I was contracted to put together an event to bring awareness to human trafficking. The client was explicit that they wanted “experimental elements” to make attendees “feel the tragedies.”

Me: “How about we fill backpacks with cans of soup or rice and suggest that guests wear them for the entirety of the evening? Once they do, we donate the food in their name to a related charity after the event.”

Client: “Hmm…”

Me: “Or we could give everyone a mask when they check in so as to strip them of their identity. Maybe there could be some sort of penalty when they take them off. Within good taste, of course.”

Client: “All interesting, but I think these ideas make awareness of human trafficking a bit uncomfortable.”

We ended up settling on a PowerPoint presentation followed by cocktails and dinner. 

I’ve hired a professional DJ with a sound system setup for a work event. It is in his contract that he will arrive by 10:00 am to be set up by 12:00 pm. He shows up at 11:00 am.

Me: “Is everything okay?”

DJ: “Yeah, why?”

Me: “Well, you were scheduled to be here an hour ago, so—”

DJ: “No, noon.”

Me: “We start at noon.”

DJ: “You didn’t tell me that!”

Me: “It’s written out in our contract.”

DJ: “No, it says you need me at noon, not that it starts at noon. I’m early.”

Me: “I assure you it does not. Please do what you can before everyone arrives.”

The DJ stomps off, muttering to himself about how unprofessional I am. He refuses to allow anyone to help him set up because, in his words, his “equipment is too expensive to let just anyone touch it.” I stall everyone just long enough to allow for a mic check before entering the banquet room. The DJ is standing beside one speaker hooked up to a microphone.

DJ: “We are ready!”

Me: “Um… I don’t think this is what we paid for.”

DJ: “Yeah, it is.”

I show him a printout of our contract.

Me: “No, we paid for the four-speaker setup with a projector and screen. This is not going to cover it.”

DJ: “No, it’s fine. See?” *Speaks into the mic* “Can everyone hear me?”

The people closest to him turn, but no one past fifteen feet looks his way.

DJ: “It’s fine; they’re just not looking.”

I walk away. The event is rough, with most people struggling to hear. The projector was a major part of the presentation, so the presenter we hired is also annoyed at the lack of equipment. We muddle through, and as soon as the DJ knows we’re done with his one speaker, he packs up.

DJ: “Right, so I’ll send the request for payment to your email and—”

Me: “I’m going to have to go over our contract again. You barely delivered anything. It’s certainly not worth [amount] for this.”

DJ: *Angry* “Look, it’s not my fault you don’t know what you want.”

Me: “We do know what we want. That’s why we requested it. I could have done this myself, honestly.”

DJ: “But you didn’t.”

He did try to bill us for everything, arguing that we had cancelled all the other things and he was still entitled to the full amount. Our legal team got involved and determined that we would not be paying for any more than we had used. They stated that we had not cancelled, but he was late and his tardiness made the other things we requested unusable. He later left a negative review on our Yelp page saying we were thieves and should not be trusted with anything. I left a negative review on his page, as well. He shut down his page after a few days.

I happen to be in London during New Year’s Eve. I decide if I’m ever going to do the big fireworks thing, this will be the time, so I get tickets for the show. You have to get there about three hours early for your designated spot on the river.

I’m standing there, waiting for the show, when I notice a man and woman next to me. It kind of looks like he’s leaning into her as she speaks into his ear, which makes sense since there is some loud music. But then, I realize he’s using her HAIR as a scarf to protect his face from the cold, as it’s cold and we are getting a breeze from the river. I feel terrible for him since there are about two hours until the show.

Me: “Hey, man, do you want to borrow my scarf?”

Man: “No, that’s okay.”

Me: “Okay, if you’re sure. Can I ask why you don’t have a coat?”

His girlfriend gives me a look that says, “Oh, we have so been over this,” that makes me laugh inside.

Man: “Well, I thought we were going to a club after, and I didn’t want to carry around a coat.”

I let a little more time go, but he starts to shiver. I start unwrapping my scarf.

Me: “Are you sure that you don’t—”

Before I can even finish the sentence, he grabs the scarf out of my hands.

Man: “Yes, please!”

He used the scarf until the end of the show and then we wished each other a happy new year. Sir, if you are reading this, please know that I smile a little whenever I think of this story and it reminds me to be a little kinder to everyone around me.

I do volunteer work in a food pantry, and it’s the day of the annual big lunch with the volunteers from the different food pantries of the department and the departmental headquarters.

During the preparation of the meal, there are, among others, our buyer, the person in charge of training courses, [Volunteer], and me.

Buyer: “What do you do?”

Me: “I prepare a meatless starter.”

Buyer: “Why? Are there vegetarian people here?”

Volunteer: “Yes, me.”

Buyer: “So, you are one of those people who break the windows of the butchers’ shops!”

We are shocked, but [Volunteer] and I are in our twenties and our buyer is in his sixties, and here, there is a “let’s respect our elders” mentality.

Volunteer: “No, I’m not one of the extremists.”

A little later, we are having lunch.

Buyer: “Ah, but the kick scooters, I don’t understand! It’s a means of transport for the bobos!”

The person in charge of the training courses is older than the buyer and is not a vegetarian.

Trainer: “So, it’s you who puts paint on the QR codes of the self-service electric kick scooters to prevent them from unlocking!

The media has been reporting these acts of vandalism.

Buyer: “Nonsense! Why do you say that?”

Trainer: “Since you thought that vegetarians were necessarily people who broke butchers’ windows, I thought that those who criticised the kick scooters were necessarily people who vandalised them.”

Our buyer stopped criticising vegetarians and people on scooters.

I work for a company that is often visited by journalists. As I am the spokesperson for the company it’s my job to show them around, explain things, organize media conferences, etc.

There are sometimes weeks with no visits at all and then days with three journalists wanting to visit, meaning long days for me. I am fine with that but this also means that I use my car quite a lot. No worries, I like driving my car and I get a certain amount of money per driven kilometre that more or less covers the cost of the gas I use.

Since the company desperately needs to save money they decide:

Boss: “No more money for car trips inside the country; use public transport. We’ll pay for the yearly bus ticket.”

Me: “I probably won’t be able to make as many appointments. Also, if you count the cost of the bus ticket plus the additional time for travel it’s bad maths for you.”

Boss: “I don’t care.”

Fine with me. I cancel the contract for my parking spot which I had to pay for myself anyway, so I can save some money.

The new rule comes into effect, I have my bus ticket and start coming to work by bus. On the second day I do this one of the project managers I am organizing a media conference for walks in.

Project Manager: “I changed plans for tomorrow. You need to pick up a few things before the press conference.”

Me: “Sure thing. Since the conference is quite early can you send our intern with me to pick it up?”

Project Manager: “Why? It’s not that much to pick up.”

Me: “I know but it’s too much to carry by myself. Since I’ll have to change buses at least once it’d be a lot more efficient, and the conference is too early to make the trip twice.”

Project Manager: “Just use your car.”

Me: “Since you won’t pay for gas anymore I will not do that. Plus I cancelled my parking spot here already.”

Project Manager: “Do you really have to start your green experiments in a month like this?”

Me: “Go talk to the boss. It’s his decision, not mine, I told him this would happen.”

Two days later we are back to getting money for gas, but the project manager had to use his own car to go get those additional things. Since my parking space was already rented out to another person I still came to work by bus and if there were a lot of appointments I just had them pay for the daily parking as well!