(I recently got hired as a laundry person; it is my job to gather the dirty towels from the female locker rooms, and place them in the washer. There is another guy who does the towels from the men’s locker rooms, and he is always listening to his headphones, but he nods to me. I’m a naturally quiet person, so I’m just folding the towels. I have a bad feeling about him, but I just put it off.)

Coworker: “Hi.”

Me: “Hi.”

(He gives me a weird look and takes off. Later, as I’m loading up the washer, he sneaks up behind me and forcefully takes the wet towels and shoves them into the washer, nearly hitting me. I can hear the music on his headphones. It’s rap with some explicit lyrics… against females.)

Coworker: “You have to do it fast!” *condescendingly* “Understand?”

Me: “Okay… Thanks.”

(The next day, he comes up to me again while I’m folding.)

Coworker: “Hey! You like eating hot dogs?”

Me: “Uh, no, I don’t like hot dogs.”

(His expression suddenly turns to a rage.)

Coworker: “You don’t have to be uptight! Work can be fun, you know!”

(He glared at me, fists clenched, and I felt very unsafe, since there was no one else around at that moment. He stormed off, and I was left feeling bewildered. I told the truth, I don’t like hot dogs. Or maybe he was alluding to something? I told my supervisor exactly what happened and he told the guy to leave me alone. He didn’t say anything else to me, but stood there, glaring with fists clenched, while I worked, and it was so creepy that I left soon after. Luckily, I was able to find another job after, without creeps as coworkers.)

(This is a conversation overheard after self-defence class at my local Y.)

Boy: “I’m never fighting you again. You fight dirty!”

Girl: “Hey, I told you to wear a cup and most attackers won’t be wearing cups in real life! You have to hit them where it hurts! [Teacher] said to make the fight realistic!”

Boy: “Well, realistically I think I won’t be able to have sex EVER AGAIN!”

(I decide that I’m getting too unfit, so I go to a gym to join. I pick one closest to my house and walk in. After explaining, they send a salesman to talk with me and fill out forms.)

Salesman: “You should buy a personal trainer.”

Me: “No, thanks.”

Salesman: “You can always quit if you don’t like it. Why don’t you try?”

Me: *hoping to move things along* “Ok, fine.”

(After trying out the personal trainer, I find him very bad as I expected. So I call up the gym.)

Gym: “Hello?”

Me: “May I speak with the manager.”

Gym: “One moment.”

Manager: “Can I help you?”

Me: “Yes, I bought a personal trainer package, but I don’t like him. Do I have to go to the gym to cancel him, or can you do it for me over the phone?”

Manager: “…you don’t have to come. It’s done.”

Me: “It’s done?”

Manager: “Yep.”

Me: “Thanks so much! What’s your name?”

Manager: “[Name]. Bye.”

(So I’m think everything’s okay, until some time later I look at my credit card bill and see that the gym is STILL taking out money for the personal trainer! So I go to the gym.)

Me: “Hello, I have canceled this personal training and it’s still charging me for it!”

Clerk: “Hold on, I’ll get the manager.”

Manager: *grinning* “Hello.”

Me: “Hello, I have canceled the personal training over the phone–”

Manager: “No, you need to come to the gym to do it.”

Me: “What? But the manager I spoke to on the phone said it was all canceled!”

Manager: “None of our managers said they spoke to you.”

Me: “Well, can you cancel it?”

Manager: “No, it’s already past the cancellation date. Why don’t you try another trainer?”

Me: “No! I want this cancelled! Some employee of yours lied to me!”

Manager: “Tell me who!”

Me: “[Name]!”

Manager: *grinning* “There’s no [Name] here. TELL ME WHO SO I KNOW WHO TO FIRE!”

Me: “That’s it. Please cancel my membership.”

(He did, still grinning away like a maniac, refusing to refund my money. I made sure to get his name and a cancellation confirmation. Later, I talked to my bank about the charges, and they helped me get my charges refunded. Sad that some dishonest employee made me go further to another gym, but… the real kicker is that that gym keeps sending me junk mail, begging me to sign up with them! No thanks!)

(I go to the reception to register my membership. I’m quite conscious that English is not my first language, so I always say something like Apple for A, Boy for B, etc. so people can get my spelling right. The staff asks for my postcode, so after saying the whole postcode, I spell it again with words starting with each letter in my postcode. He gets them all correct till the last one.)

Me: “Dog.”

(He couldn’t get the letter.)

Me: “D for Dog.”

(He typed another wrong letter.)

Me: “Dog, Dan, …? ABCD?”

(He got a different wrong letter at every single attempt. So I just wrote down the whole postcode on paper and gave it to him instead. I still wonder what I did wrong for the D letter.)

(I’m at a weight lifting class five minutes before start. I set up a bench, and a bar, and am standing by it when I get a poke on the shoulder.)

Lady: *sternly* “This is my spot.”

(I pause, taking in how childish this is, but decide it’s not worth a fight.)

Me: “Okay.” *I lean down, grab my bench, and start to pull it to another spot*

Lady: “No, that’s my bench! I set this up!”

Me: *startled* “I just set this up a minute ago.”

Lady: “Are you serious?!”

Me: “Yes. You can have that spot but I’m taking the bench and weights I just set up.”

(I drag them to the only available spot — right next to her. A lady who saw all this rushes to set this lady’s spot up for her while she fumes. Class begins and the lady is glaring at me in the mirror during class. It is intimidating and I leave class 10 minutes early because I have a bad feeling she’s not finished with me and I don’t want to talk to her. I shower and dress and when I come out of the locker room the lady is at the front desk, sees me, and points.)

Lady: “That’s her!”

(I walk up to front desk and start to explain what happened but the lady is screaming over me.)

Lady: “Liar! She’s lying! She’s a thief!”

Desk-Person: *trying to shush her but she won’t stop* “Okay, I’m going to take you each aside separately so I can hear both sides. Let’s start with you.” *points to me*

(We walk to back room, and once inside I start explaining but don’t even get a full sentence out before the lady bursts in!)

Lady: “She’s a liar! Please! She stole my spot! How can a person do something like that?! She’s a thief!”

(I have to explain the whole story while this woman shrieks, “no!” over me, which is very frustrating.)

Desk-Person: *turns to lady* “Okay. So this could have been anyone. It doesn’t matter what you think she did. You can’t scream at other members like this.”

Lady: “So you think it’s okay?! Would you steal someone’s spot? I came in half an hour early, set up my spot, ran on the treadmill, and when I got back, she stole my spot! How could she do that?!”

Desk-Person: “You don’t own anything here. Next time—”

Lady: “But I’m a member!”

Desk-Person: “So is she. Next time don’t set up your spot and leave it unattended. You have no way of knowing what happened. Someone could have put your stuff away before class—”

Lady: “No!”

Desk-Person: *very frustrated now and raises her voice* “You are in the wrong here! Actually, I can suspend your membership for this!”

(The lady is suddenly in tears.)

Me: “Uh, I have to go to work.”

(The front-desk-person apologized to me and I left. A few weeks later I saw that lady in the same class. Never spoke to me again.)