The Most Outrageous Karens Seen In The Wild
21. Neighbor Accuses Me Of Stealing Her Package And Even Calls My Boss
“Ok buckle up. I have a neighbor who owns the place behind mine on a private drive. A couple of months ago she threw a Halloween party and had family members driving off-road vehicles all night in circles for a haunted trail.
Part of it came onto my property near my house and was keeping me awake. So I walked out in my pajama pants and kindly asked the guy driving to stay on their side of the line. He stopped, it was all good. I thought.
A few weeks later I got a package accidentally delivered to my house meant for the neighbor. It was one of those soft Amazon packages, definitely nothing breakable, like slippers or maybe a coat. So I went to that neighbor’s house and tossed it towards her door.
Apparently, after this, she called my work, demanded to talk to my boss, and demanded I be reprimanded. She said I confronted her cousin and yelled at him to stop riding his ORV, and I callously threw her package at her house. Clear exaggerations of what happened. My boss explained that my work has nothing to do with a dispute between neighbors, she still wanted him to “talk” to me about it.
My boss called me into his office and told me what happened. It was so embarrassing. Plus I work for a notable firm in the area that doesn’t appreciate negative PR. I decided not to make things worse and didn’t confront her. It was so frustrating seeing her smugly drive by every day.
Fast forward 4 months to today. I got home from work to find packages on my deck. I brought them inside and discovered one addressed to the neighbor. Yay. I decided to go for my evening walk as planned and figured I’d try to be the bigger man and return the package when I got back.
The temptation to be petty was immense admittedly.
When I came back from my walk I found the neighbor and her older daughter on my deck. She asked me if I had a package. I went inside and grabbed it and handed it to her.
I told her I did not appreciate what she did by calling my boss and lying about the details. Well, that went about as well as you’d think. She accused me of stealing her package and told me it’s a federal offense to mess with her mail!
I told her I had planned to give her the package but she was stuck on how it was inside my house. She asked me if I planned on throwing it like I did the last one. I told her if anything was broken I’d gladly pay for it.
Then she said it… she asked if I wanted her to call my boss again. My heart sank and I told her to do whatever she wanted. She started to waddle away and I started going back into my house.
Then I heard her yelling at me again.
She turned around and started screaming about how I had taken her mail. I turned away from my door and told her to leave and that she was trespassing. She wouldn’t leave! I told her at least 10 times to just go. She kept yelling about calling my boss and telling me she had cameras.
Well so do I. I pointed at them and she finally left.
And then the cops showed up. She is the main reason I put up cameras because of other stunts she’s pulled and thank God I got them. I showed the fuzz the footage and they laughed. I guess she reported that I stole her package and threatened her.
I showed the cops the video of the UPS guy dropping off the package, me bringing the package inside without looking at it. Now she’s been officially trespassed and can’t come onto my property anymore.
But wait, there’s more. She called my boss and told him the same lies she told the cops.
I sent him the video and he said he understands. Still a garbage situation to deal with. How do you all deal with neighbors from heck?
UPDATE
Met with attorney. Going to let things marinate for a bit. Yesterday was the only in-person negative interaction we’ve had and I’m still putting together the other stuff she has done before (social media posts etc.)
Also found out this woman had a kid with a married man expecting to ensnare him into a relationship. He decided he’d rather stay with his wife. A few years later she doubled down, tried AGAIN, and had another kid with the same guy.
He still stayed with the wife. So now she lives off a dead-end job and child support.”
20. Accused Of Trespassing And Littering While Doing My Job
“I work for an HOA management company. What I usually do is go to different communities and do some maintenance work such as picking up trash and fixing park equipment. I always start my shift at 7 A.M.
I went to this park that has a rule that no one is allowed there before 8 A.M. It was a very small park so I was able to finish my job in 15 minutes.
I was putting the trash bags out on the curb for the garbage men to pick up. They drive by around 7:30 A.M. so I have to be quick when I show up at 7. This lady walking her dog noticed me putting the trash out on the curb and assumed I was up to no good.
She took a picture of me as I was working and a picture of the park hours. She then approached me asking me what I’m doing here.
Karen: What are you doing here? Nobody is allowed here before 8 A.M. You need to leave before I call the cops on you for trespassing and littering.
Me: I work here and I’m doing the opposite of littering. I’m picking up trash here at the park.
Karen: How do you explain this garbage you’re leaving here? This is littering.
Me: This is trash from the park I’m leaving here for the garbage men to pick up.
Karen: No, it’s littering and you can’t be here! (Pointing at the sign)
Me: Like I said, I work here. I have a right to do my job here.
Karen: So you think you’re above the law?
Me: I never said that. I’m just here because I have a job to do.
I don’t even have to listen to you. I’m leaving.
I get in my truck and start it to find Karen standing behind me on the phone keeping me from backing up.
Karen on phone: I’m reporting someone here at the park trespassing and leaving trash.
He claims to be above the law.
I just sat there and waited for the cops to show up because I knew they would be on my side the second they showed up. I just turned up my music to ignore everything Karen was yelling.
Shortly a police officer showed up. He approached the Karen first then approached my window.
Officer: Is what this lady saying is true?
Me: No officer. I work here and I’m just cleaning up and leaving trash for the garbage men to pick up. (Meanwhile, garbage men are picking up the trash behind him)
Officer: Very well. I’ll just get this lady out of your way so you can continue with your day. And thank you for keeping our community clean.
Me: No problem and thank you, officer.
The officer drags her out of the way, I back up, and drive away while the Karen stares at me with a shocked Pikachu face.
I’m laughing and rolling down the window to make sure she can hear me.”
19. Nightmare Pet Sitter Oversteps Boundaries And Neglects My Fish
“Ok so to preface this, this person is named Karen, so it’s a literal “screw you Karen” on top of the crazy story, so let’s begin.
My dad passed away in August 2020, and my mom found herself taking long trips to see people who were vital to her support network. Grief hits us all differently, I leaned on my love of aquarium keeping and an ugly fish.
She found Karen on the Rover app, she was a live-in pet sitter who would move into our family home to care for my mom’s shepherd mix Leon, and Michi our cat.
She would bring her dogs with her and would sleep in a downstairs bedroom.
Karen was an interesting person from day one. I live about 30 minutes away from my mom and would swing by on my weekends to pick up my medications. I swung by one weekend while my mom was out of town and met Karen after knocking on the door.
I got my meds, we spoke about my rescue project, and I left. She texted my mom “please don’t have OP come over while I’m here, I’d appreciate it.”
Ok… weird request, but she had some trauma so we just wrote it off as that.
Everything seemed to go really well from then on, Mom would let Karen know when I was heading over and the couple times that she didn’t get the message in time, we chalked up to “sucks to suck, check your phone more often.”
Then came a trip to Texas that I was super excited for.
I had tickets to Moody Gardens to see their arapaima and saltwater displays.
I had spent around $200 on 8 piranha fry that needed very special care, and I decided to put my trust in Karen. I gave her a very specific list, but the most important thing to do was to change the water every day.
I had even written detailed instructions on the side of the 5 gal fish bowl they were living in. Piranha are trashy fish and just rip and tear their food, leading to a lot of food waste that can cause ammonia spikes.
We went over the list, she agreed to everything, and off I went to Texas with my mom.
8 days later I returned to an absolutely disgusting bowl and 8 very sick fish. I did an emergency change and called her.
“Hey, when did you last do a water change, I’ve got some sick fish and I need to know so I can reacclimate them.”
“Oh, I never did it.”
“What.”
“Well I was just so worried about them getting sucked up in the siphon, I just didn’t want to-”
“I have a cell phone, you could have called me.”
“Well yes, but I didn’t want to interrupt your trip!
You’re paying me to take care of the animals.”
To summarize the end of that conversation, I didn’t pay her for her work with the fish. My mom still paid her for her time with the other animals, but in my mind, she should have contacted me instead of just deciding to not do the work I needed her to do.
To be absolutely clear. It would have been healthier for the fish to just stay at my house untouched.
I lost two fish because of her negligence.
She texted my mom and went absolutely ballistic. She told her that she would never pet sit for me again because I was mean to her.
To be fair, I probably was. I wasn’t happy about her decision.
Fast forward a year. The most notable thing that happened with Karen was that she had made some offhand comments about Leon being fat, Leon was still a puppy at the time and was going through a chonk-lank-chonk-lank phase of growth.
