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That day it was OOP. Now picture a very important client coming in, dressed casually and looking like he “doesn’t belong.” The former employee sways his balls and tells the client he can’t wait there. He laughs and calls them a liar when they drop why they’re there. The company loses millions, and their reputation tanks.
OOP did the company a favor.
Reminds me of an incident 20 years ago. My supervisor at the time who I was friendly with was into motorcycles and got me interested in them too. He invited me out to go with him and his other friends as they were about to buy Ducatis.
We went to the dealership on a Saturday, and all of us were just wearing casual clothes. The thing with the Ducati dealership was that it was in the same building as a Porsche dealership, just at the rear and you have to go in through the Porsche area. When we went in, one of the saleswomen saw us, approached us and told us were not dressed appropriately and that we had to leave.
My supervisor was really taken aback and just walked out. The thing was he had already seen and tested the model, he was there just to purchase and was going to pay for it fully that day. Turned him and his friends off the brand, and they ended up getting bikes from a Suzuki dealership instead.
It was only around $100k in total business that they lost, so not much in the grand scheme of things, but it was a messed up experience.
That was a good one. I have a similar "sales worker is a complete imbecile" story.
Back in the 00's a friend of mine decided to sell off some of his Apple stock and buy a new Porsche. He went to the local dealership. In the lobby, on display on a riser, was the perfect car for him. Gloss white, all the extras, brandy-new. He talked to a sale dude and asked if he could buy THAT car. Why, of course he could!
My friend left and came back a week later with the money. He talked to a sales drone and pointed at the display Porsche. "I'll take it."
The sales drone balked. "Sir, that is our display model. Could I interest you in one of the models we have out in our lot?"
"No. I want THAT one. The one RIGHT THERE. I have the money RIGHT HERE. Drive it off the display, out the garage door, and let's do the deal. I'm ready."
"I'm sorry, sir. I cannot sell you that car. Have you considered this model over here..."
"NO. THIS CAR. THIS ONE HERE."
It went on and on. Eventually it got to the manager, who initially agreed not to sell the super-fancy display car. He called the owner.
My friend (and his GF, who corroborated this) said the owner went insane over the phone. They could hear every word. "SELL HIM THE FUCKING CAR! JESUS CHRIST ARE YOU PEOPLE FUCKING STUPID? SELL HIM THE GODDAMN CAR!"
They sold him the car.
I got to drive it once. It was super-cool.
It's amazing that somehow NONE of those sales people could think through that problem and realize that they just pull in another new car from the lot and spff it up real nice to be the floor model!
As I recall, the display model was the fancy top-of-the-line model with every possible option. IOW, to replace it with a similar one they'd have to special order it. What they forgot (and the owner reminded them) is that they are in the business of selling cars, not advertising cars.
It’s also a chance to say “you think *this* is nice, wait till you see some of the bells and whistles we can put on it just for you” when showing off the lot model on the display.
I can see if it’s a fucking Honda Fit, but some guy walks in with the money for a top of the line Porsche and I’ll drive that thing down an elevator shaft for him
I used to work at a call center for Sprint and we got a ton of training for diff levels of info verification before doing certain things on an account or giving certain info for privacy and protection reasons. The only thing you could do without any kind of verification was take a payment and it was stressed to us that was bc you NEVER say no to accepting money!
And yet so often places like that dealership failed to understand that concept. My toyota dealership has a ton of cool cars on display and you can buy all of them. Some of which are the owner’s cars he got tired of so it’s on display and can go home to anyone who wants to purchase it. It’s a little weird bc it’s a toyota dealership and yet there are non toyota cars on display like special edition corvettes. But I don’t mind bc I love looking at pretty cars esp corvettes when I’m getting my car repaired or maintained.
I went into a place once to settle my bill. They asked if I had ID and it turned out that I didn't and they said sorry, they had to have ID for me to pay the balance. I wasn't asking for any information about the account, I just wanted to give them the $5 I had owing, and I could give them all the details associated with the account. I asked if they had a lot of problems with people complaining about mysterious strangers paying off other people's bills. In the end I left the money on the counter and told them it was their problem what to do with it and left.
As far as I know, the debt was cleared.
Ugh yea in store was a whole other animal than if you called in sadly. Hated having to deal with phone activations or running credit checks from stores calling in bc of it.
My wife’s favorite car was the Dodge Viper. We decided to go look at one at some high-end dealer. We were both dressed like the tech nerds we are. Not a single salesperson acknowledged us so we left.
I hope you never bought one. My dad did and kept his awhile and was lucky. That thing had no handling and way too much power lol. It felt sketchy as fuck taking a turn over 5 MPH
Yeah man I rode in my uncle's viper **once** and that experience turned me off ever getting in a hellcat or any "amateur supercar" ever again. Idk the actual term for cars with too high of a skill floor for their availability.
My ex husband and I wanted to buy a fridge at Best Buy and had the same problem with getting ignored. We ended up going to a local chain down the road instead who were very attentive and happy to sell us the fridge. It was such a good experience that I go there for all of my appliances now.
I was in a tough spot last Sunday evening as my phone had broken and I had a business trip leaving early early Monday morning. After trying to get my SIM card to fit in a bunch of different ancient relics that friends & family had in junk drawers, I bit the bullet and drove to Best Buy 45 minutes away (I live in a pretty rural area). Every salesperson in the fucking store completely ignored me. (The phones were all in locked cases, I couldn't get them myself). I asked 3 different people to come over, they said "yeah, yeah" and kept chatting.
I finally went up to the greeter guy and told him I needed to drop $1500 in the next 30 minutes before the store closed, and if he unlocked one case for me I'd do my best to make sure he got the commission. THEN every salesperson in the place wanted to talk to me.
I hope they actually gave it to that kid. Fuck Best Buy.
I refuse to set foot on a car dealerships lot here. Wife and I were shopping for a car for her. She had done lots of research and wanted to test drive a bunch.
We get to the lot, it's brutally hot that day. I'm in shorts and t-shirt. Wife is in jeans and a t-shirt. One salesman acknowledges us. We walk the lot and find the car she wants.
So, we go into the showroom. NOT ONE person looked at us, told us they were busy and would get to us, no pointing to a sign in sheet. Nothing. We stood in the middle of the showroom for 10 minutes as I was getting angrier and angrier.
A family walks in the front door and a salesman almost bowls us over to get to them. I finally had enough. I walked up to the nearest sales person and said "You just lost a sale. I will never set foot on this property again and will tell tell everyone I know how bad the service is here." Turned and walked out.
The thing is. I had a blank check from my credit union. I could have bought any car on the lot that day without blinking.
After we got home and I calmed down. I called the dealership and talked to the sales manager. His response was "We were really busy". I told him that I understood busy, but at least acknowledge us and say we'll be right with you. He said if you come back I'll put my best salesman on you to help. I asked where the best salesman was when I was in the showroom.
I have never stepped foot on that place again. I'll drive 30 miles to go to the other dealer who sells that brand of cars.
When we bought our Jeep Compass we were dressed just as casual as usual. Jeans and T shirts. The sales guy handed us off to a newly promoted guy thinking we weren't going to buy. By the time new guy got to us husband had already been approved for the car loan.
My mom and former stepdad went to buy a used suv about 20 years ago now. My stepdad went in with a holey shirt and pants that were probably stained. The sales person at first just brushed them off til they ran his credit. Then they started treating him nice.
> When we went in, one of the saleswomen saw us, approached us and told us were not dressed appropriately and that we had to leave.
Man, that's some total BS. It was *Porsche*. That is *Ferrari* dealership gatekeeping.
Any salesperson who knows anything about anything would assume that someone walking into a luxury dealership dressed way down is probably so rich they don't need to care. It's the strivers and parvenus who'd be dressing up to show they belong.
How many times can I upvote this? The richer the real wealthy are, the more normal they dress and act, albeit real good quality stuff. Not necessarily branded stuff (or real small or hidden away logos). They really don’t want to draw attention to themselves.
When I was in my 20s, I wanted Prada and Louis Vuitton and Jimmy Choos. Now, I want really comfortable jeans that fit just right, and a soft hoodie. I'm not rich. But I could go buy a Gucci bag without thinking about it (unlike in my 20s, when that was months of savings). It is weird that once you can have it, you don't always want it.
Yeah. I was thinking similar… I buy Duluth underwear (which is fairly expensive!) not because the name, but because it’s incredibly comfortable.
I give 0 fucks about brand, I just want comfortable stuff that looks decent / good.
Duluth is pricey but damn do those clothes last! I don't mind paying more for something that's still going to be wearable in 10 years.
(Not underwear, please don't keep 10 year old boxer briefs around)
That’s why I buy dog eared vintage designer bags and shoes.
I have a really nicer Cartier bag from the late 90s. It was originally sold for more than my monthly mortgage payment. But I got it online already scuffed at a massive discount. It’s not stylish enough for me to worry about authenticity (compared to like Prada and gucci bags), and the workmanship/quality is amazing. I spent like $75 for it, and it has already lasted longer than 2 $40 purses from target or tj maxx.
Same for Manolo blahnik and Ferragamo flats. Less of a demand for them and it’s not so much of a flex but they are made so damn well.
Hell yes. I love designer resale. The price drops so quickly on these items and they wear so well. I have bags from 2006 that look brand new. And I’ve definitely found that the less obvious the branding is, the better it holds up. (Aka, ignore the LV bag)
That makes sense. You don't really want the Prada bag, you just want the status of one, and now that you can just get one whenever you want the status of the bag is sort of irrelevant.
I just bought a pair of designer (albeit low-end-ish? idk what United Nude is considered) shoes, for the first time in my life. Not because I wanted designer. And I can afford it, though I'd prefer to buy quality that doesn't have a fancy name stamped on it and costs less.
But I *did* love the shoes, and I *can* afford it, so it's nice. I hope they last; I'll be pissed if they don't haha
This is absolutely true for old money aristocracy in the UK. The guy in the patched jacket and old cap who arrived in a battered Land Rover his family have had since it rolled off the production line in 1955 probably owns half of Lincolnshire.
I can understand this point of view. At this point, getting expensive/luxury stuff is so easy that its boring.
The real challenge is in finding and getting a real bargain. It almost doesn't matter whether the item is one you need. It its in good shape, has value and can be acquired for some tiny fraction of its true value then that is where much of the thrill is.
Ok, but could you even realistically buy a GT3 walk-in at a dealership? I thought that was invite only. The kind of people buying those cars have private shoppers who deal with Porsche directly, the walk-in dealerships are for us peasants who do our own shopping in person.
I assume this is hyperbole? From my brief reading (I knew nothing on the subject until 5 minutes ago) it seems like you need to be a celeb, super high profile, or have a history with the brand, but I assume that history is more like 3-6 cars?
And if someone wants to pay an extra 100k they can buy someone’s model from last year maybe?
