'Chop-chop? Yes ma'am!': Karen shuts down team of employees attempting to correct faulty product

Author image for Sienna Varady
Sienna Varady
Dec 26, 2023 6:00 PM EST

We have likely dealt with a Karen at some point in our lives, particularly if we have extensive customer service experience. But what matters is how we deal with the wild Karen. Karens are here to stay, whether we like it or not, as they existed before the dawn of time and will probably exist for decades to come. If you look past their various nicknames over the years, Karens are just the same old entitled personality we love to hate. Nothing particularly unique or innovative about them.

The story below is an account of an entitled Karen who believes that her skills and expertise are more valuable than anyone else's. However, OP plays it cool and merely complies with Karen's absurd orders, even though she technically calls for the production of a defective product. Overall, it is important to note that Karen got what she deserved and OP had the pleasure of knowing that Karen will get what was deserves. So, if you're curious to find out what exactly transpired, check out the story below! And when you're done, check out a malicious compliance story of a creative programmer who utilized his technological skills to mess with his apartment manager!

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    'Just print them, chop-chop? Yes ma'am!" 66
    via Canva
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    Just print them, chop- chop? Yes ma'am!
    via u/Fiempre_sin_tabla
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    Decades and years ago, age about 16, I was working as printer's assistant in print shop. Shop had two offset presses, photoplate maker (this was when phrase "camera-ready artwork" was in use), equipment for glue-binding paper pads and spiral-binding
    via u/Fiempre_sin_tabla
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    booklets and manuals, big paper cutter, drill press to drill stacks of paper for 3-ring binders, autofolder, etc. Shop, down at car park level, was affiliated with community newspaper with offices upstairs in same building, but we did not print newspapers; that was
    via u/Fiempre_sin_tabla
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    done at proper newsprinting facility elsewhere. Print shop was to bring additional revenue for newspaper operation...and -- crucial to story -- to cater for busywork arts-and-crafts hobby- businesses of wives and mistresses and sisters and daughters of
    via u/Fiempre_sin_tabla
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    newspaper men (whose busywork is mostly about drinking). Newspaper men were mostly unpleasant. Wives and mistresses and sisters and daughters were mostly more so, making pathetic pretense of living lifestyles of rich
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    and famous as though associated with Times of London or Le Monde or New York Times or other real newspaper, instead of nothing little Village Gazette. One such -- today would be described as perfect Karen -- came into print shop one day with artwork for print job. Her
    via u/Fiempre_sin_tabla
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    makework hobby was making and selling frilly little soup-making mixes in crinkly cellophane bags with lacy ribbons. She had new kind of soup mix for stracciatella, Italian wedding soup. Little star-shaped bits of pasta, herbs and seasonings, etc.
    via u/Fiempre_sin_tabla
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    This woman was screechy and insistent and abrasive: This is rush order! Suspend all other orders and do hers now, or she will have word with Village Gazette Managing Editor about us, so chop-chop! She holds out artwork, Doran (printer) reaches to accept, she deliberately
    via u/Fiempre_sin_tabla
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    drops on counter just before Doran would close hand. Doran picks up from counter and asks if she wishes proofreading. She sneers: artwork is camera-ready! Is perfect! Does not need editing or proofing! No wasting time or padding bill! Then flounces out from shop.
    via u/Fiempre_sin_tabla
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    Very well. This is expensive, complicated order: multicolour label tag (multi passes through press), glosscoat, cut, fold, drill. First step is to make plates; I am tasked to make plates -- one for each ink colour. Great effort is put into controlling registration (each
    via u/Fiempre_sin_tabla
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    ink colour printed in correct location relative to all other locations so finished label looks as though printed in one pass). Labels are printed multi-up on sheets of expensive fancy cardstock, then cut and trimmed, then autofolded
    via u/Fiempre_sin_tabla
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    rectangle into 4-sided square label tag: front, inside front, inside back, back. Last step before boxing is to drill single hole in upper left corner, for frilly ribbons to tie label to crinkly cellophane bag. This too I am tasked with. Involves setting up
    via u/Fiempre_sin_tabla
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    corner jig on table of drill press, stacking folded labels and ramming against jig, then drilling, 50 at a time. I am just about to lower spinning drill to first stack of 50 when I stop, switch off drill press, and say "Doran, how do you
    via u/Fiempre_sin_tabla
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    spell Stracciatella?" Doran is very adept, quick copyeditor; he immediately calls out "s-t-r-a-c-c-i- a-t-e-l-l-a!" I get big grin on face and say "Yes, this is how I spell Stracciatella, too." Doran, quickly beginning to suspect, says "Why do you ask?"
    via u/Fiempre_sin_tabla
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    I raise my voice to imitate Mrs. Karen: "Artwork is camera-ready! Is perfect! Does not need editing or proofing! No wasting time or padding bill!"
    via u/Fiempre_sin_tabla
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    Doran now shares my big grin and looks sideways at me. I hold up undrilled top label. Like all others in large stacks next to drill press, it reads Stracicatella. Now is Doran's turn to raise voice: "Artwork is camera-ready! Is
    via u/Fiempre_sin_tabla
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    perfect! Does not need editing or proofing! No wasting time or padding bill!" He, now laughing, points at drill press and tells me to get busy on finishing important rush order. I drill and drill and drill, many stacks of many labels. These are
    via u/Fiempre_sin_tabla
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    neatly boxed up, and boxes neatly stacked on front counter. Doran calls woman to advise order is ready for pickup. She arrives shortly later, examines labels, says something to effect of "See how easy when you just do as you are told?" pays, and leaves with labels.
    via u/Fiempre_sin_tabla
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    Proofreading would have been free, and fix could have been made, also free, with few moments' time even with literal cut-and-paste technology...but Artwork is camera- ready! Is perfect! Does not need editing or proofing! No wasting time or padding bill! See how easy when you just do as you are told?
    via u/Fiempre_sin_tabla
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    Frankjc3rd 2 hr. ago . I used to work for Kinkos, and I coined the phrase "the customer gets exactly what they want whether they like it or not".
    via u/Frankjc3rd

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customer service Like a Boss karens photography satisfying Street Art art malicious compliance coworkers creative reddit story karens in the wild Reddit funny oddly satisfying
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