'I professionally shutdown Karens & Kens': 21+ Servers share their most satisfying customer shutdown stories

Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor

Dec 13, 2023 10:00 AM EST

As someone who has worked many years in the service industry let me tell you, when an unruly customer gets what's coming to them, it is the most satisfying feeling in the world. Service industry jobs are usually low pay, you're running around on your feet all day, and you have to deal with the most entitled customers. It's not always like that! Sometimes you have great regulars and a fantastic team. But, unfortunately, those more annoying events are more common. The longer you work in the service industry, whether you're a bartender, server, hostess, manager, whatever, you learn how to deal with these Kens and Karens who think they own you the second they set foot into the establishment.

For example, I worked at a nice restaurant for all of my college years. I jumped around positions, but on this particular night, I was hostessing. It was a weekend and the waitlist was at least 2 hours long. An old man Ken came in with two young girls on each arm, skipped the line, and when I told him there was a line, he interrupted me with the age old "do you know who I am?" And then started blaming the long wait on me—as if I invited all these strangers to make my job harder. I started arguing with him, but before I could really blow up my manager came to the rescue and took over (bless him). I was so annoyed, but thankfully, my manager not only still got him to wait 2 hours, apparently the guy also tried to slip him a $20 to skip the line, which he took and then gave to me! It really felt like a rare beautiful moment in the service industry.

See other glorious stories from servers getting satisfying customer shutdowns below!