Rude, Crude, and Socially Unacceptable

So I ticked off a customer yesterday.

Okay let me rewind. I've been taught pretty good manners from my parents and I know that its wrong to be rude to strangers... or people in general really. That being said, I never purposefully say things to offend people. At work I'm actually really good with customers and most of the people I interact with seem to enjoy our conversation. I'm also pretty good when situations become tense or uncomfortable. When that happens its my instinct to make a joke or something in order to make people laugh. Thats how I've always been and how I react. For the most part when I make people laugh during the discomfort, they always appreciate it. But last night I encountered someone who clearly didn't appreciate my humor.

I was getting a to go box/ cup for soup for this woman, and this man came up who was probably in his fifties.

He comes up and really angrily says "Are you guys short of help or something?!"

[First problem, he expects that we already know what the problem is, and instead of asking nicely for something he just gets angry.]

I looked up at him and said "I'm sorry sir, can I get you something?"

He reacted angrily again. "You ran out of napkins!"

[Second problem, he said it as if I knew. Well, sir, if I knew already, then we wouldn't be having this conversation.]

I began to say "I apologize for that I'll be out there in just a sec to fix the problem."

He interrupted me and said "There's also no paper towels in the men's bathroom!"

[Third problem, he wasn't willing to accept my apology, instead, he just interrupted to complain about something else.]

Recognizing a tense situation my instinct kicked in. I smiled and laughingly [and by that I mean more of a giggle rather than a full on laugh] I said "Oh sorry I haven't been in the men's room recently so I didn't know, but I'll make sure we get some!"

He mumbled something while he walked away.

While I was restocking the napkins for this guy, his daughter who was probably in her twenties and just in general had a bad attitude walked right up to me. I turned to her and said "Hi, can I get you something?" [If I was going to complain to someone and they talked to me like that, it would lighten my mood, but apparently she has anger problems... which probably explains why she hangs out with her old parents instead of people her own age.]

She yelled "Please, don't be so rude when you're talking to people!"

I looked up and began to apologize if I had offended anyone when she walked away.

So that's my story. I don't understand people.

Why do people get offended so easily?

Why do people complain about everything?

Why are people so lazy?

Why are people so dirty? I had to clean the dining room for closing, and I swear there was trash everywhere. If I drop a napkin, I pick it up. Apparently when other people drop a napkin they throw more on the ground to keep it company.

Also for the men, why do ya'll pee everywhere? Because I cleaned dining I had to mop up the bathrooms. DON'T MISS THE URINAL!!

Anyway, customers are stupid. I don't mean to offend, but some people are just quick to jump to the conclusion that I'm a terrible person and all I want to do is upset people. If that was true, I would have become a telemarketer.

Stupid.