Common courtesy is one thing, but highly entitled people expect the royal treatment wherever they go. But not everywhere does their “power” have any grit, and that’s when their world shatters. That moment is the best moment for everyone watching it happen, and these people have shared their unforgettable moments of comeuppance online for everyone to enjoy!
1. Tablet That Idea
I worked customer service for a big tech company. A pair of nightmares called Christmas week demanding we fly a pair of tablets to their home by private helicopter for Christmas morning. Their tone was abrasive, dismissive, and entitled. After much work on my end to calm them down, they demanded to speak to management.
I patched them over to senior advisors. The head advisor idiot-slapped them with logic and policy, “We see you placed your order after our Christmas cut-off date. No special deliveries can be made as all our couriers are working overtime to deliver to customers who had the foresight to order early.” Thus, they were banished.
2. Underling-ering
At my work, we had this HR lady who was extremely power-hungry. She was walking around with the president of the company who flew in from Japan, acting like she owned the place. She hurried him through the warehouse spitting out, “Oh, these are just the warehouse guys. We don’t have to stop and talk to them.” Well, what he did next made her fume.
He stopped, came over, and asked me about my last vacation. Then he asked about how my new house was, and so on. You could just see her stewing behind him as we talked for about 45 minutes. In the past, I’d actually had multiple meetings with him, and we knew each other really well. She had no clue. I don’t think he liked her and I suspect that he dragged it out on purpose. I was just thrilled to see her just standing there bored and angry.
3. Not High Enough
A co-worker of mine was flying back from a sales conference in Vegas and was able to upgrade to a first-class seat. Our dreadful sales VP was the snobby, entitled type with a full-time nanny and huge ugly McMansion in the suburbs, and she generally treated people who worked for her like servants. She was on the same flight.
She saw him in a first-class seat as she walked the path to coach and asked how he got there. As people were settling in, she made her way back to the first-class cabin and asked to speak with the lead flight attendant. She told him that one of her subordinates was sitting in first class and she needed to switch seats.
She told him it was because she was higher on the corporate ladder. The guy couldn't believe what he was hearing, but she would not take no for an answer. Finally, he said to her that she had to go back to her seat or she would be escorted from the plane. She made a complete fool of herself in front of all of first-class.
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4. Spoke Too Soon
I worked for eight years servicing communications equipment on-site with five employees under me as the department manager. When oil was found in our area, we got so busy that we could barely even think. Most of my team were pulling 12+ hour days, six days a week, and we were struggling to hire people quickly enough to help get all the work done.
Once, the CEO texted and said he hired an assistant manager for me, which was something I desperately needed. I was super dirty from my working at the site, and swung by the store to get him and bring him to one of our sites where he would be doing paperwork. As soon as he got in the truck, he immediately started bad-mouthing.
Every time he would say something wrong, I would try to politely correct him. He’d either backtrack or insist that I was wrong. When we got to the site in the desert, he complained about the layer of dust on everything and "ordered me" to clean up. I sat down and, the guy kept talking my ear off about everything wrong.
He chastised me for sitting at my desk when he had told me to clean up. That’s when I couldn’t take it anymore. I called a taxi, filled out a notice of termination, and gave it to him. He was shocked, and defiantly protested that only the manager could fire him. I asked, “[my name], right?” He sheepishly nodded. So, I stuck my hand out and introduced myself.
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5. Satellite Reminder
I had a hard childhood with an addict father. My mom struggled to make ends meet, and my first job paid for the mortgage. After several months, I finally had some money to spend on a computer and a decent internet connection. At the time, the best internet I could buy was part of a dish combo package, and I bought one.
I brought the dish home to install on the house. My dad was still living at home with us, but he was barely home, and my parents had all but separated. My dad asked me what I was doing putting a dish on his house. I let him know that I was paying the mortgage now and the one who would make the decisions on what we did.
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6. Quit It
A new employee came from a competitor, and her former boss actually called to shout at me about "poaching" his consultants. However, a few weeks after she started, the dude came to our office. He had apparently been calling her to do an analysis for him. She’d ghosted him. I went to the lobby to see what he was doing.
He started in on me again, and she walked by. Then he literally "demanded" she do this analysis. She just said, "or what?" and waited a few beats before turning on her heels and walking away. I pointed to the door to signal him to "leave or a large security man will make you leave," and never heard from him after that.
7. On My Own Time
This old boss of mine was a complete and total jerk, and he was actually my boss’ boss and wasn’t supposed to interact with us unless it was through our boss. But he just loved trying to make everybody under him squirm. The company had already forced him to go to training twice because of how he was speaking to people.
