PetCO wrote me up two weeks ago for homophobia for calling two flamboyantly gay customers "fella". Seriously, that's all I said. They were asking me a few questions and about betta fishes. I ended up selling them a betta with a tank and some food. After I got them set up with everything they needed, I walked them to the register and thanked them for their business and said, "Have a good one, fellas".
One of them (the "manlier" of the two) responded back in the most feminine voice I've ever heard from a man, "Thank you, sir, you too." But the way he said it struck me as strange at the time, and I don't mean the voice he used. I couldn't put my finger on it at the time, but it came off as hostile, or condescending or sarcastic. I just thought, "Eh, faggots are weirdos anyway. Whatever."
About 20 minutes later my manager on duty paged me to the office. I walk in and she asked me what I said to the two guys I had just sold a betta too. I said that I sold them a fish and a tank, and that was it. She asked me if I said anything rude or called them any names as I was walking away. I said, "No, I told them to have a good night, fellas."
She said, "That's what Sereena said she heard." Sereena was the cashier and heard the entire exchange between me and them when I walked them to the register. My manager had talked to Sereena before calling me into the office. The manager said, "I just wanted to hear it from you, because "fella" could be misheard as "faggot"."
As it turned out, these guys immediately called for a manager after I walked away and complained that I used "offensive and assumptive language" as I was walking away from them. But it also turned out that they never even accused me of calling them faggots. They wouldn't tell my manager exactly what "slur" I used against them. They said they wouldn't further belittle themselves by repeating the insulting language. My manager didn't even think about the word faggot until she asked the cashier about what happened and found out I said fella, then she thought that maybe they misheard it as faggot.
But either way, the manager says, "I'm not going to write you up about it. Sereena heard what you said, and the customer didn't file an official complaint. Don't worry about it. I just had to ask." So I thought the whole thing was done.
The next day, I come into work and clock in. I'm working for about 10 minutes and I get paged into the office. This time the General Manager was there. He tells me that he heard about the complaint from the night before, and he has no choice but to write me up. He fucking admitted that he knew it was bullshit, and that's why he was "only" writing me up. Normally, a legitimate act of homophobia or discrimination would result in immediate termination, but he was just writing me up in this case.
His reason for even writing me up was because of fear that the two faggots might complain to corporate about homophobic abuse and discrimination at one of their stores. Then corporate would investigate and see that the complaints were ignored and never acted on or investigated. Then the GM's job is in danger, as well as the manager on duty at the time that the complaint was lodged, and PetCo gets bad PR.
And all of this happened because two MEN (biologically, at least) got offended that I dared to assume what their preferred genders were and I called them "fellas". Basically, I didn't remember their pronouns. And I know they didn't mishear "fellas" for "faggots". That's why they wouldn't tell the manager exactly what I said, because they knew they'd look ridiculous. And the cashier girl was even farther away from me when I said it than they were, and she heard me clearly. I don't fucking whisper when I talk. I said that shit loud and clear. "Have a good one, fellas". And I got written up for it.