When Ethan Wade, who has dwarfism, went into a McDonald’s in South Carolina recently to order some food, the cashier took one look at him and ran off, waving her hands in the air and shouting “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!” She kept shouting from the back, and another employee came up to tell Ethan that she had a phobia of little people. Said Wade:
An employee in the franchise office told Wade about what the woman had said. Wade said, “The employee had stated to her, ‘Imagine if you saw a snake or a spider, how would you respond?’ And that employee said she understood that. And I said, ‘That’s unbelievable. I am a human being.’”
“How could you compare the fear of a snake and spider to a human being? That makes no sense to me,” Wade said. “I’ve seen kids kind of react like that. Understandable. But grown adults to act like that? That’s just not acceptable.”
The restaurant deferred comments on the matter to the franchise office.
The person who answered the phone at the franchise office when WYFF News 4 called said the only people who could discuss this case are the franchise’s attorneys, insurance company and the owner, but they refused to give out any of their names.
If you have a phobia of people, shouldn’t you find work that doesn’t involve the risk of seeing them? Or try exposure therapy—she should date progressively shorter men until the sight of a dwarf causes only mild discomfort.
Wade says the restaurant hasn’t contacted him to apologize so far. “I haven’t even gotten anything from that yet,” he said. “You know, I was thinking a coupon or something.” You got something better than a coupon, Wade! The company is taking this seriously:
After WYFF spoke to a media spokeswoman at the corporate level, the franchise owner, Cynthia Samour, released a statement saying, “We take these matters seriously and do our very best to serve our customers with the utmost care and respect.”
The franchise owner has said that “all her employees will receive additional training to ensure they serve all customers with respect.”
“Taking it seriously” is a phrase companies use over and over again in public statements whenever they have bad PR. Our series of posts on occurrences of the phrase is our attempt to question how seriously companies are really taking these matters if every time they trot out this phrase by rote.
“Little Person Says Clerk Screamed, Ran From Him” [WYFF4 News](Thanks to Christy!
(Photo: Brendan Adkins)
More From Consumerist
-
Not To Dash Your Hopes & Dreams Or Anything, But The McRib's Return Might Be Delayed
-
Fast-Food Workers Reportedly Walked Off The Job Today During NYC Strike Over Wages
-
Burger King: Hey Guys, McDonald’s Isn’t The Only One Who Can Do A Rib-Shaped Sandwich
-
McDonald’s Drive-Thru Worker Spots Own Stolen Car Pulling Up To Window
-
High Level Government Employee Or No, Walking Up To Drive-Thru Drunk Won't Fly At McDonald's
@jediknight: I never said that I thought you were sad, I said that the thought that you think he should sue makes ME sad. I think we live in a sue-happy culture, and no, I don’t think this is something worth suing over. Clearly neither does he. An apology is good business sense, and it’s common decency, and it’s all KINDS of wonderful things, but it should never be REQUIRED in a free society. If McDonald’s wants to allow themselves to be subject to horrible press, then that’s their (dumb) business decision and I’m happy to let them drown. But suing? Please.
@jediknight: No one’s saying that he’s suing. Someone responded that THEY think he should sue.
@etherealclarity: Well said and I can accept that. However the sue happy culture seems to me to be out of a reaction for companies ignoring their consumers and this is a way for a consumer to get their attention.
Like I said, Wade tried to work it out, store level, regional office and corporate. It wasn’t until the story ran on the news, and the “he’s retained a lawyer” line got picked up that McDonald’s even started to take notice. In thier mind he was going to sue and so they started to react. The fact that he wasn’t is even sweeter in my mind.
While some people have led successful careers working at McDonald’s, most of the people working are going to be young, often in their first job, so they were probably not ready to deal with an employees unexpected phobia.
As to the comments that she shouldn’t have chosen to work in a customer service field: As I said, it might have been her first job. Most of the places that hire people without other training are service related businesses. Also, I worked cashiering for several places for a total of 7 years or so and honestly cannot remember a little person going through my line, so she may never have thought of her phobia as a deterrent.
As to Wade: A fear of dwarves has to be extremely rare, so it is very likely that he had never heard of it, so how could he be understanding of it, especially in the heat of the moment after he had been embarrassed by her reaction.
