Employee goes out with Karen coworker, Karen makes a scene at the restaurant, then demands to be driven home: 'I've never invited [her] out since'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Jun 13, 2024 4:00 PM EDT

Hanging out with coworkers outside of work hours is always a strange experience at first. Some people get along in a work environment, and it doesn't take until meeting up in real life for you to realize that the two of you just don't gel outside of work hours. This employee discovered a bit too late that his coworker was not just a strange person to hang out with outside of work, but it turns out they're a Karen.

Sometimes you really don't know these things until you see someone ordering food at a restaurant. How a coworker treats servers is very telling of whether or not they should be your personal friends in life. If you're like this Redditor, and you discover that your coworker is a difficult restaurant customer, you have a few options. First, you cringe your way through the encounter and swear to never hang out with them again. In this instance, you remain cordial at the office moving forward but you've drawn a boundary. Second, you call them out then and there, which is not easy to do especially considering the fact that the two of you will have to keep working together no matter what.

For more stories like this, check out this post about another furious customer.

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10359613696
    via Alex Haney
  • 02
    The time I tried to take a coworker out for a post-work meal. MEDIUM This happened a few years ago and it still blows my mind.
    via u/Karnakite
  • 03
    She lived downtown, I lived in the city but about twenty minutes away. The plan was, I'd take her to this deli/butcher that I really liked, and since she didn't drive, I'd drive her there, and she'd take an Uber home, which is what she usually did and wouldn't be a significant difference in cost to her, per her own report.
    via u/Karnakite
  • 04
    At first everything's going fine. We arrive at the restaurant and there's a line since it's very popular, but it's not a long line. It's a deli, so you'll wait a few minutes at most. She's immediately put off, but picks up a menu and looks at it studiously.
    via u/Karnakite
  • 05
    We get to the cashier, I order my sandwich, and she announces she wants a bacon grilled cheese.
    via u/Karnakite
  • 06
    There is no bacon grilled cheese anywhere on the menu.
    via u/Karnakite
  • 07
    When the cashier explains this to her, she says that well, she can tell by the menu that they have bread, and they have cheese, and they have bacon, so why can't they make her a bacon grilled cheese? This went on for too long and got just a touch heated, so I didn't hear most of it, as I wandered away with the realization that I had made a mistake.
    via u/Karnakite
  • 08
    She catches up with me and proceeds to complain about how they won't make her d[ bacon grilled cheese for her, and she had to order something off the menu (the horror, I guess?),
    via u/Karnakite
  • 09
    and I'm just sitting there thinking that this must be the first time she's ever been in a restaurant of any kind. When we start eating (I paid for both sandwiches, btw) she starts hinting that she wants to go home right now. We've been there about fifteen minutes, but I guess the bacon grilled cheese deprivation was getting to her. So she tells me I need to drive her home.
    via u/Karnakite
  • 10
    I said I thought she was taking an Uber, and she starts pretending that she has no idea what I'm talking about. She insists that I have to drive her home, now. The fact that I'm not done eating is irrelevant. She then admits that she can take an Uber home, if she "has to", but I have to pay for it.
    via u/Karnakite
  • 11
    I sent her $25 over Venmo because at this point, I just want it to be over, and she's still p because now she has to wait seven minutes for the driver to arrive. Once she's picked up, she goes home, and then once she's there, I get a text telling me that the traffic was so smooth it was no time at all, basically giving mel home. for not driving her
    via u/Karnakite
  • 12
    We remained cordial at the office but I've never invited a coworker out since. Edit for clarification: This wasn't a date; we're both straight women and we have about forty years between us. She'd always been very sweet and normal at work, and even brought me a sandwich for lunch once that she'd made, so I wanted to return the favor.
    via u/Karnakite
  • 13
    As to why I "enabled" her - it was one of those times when you're in such a bizarre situation that you don't really know how to respond, and after you've had enough of the weirdness, you're willing to part with $25 just to get it over with, because you don't want to try to reason with someone who's already demonstrated a lack of reasoning. And I didn't want to deal with going into work again and dealing with her if I'd argued with her.
    via u/Karnakite
  • 14
    Sension5705 1 day ago edited 1 day ago Gah, I'm getting flashbacks from the time I treated a co- worker to lunch at McCormick & Schmick's and she unabashedly crowed about ordering the most expensive entree, dessert AND drinks
    via u/Karnakite
  • 15
    on the menu! She admitted she never would have tried those things if I wasn't paying. We were lateral workers, by the way, and she was well aware that earned about the same amount (and it wasn't a date, we're both straight women). Michele, you are a real piece of work.
    via u/Karnakite

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terrible coworkers workplace-stories work stories toxic-workplace job choosing beggars work coworkers reddit thread Reddit company toxic-work-environment
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