I work in the middle of nowhere; the next closest store is twenty-five miles away, and Walmart is forty miles away. We are a convenience store that sells groceries and other convenience items. We have a set clientele and then a bunch of people who take day trips.

Day Trip Customer: “It’s cheaper at Walmart.”

Me: “I would expect so, it’s Walmart.”

Day Trip Customer: “That’s all you got to say?”

Me: “What else would you like me to say?”

Day Trip Customer: “That you’ll give me a price match.”

Me: “Okay, I’ll take the two dollars off to match Walmart, but I’ll add the eight dollars in gas it’ll cost you to drive to Walmart and back, so that’s [price six dollars more expensive], please.”

Day Trip Customer: “…f****** hillbilly.” *Starts to leave.*

Me: “That’s a term historically used for people living in the Appalachian mountains and Ozarks. I believe the derogatory term you’re looking for is Yokel.”

He gives me the finger and leaves for good.

I’m cashiering at a grocery store; we have a loyalty card system. A customer (with a loyalty card) comes into my checkout with a full cart and pays in cash. In fact, he pays in exact change.

As I’m counting it out, I hear this exchange between him and the next customer in line.

Next Customer: “Are you f****** kidding me? Just take the payment, lady!”

Current Customer: “Slow your roll, she’s gotta make sure I got the amount right.”

Next Customer: “What, so she doesn’t trust you?”

Current Customer: “What reason does she have to give me ANY sort of trust? I’m a complete stranger.

Next Customer: “You got their bull-s*** card, don’t you?”

Current Customer: “So does everyone else with half a brain who shops here regularly. They have NO reason to remember me. What is your PROBLEM?”

Next Customer: “I don’t want to be held up because some dumb-s*** cashier—”

Current Customer: “—is doing her job. You are LITERALLY complaining about the fact that she is doing her job, instead of enabling some jacka** to rip off the store. That’s all you’re doing.”

Next Customer: “Well, f*** you, a**hole!” *Storms off towards self-checkout.*

I might not have had a reason to remember him before, but I definitely do now!

A coworker has been on a call with a user for almost half an hour, trying to figure out why her computer isn’t powering up.

Coworker: “And you’re sure the outlet is working okay?”

Pause.

Coworker: “Wait, you have a space heater plugged into it too?”

Pause.

Coworker: “On the desk? Is it facing the computer?”

Pause.

Coworker: “Can you touch the back of the computer tower and feel if it’s hot?”

Pause.

Coworker: “Yes, the fact that it’s too hot to touch is indeed a problem.”

Pause.

Coworker: “Luckily, the solution is simple. The appropriate tool to repair any computer subjected to a space heater is a sledgehammer. Apply hammer to space heater until it is no longer a space heater.”

It’s been long enough since my retail days that I feel safe telling this story. I used to be a cashier at Target.

Customer: *Presents a Visa gift card.* “Wanna buy this.”

Me: “How much do you want to put on it?”

Customer: *Presents a $50 Target gift card.* “That much.”

Me: “I can’t do that. You can’t use a store gift card to buy a Visa gift card.”

Customer: “Yeah, you can. It’s all money.”

Me: “Sir, if you look on the terms and conditions for both gift cards, it says—”

Customer: *Throwing his hands in the air and walking out.* “Ugh! No one reads that s*** you d*** [Chinese Slur]!”

I’m Filipino, but whatever.

Customer: *Shouting.* “I’m never coming back!”

Me: “Sure, you won’t be back, bud, but that $50 Target card will be one way or another. We already got your money, so what are you gonna do?”

I had to explain to my managers, and they did not find it as amusing as I did, but I didn’t get in trouble since I followed policy.

I’m a network engineer working on a team in an office, and I’m a man. We just had another network engineer join our team, a woman. It’s her first day, and our boss (also a woman) and I are talking about the new engineer. Coincidentally, she and I used to be coworkers on another team years earlier.

Me: “I was so surprised when she walked in. I’d forgotten her last name, or I would have realized it when you made the onboarding announcement.”

Boss: “She seems pretty good. I knew as soon as I saw her that I was going to hire her. There are so few women network engineers. Every time I get an applicant who’s a woman, I always immediately hire her!”

I didn’t know what to say to that. She just admitted gleefully to gender based discriminatory hiring practices. My new teammate had won out over the other applicants because of her gender, and had I been competing against any female candidates when I was hired months earlier, I wouldn’t have gotten the job.

It’s one thing to encourage people to pursue careers in fields that might have been considered gendered roles in another time, but discrimination isn’t ever going to be a solution to discrimination.