Starbucks Employee Fired After Smacking Customer With Wet Rag

According to reports, a Starbucks employee in Philadelphia has been fired after smacking a customer in the face with a wet rag. Apparently, the customer complained about an incorrect drink order and things escalated quickly.

See the full report on the story from Business Insider via the @nursejandrew Twitter post below.

The report says that while the employee of a Starbucks has been fired for slapping a customer in the face with a wet rag, that employee denies the allegations and even says they were left with a black eye and bruises from the incident.

From the employee's perspective, they had waved a wet rag in the customers face and not smacked them with it. The employee said that it was the customer who started the fight.

The report goes on to give an explanation from the customer, who does plan on filing charges. That customer said that they asked the employee to re-make their order but that the employee, "caught an attitude". The employee made a cup, half-filled with caramel, and slammed it on the counter per the report.

The customer asked for a manager, but instead she was smacked in the face by an employee with a wet rag. While the customer didn't say if it was the same employee that made the drink, she said it was a male employee that smacked her with the rag.

There isn't any way to justify an employee of any business smacking an employee with a wet rag. But do I get it? Of course.

I have worked in the service industry. It can be frustrating at times. Whether it is something that happened earlier in the shift or one customer in particular being difficult, I have had times where I may have considered smacking a customer. But, things have never escalated to that level in my personal experience.

On the other hand, if you are a customer at Starbucks you are expecting your order to be correct. If my order was far off enough, I would at least ask what was up too.

If I had to guess, both of these people probably did not handle the interaction the right way. Usually when two people are blaming each other, both are wrong in certain ways.

Nevertheless, the employee that got smacked may end up getting paid from the incident. Meanwhile, the employee looks for a new job and has to explain to potential employers why they got fired from their last job. Whoops.