After a trip, she took him in for an allergy shot where the vet noted that he was somewhat underweight.
At this point, I started demanding that we fire Karen.
The breaking point came later in 2022, I was at work when I got a call from my mom.
“I’m ok, there’s no need to worry….”
“Mom, you can’t open a conversation with that, what’s going on?”
“….I’ve been in the hospital since about 11 this morning, I’m going in for emergency surgery tomorrow, and I’d like you to come see me afterward.”
“Mom what the heck are you talking about?!??!
I’m on my way right now.”
“You don’t have to worry, just finish out your shift and get some sleep.”
I most definitely did not do that.
I skipped out of work, packed my stuff, and rushed over to the hospital, practically breaking a land speed record on the way.
I walked into the emergency department and over to a nurse.
“Hey, I’m here to see (My Mom) do I have the right ward?”
The nurse glares at me and goes “We are not accepting visitors for that Patient, and that’s that.” Before slamming the window in my face.
At that point, I started to feel the adrenaline second wave followed by a cold rage. I knocked on the window again and a second nurse came over.
“Look sir, we aren’t accepting visitors at this time for safety reasons, please don’t make me call security.”
So I did the only thing I could do. I sat down and called my mom. I explained the situation and she was equally as confused and upset as I was.
She called an emergency ward nurse. I could hear their conversation through the phone.
“Well ma’am, the hospital got a phone call from someone who said she knew you and was upset that you were staying in the ER, the Med-Surg ward is full. She said she was going to come down with a doctor and “teach us a lesson.” Hospital policy is to deny visitors for patients mentioned in a threat.”
“Oh my god, that’s my dog sitter, I asked her to watch the animals today and she just…. this is so embarrassing….”
“Ma’am we also have someone out front who is refusing to leave.”
“That’s my son, let him in.”
I was let in.
Mom had her gallbladder removed and ended up spending a week in the hospital, and because of Karen, I had to show my ID every single time to a very lovely night security guard.
This guy was literally the highlight of my visits. It was around Christmas time and he was dressed up as Santa. I don’t think he knew it but he made every visit easier.
Karen was fired shortly after Mom’s hospital stay ended. Something about overstepping her boundaries.
So….. get lost Karen, you psychotic jerk.”
Another User Comments:
“You learned a lesson. Never have rare or expensive fish looked after by a Pet Sitter. They just don’t know how to take care of them, and they don’t care. They just expect to throw food in the tank and that’s enough.
If they die, so what? These kinds of people think the purpose of fish is to eat them and little more. My father bred fancy tail guppies to collectors; they could go for upward of $50 each. When he traveled, I had to drive over there each day and feed them, and take care of them, as my mom refused to go anywhere near a tank of fish.
She thought they were smelly and would bite. They were neither.” [deleted]
18. Dealing With An Annoying Customer After Closing Hours
“I currently work in a store that sells a little bit of everything. I’m in Germany, so for comparison, think Target, but way smaller.
We got arts and crafts stuff, home goods, some furniture, some food, toys, all that jazz. And most importantly right now, school and office supplies which everyone is buying right now.
We close at 20:00. Or 8 PM. Main cashier (that was me) makes 2 announcements through the loudspeakers, one at 19:40 and one at 19:50, saying please come to the front, we are closing soon.
Please come to the front we are closing now. It is not a huge store, it takes you 1 minute to get from the furthest end to the cash registers if you do a fast “oh shoot they’re closing” stride and maybe 3 if you keep looking at things on the way.
So there’s ample time.
19:51 – Two young guys buy a light for their bikes. They pay, they say goodbye, they leave.
19:55 – An older guy comes up, grins a little sheepishly, pays for his maybe 15 items, and leaves.
19:58 – My last customer pays while one of the young guys comes back in, I tell him sorry, we are closed now, you have to come back tomorrow.
He says he just wants to exchange some items, I once again say sorry, we are closed, please come back tomorrow. He leaves.
20:00 – the store looks empty. My colleagues have gone through maybe 3 minutes earlier to send everyone still lingering to the front, so I say into my headset “Hey, it looks like everyone is gone here.”
Out of NOWHERE comes this lady, maybe in her late 30s early 40s, with a shopping cart FULL of stuff: “Did you not SEE ME COME IN?” and I think Oh No God Why?
She SLOWLY puts her stuff on the belt and asks me where we have Play-Doh, I say in the kid’s section but you will have to come back for that tomorrow.
She says “uhm where???” I once again say in the kid’s section and point in that direction, “but you will have to come back for that tomorrow because we are closed now” and then there is an item on the belt without a barcode, some kind of document folder.
I call into the headset that I need the code, my colleague rushes over, the lady attempts to go to that section as I tell her PLEASE remain here my colleague is gonna go looking.
She makes the move maybe three more times to “just quickly look for XYZ” and I have to ask her to remain, it feels like herding cats, but really annoying cats, it is not fun.
As she continues to look around the store, stuff continues to accumulate in front of her. “You can already start packing up your items.” She did not like the thought of packing up her things, I guess because it would mean she couldn’t look for other things to add to her pile.
In the meantime, colleague can’t find the folder or the code for it, it was probably part of an opened multipack and we don’t have it anymore. So I tell her “Sorry, we can’t sell you this tonight” and this grown woman legit pouts like a little kid and goes “But why??”
Me: “Because it has no barcode.”
Her: “Okay so I’m just gonna go back to that section and find another one.”
Me: “Well sure you can do that tomorrow.”
Her: “But tomorrow I don’t have any time????”
Me: “Well then come back another day but I can not sell that to you tonight, your total is xx.xx€.”
She is just standing there, looking at me, has not even started packing her things. Just looks at me. Suddenly she goes “So are you actually ever gonna answer my question or are you just gonna ignore me???? Do. You. Have. Play-Doh? And WHERE????”
Instead of “I already told you” I just say “Oh, I didn’t hear your question, it is in the kid’s section” and, once again, point to it.
She looks at me like I am dumb, and goes: “Uhm, where??? I am asking and you are just waving your hand.” For the third time I point, in the exact same way, in the exact same direction, she just harrumphs.
Finally, she is packed up, paid, and leaving.
But not before telling me again that she doesn’t have the time tomorrow and why I won’t just let her get the stuff.
It is now 20:10, but it feels more like 20:30.
I feel bad for the guy who just needed to exchange those batteries for a different size/kind, if I had known she was still in the store, I would’ve let him exchange them.
Saw the two guys having trouble with their bikes in front of the store while I was cleaning. Sorry to them. Hope they got home safe.”
Another User Comments:
“I remember when I was about two weeks into my first job as a cashier at a grocery store there was a family that came up with three cart fulls worth of stuff.
Our store closed at midnight and we make closing announcements every fifteen minutes past 11. It was about 10 minutes before close that I was starting to let folks know they had to come up to the front but these certain people would ignore me and be on their way.
The final announcement is made and all the baggers and cashiers leave for the night but me and a supervisor. Then the three come up with their full carts. Being the only one there and still new, I had no idea what to do besides check them out.
My supervisor had other stuff to do so she couldn’t help, she only saw them AFTER I started ringing them up. The whole time the family is being rude and constantly removing/re-adding items.
At some point a 40oz bottle of beer falls from the full register belt and smashes at my feet, we had just taken the floor pads away to be cleaned. For ~30 minutes I was stuck standing in broken glass and beer, bagging and unbagging these peoples’ items while they crap talked me.
Eventually I started throwing stuff into whatever bag I saw, ribs with marshmallows and a few yogurts. I didn’t care. And when they started to speak up about that I let them know. They were waaaay past closing, customer service mode was off, they were getting what they were giving.
I told them I hope I never saw them again once they were done paying. It was already 1 when I finally clocked out for the night. Those people never came back.” Notyouraverageghost
17. Karen Demands She Cut The Line Because She Owns Apple Stock
“I was a “genius” for a number of years in a very busy Apple store.
It was unusually busy because it is the closest to DFW, one of the most important airports in the country with a ton of international travelers.
I am a big angry-looking brown Mexican with a black beard, so many times they placed me on point at the check-in line.
Customers constantly try to walk all over the younglings and this causes chaos because they end up sneaking in a customer or yielding to them unnecessarily.
Very long line, it’s a Saturday morning. Long line means a lot of people with no appointment, what we call “Walk-ins.”
Now, not every genius is qualified for all devices. Some can only work on mobile, the more seniors can work on Macs and Apple TVs and so on. So not all available slots are created equal.
