Karen DESTROYS FAMILY HEIRLOOM... GETS TAUGHT A LESSON! - Reddit Stories

In today’s episode of Reddit Stories Podcast, a wild Karen completely loses it. You won’t believe how this one ends! Sit back, relax, and enjoy this binge-worthy Reddit Stories Podcast, featuring Karen freakouts, entitled people stories, and pro revenge tales.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there, mister Redder here, welcome back to another episode
of Reddit podcast Stories. Our first story we'll be reading
today Karen destroys a family heirloom, huge mistake. After that,
another new manager facing the consequences of their actions. And
after that, am I the jerk for telling my daughter
the truth about her father? Now, for every thumbs up

(00:20):
this video gets one, Karen does not get to destroy
anyone's family heirloom. You wouldn't happen to be talking about
that necklace I just flushed down the toilet, would you?
So please smash that like button and subscribe and turn
on notifications for new stories from Reddit every single day.
Karen destroys a family heirloom, huge mistake. I female, twenty six,

(00:42):
have two cousins who are thirty three and twenty eight.
My oldest cousin, Jane, is married. My other cousin, Amy
just got married. I'm single. Right before she got engaged
last summer, our grandma gave Amy's fiance John a diamond
ring to propose with. This ring is a gorgeous white
gold and diamond ring that our grandpa gave her. He

(01:03):
passed when our dads were teens. My grandma has since
remarried and always said that she'd pass on the ring.
I won't lie. I've always loved that ring and hoped
it would be mine one day, but I'm also the
youngest cousin, so I tried to temper my expectations. Mostly,
I was happy for Amy and glad that the ring
was staying in the family, and Jane agreed. Fast forward

(01:25):
to this weekend, which was Amy's wedding. Neither Jane nor
I were in the wedding, but we both went to
the hotel room where Amy was getting ready. She asked
if we wanted to see the rings. We were both
confused but said sure, and what she showed us was
a gargantuan, tacky engagement ring and wedding band said. I
sputtered something like, but I thought you were getting married

(01:45):
with grandma's ring. Amy just smiled and said, yeah, it
is Grandma's ring. She explained that for her wedding gift,
she asked John to upgrade the ring into this monstrosity,
since he didn't have to pay for an engagement ring
in the first place. One of the diamonds was Grandma's
and then the white gold melted down to make one
of her wedding bands, but the rest was all new stuff.

(02:07):
I burst into tears. I was so shocked and hurt.
I told her she destroyed our grandparents' heirloom. If she
wanted a giant diamond to wear every day, that's her choice,
but the ring was important to our family. Amy got
huffy and said she had to finish getting ready, so
Jane and I left. Jane was also upset, but had
the attitude of it's Amy's ring. Nothing we can do now.

(02:30):
I told her I didn't think Grandma would have given
it to John and Amy if she knew that she
was going to take it apart. I found Grandma and
asked her if she knew what Amy had done. Amy's
mom had told her that Amy had to have it
resized and have the setting fixed, but Grandma had no
idea that it was made into an entirely new ring.
She didn't say anything, but I could tell she was upset.

(02:51):
The wedding went on, but everyone could tell there was
some awkwardness between Me and Amy and Jane and Grandma
refusing to talk about the matter. Is saying I owe
her an apology, but I don't think I'm in the
wrong for saying she destroyed a family heirloom, plus the
fact that she didn't tell anyone what she was doing
and misled. Grandma says to me that she knew she
was in the wrong, or at least it wouldn't have

(03:13):
been condoned. I feel like she saw it as not
an heirloom, but a way to subsidize what she really wanted.
I know the mature thing to do is to just
get over it and accept that it was given to
Amy and she made her choice, But I'm finding it
really hard to get over what she did. Am I
the jerk for feeling the way I do? Not the jerk?
What kind of jerk takes a part of family heirloom?

(03:35):
You can't be blamed for having an emotional reaction, and
she's so trashy for what she did. The deed is
done and it was given to her. However, if she
just wanted the diamond, she should have ideally kept the
setting to pass on to others or even use it
for a different stone. Perhaps ask Grandma if she has
picks of the original setting so you can have it
remade as an homage to your grandparents. You're the jerk.

