Talk to the Manager
U/dendriticbranch: “I worked in management at a theatre for a while. If the concession counter was slammed and I was able, I’d leave my post and help them sling popcorn. One night while helping out, a particularly belligerent man started cussing out a 16 year old girl on a cash register for being too slow.
It was pretty disgusting and I felt so bad for the girl, I stepped in and told the guy that our employees have the right to refuse service to customers who harass them, empathized that the lines were longer than usual, and suggested he should apologize and move on. Anticipating his next move, I went back to my original post that night – as manager of the customer service kiosk. Oh boy, the look on his face when he saw me.”
Not My Home
U/rou_te: “My mother made my childhood h— (unpredictable moods, yelling and abuse got so bad I got panic attacks and nothing was done about it, random beating, crying, insults, very controlling, went through my letters and diary, the works) After what seemed like ages of struggling, I finally managed to move out at age 21, to an address within the same city. Her whining continued.
Why would I not give her keys to my apartment? Why did I not phone in every day? Where was I, who was I with, what was I doing at every time of the day? I must hate her! I tried to not react and give her more ammunition, but when she ended up asking at some point ‘Why are you not coming by and visiting us every day??’, I finally replied ‘because I don’t live here anymore’, and it shut her up.”
Popularity Doesn’t Carry-Over
U/Raetekusu: “At my university, it was always fun to watch the people who had been High School Popular People think that this sort of popularity would just naturally carry over and that on this campus of thousands, they’d be a big shot or something.
Was always fun to see just how many people could not care less about their attention-seeking.”
Not in Control
U/Marilius: “I worked at the flight service station in Yellowknife, Canada. There we have a control tower and FSS. Tower had the radios at that time of day. Pilot reports smoke in the cockpit, declares an emergency. He was 20 minutes out, and there’s nowhere else to land, so he just continuing to come here. In the interim, emerg procedures put in place, Airport Firefighters are out in force.
And out comes captain jerkface from the cops. BANGING on my door. There’s really nothing he could possibly do except make noise and be in the way. Not long after he stomps back down and I hear him radio some nonsense about ‘who do they think they are? IM IN COMMAND!'”
Legal Activities
U/tylrmhnn: “My wife and I moved to WA state and my MIL tried to tell me that…
She was going to call the police because I had p– in the house.”
Tables Turned
U/MTBadtoss: “My parents came to visit and my mother, (who is very old fashioned the woman should be a homemaker and if not she shouldn’t out earn the man kind of old fashioned) told my wife (who makes stacks as a dev team manager compared to my peanuts as a sports writer)
‘You know dear you really should try to keep a cleaner house.’ And without looking up from her making lunch my wife said ‘yeah your son forgot to clean this week before you guys flew in’ the stunned look on my moms face was priceless.”
You’re Excused
U/TigerTownTerror: “Pretty much every time my in laws come over. For over twenty years they have attempted to dictate how I should live my life, raise my kids, dress, cook, etc. I always just nod and say, ‘I’ll consider that’,
But not in a genuine way, in a condescending ‘d— you’ way. When they press it, I simply say, ‘You may leave my house now’.”
No Backtalk Allowed
U/Bradddtheimpaler: “I used to work at a few Subways. Thing is, the owner inherited them when she already had a busy and lucrative career elsewhere. One time, she was in the back when she heard me interact with an angry customer. Afterward, she came out and said, ‘You know you don’t have to take c— like that. I trust you, you can use your judgment and just toss anybody out who talks to you like that.’ After that I wouldn’t take any c— from anybody.
Slightest hint of backtalk to your Sandwich Artist, and you were out on your butt, still hungry. It was so much fun. The sheer indignance of an entitled customer when you don’t bow and scrape before them is really something to behold.”
Making Demands
“I was minding my own business at the grocery store when a woman approached me, thrusting her cart in my direction. Woman: Excuse me! Don’t you see I need that cart? Me: Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you had a sign that said ‘Reserved for Entitled People Only.’ She huffed, clearly annoyed with my response. Woman: You’re being rude! Give it to me now!
So I flung the cart right back at her as hard as I could. It was so hard that it knocked her down. All of her groceries went flying all over the aisle. Then, I scurried away, leaving her with the mess to clean up.”
