I used to work in a smoke shop. We had shelves sitting in the middle of the worker area, holding dip and chew and cigarettes. They went nearly to the ceiling. Those things were rickety, and a stiff breeze would have toppled them.

So, you can guess what had happened when I came in one day and saw that the shelves were all gone. Someone told me the details of what happened, and it was an “OMG!” moment, to be sure.

The shelf decided to let go at the least opportune moment and fell over onto [Coworker]. It slammed her into the register and actually pinned her head there.

Bless the customer she had been waiting on; he got a rush of adrenaline, jumped clean over the counter into the worker-only area, and lifted it off of her.

A couple of big, burly security officers had to come in, pull everything off the shelves, and drag those menaces out of the building one at a time.

This was decades ago before the world got more lawsuit-savvy. Sadly, not much else was done, not even to check out other displays to make sure they were safe. To this day, [Coworker] STILL has back problems from the incident. 

Management didn’t even close the store. They just kind of shrugged with a blank face and a “Meh. Oh, well,” attitude. Oh, wait. I nearly forgot. They did do something: they griped for weeks about losing a display and having to pay for another one.

I’m so very, very glad I don’t work there anymore.

I’m working in a department store in the first week of November. The company mailed out nineteen different coupons, none of which could be combined. What’s worse, the three or four coupons that were inserted into the newspapers are strictly one per customer, per day, so customers cannot use them even if they split up their orders.

So, not only is the store packed with early Christmas shoppers, but they all think they can make a big purchase with multiple coupons, only to find out that if they want to use a coupon on a lamp, an alarm clock, AND a stuffed animal, they are only allowed to buy one item today and have to come back tomorrow for another ONE item for the discount on that one. It is, of course, pandemonium at the registers.

Here’s the thing that really pushes my buttons: there are PLENTY of extra helpers there, all getting the store ready for the walk-through of some corporate high-up. PLENTY.

We have a line long enough that it looks like our Black Friday line, and only two of us are ringing. I call for help multiple times.

Multiple Managers: “We are all busy. There is no one that can help. Thank the customers for their patience.”

The assistant store manager walks by, DUSTING the fixtures — yep, DUSTING — while associates and customers alike are quite literally tripping over the go-backs that keep falling from our overflowing piles of rejects.

At the end of the night, one of the managers walks over and sees the mess the register is in.

Manager: “You guys really should have called for help.” 

Me: “We did. Several times. You were one of the people who refused to help.”

Manager: “Nonsense. Everyone was told to help out at the registers if a call was put in.”

Me: “I called multiple times — [Manager #1], [Manager #2], [Supervisor #1], [Supervisor #2] and you — and all of you said you were all too busy.”

Manager: *Not listening* “Next time, ask for help instead of trying to power through on your own. Oh, and you two need to get all this go-back stuff straightened up before you go home.”

Then, he walked away as I mentally screamed an F-Bomb.

I’m fixing up the always messy clearance section when my boss comes over to see how it’s going. We talk about how messy the customers are, especially with the clearance section, and she drops this gem just before she walks away.

Boss: “When I get home, my husband always asks me, ‘Did you at least make it to the car before crying today?’”

I go to a fast food restaurant for a late-night snack. I get there about forty minutes before they close. When I get in, I see a young woman in uniform mopping the floor in the dining area and attempting some… erotic… dance moves with the mop. There doesn’t seem to be anyone else in the restaurant, so after a minute, I call out to the woman to let her know I’m inside. She doesn’t seem to hear me, so I start to walk closer and realize that she has earbuds in her ears. As I reach out to tap her shoulder and get her attention, she turns around, sees me behind her, and gets startled.

Woman: “What are you doing? Enjoying the show, pervert?”

Me: “No, I’m trying to order some food.”

Woman: “Nice try! We’re closed.”

Me: “The sign on the door says you close at midnight. It’s only 11:20 right now.”

Woman: “Well, too bad. I don’t serve perverts who break in and ogle me like that. You need to leave now.”

Me: “Is there a manager I can talk to?”

Woman: “Nope. Just me. You’re lucky I’m letting you just leave instead of calling the cops on you for breaking in and sexually assaulting me.”

Me: *Shouting* “HELLO! IS ANYONE BEHIND THE COUNTER?”

The woman’s face falls when a manager comes out of the employee office.

Manager: “Can I help you, sir?”

Me: “Your employee said you were closed, even though the hours on the door show that you’re still open for half an hour.”

Manager: “[Woman], is that true?”

Woman: “He was trying to grab me, so I wasn’t going to serve him.”

Me: “I wasn’t grabbing you, I was going to tap your shoulder because you had earbuds in and didn’t hear me calling you.”

Manager: “[Woman]… were you wearing earbuds and dancing while you cleaned again?”

Woman: “I need to practice! I have a show tomorrow night!”

Manager: “Why don’t you grab your stuff and go home? You’ve caused too many problems lately, and I’m tired of dealing with all your made-up complaints about customers, and the real complaints about you from customers.”

The woman tries to argue for a bit but gives up and storms to the back office. The manager finally turns to me.

Manager: “I’m sorry about that. You’re obviously not the first person she’s done this to. She’s just causing drama. Her show is tomorrow night on stage at [Local Gentlemen’s Club], if you want to see her again. Honestly, I don’t know why she always complains about guys staring at her when she makes a living putting herself out there like that. Now, what can I get for you?”

I suddenly wasn’t very hungry anymore.

After months of searching, I finally found a job in one of the new testing stations for a certain disease. The owners and managers are not exactly experienced in running a business like this (or in some cases at all) and it shows — sometimes in small, silly ways.

We have to use a one-way system inside the place so people can maintain the proper distance. There are arrows and signs all over the floor to show the correct way, but of course, people don’t always look at the floor, so we often have to tell them where to go anyway. The area around the entrance is rather narrow, so you’d think that people would not try to constantly squeeze through there, but nope. People don’t look at the floor, don’t see the signs, and don’t think, even though pretty much every shop in the country has been one-way for more than a year now. It’s annoying for everyone working there because we constantly have to yell after people.

Management’s solution? Change the signs on the floor. Yellow arrows, red signs, bigger arrows, bigger signs, differently designed signs, etc. I think they’ve changed these signs at least four times. Of course, it doesn’t improve anything. They are still on the floor where the customers don’t see them.

In the beginning, I made a joke about how we could probably put up a huge sign on the wall the customers have to face when trying to leave, and they’d still not read it. After the second sign change, I suggested it more seriously. It’s obvious that the floor signs alone don’t work, and it might help to put them on eye-level and on a huge, otherwise empty, white wall.

I was ignored. I was ignored after the third sign change, too. So, I gave up. Management kept complaining about the customers not reading the signs. They kept complaining about “having to change the signs all the time.” They expressed hope about “this design finally being the one.”

Finally, after more than two months of this, they put up a large sign on the wall. Almost immediately, people stopped going the wrong way. Some still do, but it’s only a couple and not a third or half of all customers, so that’s still a win.

Management patted themselves on the back for finally solving this insurmountable problem.