(04:00):
You put a blemish on her wedding because you're jealous.
She was gifted the ring and used it to create
one more to her style. It can still be just
as sentimental to her and still be her grandmother's ring.
Not to mention, you go on about an heirloom ring
as if it's been handed down through multiple generations. It's
not an heirloom. It was your grandmother's ring. You're the jerk.

(04:21):
Did you really have to tell her this on her
wedding day? And did you really have to tell your
grandma on the wedding day? You could just smile and
pretend to be happy for her. You could have told
her a week or a month later. It's not like
it was magically going to change back when you started
crying over it. You should have just let her be
happy with it, at least for that one day. Another
new manager facing the consequences of their actions. I'll keep

(04:44):
the details as vague as possible because I'm still with
this organization. I work for a government department. We have
offices and locations all over the state. I'm based out
of a city that's about a two hour train ride
to our head office. At the time, I was working
on a team that had men members working remotely all
across the state looking after policy, process and quality assurance.

(05:05):
Our old manager had gone and gotten himself promoted for
being genuinely brilliant at his role. So our new manager, Steve,
was hired in from the glorious world of banking and
he was here to whip us lazy public servants into shape.
A few days after he began his role, he called
us all to a teleconference to inform us that he
wanted all of us to be at the head office

(05:26):
at eight am tomorrow morning for an all day in
person team meeting. He wanted to see us in meat space,
to size us up, understand what we were doing, and
see where we weren't keeping up with the private sector.
As I mentioned, due to the nature of the work
we were doing, we were all across the state, so
in person whole team meetings were rare, and if they

(05:47):
occurred at all, they were booked weeks in advance. We
were all adept at video conferencing long before lockdown. Some
of us tried to tell our new high flyer manager
that almost none of us were in the same city
as him, and to be there on such short notice
would mean travel expenses, meal allowances, overtime, et cetera. He
didn't seem to care and told us in no uncertain

(06:08):
terms to just be at the office tomorrow at eight
before abruptly hanging off. Now I should explain something. I'm
one of a handful of union delegates in our department.
I know our award back to front, specifically the sections
dealing with travel allowances and overtime. So I engaged malicious
compliance mode. If Steve wanted us there, fine, but it'll

(06:30):
cost him. So I quickly went about emailing my team
what Steve had done by requiring us to be in
the head office at eight a m. And what to
do because we'd have to travel outside our normal work hours.
Our work day clock started ticking the moment we left
our homes and only stopped once we got home. Some
of our team traveled overnight. They were entitled to overtime

(06:50):
to travel, a dinner allowance, an accommodation for the night,
and the same returning as someone traveling in the morning
before seven a m. I was entitled to a breakfast allowance,
lunch allowance, and if I got home after nine PM,
a dinner allowance also. So I left my house at
five am to catch the only train that would get
me there in time. The train was running slightly behind,

(07:11):
but I made it in time. So my first three
hours of my work day down and I'd done no work.
After a brief period of us introducing ourselves to Steve,
he proceeded to spend the next four hours telling us
about all of the things he did at the bank,
how he made so much money for them where they
had sent him as a holiday bonus, how we're all
stuck in the past in the public service. The work

(07:32):
he had seen wasn't up to private sector standards, et cetera.
He had all the assuredness of a finance bro who
had always failed upwards because others had picked up his slack.
By three pm, my entire team were into overtime pay
territory and Steve was just warming up with his non
charm offensive. Another three hours go by, with Steve verbally

(07:53):
patting himself on his back, deeply in love hearing his
own voice, but all I hear is chat ching Steve.
We decided that five pm was a good time to
finish off. He stopped mid sentence, looked at his watch,
and unceremoniously said, that's all for today, go home now,
and walked out. After I and a few others gave
a few awkward shrugs to each other, we all packed

(08:15):
up and started to make our separate ways home after
doing no work all day. I myself got to the
train station pretty quickly and saw a train was leaving
soon that would get me home around eight pm. Or
I could catch the All Stations train and get home
closer to nine thirty pm. You know what, No matter
how fast I could run, I just couldn't catch that
earlier train. Darn, I just have to catch that All

