I find it hillarious that minnimum wage employees can, with just a few words, cause a business hundreds of thousands (or sometimes miliions) of dollars in lawsuits and legal fees without getting in any trouble themselves (besides losing their crappy job).

Something tells me the midget is sniffing around for cash and enjoying his 15 minutes of fame.

Khuzdophobia. Fear of dwarves. It happens. Maybe this dwarf should look up the definition of phobia, "an uncontrollable, irrational, and persistent fear of a specific object, situation, or activity."

Sorry but it happens and if this person truly has this condition then this dwarf should be understanding as it's a condition which she could obviously not control. Oh wait, you mean like dwarvism is uncontrollable??

How small of her.
*ducks*

Khuzdophobia. It's a fear of dwarfs. Get over it shorty.

...

wow

"Little people got, no reason, no reason to liiiiiive. They walk around with little beady eyes tellin great big lies...da da dada"

Sorry, very insensitive of me, but I couldnt help.

Maybe this dwarf shouldn't have such a short temper!! :)

Some people can't help being afraid of midgets just like this guy can't help being a midget. Stop looking for a handout.

@bdgbill: Yeesh, troll much? The guy just wants some free food, and probably wants to bring some attention to the crap little people have to put up with.

Isn't the dwarf being insensitive to this person's mental condition and accusing this cashier of being insensitive to his physical condition? There are unfortunate things in life. Deal with it. Either he's an idiot or money hungry. I don't know which one is worse.

Phobias are irrational by definition. If anyone could get over a phobia simply by thinking about the reality of the situation (e.g. this tiny venom-less spider can't possibly harm me) then why would anyone ever need therapy or counceling for phobias?
If the cashier actually had a legitimate phobia of people with dwarfism then that's unfortunate but the fear doesn't have to make logical sense to Wade for it to be real. I also don't think that this is something that should prevent the girl from being a cashier outright as the expected number of dwarfism encounters is very very low. 99.999% of the time it won't be an issue, however I agree that she needs to work on her reaction. Calmly turning her station over to a coworker and leaving would be preferred to running away waving hands and screaming.

There was really no reason for the clerk to belittle him!

*rim shot*

this "little person" needs to look up "Phobia".

It's an IRRATIONAL FEAR. So, uh, don't try to make sense of it.

File under: Weird sh*t happens. and move on.

Man, you're all against getting free food! D: No college students in here?

She should have walked and away and someone would have gotten back to him shortly.

@bdgbill: Sucks for the business. Businesses are liable for the actions of their employees. If the employee had run over him in the parking lot while on the job, you can bet MCD would share liability. That is the incentive to businesses to control who they hire and how they train. Otherwise they wouldn't.

Stay away from Lord of the Rings, lady. Otherwise we'll show up in green drag (on our knees) and sing The Lollipop Song.
Seriously: she didn't just compare short people to insects and reptiles, did she?
Yeesh.

@Blinkman: Are you insane? is this the Geraldine Ferarro view of prejudices? A customer facing employee ran away from a customer because he was small, then compared fear of him to fear of snakes. No one is saying that SHE is a bad person, they are just saying that at least MCD's should have comped this guy a fucking meal.

Some times you people amaze me.

"How could you compare the fear of a snake and spider to a human being? That makes no sense to me,"

Of course it doesn't make sense to you. You don't have whatever phobia this poor girl has. Moron.

I saw a television show once that featured a girl who had khuzdophobia. It was so strange: apparently as a child, she was taken to see Santa at Christmastime, later that day she was attacked and severely injured by a dog. And for some reason, instead of her mind locking onto the obvious and making her deathly afraid of dogs, she became deathly afraid of elves (ie little people). On the show they took her out to a club and had a little person approach the table where she was sitting, and she was fine until she saw him; she had a panic attack and broke down screaming and crying. They had a doctor perform some kind of therapy that seemed to help her.

I don't know what my point is.

@jtheletter: Well, by your logic, therapy wouldn't help either, but it does.

And the point isn't that her phobia should be "cured" or anything like that. The point is that she should have excused herself and gotten someone else to work the till. That would have been the appropriate thing to do.

She didn't do that and instead publicly embarrased him when all he wanted was a burger.

OK people, in all honesty, you replace midget with "black man" and you've got national media attention on this.

She's wrong, every application asks if you have some sort of disability which would prevent you from doing your job, she should have answered "Yes, I'm a dumbass".

It was reported recently that the McDonald's employee wasn't fired but was moved to a non-frontline position.... Short order cook... (ba da boom)

Oh and I forgot to blame the victim (It's blame the victim day for me).

