1. No blacks
When I worked at the Home Depot, a Karen told me that shedidn't want any black men to install her flooring. I was in charge of arranging her order and told her that we don't select which individuals exactly will install her floor and that she'll get who she gets.
She proceeds to have a fit about it, demands white installers, and asks to speak to my manager.
I'm so glad she did because my manager's name was Dwayne and he was a really big black dude. It turns out she didn't want to speak to the manager.
Trompdoy
2. Formal complaint
She left her card in the EFTPOS machine at the McDonald's I was managing as a teenager. She then rang me to say I needed to drive it out to her, that I ruined her night, ruined her family's night, and owed her free food. But it didn’t end there.
She proceeded to say that she’d be filing a formal complaint when I refused all of the above. She showed up 3/4 of an hour later with steam blowing out her ears asking for her card back.
That was the last we heard from her.
deadlysyntax
3. Half-eaten cupcake
When I worked at a bakery, a Karen bought a chocolate cupcake and ate half of it. The Karen then asked if she could return her half-eaten chocolate cupcake. This was not because she didn't like it.
It was because she wanted to exchange it for half of a vanilla cupcake, "something less decadent."
Like most bakeries, we did not sell cupcakes "by the half." She became offended when I asked if she wanted to purchase a vanilla cupcake.
cabernetcat
4. The full blister
I used to work in a public night shift service, kinda like an emergency room but for non-emergencies, to keep the hospitals clear of white codes (so anything from a fever to a sore throat, to prescriptions for urgent treatments).
A Karen walks in at 3 a.m. asking for a prescription for hypertension drugs, which isn’t unusual, as people (old people, more often than not, but she looked 55~) sometimes don’t notice they’re running low.
Anyway, the law (not a rule, not my decision, the law) states that this service can only write prescriptions for potentially life-threatening conditions drugs for a maximum of 72 hours coverage. So if you take one pill a day, I can only prescribe you a single blister. Here we don’t have bottles, but blisters.
While I was writing the prescription Karen casually mentioned that she was an insomniac, and while cleaning the medicine cabinet she realized she was down to her last full blister.
My pen stops, I ask her to repeat, “Full blister?” “Yeah”, so I take the prescription, tear it in half, then again, then throw it in the bin, explaining to her the law.
She gets mad, starts yelling, and threatens to call the cops. “Go ahead.” Cops came, and she triumphantly announced that I was refusing to treat her. I explain the situation, and they ask her if it’s true that she has a full blister, and she of course (being a Karen who is always right no matter what) confirms it.
The cops look at her (still with a look of triumph, waiting for them to arrest me), then at me, then ask her politely to leave, as I’m in the right. She’s livid.
The day after my boss called me and cracked up because she went there during the day to talk to “the manager”, and she (my boss) told her the exact same thing. Never saw her again there, weirdly enough.
andrewfoxs
5. Sticker at work
I worked at a grocery store and a coworker put a 99¢ sticker on my shirt. We were 2 of maybe 5 employees so we were all good friends and everything is funny when you gotta pass time on a shift so I just left it there.
Some woman came through my line and asked me why I had a sticker on my shirt and I just kinda laughed it off. She asked if I thought it was funny and I was like "Not really but sorta". She asked if my coworker put it there to which I responded yes.
She told me she was going to speak to the store owner because it was "disrespectful" to behave that way at work. She told me to call my manager and I did but he was a super cool guy and knew this lady was being a Karen.
She talked to the store owner and my manager about firing me to no avail. She accomplished nothing and was a Karen till the end.
gotteemboi
6. Expired coupons
When I was working retail, this one woman had a big bag of coupons. Most of them were unusable because either they were expired or they were duplicates. She berated me because the system was rejecting most of the coupons.
She called me all sorts of foul names, telling me I just wasn't doing it right. Then as a typical Karen would, she asked to speak with my manager. My manager came and asked what the problem was. The women ranted about how incompetent I was because I didn't know how to scan a coupon.
My manager looked at the coupons and the coupons were the problem, not me. My manager then snapped at the customer for being disrespectful to me and told the customer to leave the store.
I hated working there but I'm so grateful that I had managers who totally didn't go by the "customer is always right" rule and weren't afraid to stand up for their employees.
d0n7w0rry4b0u717
7. Customer rights
When I worked at a popular arcade chain I had a Karen absolutely berate me because I wouldn’t give her kid a prize they didn’t win. So she wants a manager and when my manager comes over she straight-faced this whole rant until Karen goes “Whatever happened to the customers always right?”
My manager leaned in a little and said “We don’t have customers here, we have guests. Customers are always right, guests are usually wrong, goodbye” and waved a security guard over to escort Karen out.
Best day of work ever.
TimCos1246
8. Another coupon case
I had a Karen come in with a bunch of coupons. Most of them weren't accepted by the system because they were duplicates. She decided I was incompetent and demanded I call a manager because I couldn't even "ring up coupons correctly. Who knows what else I can't do correctly".
