past

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.

pyro789x

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.

rdm24

Sian

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?

mmstk101

youbastid

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).

etherealclarity

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

ahwannabe

etherealclarity

"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.

galatae

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.

jediknight

Sian

jazzman1960

justdan

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.

etherealclarity

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.

snoop-blog

@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.

ChuckECheese

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.

Lo-Pan

etherealclarity

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.

monkeyboy13

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.

jediknight

etherealclarity

etherealclarity

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?

jediknight

Wormfather

sassypizzazz

picardia

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.

jediknight

ManiacDan

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?)

etherealclarity

gamin

Gooz2

cde

Difdi

cde

cde

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?

cde

Dwarfism is listed as a "rare disease" by the Office of Rare Diseases (ORD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This means that Dwarfism, or a subtype of Dwarfism, affects less than 200,000 people in the US population.

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.

cde

BeFrugalNotCheap

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.

Firstborn Dragon

OsiUmenyiora

ninjatales

lesbiansayswhat

HalOfBorg

Eyebrows McGee

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.

ChuckECheese

Now, am I talking about the customer or the employee?

TheUncleBob

CitizenOutKast

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.

CitizenOutKast

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.

jediknight

Lashes

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.

uberbucket

Youthier

@magisimo Well said, sir.

galatae

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.

humphrmi

Pithlit

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.

Pithlit

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.

Raziya

+ Watch video

Slytherin

LOL!!!!!!! OMG, y'all are cracking me up!!!!

Slytherin

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Slytherin

And yes, the Consumerist is like Fark, only about shopping.

ChuckECheese

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.

ChuckECheese

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.

Adam Hyland

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?

Voyou_Charmant

alexanderpink

evilhapposai

Thank God I wasn't out in public at the time.

Pithlit

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.

ExecutorElassus

low_dirt

Buran

Buran

As for the dwarf...the "you know I was thinking a coupon or something" quote just proves he is just trying to exploit his condition for freebies or excuses to sue someone. These types discust me.

evilhapposai

JohnOB1

in other words.... the dwarf has a valid issue/complaint & the cashier & McDs is at fault here.

forgottenpassword

forgottenpassword

I don't think he should accept being treated rudly; imagining myself in his position, I think I would have been absolutely mortified and wanted to melt through the floor. It's an intolerable way to be treated, and as someone who is visibly different than others, I'm sure other people being assholes is something he's dealt with for a long time.

ON THE OTHER HAND, he should, at the same time, attempt to have some compassion for the clerk. Not that he should be her best friend or even ever want to see her again, but he should similarly attempt to put himself in HER shoes and think about how she must have felt (I'm guessing, once she quit panicking, mortified, embarrassed, and like she wanted to melt through the floor.)

Assuming she has a legitimate phobia, it's a suck situation all around. He should NEVER have to put up with being treated without dignity because of his physical appearance; but SHE shouldn't be excoriated for a condition she can't control.

It's unfortunate, but probably the only solution is for the manager to apologize profusely to the customer and offer at least some token of apology in the form of free food; and to have a sit-down with the employee about how serious the problem is, whether she can afford therapy that might help (at a McFood salary, probably not), and whether there are alternatives that wouldn't involve direct customer contact.

@warf0x0r: "Do people feel that their actions are justified by their phobias?"

Since I'm primarily creeped out by creepy feet-that-look-like-little-pink-hands on animals, and they have to touch me for me to panic, it's not something that comes up a lot, but I do have a friend who breeds exotic mice, and she always wants me to hold them and gets really offended when I don't want to. I do feel more or less like an ass for not acquiescing to what's a pretty harmless request, and I always feel embarrassed and on-the-spot. However, I suspect she'd like it less when I started freaking out and dropped the $200 mouse and started screaming and dancing around to get away from it.

(She's "decided" I need exposure therapy to creepy feet. I've decided since that it's not something that comes up a lot in every day life, I'll just avoid them, thanks.)

@Buran: "If something makes you uneasy, remove yourself from it IN A POLITE FASHION."

Again, if someone is having a panic reaction, THEY CANNOT REACT POLITELY. If something makes you uneasy, that's one thing. If something makes you PANIC, your reactions are not under your control. When I've had full-on panic attacks, it's easily taken more than 15 minutes before my reactions are under my conscious control, and I've had CBT to help me control them!

Eyebrows McGee

Businesses aren't some sort of cosmic pissing contest between customers and business owners. You don't get made into a prison bitch because you apologize, even if you weren't wrong. And you might make a happy future customer.

Scenario 1. You decide that she didn't do anything wrong and this guy doesn't deserve anything:

the guy says to his friends later "Man, I went to jimv2000's business and I got treated like a fool then told that there was no big deal"

Scenario 2. You apologize and give him a happy meal.

the guys says to his friends: "hey, there was this crazy clerk at jimv2000's business, but he smoothed everything out and gave me a free meal for my troubles. It was totally cool."

See which is better free advertising?

Adam Hyland

I'm pretty sure McDonald's could've handled this better. If the manager had apologized and given him some coupons at the time -- not even a free meal, necessarily, just some decent coupons -- we probably wouldn't be hearing about it right now.

CumaeanSibyl

Err, Republican?

Trai_Dep

kelmeister, I think I love you.

Cranky Customer

" He deserves an apology and compensation."

Why? He wasn't harmed, he got his food, it's over. Dear god, if I owned the place I would apologize...but give him something? Hell no.

jimv2000

"Publicly doing everything possible to call attention to someone who can't control their genetics "

Because she was startled and ran away screaming? I hardly call that "doing everything possible to call attention" to his dwarfism. This guy might look at the situation and realize that she's the one who ended up with more embarassment than him.

jimv2000

@teapartys_over: False dilemma.

