Entitled people come in all shapes and sizes but one thing is common among all of them, they all believe that they have more power than they actually have. This could be an overzealous manager that thinks they can order employees to do whatever they want, public safety officers believing they have greater authority than they actually have, or even a company deciding how qualified they believe a candidate is for a position and ignoring their actual qualifications. Another commonality between them is that it is hilarious when someone reminds them of how much power they actually have.
Let's take a look at some stories of entitled people getting put in their place.
All posts have been edited for clarity.
Entitled Wedding Guest
“I got married two years ago overseas because my wife is from Europe and they have cool castles and other things. My Canadian family and friends all came over because most had never been. We were a little older, and well off, so we splurged.
The wedding was awesome and the dinner was amazing. The reception was in full swing, and quite frankly, it was a little warm. Definitely warm for us Canadians. It was a brisk night in Early November. When a brisk night gets mixed with wool suits, drinking, and lots of dancing, some of my fellow Canadians were working up a bit of a sweat. Thankfully, the venue had a balcony, with huge doors.
I kept going over and opening them, as some folks were inside, some were outside, and there was a nice breeze. However, I had to keep going over, because they were shut whenever I looked back.
Finally, after the fifth or sixth time, some guy followed me and demanded that I kept the doors shut because it was cold inside. I didn’t know who he was, so he must have been a plus of someone on my wife’s side.
That led to me being mighty confused when he said, and I quote, ‘Who on Earth do you think you are keeping these doors open, and the temperature so low inside?’
I responded, ‘I’m the guy who bought you dinner.’
I watched him go over to my new cousin-in-law, grab his coat, and almost pull her out the front door.
I thought one of my Groomsmen was going to burst he laughed so hard.”
Backpack Patrol
“Back in my middle school, my boyfriend and his classmates weren’t allowed to carry backpacks during the day. My school was the same way. That meant that students had to carry around folders and binders to their classes. Well, he had a cloth binder with a strap to go over his shoulder. What was funny, in retrospect, is that I also had one of them in middle school and never got a hard time for them.
Anyway, he got to school one day, and it was already a few months into the year. He had been using his strapped binder with no issue, but the Vice Principal saw it one day and approached him.
She told him, ‘You’re not allowed to have backpacks, I’m going to have to take that from you until the end of the day.’
He responded, ‘It’s not a backpack, it’s a binder with a strap.’
She said, ‘Well it looks like a backpack, and it’s on your back, do you have any folders?’
He responded, ‘No, I don’t. This is all I have.’
She responded, ‘Okay, you’re just going to have to empty it then and carry your papers to class until the end of the day.’
My boyfriend wasn’t having that. Like any middle-schooler, he would just cram his papers in his binder and didn’t want to carry a stack of papers around for the next six hours. He continued to disagree and she eventually took him into the office.
In the office, she asked him, ‘Can I take your papers out? You can have it back at the end of the day.’
My boyfriend responded, ‘No.’
She retorted, ‘Well you’re not leaving this office with it.’
He said, ‘Thats fine, I didn’t want to go to class anyway.’
That made her angry and she said that she would be back when he was ready to have a polite discussion and left. She tried to sweat him out thinking he would get so bored that he would rather just carry the papers to see his friends, but he was incredibly stubborn so that never happened. She eventually got sick of him in there and told him fine but to get a new binder after that day. He agreed, got up, and left the office.
He never got a new binder.
She would see him later in the halls for the rest of the year and tell him, ‘You can’t have that.’
Each time, he would ask, ‘Are you going to take me to the office?’
He had it for the rest of the year.”
Power Hungry Manager
“When I was in high school. I worked at a popular warehouse club selling computers on the weekends. I was hired by the store manager through the referral of a friend. I loved computers and they thought I would make a good salesman, so my job was to stay in the computer department and sell computers, nothing else.
Well, one of the shift managers didn’t like that and started to insist that I needed to go fold clothes for a while. As in, half of my shift. I told him that the store manager had instructed me never to leave the technology department, but he insisted. That went on for several weeks.
The store manager showed up one weekend when both the power tripping shift manager and I were working. The store manager walked up behind the shift manager and slapped a stack of paper down onto a shelf and pointed to some highlighted numbers.
