“At an old job, I had a breakdown because I had not been paid in six weeks.
I literally was unable to eat and was walking to work because I could not afford gas.
I was a 21-year-old recent college grad who wasnt getting my paychecks what savings???”
I declined the job."
u/eastblondeanddown
2.
“Coworker: ‘You’ll be able to buy a home once you get your inheritance.'”
“Me: ‘I won’t have an inheritance.
My family isn’t well off.’
Coworker: ‘Of course you have an inheritance.
Everyone’s parents leave them an inheritance.
I’m sure they’re just keeping it a secret from you to surprise you.’
u/trashycutesy
3.
She really thought I worked for fun.
u/laurasaur_69
4.
“At an old job, I had a breakdown because I had not been paid in six weeks.
I literally was unable to eat and was walking to work because I could not afford gas.
I was a 21-year-old recent college grad who wasnt getting my paychecks what savings???”
u/azulweber
5.
“The CEO of my last job won the lottery.
It was a lot of money.
She was already rich while the rest of the people in the office struggled to pay rent.
She came to me with a purse with holes in it and said, ‘a gift for you!
I dont want it any longer but Im sure you do.’
She meant her trash was good enough for me.
I told her to gtfo and I left my job that day.”
u/Pure_Point2682
6.
I explained I was using the vacation time to visit family on birthdays and such.
She tried to say, ‘Well, wouldn’t it be nicer to take a week at a time?
That way you might actually fly somewhere warm!’
I just stared at her and said, ‘The vacation pay just reimburses me for the wages lost.
How am I going to pay for the flight, the hotel and literally anything else?
You pay me minimum wage.’
She just stared at me in shock and eventually dropped it.
u/MissAcedia
7.
“Many years ago, I was living in Philadelphia.
I had a very nice colleague at the office, a young woman from a very privileged family.
One weekend, we were going to meet for lunch.
We spoke on the phone and I said I’d see her soon.
‘You got here so quickly!’
‘Yes, I took the subway.’
I probably could have just told her Id teleported.”
u/ExtremelyRetired
8.
Not an Uber, a car service.
u/Orange_Kid
9.
“I worked at a deli in college and had a high school-aged coworker.
She was super quiet the rest of the shift and never brought it up again.
I can only assume she asked her dad later that night.
Hopefully he, uh, illuminated some things for her.”
“The sad part is that Ive heard similar stories from other folks working with (privileged) teens.
Through limited fault of their own, sometimes they really dont get it.”
u/thedistantdusk
10.
I was in my early twenties, as was the majority of the staff.
And everyone else looked at her like, ‘what a snob…’
She still eye rolled at me.
At then got mad later when I performed better and got the good shifts, lol.
She didn’t last long.”
u/AreaWoman1
11.
He didn’t have to work he just enjoyed learning history and traveling around to different internships for fun.
He asked me what steps I needed to take to buy the house and I mentioned our mortgage paperwork.
It will save you money in interest!’
u/Peg__Leg__Meg
12.
And I just looked at her and said ‘no.’
u/Tea_and_cat
13.
Rich kid who was new to town turned to me and asked where I hired my housekeeper.
I thought he was joking but he was serious.
He asked how I keep my house clean without a housekeeper."
u/IneffableOpinion
14.
“I worked as a landscaper for a client who spent $175,000 on our services every year.
u/fluffnpuf
15.
“I worked at a small family owned pizza place.
The owner would routinely be late with our checks.
And he thought that was so smart.
We all made minimum wage.
We all lived paycheck to paycheck.”
u/show_pleasure
16.
“I was working as an architect for a practice with High Net Worth Individual clients.
u/astrid_rons
17.
“There was a manager that would carry in two very large designer bags each day.
You would never see the same bag twice a week.
She said, ‘The monthly budget for this project is what I spend on shoes each month.
Yeah, the monthly budget for that project was also almost exactly my take home pay.”
u/Soupy_Twist
18.
Her: ‘Where are you planning on taking your honeymoon when you get married?'”
No one will ever marry you if you refuse to take them to Hawaii for a honeymoon!'”
u/Flailing_Aimlessly
19.
“Someone at work asked, “Every house has, what, three to five bedrooms?’
I couldn’t say anything but I could not stop my eyes from rolling.”
Im constantly explaining to her what its like to be middle class.”
u/labicicletagirl
20.
I asked who her landlord was that allows rent to be paid in pizza parties."
u/Diablix
21.
“I had an old boss that grew up very wealthy.
He said, ‘I dont know what youre all complaining about.
If you want a bigger place to live, just move.
I did and it was easy.
Its not as hard as you think.’
u/gouwbadgers
22.
I don’t remember what it was.