One day, I got a call at home from him, and he started unloading, cursing, name-calling, insulting me over some technical issue he had just found out about. After a couple of minutes, I just looked at my phone and hung up on him. I was called into a meeting the next day with his boss who basically needed clarification.
He wanted to know exactly who I thought I was hanging up on this dude. I calmly explained that no one gets to yell at me on my time, in my home, on my phone. You have to wait for me to be on the clock to pay me for that privilege, and I’ll gladly take that money. If I’m busy being yelled at, I’m not busy with any work.
8. Hit With A Twist
In my first apartment, my parents came to visit, and I swore really loudly when I hit my head on the open door of the freezer while standing up from grabbing something from the fridge. My mother said, "You can't talk like that in my hou..." and stopped midsentence.
9. Game Changer
I was a consultant and in a bit of a competition with this guy. Our company had issues, so I started working for one of their clients. They hired my “competitor” who was now my equal. Except he was just a consultant. He was trying to one-up me, and my boss told him that only the company made the decisions. I felt good.
10. Usurpation Manager
I worked at a Walmart as a cashier, and the assistant manager there was an absolute jerk. He would insult everybody working there and forced us sometimes to do work above our pay grade. Six months later, he and I were transferred to another Walmart that had just opened that needed to pick a manager and assistant manager.
Some random got the manager position, but I got assistant manager. So, one day, he was ordering the other cashiers around, and then I pulled him to the side and told him that if he kept pulling the same act around me, he would be out of here. I haven't heard anything from him since.
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11. Need To See Some ID
The new CEO came to our department on his first day of work. He didn't have a passcard yet, and one lower-level employee didn’t allow him to enter without it. The CEO got upset and demanded to be let in, but the worker insisted that he show him the pass card or he couldn’t enter. A few days later, the worker got a bonus.
12. Don’t Do Your Job!
When I was in high school, I worked at a popular warehouse club selling computers on weekends. The store manager hired me via a friend’s referral. I loved computers, and they thought I would make a good salesman. So, they gave me the job, which was to stay in the computer department and just sell computers. Nothing else.
One of the shift managers did not like that and started insisting that I needed to go fold clothes for a while, as in, half of my shift. I told him that the store manager had instructed me never to leave the technology department, but he insisted. This went on for several weeks. The store manager showed up one weekend.
The power-tripping shift manager and I were both working. The store manager who had hired me slapped a stack of green bar paper down and pointed to some highlighted numbers. He looked at the shift manager and said, "Do you see this? These are our average technology sales numbers. These are for the weeks you are on shift. And this one?”
“It’s for weeks that you are not. By now, it’d be more cost-effective for me to fire you. What do you think of that?" He stuttered, but wasn't fired. The store manager made clear that I was not to leave the technology department unless I was on break or there was a fire. That shift manager never said another word to me.
13. Rejected Left And Right
One of my jobs is in a hotel with a restaurant and bar. A guest walked into the bar after having been refused service at our sister hotel down the road. He was very intoxicated and had been rude and threatening to staff. He insisted we serve him as he was a guest, but our sister hotel had already called to let us know.
We refused but offered him some water and suggested he go up to his room. He then went on about how he had nearly bought our hotel and that he was practically our boss so we should serve him or he’d have us fired. We refused. He told us he was a very rich man and would tip us hundreds of dollars if we’d just serve him.
He was getting intolerable at this point and went on about how his brother was the mayor. We told him to go to his room yet again. He then said he was going to the other pub. But the street had a barred from one barred from them all policy. We had already informed them of the situation. Eventually, he went to his room.
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14. The People Vs. The State
I'm a college student, and last year, we had a class about Congress in which part was simulation-based. I had this idea to impeach our professor, and it soon became a bipartisan effort. The professor was pretty cool about it. When we submitted the articles, he jokingly banged his fists on the table calling us traitors.
After the impeachment vote passed, the Speaker told him, "the Senate will decide your fate," and he was in the loop enough to know that the acceptable response was, "I AM the Senate!"
15. Bad Idea
A new director sent a “quick win” group text suggesting that admin hold a daily exclusive meeting at noon in the nurse’s lunchroom. My response was, “Please help me to understand how this is beneficial to remove the nurses from their lunchroom during lunch break?” There was no response. He was then moved to another department.
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16. See What You’re Doing
A few years ago, I interviewed for a job that was labeled as a senior-level position, which is my level of experience. I went through two phone interviews and a stellar in-person interview. Shortly after the in-person interview, they called to say they absolutely loved me and that I would be a great fit at the company.
But they implied I was inexperienced and offered a junior-level position with a salary decrease. I kindly told them I had applied to their post was because it was senior-level and trying to trick someone by stringing them along with interviews and a job offer was deceptive and unethical. There was silence for a moment.
