I work in a large popular drugstore chain. A customer brings a cart of items to the register for me to ring up. As I’m ringing up the last item she says to me:

Customer: “Just keep that here for me. I have some more shopping to do.”

And just like that she takes the cart and walks off and disappears into the store! I had to void the entire order because I had a line of people.

I left for the day before she ever came back!

I hope she enjoyed her melting ice cream bars!

It’s a super busy Friday night for our hotel. My shift is short-staffed, so I’m handling a portion of the shift on my own. The morning shift was short-staffed, too, so I am also trying to play catch-up.

This guy calls, and I ask him if he can wait on hold. He is on hold for maybe two minutes before he hangs up. He calls back maybe five minutes later, and I ask if I can place him on hold again.

Caller: *Snapping* “No! You can take my number and call me back!”

Me: “Okay. I’ll take down your number and do my best to call you as soon as possible.”

An hour passes, and it has still been nonstop with check-ins; I haven’t even been able to sneak in a bathroom break. Our shuttle has just dropped off a full load of people needing to check in, and the guy calls again.

I answer in the middle of a check-in and ask if I can put him on hold.

Caller: “No! You were supposed to call me back!”

Me: “I apologize, sir. The desk has been extremely busy, and I have not had the chance to give you a call back.”

Caller: “That’s bulls***! I’m sure you had at least a minute to call me.”

Honestly, I have so much crap on my plate I really have not had the chance. I try to explain that we have been nonstop with check-ins, and I have to deal with them first. He really doesn’t like that.

Caller: “Fine. Then you can have your manager call me back. I’m sure you will be fired.”

Me: “Okay, yeah. I will have him call you back. Goodbye.”

Once it had finally gotten quiet, my manager gave him a call. No word of a lie, he was on the phone with this man for twenty minutes. The guy was demanding that I be fired and that he should receive a discount for his horrible experience. My manager apologized that he’d had a bad experience but told him that I would not be getting fired and that he would not be getting a discount. He could not comprehend that he wasn’t getting his way.

Honestly, I can’t help but laugh. Why do random bystanders think they have any say in someone’s employment? I would understand if I had discriminated against him or was rude, but I wasn’t. People are wild, and I am just glad that his bad behaviour was not rewarded.

This is absolutely the most ridiculous thing anyone has ever said to me, and I’ve been working this job for over a decade.

My hotel is a “fancy hotel”, which means that we don’t have vending machines; we have a snack shop that people can buy from. Unfortunately, upper management won’t let my manager have access to the credit card used for ordering for some reason, so we have to run everything through our poor food and beverage director, who is already drowning in work. We also have to go through only certain distributors because of our brand, so it leads to us being completely out of everything 90% of the time.

I get a call at around 4:00 am from a lady who is irate that we don’t have any place to buy soda. I let her know that we are completely out. We are out of candy, chips, and soda; pretty much the only thing we have is assorted nuts and water.

Guest: “So, there is nowhere for me to get a soda?”

Me: *Repeating myself* “No, ma’am. Unfortunately, we are completely out.”

Guest: “Well, your manager is just going to have to comp my stay. This is ridiculous!”

I am so shocked that I nearly laugh in her face; she wants a 160-dollar room comped for a three-dollar soda.

Me: “I don’t believe my manager will be able to do that, ma’am.”

She continues on her snotty tirade. At this point, I’ve gotten so good at predicting what these entitled people are gonna say that I can play a little bingo game in my head.

Guest: “I stay here all the time!”

Check off one.

Guest: “Your manager knows me!”

That’s two.

Guest: “You obviously don’t know who I am!”

And three…

Guest: “I’ll tell your manager that you don’t care about your guests!”

Four…

Guest: “He’s going to have to do what I say, or I’ll never stay here again!”

Five! We got a bingo. I didn’t even have to use a free space!

Needless to say, no, we didn’t comp her room. And surprise, surprise, she wasn’t even the one paying for her room; she was under a company group. It’s always people staying on someone else’s dime who are the most entitled.

My long-distance partner and I have the displeasure of having a mutual ex-friend. My partner was briefly [Ex-Friend]’s roommate for a while and suffered the worst of the “friendship” because of it.

