Smiling and being polite at work day in and day out can be difficult sometimes. Especially if you’re in a customer facing job, sometimes you may not feel like being nice. 

Some people have hit breaking points where they said or did something inappropriate at work, and in some cases, it cost them their jobs. Now, they’re telling their sob stories and laughing about it on Reddit.

Reddit user DarthBrad shared that he was working as a waiter at a restaurant and finally quit his job over something that seemed trivial but was really the straw that broke the camel’s back, as the saying goes. 

“I was walking by with my hands full of dishes when this kid shouts ‘Hey waiter!’ and shakes his only half empty lemonade at me and looks at me like I’m retarded, and his mom just smiles. So I set the dirty dishes on their table ( I’m having the worst waiting day ever btw) smile at the kid and say ‘Look dude, waiters really hate it when you shake your cup at them, or yell at them, you see I’ve got 5 other tables, 2 of which haven’t even gotten their drinks yet, I’ve got orders to put in, food to run, and I am perfectly capable of seeing the bright yellow liquid, or lack there of, in your cup. But let me drop everything and go grab your lemonade real quick.’ I left the armful of dirty dishes on the table and ran got the little man a lemonade and told my manager I’m finishing out my tables and quitting.”

DarthBrad wanted to see if the Reddit community had other examples of getting upset at work over something silly, so he asked, “What’s the dumbest thing that has set you off at work?”

Scroll down for 15 examples of reasons people lost their temper at work. 

1. Green Bananas

   Written by Reddit user chaos_is_me:

   Not me, but an acquaintance.She was worked at a grocery store in the produce section for a few years. She was stocking the bananas and a customer came up to her, grabbed a bunch of bananas, held it up and said rather sharply, “These bananas are green!” To which she clapped her hands and said, “Very Good.” Got Fired

2. I’m the Manager

   Shared by EvilShannanigans:

   I am a manager and had a guy refuse to talk to me because I am female and he didn’t want a woman assisting him. I told him he could sit his ass in the lobby until a man showed up…which was a few days later. Then all my male coworkers refused to help him.

3. Kindergarten

   sirdigbychikencaeser wrote:

   my friend was a kindergarten teacher…until she called one of her students a bitch after the kid squirted a bunch of glue in her face and then threw glitter…

4. “You’re Not a Real Princess”

   Written by Kellianne:

   As a preschool teacher I had a rather large woman (I’m small) standing over me IN MY FACE yelling at me because I told her daughter she wasn’t a real princess (she could pretend to be anything) She was making the other girls cry. That is the moment I decided preschoolers’ parents are nuts and I’m getting out.

5. At a Grocery Store…

   andrewsmith1986 added:

   I went off on this woman for putting packages of meat on the floor.Ain’t my job to raise you right.

6. On the Radio

   LifeIsKarma wrote:

   During a morning show radio shift, my cohost and I were called up and berated by some angry dude who didn’t like the music we were playing. This boiled my blood for no reason.When it was time for the sports report, our sports guy started talking about Nascar and I cut him off – “Man, who cares what those rednecks are doing. It’s just left turn after left turn. If it weren’t for the fatalities, it wouldn’t even be a sport.” The tirade went on for way too long and surely pissed a lot of people off – but noone called the studio, probably in fear of getting verbally sodomized on the air. Not one of my greatest moments on the radio.

7. Tomato Slices

   Written by Purpletech:

   I worked at a beach club, in the snack bar, making salads and sandwiches for the people who went there.I was making a sandwich for a lady during the 3 hour long lunch rush. She asked for tomato, so I casually took 2 tomato slices and put them on her sandwich only to hear her say “Those slices aren’t round enough.” I proceeded to pick up 2 handfuls of slices and say “Find me some round ones”. God, I wanted to punch her.

8. Lunch Is Important

   karmenthegreat wrote:

   My best friend walked out on a job and left me stranded because someone ate his lunch.

9. Quit Over a Bagel

   Written by Jer_Cough:

   Got a bagel tossed in my face (literally) by a customer who thought I put too much cream cheese on it. I went over the counter and dragged the guy out to the sidewalk to teach him a lesson just as my manager tackled me. I handed my uniform over and quit on the spot. The customer didn’t know whether to shit or go blind because there was now nothing to keep me form decking him, except assault charges. The look on his face was enough.

10. No Hairnet

    Sysiphuslove added an example from her teen years:

    I ended up storming off in a huff because a head cook with whom I did not get along was trying to force me to wear a pink hairnet. I already had my hair back and stuffed under a chef hat, and the hairnet would show and look stupid, so I raged off like the 16-year-old girl I was.

11. All That Hard Work for Nothing

    Another Reddit user shared:

    I live and work in a college dorm named after a famous artist (I’m being vauge because people in my building have “found” me on here before so I made a new account). My job is 24 hours, and I was working a midnight-4AM shift on this artists birthday. I thought it would be fun to decorate and got permission from my boss ahead of time (she sounded very excited and enthusiastic about the idea). So I spent the entire four hours decorating, hanging up streamers, making a huge banner, and generally making the lobby look awesome. I left the shift at 4AM and went to bed.When I entered the lobby around noon shortly after I woke up, all my work was gone. My boss had asked someone to take it all down.

12. Enough Is Enough

    Written by KGlitz:

    I worked at a Burger king when I was 19. One day my gay manager, who constantly got on my nerves, walked into the kitchen, took the sandwich I had JUST MADE for my own lunch out of my hand, and said that it was his now. He walked in the office to make 5 dollars more an hour than me for sitting on his ass, and I completely lost it. I walked out the back door yelling “F*** this b***s***!” and never went back there.

13. Not Good at Customer Service

    Breland shared:

    Not me but a friend of mine: his first shift at McDonalds working window, a very overweight lady comes up and orders a meal to stay. When she gets the food she complains the fries are too cold. He gets her new fries and she returns a minute later saying they are too salty. He makes another batch of fries and she complains that there aren’t enough in the box. He tells her loudly”look lady, you could do without the fries” Fired on the spot, customer service is just not his thing.

14. That’s Asking Too Much

    Tetravus wrote:

    I had just put in my two weeks notice at a dunking donuts. When a homeless drunk passed out and peed on the floor, and they wanted me to clean it. I just left.

15. That Was a Close Call

    Shared by RickyMinaj:

    One time this lady asked what size pizzas we had….the sizes were literally right next to her…I told her to look around for once, and almost got fired