Email etiquette changes everywhere you go. Politeness is key, of course. But at some workplaces, emails have to be answered in a highly specific way, even if the employees think it's ridiculous. 

Having instant messaging is such a convenient way to avoid emails. It can be such a slog to search for a specific phrase in a lengthy email chain, minimizing everyone's long link-filled signatures as you go. Instant messaging doesn't require you to start every message with an "I hope this email finds you well." It's just quick and to the point. 

For external emails though, like ones between a business and clients, sometimes these things are a necessity. U/Outrageous_Bet7212 writes that as an administrative nurse, they tried to keep their emails brief. But that didn't fly with their boss. This boss didn't like the "tone" of the admin nurse's emails, and had some weird advice to change it up. You can read the full story down below, as well as comments from people who've had a few annoying email situations in their own lives. 

Up next, these goofy goobers are some real dummies according to their friends, like one person whose coworker wouldn't drink water, ever, because "water makes you rust." 

Pets are family, they always have been and always will be—but are especially so for the generations of young (and aging) adults who can't afford and wouldn't have the financial security to start a family and have human children of their own—even if they wanted to. The reality is that, for a lot of people, their pets are the closest family and maybe even the only family that they will ever have. They are treasured closely, and the loss of one is always tragic…

With that in mind, members of this online community were horrified to read that this boss's flippant response to the barista who worked for them, telling the barista that the cafe where they worked was too understaffed for them to miss that afternoon, also noting that they were the only key-holder available at that time. If you've worked retail or in the service industry, this type of thing will probably be all too familiar to you, with employers making it near impossible for their "key-holders" to take days off, not wanting to work the opening or closing shifts themselves. Employers act like the "keys" are the keys to nuclear missiles or something and only the chosen few could possibly hold them, meaning that sickness or family emergencies don't hold a candle to unlocking or locking the doors or the business.

Community members shared their thoughts and advice in the comments, admonishing the boss for their attitude and advising the barista on how they should be handling the situation and moving forward. It's ironic, in a really depressing way, how much the boss's response bears resemblance to that famous "we're so understaffed today" meme (at the end of this post) that was popular a few years back.

Sibling relationships can be a little complicated sometimes. There's a moment in every sibling relationship where sisterly obligation overlaps with the 'oh-heck-no' clause–and for some siblings who like to push the limits of their family's patience, this delicate dynamic can quickly descend into a hard-earned life lesson at the hands of malicious compliance.

The sister in this next Reddit story reached the limit of her patience pretty quickly when it came to her entitled little brother. Although he didn't have a driver's license, he got a job in high school that was across town, a 30-40 minute drive from the family home. Initially, he'd promised the fam that he'd take public transportation, relishing in the idea of being independent and making his own money, but after many long afternoons and tired days on the bus, he started bickering with his sister and begging for a ride home on her day off. 

Suddenly, public transportation just wasn't for him. 

Luckily, his sister was there to put him in his place. Keep scrolling to read how an older sis maliciously complied with her baby brother's complaints, making him instantly regret asking for a ride home when she decided to take the scenic route. After this, here's another story of malicious compliance in the workplace.

Most new hires spend their first day getting an overview of their daily responsibilities and meeting the other members of their team. Unfortunately for this IT worker, that calm, chill first day was taken away from them pretty much instantly.

It turns out that on this particular employee's first day, they learned that the company used some obscure and outdated software that would take some time to adjust to and understand. Well, time did not seem to be on their side given the fact that the coworkers who trained her on that first day would end up leaving the company without a trace. Now, this Redditor had to take over the entire system with little oversight and guidance. 

Keep scrolling below for their full rant and for the best reactions from folks in the comments section. For more, check out this post about an entitled coworker who demanded that an employee cover her shift.

When dealing with toxic management, there's nothing like giving them a final surprise before your not-so-gentle departure.

We've all been there, sitting in a restaurant after a nice meal, enjoying this moment with our friends, and relishing the deliciousness that occurred on our plates just moments before. But a dark reality looms before us, threatening to dismantle this pleasant feeling… The Bill. While we knew we would have to pay for such pleasures, that's not the problem, what's ruined the entire restaurant industry is the tipping culture. 

