30 People Who Met A Real-Life ‘Karen’ Share Their Stories

Before they were referred to as ‘Karens'.

I had recently purchased a home and was in the process of repairing it. It was a steamy hot day, and I was waiting for the HVAC repairman hoping he could resurrect the air conditioner without breaking the bank.

The front driveway was shaded with a huge pecan tree that was like a canopy of shade. There weren’t many trees on the block, so there were frequently cars parked in the shade. I didn’t blame them! As long as they weren’t blocking my driveway, I had no concerns with who parked there.

I was on a ladder on the side of the house and heard a car stop and park. I was hoping it was the HVAC guy, but it was a sedan with two ladies. She parked so that her car completely blocked my driveway. I waved and tried to get her attention before she exited her car. She looked directly at me, and chose to ignore me. I begin walking toward her car. I am not even annoyed at this point. She can have some shade, she just can’t block the driveway. So, I waved again, but she was hurrying to exit her car. I asked her to move forward about six feet to leave my driveway clear. She ignored me.

The other lady with her clearly heard me as she turned and looked at me. Louder now, I said “Excuse me. You need to move your car out of my driveway”. She continued down the street with an armload of paperwork. No response whatsoever. I followed the ladies. I was now getting annoyed with her obvious decision to ignore me completely.

I saw my HVAC guy approaching, so I flagged him down and told him I would have the driveway open for him in a minute. I was gaining on “Karen”. I saw her stop, so I jogged the 20 steps to her and again asked her to move her car ahead a bit. She acted as though I am not even there, so I repeated my request, and she repeated her performance.

Okay, so now I was pissed. I stepped into her personal space and loudly repeat my request. She looked directly at me and stated that it is a state-funded street and she will park wherever she wants. I agreed, but I also informed her that she was impeding my access, and that isn’t within her rights. She repeated that she will park wherever she wants. I asked whom she is visiting and she said she has several friends who are on her roster to visit today. I looked and the papers are of a religious nature. I said, “You will move away from my driveway or you can explain your rights to security." and I headed for home.

She decided to further state her rights, and I decide to make that call. The HVAC guy had parked closely behind her car to glean a scant bit of shade. He said he is eating his lunch quickly. He was a bit early, so I offered him a cold drink of water while I make a call. He said he’s fine, so I proceeded to find the number for our security guys. I called and he says that they’ve had problems with her in the past and he would gladly refresh her with the rules again. He was there in minutes. I explained that she is welcomed to park in the shade, just not to block access to my driveway. I pointed to where she had gone and left to get the repairman started.

We were in the backyard when I heard a shriek. Apparently, Karen felt it was okay to push the security dude. It’s not! By the time I got to the front yard, the police were arriving. They arrested her at the request of the security dude, and her car was towed.

Karma got Karen that day!

You remember the Heelys craze, right? The sneakers with a wheel in the back of the heel so you could roller skate when you felt like it? When that was a big thing, Home Depot stores would play announcements telling people not to skate in the store. I’m walking down the aisle one day when that played, and at that very instant a child decided to skate on her Heelys as kind of a “you are not the boss of me” move. I simply said to the kid, “please don’t do that” and carried on with my task. The Karen who was her mother went to the assistant store manager to complain that one of us had the gall to speak to her daughter. Bad mistake: this ASM was a retired Army command sergeant major who turned in his f**ks when he made first sergeant. Apparently he went off on her for letting her kid do that. Two weeks later this ASM was gone. Not fired - promoted to store manager and sent to another building. Apparently they liked that he stood up for his people. Knowing that guy he’s probably a vice president in the company by now.

I had one slap me, once. I used “shopkeeper’s privilege” (she’d thrown her coffee at me, and didn’t want to pay for it) to detain her. Since the bruise came up nicely on my cheek and jaw by the time the cops arrived, her name was on the coffee cup, and we had cameras, there was little issue. We also banned her for life, of course.