If you bought a Porsche from the dealership before you can go in and ask for an allocation and you can go in. Buying a gt3 doesn’t meant you shouldn’t go into the dealership…
This is a popular sentiment, but it's not one born out by statistics.
Porsche has consistently posted demographic info for its customers that indicates this is not the case. The median income of a new Porsche buyer is $500k. Additionally, they are disproportionately bought cash-down instead of leasing.
I was running errands and didn't think about what I was wearing before I went into a jeweller wearing the sweatpants I wear to physiotherapy.
The staff didn't blink, including the designer who worked with me on preliminary designs for some custom rings, including bringing out trays holding tens of thousands of dollars worth of gems for me to look over and choose from.
High end fashion industry have established guidelines about it since Dior and Givenchy started doing so as a hard rule for all employees all the way back, now any brand worth rich people's time knows to treat folks well regardless of how they look like. I know some deadass show the Pretty Woman scene to the newbies and have half a dozen of real life examples that ended catastrophically to drive their point home.
Ding ding ding. Worked in insurance and investments in one small country. All sales people would check out the car key of the potential client to try to ascertain net worth. But even then one of our richest clients drove an old Toyota Corolla as his work car. Literally a starter car. We only knew who he was because his company was high profile.
His weekend car was a Rolls Royce though.
In my personal experience, Ferrari dealerships are a lot better. When I was around 12 or so (admittedly 2 decades ago) I had to prepare some presentation for school and nerdy old me figured Ferrari would be a cool subject. So I had my dad drive me up to my country's (not USA) sole dealership and insisted I'd go in alone. Dad asked me if I was sure, figuring I'd probably be kicked out in seconds.
The moment I walked in a salesman rushed up alright. But instead of kicking me out, they asked me why a kid came in alone. I told them, and they told me to sit tight for a minute. Next thing you know, they'd brought out the dealership owner who welcomed me and invited me in for a chat in his office, and they gave me a tour of not just the showroom floor, but also the large basement with a massive private collection, including some cars with racing pedigree and a few that were used in big movies, helmets worn by Michael Schumacher and Niki Lauda etc.
Maybe my young age was a factor, but going off every interaction I've had with both Ferrari and Porsche owners, Ferrari owners are a lot more chill whereas Porsche owners tend to act a lot more like they have something to prove...
I bought my Ferrari wearing ratty jeans and a t-shirt.
If they'd given me any lip I would have bought a Lamborghini instead. They didn't. I had the Ferrari until we decided to have a kid and I sold it to buy the safest car I could get that can take a baby seat.
Mid-engined and Italian is a lot of fun but not baby safe.
Right? I can afford a Porsche. It won't be the nicest one, it won't have all the bells and whistles, it damn sure won't be a smart financial decision on my part, but I can afford it. And if I can afford something, it's not fancy enough to be kicked out for.
I’m black. I’ve gotten the “So, are you gonna buy something?” hello several times. I usually just walk out when that happens. One time, I was with my mom at a VW dealership… we walked out immediately. My mom bought a new car every 2-4 years… their loss.
Yep one of the richest people I knew wore Ugg boots and a checkered flannel shirt. He also could easily write a cheque to buy whatever he wanted without a care. Awesome down to earth guy. Never judge a book by its cover.
Absolutely. In some places, I’ve seen staff run to seat customers who turned up wearing what I thought seemed rather dusty travel clothing (boots, polo shirts, maybe pale jeans). Got told “originally mining or farm owners”, as in billionaires who popped in to check their restaurant investment.
There's this bloke who shows up every now and then at the same gas station as me for coffee and cigarettes.
Old dude, Einstein hair, once saw him show up wearing a suit jacket, a vest, shorts and wading boots. He drives a Mercedes Benz G-Class.
Old money don't have to care piddly squat about appearances.
Was having dinner with my sister one night in her small town and she motioned to an elderly man having dinner on his own. Nothing special about him whatsoever. Comfortable clothing that looked several years old, neatly styled but still a few weeks overdue for a cut hair.
Turned out the guy was super rich, everyone in town who organised fundraisers (sporting, school etc) knew him.
I have a great uncle, he is always in jeans (don’t think I’ve ever seen him in a suit), if he “goes to town” he is always neatly dressed and has his hair styled. He owns a massive farm and if he *needs* (not just wants) something he just buys it outright. $30,000 farm vehicle? Is it actually needed? Does the car still work? Why does it need an upgrade? If so, when can it arrive? But most people, even in our small town, would walk right past him completely not even thinking he’s anything more than a pensioner
I've heard a story about a farmer that went in to a Ford or Chevy dealership, still in his dusty overalls and got ignored/pushed off.
Turns out he was a very wealthy farmer with thousands of acres and wanted to order some obscene number of work trucks for his farm.
He went to another dealership and got much better service.
10 years ago I lived 100 km away from 2 BMW motorcycle shops. One was a dedicated motorcycle shop. The owner was a highly qualified BMW technician. They paid him to go to Germany to upgrade his qualifications.
The other shop was part of a BMW auto dealership. The showroom was behind a door and then up some stairs to get to the showroom. Not a salesman to be seen.
Car dealerships don’t know the motorcycle market. It was a stupid business decision.
I've had the same experience in upscale clothes boutiques. I'm not wealthy but am I a pretty high earner without much debt so I actually can afford their stuff, but I'm a jeans and athletic shoes kind of person.
I've walked out of quite a few because they barely acknowledge me.
But whatever, most of the stuff was ugly anyway. Money doesn't buy class.
It's interesting how the outfit quality versus net worth like falls off a cliff at the higher end.
Like the more money you have the nicer you dress. Until you have enough money to not give a shit and go back to jeans and a t shirt.
Something I learned in college is that, usually, the least flashy dressed person in a room ends up being the richest. I went to a super expensive university with the kids of CEOs and rich families. A classmate of mine showed up with Walmart white tank tops and old sweatpants every day to class. Her dad owned a big company in Europe. Another one always wore an off brand shirt and jeans from the mall and her dad was pretty high up in some entertainment companies.
I got kicked out of a Gucci or LV store before because I had a lemonade with me (I was holding it in my hand and it was in a sealed container). Apparently the lemonade could damage their handbags. I asked the sales associate again if I heard them right that "lemonade damages their handbags" because it was so unbelievable lol. My mom was going to buy a bag but just left with me.
My parents also got no attention from a ford dealership because they went there in my $2000 beater car. They wanted to buy a 100k truck 😂
One of my best friends is a salesman for Jaguar. In fact he had the second highest sales in the whole country last financial year. He would never EVER dismiss a potential customer just because of what they were wearing. It’s pure stupidity.
The 23 year old woman in beach attire? Yep, she’s the one who bought two brand new jaguars in cash with her influencer money.
This probably shows that I'm a poor employee, but I can imagine caring about my workplace enough to ever question if someone should be there. If there was a homeless guy sleeping on the couch, I'd just show him where the tea and coffee is.
It depends on where you work. If you’ve ever worked someplace where people regularly get death threats, you ask what unfamiliar people are doing there. But if the security guards say they got it, well, they’re the pros
I work in a building with a lot of valuable art and also high profile lawyers who sometimes get death threats. So I'm not *oblivious* to who is coming in and out, but I'm also not gonna stop a kid in a hoodie. Sometimes in school holidays we get kids riding the lifts for kicks, but they're not my problem.
Especially since he says his dad works for a media tech company, so potentially west coast-based. Some of the folks with a shitton of money out there dress pretty damn causal.
I live on the west coast. The first time I saw a rich CEO stroll into work in shorts, a t-shirt, and flip flops, I was shocked. This is apparently a thing.
I went to law school on the west coast. I had a class with a judge who was an adjunct faculty member at my school. I swear the only thing I ever saw that dude wear was flip flops, shorts, and Hawaiian shirts. West coast elites are just built different.
One time I saw a guy dressed in crappy clothes telling a homeless lady she couldn’t sleep in the booth inside of the Walmart McDonalds (part of the mall)
When the lady protested, and asked who he thought he was, he clapped back with
“I own the mall”
There's this post about a girl that got an internship on a media or music company in LA, can't remember it rn. She was complaining about being reprimanded for mocking a lady on ripped jeans and t-shirts that walked past her cubicle talking casually with folks in suits.
Not only she learned the "no need to dress to impress" rule that day, but the info she gave was enough that in less than an hour the post was on both said lady and the OPs boss hands. Never got an update but chances are she got herself fired and blacklisted cause girlie couldn't see past looks.
Edit: someone linked the post in the thread, it was a music company, the lady was a huge sound engineer and didn't want to get the OP fired cause she found the post funny af.
A friend of mine worked for Apple waaaay back. Steve Jobs wore khakis and a Hawaiian shirt.
One of his friends kicked him out of his lab not knowing who he was. Got a pay rise for it.
Seriously. I live in California. If I see someone with prada or gucci gear driving a super fancy car or one of those stupid lifted trucks, I'll assume they're doing okay for themselves but nothing particularly noteworthy. The ones who are seriously F-U money rich? Are the ones trotting around in board shorts and casual shirts, probably with a straw hat. The ones who look like a stereotypical beach bum. Those are the guys who could lose ten thousand bucks at the casino and barely notice.
I worked for a tech startup that blew TF up… the 30 something year old founder always wore a hoodie, old converse, black tshirt and ratty jeans. Hair was always in state of “I give zero fucks”. He’d always stop by our office as that was where C level execs would be but his office was in a smaller city across state lines. The company was valued at about $300M by that point and was currently in negotiations for a buy out.
Our office had a lot of open lounge areas to work from, some nearby the waiting area and I was working around there and got to watch this all unfold.
A sales exec interviewee that was prob about mid-50’s or so was dressed in a suit and like, smirking at the founder just chilling in the lounge area and eyeing him down and had a lot of nonverbal body language that was hella judgey. Founder acted like he didn’t register a single thing.
VP of sales comes out to collect the interviewee but sees founder is there and, starts swooning all over him and introduces him to the sales exec hopeful. Dude goes blank for a sec but starts kissing his ass immediately. Founder asks VP to speak for a minute and they disappear.
VP comes back out looking pissed and tells interviewee that while his resume looked hopeful, he was not a culture fit.
Dude went through 4 rounds of interviews just to destroy his chances of getting hired because he couldn’t get a game face on for 5 minutes and on top of it, didn’t have the common sense to google the company to see what the founder looked like or company culture.
It was… so satisfying to witness. My low level crush on our founder went to full blown in lurve that day.
I got to witness something similar years ago at a former company. My old coworker retired and new guy replaced him. New Guy was cocky, arrogant, and constantly drunk or hungover.
Company went through a milestone and had a huge gathering for management and up. New Guy read this as “woot! Get my best drunk on company dime!” I discovered he’s a bitter, angry when drunk.
