Some people don't want to act their age. Instead of acting like a successful 30-something in the business world, you will often see these people act like petulant children who are in need of nap or spanking. Some of these people think they can get away with just about anything, and when things don't go their way, they resort to throwing temper tantrums.
A Reddit thread recently asked people to share the most childish thing they've seen someone do at their place of employment, and no surprise, the comments were something ridiculous. And based on their behavior in these situations, it's a miracle that some of these people still have a job or aren't banned from every store in the country. Take a look at some of our favorite stories, which have been edited for clarity.
Was This Art Class For Adults Or Children?

“I host those painting parties you see in bars and restaurants.
People are insanely eager to charge into the space that I have either just started to set up (two hours before our event even starts) or while I’m in the middle of setting up because they want the front seats. I get it, you want to be able to see what I am painting. There are really only a handful of seats out of a group of 30 that are close enough to see every small movement of my paint brush, which is why people are impatient when it comes to being seated.
One time, a woman in her 50s came in around 30 minutes early, and only 5 minutes after a couple of ladies saved the front seats. I have never seen a grown woman behave like a 2-year-old before. She stomped around the room claiming she was going to make everyone’s life miserable during the event, that she was going to take the seat she wanted despite the other women who had already saved it, while also complaining that people shouldn’t be able to save seats earlier than when she arrived.
I am so glad that I did not give in and did not give her what she wanted. She got even more ticked off and left. Bye, we don’t need your negativity.”
About Your Cake…

“One of my friends worked as a pastry chef at a bakery when she was first starting up. She had a bridezilla come in to order a wedding cake. They told her that they were booked solid that week and couldn’t accommodate, but could give the order to another shop that might be able to help. She started to complain and then yell and scream, then literally fell to the floor, kicking and screaming.
While this was going on, one of the employees started to load another wedding cake onto a cart to take out to the van. Bridezilla jumped up and pushed the cake off the cart and then stepped on it. She then stormed out and sped off.
The owner had to call the wedding party and explain that their extravagant cake was just destroyed by a crazy bridezilla. She had another cake that would serve everyone, but it wouldn’t be decorated as nicely. Luckily, they were okay with it. With the stipulation that they got a copy of the camera footage.
She made a copy of the footage and delivered it along with the replacement cake, and it was a huge hit at the party.”
That’s What We Call Management Material

“I had a manager when I was working as a cook at a nursing home that had a meltdown over us not going out of our way to tell him good morning. This was at 4 pm.
You see, by not clocking in then going directly to his office and individually telling him good morning and asking how he was, we were personally offending him and clearly incapable of doing our jobs, which involved cooking, putting it on a plate, and giving it to a nurse to distribute.
He demanded a meeting where he angrily told all of us how disrespectful we were before yelling at us for about 10 minutes. Then he stormed off to HR where he reported us for bullying. The rest of the night, he hid from us and intentionally would not sign off on our paperwork, clear our machines for cleaning, speak to us, or answer the phones or deal with anything work related.
When we kept finding him walking around to ask him for work things or to sign off on the paperwork, he yelled at us some more and stormed off to his office, locked the door and cried audibly for 20 minutes. He then called our boss at 8 pm to tell her we were being mean to him and purposely excluding him and she needed to do something about it.
This was a 28-year-old married man with a decent college education.”
He Fell Right Into Their Trap

“I run the office of a home improvement company and part of my job is to schedule customer installations and then let our subcontractors know who, when, and where. One Friday, I called one of our installers and told him we had four jobs lined up for him the next week. I gave him all the important information and told him I would see him on Monday morning. He called three more times to verify the days, the jobs, and what they were.
Monday morning rolled around and he was nowhere to be found. I called him; it went straight to voicemail, which was coincidentally full. I texted him and reminded him we had him scheduled and asked if he was coming back. Not a single response. Not until the next morning when he walked in and went straight to my boss’ office to tell him that he told me on Friday he wasn’t available to work this week.
The smug look on his face as my boss was standing there giving me a hard time about ‘my mess up’ made me so angry. I got the last laugh though. As soon as he walked out the door, my boss turned to me and said, ‘I hope you know that was all an act for him to get him to do that job today. He’s fired as soon as he comes back!'”
He Only Got Worse When The Cops Came

