(I work at a local chain of an international retail store. Recently, the store decided to put soundbars on display — a total of three — connected to our TV wall, and put the volume at an unnecessarily high input. The soundbars are so loud that we can’t hear phone calls clearly, hear our customers, or hear each other, which has led us to resort to shouting or using hand gestures to get across what we’re doing. It has given many of us headaches and decreased traffic in our department drastically. We’ve talked to multiple managers about this, including the new manager over our department who replaced the sweetest woman I’ve ever known. The new manager is a heartless woman who has only declined our pleading and even told us to turn UP the soundbars.)

Me: “Hey, [Assistant Manager], do you have a moment to talk?”

Assistant Manager: “Not really, but what’s up?”

Me: “Listen, the soundbars have to be turned down. They’re so obnoxiously loud that they’re giving us headaches and driving away customers. A guy tried to buy a phone plan but left because they were annoying him.”

Assistant Manager: “Yeah, I can’t really do anything about that; that’d be your supervisors’ job. Besides, as far as I know, it’s a corporate decision, so…” *shrugs and rushes off*

(The next day I come in, which is after a corporate visit — a nutjob threatened the store — I notice the soundbars are significantly lower. They’re so low, I don’t notice them until two hours into my shift.)

Me: “Hey, [Coworker], do you hear that? I can actually think!”

Coworker: *laughs* “Yeah, corporate came in today and said they were way too loud, so we got to turn them down.”

(Sweet victory!)

I rent the lowest apartment, which is halfway in the ground. It means I spend less on cooling and heating, but everyone else’s actions affect me. Here’s a good example.

One winter, our hallway light went off. We went to change it, but the glass bowl around it was filled with water! We immediately called the emergency maintenance line. Someone came within an hour, looked at our light, and then ran upstairs.

It was three days before we got the full story and our light fixed. The neighbor’s pipes started leaking, but they did nothing. “Just a small leak,” they said to him. But something that is constantly leaking can flood the entire floor. The neighbors had let it go for at least a week. If it weren’t for my report, our ceiling could have caved in! They would have been responsible for thousands of dollars worth of damage and we would have no home. As is, they still spent several hundred fixing the ceiling.

This is why I try not to let anything go, no matter how minor it seems.

(My wife is a hospice chaplain, meaning she works with people at the end of their lives, visiting them in their homes. As many of her clients are elderly, she often has to deal with senility and dementia in the people she works with. One morning, before she leaves for work, I see her make a work call. A man answers the phone.)

Man: *shouting so loudly I can hear him from across the room without speakerphone* “WHAT?! I CAN’T HEAR YOU. LEAVE A MESSAGE!” *click*

Wife: *to me* “He… he just hung up. There was no way to actually leave a message.”

(She calls back.)

Man: “DIDN’T YOU HEAR ME! WHY DO YOU KEEP CALLING? YOU NEED TO LEAVE A MESSAGE! DON’T CALL AGAIN!” *click*

(My wife sighs and puts the phone down, then turns back to me.)

Wife: “I’m scheduled to visit them today, and the patient sometimes gets confused. I’m worried about what will happen if I just show up with no warning.”

Me: “Well… is there a caretaker or somebody you can contact to let them know you’re coming?”

Wife: “That was the caretaker!”

(My husband’s brother has always been incredibly lazy and has always had everything done for him. He is in his fifties, never moved out of home, and is morbidly obese. After the passing of their parents, all the siblings decide to pack up and renovate the family home to sell it. We have to put off our own renovations to do this. My brother-in-law does nothing to find a new place to live and does not lift a hand to help out. Their sisters are fed up with having to work around him while he does nothing but watch TV. They pull the television out in an effort to get him to do something; he then just sits at his computer all day. Eventually, the sisters demand that he moves out and because he’s not done anything about it, he has to grudgingly move in with us “temporarily.” So, after two months of my husband working on the house every weekend and every day after working full time, he moves in.)

Brother-In-Law: *looking out our back door* “Hmpf, I thought you would have the deck done by the time I moved in so that I could spend time sitting outside. You’re so lazy.”

I am a female veteran and I have just moved to a new state right before tax season. As such, all my paperwork is from out of state. When I register at my new Veterans Affairs office, I’m told there is free tax prep, where you fill out paperwork at the VA and the tax people call you to confirm. So, in February, I fill out all the paperwork at the office and it is sent off. I’m told the tax people will contact me in April.

April rolls around and I get a voicemail from the tax people. I try to call back to arrange an appointment with them, but I just get their inbox saying it is too full to leave a message. I call the VA office and they assure me it is just because they are so busy, but I will be contacted by April 15th.

On Tax Day 2019, I finally get an actual caller on the phone, who tells me they are calling because I do not qualify for the tax prep! As all my paperwork is out of state from my previous job, I am outside their jurisdiction.

The woman tries to hang up on me, but what she doesn’t realize is that I was a Drill Sergeant. And I let her have it. I remind her that I am a veteran, that other veterans use this service with the understanding that we are taken care of, and that the least they could do was call me and tell me. I also tell her that the VA office did not give me notice, which means they have given wrong information to the VA, and they are now officially responsible for whatever wrong information is incurred.

The woman on the other end is very meek and apologizes over and over again, but I just hang up on her, as it is the afternoon and I now have less than five hours to get my taxes done. Luckily, I do it online and it is not as hard as expected.

The next time I am at the VA, I stop by the office and inform them of the call. They are absolutely furious, as no one has ever told them that and they have sent in paperwork from out of state before! They tell me that if the IRS contacts me or if there is a problem to immediately come to them and they will make sure the tax people are held responsible.

While I don’t think there will be a problem for this year, I’m going to shell out the money for tax prep next year.