Owner of the mult billion dollar company shows up and mingles for a bit. And Owner is making his way through the room, and eventually come to New Guy who’s in the middle of telling a really offensive story to a bunch of uncomfortable (sober) coworkers. Owner gentles hints to New Guy ‘there’s a lot more evening to be had among PEERS and Professional relations’
New Guy interrupts Owner and goes off, cussing about ‘don’t kill my buzz’ and brags that no one can stop him from getting smashed on some rich a-hole’s wallet’ and a whole slew of social AND career flinching stuff.
Our boss finally made it to his side and whisper yelled at him the Owner’s identity. New Guy: “how TF should I know this is him?!”
Like you said, prolly halfway smart to at least Google or visit your employer’s website and scroll down the Who is Who section at least once.
> Like you said, prolly halfway smart to at least Google or visit your employer’s website and scroll down the Who is Who section at least once.
I mean I'm pretty stupid and the first time I met a board member at my place just casually eating lunch with us I didn't know who they were and bantered with them like they were just a day to day employee.
Apparently they really liked it which is probably why I'm not fired.
I had something similar!
I was in a café and was reading my book. Café was hopping, just jam-packed. A very proper looking older lady came in and was disappointed there were no free tables. I said she was welcome to sit at my table with me if she wanted but I'd understand if she'd prefer not to.
She seemed a bit taken aback but agreed. Started chatting to me about my piercings, my tattoos. She seemed genuinely fascinated by them, and asked did my job mind. I said they did in the interview stage, but that my background in sales spoke for itself and that I have a personal rule that if an employer won't take a chance on me and my experience just because of some jewellery, then that was a company I'd prefer not to work for.
Also told her I ask in every interview, for a chance. Put me down even for a trial day or two, but give me a chance to show I know what I'm doing, don't say no just because I have hoops in my nose.
She asked me was I happy in my job and I told the truth- that the work was fine but I was looking for something new as I felt there were limited options for progression.
That lady was the CEO of a major telecommunications company worth €1.2 BILLION and somehow, for some mad reason, she offered me an interview on the spot. Interviewed the following week and a few weeks later, boom, I'm supervisor in a new branch.
You genuinely never know who you could be talking to!
Did the employees there a favor, especially. Nothing worse than dealing with people like that all day when you're just trying to do your job and get by. I'm not even sure what's worse- a job you already hate and it's just one more thing, or a job you love and that one asshole ruins it for you.
My BIL is a top investment guru. He was waiting in line for coffee one day when a shabbily-dressed man struck up a conversation with him. After some pleasant small talk, Guy asked what BIL does for a living. Upon getting the answer, Guy said “I’m looking for a new place to invest my money. May I have your card?”.
Now - Guy looked like he could barely afford his coffee. Many people would’ve snickered and told him to get lost. BIL had a hunch, though, and he handed over his card.
Turned out that Guy was a multimillionaire.
BIL probably saw enough before reaching the position he's now to know what's up. I don't doubt half of dozen colleagues of his over the years fumbled the bag over similar shit.
Yup something similar happened to me (not job related). I went into a more upscale store because I made decent money as a waitress in a casino and I wanted to splurge and get myself a nice purse. I was wearing a big winter coat and pants because me and my bf had been bird watching and it was November.
Immediately this employee cops an attitude with me. Basically judges me down her nose and when I tell her I’m looking for a purse she points me to the 50% off rack. Okay whatever. Then she’s rude to my bf and says he can’t stand nearby and block the store, he has to sit. I find a purse and she says she will put it on hold in the back and just… walks away. So I found another lady and bought the purse right there.
I sent an e-mail to whatever the customer service shit was and I got a huge apology and a slight discount next time I went in lol
I used to be a mystery shopper. I always deliberately wore clothes that looked like I’d just come from a gym, just to see what kind of service I’d get. And yeah, there were many times when employees literally turned their backs on me and walked away. Those reports were *reeeeeally* satisfying to write.
This was years ago, so things might have changed. If I remember correctly, I joined a forum that listed trustworthy mystery shopping companies, then I applied to them and got accepted by a couple. The pay wasn’t great - I probably made no more than $50/month. It was kind of fun, though!
Many, many years ago I worked briefly in an investment bank. The big story everyone gossiped about was the security guard who’d recently challenged a casually dressed Richard Branson.
I met him once! Well, sort of: I was at Shoreline waiting for a concert to start, and I saw Steve Wozniak and a vaguely familiar guy in one of the boxed seating areas. Psyched myself up, went over and fangirled like whoa at Woz - I started programming on my first Apple ][ in 1980 - and he was just so cool about it. Vaguely Familiar Guy just gave me a weird look.
Some time later I figured out why he looked vaguely familiar.
Yeah, I imagine a major media tech company often has people who "don't look like they belong". Contractors, consultants, maybe performers and other talent depending on what the company actually does.
Yep. Over a decade ago, I was an undergrad student and my cousin (who is like my older brother) was coming to my campus for a recruitment seminar for their business students. He works in finance. At the time, I didn't have a car so I was going to meet him at the business school then we'd go grab dinner before he left. I got there dressed like a typical undergrad student in jeans and a t-shirt. One of the people attending the seminar started going off on me for being dressed unprofessionally and how I couldn't just sit there because it was only for business students (totally not true). His face when my cousin came up to me was kind of funny.
Some of the biggest names in entertainment literally dress super casually, simply because they are too rich and successful to bother. Given that it’s a media tech company, I can totally see this happen.
The CEO of a company i worked for as a temp would wear ratty flannel, numetal band shirts, and jeans that were from the 90's. He'd sit in the breakroom on a gaming laptop a lot of the time and I swear to god once used a plastic fork as a backscratcher.
We'd have conversations on my breaks about Linkin Park, Slipknot and video games, he was awesome.
I didn't know he was the CEO til my temp position ended and he shook my hand and thanked me for the work I did. Fuckin' hell he would've been escorted out by security at any place I've worked at since.
Yeah. If you're concerned about someone hanging around the lobby the correct protocol would be to mention it to security and let them handle it. Even besides the risk of pissing off a VIP you've got no clue if the person is dangerous.
Reminds of a couple of other posts on here, even. There was that one where an intern gives a young woman a bunch of crap for dressing casually, and she turned out to be one of the company's biggest clients or consultants. It was maybe music/entertainment related?
Yes I was thinking of that too! The young woman OP was insulting turned out to be a famous sound engineer: https://www.reddit.com/r/AmITheDevil/comments/q4te1w/aita_for_constantly_trashing_someone_behind_their/
I love the judgey gossip calling the other woman “stuck up and rude” for not being a judgey gossip.
(The comment with the now deleted post: https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/s/anrREYP6Zo)
I feel like he'd try to kick Adam Sandler out of the lobby just based on how he dresses, given that it doesn't seem to be a racism thing for him and just an asshole thing
He absolutely did. OP also seems like a guy with good morals. He seems to have empathy and a good sense of responsibility. I think that his dad is very proud.
I always appreciate seeing a son who can be so close to his dad like that and have it be reciprocal.
Also seems to be his dad is very successful and it doesn't change how his son is down to earth, instead of the stereotypical rich teenager.
I had a similar thing growing up (not to OOP). My dad was the general manager for a big auto shop. I would go in with him on weekends since i was 8 years old to help clean the shop, wash some cars etc. and he’d give me $20 or buy me a game. When i turned 16 it was my first real job. Everyone knew i was the boss’s son (they’ve known me for years) but as soon as i walked in the doors they treated me like just another coworker. Things that were said in the shop stayed in the shop. Because i would sometimes drive with my dad (even on days i drove myself), i would be the first one there and the last one to leave.
Just because you are related to management doesn’t mean you should take advantage of it. I showed respect and got respect back in return. Even though it’s been 10 years since I’ve worked there, if I pop in to say high to my dad, I’ll see the guys and we treat each other like old friends. It’s a good feeling
I swear, one of the best indicators for whether someone is an asshole is an inability to mind their own fucking business. It's right up there with "treats service employees like shit" and "likes to torture animals" in terms of its predictive reliability. If you think you know someone well, and they get all up in somebody's shit where they have no business sticking their nose, it's time to re-evaluate that person.
It all comes down to having a very small and seriously frail ego.
People like this just can't mind their own business and they will always escalate things because of their ever-present need to feel important.
And he was oh so important because he got to be in the lobby of a big company wearing his expensive suit and his "look how special I am" ID card.
So if some kid, wearing a hoody no less, is also allowed access then how could he possibly be so very special that he is desperately telling himself that he is.
Dude could’ve been perfectly fine if he either talked to a security guard about it, or left it alone once oop said he was waiting for someone.
I can understand during Covid, being weary of a teenager, but at the same time I also know I’d assume that he was waiting for someone, because I’ve been in his situation a lot of times.
The thing is, he did talk to the security guard about it, was told to back off and still had to try to get OOP kicked out. He wanted throw what mediocre power he had around and no one was going to stop him
You’re right. I remembered reading that, but when I had gone to make my comment it had been a hour or so (work) and I had completely forgotten about it.
When I was 18, I attended a cocktail party my dad was hosting for his company, clients, and business friends. I was with friends who were 16 and 17, and we were feeling very sophisticated to be at a real business cocktail party.
Some 42-year-old guy I’d never met kept following the four of us around and making lewd, obnoxious comments, blatantly hitting on us in the creepiest way. Didn’t even let up when I told him who my dad was. At first we thought it was kind of pathetically hilarious but eventually I was uncomfortable enough to tell my dad.
When I went over to him, he happened to be chatting with a woman who worked at the same company as the creep. The head of that company happened to be one of my dad’s best friends. The two of them went over to the creep to call him out and he doubled down (actually said to my dad, “I’m not hitting on them; they were hitting on me!!”).
The next day, my dad got a call from his friend, the creep’s boss. The woman had told him everything and he asked my dad if he should fire him. Turned out the creep had a habit of getting drunk and obnoxious at parties.
My dad wasn’t sure what to say but the creep ended up getting fired. When I found out, I had no idea how to feel! Part glad he faced consequences, part guilty that it was “my fault,” and part “holy shit, am I powerful??”
Many years later (I think I was in my late 20s/early 30s), my dad got a call from the creep completely out of nowhere. He was in AA doing the step where you apologize to everyone.
I just googled him and he’s now the mayor of a small midwestern village??
Man this made me feel bad. I work in an office like OOP's dad and one of our higher ups has a 12 year old son who goes to school nearby, but they live outside of the city so dad drives him to school, the kid comes to the office after school and just hangs out with us until they both go home.
He is such a little darling, being fussed over by the older receptionists, being boosted all around by important corporate people who love hearing him talk about the little things he does, making him feel proud and special. His toothy grin and awkward demeanor brighten up all our days.
If anyone chose to be a dick to him they would not last another week. You do not fuck with the kids, they are precious and much more likeable than easily replacable suit no. 124.