“I worked at a grocery store from about 16 until I was about 21. I LOVED working Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve mainly because I got to be the enforcer who stood at the door at night and crushed stupid people’s dreams.
We stayed open one Thanksgiving Eve a little past closing since we had a bad snow storm and people were having a hard time getting there. It was about 10 minutes after closing and I was with a couple other coworkers stopping people from coming in. Some people were okay with it, some were upset and left, but one in particular went nuclear.
He was probably in his late 20s and looked like he never grew out of his frat boy days. We told him that we were closed and he said, ‘No way, bro, I’m coming in.’
We informed him that we were closed and it would be trespassing. He told us there was no way we were going to stop him and he shoved one of the guys I worked with. Not a good idea. He a was corn fed farm boy who spent his time not working at the grocery tossing around farm animals and equipment. He walked behind the guy and picked him up like you would a kid with a soiled diaper and walked him out of the store. The guy got on his phone and we thought he was calling the cops. No, whoever he called picked up and he broke into tears. It was his father. He was having a hard time talking, he was crying so hard.
He eventually calmed down and hung up. Did he leave? No, he sat down on the cold pavement, crossed his arms and said he wasn’t leaving until he could go in. About that time, a sheriff’s deputy drove by and we told him what was going on. He started laughing and thought we were joking since he was always in the store and we liked to make stories up to mess with him. He looked over and saw the guy sitting on the ground, sulking. The Deputy got out and started to walk over. Again, the tears started flowing and he was asked to leave. He told us all to get bent and got in his car and left.”
Who’s The Adult Here?

“I work at a trampoline arena. There was the one customer that wanted his children to go into a certain less crowded section of the arena because the main section we had was very crowded. I told him no multiple times because the desired section was for the bigger kids/adults, and his children were a big enough problem around the kids, without getting in the way of people much bigger than them.
I tried explaining the situation to him multiple times, and he would interrupt me every time. Eventually, I gave up explaining myself to him because I was constantly being interrupted and I went about my business and bringing my attention to other things. This gentleman grabbed my arm trying to instigate a fight, shouting in my face as his wife shouted and called me a punk from about 10 yards away.
My boss kicked the man and his family out of the establishment for being a prick and grabbing me.”
Did He Ever Get His Refund?

“When I was in high school, I worked retail in a computer store in a mall. Christmas was a busy time of the year, so on all receipts we put a note that there would be no returns/refunds/exchanges the last week of December. Boxing Week was a nightmare, especially in a mall. To make up for that, we extended all returns (generally 30 days) by a week just so no one got cheated.
We all see where this is going, right?
A customer came in on Boxing Day; the single busiest day of the year of the store because of the sales. He received two copies of a product for Christmas and wanted a refund. Fine, that makes sense. He had the gift receipt, and my coworker pointed out that we were not doing any returns or exchanges.
The guy flipped his lid.
He went on a solid five-minute rant about how we were pulling a fast one on him and stealing money from his pocket even though he had already said that it was a gift. The store was absolutely PACKED, so he was pretty much just going into meltdown mode to ensure we gave him what he wanted and send him on his way.
My manager came out of his office in the back, wondering what the commotion was. My coworker explained the situation. My manager then asked the customer if he’d like an exchange or a refund. The customer took a deep breath to calm himself and said yes.
‘Come back next week and we’ll give it to you. Now, I don’t care if you’re done screaming at my employee, but get out of my store.’
The customer turned the Meltdown Meter up to 11 and freaked out. Mall security had to come and he was barred from the mall for six months.
I guess he never got his refund…”
He’d Do Just About Anything To Prove His Point

“I worked at Toys R Us for a bit, and I saw all sorts of tantrums working there.
This one time, I witnessed a man and his daughter walk by a display for Cabbage Patch dolls, to which the daughter excitedly picked one up and shoved it into her dad’s arms, screaming, ‘Please Daddy, please.”
The father looked remorseful and sadly told her he couldn’t afford her doll today. He didn’t have enough money.
She dropped to the floor, immediately screaming at the top of her lungs, kicking and thrashing. The father looked baffled, and didn’t know what to do. I just watched as he stared at her in horror as onlookers came to see what the commotion was.
Now, some people would sling that kid over their shoulder and take the child out of the store. Some people would try to bargain by getting the kid a different toy. Some parents may even just walk away, pretending the scene wasn’t happening. But not this man.
This father, dropped to the floor, laid next to his daughter, and just screamed at the top of his lungs, crying, ‘YOU CAN’T HAVE IT! YOU CAN’T HAVE IT!’ Kicking and squirming, throwing the biggest tantrum. The little girl immediately jumped up, wiped her eyes, held out her hand and said:
‘I’m sorry, Daddy. I’ll be good.’
The father got up, dusted himself off, said ‘That’s better. That feels better doesn’t it?’ And they both walked out of the store.”
She Went From Childish To Nuclear In An Instant