A woman asked to cut me in the prescription pickup line because she was very sick. I was also very sick and could barely stand, but she was much older and the line was at least 12 people deep. I was going to agree. But then…

“Oh, just forget it!” she screamed. “I can already tell you're not gonna let me. You're heartless!”

“Well, you didn't give me a chance to respond,” I said.

“That's because you have no soul!” this Karen yelled.

I just nodded and said, “You're right. Enjoy the back of the line.”

She asked a few people behind me and they all said, “No.” I heard one man say, “I don't have a soul, either. Sorry.”

It was not my intention to rally the crowd behind me, but I guess once you're fed up with rude people, you just…are.

UPDATE: I am not sure if people are not reading my entire post, not reading it carefully or just trying to stir the pot, but I do not know what the woman's name actually was. It could have been Karen, Harriet or Hope. I don't care. She was, in my opinion, behaving like “A KAREN" A…Karen. I am not going to spend my time soothing the hurt feelings of people who LOOK for things to be hurt over and who have no sense of humor. Sorry! I am a nice person, but you're asking too much now. And BY THE WAY, one of the best bosses I've ever had was named Karen. Get over yourselves.

I am not going to describe a “Karen” moment but since I was for years “The Manager” that Karen requested I’ll describe how I deal with Karens.

My… support function is around IT. So I frequently used to receive requests to speak to Karen because apparently her device did not fry potatoes or read her star signs properly.

In all cases Karen had spoken to the reception and then to a specialised technician before demanding to speak to “the top”.

I found out than in 90% of all Karens, I was able to persuade them that they were not right by repeating exactly what the technician had told them. In order to better establish what may have been a casual observation, at one time I listened to what the technician was saying from the next room and when Karen mentioned “your manager” I was there within 20′’. I repeated exactly what the technician (who was standing right there) had said with no embellishment or further explanation whatsoever.

Karen smiled politely, then said “Oh, I see. Thank you very much” and left.

That was it.

From that point onwards we appointed a “Karen designated Manager”. A couple of senior technicians rotating on the “Karen watch” playing the role of The Manager.

It worked. It still does. And when it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Whether it is me or someone else doesn’t really matter, that is the whole point!

So, next time you get a “Karen moment” just think… “The Manager” you speak to may not be the manager. At all.

I was at Best Buy a number of years ago. I heard two people talking about a computer they were looking at and they had some questions. So I politely introduced myself and asked if I could help. Got them squared away and then went on about my business.

Then someone started clearing their throat. I didn’t think anything of it because I was engrossed in what I was doing. Finally, I heard an exasperated sigh and a rude tap on my shoulder. I turn around and look down to see a clearly angry lady standing there.

I turned to her:

Me: Ummm… yes?

Karen: sigh… hello, I need help with a cell phone.

Me: ok…

Karen: well, are you going to help me?

Me: Mam, I don’t work here…

Karen: Look, I know this isn’t your dept. but I waited patiently while you helped that couple for 20 min, and I know you are just a lowly peon, but you could at least get me some help.

Me: Look lady, I don’t work here.

Karen: That’s it, I am going to have your job!

And she stomped off. I shrugged it off and didn’t think about her again.

5 min later she comes back with another guy.

Karen: I want this person disciplined. He was disrespectful, rude, and refused to help me.

Best Buy Guy: Mam, he doesn’t work here.

That’s when I had an epiphany. I look down and realized I was wearing khaki pants and a blue polo shirt.

Karen: Good! I told you I would have your job!

Best Buy Guy: No mam, I can’t fire him, he is not an employee, see, I have the logo and he doesn’t now how may *I* help you.

Karen: Oh this is ridiculous, you stupid bastards are just sticking together. I am writing corporate to complain and I am NEVER coming to this Radio Shack again!!

Best Buy dude and I look at each other and in almost unison say: “Ok then” and watch her storm off.

