That’s what the hostess of this upscale restaurant near the Piccadilly car park told me when I requested her if I could use the toilet to pee as it was a sort of emergency.
We had just dropped a close friend visiting London at the
Buckingham Palace and I was trying to park my car. My wife was accompanying me.
Finally, I found this car park, immensely costly, but at least somewhere to
station my car for a short while. It had been a long day and having this habit
of drinking lots of water meant that my bladder was full, and I urgently needed
to pee.
This upscale area does not have a close by public toilet and
I did not have time or patience to search for one. I entered this close-by
Pret-a-Manger whose cashier told me that they did not have toilets. I walked to
the opposite side of the eatery and found this upscale restaurant. I cannot remember
its name. Anyways, I walked in, told him my ‘emergency’ and requested the man
on the counter if I could please use the toilet. He hesitated, half-willing to
help me but then directing me to this lady who looked like a hostess-cum-manager
of the restaurant. This man was clearly not the decision-maker.
I repeated my request to this lady and she
replied rather curtly - ‘I am sorry Sir; toilet is only for customers. I will lose my job if
I let you use the toilet’.
And as she said this, she also showed us out of the door and
said – ‘Let me show you where you can find one…’ And she pointed to the
Pret-a-manger outlet, where I had been just told that they didn’t have a toilet.
Clearly, no one wanted to help.
My wife who was with me said why don’t we buy something from this restaurant (we could afford at least the salad, I guess) and then we become her customers. Then she will let you use the toilet.
Technically, I could have done that, but frankly speaking I
did not want to, even though my bladder had reached its maximum stretch. Something
within me said that I don’t want to do this. You can call this self-esteem, but
I felt that now I never want to be their customers ever in my life. The disengagement
was permanent.
Contrast this with my experience when I visited for this
international food festival at Portsmouth (about two and a half hours drive
from London) in July. This time we were with friends, some of whom had young
kids. The kids needed to use the toilet and once again we were not able to find
a close-by public toilet. I walked into this beach side amusement centre for
kids and requested the people at the counter. I even offered to pay for use.
But they were so kind that they let all of use the toilet. We did not buy any
service from them that day but believe me if I must recommend someone a place
like this, I will definitely recommend them. Their random act of kindness
assured me that they would serve well.
In defence of that lady and that man at the Pret-the-manger counter, what if they started allowing anyone to use the toilet. Would that not offend their customers? That’s a hypothetical situation though. In all likelihood this would never happen. It’s always a judgement call when you are presented with a genuine request (you can always know if it is one). And there is something about character and ‘smell of the place’ that comes across depending on how people react or respond to these situations.
What actually struck me was the second statement of the lady. Something must be broken in a place where one would fire their employees for helping someone in dire need, if what the lady was saying was true. I remember once a Chief Human Resource Officer of a watch and accessories company recounted an incident wherein their store manager went beyond the call of the duty to help a walk-in customer to one of their stores and had a cardiac arrest. The store manager himself took the person to the hospital, phoned his family and waited until the family members reached the hospital. By this time the treatment had already started and the person could be saved. Had any time been lost, the man would not have survived. And, mind you, the man had not purchased anything from the store. Nothing of this sort was in the job description of the manager, but he did what he thought he should do and knew his organization would back him up for the same. He left the store at a busy time and could have been easily penalized. Instead, the company rewarded him for his magnanimous act. And guess what, he very unintentionally created an army of loyal customers as the news spread in the city. So, even if we talk business, then remember customers may not always walk-in as customers first time.
I still wish well for the lady and for all those who turned me away that day. I hope they meet kinder people when they are in need.
