Former Employees Admit What They Did To Customers To Get Themselves Fired
[rebelmouse-image 18349653 is_animated_gif=If you've ever worked retail, you understand the nearly countless ways in which the idea that "the customer is always right" just doesn't work. Sure, as a concept the customer demand dictates what an establishment carries and some of it's policies... but that's not what we mean. As individuals, customers can be, and often are very, very wrong. Almost all retail workers have had that moment where they wanted to speak their mind, but they knew it could mean losing their job. For a glorious few, they did it anyway. One reddit user asked:
People who lost their jobs by going off on a customer, what is your story?
We gathered up our favorites that made us laugh, cry, cringe, and applaud. We didn't have the courage to go off on Chronic-Expired-Coupon-Lady when we worked at Ross that one Christmas, but we can live vicariously through these verbal victories.
Three Halves
[rebelmouse-image 18349654 is_animated_gif=I used to work at pizza place in a small town when I was a teenager. One night I took a phone order from some idiot woman. It went like this:
Me:Thank you for calling "pizza place", may I take your order?
Customer: Yes, I'd like a large pizza. Half pepperoni, half sausage, and half black olives.
Me:Ok, did you want the toppings combined or separated?
Customer:No, I want half pepperoni, half sausage, and half black olives.
Me: _Ok so you want 1/3 pepperoni, 1/3 sausage, and 1/3 black olives?_
Customer:No! I want HALF PEPPERONI, HALF SAUSAGE, and HALF BLACK OLIVES!
Me: _I understand the toppings that you want, but I'm not understanding how you want us to put the toppings on your pizza. Do you want them separated by thirds? Combined together? Or do you mean put half the amount that we usually put on?_
Customer:What's so hard to understand?! I WANT...HALF...PEPPERONI...HALF...SAUSAGE...AND HALF...BLACK OLIVES!!!!!
Me:Lady, there's only 2 halves to a pizza!
Customer:I WANT TO SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER!!!
I got fired on the spot. It was easier for the manager to just hire another person than it was to lose a customer in a small town.
Oh, and the lady wanted the toppings divided into thirds. She told the manager the same thing and he just went with her math. She also got it for free.
Playing Mind Games
[rebelmouse-image 18349655 is_animated_gif=Worked at Gamestop. Some guy came in and had over 100 used games to trade, all with games and cases mismatched. It took about 45 minutes to process his ticket. When I told him the total, it was low - because Gamestop, and also they were all old, scratched games. This man then proceeded to try negotiate with me to which I kept telling him I can't change the price which only made him angrier and louder. Eventually he yelled:
"Listen, I need at least $300 for all of this shit and you're going to give it to me!"
First of all, I don't even have the ability to change the price, at all. Second of all, my coworker proceeded to put all of his games in a bag, walk outside and tossed them into the parking lot.
Store manager came out of the back room and fired my coworker dead on the spot. The guy stormed out, and the second he left my manager said:
"Jesus what was his f*cking problem? Alright, get back to work."
My coworker didn't get fired; it was just theatrics. I felt like an idiot for just standing there, but it was taking everything I had to not hop the counter and hit the guy.
Thrift Shop
[rebelmouse-image 18349656 is_animated_gif=A woman came into a charity/thrift shop and complained about every single item loudly to the other customers. She would say things along the lines of:
"This is all sh*t. Who pays for this?"
Like we're some boutique with clothes from the back of a van.
She clearly didn't understand how rarely new clothes with tags are donated. Then she got in my face about it. I was so angry with her for chasing away the other customers that I lost my cool. There was nobody left in the store except her. She'd annoyed them into leaving.
I told her to get out and I 'didn't give a sh*t' about the clothes or her opinions. She screams her way out of the shop broadcasting it to everyone on the street.
She came back once the manager was off their break and complained about me. I lost my job. I can't blame them, I'd have done the same.
Buffalo Wild Walkout
[rebelmouse-image 18349657 is_animated_gif=Working at Buffalo Wild Wings, keep in mind New Year's Eve one of busiest nights of the year. Opening employees have be in by 8 AM to prep food and get the store ready. When they showed up, no manager is there to open the store. The two employees involved had walked to work and stood outside in cold for almost two hours when another shows up with a phone to call the general manager and ask what's going on.
Turns out the opening shift manager forgot they were suppose to open. So the General Manager shows up on her day off to let employees in. She stays until the scheduled manager shows up. Now, keep in mind everyone is nearly two hours behind on their opening duties. Mrs Late Manager shows up does nothing; she sits down to do her make-up! She then asked my friend to do her opening duties while she fixes herself up. He declined because he had his own work to do, and hey you know shouldn't been late and now your here do your own work.
About twenty minutes later after doing her makeup she then said she needs to fix her hair and again asks my friend to do her work at this point after standing in the cold for nearly two hours and rushing to get 3 hours or work into 1 hour because of her tardiness he snaps back:
"Why don't you do it yourself?"
She replies "Well do you just want to go home?"
He says "F*CK YES" and walks out.
General manager texted a bit later asking what happened and he said "She told me to go home so I did and I wont be back."
High Fives On The Way Out.
[rebelmouse-image 18349658 is_animated_gif=Had a customer that, for at least a year, came into our store and was a master tactician in getting free goods by making up complaints against our staff. He would do all sorts of maneuvers like wanting products he knew we didn't carry, to making up complaints about our staff, to even complaining that he had been charged incorrectly.