My manager came and Karen started saying that I had an attitude, that I was ignoring her, I refused to scan coupons because I was a "lazy teen", she even said I cussed at her for bringing in a bag of coupons. I just kind of stared at her because who decides to try to mess with someone's job like that?
I was so frustrated I had to walk away. But once I got home I thought of something hilarious (at least to me). I wished I could've just stared at her like I was mesmerized by her talking and interjecting in the middle of the story and asking her with wide eyes "And then what happened?"
But the perfect thing to say always comes late.
Skyninjataco
9. Protein bar
She came up to my register and asked for the price of a protein bar. Every item in the store had a physical price tag because we didn't have scanners at the register.
I took it from her, flipped it over, and let her know it was $2.49 before tax. She asked me how much the case would be. Normally we did discounts for cases, but they had to be ordered ahead of time, so I started explaining we couldn't do a discount unless - she cut me off aggressively and hissed "I didn't ask for a discount."
So I typed in $2.49 x 12, added tax, and told her the final price.
She stared me down for a few minutes before asking me to get my manager. Once my manager arrived she spent literally 10 minutes tearing into me, describing me as the least helpful person ever, talking about my bad attitude, complaining about how awful and rude I was, etc.
I was working nearly full time (35.5 hours per week) and commuting to a school over an hour away four days a week. This lady took the time out of her day to break me down to the point I started crying.
Thanks, Karen, I still remember you - hope you enjoyed your protein bar.
Scoozie
10. Fat and lazy
She asked for my manager’s personal cell phone number to complain that I, who was seven months pregnant at the time, would not carry a refrigerator (that she had not paid for in the cost of her room) up to her second storey room.
We did not have an elevator, and rather than just accept an upgrade for free because she didn’t want to unpack her stuff.
She refused to believe we had rooms without fridges and I was just being fat and lazy.
When I refused to give her the cell phone number, she asked for the corporate number. I wrote it down on a sticky note with a smiley face. She came down later and asked to move rooms. I made her pay the difference.
MadameMothman
11. Nosebleed at the register
I used to work retail, so I have come across my fair share of Karens. They were a huge reason why I went back to school and no longer work as a cashier.
Anyway, one day while I was manning the registers with a few other coworkers of mine, I had a massive nosebleed right as I was finishing a transaction. I grabbed a tissue and quickly excused myself to run to the restroom so I could try to get it to stop bleeding.
This meant that I couldn't say goodbye to Karen and give the little spiel about how I was so grateful for her shopping with us. Anyway, after about 10 minutes, I was finally able to get my nose back under control and headed back to the registers. I saw her waiting to the side with a scowl on her face, arms crossed over her chest, the whole nine yards.
She proceeded to scold me about how rude I was for not saying goodbye. After I apologized and explained that I had an unexpected nosebleed, she told me I should have tried holding it in and that the customer comes first. My brain was literally full of questions after that.
lamenite
12. Dirty throw pillows
I was a supervisor at Cost Plus World Market. Karen came in one night pushing a cart full of obviously used throw pillows and asked to return them. Of course, she has no receipt, and instead wants us to just "look her up in the system". Except she refuses to provide her information for us to try to look her up.
She started yelling at my cashier and that's when I stepped in to tell her very politely and calmly that she either needed a receipt or needed to provide us with her name and phone number. She starts screeching and screaming about how we're jerks and she'll get us fired, then she demands an apology from the president of the world.
I'm certain she meant the president of World Market, but in her bleached hair fury she said "The president of the world" and I barely held it together as I calmly offered her the corporate feedback number. She wouldn't take it and instead walked out of the store still yelling and without her cart of dirty pillows.
She returned about 20 minutes later, quietly apologized, and took her pillows with her, we never heard from her again.
ChickenPicture
13. Family Karen
My sister-in-law is the biggest Karen I've ever met, complains in almost every restaurant we have gone to, but this one time they were moving house and my bro asked me to help.
I was staying at their place overnight for the delivery truck that was to arrive early in the morning. We were having drinks and my bed/mattress was on the living room floor. At around 1:15 a.m., I said I think I'm going to go to bed.
She replied, "Are you kicking me out of my own living room, not realizing she was unstable?" She said no one does that and even though she had finished her last drink, she made herself two cups of tea. She didn’t go to bed till after 2:30 a.m.
She told me the next morning she stayed up to show no one tells her what to do.
Doogie34
14. Issues over shirt
Working retail one afternoon and here comes Karen with a return. At first glance it’s no big deal, just coming in to return a shirt. She walks up to the register, hands me the receipt to start processing and we exchange a pleasant greeting.
I take the shirt out of the bag to examine it and it is beyond disgusting. There were brown sweat stains all over it, from the pits to the stomach to the shoulder. It looked like whoever wore it rolled in mud or some nonsense.
