Workers have a lot to deal with on a daily basis, and sometimes it can really add up. When it gets to be too much, they tend to lose there minds a bit. As soon as that happens, it can get pretty ugly.
Workers on Reddit share the best "I don't give a darn!" moments they've seen while working. Content has been edited for clarity.
“She Stared In Shock”
“I worked in a hotel that had a full service restaurant with a buffet in the center of it. Minutes before closing up, we had a ‘Karen’ come in with a friend. She was already mad, and whining because the hotel gave her vouchers for the buffet, but she wanted to order off the menu and didn’t like that she’d have to pay for it.
She ended up ordering two eggs and wanted them poached hard. I bring them out, and she immediately stabs the egg and complains that the yolk is too soft. Sends them back. We check and it’s a standard hard poach. She just wants them rock hard apparently. I bring out the next set. Same complaint and they’re sent back again. Repeat once more.
Our cook was an old MAN that had been working there 30+ years and very obviously ran out of care to give a long time ago. After I brought the last set back, he cursed under his breath and said he’d bring out the last set. He was done and wanted to go home. I go out to clean off some tables and see him storm out with a plate. He goes to the buffet, in full view of Karen, grabs two hard-boiled eggs, and walks them to her. Throws the plate down without a word and walks back to the kitchen. It took everything I had not to burst out laughing as she stares in shock for a few seconds before she starts screeching to our manager.”
“I’ll Never Forget The Look On His Face”
“When I was 18 I worked at the local supermarket, in an area where crime was just freaking ridiculous, I had a co-worker who was a nice guy, however just didn’t have a filter even with customers, we had a group come in once and demand cash, with a knife pulled on him, now, this had happened before, so we’re kinda just over it and knew the weapons were just a threat. I’ll never forget the look on his face.
Looks the guy straight in the eyes for about 3 seconds and lazily says, ‘Now? First thing in the morning? Stab me, you freaking spoon.’
Security jumped in real quick and the guy didn’t get his cash, and for the two years I worked there we had a sign displayed out the back with his words on it.”
“Apparently It Was My Fault”
“I worked at a 24-hour restaurant. My shifts mostly were Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 6pm-4am.
The manager of the restaurant really believed I wanted his job, so he would write me up for the most ridiculous things. One time he wrote me up for a bad review from a customer, on a night that I wasn’t even working. That one got him in trouble with the regional manager.
Moving forward, it was a stupidly busy Saturday night, about 5:45pm. I got into work, and he met me with yet another write-up. This time for allowing the kitchen to run out of a particular item during my last shift.
I didn’t even do the orders, but apparently it was my fault.
So, I went back to my car, took off my uniform, put on normal clothes I had in there, walked up to the kitchen counter where he was busy with the kitchen staff and some waitresses and waiters. He looked at me, told me what area I would be working that night. I looked him dead in the eye and said ‘I don’t think so.’
He said it again, and again I said ‘I don’t think so,’ this time handing him all of my uniforms.
As I turned to walk out of the restaurant, he called out after me ‘You can’t do this. You are rostered on!’
I turned, pulled my height and said ‘Oh honey, I can, and I just did. As I have been rostered for only 37 hours in total each week for the past six weeks, it is deemed I am part-time. As a part-time employee, I am only required to submit my resignation. I am not required to give you any notice.”
He called me about an hour later and begged me to go back. Yeah, forget you mate, that’s not happening.”
“Did That Really Just Happen?”
“There was this huge security guard at the place I worked. Like body builder huge. He dressed in a suit every day because of the job we were working. I was a valet, and he was just making his rounds for the night, stopped to have a chat with me. Super nice guy.
This smarmy guy pulls up in a BMW. He had the body of jiggly puff, and was balding with the sparse tufts of hair in a comb over. He was about 5’7″ and he’s wearing a Bill Cosby sweater. He parks his car angled towards the curb, back end about four feet into the street, front wheel four inches from curb. He’s parked right in front of the main entrance, and we don’t allow any cars to block the curb directly in front of the entrance. It’s basically for dropping off your car or people in the car and then getting out of the way.
The smarmy guy hops out and tries to just brush by me. I say, ‘Sir, I need your keys.’
He says, ‘I’ll just be a minute.’
