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.