The interviewer said offensively, "We've all had to make sacrifices!” I said, "You may have had to, but I don't make sacrifices for anyone." After a pause, he stammered, “Well…maybe you can think about it, and I'll call you tomorrow to check in..." I said, "No thank you, and please don't call me," and hung up the phone.
17. Get Toasted
I used to work at a few different Subway locations. The owner inherited them when she already had a busy and lucrative career elsewhere. She mainly kept them to employ immigrant family members. One time, she was in the back and heard me interact with an angry customer. She came out, and what she said basically changed my life.
She told me, “You know you don’t have to put up with that.” Everyone who has ever worked in customer service dreams of hearing those words. She followed up by saying: “I trust you. You can use your judgment and just toss anybody out who talks to you like that.” After that, I would not take any nonsense from anybody. The slightest hint of backtalk to your Sandwich Artist, and you were out on your behind, still hungry.
It was so much fun. “I want to speak to your manager.” “No. Get out.” Customers would tell me: “I’m going to call and complain.” I would make a shocked expression and say, “OoOoOoOoOh, I’m terrified. Go nuts, but you can’t call from in here because you’re trespassing now.” The sheer indignance of an entitled customer when you don’t bow and scrape before them is really something to behold.
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18. Toad Me What To Do
I have a job, but I will still do interviews every few years, but they have to convince me to work there. I stopped at a bakery in my uniform to get something to eat. The woman went to grab it, and this squat toad of a woman came in and yelled at me to get her order. Then she yelled again for not getting up right away to serve her.
I said that I didn’t work there, and she went off about her importance. After, I went to the interview. The head of IT and the toad woman entered. She wore an evil grin. I pointed at her and said, "I’ve seen how your management treats people, and have no interest in working for you." The look on her face was priceless.
19. Hot Spot
I work at a hotel. It’s pretty high end, so we usually just appease guests no matter what. We have a very desirable parking lot. When people poach it, we boot them. I love enforcing this because I don't have to apologize since they aren't guests. Once, this girl parked and walked away. My general manager happened to be there.
He told her she couldn’t park there, and she cussed at him, flipped him off, and walked over to the neighbor hotel. So, he called me. With great joy, I grabbed the boot and slapped it on her car. She came back screaming and ranting. I said it’d cost $200. She called the authorities. They asked, "Is this a private lot?"
We confirmed, and they told her to pay us. She refused to pay us and left. I got a call for the manager. It was her mom. She said, "My daughter didn't know. It was actually for a job interview." I let her go on, and when she was done, I told her what her daughter had done to the general manager. There was no other way.
I said the boot was only coming off with her payment—but I didn’t stop there. Then I told her when she paid, she had better not come in swearing or shouting or else the price would go up to $300. She hung up. The daughter came back and silently handed me $200 with a look of intense rage on her face. I've never been so internally giddy before.
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20. The Final Days
I worked at my grocery store for five years putting up with crazy customers and awful attitudes. Our store was closing. For the last month, a liquidation company bought us, and customer loyalty was defunct. I got to tell customers "no" and respond with every bit of sarcasm and disdain to every Karen that I encountered. Dream come true.
21. The Preview Experience
I was in management at a theater for a while. If the concession counter was slammed and I was able, I’d leave my post and help them with popcorn. One night while helping out, a particularly belligerent man started cussing out a 16-year-old girl on a cash register for being too slow, even suggesting that she should quit.
He said it was since “She clearly couldn’t handle pushing buttons or scooping popcorn.” It was pretty disgusting, and I felt so bad for her. I stepped in and said that our employees have the right to refuse service to customers who harass them as a part of our policy. I empathized that the lines were longer than usual.
So, I suggested he apologize and leave. He was seething, left half his order on the counter, and started fuming. Anticipating his next move, I went back to my original post that night as manager of the customer service kiosk. Oh boy, the look on his face when he saw me. I assume he watched the movie without popcorn.
22. If You Say So
I was about 12 years old and often had been forced to stay with my mother’s friends when she would go out of town. The father was an insufferable jerk. He'd do stuff like make tomatoes every night for a week for dinner knowing I absolutely hated them. He threw me in a pool when I was small knowing that I couldn't swim.
He was a classic 70s "macho man" and tormented me every chance he'd get. My mom and I and her friends and their kids went out to dinner one time. We were leaving the restaurant. I don't remember what preceded it, but he said, "go ahead, tough guy. Hit me as hard as you can right in the gut," thinking I wouldn't do it.
He thought that I was scared of him—but this was my moment, and I knew it. He was a small man, about 5'6" tall. I was at least as tall as him already. And as he gave me his stupid smile, I pulled my fist back and belted him in the gut with every ounce of strength that I could muster. He immediately doubled over and was so angry.