He looked at the shift manager and said, “Do you see this? This is our average technology sales numbers for the weeks you are on shift. See this number over here? This is our average technology sales numbers for weeks you are not. At this point, it would be more cost-effective for me to simply fire you. What do you think of that solution?”
The guy stammered and stuttered like a toddler caught bullying another kid on the playground. Fortunately, the dude wasn’t fired, but the store manager made it clear that when I was on shift, I was not to leave the technology department unless I was on break or there was a fire in the store. That shift manager never said another word to me.”
Private Patient
“I work in a National Health Services Hospital so no one pays anything out of pocket for treatment here, it’s all paid for through taxation.
A patient was added onto our clinic who had paid one of our doctors for surgery privately at another hospital but she was getting her follow-ups free on the National Health Services. Technically that shouldn’t happen but it did. Those patients can be a bit difficult.
The lady’s appointment was at eight fifty-five before we even started taking patients at nine. She was checked in when we actually clocked in and was all snooty about waiting five whole minutes, bearing in mind she was saving a fortune. Then one of the nurses from the ward called and an actual National Health Services patient needed to be seen urgently, so they were brought up and seen ahead of the private patient. Well, the woman went mental and started shouting and bawling that she had paid all this money and that she demanded service.
Our charge nurse went out, demanded to know who had taken money off of her. She really drilled the patient to point to the person who had dared take money off of a National Health Services patient. Well, the woman went beetroot, stuttered that she had paid the other hospital.
The charge nurse responded, ‘Exactly, your money is no good here and the doctor is being paid by the taxpayer to see this emergency patient first so kindly sit down and be quiet or leave my department until you can be civil.'”
DPS Officers Part 1
“I was working as a flight instructor at a small airport on a Saturday afternoon. We had one plane that had an issue on takeoff and veered off the runway, it cartwheeled and totaled the airplane but fortunately, the pilot was not seriously injured. I had a student who was next in line for takeoff when it happened, he called me from his phone as it happened. I hopped in the airport car with one of the rampers and drove out to the plane with a radio to inform inbound planes to use the other runway because we had no control tower. On the way to the runway, I called the airport manager who drove to the airport, and on his way, he made a phone call that officially closed that runway.
About thirty minutes later, a metric ton of Department of Public Safety officers showed up and immediately tried to close the whole airport, treating it like a giant crime scene. They were carelessly driving around the airport like they owned the place, ignoring the planes that were moving around, and crossing our only open runway without regard for inbound traffic. A mechanic and I tried to tell them to be careful and they got mad at us. One of them told me they were locking it down a couple of times, meaning the whole airport. Now, I was a broke flight instructor and I had a flight that afternoon that was ultimately going to help pay for me to eat that week.
The airport manager was a short stereotypical country guy, who was also former Navy. He was not intimidated at all by the cops trying to close his airport. When he showed up, I was about to go out with a student who was pre-flighting for a cross-country. There were about five cops in the lobby, me with my flight bag, the airport manager, and a mechanic.
One of the cops saw my flight bag and said, ‘I don’t know why you have that or why he’s out on the plane, you aren’t going anywhere.'”
Continued Below
DPS Officers Part 2
“The moment he finished his sentence the airport manager said, ‘It’s one runway that’s closed, the airport is still open.’
That upset the DPS officers.
I was about to head out the door, and one of the officers said he was driving out to the disabled plane. Even though the pilot had been gone for about an hour.
The mechanic said, ‘You need to be careful.’
The officer quickly retorted, ‘And why is that??’
The mechanic responded, ‘Because this is still an airport, and the first thing that hits you is going to be a propeller.’
A few seconds later, a plane took off as one of the cars was approaching the runway intersection, nearly causing a collision.
I walked out, and as I was hopping in the plane with my student the same cop came up to me and said, ‘You aren’t going anywhere, we’re locking this down!’
I looked at the airport manager who followed all of us out to the ramp, he said, ‘Have a nice flight!’
I could see the officers absolutely fuming that they didn’t have the authority to close down an entire airport because one plane went off the runway. The airport had two runways, where the disabled plane was located was probably a mile or so away from the open runway.