And if you come with no appointment on a Saturday morning, in the summer which is by far the busiest genius bar period, you are looking into a 3, 4 hour wait time until we can find you an available time slot.
So I am there checking in the ones with appointments, rejecting the ones without, answering simple questions and even doing small repairs on the fly.
Along comes this white woman, black hair, many expensive but tasteless jewels and she is with some male bimbo.
She says, no appointment, but she is a big Apple stockholder and her Mac stopped turning on, and she demands help right now.
Here is the thing. A Sr Genius appointment slot is 30 minutes, a mobile appointment is 15. Many times the 30-minute appointments run short and we can sneak in people. I had a very good clue what the problem was with this woman’s computer, and I could have asked one of my pals to take a quick look.
But her attitude rubbed me the wrong way.
I say “as it turns out (language you learn in your month-long training in Cupertino, you don’t say unfortunately because it is a trigger word. You say as it turns out) being that you don’t have an appointment I can get you in at 2:30 and we can take care of it no problem.”
She says… “Unacceptable! I am a surgeon, I am a very important person and I need special attention. My time is too important.”
So I smile, while I look at the long line behind her, I am already falling behind with the people who actually have appointments.
I reply, Dr. Such and such, I understand your time is valuable, but here we take the best care of everyone who walks through our doors (an actual official Apple retail slogan) and tell her, because of this, and because for us everyone’s time is equally important, the best I can offer you is 2:30 or you can call our help desk or get in a chat and we can assist you in shipping the Mac to our repair center.
She blows another fuse. “I want to speak to your manager.”
Dr. XYZ, I assure you you will be further wasting your time, there is nothing my manager can do beyond what I am offering.
At this point a partner had helped me create a second line so that I could deal with this woman and the line would keep on moving.
She says, you will regret this, you don’t understand who I am, I own stock, so I am your boss.
And I reply, Miss (I am done with calling her doctor) pretty much everyone here in a blue shirt owns Apple stock, and we get it at a 25% discount for preferred class b.
So now, would you like that appointment or would you like to explore other options?
She says, fine! I’ll go have lunch and see the stores and come back at 230. Only that… Oops, my partner in the other line had already booked that slot.
So I say, as it turns out, the 230 appointment is no longer available, my next appointment is for Monday at noon.
She just turned around and left and I had a great rest of the day.”
Another User Comments:
“As a previous “Genius” this was nearly an everyday occurrence in my store (Orange County, CA). While the actual work was very fun and I had many great interactions over my 5 years at the Genius Bar, the most taxing part of the job was the fact that there was never a time where a customer was genuinely happy to be there in the first place.
Likely, their $1k+ computer/device had an issue and I, as the “genius” interacting with the customer, was the reason for their issues because of the logo on my shirt. Essentially a “look what you’ve done, now fix it” sort of mentality. Of course, I worked with many reasonable people, but that was a general sentiment but a lot of people seeking help.
Overall, glad to have had the opportunity but glad I haven’t been there in over 10 years. I’d likely have developed a severe drinking problem by now.” anaheimduckshockey
16. Accused Of Animal Abuse For Letting My Dog Enjoy A Puddle
“So this was basically one of these incidents that could have been avoided by not taking my dog to the city centre.
Basically, my family and I bought a beautiful, loving flat-coated retriever back in 2021. He’s trained by me (I’m not the alpha) and my dad.
Very well. We actually care about raising our dog to a great standard of obedience, which can be difficult with this particular breed as it’s considered an exuberant and confident breed. To mention, this is not our first dog, so we kinda know what we do and we keep in contact with dog trainers to progress and adapt to new behaviour.
This dog, his name is Frodo, is very friendly and has a particularly close bond with me, my partner and my father. This means, he gets sad as soon as one mentioned leaves, but doesn’t stay in this mindset for long as others are around (there is at least one person at home pretty much always).
Last month my partner and I went to the city centre, to buy wrapping paper and other things. Just a small tour, nothing big, because I didn’t want to stress out my puppy as it was this time of the year when a lot of people were going out shopping and the city centre was crowded. It was raining.
I waited for my partner in front of a shop while she got some stuff with my dog on sit command (he behaved great and is always on a leash with a harness or collar) and gave him a treat. After some time he got a bit irritated and started squeaking a bit as my partner didn’t come back.
I look at my phone, distracted once, and this woman in her late 60s early 70s approaches me.
Karen: “Why are you letting your dog sit in a puddle? In the rain? Isn’t he cold?”
Me (in a polite German way): “Don’t worry, mam, he won’t be cold, he’s fine.” (looks back at phone, Frodo LAYS DOWN on his own in the puddle and misses my partner.)
Karen: “Look at me when I talk to you. You young people don’t know anything about how to behave, nor do you have the experience/guts (I don’t remember exactly what she said) to actually train animals. This is disgusting. DON’T YOU HEAR HIM SQUEAK?!?!?!”
She comes closer, tries to grab my phone and attention as I clearly did not want to discuss with her how to take care of my dog. I dodge her hands, she tries to go for the leash, I dodge her hands again. By that time, there were like 2 million people staring at us.
I didn’t say a word, as I was irritated by that, this stuff has never ever happened to me before. I look at her, focus, and tell her.
Me: “Do you even know what breed that is? He would be in agony if I got him out of the water.
Please step away from me.”
I was as polite as much as I could. But that ‘sarcasm’ needed to be, as he enjoyed both puddles, lakes, oceans and the warmth of a lit fireplace.
She steps away, grabs her phone, and calls the police on me.
Comes towards me and my dog. By that time my partner came out of the store, not realizing what the heck was going on, smiling at me saying something like “Let’s go I need to grab something else.”
My dog lies happily in the puddle and waves his tail as he stands up to greet my partner.
My partner looks at me and Karen and asks “Is there a problem, mam?”
Karen: “ARE YOU SERIOUS? THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS. IN BROAD DAYLIGHT THIS GUY, CLEARLY AN ANIMAL ABUSER HAS HIS DOG ON A SHORT LEASH AND FORCES HIM IN FRONT OF EVERYBODY TO LAY DOWN IN THIS DIRTY MUDDY WATER.” (turns around to address the mass of people) “HELP ME , SOMEONE HELP THIS POOR DOG.”
After minutes of this tirade, the police arrived and questioned the lady and then me. I explained what had happened. The policeman asks me if I want to press charges against her as she actually tried to touch me. I tell him no. Policeman turns around and lectures Karen about behaviour in public and how to not waste the police’s time.
Karen, if you read this I wanna say I’m frustrated with you for calling me an animal abuser. I love my dog. I wish you great healing from all the knee/hip joint pain you must have from carrying so much negativity.”
15. I Was Assaulted By An Entitled Parent In The ER
“Some Karen jerk literally attacked me.
She brought her teenage son into the ER because he was skateboarding and fell, scraped both knees, and dislocated the other.
While waiting for a doctor to reset his knee, I was tasked to clean both of his knees as bits of dirt and gravel had gotten into the wound. This Karen started shouting at me “You have to have my permission to give my child first aid.” I literally picked my head up and said “Excuse you?” This lady replies back “I did not sign any waivers giving you permission to treat my son.”
I told her “You signed the document when you filled out the intake form.” Karen literally stomps her foot and crosses both of her arms over her chest and tilts her nose up in the air and scoffs “fine.”
I recompose myself and say in my head, this woman is about to get security called on her crazy self.
As I am cleaning his scrapes (on both knees) I can tell he is not comfortable with the antiseptic that was used to clean his skin. I say to him ” I know this hurts please try your best to hold still”.
I get the antibiotic ointment and a sterile cotton swab and gently rub the ointment over his wounds, trying not to irritate the poor lad any more than he has already been through.
Then finally comes the part where I dress both wounds. We use nonstick gauze pads sports bandage as I did not want him to have any more trauma to his (already damaged skin) when he has to remove the bandage later and continue to apply the antibiotic cream.
I wrap the wounds very well and my head nurse double-checks my work, she gives me the approval and calls the doctor in.
While I am cleaning the mess up the Karen shoves me (literally puts hands on me) out of the way and starts tearing off her son’s bandages!
He screams and says “Mum what are you doing?!” At this point, I physically grab her by her shoulders and pin her to the wall, while struggling to call security on my radio. She managed to snatch one of the bandages off of her son (literally in a split second).
I had to physically pin her to the wall while security placed her in handcuffs.