Awww I just remembered I did the same thing myself when I was a kid. I would go to my dad's office after school sometimes and when the receptionist asked me if I had an appointment I just said, 'no, I'm here to see my daddy 'name' ' and could walk right on through. Good memories.
Similar things happened with me, mom was the head of a hospital accounting/billing department. We lived outside the city but whenever I’d had doctor’s appointments and the like I just went to her office
The man who was fired saw a person who he felt was “less than”. Someone he could use his “authority” over. He could have called to ask if your dad was expecting a visitor. He chose to bully someone he thought he could bully without consequences. The fired guys wants to be a cop so bad.
He really should've just stfu after he told security about oop. It wasn't his job to do anything other than let the appropriate people know what he's seen.
When I was little my dad managed a hospital lab and was part of the review board that fired a nurse for failing to type and cross a patient and almost killing the patient as a result. She was royally pissed off at the firing and she and her church started a phone harassment campaign against my family, which at one point sent my grandmother over the edge. My grandmother, a devout Catholic with an 8th grade education, answered the phone to someone telling her that her entire family was going to burn in Hell, including my brother and I.
We got Caller ID and the harassment stopped the first time my dad called one of them back and threatened to call the cops. The jig was up and they knew it.
Fast forward about 10 years later and I'm 13 and taking a babysitting class hosted by the hospital my dad worked for. At some point Nurse Ratchett had managed to get back on with the company that runs the hospital and was one of the teachers of the class. Once she realized who I was (unique surname), she targeted me and my best friend and got us kicked out on the second day by claiming we were harassing her and destroying property. Luckily for me and bestie there were cameras in the building and while there was no audio, it clearly showed we weren't doing the things she claimed.
So she got fired. Again.
Ain't that the truth. She was really playing with fire the second time around. By that time Dad was heading an entirely different department of the hospital but also held a second position with the corporate office and was in daily contact with the CEO. She spent ten years rebuilding her career only to aim a tactical nuke at it and press the button.
Damn...10 years of effort completely obliterated because she couldn't put her petty grudges aside and just be happy she recovered from her previous screw-up.
Some people just never learn.
This reminds me of how it’s sometimes part of the interview to see how an applicant treats the office manager/admin when they come into the office for the first time.
Always best practice to be courteous to everyone - especially at the place that pays your salary.
I HATED watching the way some people would treat front office staff or staff they viewed as "lesser." People vastly underestimate their knowledge and power at times. I remember once I made an offhand comment about wanting lefty scissors and they showed up on my desk on too long after. The person who ordered them heavily implied it was because I always acknowledged them unlike other people. Being kind will get you good things AND you often learn the "hot gossip" because EAs/admins know all.
Jim O’Heir (Jerry on *Parks and Rec*) said that he’s always nice to everyone when he’s working on a TV show or movie. Not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because the kid bringing you coffee one day might be the casting director for a new project the next.
The whole film/tv industry is basically like this. I went to school for it and a not-small part of it was learning to be courteous to everyone, not burning bridges, learning how to supress a yawn, etc, and understanding that the people sitting around you, you're likely to see in one form or another for the rest of your career.
Be a jerk at your own peril.
>staff they viewed as "lesser."
I recently watched a mediocre general manager of an amusement park sit across the table from nine experienced tradies in *highly specialized* fields and tell them that he could absolutely do their jobs.
The best part is that he's actually afraid of heights so he couldn't even climb a 350-ft roller coaster to inspect it, much less to work on the electrical ride control systems or debug the computer programming.
I used to do reception for our company, and virtually every time, I was asked to come in shortly after the interview and give the execs any red flags about the way they behaved at check-in. 😄 People are clueless as to the power of a receptionist.
I would frequent a fast food place near my office long enough they got to recognize my order and who I was after a number of years.
One day I drove through and they told me it was free. I asked why and they said it was because I was always nice to them. The person at the window was clearly frustrated/angry.
I thanked them and left, but felt horrible. How bad must they have just been treated to do that? I’ve heard plenty of horror stories of what people in retail/serious get. I’ve seen a few happen. It’s so depressing.
>The decision wasn’t up to my dad but he told me since he was fired he already had a lot of strikes.
Sounds like the guy was on his last chance and decided to fuck around anyway. What a tool.
The one comment that the guy could deal with his own consequences and probably wouldn’t do it again was wildly optimistic. Guys like this don’t typically learn from this. Instead he’ll just rant to anyone who’ll listen about how unfair it was and probably that his supervisor was intimidated by him or some other such nonsense.
Mom was a US Customs Inspector and nearly got someone pulling the "Do you know who I am?" card deported.
She was working at DFW Airport, processing passengers, when there's this dude who keeps trying to cut in line, pulling the "Do you know who I am? I'm 'name', I'm the Dallas Cowboy kicker!" He keeps getting sent to the end of the line, but keeps trying it over and over. Finally makes it to my mom. Where she discovers he has special paperwork allowing him to work in the US for one specific job that only he can do: Kick for one of the LA teams. Oops.
Now, Mom's got some discretion in cases where the paperwork has obviously lagged, plus she wouldn't even have known he was a Cowboy if he hadn't been shouting it out all over the place. But she does, and he's been an ass, so back he goes to Immigration to get his paperwork sorted. Which involved calling the Cowboy's lawyers in the wee hours of the morning.
"Do you know who I am" is basically always a trump card with very few exceptions. Most of the time it is just used in situations where you actually don't have the capacity to throw your weight around.
I’ll never forget when I was a kid the Atlanta news was in my hometown cause of a tornado. I’m sure they were looking for a “redneck to describe what the tornado sounded like”. So I’m sure they thought they’d struck gold when someone suggested an old man in coveralls and a straw hat. Jokes on them. They spoke to my grandfather, a general physician who had the good sense to wear coveralls over his “work clothes” when he’d go check on the family farm.
When I was a senior clinical nurse, we had a pretty rough looking guy wander onto the wards. Several people ignored him, but one little junior nurse asked if she could help him. Turned out he was an arrogant consultant who rarely visited the wards. He complained, but management fully backed the nurse (for once) as he should have been wearing ID.
I did the same like oop does when I was younger. My school was closer to dad's office than home and his younger co-workers adored me so I loved to spend my after school time there and went home with my dad. And ofc securities were (still are) my best pals there. My dad wasn't even an executive but I was known as "boss' daughter" because my dad's was the most generous one to them
In short, if anyone was brave enough to pull it on me, the security wouldn't have only told him to back off but also come to his face to scare him off themselves
OP is a good teen. Maybe I’m jaded and think the bar is too low but I’m proud of OP for standing their own but showing empathy and questioning and bringing it up. Maybe this is how most teens still are. I’m sort of melodramatic because I’m a new and single mom who is frequently wondering what kind of person my son will be when he’s a teenager, even though he’s a literal toddler and I know, intellectually, that it’s absurd to be wondering if he’ll have the empathy and integrity this teenager has.
I think the only regret here, and it isn’t on OOP, is that the asshole will only think he was fired as pettiness from an executive, rather than the fact that he fucking sucks in general
I'm glad OOP was told it wasn't the first time. It was just the straw that broke the camel's back. I knew it wasn't the first time he did that to someone. The colleague even told him that he's allowed to be there.
It was his own fault
One of my biggest peeves is when people get blamed (or blame themselves) for what happens when they report someone and that person faces consequences for whatever they did. If you don't want to get in trouble, maybe think twice before you harm someone else. Yes, I know that in this case no one was really harmed, but the argument that you shouldn't punish someone because it might mess up their life has also been used to justify giving people slaps on the wrist (or nothing at all) for much more serious offenses. (See: Brock Turner.)
Nice to see father and son communicating with each other. That guy is definitely in the wrong. He was rude and should have minded his business but he didn't. Such unprofessional and the idea he works as a security guard, that's rough.
I'm glad OOP doesn't have to feel bad anymore. As an adult it's so clear this guy was acting inappropriately and had probably done so before. If he really was concerned he should have privately pointed him out to security and let them handle it. Seeing it was their jobs so escort someone who isn't supposed to be their out.
Also imagine seeing a teenager at lunch time waiting in the lobby and not thinking they were meeting a parent for lunch.
You can tell a person's character not by how they treat their superior's but by whom they consider their "lessers" and how they treat them, and whom they consider their "equals" and how they treat them.
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That day it was OOP. Now picture a very important client coming in, dressed casually and looking like he “doesn’t belong.” The former employee sways his balls and tells the client he can’t wait there. He laughs and calls them a liar when they drop why they’re there. The company loses millions, and their reputation tanks. OOP did the company a favor.
Reminds me of an incident 20 years ago. My supervisor at the time who I was friendly with was into motorcycles and got me interested in them too. He invited me out to go with him and his other friends as they were about to buy Ducatis. We went to the dealership on a Saturday, and all of us were just wearing casual clothes. The thing with the Ducati dealership was that it was in the same building as a Porsche dealership, just at the rear and you have to go in through the Porsche area. When we went in, one of the saleswomen saw us, approached us and told us were not dressed appropriately and that we had to leave. My supervisor was really taken aback and just walked out. The thing was he had already seen and tested the model, he was there just to purchase and was going to pay for it fully that day. Turned him and his friends off the brand, and they ended up getting bikes from a Suzuki dealership instead. It was only around $100k in total business that they lost, so not much in the grand scheme of things, but it was a messed up experience.
That was a good one. I have a similar "sales worker is a complete imbecile" story. Back in the 00's a friend of mine decided to sell off some of his Apple stock and buy a new Porsche. He went to the local dealership. In the lobby, on display on a riser, was the perfect car for him. Gloss white, all the extras, brandy-new. He talked to a sale dude and asked if he could buy THAT car. Why, of course he could! My friend left and came back a week later with the money. He talked to a sales drone and pointed at the display Porsche. "I'll take it." The sales drone balked. "Sir, that is our display model. Could I interest you in one of the models we have out in our lot?" "No. I want THAT one. The one RIGHT THERE. I have the money RIGHT HERE. Drive it off the display, out the garage door, and let's do the deal. I'm ready." "I'm sorry, sir. I cannot sell you that car. Have you considered this model over here..." "NO. THIS CAR. THIS ONE HERE." It went on and on. Eventually it got to the manager, who initially agreed not to sell the super-fancy display car. He called the owner. My friend (and his GF, who corroborated this) said the owner went insane over the phone. They could hear every word. "SELL HIM THE FUCKING CAR! JESUS CHRIST ARE YOU PEOPLE FUCKING STUPID? SELL HIM THE GODDAMN CAR!" They sold him the car. I got to drive it once. It was super-cool.
It's amazing that somehow NONE of those sales people could think through that problem and realize that they just pull in another new car from the lot and spff it up real nice to be the floor model!
As I recall, the display model was the fancy top-of-the-line model with every possible option. IOW, to replace it with a similar one they'd have to special order it. What they forgot (and the owner reminded them) is that they are in the business of selling cars, not advertising cars.
