YoWilykat
36513
682
22
Manager gave me $25 gift card for putting up with a Karen
No vest, no name badge, not in regulation clothing (shorts and sandals not pictured) and Karen got upset when I refused and ignored her. She assaulted me first, got trespassed from the store after reviewing video and I got $25 gift card for putting up with idiot Karen for about 15 minutes.
FWIW I haven't worked in any retail store (including Walmart) for years so it's not because "I've seen you work here before, you must help me!" attitude.
Sonicschilidogs
100/hr rate, damn, you were paid better than any of your coworkers, too bad they fired you after 15 minutes for not being helpful. S/
Patrone26
You don't look like an employee, you look like a:
AnAverageBoxEnthusiast
looks what she did to your FACE!!! you should sue her
Vergenbuurg
Did she approach you way too fast? https://youtu.be/wrJ6_GAprFE
shonasof
"ExCUse me! Where do you keep your housewares?"
"IN MY KITCHEN!"
ISayShenanigans
shonasof
Oh my god, I forgot Vicky ran this gimmick!
mateo25024
I had a Karen do that to me in Target. I was wearing a black polo with my company logo on it. Black, not red. I told her I didn’t work there, she called me lazy and said she was going to get me fired. I wished her luck.
MikeRInternetTraveler
“Awesome! Let’s go find a manager together!”
Geracht
I sometimes wear my hi-vis in the store on the way home, and always get stopped by old folks asking for where things are. More often than not they stop and check if I work there, and I am more than happy to help them out if they're sweet about it. But if they wanna be rude, well. They get sent to entirely the wrong part of the store, or get to hear what I wanted to say every day I used to work retail. Nobody has tried to report me to a "manager"...yet.
MikeRInternetTraveler
I LOVE getting mistaken for a worker. If they’re friendly, but mistaken, I’ll politely let them know I don’t work there. If not, I have fun with it. Had a lady storm to the front of the store, and demand a manager, because “Mike in electronics” refused to help her. I stood about 20’ away and watched a manager tell her there is no “Mike in electronics”. “He’s standing right over there! He’s laughing at me!” “Ma’am, he doesn’t work here.”
YuffieK
Congrats @OP, you're Employee of the Month
lewdev
Also, I'll see you on Monday 8am. And don't be late!
Aksuuuh
Also you let the customer get hostile, you're fired.
UnXclusive
Sounds like something Wayne would say
xj4low
Sounds like a good time to post it on /idontworkhere
MAGICxMURDERxBAG
Reminds me of how I and others working in Target's fulfillment area were spared the horror of dealing with customers as we wore black shirts and jeans whereas the floor workers were, as we all cheekily called them, The Red Shirts.
MAGICxMURDERxBAG
And most customers beeline to the redshirts since they stood out compared to us fulfillment workers
BDBottom
The Star Trek ones had a better chance at survival: at least Scotty made it.
GeneralWho
Wow, lucky. Everyone wore red shirts back when I was there, whether you were emptying the trucks, pushing, pulling, floor, even HR - the only people who ever wore black shirts were the directors. I would have loved to see different color shirts on the people on backstock - they were kinda like line cooks; great at their job but you don't really want them dealing with most customers.
rojelioenescabeche
I need a story. Theres gotta be more. Why did you deal with her for 15 minutes? Why didn’t you just walk away? Need more.
YoWilykat
She wanted video game out of locked display and ASSumed I could help her. I refused. She slapped my shoulder and I grabbed her with her arm twisted behind her back. It took about 15 minutes for the employees to figure out who started the first and sent her packing out.
Rodville
When I was at a location of my supermarket that shared it's plaza with a kmart I would walk over there on my break. People used to harass me all the time while I was in there. But I used to have fun with it and give fake answers. How much is that TV? Let's say it $12 for you. I was fired from that store 12 times even though I never worked there. They eventually begged me to stop coming in.
RevRagnarok
r/IDontWorkHereLady
BobisBobIsHimIsMe
I seriously think it was all the leaded gasoline the baby boomers and Gen X inhaled.
Brain worms
SarcasticComment
we don't talk about that nearly enough.
