I don’t even think that is a recent phenomenon.
Decades ago, I’ve heard from people who worked in the salmon canning industry that workers sometimes put cigarette stubs in the cans etc. Or in certain manufacturing industries it wasn’t uncommon to sabotage the equipment for down time etc.
Also a friend’s mom in the 70’s who worked in Nutty Club, packaging salt peanuts etc and accidentally packed a dead mouse in the bag. They were able to trace it to her and called her into the office holding up the bag " Appetizing isn’t it?" She was mortified and didn’t know how it happened but obviously that was the end of that job.
Back in my Uni days I had a friend who worked as a waiter at a high end hotel in town and his reaction to a slightly picky customer who complained about his cutlery not being clean enough - and asked sarcastically for him to bring over some more dirty dishes and my friend obligingly brought over a stack of dirty plates.
And of course he was ready to quit by then I guess. (Which I thought was a good comeback but again, you need to be prepared to lose your job).
Regarding this incident - we only hear one side of the story, to me it makes more sense
that it was a typo, why say “please” and why incriminate oneself, especially if the customer thought she
was friendly and he never thought he was demanding.
(My dad once wrote a letter of complaint, and I can’t even remember whether it was to a business or some government bureaucrat, but they sent an acknowledgement and the letter back and we all noticed that
he had typed
“Dead Sir” instead of “Dear Sir”
we don’t know if they ever construed it as a death threat.
