commissary (read: grocery store) shopping with Thing2. We had just 4 items, so we got in line at the Express Lane. It wasn't moving very fast, and as I walked up, I got a sense that the female checker and the old (retired) dude at the head of the line had been having "words" about something. Or rather, he'd been bitching at her. I didn't hear any of the verbal abuse or what had preceded it. I just knew that there had been Big Trouble moments before I walked up. (Thing2 was oblivious to everything, which is always for the better.)

Between me and grumpy old turd was a young Marine, paying for a ginormous sandwich from the deli -- his lunch. He was looking rather annoyed and flushed, becoming more and more so as I watched. The checkout clerk finished the transaction, said, "I'm sorry I had to re-ring your sale, but it was the only way to clear the problem." Grumpy just grunted rudely and took two steps past the lane to peruse his receipt-- making sure she knew he was double-checking her work.

Apparently, whatever the old goat had been bitching about had been way out of line, because after his sandwich was rung up and paid for, the young Marine stepped over to the guy and began chastising him! He used phrases like: you should be ashamed of yourself, that was uncalled for, and if you don't like shopping here, go someplace else and stop abusing the workers! He'd been there for the whole thing and obviously decided that it was time to take action.

WOOOOOO! Someone steps up and defends the defenseless!

As always, I'm unable to keep my yap shut, and I commended the Marine with a loud, "good for you!" Not one to be left out of anything, Thing2 began applauding--she still had no idea what was going on, but she was determined to clap anyway. Old grumpy turd gave everyone the stink-eye and skulked away without another word. Bastard!

It was nice to see someone sticking up for the service worker, for once. I hope someone sticks up for YOU if you're getting crap from some grumpy idiot.