I’m a student in a university town. I was out, and it had gotten to lunchtime. I can’t afford to eat out much, so I popped to the supermarket to get some bread and an apple that I could have for lunch.

At the checkout, the man in front of me, who looked at the older end of middle-aged, was being quite rude and obnoxious to the cashier, who was an older woman. She was being friendly, smiling, and laughing. He was being snotty and acting like she was the most annoying person he’d ever talked to.

At one point, she commented on his university-branded clothes.

Cashier: “You must be cleverer than me!”

The customer glared at her like she was insane.

Customer: “Well, of course, I am!”

Then, he stormed off with his shopping while the cashier laughed it off.

Cashier: “Thank you for shopping at [Supermarket]! Have a nice day!”

I stepped up to collect my items and pay, and it was like a switch flipped in the cashier! I smiled, said hello, and was as polite as I could be without seeming like someone out of a period piece, but for some reason, she seemed to ooze with contempt for me. She had been so lovely and friendly to the man in front, even though he was so rude, but she just glared at me and tutted at the food I was buying. She even harrumphed when I asked for a receipt!

When I went to leave, I wished her a nice day, and she stuffed the receipt at me as fast as possible and said, “Bye.”

I don’t quite know what I did!

I worked for a small company that had an office in one of those co-working office spaces. We were in a corner space, with a neighbour on each side.

The product we sold was books — school yearbooks, in fact — and for each one we produced, we ordered ourselves a few copies to keep and use as examples when making sales visits.

To display our wares in the office, we bought a few bookcases from the Swedish flat pack furniture shop. It was the quiet season for my role (Sales & Account Management), so I, along with a Marketing intern, volunteered to put them together, which took place over a couple of working days as we worked around our other duties.

At no point during these two days did anyone — either co-working space staff or other tenants — say a single word to us.

So, we were a little surprised to find out a few days later that one of our neighbouring office tenants had lodged a complaint about us with the staff, saying that the bookcases we’d erected were blocking out too much of their natural light.

Since these bookcases had a thin panel that covered the back (and provided structural rigidity), this was a fair complaint, and we readily admitted this was a bit of a party foul and were keen to resolve the problem in a mutually agreeable manner.

We tried to locate the neighbour and suggest some options that would allow us to maintain a display without plunging them into darkness. Simple, right?

However, just finding a time when anyone from this business was in the office was impossible — begging the question of why they were so bothered about the light if they were never there.

We left notes on and under their door, stressing that we were not upset that they’d complained, but we wanted to chat and see what could be done about it.

After a couple of days of trying to make contact, we got another message that they were still upset about the bookcases and were planning to escalate their complaint if we didn’t do something about it soon.

We spoke to the office staff, asking if they could share some contact details or pass on a message. They agreed to do the latter, but we never heard back from them through this channel.

One day, glory be, we encountered them leaving their office! So, we tried to snatch a quick, two-minute chat. They didn’t just brush us off; they ran down the corridor to escape us.

Whether this was due to extreme social anxiety or just being terrified of confrontation, I’m not sure. But it was quite odd that someone who had made the effort to use official channels to voice their dissatisfaction so vociferously was so reluctant to play any part in resolving the issue.

Eventually, we had the building staff pass on the same message that we slid under their door:  that we would remove the reinforcing back panel and install some corner brackets to prevent the units from wobbling and collapsing.

Since none of our books were more than a third of the height of the shelves, this would let a decent amount of light through. We even painted the exposed, untreated wood to match the rest of the bookcases so that it didn’t look shabby from the back.

Was this acceptable? We can only speculate, as we didn’t hear another peep from them.

All in all, it was a really odd interaction that could probably have been avoided with a quick knock at our door and a few minutes of discussion.

One day, the fire alarm goes off in our store. I am on the emergency team and have additional responsibilities, so [Cafe Colleague] and I head to the meeting point to see what we need to do. Our store has two entrances on the main road, so we are both assigned to an entrance each to stop customers from coming in. On my way to my post, I have to shoo many customers away, including a lady who “just wants to look at the sale stuff quickly”.

About ten minutes after the fire alarm starts, it’s still ringing, and the store is empty. I’m standing at the door nearest to the post office down the road, and [Cafe Colleague] is standing at the other door. We can’t see each other due to the road layout. [Admin Colleague] walks toward me from the street. Thinking maybe she is coming to give me an update, I call her over.

She tries to go into the store! I stop her.

Admin Colleague: “What’s going on? Why can’t I go in?”

Me: “Um, the fire alarm is going off?”

The alarm is still going — very loudly. [Admin Colleague] suddenly gets a look of horror on her face.

Admin Colleague: “Oh, no! I’ve just been to the post office and I didn’t swipe out!”

We have a board near the fire exits where every staff member, contractor, etc., has to sign in. You move your T-card with your name on it to the relevant board when you enter the store and move it back when you leave. You should do this even when leaving the store for just a couple of minutes. In the event of a fire, the managers grab this board and do a roll call at the evacuation point to make sure everyone is safe. If you are still showing as “in-store” and you’re not there, they will be looking for you and could put themselves in danger.

Me: “You’d best get to the evacuation point quickly, then!”

The quickest and safest way to get there is by walking down the road that runs parallel to the store. [Admin Colleague] walks off and I think nothing else of it.

Later on, the alarm is off, we’ve been given the all-clear (it turns out a faulty sprinkler set the alarms off) and we are back at work. I tell [Cafe Colleague] about [Admin Colleague].

Cafe Colleague: “Yeah, I saw her, too. She tried to come in through my door, as well.”

Me: “What?”

Cafe Colleague: “She wanted to get to the evacuation point by going through the store and going out the back entrance.”

Me: “A store that theoretically could have been burning down?”

Cafe Colleague: “Yep…”

I suspect [Admin Colleague] was given a stern talking-to by the managers after this.

I’m travelling with a friend on the underground, and I’m standing in the queue for the outermost ticket barrier to go through to the platforms. Suddenly, I feel myself being bowled over, but this is something I am used to as I’m a bit of a metalhead. I manage to stand my ground and look over to see what is going on.

It turns out a woman about my height — I’m female, too — but heavier than me just walked into me because she was chatting with her friend. (I bring up her size as it explains why I needed to use a bit of force to keep myself in place.) I’m about to brush it off when she turns to her friend.

Woman: “Oh, how rude!”

I turn to face her again.

Me: “Um, you walked into me.”

Woman: “Well, you didn’t need to push back so much!”

Me: “I was already standing here. Maybe you should look where you are going.”

Because obviously, to her, I should have fallen down or moved out the way when she walked into me and not stopped her for any reason.

I turned around, put my ticket into the barrier, and walked through, leaving the sound of outrage behind me. My friend and I had a good laugh about it on the escalator, and another friend we met later didn’t believe it had happened until the one there confirmed it.

I work in a souvenir and gift shop, so we are used to getting a lot of tourists. A man from the USA has placed some items on the counter, and I scan them and place them in a bag. 

Me: “That will be £44.12.”

Customer: “Do I give you this now?”

He hands me a membership card to a USA-based store that I recognize from the Internet.

Me: “Uh, no, sir. That’s a Target membership card. You need to give me money.”

Customer: “Oh, I use money to buy these things.”

Me: “Uh… yes, sir.” 

Customer: “Don’t use that tone with me! I’ve never been to England before!”