If this guy was in the store, good luck if you were another customer. He would suck up all the oxygen in the place and demand service from multiple people at the same time. He got reduced prices and free merchandise and tons of coupons for his efforts.
My boss would never challenge this guy or protect his own staff from being exposed to losing their job to a customer who would happily see a member of our crew fired so he could get $5 off his next purchase. My boss wasn't entirely at fault since this was a giant corporation and he was merely towing the fabled "the customer is ALWAYS right" mantra.
I was already planning on leaving for a better opportunity and was going to give notice of resignation one week when this customer started giving me an incredibly difficult time about an issue I had nothing to do with and couldn't help him with. It was extremely busy and he was holding everyone up with his bullshit.
I made a quick value judgment, realized I was already out the door and the only thing I was still there to do was to honor my appropriate resignation notice. I had no designs of ever working for this horrible company or any company like it ever again. I found myself in a unique situation and wasn't going to let the opportunity pass. This guy had made life difficult for all of us for a long time.
Payback time.
I cut this guy off mid-sentence and just went off on him in front of a number of customers and part of our staff. I told him he was nothing more than a cheapskate grifter and told him I would no longer recognize him as a living, breathing, member of our species.
Then I told him to go f*ck himself. The look on his face was so goddamned beautiful. The entire store fell into silence and I just stared him down. He asked to speak to my manager and I doubled down by talking over his head, inviting the customer behind him to elbow up to the counter. I apologized to the new customer about the bad behavior of the guy who, at this point, had steam coming out of his ears.
Eventually when he realized he was getting nowhere waiting on me, he stormed off to find a manager. I finished my shift. I came back in the following day, was intercepted by a corporate manager I had rarely seen, taken upstairs and was getting lectured. I interrupted the scolding, revealed my intentions to leave this place, and quit right there.
I got a lot of high fives from the other members of the staff on my way out the door.
"Well Within Your Right" - Still Fired
[rebelmouse-image 18349660 is_animated_gif=I cleaned cars for a rental car company. One day, a customer comes in, already in a very bad mood. He saw me standing at the counter, and apparently this offended him to the point that he began to yell at me.
Long story short, I yelled back at him. Nothing came of it for over two months, until I was fired without warning.
The district manager who fired me said that even though everyone in the company who reviewed all the evidence pertaining to the incident had decided I was well within my rights as an employee to yell at the dude, they had to fire me because he was some big shot at a company that had a very lucrative contract with my employer. He had threatened to drop the contract unless they fired me.
Gambling Your Job
[rebelmouse-image 18349661 is_animated_gif=I worked in the rewards call center for a casino in my youth. People would call in an book rooms or show tickets with their reward points. Naturally, everyone calling for a free room wants it on a weekend or major holiday - and that just wasn't available.
A lady called to get a free night in the top end suite on Valentine's Day with two days notice. She lost her shit when I told her no. She kept saying she spends so much money and we don't even care enough to reward her loyalty; she even attacked me personally. I just couldn't do it anymore. I calmly explained to her that:
"I see you spend about $20 an hour in the casino, yeah we really don't care about you. You could never come back here again and literally no one would notice. You need to start betting more than your entire family will ever be worth before we actually start caring if you come back or not."
I obliged her request to speak with my supervisor and started packing my things.
3 Strikes Policy
[rebelmouse-image 18349662 is_animated_gif=Working at Burger King many years ago. I was working the drive-thru register, which was close enough to the front registers that I could hear conversations. One of my co-workers was taking an order from a lady who kept asking how much her total was, and then cancelling food on it and changing her mind. I guess she was trying to keep under a certain dollar amount?
Well, at the Burger King I worked at, any cancelled food on an order needed a manager's password. So the manager had come by 3 or 4 times at that point. This was during dinnertime, mind you, so there was a line of customers out the door waiting to order.
Finally, my co-worker pulled out a pad of paper and a calculator. He started writing this woman's order down and totaling it out by hand. The woman asked him why he was doing that, and he told her "When you make up your mind about what you want, then I'll put it in the register."
This pissed off the lady, so she grabbed the notebook and tried to hit my co-worker with it. He snatched it back from her and told her "Get the f* out." My manager was only going to write him up for it (since the manager agreed that the lady absolutely deserved it) but my manager had to follow company policy and he already had two write-ups on file, so she had to fire him.
Fired For Refusing To Kill?
[rebelmouse-image 18345240 is_animated_gif=Lost my position at a vet clinic.
Story goes like this: woman brought in her 5 year old dog that had diarrhea for the past week and had not been treated for it. She was tired of the dog messing in the house. So instead of having the dog treated for the condition, she decided she would rather just have the dog put down. She would rather see it die than to have a vet treat a simple case of the runs. I proceeded to call her a heartless b*tch while explaining to her the responsibilities that are involved when you decide you want to have a pet.
I was fired... I never looked back
Still Wrong
[rebelmouse-image 18349663 is_animated_gif=I was working chat tech support for a web host. Customer chatted in complaining of slowness claiming our servers were having issues. I do all the standard steps and we determine that his ISP is having issues. He doesn't believe me and becomes obstinate. So I end the chat by saying:
_"You're wrong!" _
About 10 minutes later I get a new chat. I see the account name and the question. It was the same guy with the same question. Without letting him say anything I write:
_"You're still wrong." _
and close the chat.