I proceeded to tell the Karen that I could not return the product because it had clearly been used and that only unused and resellable items could be returned.
The Karen threw a fit, started screaming at me and accusing me of calling her a liar and whatnot. I hold up the shirt and point to the brown pit stains and say ‘Karen, can’t you see this stain?’ Doing that made it worse. She continues making a huge scene and demands to see the manager.
News flash Karen, I am the manager and I’m not budging. After 20 or so minutes of complaining she finally leaves saying she’ll be complaining to the corporate office and getting me fired and blah blah blah.
Fast forward a few days. A guy walks into the store, finds the first store associate he can, and immediately asks for me by name. Uh-oh, here we go again. Anyway, my associate brought the guy over to where I was standing and I politely greeted him.
The guy spent the next 10 minutes apologizing for his wife Karen verbally abusing my staff and me a few days prior. Apparently, the guy went to the beach and did some type of CrossFit/ IIT training class in the sand.
Karen knows all of this; she was in the class with him! The guy ended up not liking the shirt for some reason and Karen thought she could pull a fast one on us by making a scene. Think again, Karen.
Lovebuttonmyface
15. Closed for the day
The mother of a girl I went to school with, comes into the shop I work at, at 5:58 pm. We close at 6, the lights are half off, the front door is closed, the roller door is half down, and goes "Hi *my name*! I'm just running in to grab a few things!" Before I can tell her not to, she's gone into the aisles.
My manager comes over and goes "What are you doing? We have to be done by six!" He went to find her, but she's already got a basket full of things going "Where are the capsicums? Can I just grab...?" Keep in mind this is a fruit shop - half the items come off the shelves and into the cool room.
My manager is literally the nicest guy ever and agrees to ring up her items as long as she pays the card, as the cash is all packed into the safe.
"No, that's ridiculous, I only have cash! *My name* Hun, can you tell him I only have cash?" So I tell her the exact same thing, that we literally can't access the cash once the safe is closed for the day.
"Oh. Well, can you just pay for it on your card and I'll get *daughter* to pay you back?" I tell her that I can't do that, and she starts shouting about how unprofessional we are, that the shop is awful because half the items are gone, and that she's never coming back.
She avoids me at school events now, and I honestly feel sorry for her daughter, the stories I hear about her are shocking.
Icing on the cake? Her name is actually Karen.
Wafflesattiffanies
16. Screaming over PowerPoint presentation
In tech support, this Karen had started a PowerPoint presentation, saved it, gave it a name, worked on it for 8 hours, closed it, and when the program said "Do you want to save changes" said 'No'. So the program did what it was told and dumped them, and 'surprisingly' when she reopened it it was blank.
I explained that she told it not to -- Interrupted! "No, that is not acceptable. You will fix it." "No, there is no -" Interrupted! Then we went around this circle several times. I finally called the on-call support for her company and explained what was going on. Have you ever had someone roll their eyes so hard you could hear them over a phone?
Then conferenced Karen, who started right in before either of us could say anything about how incompetent I was and so on.
He let her burble for a minute then cut her off. She started squawking and he cut her off again, and again until she finally shut up out of sheer surprise, I think. "Screeching like a harpy didn't work? What world is this?"
He explained to her the same thing that I had, and she started yowling again and he chopped her off. "No. You've wasted my time on my day off, working as a favor to people with actual problems, and you've wasted tech support's time. You were abusive to both of us and I'm going to report you to HR in the morning. Goodbye."
He hangs up, and I'm laughing my ass off as she spits and sputters like an engine that just got a good solid swig of water.
StarChaser_Tyger
17. Karen at the office
At work. I made a tiny mistake filling out a booking sheet for a company: I set the time 15 minutes later than asked by complete accident. It's a 2-second fix (for anybody!) to log back into the account and click on the correct time in the drop-down box.
Karen sat next to me and watched me do it. Karen logged in, took a screenshot of it - didn't fix it - then sent said screenshot to my line manager and said nothing to me.
After the lecture from my line manager about "paying attention to the details" I turned to her and was like "Why not just say 'Hey dude, you made a mistake' and just fix it?" She doesn't look at me, continues clicking away at her keyboard, and says "Yeah, well, if you can't do it right the first time, maybe you need somebody to tell you."
I requested to move desks after that. A fun fact is her name is Carollanne and she has Karen hair.
crochetprozac
18. Karen till banned
I met plenty of Karens while working retail but there's one who stands out. Karen was Indian and had the most entitled attitude of anyone I've ever met. She was also a regular customer so we had to deal with her shit at least twice a week.
Karen's favorite pastime would be to literally fill a trolley with clearance items. These are a nightmare as you have to reduce the price on the till manually. Management was worried about scanning fraud and so had disabled the multiplication button on the till.
