(I have anxiety and thus I have panic attacks. I do have tricks to try to prevent them, and the management at my workplace know about it. This day, for reasons unknown to me, my anxiety is high. Coupled with this, several customers accuse me of ripping them off because price changes were not made for some sale items. My break has been delayed a few hours, so as soon as I am told to go to break, I make a sprint for the break room to have a panic attack there.)

Manager: *comes in and sees me* “[My Name], are you okay?” *grabs tissues*

Me: “Anxiety bad. Customers upset.”

(With these short sentences, along with what she witnessed, the manager pieces it together. She stays until I calm down a bit.)

Manager: “Are you all right now?”

Me: “Uh-huh.”

Manager: “Good.” *she gets called on the radio* “I’ll be at the cutting counter if you need me.”

Me: “Okay.” *as she leaves, I realize something* “Before I forget, I got three email signups, one mailer, and one purchase with purchase sale.”

Manager: *befuddled, but marks this down on her clipboard* “Okay.” *mutters as she leaves* “No way am I letting her go if that’s what she can do when she’s near panicked.”

(The last comment made me laugh and helped me calm down enough to go back to work after my break.)

(I work in a craft store. We stock bouncy balls; kids and adults alike constantly bounce them, which is annoying and dangerous because we have glass. A mom and son are in our store. The son is bouncing a ball.)

Me: “Hey, please don’t bounce the ball in the store. We’ve got a lot of glass in here. Thanks!”

(The mom looks at me with this confused look but says nothing. Two minutes later, the mom comes up to me.)

Mom: “You know, I wasn’t going to let him bounce that around glass.”

Me: *thinking she was trying to explain why her kid was misbehaving* “Oh, no, it’s okay. Happens all the time.”

Mom: “Well, I had it under control.”

Me: “Really, it’s fine.”

Mom: *gets snarky* “I just thought it was really rude of you.”

Me: “Oh, um, I’m sorry?”

(The mom stomped off. Luckily, my manager heard the whole thing and took my side, but we were both clearly baffled by how a mom would let her kid misbehave, then get mad when someone else has to step in.)

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(I am flying from Phoenix to Houston. I tend to get upgrades, partly because I am a frequent flyer. I am called up to the podium as my upgrade had been cleared for the flight, and given my new boarding pass. I know the gate staff quite well, and love to talk with them. An impatient passenger approaches.)

Impatient Passenger: “I need to get on this flight, and you will upgrade me.”

Gate Agent: “May I see your boarding pass?”

Impatient Passenger: “You haven’t printed it yet.”

Gate Agent: “In order to clear security, you need it. Do you have that paper you went through the checkpoint with?”

Impatient Passenger: “I threw it out. Look my name up. You’ve got a computer.”

Gate Agent: “One second, please.”

(I step back, watching the story unfold further:)

Gate Agent: “Okay, it looks like you’ve got a seat; 27E in economy. It’s the last seat on the flight I’m afraid.”

Impatient Passenger: “Listen, a**-hole. I’m a Gold OnePass member. I demand you give me my upgrade right now. I know [Airline Owner], we have lunch together frequently, and I will call him and have you fired for not treating me right. Now god-d*** it, give me my f****** upgrade to first class.”

(I step in.)

Me: “Sir, first class isn’t just a cabin on a plane or an upgraded seat. It’s a state of mind and a level of courtesy. If you don’t like the service by the good people of [Airline], please go fly [Airline that has a recent reputation of violently removing passengers from their planes]. I’m quite sure they’d give you the level of service you surely deserve.”

(I work as a delivery driver for a national pizza chain. The store hours have just ended — it was a Saturday and we close at two am on those nights). Just as I am getting ready to head out on the last delivery of the night, the phone rings.)

Me: “Thank you for calling [Company]; I am sorry; we are closed for the night.”

Customer: “Hi, I would like to order delivery.”

Me: “I’m sorry, but our ovens are off and we are closed for the night.”

Customer: “But I called earlier and was put on hold and no one got back to me. Why didn’t you just say you were closed then?”

Me: “I’m sorry about that, ma’am. Could you tell me when you originally called?”

Customer: “I don’t know, about an hour ago.”

(We hadn’t had any calls except for the delivery I was getting ready to take in the past hour.)

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am, but we haven’t had any calls in the past hour that we have had to put on hold.”

Customer: “Fine, b****.”

(The customer hangs up and I am about to leave again, and the phone rings. Different number, with a different person speaking, but I can hear the same person in the background.)

Me: “Thank you for calling [Company]! I am sorry; we are closed for the night.”

Customer: “Yeah, I want delivery.”

Me: “I’m sorry, but we are closed for the night.”

Customer: “But I was on hold forever and just finally called back. I want food!”

Me: “I’m sorry, but we are closed.”

Customer: “I was on hold forever and no one came back and now you tell me you are closed? Why can’t you give me pizza?”

Me: “Sir, the ovens are turned off. We are closed. The other location in town is still open, but they will not deliver to this part of town.”

Customer: “You are no help. F*** you.”

Me: “Well, then… sorry you are a dumb-a**.”

(My store does a service where people order online, and an employee shops it for them to pick up later. I had just started my first order of the day and am grabbing some items from the frozen section when a customer comes up to me.)

Customer: “Hi, do you know where the [Brand] burgers are?”

Me: “Sorry, I don’t know exactly where they are, but they should be somewhere either in this aisle or a couple aisles over. I know that most of our burgers are in the freezer at the end of the aisle.”

Customer: “Well I just came from [Other Store] and they didn’t have them!”

Me: “I’m sorry. I don’t know if we even have them, but they would probably be with the other burgers if we have them.”

Customer: *getting annoyed* “Don’t you work in frozen?”

Me: “No, I go around the entire store shopping items for people who order online, so I don’t know any specific part of the store too well; I’m sorry again.”

Customer: “Can you find them for me?”

Me: “I can look around the aisle for you and let you know if I see what you’re looking for, but I can’t guarantee that we have them.”

Customer: “Then why do you even work here?!”

(The customer then walked off and started complaining about me to her husband. Poor guy seemed to have had to deal with that attitude far too much. I ran into her one more time in the store and she just sneered at me.)