Dartmouth — Local hero Sandra MacPherson brought us a step closer to world peace this weekend when she forced Tim Hortons to fire a staff member who called her “dear” during her transaction.
Jenny Phillips, 57, was a Tim Hortons employee for 14 years. She was on rotation in the Dartmouth and Halifax area, which means that she filled in shifts at the different franchise locations based on staff availability. Phillips was known for her friendly demeanour toward customers and her positive attitude, as well as her many years of loyal servitude.
That all changed on Sunday when she had the audacity to refer to a customer as “dear.”
“I just wanted my coffee with a pinch of sugar and a light sprinkle of skim milk,” began MacPherson. “I need that specific order to start my morning. When the perpetrator handed me my coffee, I could tell right away that she was evil because she gave me a triple-triple. Needless to say, I was livid.
“I pointed out that she got my order wrong, and she actually had the gall to smile at me and say, ‘Sorry, dear. Let me fix that for you, no charge.’ Um, excuse me? I’m not your ‘dear.’ I am not in a ’40s relationship with you, nor do I appreciate you insinuating that I am,” elaborated the victim, reliving the traumatic moment.
MacPherson immediately threw her wrong order in Phillips’ face and screamed, “Let me speak to your supervisor!” She then explained the verbal attack to the location manager, who had no choice but to do the right thing and fire Phillips on the spot, in front of a cheering crowd.
“I think all the coffee fumes that day must have gone to her head, because the Jenny I knew would never say something sick like that,” said former co-worker Craig Smith.
“It’s horrible when a good worker like Jenny Phillips goes bad,” said former manager Sheila Furlong. “She was always so kind, she’d even donate her tips to the children’s camp box. Just goes to show, you never know.”
MacPherson vowed not to give up the good fight.
“Don’t worry friends,” wrote MacPherson in a Facebook post set to global. “I’m a little shaken but stronger than ever. I will make sure she never finds work again. We need to email all her potential future employers and comment on all her social media posts so she’ll never live this down.”
Her Facebook friends proceeded to share her status thousands of times, and the story was then picked up by major news networks.
As for the perpetrator, Phillips had little to say about the incident, other than a phony-sounding apology:
“I feel so terrible about the whole thing,” said the tearful former employee. “I would never intentionally try to hurt someone’s feelings, and I don’t know what got into me. I guess I’ll have to find some other job to help pay my kids’ way through college, but I don’t know who will want to hire me now.”
Sometimes what you write is so on the POE edge, that I have to double check if it is in fact the CBC affiliate or not. Keep up the good work, and I will keep hoping we can just laugh at your articles instead of them becoming the reality.