Roll On
[rebelmouse-image 18349664 is_animated_gif=I was blacklisted from sonic drive in for standing up for myself.
The store in Oak Hill was shut down and everyone fired because the manager was busted selling pot out of the trunk of his car. I was one of the "dream team" of hand picked sonic employees selected from around the city to bring the store back up to speed.
Our new manager had the initials "JT" and he was very proud of the fact that he comes from 5-star fine dining restaurant manager, and this was his first fast food experience. He was strict and that is ok, we were expected to be perfect. But he had a temper. One day he comes in squealing his tires and as soon as he hits the front door, he's screaming and cussing. I'm trying to take orders while releasing the talk button as he''s cussing employees, like reverse censoring. When I finish taking the order and turn around to see what is the issue, I notice the other car hop run to the back crying. He turns to me and says:
"And YOU, you little s*"
... so this guy is 5'-4" and I'm 6' and in roller skates... I rollover to him and stop a bare inch away and in a strong, clear voice I say:
_"Excuse me, SIR! I am a human being and when you speak to me it will be with decency and respect, do you understand?!" _
To which he replied:
_"Give me your apron" _
So I walk out and go directly to home office and talk to one of the executives, son of the owner, and relate how I love my job, I had worked for 9 different Sonics, won multiple awards, over the last decade and had been invited to VIP movie premiers, and was featured in the news with his father - the owner. I tell them I can no longer work with "JT" for creating a hostile work environment and asked to be reassigned back to MY store where I had been working. I was told he would call.
So he called. Turns out, JT had sold his restaurant as part of a messy divorce and invested several million dollars into the Austin Sonics Association of Franchise Owners, becoming full partner and part owner of almost every Sonic in the city. And he had me black listed.
I can no longer work for Sonic. I tried again to get a job several years later, but I was told they couldn't hire me still.
"You F*cked With The Wrong Clown!"
[rebelmouse-image 18349665 is_animated_gif=My first job was when I was 12 for a flower shop in town. They used to hire a kid to wear a clown costume and wear a sign that said "Roses 9.99/dozen."
All the job entailed was walking back and forth along a 20 foot strip of the sidewalk and wave at cars. Paid 30 bucks per 2 hour shift with cash at the end of every shift. It was awesome. Didn't work too hard and was allowed to listen to my music while I worked. Some people were really nice and occasionally would stop and ask if they could buy me a soda or something from the convenience store beside the flower shop because it was so hot. Other people were pricks who threw things at me from their car.
Anyway, one normal Saturday morning about 15 minutes before my shift was over, my dad pulls in to the parking lot to wait for me to finish up. A couple minutes later, some kid about my own age, maybe a little older, walking down the sidewalk spits in my face as he's walking past. That pissed me off to no degree. Like throw sh*t at me, whatever, but spitting in my face was fucking gross and I had enough.
*This clown snapped. *
I ripped off my sandwich board and kick the guys legs out from under him. Jump in to my best MMA mount and start raining fists and elbows as if I'm going for the clown college bantamweight championship. He's yelling and bleeding and I just keep hammering in to him and screaming that he f*cked with the wrong clown! My dad runs up and pulls me off of him and carries me in to the flower shop.
I was promptly fired. My dad took me for ice cream because he said nobody deserves to be treated like that, I did what he would have done and it was the funniest thing he's ever seen.
Busting More Than Blocks
[rebelmouse-image 18349667 is_animated_gif=I was working at Blockbuster while 17 and in high school. A middle aged guy came in and instead of using the drop slot to return his movie he casually tossed it across the counter and it hit a register hard enough to pop the case open. The people working the registers, myself included, kept an eye on him because our store was a hot spot for kids to come in without adult supervision to mess things up.
He chose a few movies, and walked up to the front of my line and waited for me to help him. I got his information up on screen and let him know we couldn't rent the movies he wanted unless he paid his late fee of $6. He flew off the handle, reached over the counter and grabbed my shirt threatening to have me fired. I punched him in the face trying to protect myself and chased him out into the parking lot.
When I came back in my manager took me into the back room, let me clean myself up and told me they had a zero tolerance policy for altercations in the store and fired me. On my way out there were customers that actually shook my hand and told me they would've done the same thing. That job was s* anyways so I was glad to be gone from there.
Got Hit By A Car, Still Got Fired
[rebelmouse-image 18349668 is_animated_gif=Many a year ago I worked at a home improvement store called Menard's. I was a cart pusher, which was nice as I was outside all the time. Anyway we gather about 25-30 shopping carts together and push them up to the entrance where they are stored inside. Now to get them there we do have to cross the main drive of the parking lot in front of the store. We always stop and let customers drive by.
So as I push the carts up I stop because I see a guy in an pretty nice SUV. He is actually stopped in front of the entrance maybe he dropped someone off I do not know. So I'm waiting to see if he drives off and he then looks at me and waves me across, looks like he wanted to finish a call he had gotten or something. So I wave back and start pushing the carts across. I am on the other side when some clips me across the shoulder blades and it stung somewhat and pushed me forward.
And at the same time I heard glass shatter, I turn around and the guy in the SUV clipped me with his side view mirror. It had swung closed and shattered the window in the door, and I'm just standing there wide eyed. 2 seconds later the guy gets out of his car swearing up a storm at me and how I'm a low life piece of s* and how I'm going to pay for a new window and that I'm not going to get anywhere in life because I broke his window.