(08:38):
Stations train and be on the clock for another hour
and a half plus have my dinner paid for. Such
rotten luck. I submitted my claims the next day four
and a half hours at double rate, my train tickets,
my taxi fares to and from the train station, my breakfast, lunch,
and dinner allowances for me alone. It was close to
five hundred dollars expence claim. The rest of my team

(09:00):
followed suit and ensured that they claimed everything too. Steve
tried to fight us on approval for the claims, but
quickly learned that unlike in the world of banking, most
public servants are union and we'd raise heck if he
tried to deny our award guaranteed allowances, his all day
Steve Fests symposium blew a good six thousand dollars hole
in his budget. Needless to say, while Steve was our manager,

(09:24):
he never required us to attend an in person meeting. Again,
video conferencing was just fine. He only lasted six months
before leaving for new opportunities. He just went back to
his old job at the bank. Guess he was the
one who couldn't keep up. Am I the jerk for
telling my daughter the truth about her father. I got
pregnant in college when I was nineteen. Her father was

(09:47):
in the same position. Prior to doing the deed. I
told him, if anything were to happen, I would be
keeping the baby. He said he understood when I got pregnant.
He refused any contact with my baby or responsibility. He
took things from by telling my friends and his family
that I planned the pregnancy to trap him so they
wouldn't judge his actions. This was not true. He paid

(10:08):
mandatory child support, but it wasn't much. It was hard,
but I love my daughter and I wouldn't change a thing.
She's wonderful and smart, and she's my whole world. He
reached out to me on Facebook saying he wants to
be in his daughter's life. He's married now. I did
some searching online. His wife has frequently posted about her
infertility struggle. I was against it because he's had no

(10:30):
part of her life. It was me who had to
drop out of college, worked two jobs, endure the sleepless
nights as a baby, and raise her. It was me
that kept her belly full and kept her warm. He
didn't give a hoot. It was me that endured my
friends turned against me and his family's harassment and the
judgment of society for being a young mom. And now

(10:51):
that he wouldn't be sacrificing his young years. Now he's
finished partying, Now he's got his degree in job, and
his wife can't give him kids to complete his picket
fence life. He wants the kid I raised for him,
knowing he doesn't really have to do any work other
than to pick her up now and then I told
him my thoughts and he got mad, saying that I
chose to have the baby, not him, which tipped things

(11:12):
over for me. I asked him to prove he thought
about her. Example, a college fund he's paid into for
a while with her in mind, or car money he
did not, which again proved to me he only gave
a hoot when he couldn't make more kids. I spoke
to my daughter, but I told her the type of
person her father is. I told her he has nothing
for her, and I was honest about the fact his

(11:34):
wife is infertile, so that's why he's reaching out. I
told her everything and reiterated basically everything I said in
the past. I told her to think about it. I
said I'd support her knowing him, but I affirmed he
is not a nice person and his intentions are not
where we would want. She chose to not know him.
After I informed him, he got mad. He said I

(11:55):
ruined his chance to know her, that I'm denying her
a father. I told him he was. That's the one
that did that. My mother told me I shouldn't have
poisoned his image to her, that she probably feels rejected
all over again, and she's probably hurting. I now feel
like I have done wrong by her. Am I the jerk?
Edit she's sixteen now edit too. If it wasn't for

(12:15):
the infertile wife and lack of college fund or car money,
showing evidence he had at least thought about her. Then
I probably wouldn't have said anything to her about what
he's like. But to me, those were red flags, not
the jerk. You are protecting your daughter from a potentially
harmful situation. It's one thing for him to give up
parental rights and for it to remain that way, but

(12:36):
what he's doing is treating her like she's some sort
of a trend of the month. What's going to happen
when he realizes she is a complex, multi layered human
with a lot of thoughts and feelings, and likely a
lot of negative feelings towards him. I wouldn't trust him
with properly taking care of an animal, let alone a kid.
Couldn't have put it better myself, and to Opie. If

(12:56):
she sees this as a guy who was raised by
a single mother and with a dead beat father that
we usually referred to as the donor who is never around,
keep up the good work. It's hard enough being a parent,
let alone in that kind of situation. I would say
one thing, though, try not to let your feelings about
him cloud your judgment too much. I never knew my donor.