Why they were making a big fuss, I don’t know. The occupant was relatively uninjured, his wife was the worst thing he had to deal with that day, he told her he wasn’t going to fly.
We had a good flight, and I got to eat dinner that week.”
Hotel Parking Lot
“I worked at a hotel that was high-end. That meant that we often took the approach of just appeasing guests no matter what, so I frequently had to bite my tongue. However, we have a very desirable parking lot, and when people poached it we would boot them. I loved enforcing that because I didn’t have to bite my tongue or apologize, as they aren’t guests.
My favorite was when a younger girl parked and walked to a neighboring hotel.
Our general manager happened to be in the lot and said, ‘Hey, just FYI this isn’t parking for that hotel but they have a lot a little further down the street that you can park in.’
She responded, ‘Forget you,’ flipped him off, and walked to the neighboring hotel.
The general manager immediately called and told me. I giggled, grabbed the boot, and slapped it on her car.
She came back screaming and ranting.
I told her the cost is two hundred dollars to have the boot removed and she called the police.
When the police arrived, they asked, ‘Is this a private lot?’
I responded, ‘Yes.’
They turned to the girl and said, ‘Okay then pay them.’
She refused to pay and stormed off.
Shortly after, I got a call requesting the manager. I spoke with them and it was the girl’s mom.
She used all of the excuses, ‘Oh my daughter didn’t know, she was going to a job interview.’
I let her go on. When she finally stopped making excuses, I told her that her daughter flipped off the general manager and that there was no way the boot was coming off without payment. On top of that, I told her that she better not come in swearing or yelling when she paid or the price would go up to three hundred.
She hung up and the daughter came back and silently handed me two hundred dollars with a look of rage on her face. I had never been so internally giggly before.”
Temporary Manager
“I was a registration supervisor in an emergency department. Our manager was out for heart surgery so the manager of a different facility was filling in. She was a righteous prick who needed everyone to bow to her authority.
During a staff meeting, she tried to implement a policy that the president of our hospital has specifically rejected. It was nothing major, just a process change in how we checked in patients who arrived by EMS. This policy worked at her facility but we weren’t equipped to implement it. She knew this but thought she was going to force us to do it as a way of showing how it was the better way.
After she gave the instructions, she asked, ‘Any questions?’
My staff all turned and looked at me for a moment, then one of them asked, ‘Is this true? Or okay for us to do?’
I responded, ‘No. As you know, we’ve been told not to do this. Please continue arriving those patients as we have been.’
The manager flipped out and tried to write me up for insubordination.
I took it to the director who knew we weren’t allowed to make this change. He shot her down and dismissed my write-up.
It was super validating. It also helped me with my staff because they saw that I wouldn’t let them or myself be pushed around.”
New Officer
“I worked at a prison for ten years. A lot of the captains were notorious for giving in to the demands of newer employees for training that were usually reserved for senior officers, or at the very least, easier jobs away from inmates.
One night, I was talking with one of the captains in his office and a new officer came in, he had been there about three months or so. He started asking the captain for some particular training. The captain kept telling him no because there were senior officers ahead of him.
Naturally, the twenty-something-year-old kid started whining about so-and-so getting trained and he wasn’t and they felt like they have proven their worth.
The captain got up and start walking circles around the officer as if he was looking for something. He checked his shirt collar, pockets, and even made the officer give him his wallet to look through.
He finally sat down, looked at his own collar, touched his captain’s pin, and said, ‘Oh look! You almost had me convinced that I wasn’t the decision-maker. Get out of my office!’
He was my favorite supervisor of all time.”
“A Little Too Green”
“A few years ago, I interviewed for a job in the United States that was labeled as a senior-level position, which is my level of experience in my field.
I went through two phone interviews and a stellar in-person interview. Shortly after the in-person interview, they called me and said they absolutely loved me and that I would be a great fit at the company.
However, they said, ‘We do believe that you’re a little too green,’ implying that I was inexperienced for the senior-level position but lucky for me, they had an opening for the junior-level position. Of course, that came with a salary decrease.
I kindly told them that the reason I applied to their job posting in the first place was that it was a senior-level position and that I wasn’t going to take a step backward in my career by taking a junior-level position since I had both the appropriate experience and the work history. I also let them know that trying to trick someone with senior-level experience into taking a junior-level position by stringing them along through interviews and a job offer was deceptive and unethical.