He does deserve an apology and some freebies, but for corporations, apologies are gateways to lawsuits since they can imply fault. If you have ever heard “I’m sorry if you were offended,” “We are taking this matter seriously,” or the like, the company is saying they are sorry while being forced to cover their asses. Anyone trained for supervisory positions are told in situations like this “apologize without admitting fault.” Many will not give out any sort of freebie without going through a corporate office and legal department for the same reason. Wade saying he has no intension of suing will not remove the stranglehold the legal department will put on this.
@jediknight: Ok, fair enough, but I do think that’s a more legitimate reaction (suing for the attention) when you’re talking about (for example) the lady who’s suing Best Buy for a huge amount of money because they lost her laptop and she couldn’t get their attention any other way. You’ve got property right issues there. In this situation you’ve got an offended customer. Unfortunate, yes, but no one has the right to not be offended.
@Said Not: and everyone who says she should have known she would see a dwarf:
I worked with the general public for over ten years of my life in several different types of work and I have seen exactly 3 people with dwarfism.
I’m not saying that it isn’t possible, but it’s not like seeing a black, white, hispanic, or asain guy.
I feel for the guy that this happened, but I don’t see any damages to be recouped or any real “fault” on anybody’s part. Could they have handled it better? yes a lot better, but it’s done with and I think everybody involved should move on.
@gamin: No, not Oprah! Anything but! Please don’t get out the Oprahs!
@Eyebrows McGee: None of my comments, although they probably seem a bit cranky, should lead you to think I am unsympathetic to people with problems. On the contrary–I spent a big chunk of my life in training and working, trying to help people with emotional problems. I don’t have the perspective of one person’s experience, but the perspective of seeing many types of people with many types of problems, becoming quite involved in their circumstances, and witnessing how they dealt (or didn’t, usually didn’t) with those circumstances. A therapist would be very happy to have you as a client, as you appear self-aware, intelligent, and motivated to change, unlike about 90% of the people who show up on the couch. If you haven’t had good results with a counselor, I suggest you try another. And another.
@ManiacDan: Phobias are irrational and extreme fears, not uncontrollable reactions. This is an important distinction that needs to be recognized. It is very unfortunate that this woman cannot control how she responds to people. The fact that she behaves this way suggests to me that she displays little self-control in other situations. This is her central problem, not her phobia. When somebody has a phobia or anxiety, and they can’t get a complete grip on the fear itself, they can be taught to manage their reaction, if not the entire syndrome.
@CitizenOutKast: Personally I think therapy is highly overrated. I’d rather have a sympathetic ear and a beer or bourbon, and concrete assistance when called for. The issue here is her lack of self-control. If she’s 16, then I’ll assume it’s because she’s immature. If she’s 26, I’ll assume that she has spent her young adulthood plying people for sympathy and creating dramas instead of self-correcting her behavior. I think one of the most damnable heresies of modern psychobabble is that it has convinced people that emotional problems are outside their self-control, amenable only to psycho-shamans. Did you know that psych studies have shown, when a person is motivated to change, that it makes no difference at all who their therapist is, or if they get therapy at all?
The central issue with this story is “your rights end where my nose begins.” This is a simple concept that most preadolescents manage under society’s just threat of ostracism and criminal sanction. I am worried that if we think that our ever-changing emotions trump our need to manage ourselves properly, we will end up a nation of spoiled antisocial brats–wait, we’re already there! If we believe that we must have so-called mental health professionals to get us through all our difficulties, we’ve been sold a worthless bill of goods. If we want to live in a civil society, we must balance sympathy with upholding decency.
i’d sue the shit out of mcdonalds. even if her fear is legit. mainly because i hate mcdonalds, and i want to be rich.
no seriously though, you people saying shit happens, is no different than me saying lawsuits happen. to say this is the first time this guy has been embarrassed because of someone else’s reaction would be bull shit. i bet he gets made fun of all the time, or at least more than most of us average people. the last place he deserves to have that happen is anywhere where he is a paying customer.
@ChuckECheese: You said “The central issue with this story is ‘your rights end where my nose begins.’”
How do you interpret that to mean that she needed to have self control? She didn’t cause harm, she caused offense, and offense isn’t covered by that axiom.
@Said Not: People do not choose to work at McDonalds. They have to. She’s not an idiot for working at McDonalds.
I see the treatment of the little person as being a violation of the ADA, and dismissal or not hiring the person with the phobia as _NOT_ being an ADA violation. Being able to deal effectively with all members of McDonald’s customer base seems like a bona fide job qualification.
Dwarves are very upsetting o/~
@etherealclarity; He’s not getting attention for himself. He’s bringing attention to the subject.
