For my mother- and father-in-law’s thirtieth anniversary, my husband and his siblings all chipped in to get them a seven-day cruise in a nice room with a balcony — very expensive! The kids have always had a rough relationship with their mother, but now that everyone has moved out, she has been more invested in staying connected.

Mother-In-Law: “This is wonderful! I can’t wait!”

Father-In-Law: “Thank you all.”

[Mother-In-Law] walks off, already on her phone.

Mother-In-Law: “Yes, a cruise! How sweet of them.” *Pauses* “Oh I don’t think that’s a problem. Let me see. [Father-In-Law], what do you think about [Woman] coming on the cruise?”

Father-In-Law: “Sure. That’s fine.”

Mother-In-Law: “What do you guys think?”

The kids all nod, not knowing who this woman is.

Mother-In-Law: “Great!”

We all leave, happy that they are happy. A few weeks before the cruise, [Mother-In-Law] sends a mass text to everyone involved in purchasing her cruise ticket.

Mother-In-Law: “[Woman] wants to know what her room number is.”

Sibling #1: “It probably isn’t assigned yet.”

Mother-In-Law: “Oh, okay. She is so excited! She’s bringing her kids and her parents.”

Husband: “We’re glad you’re going to have fun!”

On the day of the cruise, there’s another text from [Mother-In-Law]. 

Mother-In-Law: “They can’t find [Woman]’s reservation. What is the confirmation number?”

Sibling #2: “It should be in the email.”

Mother-In-Law: “What email?”

Sibling #2: “From the cruise line.”

Mother-In-Law: “She never got one.”

Husband: “When did she book?”

Mother-In-Law: “It was whenever you booked for her.”

Sibling #1: “Why would we do that?”

Husband: “We aren’t paying for a whole random family to go on a cruise. You’re joking.”

[Mother-In-Law] calls [Husband]. 

Mother-In-Law: “I asked if they could come along, and you all said yes!”

Husband: “…Because they can go, but we aren’t paying for it. We never said we would, and you never asked in the first place.”

Mother-In-Law: “This is so embarrassing. I was trying to take my friend on a nice, relaxing trip, and now she can’t go?!”

Husband: “I don’t know what to tell you, Mom. We never said we would pay for them.”

Mother-In-Law: “This is ridiculous!”

She hung up. Her friend and family could not get on the cruise because it was all booked.

That was the last time my husband and his siblings did anything nice for his parents. [Father-In-Law] was grateful for the vacation, though he was stuck on a boat with an ungrateful woman for a week. They divorced a few years later.

CONTENT WARNING: Animal Neglect

My friend has an elderly cat who, while sweet, doesn’t always properly groom her backside. [Cat] loves to lay on me, which is how I learn that she isn’t the best at grooming. I smell something, pick her up, and find a smear on my jeans. I immediately put her on the ground, but she jumps back up.

Me: *To my friend* “I don’t want [Cat] sitting on me. Can you put her in the bathroom or something?”

She jumps up again, and I put her on the floor.

Friend: “It’s her house. She’s not hurting anything.”

Me: “She left poop on my jeans. I don’t want her on me.”

The cat comes up. The cat goes down. I move to a different seat.

Friend: “You’re washable. She’s nineteen; she can’t help it.”

Me: “Okay, but I—” *removing the cat again* “—do not want cat poop on me. Do you have a towel or something I can lay on my lap?”

Friend: “Just move her if you’re so finicky.”

Me: “I have done that four times, and she keeps coming back. If you don’t have anything to cover my lap and you won’t put her in another room, I’m going to have to leave.”

Friend: “Seriously? She’s a cat.”

Me: “And she s*** on me.”

I put her down one last time and left. I understand that she couldn’t clean herself and she may have been upset by being isolated until I left, but I don’t think I was out of line to ask for something to protect my clothing.

Our store is closed, but a woman trots on in — past a big A-board sign saying our opening hours.

Me: “Sorry, ma’am, we’re currently closed.”

Customer: “Then why was the door unlocked?”

Me: “It has to be unlocked when people are in the store due to fire regulations.”

Customer: “But there are no people here!” 

Me: “We also count as people… ma’am.”

Related:
Because Retail Workers Aren’t Human

This is not my story; this happened to my friend. When they told me this, I had to share because I love it and I’d never expect it from the friend who did it.

I work as a server. This one guy always comes to the restaurant, and he is usually pretty quiet and never tips too well. Most of the time, he comes with a couple of friends or by himself, sits at the bar, and watches a sports game. I’ve never had a problem with him until he came in one time with a date. I’ve never seen the woman before so I assume they were new to dating.

They sat at a table this time in a quieter part of the restaurant, and they were seated at one of my tables. I had no problem with them, and everything was going fine. They asked for the check, and I went right around the corner from their table; it was close by so I was quick. As I was coming back to the table…

Guy: *To the woman* “Watch this.”

And he put a hundred-dollar bill down on the table. Then, he saw that I had seen him.

Guy: *Jokingly* “Oh! You weren’t supposed to see that!”

I was ecstatic either way, even though it was so obvious that he was trying to impress the woman. I didn’t care.

