On the internet, “Karen” is no longer a name. It’s a slang term used to describe antagonistic female characters. Generally, they’re irritating, entitled, and demanding, exhibiting obnoxious behavior in public settings.In fact, folks have been creating entire threads, detailing their experiences with these personas.Here area fewfrom Quora. They should help you paint a more colorful portrait of the infamous stereotype.This post may includeaffiliate links.
On the internet, “Karen” is no longer a name. It’s a slang term used to describe antagonistic female characters. Generally, they’re irritating, entitled, and demanding, exhibiting obnoxious behavior in public settings.
In fact, folks have been creating entire threads, detailing their experiences with these personas.Here area fewfrom Quora. They should help you paint a more colorful portrait of the infamous stereotype.
This post may includeaffiliate links.
Before they were referred to as ‘Karens'.I had recently purchased a home and was in the process of repairing it. It was a steamy hot day, and I was waiting for the HVAC repairman hoping he could resurrect the air conditioner without breaking the bank.The front driveway was shaded with a huge pecan tree that was like a canopy of shade. There weren’t many trees on the block, so there were frequently cars parked in the shade. I didn’t blame them! As long as they weren’t blocking my driveway, I had no concerns with who parked there.I was on a ladder on the side of the house and heard a car stop and park. I was hoping it was the HVAC guy, but it was a sedan with two ladies. She parked so that her car completely blocked my driveway. I waved and tried to get her attention before she exited her car. She looked directly at me, and chose to ignore me. I begin walking toward her car. I am not even annoyed at this point. She can have some shade, she just can’t block the driveway. So, I waved again, but she was hurrying to exit her car. I asked her to move forward about six feet to leave my driveway clear. She ignored me.The other lady with her clearly heard me as she turned and looked at me. Louder now, I said “Excuse me. You need to move your car out of my driveway”. She continued down the street with an armload of paperwork. No response whatsoever. I followed the ladies. I was now getting annoyed with her obvious decision to ignore me completely.I saw my HVAC guy approaching, so I flagged him down and told him I would have the driveway open for him in a minute. I was gaining on “Karen”. I saw her stop, so I jogged the 20 steps to her and again asked her to move her car ahead a bit. She acted as though I am not even there, so I repeated my request, and she repeated her performance.Okay, so now I was pissed. I stepped into her personal space and loudly repeat my request. She looked directly at me and stated that it is a state-funded street and she will park wherever she wants. I agreed, but I also informed her that she was impeding my access, and that isn’t within her rights. She repeated that she will park wherever she wants. I asked whom she is visiting and she said she has several friends who are on her roster to visit today. I looked and the papers are of a religious nature. I said, “You will move away from my driveway or you can explain your rights to security." and I headed for home.She decided to further state her rights, and I decide to make that call. The HVAC guy had parked closely behind her car to glean a scant bit of shade. He said he is eating his lunch quickly. He was a bit early, so I offered him a cold drink of water while I make a call. He said he’s fine, so I proceeded to find the number for our security guys. I called and he says that they’ve had problems with her in the past and he would gladly refresh her with the rules again. He was there in minutes. I explained that she is welcomed to park in the shade, just not to block access to my driveway. I pointed to where she had gone and left to get the repairman started.We were in the backyard when I heard a shriek. Apparently, Karen felt it was okay to push the security dude. It’s not! By the time I got to the front yard, the police were arriving. They arrested her at the request of the security dude, and her car was towed.Karma got Karen that day!
A woman asked to cut me in the prescription pickup line because she was very sick. I was also very sick and could barely stand, but she was much older and the line was at least 12 people deep. I was going to agree. But then…“Oh, just forget it!” she screamed. “I can already tell you’re not gonna let me. You’re heartless!”“Well, you didn’t give me a chance to respond,” I said.“That’s because you have no soul!” this Karen yelled.I just nodded and said, “You’re right. Enjoy the back of the line.”She asked a few people behind me and they all said, “No.” I heard one man say, “I don’t have a soul, either. Sorry.”It was not my intention to rally the crowd behind me, but I guess once you’re fed up with rude people, you just…are.UPDATE: I am not sure if people are not reading my entire post, not reading it carefully or just trying to stir the pot, but I do not know what the woman’s name actually was. It could have been Karen, Harriet or Hope. I don’t care. She was, in my opinion, behaving like “A KAREN" A…Karen. I am not going to spend my time soothing the hurt feelings of people who LOOK for things to be hurt over and who have no sense of humor. Sorry! I am a nice person, but you’re asking too much now. And BY THE WAY, one of the best bosses I’ve ever had was named Karen. Get over yourselves.