Son is screaming and crying while he watches the security guards enter the room and drag his bat-crazy Karen of a mother away literally kicking and screaming (and trying to kick the security guards).
I am not sure how hospitals are in other parts of the world but security guards at hospitals here in Estonia are basically uniformed police officers and hitting one of them is a very serious offense (I am talking prison sentence), they carry pistols as well as tasers and riot spray.
The hospital director storms over and notices the police taking her away (to a holding room in the hospital until one of their patrol officers can take this crazy Karen to jail). He asks “what is going on?” The female officer is in the room with me, son is traumatized, crying very much.
I explain to him that this crazy woman assaulted me and attempted to rip the bandages off of her son’s legs. He has a very shocked look on his face.
Karen was arrested, charged with assaulting a healthcare worker (me) and two counts of assaulting a police officer, as well as child endangerment, and disturbing the good order of the public.
I am new to working in Medicine and I seriously am reconsidering something else, this is not the first time I have had to deal with crazy patients.”
Another User Comments:
“I was a paramedic and worked in an ER as part of my practical requirements.
People are NUTS, especially in an ER. Please do not make a decision to go into the medical field based on work in an ER. I’d avoid pediatrics too. Moms and Dads go kind of nuts when their child is hurting. ICU is rewarding, but people die all the time.
But you will learn the most in an ICU. Once you are comfortable, you might find the ER rewarding, but it can be very scary, and you will see what humans can do to each other (in a bad way). Burns are the worst.” Cilad
14. We're Just Trying To Get To Work, Lady
“So, part of my morning routine on my way to work at 5:30 is to stop at a little convenience store for coffee and a breakfast sandwich. While getting my coffee, I notice a woman behaving slightly strangely — staring at me while I get my coffee cup lid, knocking over a bunch while she got her own.
Just, flustered in an odd way. I wrote it off, people aren’t themselves so darned early.
I get in line behind her. There are 4 or 5 people ahead of us, but the cashier does well moving the line. When Karen gets to the register, the show begins.
She asked for a few packs of a specific brand of smokes, those items that are marketed toward older women who wear glasses on chains and smell like gin. The store didn’t carry them.
“Well, I spoke to the manager Melissa the other day and she said she’d order them on Monday.
It’s Wednesday. Where are they?” Karen’s voice was already raised.
The cashier stayed calm. “No one named Melissa works here, but I’ll look in the back.”
By this time, a considerable line had formed, mostly either construction workers, day laborers, or folks headed to one of the nearby factories.
That is, people who didn’t have time for this nonsense. Most, including myself, started grumbling.
Apparently, this was a violation of Karen’s most cherished pride. She turned around with wild eyes which sharply contrasted against her Goodwill blouse and mom shorts.
“I waited in line behind 6 people so now you’re all going to wait for me.
I don’t want to hear a bunch of grumbling from some MEN because their discomfort is bothering them!”
I heard some guys say “Goodness gracious” and “Nice attitude, lady.” Against my better judgment, I said, “Ma’am, we’re all just trying to go to work.”
This was a disrespect most dire in the eyes of Karen.
She gets into my face and says something along the lines of “I don’t care, not everything is about you.” I can’t remember the exact quote because nothing has made me so angry in public in such a long time.
Now, I am not a violent or mean person.
I used to be. I pride myself on the strides I’ve made towards being a nice, friendly person. All I could do was laugh as my hands started seriously shaking with the effort to contain myself. She storms off. The cashier apologizes to me for the woman’s behavior, which makes Karen stop and turn around at the door.
“Don’t apologize for me honey, I can handle myself!”
Apparently one or more of the men were shaking their heads. “Don’t shake your head at me,” she said, which was met with a loud, “I’ll do whatever I want!”
The cashier didn’t charge me for my coffee.
While I walked to my car, Karen leaned on her horn and waved at me. I am so proud of myself for not giving in to my urge to make an even bigger scene.
Some people. Who wakes up and decides to ruin strangers’ days?”
Another User Comments:
“Politeness and gentle reminders of social norms won’t work with these people because they’ve never progressed beyond toddler hood. They’ve chosen rudeness they should be matched with rudeness. Use that adrenaline for good. Or passive aggressiveness is effective especially productive if you can get several others to join in.
Ignore her while talking to others about her poor behavior.” DelightfullyClever
13. Karen Expects Free Car Recovery And Fuel, Gets Banned Instead
“Okay, this is going back to 2003. I’m (17) working a minimum-wage job at a very busy gas station in the UK.
I had only been there a few months (that’s outstanding considering the staff turnover for this place), I know the ropes of the place and it’s also (and still is) very busy. Lines of cars and trucks going down the highway and a line of customers going out the door and I’m working alone as usual.
Hundreds of customers with places to be.
Karen got out of a taxi and came up to the front of the line past 20 customers waiting patiently. Age 70+, she’s dressed head to toe in black velvet, a fur coat and wearing more platinum jewelry than I’ve ever seen.
She also looked vaguely familiar (see at the end). She demands in a very snobby voice ‘I need fuel’. Imagine Professor McGonagall from Harry Potter, but fatter.
Me: ‘I’m sorry but you have to wait your turn’, as I served customers.
Karen: ‘I need fuel and my car collected from down the road’.
Me and a few customers give her a weird look. ‘If you’ve broken down, I have the number for a recovery service and you can use our phone’ and hand her a card with the number and the phone in between customers.
She just looked at the card and phone as if I put dead rats on the counter.
‘Why can’t you do it?’
Me: ‘I’m afraid to say I can’t, it’s very busy today’ while still serving customers.
Karen: ‘NO, why can’t you go retrieve my car?’
Me wondering what the heck: ‘We’re a petrol station, we don’t offer recovery services.’
Karen: ‘Nonsense, you will collect my car this instant!’
I’m getting annoyed by now, so are the other customers. She lets her car run out of fuel, leaves it on a now gridlocked highway, gets a taxi to my station, and somehow it’s my fault and responsibility to rectify the situation?
‘How? I can’t close the station, I’m here on my own, I don’t own a car or even have a license. I will call the recovery company for you when I have a free moment. Just be aware that they will charge a fee and need payment in cash, there is an ATM outside.’
She now gets red in the face. ‘Are you stupid? Why should I pay? My car has run out of fuel. You have to deal with it!’
I’m trying to keep cool, serve customers, and find an alternative to get her out of the store at this point.
‘In that case, there are fuel cans behind you that you can purchase and fill.’
Karen: ‘Very well.’ She picks up a one-gallon can and slams it on the counter, ‘Go fill it!’
I quickly say sorry to the next customer and scan the can.
‘That will be £5.00 and another £3.50 to fill it. £8.50 all together.’
Karen: ‘I’m not paying for that! It is YOUR responsibility to provide fuel. And your customer service is atrocious. I refuse to pay, you will pay for my recovery, my fuel, and my taxi!”
Me: ‘Then you can leave!” and the entire line of customers start chewing her out too, telling her to get out, we’re busy and stupid old cow.
Karen: ‘You will be hearing from me about this and I will have your job for this insolence!’ and she storms out and gets back into the taxi that was blocking my forecourt.
We did hear back from her about a week later. She had gone to customer complaints, reached the regional manager and the national HR, claiming that I was responsible for her car running out of fuel, it being abandoned on a highway, refusing to pay for towing and refueling, and being humiliated in front of other customers with demands of reimbursement and compensation for poor quality of service.
Finally, a letter of apology was written and signed by me with my letter of resignation.
A week after this, the manager pulls me aside. She knew all about it, she heard the story from me and a few of our regular customers as well as watched and heard it all on our security cameras.
The Karen sounded crazy and looked like she had just come from a funeral. She chalked it up as being emotionally drained, senile, and mental health-related and said not to worry about it. She’d seen worse. Then she got the letters and phone calls from head office and that threw her theory out the window.
She handed me a copy of the response letter that was sent to Karen stating she was barred from all of our company’s stations nationwide, informed that the company ‘Is not a charity’ and entering one of our stations or approaching our staff would result in removal by police.
I read the name and realized she was my old principal from primary school. She was an old unpleasant woman when I was 5 and looks like she just got worse as she got older.
See you in heck Mrs M!”
Another User Comments:
“Not as entitled, but I was waiting in a queue to pay for my fuel.
I put about £10 in as I was a little tight for money. The guy ahead of me pays and is about to leave, I get to the til and I’m told it’s £70. I was like no I’m pump 2 it should be £10. The cashier called to the guy who just left that he’d paid for my pump.
