At certain times in your life—particularly when things have gone sideways—it's important to take ownership of the fact that your own actions and decisions are the things that got you there. Unfortunately, most of us struggle with this and, as a matter of self-preservation, will seek to displace blame towards anyone or anything that we can point a finger at. Sometimes, this displacement is plausible, reasonable even, but at other times, it can get unreasonably ridiculous… Tell me again, Carl, ab…

If there's one person you don't want to mess with, it's an EMT who has just finished their shift… EMTs are some of the hardest working individuals with a job that necessitates sleep deprivation, self-sacrifice, and trauma that reaches far, far above their pay grade. Even a shift for them that is “not bad” would be enough to send the rest of us looking for another line of work. While they're some of the nicest people, every EMT I've ever known personally gets through their job by being partially…

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's kinda sorta hard to dress too casually for a job you don't have. For one thing, it's not your job, and, for another—well, it's not your job. As long as you're wearing a shirt and shoes, you can pretty much go anywhere you'd like… Although those signs usually fail to mention any requirement for pants, so that one's up to you.

Being a retail veteran means that you're nearly immune to the tactics of wily entitled customers, hardened to the core with the scar tissue of encounters with other customers—that or just completely dead inside—but it's all the same thing, really. Even if you leave the retail industry far behind, you remember the way people can act toward retail staff long afterward and how it's almost like people become another person when they begin talking to someone they deem to be a “servant" and beneath t…

We're silently judging each other all the time. Like it or not, it's a part of being human. Most of the time, these are calculated judgments, and they're made for good reason in order to avoid conflict and preemptively determine whether or not it is a good idea to broach particular topics of conversation with the person you're talking to—like deciding whether or not a political conversation is appropriate at your family's Christmas gathering. Even the most tolerant saint-like individuals among…

Do people just leave their valuable belongings at random places hoping no one will take them, or is it just this one Karen? When I worked in retail, I had a few regular customers who would occasionally ask me to put some shopping bags behind the counter while they went to get their car. Some even asked me to keep an eye on their kids while they ran to a different shop or took a phone call outside. Either way, I am no stranger to weird requests from customers. But I have to say that when I read…

“I immediately wanted to call in sick,” this video game store employee wrote. What made them feel so ill? An advertisement! For those who have spent time in the trenches of retail work around the holidays, you know exactly how this person feels. No matter how much you enjoy your retail job during the year, when the holiday season comes around, customers begin to act feral.

Certain organizations, especially within certain industries, love to save on labor, and one of the ways they do this is by sending workers home from a scheduled shift when things are quiet to try and keep from being overstaffed. Of course, predictably, as soon as the manager has sent someone home, you'll end up with the biggest rush of customers you've ever experienced, ensuring that the rest of the day is going to be a living nightmare—and no one will be getting any breaks.

Supermarkets are already a relatively overwhelming experience for most of us, akin to navigating a labyrinth that's been starkly lit by harsh-white fluorescent lighting while a string of the most infuriatingly mundane acoustic covers of songs that were popular ten years ago play omnipresently throughout.

Typically, purchasing something means that you intend to keep that thing for the duration of its life or until you pass it on. This directly contrasts with renting something, where you lease it for a set period of time for a fee with the expectation that you will be returning that thing by the end of the period you have paid for it. Both arrangements have their advantages, by owning something it's yours and you can do whatever you want with it, but this usually requires a much higher buy-in cos…

The 00s “console wars” were absolutely nuts, looking back… with fervent fanboys rabidly backing the corporation that they had elected to give their disposable income to as if they had a personal stake in the success of the company. Forums were filled with arguments over which console was better, and what features or exclusive games were offered that made the console of their backing. Love it or hate it (and I'm sure even today, this statement will spark controversy) the Wii was a clear winner.…

This retail worker was weary from unkind customers---until this dude came in. In retail, you tend to remember the best of the best and the worst of the worst customers, while everyone else in between is just a blue. You'll always remember the customer who screamed and threw her bags on the floor like a toddler having a meltdown. But you also remember the kind souls who praise your customer service skills in front of your bosses, or the kind who are genuinely grateful when you help them. In a st…

Rules usually exist for a reason. Generally, they come into being because someone did something and learned the hard way that the way they chose wasn't the way that it should be done, so it's decided that this way should never be attempted again by either them—or those surviving them—depending on how poorly their attempt went. There is another type of rule, though, and these rules are generally made up by a bored busybody middle manager on a random Wednesday afternoon because they need somethin…

It's no secret that working in customer service exposes you to all kinds of bizarre behavior that wouldn't be acceptable in any other place in society. What is it that makes people think it's okay to treat someone any differently just because they happen to be wearing an apron or a name badge? Unfortunately, the act of being served gives petty tyrants the opportunity to feel as if they are better than the person serving them, with some individuals exhibiting levels of malice and cruelty that ma…

No amount of wealth should excuse any customer from the rules. Unfortunately, there are plenty of entitled rich folks out there with “influence” who seem to think otherwise.