I was at Best Buy a number of years ago. I heard two people talking about a computer they were looking at and they had some questions. So I politely introduced myself and asked if I could help. Got them squared away and then went on about my business.Then someone started clearing their throat. I didn’t think anything of it because I was engrossed in what I was doing. Finally, I heard an exasperated sigh and a rude tap on my shoulder. I turn around and look down to see a clearly angry lady standing there.I turned to her:Me: Ummm… yes?Karen: sigh… hello, I need help with a cell phone.Me: ok…Karen: well, are you going to help me?Me: Mam, I don’t work here…Karen: Look, I know this isn’t your dept. but I waited patiently while you helped that couple for 20 min, and I know you are just a lowly peon, but you could at least get me some help.Me: Look lady, I don’t work here.Karen: That’s it, I am going to have your job!And she stomped off. I shrugged it off and didn’t think about her again.5 min later she comes back with another guy.Karen: I want this person disciplined. He was disrespectful, rude, and refused to help me.Best Buy Guy: Mam, he doesn’t work here.That’s when I had an epiphany. I look down and realized I was wearing khaki pants and a blue polo shirt.Karen: Good! I told you I would have your job!Best Buy Guy: No mam, I can’t fire him, he is not an employee, see, I have the logo and he doesn’t now how may I help you.Karen: Oh this is ridiculous, you stupid bastards are just sticking together. I am writing corporate to complain and I am NEVER coming to this Radio Shack again!!Best Buy dude and I look at each other and in almost unison say: “Ok then” and watch her storm off.
A woman at the U-Haul counter got into a very loud argument with the clerk about being charged for a day she had the truck but did not use it, due to inclement weather. Why should she be charged for a day she had the truck but did not drive it?
Ooooo! I have a simultaneous Karen AND mansplained moment to share. I was still going to school so working as an admin for a computer company in Texas. One of our employees (I’ll call him Tom) was going to a conference. I’d made the reservations at X hotel (I can’t even remember where now). He was arriving on May 4 for 6 days, although the conference didn’t start until May 5..Two days before the conference, Tom told me that he would not be going a day early after all and to let the hotel know. No problem. I called and here’s how the conversation went (about 6 times in a circular frenzy of insanity):Me: Tom Lastname has a reservation starting on May 4, but he now won’t be arriving until May 5. He doesn’t need the room the first night.Her: I’m sorry but we’re all booked up. We have no openings for May 5.Me: Yes, I know. He already has a room. We’ll pay for the first night even though he won’t check in. We don’t want that room given away because he is a no-show. He will arrive on May 5.Her: I’m sorry but we’re all booked up. We have no openings for May 5.Me: Yes, I KNOW. He is arriving on May 5 but he already has a room starting on May 4. It’s one of the rooms that you show as already reserved. He just won’t be there on May 4. He’ll be there on May 5.(To minimize reader pain here, I’ll stop, but this conversation continued for at least 2 more rounds.)Here’s where the mansplaining comes in. Tom happened to walk up during part of one of the repeated rounds of the above. Tom gave me a condescending look and held out his hand for the phone, saying “I’ll take care of it.”Tom began, “Hi, I’m Tom Lastname and I have a reservation starting on May 4 but I won’t be arriving now untIL May 5.”As he said the above, he continued looking condescendingly at me. His smirk suddenly faded as he replied, “Yes I know you are booked up on the 5th. I’ll pay for the room starting on the 4th, but I won’t be checking in.”He had almost the same exact conversation I’d already had 3–4 times. He finally sighed, handed the phone back to me, and walked off.Then the Karen moment came in. I didn’t even try to talk to the young woman again. I just asked for the manager. I told him what had happened and he uttered a huge sigh before apologizing. He said, “I’ll have to talk to them again. They can’t understand that my instructions are not black and white. They can’t seem to handle any grey areas that deviate from ‘we have no openings’.”Tom never did apologize to me for assuming I was an idiot who could not convey simple instructions.
It was the 1990’s and a woman hit my from behind (hit my car) while I was waiting to turn into a side street. I got out and there was no damage to my car and some to hers. She said “don’t be mad”, and it flipped my switch to Karen mode. I yelled at her and she started to cry. I immediately realized I was being a d**k and this was not necessary and apologized.
