Working in any kind of customer service, you're constantly exposed to the worst sorts of people.
When you're still fresh and green into a customer service job, you approach it with a certain sense of optimism, telling yourself and anyone who asks how excited you are to help people and make a difference in their life with your incredible service. With bright eyes, you look around you, wondering why your seasoned coworkers are so haggard and embittered, approaching the day with a thousand-yard stare—the result of repeated negative interactions over the course of years.
At first, everything is great; your cheery optimism is rewarding, and you're connecting with people in a way that gives you a sense of purpose in the world. Life is great.
Enter Stage Right: The first entitled customer.
This person comes at you, gun blazing, making you wonder what on earth it is that you did. You couldn't have done anything—you've never even seen them before. But that doesn't stop them from unleashing wrath and hellfire upon you.
You're shaken. Those veteran coworkers? They're outwardly unphased, sending the entitled customer on their way.
"You've just met Karen," one of them likely remarks with an almost half smile. "She comes in every Thursday."
Rinse and repeat… This experience takes place in varying forms over the course of days, weeks, months, and years, grinding you down like fine sandpaper until there's nothing left of that sense of optimism.
To make matters worse, the management team you once admired regards you simply as another slab of fresh meat; they had you pegged as such and primed for the grinder from the moment you walked through the door. Turning to them for help will get you nothing; after all, you're just here to replace the last cow that they milked to death…
Eventually, you'll reach your limit, and one final interaction will send you over the edge. This barista shared theirs, a final interaction with an entitled customer that made them throw in the towel.
Read on for their account of events, originally shared with Reddit's popular Karen community. Next, see this Karen, who demanded to speak to a male staff member and was made to wait.
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