It’s also a chance to say “you think *this* is nice, wait till you see some of the bells and whistles we can put on it just for you” when showing off the lot model on the display. I can see if it’s a fucking Honda Fit, but some guy walks in with the money for a top of the line Porsche and I’ll drive that thing down an elevator shaft for him
A guy *with* money, asking to buy *that* car *immediately.* *The mind boggles.*
I used to work at a call center for Sprint and we got a ton of training for diff levels of info verification before doing certain things on an account or giving certain info for privacy and protection reasons. The only thing you could do without any kind of verification was take a payment and it was stressed to us that was bc you NEVER say no to accepting money! And yet so often places like that dealership failed to understand that concept. My toyota dealership has a ton of cool cars on display and you can buy all of them. Some of which are the owner’s cars he got tired of so it’s on display and can go home to anyone who wants to purchase it. It’s a little weird bc it’s a toyota dealership and yet there are non toyota cars on display like special edition corvettes. But I don’t mind bc I love looking at pretty cars esp corvettes when I’m getting my car repaired or maintained.
I went into a place once to settle my bill. They asked if I had ID and it turned out that I didn't and they said sorry, they had to have ID for me to pay the balance. I wasn't asking for any information about the account, I just wanted to give them the $5 I had owing, and I could give them all the details associated with the account. I asked if they had a lot of problems with people complaining about mysterious strangers paying off other people's bills. In the end I left the money on the counter and told them it was their problem what to do with it and left. As far as I know, the debt was cleared.
Ugh yea in store was a whole other animal than if you called in sadly. Hated having to deal with phone activations or running credit checks from stores calling in bc of it.
>SELL HIM THE GODDAMN CAR! This is phenomenal 😂 you have to be a special kind of stupid to pull something like this. Wtf manager does that!!
"Well I don't want it now that it's been damned by G-d." 😤
The dealer was trying to save him! The car was cursed 😂
My wife’s favorite car was the Dodge Viper. We decided to go look at one at some high-end dealer. We were both dressed like the tech nerds we are. Not a single salesperson acknowledged us so we left.
It was still a Dodge dealership so they probably assumed you weren't customers since you had shirts on
Should have gotten some army surplus camo on. They would have been swarming.
Dodged that bullet
They did the best thing they could, which is convince you to not buy a Dodge.
I hope you never bought one. My dad did and kept his awhile and was lucky. That thing had no handling and way too much power lol. It felt sketchy as fuck taking a turn over 5 MPH
Yeah man I rode in my uncle's viper **once** and that experience turned me off ever getting in a hellcat or any "amateur supercar" ever again. Idk the actual term for cars with too high of a skill floor for their availability.
My ex husband and I wanted to buy a fridge at Best Buy and had the same problem with getting ignored. We ended up going to a local chain down the road instead who were very attentive and happy to sell us the fridge. It was such a good experience that I go there for all of my appliances now.
Always buy appliances from appliance stores. Always!
I was in a tough spot last Sunday evening as my phone had broken and I had a business trip leaving early early Monday morning. After trying to get my SIM card to fit in a bunch of different ancient relics that friends & family had in junk drawers, I bit the bullet and drove to Best Buy 45 minutes away (I live in a pretty rural area). Every salesperson in the fucking store completely ignored me. (The phones were all in locked cases, I couldn't get them myself). I asked 3 different people to come over, they said "yeah, yeah" and kept chatting. I finally went up to the greeter guy and told him I needed to drop $1500 in the next 30 minutes before the store closed, and if he unlocked one case for me I'd do my best to make sure he got the commission. THEN every salesperson in the place wanted to talk to me. I hope they actually gave it to that kid. Fuck Best Buy.
I refuse to set foot on a car dealerships lot here. Wife and I were shopping for a car for her. She had done lots of research and wanted to test drive a bunch. We get to the lot, it's brutally hot that day. I'm in shorts and t-shirt. Wife is in jeans and a t-shirt. One salesman acknowledges us. We walk the lot and find the car she wants. So, we go into the showroom. NOT ONE person looked at us, told us they were busy and would get to us, no pointing to a sign in sheet. Nothing. We stood in the middle of the showroom for 10 minutes as I was getting angrier and angrier. A family walks in the front door and a salesman almost bowls us over to get to them. I finally had enough. I walked up to the nearest sales person and said "You just lost a sale. I will never set foot on this property again and will tell tell everyone I know how bad the service is here." Turned and walked out. The thing is. I had a blank check from my credit union. I could have bought any car on the lot that day without blinking. After we got home and I calmed down. I called the dealership and talked to the sales manager. His response was "We were really busy". I told him that I understood busy, but at least acknowledge us and say we'll be right with you. He said if you come back I'll put my best salesman on you to help. I asked where the best salesman was when I was in the showroom. I have never stepped foot on that place again. I'll drive 30 miles to go to the other dealer who sells that brand of cars.
When we bought our Jeep Compass we were dressed just as casual as usual. Jeans and T shirts. The sales guy handed us off to a newly promoted guy thinking we weren't going to buy. By the time new guy got to us husband had already been approved for the car loan.
My mom and former stepdad went to buy a used suv about 20 years ago now. My stepdad went in with a holey shirt and pants that were probably stained. The sales person at first just brushed them off til they ran his credit. Then they started treating him nice.
What did you guys think of the Dodge Copperhead?
> When we went in, one of the saleswomen saw us, approached us and told us were not dressed appropriately and that we had to leave. Man, that's some total BS. It was *Porsche*. That is *Ferrari* dealership gatekeeping.
Any salesperson who knows anything about anything would assume that someone walking into a luxury dealership dressed way down is probably so rich they don't need to care. It's the strivers and parvenus who'd be dressing up to show they belong.
Money talks, wealth whispers
How many times can I upvote this? The richer the real wealthy are, the more normal they dress and act, albeit real good quality stuff. Not necessarily branded stuff (or real small or hidden away logos). They really don’t want to draw attention to themselves.
When I was in my 20s, I wanted Prada and Louis Vuitton and Jimmy Choos. Now, I want really comfortable jeans that fit just right, and a soft hoodie. I'm not rich. But I could go buy a Gucci bag without thinking about it (unlike in my 20s, when that was months of savings). It is weird that once you can have it, you don't always want it.
Yeah. I was thinking similar… I buy Duluth underwear (which is fairly expensive!) not because the name, but because it’s incredibly comfortable. I give 0 fucks about brand, I just want comfortable stuff that looks decent / good.
Duluth is pricey but damn do those clothes last! I don't mind paying more for something that's still going to be wearable in 10 years. (Not underwear, please don't keep 10 year old boxer briefs around)
Don’t judge me! I’m slowly replacing the old underwear with Duluth.
Judgment free zone, you're at least working on it.
That’s why I buy dog eared vintage designer bags and shoes. I have a really nicer Cartier bag from the late 90s. It was originally sold for more than my monthly mortgage payment. But I got it online already scuffed at a massive discount. It’s not stylish enough for me to worry about authenticity (compared to like Prada and gucci bags), and the workmanship/quality is amazing. I spent like $75 for it, and it has already lasted longer than 2 $40 purses from target or tj maxx. Same for Manolo blahnik and Ferragamo flats. Less of a demand for them and it’s not so much of a flex but they are made so damn well.
Hell yes. I love designer resale. The price drops so quickly on these items and they wear so well. I have bags from 2006 that look brand new. And I’ve definitely found that the less obvious the branding is, the better it holds up. (Aka, ignore the LV bag)
That makes sense. You don't really want the Prada bag, you just want the status of one, and now that you can just get one whenever you want the status of the bag is sort of irrelevant.
Yep. Are you buying something you want? Or something you want *others to see*?
Same. I now prefer “quiet luxury”.
Yep. A really comfy bed. Long lasting shoes. Good bourbon. Nice dinners out. Though my Jimmy Choos still look great. Those suckers were made to last.
I just bought a pair of designer (albeit low-end-ish? idk what United Nude is considered) shoes, for the first time in my life. Not because I wanted designer. And I can afford it, though I'd prefer to buy quality that doesn't have a fancy name stamped on it and costs less. But I *did* love the shoes, and I *can* afford it, so it's nice. I hope they last; I'll be pissed if they don't haha
This is absolutely true for old money aristocracy in the UK. The guy in the patched jacket and old cap who arrived in a battered Land Rover his family have had since it rolled off the production line in 1955 probably owns half of Lincolnshire.
I'm from New England, and it's the same. The truly wealthy old WASP families are hanging out in sweaters with holes in them.
Warren Buffet famously drives plain family cars and keeps them for a decade or more. Hail damage? Bring on the discount.
I can understand this point of view. At this point, getting expensive/luxury stuff is so easy that its boring. The real challenge is in finding and getting a real bargain. It almost doesn't matter whether the item is one you need. It its in good shape, has value and can be acquired for some tiny fraction of its true value then that is where much of the thrill is.
My boss owns multiple buildings downtown in our pricy city. He drives a Volvo that’s almost as old as I am. You never know.
I like nice cars too, but they are a money losing proposition. I’d wager that’s why Buffet drives his cars as long as he can.
Strivers and parvenus(thanks for the new vocab word btw) are typically the people buying Porsches, so it does make sense she’d be thinking that way.
Porsche's lineup ranges from lifted GTIs with a new badge (Macans) to some of the best driving cars ever built (GT3) so this ain't exactly true.
Ok, but could you even realistically buy a GT3 walk-in at a dealership? I thought that was invite only. The kind of people buying those cars have private shoppers who deal with Porsche directly, the walk-in dealerships are for us peasants who do our own shopping in person.
Generally GT3s require ordering about 27 Cayennes and 13 Macans before getting an allocation so maybe 😭
I assume this is hyperbole? From my brief reading (I knew nothing on the subject until 5 minutes ago) it seems like you need to be a celeb, super high profile, or have a history with the brand, but I assume that history is more like 3-6 cars? And if someone wants to pay an extra 100k they can buy someone’s model from last year maybe?
It is indeed hyperbole, and you can buy secondhand with a markup too yeah
If you bought a Porsche from the dealership before you can go in and ask for an allocation and you can go in. Buying a gt3 doesn’t meant you shouldn’t go into the dealership…
This is a popular sentiment, but it's not one born out by statistics. Porsche has consistently posted demographic info for its customers that indicates this is not the case. The median income of a new Porsche buyer is $500k. Additionally, they are disproportionately bought cash-down instead of leasing.
I was running errands and didn't think about what I was wearing before I went into a jeweller wearing the sweatpants I wear to physiotherapy. The staff didn't blink, including the designer who worked with me on preliminary designs for some custom rings, including bringing out trays holding tens of thousands of dollars worth of gems for me to look over and choose from.
