For some odd reason, a lot of people seem to think the world revolved around them. They're never wrong, they should get what they want, and are generally very unpleasant to be around. Although, there's one good thing about them: when they get put in their rightful place.
People on Reddit share the best "You have no power here" moments they've seen. Content has been edited for clarity.
He Was Not Going To Put Up With That
“I used to work for a super rude manager when I worked at McDonald’s. This guy was horrible to us. He was constantly bullying us, trash-talking us to the customers, and doing everything in his power to make us miserable. Well, so many people complained about him that he ended up getting fired.
The new manager was great. He was super chill and understanding with us all. A couple of weeks after he took over, the old manager comes in and starts talking about how terrible the store looks, how our service is terrible, and how much this store needs him. The new manager looked at him and said, ‘If you don’t leave, then the cops are going to make you.’
When the old manager didn’t move, the new awesome manager stuck to his words and called the cops. The old manager is no longer allowed on ANY McDonald’s property in the city, and has a restraining order against him.”
“I’ll Say Whatever I Want!”
“The guy that I’d gone on a few dates with introduced me to his parents. Things were well, or so I thought.
When he drove me home, we end up talking and drinking a few drinks. I didn’t want him on the road with any drinks in his system, and I enjoyed his company. We end up hanging out until three in the morning. His mom starts blowing up his phone, demanding that he comes home. So he drives himself home to find that he’s been locked out of his house.
His mom said that he can sleep outside, and he shouldn’t be spending time with someone like me (still don’t know what she meant by that). She also said I’m ‘just another stop on the sleeping train.’
He tells her not to talk about me like that, to which she says, ‘When you’re under my roof, I’ll say whatever I want about whoever I want!’
So. he picks up his phone, calls me, asks if he can stay at my place for a little while.
It’s been seven years, we’re engaged, have a dog, a cat, and a happy life.
I also plan on throwing some subtle train themes into the wedding/celebration just to spite my new mother-in-law.”
An Appropriate Name
“I was waiting for a friend to finish work – she worked at a restaurant so fancy, they had someone vetting guests at a podium outside.
The place was glitzy and the folks were glam, so the great and good would descend in droves. Those with a reservation were sent in; prospective walk-ins had to queue.
A limo sweeps up, and the driver jumps out and holds the door open to unleash a hat and dress. The woman accompanying said finery – a C-list actress from a regional daytime TV show – looked through everyone present and moved to enter.
She froze, appalled, when the guest-vetter intercepted, asking ‘Do you have a reservation?’
She must not have heard the question because she didn’t respond. Instead, she drew herself up to the full height of her couture and demanded, ‘Do you know who I am?’
‘Yes,’ said the maître d’. ‘Back of the queue.’
Oof.”
“It’s My House!”
“This is a bit silly, but gave me a great feeling of satisfaction. Due to the bad economy and poor money management, my parents have moved into the spare room of the house my husband and I bought a year ago. Things are mostly smooth, though I’m not the closest to them for several reasons.
The other evening, I was out gardening (because it’s hot during the day and we have the luck of having a streetlight right next to our front yard, keeping it pretty well illuminated even after sundown, I mostly garden at night), and I thought I had gotten the hose twisted, as it kept getting stuck. This went on for a bit but then I realized that it wasn’t stuck, but being pulled. I looked into the dim area just past the illumination of the streetlight and spied my father, crouched over and tugging the hose. Well, I did the only reasonable thing to do, and I sprayed him. He yelled and ran inside with me chasing.
Once he got inside he made a face and goes, ‘You can’t get me now! I’m inside!’ In that father-to-daughter-don’t-you-make-a-mess tone of voice.
I readied my hose, looked him in the eye, and said, ‘It’s my house.’
Then, I just freaking let loose with the hose. He was soaked. Worth cleaning up the mess for that moment of true fear in his eyes.”
So Nice Of Her To Help Out!
“A while back, I got a job as a popcorn monkey in the local cinema. This was a temporary thing while I figured out what the heck I was doing with my life.
There was a supervisor that had worked there since the site opened (around five years). She was a total nightmare of a person and had numerous complaints about her from countless staff.
In the first week, I nearly quit because of her attitude – as an example one night I was on a close, and basically cleaned the entirety of the front of the house on my own.
