I have been a checkout worker at my grocery store for three years (they give me convenient hours while I am at college, so I am happy here for now) and I am a reliable worker. A new hire has started, and I am training her. She is a middle-aged woman, and she’s very pleasant and eager to learn. She is also extremely religious; she says a little prayer at the beginning and end of each shift, she touches her cross necklace between each customer, and she has a little copy of the Bible in the drawer at her checkout desk. (We’re allowed the occasional personal item.)

All of this is fine, but she has a habit of trying to preach to me and tell me all about Jesus every time we have a breather between customers, or even when she’s actively checking customers out.

Coworker: “Did you speak to Jesus today, yet? I’ve spoken to Him four times today, and I am feeling so energized!”

Me: “I am glad that works for you, but [Coworker], I have told you before that I am an atheist, and I would prefer not to have you preach to me about your religion from now on.”

Coworker: “But I have a mandate! I would be disobeying the Lord if I didn’t do all in my power to try to save you!”

Me: “You have a mandate to check out customers and keep your cash drawer in balance. That’s it.”

She finishes that shift in solemn silence, but it is not to last. On my next shift, I find a religious pamphlet on my cash desk. I clearly throw it into the trash in front of her, but she just leaves another one about another religious subject the next day.

Me: “[Coworker], what did I say about preaching to me?”

Coworker: “I’m not saying a word! I’m just leaving some literature around for those who might want to read it.”

On my break, I bring it up with my manager.

Manager: “We’ll tell her to stop, but there’s not really much we can do if she wants to talk about it.”

Me: “Even if it’s a distraction from work?”

Manager: “Technically, yeah, but [General Manager] is also a big church-goer, and he encourages any employee to shout, ‘DISCRIMINATION!’ if any employee feels their rights to religious freedom are being stepped on.”

Me: “Iiiiiinteresting.”

The next day, I find yet another religious pamphlet on my cash desk, but this time, I am prepared.

Me: “[Coworker], since you’re so adamant, I will do you a deal. I will read your pamphlet about your religion if you read one about mine.”

Coworker: “I thought you said you were an atheist?”

Me: “I was, but after seeing the impact religion has made in your life, I have decided to seek one out for my own.”

Coworker: *Excited* “Oh, that’s wonderful! Here, take this one!”

Me: “Sure, if you take mine.”

I hand her a pamphlet I printed out online about the Satanic Temple.

Coworker: “Oh… Oh, I can’t take that.”

Me: “I thought you said you would read one of mine if I read one of yours?”

Coworker: “Yes, but we’re talking about finding Jesus! Like in the Bible!”

Me: “Last I checked, Satan was also in the Bible.”

Coworker: “I can’t… Sorry.”

Me: “Then I guess I can’t take your pamphlet, sorry.”

The rest of the shift is blissfully silent. The next day, I still find a pamphlet on my desk, so in turn, I leave one of “mine” at hers. It takes all of another day before I am called into the general manager’s office.

General Manager: “I’ve received a complaint regarding you and some harassment.”

Me: “If you mean [Coworker], who has been harassing me constantly about joining her church, then yes, I do feel harassed.”

General Manager: “What? Wait… no… it’s… There has been a complaint made against you about harassing a coworker. You left some intentionally offensive material on their work desk.”

Me: “I have been harassed for days by [Coworker] about ‘Jesus this’ and ‘The Lord that’, despite my attempted repeats to make her stop. If she is complaining about me, I would also like to complain about her.”

General Manager: “We can’t infringe on the religious freedoms of—”

Me: “I am simply leaving literature related to my religion in the same manner as has been done to me by members of another religion. If you stop me, then you will be infringing on my religious freedoms.”

General Manager: “That’s not how it works. You—”

Me: “I know how it works. Religious freedom is fine as long as it’s Christianity. Anything else is not allowed. Is that what you’re saying?”

He is silent for a moment because he knows I have him.

General Manager: “I will… explain… to those involved that sharing of religious material from now on is only allowed on break, and for those who wish to hear it.”

Me: “Wonderful! That’s all I was asking for!”

And with that, I happily skipped out of the office. The next day, my coworker was there with the sourest expression on her face, not speaking to me directly but praying more frequently and loudly, to the point where she was slowing down her work and some customers started complaining.

Within a week, she quit. I asked my manager what happened, and he said she couldn’t handle working in an environment that didn’t respect her religious freedoms.

I now keep a copy of Satanic Temple literature in my bag at all times, just in case.

Where I live in Minnesota, between September and May, a major blizzard every other week is just part of life. Most, if not all of the hotels here have a policy of bad weather not being an excuse to not come to work. They offer us free rooms during bad weather if we think we won’t be able to make the drive to our shifts from home.

