I work at a food joint in a theme park. I’m pouring drinks for several of the cashiers when I notice that one soda flavor has run out of syrup. I don’t notice exactly when the syrup runs out, but I don’t want to waste a drink that could still be good. I hand the cup to the guest.

Me: “Sir, the syrup ran out at the end of this drink. Would you try it? If it’s not good, I’ll remake it for you.”

Guest: *Looking at the cup* “Can I get a straw?”

Coworker: “We don’t have any back here; they’re outside on the condiment station.”

Guest: “How am I supposed to try it without a straw?”

All three of us stare at each other for about ten or fifteen seconds.

Me: “Pick it up and take a sip?”

The guest looked confused and rolled his eyes.

I work in a coffee bar in a theme park that’s located in a bigger space which people have to pass through on the way out. We always stay open later than the rest of the park, but we’re allowed to close half an hour after the park closes as long as there’s no queue and it isn’t busy.

To show we’re closed, we pull a metal barrier down about halfway, but we have to leave it open a bit so we can get out and clear tables and a bin in the main space.

This happens pretty much every day. A customer ducks under a half-closed metal barrier.

Customer: “Oh, are you closed?”

Me: “Yes, sorry about that. The park closed half an hour ago.”

Customer: “Well, could you make me a coffee?”

Me: “Sorry, I’ve started cleaning the machine; I can’t make any more drinks.”

Customer: “It’s not hard to make one coffee.”

Me: “Sorry, the coffee machine is full of cleaning chemicals. I really can’t make you a drink.”

Customer: “You’re just being lazy. This is terrible customer service.”

I work in the games department at an amusement park. My “area” is the children’s area. I am working the basketball game and I am doing callouts to various guests. I decide to call out to a boy that looks about ten or eleven. The boy has, who I assume to be, an older sister with him.

Me: “You there, with the red and black NBA shirt. You look like you would like to give my game here a shot!”

The boy looks at me for a moment before shrugging and walking over.

Boy: “Can I get a free shot?”

This is a common question.

Me: “No, but if you have two dollars on your game card, you can get one ball. If you have five, three balls you can shoot. Ten bucks will get you seven.”

The boy looks down at his game card while one of my coworkers enters the game to help me run it while we wait for our third to come back from storage with our supervisor.

Boy: “There’s no way I can get a free ball?”

Me: “Sorry, but no.”

Boy: “B****.”

After this, the boy turns and walks away. My coworker walks over and asks what’s wrong as she was able to hear what I was saying, but not what the boy was saying.

Coworker: “You good?”

Me: “I just got called a b**** for the third time today.”

Coworker: “That has to be a record.”

Later, when my supervisor is walking with me back to the office, she asks me about what happened earlier. I guess my coworker told her. We see the boy and I point him out to her. He proceeds to run to his group, which consists of two more females besides the one I originally saw him with.

Supervisor: “If you ever see that kid again and I’m working, call me. That same kid called [Coworker] and [Area Manager] b****es, as well.”

I work parking for a small seasonal theme park. We have a long dirt road with a few access points into the parking lot and one exit that all the lots lead to. We also have an employee-only backroad that’s paved. It is small and we are only allowed to let people go through it if they have an employee shirt.

I am working and a woman and her kids drive up and try to skip the line by going in the employee line. I hold out my hand and go to the window.

Me: “Do you have an employee shirt?”

She rolls down her window.

Customer: “Don’t worry. My nephew works here. He told me to go here and tell you it was okay.”

I immediately get suspicious because, as employees, we aren’t allowed to give special treatment to family.

Me: “I’m sorry, but I’m not allowed to let you through here. You’re going to have to pull through to the dirt road.”

Customer: “No! He said it was fine! Don’t be a d**k!”

When I asked who “he” was, she just got annoyed and drove off.

I’m a young teenage girl working as a lifeguard to earn some extra money. I’m at the bottom of the stairs to the water slides, measuring kids to make sure they reach the height requirement.

I’m twirling my whistle around my finger when four men in their late twenties, maybe early thirties walk by me. Three of them keep walking, but one of them just stops and stares at me. I wait to see if he’ll walk away, but he just keeps staring at me, so I speak up.

Me: “Hello, sir! Is there anything I can help you with?”

Guest: *Laughs* “Yes, I think there is.” *Steps closer* “Those are some pretty deft fingers you’ve got there.”

I immediately stop twirling the whistle.

Me: “If there’s nothing I can help you with, please continue up the stairs to the slides, or turn around and enjoy the rest of the park.”

Guest: *Inching even closer* “You can help me by telling me when your shift ends, and then show me what else you can do with those fingers.”

This man is more than ten years my senior. I lean forward and look him dead in the eyes.

Me: “You want to know what I’ll be doing with my fingers once my shift ends?”

Guest: *Nods eagerly*

Me: “Pleasuring my girlfriend.”

Guest: *Violent whole body recoil* “You… you’re a f****** [homosexual slur]!”

He thrusts his finger at my face.

Guest: “You should have told me you were a [slur], you dirty b****!”

Me: *Smiling smugly* “If there’s anything else I can help you with, please let me know; otherwise, you can continue up the stairs to the slides, or enjoy the rest of the park.”

Guest: “This is ridiculous! This is f****** ridiculous! You’re going to Hell, you ugly b****.”

He turned around to storm off, and he got maybe five steps away before slipping and falling.

After my shift ended, I learned that he demanded to see my manager, and then he was removed from the park after my manager told him that half the staff were “f****** [slurs]” and he’d been interacting with them all day.