When I was a teenager I had my first real retail job with KMart as a cashier.
There was an assistant manager (AM) there that was downright rude to customers. I recall the incident that led up to me being fired. The customer wanted some metal filing cabinets that were on sale. She brought up to my register one of the two cabinets on sale (and it was the correct one because I looked at the register that gave the model number). She wanted to know if there were any more so I called him over (he was watching the front registers at the time). He was a complete dick to her by telling her that she was wrong, those particular ones weren't on sale. I pointed out to him that the one she had was on sale since it was in the flier, which I showed him, he became all huffy and puffy about it and went to find someone to find another for the woman. A short time later she had her second cabinet, paid and left. I over heard him call her a bitch, behind her back. That never sat well with me but I said nothing about it since he was an assistant manager.
Fast forward a short time later - I can't recall if it was within the same week, the following week or a month later - but I'm working in the evening (closing time) and after the stores closes the cashiers are sent to the floor to help clean up. I was retelling the story of the assistant manager to another co-worker (who wasn't a manager or department manager or anything like that but was higher up on the employment ladder then I was) and said that he (the AM) was "a complete asshole" to the customer. Next day, or the next time I went into work, I was called into the store manager's office and was told I was terminated for calling the AM an asshole and it was unacceptable for me (a teenager) to call him (an adult and AM) such a degrading name. I guess it's ok for the adult (asshole) to call a customer a bitch because she was being polite in asking for a second cabinet on sale.
Years later, the firing incident took place in 1990, I was in another KMart store - over an hour from where I grew up at. Guess who I should run into! The AM asshole of course. That occured in 1995 when I ran into him, so I was an adult and immediately recognized him. Who could forget that ugly man's face. Ugly and hateful. He was getting his car tires replaced as I was when he told something to the mechanic there and stomped off. The mechanic flipped him the bird. lol I can't remember what happened between the mechanic and him but I said, "looks like he hasn't changed." The mechanic asked me something like, "why was that" and I told him that he was an AM in the ______ store to which the mechanic told me that the asshole was now store manager to the _____ store (another hour from that store) but was in town for some kind of training. From my understanding, he was eventually fired (a few more years after that) for company theft.
There are no more KMarts in my hometown, this city where I live at or any where in this part of the state. Nearest KMart is in the middle of the state and out on the west side of the state.
Yes, it goes under Bad Service (and can go under co-workers suck) because the man was out of line for calling the customer what he did. He really had no right since she was polite and wasn't pushy.