Mother’s Day is our busiest day of the year. A customer calls the evening before.

Caller: “I want a table for eight.”

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, but that is Mother’s Day and we’re fully booked.”

Caller: “No, you don’t understand. I want a table for eight tomorrow. Make it happen.”

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, but we have no availability. That is impossible.”

Caller: “Are you stupid?! Get me a table or get me a manager!”

Me: “I am intelligent enough to know that we do not have any tables available at all tomorrow, sir.”

Caller: “Manager! Now!”

At first, I don’t want to pass the phone over, as my manager isn’t the friendliest guy to work with and he’s very busy in the middle of our dinner shift. He notices I am still on this phone call, though, so he comes up.

Manager: “Why have you been on the phone for so long?”

I’m like, “F*** it, this customer isn’t going to listen to me anyway,” and give the phone to my manager.

Manager: “How can I help?”

He listens for about fifteen seconds.

Manager: “So you’re tying up my hostess in the middle of dinner even though she’s already told you nicely that we can’t fit you and your g**d*** family in the night before our busiest day of the year? F*** you, buddy!”

And he hung up the phone!

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My husband used to work at a well-known chain grocery store. He left to go on stress leave because this one manager kept on yelling at him for no reason other than doing his job. That stress leave went to state disability and then to permanent disability for additional reasons.

Skip to five years later. My husband was talking to one of the parents who had a son in our son’s Cub Scout den. He told my husband something about this manager that shocked me.

An employee from the deli section had to leave early because their child got sick at school. It sounds like a reasonable reason to me. This manager actually called the school and pretended to be the parent. The school looked at the caller ID and noticed the name of the store then asked this manager, “[Parent], didn’t you just pick up your child twenty minutes ago?”

I am not sure what the manager said but the school called the employee and told them about the call. The employee was unsurprisingly pissed. They are now suing the store and the manager. Not only that, but the manager broke a few laws by doing this. According to my husband, this manager has caused quite a few HR issues over the years.

The only reason this manager hasn’t gotten fired is that her parents are big-time contributors to the store. If this lawsuit comes to a class-action against her, I am going to encourage my husband to join it because he developed complex PTSD due to the company’s and, most especially, her treatment of him.

While on vacation in a resort town, my mom decides we’re going to go hit a few antique stores. One such store has some interesting items for sale, but everything is just stacked haphazardly all over, with some valuable items even piled outside in the rain and getting ruined. An employee — who looks to be the only one aside from the owner — comes up to us while we’re browsing.

Employee: “Can I help you find anything?”

Mom: “Oh, no, we’re just browsing. Things are kind of piled up everywhere, aren’t they?”

Employee: “Yeah, we used to be in the much bigger building next door. But business has been so bad that we couldn’t afford the rent for it, so we moved here. They’re putting in a mattress store over there; can you believe it? There’s no love or appreciation for small businesses anymore.”

Mom: “I’m sorry. Is that why there are things piled up outside?”

Employee: “Yeah, we had to move in a hurry. Hopefully, we’ll do better here and be able to afford a bigger place.”

Mom finally finds something she wants to purchase and goes to the register where the owner is waiting. But a local has just come into the store, and instead of helping my mom, the owner opts to make small talk with the local.

Mom: “I’m ready to pay.”

Owner: “Just a minute, honey.”

She resumed talking to the local.

We stood there for ten minutes, and the owner showed no inclination to end her conversation — which was in no way related to her business. Mom finally gave up, put her purchase back, and we left. Maybe people would appreciate your business more and enable you to afford your rent if you actually paid attention to paying customers.

I was a civilian working on a military base. My manager was military and had been sent on a course to qualify to get a promotion. She came back and was not herself. She was quiet and seemed sad.

At lunch, she told my coworkers and me why she was sad. It had turned out that she was not allowed to yell at the civilians. Even if we made errors and even — and for her this was obviously the worst part — if she had slept badly or just needed to express that she was in a bad mood.

This was how she had dealt with stress for many years: go to work and find someone of lower rank to shout at. She could easily shout at someone for half an hour. She said, “Well, then, in my next position I must ensure that none of the staff is civilian, because this is going to be tough!” as if we were supposed to feel sorry for her because she was no longer allowed to be verbally abusive towards us. Actually, it hadn’t been allowed in years, but she wasn’t the type to read the memos. 

I know she is still in the military and wonder if she has found out that you are no longer allowed to shout at the enlisted personnel, either.

I work at an office. Long story short, my supervisor wrongfully fires me, and the manager overturns it and writes her up for violating policy.

A couple of hours later, I go into the ladies’ room. My supervisor comes in after me.

Supervisor: “You’re fired.”

Me: *Pause* “Seriously?”

Supervisor: “You heard me. You’re fired.”

Me: “You’re seriously going to fire me again after that meeting we just had today?”

Supervisor: “I’m not going to let [Boss] stop me from firing you. You ruined my good standing with the company and I cannot let that go unpunished.”

Just then, a toilet flushes, and the manager comes out of the stall.

Manager: *Washing her hands* “You know I could hear what you were saying, right, [Supervisor]?”

Supervisor: *Goes pale* “I—”

Manager: “Just go to the office. I’d like to have a little talk with you.”

My supervisor was fired that day for retaliation.