There aren't many things more frustrating than being mistaken for a retail worker or being asked to do things that you are clearly not being paid to do. If you think that this doesn't happen often, here are some examples shared by people from all over the world. These are their best "I don't work here" stories.
Go ahead, you are welcome to call the manager if this happens to you.
I used to work at Target, and there was a Hobby Lobby right across the street. One day, after finishing a shift at Target, I went to Hobby Lobby to quickly grab something and was still wearing my red shirt with the Target logo on it.
While I was there, a girl in her 20s came to me and asked, "Do you know where I can find a glue gun?" I hesitated for a bit and looked at my shirt, then asked, "Do you mean here at this store or at Target?" She stared at my name tag for a while before quietly saying, "Sorry, I don't know where I am."
During the previous holiday season, I took on a seasonal job at Target. It was a disaster from the beginning due to the lack of organization among the managers. This lack of organization became apparent to me during my second interview when the manager didn't even show up. As the holiday season came to a close, after Christmas and before New Year's, Target offered me a non-seasonal, part-time position. I was considering accepting the offer, but they wanted me to work a large number of hours for a part-time position and were not willing to be flexible with my schedule as a college student. As a result, I declined the offer and ended my employment with Target on January 6th. Everything was good after I was done with that train wreck and I was starting off my second semester. January 20th at 5:00 PM I get a call from Target.
Manager: “Hey, are you running a little late? You were supposed to work at 4:30.” Me: “Ummm no. I quit over three weeks ago.” Manager: “Uhhh well we are really short-staffed. Can you come in anyway?” Me: “No. I do not work there anymore, I told you that, and I’m at school.” Manager: “are you sure you can’t come in anyway?” Thank goodness I’m done with that disaster! And since this holiday season is coming up, I got a job at a different place. Thank goodness.
My husband is a peaceful giant. He is 6 ft 5 and can look quite imposing even though he really is a big teddy bear. So here we are, at the grocery store, with our 6-month-old baby, shopping. The kid is a bit fussy, and nothing really calms him except when we carry him in our arms. It is my turn, and my husband is going back and forth gathering what we need and bringing the items to our cart when this old woman started yelling at him. Old Woman: ARE YOU DONE? You’ve been helping her FOREVER, and I NEED HELP! NOW! Husband: (with his smooth everything-is-good kind of tone) I’m so sorry, but I’m afraid I do not work here… OW: NONSENSE! I just saw you help HER shopping. NOW, you help ME! AND YOU DO NOT TALK BACK TO ME! Husband: But… OW: STOP! Don’t talk to me unless it is to thank me. Are we clear? My husband sees me boiling and is about to interfere but makes a sign that says he is going to deal with it. He then calmly looked at her with a smile.
OW: GOOD! Now, help me grab the ketchup on this high shelve. WHY in the world do you people always put the stuff I need so high is BEYOND me? Now, chop-chop! My husband grabs the item, but instead of giving it to her, he keeps it just a tiny bit out of her reach. He looks at it and then at me. Husband: Honey, do we need ketchup? Me: (catching on) Well, as a matter of fact, yes! We do! Lady: WHAT?! HOW DARE YOU GIVE HER MY STUFF! IT’S MY STUFF! GIVE IT TO ME!!! Super slowly, my husband gets closer to the lady. He is so imposing that she calms down immediately. With the biggest of smiles and the most polite voice ever, he says to her: “Again, I do not work here… but thank you for reminding me we need ketchup.” And with that, he put the item in our cart, grabbed the baby, and together, we left. In the background, the lady kept yelling some obscure profanities.
I was in college. We were just a bunch of guys who rent a beat-up old house in town next to a daycare. The problem was that the parents picking up and dropping off their children parked right in our driveway. We argued with the owner of the daycare every day. She didn’t care. So one day I began parking behind the parents who are parked in my driveway. This infuriates the daycare owner. We go back and forth, and usually, I go out and move my car so the parents can get their car out. One day, though, I’ve just had it. I worked most of the night, had early morning classes, and I have twenty minutes to shave, shower, and get ready for my second job this afternoon. I get home, and sure enough, parents are in our driveway…again. So I park behind them and go inside. I get in the shower, and when I get out the daycare owner is beating on the door loud enough to shake the wall. I go downstairs wrapped in a towel and open the door. She burst into the middle of the living room and screams at me. While she is screaming, I take the towel off and calmly dry my hair.