Nobody had a spare $100 a week.
“Another one back in the late ’80s/early ’90s boss’s wife worked in the office too.
She commented one day that a certain shop had ‘lovely blouses’ that were only $100.
That was a third of my weekly pay.
u/IAmLazy2
23.
I was actually speechless.”
u/herinitialsspellher
24.
“I am a consultant.
We were discussing selling candy in large amounts on the internet and a couple of us were discussing pricing.
She said out of nowhere, ‘Well, people buy bananas on the internet, right?
What does a bunch of bananas cost?
It’ll be fine.’
And then she went back to her phone and never said another word.”
u/otherwiseintelligent
25. u/ChuckysBarbie
26.
‘I pay you enough that your wife shouldnt have to work.’
I was making, in 2016, the same as what he made in 1983. u/DeLaRey
27.
She told me I should just ‘go for it!
Money isnt everything!’
u/itscoolaubs
28.
Coworker awkwardly went and looked.
She didnt see anything she liked, but she needed lamps, so she said she would take two.
Owner looked her dead in the face and said $600. "
“Forgot to add her daddy bought her the restaurant.”
u/Environmental-Bit335
29.
I said I hadnt but would love to someday.
He recommended I ‘take a sabbatical’ to make the trip.
u/TRexpert
30.
“I dont know aboutheard, but I can share the most out of touch thing I saw.
The CEO was a nice guy, very tech bro-y but seemed committed.
One day I was working late and saw a piece of paper in the office cafeteria.
Said CEO had been on his honeymoon recently.
Now remember, this was startup culture.
This piece of paper was a bill.
For his honeymoon trip.
His honeymoon was a safari to Africa.It cost more than my entirely yearly salary.”
“I remember being totally stunned.
I ended up just leaving it.
I was one of the only people left in the building and scared of retaliation.
It was gone in the morning.
Ive never forgotten it.
All the C-suite bullshit about us being a team and a family was MUCH funnier after that.”
u/wheniswhy
31.
“I used to work in a cafeteria of a tech building.
“We were both making minimum wage, living paycheck to paycheck and every penny was essential.
And this guy laughed and said, ‘It’s only $100!
That’s nothing!’
He tipped a bit better after that, but I doubt his low level employees saw an extra penny!
My friend who worked there didn’t last even a whole year.”
u/fullcupofbitter
32.
“I work in automotive repair.
I had a woman come in a few years ago who said her windshield wipers werent working.
This was directly after a snow storm.
I told her the situation and she was exasperated.”
I said yes, or a brush or something.
Then while we fixed the wiper linkage, she was outside yelling at someone on her cell phone.
I will remember this event for the rest of my life.”
u/Bradparsley25
33.
“I had just gotten my first teaching job fresh out of university.
I’d moved cities, rented an apartment on my own, and student loan payments were coming up.
A mistake was made and I didnt get paid for the first few weeks.
I approached the principal to ask if she knew who I could contact to get it fixed.
Her response: ‘Oh well, think of it as forced savings.’
I had no savings.
She knew I had just moved.
I remember thinking, wtf?, but I didnt say anything.
At the time, I didnt want her to think I was rude.”
u/Professional-One-956
34.
Im sorry mate, but I cant actually afford to buy a first house, never mind anything else.
They are lovely people but have too much money and no idea.”
u/DogObsessed94
35.
“I used to work in a QA department with two teams, each 7 people.
This was among other wildly overbearing rules.
One day, investors were visiting to check out our company.
Our HR was giving them a tour that happened to be during our lunch.
I was literally in shock.
My coworker and I just stared at each other in horror.”
u/razcalnikov
36.
“I was sitting with a coworker in our lunchroom.
One look at her and you could tell she was at a breaking point.
u/RebelRigantona
37.
(You were supposed to be making a loss to be eligible for the supplemental payment.
We are an essential service.)
We all lost half our wage a week for him to do this.
I, as a manager, still had to do my full job in less hours.
I work hard to ensure I have a job but this was completely out of my control.
There’s nothing I can do.
I can’t get a second job in this climate.
It was very stressful.'”
u/Hellofiknow17
38.
I added that I was grateful that my tax return would cover most of it."
“Her response: ‘Oh honey, be glad you even GET a tax return.
We haven’t gotten ANYTHING back for 20 years!’
All I could say was, ‘Well that’s one way to look at it.'”
u/wannkie
39.Finally…“Im a public defender.
This happened to my colleague and not me, but I was there.
The judge told her just to go to the ATM upstairs.
Like…she couldnt understand people not having money.
Or she thought that ATMs just gave anyone money.
u/camccorm
Submissions have been edited for length/clarity.
