Posted on 02/10/2021 7:04:10 PM PST by dangus
In case I'm not contrarian enough, here goes: Karen is a hero.
Karen wants to speak to the manager. That's what defines Karen.
She doesn't want to berate some poor clerk at the register; she knows that poor 17-year-old kid has no authority. She's not going to swipe something because she feels self-justified in doing so. She's not going to get revenge by taking a crap on the heater in the bathroom. She feels, rightly or wrongly, that she has been screwed over and she demands that she be treated as a human being by a human being who is empowered to do more than stick to a script.
The Karen meme isn't defending some poor under-payed sales clerk, or exposing some white privilege. It's a rear-guard action by nameless corporations aimed at villainizing middle-aged white folk who maybe still do feel like they have the clout to be treated as human beings. That's right: clout, non entitlement.
God Bless Karen! May an army of insurrectionists Karens storm the hallways of corporate headquarters from coast to coast!
WRONG!
In the majority of cases, the Karen wants to complain to the manager about the 17-year-old!
She wants to get the 17-year-old fired! (At least, she is implicitly threatening that.)
In non-commercial venues (children's playgrounds, sidewalks, etc.), the Karen is indignant about someone else not wearing a mask, parents disciplining a temper-tantrum-throwing 2-year-old rather than "treating the child with respect and explaining things in a rational manner," etc.
Regards,
Their, their. Turn it lose or you’ll loose your mind.
Yep!
Karens are raving leftist lunatics.
Karen is the person who would yell “hey Romans. The guy who looks like Kirk Douglas is Spartacus?”
At a play she would also call out to the Nazi troops that Anne Frank is hiding in the attic.
Or what? You're going to scream in my face to call the manager?
Dangus, I think Alexander is correct. This is a misunderstanding of who Karen is. Karen has no empathy for the 17-year-old. Karen wants to speak to his manager precisely because she is too self-important to speak with the 17-year-old kid and to try and act as the adult in the matter.
As others on the thread have noted, there is nothing wrong with a consumer or customer elevating a legitimate complaint about a product or service to the appropriate level of management that can resolve the issue.
i.e. A customer asks for some ketchup at the drive through and doesn't get any.
A responsible. mature adult (who really, really wants the ketchup) parks, goes into the store, waits in line if they have to, and politely asks the clerk for some ketchup then leaves.
A Karen storms into the store, pushes to the front of the line, demands to see the manager, from whom she will demand both the ketchup and an apology and most likely will hurl some invective or profanity towards the person who got her order wrong and will want to know what the manager plans on doing about it to make sure it never happens again.
OK... I was feeling like so many people were adding to the original Karen meme just everything they hate... (Anti-maskers claim she is a nazi hall monitor making everyone wear masks; pro-maskers claim she’s too selfish and self-important to wear a mask) but I think you may have the winning point.
But that said... Like everyone else, I worked in retail summers and after school. From a grocery store to a home goods store, I don’t think I ever encountered the Karen you describe. Not once. Maybe I was just really good at placating Karen or solving her problems. If Karen no longer bothers with the low-level staff, is that because she has learned from experience there’s no point? How many times can you get people sticking to scripts as if you weren’t even a human being before you just say it, “F*** it; I want to talk to someone who has the authority to say something other than as an NPC?”
Me going full Karen:
“I’d like to get one Whopper with no ma-—”
“Would you like cheese with that?”
“I’m sorry, you just interrupted me in the middle of a word!”
“Would you like cheese with that?”
“Does it come with cheese?” (knowing full well they charge you extra)
“Yes.”
“Cool, free cheese”
“No, the Whopper with cheese is $1.35 more.”
“You just said it comes with cheese.”
“The Whopper with cheese comes with cheese.”
“But I didn’t order a Whopper with cheese; I ordered a Whopper.”
“Would you like cheese with that?”
“Not if I have to pay $1.35 for a slice of cheese.”
“The cheese comes with the Whopper with cheese.”
“I’d like one Whopper with no cheese.” (I see another Whopper being rung up.)
“No, I’d like ONE Whopper, no cheese. You’re ringing up two.”
“Yes, would you like cheese on the second Whopper?”
“I don’t want any Whopper with cheese. Just one Whopper. No Mayonnaise. No pickle.”
“The sandwhich or the meal?”
Just the sandwich, but I’d also like one order of medium fries.”
“Would you like large fries with that?”
“Are you asking would I like large fries with my order of medium fries?”
“No, I’m asking if you’d like large fries with your Whopper.”
“No, I want one Whopper, one order of medium fries.”
(He rings me up for another Whopper and another order of medium fries.)
“Can I speak to your manager?”
And that’s Burger King. The McDonald’ses in my area never hire English-speaking people. Burger Kings hire blacks; McDonald’ses hire Latinos. You have to ask to speak to the manager to get Ketchup nowadays. (Somehow, someone decided that packets of ketchup spread coronavirus.)
Every time the minimum wage issue comes up, throngs of FReepers will point out (and rightly so) that minimum wage, entry level jobs are not meant to be career choices, but places for younger people entering the workforce to develop technical and interpersonal skills, work ethics, and an understanding of the value of their labor.
This is a great position when debating the issue of a minimum wage, but I think the test of how deeply one embraces that belief is how one may deal with an entry level, minimum wage employee.
As a customer of a business, it's not my job, nor my responsibility to train that business's employees. As a conservative, a Christian and a human being, it is my responsibility to treat them with a certain degree of respect and dignity. If, in my interaction with an entry level employee, I can coach or mentor them and make them a better employee (and they are receptive to it), I will avail myself of that opportunity. I'm not saying I'm going to stop my day and conduct a one hour business class for them, but I will give a generous tip where warranted (and more importantly let them know why). If I have a dispute over a product or service, I will rationally and politely present my case to them and engage them as to what they think the best course to resolution would be and what they would do if they were in my position.
If circumstances allow, I would very much rather get to the point where the employee says, "Let me check with my manager," or, "Would you like to talk to my manager," than for me to demand to speak to a manager.
Change to
Nicky Haleyite
2 masks
3 masks
Where’s your maskS
Great,... but go read of the very typical encounter with a fast-food worker.
Choplogic. AOC is Karen. The Squad is Karen. Karen is the female leadership that the feminists of the 70s were saying would usher in an era of comity and an end to hostility.
Karen has ushered in an era of comedy. It’s a very handy adjective/proper noun.
However, formally Karen is referred to as ‘Comrade Karen’, which is genderless and can thus be used on any of the LBGTQSLDFJSLJF community
AOC is not Karen. Karen is a middle-aged white mother... your Clinton-era soccer Mom grown older.
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