My impression is that the fact that it is hard to objectively determine why someone is enforcing the rules is part of the point. The effect on the woman in your example is the same either way, but I think the employee’s internal state does matter in terms of how it affects the future health and functioning of the organization. The employee warned the woman of the risks, she took them anyway, then chose to complain. If she hadn’t been warned, she’d have a point, and in that case refusing to give a refund just because it’s the rule instead of making an exception, without giving a reason like “I’m sorry, but I’m not allowed to, or I’ll be fired,” would be justifiably called blankfacing. It’s worse if the employee knew about the crowdedness and deliberately chose not to say anything, than if they were unaware or just didn’t think of it in time. It’s much worse if the manager also refuses to bend the rules, because that should be part of what managers are for. In that case it would also be appropriate to refund the popcorn, or offer free tickets to a future showing.
I’m curious what you make of this example from my own life. After graduating college I got a job, moved in with my girlfriend, and leased a car. As a result, my name wasn’t on the apartment lease (we were not in violation of zoning rules due to me living there, and the landlord knew I was moving in) or any of the bills (the accounts were already set up), and the car registration listed the leasing company’s address, not mine. To park on the street I needed to get a town permit. I went to the police station and was told I wasn’t allowed to get a resident permit because I couldn’t prove residency. The RMV told me there was no way or need to change the address on my license, I just needed to write the new address on a sticker and put it on the ID; this wasn’t good enough for the police station either (reasonable enough so far). I asked what I could do to prove residency under these circumstances, and the person at the police station said she didn’t know. No one else in the apartment had a car, so it wasn’t an amount-of-parking issue. We had a visitor’s parking permit, and I used that for lack of a better option. I got a ticket for being a resident using a visitor’s permit. I went back and explained this to the person who issues the permits, and she noted that yes, that’s how the system works, and no I still can’t have a permit, and yes I will keep getting and have to pay tickets. She admitted that the rules are set up that way to make it hard for students to prove residency and get parking permits, in order to preserve spots for non-student residents, and this was catching me even though I was not a student. So I went back at other days and times until a different person was working, and then I was able to get a permit no problem—same documentation. I think “blankface” describes the permit-refuser’s behavior extremely well, at least after I got the ticket.
My impression is that the fact that it is hard to objectively determine why someone is enforcing the rules is part of the point. The effect on the woman in your example is the same either way, but I think the employee’s internal state does matter in terms of how it affects the future health and functioning of the organization. The employee warned the woman of the risks, she took them anyway, then chose to complain. If she hadn’t been warned, she’d have a point, and in that case refusing to give a refund just because it’s the rule instead of making an exception, without giving a reason like “I’m sorry, but I’m not allowed to, or I’ll be fired,” would be justifiably called blankfacing. It’s worse if the employee knew about the crowdedness and deliberately chose not to say anything, than if they were unaware or just didn’t think of it in time. It’s much worse if the manager also refuses to bend the rules, because that should be part of what managers are for. In that case it would also be appropriate to refund the popcorn, or offer free tickets to a future showing.
I’m curious what you make of this example from my own life. After graduating college I got a job, moved in with my girlfriend, and leased a car. As a result, my name wasn’t on the apartment lease (we were not in violation of zoning rules due to me living there, and the landlord knew I was moving in) or any of the bills (the accounts were already set up), and the car registration listed the leasing company’s address, not mine. To park on the street I needed to get a town permit. I went to the police station and was told I wasn’t allowed to get a resident permit because I couldn’t prove residency. The RMV told me there was no way or need to change the address on my license, I just needed to write the new address on a sticker and put it on the ID; this wasn’t good enough for the police station either (reasonable enough so far). I asked what I could do to prove residency under these circumstances, and the person at the police station said she didn’t know. No one else in the apartment had a car, so it wasn’t an amount-of-parking issue. We had a visitor’s parking permit, and I used that for lack of a better option. I got a ticket for being a resident using a visitor’s permit. I went back and explained this to the person who issues the permits, and she noted that yes, that’s how the system works, and no I still can’t have a permit, and yes I will keep getting and have to pay tickets. She admitted that the rules are set up that way to make it hard for students to prove residency and get parking permits, in order to preserve spots for non-student residents, and this was catching me even though I was not a student. So I went back at other days and times until a different person was working, and then I was able to get a permit no problem—same documentation. I think “blankface” describes the permit-refuser’s behavior extremely well, at least after I got the ticket.