Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Miss Friendly Panties

In my quest to reach and teach good health habits to my kids, and myself I decided to join our local YMCA. The YMCA is an awesome place. I  have very fond memories of the YMCA from my childhood.  I signed up here at our local Y to have a family membership which would include use of the pool, gym, basketball courts and many other amenities. In all my dealings with the YMCA past and present the most impressive thing was the staff. I had never encountered a rude, judgmental or incompetent person there over a span of 33 years. 
Last week I went in to turn in my paperwork to finalize my membership and there was an elderly lady working the front. She asked me "what I needed" and I explained why I was there. As I filled out the paperwork she asked for a blank check necessary for the bank draft. I asked for the date of the draft and the first would be that day. I asked her if they could activate my membership in 3 days when I got paid, I explained I currently did not have enough money in my account to cover the sign up fee and first draft. Her attitude changed drastically. First she gave me a look that one would give to someone who was really undesirable and gross. She  gave me a once-over that seemed to say to me "you don't have the money?"  She snatched the paperwork back and said "well  you are not ready to join then". Just so you know The C in YMCA stands for Christian. As I  looked at her in horror I saw the other front desk worker look embarrassed as well. I calmly asked "well can I do everything to get signed up then you can hold the check and activate my membership in a couple days?" "Yeah" she said  "just come back then, when you are ready" she stressed.
This is a serious replica of her.
I asked her if I could have a tour. Tours are offered when you join or even if you just walk in off the street and want to educate yourself about the facility. A tour was important for me because I have all ages of kids and need to know the rules/procedures for their visits and so forth. She said to me  "I'll give you a tour when you become a member." I was horrified at her but in no mood to do anything about it so I left. I returned a few days later and turned in all my stuff. Okay now I am an official member so I asked Miss Friendly Panties for a tour figuring now that she had my dough maybe she'd be a bit nicer. Nope! She looked at me like the request was ridiculous. I said to her a tour is an initial part of the registration process right? She said "yeah" and literally rolled her eyes at me. Without getting up she turned in her chair to the left and said "the nursery is over there down that hall." I stood there shocked thinking surely she is not giving me a tour from her chair. WTF? She then pointed upstairs and said "you work out up there, locker rooms to the right."She was done! I stood there wondering if she was serious. She was. I asked her if that was the usual tour. This facility is HUGE and offers hundred of different programs. She just acted like she did not hear me.
I went back the other day and the girl who had been at the front desk with Miss Friendly Panties saw me and said I am so sorry for the other day. I said yes that lady really should not be working the front desk, if here at all.  The lovely girl offered to give me a proper tour which she did and I left very well informed and feeling better. She was super sweet. 
I really would like to complain formally about Miss Friendly Panties......I mean complaining is what I do best. But the girl working at the front told me "she is very rude but had been having a lot of personal problems'. Also Miss Friendly panties is old, a senior. Maybe she cannot get another job at that age?? I don't know. If anyone understands personal problems it would be me but visiting that upon other people is very inappropriate when you are getting paid to do a job. Should I complain or not?

12 comments:

  1. hell yes you should complain. I have my work face and my real face. No one I deal with at work knows my stresses. They are called personal for a reason. I put on my happy face for work and no one is the wiser. This old biddy should have learned that rule by now.

    I don't think being old gives her the right either. I hate when people say that.
    So go get her Roc!

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  2. You should complain!! If you don’t she’ll continue to act that way. I worked at a YMCA when I was in high school at the front desk. I had a VERY similar lady like that work there. She was so blatantly racist toward people and she never got into trouble!!! I guess because of her age people wouldn’t complain. I mean every time she interacted with someone who was Asian; she would put anti-bacterial lotion on her hands so she wouldn’t get SARS. Whenever a person o f color would join the gym, she would offer them to join the financial assistance program to them.

    Even if they would say no, she would still keep on reminding them that they didn’t need to pay as much. It was disgusting and I would always always apologize to the customer when she walked away. What’s worse, is I bet she’s still working there to this day.

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  3. I would confront her face to face. Let her know that you don't appreciate the way she handled things and give her the opportunity to apologize.

    Complaining to management would only make things worse, she will be even more bitter moving forward.

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  4. I would complain. I don't think it is ever acceptable for an employee to belittle a customer. Horrible.

    I also love the YMCA. I belonged to the one in my town for 5 or 6 years...BUT it suddenly got crazy expensive. I was paying over $60 a month when I quit earlier this year. It just wasn't worth it for me.

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  5. I'd complain. The economy sucks and people who would be happy to be working are sitting home without jobs. Let one of them have hers!

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  6. Depends how mad you are. If I could let it go, I might let her have one "bad day". If it happened a second time, I'd definitely do something--either get in her face and tell her what I thought of her or ask to speak to her boss on the spot.

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  7. I would complain and put it in writing! I can let go one time due to personal problems or a bad day but she seems to have this nasty habit of being a turd, and an old one at that! She needs to be scrubbing the locker room or something....

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  8. Complain. She's costing that YMCA money. I don't think I would have gone back.

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  9. Just checking in on the comments, I am super surprised that EVERYONE says complain. You guys are heartless lol. But smart. I will email the Y today and keep you posted.

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  10. I would definitely speak up. The Y offers a service and YOU are paying for that service. You deserve to be treated fairly, no matter what your income is, no matter how old your children are, no matter if you are black or white or Asian - the "Christian" part of the YMCA treats every one (membership or not) fairly. Or, it should. This old biddy is nothing but a detriment to the organization.

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  11. I would say something. There is no excuse for her to treat you like that no matter what she's going through. She's elderly, so she's old enough to know you put your own problems aside when you're on the job... that's just professionalism. No way she'd have gotten away with that a chain gym or something like that. Wrong wrong wrong!

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  12. I'd let it go girl... it ain't worth the hassle... but you got me to read the post with the panty reference.. I was waiting for a punch line... I'm desperate I know...

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