My coworker’s son’s school was cancelled due to a tornado warning. I had to call him about something, and the conversation shifted to his son having a virtual learning day.

Coworker: “It’s crazy! Canceling for wind? We were never that lucky.”

The “wind” in question was reaching gusts of up to 30 mph, and it was raining enough that our road drainage system could not keep up.

Me: “They’re doing remote classes today, though, right?”

Coworker: “Yeah, but we didn’t have that option.”

Me: “We graduated in a time when dial-up was fancy. Of course it wasn’t an option.”

Coworker: “They get to stay home and still be in school; they don’t lose vacation days to make up for missed classes.”

Me: “Yeah, but we—”

Coworker: “—Kids today are so spoiled.” *To his son.* “Do you know how lucky you are?”

Coworker’s Son: *In the background.* “You sound like you walked to school in the snow. Uphill. Both ways.”

He quickly ended the call. I didn’t even get to point out that we work remotely from home almost every day.

Many years ago, a certain chain fast-food restaurant had coupon booklets for free items. I got one of these coupon booklets for Christmas (don’t hate, I was seven and excited!) and wanted to use them immediately. My Dad took me to the restaurant the next day. I skipped up to the register and was greeted by a grumpy old bat of a woman.

Me: “Hello! Can—”

Cashier: “—Where’re your parents, kid?”

Dad: *Catching up to me.* “Right here.”

Cashier: “She needs an adult.”

Dad: “Okay… I’m here.”

Cashier: “What are you getting?”

Me: “Can I get one apple pie, please?” *I hold out my coupon.*

Cashier: “‘Free with purchase’ right there on the coupon. Aren’t you old enough to read?”

Me: “Yeah…”

Dad: “I’m getting the cheeseburger meal. Medium.”

Cashier: “Okay. That will be [amount].”

Me: *Waving my coupon.* “What about this?”

Cashier: “Ugh. I already totaled the sale. I’ll need to void it out and call a manager. Can’t you use it next time?”

Dad: “We’ll wait for the manager, thanks.”

The woman rolled her eyes but still called a manager. He came up and greeted us with a smile. My dad ordered his meal and asked me to hand over my coupon. The manager entered our meals himself.

Manager: “Okay, guys, your total is [lower amount].”

Dad: *While paying.* “She didn’t seem like she wanted to serve my daughter or take the coupon.”

Manager: “Oh. I thought you brought the coupon out at the end. That’s why we had to redo it.”

Me: “No! She said we have to buy something to use it. I heard her.”

Manager: “I see. Well, thank you for your honesty.”

I got my apple pie, and Dad got his meal. We sat down to eat and watched as the manager ushered the cashier away from the register. She came back out a few minutes later and glared at us. I can only guess they had a very serious conversation back there, and she blamed me for getting in trouble.

Looking back and having worked at another location of this chain, I’m sure she had to deal with all kinds of customers and wasn’t in the mood to deal with an excited kid. Or maybe she was just a miserable b**** to begin with.

I’m with my boss and several coworkers on a business trip. We’re staying at a hotel within walking distance of the venue. On the second night of the trip, my boss decides to take two other colleagues and me to dinner.

After changing in our rooms, we get in his car and get ready to drive to the restaurant. There’s a gate leading outside of the parking lot, and you have to scan your hotel parking pass to get in and out. 

I’m in the back seat, but I see my boss reach out and scan something onto the reader.

Machine: “Please pay $80.”

Boss: “What?!” *Scans it again.*

Machine: “Please pay $80.”

Boss: “What the h***?! I’m a guest here. I shouldn’t have to pay for this!”

My boss presses the button on the intercom and calls the front desk. My colleague in the passenger seat is trying not to laugh.

Front Desk: “Hello, [Hotel Name]. How can I help you?”

Boss: “Yeah. My name is [Boss]. I’m a guest at the hotel, and I’m trying to drive out for the evening, and it’s saying I need to pay $80 at the gate.”

Front Desk: “When you checked in, you should’ve received a parking pass to get on and off the property.”

Boss: *Searching his pockets.* “I… don’t think I ever received that.”

Front Desk: “Umm… you would have to come inside the building to get that.”

Boss: “I’m at the gate, and there are people behind me. I can’t get back to the lobby right now.”

Front Desk: *Pause.* “I’ve just called Bellman, but I have no idea where he is. As I said, the only other option is for you to come to the front desk.”

Boss: “Alright…”

My boss looks frustrated as my colleague next to me gets out of the car and walks to the car behind us.

Colleague #2: “Excuse me?”

Driver: “Yeah?”

Colleague #2: “We’re having some issues opening the gate. Do you mind backing up so we can get out?”

Driver: *Confused.* “Uh… sure?”

My colleague begins directing traffic as the now-confused driver begins reversing. He backs up until there’s enough space for my boss to do a K-turn. My other colleague waves to the other driver and gets back in the car.

He drives back to the lobby and walks inside. I don’t see or hear the exchange, but he comes back after several minutes. He drives back to the gate, and this time, it opens without any issues. 