(13:17):
I only ever had what my mom told me, and
she never hid the fact that she didn't want me
to have anything to do with them. I didn't get
the chance to form my own opinion of the man,
and for all I know, he was mildly decent, and
there is a small part of me that wishes I
could have met him before he passed, if only to
see for myself who he was. And that part of
me will never forgive my mom for denying me that.

(13:38):
Your daughter may never get to that point, but for
her sake and the sake of your relationship with her,
don't stand in the way if she changes her mind
and wants to get to know him. Yes, he may
break her heart, but at least she can find out
for herself. Part of me wants to say everyone sucks
here because you did poison her views of him, But
who could blame you for that? He didn't give a

(13:59):
darn for sixteen years, and what he did when you
were pregnant is indefensible. You didn't deny her a father.
He did. He's nothing but a donor and a stranger
to her. Maybe somedays she will want to know him
as an adult, but I can't imagine he will ever
be her dad. You're not the jerk. You're the jerk.
But hear me out because you need someone to tell

(14:20):
you this. My parents divorced twenty six years ago, and
my egg donor would speak about him as if he
was the same man from when they were married. She
would speak to his character, tastes, interest, et cetera, that
he was a bad man. She would speak of him
as if he was frozen in time, as if while
she changed over the years, he had stayed the same.
My father in no way, shape or form the man

(14:41):
my mother holds onto in her memories. He stopped being
that man within five years. He's the kindest, most generous,
caring person I've ever known. It's been sixteen years since
you've known this man. He's not the man you knew
full stop. Your mother is correct. You did poison her
against him. You weren't wrong to convey your experience with him,
but you were wrong to decide that he has anything

(15:03):
past that experience, because the actual fact of the matter
is you don't even know him. Even if you are
right in the end, that should be for your daughter
to discover this wasn't an act to protect your daughter.
This was an act to make him pay. And if
you disagree, then you really aren't objectively looking at the
facts you provided. His wife is infertivle. This is catastrophically
damaging to a couple who wants kids, not just the

(15:25):
would be mother. That's an entire emotional journey to process.
You also assume he wants nothing to do with his daughter.
It could be that his wife has deep insecurities about
it because of her infertility. The fact is you actually
have no clue about this man, but have decided he's
evil based off of your lived experience from sixteen years ago.
The whole post is me, me, me, and how you're

(15:46):
the victim. It's not even about your daughter. Am I
the jerk for refusing to take my girlfriend to nice
places because of how she eats? My girlfriend is an
incredibly picky eater. Like I said in the title, she
eats like she's ten years old. In fact, I'll give
you a short list of the things she refuses to eat.
Unflavored water fish excluding fried shrimp, anything with bones, cheese

(16:10):
other than sharp cheddar, spinach, onions, garlic, pasta without red sauce, eggs,
spicy food, ketchup potatoes, besides French fries, pastries with fruit,
citrus sausage, or any non American food. This compares to
me someone who grew up in multiple different regions of
the US and lived abroad for a few years, so

(16:30):
I'm a bit more adventurous when it comes to food.
Whenever me and my girlfriend go out somewhere nice, she
ends up getting the same meals, usually either a burger
or chicken tenders and fries. We could be going to
an authentic Nepalese restaurant and she will get the French
fries with white rice. To me, it's kind of embarrassing
to go to a restaurant where there's a dress code
and for her to order chicken tenders and fries. It

(16:53):
especially bothers me since I typically pay. I end up
paying fifteen dollars for chicken tenders that I could have
got from the freezer section at Walmart for five bucks. Recently,
in our area, a very nice dinner place opened up,
and my girlfriend has been dying to go. I took
a look at the place and the menu, and I
saw that it looked nice, but the food was kind