“I used to work retail in an office supply store. We sold cellphones and activated accounts, but other than that, we had absolutely nothing to do with anyone’s cell phone service. This should be obvious to everyone.
It isn’t.
A woman came in arguing about her bill. Her bill was a few hundred dollars as she’d gone over her data limit significantly. I explained to her that she’d have to talk directly with the service provider and that we only sell the phones. She didn’t care. She wanted a refund on the phone AND the bill. She started full-on raging at me. Now, I LOVE people who rage out. LOVE ‘EM. For nearly 20 years, one lived in my house and I called him ‘Dad,’ so I know exactly how to have fun with these kinds of people…
Cue ‘cool as a cucumber’ mode.
I reiterated that she should talk to the service provider and gave her their toll-free customer service number. She accused me of dismissing her problem and passing it off to someone else. She spent 15 minutes screaming at the poor call-center grunt on the other end who explained to her that her data package only covered X, which the woman was in excess of. I know this because the woman had her phone on speaker for some unknown reason.
At this point, my manager was standing off to the side waiting for me to give her the nod to intervene. No dice. I was having too much fun. I suggested to the customer that if she streamed a lot of content there were a number of Internet providers in the area that were reasonably priced. I started suggesting wireless routers and laptops.
At this point, she was going thermonuclear, but keep in mind, she could have simply left the store at this point. I then suggested that if she got a laptop, why not a scanner/fax/printer multi unit. Then I started mentioning the bogus extended warranty. I think she noticed I had completely disregarded her entire complaint, which was pretty valid, as I had.
She was visibly shaking at this point, tears streaming down her face and she continued to scream at me. She demanded to speak to my manager, which was my cue to tap out. I had done all I could. I gave the nod to my manager who walked over, told the woman that she wouldn’t have ANY customer treat her staff like that, and that if she didn’t leave that instant, she’d call the police.
The customer left so spun up, she screamed garbled gibberish as she walked out of the store.”
“My God, I Should Have Been Fired”

“I’ve always been a little on the immature side when it comes to dealing with stress and anger. I had a boss who I mostly corresponded with via phone and email since we worked in different offices. He knew all the ways to push my buttons and he would yell at me over the phone.
After one particular conversation, I FLIPPED! I threw my phone at the office door, causing it to shatter. I swatted at some soda cans that were on my desk, and one of the cans with soda still in it hit a coworker. He was splashed and he was MAD.
I apologized, left the room, went to my car, and headed over to Marks Work Warehouse and bought a $50 gift card. When I came back, I gave it to my coworker to go and buy a new shirt.
To this day, I still cringe about how I looked and acted. It was about six years ago now. I do still lash out sometimes, but very subtly and NOTHING like that. My God, I should have been fired. No one said anything to my boss about it, though.
I’d say 50% of the time, he had a reason to be mad at me for something as I was new to that kind of work. But the other 50% of the time, he would yell at me just for the sake of yelling. He mistreated me a lot, but on the other hand I wasn’t the best employee, nor was I professional the majority of the time. So I can’t blame him. I think he was trying to get me to quit.”
This Customer Thought She Could Pull A Fast One

“I work at a CVS, so I’ll have customers that come back wanting to return an item. No big deal, it’s a simple task. As long as you have the receipt and the item with you, I can make a return. If you don’t have the receipt, I can give you store credit. Pretty standard right?
One day, about 40 minutes into my shift, I was standing there waiting for the next customer to come in when I heard the doors open. I got ready to greet the customer. In came this woman that all of the other employees had dealt with at least once, except for me.
‘Oh boy, it’s my turn,’ I thought to myself. I greeted her and she came up to my register and slapped down three receipts and started asking for a price adjustment on nine items and then asked about the battery promotion we were running the week before. I told her that the batteries weren’t BOGO free but that they were half off. So she stepped away to look for the sign and I called my manager up for some back up for the lines. When the customer came back, I explained to her that there wasn’t anything I could do about the batteries since it clearly said on the receipt, ‘All batteries BOGO half off.’ She started asking about the items that were actually Christmas clearance items that she bought THE FIRST WEEK OF DECEMBER.
My manager stepped in and explained there was nothing we could do, which set her into full on rage mode.
‘I WAS TOLD I COULD GET AN ADJUSTMENT ON THESE ITEMS. WAS I LIED TO? WHY CAN’T YOU DO THIS!’
Finally she calmed down slightly and asked if she could still return the items since she had the receipts. My manager explained that as long as you have the receipts, we can make a full return otherwise you’ll just get store credit for what the item is priced currently. She didn’t understand. They went back and forth until finally she turned back to me and asked if I understand what my manager was saying.
‘Yes, as long as you have the receipt and the item with you, we can make a full return.’
‘Oh, you mean I have to have the item with me? No one ever said that!’
‘Because it’s common knowledge, ma’am.’
She screamed at us some more and then left.”
“I Pay For This School”

