There is no better way to hang on to great employees than to stand up for them. Thanksgiving weekend, Irina (said employee) called me near tears b/c one of our customers, the patriarch of an until-this-moment nice jewish family, had just screamed over the phone to her that she was a ‘f*cking idiot.’ She hung up on him (kudos) & called me.

Mind you, all of this happened b/c his wife came in on a busy evening and demanded service in front of other waiting customers. Her son had broken his glasses & rather than bringing the broken glasses with her so we could put the lenses in the new frame(like we told her to), she barked, ‘Yes, it’s only the frame,’ and took off. That somehow made US the idiots. She and her husband took turns calling to harass my employees, then when I called the wife, she complained that Irina hung up on her when she was ‘trying to apologize that her husband had to be a big jerk & start swearing.’

My response? ‘Here’s the thing. If he had spoken to me that way, I probably would have done the same thing. You have to understand that had I used that language in speaking to you, I would lose my job. I cannot, and will not, tolerate the use of such abusive language, particularly in a hateful, personal attack. I understand you’ll be taking your business elsewhere and honestly, I think that’s the best thing for everyone involved.’

Not only are we hoefully done with this family of harpies, Irina knows that I always have her back. Thankfully I work for a company where I have no worries about the security of my job. I have a feeling my boss would have said the same thing.