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)
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@jimv2000: Then what do you suggest be done to draw even more attention than doing something that gets everyone to turn and stare at whatever caused the panic?
@Eyebrows McGee: Yes. You can. I’ve panicked about things before and not made an ass of myself because I knew going in that the panic might happen. And I wasn’t being paid for it!
wow, i’ve never laughed so hard at Consumerists comments! awesome! Especially these uber-sensitive PC types who are so up in arms that the lady was freaked. hahaha i love their ‘offensensitivity’! Good ol PC culture never ceases to entertain me. The lengths they go to show how “sensitive” and “compassionate” they are… keep it up! and just to show I’m fair, feel free to make fun of skinny white computer nerds. I welcome it! Laughter eases my lower back pain!
@Rectilinear Propagation: Heh. You must not have heard about one of Buffalo’s less-savory moments. They were home of the first court case where the defense tried the racism defense, based on the following scenario:
*guy dings another guy at stoplight. guy in front is black; guy in back is white.
*black guy gets out, starts walking towards white guy in back
*guy in back pulls out gun, shoots guy in front dead.
*the defense? As he was raised in lily-white Amherst, he was given a deep fear of all the black people ghettoized down in Buffalo. So he was fearing for his life and pulled his gun, because the man walking towards him happened to be black.
(dangit! why can’t I remember the particulars of the case, so I can cite something?!)
Back to our regular program schedule: what is with you people? He’s not upset because someone with a phobia got anxious, broke out in a sweat, and had breathing problems. He’s bothered because she ran around totally hysterical. And the company didn’t apologize, or handle it. At all. It’s absolutely their fault for putting an idiot out front without training her to serve all their customers. Like Adam Hyland said: there was a chain, and they didn’t muster the integrity/pride/decency to break it.
This thread just reminded me of one of my crazier phobic moments. My husband and I were getting some boxes out of storage, and I looked down and saw a big, brown hairy spider on my chest. With one quick movement I flung my shirt off my body and threw it across the room, screaming my bloody head off.
Thank God I wasn’t out in public at the time.
One more important fact to add. There is NO LAW giving a person the right to NOT to be offended. There are alot of people and posters that seem to think that there is.
I’m no sure that Khuzdophobia is actually an accepted term for fear of little people. A quick google search on the term only reveals 2 pages of results, none of which are reputable. Also, if you refer to the DSM-IV section on phobias: [anxiety.psy.ohio-state.edu] it says that adults will recognize their fear as excessive and irrational. Thus, even if the woman was confronted with her greatest fear and acted in th way she did legitimately, she should realize it was irrational and offer apology by way of her co-worker. That said, I am sure little people have to put up with all kinds of shit on a daily basis, so I don’t think people should blame the guy for being sensitive in this case (I normally think everyone is way too sensitive).
Did anyone watch Dr Phil (? — Not certain that was it, and you really should NOT be watching that show), but they had people with all sorts of bat-shit crazy phobias. This girls fear of pickles stands out to me and Good lord, she cried just seeing pictures of pickles.
So this person was unreasonably afraid of something (in this instance a person who is abnormally small), why in the world should someone get free food for this? The person behind the counter, without question, looked like the villain to the other customers.
Is the consumerist turning into an outlet for wacky news and stories?
@evilhapposai: It isn’t a law. Laws usually don’t govern all corporate interactions. Most interactions are governed by contracts which are enforced by civil law. In this case, there isn’t a contract, but there is an expectation that a customer not be treated like this, regardless of cause.
that expectation is enforced not by the state but by customers and sites like this. that’s why we sometimes see crazy stories or stories that might go either way, because the only defense against actions done by corporations that fails to fall under criminal or civil liability is publicity. This customer was mistreated, maybe not by the clerk (as that is obviously up for debate), but certainly by the manager and the franchise. Their outlet is word of mouth and us.