My latest Karen experience was when I was waiting in line to check out and the 15 and under cashier offered to check me out as she had no one waiting. Just as I was starting to check out aKaren came up and began chewing me out for being in 15 and under line as I obviously had 16 items. She proceeded to lecture me on what the sign stated. So took my items and split them into two shopping ring ups saying sorry she didn’t want them rung together so I now have to take longer to ring them up separately for each family as I was shopping for a couple families in my neighborhood that are afraid to go out due to COVID-19 so I offered to do a no contact drop for them on my way home from work. Karen gave an exasperating huff after that and the lady behind her told the Karen to get a grip.
I guess I had a “Karen” moment but I would say it was completely justified. Here’s why: I was getting my nails done for my birthday bash and the nails were looking great. All of a sudden the nail technician took out his acetone and took everything off the nails. He said, “You were doing gel right?” Shaking my head in disbelief I said, “Yes, why did you take them out?” He said he accidentally did regular nail polish on my nails and would re-do them. It was a busy day for me, but I wouldn’t mind waiting, as long as my nails looked good so I agreed. But here’s where I felt like things were heading left. The nail technician said he would charge me more for removing the nail polish. Why would he charge me for his mistake? After this, my mother had come in the nail salon to check to see if I was done and when she saw my nails looking the exact way they had look 30 minutes ago she asked what happened. So she told me to get up and I did and said either he do my nails again and take off the charge for the nail polish removing or refund us entirely. He was being rude about it and didn’t budge. But with my mom’s convincing, he eventually agreed to doing my nails without putting the nail removing charge, but for his rudeness we should have left regardless. And since time was wasted, I just decided to get them done but never come back. The pandemic came soon after so I guess that gave them a good lesson to treat their customers a bit better.
While I was stationed in a hospital, there was this one medical secretary who just never liked me. She was always gruff and condescending, but I just stayed clear of her.Well, one day, I had written a letter to the local newspaper stating that because of the state of the economy at the time, it might be a better idea that both unions and government make a different deal pegging wage increases within a certain range depending on economic situation. It was one of those, “share the pain” type of call to action letters.That “Karen” went after me full bore and demanded to my union that I be censored, fined and reprimanded in every way possible. I even suspect she tried to get me fired. In the end, even though absolutely no one else took offence for my letter (freedom of speech and all that), it was suggested that I wrote a letter of “apology” to her.I did take the advice, and I wrote a letter that was apologetic for expressing my freedom of speech and opinion that unfortunately offended her delicate sensibilities. She stormed down to my office, screamed out loud that she did not accept my apology and threw the letter at me.Absolutely no one, including her union, backed her. There was an apology letter on file, and the matter was done.She was way too tightly wound up. After she retired a few years later, she dropped dead of a heart attack all alone.
This old lady at the liquor store wasn’t wearing a mask and was freaking out on me because I wasn’t wearing one! Oddly enough, the lady behind the register’s name was Karen.
When I was working as a service clerk at Walgreen’s back in 2008- it was really late one night and during the last hour when the store would be open. I had just rung up a woman’s merchandise- and then saw that I did NOT have enough cash to give her as the change that was showing on my register.So I took out enough quarters to make up the amount that I had to give to her. She started fussing at me that she did NOT want a bunch of quarters- and ordered me to give her cash. I told her that I did NOT have the correct amount inside my register- and then she rudely demanded for me to call my manager out to bring some.There were several people lined up behind her- and I thought it would be rude to make them have to wait. Since this was NOT long before we would be closing- the register I was working was the only one open. Otherwise- I normally could have had another employee take over a different one and check out those other customers.I paged the only assistant manager on duty- and let him know that I needed that amount of cash brought up to the register. It took almost 5 minutes for him to come out- since he was working in the office and busy handling paperwork. So I saw those other customers NOT looking very pleased that they were being held up.The guy finally came walking up- and gave that rude woman what she demanded. I was so glad when she walked out of the store- and felt like apologizing to those other customers for being made to wait just because she thought that she was ‘so special’. It was people like her who made me hate having to work in retail.
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Karen was once standing behind a guy in line at the bank. He was holding up the teller. The teller was so befuddled she kept stuffing cash into the paper bag the hold up guy handed her. He kept saying, “give me the bag, give me the bag.” He finally had to snatch the bag from the teller to make his get away. The bag was ripped apart and the cash spilled out on the floor. He fled empty handed.Everyone in the bank was aware of what had happened and were focused on the would be crook’s hasty departure. Everyone, except Karen. A bank video, when viewed later, revealed Karen scooping up the spilled cash and calmly exiting the bank incognito.Note - True story, with name change.