He comes back angry and saying to her she’s stupid, and that he’s never coming here again. I pipe up and say “hey mate she’s not the one who gave the wrong pump number” (I was a little annoyed, no way you would top your car up and think it was a tenner) he just grunts and everyone else in the queue behind gave me a smile showing support.
People are so entitled and rude.” Finegling
12. Entitled Frisbee Player Threatens To Call Cops On Kids' Soccer Game
“I was not the direct recipient of this one, the other coach was. I heard most of it and confirmed with the other coach what I heard.
Thanks to spring being spring, we had to make up my kids’ soccer game.
The other coach and I both happened to have Thursday 5 PM practice times so we just moved practice to the game fields. The club confirmed the field space was available and everything should be golden! Since the club uses the park for practice during the week too, they know which fields they pay to use.
For context, these are 10-12 yr olds and it’s rec soccer. The park we are playing at is a pretty big sports complex with space for about 20 soccer/American football/other sports with a large green area needed. Our soccer club leaves goals up during the season on about half the space because of the agreement with the city and the field we use does have them up all the time.
The game is rolling along and we are about midway through the 2nd half when a woman with a stroller walks over and starts talking to the other coach. I am far away at first and assume she’s a parent. As I wander back I note the body language of my fellow coach is a bit disgruntled. She and I have been coaching the same age groups since our kids were 3 so I know enough to recognize something is up and I move close enough to listen in and hear the following:
Stroller Mom (SM): We have the fields right now so you need to get out of here!
Other Coach (OC): I am not sure what to tell you, we have maybe 15 minutes left and I am not going to just make the kids stop playing the game.
SM: When this happened last time, my frisbee league had to wait almost thirty minutes! We pay for the space and it is ours so you need to do something.
OC: It’s 15 minutes then we will clear out quickly.
SM: No, we pay for this space and you can’t be here.
You need to leave. The last time this happened I was told to call the cops if it happened again and I will if I have to.
OC (deadpan face and voice): You want to call the cops because of a kids’ soccer game that will be done in 15 minutes?
SM (Incredulous that her strategy seems to be failing): You have to leave! We have ultimate frisbee here every Thursday and we pay for the fields so you are in our way.
OC: stares blankly
SM: What are you going to do?
OC: Finish the game.
At this point, stroller mom walks off in a huff and goes over to a group of maybe five people, gesturing and pointing at us. From the body language, I am guessing that the others in her group are not as adamant about running off a bunch of kids playing soccer.
The other coach asked me if I heard what she said and I told her that I got the gist of it. Apparently, SM started out by stating, “you need to leave right now or I have to call the cops” which I really wish I had heard because I would have just laughed.
I messaged our club after the game as an FYI because I really didn’t want another team to deal with this again or have someone actually call the cops and cause more issues. They let me know this morning that our soccer club actually pays for the fields we were on every day during the week till 6 PM.
At the time this conversation started it was about 5:40 or so.”
Another User Comments:
“Well this lady sounds absurd for sure. What a dumb Karen. I wonder if lingering kids and families kept them waiting for 30 mins the last time since her reservation seems to start right at the end of yours so she is just ready to start some crap before it happens again.
I wish she had called the cops because I’m sure if they had shown up it would have been after the game was over and the field was theirs.” teamanfisatoker
11. Promised House Sale Turns Sour, Family Forced To Leave
“Backstory. My mother-in-law passed about 6 years ago from breast cancer. My father-in-law was left lonely and depressed and sat in this house for 5 years trying to pick up the pieces.
A little over 2 years ago my daughter had to have a heart transplant and as she was being put onto the list to receive her transplant from the UofM, my father-in-law asked us to move in so we wouldn’t have to commute. He was on us every day for 3 months until we said yes.
My daughter got her heart in Oct 2020 and he insisted we stay permanently because he forgot how much he loved having his grandkids in the house. We agreed.
Fast forward to last year. My FIL approached us in front of my kids and told us that he found someone and was having a shotgun wedding and that he wanted us to take over the mortgage on the house so he could buy his new wife the house of her dreams. We agreed happily and made a verbal commitment to a timeline to buy the house, and from that moment I would take control of the property and all of its cost. And he would wait to sell it to me, for what he owed on it.
And he had no problem waiting a year to sell it to us, so I could get my financial affairs in order. (Aging my credit after medical bills) I told him how much the house was worth, and that he could make a pretty penny if he sold.
Just tell us, so we can make arrangements. It’s a hassle looking for housing.
He acted as if he was upset that I would even mention that to him. Then he looked my children, his grandchildren, dead in the face and said “I would never kick you out.
I would never sell it out from under you” and he said they don’t have to worry as long as he was alive that their grandmother’s house was ours, as long as we were going to buy it.
Fast forward to today. We called him last week and told him we had an appointment with a realtor, and he should give them a call as well.
We’re finally ready to buy. He comes by unannounced and said that his wife had it appraised without his knowledge and is no longer willing to sell it to us for what we originally agreed upon because she wants the full listing price, and he needs to be more concerned with her wants and needs, or she’s leaving him.
We told him that this was his idea. And he is not only going back on his word to his granddaughters, one who is disabled, and his daughter, but he’s uprooting their lives. They’re both in high school. And this is the first time in years that we have some sense of normalcy.
But if this is truly what he wants. We will move. But he needs to give us ample time. My wife called him out for being a coward to his greedy wife and she had no right to sell this house. He abruptly left saying…”No worries.
No worries.”
Now for the kicker. I get back in the house extremely stressed out and my wife said that before he left, he pulled her aside in earshot of my kids to ask her if she knew where to get any pain pills from.
What the actual heck!
Update: we’ve decided to move. Unless he doesn’t give us ample time to move. It sucks because they’re not going to be able to finish their academic career in their schools. They’re both finally starting to get settled and have friends.”
10. Customer Decides To Be Rude So I Sign Her Up For Every Magazine Subscription
“I was a grocery checker in the 90s. One day around noon I was working the 10 items or less/cash-only express line that was used by many people who were just grabbing a quick sandwich for lunch so it was important to keep out people who had carts full of groceries.
There was one other regular checkstand open across from me that had ONE person being checked out with a large cart full. I didn’t have anyone in my line at the time.
Karen pulls up to the other checkstand with a heaping cart and notices me standing there.
She asks if I can check her out, I tell her “no, I’m sorry I have to be available for people grabbing lunch.” Over the next 30 seconds she just stared at me and then pulled her cart up to my checkstand and started putting all of her things on my checkstand and said “you’re not doing anything, you can check me out” so I was kind of stuck.
I tried to check her out as fast as I could and didn’t say much, and wouldn’t you know it, pretty soon I had a line of about 5 people standing there with their sandwiches and drinks glaring at me. Remember it was a CASH lane so as I am finishing her order Karen takes out her CHECKBOOK and writes a check (mind you she didn’t start writing it until I was about done, more delay.) This was her big mistake, her address was on the check.
So, on my lunch break I got the subscription cards from all the magazines and proceeded to subscribe her to just about every magazine we carried and I always checked the “2 years, bill me later” option, I even signed her up for the Columbia music club and I picked the very worst records.
Weeks later when she started getting all of the mags and bills for them, there was no way she would connect it to the checker she was rude to. I was probably one in a long string of cashiers she was rude to. Winner – ME!”
Another User Comments:
“Ha!! Good one! Revenge is a dish best eaten cold, as they say. This reminds me of the year I spent with a racist neighbor next door. She gave me dirty looks and would passive-aggressively whisper under her breath when I happened to meet her in the hallway.
Then she started randomly calling the landlord to complain I was noisy, including on evenings when I wasn’t even home – which the landlord learned when he called me to ask me to be quiet and I explained that I was not at home. I wanted to get back at her in a mild way, so I started putting all of my junk mail into her mailbox.
We’d get a lot in that building since it was on a main street and local chain shops would send employees around to put fliers in every apartment building that didn’t have a locked outer door. Some days her box was full of junk mail.
I hope she hated that.” CompleteGuest854
9. No Karen, I Don't Know Anything About A Stray Cat
“So I had a weird encounter with a wild Karen tonight at my house.
I was watching a movie with my mom when someone started ringing our doorbell a couple of times and then started knocking. We didn’t hear the doorbell because it’s very quiet but our dogs reacted to the knocking. It took us a while to get the dogs to the other room.