@Pithlit: You’re right, mental health is a racket. In today’s post about the CVS pharmacy, a commenter mentioned a blog called “the angry pharmacist.” It’s an amusing read if you can get past the blue language. He has a lot of insight into people who refuse, despite having had tons of medical and other attention, and years of meds, refusing to do even one thing on their own to improve their health. His story about the woman who purchased her diabetic meds and 4 candy bars, two of which she unwrapped and began eating before paying for them, should be a classic in the genre of face-slapping irresponsibility.
People afflicted with pity-me wear their diagnosis (whether physical or mental) like a police siren and do not make the connection that they must expend effort to prevail in the face of their perceived adversities. There should, at worst, be parity between the afflicted/phobic person’s expectation of sympathy, and society’s expectation that they behave appropriately and responsibly despite shortcomings.
@Voyou_Charmant: can you imagine working at McD’s and being afraid of pickles? How about ketchup? The little guy deserves free food because it’s rude for a business to embarrass him publicly when he has done nothing wrong. That is reason enough. We’re talking hamburgers here, not big bucks. Actually, if bystanders didn’t know exactly what had happened–and they probably didn’t–then they probably thought the problem was with the dwarf, not the cashier, at least until somebody told them otherwise.
And yes, the Consumerist is like Fark, only about shopping.
@justdan: @jgarra: @surgesilk: @surgesilk: @greatgoogly: @LetMeGetTheManager:
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
@lonewolf333:
LOL!!!!!!! OMG, y’all are cracking me up!!!!
+ Watch video
To everyone talking about her reaction…
I am really afraid of bees. It drives my fiancé crazy, because, as a grown adult, I scream and run and freak out everytime one might even be remotely near me, or if ANYTHING buzzes by my head that I think might be a bee. There are somethings that are just hard to control, and I do try to think about my reaction, but every time there is a bee, I still react the exact same way. :
Also, my mom’s partner (who is almost 50) has this same phobia of dwarves. She’s had it her entire life and I know if it were her, she would have reacted similarly. For those of you who don’t have a serious phobia…GG. Don’t act like you know how these people should react, because you won’t know ’til it’s you.
@ChuckECheese: But often people truly can’t help themselves. Otherwise they would be just like you and me. Mental illness isn’t that different than any other kinds of illnesses. It’s like any aspect of health. Sometimes people can help themselves to be healthier which helps to alleviate or even cure any physical problems, too. Sometimes the problem goes beyond anything the patient can do for themselves. Some people with mental health issues can indeed help themselves, but sometimes the problems just go too deep and the person truly can’t help it.
I’ll use my own phobia for example, since I’ve already mentioned it. Of course it’s not the worst thing in the world to be afflicted with, but believe me, if I could wave a wand and make it disappear, I would. It affects my life daily. I’ve tried to do things to alleviate it, and to a certain extend I’ve been successful. But, I truly don’t think it will ever go away completely. My response is completely out of my control. I cannot help it. And I’m only talking about one measley little phobia, here. I can’t imagine what it must be like for those with far more serious problems. I think people are far too quick to dismiss mental health issues because it seems to the outsider as thought the person could really change their behavior if they really wanted to. But, sometimes, they really can’t.
@ChuckECheese: As far as diabetes goes, I truly fear ever having such a diagnosis. I love sweets. I keep them to a minimum because I like to be fit and in shape. But I shudder to think about having to give them up completely. So I do have some empathy for the diabetic who has that candy bar. She absolutely should be proactive in her health. Of course, the guy telling the story doesn’t know those candy bars are for her. My 6th grade teacher was diabetic, and yet she bought some girl scout cookies from me. When I asked her why, she said she wanted to support our troop and planned on giving them away. Of course, then there’s the case of my diabetic great grandmother eating a whole pie after her doctor told her one little taste wouldn’t kill her. Human beings are flawed, sad to say.