I say again, ‘Sir, I need your keys.’
He keeps trying to walk inside and I step in front of him. I explain, ‘I’ll leave your car parked on the street, but I cannot have it blocking the entrance.’
So now he gets all mad and says, ‘Don’t you know who I am!’
I say, ‘No, sir. I just need your keys.’
He scoffs and reaches into his murse, then he pulls out a second tiny murse which had his key fob inside. He’s standing about five feet away, he throws his fob into my face. It bounces off my forehead and lands onto the ground.
I didn’t move, I just looked down like, Did that really just freaking happen?
Silent security guy has been standing ten feet away the whole time. He’s now walking over slowly from the smarmy guy’s side. Smarmy guy screams at me, ‘I’m a lawyer! And you’re nothing!’
Security guy grabs smarmy guy by the back of his sweater, slams his entire body/face into the glass and calmly says, ‘I’m security. I have just witnessed an assault. All of this is on camera. Do you want to apologize to this gentleman, or should we ask if he wants to press charges? The PD is downstairs having their daily meal.’
Smarmy guy apologizes and I let him go inside. I move his car and when I get back the security guy says, ‘What a tool.’
Later I find out security guy is off duty police officer.”
“The Kid Was Speechless”
“My mother-in-law was originally a special ed teacher, but as the years moved on the definition changed as to who was in special ed in high school. Eventually she was teacher for the troublemaker kids. She was at retirement age but thought, she could suck it up for a few years while she waited for my father-in-law to retire.
Her last year, she had this massive prick of a kid, never heard her complain about any kid, but this one was special.
One day towards the end of school she decided she was done and filled out the retirement paperwork for the end of the year.
After that we went about her day and sure enough the little prick was at it. She lost it and totally and verbally eviscerated the kid in front of his peers. She is an incredibly intelligent and possesses a cutting razor wit. Up and down over this kid she went. Anytime the kid tried to say something back, she turned it on him. She had him for two years and all the rage built up and let loose. The kid was speechless.
Next day, she gets called to the office about what happened and the parents wanted to have a meeting. She was fine with it. They met and the parents started to go off on her, then my mother-in-law went off on the parents detailing how terrible parents they were when there was ample evidence of their kid being a total butt and them never doing anything to stop them. The parents sat in silence as she tore them apart.
At the end, the parents wanted her fired. My mother-in-law looked at the two of them and said ‘Forget you, I retired earlier this week.’
The school moved the kid, she stayed on for another month and that was that.”
“Do You Have Your Receipt?”
“I worked at a Burger King in south Jersey for a long time, and no one cares about anyone there. Most people swear at least once a sentence, so little innocent southern me could get away with a lot.
The first occasion was a man I asked to pull up while we cook his fries. I walked out and apologized for the wait, and he yelled ‘I’ve been waiting 15 freaking minutes for these fries I want a refund!’
I knew it hadn’t been that long, so I just said ‘I’m so sorry, do you have your receipt?’
He handed it to me and I pointed to the time stamp on the bottom, pulled out my phone and showed him it had only been three minutes and just said have a nice night. And walked back inside.
Second, I was changing trash bags and a customer came up and I said, ‘Just leave your tray on the table next to me and I’ll throw it out for you when I’m done.’
They dumped tray and all into the bag less trashcan and smirked at me.
I said ‘Get the heck out!’ (Manager laughed at this one)
Lastly, some guy came through the line 30 seconds before we closed, but we had to take the call, so I pull him up and had to cook his entire order from scratch. I come out six minute later, and he laughed and said very rudely, ‘Wow! You really put the fast in fast food!’
To which I said, ‘Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were going to come 30 seconds before we closed. I could have given you the patty that rolled under the broiler at lunch and soggy 20 minute old fries, but I cooked everything fresh for you so have a great night.’
He was shocked but my manager about died laughing when I told him, and we kept giggling about it for the rest of closing.”
“Doesn’t Look Like You Swept”
“I was seventeen at the time, and was working at Taco Bell. I was working 20-30 hours a week and got along great with all of my employees and management staff. My manager went on vacation one weekend, and we had to have (what I assume now was) a 50+ year old district manager fill in while they were gone. We had little conversation throughout the shift, other than me asking why we are required to throw away any order mess-ups rather than offer them to the staff. She apparently did not like that question and responded with a short ‘because food isn’t free.’