I waited until they left to go grab the hundred-dollar bill. When I unfolded it, it was one of the fake $100 bills — I guess for pranks. That means this freaking guy planned this out to impress this woman. It was so frustrating because I needed the money, but at the same time, I thought it was because I had done a great job. Either the woman was in on it, or he decided to be a jerk in two different ways.

I told my manager, who said the guy’s behavior was ridiculous. I decided to hold on to the bill because I knew the day would come when I could get back at this guy.

Two weeks later, the guy came back and my manager recognized him. While I was working at the time, I was on a different side of the restaurant which was already full.

Manager: “The fake-hundred guy is back. Do you want his table, as well? He’s with the woman from last time.”

I often joked with my manager about throwing the fake $100 back on the table in front of that woman to embarrass him if he ever came back. I thought to myself, “Yeah, I may be busy already, but sure. What’s one more table?”

Me: *Smirking* “Absolutely, no problem.”

Before I went over to their table, I ran out to my car to grab the fake $100, which was sitting in my cup holder for this exact moment.

I got to their table and they instantly recognized me. The woman seemed normal, but the guy looked like he was nervous. I pretended nothing had happened all the way until I got their check.

When I brought the check back, I placed it down on the table as well as the fake $100, but I left it unfolded so the fake part was showing.

Me: *To the guy* “Hey, I’m not sure if you remember me from last time, but I believe you forgot this. I’m just returning it because I believe it was too much.”

The woman looked very confused, so I instantly knew she was not a part of it, but the guy got all nervous.

Guy: “I don’t know what that is!”

Me: “Oh, my mistake!” *Laughing and turning to the woman* “Have a good night!”

And I walked away.

When I came back, they were both gone. There was a big $0.00 on the signed receipt and a $50 bill — real this time — where the woman had been sitting. One can only assume that the guy didn’t want to tip on his card, so he wrote obnoxiously big zeros on the tip, and that $50 just happened to be where the woman was sitting, so I’m hoping she had placed it there.

I don’t know what happened with the couple or if they stayed together, but I haven’t seen them back since, and it’s been a few weeks. I really hope she looks for his red flags now.

For the last fifteen years or so, I’ve worked in a niche field that unfortunately doesn’t have a lot of jobs near my hometown. As a permanent relocation wasn’t viable for me, this meant that a good chunk of my career was spent working away from home during the week and returning at the weekends.

During one such spell, my partner became seriously ill, and I was desperate to find a new job near my home. I was even prepared to take a pretty significant income drop to make it happen, so I applied for everything. Eventually, I found a company that told me they were forming a new satellite office thirty minutes from my home, and they offered me a role as part of that team, as well, as a promise that they were committed to growing our service in the region.

Sadly, that commitment manifested as complete disinterest and zero support to actually grow the business. When a key client was lost, they started to wind down our presence and did a number of shady things to get rid of people or redeploy them.

One manager in particular was a bully and a hypocrite who would refuse commissions away from her own home but thought nothing about doing that to other people without talking to them.

One day, my colleague suddenly swore while reading their emails and called me over.

Colleague: “Hey, you really need to see this email. You won’t believe what [Nasty Manager] is up to.”

My colleague had been accidentally copied into an email from [Nasty Manager] discussing a number of new opportunities. One of them specifically mentioned a role that would redeploy me from my current office to a location four hours away, full-time, and for a minimum duration of six months.

I asked my colleague to forward me the email, and then I replied to [Nasty Manager]. I explained that whilst I would be happy to support occasional travel and provide remote support, I couldn’t and wouldn’t accept a commission such as this. Not only would it not suit my personal circumstances, but I could make more money by going back to contracting with the same work/life balance they were proposing, so there was no professional or financial incentive for me, either. They responded with a slightly apologetic and conciliatory message and told me not to worry about it. I thought that was the end of it, but no.

A few weeks later, my line manager and I visited [Nasty Manager]’s office for an afternoon, and whilst everything was okay during the visit, I did notice that the two of them disappeared into an office for a while. I wouldn’t have really thought about it were it not for the conversation I had with my line manager in the taxi returning from the visit.

Line Manager: “I want you to know that I am extremely disappointed with you.”

Me: “What? Why?”

Line Manager: “[Nasty Manager] just told me about that email exchange you had about one of her opportunities. You should have told me about it so that I could deal with it for you.”

Me: “I suppose I could have mentioned it, but it happened before you were appointed as my line manager, and it never occurred to me to bring it up because it had been dealt with.”

Line Manager: “Even so, you should have told me! Also, I’ve been told you were very hostile.”

Me: “Well, for the last several years, I have worked as an independent contractor. I’m accustomed to dealing with things myself, and the issue had been dealt with, so I saw no need. I’m sorry that they felt I was hostile, but I was just trying to be clear that there is no circumstance under which I would accept a redeployment like that — although, to be honest, I was pretty angry at being put forward for it without a prior discussion when they know my circumstances. I’m sorry if that came across inappropriately, but they seemed fine at the time. I didn’t know they were upset.”

Line Manager: “Even so, I am disappointed.”

Me: “Okay, well, if it happens again, I’ll include you before I do anything.”

At that, they pretty much just scoffed, and the rest of the taxi ride was spent in uncomfortable silence. On the plus side, I left the job not long after, as the work completely dried up.