This is like a stand-up comedy opening line, “So the dwarf walks into the Khuzdophobia convention…”
How likely for a Khuzdophobe to have to serve a Dwarf? Wow, the statistics are probably staggering.
I think both sides need to go back to their corners and cool off. The dwarf deserves better treatment but the business can’t discriminate against either him or the Khuzdophobe.
You know, most people won’t be exposed to a little person more than a handful of times in their lifetime, so if this story brings some exposure then I’m glad Mr. Wade’s getting his 15 minutes.
@magisimo Well said, sir.
I feel bad for everyone involved here! The customer was humiliated but I’m sure the worker was too. I have a friend with this phobia and it embarrasses her. She doesn’t want to be afraid of little people – she’s a kind, sweet woman who wants to accept everyone.
I used to have a bad phobia of porcelain dolls. If I walked into a room that had one on display I would be instantly paralyzed with fear. Now they just sort of give me the creeps, but I’d still never sleep in the same room with one.
People’s reaction to phobias manifest in many different ways. I don’t find her reaction to a one-in-a-million chance phobia exposure unrealistic.
The issue here is not that someone with a phobia was expected to act rationally, but that they should have acted professionally. Attempt some damage control! There was no need for the second employee to compare this guy to spiders and snakes; actually, if he had earned an apology right there, the situation might have gotten a lot better. Why make excuses for this employee as though SHE has been wronged? Yes, she has a phobia, and it sucks to be freaked out to the point of hysteria. The customer is right though- he is a human being, and a customer too.
“Wade said he has no intention of filing s lawsuit. He said he is working with an attorney because he wants to go through all the right channels to make sure McDonald’s will be sure their workers receive disability awareness training.”
This was posted on the local news website.
It seems to me that he was never looking for a freebie but rather an apology.
When nothing happened at the local store he spoke to the regional franchise office and then had to endure more humiliation being compared to a snake or spider. Their response was to do nothing to the employee, no reprimand, no move to the back counter, no, “we were not aware that she had this phobia but we will be addressing it personally to make sure this doesn’t happen again to you or anyone”…NOTHING! not even an apology.
I can’t imagine what it must have felt like for him. I also think that his actions speak for all little people. He seems to me to be an OK guy and his line about a coupon…did anyone watch the video?…seemed to me like he was making a joke.
I think his motivation in this would be to make sure this never happens again. At least not at that store. Imagine if you were the parent and came in with your child who was a little person and the clerk acted that way. It would have been traumatic for both of you. How would that child recover? What could you say to make them feel better? Get used to it kid this is going to happen a lot? NO! So let’s say he’s looking out for the next little person that comes behind him.
McDonald’s had so many chances to make this good, at the store, at the regional office, at the corporate level but instead they did nothing. What kind of message does that send to their consumers and their employees? They validated her fear, said it was acceptable to act in such a manner and did nothing to help her or the customer feel better about the situation.
I’m sorry he’s not suing for money. I personally think he deserves every penny he could get. That would send a message..you can’t just dismiss your customers and treat people this way. I don’t care if you’re a little person, African American or handicapped. Her behavior was wrong, their behavior was inexcusable.
@camille_javal: No, I don’t think it was necessary, but let’s face facts: a lot of people feel the need to explain something in detail without thinking about it first. The employee probably shouldn’t have talked to Wade at all, but left that for a manager to do (while giving him his comp meal).
People tend to want to be the “hero” or the one attention is focused on. By explaining what had happened, the employee had the focus of attention and could act like the rational, understanding person she no doubt thinks she is. Should she have done so? Nope, but then, she probably didn’t think it over first.
@ChuckECheese: Fine and dandy, but do you really think someone working at McDonalds is going to be able to afford therapy? Or even consider it worth it given how slim the chance is of actually running into her fear? I’ll bet she was really surprised when it happened, and while the entire situation could have and should have been handled way better, I can understand her freaking out. She may be a very emotional (and maybe even overly-emotional) person with no prior training or effort invested into self-control. Her fault for that? Yeah, but then, I don’t run into too many people who feel they should even have self-control because they are already “decent, temperate” people.
