I am a kennel tech at the vet clinic where I work. Part of my job is to run animals in and out for appointments. We are not letting clients in for health and safety reasons; they have to call to check in and out. Pickup time is between 4:30 and 5:30 pm for spay and neuter surgery. I bring a man’s dog out after he has paid, as well as post-op instructions and pain meds.

Me: “Here’s your baby. And she did very well. Didn’t hear a peep out of her all day.”

Client: “I don’t have a cone for her. Can you guys give me one?”

Me: “Absolutely. We sell them for around $12. You’ll have to call in again so they can charge your card for the cone.”

Suddenly, the man’s whole demeanor changes from generally okay to rage. 

Client: “For Christ’s f****** sake. Just give me the d*** papers!”

I stood there slack-jawed in shock at the sudden attitude. I handed him the papers and walked away. 

We understand that the phone check-in is inconvenient, but we are just trying to safely do our jobs during this health crisis.

For context, I am a bisexual woman. I was out to my previous coworkers, but as retail is wont to do, pretty much every other employee has been replaced due to transfers or promotions or general turnover. My newer coworkers are a mixed bag; I’m out to some but not to others.

I am working with a coworker whom I am not out to; I have been warned by another coworker that this coworker is rather bigoted. As I haven’t witnessed this myself, I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt… until this happens.

We are working together after hours for the first time on a normal weekly project I usually do alone.

Coworker: “Hey, do you mind if I play some music? I work better with something going on.”

Me: “Sure thing! I work better with music, too, and I’m not picky about what you play.”

Coworker: “Even if it’s Disney music?”

Me: “Are you kidding? I know the words to pretty much every song from every movie!”

We work and talk about our favorite songs from each movie as the relevant songs come up, including a lengthy discussion about the coworker’s favorite movie and how much she loves it because the family in it is almost identical to hers. I start to think that maybe I’ve been misled about this coworker…

A song from a snow-themed movie comes on and we both belt the words while we work.

Coworker: *After the song ends* “Did you know that the actor that played [Character] is gay?”

Me: “Really?”

I open my mouth to say, “That’s awesome!” but she cuts me off.

Coworker: “I think it’s so stupid how gay people push so hard to have gay stuff in all these movies and TV shows. Nobody wants to see that!”

I am stunned speechless. Her voice sounds absolutely infuriated and she is turning red in the face with anger. I miss half her rant because I start drafting a text to our boss as I’m getting a little worried for my safety.

Coworker: “I mean, what does it matter? Why do they want to ruin everything by being in it?”

When I speak next, it’s in a tone one would talk to a child with.

Me: “You know, I can’t speak for everyone, but I bet it’s nice to look at a TV or a big screen and see someone just like you. You love [Movie] because the family is just like yours, right? I’m sure gay people just would like to watch something they love and see someone like themselves and their families, too.”

She didn’t have anything to say to that. Our (lesbian) boss never scheduled us together after hours again, and I never told the bigoted coworker that I wasn’t straight until long after we’d both left that company.

I frequently eat on break while on my way to the break room in the back of the store, to ensure I have enough time to eat. At least one customer always stops me despite having my vest hanging off one shoulder and not zipped.

I am shoveling chicken tenders into my mouth actively as I’m walking to the breakroom:

Customer: “Can you tell me where the calendars are?”

Me: *Mouth full of chicken* “Fey aren’t out fet.”

My friend and I work the concession stand for the basketball games at our high school. My dad works at the school so I am trusted to do money and put it in the principal’s office at the end of the night. We also get honors society credit for it.

We are almost out of food and only have diet drinks left because we are on the third game of the night.

Customer: “I’ll take a Coke.”

Friend: “We only have Pepsi products and right now all we have is diet.”

Customer: “This is ridiculous. I just wanted a f****** Coke. Fine, I’ll take a Diet Pepsi.”

My friend gives him his drink and a few minutes later, he comes back.

Customer: “Excuse me, my drink is flat and it doesn’t even taste like Pepsi!”

Me: “I’m sorry. I don’t really know what to tell you, it was a fresh drink, but it’s diet so it’s going to taste different. Do you want to buy another drink?”

Customer: “I want you to replace this one!”

Me: “We aren’t allowed to do that, especially since you already drank over half of it.”

Customer: “I can’t f****** believe you f****** people. This is why you don’t let little privileged girls work things like this. I want to talk to the manager!”

Me: “This is a high school concession stand, not a restaurant.”

Customer: “Don’t f****** talk back to me, you f***!”

The resource officer ended up asking him to leave.

My sister and I arrive two hours early for our theater show, and we decide we have time for a nice dinner before the show. We walk to a sports bar/cafe that does a full dinner menu about a block away and tell the hostess that we are there for dinner.

Hostess: “There is about a fifteen-minute wait for tables. Is that okay?”

Me: “Sure, that’s fine.”

We settle in to wait, and about ten minutes later they seat us in an area they don’t normally use for dinner. They seat another couple nearby, as well.

No one comes by to take our orders, not even just the drink orders. Fifteen minutes after we have been seated, with no luck flagging down a server, I get up and try to grab who I think is the floor manager, but as soon as he sees someone approaching, he runs away to the kitchen. We resume trying to flag down a server to find out who is supposed to be covering our section, but they are all “too busy” to bother with a table that isn’t theirs.

By the time we’ve been sitting there for a half-hour without even a glass of water, I’m just done. We’re approaching the point where, if our orders aren’t in the kitchen, we won’t get our food in time to make our show. 

We decide to leave, and I stop to talk to the hostess on the way out.

Me: “Look. We’ve been sitting where you put us for a half-hour and no one has even come by to take our drink orders. We’re just going to leave and go somewhere else. Someone needs to check in with the other couple, too.”

Hostess: “Wait. You can’t leave without ordering once you’ve been seated; it will throw off our numbers on the computer.”

Me: “Not my problem.”

And with that, we left, went around the corner to a quick-serve place, and managed to make it to our show on time. This was the final straw — they had also recently changed the menu and the new offerings were less to our taste than the old ones — and we haven’t been back since.