I am the sole scale operator for a waste facility in a small town. Some of my regulars can be… obnoxious. Every now and then, I’m able to call them on their crap.

Customer: *Ranting about politics*

Me: “Okay, you’re all set!”

Customer: “What, don’t you agree? Or are you just not allowed to discuss politics around here?” *Begins to rant about free speech*

Me: “It’s not that, it’s that this place is literally a dump. We deal with enough trash around here!”

The customer shut up and left, speechless.

At the beginning of the health crisis, the restaurant I was working at stopped offering refills. This was just before all of the dining rooms shut down in Texas. When we took a customer’s order, we would tell them that we were not doing refills anymore. This way, they could upsize the drink if they wanted. There were signs everywhere from the owners stating this.

An older man came in and ordered his food and a small drink. Before sending in the order, I pointed to the sign and told him of our new policy. The next thing I knew, he was berating and cussing at me.

Customer: “You’re just making up that d*** disease, you filthy Democrat! You’d better be glad I’m not your boss; I would put you in your place! You’re just making up this new rule because you’re stupid and scared.”

These signs clearly say that they are from the business owners. I just keep my mouth shut since I’m not interested in getting in trouble for him. Later, my manager sees that I’m upset.

Manager: “What’s wrong?”

I explain what happened.

Manager: “Who was it?”

Me: “The man with order [number].”

It happened that she was packing his order. She went over to talk with him. I don’t know what he said to her, but when she came back, it was to get the phone. She called the city manager and the restaurant owners. They came in and told the man to leave or be arrested.

The library where I work is also an early voting station. In the last election, the staff were volunt-ordered to act as election workers alongside our usual duties. That meant that in the three weeks leading up to election day, we had to explain how voting works to many, many people who were doing it for the first time, either because they had just turned eighteen or because they had just become citizens. Most of them were happy and polite.

Then, there are always people who just want to cause trouble.

A voter comes up to my desk and hands me a folded ballot.

Voter: “Here, I’m voting for [Party]!”

Me: “Your ballot needs to be in a sealed envelope, and you’re not allowed to fold it. There are envelopes in the voting booths over there. Just take a new ballot, put it in an envelope, and seal it, and then I can accept it.”

Voter: *Very loudly* “Are you saying you’re not letting me vote?”

Me: “You can vote to your heart’s delight, but your ballot needs to be turned in correctly. Even if I put your folded ballot in the urn, it’s still not going to be counted on election day.”

The voter is now loud to the point where other voters and library patrons are beginning to stop what they’re doing and stare at us.

Voter: “My vote won’t be counted?! It’s because I’m voting for [Party], isn’t it? You won’t accept my vote for [Party]! This is election fraud! I’m going to report you to the election committee!”

Me: “Please quiet down; you’re disturbing the other visitors. You’re welcome to vote for whatever party you want, as long as your ballot is unfolded and in a sealed envelope.”

Voter: “No! You’re going to accept my vote for [Party] here and now! I want to watch you put that in the urn, right now, or I’m reporting you!”

Me: “Okay. I just need you to understand that if I put your ballot in the urn as it is, it will not be a valid vote and it will not be counted on election day.”

Voter: “Put it in! I want to watch you put it in!”

Me: *Completely fed up at this point* “All right, I’m putting your invalid ballot in the urn. I need you to be aware that this vote will not be counted. If you want to cast a proper vote, you can do so at any early voting station in the country until election day or at your assigned voting station on election day. NEXT!”

Voter: *Smugly* “People like you are all going to lose their jobs when [Party] wins!”

My first foray into the telecommunication business is via directory inquiries, i.e. the number you call if you want to find out someone’s phone number. In Sweden, this service used to be provided by the government but was eventually sold out, so a number of private companies took over and charged a lot more.

The company I work for has inherited the number the government-provided service used to have, and as a result, we have a lot of customers who call in just to have someone to chat with, not knowing that the call is a lot more expensive than it used to be. Usually, when I get a customer like this, I inform them of the cost of the call and let them decide if they want to continue the conversation or not, but I am not allowed to hang up on customers unless they are verbally abusive.

Me: “Welcome to directory inquiries. How may I direct your call?”

Caller: “I want to talk to the government, right away!”

Me: “Certainly, I have the number for the switchboard right here. Do you want me to read it to you so you can write it down, or do you want me to transfer you?”

Caller: “I want to talk to the person who’s in charge of the elections.”

Me: “I don’t have the direct number, but the switchboard will help you with that. Would you like me to transfer you?”

Caller: “I’m not happy with [Elected Official] and I want to complain! I want him out of office! This is outrageous!”

Me: “I can transfer you to the government switchboard or give you the number. If you want to keep talking to me, I have to tell you that the cost of this call is [amount] per minute.”

The caller goes into a very long rant about everything that’s wrong with the government, the country, and the world.

Me: “I hear you, but there is nothing I can do about your issue. I can give you the number of the government switchboard or transfer you. Every minute you spend talking to me will cost you [amount]. What would you like me to do?”

Caller: “There are gay representatives in the government, I tell you. Gay representatives! What do you have to say about that?”

At this point, there are no representatives in our government who are openly gay, although there is one who wears his hair in a ponytail. I’ve already been on the phone with this customer for five minutes, listening to his rant, so I just decide to shut him up the best way I can think of.

Me: “Well, to be honest, you’re talking to a gay telephone operator right now. What do you have to say about that?”

Then came the longest silence I’ve ever heard, followed by the blessed *click* when he hung up.

I work in a restaurant. I have just come in for my 4:00 pm shift, and I start with a table on the patio that starts off as normal as any. The older couple at the table is both cordial and pleasant. They order two drinks, I drop drinks, they order food, I drop food, and they don’t need refills, so everything seems to be going just fine.

As they finish eating, they stop another server.

Couple: “Can we watch Fox on the TV?”

This is no problem; we have forty TVs and will adjust any of them to anything you want to watch.

I don’t know if the server they told failed to tell me in a timely manner, but when I drop off the bill, I ask if they wanted to watch something on TV, and the lady confirms that she wants to watch Fox, and she seems kind of agitated. I go inside to the bar and ask the bartender to change TV #35 to Fox, as he has the tablet/remote behind the bar.

The bartender and I confirm that the station is just playing a sitcom, which has us both a little confused, because why would they want us to tune to a sitcom at 4:30 pm at a restaurant? I then return to the table to drop off their receipt.

Me: “Did you want to watch [Sitcom]? That’s what’s on Fox right now.”

Wife: “I want. To. Watch. Fox. This is ridiculous!”

Husband: *Calmly and pleasantly* “We are fine.”

Wife: “We! Are! Not! Fine!”

I immediately freeze in place, mouth agape, not knowing whether this lady is joking or not. After a few seconds, I try to say something and begin to stutter a bit and apologize as the husband starts waving me off with a smile.

So, completely perplexed, I begin to turn to walk away as the wife pipes up.

Wife: “You’re all a bunch of liberals!”

It finally dawns on me that she means Fox News. I go inside to tell everyone that this lady doesn’t know how to ask for what she wants. After explaining to most of the front-of-house staff what just went down, the lady comes inside and walks up to a full bar to announce:

Wife: “This is ridiculous! You’re all a bunch of liberals and this is censorship!”

Then, she turned and walked out.

I would have taken zero issue with turning the TV to Fox News for those folks.

This story is part of our Watching-Too-Much-TV roundup!

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