It's time for Christmas with the Karens! See what we did there? By the end of each year, we typically reflect on the highs and lows of our professional and personal lives as we celebrate the holidays and begin to plan for all that is to come next year. Sometimes, however, it turns out that it's far easier to complain about the most frustrating and annoying encounters we've had this past year than to reflect on the more wholesome moments. With that in mind, we've collected the top Karen stories…

It's one thing to have to work for a Karen manager, but it's quite another to have your bosses be a Karen and Kevin couple. In fact, it doesn't get much worse than that because you know your bosses are exchanging thoughts about you at all times, whether it's in the workplace or when they're at home after hours. Here , we have a young server who was looking for restaurant experience to make ends meet while she was writing her novel. She landed a job as a server for a diner, which was owned by tw…

Bad service at a restaurant or bar is one of life's minor yet soul-crushing annoyances. You know, the kind of service where the orders take forever, drinks are left unfilled, or that awkward moment when the server doesn't even pretend to care that you've been side eyeing them for the past 20 minutes. Most of us try to cut servers some slack—after all, they're probably overworked, underpaid, and likely juggling a table full of Karens who are making their lives miserable.

Working at a drive-thru means dealing with the full range of human behavior. That means handling customers who are everything from impatient to entitled to unkind. Every so often, you'll get a generous customer, but that's about as common as an eclipse, so you might as well figure out how to talk to these wretched individuals. Here, we have a new hire who was working her second shift ever when a group of entitled men were passing through and talking over one another while ordering. Naturally, t…

It's remarkable what entitled people think they can get away with if they stir up enough of a fuss. Here, we have a male Karen customer who called up a sandwich place demanding for a refund after getting just “slabs of fat” on the brisket sandwiches he ordered at around 6:30 pm the day before. The manager with whom he was speaking asked for his order confirmation number so he could confirm the refund, and it quickly became that this was information the customer did not have not because he lost…

Working as a server sounds fun in theory; the free food, cash tips, and you basically get paid to talk to people all shift. But then you get stuck working the dinner rush, when all chaos breaks loose, and you find yourself dripping sweat as you run from table to table while getting an earful from the non-avoidable Karen customers. Some customers are lovely and understanding, but then there are the ones who turn a small mistake into a full-blown screaming war. We’ve all seen it—the over-the-top…

What does management expect when they don't have the backs of their employees?

If you have ever worked in the service industry, then you have definitely met lots of people who could use this training service...

There's certainly something to be said for working within your limits, particularly for the sake of safety and not making costly mistakes. Especially when a job requires manual labor, it's a matter of self-preservation. By overextending and injuring yourself, you could permanently impair your ability to do that job. I remember working at a beer distribution company just out of high school; the older guys liked having me around on their routes because I could sling the fresh kegs around for them…

Shopping for the Holidays often brings out the worst in people. This could not be more apparent than on Black Friday. Hopefully, we all survived this tumultuous day by staying home and doing all our holiday shopping online this year like a sane person. However, who can't resist hearing about the crazies who still run amok in retail stores the day after Thanksgiving as if their lives depended on that 40% discount? Here , we have a retail worker who was unfortunately scheduled at the start of Bla…

"The joy as I said, 'No thanks, I'm the manager and I will never book you again.'"

Hotel receptionist: 1, Karen: 0

There are some people in this world who will do anything but admit when they are wrong. Here, we have a Karen ringleader, who waltzed into a restaurant with an army of Karen friends (or, as the Redditor likes to refer to them, her “sheep”). This Karen made it crystal clear from the get-go that she was looking to start drama. When her food arrived, she decided she needed to have a word with the innocent 20-year-old server who recounted this series of unfortunate events. The customer was upset th…

If they shenan once, you know they're gonna shenanigan.

Well, at least they didn't make a big deal out of nothing

In every industry, there are things that folks outside of said industry would not necessarily want to know about. For instance, if you're eating at a restaurant and you learn that they don't clean the kitchen nearly enough, you might never want to eat there ever again. If you work at a company and you learn that the truth behind who gets promoted and who doesn't has absolutely nothing to do with merit, you might be discouraged. But like all secrets, the truth is bound to come out, and while it…