Now I'm the type of person that if I was the reason I'll take the blame and fix the problem. But this guy hit me, I blew up on him for about 5 minutes before a manager finally had the guts to come over and pull me away. I didn't have to pay for a new window as it was on video, but I lost my job because we are not suppose to yell and cuss at the customer.
A Cutting Exchange
[rebelmouse-image 18349669 is_animated_gif=I used to cut hair. I was cutting a lady's hair when the child of lady waiting started running around the shop. I told the child several times to go sit with her mother and asked her mother to please keep her child seated next to her. Well, in the middle of cutting around my client's ear, the child ran into my work area, ran into me and almost caused me to cut my client. I looked at the child and firmly said "you need to go sit down with your mother now." Well her mom didn't like that and came running back to me and yelled:
"Don't tell my child what to do, I'm her parent."
I responded with:
"Then act like it."
She glared at me, grabbed her child and stormed out. Everyone in the shop was relieved the child had left. A few days later the owner came and tried to fire me for it, but luckily there were enough other stylists and clients that came to my defense about the danger of the situation and I only got a write up.
"I Miss Working There."
[rebelmouse-image 18349670 is_animated_gif=I worked at a furniture store as a sales associate. One day a husband and wife come in wanting to furnish their sons apartment that's going to college. They find all of the furniture pieces they want and I go to check stock on multiple items. Everything is in except the table top on the dining room set they wanted. I go back and tell the couple.
The husband throws an absolute hissy fit saying that he can't believe that we don't keep our products stocked (keep in mind that we are a huge furniture store). I calmly explain to him that we can't possibly keep all of our product in stock at all times and since the dining room table he wanted was a very popular set, it tended to go out of stock rather quickly. So, we would have to wait for that vendor to send us the table top which was about two weeks. I even tried to show them another table top that was in stock that was very similar to the one they picked out and he would not have it.
He started telling me that I was incompetent and how dare I insult him. He starts increasing his volume and now he is full out screaming at me about 10 inches away from my face. My manager walks from around the corner and looks at me questioningly (like the "do you got this?" face) I nodded at him that I had it, but he continued to stand within earshot. I then looked back to the customer and said in a nonchalant tone:
"I'm not going to help you, in fact no one here is going to help you. Now please get out of my store."
The customer looks at me bewildered and in full rage and demands to speak with my manager. Since my manager is standing right around the corner- he had heard everything. He goes over to the customer and says, "Well, you heard the lady." and asked the customer to leave.
I miss working there.
The People's Car
[rebelmouse-image 18349671 is_animated_gif=Back around 1969, I saw a service advisor at a VW dealership get fired for telling an irate customer "If you can't take a joke, you shouldn't have bought a Volkswagen."
The Smartest Place On Earth
[rebelmouse-image 18349672 is_animated_gif=Disneyland. I worked in the ticket booths. If you're an annual pass holder, and you're on the monthly contract, Disney takes automatic payments from your credit card. If your card expires or otherwise has to be changed, and you don't call to put a new card on file, the auto-payments stop and your pass freezes. No big deal; Disney doesn't hit you with fees or penalties. You simply call or come to the booth, and we handle it right then and there -- zippety-doo-dah, and in you go.
One day, I get a middle-aged couple whose passes froze. The man was upset, and ready to talk about it. A common question from guests is "Don't you send out late notices?" No, Disney doesn't because they're not practical - and again, there are no penalties anyway. Just come see us and we'll straighten you out. The man says to me in a disgusted tone, "You don't send notices when a pass freezes? How does that work?"
I said, "Well, you receive your credit card statement, you see that a recurring charge is not present on it, and you can expect the service related to the recurring charge to be interrupted, and that it must be related to your card having been replaced recently."
The wife smiled, the man's face reddened, and he leaned in and barked, _"Get your supervisor. I want to talk to somebody smart."
_To my shame, I said, _"Of course. Would you like someone smart enough to stay aware of their credit card use, or merely smart enough to read contracts they sign?"_
My booth lead happened to come over as soon as she heard "supervisor," so she was standing behind me when I said the emotional thing. It isn't how I wanted to go out (I was five days away from leaving for a new job), but I looked at it as a vicariously cathartic mic drop goodbye to my fellow cast members.
For them, it was a thrill.
H/T: Reddit
People Explain What Happened To The Popular Kids In School
Reddit user Just_Suspect5904 asked: 'People Explain What Happened To The Popular Kids After School Ended'
Being in high school is such a pivotal moment in a young adolescent's life.
They discover who they are and where they want to be. They start making tough decisions about their future and forge bonds with individuals who may continue to influence them as they navigate the world post-graduation.
But as it often happens, we all drift apart due to going to different colleges or embarking on other adventures.
It's not until several years pass that we wax nostalgic about our youth and wonder about the people with whom we once roamed the halls, carrying our textbooks and fixated on inconsequential matters that seemed like a big deal then.
Curious to hear from strangers online, Redditor Just_Suspect5904 asked:
"What happened to the most popular kids in your school?"
The following Redditors opened up about acquaintances that left an indelible mark on their memory.
The Parents Were Wrong About Him
"One of my best friends was from the wrong side of the tracks, poor, had a mullet and wore Metallica shirts way before they broke into mainstream."
