(I’m deaf in one ear, and what makes it worse at this time is that I have an ear infection. This makes it extremely difficult to take customer’s drinks correctly, especially if they are saying them very fast. I have only asked this customer once to repeat what the milk and syrup were.)

Customer: “Why do they have the least experienced person taking orders? How many times do I have to repeat myself?!”

Me: “I apologize, ma’am; I’m hearing impaired. I was only asking once again to make sure I charged you correctly and that your drink won’t be made wrong.”

Customer: *flustered* “Well, then you should have to wear a sign or something to let people know that you can’t hear.”

(The next customer in the queue chimes decides to chime in.)

Next Customer: “Yeah, because the poor girl probably doesn’t feel embarrassed enough about having you yell at her and having to put up with a**holes like you.”

Customer: “Excuse me?! How dare you! Forget my drink! I’ll just go somewhere else!”

(The customer storms out.)

Next Customer: “Wow, I’m so sorry about that. Do people normally act like that here?”

Me: “She’s a regular…”

(It’s a busy day, and my coworker calls in to say she will be unable to come in for her shift. This is the third time in two weeks she’s dropped a shift.)

Coworker: “I locked my keys in my car, and have no other way of getting to work, so I can’t come in today.”

Manager: “Did you call AMA?”

Coworker: “Yeah. They said they can’t come out today because my small town is too far. I called a towing company too, but I can’t afford their rates.”

Manager: “Huh. That’s weird. I guess I’ll start trying to find someone to cover your shift.”

(Instead of trying to get the shift covered, my manager calls AMA to confirm that they won’t come to my coworker’s town. It turns out they have a service centre located there, and would be willing to go unlock my coworker’s car. My manager calls the coworker back.)

Manager: “Hi. So I called AMA, and it turns out they’re located in your town. So they can come get your keys out of your car. Maybe I talked to a different person than you did. Anyways, I can call them back and have them come to you; I just need your address.”

Coworker: “I’m not comfortable giving you my address.”

Manager: “Okay… well, have the towing company come then. You can have them forward the bill to me, and I’ll pay it. I really need you at work right now because it’s busy.”

Coworker: “I’m not comfortable with you paying for that.”

Manager: “Well, then I’ll charge it to our store. They’d be okay with helping you get to work. We need you here.”

Coworker: “I’m not comfortable with that either.”

Manager: “Do you have anybody that could give you a ride in?”

Coworker: “No.”

Manager: “What if I call you a cab? I’ll pay for it now, and you can pay me back later.”

Coworker: “You’re being really pushy! I’m not comfortable with any of this!”

Manager: “I just offered you multiple suggestions for getting to work, all at no cost to you. At our store, employees do everything in their power to show up for shifts because it’s not fair to the other people working when you don’t. Now somebody will have to work overtime to cover your a**. I’m not going to ‘push’ you any further on this, but if you ditch another shift this month, you’re fired.”

(The coworker continued not coming in for her shifts, but quit before the manager had a chance to fire her.)

(My family lives in the middle of nowhere, and we have no nearby neighbors. My dad has been outside working on our roof, when I hear a loud thud followed by a crash. I run outside and see my dad has fallen of the roof. He is bleeding and unconscious. I grab a phone, but none of them are working, so I decide to take him to the hospital where my mom works, about an hour away. This scares me because I am still learning how to drive, and have never driven on a highway or in my dad’s manual car. When I get to the hospital, my dad is still unconscious, so I try to carry him inside, but I trip and hit my leg, so I call for help.)

Me: “Please! Help me! My dad fell and is bleeding really badly!”

Nurse #1: “Not my problem; he’s probably drunk off his a**.”

Me: “No. I mean he fell off the roof at our house.”

Nurse #2: “Kid if it was that bad, then you would have called an ambulance. We need to be here for real emergencies, and not druggies like you.”

(At this point, a police officer in uniform speaks up.)

Officer: “Look, this girl is covered in blood, and you as nurses don’t have the sense to think something is wrong! You must be f****** idiots! Sweetie, where’s your dad? I’ll help you.”

Me: “Outside on the sidewalk.”

(He helps me carry him inside. When we get there, several nurses have gathered around to see the commotion, including Nurse #3, a friend of my mom.)

Nurse #3: “[My Name], what happened?”

Me: “My dad fell and got hurt.”

Nurse #3: “No, I mean to you. You’re covered in blood and your leg looks broken. I’m surprised you can stand.”

(I look down and see my right leg bending at a weird angle. I am surprised, because it doesn’t hurt, but I still go into a room for a doctor to look at me, and sure enough it’s broken in two places. Nurse #3 and my officer friend come to check on me a little later.)

Nurse #3: “I told your mom you’re here. I thought you were still learning to drive?”

Me: “I am. I was really scared. I never drove on a highway before, or in a stick-shift.”

Officer: “Are you saying that with no experience or guide, you learned how to drive a manual well enough to drive on a highway, without getting into a crash, for the first time, and without stripping the gears?”

Me: “I… yeah. Are you going to arrest me for driving without a license?”

Officer: “No! That is one of the bravest things I ever heard! I hope you and your dad get better.”

(After I get a cast and crutches and can leave the hospital, my mom drives me to a police station after I convince her I should report myself. When we get there, I explain the situation and the officer at the front desk says because I wasn’t pulled over, it can’t be held against me. A few months later, my dad is able to leave the hospital, and now I have my license so I can legally drive him home!)

(My seven-year-old brother is playing an online game. Someone says a racial slur in text chat.)

Brother: “What’s a [racial slur]?”

Mom: “WHAT DID YOU SAY?!”

Brother: “What’s a [racial slur]?”

Mom: “Don’t you ever say that! That’s a terrible word!”

Brother: “…okay.”

Mom: “Let me see that!”

(My mom starts typing ‘DON’T USE RACIAL SLURS AROUND MY CHILDREN!’ in all caps. Another one of my brothers speaks up.)

Brother #2: “Dude, Mom! Don’t feed the trolls!”

(The customer has issues with accessing the internet and getting the standard ‘Internet Explorer cannot display this webpage’ error message. After doing various checks it turns out to just be a simple reset that is needed. We normally check it by asking the customer to try going to various web pages.)

Me: “So we’ve got Google up on the screen. That’s great. Okay, I want you to try going to BBC’s webpage now.”

Customer: “What website?”

Me: “Er, the address is www.bbc.co.uk.”

Customer: “How do you spell that?”

Me: “Which part? ‘co?'”

Customer: “BBC.”