I work at a gym and am greeting members at the front desk. One member leaves the building and then comes back a few minutes later looking stressed.

Member: “Do you happen to have cameras in the parking lot?”

Me: “I believe the property manager does.”

Member: “Okay, I need video evidence. Someone broke the windows on my truck. I don’t think they took anything, but I already called the police.”

Me: “Oh, no! I’m so sorry about that. Let me grab a few things and I’ll start filling out an incident report.”

I radio for a coworker to come up to the front to cover me and then go out with him to get pictures of his truck. Our parking lot is straight out from the entrance of the gym, so it’s odd when the member makes a right and starts walking toward the side of the gym where our dumpsters are. We turn the corner and he’s parked in a no-parking zone.

Me: “Uh, I’m pretty sure there aren’t cameras in this area.”

Member: “You said you have cameras in the parking lot!”

Me: “This isn’t the parking lot, though.”

I grab a few pictures and tell him to let us know when the police arrive so we can finish the incident report. It’s fairly simple since nothing was stolen and we have no video to find out who smashed his windows.

A few weeks pass and the member comes back.

Member: “The police officer ended up giving me a parking ticket, and I had to pay for the new windows because they said there was nothing they could do!”

I work out at a private gym with a personal trainer twice a week. I had a baby this year, so I bring her with me and she just plays on the floor while I exercise. Because of this, the trainers usually leave the parking spot closest to the gym open for me so I don’t have to walk as far with all my stuff.

I’m in the middle of my workout. The door to the gym opens and in walks a man, probably in his mid-forties. He’s wearing a business suit, so he’s clearly not here to work out. Again, it’s a private gym, so we don’t really get walk-ins.

Trainer: “Can I help you?”

Man: “Yeah, she’s parked in the closest spot.” *Points at me*

My trainer looks at me.

Trainer: “Did you park in one of our parking spots?”

Me: “Yes, I parked in the same spot I always do.”

Man: “Yeah, I’ve seen you park there before. That’s why I followed you in here. I wanted to park there!”

Me: “…”

Trainer: “Sorry, sir, just to clarify… she’s parked in a gym parking lot. You parked somewhere else just to follow her in here and ask her to move?!”

Man: “Yes! She’s younger and I don’t want my car to get scratched. She should move so I can park there.”

This went in circles for a while until finally one of the other trainers had to come out and force the man to leave. He was shouting that the closest spots should be left for those with the nicest vehicles. Honestly, some people!

The gym I work at has different tiers of memberships. We have signs posted around the front desk describing what’s included in each tier. However, some of the amenities are currently unavailable due to the current situation of the world.

A woman walks in and asks for more information. We are looking at one of the signs together, which is in English and Spanish. The amenities unavailable are crossed out on the English side, but whoever crossed them out didn’t do so on the Spanish side.

Me: “The premium membership includes [list of amenities]. Right now, [some amenities] are not available due to [the health crisis], but hopefully, we will be able to reopen those soon.”

Woman: *Points at the sign* “But it shows they are available in Spanish.”

Me: “Sorry about that. They should have been crossed out since they’re not available right now.”

Woman: “But they’re on the sign! I should have access to them.”

Me: “Right, but they are crossed out on the English side. They’re currently unavailable to everyone. However, if you do purchase the membership, you’ll have access to them once we reopen them.”

Woman: “They aren’t crossed out in Spanish, so you should allow me to use them.”

Me: “I’m unable to do that. They’re all shut down until further notice.”

Woman: “I should be able to use them. This is false advertising!”

Me: “My apologies. They should have been crossed out.”

This goes back and forth for a while as she continues to get angrier with me.

Woman: “If you won’t help me, then I’ll just come back and have someone else do it for me.”

As soon as she leaves, I pull down all the signs and go through them to cross off the amenities on the Spanish side. My manager sees me doing this, so I explain what happened. She is baffled by the interaction.

The next day, the woman comes back and sees me at the front desk.

Woman: *Shouting* “No! Not you. I don’t want your help!”

She started walking over to where my coworker was. She glanced at the sign and saw that the amenities had now been crossed off. She got a look of defeat on her face, glared at me, and stormed out of the building.

I decide to attend a local workout class with my mum one morning. She’s a regular, and being a typical mum, she talks all about me to the other women there. As a result, she’s told me that a few of them are looking forward to me coming along and meeting me. Relevant to note is that she has definitely referred to me by my name when talking about me, not exclusively as “my daughter”.

I arrive and introduce myself, clearly having arrived with her, and they give me friendly good mornings but are otherwise quite indifferent to my joining. I shrug it off and figure she exaggerated how much they wanted me to come along.

Then, about twenty minutes later, they’re suddenly much more interested in chatting with me and asking questions about my life and work, etc.

The change in behavior was because of this amusing interaction mum had with one of the other women a little beforehand.

Woman: “So, how do you know [My Name], [Mum]?”

Mum: “Oh, I gave birth to her twenty-six years ago.”

I’m a personal trainer working with a client. We have a friendly relationship and banter is part of our routine. I know that about ten years ago, he used to do Crossfit, but that fell by the wayside and now he’s opted for one-on-one personal training.

Me: “Okay, let’s start with twenty burpees.”

Client: *Audibly groans*

Me: “Oh, come on. You did Crossfit for how many years? Burpees should be your bread and butter!”

Client: “Yes, but when I make myself some bread and butter, I don’t make twenty slices of it.”

Me: *Pauses* “Now listen here, you little s***.”

He did twenty more burpees at the end.