From 1993 to 2008, my husband and I owned a hobby shop. I had a full-time job elsewhere, and my husband ran the shop.

After 9/11, he was called up for active duty (he was a reservist), and I’d been laid off, so I would work in the shop until I had to pick our kids up from school.

One morning, a woman came in and started looking at various Games Workshop figures and boxed sets. These were not cheap by any means, and retailers didn’t get the normal markdown from the manufacturer, so they were rarely discounted.

She approached the counter to check out, and I began ringing her up.

Customer: *Rather rudely* “I get a 50% discount as I’m the owner’s wife.”

Me: “Really? Wow. How long have you been married?”

Customer: “Oh, just a few months. We just recently got married…”

Me: “Really? Well, d***, it’s nice to meet you since I’m his wife and the one he f***s at night and not you. Do you still want this figure pack or not? Because you’re not getting any discount.”

The customer stood there like a fish out of water, the way her mouth was opening and closing. I set the figure pack under the counter.

Me: “Time for you to get out of my shop and never come back.”

After she left, I called my husband to tell him about it and he was like, “D***, some people will try anything!”

I am working as a sign language interpreter in a classroom. I’ve been working with one particular student since she was five years old, and it’s been a pleasure to see her growing up and keeping pace with her classmates.

The teacher has just gotten a new aide: a stern, older-looking woman who — and I don’t mean to stereotype — looks like she’s stepped through a timewarp from the 1950s. She immediately takes a dislike to me, and she seems to favor specific students using the Ayn Rand method of education.

After a few days, I notice that [Teacher’s Aide] is standing between me and my student, blocking her view. It’s not a huge classroom, so she must not have noticed. I move aside and restore my line of sight with my student… and then [Teacher’s Aide] moves again.

Me: “Excuse me. You’re blocking my view with [Student].”

Teacher’s Aide: “Yes, I know.”

Me: “So, you’re doing it on purpose?”

Teacher’s Aide: “I’m doing it so that she doesn’t rely on you too much. She can’t be expecting to have interpreters every step of her adult life, so it’s in her interest to learn this now.”

Me: “She won’t be learning anything if she can’t understand what’s being taught!”

The teacher steps over and asks what’s going on.

Me: “[Teacher’s Aide] is purposefully blocking my view with [Student].”

Teacher’s Aide: “I’m not too sure what [Student] is doing here in the first place! She should be with her own kind, learning at an appropriate pace—”

Me: “Her own kind?!“

I admit that I said that way too loud. The children start murmuring.

Teacher: “[Teacher’s Aide], stop blocking [Student]’s view of [My Name]. We will discuss this further after class!”

The rest of the day went by unhindered.

After school, I returned to the classroom to speak to [Teacher]. She told me that [Teacher’s Aide] was a substitute and would not be coming back, based on her outdated opinions not just in [Teacher]’s class but in every class she had “assisted” that day. Good riddance!

I work in IT for a retail company. At the height (middle?) of global ickiness when things were starting to reopen after everything had been closed, we were swamped. Between people having forgotten their passwords, computers being off and needing to go through 1,000 updates — if they were even able to find the network/domain— and getting new hires into the system because we’d lost some people when things closed, there was just a lot going on. Our hold times were pretty bad while we tried to work through everything.

Normally, I can just roll with most of the “you guys should be better” talk, but unfortunately, right around the time of this particular call, I was not in the best emotional state due to losing my grandfather suddenly. I got a call from a user who immediately started in with the complaining.

User: “Why was I waiting for so long? This is ridiculous. You guys need to answer your phones faster.”

Me: “I apologize for the wait. We’ve been a bit backed up with everyone needing to get back on due to everything reopening. How can I assist you today?”

User: “Yeah, we’ve got a register down, and we need it fixed. Someone already submitted a ticket, but we haven’t had anyone out to fix it.”

Me: “Do you have the ticket number or the submitter’s name?”

User: “No.”

Me: “Bear with me for a moment, please.”

We are able to look up incidents without the ticket or a name, but without either to help narrow it down, we have to go through anything that’s been submitted by the location (and hope it was submitted correctly in the first place).

Luckily, I found the ticket.

Me: “Okay, I see that [Person] submitted the incident for [device] not turning on?”

User: “That’s the correct device.”

Me: “Okay, from the ticket, you guys already checked all the cables and tried a different port, and still nothing?”

User: “Yes. Someone needs to get out here now.”

Me: “I show that the ticket was just submitted about forty-five minutes ago. It is in the queue for [On-Site] technicians to come out, but it hasn’t been assigned to anyone yet. They haven’t had time to do so.”

User: “So why can’t you help us?”

Me: “Because this is a physical issue and sounds like either the cables or the device itself will need to be swapped out. That’s [On-Site]’s job. Since the device is offline, I can’t see it or connect to it to try and do anything. This needs hands-on support.”

User: “Fine. Have a good day.”

He started to hang up the phone but didn’t seat it all the way, so I heard this next bit.

User: “Well, she was just useless. Why would she have been hired?”

