One customer had a hard time getting their internet provider to understand them. When they said they were moving off the grid , they weren't kidding! Rural life is appealing to many people because of that amazing peace and quiet you find while living in nature. Isolated from other houses, cars, and buildings, you can really appreciate the quietude. Some people even love to live really deep out in nature . In places like Alaska or other very rural locales, it's common that some folks won't have…

How much trouble is it worth going through to avoid paying for a couple of leaves of lettuce? Is it worth a run-in with the police that could possibly see you arrested and sent to prison, all because you didn't want to pay $9 for your salad after complaining about the toughness of your steak? From there, you'll be forced to plan a daring means of escape. By day, you'll see yourself unwittingly participating in and then dismantling the operations of the corrupt warden running the prison while sp…

'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.

Yes, the schedule. The cornerstone, the Monolith, of shiftwork… Obey the schedule—lest you find yourself at odds with some angry shift manager who quotes its existence at you like scripture. Managers love a good schedule, and they also like complaining about that schedule and blaming the schedule for all of their problems—even when they're the ones who made it. If they schedule you for a shift you couldn't normally work, all of a sudden, it's “It's on the schedule,” “I've posted the schedule.”…

Restaurants see no shortage of demands for customization and demanding customers, with the latter uttering the former with surprising frequency. Dealing with these demands from the demanding is no picnic, but learning to handle them can be. Not in the literal sense in that you're going to sit down in a nice grassy spot with a blanket, basket, some nice cheeses, a bottle of prosecco, some ripe fruit, and your favorite pal—more so in the sense that like a picnic is a pleasing and relaxing experie…

A Karen calls an arts and crafts store and demands a pizza… No, this isn't a punchline for a joke—but everyone who has worked in restaurants or retail wishes that it was. These workers have seen their fair share of wild demands and demanding wild persons—and it only takes one screaming customer meltdown in the lobby of your establishment to make you reconsider your entire line of work. But at least in person, most people have the good graces to behave politely, but phone conversations and email…

This worker came with receipts. Usually, these types of things are a “he said, she said” type of scenario, where both sides state their perspectives, and the truth lies somewhere in between.

Working in any kind of customer service, you're constantly exposed to the worst sorts of people. When you're still fresh and green into a customer service job, you approach it with a certain sense of optimism, telling yourself and anyone who asks how excited you are to help people and make a difference in their life with your incredible service. With bright eyes, you look around you, wondering why your seasoned coworkers are so haggard and embittered, approaching the day with a thousand-yard st…

Fighting back the urge to laugh when an adult is having a full-blown meltdown right in front of you over basically nothing is one of the most challenging parts of working retail—but you only reach this level of reaction when you've put up with it enough times that you no longer have the ability to experience the trauma of being shouted at that you did when you first started. Not only that but—when they're making obscene demands—you have to fight every muscle in your body that wants to do precis…

If you work in retail, customer service, or the service industry, sooner or later, you're going to run into a confoundingly indignant and angry individual who is going to ruin your day—leaving you thinking about this interaction for years to come. It's just a matter of sheer statistics; talk to enough people in a day, and sooner or later, at some point, you're going to have a grown adult having a full tantrum in the center of your store like it's some kind of performative art piece. This Karen…

Toxic organizations breed toxic behavior, begetting toxic people. Unfortunately, those that conform to the organization's less-than-ideal ideals tend to do better and prosper, rising far above their deserved rank and encouraging their unfavorable behavior towards others that would ideally be derided. We've seen stories like this before, where an employee is singled out and collectively gaslit by their coworkers on behalf of getting them to conform to bizarre organizational directives. In this c…

What would you do to get your preferred parking space? Some might say that towing seven cars is a little extreme—whether or not those cars are technically supposed to be parked there. This is especially the case when you're just a guest staying at a hotel and in no way have a stake in said hotel. This Karen took issue with the fact that there were a bunch of non-electric cars parked in the electric car parking spaces, but parking at the location was extremely limited, so it was essential that a…

One of the worst parts about working in the service industry or retail is “blackout” dates—where no one is able to take days off—these always line up with precisely the days you'd want to take off. Holidays, long weekends, and anytime between Christmas and New Years—pretty much any time you might want to see family or friends (who are all off work.) These have all been deemed as days where all hands are needed on deck due to high volumes of trade. But the worst part about blackout dates?.. Hypo…

There are glorious times in customer service when doing what the customer has asked necessitates doing technically nothing. It's a rare occurrence but oh-so-good when it happens to chance upon you. When this worker promised to give an angry Karen a refund, they did so by promising to refund the amount that it would cost them to park on the street: Nothing. This left the Karen happy to go merrily on their way, and with the problem now out of sight and out of mind, she was never the wiser. It's g…

You'd probably be horrified at how common these types of requirements are within certain industries. The industries where manipulative employers tell you with a smile that you're a "family"… while simultaneously plotting how they can squeeze as much unpaid labor out of you as possible. Working in the service and retail industries is no walk in the park—that should not come as a great surprise to anybody. The frantic and inconsistent demands of these businesses place considerable strain on staff…

If you read the original poster's title as ‘Hitachi Fun’ instead of ‘Hibachi Fun,’ like me, you were expecting a very different thread.