Color Me Green
“I interviewed for a job that was labeled as a senior-level position…Shortly after the in-person interview, they call me and say that I would be a great fit. However, they thought I was ‘a little too green’ for the senior-level position, but they have an opening for the junior-level position.
I kindly told them that I wasn’t going to take a step backwards in my career. I also let them know that trying to trick someone with senior-level experience into taking a junior-level position by stringing them along through interviews and a job offer was deceptive and unethical. There was silence over the phone for a moment and then the interviewer said in an offended tone, ‘Well we’ve all had to make sacrifices for company name!’ To which I replied, ‘You may have had to, but I don’t make sacrifices for anyone.'”
Set Free
U/Wolfsbane776: “When my c—– father kicked me out of the house and then demanded he have access to my bank to ‘control my financial situation’ and I got to tell him
‘You have no control over me anymore. You set me free when you kicked me out and now you can’t do anything'”
Monster-in-laws
U/TigerTownTerror: “Pretty much every time my in laws come over. For over twenty years they have attempted to dictate how I should live my life, raise my kids, dress, cook, etc.
I always just nod and say, ‘I’ll consider that’, but not in a genuine way, in a condescending ‘f— you’ way. When they press it, I simply say, ‘You may leave my house now’.
Sticking to the Assignment
“I worked at a warehouse club selling computers. My job was to stay in the computer department. Well, one of the shift managers didn’t like that, and insisted that I needed to go fold clothes. The store manager had instructed me never to leave the tech department, but he insisted. This went on for several weeks. The store manager showed up one weekend when both the power tripping shift manager and I were working.
Store manager slaps a stack of greenbar paper down onto a shelf and points to some highlighted numbers. He tells him, ‘This is our average tech sales numbers for the weeks you are on shift. And this is our average tech sales numbers for weeks you are not. It would be more cost effective for me to simply fire you.’ The guy stammered like a toddler caught bullying a kid on the playground.”
Ant-icipating Screams
“It was a routine summer day, I was doing my usual job at the local restaurant…That’s when my high-school bullies walked in…Memories of school torment started flooding back…One of them, a redhead…approached me, a wicked glint in her eyes. She cocked an eyebrow at me and asked, ‘Hmm, I wonder what would happen if I pour this all over the floor.’ Looking her dead in the eye, I smirked and replied, ‘Do it, and you’ll find out.’
The soda from her can pooled around my just-cleaned floors. But their laughter quickly turned to panic. She suddenly recoiled, pointing at the floor, and shrieked, ‘Hold on… WH-WHAT IS THAT??’ That’s when they noticed the thousands of tiny ants, swarming over the sugary spill, climbing up her shoes, attracted by the sweet smell. Their laughter stopped, replaced by screams of horror.”
Can’t Teach Kindness
U/Nevermind04: “I worked for 8 years servicing communications equipment on-site. Most of my team were pulling 12+ hour days and we were struggling to hire people quick enough. One day, the CEO texted and said he hired an assistant manager for me. The moment he got in the truck, he immediately started talking c—. I just sat and mostly listened.
He obviously didn’t know anything about my industry and every time he would say something wrong, I would try to politely correct him and he’d insist that I was trained wrong. When I sat down at my desk, I called for a taxi, filled out a notice of termination, and handed it to him. He looked absolutely shocked. I can teach anyone how to service equipment, but I don’t have a clue how to teach someone to not be a jerk.”
To Freedom
U/sunshine2632: “The first time I had dinner at my parents house after I got my own apartment. My dad was giving me grief as usual. Finally, I stood up and said, ‘I don’t live here anymore. I don’t have to put up with you this way any longer. I’m going home.’
And walked out. Most liberating moment of my life.”
Late Redemption
U/daecrist: “I wasn’t good at returning library books when I was a kid. I got lectured by my school librarian about it a lot. Fast forward twenty years and I’m a supervisor at the local public library and my former now retired school librarian goes there. One day I see her sneaking around the front desk instead of coming back to say hi to me and I immediately figure something’s up. I go up to say hi and she acts exasperated and tells me she was trying to avoid me because she had overdue books.
So I put on my reading glasses, pulled them down over my nose, and delivered the same lecture she’d given me countless times about being responsible and turning in books on time.”
Karma
U/Drew-: “I work at a hotel. We have a very desirable parking lot, and when people poach it we boot them. Girl parks, and walks to neighbor hotel. Our gm happens to be in the lot, and says this is parking for x hotel, not z hotel. She proceeds to flip him off. I giggle, grab the boot and slap it on her car. She comes back screaming. I tell her the cost is $200.