"He was extremely popular because he was crazy smart, very talented and driven. Everyone wanted to be his friend and he was very open about being nice to everyone."
"Many many parents were like 'don’t hang out with that John Smith boy, he’s on drugs and a bad influence' (He absolutely was not, it was the Satanic scare of the late 80s and 90s and he liked Metal Music)"
"He worked his as off all his life and is now pretty damn wealthy with a house, wife and kids in California."
"When we chat it up on the phone he is the exact same person I grew up with. Crazy funny and extremely kind."
– Vitaminpartydrums
No Chance For Goodbyes
"Most popular kid in our school was a guy named Josh. Insanely outgoing and friendly, he could befriend anyone he talked to within five seconds, and always did. Active athlete, was on the football team. Straight A student. Very devout church-goer. I didn't meet him until later in high school, where he was part of a Dungeons and Dragons game I joined. Always put on a great time role playing. While we didn't get close, we had a couple extraordinarily memorable times during our senior year of high school, very fun and meaningful times that stood out strongly to me then during a shitty part of my life and are still remembered fondly by me twenty years later. Josh was going places, and he'd make a difference somewhere."
"We lost touch after high school. Three years later he fell asleep behind the wheel of his truck and hit a tree. Died on impact. Found out through another friend who'd kept up with him, and we went to his funeral. I'd never seen a church so packed full of people for something like this, hundreds and hundreds of people. From our school, from his church, from all over life, the church was legitimately full."
"To this day, one of my few true lifelong regrets is letting my anxiety get the better of me when Josh's pastor asked people to come up to the mic and say something about Josh. I should've told everyone of our ludicrous all-nighter digging his truck out of the mud in a forest he'd gone mudding in after an evening school performance where we were all still in khakis and polos, finishing at three AM and somehow ending our bedraggled a**es at IHOP after getting it out."
"I should've told everyone how we found out our DnD GM was moving away on short notice, and we high-tailed it to his place after school and literally ran out of gas in that f**king truck getting there, then flooded the engine refilling it from a Jerry can, stuck with our GM who didn't want anyone coming to say goodbye and ending up late in the evening laying in that truck bed talking about science and philosophy and religion, three teenage dudes waiting for that goddamn f'king truck to get to a drivable condition so we could say goodbye to our friend properly before he disappeared from our lives."
"I'm nearing forty, and I still regret not saying how great of a guy he was to a short, scrawny, long-haired metalhead weirdo like I was in high school. Because he was. He was going to make a difference. I suppose, given all the people at his funeral, he still did."
– token_bastard
Some failed to make much of an impression enough to stand out.
However, a discourse on cliques was started in the thread.
Unpopular Majority
"My HS graduating class was 952 people, I do not even know who the most popular people were, lol."
– CorruptDictator
"My class was about that size and I remember always thinking that many of the high school stereotypes you would see on TV and film didn't seem to apply at a school that huge. People who might have been the school bully in a smaller school are properly segregated, and people who might have been an outcast in a smaller school could always find a clique of similarly minded weirdos. Popularity was never a school-wide thing because the orchestra people, the jocks, and goths, the potheads, etc. all had their own separate leaders. Also as a result we would often have a lot of cross-clique friendships and mixed parties where most people tended to be generally cool with each other."
– soretti
The Thing About Bullies
"Apparently the cliques happen in medium size schools because my exceptional small school only ever had one kid that could represent each kind of classic clique. I think the school bully trope is strange because from my experience people are a d*ck to different people in different ways that might be considered bullying. Like orchestra kids might have been a group but perhaps there was a bully within that group that picked on other orchestra kids"
– Mediocre_Scott
New York City Does High School Different
"Same. it was 850 kids in my class. NYC. so no 'campus' just a single secure building (one of my schools was actually inside a sky scraper), kids didnt leave to get lunch (without cutting class), nobody drove and there was no parking lot to hang out in, there was no Football team, and just none of the tropes you see in the media. A lot of us worked after school. 80-something languages were spoken. everyone was from somewhere else, so there was no 'new kid in town' tropes. we didn't even have lockers!
"We also don't all go to our 'local'; schools, so the kids you went to school with in Elementary school are a different set of kids than from your Jr High, and are a different set of kids from your High School. And on top of that, you also had your own set of friends from your 'hood/block, so its not like you ALWAYS were with the same kids all the time all through childhood."
"Like on TV, the kids you are in class with, are also from your neighborhood and you hung out with them outside of school, and they were also the same kids you played on sports teams with. in my world, those were always different sets of kids."
"Extremely different from all the Suburban High School TV and Movie sh*t."
– super-antinatalist
People closely examined more about the differences between popular/unpopular demographics.
Privilege
"Small town."
"There are always exceptions, but most kids who were 'popular' were friendly, outgoing, well dressed, and emotionally stable. That happened because they came from families with more money and better educated parents."
"Those parents often provided better mentoring, ensured they went to college, and as a result the kids ended up professionals who did reasonably well for themselves."
– BeKindAndWorkHard
Assumptions
"This is a very unpopular and underreported reality, as the unpopular kids desperately want to believe the popular guys end up working at the local gas station or Walmart once their days as sports stars or heartthrobs are gone. While the nerds go on to become rich and successful exactly because of reasons that made them unpopular in school."
"Unfortunately for them, popularity is often based on social status and people skills. Two key assets in life at any age."