BobisBobIsHimIsMe
I know and it sucks.
Our parents were poisoned 24hr a day.
And it’s proven scientifically to have affect their brains.
I was born in the mid 80s even environmental regulations started getting strong.
Sadly now gen z is being raised with heavily genetically modified food. And there is no telling what effect that will have.
BobisBobIsHimIsMe
Don’t understand the downvotes. Americans food is heavily modified.
95% of all grain grown in North America has chemicals sprayed on it to make the stalks stay upright for easier harvesting. And now it’s being sold in products at toxic levels. It halt growth in plants. What happens when it gets ingested. Pesticides have been found in 8/10 peoples urine. It’s a serious issue.
AndrewBrandon
Sounds like you can post that here too r/IDontWorkHereLady
https://www.reddit.com/r/IDontWorkHereLady/s/BU42qiWHl9
Euchre
Even when you do work at a store, sometimes people mistake you for being much more of a role than you really are. I get the 'older white man must be the manager' reaction a lot. It's great when my actual manager tells someone something they don't like, and they try to come complain to me. Also had a Mexican look to me and ask how I could let 'my employee' talk to him like that - he was talking to my Mexican manager. We just pointed to our nametags with titles, and he ate humble pie.
orp0piru
richardstinks
Two things:
1. I was at Ross/TJ Maxx or something. Guy walks up to me and asks "what is this made of?" Uh, cotton. "I need this in an XL." Huh. Good luck! "Good luck?! Do you work here or not?!" No. "Oh."
I was in jeans and my punk battle jacket covered in patches. I suppose the skulls and spiky band logos weren't enough.
2. She ASSAULTED you? Dude. I can't even imagine what it would be like if you DID work there. Jeebus H. Pogo Sticking Chris.
ThomasThundersword
i’ve learned first hand some people just have an “I can help” energy. that causes them to get mistaken for employees all the time, regardless of uniform. people just seem to think “ah this person can help me” and because the concept of a rando helping them seems weird, they seem to make the mental leap “you look helpful so you must work here”. Honestly as long as people are polite about it, i just roll with it now. though when they are rude it is rly fun to mess with them xD
richardstinks
I just thought he lost his glasses. Hence the "good luck!"
But I am that person. I reach things because I am tall. I help people lift things because I can, I guess. Just seems like the right thing to do.
samwyze
It's amazing what a smile and an "Excuse me" can accomplish. Just because we're willing to help doesn't mean we're expected to.
SarcasticComment
If you are polite, I know my giant international grocery store very well so I tell people I can do my best to answer their questions. Most of the time I know what part of the store that would be in.
angryallenpoe
I usually get older folks asking me where things are in Trader Joe’s, I guess the beard is enough a part of the uniform, but I just point them where they need to go and carry on. Definitely no Karen attitude tho.
anitabieror6
everyone please remember gasoline used to have lead in it. Older folks are going to start showing signs of lead related dementia
ShortKiltLongWaistcoat
I get that all the time, I think we must have The Look. And for me it like, I'm in scrubs and this is a grocery store. What about this makes it seem like I work here?
Munchman347
When I still had my contracting business, I spent a lot of time in Home Depot. My 'High Vis' vest made quite a few people assume I worked there. When they asked me where something was, I usually knew and told them. Up until a line started to form of folks looking for stuff. I had to leave the vest in the truck to get my own shopping done...
CryAboutIt69
that happened
myfirstandlastpostever
It’s great being mistaken for staff. I spent half an hour outside a trendy Edinburgh bar turning people away as they thought I was the bouncer. I’d only nipped out for a ciggy to the smoking area and I guess they were trying to skip the queue upstairs at the main door. First a couple of massive guys and half in jest I said, ‘sorry fellas, it’s full’, before realising there’s a whole bunch of people lining up I had to turn away.
resworn
I got it while literally running through a toys r us when they were going out of business (trying to find Pokemon cards and board games tbh)
weave
Oh but this deserves a story time, if your up for it
cokebot9000
STORY TIME
VanessaBludgeons
Obviously not. He's busy working. Wal Mart doesn't like their employees on their phones.
weave
Okay I hate you so much right now, that was too perfect
Idontneedrealfacts
I am nurse. Multiple times I have gone into a store with my scrubs on and my badge that says RN in huge letters and people seem to think I work at a grocery store.