The most concerning thing here is that so many people think that a person with a medical condition that offends and disturbs others should not be allowed to live a normal life with a normal job for fear that someone might be offended or disturbed.
Now, am I talking about the customer or the employee?
@Pithlit: I will permit that sometimes people can’t help themselves. But one of the goals of adulthood is self-control, and that includes how you react to noxious things. The focus has to be on being better, and not on being sick (phobic in this case). It would have been possible for the woman, although upset, to have excused herself quickly without making a scene. And you aren’t allowed to add insult to injury later when justifying yourself by comparing the subject of your phobia to a critter. It displays gross immaturity, not just a phobia.
I used to work in mental health. I didn’t give anyone a pass unless they could show me they had been and were working on change. Change is difficult. You say you have made efforts and you have seen some improvement. That is good. I will tell you that in the observation of many mental health professionals, they rarely see their clients make serious, extended efforts at improvement–usually what you see is that clients want other people to change, not themselves.
Diabetes is epidemic, and this epidemic has occurred in a short time. The primary culprit is that people eat too much of the wrong things. In the story I referenced, the pharmacist watched his overweight diabetic customer purchase 4 candy bars, 2 of which she opened and began eating in the checkout lane, so he did know what she was doing. He can also tell, by med records, if his customers are taking their meds on time. He can also see how much they weigh by observation. If you are diabetic, maintaining a healthy weight is essential. He notes, and I would agree, although with less obscene language, that most of his diabetic customers have not taken reasonable steps to manage their health. He thinks treating them is a waste of money, which is rather cruel, but I can understand his frustration.
A few weeks ago I ended a friendship with a woman with type 2 diabetes whose doctor said she needed to begin insulin, because her previous diet and lifestyle efforts weren’t working. My friend wanted sympathy, but I pointed out that I had seen absolutely no efforts at eating healthfully and exercising–my friend drank Pepsi all day, ate powdered mini-donuts by the boxful, and always ordered more than I when we went out to eat. She expected me to apologize for being mean, but I refused, explaining that she wouldn’t need any diabetes therapy if she would only change her behavior and stop making excuses. It is commonplace for people who can’t/don’t control themselves to blame other people and circumstances–including the disease or addiction itself–for their troubles. Silencing the blame and excuses and focusing energy on healthy actions and thoughts is the only way out.
@Buran: Have you “panicked” or have you suffered a medically-diagnosed “panic attack”? There is a distinct difference, and if you’ve managed to control the latter through sheer willpower, I can think of an awful lot of people who’d like to study you so you can be applied to the rest of us for whom a decade of CBT hasn’t made an major dent in the panic attacks.
As for him being insensitive – all he said he wanted was a coupon or something. Sounds extremely reasonable.
Please, if someone had a fear of black people called whiteyphobia people wouldn’t be trolling about how ‘blacky’ should get over it. He got it perfectly when he said ‘I’m a human being.’ I hate the commenters here sometimes..Consumerist would you please just execute the worst offenders so we aren’t swimming in this crap?
Whatever. Phobia of dwarfs? That’s childish but then again, they work at McD.
How excited should we really get that a McDonalds counter employee does something stupid? Should McDonalds corporate be responsible when some idiot acts like an idiot? It isn’t as though the corporate handbook instructs workers, “In the event that a little person enters the store, run and scream.”
Good thing she didn’t have a phobia of fat people, because then she could never work there.
I have a phobia of needles. And you know what? I’m seeing here what I get from doctors. They just don’t belive you.
For the people who say you can react diffrently, no you can’t. As long as you’re exposed to the source of your phobia you don’t have any real control over your actions. Mine is so sever that getting immunizations was a half hour fight, with several doctors REFUSING to deal with me.
I get into the fight or flight mode, only shut up in an office, flight isn’t an answer. Needless to say it became fight.
