First and foremost, I am a dog owner, and I love dogs.
So last wednesday I had to clean the air ducts of this house. Homeowner wasn’t present, but his 80 year old mother and 40 year old brother were present throughout the air duct cleaning.
These people had 2 giant bulldogs. One of the dogs wouldn’t stop barking at me and was UP MY ASS the ENTIRE 4 hours I was there. Literally walking on my hind legs, trying to jump on the ladder as I was standing on it. Barking in my face when I had to reach down and grab various tools and cleaning supplies from the toolbag. I also had previously noticed how flies were swarming on the dog when I had first arrived, needless to say I didn’t want to pet him. The dog wouldn’t let up on me, was constantly on my legs, was constantly barking at me at I was operating the machinery and navigating the hallways. It wasn’t until I was cleaning the boots with a chemical that I had asked the 40 YO son to please put the dog away so I don’t accidentally get a chemical on him (which would get me in trouble).
The 80 year old told me that the dog will leave me alone if I gave him a belly rub. I’m not kidding. I told her I’m not doing that, and to once again please put the dog away so I don’t accidentally hurt him, as he was up my ass. The 40 YO son sighed and struggled to get control of the dog before having to physically pick him up and bring him into the bedroom. I was able to finish the duct cleaning around 12pm.
These people proceeded to report me to my HR department for “being rude” in how I approached the situation. All I did was, in 2 sentences, ask for them to please put their dog away while I worked with chemicals. I had a meeting on friday, and I couldn’t believe it was actually being “investigated”.
Come today, I’m called into the office again and informed that I’m being let go, as they had further spoken to the customer over the weekend. They wouldn’t tell me exactly what was said, only that I “wasn’t being truthful” in how I went about asking them to put their dog away.
These companies don’t give a single fuck about you if it means they can retain another customer and milk thousands of dollars from them for air duct cleanings and overpriced AC components. I plan on taking this to my local labor board, but it feels so fucking demoralizing when I can be fired because a customer gets offended I didn’t pet her dog or entertain the dog while on duty. I don’t know what to do.