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,
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.