There was silence over the phone for a moment and then the interviewer said in an offended tone, ‘Well we’ve all had to make sacrifices for this company.’
To which I replied, ‘You may have had to, but I don’t make sacrifices for anyone.’
There was stunned silence.
Then the interviewer, who was so appalled that they didn’t know what to say, replied, ‘Well, maybe you can think about it and I’ll call you tomorrow to check in.’
I said, ‘No thank you, and please don’t call me,’ and hung up the phone.
They do that a lot to young people like myself in a variety of industries. Don’t take that from anybody. Know your qualifications, believe in them, and tell those predatory companies to forget it. Your talents will be appreciated and paid for elsewhere, I promise you.”
Entitled Shoplifter
“I had an elderly lady that came into the pharmacy where I worked when I was roughly seventeen. It was a community pharmacy and all the patients and people in the community had been going there for a while. They knew the owner and he knew them. She acted really suspicious and tense with the employees. She walked around shrinking away from people. I saw her grab something and put it into her purse, it was a couple of things of Robitussin.
I walked up to her and said, ‘Ma’am, I need you to put that back or pay for it, and if you were wanting to sell that or use it to make something, it doesn’t even have the right ingredients.’
She acted accosted and screamed that I needed to unhand her and to stop trying to abuse her.
Then she said, ‘I’m good friends with the owner and when he hears how prejudiced and abusive you are I hope you learn to be a proper man while finding a new job!’
So I stayed in front of the door and calmly said, ‘Ma’am I’m sorry I’ve offended you. The owner is here today, actually.’
She walked back and started hollering, ‘Where is Eric?! This young man is abusing me!’
The owner rushed out, looked at me, and asked, ‘What happened?’
She said, ‘He accused me of taking medicine,’ and I gestured towards the bag.
The owner looked at me then asked her, ‘Did you take any?’
She said, ‘Mr. Eric, I’ve known you since I moved here four years ago and I don’t like this little boy you have working for you. His mama didn’t teach him how to treat a lady!’
He responded, ‘I think she did a fine job, she’s my wife. Let me see in your bag.'”
Hammered Hotel Guest
“I worked in a hotel bar and one night a guest came into the bar after having been refused service at our sister hotel down the road. He was absolutely hammered and had been rude, abusive, and threatening to the staff.
He insisted we serve him as he was a guest, but we’d already been phoned by our sister hotel so they could let us know what the situation was.
We refused, but offered him some water and suggested he go up to his room.
He then went on about how he had nearly bought our hotel and that he was practically our boss so we should serve him or he would have us fired.
We refused.
He told us he was a very rich man and would tip us hundreds of pounds if we served him.
We refused. He was getting abusive at that point, so we again suggested he have some water and head up to his room.
He went on to tell us that his brother was the mayor so we should serve him.
We refused and told him he should go on up to his room yet again.
He then said he was going to the pub across the street but all the pubs and restaurants in our town have a barred from one barred from them all policy. We telephoned the other pubs to inform them of the situation.
Many of them got back to us and said they had been offered money, been threatened with losing their jobs, and had also been told the story of the mayor. All of the pubs stuck to their rules and refused to serve him.
Eventually, he came back to the hotel and went to his room.”
Sandwich Artist Revenge
“I used to work at a few Subways and the owner inherited them when she already had a busy and lucrative career elsewhere. I think that she mainly held on to them to employ immigrant family members. One time, she was in the back when she heard me interact with an angry customer.
Afterward, she came out and said, ‘You know you don’t have to take stuff like that. I trust you, you can use your judgment and just toss anybody out who talks to you like that.’
After that, I wouldn’t take any of it from anybody. The slightest hint of backtalk to your Sandwich Artist, and you were out the door, still hungry. It was so much fun.
One time a customer said, ‘Let me speak to your manager.’
I responded, ‘No. Get out.’
They threatened, ‘I’m going to call and complain.’
I retorted, ‘Oh I’m terrified. Go nuts, but you can’t call from in here, because you’re trespassing now.’
The sheer indignance of an entitled customer when you don’t bow and scrape before them is really something to behold.”