He tried to turn it around on me, but his wife shut him up instantly. "You told him to do it. If you ‘weren't ready,’ it's your fault, not his." It was one of the most satisfying moments of my life. And one of the last times that I had to endure Mr. Tough Guy.
23. Those Are The Numbers
I worked in a cellphone store selling devices and service contracts in the UK. Some 19-year-old came in with a much shorter man, his dad. He wanted to cancel a current contract. I could already tell from how he explained it in exasperated terms that he knew he couldn't cancel, but his dad wasn't taking his word for it.
So, he dragged him in to try and “sort it out” for him. I explained to his father about the contract stipulations and how he needed to pay it off to cancel. He just went full Boomer Rage-mode on me—spitting, frothing, hurling vitriol—this guy clearly thought this was how you got things done. I just stared him down.
I waited for him to finish and repeated the contractual terms. He hit me back with, “I'll report you for violating the Sale of Goods act!” Sucks for him, because I had that memorized. I made a point of memorizing it, in fact, after the first few customers in my earlier days had tried to bring it up to get their own way.
I looked at him and replied, “Sure. Go ahead. You can even use our phone,” and pointed at the store phone next to him. I knew he didn't have a leg to stand on, and any trade commissioner listening to his claim would laugh him off the line. He clearly didn’t know what to do and stormed out with his son rolling his eyes.
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24. Buzz Off
I was working as a flight instructor at a small airport on a Saturday afternoon. We had one plane that had an issue and veered off the runway. It totaled the airplane, but fortunately, the pilot had not been seriously injured. I had a student who was next in line for takeoff when it happened. He called me as it happened.
I hopped in the airport car with a ramper and drove over to the plane with a radio to inform inbound planes to use the other runway since we didn’t have a control tower. On the way to the runway, I called the airport manager who was already coming. On his way there, he made a phone call to officially closed the runway.
About 30 minutes later, a metric ton of Department of Public Safety people showed up and immediately tried to close the whole airport like it was a giant investigation scene. They were carelessly driving around like they owned the place, ignoring the planes that were moving, and crossing our only open runway without regard to inbound traffic.
A mechanic and I tried to tell them to be careful, and they got mad at us. One of them told me they were "locking it down" a couple of times with it being the entire airport. I was a broke flight instructor, and I had a flight that afternoon that was going to pay for my food that week. The airport manager was former Navy.
He was a short stereotypical country guy and not intimidated at all by the DPS. When he showed up, I was about to leave with a student who was pre-flighting for a cross-country. There were about five guys in the lobby, me holding my flight bag, the airport manager, and a mechanic. One of the guys spotted my flight bag.
He said, "I don't know why you have that or why he's out of the plane. You aren't going anywhere." The moment he finished his sentence, the airport manager said, "it's one runway that's closed. The airport is still open.” This upset them. I was heading to the door, and one guy said he was driving to the disabled plane.
Except the pilot had been gone for about an hour. The mechanic told him, "you need to be careful." The guy quickly and loudly retorted, "and why is that?” He said, "Because this is still an airport, and the first thing that hits you is going to be a propeller." A few seconds later, a plane took off as a car approached.
I walked out, and as I was hopping in the plane with my student, the same guy came up to me to yell, "You aren't going anywhere. We're locking this down!" I looked at the airport manager who’d followed us to the ramp, who said, "Have a nice flight!" You could see them all just fuming that they didn't have any authority.
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25. Stature Of Liberty
My dad is 6'3" tall, and I'm 6'10" tall. Sometime in my early teens, I grew up way past him. Dad was a yeller. Not doing what he thought I should be? No discussion, just yell. But I realized at some point that he would not yell at me if he had to look up while he was doing it. I was in my room in front of the computer one night.
When Dad came in and yelled at me, I eventually stood up and started yelling back. Dad made an excuse to leave. He was back about a half-hour later, but by then, it's all I could do to not just laugh. I knew that the instant I stood up; the argument will end. It actually wound up being really good for our relationship.
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26. Last Stop
I had gone on a couple of dates with a guy who’d introduced me to his parents. Things went well…or so I thought. He drove me home, and we talked and drank together. I didn't want him on the road with anything in his system. I enjoyed his company, so we ended up hanging out until 3 AM. His mom started blowing up his phone.
She was demanding that he came home. So, he drove home to find that he'd been locked out of his house. His mom said that he could sleep outside, he shouldn't be spending time with somebody like me, and that I was, "just another stop on the hussy train." He told her not to talk about me like that. She responded angrily: "When you're under my roof, I'll say whatever I want about whoever I want!"