He shoudlnt have been eating at McDonalds in the first place, serves him right.

I've got a fear of heights and am slightly claustrophobic.
Instead of getting a job where I work inside cramped spaces very high up in the air, I avoid those kinds of things.

If this girl knew she was Khuzdophobic, she shouldn't be working in a customer service environment.

Wow. This is really where compassion comes into play. The little person should have compassion for the cashier's affliction while those employees whom do not suffer can have compassion for the little person.

We have all been embarrassed or humiliated in our lives, but if one realizes that the opinion of anybody else doesn't matter they can be happy.

@jimv2000: God you guys come out of the woodwork for stories like this.

"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.'""

That's the actual quote. What you said distorted his words.

This is not a criticism of the phobia itself. This is the criticism of the reaction to the phobia. Those are two different things. The company suggested that the response of the employee to something inhuman was the same as the response to him. It's perfectly reasonably for him to question this. He is a human, despite her fear of dwarves in general.

But again, this isn't about her phobia. That's not what his complaint is about and that's not what this thread should be about. Her phobia is irrelevant. The thread is about the corporate response, her response and the outcome. Only a small sliver of that has to do with her phobia.

I agree that the worker was wrong, but imagine if she did this with a normal looking white man. Then she would just look crazy.

@sixninezero: I'll forgive you your penchant for strange sentence construction but you are missing the point. the article doesn't say whether or not he feels compassion for her phobia. He might, he might not. The entire article is about her response in light of that phobia and the corporate response to him.

That is the important part.

The right answer for her would have been to excuse herself and get someone else to work the register. Failing that, the right response for the manager would have been to get her to leave the store until she calmed down and comp him a meal (ZOMG, a whole 5 dollars).

Neither of those things happened. That is why this is a story. The people focusing on her phobia and their vision of him denigrating that phobia are just trying to blame the victim.

Hey, people are afraid of all kinds of crazy things. SOme people are afraid of clowns. Those are people... Hell, Austin Powers is afraid of carnies. Ya know... small hands.....

you wouldnt believe some of the stuff grown ups are scared to death of. i ride a vanpool to work and one of the women said she had a fear of mice. she said she was even scared of micky mouse. im a big fisherman and a friend at work ties fishing flies. he made some that look like mice out of deer hair. needless to say i proably shouldnt have showed it to her on the ride home, she started screaming and crying and couldnt stop even after i told her it was a fishing fly. she didnt ride the van anymore after that. i felt really bad.

wow all your short jokes are HILARIOUS.

I think it's sad. How would you feel if someone ran screaming from you, because you had brown eyes? Or had giant ears? Or you walked with a gimp, while drooling over yourself? Or were just really ugly? Would you really not expect an apology for such humiliation? Sure a phobia IS an irrational fear. But that doesn't excuse the fact that this man was publicly humiliated and disrespected in a business establishment. There is such a thing as "professionalism", which management or SOMEONE could have demonstrated by apologizing to the guy, and offering him something for his troubles.

Well, by your logic, therapy wouldn't help either, but it does.

@Adam Hyland: Therapy is way, WAY beyond simply thinking about the situation. Stating that you can't get past a phobia just by thinking about it for 3 seconds in no way implies that therapy wouldn't work. Therapy is long term.

She reacted the way anyone would when suddenly and unexpectedly seeing the very thing they have a phobia of. Expecting someone to act rationally and calmly in the face of an irrational fear is ridiculous.

@Wormfather: Is there such thing as a phobia related to black people?

All talks of phobias and mental conditions and little people aside, I have no qualms about laughing at or belittling anyone who, at the sight of a little person, "runs off, waving her hands in the air..shouting "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!"

Seriously, they actually have a name for that? What's the treatment? How about a smack in the back of the head and a "grow the hell up?"

I suffer from arachnophobia, so I can definitely sympathize with anyone suffering from any phobia. But, they are treatable. Even if they can't be eradicated completely, a person can learn to control themselves when confronted with their fear. She shouldn't have worked up front with customers until she was able to master her emotions a little better. My phobia is so bad I can't garden anymore or go on camping trips. But, I learned to control my response when I had kids so I wouldn't pass my fears on to them. It is possible.

The customer is right. He is a human being, and deserves to be treated with respect. I don't think she should be punished, but I do think he's owed an apology from the company. At least they've removed her from a position dealing with customers.

@Adam: How can she politely excuse herself when the object of her irrational fear (phobia) is standing in front of her? Did you even think about that?

