I needed a new roof on my house and was collecting quotes. One of the companies I had in was a metal roofing company “looking to complete some show homes in the area to build their new business.” The visit started simply enough, with the man getting onto the existing roof to assess and measure. When he entered my foyer to sell, that’s when it all went downhill.

He handed me a brochure about metal roofing and started talking about the environmental footprint of metal roofing versus asphalt roofing. Now, I’m a chemical engineer with experience in mining and oil and gas, so when someone starts BS-ing me about the topic, I know. He started saying things that were clearly untrue. I tried to keep my mouth shut and just listen, but I finally just came out and said:

Me: “I’m a chemical engineer. I know how oil extraction and mining work and their impacts.”

This was when he changed… tactics? I hesitate to call it that because I can’t imagine who in their right mind would think this was a good sales strategy. The next words out of his mouth were:

Employee: “Perhaps your husband would understand this better.”

The next ten minutes were a continuation of his repeated lies, punctuated by comments like, “Maybe I should come back when your husband is home,” “I’m sure your husband would understand this,” and, “I think maybe you don’t understand.”

My grim smile became more and more forced and I tried various ways to end the visit. Finally, he handed me a DVD.

Employee: “You can watch this video about the process with your husband and I’m sure he can explain it to you. Here’s my card.”

I had already decided that getting a metal roof wasn’t worth this pompous a**, but I just threw his sales materials on the table and forgot about them. A week later, I received a follow-up call from the man himself, asking if I would like to schedule my roofing job. Of course, my answer was no. He asked why not.

Me: “Well, for starters, the information you presented to me about metal and asphalt roofing was untrue. Secondly, when I explained to you how I had the expertise to know it was untrue, you repeatedly insisted that my husband, with less knowledge, would understand better than I could.”

He sputtered something about me not knowing what I was talking about, then demanded his DVD back. I told him I would put it in the mailbox and he could come to pick it up when he felt like it.

After a week of the DVD sitting in my mailbox, I threw it in the trash.

I’m a woman working at a popular home improvement store as a cashier, usually in the garden center. I wasn’t trained about plants, but from spending most of my time among them, getting answers to customer questions, talking with vendors, and working in my own garden, I’ve gained a fair bit of knowledge.

It’s mid-October, and the garden center is still open to sell pumpkins and the last of the decorative fall flowers, but it’s pretty quiet. I’m just hanging out by the cash register and daydreaming. The manager is working at the back, out of sight, but I can hear the engine on the pallet mover.

A man walks in, answers my greeting with a nod, and keeps on walking. He stops and scans around like he’s searching for something.

Me: “Can I help you with something?”

Customer: “Well, I wanted to talk to someone about what this is—” *pulls a weed from his pocket* “—and what I can do to get rid of it.”

Me: “Yeah, that’s crabgrass. We do have some sprays you can use for spot-killing, but this late in the season, you’re better off just letting your lawn go dormant and then spreading a pre-emergent crabgrass killer on your lawn in the spring.”

Customer: “So… is there someone I can talk to?”

I inwardly sigh, recognizing that by “someone”, he means “someone with a penis”. I call back to the manager and tell him a customer needs his assistance. He has to shut down and safely park the pallet mover, so it takes him a couple of minutes.

When he comes up, the customer shows him the crabgrass and the manager tells him, ALMOST VERBATIM, what I told him. He then takes the customer inside to show him where to find the sprays. Later, the manager comes back outside and stops to talk to me.

Manager: “I wish he had told you what he needed so I didn’t have to stop what I was doing.”

Me: “He did, and I told him the same thing you did.”

Manager: “What?! Then why did he need to interrupt me?!”

Me: *With exaggerated astonishment* “Did you not know that lawn care knowledge is stored in the male genitals? Obviously, I couldn’t know what I was talking about!”

Manager: “Aaarrrggghh!”

I’m at the pharmacy. A customer comes in and talks to the pharmacist.

Customer: “Do you have masks made in France? Here there are only made in China masks.”

Pharmacist: “I’ll look in the storeroom.”

She does and comes back.

Pharmacist: “No, I only have masks made in China. But you can buy them if you want. We use them here.”

Customer: “Well, don’t be surprised if your eyes get slanted!”

We have a Human Resources worker who is extremely power-hungry.

She is walking around with the president of the company who flew in from Japan. She rushes him through the warehouse. She just spits out, “Oh, these are the warehouse guys. We don’t have to stop and talk to them.”

The president stops, walks over, and starts talking to me about my last vacation. He asks how buying my house went. I can just see her fuming behind him as we talk for almost forty-five minutes. I’ve had multiple meetings with him; we know each other really well.

I don’t think he likes her, and he dragged it out on purpose, but I was thrilled to see her just standing there bored as h***.

I had to have major surgery when I was eleven years old. I have metal pins that keep my pelvis and hips in place. If the weather is really bad — snow, ice, etc. — I tend to not go outside for fear of falling and seriously injuring myself.

One year we had a really bad snow storm and black ice, so I called in to tell my human resources manager that I wasn’t going to be able to make it in. She laughed.

HR Manager: “You have two options: use crutches, or put salt in front of you as you walk.”

Crutches on ice? She’s mad! I refused.

HR Manager: “If you’re not able to do your job due to a disability, you should hand in your notice.”

My mum overheard this conversation with the HR manager and snatched the phone from my hand. She told the HR manager in no uncertain terms how appalling she was for what she’d said and that I would not be coming in until the ice and snow were gone.

The weather cleared up and I returned to work. The HR manager was furious and tried to write me up, but the line manager had my back. I was not written up. Instead, the line manager went to the HR manager’s boss. They sat her down and made her write a letter to me apologising.

Two months later, she left the company.