This meant that each item had to be scanned and discounted individually. Once all of her items had been scanned and discounted, Karen would always kick up a fuss over the price, accusing us of overcharging her and demanding to see a manager.
Some managers would give in to Karen, which meant voiding the transaction and starting over. If they told Karen to get lost, she'd complain about "never shopping here again" and storm out, leaving a full trolley of goods to put back.
Either way, the entire shitshow would take at least an hour.
There was a nice moment of karma for Karen however.
One winter, we had an especially heavy snowstorm. Our policy in this case is to clear the car park access to the spaces closest to the door. We do this as very few people come out when it's snowing and it lets people park as close as possible. Not Karen though.
She pulls into the car park, drives into the uncleared section, and tries to drive through a snow drift, hitting a covered bollard in the process. She then clomps into the store, demands to see the manager, and proceeds to yell at him point-blank.
Apparently, she was going to sue us and get every employee fired for "not clearing her usual parking space of snow". Our manager responded by banning her from our store for being abusive towards staff.
Shas_Erra
19. Baseless complaint
I was working at my job as a cashier at my local supermarket. We were swamped with people. I had at least 7 people waiting in my line. One of my good friends from high school was in my line and I talked to him as I was ringing up his stuff.
After he left I welcomed the next lady in line and asked the usual stuff “Did you find everything okay?” “How are you doing?” Etc.
Before I could get a word out she asked to speak to my manager. Apparently, I was rude to her for not including her in my conversation with my high school friend. She didn’t even chime in or anything and I never saw her in my life.
Elba-3
20. Company policy
I worked at a home improvement store for a while in college. I was a cashier in the garden section. This woman pulls up on the curb in a no-parking zone. Grabs her fertilizer and soil.
After I checked out she went ballistic that I didn’t help load her car and she was going to report me to managers.
Due to company policy, I wasn’t allowed to but other employees were.
Her face was shaking and everything. Over a bag of soil that weighed under ten pounds and a handle of fertilizer.
Grandaddyspookybones
21. Karen bullying a child
For my grade 2 end-of-the-year school party, we went over to a community pool. It was designed for kids, with a lazy river, slide, etc. There were a few kids that had gotten hold of inner tubes, like the style you find at water parks all the time. I wanted one too and found one sitting on the edge of the pool.
I grabbed it and started to play with it, as kids do. Some lady comes over and tells me that she had rented it and that I couldn't play with it. The Ogre lady takes the tube and leaves it on the edge of the pool, not even using it, and smirks back at me with this crappy face like she beat me in some major contest of wills.
Me being raised to respect people who were (at least technically) adults, I say fine, whatever, weird flex to prove your adulthood by bullying a seven-year-old but we moved on with my play. Some swim instructor who had another tube noticed and let me play with one that her class was done using. I say thank you, happy I have a tube now.
Another kid in my class immediately bobs over and asks if he can use my newfound tube. I tell him, no, I just got it. He shrugs and goes over and takes the ogre lady's tube, which she is not using and has left on the edge of the pool. I keep playing for probably another two minutes when the ogre lady comes splashing back.
The conversation goes like this:
OL: "I told you to stop playing with that tube. Give it back."
Me: "This isn't your tube, that swim instructor gave it to me and another kid in my class took yours down the lazy-"
OL (interrupting and now shouting): "I don't believe you! Give it here!" *proceeds to yank the tube off my head*
Me: "Hey!"
OL: *puts tube back on the edge of the pool right where the last one was and comes over to me* "You're a little thief and your mother ought to be ashamed of raising a liar. If I see you going near that tube again, I'll have you kicked out of the pool." *goes back to gossiping with the other stereotypical suburban moms*
I obviously am terrified and feel awful because I got yelled at and insulted by a stranger. I don't remember the rest of the day, other than it was pretty miserable after that. The injustice of the whole thing, especially that the other kid who took the tube got off with the whole thing (he often wasn't very nice to me), still makes me grit my teeth.
I am now a full-grown adult.
reasonable_doubt1776
22. Couple Karen
When I was at work, this older couple wanted me to carry a box all the way to the front for them just because they didn't want to put it in their cart because it wouldn't fit.
When I was trying to tell them that all they had to do was slide it underneath, they all of a sudden didn't want it. So, trying to be nice, I told them that I would take it to the front for them; went up near the front later on and they didn't even pick up their item.
galaxymint
23. The red hair with blonde roots
One time, Karen put her own hair in her half-eaten plate of food and then threw a royal shit fit, demanding that her meal be comped and that she speak to the manager.
I went into the back of the restaurant, pulled out the orange hair with 3 inches of regrowth, and asked the Mexican guys in the kitchen “Hey, did any of you bring a wig to work today?” They told me to yank off.
I went back out and told Karen that nobody on staff has red hair with blonde roots (while staring directly at her disastrous dye job) but the manager said we would be happy to buy dessert for the whole table to make up for this strange phenomenon.
