Author Topic: Fascinating anecdote on human nature (Read 1022 times)

Matthew · « **on:** June 15, 2018, 10:01:13 AM »

What have you heard accidentally after someone thought their phone call with you was over?

I was a restaurant general manager at several different Pizza Huts throughout my 20s. It’s clearly not the most glamourous job in the world, and it’s not what I had gone to school to do a half a decade earlier. I wanted out of that kind of job for several years, but felt stuck. I never finished my bachelors degree because I ran out of money. So while I worked 55+ hours a week, I also enrolled in some classes at the local junior college. I was determined to finish my degree and “get out of dodge”.
All the while, being a restaurant manager has some significant drawbacks. One being the lack of junior management due to the poor pay, and elevated responsibility that many can’t handle. In this particular restaurant, I was blessed with a brand new assistant manager, but unfortunately only had one shift manager.
One fateful day, I was scheduled to open, and be off work at 5, so that I could head home, which was 30 miles away, and take a test for a math class that I was taking online. Sure enough, my shift manager who was scheduled in at 4 called off. My assistant manager had the day off, but I had a test to take that night, so I felt like I had to call her and at least try to get her to cover the shift.
When I called, she very graciously declined, which I had understood. After all, she had requested this day off, so I felt bad for even thinking about calling. After I hung up the phone, the restaurant phone rang back. Being a Pizza Hut, where > 60% of our business came in via phone at the time, I thought nothing of it.
My server who answered the phone called me over and handed me the receiver. When I picked up, I heard a conversation from a distance. It was my assistant manager talking to her boyfriend in the car. Her phone had never hung up, and the line rang back because the call was never disconnected.
I have no idea why I stayed on the phone listening to a private conversation, but I heard my name, and listened. I listened for about a minute and a half before I had finally had enough. In this conversation with her boyfriend, she was clearly upset that I had the nerve to call her on her requested day off. it didn’t stop there. She continued to belittle me to her boyfriend, trashing my car, trashing my intelligence, trashing my ability to spend money, trashing the fact that I was “seeing “ a girl in another state, ripping apart my house (that she had never seen) as a pile of garbage, etc.
This brand new assistant manager, that I went out on a limb to recommend fast tracking to restaurant management for another location for was now ripping me to shreds to her boyfriend whom I had never met. All because she was mad that I called to see if she could come in to work. All of the respect that I had for this extremely talented and intelligent person disappeared immediately. This is how she speaks of people behind their back. She clearly had no respect for me. I no longer trusted her at all.
I got a shift manager to cover my store for a few hours while I drove home, took the test, and drove back to close my store so that I could drive back home after close and drive back to open the next day at 7 in the morning.
My assistant came in the next day, unknowing what I had heard. My area manager was also in that day waiting to talk to us both. The day that I had heard the conversation, I was in such a state of sheer disappointment that I had called him and told him what had happened. I told him that I could not trust her anymore, and that we needed to find someone else. In hind sight, that was probably an over reaction. But I was extremely hurt. When my assistant got in, I went outside. I couldn’t stand to be in the same building as her at that point. And she was so pleasant to my face when she came in. Completely unbelievable.
While I was outside, my boss enlightened her on what I had heard, how I felt, and what I was wanting done about it. After about 10 minutes, my boss came outside and told me that I needed to go inside and listen to what she had to say. I walked in, sat down at her table, and waited to listen.
She was visibly upset, bawling. She apologized profusely. But was she sorry that she had said those things? Was she upset that she got caught? Was this another show like her pleasant interactions with me? To this day, 9 years later, I don’t know. When I asked her about the personal attacks, having never seen my house, met my girlfriend, known my financial situation, etc, she said that she was mad and in the moment. I still don’t know how that happened.
I learned a lot that day. My trust for people who are overly pleasant to my face has faded. That is usually a sign that people have more than one face, and the other one is much less pleasant.

Author Topic: Fascinating anecdote on human nature (Read 1022 times)

Matthew

Fascinating anecdote on human nature