My husband was the general manager of a homestyle resort in Las Vegas: rooms with living rooms and full kitchens. As such, he frequently had people who would have extended stays of a week or more. It was not your typical extended-stay hotel; it was very upscale. At one point, his night auditor had a minor health scare, and my husband asked me if I didn’t mind filling in two nights a week to give the auditor some time to take care of himself. Well, his minor health scare turned into a major health scare, and I ended up working seven nights a week for nearly three months while he recovered. That was a nightmare in itself, but I adored the auditor, and by me filling in, it ensured he would have a job to come back to.

We had one guest who had booked for five nights, and then she extended her stay an additional two nights. She came to check out early in the morning, when I was still the only one at the desk. She was irate about the amount she was being charged for her room.

Guest: “I was given a special rate, and my special rate is all that I should be charged!”

I don’t remember the actual total, but to keep it simple it was something like this. She was paying $500 for a five-night stay. She extended her stay two extra nights, and instead of charging her the current rate, we extended her at the lower rate. Her seven-night stay meant she owed $700.00.

She was adamant that her special rate was $500 and that was all she should pay, no matter how many nights she actually stayed. She simply could not grasp the math that if you stay extra nights you do, in fact, owe for those nights.

I was trying to explain it to her as best I could, despite my internal monolog of “This woman is a twit,” when she stuck her finger in my face.

Guest: “You don’t understand! I know your general manager, and I am going to tell him how you are treating me and trying to scam me of money! I’m going to have your job for this! You don’t know who you are talking to!”

I smiled as sweetly as I could at her.

Me: “Well, ma’am, when I go home and crawl into bed next to him, I will be sure to relay that message to him. Have a fantastic day.”

She sputtered and left — without signing the credit card receipt. When I told my husband, he laughed and knew exactly who the woman was. Apparently, she had been harassing the day staff all week long with stupid requests.

Related:
Getting Owned By The Owner, Part 19
Getting Owned By The Owner, Part 18
Getting Owned By The Owner, Part 17
Getting Owned By The Owner, Part 16
Getting Owned By The Owner, Part 15

I am the only female employee at a game store and get my fair share of attention and good-natured ribbing from the customers. Most of them are polite and respectful. However, Creeper Customer is not one of them.

He comes into the store on average four times a week, always on the days I am working, and makes sexist and disparaging comments to me.

It’s now at the point where the manager will shoo me into the back room when Creeper Customer is coming. However, Creeper Customer spends lots of money and thus will never be barred.

Today, I find myself the only employee working in the store. The manager is on vacation, and I can’t get anyone else in. Luckily, it’s a slow day and my dad stops in to say hi. I am feeling pretty good until who else but Creeper Customer walks in.

My stomach drops. My dad notices him and steps away from the counter to browse.

Creeper Customer: “You the only one working today, sweetie?”

I grit my teeth, say yes, and then try to change the subject by asking if he is looking for something in particular. He leans in and gives a creepy smile.

Creeper Customer: “Well, I was going to buy some games, but since your boss isn’t here, I think I want you to have the money, instead. But you’re going to have to work for it.”

He raises his eyebrow and nods his head toward the storage room. It takes me a few seconds before it clicks: he is propositioning me!

Me: “If you’re hinting at what I think you are, then you need to leave. Now.” 

Creeper Customer: *Scoffs* “I’m only joking. You need to stop being such a prude.”

I am about to call my manager on his emergency line when I see my dad, who I completely forgot was in the store, walk up behind Creeper Customer and tap him on the shoulder. My dad is 6’3”, a former rugby player, and very intimidating. When Creeper Customer turns around, my dad leans in, gets right in his face, and growls.

Dad: “You piece of s***, did you just proposition my daughter? You’re going to apologize to her and then leave or we’re going to have a problem.”

Creeper Customer turns back to me, pale as a ghost, and mutters:

Creeper Customer: “Sorry.”

He then runs out of the store.

I call my manager and tell him what just happened, figuring this is going to be the thing that will finally get Creeper Customer banned.

Nope.

