We'd all like to think that we have something to offer to this world. If we didn't, what would be the point? While this is kind of a baited question, the easy answer is that there's more to life than your monetizable value, despite what society might otherwise try and tell you... So, go outside and smell a flower, for gosh sake, and stop overcomplicating a life that is already overcomplicated enough. Still, because of our obsession with our own value and the value of things in our possession, i…

Two basic rules are taught to us when we work in customer service. First of all, we should never presume that consumers will read the small print at the bottom of our signage. The second universal guideline is to never, ever concede that you are correct and the client is mistaken. The story below is an account of a frustrated arts and crafts store manager. OP has been managing the store for a while, and quite frankly, presumably has encountered an endless amount of difficult customers. However,…

It takes a certain kind of person to be a difficult customer at a restaurant; it takes another kind of person to go out of their way to write a completely off-base one-star review. These three reviews may all be referring to different kinds of restaurants: a taco place, a dog-friendly café, and a fancy restaurant. However, they also have a few characteristics in common: 1) they are poorly written, with grammatical errors all over the place; 2) it is clear from the get-go that the writers of the…

Some like to complain, while others take pleasure in solving problems. However, for a strange reason, we always encounter the 50% of the population who get their kicks from criticizing and complaining about those around them. The account that follows is the story of an innocent bystander who was the target of an irate customer who was attempting to mail an item through the postal office. At this point, you probably think this is just another typical event. Unfortunately, it probably is. But thi…

These customers didn't let their poor social skills keep them from dining at restaurants . Instead, they showed up ready to eat food and interact with wait staff as minimally as possible. We all have days where we want to be left alone. Sometimes you just don't feel like interacting with people, and instead, you just want to curl up on your couch, order food delivery, and watch a movie. It's odd that apparently lots of people decide to go to restaurants when they're feeling antisocial. Why woul…

We should all strive to leave the world a better place than we entered it—unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be a very high priority on a lot of people's to-do lists. There are quite a few people who seek to selfishly maximize their own position without a care for anyone else or a regard for the effects of their reckless need for self-aggrandizement and wanton urge for wealth and power.

You might not expect a grown adult to lose their marbles over a 69-cent cup of the ranch, but when it comes to entitled people and paying petty amounts of cash, you can always expect there to be an issue.

This worker just couldn't stop fabricating tales. Of all the places to start lying, the workplace is one of the most risky. If you choose to spill a few little white lies to your coworkers, you probably won't get caught. Lying to your boss is a whole different game, though. Maybe your friends invite you to the beach on a gorgeous summer day, so you tell your boss that your grandma has passed on. Is it bad form? Yes. But you get to have a fun day in the sun, and your boss is none the wiser. The…

Can you really call dibs on an item in a store? Like any typical shopper, if you aren't sure about an item, you usually hold on to it or put it in your cart while you walk around, just to give you a little more time to decide if the item is really worth it. Or you could come back to the item, but there's no guarantee it will still be there, as other customers may walk past it and snag it for themselves. This is even more true in a thrift store, where every item is unique and usually one of a ki…

Hire a new manager and let her run the night shift on her own terms… what could go wrong? Turns out, almost everything, according to one of the workers, u/packrat2488. Night shifts at fast-food restaurants can be wildly unpredictable. Usually, there's a steady stream of people until about 2 AM. Then, from 2 AM to 5 AM, there's almost no one around, so the workers have a few minutes to catch their breath, take a break, and then start cleaning up the place. These hours in the middle of the night…

From glitter to an actual bear, it's truly shocking what hotel workers have discovered in rooms after guests leave. Not only is there a ridiculous number of folks who refuse to clean up after themselves, but also there is a startling number of guests who should at the very least alert the front desk that there has been an issue. Some of these guests may have been trying to get out of being charged extra, but in many of these cases, those extra charges are bound to come so you might as well just…

As every retail employee knows, shoppers change their persona when they walk into a store. Nobody knows how or why, but even the most benevolent people can transform into feral Karens as soon as they walk in front of a store cashier, pillaging the aisles like there's no tomorrow.

Perhaps everyone should have made their resolutions this year to be kinder to their servers and bartenders. If you're not part of the problem but you are witnessing a Karen customer throwing a tantrum for no good reason, perhaps you should consider stepping in and defending the people who have been on their feet for multiple hours and are just trying to get you your food and drinks the way you ordered them. No one is trying to mess up, and so much of what goes on in a bar or restaurant is outsi…

Working the phones in any job is not usually a very good time, but working the phones for insurance claims seems to be notorious for getting the worst of the Karen and male-Karen customers…

This form of revenge was not only petty, but it was also knotty. Sometimes, when you're in a public performance setting like a movie theater or a play, people are unintentionally disruptive and annoying in a way that can ruin the whole experience for others. We know this phenomenon all too well, from the folks who text after they have been told to silence their cell phones to the people who have absolutely no concept of personal space. Like it or not, there are unspoken rules of how to behave i…

One would think that doing a little research would be necessary before threatening to change companies for an important service, but the Karens of the world are not always inclined to think before they speak. This kind of behavior takes me back to my early days in the workforce when I was working in a freelance, client-based position and would have to deal with the occasional difficult client who enjoyed picking fights and threatening to work with someone else. The truth is it did not take long…