Do you think McDonalds would have even considered any disability awareness training if he had not contacted an attorney? Remember, this is the same company that didn’t consider an apology necessary.
Are you saying that property rights outweigh human rights?
I’m not sure I get your point.
From the news story:
“Adding insult to injury, Wade said that the restaurant never corrected his order or gave him anything to compensate for it.”
Forget the compensation, get the man’s order right already.
@jediknight: Words are not equal to bullets. Property rights ARE human rights. We have the right to “life”, “liberty” and “the pursuit of happiness”. We have the right to have our property contracts enforced. Did this guy lose a limb? No. Did they steal his property? Well, maybe you could consider it fraud that the order was wrong, but this is unrelated to the “being offended” part. Suing over being offended OFFENDS ME. We don’t have a legal right to NOT be offended. If McDonald’s wasn’t going to get sensitivity training, then let them die over their bad press or bad food or WHATEVER, but a lawsuit is not the answer.
@Sian: I was wondering how long it would be before that line popped up.
@etherealclarity: You’re right. Words are more harmful than bullets as the effect can be far more traumatic and lasting.
Consider the high suicide rates among dwarves. So the same thing happens to another little person who is aleady insecure about themselves and this sends them over the edge to suicide. So do that dwarves parents have the right to sue? I mean we’re talking about something worth substantially more than a laptop right?
To continue with your line of thinking “all men are created equal” and should be expect to be treated as such.
@jediknight: I’m sorry, that doesn’t fly. A bullet that kills me is a lot more harmful than any insult you could possibly throw my way.
My elderly neighbor likes to insult me with no real provocation, because I’m “young” and therefore (in her eyes) irresponsible. Does this upset me? Yeah, it does. Should I sue her? Not unless her insults turn into a physical attack, threat, or harm to my property (hahaha, I’d like to see her try).
@humphrmi: Dwarfism affects 1 in 20000 to 40000 people. At McDonald’s she probably serves at least 100 people per day. It’s bound to happen.
If this had taken place at BestBuy, or with an employee from Comcast would the comments be any more Ethan-friendly?
Seriously, how is it unreasonable to expect to be treated like, well, a human being when you walk into a store? Who knows, maybe the gentleman with dwarfism suffers from a phobia of being devalued as a person by a minimum-wage employee at a huge international company. . . would that be ironic?
@ahwannabe: I was shocked it hadn’t after 200 comments.
A phobia wouldn’t be a phobia if it were rational. That’s what makes it pathological!
Which party should be accomodated by the ADA? Well, the little person obviously deserves to be served with respect. (Actually, if you step into a McDonald’s, you’ve clearly waived at least some of that respect.).
Does McDonald’s have to accomodate the other woman’s phobia? Maybe they can put her on drive-thru duty. But she’s clearly unfit for most positions that involve working with the public.
“If you have a phobia of people, shouldn’t you find work that doesn’t involve the risk of seeing them?”
That statement is as ignorant as declaring that black people should not even attempt to find work in areas where there are people that are hostile to black people, and that people with allergies should never find a job anywhere where they have the smallest chance of encountering that thing they are allergic to, lest they be rendered incapable of performing their job.
I think it’s perfectly acceptable of her to not consider her fear of dwarves when looking for a job, I know I don’t always have my claustrophobia on my mind when I look for a job as a programmer, even though I have the possibility of being asked to crawl into a tiny space to retrieve some kind of paperwork or something. In my entire life, I have not even seen a single dwarf in the flesh, how am I supposed to know if I am afraid of them?
This dwarf is just looking for a frivolous lawsuit. How would he like it if I asked him to pass something to me that he could not reach, then sued him for not passing it to me? It’s the same issue, suing somebody for something beyond their control.
How are any of you to say this girl shouldn’t be working the register? For a start she’s working at a McDonald’s, not the PR firm of some business where she would be expected not to have innate fears of certain people. She’s just working for a paycheck and never expected to run into a midget.
I wonder if Mr. Wade would have reacted as he did if the female employee had apologized and explained her extreme reaction to him in person or (if she felt she couldn’t face him) over the phone or through a letter. I understand that maybe this woman didn’t mean to hurt anyone but the very least she could do is try to make things right. I also think if ANYONE has a condition that has the potential of causing harm, weather it be physical or mental, to another human being should NOT get a job working with people on a daily bases!
And to those of you saying terrible things about this little person you are all very ignorant and quite heartless!