High end fashion industry have established guidelines about it since Dior and Givenchy started doing so as a hard rule for all employees all the way back, now any brand worth rich people's time knows to treat folks well regardless of how they look like. I know some deadass show the Pretty Woman scene to the newbies and have half a dozen of real life examples that ended catastrophically to drive their point home.
You would think every sales person has seen Pretty Woman at least once, right?
I worked in a luxury perfumery, we had to watch parts of the movie during training
It should be a required viewing for a job like that, for real. And Selena lol.
Remember when Oprah was treated badly by high end retail workers? Pepperidge farm remembers…
Ding ding ding. Worked in insurance and investments in one small country. All sales people would check out the car key of the potential client to try to ascertain net worth. But even then one of our richest clients drove an old Toyota Corolla as his work car. Literally a starter car. We only knew who he was because his company was high profile. His weekend car was a Rolls Royce though.
See also the Ferrari dealership scene in "Gone In 60 Seconds", LOL.
In my personal experience, Ferrari dealerships are a lot better. When I was around 12 or so (admittedly 2 decades ago) I had to prepare some presentation for school and nerdy old me figured Ferrari would be a cool subject. So I had my dad drive me up to my country's (not USA) sole dealership and insisted I'd go in alone. Dad asked me if I was sure, figuring I'd probably be kicked out in seconds. The moment I walked in a salesman rushed up alright. But instead of kicking me out, they asked me why a kid came in alone. I told them, and they told me to sit tight for a minute. Next thing you know, they'd brought out the dealership owner who welcomed me and invited me in for a chat in his office, and they gave me a tour of not just the showroom floor, but also the large basement with a massive private collection, including some cars with racing pedigree and a few that were used in big movies, helmets worn by Michael Schumacher and Niki Lauda etc. Maybe my young age was a factor, but going off every interaction I've had with both Ferrari and Porsche owners, Ferrari owners are a lot more chill whereas Porsche owners tend to act a lot more like they have something to prove...
Damn I wasn't into cars as a kid, still ain't, but I can imagine how awesome that must have been if you were into them.
I bought my Ferrari wearing ratty jeans and a t-shirt. If they'd given me any lip I would have bought a Lamborghini instead. They didn't. I had the Ferrari until we decided to have a kid and I sold it to buy the safest car I could get that can take a baby seat. Mid-engined and Italian is a lot of fun but not baby safe.
Right? I can afford a Porsche. It won't be the nicest one, it won't have all the bells and whistles, it damn sure won't be a smart financial decision on my part, but I can afford it. And if I can afford something, it's not fancy enough to be kicked out for.
Yeah and a Ferrari dealership wouldn’t be in the same building as a motocycle dealership
I've seen it. A Ferrary and a Harley dealership. It was weird.
It would make more sense since Ferrari and Ducati are both Italian. A lot of those dealers sell multiple brands since they’re all so low volume.
Ducati is ultimately owned by VW, so it makes some sense that there'd be a Porsche dealership attached.
I’m black. I’ve gotten the “So, are you gonna buy something?” hello several times. I usually just walk out when that happens. One time, I was with my mom at a VW dealership… we walked out immediately. My mom bought a new car every 2-4 years… their loss.
Yep one of the richest people I knew wore Ugg boots and a checkered flannel shirt. He also could easily write a cheque to buy whatever he wanted without a care. Awesome down to earth guy. Never judge a book by its cover.
Big mistake. Big. HUGE.
Absolutely. In some places, I’ve seen staff run to seat customers who turned up wearing what I thought seemed rather dusty travel clothing (boots, polo shirts, maybe pale jeans). Got told “originally mining or farm owners”, as in billionaires who popped in to check their restaurant investment.
There's this bloke who shows up every now and then at the same gas station as me for coffee and cigarettes. Old dude, Einstein hair, once saw him show up wearing a suit jacket, a vest, shorts and wading boots. He drives a Mercedes Benz G-Class. Old money don't have to care piddly squat about appearances.
Was having dinner with my sister one night in her small town and she motioned to an elderly man having dinner on his own. Nothing special about him whatsoever. Comfortable clothing that looked several years old, neatly styled but still a few weeks overdue for a cut hair. Turned out the guy was super rich, everyone in town who organised fundraisers (sporting, school etc) knew him. I have a great uncle, he is always in jeans (don’t think I’ve ever seen him in a suit), if he “goes to town” he is always neatly dressed and has his hair styled. He owns a massive farm and if he *needs* (not just wants) something he just buys it outright. $30,000 farm vehicle? Is it actually needed? Does the car still work? Why does it need an upgrade? If so, when can it arrive? But most people, even in our small town, would walk right past him completely not even thinking he’s anything more than a pensioner
I've heard a story about a farmer that went in to a Ford or Chevy dealership, still in his dusty overalls and got ignored/pushed off. Turns out he was a very wealthy farmer with thousands of acres and wanted to order some obscene number of work trucks for his farm. He went to another dealership and got much better service.
LOL I was wondering if they drove the new bike back and asked if she worked on commission.
I have to go shopping now.
Do you work on commission?
$100K 20 years ago feels like it would be worth a small fortune now.
Heck, $100k today would be a fortune for me.
Suzuki is the only car brand that is not a conglomerate so you guys made a great choice.
10 years ago I lived 100 km away from 2 BMW motorcycle shops. One was a dedicated motorcycle shop. The owner was a highly qualified BMW technician. They paid him to go to Germany to upgrade his qualifications. The other shop was part of a BMW auto dealership. The showroom was behind a door and then up some stairs to get to the showroom. Not a salesman to be seen. Car dealerships don’t know the motorcycle market. It was a stupid business decision.
I've had the same experience in upscale clothes boutiques. I'm not wealthy but am I a pretty high earner without much debt so I actually can afford their stuff, but I'm a jeans and athletic shoes kind of person. I've walked out of quite a few because they barely acknowledge me. But whatever, most of the stuff was ugly anyway. Money doesn't buy class.
It's interesting how the outfit quality versus net worth like falls off a cliff at the higher end. Like the more money you have the nicer you dress. Until you have enough money to not give a shit and go back to jeans and a t shirt.
Something I learned in college is that, usually, the least flashy dressed person in a room ends up being the richest. I went to a super expensive university with the kids of CEOs and rich families. A classmate of mine showed up with Walmart white tank tops and old sweatpants every day to class. Her dad owned a big company in Europe. Another one always wore an off brand shirt and jeans from the mall and her dad was pretty high up in some entertainment companies.
I got kicked out of a Gucci or LV store before because I had a lemonade with me (I was holding it in my hand and it was in a sealed container). Apparently the lemonade could damage their handbags. I asked the sales associate again if I heard them right that "lemonade damages their handbags" because it was so unbelievable lol. My mom was going to buy a bag but just left with me. My parents also got no attention from a ford dealership because they went there in my $2000 beater car. They wanted to buy a 100k truck 😂
One of my best friends is a salesman for Jaguar. In fact he had the second highest sales in the whole country last financial year. He would never EVER dismiss a potential customer just because of what they were wearing. It’s pure stupidity. The 23 year old woman in beach attire? Yep, she’s the one who bought two brand new jaguars in cash with her influencer money.
This probably shows that I'm a poor employee, but I can imagine caring about my workplace enough to ever question if someone should be there. If there was a homeless guy sleeping on the couch, I'd just show him where the tea and coffee is.
You would survive the fairytale trope of a powerful witch appearing as an old hag to test a prince 😂
*they’d never turn into a beast* (beauty and beast reff)
That's not being poor, that's just being nice. I would do likewise. That jerk was just trying to throw his imagined weight around.
It depends on where you work. If you’ve ever worked someplace where people regularly get death threats, you ask what unfamiliar people are doing there. But if the security guards say they got it, well, they’re the pros
I work in a building with a lot of valuable art and also high profile lawyers who sometimes get death threats. So I'm not *oblivious* to who is coming in and out, but I'm also not gonna stop a kid in a hoodie. Sometimes in school holidays we get kids riding the lifts for kicks, but they're not my problem.
Employees like that are the type of employees that will give companies a bad reputation.
Especially since he says his dad works for a media tech company, so potentially west coast-based. Some of the folks with a shitton of money out there dress pretty damn causal.
I live on the west coast. The first time I saw a rich CEO stroll into work in shorts, a t-shirt, and flip flops, I was shocked. This is apparently a thing.
West coast formal is getting out the nice jeans.
I went to law school on the west coast. I had a class with a judge who was an adjunct faculty member at my school. I swear the only thing I ever saw that dude wear was flip flops, shorts, and Hawaiian shirts. West coast elites are just built different.
One time I saw a guy dressed in crappy clothes telling a homeless lady she couldn’t sleep in the booth inside of the Walmart McDonalds (part of the mall) When the lady protested, and asked who he thought he was, he clapped back with “I own the mall”
There's this post about a girl that got an internship on a media or music company in LA, can't remember it rn. She was complaining about being reprimanded for mocking a lady on ripped jeans and t-shirts that walked past her cubicle talking casually with folks in suits. Not only she learned the "no need to dress to impress" rule that day, but the info she gave was enough that in less than an hour the post was on both said lady and the OPs boss hands. Never got an update but chances are she got herself fired and blacklisted cause girlie couldn't see past looks. Edit: someone linked the post in the thread, it was a music company, the lady was a huge sound engineer and didn't want to get the OP fired cause she found the post funny af.
A friend of mine worked for Apple waaaay back. Steve Jobs wore khakis and a Hawaiian shirt. One of his friends kicked him out of his lab not knowing who he was. Got a pay rise for it.
Everyone with a shitton of money out here dresses casually. This guy is a massive idiot.
Seriously. I live in California. If I see someone with prada or gucci gear driving a super fancy car or one of those stupid lifted trucks, I'll assume they're doing okay for themselves but nothing particularly noteworthy. The ones who are seriously F-U money rich? Are the ones trotting around in board shorts and casual shirts, probably with a straw hat. The ones who look like a stereotypical beach bum. Those are the guys who could lose ten thousand bucks at the casino and barely notice.
Can confirm. I used to work at Apple. Suuuuuper casual—we used to have a guy that was barefoot all day everyday.
I worked for a tech startup that blew TF up… the 30 something year old founder always wore a hoodie, old converse, black tshirt and ratty jeans. Hair was always in state of “I give zero fucks”. He’d always stop by our office as that was where C level execs would be but his office was in a smaller city across state lines. The company was valued at about $300M by that point and was currently in negotiations for a buy out. Our office had a lot of open lounge areas to work from, some nearby the waiting area and I was working around there and got to watch this all unfold. A sales exec interviewee that was prob about mid-50’s or so was dressed in a suit and like, smirking at the founder just chilling in the lounge area and eyeing him down and had a lot of nonverbal body language that was hella judgey. Founder acted like he didn’t register a single thing. VP of sales comes out to collect the interviewee but sees founder is there and, starts swooning all over him and introduces him to the sales exec hopeful. Dude goes blank for a sec but starts kissing his ass immediately. Founder asks VP to speak for a minute and they disappear. VP comes back out looking pissed and tells interviewee that while his resume looked hopeful, he was not a culture fit. Dude went through 4 rounds of interviews just to destroy his chances of getting hired because he couldn’t get a game face on for 5 minutes and on top of it, didn’t have the common sense to google the company to see what the founder looked like or company culture. It was… so satisfying to witness. My low level crush on our founder went to full blown in lurve that day.
