Karen, Please Stop Making My Life Harder
You May Not Think I Deserve to Make a Living Wage, But Could You at Least Stop Being a Jerk?
Today, much like any other day, I encountered a Karen. There was nothing special about Karen, but I realized something as I was forced to help her. The Karen before me was passive-aggressive and refused to give me her information for a return. She wasn’t part of the rewards program, which meant her previous purchase had hurt the numbers of the girl who’d previously checked her out. She attempted to get into an argument with me and assumed she knew the store policy better than I did. She later said she wasn’t coming back and claimed she was going to write a review about the company. Honestly, I would love it if she never came back, but I know she’ll be in next week.
People like her are the same ones saying retail and fast-food workers don’t deserve fifteen dollars per hour, but they won’t stop at voicing their disgust for the purposed increase in the minimum wage. These people do whatever they can to make life hard for the people showing up to do these jobs. They argue with the people helping them, insult them, and sometimes escalate the situation into violence. There have even been multiple fast-food/retail workers who have been murdered or worse while their workplace has been robbed.
The workers also deal with people who lie and claim the workers were rude to gain a discount, with little care to how that can hurt the worker. They refuse to social distance or wear their masks in public, claiming others should stay home if they are so afraid. They don’t care that many people are forced to work to support their families and would end up homeless without exposing themselves to whatever conditions they have to avoid homelessness. These customers destroy the bathroom, getting bodily fluids on the toilet, floor, walls, and ceiling, which robs the retail/fast-food workers of a clean bathroom.
I make more than minimum wage, but less than fifteen dollars per hour. I have gotten kidney stones from working at a place that had a notoriously horrid bathroom. I’ve had to deal with stalking, sexual harassment, threats, being yelled at, etc. I’ve had women tell me they hated my clothes and hair, and even report me to management for those reasons (what gives you the right to do that?). I have also ended up in the hospital because of my job, but according to people like the above-mentioned Karen, I don’t deserve fifteen dollars an hour. Karen would probably tell me I should get a second, third, or fourth job if I want to ‘earn a living wage’. She would also claim I should go to school to further my education, without a second thought about how I could do that all while working multiple jobs that pay more than the starting position of the job I’d need to go to college for.
You may not think that I deserve fifteen dollars per hour, but you don’t have to make my job harder. Why is it so hard for you to put on a mask for twenty minutes while you shop, or at least not complain about your “rights being taken away”? What about the rights of the other shoppers and workers who don’t want to breathe in your germs? Not only that, but you open every product that you want to touch, and then put it back on the shelf. Lipsticks, eyeshadows, foundations, and more all end up in a huge damage pile at the end of the night. I guess destroying products is how you’ll ensure we won’t get a raise.
We also must stay late, reassembling the store that you’ve torn apart. Sure, when you leave one item where it doesn’t belong isn’t a big deal, but it becomes an issue when every customer does it. If you don’t know where something goes, you can hand it to the cashier and move on. You can also stop your children from breaking items and throwing things on the floor, but you pretend you don’t see them instead. The only time you seem to see your children tearing up the store is when a worker must ask them to behave, and then you yell at the worker for fussing at your ‘sweet baby’. If your child hurts themselves while rolling around on the floor, you’ll be ready and willing to sue.
Why can’t you save your bad attitude for your spouse because I didn’t show up to work to be called a bitch, slut, or various other names? I also didn’t show up to work for you to lie about me being rude to you so that you could get a discount. We both know I wasn’t. I bit my tongue in your presence, only to be rewarded with your verbal diarrhea.
Karen, I’m not asking for much, but I would like to be treated with respect. It doesn’t matter how much I make per hour because your name isn’t on my checks. It also doesn’t matter that I do a job that you classify as beneath you. I’m still a human and you feel entitled to treat me poorly because you believe you’re better than me. If you can’t respect me, please make good on your threat to never shop at my work again.
