Many years ago, I was supervising at a supermarket checkout. An older lady (late 50’s / early 60’s) started berating one of the young checkout girls, she was newish about 16yo.
I over heard, it was hard not to after a little while. I walked over, I was 19 at the time. I’m not a big guy 5’9" and weighed around 60kg (checks math…132lb). The old woman sees me and begins to go into a rant, to which I simply said, get the fuck out of my store. It was latish (8:30pm), there were no managers left in store.
She went into (what is now called) full karen mode, ranting about calling my manager. I got a bit pf paper and wrote my managers and the store managers numbers down with their names and said, “go ahead, call them”. She quickly calmed down and went to go stand back in line…I said, “no I told you to get out”.
A guy strung out on meth robbed me at gunpoint with the smallest pistol I have ever seen. I was so surprised I asked if it was real and he said “Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?” why chuckling. He politely took the cash and left a big old hand print on the glass door so he could be caught about an hour later robbing his third store where they did confirm it was real and loaded.
He was far from the worst as far as hostility since he was polite and all, but he did point a loaded gun at me while high on drugs which is just plain unsafe.
You did the right thing, because drug addicts don’t have a critical sense, especially in these situations. Just the fact that he’s scared can cause a tragedy.
A man went on a misogynistic tirade and punched me.
He wanted some thing we were out of stock of. Then he wanted some other thing for free because we were out of stock of the first and I told him I could give a discount but not free. He got increasingly mad. I offered to have the store call him when we got the thing in stock, referred him to another store where they did have it in stock, offered coupons, nothing deescalated him. Lots of screaming, calling me bitch, cunt, whore, etc. He reached over the counter to punch me, which fortunately took a lot of power out of the punch and gave me enough time to shift so he hit my arms instead of my face (mostly).
I hit the panic button early on but the response was a couple min too late.
He was arrested and pled guilty without me having to talk in court, so that was nice.
I’m sorry about that. I hope a guy like that rots in jail, because a human being like that can’t live in society.
Lol, jail time. You’re funny. It was called a low-level misdemeanor. $500 fine and he went about his merry way.
I hate cowards and in the place where I work they’re the most common. Here in Brazil, in theory, detention from three months to one year. Depending on the situation, the defendant pays a fine.
So, so many; I have spent far too long in hospitality.
A relatively benign one: At a small coffeeshop. Found a quirky little hat behind the counter - a tweed fedora thing with a rakish orange feather in it. Full of youthful high spirits and caffeine, I proceeded to lark around the shop in the hat (yes I wish I still had that much energy), much to the amusement of my coworkers. A lady walks in, interrupting us. She’d left her hat.
At a bar: A nonzero amount of customers buying a bottle of beer and then pouring it into the tip jar (edited to add: thinking it a glass for their beer). Some version of “how was I supposed to know?!”, repeatedly. I don’t know, maybe the fact it was covered in chalk pen, contained money, and was very, very ugly?
At a pub: boomer getting very angry at me because he’d asked for a spiced rum and coke and I’d offered Sailor Jerry’s (cheapest). Apparently that was a wussy drink. No, he clarified, a girly drink. He chose some other rum with coke. Yeah drink your sugar water old man.
I don’t get it. Why are they buying a beer and pouring it out?
Oh, should have clarified: they thought the tip jar was a glass for their beer. When I’d already asked them if they wanted a glass.
oh woe. I think they had to many.
Probably just thought it was funny to cause the staff a bit of hassle.
I teach outdoors for school groups in a nature area and a part of that process is a discovery hike. Its me, about 12 kids, and a parent chaperone and as we are walking through the woods we see a deer. All these kids, who were in 4th grade, were so excited! We very quietly watched it grazing around in this woods, not giving us any mind at all, when it sort of gets its antlers tangled in some vine and ends up pulling a dead tree down on top of it.
The deer is now flailing under a whole ass tree that collapsed right on to it, and it clearly is suffering. It is making the worst kinds of noises and I have the parent keep the kids back as I approach this crazed stag. It clearly suffered head trauma and was bleeding. The worst part is that it was right on the path back and, due to the terrain, there was really no way to get around this deer without being close to it. After trying and failing to get the deer loose, I had the children all vlimb over the tree and we went back. To top it off they all immediately got on the bus to go home, so it was the last memory these kids had of the place.
I ended up going back and putting the deer down. Absolutely traumatizing.
you did the right thing comrade, that sounds really fucked, but I’m proud of you for what thats worth
Many years ago Inworked at an Arby’s inside a food court. A man and woman came in, and she ordered a Jamocha shake while he got a free cup of water. They then went back into the mall.
About 20 minutes later they come back and he complains about a fly in his water. The assistant manager (I was just a cashier) said sorry and gave him a new cup of water.
“What are you going to do to make it up to me?” Seriously? It was free, we could give you 10 times what you paid and it’d still be $0. Plus, the fly probably came from you going out in the mall.They didn’t get their way so she asked for a refund on the shake and got that. Ridiculous if you ask me.
People need to be studied by NASA. Something similar has happened to me. The difference was that I needed to scan a client’s document to insert it into the work system. Then I had to take a copy of the ID and attach it to the registration form. When he saw me taking the copy, he asked if I could take another one for him. As I was already doing it, I took the copy and gave it to him. After half an hour he came back swearing at me because, according to him, I’d handed him a copy of my ID that was dirty with poor water.
