AITA for pretending to get fired when customers get a temper with me?

A Reddit user shared how they’ve been handling rude customers at their weekend job in a coffee shop. Whenever a customer gets upset over minor issues, the user and a coworker, James, playfully act out firing the user, hoping to make the customer realize their behavior has consequences.

While this has led to apologies from many angry customers, some friends think it’s mean to make someone think they’ve been fired, especially when they rely on the job for income. Read the full story below to see if you think it’s a harmless prank or if it goes too far.

‘ AITA for pretending to get fired when customers get a temper with me?’

I am a high schooler with a weekend job at a coffee shop. My coworkers who work weekends are:
James – the owners son, he goes to my school. He’s a shift manager but it’s not a real formal thing, he’s a friendly guy.
Danielle – A college student who sometimes works weekends too.

So sometimes customers will come in and just be angry about such little stuff. Like literally blow up about nothing. I dunno if theyre in a bad mood already and looking for someone to take it out on or what, but it’s a lot… Like how sad so your have to be to be a grown-ass man taking your anger out on high school and college kids. So James and I were joking about having a little fun with them and hopefully getting them off our backs.

So one day I was at work and some guy was having a temper about how we don’t make the coffee hot enough… Which I couldn’t do a thing about because I gave it to him right out of the machine. So James came in and was like “sir is there a problem here” and the guy started ranting at him too. So he was just like “OP, this is unacceptable, you’re fired.”

I started acting real sad, like “no please don’t fire me, my family needs the money, I need this job, pleaseeee” and he played up being a hard-ass, telling me to take off my apron and leave. The angry guy started to backtrack, like “It isn’t that big of a problem, you don’t need to fire her over it. I didn’t mean it” and James was like “No, we pride ourselves on the best customer service”

Of course after all that drama I still had my job, we were just acting. And we’ve done it a couple times, whenever a customer will lose their temper at Danielle or I, James will storm in and “fire” us. And almost every time, the person who had come in angry will apologise and say that they didn’t mean it. It’s kind of satisfying, making people realize their actions might actually have consequences.

Anyway, I was telling my friends from school about this and a few of them thought it was a mean prank, to let someone go away thinking they’d gotten someone who desperately needs the money fired.. AITA for this joke?

Here’s the comments of Reddit users:

bellePunk −  NTA That’s a perfect way of dealing with hostile customers. Edit: my gosh, thank you for the silver!. Edit 2: Gold!! You are too kind!

lolak1445 −  NTA. I think it’s hilarious and maybe it’ll teach some people a lesson about controlling their assholery.

Evelynn92 −  You’re not an a**hole at all. You’re the hero retailers need! Brilliant. Edit: thanks for the silver, fellow human 🤘

BeardedBandit −  NTA – Customers can be f**king dicks. Usually people are pretty respectful and reasonable, even when they have a legit complaint… but every now and then there’s the one guy or gal that comes in and just can’t be made happy. They’re the worst.

I’ve taken the approach of “killing with kindness” and being sarcastically polite… “oh, ok sir. I can microwave your coffee for you, would you like 2 minutes or 5?” it’s fun, usually pisses them off more but they can’t do anything because you’re not saying anything wrong. I’m curious how the customer acts when they come in the next day / following week and you’re still behind the counter?

kendrickgrande −  NTA- Fun fact Harrods actually hires people for this. If a customer is upset in the store, the manager will call back the “offender” and fire them in front of the customer to satiate them. Then, the guy who’s job it is to be fired just goes back to the back room and waits for another customer to get angry so he can be fired again. I think it’s even better that you’re using it to make people think twice about being a-holes in the store.

EDIT: So I’ve just looked over all the responses and a lot of people are telling me it’s not true. Honestly, the first place I saw this fact was elsewhere on Reddit being talked about completely seriously and none of the replies claimed it to be false or untrue. I know it’s not a reliable info source but I kinda just saw this post remembered what I had read and thought it may be a good addition to the thread.

However, seeing as it’s false, I don’t really see the harm in not removing it cuz it’s still a humorous concept to think about, but after seeing the comments and researching for myself it’s clear my fun fact should not really be labeled as such.

pamela271 −  This kind of reminds me of a video on youtube where a kid (teen) goes to a barber for a haircut and I can’t remember what the prank was but his intention was to prank the barber with some kind of shock reaction prank.

Well, someone had told the barber about what the kid had planned so the barber had his own prank planned. When the kid did his prank, the barber faked a heart attack and “died” right there on the barber shop floor. It was hilarious. I know this isn’t the same thing as OP post but for some reason it made me remember it.

Frejian −  ESH. The customers are obviously assholes for being assholes for no good reason. Yes, you are a little bit of an a**hole. Is it justified? Absolutely. Are you still an a**hole? Yes. Unfortunately, in a customer service role, you are always going to have to deal with people who are angry over absolutely nothing. It is part of the job. Is it fair? No. In a perfect world, those customers would not exist, but we live in reality and that is part of the reality especially of that job.

ActofEncouragement −  NTA. [Some places have mirrors placed behind the counter because it has proven that people behave better when they can see what they look like when they act out.](http://disclosive.com/list/why-big-mirrors-are-installed-in-bars-behind-the-counters) Some people seriously need a wake up call when they start misbehaving.

flople −  Is this a good idea? I know if I see a manager or lead fire an employee in public I would think less of the business and management. And likely get my. Coffee elsewhere. You may be indirectly costing the business by doing so. May not be a big deal to you, but to the owners of a small business it can do harm.

PM_ME_FAT_FURRYGIRLS −  NTA. That’s hilarious, and puts s**tty customers in their place.