While I have no qualms about tipping a server for excellent service, nowadays it seems like customer's tips are covering the wages of every server, nearly forcing our hand when it comes to leaving a tip. If you have a terrible waiter, it's now morally and ethically wrong to leave only a 10% tip–and god-forbid you even CONSIDER a 'no tip' option. Since when did tipping become less of an option and more of an obligation when eating at a restaurant? 

Well, one restaurant really cleared up that confusion recently when they decided to remove the 'no tip' button from their payment device. Now, customers don't even have to consider whether or not they're leaving a tip for their servers at this place because that decision has already been made for them! Scroll for the backlash that ensued when this tipping scandal left a bad taste in everybody's mouth…

Sorry that your fine dining experience wasn't perfect, Mr. CEO. As a customer, this CEO felt that he was entitled to a flawless dining experience. Perhaps he's complaining for other reasons, though…

Fine dining can be a lovely experience, and it's even better if your boss is footing the bill. Sometimes these meals take hours: the server in this story, u/CopiousGoats, shared that the average table would spend roughly two and a half hours on a meal. From appetizers to desserts, people often want to spend that long at a fancy establishment. It makes it feel like you got your money's worth, and have had time to relish in the lavish ostentatiousness of it all. 

Some rich folks get used to the fancy-schmancy treatment, though. The CEO in this story is totally one of them: he was pretty ticked off that he had to wait so long for his meal. This apparent reason for his displeasure about his dining experience seems fishy, though, and commenters agreed… You can check out the full story and decide for yourself.  

After that, this railroad boss told an employee that finishing a night's work was "arrogant," so the employee decided to go along with his wishes and underperform accordingly. 

Don't trust everything you come across online, folks!

This male Karen customer did not comprehend that the obviously false advertisement he saw for a lawn mower on social media was, well, not real. We trust the Redditor in this scenario when they claim that this was a poorly Photoshopped ad for a $9.95 lawn mower when in reality, the lawn mowers they were selling at the store cost upwards of $200. Like any entitled customer when they are not given what they want, this Karen lost it. In fact, it took a quarter of an hour to get this guy removed from the premises, and that was with the support of a manager!

Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the funniest reactions from folks in the comments section. Our heart goes out to all workers who have to explain scams to ancient, unkind customers like this guy. For more stories like this, check out this post about another customer who demanded free phone chargers.

All of these DIY projects started with the best intentions! A person saw a problem or felt inspired, and started their craft. Too bad that doing a DIY project isn't always as easy as it looks. No matter how well you follow that YouTube video or set of directions, some things need to be left to the pros. 

While I'm a big fan of the Spaghetti-O Furby and other art projects, it's harder to love all of the wild car DIYs (as you can see below). For example, one person built a fan into the roof of their truck. Not like, a fan vent. A literal ceiling fan is placed just above their head. Even the slightest bump would cause the driver's noggin to bump into the light part of it, covering them in a spray of glass as they drive. Just what every driver wants: a spinning fan that could alternatively get stuck in their hair as they drive. See the car fan for yourself at #17! There are plenty of utterly bizarre DIY projects that could've remained in the imagination instead of creating it. You never know until you try! 

Up next, this scorned employee gave the exit interview of a lifetime, bringing along three boxes of evidence with her. 

Heatwaves can make people crazy, but these Karens already were crazy to begin with…

Look, when it gets this hot outside, people can be a little rough around the edges. After all, the height of summer means walking down one street and somehow encountering at least eight different scents simultaneously. It means coming into work sweaty and gross. And it means a ton of social obligations, some of which inevitably involve the most annoying people. So let's all give each other a break before we all contort into the Karen versions of ourselves.

These entitled folks, unfortunately, could not help but stir up fusses. This week, we've got a ridiculous one-star restaurant review, a sweet mother and her Karen daughter, a classic impatient customer, and a Dollar General Karen who seemed physically incapable of minding her own business. Keep scrolling below for the full stories. For more, check out this list of anecdotes from folks who realized their significant others were dumb as rocks. 