So, he picked up his phone and asked if he could stay at my place for a little while. It's been seven years. We're engaged, have a dog, a cat, and a happy life. I also plan on throwing some subtle train themes into our wedding when it happens.
27. Dr. Stat
I was working a lab assistant shift, but I'm a tech. I was receiving specimens and such when a doctor phoned the lab. He was very upset that a test he needed was taking far too long in his opinion. I said I would look at the test and asked what it was. It was a fungal culture that would take at least two weeks to grow.
The patient was in the ER. I politely told him the test was a send out, which generally takes about two weeks or longer depending on the fungus. He got all huffy and asked why and if there was a way to rush it since he wanted to discharge the patient. I chuckled a little because this was a common problem with cultures.
We're literally waiting for stuff to grow. We can't just make them go faster. I told him we don't have magical wands to make it grow. He asked for a lab tech because I was just a lab assistant, and then I let him know I was in fact a lab tech with firsthand experience in microbiology with experience in fungal cultures.
I knew that fungal cultures are some of the slowest cultures right up there was AFBs and assured him that if anything comes of it, we would let ER know. He didn't really like that, but said fine and hung up.
28. Getting A Foot Up
I was responding to a call with our volunteer fire department a few years ago. I was west of town, and a vehicle rolled halfway between where I was and the fire hall. So, I called the responding people and said I’d meet them. It was a one-vehicle, and passengers were all immigrants from the Pakistan/Afghanistan region.
A doctor from the area had stopped to lend a hand before I had gotten there. She was from a similar region as those involved in the crash, and I had assumed she was the eighth person in the van. She started to try to order me around and tell me I only needed to know certain information about the patient she was with.
“She has midline neck pain and sore ribs.” I said, “Okay, and crepitus or deformity to the…,” the doctor loudly yelled, “That’s all you need to know!” I was confused. She told me, “I’m a doctor, and that’s all you need to know!” That’s when I figured I should ask what kind of doctor she was, in case she was a whackadoo.
She said she’s a podiatrist. I gave her my best look of trying to be nice, but their feet were fine. Doctors or nurses can show up and trump EMS but need to sign off as having taken patient control. When I told her to sign and ride with us to the hospital, she realized she was out of her knowledge area and disappeared.
29. It’s My Spray Or The Highway
Due to the bad economy and poor money management, my parents have moved into the home that my husband and I had bought a year ago. The other evening, I was out gardening, and I thought I had gotten the hose twisted as it kept getting stuck. This went on for a while when I realized that it wasn’t stuck but being pulled.
I looked into the dim area just past the illumination of the street light and spied my father crouched over and tugging the hose. Well, I did the only reasonable thing to do, and I sprayed him. He yelled and ran inside with me chasing. Once he got inside, he made a face and went, “You can’t get me now that I’m inside!”
He said it in that father-to-daughter-don’t-you-make-a-mess tone of voice. He had no idea what I had in store for him. I readied my hose, looked him in the eye, and said, “It’s my house,” and just let loose with the hose. He was soaked. It was worth cleaning up the mess for that moment of true fear in his eyes.
30. Doesn’t Fly With Me
I was one of two mechanics responsible for an annual inspection on an aircraft. There was a problem with the main landing gear motor. I told the owner that he couldn't fly and I wouldn't sign off until everything was fixed. The guy said to sign off the annual, and he'd get to fixing it all some other time. When I said no, he then threatened my job and demanded to get the plane back so he could get another mechanic to sign it off as airworthy.
I laughed in his face, impounded his aircraft, and notified the FAA. He eventually gave it to us.
31. No Diced Tea
Some White House lady came and sat at my bar and tried getting a drink without giving ID. She pulled out her White House ID card which had no date of birth. "I work at the White House," she just kept informing me. I told her that her bosses would be very proud of me enforcing their laws when I didn't serve her a drink.
32. Time Tables Have Turned
I wasn’t good at returning library books when I was a kid. The school librarian would lecture me about it a lot. Twenty years later, I’m a supervisor at the local public library where my former school librarian goes. One time, I saw her sneaking around the front desk instead of coming to say hi to me. Something was up.
I went up to say hi to her, and she was acting exasperated and told me that she was really trying to avoid me because she had overdue books. So, I put on my reading glasses, pulled them down over my nose, and delivered the same lecture she’d given me countless times about being responsible and turning in books on time.
33. Need A Grown Up
In college, I worked for a small catering company that a guy who was in his 30s had started by himself. The entire team was college-aged or just a little over, so we looked like a college boy crew in general. One day, we’re working an outdoor black-tie wedding reception for over 300 people, and it was a scorcher outside.