Yep people are ridiculous
Two of us running a quiet little wine bar, him behind the bar, me taking a break at the back of the room. Three lads come in and we both recognised them as the ones who had trashed one of the rooms upstairs the previous week. When my co-worker refused to serve them, one of them grabbed a bottle and hit it against the bar, trying (and failing) to break it for a weapon.
I saw red. All 5’4" of me advancing in fury, yelling “get out” repeatedly at the top of my voice. They looked at me, froze for a second, then scrambled out the door.
I was quite impressed with myself until I turned round and saw one of our regulars, a great big bear of a man, had heard the commotion and come in from the back room to see what was going on.
I work at a sex store. Was showing guy products. Asked if he could fuck me. When I say no, asks if he can suck my dick. I’m a trans woman and I get a lot of this sort of thing.
I also had a customer grab my breast after I checked him out at the gas station I worked at.
Maybe it was the time a lady asked me to put in gloves to handle her change, or the time after that when the same lady dropped change on the ground next to her car and ordered me to pick it up for her (this would require me to walk in front of her vehicle).
Maybe it was the time a woman my age walked up to me and asked if I was “one of those transgenders” and when I said yes she asked if I was “one of the angry ones”.
Idk
Everything sucks
Oh I have a good one. I worked at a paint store for like 15 years. One day, this guy drives up in a Mercedes, wearing a Burberry scarf, and asks me for “Black Marine Paint.” We were a housepaint store so I told him we didn’t have it, we didn’t sell paint for boats, and what was he wanting to paint. He said he wanted to paint his front door, and the doors at Buckingham palace are painted with black marine paint, and did I know what he meant. I said I didn’t know about the doors on Buckingham palace, and he indignantly says, “What?! It famous like the doors of the White House!” I told him I wasn’t familiar with the doors of the white house either.
But I start showing him some oil based paint and he seems happy with it. He’s about to buy when he asks what he should do to strip the paint off of his door, since its latex and this new paint is oil. His eyes narrow and he skeptically asks me, “can you put latex over oil?” I said sure, if you use a primer. He gets real angry and, as two new customers walk in, screams, “You’re a fucking idiot!” storms out and gets into his Mercedes which the two women had parked beside.
They give me a look, I shrug and walk over to help them pick out colors. When they are done they go out to there car, but a minute later come back and ask me I I knew the guy, and to come outside.
Someone, I presume the Burberry guy, had kicked in the door to their car, leaving a huge foot shaped dent. I assume he thought it was my car or something.
I’ve definitely had bad experiences at that job, but that entitled freak stands out to in my memory years later
I used to assemble products and when someone came in for a pickup we always asked for a receipt as it was the easiest way to find what belonged to them. If they didn’t have it we’d just need to look it up on the computer, no big deal
I was about 16 or 17 and guy comes in and says, “I’m here to pick up my X”. I asked for the receipt. He instantly blew a gasket “I’m no thief, don’t you dare accuse me of stealing, blah blah”. When he settled down I said I only wanted it to find his item easier, which of course started him on another shouting rampage. I was the only one in the department and I remember him shouting a lot and then had his finger right in my face. It was my turn to lose it, I told him if he didn’t get his finger out of my face and stop shouting I was going to kick seven shades of shite out of him. The commotion had caused other staff members to show up, then the manager came up. I told the manager I wasn’t serving him, find someone else, theres more chance of me breaking his nose than me getting his shit. I explained what happened out in the back store and the manager said it was fine, I heard nothing more about it
I had another customer lose it at me in the same place as he said good were faulty. I said no you broke it. He said it just happened. I laughed at him. He lost his mind. I didn’t GAF when I was that age. Manager replaced his product FOC. I laughed at the manager about that too
how dare you accuse me of being a thief!
I didn’t think you were a thief but now I’m not so sure
I misgendered a woman who was already very irate. This was probably 30 years ago, before trangenderism was as common as it is now (or at least as publicly presented). It did NOT go over well, to say the least. Other customers were smirking and giggling, and even a coworker was having trouble keeping a straight face. In my defense, she was heavyset, had shaved hair and a raspy voice. Luckily I didn’t say any of this to her. I just got my manager and let her yell at me (and him) for 10 minutes. I learned the value of keeping your mouth shut until you’re certain that day.
Having to speak destroys the symphony of silence.
When I was a kid working at dominos a guy came in to make an order and wanted to pay with his card and when I asked him for the card number he like physically shrank away from me and became shifty and said “why do I have to give you that?!”
CW: Vomit, gross imagery.
spoiler
One of my worst experiences at the Golden Corral was some douchey fratboys (that of course harassed my coworker and called her fat when she declined to give them further attention because of fucking course they did) that were so drunk that one of them vomited all over the table they sat at, making the rest of them laugh obnoxiously loud which turned further heads toward what had just happened, and then one of them got up, enraged that me and my coworkers were too busy to dive at the frat boys’ feet and immediately clean up the vomit. Like, seconds later, after the laughter barely stopped.
Contextually, Golden Corral is a very gross place and when it’s especially crowded and there’s gross things to at least superficially clean up in 3-4 parts of the facility at any given time, it will take at least a few minutes to get anything done, especially while the frat boys are still hooting and grunting while still sitting around the vomit.
I am in one of those jobs that invites me to visit people in their homes, and there are just so many that aren’t homey. Think the mother of all messes but not as fun.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.