I am buck naked. She stops screaming long enough to realize she’s standing next to a naked college student, screams something about calling the cops, and bolts for the door. It doesn’t open. Being in a hurry to leave, she locked the door instead of unlocking it. Now she’s stuck with a naked man. I tell her I have to have the key (true) to unlock the door and the key is upstairs on my dresser. I leave her looking like she’s about to have a heart attack. When I come back to the living room, she’s white as a ghost. I unlock the door and say, “It sucks to be stuck and not able to leave, right?” Fast forward about 20 minutes and when I’m leaving a cop is parked in front of the house. I chat with them through the car window. I explain the situation, and they chuckle. “Did you invite her in?” No, I tell them, she barged into my house. “Well, it’s not a crime to be naked in your own house. Her problem for violating your privacy.” I’d love to say this solved the situation, but it didn’t. We never found a way to stop parents from parking in our driveway.
While picking up some software at Best Buy for my independent IT work, I noticed that the racks were disorganized. As I searched through the boxes for what I needed, an older man approached me with a popular antivirus program and asked if it was the best option for him. I recommended a cheaper, more suitable product and offered to help him check it out. He seemed puzzled when I explained that I was not an employee, but he eventually walked off to the register with his bagged box.
A few minutes later, he came back and asked how much I would charge to come to install the software at his office. I gave him my rate and ended up at his office cleaning up a mess of 5 virus-infected PCs before installing antivirus. That was two years ago, and since then my billings to him have exceeded $10,000 for building an effective business network. Helping people in a store you don't work at can be very profitable.
I attended one of my good friend's wedding last year and dressed up in a nice suit with a black tie and shiny shoes. It wasn't until the ceremony ended that I realized I was the only white person there. At the after-party, I also noticed that the waiters were dressed almost exactly like me. I was walking around, and a nice older lady (who would turn out to be the mother of the bride) approached me as I passed her table. She needed an extra seat for her table. Her: “Excuse me…can we move this chair over here?” Me: “Uh…yeah. Go ahead.” Her: “Do you think that will inconvenience the other table?” Me: “I mean, that sounds like that’s the other table’s problem.” (Yes, I really said this.) Her: “…Uh…alright. Are there extra chairs in the back?” Me: “…probably?
I mean, they know there is a wedding going on, so I think it’ll be okay.” Her: “…O-okay.Well, thank you.” Later, I had to go to that same table to drop off my portion of the wedding purse. And that nice lady was there with her sister. Me: “Hello again.” Me: “No, but I can’t wait. Wedding food is the best, isn’t it?” Her: (somewhat annoyed) “Well, with what we’re paying for this, I’d imagine it would be.” Me: “And thank you very much for paying for it. Really, I’m so happy to be here.” Her: “….” Me: “…Um, so is this where we leave the wedding gifts?” Her: “Oh my god, I’m so sorry! You don’t work here!” Me: “I….What?” Two seconds later, a waiter dressed like me walks by, and I understand. We all had a good laugh about it.
I made the mistake of wearing khakis and a red shirt at Target once. I got asked SO many questions, but just laughed it off. I was looking at makeup, and this lady with her small child came running up to me. She asked where the bathrooms were, and I told her I had no idea. She went from 0 to 100 and started screaming her child was about to have an accident, so I better get on my radio and figure it the frig out. I said, 'I don’t work here, and frankly I could care less about your kid.' She went stomping off, so I went to grab groceries.
As I’m wheeling up to pay, the lady taps on my shoulder and says gleefully, 'Remember me? YOU’RE GETTING FIRED!' I look over to the manager who looks at me and says, 'I don’t recognize you. Do you work here?' When I said no, he looked really exhausted and said, 'I’m sorry ma’am, enjoy your day.' The crazy lady was still insisting he 'fire' me as I was leaving. Poor guy. I’ve never made that fashion mistake again.
My boss told me about this one story. She went to an outlet mall for Black Friday shopping and had an insane encounter with a weird woman. Strange Woman: (holding up a sweater) “Excuse me, do you have more of these?” My boss ignores her, continuing to look through the rack. The woman literally throws this sweater across the rack and into my boss lady’s face. “I asked you a question, and you can answer me right now!” My boss decided to buy this sweater just to irritate this lady and leave the store. After checking out, this woman is screaming over the crowd, “Stop! What do you think you’re going with MY sweater!” She runs after my boss and grabs her bag, screaming like a madwoman, calling her all sorts of things and demanding for her to be fired!