– Kalle_79
Study Shows
"I remember reading a study that says high school bullies were more likely to be successful than the average student from their class. Once again because outgoing people who are willing to have that aggressive personality are likely to be able to succeed more than a passive timid person. If that bully grows out of being a bully they're still going to have that outgoing aggressive personality."
– Tritium10
Misconception
"They're doing fine. Contrary to what Reddit would have you believe, most of the popular kids in schools weren't bullies in my experience. They were kids who for the most part were nice, had a stable home life, and maybe happened to be fairly athletic."
– GoldenFrog14
I managed to keep in touch with a handful of people from high school; therefore, I didn't think about anyone else from my class year.
That's why I never considered going to my high school reunion.
It's because I realized there was never a time when I wondered about how the popular students at my school were doing these days.
Have you?
There's nothing like leaving a movie theater having just seen an excellent movie.
Particularly one that took you by surprise.
Perhaps it was deeper and more meaningful than it purported itself to be, or on the flip side, had much more warmth and humor that you would have expected.
Or, the film took an unexpected twist that you never saw coming.
Resulting in your needing to bite your tongue until the rest of your friends and family see the film, and not spoil the surprise for them.
Redditor HornyCorny was curious to hear which plot twists left viewers utterly speechless, leading them to ask:
"What’s a movie twist that caught you completely off guard?"
He Didn't See It Coming Either!
"Brad Pitt in 'Burn After Reading'."
"So surprising and downright freaking hilarious."- thefirehairman
If The Shoe Fits...
"'The Shawshank Redemption'."
"Come on."
"It's not always a man notices another man's shoes."- FUBARspecimenT-89
Lucky For Some, Not For All...
"'Lucky Number Slevin'."
"Huge twist and very satisfying."- kvlr954
angry josh hartnett GIFGiphyRosie O'Donnell Would Agree...
"Fight Club."- BuchseeI
"once watched it with a friend who had never even heard of it, and she called the twist like, a half hour in."
"She said it as a joke and didn't realize she was right until the actual reveal, but still I was shook."- yugosaki
I See You Keyser Söze
"The ending of 'The Usual Suspects'."- Schwarzes__Loch
Definitive Shyamalan
''The Sixth Sense'."
'I love movies with plot twists, but I never imagined this one. It caught me completely off guard."- lucasduka
Haley Joel Osment Movie GIFGiphyThe Title Is Also Misleading...
"The second half of 'Parasite'."- iwontrememberthat4
Appropriately, They Really Toyed With Your Cognition
"'The Game'."- DudeHeadAwesome
"Good one!'
"I spent the entire movie going 'is it a game? Is it real?'"- fastpixels
There Were Definitely Ghosts...
"'The Others'."
"Unsuspected end."- NeckComprehensive743
scared horror film GIF by FilmStruckGiphyOne Unforgettable Opening Scene
"'Scream'."
"The Drew Barrymore role."- LivingTheLife53
The Real Reason Everyone Is Terrified Of Bees...
"When I was a kid, I wanted to feel good and happy."
"So at the video store, I decided to rent a movie with two happy laughing kids on the DVD cover, thinking it would be a feel-good playful story."
"That movie was 'My Girl'."
"Eff that movie."
"Seriously."
'The DVD cover lies."
"IT LIES."- buckyhermit
You THOUGHT you knew who the villains were...
"'From Dusk to Dawn' — midway point."
"Didn’t know at all what I was walking into when saw it in the theatre decades ago — just, you know, Salma Hayek. Good enough."
"Quentin Tarantino slurping tequila from her foot after it ran down the entire length of her leg — that was already a 'Holy WTF' moment."
"But then, well.. . you know."
"And if you don’t know — quick, go watch it. "
"No trailer, no synopsis, no summary."
"Find it and load it 'blind' and fasten your seatbelt."
"You’re in for a wild ride."- canada11235813
George Clooney Tarantino GIF by MIRAMAXGiphyIt's Title Is More Than Accurate!
"'Crazy Stupid Love'."
"The scene when the whole movie goes apesh*t in the yard is one of my all time favorite movie scenes."- Fimbulvintern
Trifecta Of Twists
"'The Others'."
"The end of 'The Mist'."
"'The Prestige' (though, I ALMOST had it figured out, but not quite)."- Krinks1
There's nothing better than when a movie surprises you.
Even if it does make talking about said movie with people who haven't seen it a bit more challenging.
Case in point, people who saw The Sixth Sense and The Usual Suspects after their endings were spoiled for them, don't seem to like those movies as much as those who went in blind.
Every family has its secrets.
It's up to every new generation to unearth it all.
Don't we all want to know if we're related to famous people?
Or what if we have a familial stake in lands and businesses?
Also, this is a good way to NOT end up dating blood relatives.
The more you know, the less awkward later.
As much as there is a lot of trauma there could be a lot of cool facts to to discuss at parties.
Redditor ForthrightPedant wanted to hear some interesting family histories, so they asked:
"What is a historical fact about your family that you think is kinda neat?"
I don't have any family history.
Of course I've done no investigating.
Maybe I do.
I should look!