I nearly killed one doctor, or so he claims, and I almost broke another’s leg in my reaction. Even though I KNEW I needed these needles, I could not get over the fear to get them.
And for those who think it’s EASY to deal with a phobia, don’t talk unless you’ve been there. I have tried all KINDS of things to get over mine, and it still is as bad as it’s ever been.
Q: What do you call a psychic dwarf who’s escaped from prison?
A: A Small Medium at large.
Sorry, I could’nt help myself.
@youbastid: Easy. It’s a pure number’s thing. Black’s are 13% of the population. 36 million Black people not arrested in the US according to the 2002 Census. Dwarfs are
Dwarfs are .00066 percent of the US population. There are a huge majority of the US population who will never ever even SEE a dwarf in real life (not on TV) in their entire lifetime.
Sorry, got cut off.
Anyway, that means that 1 in every 150,570 people in the US is a dwarf (or midget/under 4’10″). How likely would it have been to consider her unfit for customer service? Unlike black people, 4 in every 30 people is black.
And this here midget is a hypocrite. Someone should treat him like a human but he takes offense and ignore’s someone else’s disability/humanity?
@Buran: It didn’t make her feel uneasy. It made her feeel *OMFG I”M GOING TO DIE/INSTANT HEART ATTACK MODE* /caps. Uneasy is when a smelly customer comes in. To her it was like someone came in, got chopped in half and thousands of pounds of wet still beating internal organs and blood came pouring out on top of them. But even more graphic.
@Buran: How about publicly blaming someone who can’t control her genetics or physical/mental state of mind.
Some people react to a phobia by running and screaming. Others handle fear a little differently, and *attack* while screaming. I’m arachnophobic, but while I don’t like touching spiders (even dead ones) my reaction has little to do with running away. I try to avoid situations where I would annihilate someone’s beloved pet tarantula. Likewise, if I were phobic about a specific class of people, I would avoid any situation that would cause me to commit assault & battery.
The ADA allows for reasonable accommodations of disabilities. This means a business located above the ground level has wheelchair ramps or an elevator. This does not mean that the boss must come out and carry wheelchair-bound people into and out of the building. This means that a business must not discriminate against a driver who has deformed legs: They can install a hand-controlled brake & throttle. This does not mean that a bus company is obligated to hire people who have no eyes, or are red-green color blind.
@Firstborn Dragon: I have a slight phobia of needles. When I was younger, I ended up getting a deep cut from a piece of glass. I needed stitches. I was in 6/7th grade, weighing a buck 20. It took my father and two big male nurses to hold me down, the threat of being tied down to a medical board, and being bribed with both local and full anesthesia for me to stop struggling. My dad still had to hold me down, as I was shaking the entire time I was eventually being stitched up. For a small 3 inch long, 1/2 inch wide cut on my arm that had already stopped bleeding. Later on (2 years), I freaked when I had to get a regular tb shot for school. Took 30 minutes, a pissed off doctor, and my dad holding me down again. (Now 22), I just internalize the fear, always make sure I get a cute, chatty female nurse to draw blood. They always notice my anxiety and talk me through it. That, I’m more mature, and I have moved the fear. It’s no longer about needles, but about the weird pressure that builds up at the needle point when drawing blood or injecting something. Since it doesn’t always happen (Quicker or less contents to inject/amount drawn), I freak out less, and when I start to freak out, I realize that physically freaking out with a needle stuck in me would make it worse. So I just whimper and deal :/
That sucks that she was genuinely scared, but how emberassing for the guy! I feel bad for him, regardless if it’s just a 15 min of fame thing or not. That would be humiliating! She needs to get help…
@Wormfather: I was waiting to see this kind
of comment and I completely agree with you. If I tell you I have a fear
of black people they will stone me starting with oprah and Al Sharpton
Imagine if this same situation had occurred, only when the guy walked in she had an grand mal epileptic fit instead, and for some really strange reason, seeing a dwarf was the only thing that set off the fit.