In total, it took us about thirty minutes to leave the parking lot… just to drive a few miles up the road.

I worked at a dealership a few years ago in the downtown Honolulu area, and we had a set of recalls coming in. One day, we were servicing a pretty new vehicle, one that was still on temporary license plates, when the worst possible thing happened. We weren’t sure who, what, why, or how, but the car fell off the two-post lift and onto its passenger side. The swing arm gouged the metal deeply, almost completely skinning the door from the outside, while the roof smashed into the lift itself, caving inward.

The blame game started. I watched techs who had been working together for years turn on each other, bringing up every mistake that each other had made over the years. Eventually, the volume and language of the argument brought one of the service desk workers into the shop. She took one look at the totaled car in the bay and then disappeared, returning with one of the big bosses.

Big Boss: “Oh… lord…ok, you.” *He pointed at me.* “You aren’t yelling at anyone; what happened?”

Me: “Lift went up, car went down, I’m sorry, sir, but… I wasn’t working with that vehicle at the time. I was doing the recall for the blue one.”

Big Boss: “Okay, understandable, thank you.”

He sighed and pointed at one of the techs.

Big Boss: “You, just you, go.”

Tech #1: “I’m not… I’m not sure, I think the swing arm failed; we didn’t notice before lifting it.”

Big Boss: “Ok, good, “we” not him, not you, both of you.”

Tech #1: “I mean…. I… yeah, we were both responsible for the checks, weren’t we?”

Big Boss: “Ok, so why are you yelling at each other?”

Tech #2: “Him, that’s why.”

Tech #1: “Shut up.”

Big Boss: “Alright, well, it happened. Yelling at each other isn’t going to undo it, so relax. We’re going to have a talk about how to prevent this in the future, but for now I have to talk to the—”

Customer: “—HA! Haha! Wow, it really ate it, didn’t it, HAHA! Jesus.”

The service desk lady had arrived with the owner of the vehicle.

Big Boss: “Excuse me?

Customer: “That’s amazing, wow, shame though. It only has like 980 miles on it and already headed to the boneyard.”

Tech #1: “You… you’re laughing?”

Tech #2: “You’re not mad?”

Customer: “Mad? Nah, come on, this is the dealership. You have insurance, I have insurance, I’m sure I’ll get a loaner…”

He looked pointedly at the Big Boss, who nodded.

Big Boss: “Of course!”

Customer: “And your insurance will handle it?”

Big Boss: “It will.”

Customer: “Then who cares? It’s a brand-new car; it’s not like it’s some family heirloom or something. There are like eighty of the f****** things outside.”

Big Boss: “Yes… well… yes, would you like to come to my office and discuss it?”

Customer: “Sure, just… if someone can get my backpack and garage door opener out of that thing once it’s back on its wheels, I mean, there is a chance that it isn’t totaled, right?”

Big Boss: “Yes, actually, a door and—”

The other swing arm, which had been propping the car up at a 45-degree angle, popped out of place, and the car fell back onto all 4 wheels, blowing the driver’s side curtain airbags with a loud BANG!

Big Boss: “Okay… well, ok now it might be… I mean, you… we… you wouldn’t have wanted that one back anyway, right?”

Customer: “That was AWESOME!”

Big Boss: “This way, sir.”

An investigation was done, and we were told that something had gone wrong in the gearing for the arm restraints that normally prevent the arms from moving sideways. The right side had failed, and, presumably, the left side had been broken or compromised by the car falling. I wanted far more details because I knew I was going to write this up for NAR, but the individuals responsible for repairing it weren’t the talkative type. 

The vehicle was totaled out, and the dealership, partially out of gratitude at the customer’s reaction, ended up coming to some sort of deal on the same vehicle at the top trim level. It also had to undergo the recall repair, but it stayed firmly planted on the lift.

Our director has a laptop plugged into a docking station with two monitors. Over the past two years, randomly throughout the day, one of his monitors will “go black”, a few seconds will pass, and it’ll come back on showing the ‘input’ logo. This happens with us, too, but a LOT less frequently.

I was brought into this department with no prior professional experience in IT, just someone who loves tech, builds computers, runs private servers for games, etc.

My senior techs could never figure out why it was happening, neither could my admins, and I tried really hard for about six months before he apologized for wasting my time and let him try to forget about it.

This poor guy has had five different laptops, docking stations, and monitor sets from both Lenovo and Dell, and still has the same problem even when he’s at home.

I figured it out yesterday by accident, and no one believed me until I proved it multiple times.

It’s our chairs.

The gas lift pistons in our office chairs generate enough static to cause an EMI. The docks aren’t shielded very well from it, and it desyncs the display cables.

I shock myself all the time at the office after getting up. Yesterday, I touched a broken laptop on my desk and shocked myself, and my monitor desynced at the same time. This thing was on the opposite side of my desk from my laptop and dock. I reproduced it ten times in a row, every time I got shocked on my desk it went out. Started shifting around in my chair a bunch? Monitor goes out.

Switched out the chair. This is no longer happening.

It’s the chairs, man! IT’S THE CHAIRS!