When you Google “everyone should work in the service industry,” you should get nearly 2 billion results. You’ve probably heard someone say it at least once.
Well, one woman is now getting that chance. According to Fox 8, 39-year-old Rosemary Hayne’s path to working at a fast food restaurant includes a temper tantrum at Chipotle and a judge’s order.
Hayne was caught on cell phone recordings when she threw her Chipotle order at Emily Russell, an employee of the fast food restaurant, CBS Moneywatch said. Russell ended up leaving her job after the incident. After yelling at Russell, she threw the food in her face.
While she admitted that her reaction was wrong, Hayne still said that she was disappointed with her “disgusting looking” order from the restaurant.
“You didn’t get your burrito bowl the way you like it and this is how you respond?” Parma Municipal Court Judge Timothy Gilligan in Ohio asked during her sentencing. “This is not real housewives of Parma. This behavior is not acceptable.”
He sentenced Hayne – who was found guilty of one count of assault – to 180 days in jail and suspended 90 of the days. He also said he would give her credit for 60 days in jail if she worked at least 20 hours per week at a fast food restaurant for two months.
“I bet you won’t be happy with the food you are going to get in the jail,” Gilligan said.
According to Fox 8, the judge was appalled at Hayne’s behavior.
He wanted a sentence that could teach her a sense of empathy.
“I also hope this deters others from this type of behavior,” he said.
In the U.S., four out of five people employed in the private sector works in the service economy, per a 2022 report from The Brookings Institution. That category includes everyone from nurses to food preparation workers such as Russell. A study published in Frontiers last May found that service workers are more prone to experience customer mistreatment since they deal with customers more frequently than people in other jobs.
Alicia Grandey, a professor of psychology at Penn State, has been studying how the mistreatment of frontline service workers affects their health and productivity for decades. She spoke to Harvard Business Review last year about the impact these negative interactions can have on employees.
“Something happens (maybe a customer is rude to you) and you have to fake a smile. Customers can tell when you’re just phoning it in; suddenly your interactions with them don’t go so well,” she said. “That makes you more likely to make a mistake. In some new research I’m collaborating on, we find this spiraling effect builds up over time: Once employees start faking positive emotions with customers, it becomes harder and harder for them to get back to a place where they really mean that smile.”
Russell told CBS MoneyWatch that she was “relieved” at Hayne’s sentencing. She’s also happy that Hayne will have a chance to learn a different perspective.
“I’ve been saying she’s lucky she’s working 20 hours [a] week – I was working 65 hours a week,” at $19.25 per hour Russell, 26, told the outlet.
Though she worked there for more than four years, Russell said she left because she felt unsupported by the chain. In addition to making her work for four hours after Hayne threw the food at her the company also didn’t reach out to her after the incident. Now, Russell works at a Raising Cane’s restaurant.
Chipotle didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment, said CBS News.