This story is less anti-work, and more employee rights, but I think it could be appreciated here. For context, I've had 4 different jobs in retail and hospitality for the past ~8 years.
I was picking up take away for dinner two nights ago, and as I was waiting 15 minutes for my order, I decided to take a quick stroll through the shopping strip.
Important context – I'd already checked online for my own interest that the local bottle shop closes at 8pm. It was 7:59pm according to my phone, and as I was walking past that bottle-o and noticed there was a couple who was harassing the employee to let them in (the usual “it's okay, just let us, we'll make it quick” bs). I know I had to deal with similar unnecessary behaviour in the past myself, so as I walked past that encounter, I had enough in my head and turned back around…
I walked up to the store assistant who was in the process of shoo-ing these people away, and loudly (and admittedly pretty obnoxiously) exclaimed “ARE YOU OPEN? OH, YOU'RE NOT? NO WORRIES! YOU'RE CLOSED, YOU'RE CLOSED. I'LL COME BACK TO TOMORROW, NO PROBLEM!” as I stared down this couple, flailing my hands in a f***-off-motion …I think they promptly got the idea.
I tried to knock on the door and give the employee a thumbs up (although he ignored me, understandable. I'd imagine it wasn't the first time they'd had to deal with that situation, so I hope I didn't startle the poor employee myself).
I'm just so frustrated with how entitled people are, especially in working environments (even at work just the other day, I had an Uber driver insist I lend them a phone charger which we legitimately did not have, and would not give them even if we did). So definitely, if you're sick of shit customers in your own experiences, I implore you to stand up for those you see being abused at work.