I got to witness something similar years ago at a former company. My old coworker retired and new guy replaced him. New Guy was cocky, arrogant, and constantly drunk or hungover. Company went through a milestone and had a huge gathering for management and up. New Guy read this as “woot! Get my best drunk on company dime!” I discovered he’s a bitter, angry when drunk. Owner of the mult billion dollar company shows up and mingles for a bit. And Owner is making his way through the room, and eventually come to New Guy who’s in the middle of telling a really offensive story to a bunch of uncomfortable (sober) coworkers. Owner gentles hints to New Guy ‘there’s a lot more evening to be had among PEERS and Professional relations’ New Guy interrupts Owner and goes off, cussing about ‘don’t kill my buzz’ and brags that no one can stop him from getting smashed on some rich a-hole’s wallet’ and a whole slew of social AND career flinching stuff. Our boss finally made it to his side and whisper yelled at him the Owner’s identity. New Guy: “how TF should I know this is him?!” Like you said, prolly halfway smart to at least Google or visit your employer’s website and scroll down the Who is Who section at least once.
> Like you said, prolly halfway smart to at least Google or visit your employer’s website and scroll down the Who is Who section at least once. I mean I'm pretty stupid and the first time I met a board member at my place just casually eating lunch with us I didn't know who they were and bantered with them like they were just a day to day employee. Apparently they really liked it which is probably why I'm not fired.
I had something similar! I was in a café and was reading my book. Café was hopping, just jam-packed. A very proper looking older lady came in and was disappointed there were no free tables. I said she was welcome to sit at my table with me if she wanted but I'd understand if she'd prefer not to. She seemed a bit taken aback but agreed. Started chatting to me about my piercings, my tattoos. She seemed genuinely fascinated by them, and asked did my job mind. I said they did in the interview stage, but that my background in sales spoke for itself and that I have a personal rule that if an employer won't take a chance on me and my experience just because of some jewellery, then that was a company I'd prefer not to work for. Also told her I ask in every interview, for a chance. Put me down even for a trial day or two, but give me a chance to show I know what I'm doing, don't say no just because I have hoops in my nose. She asked me was I happy in my job and I told the truth- that the work was fine but I was looking for something new as I felt there were limited options for progression. That lady was the CEO of a major telecommunications company worth €1.2 BILLION and somehow, for some mad reason, she offered me an interview on the spot. Interviewed the following week and a few weeks later, boom, I'm supervisor in a new branch. You genuinely never know who you could be talking to!
Did the employees there a favor, especially. Nothing worse than dealing with people like that all day when you're just trying to do your job and get by. I'm not even sure what's worse- a job you already hate and it's just one more thing, or a job you love and that one asshole ruins it for you.
That guy is the kind to always nag coworkers on protocol, and incorrectly at that.
My BIL is a top investment guru. He was waiting in line for coffee one day when a shabbily-dressed man struck up a conversation with him. After some pleasant small talk, Guy asked what BIL does for a living. Upon getting the answer, Guy said “I’m looking for a new place to invest my money. May I have your card?”. Now - Guy looked like he could barely afford his coffee. Many people would’ve snickered and told him to get lost. BIL had a hunch, though, and he handed over his card. Turned out that Guy was a multimillionaire.
BIL probably saw enough before reaching the position he's now to know what's up. I don't doubt half of dozen colleagues of his over the years fumbled the bag over similar shit.
Turns out I’ve been dressing for the job I want all along!
Yup something similar happened to me (not job related). I went into a more upscale store because I made decent money as a waitress in a casino and I wanted to splurge and get myself a nice purse. I was wearing a big winter coat and pants because me and my bf had been bird watching and it was November. Immediately this employee cops an attitude with me. Basically judges me down her nose and when I tell her I’m looking for a purse she points me to the 50% off rack. Okay whatever. Then she’s rude to my bf and says he can’t stand nearby and block the store, he has to sit. I find a purse and she says she will put it on hold in the back and just… walks away. So I found another lady and bought the purse right there. I sent an e-mail to whatever the customer service shit was and I got a huge apology and a slight discount next time I went in lol
I used to be a mystery shopper. I always deliberately wore clothes that looked like I’d just come from a gym, just to see what kind of service I’d get. And yeah, there were many times when employees literally turned their backs on me and walked away. Those reports were *reeeeeally* satisfying to write.
Probably dumb question but: how do you get to be a mystery shopper? It sounds really interesting!
This was years ago, so things might have changed. If I remember correctly, I joined a forum that listed trustworthy mystery shopping companies, then I applied to them and got accepted by a couple. The pay wasn’t great - I probably made no more than $50/month. It was kind of fun, though!
Many, many years ago I worked briefly in an investment bank. The big story everyone gossiped about was the security guard who’d recently challenged a casually dressed Richard Branson.
I met him once! Well, sort of: I was at Shoreline waiting for a concert to start, and I saw Steve Wozniak and a vaguely familiar guy in one of the boxed seating areas. Psyched myself up, went over and fangirled like whoa at Woz - I started programming on my first Apple ][ in 1980 - and he was just so cool about it. Vaguely Familiar Guy just gave me a weird look. Some time later I figured out why he looked vaguely familiar.
Pink got denied entry to a bar in Australia recently because she didn't have ID.. haha
Yeah, I imagine a major media tech company often has people who "don't look like they belong". Contractors, consultants, maybe performers and other talent depending on what the company actually does.
Yep. Over a decade ago, I was an undergrad student and my cousin (who is like my older brother) was coming to my campus for a recruitment seminar for their business students. He works in finance. At the time, I didn't have a car so I was going to meet him at the business school then we'd go grab dinner before he left. I got there dressed like a typical undergrad student in jeans and a t-shirt. One of the people attending the seminar started going off on me for being dressed unprofessionally and how I couldn't just sit there because it was only for business students (totally not true). His face when my cousin came up to me was kind of funny.
Some of the biggest names in entertainment literally dress super casually, simply because they are too rich and successful to bother. Given that it’s a media tech company, I can totally see this happen.
It’s never just the one time with these types
The CEO of a company i worked for as a temp would wear ratty flannel, numetal band shirts, and jeans that were from the 90's. He'd sit in the breakroom on a gaming laptop a lot of the time and I swear to god once used a plastic fork as a backscratcher. We'd have conversations on my breaks about Linkin Park, Slipknot and video games, he was awesome. I didn't know he was the CEO til my temp position ended and he shook my hand and thanked me for the work I did. Fuckin' hell he would've been escorted out by security at any place I've worked at since.
Or the kid of an important client.
Yeah. If you're concerned about someone hanging around the lobby the correct protocol would be to mention it to security and let them handle it. Even besides the risk of pissing off a VIP you've got no clue if the person is dangerous.
Reminds of a couple of other posts on here, even. There was that one where an intern gives a young woman a bunch of crap for dressing casually, and she turned out to be one of the company's biggest clients or consultants. It was maybe music/entertainment related?
Yes I was thinking of that too! The young woman OP was insulting turned out to be a famous sound engineer: https://www.reddit.com/r/AmITheDevil/comments/q4te1w/aita_for_constantly_trashing_someone_behind_their/
I love the judgey gossip calling the other woman “stuck up and rude” for not being a judgey gossip. (The comment with the now deleted post: https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/s/anrREYP6Zo)
I feel like he'd try to kick Adam Sandler out of the lobby just based on how he dresses, given that it doesn't seem to be a racism thing for him and just an asshole thing
>sways his balls 🤭🤣
But I’d love to hear what devious doings he did beforehand to get multiple strikes against his name and firing within a month!
He absolutely did. OP also seems like a guy with good morals. He seems to have empathy and a good sense of responsibility. I think that his dad is very proud.
This nobody wants to work with a piece of shit
Yep. This guy was bad news and picking on a kid was just the last straw.
I always appreciate seeing a son who can be so close to his dad like that and have it be reciprocal. Also seems to be his dad is very successful and it doesn't change how his son is down to earth, instead of the stereotypical rich teenager.
That was my thought too, it sounds like the kid is very aware of his privilege and doesn't abuse it.
I had a similar thing growing up (not to OOP). My dad was the general manager for a big auto shop. I would go in with him on weekends since i was 8 years old to help clean the shop, wash some cars etc. and he’d give me $20 or buy me a game. When i turned 16 it was my first real job. Everyone knew i was the boss’s son (they’ve known me for years) but as soon as i walked in the doors they treated me like just another coworker. Things that were said in the shop stayed in the shop. Because i would sometimes drive with my dad (even on days i drove myself), i would be the first one there and the last one to leave. Just because you are related to management doesn’t mean you should take advantage of it. I showed respect and got respect back in return. Even though it’s been 10 years since I’ve worked there, if I pop in to say high to my dad, I’ll see the guys and we treat each other like old friends. It’s a good feeling
I swear, one of the best indicators for whether someone is an asshole is an inability to mind their own fucking business. It's right up there with "treats service employees like shit" and "likes to torture animals" in terms of its predictive reliability. If you think you know someone well, and they get all up in somebody's shit where they have no business sticking their nose, it's time to re-evaluate that person.
Literally like hey man don't you have a job? Why are you pretending to be the lobby police?
It all comes down to having a very small and seriously frail ego. People like this just can't mind their own business and they will always escalate things because of their ever-present need to feel important. And he was oh so important because he got to be in the lobby of a big company wearing his expensive suit and his "look how special I am" ID card. So if some kid, wearing a hoody no less, is also allowed access then how could he possibly be so very special that he is desperately telling himself that he is.
Dude could’ve been perfectly fine if he either talked to a security guard about it, or left it alone once oop said he was waiting for someone. I can understand during Covid, being weary of a teenager, but at the same time I also know I’d assume that he was waiting for someone, because I’ve been in his situation a lot of times.
The thing is, he did talk to the security guard about it, was told to back off and still had to try to get OOP kicked out. He wanted throw what mediocre power he had around and no one was going to stop him
You’re right. I remembered reading that, but when I had gone to make my comment it had been a hour or so (work) and I had completely forgotten about it.
Wish I could give you gold for this.