She refuses to pay and storms off. I speak with the girls mom. She is trying to say ‘oh my daughter didn’t know, she was there for a job interview.’ I let her go on, and I tell her that her daughter flipped off the gm, and there is no way the boot is coming off without payment. She hangs up, the daughter comes back and silently hands me 200.”
Power Shift
U/greasedlightning343: “I worked at a Walmart as a cashier, and the assistant manager there was a d—, he would insult everybody working there and forced us sometimes to do work above our pay grade. 6 months later me and him got transferred to another Walmart that was just built and they needed to pick a manager and assistant manager some random got manager but I got assistant manager.
(I guess all the complaints on the assistant manager basically gave him a demotion) so one day he was ordering the other cashiers around then i pulled him to the side and told him that if he kept pulling the same s— around he would be out of here. I haven’t heard anything from him since.”
Hairy Situation
U/Sarchasm-Spelunker: “When I was working for a restaurant delivery service I had a customer send in a complaint about hair in their food. The hair was sitting on top of the food. I check their account, and they had ONE order on their account, which is a red flag. I check their phone number and find multiple accounts, ALL of them complaining about hair in the food. I deny a refund because the customer has actually used the same identical photo before.
The customer tries to argue with me and threatens to never use the service again. Eventually the customer gives up and ends the call, then immediately tries again. I see who it is, then deny the refund again. The next day she calls back and demands to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor banned her from the service.”
A Big No
U/mbattagl: “I worked at a grocery store for five years putting up with crazy customers and their awful attitudes. At the end of my tenure our store was set to be closed, and for the last month the store was sold to a liquidation company. Meaning we were no longer under our parent company’s umbrella and were no longer concerned with retaining customer loyalty.
I got to tell customers ‘no’ and respond with every bit of sarcasm and disdain to every Karen i encountered for one month until the store officially closed.”
The New Director
U/Pentacostal-Haircut: “New director. Decides admin should hold a meeting at noon M-F in the nurse’s lunchroom and bar them from entering during that time. Defines it in a group text as a ‘quick win.’ My response: please help me to understand how this is beneficial to remove the nurses from their lunchroom during lunch break?’
No response, his peers and higher-ups in on the text. He Is then moved to the Quality Department. Screwed up in so many levels…”
No Authority Here
“We had one plane that had an issue on takeoff and veered off the runway, it totaled the airplane but fortunately the pilot was not serious injured. I hopped in the airport car…and drove out to the plane with a radio to inform inbound planes to use the other runway. About 30 minutes later a metric ton of DPS officers showed up and immediately tried to close the whole airport, treating it like a giant crime scene.
As I was hopping in a plane, a cop said to me, ‘you aren’t going anywhere!’ I looked to the airport manager and he said ‘have a nice flight!’ You could see these cops fuming that they didn’t have the authority to close down an airport because one plane went off the runway.”
Friendly Competition
U/kaxobixo: “I was working as a consultant for a company, there was a bit of a competition between me and this guy, company starts to have some financial issues so I leave and start working for a client of theirs.
Shortly after joining they bring in this guy I was competing with at my old job, he was technically my equal except now I was employed by the client and he was just a consultant. He was trying to one-up me during meetings and my boss told him that decisions are made by the company not the consultants. It felt good.”
Not on My Time
U/blind30: “Had an old boss who was a complete and total jerk. He was actually my boss’ boss, and wasn’t supposed to interact with us, but he just loved trying to make everyone under him squirm. One day, I get a call at home from him and he just starts unloading.
After a couple of minutes, I just looked at my phone and hung up on him. The next day, I get called into a meeting with his boss…I calmly explain that no one gets to yell at me on my time, in my home, on my phone. You have to wait for me to be on the clock to pay me for that privilege, and I’ll gladly take that money- If I’m busy being yelled at, I’m not busy with anything else. Seemed to work.”
Not Worth It
U/Hopefulkitty: “A few years ago a guy stopped me in the hardware store and asked if I was a painter. I said, yeah I do historical restoration work. He asked how much I charge per hour, and when I told him, he immediately told me I was too expensive and dropped my rate by 25%. I had already given him my number, but he kept belittling me. I just told him that I already had a full time job, and this would be in my off hours, so it needed to be worth my while.
