1. Unsolicited flirting

I once was complaining to one of my fellow female employees about how I hated when creepy old men would come up and flirt with me at work when I could not escape. One of the male employees near me asked me if that really happened and I scoffed. I then told him it happened at least once a shift and he was flabbergasted. I then told him some of the following quotes I had heard just within the last month working at The Home Depot:

"Good girl."

"I love a lady that can handle a big piece of wood."

"You sweet little thing."

"I saw you walk by me with your grande coffee and I was like 'that is one fine lady' and now you're here."

"You're amazing and cute and smart, and you don't ask stupid questions, like if I want cash back."

"I'll call you Bratty Maddy. Do you take that as a compliment? I would."

"Farewell, beloved."

Now, I've had sexism within the workplace. I've had a manager on duty once tell me to 'put on the old razzle dazzle' but would not tell the men employees that. But I can report employees and have the situation remedied. I can even leave to another part of the store.

But it is my job to make the customer happy. However, it is not my job when they reach across the counter to pull my fingers off the keyboard to hold my hand. Being polite does not mean having to accept harassment.

2. Angry customers

When I talk about angry customers, I don't mean the ones who just raise their voice to get attention. I'm talking about the ones that are such a handful that you have to call a manager. Examples of such customers:

A customer threatening to call the police on me for denying his return, swearing at me, and when security arrived, kicking over our garbage can as he left.

A guest hanging up our phone on another guest that was put on hold because they were annoyed of the sound of the phone ringing.

People saying they spend thousands of dollars at the store annually and therefore want rules broken for them or else they will take their business elsewhere.

3. Weird returns

Return policies are not in place to inconvenience customers. All the rules are set there for a reason. I've returned merchandise dumped out of a McDonald's bag that also had cookie crumbs and a spider in it. We even return defective (aka broken) merchandise all the time. But some products I can't return because either we can't resell it, it is out of policy, or the computer literally won't let me. Some of the kinds of conversations I have with customers where I can't do anything for them go like the this:

Key:

Employee

Customer

The can squirts, not sprays, it's broken.

That's because it's near empty. I can't return it if there isn't any product.

Can you return it if the product inside didn't work?

Did it not work?

Well, the can doesn't work now.

We both know this isn't 12 ft, and I can't return it if it isn't. Has it been cut?

No, it hasn't been cut.

It measures at 9 ft.

Yes, because it was cut by your staff.

So it has been cut then.

I am disgusted. This place is horrible. I hope you tell someone higher up all this.

That's why I want to transfer you to a manager to speak with them on the phone directly.

No. Disgusting. Useless.