Not only was it hot out and we were all in tuxes serving a lot of people, the family of the bride funding this affair were the rudest and most-demanding people imaginable. So, it wasn’t our most fun gig. One of the bride’s aunts was the rudest and playing the, “I’m related to the bride so give me give me give me,” act.
She wasn’t even in the wedding party! She was just making life for all who came in contact with her even more excruciating than what we’d already been experiencing including the owner of the company, who was the lead bartender. The nightmare aunt was in his line loudly complaining the entire time about how long it’s taking.
She was saying she shouldn’t even have to be waiting because she’s whatever-the-bride’s name’s aunt, blah-blah-blah, just making a huge stink. As she was placing her order, she was saying how slow and ineffectual he was. To which he responded, “We’re going as fast as we can. Here’s your drink. Have a nice evening.”
This led her into the following diatribe, “That’s because you’re nothing but a bunch of dumb kids. Don’t you have any adults back there working at this wedding? I want to talk to your manager or the owner or someone who’s an adult who can get you out of here and get the job done right.” This huge grin washed over his face.
He replied, “Hi! I’m Steve, the owner of this catering company. Please note that if you’d like for me to go, then this reception will have no food or beverages or bar service.” I swear you could almost hear a hype crew descending from the heavens shouting “OOOHH!!” after he said it. The rude aunt didn’t bother us again.
34. Dishonorably Discharged
My dad and I went to Lowes once, and the guy helping us wore a veteran hat and a few pins. He kept insinuating that we didn’t know anything and that we didn’t need what we were there for trying to argue about everything. So, my dad asked what service he was in trying to break the ice. He said he was in team 6, 1970-1974, in Vietnam.
That was the wrong answer. My dad asked if he meant seal team 1 or 2. The man recognizing my dad’s service ring immediately buffed up on my dad and became tomato-faced red and tried to assert dominance as a superior. So, my dad immediately called the guy on his lies for taking valor and explained why he was full of it.
35. Splash Of Barter
A few years ago, a guy stopped me in the hardware store and asked if I was a painter. I looked at my painter’s whites and said I do historical restoration work. He asked how much I charged per hour, and when I told him, he immediately told me I was too expensive and dropped my rate by 25%. I had already given him my number.
But he kept belittling me and saying I wasn't worth it. I just told him that I already had a full-time job, and this would be in my off-hours, so it needed to be worth my while. He finally let me leave the store then called me three or four times with every time hemming and hawing over if he wanted to actually hire me or not.
He's got a bunch of properties. It’d be a sweet gig, but not at my prices. I just kept saying that's fine, don't use me if you don't want to. Eventually, I recognized his number and stopped picking up. He really thought he had some sort of power over me, and I'd jump at the opportunity. Luckily, I did not need the work.
I was making good enough money as it was. He would have nitpicked absolutely everything and probably not paid me at the end anyway. But he was so certain he'd have power in the situation and that he didn't seem able to comprehend me not wanting to barter with him.
36. Double Take
Some secretary of some branch of a state agency would go on a power trip and stamp "Do Not Copy" on things that she’d send to local agencies. Well, I work for the oversight agency, and I needed a copy. Locals were terrified, so I rolled my eyes and called to explain to her that the locals and I were basically the same entity.
The woman started to have a conniption fit, but she got really quiet when I cut her off and said, "Fine, I'll issue a subpoena. What's your name and job title?" She answered, and the sheriff served her a subpoena for what I wanted. Guess she wasn't used to that.
37. Technically Incorrect
A client paid for me to come to their office and address an IT problem. It was an 8-hour minimum job. The issue was resolved in about 45 minutes because they had set up something incorrectly, and it was pretty obvious once I got into the system. I was packing up to leave and the client stopped me. "What are you doing?"
"The system is fixed, so I'm leaving," I said. "No, I paid for 8 hours. You'll do the 8 hours. If I tell you to wash my car for 8 hours, that's what you'll be doing." I responded, "Right…so anyway, I'm leaving. You’ll get the invoice, and we'll no longer be working with you and withdrawing your lease on our equipment."
38. Impossible To Work With
I started working for a welding company as an engineering manager. We were selling an extremely complex weldment for $4.9K, and our costs were $9.3K. The owner got the bid "to get in with this big company." He actually said, "We'll make it up in volume." We weren't. On top of that, the buyer for the larger company was a terrible woman.
She was the type who’d regularly yell on phone calls. We sent a letter that said we’d honor the last five tanks on the current PO at the same price, even though I didn't even want to do that. After they’d go up to $10K per. She came with her boss the next day, demanded an explanation, and threatened to pull the business.