My boss just kept saying, “I don’t work here! GET AWAY!” Security shows up to pull the lady away, and she SCRATCHED at their faces! The woman gets restrained, falls to the floor, and tries to fake a seizure saying, “You’re making me have a seizure! Call 911!” Police show up, the madwoman is loaded into the back of the car, AND SHE SPITS ON THE WINDOW!! My boss made her statement and wore the sweater to work today. It’s her new favorite.
One day while shopping at Walmart, I had my headphones in and was looking for ice cream in the freezer section when someone yanked my headphones off my head, and they fell to the ground. A middle-aged lady started yelling at me, saying that she had been trying to get my attention for five minutes and that I shouldn't be listening to music while I was working. I became angry and told her not to touch me, stating that I don't work at Walmart and threatening to scream if she touched me again. The woman grabbed my bicep and tried to haul me to a manager like a child, so I screamed as loudly as I could. A manager and security guard arrived soon after, and a witness backed up my story.
The manager asked if I wanted to press charges, but I declined and just wanted my ice cream and to go home. The manager told me to take it for free. As I was leaving, I saw the woman being thrown out of Walmart by the security guard and being told never to return.
I worked at Target and there was a Hobby Lobby across the street. I ran over to Hobby Lobby after a shift to grab something and I was still wearing my red shirt with the target symbols all over it.
A 20-something girl comes up to and says, “Do you know where I can find a glue gun?” I paused and just kind of looked at my shirt and I said “… you mean at this store or… like… at Target?” And she just stared at my name tag for a long time and sighed a heavy sigh and quietly said, “Sorry, I don’t know where I am.”
Last holiday season, I worked seasonally for Target. It was a disaster from the start. The managers had absolutely no organization whatsoever. I should have known when they scheduled me for my second interview and the manager didn’t even show up that I was screwed. Toward the end of the holiday season, after Christmas and before New Years, they offered me a non-seasonal part-time position. I was going to accept but they wanted me to work a TON for part-time and being a college student they were not willing to be flexible at all. So I said, “Nope, I am done after my last day on Jan. 6th.” Everything was good after I was done with that train-wreck and I was starting off my second semester.
January 20th at 5:00 PM I get a call from Target. Manager: “Hey, are you running a little late? You were supposed to work at 4:30.” Me: “Ummm no. I quit over three weeks ago.” Manager: “Uhhh well we are really short-staffed. Can you come in anyway?” Me: “No. I do not work there anymore, I told you that and I’m at school.” Manager: “are you sure you can’t come in anyway?” Thank goodness I’m done with that disaster! And since this holiday season is coming up, I got a job at a different place. Thank goodness.
My husband is a peaceful giant. He is 6 ft 5 and can look quite imposing even though he really is a teddy bear. So here we are, at the grocery story, with our 6-month-old baby, shopping. The kid is fussy and nothing really calms him except when we carry him in our arms. It is my turn and my husband is going back and forth gathering what we need and bringing the items to our cart when this old woman started yelling at him. Old Woman: ARE YOU DONE? You’ve been helping her FOREVER and I NEED HELP! NOW! Husband: (with his smooth everything-is-good kind of tone) I’m so sorry, but I’m afraid I do not work here… OW: NONSENSE! I just saw you help HER shopping. NOW, you help ME! AND YOU DO NOT TALK BACK TO ME! Husband: But…OW: STOP! Don’t talk to me unless it is to thank me.
Are we clear?My husband sees me boiling and about to interfere but makes a sign that’s says he is going to deal with it. He then calmly lookS at her with a smile.OW: GOOD! Now, help me grab the ketchup on this high shelve. WHY in the world you people always put the stuff I need so high is BEYOND me. Now, chop-chop!My husband grabs the item, but instead of giving it to her, he keeps it just a tiny bit out of her reach. He looks at it and then at me.Husband: Honey, do we need ketchup?Me: (catching on) Well, as a matter of fact, yes! We do!Lady: WHAT?! HOW DARE YOU GIVE HER MY STUFF! IT’S MY STUFF! GIVE IT TO ME!!!Super slowly, my husband gets closer to the lady. He is so imposing that she calms down immediately. With the biggest of smiles and the most polite voice ever, he says to her: “Again, I do not work here… but thank you for reminding me we need ketchup.” And with that, he puts the item in our cart, grabs the baby, and together, we left. In the background, the lady kept howling some profanities.