Euchre
This is part of why social engineering works: show up with just about any badge and act authoritatively, and people will just accept what you say.
foxpotate
What in fuck's name even is the cause of this mass psychosis? Seemingly normal people just suddenly hallucinate familiarity, ignore visual cues, rage out in paranoia and even go as far as violence or attempting to get police to do the violence. The stories may vary but the symptoms are identical. There absolutely needs to be a study done about this breakdown as it is getting more and more prevalent.
Mairoa
It's not recent. I had something similar happen to me about 10 years ago. In a fabric shop where the staff wears aprons in a tank top, shorts, and sandals. Karen was so mad
foxpotate
That is still post 9/11 and 2008 recession right? Could be a more fragile outlier case if the current comment thread psychological theory holds.
Albeit a "karen 0" has a ring to it. Sounds like a hilarious retail horror based zombie movie title.
I'd need to know more about your situation to assess the karen's mental state. If its uppity arrogance it can be written off. The ones with pathology are the more serious concern.
TACOSforever
Lead paint and pipes finally taking its toll. I hope the mixture of lead and microplastics makes me more fun at that age.
SpotlightStealer
People are used to everything being great, and now everything sucks. Much has been said on the why of things sucking, so I won't bother, it means everyone is getting more and more angry and frustrated, and some people have no healthy outlet because they've known golden age for so long. And older people have a crazy amount of stigma about therapy, or admitting they have problems with fixing in the first place. So with no healthy outlet, it just boils over at times that make you look crazy.
FluxSagrie
I feel it is similar to the issue where people ignore and don't engage at all with people that are homeless so they lose touch with reality. People don't seem to realize how often we just keep our head down and don't give anyone the time of day. So this is just another one of the manifestations of social anxiety disorders due to lack of socialization.
We are basically all dogs that have never seen another animal before, then 8 years into their life being flung into a crowded kennel.
anarchoFeline
probably not. you just hear about it more because now everyone has a video camera in their pockets and a global network to share those videos with.
JustSeinfeldQuotes
This has probably always gone on, we just didn't hear about it. I see crazy stuff happening in the hood all the time on youtube, and yet I haven't seen anything like what the videos show.
bill4935
First 9/11 drove a bunch of people crazy (Dennis Miller, lookin at you) and then COVID did for the rest. Also there was the scheme to trap ALL workers in low-income jobs that don't reflect the productivity increases since 1971 (google 'Lewis Powell Memo') along with planned obsolescence of consumer goods and the Walmartization of North America. I could go on.
But I won't, because I'm not a conspiracy theorist.
noodleshoe
My hypothesis is that they'll find some kind of post-Covid brain swelling that causes these behaviors. They're all the same type seen in early stages of dementia, and there was also a study that showed Covid accelerated dementia symptoms in those already diagnosed. I'm not a doctor though, so they could just be assholes
foxpotate
I got my degree in criminal psychology and I was thinking covid as a major factor too but I'm seeing an almost CPTSD fugue state breaking down into a psychotic episode. The level of similarities of testimonials show a shocking level of identical behaviors for such a broad comorbidity of factors. Not the least of which may be novel pollutants like pfas/microplastics having as yet understudied damage patterns. Even discounting half as "far fetched" the remaining tales are worryingly coterminous.
TheWombatStrikesAgain
There's a massive propaganda complex at work to tell people their prejudices are always correct, and everyone who's not like them is against them, no matter whether this is supported by any evidence. Feels like that might be playing a role here.
macgerdo
This and bad education, terrible journalism, corporal greed, stress, war, homelessness, rising house prices, the rising amount of empty houses, drug abuse, guns, racism, general violence, no trust in justice, religious influence in the government, religious conflicts, the lack of medicine as well as basic infrastructure like water, transport and energy turned the "melting pot" into some instable brew, kept at bay by police brutality, a shitty prison system and capital punishment.
