This weekend I took my daughter, who’s had two strokes and is compromised on her left side, to Houston’s Abilities Expo. We encountered a rude, insensitive, foul-mouthed attendant.
A foul-mouthed attendant defeats the purpose of the Abilities Expo.
I spent three days at a very fulfilling Democracy conference on social coherence, the Bridge Alliance held. It was tiring as I had to take two trains to get to the Omega Institute in upstate New York, Rhinebeck, to be specific. The Southwest flight was delayed a few hours.
I met a very nice woman who has been chasing Garth Brooks’ concerts. Twice she bought tickets that were either lost or her companion got sick. She was on the plane now for her third ticket attempt. Her story was so interesting to me as a blogger I asked her to repeat it on video. We got into Houston just before two, and I got home at about 3:00 AM.
While talking about Houston, I told the woman that Houston was a friendly and caring city. I relayed to her an incident when my daughter tripped because of her stroke-induced drop-foot. There were 10 people surrounding her to help almost instantaneously.
Before I left for my conference, my daughter told me she wanted me to take her to Houston’s Abilities Expo on Saturday. After a few hours of sleep, we headed to the Expo. Even though I do not have a disabled sticker on my card, the attendants pathed me to areas for dropping off my daughter. At the last checkpoint, we encountered an obnoxious foul-mouthed, rude woman who assumed I wanted to park as opposed to just dropping my daughter off at the door and did not stop talking to listen to what I was asking.
The attendant forced us to park further away, and my daughter slowly walked to the front with my wife. Suffice it to say, I was irate on the inside, even though I showed composure as I walked to the attendant and asked for her name.
I was firm but respectful. The attendant did not care. She remained rude and spoke without listening. She ended with, “Get the fuck out of my face.” After I turned the camera off, she had more choice words for me.
If we don’t call out poor employees, the disservice will continue. The bottom line, corporations need to pay good wages to give workers an incentive to have pride in their jobs.
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There are alot of angry people out there. Get used to it. It won’t be getting better any time soon.
And please stop using the classic ‘foul language’ or ‘potty mouth’ as the main reason this woman was wrong. This woman was obnoxious because she refused to listen to you, not because she told you to “eff off”. At some point you were becoming a bore and I would have told you to eff off also. You were borderline harassment. Stop trying to change people. You have the womans photo now report her.
You are entitled to your opinion of course.
How magnanimous of you. It was obvious you were in no mood to be generous of spirit to this woman. You stuck a camera in her face from the first minute. Your sense of entitlement showed when you said she works for you. Which of course she does not. She is probably a single mum working for a temp agency where she will net the princely sum of $70 for 9 hrs on her feet. You can be a much better person if you would only try to think of others.
You are simply wrong in your assessment. To be clear, you caught the tail end after a terrible experience with her through the Window in my car next to my disabled daughter. I could see the apprehension in my daughter’s eyes. It was unacceptable. She showed zero compassion. BTW, just like I am sure you feel police officers work for you given that it is your tax dollar funding them, it is our county tax dollars funding that complex. She works for every attendee entering that EXPO.
I had the privilege of volunteering for an international conference for persons with mental illnesses. The attendees were consumers of mental health services and everyone who worked on the conference was a volunteer who had a history of being a consumer of mental health services. There were a minimal number of professionals and no medical corporations. The experience for me and all attendees was life changing.
That same conference a few years later became run by professionals and the beauty and welcoming of the organization changed dramatically. I cannot imagine what it must be like for attendees today.
I have a friend who works as a Vocational Counselor and only has one leg. Her disability gives her an unique insight into helping the disabled become employed. She told me of attending a workshop for Vocational Counselors and on that day she was using her crutches because her artificial leg was causing her pain. The attendees got up after a workshop and ran her over, knocking her to the ground. So even people who should be sensitive to what is going on have trouble with being sensitive to the disabled.
Corporate pay for very temporary work must be almost nonexistent. I cannot imagine where a corporation would find staff for the event you went to with your daughter.
Sorry that you and her had that experience.
Thank you for such a profound, empathetic, and intelligent response my friend.