I work in an outdoorsy store. We sell hiking and camping equipment. A couple wanders in, looks at a couple of items with disinterest, and then walks over to me.

Customer: “We want to do the Pacific Crest Trail.”

Me: “That’s cool! How much of it?”

Customer: “Uh, all of it.”

Me: “All at once?”

Customer: “Yeah.”

Me: “Wow, that’s ambitious! So you’re here for camping supplies? Equipment? Do you have your phone permits?”

Customer: “What are you talking about? We just wanted a couple of backpacks and some hiking shoes.”

Me: “So… you have everything else?”

Customer: “What everything else?”

Me: “Everything else you’ll need to complete a 2,600-mile hike that usually takes five to six months when done as a thru-hike.”

Customer: “…”

Me: “Including Forrester Pass in the Sierra Nevada, which takes you up 13,000ft into the snowy peaks and requires seasonal timing.”

Customer: “…”

Me: “Orrrrr, I could recommend a local day hike a few miles from here that forms part of the Pacific Crest Trail that you could knock out in five to six hours, and you can say you did part of the trail?”

Customer: “That. We’ll do that.”

Intentionally withholding some context from this, but this sequence of events at a previous role is the perfect example of how my experience as a whole was.

Operations is discovered to have not performed a procedure written by my predecessors decades before me. That same day:

Director: “Is this a non-compliance event?”

This would require self-reporting to a government agency in a specified time frame.

Me: “It’s possible that we violated [State Law] as I see the notes in the missed procedure that we do this for compliance. I don’t have any other documentation around why that is the case.”

Director: “YOU need to know this. YOU are responsible for understanding our permits and regulatory requirements. Get an answer ASAP.”

Me: “Will do.”

I understood the permits and requirements perfectly fine, just not this random procedure written with no documentation on reasoning. Cut to two days later, after tracking down documents dating back twenty years before my time.

Me: “I found documents which explain why that procedure was in place for Y regulation.”

I explain the document.

Me: “Not meeting Y regulation triggers a permit violation under condition X, which is a catch-all condition written expressly for instances such as the missed procedure.”

Director: “No. We’re not reporting that. You shouldn’t be wasting your time on this.”

I pushed back by asking if we should run it by the guy who would go to jail should it be determined we hid a violation or at least get Legal’s input. When my director said no, I made my manager aware of the situation.

Result: an HR meeting where I was told that all my work has to be done physically inside the facilities. A few months later, my director chewed me out for not being responsive when I was not onsite.

I already had one job offer with two more on the way when they let me go on a Monday for “lack of improvement.”

A customer has purchased a large sofa bed. He said he would drive it home himself, so I am giving him instructions.

Me: “Okay, sir, just let me know when you back up your truck to the loading bay.”

Customer: “I already did that!”

Me: “I don’t see your truck.”

Customer: *Pointing.* “I don’t have a truck! That’s mine.”

I know my cars, so when I see it, I sigh.

Me: “Sir, that’s a BMW Z4.”

Basically, a convertible sports car.

Customer: “Ain’t she a beauty?! Anyway, just load the sofa on top and tie it down.”

Me: “Sir, this sofa bed weighs over 350 lbs.”

Customer: “Yeah, so?”

Me: “Most car roofs with racks will not be able to handle that. Maybe not even with a rack.”

Customer: “But it’s a BMW!”

Me: “That’s not the issue here, sir. This is not a suitable vehicle to transport such a large and heavy item.”

Customer: “Well, I’m not going to pay for delivery! It’ll hold. Just load it.”

Sadly, this is not an isolated event, so we have paperwork for this. I print out a document for him to sign.

Customer: “What’s this?”

Me: “This is a form that you MUST sign before taking the sofa out of the store in that vehicle. We will in no way, shape, or form be assisting you with placing this sofa onto your vehicle, but since you own it now, we can’t stop you from getting it back to your residence in any way you see fit. However, we cannot let the sofa leave our premises without you signing this. It ensures that when your sofa is damaged, not if, but when, from being transported in such a manner, the store is not liable for any of it. We will owe you no refunds, and your one-year warranty is also cancelled. We’re also not liable for any criminal charges, fines, or injury, including loss of life, from the sofa falling off your vehicle on the drive and into oncoming traffic or pedestrians.”

The customer is looking less and less certain the longer I state the long-winded and well-rehearsed reason behind the document I am holding out to him. Once I mention ‘criminal charges, ‘ he relents.

Customer: “Okay… so… how much was your delivery charge again?”

I’ve always hated negative generalizations about younger generations, but this interaction made me start to wonder. For context, I’m in my early thirties, and I would estimate the cashier to be around fourteen to sixteen, based on the conversation.

I am in line at the grocery store checking out, and it is moderately busy with people behind me. After the person in front of me finishes, instead of starting to scan my groceries or greet me, the cashier picks up her phone that is sitting at the register and texts furiously for a good thirty to sixty seconds. 

It doesn’t sound like long, except when you have nothing to do but stand there looking around, since my stuff is already on the belt, and a line full of people is behind me. Finally, she greets me while shooting off a few more texts, then puts her phone down and begins scanning. 

I honestly wouldn’t have even thought too much about this, maybe thinking it was something important. But then she decides to explain herself while scanning:

Cashier: “Sorry about that!”

Me: *Making polite responses.* “Oh, it’s… fine.”

Cashier: “It’s just, I’m making plans to go to the mall after work, and they have this stupid new age limit thing on the weekends.”

Me: “I think I heard about that…”

Cashier: “Yeah, so my friend and I can’t go ourselves, and I’m trying to get my mom to go with us, but she doesn’t want to. And now I’m like, coordinating with my mom and my friend. I told my mom she could even just drop us off and it would probably be fine, you know? The age thing is so stupid.”

Me: “…Haha.”

Cashier: “So, I just have to figure out this ride thing, and it’s so stressful.”

She finishes checking me out and immediately picks up her phone again to text, while I wander off to contemplate if I have finally reached That Age.

Customer: “Is the broccoli gluten-free?”

Me: “Of course.”

Customer: “It doesn’t look gluten-free.”

Me: “Broccoli is naturally gluten free.”

Customer: “But they’re so… chunky!”

Me: “What does that have to do with it being gluten free?”

Customer: “If it’s big or fat, that’s the gluten?”

Me: “Gluten is a protein from wheat and rye.”

Customer: “No, gluten is from gluttony, which means fat. If something is fat and chunky, it’s because of all the gluten. I know words.”

Me: “Well… I can promise that our Broccoli is gluten-free.”

Customer: “Hmm… fine, but if I taste any gluten I’ll be asking for a refund.”