When working on massive, expensive building projects, oftentimes, the office salesmen get a little too big for their britches because of the promise of a sweet commission check. In the heat of the moment, a greedy salesman might even throw out quotes and numbers that are vastly off-base in a desperate attempt to secure a client and pocket a little bonus check for themselves. However, things can go horribly wrong when that flippant boardroom negotiation actually hits the streets.

People will go to any length and make every attempt to turn even the most petty situations to their advantage. Just a single trip to any busy parking lot will show you this, with desperate drivers doing anything in their power to secure a spot, even getting their passengers to jump out of the vehicle to stand in front of it and (hopefully) prevent anyone from getting there first, whilst engaging in outrageous displays of behavior from within the safety of their oversized vehicles. Of course, on…

'Ask and you shall receive'. These are certainly words to live by– but when we're talking about making modifications on a restaurant order, this phrase is more of a solemn warning.

1-star reviews tend to shed light on the entitled and overly demanding customers of this world, but every so often, there's a justified one. Here, we have a customer who went out for drinks with his wife in Lisbon for a rare occasion considering how expensive nightlife can be in their city. Let's just say that they did not get the drinks they ordered. His wife ordered a Long Island Iced Tea and received a Coke; the Redditor ordered a Moscow Mule and received a spiked Ginger Ale. Close, but no c…

Having good working relationships with coworkers is important and can contribute to a thriving team and business—but it's important to know where the line is—or else it can be incredibly easy to accidentally jump across it with a two-footed leap… especially when you have no common sense about how to communicate with other people respectfully. It's not uncommon for coworkers , especially in the service industry and retail, to be incredibly close, bonded through mutual suffering and long, unforgi…

It comes as no surprise that at most companies, management tends to periodically enforce tone-deaf rules that can make employees feel undervalued. Sometimes that comes in the form of a new organizational structure, altered schedules, or reinforcing certain ways of doing things that employees know with certainty do not work. However, it comes with the territory of working at a company where management is largely absent but weirdly strict. In this case, we have a pharmacy that shall not be named…

How many people working in customer service, retail, or the service industry have had to deal with this exact same scenario? The closing time was 6 pm—it's now ten after—and there are still customers in the store. You're not allowed to turn customers away—management has forbidden it—still, customers continue to pour in. This same thing happens often, and management insists that every last customer be able to order, forcing you to stay late well past scheduled closing… Yet, every time you try to…

Being mistaken for a worker by a fellow customer is an embarrassing experience for all involved—they're embarrassed that they made a mistake, and you're embarrassed for having to rebuff a complete stranger when you were simply minding your own business with some mid-shopping dissociation. Usually, at this point, you'd both abashedly go your own way and pretend that each other doesn't exist like good strangers do when you eventually cross paths again in the store. This goes sideways when the mis…

The saying, ‘The customer is always right’ has long lost its appeal, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't ever hold any truth to it. Employees can miscalculate, leading to big fines, expensive problems, and can generally cost companies big amounts of cash. The wheel of fortune isn't always on our side, but being human, we know it can't be. What goes up must come down, and vice versa. In any case, a company miscalculated big time, leading to the grand mistake of accidentally sending a check for…

It's one thing for your boss to boss you around, as it is literally their job to do that. It's quite another when the person bossing you around is your boss's girlfriend. This bookstore employee came up with a system to manage customer orders that involved a little extra double-checking when each order was processed but ultimately meant fewer phone calls confirming orders to customers, as repeat phone calls were clearly bothering the customer base. Sounds like a pretty good system and the emplo…

As a sales person, this employee still has to field a lot of customer service calls . Due to a mix up with the phone systems' phrasing, lots of confused customers get sent to u/d**nknife's phone line. They shared one story of a customer who just could not understand what they were paying for on their phone plan . I guess the customer isn't always right after all. If you've ever talked to someone who's worked a customer service phone operator job, they'll tell you that it takes some strategy. Th…

It should be required to permit sitting down when needed for any and all jobs.

Traveling can take its toll on the senses. After twelve hours cramped into a flying tube net to a snoring odorant stranger, you arrive at your hotel only to discover that you've been booked into a room next to a family of unruly children whose shouting and banging on the shared wall threatens to sever your last thread of sanity. To make matters worse, you're right across the hall from the ice and vending machines, and each time either is dispensed, it's as if each cube of ice, each soda, is dro…

Visiting an old workplace is a weird experience. Seeing old friends and coworkers still bound by the same toxic policies and stresses that once held you stirs rippling memories like a stone skipping across a pond's still surface before coming to rest in waters that were better left undisturbed. While you attempt to make small talk and reconnect, you can't help but detect feelings of resentment from the old comrades you left behind; while once you suffered together, now you're free from this par…

Everyone wishes and hopes for an empty seat next to them on a flight. If you're traveling alone and it's not a full flight, you immediately find yourself praying to whomever and thinking about all the reasons in your head about why you deserve this, that you've been good this year… Yes, getting the row to yourself on a plane is the adult version of a Christmas miracle. Now, the level of predictability when it comes to how full your flight might be obviously varies. This larger passenger insiste…

This bakery owner kneaded a reality check, and—well… he sure got one. Trust some small business owners to think that their power over their workers is absolute and that they own and orchestrate every part of their lives. Unfortunately, in communities where jobs are scarce, this can literally be the case. Whilst traveling and working in cafes in small towns, I personally witnessed a local cafe owner, an absolute demon of a woman, torpedo the job prospects of a single mother who worked for her. A…