Sometimes, enough is enough. 

As kids, many of us indulged in harmless pranks around the neighborhood—ding-dong-ditching, TP-ing, you name it. It was just part of growing up. Now as adults with our own homes, we've come to realize just how irritating these 'innocent' pranks can be. It's like karma has come full circle. However, one recent incident takes the cake in terms of annoyance factor. A particularly entitled kid has been repeatedly kicking his neighbor's house. Yes, kicking it. I'm not sure if this is the latest trend among kids today, but it's certainly a first for me. The homeowner endured months of mysterious banging noises, even going so far as to spend hundreds of dollars investigating the source. At first, she suspected it could be bad pipes. But as it turns out, the solution to her ongoing annoyance turned out to be surprisingly simple. With the camera in place, she caught the culprit red-handed—literally kicking her house.

No matter what a customer says or does at a retail location, the employees are expected to grin and bear it. Even if a customer is ranting and raving over the most minor issues, like a missing sauce packet or getting a diet soda instead of a regular one, the employees are forced to listen to them whine and complain. It gets endlessly tiresome.

That's why this person, u/your_name_here___, is our personal hero of the day. They realized they could say whatever they wanted to customers… and they did! No doubt that their former coworkers will never forget this day. It's the kind of day that'll go down in infamy at that workplace; it's the kind of incident that'll put a smile on all the worker's faces whenever they recall it. It's just so righteous! 

Check out the whole story below. Commenters lamented that the original poster was banned from the restaurant. But I wonder if the manager only did that to save face, and was actually really thrilled to see this crabby customer get what she deserved. I bet if that ex-employee went back to the restaurant with some cookies and apologized to the manager, they'd be welcomed back (and hopefully celebrated!). 

Next, read about the pizza delivery workers who got the worst tips ever. 

Elaborate excuses and little white lies have long been a means of getting out of those obligations that we just can't bear facing. Forgot to do an assignment? Dog ate it. Need some time off work? Your third grandma just tragically passed away. Some social engagement that you can't bear facing? Turns out you just got a nasty stomach bug and can't be more than ten feet away from the bathroom.

Most of us have probably resorted to using an excuse like this a time or two during our time on this planet. Whatever the particular excuse we're using might be they all bear the common thread of deflecting blame to another cause or appealing to the authority member's sympathy to keep them from thinking too much about the fact that you're not doing what's expected of you. It really truly is one of the oldest tricks in the book.

By no means are any of us suggesting that this is a strategy that you should employ to get time off work, especially in the modern era where your boss is more than likely to be a bit suspicious and do some sleuthing online… But it's a compelling and entertaining tale nonetheless 

No matter how desperate one might be for a job, there are some things they should never let happen to them while interviewing, and being forced to sit on the floor is one of them.

I honestly don't know how the woman who wrote this Reddit story could stand (pun intended) the way she was treated in her job interview. When she arrived at her interview, she was told to wait for the employer in a lobby area and was surprised to see that the area was occupied by a few other people, who were taking up all the sitting spaces in that lobby. Unphased, OP (original poster) approached them and asked if they could clear space for her to sit, but was shocked when they decided to simply act like she wasn't there and ignore her request, which forced her to continue standing. 30-minutes later, OP was still waiting for her interview, when she decided to sit on the floor until the interviewer showed up.

I'll let you guess if she got the job, or you could simply scroll down and find out by reading the rest of the story. After you are done, click here for a story of an entitled employee who refused to take no for an answer when asking a coworker to take over a shift.

Imagine thinking everyone was about to throw you a nice going away party after your resignation was announced, only to learn that the party is really a celebration of everyone not having to deal with you anymore. 

That's what this boss dealt with after he was demoted and later fired for a variety of reasons, one of which involved ignoring serious safety procedures. He was, at one point, the manager of a national sewer and drain company, and he was known for making his team members' lives a nightmare if he felt like it. 

