If there’s one thing that’s key to success in retail, it’s learning how to be polite to customers – even if they’re behaving like fools.

It can take time to learn, and even then can be difficult when things get stressful.

So when the store worker in this story was confronted with a serious safety issue, exacerbated by a customer’s negligence, it’s no wonder that they became concerned – something that added to their already-present anxiety.

Read on to find out how they ended up doing something they’d quickly come to regret.

I yelled at a customer

I’m feeling both a bit guilty and worried about what happened at work today.

I work outside at a retail store collecting shopping carts to bring to the front.

We have above ground covered parking where you drive in and there are spots on the left and right going back a bit, and then you can turn left twice to get to more parking and go towards the exit of the covered parking.

A common issue we have is people pulling out of their spots and trying to come back towards the entrance and leave through there, despite facing oncoming cars.

Let’s see how this parking setup caused this workplace drama.

The entrance has a sign saying ‘entrance’ and the exit says ‘exit’; there are arrows on the ground directing people in and towards the exit only, as well as two bold ‘no exit’ signs hanging up, which are visible to those walking to the store or cars facing the wrong way.

But today some woman was driving towards the entrance to leave through an entire line of cars coming in, while already being over half way to the back and closer to the exit side.

I yelled at her and forced her to turn around. I have forced everyone I manage to catch to do the same and have gotten angry at them as well.

I don’t know why, but my anxiety is high with this one though.

But given the circumstances this employee was working on, it’s understandable that the woman’s negligence triggered such a response.

We had some fires causing smoke to fill the air, the temperature was high, the humidity is insane, we had a sick call and we were busier than normal since we were closed for a day.

I was extremely overwhelmed with all the work that needed to be done, and having her doing something I would hope someone with a license would know not to do just put me over the edge.

Yes, she should not have gone the wrong way, but the state I was in, it wasn’t her fault and I feel bad about it.

It felt like I yelled at her for ages, but it was only a few seconds.

Let’s see what exactly this employee said to the customer.

I yelled asking how what she thought she was doing, and that I wasn’t going to let her out through here. I also said that I was not in the mood to deal with this nonsense today.

I don’t think I said anything nasty to her, but my tone was loud and not friendly.

Our company really caters to our customers, so I’m worried that if she complains I’m done for.

It would be my first complaint but I don’t think that matters.

And there was more than enough reason for the employee’s concern.

The main reason I hate people trying to leave through the entrance is mainly due to all the signs telling people that you can’t come back this way.

But it’s also the fact that other customers walk into the covered parking through that entrance, and you can’t see vehicles until you’re inside.

No one expects a car to be coming in that direction so I worry someone is going to get hit when I see someone driving that way, especially fast.

I feel less anxiety having written that all out, but I don’t think I’ll be able to relax for a couple of days.

It’s clear that this employee really cares about others not getting hurt, and is both ashamed and anxious about the way that they blew up at the customer.

Sure it likely wasn’t the best reaction, but sometimes we all have bad days.

And it’s absolutely clear that they were having a bad day.

Let’s see how the Reddit community reacted to this.

This person explained that sadly, this is a common experience.

While others encouraged them to discuss the safety issue with a manager.

Meanwhile, this Redditor simply thought this woman shouldn’t be driving.

This situation must have been incredibly anxiety-inducing for the already stressed-out employee.

Of course they don’t want an accident to occur, and it’s possible that they might feel responsible if they didn’t do everything they could to prevent such a situation happening too.

They might not want to blow up at a customer again, in which case this is something to learn from, but until the company makes changes to how the car park works, this situation is likely to occur time and time again.

They need to do something about this.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.