I work as a cashier in an organic-focused grocery store. Because of the health crisis, my store has large plexiglass barriers separating cashiers from customers. Masks are required. Many customers bring in their own bags rather than using our paper bags, but we are no longer able to touch them or bag them. Customers have to do it themselves.

I’m autistic. It’s not severe and I’m fairly good at masking when needed, but I’m awful at reading people and situations, and I’m even worse at figuring out what to do if someone doesn’t tell me very specifically what they want.

An old woman with one of those personal carts comes through my line. She has her personal cart folded in one of our store carts. She’s a semi-regular and always has that cart with her, even though she can hardly lift it out of the store cart.

She struggles to get it out, so much so that the customer behind her rushes in to help her while I’m scanning the old woman’s items. She has her own bags and knows she has to bag herself, but she doesn’t. She just lets them pile up.

Me: “Do you have a store card?”

Customer: “No.”

She stands by the card reader and waits until I’m done. When she’s done paying, she finally goes over to bag her items.

She only has a few bags, so she tells me to use paper bags for everything else while she packs her large insulated bag as heavy as she possibly can. The bags I pack are much less heavy. Suddenly, when trying to load them into her now unfolded personal cart, she looks like she’s about to drop over with the insulated bag in her arms. She struggles with that bag and then puts it down. She then reaches for one I packed and acts like it’s even heavier. Suddenly, she starts yelling.

Customer: “I’m ninety-three years old!“

Me: “Okay, so… do you want to empty that bag out a bit?”

She doesn’t answer, and she eventually manages to shove it in her cart. By this point, I don’t really know what to do. She acts like all the bags are insanely heavy, so I start pulling stuff out to lighten the paper bags. She’s not answering any of my suggestions.

I lighten some of the bags to try and make it easier on her. All the while, she’s grumbling about how stupid I am.

Customer: *Scoffs* “Stupid girl. I’m ninety-three!”

Then, despite all her whining about how heavy the bags were, she starts emptying the bags I lightened and puts heavy items in the heavy bags she already shoved into her cart. She crumples the paper bags, or rips them, and tosses them onto my register.

Customer: “Hey, you didn’t ask me if I had a store card! I didn’t get my discounts!”

Me: “I did ask you. You said no.”

Customer: “And you made the bags too heavy! I’m an elderly woman!”

Me: “I didn’t pack your cold bag. I even lightened the bags I packed when I saw you struggling. Do you want any help out to your car?”

Customer: “No! I’m waiting on a taxi!”

Finally, she grumbled and walked away. I had just started covering a coworker’s thirty-minute break when the woman came through my line, and by the time my coworker came back, I had only gotten through four people total.

Related:
Has Some Serious Bag Baggage, Part 8
Has Some Serious Bag Baggage, Part 7
Has Some Serious Bag Baggage, Part 6
Has Some Serious Bag Baggage, Part 5
Has Some Serious Bag Baggage, Part 4

The country goes into lockdown and all schools are closed. My mom, being my mom, decides that I have better things to do than lounge around at home twenty-four-seven and forces me to work part-time as a receptionist in a clinic run by my family.

As a fourteen-year-old, I seem to be a trouble magnet in the clinic. Every bully seems to think that it’ll be easy to browbeat me into pushing them to the front of the swab test queue.

Patient: “Hey! What’s taking so long? Can’t you hurry up?”

Me: “We’re working as fast as we can. Please be patient.”

Patient: “Work faster! I’m already late for my next appointment.”

Me: “Of course.”

He walks off and comes back within a minute.

Patient: “You’re all taking too long! I’m in a rush. I want to go next!”

Me: “I can’t do that. Everyone has to wait their turn. Doctor’s orders.”

Patient: “That’s fine, then. Because I’m his brother, and he’ll understand that I’m more important.”

Me: *Blinks in surprise* “No, you’re not.”

Patient: *Snarls* “Yes. I. Am.”

Me: “No, you’re not. Because Doctor [Surname #1] is my brother. And you’re definitely not our brother.”

Patient: “Bulls***! You’re lying!”

Me: “It doesn’t matter if I am. I’m the receptionist. I’m the one with the power here.”

Patient: “Who the h*** is Doctor [Surname #1], anyway? I’m Doctor [Surname #2]’s brother.”

That doctor is my brother’s predecessor. He retired a year or so back, so some patients aren’t too familiar with my brother.

Me: “Uh, Doctor [Surname #2] is my uncle, so I know that you’re not his brother.”

Patient: “Yes, I am! I’m the brother of the first doctor here!”