Just because I don't expect someone to act calmly in the face of whatever their phobia happens to be doesn't mean I blame the customer. He deserves an apology and compensation. But that doesn't mean you can just switch off a phobia either. If people with phobias could easily react normally to them they wouldn't be called phobias.

Rectilinear Propagation

Give me a break. It didn't hurt his dignity any more that the girl hurt her own dignity by running away screaming.

I'm not blaming the "victim". I'm say that there is no "victim".

jimv2000

Actually, the quote you gave supports what I said. He couldn't believe that she'd be scared of him like someone else might be scared of spiders. I don't see what you don't understand about that.

And I really don't see why an apology is needed. I fail to see how he was embarrassed any more than the employee who was seen running away screaming from a midget. These things happen, and I personally don't think someone should get a payout or apology (because there's nothing for the company to apologize for) everytime.

By the way, I didn't distort anything. I used a "direct quote" like you did. I copied it right out of the article. The guy is a prick for suggesting that someone's phobia is unacceptable...as though they could control it. THAT'S WHY IT'S A PHOBIA.

jimv2000

Eyebrows McGee

Adam Hyland

warf0x0r

I'm really hating this site, and I blame myself for reading the comments. In the future I won't.

teapartys_over

Buran

ColdBlood3d

Buran

youbastid

+ Watch video

lonewolf333

On the other hand, if you had a fear of dwarves and that prompted you to kill one, there's NO justification for that. You'd belong in a mental institution because you were a danger to society even though it's not under your control.

etherealclarity

Here's a question though. I hate spiders. I'm afraid of them especially if their bigger than a nickel. I scream and run and then usually feel the need to kill them. I once killed one in a public place and someone got angry with me and said I didn't have any right to do that and that I was a jerk.

They were right. I felt like my "phobia" justified my actions.

So I'm curious. Do people feel that their actions are justified by their phobias?

Seriously, I'm curious to know what people think.

warf0x0r

Also, to respond to your other comments, it is impossible, for anyone with a phobia, that has received any therapy to react i a calm manner and excuse themselves. If it were possible, it wouldn't be irrational, thus it wouldn't be a phobia in the first place.

Lastly, to respond to the comments stating that she shouldn't of worked there in the first place. One has to understand here the fact that this isn't fear of just people, it's fear of people who happen to suffer from dwarfism. The percentage of people that suffer from dwarfism in any given population is rather small, hell, I went 19 years of my life without seeing a person suffering from this condition, and only saw them at the University Campus, have yet to see them outside the campus. So it's probable she has never seen anyone suffering from dwarfism her whole life apart from the first traumatic experience that caused the phobia in the first place, and even possible that a short person wasn't even involved in that experience at all. So, this employee probably wasn't even thinking that this phobia would affect her work at all because it hasn't affected her much during her life in the first place.

Daryl26

@thesabre: Man, I remember when I thought I was the only one! No one else could POSSIBLY have this fear. Then I joined the "emetophobia" community on LJ. :)

etherealclarity

Seriously, are we all suggesting that people with phobias should be punished or unallowed to work at a crappy job like McDonalds? It's not like she harmed him or anything. And you can't just say "Go to a therapist and get it fixed". Psychology isn't magic!

nursethalia

homerjay

I have emetophobia as well. I feel for you. I don't think people will really ever understand it. I can't go to bars, I can't go to amusement parks.. nowadays I can barely watch any good TV shows or movies... it sucks.

thesabre

*for the most part... not everyone here is an asshole

antirem

This young lady was an excellent employee and did not have any problems performing her normal job duties. She was friendly, efficient, and pleasant to be around, she just also had an odd phobia which under normal circumstances would not have caused a problem. The young woman from MacDonald's may also have normally dealt with the situation differently, but was caught off guard. You wouldn't blame an employee for slipping in a puddle of water that had not been on the floor seconds ago. She may have just been surprised and did not have the opportunity to deal with the situation better.

axykatt

@etherealclarity: I'm sorry if there are people who suffer from things they cannot control. That may be contradictory to my first post... I guess I should simply state that I don't believe the McD's employee had an actual phobia unless someone can prove it to me otherwise.

BTW I cannot find a technical term for a fear of people with drawfism, do you know it?

warf0x0r

What really gets me, though, is that he only went inside because his order was screwed up, and in all the kerfluffle about his dwarfism, his order was never corrected.

Seriously, give this man a coupon.

girl comatose

Carencey

Pithlit

@etherealclarity: Oh, I don't agree with the 'just get over it' remarks on either side. I just get the feeling that a lot of the earlier posts were again motivated by a 'blame the poster (or customer)' attitude, and if the employee customer with a phobia were asking for consideration, the very same folks who were telling him to just get over it would be telling her to get over too. Or that's a very long way of saying that they'd still be blaming the poster if the tables were turned.

Carencey

Pithlit

I think 99.9% of the time people say things like "they're just flaunting their condition" that person is dealing with their own issues and projecting. Unless you're in that person's head or are their doctor, you can't know for certain they're deliberately faking a reaction or symptom, so you really don't know how many are actually suffering and how many are just seeking attention. So, if someone tells you they suffer from a crippling phobia, it's pretty safe to believe them. It's no fun, and letting people know ahead of time when they know they may be facing that phobia can be helpful. It does no one any good to brush them off as an attention seeker. People are too quick to dismiss diseases just because they deal with the mind, and it's unfortunate.

Pithlit

I've spent my entire life having to deal with comments like those above, and have developed a pretty thick skin. However I'm much more offended by some of the posts here then that of the actions of the McDonalds' employee discussed in the main post. Dwarves are one of the