College. A bunch of guys rent a beat up old house in town next to a daycare. Problem is the parents picking up and dropping off park in our driveway. We argue with the owner of the daycare every day. She doesn’t care. So one day I begin parking behind the parents who are parked in my driveway. This infuriates the daycare owner. We go back and forth and usually I go out and move my car so the parents can get their car out. One day, though, I’ve just had it. I worked most of the night, had early morning classes, and I have twenty minutes to shave, shower, and get ready for my second job this afternoon. I get home and sure enough parents are in our driveway…again. So I park behind them and go inside. Get in the shower and when I get out the daycare owner is beating on the door loud enough to shake the wall. I go downstairs wrapped in a towel and open the door. She burst into the middle of the living room and screams at me. While she is screaming I take the towel off and calmly dry my hair.
I am buck naked. She stops screaming long enough to realize she’s standing next to a naked college student, screams something about calling the cops and bolts for the door. It doesn’t open. In her haste to leave she’s locked the door instead of unlocking it. Now she’s stuck with a naked man. I tell her I have to have the key (true) to unlock the door and the key is upstairs on my dresser. I leave her looking like she’s about to have a heart attack. When I come back to the living room she’s white as a ghost. I unlock the door and say, “It sucks to be stuck and not able to leave, right?” Fast forward about 20 minutes and when I’m leaving a cop is parked in front of the house. I chat with them through the car window. I explain the situation and they chuckle. “Did you invite her in?” No, I tell them, she barged into my house. “Well it’s not a crime to be naked in your own house. Her problem for violating your privacy.” I’d love to say this rectified the situation, but it didn’t. We never found a way to stop parents from parking in our driveway.
I was in Best Buy picking up some software (I do independent IT work). I was not wearing a blue shirt, but the racks were a mess so I was going through the boxes looking for the one I wanted. This older guy (I’m an older guy myself) comes to me with a popular anti-virus program and starts telling me his situation and wants to know if that is the best product for him. I show him a more suitable product, considerably cheaper and recommend it. He asks if I can check him out, I laugh for a second and explain that I’m in IT but I don’t work here.
He looks a little puzzled, walks off to the register. He comes back a few minutes later with his bagged box and asks how much would I charge to come install the software at his office. I give him my rate, he accepts, I end up at his office cleaning up a mess of 5 virus-infected PC’s before I can install anti-virus. That was two years ago. To date, my billings to him have exceeded $10K for building an effective business network. Helping people in a store you don’t work at can be very profitable.
My good friend got married last year and invited me to his wedding. I put on a nice suit on, black tie, shined shoes, all that jazz. I didn’t realize I was the only white guy there until the ceremony ended. At the after party, I also didn’t realize the waiters were dressed exactly like me. White shirt, black tie, shined shoes. I’m walking around and a nice older lady (who would turn out to be the mother of the bride) approached me as I passed her table. She needed an extra seat for her table. Her: “Excuse me…can we move this chair over here?” Me: “Uh…yeah. Go ahead.” Her: “Do you think that will inconvenience the other table?” Me: “I mean, that sounds like that’s the other table’s problem.” (Yes, I really said this.) Her: “…Uh…alright. Are there extra chairs in the back?” Me: “…probably?
I mean, they know there is a wedding going on so I think it’ll be okay.” Her: “…O-okay.Well, thank you.” Later, I had to go to that same table to drop off my portion of the wedding purse. And that nice lady was there with her sister. Me: “Hello again.” Her: “Oh hi. Great timing. Do you know when we’ll be eating?” Me: “No, but I can’t wait. Wedding food is the best, isn’t it?” Her: (somewhat annoyed)”Well, with what we’re paying for this, I’d imagine it would be.” Me: “And thank you very much for paying for it. Really, I’m so happy to be here.” Her: “….” Me: “…Um, so is this where we leave the wedding gifts?” Her: “Oh my god, I’m so sorry! You don’t work here!” Me: “I….What?” Two seconds later, a waiter dressed like me walks by and I understand. We all had a good laugh about it.
