A new assistant recently started working with us, and for the first week, she was fine. She fit in with the rest of us, worked well, and was friendly.

After a week, she announced:

New Assistant: “I’m pregnant! I’m going to leave to take my maternity leave after my first six months are up. That way, I get my maternity pay.”

Manager: “I don’t think so. You have to work your six months before you get pregnant.”

New Assistant: “Oh… I thought I could just do six months, and then I’d be entitled to it.”

Manager: “Nope.”

She went home that evening and never came back.

I’m a cashier at a gas station. It is September 2022. I am vaccinated but still choose to wear a mask for two reasons. One, I handle money from hundreds of customers daily and [contagious illness] is still around. Two, unfortunately, due to two pregnancies and a lack of vitamins, at age thirty-one, I’ve had to have my teeth removed.

I’m working the register when a customer comes in.

Me: “Welcome to [Store]. How can I help you today?”

The customer pays for gas and a pack of cigarettes and then comes out with this gem.

Customer: “You know, you shouldn’t be bothering with the mask. You look like a Trump. No, even better, a Biden! You’re going to lose customers looking like that.”

Me: “Sir, it’s more of a personal choice. I don’t mind continuing to wear them. Have a great day!”

I don’t even wear proper hospital-grade masks. I wear fabric ones with prints — currently Halloween-themed — so I don’t look like a germophobe, though a proper mask would protect me better.

Also, I currently have a coworker out sick for the next five days with — you guessed it!

At this point, I assume the interaction is over, but of course, I’m not that lucky as the customer comes back in a minute later.

Customer: “I swore I bought [Cigarettes], but apparently not. I’ll take another pack.”

I ring him up without comment, only asking for ID again and wishing him a great day yet again. He walks all the way to the door before turning and practically yelling at me.

Customer: “You know, I should put in a complaint about you, Miss Biden. You’re just showing that your company supports him!”

Me: “Sir, as I’ve said, it’s a personal choice. Please, have a good day.”

Customer: “You’re what’s wrong with America!”

Me: “Okay, sir. You can leave now.”

The customer did leave, thankfully. I still think he came back in just to harass me again. I get the [health crisis] is over, but seriously, me wearing a mask affects nobody but me. I’ll never understand why people think they have a right to comment on another person’s appearance, ever.

Related:
An Ugly Side Of Society Has Been Unmasked, Part 28
An Ugly Side Of Society Has Been Unmasked, Part 27
An Ugly Side Of Society Has Been Unmasked, Part 26
An Ugly Side Of Society Has Been Unmasked, Part 25
An Ugly Side Of Society Has Been Unmasked, Part 24

I answer a phone call from a customer who has ordered a computer online and wants an update on when it will arrive.

Me: “Did you have your order number so I can look it up?”

Customer: “I don’t have that at the moment, but the order is under [Customer].”

Our system tends to crash when searching by name only, as it then searches through every order ever placed, so when we do that, we try to narrow down the search by the date, as well, to prevent the crash.

Me: “Okay, I can try looking it up that way. I’ll just also need to know when you placed the order.”

Customer: “Just a moment while I check my account… I ordered it on September 7th.”

The current date is August 15th.

Me: “That was September 7th?”

Customer: “Yes, September 7th.”

Me: “Of last year?”

Customer: “No, this year.”

Me: “It’s still August; we aren’t in September yet. Do you mean August 7th?”

Customer: “Let me double-check… Oh, I see. I ordered it on August 23rd.”

Me: “That’s next week; it’s only August 15th today.”

Customer: “Oh, then I don’t know when I ordered it.”

It is almost closing time, and I am about to take some rubbish out to the dock while my manager is starting on the closing duties, which include counting and removing the cash from the tills.

Manager: “On your way out the back, could you check around for a man and a kid? If you see them, let them know we’re about to close. They came in a few minutes ago while I was on the phone.”

I don’t see them, so I continue to put the rubbish out and do a couple more things before I hear the manager announce that the store is closed. As I leave the dock, I see the man and girl coming around a fixture with their back to me. They both are craning their necks as if they are trying to see down to the counter area. The man suddenly crouches and ducks into an aisle, with the girl following behind doing the same.

I slam the door with a loud bang.

Me: “Hi. Just letting you know we’re closed. If you have any purchases, please take them to the counter.”

They are both startled, look at me wide-eyed, stand up, and start heading to the front of the store. I go through the centre of the store, keeping an eye on them from a safe distance. I run to the door after they rush out to close and lock it.

Manager: “What was that? It looked like you were chasing them out. What did you do to them? They looked terrified!”

Me: “They were trying to hide down the back. I scared them when I came out of the dock, and they took off.”

Manager: “Why would they hide?”

Me: “They probably thought you were alone.”

Manager: “But why hide? I don’t understand.”

I point to the bags of cash she’s putting into a satchel. She looks down and then looks up.

Manager: “No way. That can’t be right. You’re too suspicious.”

I shrugged but pointed out that they had been positioning themselves in the perfect spot to hide near the door through which she would be taking the money. She looked wide-eyed as it clicked.

I stopped working there not long after. [Manager] lasted until the head office started trying to force her to work in the store for hours on her own. The area was too dangerous for anyone to work alone.

I managed the service counter for years at a big box retail store. A man came to the service counter to find out if a certain item he was interested in was in stock. He was on our website looking at the item, which indicated it was out of stock. I checked on our internal devices and confirmed that it was out of stock, and in fact, it was only available online.

Having done that, I turned to answer one of the many other questions queued up for me at the counter and he went BALLISTIC.

Customer: *Shouting* “I can’t believe how incompetent everyone here is! You don’t deserve your pay!”

Me: “What else do you need help with, sir?”

Customer: “Order the item for me!”

Since he already had the item pulled up on the website on his personal device, it seemed like he was perfectly able to order it himself. At the time, we didn’t have a good option to do it for him except to talk him through how to do it on his own personal device. So, I started to talk him through that process.

Our security guard had actually wandered over, having heard the commotion, and was waiting to see if he’d be needed. The man got to the end of the process online and went to check out.

Customer: “Will it be delivered to me personally or sent to the store?”

Me: “I don’t know.”

He immediately went ballistic again about our incompetence. The security guard intervened.

Security: “Sir! What is the problem?”

Customer: *Sneering and pointing at me* “He can’t even tell me where my order will be sent!”

Security: *To me* “How can we find that information out?”

Me: *Looking the customer in the face* “Well, what did you select?”

Complete silence.

He looked down at his own device, in his own hands, on which he had made all the selections for the order himself.

Customer: “Oh. It’s coming here. All right, then.”

With that, he turned and left without even the slightest apology or acknowledgment of being in the wrong.