During that time my sister heard them complain about our “please wear a mask sign” (we have it for the at-risk people in the house and she was a clear anti-masker).
I answered the door to an older woman who was annoyed that it took me so long to open the door (at 7 in the evening…).
She asked me to come outside to the side of our house to look at something. I responded with an obvious “no” and asked “why” (as a woman it’s stupid to follow a stranger who shows up at your door). She was annoyed that I said no and responded “well I’m an animal lover and I’m concerned.” I just say “okay…?” She then points to the cars and says “well there is a stray cat do you know anyone who is missing one?” She is still trying to get me to follow her.
I’m obviously confused and respond “no”. This whole time she is acting like I am the unreasonable one. I just close the door and end it there. I’m assuming she saw a cat either at the side of the house or under the car. The cat was probably hiding from the rain.
It was just a weird encounter and she acted like I was crazy for not following her outside. Who does this?!
I have encountered this Karen twice before while walking my dog. I usually cross the street or walk in the opposite direction to avoid people.
This woman followed me wanting to pet my dog. She had crossed the street to follow me. I told her “no thank you ” twice but she kept approaching until I had to yell at her “No” and crossed the street AGAIN to avoid her. She acted all offended at my actions even though she refused to respect me saying no.”
Another User Comments:
“If you really want to get someone out of their house, knock hard and rapidly and when they answer, exclaim, “there’s a fire on the side of your house!” They pop right on out, LOL I actually did this. I was driving through a neighborhood, saw a fire in their ditch spreading to their fence, stopped my car, and knocked loudly, this happened. Later on, I realized that had I been an evil predator, I had my victim all set to go.
Lucky for her, I was not a predator.” Aragona36
8. Unfairly Accused Of Assault By A Customer At The Nail Salon
“I’m an Asian guy working in a nail salon in a mall. On Wednesday, I had an incident with a difficult Karen!
I was greeting her and she told me she wanted a gel manicure (for anyone who doesn’t know, you use a UV/LED light to cure the gel to dry, it takes like 30-60 seconds to dry).
When I sat her down, she already had an attitude by sitting far from my table, crossing her legs, and being out of reach. I asked her can you sit closer to the table so I can reach. She got annoyed when I asked her.
She told me she wanted OPI colours funny bunny (off-white) and bubble bath (natural pink), but she didn’t know which color was white and which color was pink.
When I started to do her hand she looked at it every few seconds. In my head, maybe she is just a picky client.
I should have stuck to my feeling that she is just here to get a free gel manicure, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt and continued.
(In my salon if a client is too picky and you think you can’t handle it, you can ask the manager to switch to someone else but if no one can handle it the manager will ask them to leave because in the end you’ll waste your time and the client just wants a free service/ services).
When I had painted the gel base coat on her first hand, I told her to put it in the light but she only put it like halfway in. So I told her, you have to put your hand in a little more so the gel can be cured/dry but she refused “I don’t want to put my hand all the way in”.
So I explained to her that “if you don’t do it that way it won’t be dry”. She told me “I did this a thousand times, I know what I’m doing”. I told her “every gel light is different, you have to follow my instructions”.
So I showed her and placed her hand a little bit more inside the light, and told her to leave her hand like that until the light turned off and it only needs to be one time but she kept doing it 3-4 times (30 seconds each time).
After that, I told her to switch her hand but she pretended she didn’t hear me until I asked her the 3rd time and she raised her voice “I have to make a phone call”.
She called her friend and told them.
Karen: “I didn’t give him permission to touch me and he forced my hand into the light”.
Me: “Excuse me, miss, I didn’t force your hand, I just placed it in the light a little bit more so the gel can dry”.
Karen: “I don’t want to talk to you, the conversation is over!”
So I don’t know why I continued the service, I should have stopped.
When I finished painting her hands, I massaged her hands as well. After that, she asked to speak to the manager. She asked the manager to see the camera footage, but the manager told her that only authorities or the police were allowed to see it.
Karen said “then call the police”. The manager told her to do that and he called the police too.
She stood up and walked to the door, so I followed her but kept my distance because she hadn’t paid for her service yet.
She told the police on the phone that she didn’t feel safe in the salon because the manager and I were looking at her, so she had to stay outside.
When a policeman came, she told him that I forced her hand into the light and she wanted to press charges for assault. So he gave her a complaint form to fill out. I told him you can’t let her go because she hadn’t paid for her service yet and he said don’t worry she’s just gonna go fill out the form in Starbucks (3 doors down from the salon) then I told him my side of the story.
Thank God! My coworker was working on a client, and they sat like 6 feet away so they heard our whole conversation with Karen. When I asked them to be my witnesses because Karen told the police I assaulted her, they were shocked and they told the police what happened.
Then another policeman arrived and they went to check the camera footage. They said if I was assaulting Karen why did she let me massage her hands at the end of the service? And it was all on Karen, she made up lies.
My manager told me later (I was doing my appointment client) that the policemen went and talked to her in Starbucks and she screamed at them and caused a scene there.
I was so angry that the policemen let Karen get away without paying for her full service, false accusations, and no consequences! These types of Karen will do the same to other places because the police enable it!
Should I go to the police station and press charges?
I want Karen to meet justice!”
Another User Comments:
“I remember a story about a Karen making a complaint, and once the video was reviewed it was clear she made the whole thing up. So the officers had her write a statement, had her sign it, and then made her swear she wrote what really happened. Then they told her the video was reviewed and asked if there was anything she wanted to change about her story.
She stuck to her original complaint, so they arrested her for perjury and filing a false report. This needs to be more normalized. If I were a cop I would enjoy the extra paperwork just to put these entitled jerks in their place.” dafireboy
7. Dealing With A Hypocritical, Bargain-Hunting Shop Owner At My PC Repair Store
“I work in a PC shop/IT repair shop in a shopping center. Right now there’s not a lot of foot traffic and willing customers due to the center being subpar and the rising interest rates on housing etc in my area.
This lady owns a clothing store in the same center. She comes in with her printer and laptop and asks how much to hook it up. One of my coworkers explains anywhere from $59 to $89 depending on the time it takes, but typically for a printer setup, it’s half an hour so $59.
She looks him in the eyes, scoffs, and goes “uh…no,” and leaves…like how much were you expecting?? $15??!
She comes in a week later with her annihilated laptop and asks how much to fix it. It’s 6+ years old and badly damaged in the hinges.
We tell her it’s just not worth the repair as the costs outweigh the value of it but she’s more than welcome for us to do a diagnosis on the machine to find out repair costs/viability ($89 for 6 hours of work to check hardware, software, motherboard traces..the lot, usually $150+ at any other shop).
She of course scoffs and says no, leaves the store.
She comes back another week later and says she wants a new laptop now, so we show her some refurbished models in the price range she asked for. She then proceeds to get mad that it “doesn’t come with Microsoft Office” (something that never comes preinstalled today and hasn’t been included with Windows since Windows 95).
She then demands we drop $100 off the price to cover Office…we of course say no. She says she’s gonna go to Harvey Norman instead because they include it (they don’t). We tell her to go ahead. She comes back an hour later, says she wants the laptop with a discount on Office..
we say no, she agrees anyway and we even throw in a free setup as she’s a worker in the center and we help out fellow shop owners. We set up her emails (all 5 of them), backup data, install programs, the works. We call her and tell her it’s done and she again goes “oh btw I was told there would be a discount on Office?” We say no and she moves on.
When she comes in to collect, she goes on a tangent about how business is slow, how customers always argue with her on the price even after discounts, and how she’s sick of customers who don’t understand the value of her services…the coworker and I look at each other, convinced she must be joking, before she again asks us for a discount on office…then finally pays and leaves.
This woman is on a new level of stupid I have not yet seen.”
6. I'm Thinking Of Refusing To Serve A Negligent Parent At My Restaurant
“So, I work at a restaurant in a hotel and the pool entrance is in the restaurant. So today I had a family of 4 with two kids. One child was an infant. The other was a boy maybe around 6-7. Let me tell you this boy was running around the entire restaurant, he kept going to people’s tables and grabbing things from their tables, and throwing things onto the unoccupied seats of the other tables.
I get it he’s a child but the biggest issue was that while this was going on the parents were literally sitting, on their phones, and talking as if their child wasn’t doing all this.
So then the kid finds the entrance to the pool.