This happened to me at the pool today. I walk to a shaded area to set up my chair. I’m conscientious about not taking up too much space so others can use the shade, too. People bring their own chairs or towels to sit on since the pool kept the chaise lounges stored. I notice that there are 5 towels on the ground taking up nearly all the shade, but no one is using them. After about an hour of the towels being vacant, a Karen walks up and this is how the conversation goes:

Karen (in a snarky tone): Is this your chair?

Me (took a break to lay with my son in the sun, but I’m still close by; I’m also listening to a podcast and not quite catching everything she says): Yes - do you need me to move it?

Karen: (Gets loud and says something snarky)

Me: Is there a problem?

Karen: Your chair is not six feet away from us. What is WRONG with you? What if I have a sick child?”

Me (Now it’s on like Donkey Kong): Ok, KAREN, then maybe you shouldn’t be at the pool in the first place. And maybe you should think about not laying five towels down to hog all the shade and then not using the space for at least an hour.

Karen: Says something nasty (cannot understand as I am trying to peacefully listen to my podcast again).

Me: (I flip her the bird)

Karen: Oh, that’s a real nice gesture to use in front of your son.

Me: I’m showing my son how to stand up to bullies. YOU are a bully.

Karen: (doesn’t say a word)

A woman at the U-Haul counter got into a very loud argument with the clerk about being charged for a day she had the truck but did not use it, due to inclement weather. Why should she be charged for a day she had the truck but did not drive it?

I went to visit with some friends , They lived in a new condo community down by the wharf(which is a waterfront property), With them being a very young couple, and I guess they didn’t look rich, This Karen walks up to us while we were waiting in the lobby for the elevator, she just opens up and says what are you doing in here! And one of the young persons quickly responded with her Keys & ,elevator card that “ I live here”!!! And we got on the elevator and left her butt in the lobby with a smirk on her face! The nerve of some people!

Ooooo! I have a simultaneous Karen AND mansplained moment to share. I was still going to school so working as an admin for a computer company in Texas. One of our employees (I’ll call him Tom) was going to a conference. I’d made the reservations at X hotel (I can’t even remember where now). He was arriving on May 4 for 6 days, although the conference didn’t start until May 5..

Two days before the conference, Tom told me that he would not be going a day early after all and to let the hotel know. No problem. I called and here’s how the conversation went (about 6 times in a circular frenzy of insanity):

Me: Tom Lastname has a reservation starting on May 4, but he now won’t be arriving until May 5. He doesn’t need the room the first night.

Her: I’m sorry but we’re all booked up. We have no openings for May 5.

Me: Yes, I know. He already has a room. We’ll pay for the first night even though he won’t check in. We don’t want that room given away because he is a no-show. He will arrive on May 5.

Her: I’m sorry but we’re all booked up. We have no openings for May 5.

Me: Yes, I KNOW. He is arriving on May 5 but he already has a room starting on May 4. It’s one of the rooms that you show as already reserved. He just won’t be there on May 4. He’ll be there on May 5.

(To minimize reader pain here, I’ll stop, but this conversation continued for at least 2 more rounds.)

Here’s where the mansplaining comes in. Tom happened to walk up during part of one of the repeated rounds of the above. Tom gave me a condescending look and held out his hand for the phone, saying “I’ll take care of it.”

Tom began, “Hi, I’m Tom Lastname and I have a reservation starting on May 4 but I won’t be arriving now untIL May 5.”

As he said the above, he continued looking condescendingly at me. His smirk suddenly faded as he replied, “Yes I know you are booked up on the 5th. I’ll pay for the room starting on the 4th, but I won’t be checking in.”

He had almost the same exact conversation I’d already had 3–4 times. He finally sighed, handed the phone back to me, and walked off.

Then the Karen moment came in. I didn’t even try to talk to the young woman again. I just asked for the manager. I told him what had happened and he uttered a huge sigh before apologizing. He said, “I’ll have to talk to them again. They can’t understand that my instructions are not black and white. They can’t seem to handle any grey areas that deviate from ‘we have no openings’.”

Tom never did apologize to me for assuming I was an idiot who could not convey simple instructions.