While closing my first shift with her managing, I was tending to all our normal closing duties. I swept the store and mopped as usual and proceeded to tell her that I was done with all my closing tasks and ready to clock out. She then asked if I had swept and mopped the lobby. Having no concern of my ability to simply sweep and mop, I said yes. She then asked me to follow and began to walk the lobby and point at the few crumbs I missed in three or four absurdly difficult to reach locations.
As we rounded back to the counter she extended the broom and proclaimed, ‘It doesn’t look like you swept or mopped’ (even though the ground was still wet). Momentarily dumbfounded, I looked at her and said, ‘I’ll let you sweep. I quit.’
After mentally print-screening her reaction, I set my apron on the counter, turned around and walked out. Can’t say I’ve ever since felt such a fulfilling sense of ‘forget you.'”
“Normally, I Would Never Act Like That”
“When I was in high school I worked at Burger King, and I was running the drive through. We were short-staffed and the kid bagging was a week into training. This lady comes through with her guy, and they ordered four small meals. They cashed out and I ran them their bag. I went to take another order, and she starts banging on my window. I open it, and she starts screaming that all the fries were bagged upside down. She throws the bag at me and screams at me to get her new fries. I take it and apologize. I get her new fries and I up the sizes to large for the trouble. (She did NOT deserve this, I don’t know why I even did it.)
I give her the bag, and she starts screaming at me again ‘What about my zesty sauce?’
I would like to note she did not order any on the side, nor did her angry butt order onion rings. So I hand her one and tell her to have a nice day. She bangs on the door again, screaming ‘Really? You’re just going to give me one!?’
Finally, I had enough, and we were in the middle of a rush. I take the biggest handful I could and chucked them at her head while saying, ‘There is your god dang zesty sauce, now get the heck out of my drive through you stupid woman.’
The look on the guy’s face in her car was priceless. I am surprised I didn’t lose my job with that one. I was so over the stupidity. Normally I would never act like that, especially in a professional environment.”
“If They Want 50, I Sell The 50”
“I was working at checker auto parts now know as O’Reilly back in 2005. A couple nights before, we had a customer come in to buy 12 bottles of a chemical called Heet. It is a well know chemical used by crack cooks to cook out the water in the substance, something I had learned by our local police department during a training at a different store.
When the customer came to the counter with 12 bottles, I said the store had a policy that only two bottles per customer were allowed. Customer got a little mad but I didn’t care. I knew what he was using it for and was going to make it harder for him if I could. Customer buys his two bottles and leaves. As I am putting the other 10 bottles back, four more customers come in and grab two bottle each and come to the register with exact change. Nothing I could do now, and they left.
A few days later, my manager pulls me aside before I clock in and starts yelling at me because the store does not have a limit on Heet. The customer had called and complained to the manager. I told the manager that they only needed that much Heet because they were making narcotics. He said he doesn’t give a single car and I better not stop them again. If they want 50 bottles, I sell them 50 bottles.
I clocked in then walked the heck out. Took the report to the local police and filed a complaint that they were selling chemicals knowing their end use. Turns out, metro ran a bust on the store a few weeks later and arrested the manager because he was being paid by the crack cooks to provide the chemicals they needed. I received a call from checkers after that came out offering to have my job back plus a raise. I kindly told them to go get bent.”
“You’re Not In Your Office”
“Girls working the cafeteria at my college get a lot of snide remarks from the professors – they are always late for classes, try to rush the girls, pass the students and some are generally rude as heck to them. This one in particular, a 30-something year old woman who is incredibly rude to men in general, is usually quite rude to them as well. She believes she’s some sort of goddess or something, so the cafeteria girls hate her guts, but they still act nice around her at all times.
One time that professor got to the cafeteria, very late for class, messy hair and still tidying up her clothes (rumor has it she was in her office with another professor…and this is a normal thing for them) and starts yelling that she’s a lady and therefore has priority, that she’s late for class, and they need to serve her immediately. Other professors were there – also students, but we have a different line – and she tried to cut the line. One of the male professors stepped in front of her and didn’t let her pass – she starts to yell at him, being quite incredibly rude and making quite the scene.
