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A "Karen" probably has a "let me speak to your manager" haircut and has not left your staff alone since the second they walked in the door.
And the things "Karen" says! It's crazy that anybody could be that entitled.
u/ghostofgenerayburn asked:
What is the most Karen thing a Karen has ever done to you, personally?
Here were some of those answers.
When There's No Veil To Your Racism
GiphyWhen I worked at the Home Depot a Karen told me that she didn'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, asks to speak to my manager.
I'm so glad she did, because my manager's name was Dwayne and he was a real big black dude.
Turns out she didn't want to speak to the manager
The End Of The World
Left her card in the eftpos machine at the McDonalds I was managing as a teenager, rang me to say I needed to drive it out to her, that I ruined her night, ruined her family's night, owed her free food and that she'll be laying 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. Last we heard from her.
Karens Love Racism
GiphyBlew up at me for ignoring her son, who was trying to hit on me by saying ~konnichiwa~ and calling me ~kawaii~. I had never met him before and I am not Japanese. She called me a stuck-up racist and insinuated that I should be glad he was worldly enough to "speak Asian" to me.
I just responded "Sorry, no English" (they had previously heard me speaking English with my friend, I'm pretty sure) and walked away.
Pre-Digested Bakery
When I worked at a bakery, Karen bought a chocolate cupcake and ate half of it. Karen then asked if she could return her half-eaten chocolate cupcake...not because she didn't like it, but 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.
Karens In Medicine
Doctor here.
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), and a Karen walks in at 3am 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), and while I'm writing the prescription Karen casually mention that she was insomniac, and while cleaning the medicine cabinet she realize 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 I throw it in the bin, explaining her the law. She gets mad, starts yelling and threaten to call the cops. "Go ahead." Cops came, and she triumphantly announce that I'm 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 cause 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 in there, weirdly enough...
All For 99 Cents
GiphyWorked 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 cause 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 an idiot. She talked to the store owner and my manager about firing me to no avail.
She accomplished nothing and was a jerk, the end.
Karents
Was at the park with my daughter (she was 3 at the time). Her and a couple other kids started to play together. Then she attempted to use the monkey bars (she's a very adventurous child). About mid way through, she fell. I didn't do anything because she's fallen before and I want her to learn to get back up on her own and not be scared to try again. Anyway, one of the boys was about to get on the monkey bars too, until I heard a woman run toward him screaming to stop. She picked him up and looked at my daughter. Told her it wasn't "smart" of her to go on the monkey bars if she wasn't fully ready because then others might get that same idea. That's when I got up and went to my daughter's defense. Sternly told the woman to not speak to her that way and it's no fault of hers that she wasn't scared to try something new. She took her kid and left.
Revenge Of The Karen
Asked for my manager's personal cell phone number to complain that I (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 story room (we did not have an elevator), 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 corporate's 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.
??????????
GiphyI 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.
Anyways, 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 oh so grateful for her shopping with us.
Anyways, 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 "?????" after that.
Calming The Karendragon
I worked at McDonalds 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 to caramel dip, which resulted in an instant melt down. 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.
Manager eventually came out and just grabbed a sundae cup and filled it with a couple pumps of caramel, and Karen gave me a smug look and flipped me off.
Unwanted Opinions
High school. 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 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.
Reactive Karens
GiphyI think I posted this before in a fast food stories thread, but it works here too:
When I worked at Subway, a Karen came in and ordered a foot-long meatball sub. 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 comes 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.
At least there was a fun ending. The next day I get a call from the area manager who had heard from this Karen. At first I was a little worried, but then she goes "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."
A Lie Is A Lie
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 that told her that she can 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.
Entitlement Strikes Back
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 grandparents' 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 and 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.
I was working a backdrive at a fast food joint years ago, and older Karen comes driving in to give her order. Now, this location doesn't have a speaker due to a neighborhood ordnance, so all the orders in 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 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 that 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 boy was I 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 bullshit, 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.