That was one of my few complaint calls to corporate that I truly earned.
It was around 8 PM on a Tuesday night. I cut most of the staff who wanted to go home before the pathetic dinner rush had even started, and cut everyone else by seniority after. We were dead as a doorknob, so I basically started third shift staffing (2 hourly people) two hours early (we were open 24/7).
To this day, I have no idea where those people came from, what event our scheduler missed, or if they just materialized from thin air, but within minutes our entire lobby was filled with people, and a "wait list" (which was just a sign with a line behind it) at the door.
One cook, me, and one server, for the entire building. Including drive-through. We were a well-oiled machine, but three people can't handle that kind of rush as fast as 10-15 could, so things were a bit slow. I tried calling in our third shift team (would have been two more people), but neither answered. We were alone.
Most people were very understanding, and we handled it, I thought, pretty well. None of the ticket times were really that out of the ordinary, just a few minutes red. Probably less refills than normal, and basically zero prebussing, but getting everyone served was more important. My best friend got off of work and stopped by, so I told him that I'd buy his supper if he rolled silverware and bussed tables for me. That as a pretty big help.
As we were cashing people out at the register, one guy made a joking comment about us needing some help. I said, "Yeah. Good help is hard to find though, and I'm glad I had these two, gesturing to my staff... I definitely owe them later." The woman he was with, was a jerk. "No seriously buddy, it's <explicative> irresponsible to only have 3 people on a busy night!"
So, I made a mistake. I handed her an application and said, "We're always hiring, anytime you'd like to come on in, just let me know!"
She called the corporate office on me.
TL;DR: I handed a lady an application because she was complaining about how long something took.