This cafeteria girl, who’s about to leave the job (got a better one), very calmly and looking her straight in the eyes, the cafeteria girl says: ‘You’re not in your office, he’s not your boy-toy for you to yell at him, and we don’t care about your class. The line starts back there, shut up and wait for your turn, or maybe work a little harder so your boyfriend can finish before your class starts.’
Laughter erupted and the professor was very ashamed. She’s still a brat to this day, but every once in a while someone will remind her of that day, and she tones it right down.”
“I Mentally Took A Snap Of Their Faces”
“Years back, I was working for a bridal shop. An entitled bride and her mom walks in and looks around the store. At first, she was very nice to me and asking to show her the different wedding dresses we have. I asked for a budget and showed her dresses within that budget. But she didn’t like any of the dresses. So I politely ask her if it was fine I showed her dresses slightly above her budget, and she agreed. Finally, she liked few of dresses, and she tried them on. By this time, she has spent almost three hours and finally decided on the dress. The dress cost her $2,300.
We called in the designer, and she made some changes to the dress. Now, when I asked her about the payment, she said she didn’t have any money at the moment, and she would pay at the fitting session. I told her that it would not be possible. As per company’s policies, if not full amount you should at least pay an advance for the dress. Now, the bride starts throwing tantrums and says that I will be ruining her wedding. She ended up blaming me for bad service, while I on the other hand I was only courteous to her all the time. For some reason, at one point the bride started crying and blaming me for wasting their time for showing dress which they considered bad.
Now, the mother of bride joined her and started cussing at me, and threatening me that she would complain about this to the store owner, and she would get me fired. Mother of the bride started demanding to see owner of the store, and I told her it would not be possible to meet her since she was away. But, she can talk to the manager. And she eventually agreed to meet the manager. I explained the situation to the manager, and she tried to comfort the bride and her mother. But they just wouldn’t agree. Finally, the manager called in our boss, and she was there by 15 minutes.
The store owner walked in, and I explained the entire situation to her. Now, the bride changed her story and said that she was ready to pay the advance, but I was demanding the full amount. The store owner asked me if she was telling the truth to which I replied no. And then store owner coolly just asked them to leave and banned them from coming to our store. The bride and mother looked surprised, and she demanded how could they believe a mere employee and not the customer. As a response, my MOM (Yes, the store belonged to my mom) told that her daughter would never lie to her, and if I wanted I could make them leave without her intervention. I mentally took a snap of their faces. And my mom asked them to leave. I stifled a giggle and they left.”
“Is That Better Now?”
“I used to work in the Garden section at a large chain store and had a lady come complaining to me about the price of a plant she bought. The plant rang up for something like $6, and she said the sign over there says $1.50.
We went over to the sign to which it said ‘One quart pots $1.50.’
I explained to her that the plant she got it a one gallon pot and it not for that price, yet she insisted it is $1.50. After some back and forth, my manager comes over asking if there is a problem.
At this point, I’m irritated with how dumb someone can be and explain to my manager the problem.
She asks the lady, ‘So what is the problem?’
She gives the same stupid excuse about it costing more than it says, so my manager looks at the sign and just rips it off.
Looks the lady dead in the eyes and says ‘Is that better now?’
The lady just walked away after that very angry, and I was trying my hardest not to laugh at her.”
“You Know What I Hate?”
“I was working at an extremely popular convenience store in the heart of the ‘Party District’ of our city. Some wannabe gangster kid walks into the store and starts looking around, when right behind him about a minute later some older guy in a suit and tie walks in.
He announces loudly ‘You know what I hate? When someone parks in the handicapped spot who isn’t handicapped,’ for the whole store to hear.
Wannabe says equally loud ‘Why? You handicapped?’
Without missing a beat, the guy in the suit walks over and says ‘Nope! I’m an undercover detective,’ and pull his badge.
Then he goes off on the kid about how he’s from out of state (had tags on his car from the next state over which was about a two-hour drive my city) and how he should show some manners when he’s visiting someone else’s city. The look on the kids face when the guy puled his badge was hilarious. He looked like he was going to pee himself.”