I hung up the phone and took a few seconds to almost cry; again, I can normally let this stuff go, but at that point, my emotions were just too raw. Thankfully (I think), right after that call, I had a team meeting. In the meeting, our managers were reminding us not to stress too much and just take each call as it comes.

Me: “Is there any way we can remind stores that we know we’re backed up, but we’re trying, and that everything is still being handled the way it was previously? We shouldn’t be getting told that we’re useless.”

Manager: “We’ll see about getting that communication out. If you have a specific interaction, please let me know.”

I sent him a direct message through our internal chat.

Me: “I was talking to [User] at [Location], and when I told him that their ticket had been submitted forty-five minutes earlier and just hadn’t had a chance to be assigned, he tried to hang up but didn’t completely, so I got to hear him say that I was useless and ask why I was hired.”

Manager: “Thank you for this info. I’ll follow up with his manager.”

A day or so later, my manager messaged me.

Manager: “Hey, [My Name], I just wanted to let you know that I reached out to [User]’s manager and explained that his behavior was inappropriate. His manager was going to talk to him about it and wanted me to let you know that if you get a call from him again or he reaches out to you directly, let someone know.”

Luckily, nothing further happened between the user and me, but the fact that his manager felt the need to make us aware of the potential for any kind of retaliation made me wonder just how many similar complaints had happened and what he’d done in the past.

I have been going to this gym for about six months now, and I always try to avoid going past 7:00 pm because the vibes are off. However, yesterday, I had no choice but to go around 8:00 pm.

To my surprise, the gym was almost empty, maybe because it was Friday. I took advantage of the empty gym to do five sets of sled pushes. I don’t like doing them when the gym is crowded because people walk through the track all the time and that annoys me.

I started doing my forty-meter sled pushes, and after every round, I’d put my water bottle (a Hydroflask, not a single-use plastic one) on top of the weights while I sat on the floor next to it to do my sixty-second timed rests. The water bottle being there and me being maybe two or three feet away was enough to let other people know that the sled was currently in use. However, even if you’re not sure, seeing the bottle should at least prompt you to look around and see who it belongs to.

I was sitting on the floor resting before my last set when a woman walked to the sled and KICKED my water bottle. I took my headphones off and addressed the woman in as friendly a tone as I could.

Me: “Hi, excuse me! That’s my water bottle; I’m using the sled at the moment!”

Woman: “You’re not using it, are you? You’re sitting on the floor.”

Me: “I’m in between sets, which is why my bottle is there — so people know it’s in use.”

Woman: “Well, you can’t use a water bottle to reserve a machine that you’re clearly not using.”

At this point, I got up and stood between her and the sled.

Me: “As I said, I was resting between sets. I’ve not finished my sets yet. But by all means, feel free to wait until I’m finished.”

I then started pushing the sled one way and then back. When I got to the start position again, she started walking toward the sled, thinking I was going to walk away. Oh, baby, no.

I sat on the sled weights while resting because, as she said, I couldn’t use my water bottle to show people it was in use, so I was just going to use my body. She got really angry.

Woman: “What are you doing?”

Me: “Resting between sets. I know now that I can’t reserve the machine with a water bottle, so I’m just going to sit here while I rest.”

Woman: “This is unbelievable. How many sets do you have left?”

Me: “I don’t know, a few more.”

I put my headphones back in and started another set. She was still waiting. So I did another set. She was still there. I did another.

At this point, my legs felt like jelly, and I could barely finish my sets, but she was still waiting for the sled. It had been like fifteen minutes, and I forced myself to keep going out of spite. She looked so angry and was trying to talk to me, but I had my headphones in blasting music, ignoring her.

I ended up doing twelve extra sets before she walked away. I started unloading my weights from the sled when a group of three gym bros asked if I was done. I said yes and that it was all theirs.

As I walked away toward the changing room, she saw me and walked toward the sled track just to find the three gym bros loading it. I could see the disappointment on her face when she saw them.

The best part is that if she had been a decent human being, I would’ve been done in a minute and she could’ve had the sled all to herself because I only had one set left originally.

We are having a family vacation with our daughter and her family at a beach. My husband and I have taken the kids to the beach while my daughter and her wife are finishing a few things up back at the B&B before they come to join us at the beach.

I’m lying on a towel watching both kids, who are playing on the sand closer to the water. Suddenly, a man runs up and grabs my granddaughter, who shrieks in fright. My husband and I are both freaking out and ready to run to the man when my granddaughter turns and hugs the man, followed shortly by our grandson.

As the man turns around to hug my grandson, I can finally see his face better, and I only now realize that it’s their godfather — whom I only see a few times a year and apparently am not familiar enough with to recognize from the back. He was scheduled for a visit but has arrived over an hour early.

Apparently, he arrived early, had already talked to my daughter at the B&B, and had been sent to the beach to find the kids. Finding a distracted godchild who wasn’t expecting him he decided it would be fun to sneak up and surprise her. He apparently had not stopped to think how her poor grandparents would react to him grabbing her.

I nearly had a heart attack thinking my granddaughter was going to be kidnapped by a stranger in front of our eyes.