Well. it happened to me - ended up getting reported for my ‘attitude’. Luckily, my manager was supportive. We also had CCTV…

Was working in an outdoor goods store. One summer we had a display of Gazebos & accessories. A woman, accompanied by her kids, came up to the till with a £100 gazebo. Put it through the till. asked her if she was paying by cash or card.

‘That’ll be £100, please’

‘No’, she says, it’s £10, not £100′. I explained that it was indeed £100, the £10 item was next door on the shelving. I looked, & sure enough the labels had been switched.

‘I work for Trading Standards, you MUST sell it to me for £10’.

I politely declined, & she stormed out. Reported me to Head Office. As above, my boss was supportive. We checked the CCTV. Clearly showed her standing in front of the display, blocking the line of sight from the till, while her kids swapped the shelf tickets.

Karen did indeed work for TS, & talking to other shop staff on the park this was her regular modus operandi.

Wel, this one nearly made me some slap her. I had been called off the sales floor from my work to ring customers. A woman and her son, about 10 years, were next. She has 3!or 5 articles of clothing which I rang up and I then told her the total. She informed me that she has already given me her credit card, I informed her that I did not have it. She went off on a tangent about how she’s put the card right here on the counter, jabbing the spot on the counter. I again told her I didn’t have it, hadn’t seen it on the counter and hadn’t picked it up. She insisted I had it and that I had better give it back to her, and a few other choice comments. At this point I told her that we recommended to never put a card down on the counter, we’d had several con artists who worked in pairs to steal cards, she said I’d already done that. So now we’re at the “I want a manager” stage, I ask the supervisor to call one up. The manager arrived. She informs the manager he has to call the police. Then her son moved his arm and said to his mom “Here I have it.” It had been under his forearm the whole 10 minutes or so that she’d gone after me. She told me to pick it up and finish her transaction. I did, the kid laughed looking me straight in the eyes. My manager saw what had happened and banned them from the store, she had to sign paperwork to that effect. This was all pre cell phones and cameras in the stores.

It was the 1990’s and a woman hit my from behind (hit my car) while I was waiting to turn into a side street. I got out and there was no damage to my car and some to hers. She said “don’t be mad”, and it flipped my switch to Karen mode. I yelled at her and she started to cry. I immediately realized I was being a d**k and this was not necessary and apologized.

I was biking on the side walk, Cause my parents didn’t let me bike on the road yet.(I was 7) So I was just biking, and There was a women walking by, so I went onto the grass. In her words, this is what she said:”Get off the sidewalk! You here the walk in it? That's cause you need to WALK on it!! Now get off the sideWALK and onto the road!” I said no. She said said she was an adult so I needed to listen. I said My parents told me to not go on the road, and then we just kinda kept on going like that until she got mad and ran away.

My latest Karen experience was when I was waiting in line to check out and the 15 and under cashier offered to check me out as she had no one waiting. Just as I was starting to check out aKaren came up and began chewing me out for being in 15 and under line as I obviously had 16 items. She proceeded to lecture me on what the sign stated. So took my items and split them into two shopping ring ups saying sorry she didn’t want them rung together so I now have to take longer to ring them up separately for each family as I was shopping for a couple families in my neighborhood that are afraid to go out due to COVID-19 so I offered to do a no contact drop for them on my way home from work. Karen gave an exasperating huff after that and the lady behind her told the Karen to get a grip.

I was on my way into a store and noticed a young mother with two small children walking up to the door from my left side. She was holding each child by the hand. As I approached the door I entered and held it open for her. She proceeded to berate me for holding open the door! She screamed and cussed at me. She said things like, “You don’t have to hold the door!!”, “Do I look like a *%@!@ invalid?!”, “I can take the *@#)!( care of myself!”, Etc., etc. I simply replied, “ I was only trying to be nice” and something like, “Nice language to use in front of the children!”. Then, I just continued on my way. I’ll never forget that, it caught me totally off guard.