I replied that we were losing $5K per tank and couldn't do it anymore. She demanded evidence, which I’d already pulled up and simply turned on the projector. I said, “As you can see, we cannot continue at such a big loss, and no one can make it for the original price, so if you have to pull the business we understand."
Her boss tripped over himself cutting her off and said they weren't pulling out and actually thanked us for honoring the current PO. I didn't have many run-ins with her after that.
39. Sounds Wrong
My uncle is a deputy sheriff, and one time, he was at an airport speaking to my aunt over the phone in Spanish. Once he was done with his call, some nearby Karen who overheard him went up to him and started demanding to see his green card. Huge mistake. My uncle decided to mess with her and said he didn't know what a green card was.
He told her he had never even heard of it. She became more upset and kept demanding to see it. He messed with her more and then eventually went, "Well, I don't have a green card, but I have this," then brought out his wallet and showed her his badge. She immediately walked away while my uncle just kept laughing at her.
40. High Up There
I have a co-worker friend in a hospitality company that was giant. My co-worker had great experience and skills, and as a result, many executives wanted him for their department projects. When it was time for a raise, our manager, director, and executive director rejected him and low-balled him with an insultingly low counter offer.
So, he began looking for jobs outside of the company. The CFO and other senior VPs heard about said move, and reached out to him to get him to stay, and they worked it out amongst each other so they could share him in their special projects along with a hefty compensation package. Respectfully, he put in a transfer request.
The current manager, director, and executive director had to sign it, but they promptly refused. To make matters worse, they went ahead and wrote him up for "attendance" problems from months before. We're all salary and for the most part, project-based. Throughout it all, I was a fly on the wall as we shared an office.
Here I was laughing with him while he was in phone calls with the literal people who ran the company. He was told to ignore all that. They apologized to him and got the VP of Human Relations in on the meeting and explained the situation, which then launched an internal investigation unbeknownst to the three dumb jerks.
The ensuing storm that came down onto the three clowns is more than enough to make this story awesome, but the cherry on top? He is now their boss.
41. Causing McTrouble
I used to work for a super awful manager when I was working at McDonald's. This dude was horrible to us. He was constantly rude to us, bad-mouthing us to customers, and doing everything in his power to make us miserable. Well, so many people complained about him that he ended up getting fired. The new manager was great.
He was chill and understanding. A couple of weeks after he took over, the old manager came in and started going off about how terrible the store looked, how our service was worse than ever, and how much the store needed him. The new manager looked at him and said, "If you do not leave, then somebody is going to make you."
When he didn't move, the new awesome manager stuck to his word and called the authorities. The jerk is no longer allowed on any Mcdonald's property in the city and has a restraining order against him.
42. Elite Existence
I was waiting for a friend to finish work. She worked at a restaurant so fancy that they had someone vetting guests at a podium outside. The place was glitzy, and the folks were glam, so the great and good would descend in droves. Those with a reservation were sent in; prospective walk-ins had to queue. A car drove up.
The driver jumped out and held the door open to unleash a hat and dress. The woman accompanying said finery was a C-list actress from a regional daytime TV show, looked through everyone present, and moved to enter. She froze, appalled when the guest-vetter intercepted asking, "Did you have a reservation?" No response.
She mustn't have heard the question, but instead, drew herself up to the full height of her couture and demanded, "Do you know who I am?!" The maître d' replied: "Yes…back of the queue."
43. Money Doesn’t Buy Healthiness
I work in an NHS hospital where no one pays out of pocket for treatment. It is all paid for through taxation. A patient was added to our clinic who had paid one of our doctors for surgery privately at another hospital, but she was getting her follow-ups free on the NHS. Technically, this should not happen, but it does.
Patients like these can be a bit…difficult. This lady's appointment was at 8:55, before we even started at 9:00. She had her work up done when we actually clocked in and was all snooty about waiting the five whole minutes. Then one of the nurses from the ward called, and an actual NHS patient needed to be seen urgently.
That patient went up ahead of this "private" patient. This woman started shouting and bawling that she'd paid all this money and demanded service. Our charge nurse went out and demanded to know who had taken money off her really drilling the patient to point to the person who had dared take money off of an NHS patient.
The woman went beetroot and stuttered that she had paid the other hospital. The charge said, "Exactly, your money is no good here, and the doctor is being paid by the taxpayer to see this emergency patient first, so kindly sit down, and be quiet or leave my department until you can be civil."
44. Out Of Service
I was bartending one night, and these three guys were absolutely hammered, so I cut them off. One of the guys then tried to argue with me saying he had all this money and would tell me when he was done drinking and he wasn’t even done. At that point, I was done trying to be polite and just said that I was done arguing.
