Rude customer makes woman plumber cry but learns important lesson when her company stands up for her

Skilled people can perform any task they're interested in, regardless of gender. But a man learned this the hard way after refusing to believe that women can be good plumbers. When the customer was approached by a woman plumber, he disrespected her and did not let her do her job. However, he ended up paying for his rude behavior later on. The story was narrated by a man, u/uniqnorwegian, who worked at his father's construction company when this incident happened. He was responsible for working on water and fire damage. 

He said, "We typically handle everything on the job site, including hiring third-party painters, plumbers and electricians, as the jobs we took were insurance jobs." At the said customer's house, he was done putting down new floorboards and molding in the kitchen, which was damaged after a week of water leaks due to cracked plumbing. The customer was reasonably polite when the man was working. But when the female plumber arrived, his demeanor changed. The plumber that u/uniqnorwegian had called for was a woman in her early 20s, called "Helen."

u/uniqnorwegian heard that she was good at her job and often received praise from her colleagues. But when the customer realized that the plumber was a woman, he said: "'She? Women can't be plumbers'." He thought that the other employee had made a mistake as in his opinion, a woman can never be a "real plumber." Not only did he stop the woman from doing her job, he also insulted her, "I want a real plumber, not a little girl who cried her way to this job and will screw it up because a cute little girl like you cannot be a plumber." The woman, who was upset and on the verge of tears, immediately left the site and called her boss.

When the boss arrived, the customer greeted him and thought he was there to finally complete the plumbing task. While the customer showed him the way to the kitchen, the boss firmly told him "No" and added, "Just because she is a young woman does not mean she is not a great plumber, she is one of my best. You do not talk to any of my employees like that. We will not finish this job." Later, everyone left the house and when u/uniqnorwegian narrated the incident to his father, he instructed his company which had the contract to stop services at that house. Because the company canceled the contract, the insurance company had to look for someone new. Therefore, the customer had to wait another week to get his plumbing done, adding to his hassles just because he didn't want to believe that a woman would be up for the job. 

In an update, u/uniqnorwegian shared how the customer learned an important lesson in humility after his rude encounter with the plumber. "About a year later, we are talking to the insurance agent on a different job, and he asks if we remember this customer. He informs us that he had a new water leak in a different section of the house. It was discovered that the plumbing work was done by one of the customer's friends," he wrote. "In Norway, plumbing (and electrical) needs to be done and documented by a licensed professional, otherwise, your insurance will not be paid. As you might have guessed, his friend is not a plumber. He had to pay the repairs of the latest damages out of pocket."

When the insurance company checked the first leak, they found out that it did not qualify for insurance. "He (the customer) had to pay back the full amount of repairs for this as well. I gave 'Helen' a call with the fantastic news, and she was ecstatic," mentioned u/uniqnorwegian. 

The amusing turn of events left Reddit users delighted as many were rooting for the woman plumber. One user commented, "I bet he blames all the damage on Helen and thinks the only reason it wasn't worse was because he had the presence of mind to stop her before she could screw anything else up." u/keladry12 wrote, "I heard a woman truck driver talking the other day about what it was like when she started and the s*** she got. She said, 'They were scared. They were scared of women joining the workforce because women work harder than men do.' Damn right."  

This article originally appeared 5 months ago.