I stopped to take a drink of water and she marched up to me going, ‘WE DON’T PAY YOU TO STAND AROUND DRINKING YOU KNOW!’ to which I calmly responded that I was thirsty, and needed a drink of water. If she wanted to tell me I wasn’t allowed to have a glass of water then good luck, but I’m pretty sure health and safety would have something to say about that.
She huffed about not having had a break all day, which I ignored because it was not my freaking problem. But internally I was put out about it because it was totally freaking pointless to be such a brat about things.
About two weeks in, I get promoted to Supervisor as I was clearly extremely competent by their usual standards. On the flip side, she also gets promoted to Floor Manager. So she continues to work her little power trips and try and lord it over me (and everyone else)
Four weeks after that, I get another promotion to Floor Manager. At this point we’re equals, so she can’t boss me around anymore. So instead, she tries a different tack, which is to try and lord it over me with her superior knowledge of processes, where to find stuff, things of that nature.
My response is to go, ‘Oh, thanks! That’s so helpful, I mean you know how things work so much better than me, because you’ve been here for five years, and I’ve only been here six weeks.’
She had a face like a smacked donkey. It was delightful.”
“Who The Heck Do You Think You Are?”
“I got married two years ago overseas, because my wife is from Europe, and they have cool castles and amazing sights. My (Canadian) family and friends all came over because most had never been. We’re a little older, and well off, so we splurged.
The wedding was awesome, dinner amazing, reception was in full swing, and quite frankly, its a little warm. Warm for us Canadians… It was around 10 C, in early November. When you mix in wool suits, drinking, and lots of dancing, some of us Colonists were working up a bit of a sweat. Thankfully, the venue had a balcony, with huge doors.
I kept going over and opening them, as some folks were inside, some were outside, and there was a nice breeze. Throughout the night, I had to keep going over, because they were shut whenever I looked back.
Finally, after the 5th or 6th time, this guy followed me and demanded I keep the doors shut because it was cold inside. I didn’t know who he was, so he must have been a +1 of someone on my wife’s side.
So I was mighty confused when he said, and I quote, ‘Who the heck do you think you are keeping these doors open, and the temperature so low inside?’
‘I’m the guy who bought you dinner,’ I informed him.
I watched him go over to my now cousin-in-law and grab his coat, and almost pull her out the front door.
I thought one of my Groomsmen was going to burst he laughed so hard.”
He Did Not See That Coming
“I worked in management at a theater for a while. If the concession counter was slammed and I was able, I’d leave my post and help them sling popcorn.
One night while helping out, a particularly belligerent man started cussing out a 16-year-old girl on a cash register for being too slow, even suggesting she quit since she clearly couldn’t handle pushing buttons or scooping popcorn. It was pretty disgusting and I felt so bad for the girl.
So, I stepped in and told the guy that our employees have the right to refuse service to customers who harass them as part of our anti-harassment/discrimination policy, empathized that the lines were longer than usual, and suggested he should apologize and move on. He was so upset with me. Left half his order on the counter and started fuming off.
Anticipating his next move, I went back to my original post that night – as manager of the customer service kiosk. Oh boy, the look on his face when he saw me (Didn’t want a refund of his tickets though so I assume he watched the movie, without popcorn).”
“Never Said Another Word To Me”
“When I was in high school I worked at a popular warehouse club selling computers on the weekends. I was hired by the store manager via referral of a friend. I loved computers and they thought I’d make a good salesman, so my job was to stay in the computer department and sell computers; nothing else.
Well, one of the shift managers didn’t like that and started to insist that I needed to go fold clothes for a while. As in, half my darn shift. I told him that the store manager had instructed me never to leave the technology department, but he insisted. This went on for several weeks.
The store manager showed up one weekend when both the power tripping shift manager and I were working. The store manager walks up with the shift manager close behind. The store manager slaps a stack of greenbar paper (this was a while ago) down onto a shelf and points to some highlighted numbers.
He looks at the shift manager and says, ‘Do you see this? This is our average technology sales numbers for the weeks you are on shift. See this number over here? This is our average technology sales numbers for weeks you are not. At this point, it would be more cost-effective for me to simply fire you. What do you think of that solution?’
The guy stammers and stutters like a toddler caught bullying another kid on the playground. Fortunately, the dude wasn’t fired, but the store manager made it clear that when I was on shift, I was not to leave the technology department unless I was on break or there was a fire in the store. That shift manager never said another word to me.”
Oh, How The Tables Turn
“I wasn’t good at returning library books when I was a kid. I got lectured by my school librarian about it a lot.