How would this be different?
I’m telling you, as someone who has a phobia, the reaction is so instantaneous, so automatic, that you just don’t have time to sit and think about your reaction… you just react. It’s literally a chemical reaction that fires in your brain.
And to the people screaming for her to get therapy or just get over it, I’m telling you right now that there is no such thing as a cure-all for something like this. Some people can be helped by hypnosis, a lot can’t (you have to be mentally susceptible to it). Some people can be helped by cognitive therapy, a lot can’t. Some people can be helped by exposure therapy, A LOT GET WORSE. There are lots of “cures” out there and many won’t help and some might make things worse… not to mention that pursuing all of these things is expensive. So a person with a phobia that they don’t have to deal with daily is much more likely to do their best to live their lives as best they can and hope they don’t face the phobia.
All that being said, I do think an apology and a free burger or something was warranted here (as I have said in many previous comments). I do think that perhaps moving her out of customer service was a smart move for McDs. But for god’s sakes, people… it’s not like the woman with the phobia came back and compared the dwarf to his face to spiders and snakes… she did that to her coworker to explain to her COWORKER why she was reacting the way she was. She probably was still extremely anxious at that point and I seriously doubt that she meant for the guy to hear the comparison or be offended by it.
So show her some compassion and cut her a break, just as McD’s should have shown HIM some compassion and given him an apology and a free burger.
(And to the person who thinks he should sue, you make me very sad. Why is every little offense somehow worthy of a payout?)
@jgarra: Phobias are irrational and uncontrollable, that’s true. But if you know for a fact that you have a phobia of a specific type of person, you absolutely cannot work in a position that puts you in contact with the public. Both people in the story have a disability. The McDonald’s worker doesn’t handle hers correctly.
@etherealclarity: I’m sorry you think I am sad for wanting him to sue. I never saw this as a little offense and my issue was not with the individual my issue was with the corporation that had a chance to address it and did not. I live in Greenville, SC and have seen the news here locally. Contrary to earlier postings McDonalds never moved her to a back counter position. They pulled advetising from the station that ran the story and refused to comment, only shortly before the story ran did they come with a comment.
Like you they took it as a little offense, it didn’t matter what happened it was SO insignificant to them that they still have offered no apology. But you can bet a lawsuit would get their attention.
However it seems that his route is to ensure they all get the training and that suits (no pun intended) me just fine. The fact that this story has been picked up and run all over then I think McDonalds will finally listen.
A genuine phobia is not the same as a prejudice — it’s illogical, powerful and not easily dealt with. So if she’s honestly got a phobia of little people, well, that’s the way it is. But ITA that if she has that problem, working the register isn’t something she should EVER be doing — possibly even working in retail, period.
I know it’s late in the game for this, but I’d suggest everyone go read the entire article about this incident at [www.wyff4.com]
Ethan Wade’s comment about not getting anything out of the incident is taken out of context above. The article actually says he had ordered through the drive-thru and they screwed up his order, so he had to go inside to get it fixed:
Adding insult to injury, Wade said that the restaurant never corrected his order or gave him anything to compensate for it.
“I haven’t even gotten anything from that yet,” he said. “You know, I was thinking a coupon or something.”
He also goes on to say in the article that he has absolutely no intention of filing a lawsuit.
@gamin: I have a fear of black people and I’m black…this joke was going somewhere but I’m tired and havnt had coffee so it’s just going to tapper off…
@sassypizzazz: Thank you! I posted the same thing last night and it seems some are more content to ramble with out taking to time to look at the full story.
He’s not suing, he’s not looking for a freebie and if you really want to see what his comment was about the coupon, was watch the video…it’s clearly a joke!
Technically he would have paid for his meal at the drive thru right? So seems to me that if they never corrected his order then isn’t he at least owed the money he paid?