Gryphonosiris
Anger that contrary to what they've been told their entire life, they aren't a superior ethnicity, and are in reality just barely above being serfs. So they lash out against whomever they think might be "beneath them".
foxpotate
That explains the paranoid delusions but I think the others are correct too. I think there is a vast amount of economic and news cycle CPTSD. Enough to cause a lot of folks to be stuck in a delicate fugue state that when change outside of habit occurs it crashes out into a full blown psychotic episode. People seemingly normal but barely hanging in there.
I really would hesitate to entirely rule out a novel and understudied pollutants causing predictable patterns of damage like microplastics tho.
JabesMcJabesface
I was trying to form a Cooch and explanation that did not sound like a rant, then I read yours and realized someone had already done it. I believe you were spot on.
PunsAndAmmo
....a what explanation?
awildsforzemon
I’ve decided they were going for cohesive and somehow it became cooch and
JabesMcJabesface
I was going for coherent and even went back and typed it, I did not check that it did not auto correct again though
drakkaris12718
OBEY
OverthinkingThis
When people are constantly I'm surrounded by people/things/sites that tell them things they want to hear it quickly turns into "I'm always correct". Suddenly thoughts like "this guy looks like he would work here." Just becomes a "reality" for these people instantly. I'm betting the Karen in the OP wasn't thinking OP was actively working, but that they 'looked like a worker that should bend over backward for me'. It's thinly veiled bigotry 'justified' by severe confirmation bias.
TZO2k15
I call it arrogant entitlement... I haven't done a deep dive into the subject yet, but your theory is fascinating, I'll need to think on it some more.
foxpotate
Arrogant entitlement fits karens more than the "I don't work here lady" phenomenon. This seems to have a lot of psychological hallmarks of chronic socioeconomic/news cycle trauma boiling over from a defensive fugue state into a very visible and identifiable mental episode.
This phenomenon seems to be cross-demographical and has no locked in age, sure a majority of cases fit a single profile but this seems to be a much larger issue at play.
TZO2k15
Thanks for the clarity, yeah, I was thinking on the complaining customer issue rather than the disconnect with situational awareness originating from specific areas of stress, so this is the first that I encountered it explained as such, I now have a good starting point to work off of, thanks again!
BladeTurMoiL
People are fed up. I dont condone the hysteria, but they’re repressing frustrations for so long that they eventually lose it in an inappropriate time/place. Many of them work retail too. And itms like a contagion. Getting shit on for no reason day in and day out, and eventually they do it to someone else.
We need basic universal income, and reduced work hours. There are enough people out there, many of which cant find employment. And stores are dropping hours anyway.
[deleted]
[deleted]
macgerdo
This and bad education, terrible journalism, corporal greed, stress, war, homelessness, rising house prices, the rising amount of empty houses, drug abuse, guns, racism, general violence, religious conflicts, the lack of medicine as well as basic infrastructure like water and energy turned the "melting pot" into some instable brew, kept at bay by police brutality, a shitty prison system and capital punishment.
BladeTurMoiL
One day i hope my country can get there. I’m afraid that i will be long gone and unable to enjoy it. But hopefully my children or descendants can.
Littledirtybirdyfeet
The country is in a mental health crisis. It's going to get worse before it gets better, and we're absolutely heading for WWIII
Littledirtybirdyfeet
My downvoters evidently haven't been watching international news and what's happening in other countries. Let alone what would happen if the BS in the US and Britian turns towards civil war. If the US becomes mired in a civil war, that will be the end of US hegemony, and shit will hit the fan.
ThankYouForYourTime
You’re being downvoted because for several years, propagandists, hostile govs and now tech bro billionaires have been trying to start WWIII
Littledirtybirdyfeet
So wouldn't that just reinforce the idea that that's where we're all headed?
ThankYouForYourTime
It is in their financial interests to start WWIII and civil war, so yes they have been constantly trying to reinforce those ideas.
boevis
Fear based conflicts have a way of fulfilling themselves, so talking about it less is actually a way to prevent it