I guess I had a “Karen” moment but I would say it was completely justified. Here’s why: I was getting my nails done for my birthday bash and the nails were looking great. All of a sudden the nail technician took out his acetone and took everything off the nails. He said, “You were doing gel right?” Shaking my head in disbelief I said, “Yes, why did you take them out?” He said he accidentally did regular nail polish on my nails and would re-do them. It was a busy day for me, but I wouldn’t mind waiting, as long as my nails looked good so I agreed. But here’s where I felt like things were heading left. The nail technician said he would charge me more for removing the nail polish. Why would he charge me for his mistake? After this, my mother had come in the nail salon to check to see if I was done and when she saw my nails looking the exact way they had look 30 minutes ago she asked what happened. So she told me to get up and I did and said either he do my nails again and take off the charge for the nail polish removing or refund us entirely. He was being rude about it and didn’t budge. But with my mom’s convincing, he eventually agreed to doing my nails without putting the nail removing charge, but for his rudeness we should have left regardless. And since time was wasted, I just decided to get them done but never come back. The pandemic came soon after so I guess that gave them a good lesson to treat their customers a bit better.

Not one but two. About eight years ago I was starting a new job. I needed it. I had been laid off of a very good paying job about a year earlier and was working an “in between job” to get by til something better came along and this was it. I’m just a waiter but as anyone who works in the service industry knows not all waitering jobs are alike. In the right place I can bring home over a grand over the course of four nights.

Anyway as the new guy I was given the task of opening up the restaurant. This meant arranging tables and setting them up, stocking the bar and waiters station, counting the register, confirming reservations for the day. As i was new and still figuring out where things were and went I came in about a half an hour early to get ready for our 11:30 opening.

Before anyone else on staff showed up to work a loud knock comes from our locked front door. I go to see whos there and two elderly women want to come in and be seated for service. I tell them we open for service at 11:30 and they weren’t having it. They wanted to be seated NOW, they have a groupon which was set to expire and they demand service. They insisted our website stated we open at 10:30. Told them we couldnt have people in the restaurant while we were setting up but we’d be happy to take care of them when we open. They demanded to speak to a manager, told them I was the only one here, then they asked me if I was a manger, I said no and they replied with “I look too stupid to be a manager”. They then proceeded to seat themselves in our outdoor patio area. fine. they were out of my way I could proceed with my tasks…except they decided to start calling the restaurant. the phone would ring, I would go over to pick it up, they would swear at me, hang up and then do it again. After the third or fourth time I just let the phone ring and the other old lady got up and just started pounding on the door to be let in while the other was on the phone letting it ring.

Mind you even if I did let them in the cooks werent even in to start their own set up and prep.

At this point the other waiter on schedule shows up and asks whats going on. I explain, he goes out to tell them the same things i did and they gave him the same work over treatment of yelling, demands and insults. How dare we deny them service. Were going to get fired, they’re going to have our jobs.

11:30 rolls around, the kitchen is up and ready for service, we’re up and ready for service. The two old ladies barge in and shove their groupon coupon in my co workers face to which he replies “Ma’am. Our establishment does not accept groupons. If you had read the name and address of the restaurant the groupon is attached to and compared it to the name of our restaurant on the front door youve been pounding on for the past hour you would have discovered you are at the wrong restaurant.”.

They slink off.

Doesnt end there. They went onto Zagat and posted a review about as long as this post over what a horrible restaurant experience they had, we were infested with rts, the place was filthy and we should all be fired and shut down…

Apologies, but here’s another banking story. I was the branch manager of Hammersmith and its sub-branch in Shepherds Bush. Hammersmith was an “angry” branch, always very busy and with an amazing cross-section of customers. BBC stars, Wimbledon tennis players, to illegal immigrants trying to open an account. A real cross-section of British society.

My staff were brilliant. Most had worked there for several years and, like our customers, were a varied bunch. My assistant manager, Jack, was a proud Irishman, then there we had several whose parents were from Africa, Asia, an eastern European nation (my memory isn't as good as it once was) and two from the Middle-East. A propper United Nations.