The 4 other people at the table were clearly mortified and declined dessert. She ordered cheesecake and they all sat there and glared at her while she devoured it.
goodytwotoes
24. Coupon for bakery cake
When I worked at a grocery store, I had a woman throw a conniption over a coupon. So, here's what happened. The coupon was for half off a bakery cake, our bakery cake. As in, you can walk into the bakery, grab a cake we have made, and buy it. This is what the coupon was for.
Well, Karen 5000 went to the frozen food section, got a frozen Sara Lee cake, and wanted to use the coupon on that.
Now, I explained how the coupon worked to her. And keep in mind, this was not a tricky coupon. There was no fine print. It wasn't one of those "gotcha!" moments. It was a very clear coupon in that it was abundantly obvious it could only be used in our bakery.
Well, she threw a fit. She hooted and hollered. She demanded I give her the coupon anyway, but there was literally no way for me to do that without the manager overriding me because I was a peon. So then she insisted that I get my manager. Works for me.
My manager comes up and, to my delight, it's Adam.* Now, Adam can't figure out how to do anything. I'm not entirely sure how this guy still has a job. So, she's screaming at him to give her the discount. But he can't figure it out. It's probably the simplest manager override function he'd need to perform, and he can't do it.
So he suggests she buy a bakery cake for the coupon price. She sneers and says, "I need a cake that says Happy Birthday. None of those cakes say Happy Birthday. What am I supposed to do about that?!"
So I said, "Buy some icing and write Happy Birthday yourself."
That did it. She left shouting at us that we'd lost a customer. Doubtful, since she had an account at our store and had been shopping there since the Stone Age.
sleepyhollow_101
25. Opening hours at the photography store
I used to own a photography store where I sold cameras and did pictures for passports etc, we opened at 1 p.m. on Mondays, but I happened to be at the store on Monday morning because I needed to get something, and was planning on just grabbing what I needed and go home when Karen tried to get in through the locked door.
The door had a sign on it that said we were closed, and a sign with our opening hours. I didn't turn on any of the lights so it was also very dark inside. Karen started banging on the door, I was just about to leave so I went outside to tell her we were closed.
Karen didn't take it well and immediately demanded to speak to the manager.
I said that I was the owner, and she then proceeded to shout, and curse, so much so that the manager of the supermarket across the street came out to help me. She tried to make the supermarket manager force me to open my store almost 4 hours earlier. Didn't work.
Never seen the woman again.
Pien85
26. Caramel dip at McDonald’s
I worked at McDonald’s during the time they switched to child's fries and discontinued the caramel dip in Happy Meals.
Everyone was pretty cool with it but one country club-looking Karen came in with her daughter and ordered a nugget Happy Meal with three cups of caramel dip because Braelynn likes to dip her nuggets in it.
I apologized and let her know we discontinued the caramel dip, which resulted in an instant meltdown.
The kid threw herself down on the floor in an absolute screaming tantrum, and Karen was screaming at me that we do have caramel dip and I'm obviously keeping it from her.
Then the accusations of me, a 17-year-old, purposely trying to starve her daughter. I've ruined her day, she's a regular customer but she's never coming back, where's my manager, typical Karen stuff.
The manager eventually came out and just grabbed a sundae cup and filled it with a couple of pumps of caramel, and Karen gave me a smug look and flipped me off.
abortionlasagna
27. Craved a freedom
She was a friend of the family. She invited me to live in the guest room of her house for free when she found out I was living in a motel after a breakup. I was getting a great deal on monthly rates at this motel and they were letting me store all of my stuff for free on top of that, but, free is free.
She was very strict on when I could be out in the common areas when I could use the kitchen or shower, and wouldn't let me park my car in the driveway because she wanted to leave the space in case the girl renting the basement suite bought a car.
I wasn’t allowed to have friends over at any time. Shortly after I moved in, she also started telling my dad when and what kind of mail I was getting, for some reason.
After being there for 3 weeks, she told me I needed to start paying rent because it "wasn't fair to the other girl living there". The other girl was an actual renter paying for an actual basement suite with an actual tenancy agreement.
I paid her for one month, long enough to find something else. I lost a great deal on the off-season motel and ended up getting a shitty basement suite elsewhere, but freedom was way better than living there.
When I moved out, (and I had given her notice I would be, despite not being an actual renter,) she told everyone who would listen that I was ungrateful and awful. Thankfully she was already on thin ice with my family, but jeez.
JadedRaccoon
28. Item return
She tried to return a top to the store I worked at 6 months after it was purchased. When I said there is a time limit on change of mind returns though she knows as she shops there a lot, she tried to tell me that was against the law.
When I correctly pointed out that the law referenced faulty items, she tried to tell me that her fat behind was not able to fit into it was a fault of the garment.
When I told her she could try her luck with corporate she stormed out only to storm back in later to ask for my name to add to her complaint to the ombudsman. I gave it with a smile (cos I knew I was right) and moved on with my day.