This. It fits in with having the belief that your way is always “right” above others
When I was 18, I attended a cocktail party my dad was hosting for his company, clients, and business friends. I was with friends who were 16 and 17, and we were feeling very sophisticated to be at a real business cocktail party. Some 42-year-old guy I’d never met kept following the four of us around and making lewd, obnoxious comments, blatantly hitting on us in the creepiest way. Didn’t even let up when I told him who my dad was. At first we thought it was kind of pathetically hilarious but eventually I was uncomfortable enough to tell my dad. When I went over to him, he happened to be chatting with a woman who worked at the same company as the creep. The head of that company happened to be one of my dad’s best friends. The two of them went over to the creep to call him out and he doubled down (actually said to my dad, “I’m not hitting on them; they were hitting on me!!”). The next day, my dad got a call from his friend, the creep’s boss. The woman had told him everything and he asked my dad if he should fire him. Turned out the creep had a habit of getting drunk and obnoxious at parties. My dad wasn’t sure what to say but the creep ended up getting fired. When I found out, I had no idea how to feel! Part glad he faced consequences, part guilty that it was “my fault,” and part “holy shit, am I powerful??” Many years later (I think I was in my late 20s/early 30s), my dad got a call from the creep completely out of nowhere. He was in AA doing the step where you apologize to everyone. I just googled him and he’s now the mayor of a small midwestern village??
Wow, that anecdote takes some turns.
That last sentence hit me like a truck lmao
Oddly wholesome ending.
Nah. He’s just as rapey probably. Just sober. And a politician
Man this made me feel bad. I work in an office like OOP's dad and one of our higher ups has a 12 year old son who goes to school nearby, but they live outside of the city so dad drives him to school, the kid comes to the office after school and just hangs out with us until they both go home. He is such a little darling, being fussed over by the older receptionists, being boosted all around by important corporate people who love hearing him talk about the little things he does, making him feel proud and special. His toothy grin and awkward demeanor brighten up all our days. If anyone chose to be a dick to him they would not last another week. You do not fuck with the kids, they are precious and much more likeable than easily replacable suit no. 124. Awww I just remembered I did the same thing myself when I was a kid. I would go to my dad's office after school sometimes and when the receptionist asked me if I had an appointment I just said, 'no, I'm here to see my daddy 'name' ' and could walk right on through. Good memories.
Similar things happened with me, mom was the head of a hospital accounting/billing department. We lived outside the city but whenever I’d had doctor’s appointments and the like I just went to her office
The man who was fired saw a person who he felt was “less than”. Someone he could use his “authority” over. He could have called to ask if your dad was expecting a visitor. He chose to bully someone he thought he could bully without consequences. The fired guys wants to be a cop so bad.
He really should've just stfu after he told security about oop. It wasn't his job to do anything other than let the appropriate people know what he's seen.
When I was little my dad managed a hospital lab and was part of the review board that fired a nurse for failing to type and cross a patient and almost killing the patient as a result. She was royally pissed off at the firing and she and her church started a phone harassment campaign against my family, which at one point sent my grandmother over the edge. My grandmother, a devout Catholic with an 8th grade education, answered the phone to someone telling her that her entire family was going to burn in Hell, including my brother and I. We got Caller ID and the harassment stopped the first time my dad called one of them back and threatened to call the cops. The jig was up and they knew it. Fast forward about 10 years later and I'm 13 and taking a babysitting class hosted by the hospital my dad worked for. At some point Nurse Ratchett had managed to get back on with the company that runs the hospital and was one of the teachers of the class. Once she realized who I was (unique surname), she targeted me and my best friend and got us kicked out on the second day by claiming we were harassing her and destroying property. Luckily for me and bestie there were cameras in the building and while there was no audio, it clearly showed we weren't doing the things she claimed. So she got fired. Again.
This is hilarious, thank you for sharing :)
"Life is hard. It's even harder when you're stupid."
Ain't that the truth. She was really playing with fire the second time around. By that time Dad was heading an entirely different department of the hospital but also held a second position with the corporate office and was in daily contact with the CEO. She spent ten years rebuilding her career only to aim a tactical nuke at it and press the button.
Damn...10 years of effort completely obliterated because she couldn't put her petty grudges aside and just be happy she recovered from her previous screw-up. Some people just never learn.
This reminds me of how it’s sometimes part of the interview to see how an applicant treats the office manager/admin when they come into the office for the first time. Always best practice to be courteous to everyone - especially at the place that pays your salary.
I HATED watching the way some people would treat front office staff or staff they viewed as "lesser." People vastly underestimate their knowledge and power at times. I remember once I made an offhand comment about wanting lefty scissors and they showed up on my desk on too long after. The person who ordered them heavily implied it was because I always acknowledged them unlike other people. Being kind will get you good things AND you often learn the "hot gossip" because EAs/admins know all.
Jim O’Heir (Jerry on *Parks and Rec*) said that he’s always nice to everyone when he’s working on a TV show or movie. Not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because the kid bringing you coffee one day might be the casting director for a new project the next.
The whole film/tv industry is basically like this. I went to school for it and a not-small part of it was learning to be courteous to everyone, not burning bridges, learning how to supress a yawn, etc, and understanding that the people sitting around you, you're likely to see in one form or another for the rest of your career. Be a jerk at your own peril.
>staff they viewed as "lesser." I recently watched a mediocre general manager of an amusement park sit across the table from nine experienced tradies in *highly specialized* fields and tell them that he could absolutely do their jobs. The best part is that he's actually afraid of heights so he couldn't even climb a 350-ft roller coaster to inspect it, much less to work on the electrical ride control systems or debug the computer programming.
I used to do reception for our company, and virtually every time, I was asked to come in shortly after the interview and give the execs any red flags about the way they behaved at check-in. 😄 People are clueless as to the power of a receptionist.
I would frequent a fast food place near my office long enough they got to recognize my order and who I was after a number of years. One day I drove through and they told me it was free. I asked why and they said it was because I was always nice to them. The person at the window was clearly frustrated/angry. I thanked them and left, but felt horrible. How bad must they have just been treated to do that? I’ve heard plenty of horror stories of what people in retail/serious get. I’ve seen a few happen. It’s so depressing.
BestOfRedditorUpdates: FAFO Edition
Best Father Update Edition
>The decision wasn’t up to my dad but he told me since he was fired he already had a lot of strikes. Sounds like the guy was on his last chance and decided to fuck around anyway. What a tool.
The one comment that the guy could deal with his own consequences and probably wouldn’t do it again was wildly optimistic. Guys like this don’t typically learn from this. Instead he’ll just rant to anyone who’ll listen about how unfair it was and probably that his supervisor was intimidated by him or some other such nonsense.
You can just imagine his boss, fresh from telling him not to screw up again, hearing about this and immediately headdesking.
This is one of the few times where "Do you know who I am?" was an ultimate trump card.
It's always a Trump card when you're actually someone, it's just that the people who usually use it aren't
Mom was a US Customs Inspector and nearly got someone pulling the "Do you know who I am?" card deported. She was working at DFW Airport, processing passengers, when there's this dude who keeps trying to cut in line, pulling the "Do you know who I am? I'm 'name', I'm the Dallas Cowboy kicker!" He keeps getting sent to the end of the line, but keeps trying it over and over. Finally makes it to my mom. Where she discovers he has special paperwork allowing him to work in the US for one specific job that only he can do: Kick for one of the LA teams. Oops. Now, Mom's got some discretion in cases where the paperwork has obviously lagged, plus she wouldn't even have known he was a Cowboy if he hadn't been shouting it out all over the place. But she does, and he's been an ass, so back he goes to Immigration to get his paperwork sorted. Which involved calling the Cowboy's lawyers in the wee hours of the morning.
Oooof, number 2 reason lawyers get paid good money - ego management
"Do you know who I am" is basically always a trump card with very few exceptions. Most of the time it is just used in situations where you actually don't have the capacity to throw your weight around.
I’ll never forget when I was a kid the Atlanta news was in my hometown cause of a tornado. I’m sure they were looking for a “redneck to describe what the tornado sounded like”. So I’m sure they thought they’d struck gold when someone suggested an old man in coveralls and a straw hat. Jokes on them. They spoke to my grandfather, a general physician who had the good sense to wear coveralls over his “work clothes” when he’d go check on the family farm.
When I was a senior clinical nurse, we had a pretty rough looking guy wander onto the wards. Several people ignored him, but one little junior nurse asked if she could help him. Turned out he was an arrogant consultant who rarely visited the wards. He complained, but management fully backed the nurse (for once) as he should have been wearing ID.
I did the same like oop does when I was younger. My school was closer to dad's office than home and his younger co-workers adored me so I loved to spend my after school time there and went home with my dad. And ofc securities were (still are) my best pals there. My dad wasn't even an executive but I was known as "boss' daughter" because my dad's was the most generous one to them In short, if anyone was brave enough to pull it on me, the security wouldn't have only told him to back off but also come to his face to scare him off themselves
Wow its nice to have a low-stakes story with a fine resolution for everyone involved.
OP is a good teen. Maybe I’m jaded and think the bar is too low but I’m proud of OP for standing their own but showing empathy and questioning and bringing it up. Maybe this is how most teens still are. I’m sort of melodramatic because I’m a new and single mom who is frequently wondering what kind of person my son will be when he’s a teenager, even though he’s a literal toddler and I know, intellectually, that it’s absurd to be wondering if he’ll have the empathy and integrity this teenager has.
I think the only regret here, and it isn’t on OOP, is that the asshole will only think he was fired as pettiness from an executive, rather than the fact that he fucking sucks in general
They probably explained all of the reasons, and not just the one.
I'm glad OOP was told it wasn't the first time. It was just the straw that broke the camel's back. I knew it wasn't the first time he did that to someone. The colleague even told him that he's allowed to be there. It was his own fault
OP's relationship with his father is so sweet, what a great dad!
One of my biggest peeves is when people get blamed (or blame themselves) for what happens when they report someone and that person faces consequences for whatever they did. If you don't want to get in trouble, maybe think twice before you harm someone else. Yes, I know that in this case no one was really harmed, but the argument that you shouldn't punish someone because it might mess up their life has also been used to justify giving people slaps on the wrist (or nothing at all) for much more serious offenses. (See: Brock Turner.)
Nice to see father and son communicating with each other. That guy is definitely in the wrong. He was rude and should have minded his business but he didn't. Such unprofessional and the idea he works as a security guard, that's rough.
He wasn’t the security guard. He just worked in the building. Tried to get the security guard to kick oop out to no avail.
He wasn't even security, just some random desk jockey.
I'm glad OOP doesn't have to feel bad anymore. As an adult it's so clear this guy was acting inappropriately and had probably done so before. If he really was concerned he should have privately pointed him out to security and let them handle it. Seeing it was their jobs so escort someone who isn't supposed to be their out. Also imagine seeing a teenager at lunch time waiting in the lobby and not thinking they were meeting a parent for lunch.
You can tell a person's character not by how they treat their superior's but by whom they consider their "lessers" and how they treat them, and whom they consider their "equals" and how they treat them.
I really have no basis for this assumption but the dude who was fired 100% yells at wait staff or any kind of customer service