To set the scene, I’d been a bank manager for over two decades and this was the sixth branch in my managerial career. After a time, you normally get a sixth sense about customers, telling you which ones are going to be fun, rude or downright dangerous. It was yet another busy afternoon in Hammersmith when a commotion began in the banking hall. One of the ladies out front warned me it was kicking off, so I went outside to see if my help was needed.

Picture it; my male, thirty-year-old Pakistani-descended clerk (let’s call him Vinu) was being shouted at by a very tall (and large) lady in the full Muslim get-up. Black, sack-like garb, head covered (but not, unfortunately, her face or mouth) and a real attitude, so let’s call her Karen. Five or six other, but much smaller, Muslim women surrounded her, all keeping quiet.

I just knew she was going to be trouble. Karen was obviously a Muslim convert, and from the mouth on her, was from good English East End stock…just like me. In my experience, converts are the worst: intolerant and normally full of righteous zeal. Shudder.

I asked what the problem was, only to be shouted at myself. From what I could gather, Vinu had disrespected her and Islam, She demanded he be sacked and made an example of, blah blah. Now, poor Vinu, despite his Hindu name, was actually a devout Muslim and had only recently come back from his pilgrimage to Mecca. I’d allowed him to take his full annual leave in one go so he could take his ageing parents with him. Really good bloke, wouldn’t say boo to a goose.

I invited her into my office and while she was struggling to clear the door sides with her troop, I motioned over one of my ladies. From my previous dealings with Saudi and other female Arab customers, I always asked if they would prefer to have a female present, so I called over another female Asian member of staff to be my witness and, in this instance, MY chaperone. Experience taught me never to be alone in a room with a strange female customer that held a grudge or wanted to b***h: always have a chaperone.
But I digress. Karen went into one, complaining that as a Hindu he had insulted Islam and she was going to tell everyone about it and that both he and I were racist, sexist, Islamaphobes. She didn’t like my staff either, especially when my chaperone piped up and told her to stop being so aggressive! I then asked if she had ever made the Haj? No, but she was planning to at some point. I then took great pleasure in pointing out that Vinu had literally just come back and was a very devout soul. Was she sure he had disrespected Islam? Why would a devout Muslim want to insult his own faith?

The look on her fat face was priceless and it got better when I barred her from my branch. Horrid cow. We never did get a complaint from her in any form.

What is a male Karen? Ken? Whatever let’s stick with Karen.

I live in a vacation destination. Expensive lakeshore homes are often owned by wealthy families from big cities. I also work in automotive.

So Karen comes in and wants something maintenance done. Specifically an alignment. Now to be clear alignments are NEVER an emergency. The good news is he gets to talk to my business partner. I’m not really paying attention because she greeted him and I’m doing whatever.

My partner explains to him when we are scheduling. He wants it done first because he had new tires put on before he left big city but didn’t want to pay their prices for further service and is on vacation here.

My partner reiterated the schedule and tells him if he wants to drop the vehicle off and leave it, if we get an opening or cancellation, we will do our best to get it in. I’m now paying some attention. This is a male dominated industry and some of them get a bit abusive to her especially customers.

“Nope. I’m from [big city] and you need to do it now”

“Sir in order to do that I would have to start calling customers we have already made commitments to and tell them we cannot honor them”

Then the words I will not forget “Well missy you’re just going to have to start calling them or I will.” At this point I have had enough. I simply look over at him and explain to him there is no circumstance in which I will be there and we will work in his vehicle.

He suggests to me I don’t know what I’m talking about and am about to be fired. I shrug, tell him no problem, for a check for several million dollars I’ll have the lawyer draw up the agreement, he can fire both of us and try to convince the techs to work directly for him but I was pretty certain, given the bonus I would promise them for change of ownership, that none would be in a position to work for someone with his attitude.

I did end up escorting him to the door. It was over a decade ago. I will never forget him.