ScoopedAnon
29. No pictures on Facebook
My sister-in-law Karen asked me not to put pictures of her children on Facebook. She said she was a very private person and just didn't want them there. That's fine. If she had left it at that, I would have been okay with it. But then, she goes on to say, "You know because I put people in jail."
She's not in law enforcement in any way shape or form. She's a Human Resources Manager.
I can't wait to see the action-packed movie this story will be based on; Karen's children are abducted as payback for her condescending, no help whatsoever, human resources style, and she has to get them back. I wonder if Liam Neeson will play her.
AJR1623
30. Picture claim
I used to work at Walgreens in the photo department and I was a huge stickler for not selling professionally done photos if they didn't have a release from the photographer. This one lady brought in a boudoir set that I'm certain nobody wanted to see, but they were clearly professional. I wouldn't sell them to her.
I told her she could get a release from the photographer and come back. Immediately indignant. Exclaimed, "I'll email him right now!" ...She did. A few minutes later, she makes a phone call. Walks 1 aisle away from me to take it.
Now is yelling at the guy saying he screwed her over and "Why did you give me a CD with the pictures if I couldn't print them?" (And then my favorite line)..." No, you're cheap!" I was losing it in the photo department. Goes on for a couple more minutes then she storms over to me again and just goes "Give me my pictures."
"Ma'am you clearly don't own the rights to these, I'm not going to sell them to you" Then she asked me to get my manager. I walked to the office and talked to my manager, telling her everything, and we laughed, but ultimately my manager was a pushover most of the time. Not this time.
She walks out with me and now we are both telling this lady off. She starts to accuse me of being a pervert who just wants to keep them for myself. Ultimately, the manager, just to get her out of the store, says that instead of them going in the bin with all of the other no sales to be counted in the morning and shredded, she'd shred them right then.
Of course, this is this lady's only win for the day so she takes the deal. She stayed there while my manager shredded them.
Witness_me_karsa
31. Lost the job
When I worked at a grocery store, a woman came over and said there was water on the floor. I checked it out, and it looked like someone had a case of water leaking, so it was leaving a trail of very small spots of water. I went to the back to get a mop.
When I came back, literally less than 30 sec later, she was lying on the floor next to a 3-inch circle of water. She was yelling about suing and me being lazy. She told the manager that I refused to clean the water because I deemed the small spots insignificant.
The manager believed her, even though I had a mop and wet floor sign in my possession. The manager said I was supposed to stand next to the spill until another employee walked by so no one would fall. I said but it took less than a minute to get the mop and the women already knew the spill was there.
They fired me for arguing against a customer basically because I wasn't giving up, I have a hard time dealing with dumb shit, and couldn't keep my mouth shut, I guess. I hated that job anyway. The manager and customer were both Karens.
bingbong4567
32. Karen at the airport
We were about to board a plane and all the passengers were organized into two queues. The employees slowly allowed the queue my family and I were in first.
This random woman in the other queue noticed she wasn’t going anywhere and was obviously impatient, so she tried to pretty much pick a fight with my mum, complaining to her why she gets to go first and that apparently she has priority and a bunch of other statements that couldn’t be further from my mum’s fault.
Blysse102598
33. Fish in the Restaurant
In high school, I worked at a restaurant on the Jersey Shore. My manager who basically lived at the restaurant had a pet fish that she kept on the hostess's desk. Trust me when I say this fish lived a very good life. She was obsessed and everyone knew not to do anything with the fish.
One day during a Sunday brunch buffet a random woman there eating, out of nowhere decides she’s going to “save” the fish. So she grabs a spare kid’s plastic cup that we left by the drink area, runs up to the desk, scoops the fish into the cup, and then instead of running out of the restaurant she runs into the bathroom that happens to be located right across from the hostess desk.
I was in pure shock but my good friend who was working with me leapt over the desk like we were in a movie and ran into the bathroom after her. We did not know if she was trying to flush the fish- which was everyone’s first assumption. The woman tried fighting my fellow hostess friend for the fish. Both physically and verbally for a few minutes.
Eventually, my manager got involved and also had to verbally fight with this woman who was saying that she couldn’t believe the conditions this fish was living in, why would we have a fish in a restaurant, etc.
This fish was all my manager had at this point, besides work. So the fish actually got its bowl cleaned regularly and lived alone. My manager researched things all the time about it and I know it was more than fine so I still am confused as to why she was so concerned.
Eventually, the woman went back to eating at the buffet- yes apparently her plan was to keep the fish on her table, finish her meal, and then go “save” him. She continued making comments every time she passed, commented to other patrons about the “poor fish” and glared at us for the remainder of her meal.
The most ironic part is that she did not gracefully scoop the fish into the cup so the fish ended up getting hurt.
