I work at a virtual reality arcade where part of my job is teaching people how to play the games. There is a young teenager playing “Beat Saber,” a popular rhythm game, but he doesn’t seem to get it and keeps failing each level after a couple of seconds.

Me: “Hey, buddy, you’re going to want to make sure you hit the blocks in the direction the arrow is pointing.”

Teenager: *Scoffs* “Okay.”

He fails again.

Me: “You see how those arrows are pointing up? That means you have to slice up.”

Teenager: “Okay!”

He fails again.

Me: “You need to hit them on the beat, too. You can always go back and change the settings or do the tutorial—”

Teenager: *Screaming* “OKAY, WHATEVER!”

I decided to just leave him to it. I watched him fail dozens more times. I hope he thought it was worth $10 to look at a “Level Failed” screen for ten minutes.

I work at a virtual reality arcade. Part of my job is helping people take off the equipment when their session is over. This particular guest, a young man in his twenties, is next to be finished. His game times out and takes him to the start menu.

Me: “Okay, it looks like your time just ended. I’m going to help you with your headset first.”

I remove his headset and he locks eyes with me.

Guest: “I HATE YOU!”

Me: “Uh… okay.”

Guest: “I don’t think you heard me. I HATE YOU!”

He calmly walked off without another word. I was not the one who set him up, either, so I have no idea why he decided he hated me so much.

I work at an arcade, where customers win prizes by winning games. A customer approaches my counter and sets down around five blow pops.

Me: “All right, I just need your arcade card, ma’am.”

Customer: *Handing me a ten* “I can’t just pay for it?”

I smile, going into how our arcade works.

Me: “No, sorry. You can win these by getting an arcade card at the front and playing some games to win tickets! Then you can get a prize here that you can afford with those tickets.”

She’s not annoyed but seems a little put-off.

Customer: “But I don’t want to play; I just want some blow pops.”

She tries to hand me the ten again. I get many bribes but never take them.

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t sell anything here. It’s in our contract with our suppliers.”

She sighs, pocketing the ten.

Customer: “All right, fine. Keep your candy.”

She leaves, not putting away the small pile of lollipops.

Me: “Have a nice day, ma’am!”

When I am a teenager, I work at a party centre for kids’ birthday parties.

I am calculating the bill for a customer who initially chose a package that cost $500.00, plus tax. On the day of the party, he has fewer children show up than the package maximum, so I decided to switch him to a lower package that was only $200.00, plus tax. He didn’t lose any services or items or anything, and he’s paying at the end of the party, so the only thing that is happening is that he is getting a cheaper price for the same party.

When he comes to pay:

Me: “Hello, sir. Since you ended up having fewer children than expected, I’ve automatically downgraded your package to save you some money.”

I show him the difference. He begins arguing with me.

Customer: “What?! I want the package I asked for! I don’t want a downgrade!”

I think he is confused, so I explain again.

Me: “Literally nothing has changed except that you are getting a better price, sir. The party is over now, so it’s not like we can take anything away from you.”

He just kept arguing with me, though, that he wanted the higher package. The third time he complained, I was about to explain it to him again, but then I thought… why do I care? It’s not my money, and I won’t keep fighting this guy on why he should save the money. So, I charged him for the higher package and took the difference as a tip for myself.

I work at an arcade and bowling alley inside a mall. I’ve been working there for about a year and the arcade has been open for a year. Because of the health crisis, we have signs at both entrances — the one leading to the mall itself and one leading from the parking lot into the arcade — explaining our mask policy. The arcade is a private company, so we have different rules than what the state laws are regarding masks.

A customer reads a sign that explains our mask policy and walks in without one.

Customer: “I have a question.”

Me: “Yes? What is it?”

Customer: “Do I need to have a mask on to come in?”

Me: “…”

You’d think a big sign with pictures and big letters that say you need a mask would be a clue that they need a mask, especially after spending a couple of minutes reading it all.