One weekend, I was scheduled for a shift at the hotel. A surprise blizzard hit the night before. I hadn’t stayed at the hotel because no one knew the blizzard was coming — plus my boyfriend works nights and someone had to be at home with the dog, anyway.

My car is pretty decent in the snow (somehow), so I wasn’t worried. The only problem was that no one had plowed our weird back-alley driveway at all, and my car and the alley were both completely snowed in. The snow was thigh-deep, and I tried for a literal hour to dig my car out and try to make it out of the alley, but I kept getting stuck, and random neighbors had to keep popping out to help push my car out of snow ruts.

Eventually, I gave up and called the hotel.

Me: “Look, I’m really sorry, but I can’t make it in. My car is completely snowed in and I tried for an hour to get my car out, to no avail.”

Front Desk Girl: “That’s okay. I totally understand.”

Me: “I already texted [Other Housekeeper], and she said she could cover for me.”

Front Desk Girl: “Okay, no problem. Hope you can get your car out eventually! Have a good one.”

I felt bad, but what else could I do, really?

The next day, I got an angry text from the hotel general manager.

General Manager: “We do not accept bad weather as an excuse to call off from your shift. You’re supposed to stay at the hotel if you think you can’t make it.”

Me: “I know, and I’m sorry. But I didn’t know ahead of time that the blizzard was coming, or that my car and our back alley would be so snowed in that I wouldn’t be able to get out.”

General Manager: “Then you should have taken a [Ride-Sharing Service].”

This hadn’t even occurred to me because I’d never used a ride-sharing service in my life. I wouldn’t have even known how, to be honest.

Me: “Okay, I’m sorry. I hadn’t thought of that. But I did get the shift covered before it was supposed to start, at least.”

General Manager: “Just remember in the future that bad weather is a part of our life, so it’s not an excuse to not come to work.”

I was a little peeved, but I shrugged it off.

Then, a few weeks later, we got another blizzard. I did make it to work this time. However, I checked our hotel communication app and saw a post from [General Manager].

General Manager: “Good morning! I will not be in today because I can’t make it out of my driveway from the snow. Have a good day, everyone!”

It took everything inside me not to post a snarky reply, throwing her own words to me right back at her. I’m just glad I no longer work there.

A guest approaches the front desk.

Guest: “There are people vaping by the pool! I have asthma! They could kill me!”

Me: “Thank you for letting me know, ma’am. I will get someone to remind them where our smoking areas are.”

Guest: “Where are your smoking areas?”

Me: “Just outside the main entrance and to the right. It’s been designed to be very easy to avoid.”

The guest thanks me and I resume my duties.

Later, I am helping some customers outside as it has started raining heavily, and I see the same guest enjoying a cigarette in the smoking area. We lock eyes.

Guest: “I just don’t like vaping, okay?!”

I was working for a really volatile client on a job. She had to submit a company profile to the board, and I had sent it to her two weeks prior to her meeting. The day before the meeting, I got a call.

Client: “I’m not sure about the profile you’ve sent me, you haven’t followed the brief.”

Me: “Oh? What have I missed?”

Client: “I specified a quote to go on the front cover, and you’ve put it on the back cover. Why would you do that? I expressly specified in the brief that it was to go on the front.”

I checked the brief and it wasn’t specified.

Me: “Actually, I thought that communication and design-wise, it worked better on the back cover.”

Client: “Look, if we are going to work together, I need you to learn to read a brief properly.  I need to know why you would choose to ignore my instructions?!”

Me: “Actually, I have a question for you: why didn’t you phone me two weeks ago when I gave this to you and ask me then if I could change it?”

Client: “…I don’t know.”

I work for a corporate identity firm.

Client: “I don’t like it. Make the text in the middle bigger, but leave the blue box around the word the same.”

Me: “I can’t do that. I have to scale the full object, or else it would go against your branding standard and the EPS you sent us. It would look wrong.”

Client: “Those don’t apply to this. Why is this so hard for you, a designer, to understand? Just make the text bigger and leave the box the same!”

Me: “I’m going to have to get you to sign off on these changes before we send them to be manufactured. Please find the attached approval form. Once again, I do not recommend this modification.”

Client: “We need this installed next week. I don’t have time to argue with you! Just make it the way I asked.”

The client forwards back the signed approval form.

Later, during installation…

Client: “This looks horrible! Why didn’t you tell me it would look so different?!”

I forward all the emails warning the client, detailed measurements, the changes from the original EPS, and the signed approval from him and his Vice President for the changes.

Client: “Well, I’m not paying for this. It looks completely wrong!”