I told him that I would not be serving him and his buddies and he could leave. He looked at me and said, “Now excuse me, who are you to tell me how much I can and cannot drink?” I looked him straight in the eye and said, “the freaking bartender. Now, it’s time for you guys to leave.” The look on his face was priceless.
45. Call Your Bluff
My friend was the school president. He was in charge of things and had quite some power and responsibility. He had to organize a seminar this one time which was very important especially because he was hosting. As he was going around making sure everything was running smoothly, he noticed a few students messing around.
They were not rehearsing the speech. He questioned each of them about the speech and, as expected, none of them knew it well enough. So, he asked them to start rehearsing, but like typical reckless freshman, they ignored the order. Being fed up with them, my friend simply took their presentation and told them to leave.
That's when one of them snapped back, "You can't do that! You don't even know me. I know the president of the department!" showing off illusions of the amount of power a third-grader has on a Thursday morning after a bowl of cereal. Naturally, my friend asked this schmuck to use their wild card and to call the president.
They took out their phone and dialed. Guess what happened next; his phone started ringing.
I have no idea how my friend kept a straight face seeing the sheer horror in this kid's eyes, the shame on their face, the cringe, and regret for the rest of their life.
46. Watch Your Mouth
Some college kids were heckling in a movie theater, and an old guy told them to stop, but they didn’t and started mocking him too. Later, it turned out that the old guy was a powerful local, and these kids were actually kicked out of their colleges.
47. Getting Stubbed
A while back, I got a job as a popcorn monkey at the local cinema. There was a supervisor who worked there since the site had opened, about five years, and was a total pain with numerous complaints about her from countless staff. In the first week, I nearly quit because of her attitude. One night, I was working a closing.
I had basically cleaned the entirety of the front of house on my own. I stopped to get a drink of water, and she marched up to me yelling, "We don’t pay you to stand around drinking you, know!” I calmly responded that I was thirsty, and if she wanted to tell me I wasn't allowed to have a glass of water, then good luck.
I told her health and safety would have something to say about that. She huffed about not having had a break all day, which I ignored because not my problem, but internally I was put out about it because it was totally pointless to be such a twit about things. Around my first two weeks, I was promoted to be supervisor.
She also got promoted to Floor Manager, so she continued her little power trips and lorded over everyone. And four weeks after, I got another promotion to Floor Manager. We were equals, and she could not boss me around anymore. Instead, she tried a different tactic, which was to use her superior knowledge of processes. I knew exactly what to say to crush her.
My response was: "Oh thanks! That's so helpful. I mean you know how things work so much better than me, because you've been here five years, and I've only been here six weeks..." She had the saddest face. It was delightful.
48. Could Ask You The Same
I was the food production supervisor when a guy came to the production floor with no facemask on. I approached and gave him an extra one I always carried. He got all huffy and refused to put it on, and he asked, "Do you know who I am?" I just said, "The guy who will be escorted out by security if you don't follow Good Manufacturing Practice."
I then radioed for security. He was the new operations manager, who I had never met. He stormed away, and I followed. He went straight to the plant manager’s office and ranted about me being out of line. The plant manager informed him that I was only doing my job and that everybody had to follow GMP on the production floor.
He wasn't satisfied and wanted me to be written up, but the plant manager said no. The operations manager said he would write it and did. I submitted a request for review with the HR director and regional manager. That was when he learned that the regional manager was my father-in-law, who mandated what constituted GMP. Sorry not sorry!
49. Nothing Personal
I was a property manager, and the owner was an absolute jerk. He was heartless and rude, and I loathed him. I hated going to the job every day, but I needed the money. I was applying daily to my dream company in hopes that eventually I’d get it. In the meantime, my supervisor would tell me to shut up when I complained.
If I mentioned anything to my supervisor, he’d tell me to shut up and to just get on with it because, “he was paying me too much to have opinions.” Three years after, we were a small office, and the receptionist and assistant managers had quit. My dream company finally hired me, and I happily put in my two-week notice.
In desperation, he offered more money, a higher position, and better benefits, which were laughable. When I said no, he asked why. I have never felt happier than that moment when I replied to him. I said, “I don’t know. I’m not paid to have opinions here.” That was a year ago, and even now, the look on his dumb old face gives me joy.
50. Can’t Keep Up
During an insanely busy weekend before Christmas, a Karen was complaining to every associate about how messy our store was. The manager had relieved the girl at the fitting room and was helping to hang up the clothes. Karen pulled her stunt and was trying to make a point that we were messy and a horrible place to shop.
The manager’s response was legendary. She told her, "Ma'am, we're messy at the moment because we're a popular store. And the biggest reason is because of women like you who can't be bothered to pick up after themselves. It's not the associates making the mess. Your type has us outnumbered." That’s when I witnessed someone deflate.
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