Manager: “You handled things well. I’ll have a talk with [Creeper Customer] about his behavior when I get back.”

The fact that this Creeper was offering me money for sex, but it still wasn’t enough to warrant a ban, was infuriating. He was literally breaking the law on camera, but his money was more important than my comfort or safety?! Nope! That set me off.

I made some calls, including to the police AND to my manager’s superior, something I probably should have done long before this.

The response was far more satisfying than what my manager did, as someone higher up was there for my next shift and handed over security video and audio to the police. The manager never did return to work, and I got a much better manager shortly afterward.

This story is part of our Halfway-Through-2022 roundup!

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My partner works for a mobile video game company. He drives a van to parties and is a game host. I am Jewish and he is not. He’s working a party Saturday night. His boss calls him in the afternoon. His boss is speaking so loudly I can hear him through the phone not on speaker.

Boss: “So, the party is a bat mitzvah. You can’t call the host until you get there because of, uhhhh… It’s, ummm… Yeah, so don’t call until you’re there for… Yeah, because they don’t, umm…”

Me: *Whispering* “It’s Shabbos.”

Partner: *To his boss* “It’s Shabbos. My partner is Jewish.”

Boss: “Oh, okay, good. So you know how it goes.”

He finishes the conversation and hangs up.

Partner: “So, what do I have to do?”

Me: “Just don’t call before sunset.”

My company decided that it would sell our social club when land prices shot up. This was met with much anger as the social club was a massive part of their lives and had been for generations.

In return, the company offered a discount service, e.g., 2% off a laptop that you could probably find cheaper if you shopped around.

Even those who never used the social club weren’t happy with the replacement service; it was slow, offered limited benefits, and came with a huge amount of email spam.

After months of trying to make any savings whatsoever and failing, I am getting sick of the emails and I try to unsubscribe. Finding nothing on the emails or webpage, I contact them directly.

Me: “I want to stop the emails from your company, but I can’t find out how to unsubscribe. “

Representative: “I’m sorry, it is the company that signs you up; we can’t unsubscribe individuals. But have you tried the service? We offer many excellent—”

Me: “I’m going to stop you there, I have tried. It’s a worthless service to me. Thank you for your help, but I will be talking to my manager.”

Representative: “But if you look, you could make many savings. We have a special on diamond rings—”

I rarely hang up on people, but I did then.

I contacted my manager, who had his own misgivings on the service and many years enjoying the service club. He raised it to his manager. Apparently, enough people were dissatisfied with the service, so they brought in a representative to have a Q&A on “how to get more out of the [service]”.

It went down like a lead balloon. Every attendee asked had a bad experience or just couldn’t use the service due to its poor design or complete lack of worthwhile savings.

It was discontinued the following month and replaced with regular funded employee days. It’s not the same, but it does give a little bit of that social element that was previously destroyed without thought.

I work for a software company headquartered on the west coast of the US. The company acquired a smaller company and merged my business unit with the acquisition. The acquired company was located in the South, and the owner and founder was an ex-Navy good-old-boy with a tough, no-nonsense demeanor. He was put in charge of the merged business unit as a VP, but he continued to try to run it as though he were still a big fish in a small Southern pond.

At one meeting that he flew out for, he proceeded to tell us that his local second-in-command was a man he hired because he bought a used car from him and liked his style, and he used that as an illustration of how people don’t always conform to their stereotypes. Then, he proceeded to inform several people in the meeting that he was happy about how they didn’t conform to their ethnic stereotypes.

This apparently filtered up to Human Resources, and shortly thereafter, HR dragged all of the VPs leading business units into diversity awareness training. 

Our new VP learned a lesson from the training, but we were not sure he learned the right one. Soon afterward, he flew out for another meeting with us. He let us all know that he had heard that there had been some problems in our group about people being made to feel unwelcome. Well, he wasn’t going to stand for that, so he made point of telling us all that if there was any discrimination going on, we could skip going to HR and come directly to his assistant, who would bring it to him, and he would personally deal with it.

I don’t think anyone ever took him up on that offer. I know I was definitely glad when my function got moved out from under that business unit.