(17:13):
of pricey. She said she was probably gonna get chicken
tenders as usual. I asked her, what's the point of
going then, if I can toss some chicken tenders in
the air fry for her and not spend a ridiculous
amount of money on it. She asked why I had
an attitude about this, and I told her that I
thought it was a waste of time and money to
go to a place to get little kid food. She

(17:33):
interrupted this as me calling her a little kid. I
clarified that I wasn't calling her a kid, However, it
is kind of childish for her to eat the way
she does. I also said that if she's going to
order food we can make at home, there's no point
in us going anywhere. This led to an argument about
me thinking I'm better than her. Am I the jerk?
You're the jerk. Going out to eat at a nice

(17:55):
restaurant isn't just about the food. It's also about the
atmosphere and having fun together. Unfortunately, it sounds like you're
so caught up trying not to be embarrassed by her
that you can't even have fun. I doubt the waiters
even give a second thought. You're the only one ruining
the party. You're the jerk. Your post reeks of superiority.
Regardless of how you mean it. You aren't better than

(18:17):
her just because you enjoy a wider variety of food.
You're the jerk. She should be able to eat whatever
she wants. So what if she wants chicken tenders from
a nice restaurant. I bet those are nice tasting tenders.
I order a lot of the same foods at places
because to me, it's a way of not wasting money,
since I know what I like lots of cool stuff
on the menu. But what if I hated and wasted

(18:39):
twenty dollars You say you typically pay, so don't have
an actual conversation without talking down to her about how
you don't like spending that much money on stuff you
could make at home, or just switch off and she
pays one meal, then you pay the next or whatever.
I don't know. Man, you seem really judgmental of her,
But she's not an adventurous eater and there's nothing wrong

(19:00):
with that. Edit. Also, if her food choices bug you
so much, you could ask her to try things she's
not had before and are not sure if she likes
by making them at home. Or buying frozen meals so
you spend less and you can eat it and save
the leftovers for yourself if she doesn't like it. But honestly,
it seems like a you problem. People's taste buds tend
to change over time, and it seems like such a

(19:22):
weird thing to get caught up on. Man. Something tells
me most of the people on Reddit probably have diets
that consist primarily of tend's and fries and juice pouches.
Don't forget the juice pouches. Former manager made my life
horrible and I finally got her fired. I was desperate
to join a new job after my husband and I
were both laid off last year. When I was offered

(19:44):
a new role, I knew it would be a step
down from what I was doing, but the manager and
the team seemed great and that part has not changed. However,
since my manager, Gary was so busy he basically offloaded
me to another manager, Jane. I was supposed to be
the connect point between my team and Jane, but it
quickly became Jane micromanaging me. She would ask me to

(20:05):
work through lunch, move or cancel my vacation days, call
at eleven pm on weekends and order me around on
phone calls. She also made mean comments about my weight.
The list of personal slights so long that it filled
three pages. I would talk back to her and she
did not like that, and that provoked her even more.
I only stayed because we needed to pay the bills. Finally,

(20:27):
I had a mental breakdown on a Friday afternoon after
she yelled at me for something trivial about scheduling a
meeting without including someone from her team who I didn't
know about. I was dealing with a family issue and
couldn't take it anymore. I told Gary about the situation
with Jane, and he was sympathetic and not at all
surprised considering half her team quit. He immediately offered to

(20:48):
move me to a different team under him. I was thrilled. Well,
turns out going to the new team didn't help. Jane
continued to order me around from AFAR. When I ignored her emails.
She came to my desk one day and started loudly
talking about how I'm not qualified for this role. Gary
overheard and finally told her off, but the verbal mistreatment

(21:09):
did not stop. After two months there, I abruptly wrote
my resignation letter and stapled the list of Jane's offensive
comments and ce seed everyone. Gary offered a bunch of
accommodations to try to keep me, but seeing how she
was still provoking from afar, I said the only way
for me to stay would be for her to go,
and he did not have the authority to let her go.