Super Talent
Excited Happy Hour GIF by Boomerang OfficialGiphy"Great-grandpa created the Flintstones. Dan Gordon. Drew lots of Hannah-Barbara cartoons, and directed the first three animated Superman films at the beginning of WW2 as well as several seasons of Popeye, Scooby Doo, Smurfs, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound."
downnoutsavant
Bad Voyage
"My grandfather disliked America and wanted to return to Ireland. He booked passage on the Titanic’s return voyage. If it wouldn’t have sunk, no of us would be here."
mrseddievedder
"My great-grandmother was a Titanic survivor. She was a steerage-class Lebanese immigrant in an arranged marriage. Her husband went down with the ship but she managed to make it to a lifeboat and made it to the Carpathia. Then she remarried in a Lebanese neighborhood in Virginia. Had it not been for the iceberg that struck and sank the Titanic My family lineage would be different and I wouldn't be here. My family's official toast is 'to the iceberg.'"
jaspersurfer
Forgotten
"My husband's grandfather was one of the 'forgotten soldiers' in Canada. He was a Canadian-born Chinese man who asked the Canadian government to fight for his right to vote and a passport. Even tho he was born in Canada in the 20’s since he was Chinese he was not considered Canadian."
H"e was dropped into the Burma jungle and was told he would likely never return. He was in the 10% that did return. He was given the right to vote, to a passport, and to University."
"His wife is still alive today and my son is named after him."
cowskeeper
Can you imagine?
"My great-grandmother had 13 kids, so she was pregnant for literally a decade. There’s two hundred of us now, all because of this one woman."
CoverlessSkink
"My great grandma had 14 kids. My grandma was the youngest. She died giving birth to my grandma. The oldest child who was like 22 years old raised my grandma. My great-grandfather remarried a woman who had 10 kids of her own. My grandma would tell me stories of them all living together. Can u imagine? 😦."
Content_Pool_1391
Long Ago
american wtf GIF by unimpressionismGiphy"The land my dad was raised on and my cousins still live on was deeded to the family by George Washington as compensation for service during the Revolution. There was a document with his signature on it at the courthouse until a fire destroyed the records a few decades ago."
mustbethedragon
So much land and fortune and HISTORY has been lost due to fire.
Thank God we keep more than paper records now.
Over the Moon
Michael Jackson Dancing GIFGiphy"My second cousin is David Scott who walked on the Moon and drove the moon buggy. My mom does. He was so busy during the time when I was young that he even said later in life that he wished she’d gotten to know more of his family."
Roadgoddess
The Union
"Great-great-great grandfather on my mom's side was working his field in the part of Virginia that split off and became a new state because they didn't want to secede from The Union. Union soldiers came along looking for conscripts and he was a young, able-bodied man so they told him to come with them. He informed them he was a Quaker and thus a pacifist. According to family lore, that discussion went on for a bit but he would not give in. So they shot him and left him there. Good thing he had a couple of kids well before that day."
SpottyNoonerism
Opportiunities
"My great-grandfather was offered a chance to invest in a new invention by a guy by the name of Alexander Graham Bell. He declined, saying at most there would be one telephone per town."
Carson4307
"That is apparently my family too."
"One uncle apparently built a version of a hot water heater and then sold the design to GE for a good sum back then."
"Another uncle was asked if he wanted to be in a photo during his military service. He said no so they raised the flag on Iwo Jima without him in it."
"No idea if any of these are true, at best they are enhanced truths, but for me, I really hope they are true."
Jormungand1342
Underground
"I have a relative who worked for the Underground Railroad and had a price on her head in the South."
dahlia6767
"My uncle was a carpenter. And was doing restoration work on old houses in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Many of those old, historical homes had underground railroad passageways and hidden walls. He got to see and restore many of them. He had photos of some of the work he was doing and I got to see those as a kid. Living in Southern Ohio, we have a lot of rich underground railroad history here."
AddictiveArtistry
Family Empire
blood discussion GIFGiphy"My great-grandfather was the town police chief in the 1920s. His brother was the Mayor. Their cousins ran the casino."
"My family was a smaller version of Boardwalk Empire."
nowhereman136
Wouldn't we all love a show based on our families?
Then that's even more neat family history.
People Who Know Someone Super Rich Explain What Makes Them Different
The super wealthy aren't like most people.
How can they be?
They live in a world of rarefied air most people will never even glimpse.
That privilege inevitably warps perspectives.
Reddit user sunnybestie asked:
"To people who have also worked with multimillionaires or billionaires, what is something different they do from ordinary people?"
To Drive...
"Years ago a friend of mine’s dad was trying to sell his start-up company and picked-up an investor at the airport."
"He was proud of his classic Rolls Royce and noticed the investor looking around, playing with the air vents."
"So he said 'Is this your first time in a Rolls Royce?'.”
"The guy said no, but it was his first time in the front seat."
~ LanceFree
...Or Not To Drive
"I used to do in person one on one market research interviews with luxury car owners and one thing that struck me after hundreds of interviews was that the only people who drove Rolls Royce's themselves were self made 'new money' wealthy people."
"The old money people all HAD Rolls Royce's but they were driven around in them because one of the reasons that you get a Rolls is the incredible back seat. If the old money were driving themselves, then they would have luxury cars but they very rarely drove Rolls."
"It may have been one of those social faux pax to wealthy old money to be in the same seat as their drivers or something like that but I never actually asked about it."
~ alwaysfailatlife
Sharing Is Caring
"Well the owner of my small company is incredibly wealthy but also rad as f*ck and he drives a literal tank on property all the time just for the fun of it."
