You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry

I think it's fair to say that most Malaysians, especially those well-connected to social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube (which is what, easily 60% of Malaysians? :P), are now aware of the brouhaha surrounding a certain customer who got punched by a KFC worker. 

Apa? Semua dah tahu dan dah blogged all about it? I am slowpoke indeed. Oh well. 

Due to this incident, cliched, vomit-inducing, unimaginative writings galore ensued. Gems such as "Instead of getting his fried chicken, the customer got a zinger instead. TO HIS FACE" or "the hot and spicy situation was witnessed by no less than 20 patrons who were also queuing up for their food" cropped up, oh, here and there (nope, not gonna give them the pageviews). My question is, really writer, did you go to school for them shit? -__-

Okay, les get back to the story at hand, shall we?

Here's my recap. KFC. Minimum wage workers. Long queue. Night time. Ciken finis. Kastemer anggeri. Kastemer shout (?). Worker responds. Shout some more. Worker came out from behind the counter and punched kastemer in the face. Shout some more. Ah, malas lah recap (padahal dah habis recap pun). This is what I am talking about.

As per normal in Malaysia, APA-APA HAL sekalipun, kalau ada terkena-mengena dua kaum berbeza, mesti ada yang sedikit shallow melabel isu tersebut sebagai isu perkauman. Akan ada yang judgmental dan cakap orang tu racist dan kita-perlu-memperjuangkan-maruah-bangsa-kita.

Sebenarnya, aku tak nak 'kupas' pasal isu ni dari perspektif itu. I believe there are two sides to a story. So far, we have heard the kastemer's side. I have a strong hunch that the KFC guy(s) will not have his (their) 15 minutes, not because they don't wanna share their story, but if KFC hires any sort of PR or communication unit worth their salt, a gag order on the worker is probably in place, in accordance with Crisis Management 101. KFC will (and should?) assume responsibility and apologise and let the vouchers the kastemer wanted to redeem to still be usable even after the vouchers have passed their expiry date (oh, didn't you know? The customer wanted to redeem some vouchers that was expiring on that particular date. No wonderlah sentap ciken finis. Kire burnlah voucher diorang tu kalau tak dapat ciken malam tu jugak -___-). Oh, tapi mungkin tak guna jugak, sebab kastemer tersebut sudah 'emotionally distressed' dan mahu menyaman KFC. Oh well.

Thing is, we hear a lot of  'budak KFC tu kena provoke.' This is here-say. Unless there's another video floating around showing what happened prior to the fist fight. Unless we can find the smug-faced guy in the blue t-shirt or the Mat Saleh or any other patrons in the i-City KFC that night who can give the down-low of what happened, we won't know for sure. Even then, diorang boleh tipu kata diorang ada kat situ sedangkan saja je, nak jugak tumpang 15 minit tersebut.

Kembali kepada 'tapi, budak KFC tu kena provoke, customer tu maki hamun family budak tu.' Now, let me be clear (and be a parent). A fist fight is not gonna solve anything, son. Aku faham, emosi (dan syaiton) mungkin menguasai budak tu. Tak termasuk penat ngadap ayam (boleh tahan lagi) dan orang  (yang INI hehehe, Allahu'alam) satu hari. Tak termasuk faktor-faktor lain yang mungkin ada di sekeliling mamat tu. But I am telling you this. Violence is never the answer. 

Aku tahu, easier said than done. Kalau aku dalam situation tu pun, tak tentu lagi aku tak react dengan cara yang sama. So, it is with a heavy heart that I must say, budak KFC tu sepatutnya, personally, minta maaf. Gag order or not. Kalau betullah customer tu maki hamun keluarga awak, then that stands as a bigger reason for you to apologise. I mean, you don't want what the customer allegedly say about your family turn out to be true, right? Be the bigger person. Be a better man. Minta maaf. It won't solve anything, I know, dan customer tu mungkin akan terus dengan keputusan beliau untuk menyaman anda dan KFC but believe me when I say yang meminta maaf tu bukan untuk customer tu, meminta maaf ni untuk diri awak sendiri. 

Minta maaf di sini bukanlah admission of fault or guilt. Apologies are not about whose fault it is or feelings of guilt. Apologies is actually about moving on. Like it or not, we're humans and guess what? We make mistakes. Some mistakes are costlier than other. Some mistakes are sillier. Some mistakes are... well, you get the idea. Thing is, apologies are not about making things right, even. Apologies are about acknowledging our flaws and being responsible about it. Apologies is about moving on by learning from the mistakes we've made. Dalam kes ni, like I said earlier, I doubt it will deter any 'legal' actions that are probably already underway. Apologies might even be damaging (financially and even physically, in cases where the other party wants to exact revenge). But what it takes away in cash and in terms of physical harm, it gives and molds into character (<;-- Ini, anak-anak, baru cliche namanya. Learn while there's still time, you fools!)

Thing is here, aku sebenarnya kesian kepada frontliners. Kepada orang yang perlu deal dengan customers face to face. You think your desk job is hard? Imagine having to deal with hundreds of people day in and day out. Hubs kerja frontline and it never ceases to amaze me how incredibly dense some people can be. True story. Pernah ada DUA kes assault di tempat kerja hubs (yang dia pernah ceritalah). Not by the staff. So far, staff tempat kerja hubs belum pernah assault customer (that we know of). Salah satu kes assault ni, melibatkan staff (perempuan) yang kena tampar oleh seorang customer (lelaki) bilamana staff tersebut meminta customer mengembalikan sesuatu yang customer perlu letak balik kat tempat sepatutnya. Fact 1: Sesuatu tu memang diketahui PERLU dikembalikan ke tempat sepatutnya. Fact 2: 'Tempat sepatutnya' cuma beberapa depa daripada customer sahaja, customer tidak perlu ke Felda Taib Andak atau Kerteh untuk mengembalikan 'sesuatu' tersebut. Campak pun boleh. 

Jadi kenapa tampar? Entahlah. Food for thought kan? Apalah yang customer tu fikirkan agaknya? Emosi? Syaiton? External factors? Tapi kita jarang sekali dengar cerita seperti apa yang staff tadi alami. Kan? Pernah dengar cerita Call Centre Exec kena maki bila diorang call client? (ni akulah yang buat. Bukan maki, tapi aku pernah marah sorang mamat telecentre ni. Dia carik laki aku, aku cakap, laki aku kerja retail hours, malam tu balik pukul 12. Yes, mamat telecentre tu call nombor phone RUMAH pada MALAM hari. You know what he said bila aku cakap hubs habis kerja pukul 12 malam? "Eh ye ke, Puan? Mana ada orang habis kerja pukul 12 malam..." Logik tak kalau aku amukan puaka di situ?)

Okay, dah cukup, aku dah banyak cakap dan digress. In short, I just wanna say that in reality, there are horror story from both sides, in this incident, in many incidents before and even after this one. Capiche?