I’m working at self-checkout and, as usual, no other registers are opened at my end of the store. An older woman and her mother come up for me to ring them up. I walk them over to a self-checkout machine, ready to help.

Woman: “Oh! I know how to do this; we don’t need help!”

Mother: “Well, have her help anyway; that’s what she gets paid for!”

Woman: “No! She gets paid to help people who don’t know how to use these!”

I had to walk over and tell her she was my favorite customer of the day. She gave me a high-five and then asked for a hug.

I work at a public observatory. We have a contact form on our website to help people request observatory visits.

Guest: “Some of your contact form questions are pretty personal.”

Me: “Which questions are you referring to? The phone number is only required for making reservations.”

Guest: “The one about dates? Why do we even have to bring a date?”

Me: “That is dates, as in calendar dates.”

No response.

I work at a check-cashing place, and by nature of that business, shady people are always trying to cash forged or stolen checks. We’re very well trained in spotting these situations.

One day, a young man, maybe seventeen years old, comes in trying to cash a personal check. 

Young Man: “I got this for doing some work for [Account Holder #1].”

I attempt to contact the account holder but can only leave a message. I decline to cash the check but tell the customer that if the account holder calls me back and says it is okay, we will cash it. Lo and behold, the account holder calls me and says that the check is stolen.

The very next day, this same young man comes in with another check from a different person. I am astonished that he has come back to me to try and cash it. I go through the routine again but this time I get the account holder on the phone.

Account Holder #2: “My apartment was recently broken into and some checks were stolen.”

When I got off the phone with him, I turned around to inform the customer of the situation but he was gone. Fortunately, I had his ID on my side of the window, so he had taken off without it. I was thrilled to be able to turn it into the police with all of the other evidence.

I am working at the front desk at a furniture store. I often end up doing whatever the h*** managers don’t want to do; this is a family-owned operation. When I started with this job, I was an idiot and made the mistake of saying yes whenever my manager asked me to work extra hours because I had bills to pay after having been jobless for about a month and a half. Of course, my manager(s) took that to mean that they could make me work whenever they didn’t want to come in.

Fast forward about a year, and my manager is going to be out of town. By this point, I’m in a mini-argument with her every week about being able to take my REGULAR days off; she keeps trying to come up with reasons she needs me to open the store or come in during the middle of the day, etc. It’s a whole bunch of bulls*** and I should have reported them. Anyway, she’s going to be out of town and she pulls me into the back to have this conversation.

Manager: “Okay, while I’m gone, I need you in every day.”

Me: “No.”

Manager: “But [Salesperson #1] doesn’t have a key so you need to show up to let him in, and [Salesperson #2] won’t open the store.”

They really cater to whatever the salespeople want because they “make the store money.” [Salesperson #2] literally works for like four and a half hours a day, two days a week, and doesn’t do anything except sit when there aren’t customers in the store. [Salesperson #1] is an a**, but at least he’s willing to help rearrange things or clean and dust displays.

Me: “I’m not coming in on my days off.”

Manager: “I need you to open the store.”

Me: “[Delivery Guy #1] can do it; he’s already said he would.”

Manager: “No, you need to come in and help me out.”

Me: “I’m not coming in on my days off.”

Manager: “Please?”

Me: “No. Next week is actually my birthday and I’m not coming in.”

I am lucky enough that my birthday falls on my actual day off this year.

Manager: “Well, can you just come in until like five or six and then go to your party?”

The store is only open until eight. By this point in the job, I am pretty much trying to get fired because I am so tired of everything. And I really don’t want to come in on my birthday, let alone my day off. The only reason I haven’t quit is that I can’t afford to leave without having another job already lined up. Looking back, I’m pretty sure that she wouldn’t have fired me without me literally setting something on fire.

Me: “No. I’m not coming in on my birthday and I really don’t want to come in on my days off.”

Manager: “I need you to open the store while I’m gone.”

Me: “[Warehouse Manager] can do it.”

Manager: “He’s taking care of something else for me while I’m gone.”

The warehouse manager is in the store every day, but he literally stays in the back office and sleeps. He only comes out if something needs to be fixed or I am unable to go to the warehouse to receive deliveries.

Me: “I’m not coming in on my birthday.”

We ended up going back and forth for a while longer and I (stupidly) ended up caving. I did walk out at like twelve, but still. The rest of those two weeks was ridiculous. I ended up clocking something like 100+ hours for that period because I wasn’t ever able to take lunches and she was making me stay all day. Then, to top it off, I only actually got paid for something like eighty-five hours because “accounting will automatically take an hour for lunch no matter what” and [Manager] “didn’t pay overtime.”

I seriously should have reported them; there were so many violations and just plain bad business practices! When I left, I was so glad to get out of there that I ran as fast as I could and never looked back. I will admit to laughing my a** off when I saw that they’d gone out of business about a year later.

I work in a children’s toy store that specializes in stuffed animals. I am checking out a guest after having had nothing but a polite and fun interaction with them.

Me: “All right, it’s just gonna prompt for a donation on the PIN pad first!”

Guest: “What does it go to?”

I launch into my well-rehearsed speech about our current campaign.

Me: “[Foundation] donates to—”

Guest: *Interrupting* “Because if it’s going to any abortion clinics, I don’t want to donate.”

I’m temporarily caught off-guard by this. Again, I work in a children’s store. There are at least four HUGE children’s charity groups I can think of right now that I would like to assume come to mind first. I have also not had any problems with the guest leading up to this to indicate this might be a problem.

I am sputtering and trying not to agree with them, while also not making any statements on behalf of [Store].

Me: “Well, they donate through [list of well-known charity groups], as well as local charities. They also donate upwards of [amount of product] each year—”

Guest: “I just don’t want my money going to anything like that. You never know these days.”

They donated $3.