I had a neighbor share with me her concern over her daughter’s wages and making ends meet with the pay and four children.

Neighbor: “She only makes about $80,000 a year!”

To keep the friendship, I refrained from saying that a family of four or five has to live on $20,000 and even less a year.

I was designing a business stationery set for an older woman who was notorious for being rude, arrogant, and all-around difficult to work with. Just before we began our work, she told me that if I had any suggestions to help improve her designs, I was supposed to let her know.

Me: “Now, since you have a longer email address, and many of your customers are elderly, what I’m going to recommend is capitalizing the first letter in each word in the address. It really helps prevent others from misspelling things when they type it themselves.”

I typed her email in the on-screen design, like “HeresMyEmail at EmailClient dot com”.

Client: “What?! No! I don’t spell mine that way! If you capitalize those letters, it won’t get to me! I’ve never changed how I typed it, and I’m not going to start now!”

Me: “Err… okay, ma’am, but I really do think you could benefit from the change. I promise that you’ll still receive your emails just fine.”

Client: “No! I’m paying you to design what I want, so why don’t you just leave things alone?!”

Rather than argue, I designed the set as she demanded, with her email entirely in lowercase.

Weeks later, the woman came back to my shop.

Client: “Hey, [My Name]! I had a brilliant idea! See, what we’re going to do is capitalize the first letter in each word in my email address and redo the whole stationery set. That way, it’s easier for my customers to read. I am just so clever!”

The ice cream shop where I work is doing a promotion for a childhood cancer awareness foundation. For a month, we are required to ask every customer if they want to donate.

Me: “Would you like to donate a dollar for childhood cancer?”

Customer: “Noooo! I don’t want to give children cancer! That would be horrible! Why would someone donate to that?”

I work in a women’s clothing store. It’s not under a chain but privately owned. I’m helping a woman in her forties find an outfit. Usually, we have a lot of repeat customers, but as the town isn’t on the small scale and has a lot of vacation homes, it isn’t unusual that new faces come in.

At first, everything is ordinary; we engage in small talk, what event she’s going to, formal or non-formal, pants versus dress, what colors she likes, etc.

I find items for her, find her sizes, and offer suggestions. Then, she notices a foundation stain on the collar of a shirt she likes. Luckily, I find the same shirt in storage and say so.

This is where the customer usually does one of two things. They either thank me and take the other shirt, or they ask if they can buy the stained one for a discount.

This woman does neither. Instead, she just looks at me with disbelief on her face.

Customer: “Are you telling me that other people have tried on these clothes before me?”

I am standing there expecting some kind of sign that she is pulling my leg. None comes.

Me: “Yes, someone else has tried on clothes here before.”

Customer: “Have all the clothes I tried been tried by anyone else?”

Me: “Yes, probably.”

Really, how am I supposed to know that unless it’s still in plastic and not on a hanger and out in the store?

She frowns, looking displeased.

Customer: “I… I need to go.”

She ran out, her world forever changed…

I used to work as a librarian at a college. We were looking to hire a new librarian, and I went out to lunch with one of the candidates.

Candidate: “Who’s paying for lunch?”

Me: “The university.”

He ordered the most expensive thing on the menu. I told the Search Committee, “Don’t offer him the job. He won’t take it.”

They offered him the job. He turned it down. We lost the position.