47-year-old nurse berates 23-year-old coworker for being young in front of a patient: 'IDK what your problem is [but] you will respect me!'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Mar 27, 2025 8:00 AM EDT

Age dynamics in the workplace can be difficult to navigate. People tend to project a lot onto their coworkers, especially if they are from another generation. It's as if all the narratives they have gathered about that generation are compiled and projected onto that person before they even open their mouths. Assumptions are made about how you deal with authority, technology, or your general way of life, and that's annoying. It becomes nearly impossible to prove your coworkers wrong when they have already decided who you are, what you value, and how you work. 

Keep scrolling below for this tale of an unfortunate generational divide among nurses!

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  • 01
    "She gave me attitude about how she knows [...] what she's doing like I haven't been doing this for 20 years"
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • This 23-year-old nurse was asked to help her 47-year-old coworker with moving a patient. She obliged and went out of her way to give her coworker a second hand. One would think this would lead to a pleasant exchange between the two ladies, but apparently, their generational differences were too challenging for the 47-year-old to get over. She ended up berating the author of this story in front of the patient, which only led to more fallout at work afterwards. 

  • 02
    I (23f) work night shift as a cna in a nursing home. Idk why the other cna I worked with last night felt the need to target me last night as it was my first time ever working with her (she's been there for only a couple weeks) but she very obviously singled me out looking for a problem.
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  • 03
    I am a hard worker and have zero interest in any kind of drama. I come to work to take care of my paitents and get paid then I leave. I may be overly bothered by this because I have anger problems
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  • 04
    that I work hard on keeping in control due to past trauma and Ik that I have to keep it together to be successful for my dream career so I just need to vent.
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  • 05
    This lady comes in a few minutes after me and I don't recognize her so I go out of my way to be helpful and ask her if she's familiar with the paitents she's assigned to and then give her a rundown of the paitents and their needs and let her know where I'll be if she needs help.
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  • 06
    After I finish checking on all my people I'm assigned to take care of for the night I sit down and start taking notes for a class I'm taking and she comes up and asks for help repositioning a paitent in bed that cant move on her own so i drop what I'm doing and go to help her.
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    (To reposition a paitent you first use the bed remote to lift the bed up to above your waist so that you don't hurt your back bending over and then you get someone on each side of the bed to lift them up and turn them and such)
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  • 08
    We get to the ladies room and I grab the bed remote and start lifting it up but it pauses for a second because of a shortage in the wires (cheap facilitie) so it takes me a little more than 2 seconds to reposition it to start lifting the bed
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  • 09
    some more and the other cna raises her voice at me while bobbing her head around with attitude that the bed needs to be way higher than that and I explained to her that I was trying to lift the bed up but it paused for a second and that I know how to do it.
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    She then goes off on me about what I am and am not allowed to say to her and acting so aggressive over nothing that even the paitent and her roommate are looking at her confused and concerned. I
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    didn't want to feed into her obvious attempts to make a scene so I shrug it off and finish helping her with repositioning the lady then turn around and walk out of the room and go back to the nurses station.
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  • 12
    Moments later I get up to answer a call light then when I am walking back to the nurses station the other cna is standing there and before I make it back to my seat she starts yelling at me about how she is 47 yrs old and a 20 yr old vet
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    and that I better watch my mouth and goes on and on and brings up my age several times and how she even has kids older than me and was saying stuff like idk what your
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  • 14
    problem is you will respect me (I litterly did not disrespect this woman once and even went out my way to be nice to her) and blah blah blah.
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  • 15
    The whole time I kept repeating that im not gonna argue with her I'm just here to do my job and I don't care about her age or her work experience. I told her just stop I'm not arguing with you multiple times but eventually just
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    walked away because I felt myself starting to shake and my heart start to race and I didn't want to go off and regret it later.
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    Cheezburger Image 10486028544
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • We can't help but feel sorry for anyone who gets unnecessarily chastised at work, especially when the only possible reason behind this was her young age. It's not the 23-year-old's fault that she has the same job as the 47-year-old. Get over yourself, Karen!

  • 18
    Like I said I have anger issues so I get out of sight and lock myself in a bathroom shaking trying to catch my breath while my heart is racing and pounding. I was nearly in tears because this woman was almost in my face about something stupid and I couldn't blow up about it. and I wanted to so bad.
    via Agile_Squirrel3715
  • 19
    I get myself together and once I stop shaking I walk out to the nurses station up to the nurse who witnessed it all and told her what happened in the paitents room meanwhile I can here the other cna talking loud af to the other nurse on all the way down the other hall about how "I didn't even do anything to that little white girl
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  • 20
    all I did was ask for help with Mrs paitents name and she gave me attitude about how she knows what she knows what shes doing like i haven't been doing this for 20 years blah blah blah" even though I had actually dropped what I was doing to help her with zero complaints.
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  • 21
    Then for the rest of the shift she was starting me down and gossiping with the other nurse but would get quite and try to listen to what I would say to my nurse even though it was all work related.
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  • 22
    I'm thinking about asking the DON (pretty much like a supervisor to nursing staff) to watch the camera at the nurses station so the can see how she jumped down my throat when I was minding my own business but I don't want to cause more problems. I probably sound ridiculous for getting so worked up over someone acting like a child but it really had me struggling to hold back.
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  • 23
    Expert-Angle-8214. NTA get the DON to check the cameras so you are covered in case she tries to make you look bad dont let her get away with being a bu y in the work place thats how accidents happen
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    Frog Lover618. I worked with a CNA like this. She was older and the only person who had worked at our facility long enough to train people. The problem with that is she would work
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  • 25
    one shift training a new person and then that person would quit and explain they were quitting because of this woman. Eventually, the DON had enough complaints
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  • 26
    as well as residents, that they finally fired her. Turns out she was treating the residents exactly the same as the rest of us in private and families started to complain. I would purposely go out of my way to be sickeningly sweet and nice to her because it got
    via Agile_Squirrel3715
  • 27
    under her skin that no matter how she treated me, I was always overly nice to her. She didn't get a rise out of me and her off. She told one it of the other CNAs that it was her goal to get me to quit, but
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  • 28
    she never broke me and was gone before I was. I made sure to tell her how much we would all miss her sweet disposition and all the help
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  • 29
    she would give us in the most b y tone possible when she left. That's when she finally realized that I acted the way I did towards her to her off.
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  • 30
    Prestigious-Ear-8877. you need to call out people who pull that IN THE MOMENT!! Let her know that her place is not down your throat. Don't ever allow anyone to treat you that way, or you will be forced to put up with it your entire career.
    via Agile_Squirrel3715

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terrible coworkers toxic-workplace nurse hospital work coworkers entitled people karma karen entitled people toxic-work-environment
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