‘This is retail summed up’: Employee’s day gets surreal when she’s questioned about her job in the most unexpected place

The toilet cubicle is one of the few safe spaces where one can be truly alone, and when you work a stressful job in retail that safe space is all the more important. Whether you’re actually using the toilet, or just giving yourself five minutes to breathe there is only that simple, golden rule: toilet time is sacred. This is something that doesn’t even really need explaining to most people

But if you’ve ever worked in retail then you’ll know that nowhere is ever truly safe from dreaded customer. Oh the customer, let’s face it, we’re all customers, and we’ve all likely done something to annoy someone in retail or hospitality before, it’s inevitable. But some customers are a special breed, some customers lack all semblance of decorum and social awareness, or even the ability to discern what is and isn’t appropriate. Take the customer from this viral TikTok shared by an unlucky retail worker called Syd, for example.

Toilet time is sacred and as such, you don’t really expect to talk to anyone while you’re on the throne, but sometimes you have to. Anyways, Syd happened to catch the moment a customer decided to start questioning her while she was sitting on the toilet — the one place you’d never really want to be caught by a customer, or anyone for that matter.

Kudos to Syd for actually answering the person’s questions, not a lot of people would have replied so calmly, but then again, working in retail, you get used to dealing with customers who are a little odd or even rude. One commenter asked “WHY DIDNT YOU SAY NO[?]” which is valid, meanwhile, another simply said they would quit on the spot. Perhaps the weirdness of the situation caught Syd off guard which is why she acted so calm, but let’s face it, this isn’t the worst thing a customer has ever done.

Some commented on how the customer sounded, with one comparing them to Salad Fingers, another said they sounded like Longlegs, which adds a whole new level of terror to the video. Others noted that their breathing seemed somewhat labored and some commenters theorized that they might “have some serious health issues”. 

In all honesty, it does sound like the person is struggling health-wise, the fact that they’re asking about the pharmacy and they sound as though they might be elderly so you do have to feel for them at least a bit. That being said, knowing whether the pharmacy drive-thru accepts credits cards doesn’t exactly sound like the most life-or-death situation, did they really need to know so badly they had to interrogate a poor employee while on the toilet? Surely whoever was outside the stall could have waited.

It’s still a bit weird that they went into the toilets to look for a member of staff but it’s a little more excusable when you take into account the likely fact that the person outside meant no harm and was just trying to seek help. Sure, customers can be annoying sometimes, but Syd dealt with the situation incredibly well and hopefully that person was able to get whatever they needed from the pharmacy and leave her in peace, remember, toilet time is sacred.