When did you have the most difficult time "staying professional"?

1. [removed]
   — [deleted]


2. When a guy for whom I was coordinating breakdown assistance refused to give me any location other than the town he was in and that he was opposite "Peter the rapist's house". I had to call the tow truck operators and tell them that the guy was "Opposite Peter the rapist's house". The best part? They knew *exactly* where I meant. Never change, Ireland.
   — batty3108


3. I found out my fiance had been cheating on me about an hour into a 12 hour overnight hotel desk shift. I still want my Oscar for no customers seeing the inner turmoil of my life ripping itself apart through the veneer of customer service polish.
   — Korps_de_Krieg






4. I’m a wedding planner. We had an unexpected death in the family. Our 6 month old nephew had passed away in his sleep. I knew the funeral was going to be the day my clients upcoming wedding. I gave her a call to explain the situation. She’s clearly not paying attention to the call or the words I’m speaking because I hear her laughing with friends in the background. I get irritated and tell her I’ll call her later. I call back that night and again tell her what has happened and that I’d be sending an assistant to cover for me so I can attend the funeral. She tells me that I need to send my assistant to the funeral and that I better be at her wedding. It took me a few seconds, but I calmly stated that I’d be sending her money back and that no one would be covering for me. Nicest way I’ve ever said fuck off. I really wanted to bitch slap her. Edit: thanks for the gold!!! Also, thanks for the condolences. This happened a couple of years ago but it’s still tough. Bride definitely knew I was attending the funeral, she was just a cunt. Groom was equally cunty. They deserve each other. I’ve been doing this for a while. I’ve seen some shit. I’ve seen a drunk grandma heil Hitler in a room full of Jewish guests. I’ve seen a bride kiss an ex boyfriend while the groom was in the bathroom. One attempted suicide. One very expensive and very short wedding. However, the majority of my clients are amazing. Still, sometimes there are just horrible people in this world. The good thing is I’ve gotten much better at spotting them before we get to far.
   — Imabigdiva


5. When a parent told me that the only reason I was a special education teacher was because I “wasn’t good enough to teach normal kids.” Even thinking about it now gets me heated. Edit: Thank you all for the support! Please remember support your local teachers, whether through volunteering, donations, etc. We need all the help we can get!
   — drunkbabydinosaur


6. I do some seasonal work as a character attendant at Disney. I love my job, every little bit is worth it to watch people’s faces light up when they see Mickey or Cinderella. But sometimes people can be straight up entitled and rude to cast members who aren’t in a ball gown. One day I was working with Gaston, one of my favorite locations to be, when a group of about four or five college aged girls comes up to get in line. Now Gaston’s line isn’t like Cinderella’s or Ariel’s where it is constant throughout the day, he comes out for about five set times a day and we close off the line when there are enough guests so he can get out of the heat for a bit. Now I recognized these girls, they had been by three times before trying to meet Gaston but each time they showed up ten minutes after his set started so the line was already closed. Each time I turned them away I gave them the next set time and told them to be there early since the line fills up fast. So these five girls are tromping over and beeline for the end of the line where I’m standing. The line has already been closed for a while so I move to block their path and explain for the fourth time that they need to get there early. They storm up to me and the girl at the front crosses her arms. “Oh so are you going to tell us we can’t see him now too?” I sure was “I’m sorry but Gaston has to go check on the tavern here in a minute, he will be back at (insert time here) but I would recommend getting here early since the line fills up fast” I didn’t even manage to get through half of my spiel before they were stomping away, flipping me off and yelling as they went. “You fucking bitch! Go fuck yourself! You can shut your dumbass, minimum wage, mouth!” The tirade went on and on as I just sat there and took the abuse with a smile which only seemed to make them angrier. It wasn’t the first time I’d been cursed out, but it made me the angriest because I’d explained to these girls no less than three other times to be here early, yet somehow it was my fault they couldn’t see Gaston. I seriously considered lecturing them, debating the pros and cons, but in the end I decided I enjoyed my job too much to get fired that day. That was the only time my professionalism almost snapped, even thinking about it makes me furious.
   — offbook1






7. I'm a translator and recently was asked to translate a magazine article about the history of smutty literature, talking about stuff like The School of Venus. This particular client speaks English quite well and actively reviews my translations, so I'll usually send her the file and then she'll send it back with comments or clarifications or suggestions for words she'd prefer that I use. That's how I ended up in a professional discussion about which terms to use to describe whipping in a BDSM context.
   — LogicalBike


8. Whenever I work on a feature that gets cancelled before anybody even sees it.
   — Petrus_was_taken


9. When I was teaching a fourth grade class in England one year, the Headmaster told me that there was a teacher returning from Mat leave and they would be team teaching with me. Alright, that’s fine. Turns out that meant that I would only be teaching half the week, but I would still need to mark EVERYTHING, including the stuff I didn’t teach. Not cool - but whatever. Soon, I was locked out of meetings with parents, I wasn’t considered the “classroom teacher” anymore, and I wasn’t allowed access to my classroom on the days when I was in the school but didn’t teach. I knew they were trying to push me out. I almost lost it one day when a parent had asked to have a meeting with me and when I went to the meeting, I was told by the head teacher that my team teacher was attending instead, and they didn’t need me. I quit 2 days later. I was so mad.
   — sillybanana2012






10. I was working at an internet provider when someone came in to pay his bill. Now, I've seen a lot of ridiculous last names and I've kept a straight face, but this time I couldn't help it. His last name was "Assmann." I broke up laughing in front of him and apologized profusely. He was pretty chill about it and was like, "It got me a lot of action in high school." For the record, he pronounced it "AHHS-men."
    — BruceLee1255