My manager was very distraught after this all happened and the fish was hurt as mentioned, the woman had an entire table full of people with her and had not been a problem before so she let her stay.
I think her focus went on the fish and she just wanted this lady out of her face. I personally would have kicked her to the curb and said so that day. Never saw the woman or her family again, and did not hear anything about the poor fish conditions from anyone.
ohs1016
34. Body shaming
I was helping this lady at work who was super rude to me and another coworker who was helping her too. She basically said that I was too short and that my coworker was fat but didn't have enough boobs.
She was making us try the clothing she wanted to purchase but it wouldn't fit her cause it was a size 4 and she was a plus size.
We were short on staff so while my coworker was helping her and another lady (not a Karen) approached me for help, I slowly disappeared and helped her instead. Later on, she complained that I just left her hanging which was true but not really since she eventually had two people helping her.
Also, she didn't even buy a lot compared to the nice lady that I helped.
honey-dews
35. Onions in burger
I was working a back drive at a fast food joint years ago, and older Karen came driving in to give her order. Now, this location doesn't have a speaker due to neighborhood ordnance, so all the orders in the drive-thru are taken face to face.
She orders a double cheeseburger without onions, and I ring it in, complete her order, and send her on her way. About five minutes after she's picked up her food she comes back through the drive-thru and says "They put onions on my burger". I apologize, print her up a duplicate receipt to confirm to her and myself that I rang it in without onions.
I then tell her that if she goes up to the front window and tells the manager who's working up front they'll replace the burger for free made correctly, but that I can't do anything about it back here. She does so and they give her a brand-new burger and an apology. I thought that was the end of the situation, but I was wrong.
Karen called the state government on me, by name, demanding I be fired.
If I recall correctly I was told that she called the food safety department, the Chamber of Commerce, and the governor's office.
The franchise owner called to say that it turned out that Karen is allergic to onions, and she straight up accused me of deliberately ringing her sandwich in wrong and trying to poison her, then printing up a false duplicate receipt of her order to make her look like a liar (keep in mind that I read the receipt back to her and she confirmed it was her order).
I didn't get along with the manager who was working at the time, but even he was like "That's complete crap, it wasn't even his mistake it was the kitchens and we fixed it for her". The franchise owner was told by whichever branch of the state government called them that Karen had demanded that I be fired.
I wasn't, I wasn't even written up, but I did stop wearing my name tag at work when I could get away with it.
Telcontar86
36. Record-keeping or legal purposes
I used to run a childcare site for after-school care at a swanky Christian school. We also had a summer program. During the summer, we had a field trip to one of those giant arcade-type places with a pizza buffet. All the parents sent baggies full of quarters for the kids to play with.
One first-grade girl opened up another kid's backpack and took her quarters out. Both of the girls approached me and one said “Stacey took my quarters out of my backpack”. I said “*Stacey, did you take quarters out of her backpack?” She nodded yes.
I said okay, I’m going to need you not to touch anyone else’s backpack again for me- your mom sent lots of quarters and they’re in your backpack, you’ll all have plenty to play with. Well, the policy of the organization I work with says that if you “discipline” a kid about anything, or tell their parents about an incident, you have to write it down.
I wrote like a hundred of these a week. It was no big deal. They occasionally came in handy to have documented behavior to talk to parents about patterns and problem-solving. When I told her mom and gave her the form, she demanded that I change the verb “stole” to “took”.
She was like “I will not sign a legal document saying my child stole 8 quarters. It has to say "took” so I changed it. Then, I got an email the next day “formally requesting all copies of this form to be turned over to the parents and the document be struck from the record” because she “isn’t confident that proper research was done and possibly her daughter never took anything, to begin with”.
So my company basically told me not to say anything and they’d contact her. She never said anything else about it again. They told me that they assured her that it was for our recordkeeping only and wouldn’t follow her daughter in any legal sense.
Ytranzmit1
37. Influential grandfather
My grandparents live on a lake, and the first 20 feet from the lake is communal property. I was about ten years old and feeding the geese corn on the lake across from my grandparent's house, and Karen walked halfway around the lake just to tell me that I wasn't allowed to "encourage" them to poop on her lawn.
That I had to stop feeding them immediately.
When I told her that my grandfather said I was allowed she marched me up to his house, rang the doorbell, and only deflated when she realized my grandfather was the president of the HOA and pissed at her for grabbing his granddaughter.
From that point on I made it a point to scatter corn on the 20 feet directly in front of her lawn.
SaltySolicitor
38. Karen at work
I worked the night shift and we weren't really supposed to leave for lunch. Since I was the only person with a car, my coworkers asked me to go get them lunch at an all-night place. I came back and Karen was standing in the parking lot...steaming.
She follows me in and raises her voice. I just laugh and I go bring the food to our coworkers. In the morning email, she writes a blurb about it. The general manager just laughs and tells her no one likes a tattle tale.