This Redditor asked for time off after he felt like chemicals from the sewer were making him light-headed. The manager, whom the Original Poster refers to as Billy, refused to grant him the night off and even pushed for him to receive a disciplinary hearing. Well, thankfully, the Redditor knew his employee rights and called Billy out for violating an important safety rule in the employee handbook. That lapse of judgment led to Billy's demotion, and Billy's subsequent inability to perform the tasks he used to assign to his team members ultimately led to his resignation.

Keep scrolling below for the full saga and to learn what happened when Billy heard about this "you're gone" party. For more stories like this, check out this post about a boss who denied his employee's PTO request despite the unlimited PTO in their contract. 

Don't mess with the guy holding the master key to your homely comforts. 

This was especially true for the arrogant customer in our next story who tried to swindle his customer service rep over the phone, money-grubbing for an extra $200 credit on his Internet bill. But for the working man struggling to keep his cool over the phone, this customer presented a particularly satisfying opportunity for malicious compliance that only comes once every blue moon. 

Keep scrolling to read the whole story of how a guy got instant payback against a self-important customer, denying his attempts at a cash grab and proving a valuable point in the art of MC. 

After this here's another satisfying tale where instant karma takes a front seat when a guy floods his local parking enforcement office with busy work to get out of a late fee. 

The odd thing about social etiquette is that it varies from group to group and is learned by imitation rather than explicit instruction. Conforming to the society you are a part of requires you to uphold certain societal standards and ideals continuously.

The story that follows is from the perspective of an irate partygoer. This past weekend, the original poster (OP) attended a friend's summer block party. The guests seemed to enjoy the celebration, and the hosts seemed pleased with how everything turned out. But as the guests began to depart after making good use of all the celebration had to offer, things turned south. A brief moment of sheer humiliation occurred when some of the attendees pulled out an empty plastic container and began to shove leftover food and desserts, shocking and embarrassing the hosts and OP.

In any case, be sure to read the story below if you're interested in learning more about what happened and whether or not the other partygoers scolded them. Additionally, after you're done, don't forget to check out the story about the exhausted and bewildered employee who was turned down for a raise due to her lack of 'leadership' traits!

That last hour of work can be brutal. We all know the feeling: there are just 60 minutes separating you from the freedom of the outside world, and the clock seems to be ticking five times slower than normal. This person works at a call center, so for them, an hour is plenty of time to take one last call. Unfortunately for this person, their last caller just couldn't understand why her problem couldn't be resolved. 

This story revolves around a customer who was unhappy with being charged a fee for a transfer. She picked the instant transfer option, which charged her a fee, but she had to agree to it. This must happen constantly at this person's workplace, because no matter how much the customer insisted on speaking to a manager, she wasn't allowed to. The manager just wouldn't take the call, telling the worker to tell the customer that it was a policy that couldn't be bent for her. My question is, are the employees allowed to just hand the phone to another employee, and let that employee pretend to be a manager? That way, the customer can believe they've chatted with a manager, since the outcome is the same either way. Maybe it's unethical, but the customer might feel more heard that way than by just being rejected by a manager instead. 

Up next, these pizza delivery workers shared what happened when they were stiffed on their tips, like one person who was stunned to deliver dozens of pizzas to a school and yet was left zero dollars as a tip. 

Sometimes, the most rebellious folks in a school are the teachers. Here, we have one teacher who managed to successfully avoid a school tradition for over 30 years at the institution. That silly tradition involved a member of the faculty delivering a speech to the entire student body on significant historical dates. During said speech, the students were also forced to stand still in formation and in silence throughout the duration of the oration. 

This one teacher, whom the Redditor nicknamed Mech, always got away with not having to deliver the speech. In fact, he was known for always getting out of this obligation, but unfortunately for him, his time was up. Thankfully, Mech would not go down without a fight and even had a sense of humor about the whole ordeal. His speech ended up being a 90-minute diatribe that the entire student body had to stand for without making a single movement. After all, it was tradition, wasn't it? 

Keep scrolling below to see what happened when the dean tried to make Mech stop speaking. For more tales of malicious compliance, check out this post about a railroad boss's nonsensical plan.