Eventually I recognized his number and stopped picking up. He would have nitpicked absolutely everything, and probably not paid me at the end anyway. But he was so certain he’d have power in the situation, that he didn’t seem able to comprehend me not wanting to barter with him.”
Pipe Down
“I was at my high school reunion, catching up with old friends and classmates. It had been years since I had seen some of them, and we were excited to share stories from our post-graduation lives. As the night went on, I noticed a familiar face in the crowd, someone who had made my life a living hell back in school. Emily, the popular mean girl, strutted over to me with a smirk on her face.
Mockingly, she said, ‘Oh wow, you actually showed up. I thought you were too much of a loser to show your face around here again. Aren’t you embarrassed?’ I smiled at her sweetly and said ‘Emily, I am an internationally acclaimed artist, I have a beautiful family and I spend every day doing what I love. You’re still living in the same neighborhood, holding on to your prom queen glory days. It’s you who should be embarrassed.’ That shut her up.”
Pay Up
U/cthulhustaxreturn: “When an unhappy client threatens to go hire a better lawyer.
They don’t seem to get that this isn’t a threat when they aren’t paying me…”
Make Time Go Faster
U/texasbornandraised95: “I was working a lab assistant shift receiving specimens, when a doctor phoned the lab. He was very upset that there was a test that was taking too long. I said okay, and asked what the test was. A fungal culture takes at least two weeks to see if anything grows. The patient was in the ER.
I politely told him the test was a send out and they generally take about about two weeks depending on the fungus. He then asked for a lab tech because I was just a lab assistant. I then let him know I was a lab tech with experience in microbiology and I can tell him that fungal cultures are some of the slowest cultures and assured him that if anything comes of it, we’ll let ER know.”
Taking Over
U/whyd-eyed: “I had a rough childhood with a d— addict father. My mom struggled to make ends meet and my first job was paying for the mortgage. After several months of working I finally had some money to spend on myself and decided to get a computer and a decent internet connection. At the time the best internet I could buy as part of a dish combo package. I bought a dish and brought it home to install on the house.
During this time my dad was still living at home with us but he was hardly there and my parents had all but separated at that point. My dad promptly asked me what I was doing putting a dish on his house. I let him know that I pay the mortgage now and I make the decisions on what we do with the house.”
Holiday Face-Off
U/rancidquail: “Not sure if it fits but during an insanely busy weekend before Christmas, a Karen was complaining to every associate about how messy our store was. The manager had relieved the girl at the fitting room and was helping to hang stuff. Karen pulled her crap and was trying to make a point that we were messy and a horrible place to shop.
At the this manager told her roughly, ‘Ma’am we’re messy at the moment because we’re a popular store. And the biggest reason we’re messy is because of woman like you who can’t be bothered to pick up after themselves. It’s not the associates making the mess. It’s people like you. Your type have us outnumbered.’ First time I actually witnessed someone deflate.”
Shtick Ruined
U/nowforever13: “My dad and I went to lowes one time, and the guy helping us had on a veteran hat and a few pins kept trying to insinuate we didnt know what we were talking about, and that we didnt need what we were there for, and kept trying to argue about everything.
So my dad asked what service he was in trying to break ice, and the dude said he was in team 6 1970-1974 in Vietnam, and trained in Great lakes. Which was the wrong answer. So my dad asked if he meant seal team 1 or 2. the man recognizing my dads service ring immediately buffed up on my dad and tried to assert dominance as a superior. My dad immediately called the guy on his shtick for stolen valor and threatened to turn him in for it.”
Can You Hear Me?
U/jsabo: “My dad is 6’3″. I’m 6’10”. Sometime in my early teens, I shot past him. Dad was a yeller. Not doing what he thought I should be? No discussion, just yell. But I realized at some point that he wouldn’t yell at me if he had to look up while he was doing it.
I don’t remember what our last argument was about, I just remember that I’d sort of caught on at this point. So I’m in my room in front of the computer, Dad comes in and starts yelling at me. I eventually stand up and start yelling back. Dad makes an excuse to leave. Dad comes back about a half hour later and starts yelling again, but at this point, it’s all I can do to not just laugh. I know that the instant I stand up, the argument will end. It actually wound up being really good for our relationship.”