Fast-forward twenty years, and I’m a supervisor at the local public library and my former now retired school librarian goes there. One day, I see her sneaking around the front desk instead of coming back to say hi to me. I immediately figure something’s up. I go up to say hi and she acts exasperated and tells me she was trying to avoid me because she had overdue books.
So I put on my reading glasses, pulled them down over my nose, and delivered the same lecture she’d given me countless times about being responsible and turning in books on time.”
“He Looked Absolutely Shocked”
“I worked for eight years servicing communications equipment on-site as a site manager; five of those years were as the department manager. When oil was found in our area, we got so busy we could barely even think. Most of my team were pulling 12+ hour days, six days a week, and we were struggling to hire people quick enough.
One day, the CEO texted and said he hired an assistant manager for me, which was something I desperately needed. I was dirty as heck from my previous job and swung by the store to pick him up and take him to one of our sites where he would be doing paperwork. The moment he got in the truck, he immediately started talking trash. He started telling me about how everything we were doing is messed, up and the department manager was a total moron and he would have my job within a few months.
I just sat and mostly listened. He obviously didn’t know anything about my industry. Every time he would say something wrong, I would try to politely correct him, and he’d either backtrack or insist that I was trained wrong. When we got to the site OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WEST TEXAS DESERT, he complained about the layer of dust on everything and ‘ordered me’ to clean up the entire site.
When I sat down at my desk, the guy continued to talk my ear off about everything that was wrong and chastised me for sitting down at my desk when he told me to clean up the site. So I called for a taxi, filled out a notice of termination, and handed it to him. He looked absolutely shocked. Then he defiantly protested that only the site manager could fire him. So I stuck my hand out for a handshake and introduced myself as the site manager.
I can teach anyone how to service equipment, but I don’t have a clue how to teach someone to not be an nightmare.”
He Thought He Was Worth So Much
“A few years ago, a guy stopped me in the hardware store and asked if I was a painter. I looked down at my painter’s whites and said, ‘Yeah I do historical restoration work.’
He asked how much I charge per hour, and when I told him, he immediately told me I was too expensive and dropped my rate by 25%. I had already given him my number, but he kept belittling me and saying I wasn’t worth it. I just told him that I already had a full-time job, and this would be in my off-hours, so it needed to be worth my while. He finally let me leave the store, then called me three or four times, each time hemming and hawing over if he wanted to actually use me or not. He kept talking about how he’s got a bunch of properties, it would be a sweet gig, but not at those prices. And I just kept telling him that’s fine, don’t use me if you don’t want to. Eventually, I recognized his number and stopped picking up.
He really thought he had some sort of power over me, and I’d jump at the opportunity. Luckily, I didn’t have to take the work, I was making good enough money as it was. He would have nitpicked absolutely everything, and probably not paid me at the end anyway. But he was so certain he’d have power in the situation, that he didn’t seem able to comprehend me not wanting to barter with him.”
“You Can’t Say That!”
“I worked at a movie theater, and some customers were adamant that a staff member had stolen their wallet after they dropped it. Turns out that these people just couldn’t see and found the wallet once they actually looked for it. They got irate with literally everyone, from the mall security to the managers to the staff.
Mall security finally said, ‘Get the heck out.’
The customers went, ‘You can’t say that! This isn’t your theater, we’re customers.’
The mall security guy promptly said, ‘This is my mall, and I can do whatever the heck I want.'”
Her Son Forgot To Do It
“My parents came to visit, and my mother, (who is very old-fashioned, she thinks the woman should be a homemaker and if not she shouldn’t out-earn the man kind of old-fashioned)
She told my wife (who makes stacks as a dev team manager compared to my peanuts as a sportswriter), ‘You know dear, you really should try to keep a cleaner house.’
And without looking up from her making lunch, my wife said, ‘Yeah your son forgot to clean this week before you guys flew in.’
The stunned look on my mom’s face was priceless.”
“She Gives Up, Then Immediately Tries Again”
“When I was working customer service for a restaurant delivery service (not unlike Door Dash), I had a customer send in a complaint about hair in their food. The hair was sitting on top of the food. I check their account, and they had one order on their account, which is a red flag.
I check their phone number and find multiple accounts, each of them were one or two orders. All of them were complaining about hair in the food. I deny a refund because the customer has actually used the same identical photo for the last order since they ordered the same thing. The customer tries to argue with me, threaten to never use the service again, typical stuff that they always say.
