3 Teenage employees work together to get back at entitled customers: 'You don't need to fire her over it'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Apr 5, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

There are few things that draw employees together like having an adversary in common. In some workplaces, dunking on the boss behind their back is the way to do it. In other places, sending snarky Slack messages about your clients can really unite the employees. Then of course, there are retail workers, who can be swiftly bonded together by their customers. Surviving the casual cruelty of a harried mom who wants her 7 AM latte or a businessman whose drip coffee isn't hot enough could bond any employees together like glue. 

While every retail or fast-food job has it's ups and downs, working with people who are hungry or thirsty is going to guarantee you get a few entitled grouches every day. These employees are teenagers, probably making minimum wage, so when they mess with their worst customers, they have no qualms about it. You can check out their story below and see if you agree with their questionable methods! 

Next, read about the 16-year-old who has a very lengthy process for getting ready every day, leading her dad to call it the "princess treatment": 'I want to look good.' 

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10490182656
    via Brooke Cagle For Unsplash+

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

  • 02
    I am a high schooler with a weekend job at a coffee shop. My coworkers who work weekends are: James the owners son, he goes - to my school. He's a shift manager but it's not a real formal thing, he's a friendly guy.
    via u/throwRA-fhfsveyary
  • 03
    Danielle - A college student who sometimes works weekends too. So sometimes customers will come in and just be angry about such little stuff. Like literally blow up about nothing. I dunno if theyre in a bad mood already and looking for someone to take it out on or what, but it's a lot... Like how sad so your have to be to be man taking your a grown-a anger out on high school and college kids.
    via u/throwRA-fhfsveyary
  • 04
    So James and I were joking about having a little fun with them and hopefully getting them off our backs. So one day I was at work and some guy was having a temper about how we don't make the coffee hot enough... Which I couldn't do a thing about because I gave it to him right out of the machine.
    via u/throwRA-fhfsveyary
  • 05
    So James came in and was like "sir is there a problem here" and the guy started ranting at him too. So he was just like "OP, this is unacceptable, you're fired." I started acting real sad, like "no please don't fire me, my family needs the money, I need this job, pleaseeee" and he played up being a hard-a, telling me to take off my apron and leave.
    via u/throwRA-fhfsveyary
  • 06
    The angry guy started to backtrack, like "It isn't that big of a problem, you don't need to fire her over it. I didn't mean it" and James was like "No, we pride ourselves on the best customer service" Of course after all that drama | still had my job, we were just acting. And we've done it a couple times, whenever a customer will lose their temper at Danielle or I, James will storm in
    via u/throwRA-fhfsveyary
  • 07
    and "fire" us. And almost every time, the person who had come in angry will apologise and say that they didn't mean it. It's kind of satisfying, making people realize their actions might actually have consequences.
    via u/throwRA-fhfsveyary
  • 08
    Anyway, I was telling my friends from school about this and a few of them thought it was a mean prank, to let someone go away thinking they'd gotten someone who desperately needs the money fired. AITA for this joke?
    via u/throwRA-fhfsveyary
  • 09
    Cheezburger Image 10490182912
    via Drew Alexander on Unsplash+

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

  • 10

    Commenters loved the idea of showing customers exactly how over the top they were acting

    bel... NTA That's a perfect way of dealing with hostile customers.
    via u/throwRA-fhfsveyary
  • 11
    lolak1445 NTA. I think it's hilarious and maybe it'll teach some people a lesson about controlling their assholery.
    via u/throwRA-fhfsveyary
  • 12
    BeardedBandit NTA - Customers can be Usually people are pretty respectful and reasonable, even when they have a legit complaint... but every now and then there's the one guy or gal that comes in and just can't be made happy. They're the worst.
    via u/throwRA-fhfsveyary
  • 13
    I've taken the approach of "killing with kindness" and being sarcastically polite... "oh, ok sir. I can microwave your coffee for you, would you like 2 minutes or 5?" it's fun, usually them off more but they can't do anything because you're not saying anything wrong.
    via u/throwRA-fhfsveyary
  • 14
    I'm curious how the customer acts when they come in the next day / following week and you're still behind the counter?
    via u/throwRA-fhfsveyary
  • 15
    Frejian ESH The customers are obviously for being for no good reason. Yes, you are a little bit of an a h le. Is it justified? Absolutely. Are you still an ah le? Yes. Unfortunately, in a customer service role,
    via u/throwRA-fhfsveyary
  • 16
    you are always going to have to deal with people who are angry over absolutely nothing. It is part of the job. Is it fair? No. In a perfect world, those customers would not exist, but we live in reality and that is part of the reality especially of that job.
    via u/throwRA-fhfsveyary

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workplace-stories jobs job work coworkers customers entitled customers workplace
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