I am managing a retail store with very specific hobby equipment. I was hired personally by the owner, as we’re not a global chain, just statewide.

Customer: “I want to speak to the owner, [Owner].”

Obviously, knowing the owner by name is as simple as a Google search, but he is adamant that he knows and deals with [Owner].

After some back and forth, I give the owner a call (which he doesn’t usually like) and tell the guy’s full name. After a brief pause:

Owner: “That guy owes me a bunch of money. He’s jumping between stores, buying items with this same ploy, getting discounts, buying with stolen credit cards, and creating financial disputes. Call the cops and keep him there.”

How stupid can you be? Why did he ask to speak to the owner? Was he there to pull the same stunt? Did he not think I would call the owner?

Not the smartest. He got arrested.

One night, I was working as a cashier and they were training me to count the money in all the tills. I was going to be promoted to manager soon, but I didn’t have all the keys, etc. When our lottery scratch-off machine wasn’t working, an irate customer came up to me demanding that I fix it.

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am, but we’ll have to wait for the manager to come back from her lunch break. It’ll be another ten minutes or so.”

She didn’t like that, but she waited. I was trying to help customers in between, and she kept coming up to the counter and getting angry, the last time getting right in my face. I stepped back, and the look on my face must’ve shown because she started screaming at me for being rude.

My manager finally came back at that moment and the customer tried to tell on me for being rude. I was crying by this point.

Manager: “Ma’am, she would never be rude to a customer. Now, give me a moment to clock back in and I can help you.”

This prompted the customer to scream at HER.

Customer: “Oh, so you don’t want your job, either?!”

And she stormed out. Fun times.

That customer came back in several times after that, asking if I’d gotten in trouble yet. The same manager told her I had not and I would not get in trouble as I’d done nothing wrong. It was very satisfying to hear!

The director at my company owned a white Humvee that I swear could double as an ocean liner on wheels. The monstrosity barely fit in a parking spot, and it was lifted to a degree that it just barely fell short of needing an elevator or a sizeable ladder to get in. What she was compensating for, I’ll never know.

The director felt that she deserved a close parking spot because of her job title.

She used the visitor parking spaces for a while because they were “more convenient” than the employee parking. Keep in mind that the employee parking is close to an Employee-Only door with an employee badge access scanner. Not only would this get her in quickly, but she would be close to the staff area where her locker was located. No matter the weather, she would have a spot close by. By parking in visitor parking, she had to come in the front door and walk halfway across the building to put her things away.

The higher-ups got on her case for taking up visitor parking, and after a small tantrum, she started parking in a new, even more inappropriate spot. If you guessed it was the disability-accessible parking, you’re very close! Since parking in an accessible spot would get her a ticket, she parked next to the accessible spot… in the “crosshatch” area. Yep. You can get a ticket for parking in an accessible spot but not, apparently, in the parking stripes next to accessible parking spots! Right? Right?

Wrong.

She was soon screeching about getting ticketed and was gobsmacked that no one sympathized with her.

A company-wide email “reminder” from the vice president directed at “all staff” reminded everyone not to park in areas not designated specifically to employees, under threat of being ticketed or towed. In professional language, the message was, “If you’re stupid enough to illegally park, you deserve what you get.”

Of course, the director got another ticket for doing the same thing, and the third time, she got towed. She threw a tantrum and ultimately got fired. 

She was breaking company policy and violating state law by interfering with an accessible spot. So, not only does she have to pay for the tickets, but she’s jobless, too. A cushy paycheck was ripped from her hands because she felt entitled to a special “parking spot”.

During the global health crisis, I worked in a small, family-owned warehouse. The warehouse manager was a gung-ho type who wouldn’t take excuses of any kind for not showing up for work.

Every year from March through July, we were in our busy season. Workers typically worked 6:00 to 4:45, though I worked 6:00 to 5:00.

In April 2021, I came down with the [contagious illness], and a bad case of it. I was completely bedridden, with coughs, fatigue, body aches, and a fever. I called off work, and everything seemed to be okay.

Two days later, however, I was called and asked if I was well enough to come in. I responded that I was not. The warehouse manager then stated that as soon as my quarantine was over — ten days after diagnosis, the following Monday from this call — I was required to come back in.

Monday rolled around, and I was still coughing, fatigued, and running a fever. As required, though, I dragged myself to work. Within an hour and a half of being there, the owner sent me home because I spent too much time coughing and wasn’t fast enough in picking orders due to fatigue.

The next day, the warehouse manager called me and directed me to come in at 5:30 every evening (after everyone was gone) and work on receiving the daily orders from our vendors. Once again, I dragged myself in, worked on what I needed to, went home, and passed out.

After that week was over, I was again expected to come in and work a normal shift. Because I had been pushing myself so hard, though, I wasn’t recovering well at all, and my cough had worsened.

On Tuesday, I couldn’t take it any longer; I went to the doctor. They took a chest x-ray and then sent me home. An hour later, I got a call from the doctor that I needed a CT scan, and I needed it TODAY. They managed to find an opening for one that day close to my home. It turned out that I didn’t have blood clots in my lung as they had suspected but just a very bad case of [illness]-induced pneumonia.

I was given strict orders by the doctor to not go to work until I had recovered. By the time all was said and done, I missed a month of work before I was healthy enough to return.

Seven months later, the warehouse manager came down with a light version of [illness]. He took the full two paid weeks off, stating that he didn’t want to push himself too hard. I still suffer from the “long” version of the illness — limited smell, reduced immune system, lower stamina — all because they pushed me hard to come in.

No, the irony and hypocrisy were not lost on me. I turned in my two-week notice a couple of months later.

I am on the phone with a customer who is angry due to issues with his router. I am running around to different departments, trying to get him a new router sent out via next-day delivery.

I am asthmatic, and I’m out of breath from running up and down stairs when I return to the phone.

Me: “Okay, sir, I can get next-day delivery for you!”

Customer: “Listen to you, all out of breath. You’re so fat and lazy! If you can’t get fitter, you should just go kill yourself.”

Me: *In a firm and authoritative voice* “Do not speak to me like that, sir, or I won’t help you.”

Customer: “How dare you?! I want to talk to a manager!”

My managers blamed me, even after listening to the call and hearing what the customer had said, and I was threatened with disciplinary action.