To have said no this customer?

[LittleMissGerardButlersMinion]

I work in the wonderful world of retail

Today a customer in the queue asked me to heat some baby food for her. I apologized and said I'm sorry we can't heat it for you, but can give you a flask of hot water for you to heat it. We are not allowed under health and safety.

She pulled a right face at me and huffed 'well that will take far too long' and stalked off!

Yes I know its annoying, and we have a microwave, but its right behind the counter, so can't let customers round to use it.

I wasn't doing it to be annoying!

Another customer asked for a knife so I smiled and said they are in the dishwasher they won't be a minute, she stalked off to her table. As soon as they came out I took one over, she just looked at me and didnt even say thanks.

I always try to be nice and treat customers how I like to be treated, but its so hard when they are rude

[TyneTeas]

: )

If you liked the HSE myth site www.hse.gov.uk/myth/myth-busting/index.htm

you might also enjoy this one notalwaysright.com/

[LucySnoweShouldRelax]

Ooh ooh ooh, can I share my most dickhead customer story? The guy who, 45 minutes after we had closed, when asked if he could move so we could tidy away the folding furniture in our smoking area where he was sitting (the very last thing we needed to do before we finished) - having a fag, his drink finished long ago - he answered "I'm an artist, I don't respond to demands"

Unfortunately Health and Safety prevented me from giving him boxing his ears.

[nooka]

Health and Safety legislation does not only apply to employees, but also to anyone else who might be hurt by your work activities. So yes it can apply to customers. There is also a big cross over with litigation fears, because if your activities hurt someone they may sue (and the HSE might go after you too if they think you've not met the obligations under the legislation).

In this case it sounds as if the business owner has done a risk assessment and decided that they don't want to run the risk that an employee heats up baby food, it gets too hot or has hot spots and the baby subsequently comes to harm. They have decided that the risk outweighs the potential business benefit. So their policy is not to heat up food in the microwave and employees are told not to do it. Whether the flask of hot water is a lower risk approach is another matter. It's probably more accurate to say that it's against the cafe's policy rather than 'under health and safety'.

[AchyFox]

"Health and Safety" is just shorthand for "potentially we'd be legally liable if something went wrong".

That HSE site is quite funny, thanks:

The enquirer was having an eye test using two different pieces of optical testing equipment. Whilst seated he was asked to move over to the second piece of equipment and when trying to move the chair several times found it to be very difficult. The reason for this was because the wheels had been removed due to 'health & safety'.

[HadABadDay2014]

Why don't parent buy a cheap flash and put the baby food in there, stays lovely and hot.

Rather annoying to run out of knives but don't people make sure they have knifes/ forks before sitting down.

Op perhaps suggest to your boss that cutlery comes out with the food, not only is it more hyginic but makes more sense.

[lilola]

I call these people cuntstomers. heating baby food- I didn't make the rule. waiting a couple of minutes for a knife- SO FUCKING WHAT

[SomethingkindaOod]

I did actually once scald myself badly while sorting out hot water for a customer to heat baby food. My own fault and I'm glad it went over my hand rather than the customer but I knocked the jug and it went all over me. Restrained just about covers it, I managed to pass the jug to my colleague, ask her to refill it and walked very quickly to the toilets to submerge my hand in cold water. The customer complained that I wasn't polite enough to her...

[LittleMissGerardButlersMinion]

Yes it is a catering microwave that zaps food!

If I was allowed to heat it I would have done, I wasn't trying to be obstructive, but likewise am not willing to lose my job over it. I half expected to see a thread about me on here from the mother :o

[treaclesoda]

well I'm only going on my own experience. Cafe refused to heat food for us but gave us water to do it ourselves, and what they gavd us was a massive container full of scalding hot water, I'd guess there was well over a litre in it, which we had to carry across the cafe then set on the table in front of a curious toddler. It struck me as much more dangerous than just heating the food.

[SomethingkindaOod]

Knives disappear, teaspoons disappear, bloody napkins, the lot. I always suspected the customers walking off with them tbh, we caught a couple at the restaurant I worked at pinching a full place setting on more than one occasion....
Cutlery runs out in a cafe. Hardly worthy of a hissy fit or sarcasm, it happens. Baby food can't be heated in a catering microwave iirc as it heats things up too quickly.
YANBU.

[perplexedpirate]

A litre?! What's she heating, a roast ox?

[Whowouldfardelsbear]

Thanks another number - thought as much.

I always microwaved and then shook - so glad I didn't potentially burn my DDs' mouths.

[anothernumberone]

Long past the bottle stage now, but, genuine question, doesn't shaking the bottle after microwaving eliminate hot spots

Yes it does, liquids do not have hot spots when shaken. Conduction, convection and radiation are the means of heat transfer in a liquid and once they are shaken the heat dissipates using one of the above methods.

Food can have hot spots though.

[treaclesoda]

yes, of course hot water is only as dangerous as a cup of tea, but there's a lot more of it if they give you a litre or more of it to heat the food in.

[backwardpossom]

Cross post...

[backwardpossom]

Er, no, the OP is not being unreasonable about the knife. The issue isn't the knife. The issue is that the OP went out of his/her way to give the knife to the customer once there was a clean one available and didn't get so much as a thanks in return.

YANBU on either count, OP. People can be unbelievably rude.

[LittleMissGerardButlersMinion]

I know its unreasonable about not having enough knives, and I do try my best to get then through, but I can't walk around asking customers if they have finished with theirs so I can wash them :o

The knives were literally seconds away from being ready, the customer asked, I went out to the dishwasher, got the knives and took one straight over, so yes it's annoying, but basic manners cost nothing do they?

[Whowouldfardelsbear]

Long past the bottle stage now, but, genuine question, doesn't shaking the bottle after microwaving eliminate hot spots?

[anothernumberone]

In our shopping centre they have a number of standard microwaves for parents to use to heat baby food and bottles, if I ran a food establishment I would do the same. £50 would get you one and then it is the parents responsibility. Wipe it a couple of times again and no more ahssle from parents.

[TeenageMutantNinjaTurtle]

Unreasonable about the knife...

But the heating baby food is tricky. My brother worked in a restaurant where they were only allowed to give out flasks of hot water... And one day another customer knocked the table and the hot water spilled over the baby who was badly hurt. Restaurant got in a lot of trouble (health and safety) and now they refuse to heat food or dispense large quantities of hot water....

[Viviennemary]

I don't think it's too much to expect a cafe to have enough knives and other cutlery. But YANBU about the baby food.

[Maleeka]

Def NBU to refuse to use the microwave to heat up her baby food. I get royally pissed off when customers assume we are being difficult when we say no! We dont let our customers wander around with boiling water either! We put the bottles in a container of boiling water and keep it behind the counter.

[AmIthatWintry]

Thanks for posting the HSE link Tyne. Of course it's nothing to do with Health and safety.

And H & S is actually about keeping employees safe, nothing to do with avoiding compensation claims, to the pp who said that

[Pilgit]

It is not against health and safety to microwave food for a baby. Health and safety legislation isn't that detailed. Places come up with rules to protect themselves from litigation. Microwaved food can contain hot spots that will burn so they want to not be sued. It makes for a shit situation for customers and those that work in cafes....