Viral TikTok footage shows a Walmart manager firing an employee after trying to explain how poorly he handled a customer interaction.
The video was posted by user @beyondthelenztv, a TikTok account with more than 90,000 followers that is known for posting “reality entertainment.” The alleged Walmart employee, named Christian, recorded the video, which garnered nearly 400,000 views as of Tuesday.
@beyondthelenztv #fyp #foryou #karen #funny ♬ Unstoppable – Sia
In the video, the manager reminds Christian of a situation he recently had with a customer. It seems that the customer had asked Christian for help with their AT&T box or resetting their password. At the time, Christian had “refused” to help the customer and allegedly told them to Google the information they needed, the manager says.
“I understand that in the moment you were busy with customers and you couldn’t tend to it right away, but the way that you handled it was not the way that you should have handled it,” the manager tells Christian calmly.
The manager adds that the customer said Christian was “rude.” Christian cut her off, asking if the manager took the customer’s word over his.
“So we’re doing a ‘he said, she said’ now?” he asks, sounding annoyed.
The manager explains that Christian also told her his side of the story after the incident, and he had acted rudely.
“I told [the customer] I don’t care if she says I’m rude because I did do my job. I did help her,” Christian says. “That’s exactly what I said. I told you that, and I still don’t care because she could tell you that I punched her — and I don’t care because I didn’t do anything to her. I helped her.”
In response, the manager reiterates that she understands how Christian was feeling in the moment, but that he didn’t handle the situation well. She tells him that in customer service, he doesn’t get to “not care.”
“You can’t just tell a customer ‘Google it,'” the manager says. “If they knew to just Google it and read themselves, then they wouldn’t come to you for help. So in that situation, the better route would have been to ask [the customer] to wait until you were done with the other customers or to call somebody else for backup.”
Christian tells the manager he didn’t expect to receive help, and he goes to work prepared to work on his own in the technology department. He says he doesn’t look for backup and never expects other managers to come and help him when needed. He repeatedly claims he helped the customer and denies saying he couldn’t help her.
The manager says that at the end of the situation, the customer didn’t feel like she was helped.
Christian snaps back that he has a job to do, and he doesn’t have time to extensively help each customer. He says he works for Walmart, not Best Buy, where he would earn a commission for consulting with customers.
“At the end of the day Christian, we work in retail. We are here to serve our customers,” the manager says. “Comparing it to Best Buy… if that’s how you feel then that’s how you feel. But at the end of the day, this situation that we’re talking about right now, you did not handle it correctly. And not only did you not handle it correctly, but this is not the first time that this has been an issue.”
Again, Christian calls the manager out for believing the customer over him, which prompts her to roll her eyes in exasperation. The two continue to go back and forth on what happened until the manager says the conversation is over.
“Based on the situation and the outcome of it and the fact that we’ve had numerous encounters like this before, I am letting you go,” she says.
The conversation and its outcome sparked mixed reactions among viewers. The majority seemed to side with the manager, and several called out the employee’s “entitled” attitude.
“This Manager is handling this situation correctly. This is another entitled employee,” one viewer commented.
“As a manager, I agree with her and based on the attitude of this employee would have released him as well,” a second viewer commented.
A third said, “this kid has and will continue to have an attitude and issue with authority. letting him go was the right thing to do.”
“As a former store manager, I agree with her. She handled this magnificently. His attitude is a no go. Bye bye,” another wrote.
Some viewers said the employee’s attitude seemed unfit to work in customer service.
“His attitude confirms that he doesn’t need to be working with customers,” one user said.
“Customer service is not for this guy he needs to have a job where there is no interaction with any customer or employee,” another user said.
Someone else wrote, “In customer service, “I don’t care” is not in our vocabulary, period. If you don’t like ppl, then don’t be in a ppl business.”
Others, however, sided with Christian, saying employees tend to do all the work while managers sit back and do nothing.
“This is why I hate Walmart. Employees are treated poorly. Managers just sit in the back all the time especially in my area,” one viewer wrote.
“This supervisor is not handling the right way. You should support your employee,” another said.
In a reply to a comment, the creator clarified that Walmart is allegedly investigating for wrongful dismissal.
However, one viewer shared their secret to working in customer service: “The secret in retail is to not care but pretend you do!”
The Daily Dot reached out to the creator via TikTok comment.