An ex friend (yes him again!) aged 66 having a toddler tantrum because a neighbour and mutual friend had mistakenly dropped a sticky fly paper which had attached itself to the ex friend’s dogs tail.I was literally crying with laughter as it reminded me of the party game where you pin the tail on the donkey. Ex friend was jumping up and down with his fists clenched, demanding the neighbour get rid of every single fly paper he owned because he “wouldn’t allow him to let it happen again" and the neighbour had never seen ex friend kick off and thought he was going to punch his lights out.I don’t know what a male version of a Karen is, but this bloke definitely is one. And yes I still laugh when I think of it.
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I have had several but one particular one that stands out. I was working in the gift wrap department in a major federated chain. It was Christmas so it was very hectic. This happened on my last day of contingent work and then it was back to college after Christmas break.This “Karenated” lady asked if we could wrap a huge stuffed animal almost as big as me. I told her we have no gift boxes that large. We could A) put together two corrugated boxes or 2) tie an attractive bow on the stuffed animal’s neck. That apparently wasn’t good enough for this lady. She jumped over our counter and starting going through all our boxes to see if we were lying or not, I guess. I said to myself, “It’s time to go.” Another girl and I got in trouble for calling security. But what were we supposed to do when customers go wild ? This is back when “the customer is always right* even when they weren’t.
I was a store manager at Starbucks for 4 years, and I had the pleasure of meeting a Karen. She came in and ordered a venti cappuccino. My assistant manager was at the bar with an experienced barista, and they were cranking out the beverages…..until this one. One return, ok, no problem. Two returns, ok, but there is no way this one is wrong. Three returns….. at this point she is calling the assistant and the barista stupid and untrained, so I step in and call her over to the other end of the counter so that they could catch up with the drinks that are now piling up. I tell her she should not speak to my staff like that, that they are both experienced and are making the drink to Starbucks standard. Here, what the woman wanted was us to put shots in a cup, then proceed to skim the foam off of all of our milk pitchers (in the past, we had large milk pitchers that we would steam as we went so there was always milk ready, now they steam milk per drink) to fill the cup the rest of the way. “Tiffany knows how to make my drink”. (Tiffany had recently been fired for no showing for work two times as a supervisor, delaying the store opening and costing us money and customer satisfaction. New boyfriend, bad influence, story for another Quora question). Me: “If you want two shots and a cup of foam, you have to order it that way. A cappuccino is part foam and part liquid milk, which is why they made it the way they did, there is a standard recipe for cappuccinos.” She continued to berate us for our service and her drink being wrong, so when she finally got out all that she needed to get out, I asked her to go elsewhere for her coffee, as clearly we were not able to serve her as she wanted. She was not expecting that response, clearly she was accustomed to having her a** kissed, and I was not going to let my staff be treated like that. I don’t remember if she left in a huff, I was headed to call my district manager to let her know I threw someone out and asked them not to return. I got major kudos from the staff there and the customers who were within earshot for standing up to a bully and defending my staff, who I knew were in the right, and at no point were combative with her. My DM knew I had to be pushed to the edge to make a decision like that, and even had she not been ok with it, I had a lot of support to back me up.
I don’t remember the specifics because it was a while ago. But there was a problem with my internet. So I called my provider and sat on hold for over half an hour before getting through to someone with such a thick accent, I had trouble understanding fully what they were saying.I’m generally pretty good with accents, having a broad experience with university professors and friends, so I think an amount of my frustration was with myself for having difficulty with understanding her.We talked back and forth, me trying to explain my problem and her trying to say that wasn’t a problem. I got steadily more frustrated because I’d been without internet for over a week, but due to being busy at work and then tired in the evenings, I was using my first day off in over a week to fix my issue to enjoy Netflix and the likes. And also not have my family jump down my throat because we were on a family plan and shared 8GB of mobile data at the time. I wanted my Wi-Fi back.Finally she determined that we had a problem, and I had been pretty snippy. Normally I’m happy and cheerful when dealing with customer service, it’s not their fault my thing is broken and they don’t deserve a bad attitude for trying to help. They’re not paid enough for that. But it had been a very long week, and I had only scraps of patience. I didnt swear or anything like that, but I was quite short with her and it was clear I wasn’t in a good mood.I felt pretty bad when she was thanking me for not swearing at her and calling her bad names, or yelling at her. She kept repeating that to me as she transferred me to a different department. I thanked her for her help in the most apologetic tone I could muster, and steeled myself to not do the same to the tech hopefully about to reunite me with my internet.
