Case of the unprofessional manager

A visit to a local fast food store turned ugly when a manager decided to berate their employee while they were working on the front line.  We asked for an extra packet of ketchup and quickly received a single packet from the young lady working on our order.  This was not an unreasonable request and we only ended up with a total of two packets of ketchup.  Not a lot of ketchup in the whole scheme of things.

The next thing we know, the manager is yelling across the line in Spanish.  Not standing next to the associate and quietly talking in her ear, not taking her off the line and discussing it with her in private, but yelling at her in front of a restaurant full of people.  The manager was talking in Spanish, obviously counting on the fact that her customers didn't speak Spanish because she told the associate that she was supposed to charge us $.10 for the extra packet and the next time that she didn't do that, the associate would lose her job.  Can you imagine anything more uncomfortable for the customer or associate?  Even if we didn't understand Spanish, it was clear that the associate was being berated.  It was the manager, in this case, that should worry about future employment.

What could make this better?

1) If the manger was truly worried about losing the dime, she should have taken the associate off the line and spoken to her in private. It is extremely unprofessional to correct a subordinate in the view of customers or other associates.

2) Customers should never be made to feel uncomfortable due to a language barrier.  In primarily English-speaking areas, ONLY English should be spoken in view of the customer.  To use Spanish in this situation merely enhanced the poor image of the manager because it had the potential to make customers feel alienated or "talked about" since they didn't understand what was being said.

This situation could potentially lose customers due to an unprofessional manger who wasn't even addressing the customer.