My boss told me this one. She went to an outlet mall for Black Friday shopping, and had an insane encounter. Strange Woman: (holding up a sweater) “Excuse me, do you have more of these?” My boss ignores her, continuing to look through the rack. The woman literally throws this sweater across the rack and into my boss lady’s face. SW: “I [bleeping] asked you a question and you can answer me right now!” Boss: “Thanks!” My boss decided to buy this sweater just to irritate this lady, and leave the store After checking out, this woman is screaming over the crowd, “Stop! What do you think you’re going with MY sweater!” She runs after my boss and grabs her bag, screaming like a madwoman, calling her all sorts of things, and insisting she be fired!
My boss just kept saying, “WTF, I don’t work here! GET AWAY!” Security shows up to pull the lady away, and she SCRATCHED at their face! The woman gets restrained, falls to the floor and tries to fake a seizure saying, “You’re making me have a seizure! Call 911!” Police show up, the madwoman is loaded into the back of the car, AND SHE SPITS ON THE WINDOW!! My boss made her statement, and wore the sweater to work today. It’s her new favorite.
One day, I was shopping at the local Walmart and had my headphones in. Nothing to indicate that I worked at Walmart. I was looking in the freezer section for some ice cream when someone yanked my headphones off my head and they fell to the ground. Cue this middle-aged lady yelling at me. “I have been trying to get your attention for five minutes! You shouldn’t be listening to music while you work! How can you help customers if you can’t even hear them!?” \Now I am seeing red. If she damaged my headphones she was going to pay. I lean down to pick up my headphones and I say to this crazy lady: “Don’t you EVER touch me you crazy cow. I don’t work here you idiot. Touch me again and I will scream so loud the whole store will hear.” “Don’t you talk to me like that! I am a customer!” she said as she grabbed my bicep to haul me to a manager like a child to be punished. So I let her have it.
I screamed the loudest scream I could possibly imagine. I actually lost my voice for the next day because of it. It startled her so bad that she let me go and dropped her purse. Not even 20 seconds later a manager comes running with the security guy. The manager demanded to be told what was going on. By now we have an audience, and the manager takes us both and separates us. Luckily for me, a very nice woman was a little farther down the aisle and saw the whole thing and told the security guy what happened and backed up my story. The manager asked if I wanted to press charges and I told him no. I just want my ice cream and to go home. He told me to take it. It was on him. As I was leaving I saw the crazy lady getting thrown out of Walmart by the security guy and being told to never set foot in the store again.
We moved into a new house a few years ago. Two days after we get settled in, it’s a gorgeous day so I’m out tending the garden. About 30 minutes after I start, this woman walks beside the house. She compliments my garden and asks how much my services cost. So I told her “ma’am I don’t do services.” About this time my husband walks out and puts something into the car. This woman decides to call the police and tell them we are robbing the place. I don’t know if her watching my husband caused that thinking, as he was pulling stuff out of the house and into the vehicle or what. We were new neighbors, moved in like a few days prior so you’d think she would have seen us moving. Three cops show up a few minutes after she left.
We didn’t know she called the cops. They pull up while both of us are wondering what the world is going on. Maybe someone we knew died or our kid got arrested. Neither. They said we were called in as an active burglary. We had to prove the house was ours. She didn’t even talk to us about it or mention robbery. Although I guess in the moment she just lost it. People are crazy here.
This happened about 4 years ago when I was looking for work. I interviewed for a ‘marketing’ position at a new firm. The interview went well and I was offered a trial shift the following Monday. On turning up it became clear that this wasn’t a marketing job but a door to door sales job for what was basically a huge pyramid scheme MLM. I quit and fortunately was offered a legitimate job a few days later. Fast forward to the next Monday when I’m rudely awoken at 9:15 with a phone call. Me: Hello? MLM: Where the heck are you?!?!? Me: Sorry? wh- MLM: You were meant to be here at 8:30 – this isn’t a good start to your career with us, is it? Why are you so late? Me: Sorry but who is this? MLM: It’s the company who YOU work for.
