I had two "firsts" in the past couple days:

1. Yesterday I had my first "I want to speak to your manager" customer because I asked her to keep her mask on when repeating her order. Customer accused me of yelling at them, and started crying when telling my shift about how mean I am (even though my coworkers all agreed I was speaking calmly). I'm pretty sure she is now doing everything she can to get me fired.
2. Today was the first time I had a panic attack because of a customer. I'm the main person that asks people to wear their masks, but this also means customers shit on me the most. This specific instance happened in the last few minutes of my shift, so I forced myself to not break down until after I clocked out. I ended up staying in the back room breathing into a paper bag/crying/shaking for over an hour. I'm thankful for my shift for bringing me water and sitting with me for most of that time.

I started working at Starbucks in May. I feel like I could handle this job if it weren't for this pandemic. It is getting harder and harder to let customers walk all over me and take their anger out on me just because I ask them to properly wear a mask. The main piece of advice I've received is to just not take it personally, or not let it get to me. I was able to do that at first, but lately I've been getting more easily irritated and angry and upset, and not just at work. I just hate being treated badly and not being able to defend myself.