35 Times Service Industry Workers Celebrated Moments Of 'Instant Karma' After Dealing With Extremely Rude Customers

First off, let’s give a big round of applause to all the retail and service workers who continually go above and beyond in helping us out with our questions. After all, it’s no secret they’re doing a tough and thankless job. It takes patience and strength to deal with the challenges they face, whether it’s ignorant managers, long shifts, low pay, or terrible attitudes they have to take in daily. Still, time and again, customers show a complete lack of respect for their efforts but still expect that their rants and tantrums will be met with a smile.

Stories from this Ask Reddit thread prove that the old cliche "the customer is always right" is far from the truth. If fact, sometimes they’re just straight-up rude and have to be taken down a notch. While workers themselves are sometimes too polite or perhaps fearful or the customers going into full-on berserk mode, karmic fate sometimes takes the stage and shows these disrespectful people what the universe really thinks of their actions.

Alexander Kjerulf, the creator of The Chief Happiness Officer Blog and founder of Woohoo Inc., a training company specializing in happiness in the workplace, previously told us that some customers have been getting worse. That's partly why we see so many stories about their disrespectful and ignorant behaviors shared online.

"Especially in America, there's been an increase in entitled belligerent jerks who think they can get whatever they want if they yell loudly enough about it. But it's also because employees finally have online forums where they can share their stories and support each other," he told Bored Panda.  

According to him, when the customers are throwing accusations and insults at the staff like there’s no tomorrow, it’s the boss’ job to deal with them. "My advice to bosses is to kick those customers out," Kjerulf said. "They're bad for business, they cost a lot of time and money and they will never be happy no matter what you give them. In fact, if you give in this time, they'll be back soon with even stupider demands. Kick them out!"

We have long heard that good customer service includes leaving your personal troubles at the door and trying to help people leave with positive experiences they would later share with anyone who will listen. However, speaking to buyers with a forced smile and manufacturing your emotions can take an emotional and physical toll once you head home.

When your job involves meeting every client’s need with friendliness, no matter how unreasonable it may be, you’re experiencing something called emotional labor. According to Keren Levy’s article for BBC Worklife, the term was first coined by sociologist Arlie Hochschild. It describes the work we do to regulate our emotions to create "a publicly visible facial and bodily display within the workplace". In short, it’s when we put up a front and express emotions we don’t genuinely feel.

When employers expect a specific behavior from their staff when communicating with customers, employees may start to feel workplace anxiety. Especially when they have to deal with poor attitudes while feeling worried or frustrated themselves. "This continuous regulation of their own emotional expression can result in a reduced sense of self-worth and feeling disconnected from others," clinical and occupational psychologist Lucy Leonard said.

Alexander Kjerulf agrees with this line of thinking. "We know for a fact that having to fake emotions is stressful. And on top of that, it feels deeply unfair to see the worst customers get the most benefits through the brattiest behavior," he told Bored Panda. "It's about time that companies realize that coddling the worst customers is a terrible idea. It costs time and money AND it frustrates your employees. Stop doing it."