"He also owns a very old, gorgeous estate from an extremely influential family (think Vanderbilts) and we throw parties there. But on top of it, he lets his employeees borrow it for events."
"So my husband and I are throwing an anniversary party (never had a reception) in 2024. We have the entire estate and all 10 bedrooms for a whole weekend and it isn’t costing us a single dime.
"If I didn’t work for the company, the cost of the venue would be upwards of $25k for the day."
"I never expected someone so incredibly wealthy to be so down to earth and generous. It’s exactly who I would strive to be at that level of wealth."
~ HistoricalHeart
"Hire a private chef for a casual Tuesday lunch with her girlfriends..."
"$2k, just like that."
~ Tall-Poem-6808
"About 25 years ago, a friend of my dad was turning 65 and treated 50 of his best friends to fly 1st class to London for 5 days, INCLUDING tickets to Phantom of the Opera for all."
"One of his products was just picked up by Walmart for exclusive sale, and he wanted to spend a small bit of his good fortune."
~ perfect_square
Time Is Money
"He managed time very differently than anyone I was used to. E.g., our meeting with him began precisely on schedule, lasted 30 minutes, and there was no chit chat."
"Before this meeting we had a pre-meeting with his admin to discuss expectations. The admin explained that we had to be on time, no introductions/titles just name, no small talk, no marketing, be prepared to answer technical and financial questions quickly and succintly."
"For this latter, if there were numbers we had to know precisely which page of the material had the information."
"When the meeting took place we were brought in exactly—to the second—at the start time. Sat down and within 30 seconds he was asking us all manner of questions."
"I had to field technical questions that appear to be asked not so much for whether my answer was right, but that I didn't hesitate. I also gained a healthy respect for my manager as he was SHARP and answered quickly and accurately."
~ frank-sarno
Simple And Not So Simple Pleasures
"When in elementary school my son's friend's dad was one of the 2 founders of Capital One."
"Mom had a secretary for play dates."
"Dad would fly to London to watch Tottenham football matches—had a permanent seat. Their London house was next to J.K. Rowling's."
"You couldn't tell by the way they dressed or their cars. But their vacations were the big difference."
"Their son loved a mango juice sold maybe 10-15min from their house. I always made sure we had some at mine."
"I send it to him via Amazon occasionally."
~ dcgradc
Higher Expectations
"One old money rich person treated me to a fancy meal and she was super polite and nice and tipped well, what struck me was the decisiveness and confidence that everyone there would cater to her, and they did. She wanted x dish that they didn't make that day and they made it.
"The one that sticks with me was at the end she said "I want a cappuccino with (something) I want them to put a design on it" like I've gotten cute cappuccinos in my life, it doesn't even cost extra."
"It never occurred to me to just ask for everything I want all the time."
"This was the same person that on a business trip hugged me after the flight 'I did it!' Me: 'Oh was this your first time in economy' and she goes 'No, flying commercial'."
~ woman_thorned
"The expectation that someone else will always cater to you is spot-on."
"I work at a really fancy hotel within walking distance of an ivy league university, and the super wealthy people just... expect certain things."
"Most people around them who aren't their friends or family are considered 'the help' (even if they don't say it out loud)."
"They also feel pretty entitled to things, like they will just walk up behind the bar and grab a bottle of wine that they want."
~ Dana_Scully_MD
Fines Are Payment To Do Whatever You Want
"In SoCal there's been a little problem with water so fines were instituted for overuse. $10k/month for really excessive use—water management thought this would really put a stop to wasting water!"
"Folks with enormous lawns at their 2nd or 3rd home in Palm Springs considered $120k/year a 'gardening expense' and continued on as before. It wasn't even a blip on their radar."
"Things did improve a bit when the whole situation was 'named & shamed' in the media... but I bet they're back to the lawns again by now."
~ qpgmr
"For a rich person, anything illegal that results in a fine can be ignored because they do it then just pay the fine."
"Lawyers and political donations are there for the rest."
~ bk2947
"Punishable with a fine' means 'legal for a price'."
~ fightingfish278
"Wealth allows people to express their pre-existing antisocial tendencies."
"Some of us go out of our way not to make life harder for others. Others just don’t give a damn."
"We let the wealthy ones get away with it because of their money."
~ iuseallthebandwidth
Delegate The Mundane
"That's the thing with the extremely wealthy, an overwhelming portion of the time and effort that ordinary people expend just maintaining their lives are taken care of by other people."
"It's very easy to find the time for social and leisure activity when someone else is taking care of all of the mundane sh*t for you."
~ tacknosaddle
"That's the real answer: they have people who handle things for them."
"I dated a gal whose family was 'well off'—dad had sold a company you've heard of for about $600,000,000."
"The whole family had a 'professional assistant', Janice. If someone needed something arranged, text Janice."
"Seven course catered dinner on Christmas Eve? Text Janice. Prep the semi-private jet for a flight cross-country? Janice will set it up."
"Need the oil changed in the Chrysler Town & Country minivan (seriously)? Janice will have it done. Need access to the family's private ranch outside of Aspen? You'll work with the caretaker, and Janice will coordinate."
"I got to spend some time with Janice and she was paid very fairly for her work."
~ persondude27
It's certainly an entirely different way of life. Wish we could text Janice for some things, though!
Do you have any stories to add? Let us know in the comments below.