It’s too late now your team has left, but you better be on time tomorrow. Me: Sorry, there must’ve been a misunderstanding. I’m not working for you. I got offered a job at xxx and accepted that role. I’m starting next week. MLM: Well you should have told us this, it’s not professional to just not turn up and we would’ve hired someone else. Now your team is short-staffed… Me: I told my supervisor. Talk to him. Goodbye. The following morning, I am again awoken by the same guy demanding reasons for me not turning up to work. (Apparently not working for them isn’t a valid excuse.) This amazingly continued until the following Monday when I was ‘let go’ for ‘unauthorized’ absences. (When asked if this means he’ll stop phoning me he told me to grow up and be professional about it.)
My best friend and roommate works for a small independent print shop. We live in the burbs and the shop is located downtown about half an hour from our house. Often times I will be downtown for an appointment of some kind, and will ride home with her rather than take the train. Usually by 4PM the only people left in the shop are her and a specific coworker, so I will just hang out in the front area of the shop with my laptop. At 5PM they lock the door, and then both of them gather their things up over the next 15-20 minutes before actually leaving. They are often out of sight, packing up in the back. Last Friday was one such day. At around 5:10 a lady came up to the door of the shop (a glass door.) She saw me sitting there and started tapping on the door. I looked up and mouthed, “The shop is closed!” She yelled back. “I have a question!” I pointed at my wrist and said loudly, “I’m sorry, the shop closes at 5 and I don’t work here!” She grabbed the handle on the door and started shaking it as if she could magically make the door open, and then started pounding on the door again. So I set down my laptop and walked over to the door. She screamed, “I only have one question, can you let me in so I can talk to you?” At this point screaming was really not necessary as we were only separated by a glass door. I said “Ma’am, I don’t work here, and the door is locked from the inside by a key I don’t have.
I can’t let you in!” She screamed “Why are you being such an idiot? I know you’re closed, but it’s ONE QUESTION!” Then, to emphasize her point, she slammed her open palm on the glass door. Which absolutely shattered. Honestly I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s not like it cracked and spider-webbed out, it just went to shards and fell to the ground. Fortunately I had stepped back. The lady blinked in shock and then started to speed-walk away. Fortunately we are in a massive metropolitan city, and I was able to follow her only half a block before I saw a police officer standing on the street. The officer walked us both back to the shop with the woman ranting about how it wasn’t her fault and if I had just let her in, blah blah blah. The officer called for backup and two more officers arrived, and by this time my friend and her coworker had come up front. They took another officer back to look at the security footage which is digitally captured, and that was pretty much that. Lady got arrested on the spot and I had to give a statement, and I’m told I’ll probably have to testify in court on behalf of the shop owner to get a civil penalty added onto criminal charges and help them avoid small claims. Which I’ll gladly do!
I was at a major electronics store known for their blue polo shirts. I just got off work at a warehouse and had a blue t-shirt on. I was in looking at movies when I heard a woman snapping her fingers right at my face and, in a angry, loud tone, “Excuse me!!” I slowly turned to see a middle-aged woman standing there in a ticked off pose glaring at me. “You need to go get (whatever item she was looking for) from the back.” It was only then I realized what has happened. I quietly replied that I didn’t work there, which just set her off in a rage of insults and threats. Now I usually don’t yell at people, but something about her just rubbed me the wrong way. “Listen here, lady! I don’t work here! Just because I’m wearing a blue shirt doesn’t mean that! I am a customer! Now leave me alone!” It was at that point that a real employee came over to see what the fuss was about.
She saw this employee and demanded to see a manager. It was less than a minute when the manager came over to talk to her. “Yes. How may I help you?” The lady screamed about my incompetence and demanded I apologize to her before I was fired. The manager looked at me in a bewildered state and said to the lady, “Ma’am, he doesn’t work here. Just because he has a blue t-shirt on doesn’t mean he works here. Now, I will get you an employee to help you.” He turned to lead the lady to lead her away, but I wanted one thing first. I looked directly at the woman in the eye and said, “You owe me an apology.” The woman looked around in a bewildered state. The manager looked surprised but said nothing. The woman turned to a sheepish look while she mumbled an “I’m sorry.”