Ok, so she reacted badly, but then, it's not like she was expecting the guy to come in and face her. It's all easy to say that she should have just calmly had someone else take over, but if the fear is bad enough, it'll be a pure "fight or flight" response, and I doubt you'd have wanted her to vault the counter and pound him on the head first.

They should've just explained it to him and given him a free meal for the disturbance and then forgot about it. It looks like he's taking offensive now simply to keep his options open for a lawsuit later.

As for the "spider" comment, she was obviously NOT comparing him to a spider. All she was doing was trying to explain her FEAR by coming up with something the other employee may have been frightened of. If she knew the other employee was afraid of, let's say mailboxes, she would've said that instead. Wade is playing "offended minority" and is looking to get something out of this.

If this was a legitimate phobia (and I don't doubt it... I know someone who also has a phobia of little people), and she was surprised by the situation, she may not have been totally in control of herself. It's not like she humiliated him on purpose. One would hope that someone with perspective and compassion could see this and not demand some kind of arbitrary compensation.

That being said, I think McDonald's did the right thing in reaction by moving her to a non-consumer position. Giving the guy a free meal wouldn't be out of the question, also.

Nobody has a phobia of people with dwarfism. That's ridiculous. How do you develop a phobia of dwarfism? More importantly how did McDonald's know this employee had a phobia of dwarfism? Did they have documentation from some type of specialist?!? What type of traumatic event gives you a phobia of dwarfism?!? And No, the TLC marathon of Little People, Big World wont do it!

It sounds like stupid people being stupid and that's it.

This also belittles people who suffer daily from real phobias... just like this crap:

+ Watch video

WTF would you go to a factory with pickles if you hate them!!!

Just judging by the posts here, obviously little people take a lot of shit from the outside world to begin with, so if he seems a bit sensitive, perhaps it's because you haven't walked a mile in his shoes. It doesn't sound like he was looking to sue or anything, a simple apology and a cheeseburger or two would probably settle the situation. We're so sensitive and politically correct about all kinds of people, but dwarfs still seem to be fair game. That doesn't really seem right, does it???

"How could you compare the fear of a snake and spider to a human being?"

Apparently he's never heard of the uncanny valley.

But yeah, I'm with Chris, if you have a phobia involving people, probably customer service is not your dream job.

@homerjay: I'm afraid of animals that have feet that look like little pink hands, like possums and mice and rats and chipmunks. But not raccoons, because their hands are furry. It like seriously makes me nonfunctional if I think those little pink feet-hands might touch me.

To those who think the employee should have "politely excused herself and walked away" - I think you don't really understand how a real phobia works. If something 120% scares the crap out of you, you typically aren't thinking rationally when faced with it.

To all of those saying that the employee should not be put on a register, I wonder what the ADA would have to say about that. Do extreme mental conditions count as a disability? Can a business legally deny to let an employee do a job they're completely qualified for because of something such as this?

@warf0x0r: Ok, now THAT pisses me off. 1) I know someone who has that exact phobia, and 2) I have a phobia of my own (emetophobia). Saying "nobody has that phobia" and "it's ridiculous" belittles so many people with uncommon phobias.

"Little People, Big Mac"

I think that womans reaction is insane. Anyone who acts like that shouldn't be working around people. Did she think Ethan was going to eat her or just order a combo meal like everyone else who goes to McDonalds? Grow up lady, and go apoligize.

@homerjay: You do realize Austin Powers is a character and not real? Just checking, cause it seems people these days are in a fantasy world.

@Blinkman: Duuuuh, gee boss, I never thought of that. What do you think? Of course I thought of that.

My wife has a fear of snakes. that doesn't mean that when she goes to the pet store she runs around screaming like an idiot. It means that she doesn't go in the reptile section.

A phobia is an irrational fear. It is part of systems in the brain that control a wide range of our actions in ways we don't logically consider. She probably had an elevated heart rate, she was probably sweating, she was anxious. She probably felt like she was seizing up and probably didn't know what to do about it.

None of that translates directly to screaming "oh my gosh oh my gosh" and running around the store. None of it. Those actions are not automatic. Fear does not compel us to do those things. It IMPELS us to do those things. The choice to runs screaming around the store is surrender to histrionics--it is a choice a child would make. An adult, an employee of a business that deals with people from all walks of life does not have that choice. The correct answer is to walk away and not make a scene. That answer is possible even in the face of fear.

and like I said, if she didn't make that choice, we wouldn't be here talking about it, but even if she HAD, all the manager had to do is say "Look dude, I'm sorry, that behavior is unacceptable, let's try to make your meal here a good one. Here's a free quarter pounder, or something." That's all. They didn't say that. So here we are.

How could that McDonald's