Wackydetective
39. Hotel check-in
I was working for a hotel. The guy checked in with another agent, exceptionally early, but we'd call you as soon as a room was ready. It was around 9 a.m. and his check-in officially was till 4 pm.
He comes back for his keys and starts to shout at me about how it's ridiculous he had to wait this long for the call blah blah blah.
Instead of schooling him on the fact he got his super specific request almost 8 hours ahead of schedule, I told him I was sorry and legitimately meant it. And he looks me dead in the eyes and tells me " Yeah you are." And hobbles off with his keys.
Phoenixdown1815
40. Seat entitlement
In medical school, we had a Karen. She was not a very nice person. She was notorious for losing her temper with just about everyone and being an overall bully. One day, she picked me as a target, apparently, I was sitting in "her seat".
I asked her to point out to me where it was posted or embroidered on the seat that this was "Karen's seat". I refused to budge. Prof. entered the lecture theater, and Karen protested to the Professor.
The Prof. proceeded to give her a verbal beatdown on entitlement and how these types of people make horrible doctors.
Karen felt wronged and left. The whole class applauded as she was leaving, she mostly kept to herself afterward. I felt it was long overdue justice being served.
IamsomebodyAMA
41. A personal decision to quit
When I worked at Harris Teeter (a small grocery store) I had a woman tell me that my nail extensions, which I had gotten for Prom, were not sanitary and that I was unhealthy. I tried to explain, no I wash my hands, I keep them clean, but before I could get a word out she said “I really don’t care.” And wouldn’t let me speak.
She then went and complained to my manager because I was “slow”.
The order before her was a $300 dollar order, yeah it took a bit. She also had three items and could have gone to self-checkout.
I had another woman insult my hair and another expected me to open my line for her when I was having a system error on that checkout line. Needless to say, I quit fairly quickly.
Poetic_Pilgrim
42. Three months ago
I used to manage a restaurant. I had a lady complain about an issue with a previous order and she wanted something replaced. She didn’t have what she wanted to return. She had a receipt dated October of last year. She came in to complain about it in January of this year.
She went on to say the manager was a tall white guy who told her that she could replace it. I was the only manager at that time. I’m black. So she threw a tantrum, saying how she was never coming back and was talking about complaining on Yelp.
I’m glad I don’t have to see her again.
SlapahoWarrior
43. Awesome manager
When I worked at Subway, a Karen came in and ordered a foot-long meatball sub. The problem was we were currently in the middle of a crazy and unexpected rush and didn't quite have enough meatballs left for a foot-long. We were only short like one or two meatballs.
I let her know this and said I could put what was left on there and charge her for a six-inch. At the time she was fine with this. About fifteen minutes after I should've left, I was still dealing with the aftermath of the rush when this Karen came back in. She starts complaining that her foot-long meatball sub didn't have enough meatballs on it.
Here's the thing, she didn't have the receipt so I could show her that she was only charged for a six-inch, and she had already eaten the sub.
It's not like she came right back in and said "This sub here in my hands doesn't have enough meatballs." It was like 30-45 minutes later and the sub was already eaten.
After trying to explain all this to her, she's now screaming in my face. Admittedly I may have started yelling back at her at this point. Eventually, she threatens to sue the store and leaves.
The next day I got a call from the area manager who had heard from this Karen. At first, I was a little worried, but then she said "I reviewed the footage from the cameras. I think you handled it pretty well. If I were there I would've jumped the counter and decked her."
bobtheowl
44. Unwarranted anger
It happened during high school, a winter in Canada. The Squad and I are going out to lunch and our one friend slips on some ice in a parking lot and lands on her butt. We all laugh about it, even the girl that fell.
Karen, who is just pulling out of the drive-thru, parks, gets out of her car, and yells at all of us about how that is not funny and that we should be ashamed of ourselves for treating a friend that way.
Her sudden passionate and unwarranted anger makes us laugh even harder, which makes her even angrier. Eventually, we ignore her and go get burgers.
VinnyinJP
45. New on the job
This Karen was actually a 60-year-old man but still just as bad. It was my first day on the job at a movie rental store (yes they still exist, this was 2018) and I had been there a few times before I was hired. This man walks in and asks me if we sell movies or just rent.
I told him that this was my first day on the job (first 30 minutes actually, my manager was helping a customer and had me put locks on movie cases). I told the man that I knew we rented the movies but wasn’t sure if we sold them. I told him my situation and said that I could ask my manager as soon as she was done helping a customer.
He then proceeds to yell and call me incompetent and stupid then storms out. He comes back in literally 30 seconds later yelling throughout the store about how I am a horrible employee. My manager finishes with the customer she was helping, realizes the situation, and asks him what the problem is.
He explains his frustration towards me and my manager simply says “This is his first day on the job. We haven’t covered that yet. We do sell select movies in a separate section but not to you. Now please leave our store.”
stockonhoganfan69