I was new to this part time job at a mini mart. A customer walked in, started complaining (sorry, I forgot what it was) and then told me that she wasn’t going to shop here again. I didn’t care because I didn’t like the job and also I didn’t know what a Karen was at that time.
I don’t think these are crazy but there was this one lady who came in to print pictures. She came up to me asking about the kiosk but I told her the printing system is currently down. She cut me off in the middle of my explanation. “It’s down?! For how long?!”I started explaining to her that we weren’t sure and that we were trying to get a Fiji rep, the people who are actually trained to troubleshoot photo errors, to come to the store. “Well how are people suppose to print pictures?” As if printing pictures were a necessity.Before I could point her to another Walmart or a CVS she exclaimed, “Well you guys need to figure it out and get it fixed asap!” Her face was frowned up and she bobbed her head before storming off. Then proceeded to return 20 minutes later to ask if it had been fixed. Thingd don’t get fixed just because you say that they need to, rather rudely as well.Another lady came in with what I assume was her father. He wanted a walkman or some older type of device (I forgot exactly what it was I just know it was older and involved audio.) Her whole demeanor was rude from the rip despite me trying to be pleasant.Her replies were snippy and every time she talked she did the head bob thing the other lady did. Eventually, I got fed up with the transaction and her nasty attitude and let my coworker handle it. It was still hard biting my tongue because she was still at the desk. Just unnecessarily rude for no reason.
One time after school 3 of my friends and I went to the gas station to get some drinks and while we were in there, there was this middle aged white lady who kept staring at us. Idk if this had something to do with race, maybe it did maybe it didn’t but 3 of us (including me) were Hispanic and the other was mixed. This lady was watching us the whole time we were shopping and it was honestly creepy. We payed and left and after we had gotten out the shop the lady came up to us and was like “you criminals how dare you steal, I suggest you go back in and pay before I call the cops” and obviously we did not steal so we’re just kinda like “uhh what??” And this lady just kept going on about kids our age and that she “knows what we are up to” and it was getting annoying so we walked off while she was like screaming at us saying we were “going to hell”. I haven’t seen her since but I’m pretty sure she made a complaint or something because now the gas station only allows 2 school kids in at a time. 🤷♀️ This behaviour is really common where I live so it doesn’t surprise me anymore but it’s just still so confusing on why most adults think that every teenager is a criminal??
Well, I remember that when I was in my 20s and on the first day of a job in the registration office for a day camp, a woman came into the office, claimed that the “first day” package of materials that the camp had mailed out before I started working there didn’t contain badges for her kids, and asked for badges. Apparently something in the materials mentioned that the kids should be wearing these badges on the first day of camp, so she was worried.Now, I was a kid who had been working there all of one hour, but my boss had stepped out of the office so I was on my own. I had never seen one of these packages or badges, so I had no idea how to assist the woman. I told her that my boss should be back shortly. She agreed to wait.My boss dialed my extension from another place in the building and asked how things were going, so I asked her what to do. She said that the camp office was out of badges and suggested that the woman just make them. We ended the call and I relayed the suggestion to the woman.Wrong suggestion. “The manual says they need badges. I am not going to make them.”Ok, but I couldn’t make them either. I had no materials and no idea what they were even supposed to look like.“Not my problem.”My boss finally came back and she spoke to the woman. The woman made a tremendous fuss about there being no badges for her kids. Finally, she stormed off in a huff.My boss and I looked at each other, shrugged and went back to work.I guess the kids didn’t need them stinkin’ badges.
Wynona Ryder.This would have been in the late 90’s as I recall it. She was a fairly young and up and coming hot young actress. She was shopping at one of the iconic stores on Rodeo Drive where she found some bauble— jewelry as I remember it— which pleased her, but instead of just paying for it like the rest of us mere mortals would do, she put it in her pocket. Then she left the store.Of course she was stopped and the jewelry retrieved, and eventually an “agreement” was reached which did not involve Ms Ryder going to jail.Her “people’s” explanation was that she “intended” to pay for it but “forgot” it was in her pocket.The thing was that it was not a terribly expensive item— maybe $1,000, but chicken feed for someone of her Hollywood status.After this incident, she dropped off the A list and went a good while without working on anything particularly significant.Whether she actually shoplifted or just took it with the idea that NO ONE would ever imagine that she wouldn’t eventually pay, to my knowledge, was never determined, but it sure did her career NO good. And it most certainly was extremely karen-ish.
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