TIFU by oversharing with a customer

My mom and I were returning from a trip this past weekend and she had been coughing quite a bit during the 7 hour drives. She had just come back from a theme park the week before, so it was safe to assume she caught something out there.

As a precaution, I gave her a Covid test last night and found it was positive. At this point though, we had all been vaccinated and boosted at least 2 times each, so the next day, we masked up and went about our business. We’re in the process of moving and the new house still needs a lot of work. I went to my job for a quick shift.

My throat was starting to become sore, but I figured that with a day off the next day, if I was to get any worse, I’d have a whole day to be REALLY sick and could make the call if I couldn’t come in afterwards. But aside from the sore throat, I was fine. I wore a tight mask and used my personal bottle of sanitizer more frequently.

A customer tried to call in an order over the phone twice. The first time, my co-worker answered and transferred her to the kitchen. We’re at the lull in our staffing, between the lunch rush and dinner rush, so servers were scarce. As a result, the call bounced back to the front where I answered. She explained that she wanted to place an order, come into the store to pay and then leave. No problem, my co-worker just forgot to radio the kitchen that there was a call on hold. I transfer her again and this time I tell the kitchen to answer.

A few minutes pass and a lady walks in, masked up. Not an uncommon sight in my store, but still somewhat rare. She wants to place a to-go order with a server, explaining that she tried to call in twice, but was never answered. Great, it’s the same lady. Our call-ins are supposed to go through a third party, but for some reason, some calls come through to us and transferring them to the kitchen is hit or miss. Frustrating, but again, no problem. I call up a server and her order finally gets taken.

She toils around the store for a bit, grabbing a few packs of jelly beans. Employee protocol calls for us to hand customers baskets to encourage them to shop more. I walk up to her with a hand basket and politely offer it to her. She thanks me and drops her candies in. I walk away to go back to my register duties.

A few minutes later, she walks up to me and asks if I was okay. And this was where my fuck up happened. I have a bad habit of over sharing at work. Not gross out over sharing or secret-spilling, moreso familial gossip. Still no one’s business. But in my head, Covid is no longer the Plague it used to be. You mask up, wash your hands frequently and only stay home if you’re really sick. Having to isolate for a week is not something you’re required to do anymore, so in my head, I was not nearly as contagious as I could’ve been if I wasn’t wearing my mask and also very sick.

So I told her my Mother was positive, but I was having mild symptoms.

“So you’re saying you were exposed?! I can’t be near you!!”

The next thing I knew, this lady dove into the dining room, placed her hand basket (which we keep on the floors) on a table and raised a stink to my managers. I was called into the office and appropriately reprimanded for over sharing.

On the somewhat bright side though, my managers reassured me that this particular customer was infamous for raising a stink about germs. She would frequently place curbside orders and then demand the servers who brought out her food to take her money so she wouldn’t have to step into the store to pay. She even freaked out when my co-worker touched his face.

The managers cancelled her to-go and walked with me to the front of the store where we watched the lady go out to her car, rub hand sanitizer onto her hair, wrap herself in a fitted sheet and get into her car to drive away. My managers were joking amongst each other over the ridiculousness, but I refused to mock her because this was my fault. That lady was dealing with a mental health crisis and I made it worse by opening my big mouth.

TL;DR My gossipy ass told a customer I was exposed to Covid and she appropriately flipped out