“I work in the academic services department at my school, and every single day, some parent (usually the mother) calls and demands to know their kids’ grades. It’s against our policy to tell them.
One day, I told this woman I couldn’t help her since she wasn’t a proxy on the account, and she IMMEDIATELY started screaming through the phone, ‘I PAY FOR THIS SCHOOL, YOU’LL TELL ME WHATEVER I WANT TO KNOW!’
I calmly told her that I couldn’t if she wasn’t a proxy. I tried to tell her how to become a proxy, but she interrupted me by screaming, ‘Make me a proxy, make me a proxy, make me a proxy,’ every time I tried to say something. Then she screamed like someone being murdered and demanded that she speak to my supervisor. So I hung up on her.”
For Some Reason, I Don’t Think The Cake Was For Her Daughter

“I worked in the Walmart bakery one summer during college. A woman called up requesting a Disney princess cake be made for her daughter’s birthday that day – it didn’t matter what princess, just any Disney princess.
We made a ‘Little Mermaid’ cake with Ariel on it. Her husband came to pick it up, paid for it, and everything was fine. About 10 minutes later, a very belligerent and angry wife (overweight, appeared to be mid-40s) came back with the cake screaming at everyone in the bakery, ‘THIS IS NOT A DISNEY PRINCESS!’
She was hysterical, throwing a tantrum, and harassing everyone in the bakery about how it was not the cake she wanted, not the princess she wanted.
She just kept screaming, ‘ARIEL IS NOT A PRINCESS.’
The manager ended up getting involved as this woman was making a HUGE scene and we couldn’t calm her down. She ended up getting that cake for free as well as another Disney princess cake made to her liking.”
He Wasn’t Used To Waiting, Obviously

“I used to work valet at an expensive restaurant. We had a lot of regulars that would come in and some were quite particular about having their cars left directly in front of the restaurant. As long as the customers were tippers, we would make that happen.
So one night, it was a VIP’s birthday and this guy was loaded. He and three of his buddies showed up with their wives, all of whom happened to also be big VIPs at our restaurant. So at this point, we had a Mercedes SLS AMG (birthday boy’s), and three Rolls-Royce Phantoms in front of the restaurant. This took up pretty much all of our room we had to work with for our VIPs.
About an hour later, Mr. Jerkface showed up. He said he was with the party and that we better keep his car out front. Fair enough, but we were running out of room at this point, so we put his car the furthest away (gotta keep birthday boy close).
So when the party started to leave, we obviously got birthday boy’s car ready first because, well, it was his birthday. It just so happened though, that Mr. Jerkface was at the top of the line, thus the last person to get his car. When he realized this, he started throwing a temper tantrum. Mr. Jerkface called me and my co-worker just about every name he can think of while clenching his fists seemingly ready to throw down. I should make it clear that the top of the line is approximately 20 meters from the front of the restaurant and this man was about to start crying.
So Jerkface left and obviously didn’t drop a tip. I made sure to fart in his car before he left, though.”
They Figured Out Her Plan Pretty Quick

“I work with a private company that contracts out to social workers.
We were in a meeting with a teenager, his social worker, the worker at his group home, and a lady who had taken care of him previously and was now caring for his siblings at her house. He was in the group home because of behavioral issues. I was in the office with the social worker and the kid, while the group home worker and the lady were over the phone in different locations.
Everyone got to talking about how they’d like the kid to start earning some money and if he’d like, they could hook him up with a group that will help him get a job. The kid was all for it. His social worker said that he would need his birth certificate and social security card in order to sign up. No problem. Both the worker and the lady offered to help him get those documents, as well as set up a bank account so he can stash his sweet sweet cash safely so it doesn’t get stolen by the other kids in the group home.
The kid thought about it, then said that he would hold off on getting the documents since he didn’t need them right away. A little miffed, the lady asked if he wanted her to help him open a bank account when he visited her next or if he wanted to give the employees at the group home total control over his bank account if he opened it with their help.
Um, that’s not the way it works, but okay. The kid thought for another second then decided that he’d rather have the group home help him so he could get it done before his visit with her. The lady then hung up the phone in the middle of the meeting. My coworkers and I were kind of looking at the social worker with confused looks on our faces.
This kid was more mature than a grown woman who just hung up when the choices he was making weren’t going her way, like she was a middle schooler or something.
It’s really disappointing when the adults in these kids’ lives act like kids themselves. We’re here to help the kids, not pander to your ego!”