As the COVID-19 pandemic rages through businesses internationally, service and retail industry workers have had to deal with a new type of unruly customer. Those who typically try to haggle over a return from five months ago, dubbed “Karens”, now do so lacking masks. There is a new level of disrespect and defensiveness from these customers that workers have to deal with in a polite manner. Many of the working students at WHS have become a victim to this mass “Karen” awakening, here are their stories:

“I worked retail this summer at a fancy boutique on a beach. As you can already imagine, the customers were all different (whether it was social class, tourists, locals, or curious regulars). There was one woman who was clearly privileged and lived an expensive and luxurious lifestyle. She refused to put a mask on because she kept saying that the virus was “fake”. She wouldn’t comply with my requests so my manager had to ask her to leave. It was very dramatic and stressful” – Lillie Ambrowitz

“This one family of five came in, three rowdy kids and a mom and dad. None of them were wearing masks. At the time as a new host, I went to the back to get them all masks to enter and the mother said, “My kids won’t be wearing those.” – Murphy Ryan

“All team members must follow a policy where we’re only permitted to offer guests a mask once when they walk in. It’s against the policy to offer them a mask or to ask them to put on one of their own more than once. People will be walking around the store with inefficient masks or no masks and it is against that policy to ask them to put one on.” – Mack Jackson 

“I got yelled at once as he claimed it was his “right to not wear one” and so I told him it was my right to refuse service to him” – Savannah Hoff