So I’m on vacation with my family and the hotel we are staying at has a nice free breakfast. It has one of those waffle machines as well. We walk down to eat breakfast and I make everyone a waffle because “Dads are the best.” (Really because I don’t want the kids to start pushing each other around hot metal.) After I hand the waffles, I finally make mine and start to sit down, when I hear “I’d like two waffles.” Obviously I ignore it and sit down with my family. The lady follows me and says, “Didn’t you hear me? I said I wanted two waffles.” Me: “Yeah, I heard you. The breakfast self-serve. You have to make them yourself.” Crazy lady: “I just saw you hand out waffles to these people.
Get off your butt and do your job.” Me: “These people are my family. I don’t work here. I’m on vacation just like you.” Crazy lady: “Listen here you lazy… Crazy lady’s kid: “Look mommy, he’s wearing Batman pants.” She looks down and sees my pants. It finally clicks and she starts making her breakfast. Her husband walks up afterwards and tells me he’s sorry, and offers to buy us lunch on him. He hands me a twenty and says sorry again.
This happened a few days ago. I work as a substitute teacher at various local high schools. I am 24 but obviously look younger according to this teacher. AT = angry teacher. Me = self explanatory. AT: “Why aren’t you in uniform? And no phones during school!” I thought he was talking to a student so I ignored him. AT: “Excuse me, don’t ignore me.” He said as he snatched my phone out of my hand.
Me: “What the f___, give that back, I’m not a student.” AT: “That’s detention for swearing at a teacher, you will get your phone back at the end of the day, now you will come down to the office and tell the principal about how disrespectful you are being.” By this point I thought it would be funnier to let him complain to the principal who I play netball with and watch his reaction. He was raging. Saying I deserved to be suspended and that students always had their phones out yada yada. The principle and I were just trying not to laugh before she told him I was a teacher too. Me: “Now give me my phone back. Don’t you have a class to teach? Because I do.” I have never seen anyone go so red.
So last holiday season when I still worked for good old GameStop, there was a McDonalds a block away that I decided to go to for my lunch break. We don’t have a uniform per se, we just have to wear either a nice shirt or one that we sell and some nice pants with our name tag on. I’m standing in line after ordering my food, and this kid and his mom are standing a couple feet away from me, and I hear the following. Mom: “It’s okay, she works there, she’ll be able to tell you.” Kid: “Yeah mom but she looks like she’s on her break…” Mom: “Oh it doesn’t matter! Ask her, so we don’t have to waste a trip.” I kind of roll my eyes but turn to the kid when he walks over and ask him what’s up. He then asks me if my store had some random, obscure PS3 game in stock. I kind of smiled, shrugged and said I had no idea, you’d have to call and ask or go up there and check.
The mom gets really huffy when she hears that and is like, “Um, we don’t want to waste all that time if you don’t have it, so if you could just look it up on your phone that’d be great!” At this point my food is ready so I grab it and just shake my head at the lady. “Sorry, but I’d have to be at a computer to do that. Listen, I have to go, I only have 10 minutes left on my break and I haven’t eaten yet. Just call the store and they can check for you!” I just kind of book it out of there and go back to the store and eat. A little bit later the pair comes into the store and the lady tries to report me to my manager for refusing to help her at McDonalds. My manager just laughs at her and says I wasn’t on the clock or even IN THE STORE so she can’t help her.
A while ago while I was in my break from the retail store that I work at I was shopping in the electronics store directly next to the store I work at. I was wearing the store uniform which is a very distinctive red and khaki with a jacket on top as well as my name tag which very clearly states what store I work at. Anyways enter crazy mom and her 4 kids. I hear this piercing whistle from behind me a few times so I looked over my shoulder because whew it was loud. And this lady is barreling towards me with her kids in tow. As I turned to her to see what all the hustle and whistling was about she grabbed my wrist and knocked my phone out of my hand. I then look down and can see glass shards everywhere as the phone is smashed to bits. So I give her the classic “WTF, lady?!” to which she responds by hysterically screaming that employees should not be texting while working and that I should be ashamed of keeping her waiting because I was texting. Then she kicked my ankle as I walked away.
I tripped, sprained my ankle, face planted, and nailed my shoulder on the shelving. Her kids started laughing and pointing. About this point was when an employee arrived and was able to help me up and see if I was okay. Now she finally thinks for a second and a whole new look comes over her face as she realizes that I don’t work at this store in the first place. Then another new look as I told the employee to call the police. She started pleading with me that it was just a mistake and that she was just having a bad day. Long story short: she was arrested on assault charges and eventually had to replace my phone, was given 350 hours community service, third I was awarded a decent sum of money and my personal favorite is that she has to pay for and attend therapy sessions for the next 3 years. On account of her rage issues.