So he runs out and I have to tell the lady her son is out in the pool. So she goes to get him, he does this about 4 more times which I have to tell the mom each time except once. So after the last time, the lady in a frustrated tone tells me “If you just locked the door this wouldn’t be happening so can you do that.” Now, I’ve worked in customer service since I was 15 (22 now).
And when I tell you my jaw dropped to the floor. I was baffled this lady tried to blame it on us. I just looked at her for like 3 seconds and told her there were people in the pool as well as people trying to go in and it was very busy.
She just said “whatever” and looked away with the nastiest eye roll ever.
I was in shock and then she proceeded to neglect her child as he continued to run around again. She’s most likely coming back tomorrow as her breakfast is included the entire weekend.
Would it be wrong for me to refuse service or tell her to control her child from the start?”
5. Surviving Two Years Working With An Unethical Corporate Climber
“I knew and worked with “My Karen” for 20 years. The first 18 years we worked at arm’s length. The last two years we worked closely together.
Karen came from nothing, had no formal education, and no certifications.
A keen opportunist and in the right place at the right time. She was not bright or brilliant. Yet she had a way of being completely and totally deceptive. Her story and success were impressive.
A thief of concepts and ideas. A fluid yet poor liar to an expert in verbal and nonverbal communication.
Not prone to give credit to her teams. A knack for identifying personality types that would do their job, her job, and put in 60 – 70 hours per week for peanuts. Once you got to know her, you could sense the empty suit.
For a variety of reasons, she rose through the ranks of global corporates.
Imagine 10 unethical ways a person could climb and she would check off 9 of the 10 boxes on your list.
Lo and behold she landed at yet another company I worked for. I did not report to her. My brand was known – all efforts to market, on time, within budget, exceeding earnings, and over time driving billions in revenue.
Her real skillset was a series of third-rate cult leader tactics. She had to. She had no substance and was lazy, but hid it well.
I am impossible to hypnotize, mesmerize, or gaslight. I am fearless. I am a passionate defender of my employees and grow careers.
Karen and I ended up working closely together for two years. She was senior in rank, but I did not report to her. My management stack was not favorable to her and was convinced she would not make it more than two years. She did not.
However, one can waste a lot of money, time, and morale during two years.
At every meeting, trade show, call, etc. she said something stunningly unethical. At every dinner, social event, etc. it was worse. I resolved to basically ask in any given situation, “What Would Karen Do?” Then I did the opposite.
I survived.
Once she failed her way out of the company due to ethical infractions, bullying shared services employees, offending C-levels, insane expenses, and expressing her stupidity, lack of awareness, emotional intelligence, social intelligence, and trust-building – she was let go in a spectacular manner.
She was quite surprised by it, which is not surprising given she was a Karen.
Prior to her being dumped, our two verticals had a small leadership meeting. Her concern was the strategy she was preparing for presentation to the CEO and senior leadership team had dragged on for nearly two years.
The strategy and business case should have been completed within eight months. Not by assignment. By principle.
She was preparing to begin gathering details for finger-pointing. “Why are we not progressing?” Her lapdog babbled, then it was my turn. I shared:
1. Your boys here are taking six months to work up a 15-slide PowerPoint.
A PP a standard business person could assemble in a week. This is not a NASA project.
2. Every time we set a four-day strategy, working session, or whiteboarding meeting with a ton of travel and expense behind it, you arrive, spend half a day, and then conveniently have to leave.
3. When we have a one-day meeting, two hours are spent on arranging an order from Starbucks, insisting on going to pick it up, bring it back, and serve, and an hour later it is lunch for two hours. An hour after lunch it is get ready for dinner.
Great full day, get two hours of cursory work done waste of time.
4. This is a software company. You have no experience with software. Your two hires have no experience with software. It is not a think tank or country club.
5. You literally require a “do not disturb” for a week prior to a presentation to practice the presentation.
A 30-minute presentation. If you remained informed, it would roll off your tongue with less than a day’s prep.
6. You exclude the resources needed to make a buy, build, or partner decision from meetings where a buy, build, or partner assessment is being made with the target companies.
7. You are actively moonlighting through consulting during the day and during a critical time. I know. Your clients are contacts who have informed me privately.
8. You threaten shared services employees who do not report to you with their jobs, demand firing people on the spot for a comment, and bully veterans who make the magic happen.
There was more. My boss was most entertained. His boss more than entertained. Looking back it was better I did it in a meeting than privately. Not usually the case.
About two months after Karen was ejected, I began receiving calls from industry contacts asking what happened, advising me to stay away from her, and that Karen was sharing I had been “inappropriate with her”.
What does that sound like during the midst of “me too”?
I kept in careful touch with Karen’s lapdog and let it be known subtly that if a person were to defame, slander, etc. me, it was a common practice of mine to issue a cease and desist, I always kept witnesses willing to testify, and was well positioned financially to go the distance.
That put an end to the whispering.
I later learned the executive who hired Karen did so to intentionally fail the initiative and selected Karen as it was a sure bet Karen would mess up and did.
I called a few contacts and learned the history for Karen was fired, fired, fired – inability to deliver – deceptive – delusional – among other odd things.
A defining trait of a Karen is to seek to unjustly impede another’s ability to earn a living.
The only way to manage a Karen situation is to be willing to go the distance if you can. Otherwise, take it till you can escape.”
4. Even If You Cross It Out, You Still Have To Tip
“I used to work as a host/busser at a hibachi place in my town.
One day this group of 6 or 7 ladies come in and before I can say anything “I have a reservation for Karen – (I’m pretty sure that was actually her name).” After checking her reservation I notice they’re 30 minutes early. I said ok and that we’re currently cleaning off a table for her and her friends.
Karen is absolutely flabbergasted, she’s astonished, that we don’t have a table ready for her immediately. I explained that she is a bit early but that it is no big deal and we’ll get them seated as soon as we can.
She goes off about how it shouldn’t matter if they come early and that we should have reserved a table specifically for her, even if they showed up two hours early.
Obviously, we can’t reserve a table all day for a reservation at (I think) 730. We only have 12 grill tables and we are a busy restaurant.
Finally, I get them seated and tell them that their waiter would be over momentarily. As I’m walking back to the front desk she snaps her fingers at me and I turn around – she’s following me back.
At this point I don’t want to fight I just want her to leave me alone so I ask her what I can do for her. She then says they need drinks and starts listing all these drinks that I don’t know. I’m only 16 at the time but I’m pretty tall for my age so I get asked for drinks a lot.
I explain that I’m only 16 and that a waiter would be with them soon. Apparently, she doesn’t care and then gets mad saying that it’s my job to serve the customers and that she’s basically my boss.
Ok I’m at the end of my rope here.
But it’s not worth an argument, I don’t want to give her attention like that because she’s a jerk and not worth my time.
Fast forward to the end of their meal. They are the only ones left because they took so long to eat.
Their reservation was at 730ish and they were there until we were supposed to close at 10. (It was a weekday we’re open later on weekends)
At this point, we have been so patient with them and even stayed open a little past closing for them (like 15 min but still).
The Karen in charge stomps up to my desk after I ignore her attempt to get my attention by snapping her fingers. She is outraged that we have a gratuity of 20% for large groups.
I explained that it is mandatory for groups of 6 or more (pretty standard I think).
She says that she should be exempt because that should be warned about on the menu. (This was during a time when we had digital menus accessed via QR codes.) I pull it up on my phone and show it at the top right of the first page in ALL CAPS AND BOLDED.
She is furious and has some choice words for me. But this Karen is smart; she has a solution. “We’ll just scratch it out on the receipt.” I inform her that it is our policy and that the tip will still be applied. I apologized for the inconvenience (or rather her lack of competence).
On her way out they were all glaring at me as the boss Karen informed me that they would never be returning. After ignoring her I went to clean the table and oh my gosh.
All the receipts had the gratuity scribbled out and had been torn to pieces.
I assembled the 6 or so pieces and the back read “terrible service, never coming back, screw you!!”
Never saw them again luckily. Anyways, thanks for listening to my TedTalk.”
3. Apparently Parking In A Non-Handicapped Spot Is Illegal Now
“Since I am deaf, I rarely have to deal with annoying Karen because I rely on American Sign Language as an anti-Karen trick but today one went out of her way to get the police involved.
To start, I borrowed my dad’s minivan. He has a handicap plate but since I don’t have a handicap (deaf doesn’t qualify for handicapped parking) I park in normal spots instead. My Dad was not with me today so there’s another reason not to park there.