Eventually, the customer gives up and ends the call, then immediately tries again. I get the support request. See who it is, then deny the refund again. She ends the call, then tries again. The person behind me gets the call. I tap the person on the shoulder and show them what I pulled up on my screen and that person denies the refund.
The next day she calls back and tries again and is outside the refund window, so the customer demands to speak to a supervisor.
The supervisor bans her from the service for multiple fraudulent refund requests.”
He Finally Got His Chance
“I was about 12 years old, maybe younger. Often, I had been forced to stay with my Mom’s friends when she’d go out of town. The father was one of the worst people I had ever met. He’d do things like make tomatoes every night for dinner knowing I absolutely hated them. For a week. Threw me in a pool when I was small and he knew I couldn’t swim. Classic 70s ‘macho man.’ He literally tortured me every chance he’d get.
Anyway, we went out to dinner one night. My mom, her friends, their kids, and me. We were leaving the restaurant. I don’t remember what preceded it, but he said, ‘Go ahead, tough guy. Hit me as hard as you can right in the gut.’
He was thinking I wouldn’t do it because I was scared of him.
But this was my moment and I knew it. He was a small man, five feet, six inches. I was at least as tall as him already. And as he gave me his stupid grin, I pulled my fist back and freaking belted him in the gut with EVERY ounce of strength I could muster.
He immediately doubled over. He was so upset I had actually done it. He tried to turn it around on me, but his wife shut him up instantly.
‘You told him to do it. If you ‘weren’t ready’ it’s your fault, not his,’ she scolded him.
One of the most satisfying moments of my life. And one of the last times I had to endure Mr. Tough Guy.”
“Are You Going To Take Me To The Office?”
“My boyfriend told me this one from when he was in middle school.
The school he went to didn’t allow backpacks, same as my own, so students had to carry around folders and binders to their classes. Well, he had this cloth binder with a strap to go over his shoulder. What’s funny in retrospect is that I also had one of these in middle school and never got in trouble for them.
Anyway, he gets to school one day, and it’s already a few months into the year. He’s been using his strapped binder with no issue, but the Vice Principal saw it and approached him. The conversation went like this:
Vice Principal: ‘You’re not allowed to have backpacks, I’m going to have to take that from you until the end of the day.’
Boyfriend: ‘It’s not a backpack, it’s a binder with a strap.’
Vice Principal: ‘Well it looks like a backpack and it’s on your back, do you have any folders?’
Boyfriend: ‘No, I don’t this is all I have.’
Vice Principal: ‘Okay, you’re just going to have to empty it then and carry your papers to class until the end of the day.’
My boyfriend wasn’t having it; like any middle schooler, he would just cram his papers in there and didn’t want to carry a stack of papers around for the next 6 hours. He continues to disagree and she eventually takes him into the office. Conversation continues:
Vice Principal: ‘Can I take your papers out? You can have it back at the end of the day.’
Boyfriend: ‘No.’
Vice Principal: ‘Well you’re not leaving this office with it.’
Boyfriend: ‘That’s fine, I didn’t want to go to class anyway.’
This really makes her mad, and she says she’ll be back once he’s ready to have a polite discussion and leaves. Tries to sweat him out thinking he’d get so bored he’d rather just carry the papers to see his friends, but he is incredibly stubborn so that never happened. She eventually gets sick of him in there, and tells him fine, just get a new binder after that day and he agrees gets up and leaves the office.
He never got a new binder.
She would see him later in the halls for the rest of the year telling him, ‘You can’t have that.’
And each time he would retort with, ‘Are you going to take me to the office?’
He had it for the rest of the year.”
She Wanted What She Thought She Deserved
“A co-worker friend of mine was flying back from a sales conference in Vegas and he was able to upgrade to a first-class seat. We had this horrible sales Vice President that was on the same flight – she was the snobby, entitled type with a full-time nanny and giant mansion in the suburbs. She generally treated people who worked for her like servants.
She sees him in a first-class seat as she is making her way to the coach and asks him how he got that seat (he used points to upgrade). As people are getting settled in, she makes her way back up to the first-class cabin and asks to speak with the lead flight attendant. She tells him that one of her underlings is sitting in first class and that she needs to switch with him since she’s higher on the corporate ladder.
The guy can’t believe what he’s hearing, but she won’t take no for an answer. Finally, he tells her she has to go back to her seat, or she will be removed from the plane. She made a complete fool of herself in front of the whole first-class cabin.”