A few days ago I was between flights in the South Florida Airport grabbing a cup of coffee. I’m in my flight attendant uniform and I get approached every once in a while. I do my best to be polite and help people out since most airport questions are easily answerable. A woman approached me and asked where the smoking area is. I’m not a smoker and I’ve only been to this airport a few times so I’m not actually sure. Me: “A smoking area? I think I saw one over by the Dunkin’ Donuts, I’m not sure if there’s one on this side.” Lady: “Way over there? That’s the other side of the airport! Are you sure there’s not one over here?” Mind you, this is fairly small airport, it takes about five minutes to get across the entire terminal. Me : “I’m sorry, ma’am, I’ve only been here a few times, actually. I work out of Minneapolis so this airport is pretty foreign to me. Maybe you should ask one of the gate agents or someone working at the coffee shop? ” I try a charming laugh. Lady: “But I’m asking you now. Why can’t you be helpful here?” She’s getting frustrated with me. Me: “Again, I don’t actually work here.
Us flight attendants don’t actually spend a ton of time at the airports we go to. I don’t know the layout.” My coffee arrives and I ask the barista about smoking areas. Barista: “There’s a smoking area just over there, you can actually see it from where you’re standing, ma’am.” It’s literally fifty feet away. I hadn’t noticed it since I don’t smoke. Things like this usually aren’t on my radar. Me: “Oh it’s right there! Nice! Just for future reference, ma’am, flight attendants aren’t actually airport employees so we’re kind of helpless with things like this. Have a great day, alright?” I’m trying to be charming. Lady: “Hmmph! Then why did you try to send me all the way to the other side of the planet if it’s right there?! WHATEVER! Learn how to do your job, idiot.” She walks to the smoking area in a huff. The barista and I looked at each other in silence for a few seconds before sharing a quick laugh. I swear, I did my best to be helpful even though I didn’t actually work there. Even after explaining this the woman insisted that I worked at the airport. Some people…
At first I responded politely explaining I can’t help any more because I don’t have access to relevant systems and also am not an employee, have a new job and am busy. I then cut conversation short as boss was a nightmare to work for when I was there and didn’t want to get into it with them. Boss then responds a day later insisting I call them to help with another (different) issue that I KNOW they don’t need my help with as it’s such a simple and self explanatory task.
I was laid off because my role was no longer required (apparently) and I left a great handover log and was super thorough in handing everything over – gave boss plenty of opportunity to fact find from me (I was on notice since last October) so there’s no way they need my help except from forgetfulness/laziness on their part. Not only that, I got utterly shafted with severance pay and despite being in a great position to help me, this boss wouldn’t lift a finger to make my situation better. I LITERALLY DON’T WORK HERE LADY stop texting me!
I was at Home Depot today picking up some flooring. A middle aged lady approaches me asking if I can help her get something off a top shelf. I am 6’4″ and get asked this a lot no matter where I go. It’s no big deal. I say sure and follow her further down the aisle. She points to a stack of tile on the very top shelf. I tell her that there is no possible way for me to get that and the store would need to get one of those lifter things for her. She thanks me and I go on my way. Or so I thought. A couple of minutes later I am back in the aisle I was previously in loading wood laminate into my cart and I hear a loud, “Excuse me!” from behind me.
Guess who found me again. Her: “Are you going to help me or not?” Me: “Ma’am, I have my own stuff to load. Find an employee to help you. They’re walking around or you can go to the front desk.” Her: “Why should I find someone else when you are already helping me?” It’s at this point I realize she thinks I’m an employee. Me: “Ma’am, do you think I’m an employee? I don’t work here.” Her: “If you don’t work here than why were you helping me?” Me – “Because you asked and I don’t mind helping. Look at me. I’m wearing a black shirt and cargo shorts. All the employees are wearing an orange smock and pants.” Her as she is walking away: “You shouldn’t offer to help me if you don’t work here.” Me calling out to her: “I didn’t offer. You asked.” Cue her flipping me off as she walks away.