[Ex-Friend] is either a narcissist or has a lot of narcissistic tendencies; we’ve done several online checklists and tests, and they tick off nearly every box every time. In public, they seem shy to the point of social anxiety and pleasant, but in private, they are rude, entitled, and quick to anger over nothing at all. (They once got rather nasty when they couldn’t hear the TV well over a very quiet phone call.)

They are/were also extremely possessive of my partner — often getting angry when he hung out with anyone, especially with me — and gaslit him into believing that many activities that they did that made [Partner] very uncomfortable were normal, prompting him to not speak up for a few years. Their behavior made us suspect that they really wanted something more from their relationship with [Partner] despite saying they were aromantic.

[Partner] and I could collectively write a whole novel about their behavior — and then would likely be accused of making up the world’s most unbelievable cartoon villain — but I’m only including the most egregious incident to date to keep it brief.

After [Ex-Friend] “moved out” of [Partner]’s place (and his mother’s; she owned the house), they kept coming over for dinner. 

By this point, [Partner] had started talking to me and other friends about [Ex-Friend]’s behavior, and we were all collectively beginning to realize how toxic the friendship was. Therefore, [Partner] was far less tolerant of [Ex-Friend]’s behavior, which upset them greatly and made them pine for “the good old days” (when [Partner] was too afraid to speak up in his defense and get into a fifteen-hour-long argument with them).

On this occasion, they had finished off the last of [Partner]’s mother’s gin by pouring for themself a little too generously. (For those who are more acquainted with alcohol than I am, they basically poured themself triples and quadruples with each glass.)

[Partner] and his mother didn’t think anything of it when [Ex-Friend] went to the kitchen, but when they heard the clinking of glass and something pouring, they got curious. After all, they’d just finished off the gin for the night. Why was there the sound of a drink being poured? [Partner]’s mother went to investigate.

As it turns out, [Ex-Friend] had gone into their cabinets, digging around toward the back of them, and had unearthed a very strong spirit (my partner did not elaborate on what this spirit was) meant for mixed drinks like martinis. They had poured themself their usual generous triple. Without permission, of course.

They were forced to pour it back into the bottle they had taken it from and then sulked the rest of the night.

This is by far the incident that was the most entitled, but as I said, [Partner] and I both have years’ worth of stories to tell about [Ex-Friend]; their behavior is simply so cartoonishly toxic that I suspect someone will accuse me of inventing the stories.

I work in the city and usually take the bus home. As anyone who commutes knows, these buses can get packed, especially during rush hour. On this particular day, I managed to snag a seat, which felt like winning the lottery after a long day at work. I had my earbuds in and was half-asleep, lost in my music.

A few stops into my ride, a woman and her son, who looked to be about ten years old, got on the bus. It was clear from the get-go that there were no seats available, but that didn’t stop [Woman] from scanning the bus like she was on a mission. She locked eyes with me and bee-lined in my direction.

She spoke to me in a tone that was more demanding than polite.

Woman: “Excuse me, could you let my son sit down? He’s really tired from his day and needs to sit.”

I was surprised that she singled me out since there were other people, some elderly, standing, as well. I was about to respond, maybe even stand up, despite feeling exhausted myself, when another woman standing nearby spoke up.

Helpful Woman: *In a kind but firm tone* “Ma’am, it’s not right to single out someone for their seat. We’re all tired after a long day. Perhaps your son can manage standing for a bit.”

[Woman]’s face turned a shade of red.

Woman: “But he’s just a child, and children need to sit. It’s common courtesy!”

The bus was unusually silent, with everyone seemingly tuned into our conversation. [Helpful Woman], undeterred, replied:

Helpful Woman: “I understand, but so do the elderly, the disabled, and those who’ve had long days at work. We can’t always expect others to give up their comfort for us. It’s a valuable lesson in consideration and patience.”

[Woman] looked ready to argue more but seemed to realize that the bus audience wasn’t on her side. She muttered something under her breath about “rude people” and moved slightly away, still standing.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, but the atmosphere felt a bit charged.

When my stop arrived, I got up, and as I passed [Helpful Woman], she gave me a small smile and a nod as if to say, “You did the right thing.” I nodded back in gratitude, feeling relieved but also a bit surprised at how the situation unfolded.