Me: “Impossible. The first doctor here is my grandfather. He founded the clinic and retired forty years ago. Also, all his brothers died in World War Two. So you’re either a zombie or an imposter. Which means we have a problem.”

Patient: “Why the f*** are you related to every doctor here?”

Me: “Read the sign right behind me.”

Patient: “Uh, [Surname #2] Family Clinic.”

Me: “Yes, the [Surname #2] Family Clinic. This place is literally my family business. Everyone that has worked here is a relative of mine.”

Patient: “In that case, I’m the landlord! And I demand to go in!”

Me: *Rolls eyes* “You really need to come up with better lies. My uncle is the landlord here. And he charges no rent.”

Patient: “Well, I’m a paying customer, so you’d better do it for the sake of your pay!”

Me: “I don’t even get paid! My mom forced me to work here for free!”

Patient: “Oh, so that’s why you’re so useless at your job.”

He stomped off to try to bully the other receptionist, my aunt, who’s even meaner than I am. Needless to say, that failed. She didn’t even waste time talking to him; she just said that if he tried to coerce her, she’d throw him to the back of the queue, no questions asked. That got him to shut up and sit down.

Later that night, when we went home, my brother mentioned to me that that guy complained that I was a liar and lazy and that I should be fired. I agreed wholeheartedly. My brother ought to fire me on the spot.

Alas, our mother banned him from doing that, so I was forced to keep working for the clinic.

I’m a security guard in my office with the door closed. As is standard for this sort of job, there are windows all around, so anyone can see in and I can see out. I’ve just had a new employee show up and she is currently waiting in the hallway outside of my office for her supervisor to show up and show her around. We’re both wearing masks, as is required here due to the ongoing health crisis.

Well, I end up sneezing and I sneeze LOUD. I do cover it in my arm and all that, and I go to clean up with sanitizer out of habit. The next thing I know, the new employee has burst through the door into my office and started shrieking at me about how I’m going to give her “the rona”. I’m pretty dumbfounded by this and just sit there and stare at her while she’s basically throwing a tantrum, yelling things like how dare I put her at risk (by sneezing in a closed room well away from her whilst wearing a mask) and how she’s going to get me fired for endangering people. 

Karma happens then, as her supervisor finally shows up shortly after and apparently watches for a bit. Once she has seen enough, the supervisor approaches.

Supervisor: “Excuse me. Are you [Employee]?”

Employee: “Yeah!”

Supervisor: “And today’s your first day?”

Employee: “Uh-huh!”

Supervisor: “Wrong. I’m going to go file the termination paperwork in a little bit. Right now I’m seeing that you’re off the property immediately!”

And just like that, she was marched off the grounds. I’m glad that we didn’t have to deal with that particular bit of crazy for long. I can’t imagine how bad things would have been if she had exploded at someone like that on the factory floor.

I work in a restaurant. A lady and her two kids come in, and she is the only one not wearing a mask.

Me: “Miss, do you have a mask?”

Lady: “No, I don’t.”

Me: “You need one to come in and eat.”

Lady: “This is ridiculous. Can I just come in like this?”

She covers her nose with her shirt.

Me: “No, you can’t do that.”

Lady: “Oh, my God.”

And she pulls a mask out of her pocket! Now I’m pissed because she obviously lied to me in the first place.

Me: “Wow, you had it in your pocket the whole time and didn’t want to put it on!”

Lady: “Well, I have a medical condition that doesn’t require me to wear a mask.”

Me: *In an angry tone* “Then I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe you shouldn’t come in and eat if you have a medical problem.”

Lady: “Then maybe I won’t.”

And she walked away.

After that, a couple came up and paid up at the register. One of them said, “Hey, man, I appreciate what you did. I know you probably go through a lot every day with people like that.”

At least someone appreciates me standing up for my own restaurant.

I wear a mask any time I leave my home. Nobody in the area has the same mask, so as we’re in a small town, people often recognize me. This morning as I’m grabbing my morning supplies at the gas station down the street, a customer recognizes me.

Customer: “You, help me find these things.”

Me: “I don’t work here.”

Customer: “I know. I need help.”

This exchange goes on for a few moments, her getting more and more insistent about me being the person to help her. The woman even tries to block me from leaving the store! I am generally a helpful and pleasant person… at least until I am treated with disrespect.

The moment she blocks me in, I flip.

Me: “I will remove you by force if necessary.”

Luckily, she ended up moving and I left the store in a rush to her threats of calling my manager.

Whoever you are, lady, I hope you get the help you need, but I don’t work everywhere and I’m not licensed to get you the mental help.