When I stopped at a Walmart store for quick shopping, I found an empty spot next to a handicapped spot very close to the doors. I had just gotten out when a Karen stopped behind my minivan and started yelling at me. I couldn’t understand what she was saying and used my anti-Karen trick: ASL.
I signed “I can’t understand you” but she kept yelling at me and pointing at the van.
I ignored her and went into the store. I came out about 15 minutes later to see her still blocking my minivan and a police car coming in.
Thankfully, Officer Smiley (not real name, he seemed to be smiling a lot even with annoying Karen and 90’F heat) can use his lips well so I was able to understand him without needing ASL or a deaf interpreter.
I found out, she called because I illegally parked in a non-handicapped spot. I’m like what??? I explained the minivan belonged to my dad who does use a handicapped spot but since he was not with me and I do not need a handicapped spot, technically I am not supposed to use a handicapped spot and parked in a normal spot.
Karen’s reasoning was I “had” to use a handicapped spot because of the handicap plate, and it was illegal for a car with a handicapped plate to park in a non-handicapped spot. Officer Smiley thought she was just mad because I had a great non-handicapped spot in an otherwise crowded parking lot and she didn’t want to walk halfway across the lot in this heat.
She was hoping I’d move like she demanded, and her mind broke because I didn’t move.
I was free to go, and I saw Officer Smiley hand her a ticket, I guess for misuse of 911 service. I still had to wait for her to move her car so I could go home and type this up.
If you’re the woman with a dark colored pixie cut hair driving a silver Camry who called the police on a deaf person in a Walmart parking lot today, shame on you.”
Another User Comments:
“This is so insane it has to be true. No one would make a story like this up.
Seriously tho, my mom is deaf and the way some people treat deaf people is atrocious. They get inordinately mad because a person not looking at them doesn’t hear them screaming at them. It is fun to turn around and tell Ken/Karen that my mom can’t hear them, she’s deaf and watch them turn beet red and suddenly they aren’t interested in getting past her, but instead are trying to go anywhere out of sight.” sungor
Another User Comments:
“I really don’t understand why they just can’t wind their necks in and mind their own business. Towards the end of his life, my dad was a wheelchair user and had multiple health issues – he had a disabled badge but could no longer drive, so I was put onto the registration too to be able to use my car to take him where he needed. Mostly he just went to various healthcare facilities, but one day he asked me to take him shopping so he could get a gift for mum.
We parked up at a local department store, and almost immediately, a large, ignorant ranty Karen started bellowing at me, saying it was obvious I wasn’t disabled, accusing me of having a fake badge, of being selfish. I ignored her completely, got dad’s travel wheelchair set up, and she watched me lift my very frail, elderly, obviously disabled dad into the chair, whereupon she started ranting that I should have told her, and it was rude of me not to explain why I was parking there.
I was parking there because I had a legitimate right to park there. I don’t have to give an explanation to anyone, least of all interfering harridans like her.” chubalubs
2. Unruly Customers Try To Dine And Dash At Our Small Town Restaurant Over Hollandaise Sauce
“The place I work at is a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in a really small farming town.
Think of Dog River from the show Corner Gas and it describes the vibe of the place. The outside is pretty run down since the upstairs tenants are car farmers so there are broken-down cars all over the property. The food is really good and it has become the meeting place for a lot of locals mostly farmers and old-timers.
The interior of the place is really cute and has an old-fashioned vibe to it. The food is amazing in my opinion and prices are pretty cheap.
So we get a group of 3 middle-aged women come in and they are instantly complaining about the outside of the place being messy and run down looking.
I guess they are from a nearby city and saw that our restaurant has excellent reviews on Google and they wanted to try the place out. The server kindly told them that the restaurant has no control over what the outside of the place looks like, made an “It’s a good thing you don’t have to eat outside” joke, and the women got offended and complained that we weren’t taking their suggestion seriously.
They all ordered eggs benedict and one of them asked for it to be made without hollandaise sauce. They also complained about service being slow but given that we were pretty slammed that day and we only had one cook we were doing our best. The lady who wanted no hollandaise sauce then came to the counter and rudely told us to add hollandaise sauce but she wanted it on the side because she wasn’t sure if she liked it.
We offered to let her sample some but she refused. Once their food was served she tried to send back the sauce but the server told her that we couldn’t take it off the bill because we can’t serve that sauce to someone else. She complained but the server stuck to her guns and told her next time to try the sample when it’s offered if she isn’t sure if she likes something.
We will usually let people sample stuff so this exact scenario doesn’t happen.
It was close to closing so stopped serving new customers and we started doing our closing duties. We did not stop serving people who were already there, however. The women all of a sudden got up and left and we realized they hadn’t paid yet.
The server chased them outside and told them they forgot to pay. They told the server that since we closed while we were serving them they thought that they didn’t have to pay. The server told them to pay and they told the server that since the hollandaise sauce wasn’t taken off the bill they weren’t paying.
The server told them once again they had to pay for the food they ordered and since there was nothing wrong with the sauce it was not coming off the bill. The server threatened to call the police if they didn’t pay and if they left she would record their license plate and they would be banned from the restaurant as well.
They reluctantly paid and of course didn’t tip.
I still don’t understand how they thought they could have gotten away without paying. They kept saying “You’re closed we don’t have to pay.””
1. Yeah, 7 Is Not Divisible By 2, Karen
“I used to work for a company where we went into schools in our area to perform a free 1-hour wacky science show teaching kids the importance of saving water. Our local area relies on aquifers (underground porous rock that stores rainfall) for the majority of our water, so it’s important to teach kids both about how the water cycle works where we live and about not wasting water.
This incident occurred 5 years ago.
My colleague and I were at a school in a very affluent area performing our water show, teaching the kids in our own inimitable irreverent way. The school had invited parents into the assembly, so we had about 30 or so parents seated at the back of the hall along with the 200 or so kids.
After the show (which went down an absolute treat) my colleague had gone to collect the car (couldn’t park near the school) whilst I had remained behind to tidy up and move all our kit to the front entrance to the school where he would be pulling up.
Suddenly, a parent came up to speak to me.
Karen: “Hello. Do you mind if I have a quick word?”
Me: “Of course not!”
Karen: “Well, let me start off by telling you how fantastic that show was.”
Me (waiting for the but): “Thank you very much.”
Karen: “But…”
My internal monologue: “There it is!”
Karen: “I was wondering if you noticed that you picked more boys than girls as your volunteers, rather than an equal number of each?”
Me: “You’re asking me if I realized that I didn’t pick an equal number of boys and girls as my volunteers?”
Karen: “Yes.”
Me: “Yes, I was aware of this. Mainly because we need an odd number of volunteers in the show. It’s very difficult to keep the numbers of each equal when the total number is odd.”
Karen looks at me whilst trying to think.
Me: “Did you notice that whilst we picked 4 boys and 2 girls for the aquifer experiment, we picked a girl as the solo volunteer for the tooth brushing experiment? And the tooth-brushing volunteer does a lot more than the aquifer volunteers do. So, yesterday when we did this exact same show in a different school we had 4 girls and 2 boys for the aquifer experiment, and then a boy for the tooth brush.
We always try and keep things as fair as possible.”
Karen: “I’m just saying because my daughters were here today and I want them to enjoy science.”
Me: “Well, hopefully they did.”
Karen: “I also noticed that on your banner (indicates pop-up banner off to one side) you have 2 boys and one girl on that.
That’s hardly equal.”
Me: “True. But with the size of the banner 3 children was the right number. 2 would have left too much empty space whilst 4 would have been too crowded.”
Karen: “Then why didn’t they pick 2 girls?”
Me: “Because we made several mock-ups of the banner and showed them to different children, and the most popular design was that one.”
Karen: “Well I don’t think…”
Me (interrupting): “You may be pleased to see that the fun pack that each child gets to take home has one boy and one girl on the cover.”
(Picks up pack and shows her)
Karen: “That’s nice.”
Karen walks off.
Teacher comes over to me.
Teacher: “What was all that about?”
Me: “Apparently I need to find a way to pick an equal number of boys and girls, despite the total number adding up to an odd total.”
Teacher: “Because you didn’t pick either of her 2 daughters as any of your handful of volunteers out of 200 children in the school?”
Me: “It would seem that way.”
Teacher: “What did you say to her?”
Me: “Basically that 7 isn’t divisible by 2, but across multiple schools we make sure to keep things equal.”
Teacher: “And what did she say?”
Me: “That’s nice.””
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