(21:30):
Her manager was in a different country, and despite several
hr complaints from at least five people, nothing was done.
So I left loudly and without shame, telling everyone exactly
why I was leaving. Times were very bad for three months.
There were nights we would eat slices of bread just
so we could pay the mortgage and emergency expenses from
a health crisis and a funeral. Even after he found

(21:52):
a job, we were still catching up on bills and
still are. I spent months applying to five to ten
rolls per day some times over twenty last month, I
saw a public memo about a big shot from a
former company joining the company I just left. I used
to work with this guy closely and texted him a congrats.
Let me know if you need any insights on the
new place. We had a quick call where I told

(22:15):
him some ins and outs where I thought they could innovate.
After this call, he asked me to join the team
as his chief on staff. I accepted. Imagine Jane's shock
when we had our first all hands on call. All
the vps and above were asked to welcome the new
big Shot in a giant conference room. In big Shot speech,
he breezed over it that I'll be his chief of

(22:36):
staff along with a few key names. I now set
two levels above Jane, and apparently, within the three months
I was not there, the other half of her team
turned over. Every single person had left. Gary was excited
for me and said all nice things. However, Jane took
the classless route and sent Big Shot an email about
how I'm an unqualified idiot that used to work for her,

(23:00):
I tried to get her fired, and that she suspects
I lied to get ahead. She didn't even try to
be fake nice. Big Shot forwarded me her email and
asked what this was about. I was so nervous and excited.
Little did Jane know I was a director at big
Shots competitor company and was already a level above her.
So two levels isn't a big leap. And I worked

(23:20):
with him for five years. I had an hour call
with Big Shot and told him she was bad for
the company culture and was a nasty person in general.
But the evidence he needed was Gary confirming that her
whole team had turned over my prior resignation letter, which
was still sitting on my desktop when I logged in
upon return, and a few other nasty emails she sent
her recent staff, which they were happy to share with us.

(23:43):
Big Shot fired Jane on Friday. Am I the jerk
for not wanting to have my wife's friends spend the night.
My wife, thirty two female, and I, thirty seven male,
are friends with another married couple that's much younger than
us by about ten to fifteen years. I'm not a
fan of either of them, but we both have kids,
and my wife has become close with the other wife.

(24:04):
The husband is on his phone twenty four to seven,
and we don't seem to have much in common, but
I do my best to put on a friendly face
because I think it's important for my kid to have
time around other toddlers. Every time they come to our
house it seems to turn into an all day visit.
I'm talking like six to eight hours. I eventually get
worn down by the other wife. She annoys me, she

(24:24):
never stops talking, and she constantly just says incredibly stupid things.
I stay out of most of the conversation because I'm
afraid that if I do join in, I won't be
able to refrain from being very blund Yesterday, as the
kids were outside in our inflatable pool on the front lawn,
I'm not really listening to the conversation, but my wife
taps me and asks, what do you think about having

(24:45):
them stay over some night in the future. I said sure,
but made a mental note to talk to my wife
later about it. These people have their own home, why
would they sleep at mine unless they had too much
to drink. We weren't drinking. Around an hour later, I
realized through the conversation they're having that a decision has
been made for them to stay over tonight. It immediately

(25:05):
made my blood boil that my wife made this decision
knowing that I don't like this couple. It's been discussed,
and without really even asking me about it, just asking
me about a future slumber party. For the next three
to four hours, I was near everyone, but was not
really a part of any conversation. I was upset. I
took my baby upstairs around seven thirty pm to try

(25:27):
and get her to sleep because it was too loud downstairs.
My wife came up and I immediately fired off on her.
I told her that she was a jerk for inviting
two adults I can't stand to sleep over at my
house and without discussing it with me first. We argued
a little, and she went back downstairs. After getting the
baby to sleep, I walked downstairs and noticed they were

(25:47):
packing up their stuff. No one said a word to me,
and it was maybe the most awkward thirty seconds of
my life. There was tension in the room. After they left.
My wife told me that she had come downstairs and
told them that I did not want want them to
stay the night. My wife and I argued after they left.
She thinks she did nothing wrong, and I can't believe
she made me look like such a jerk. And how

(26:08):
awkward it will be when I have to see these
people again. Am I the jerk? Not the jerk? These
people sound weird and your wife is weird for liking them.
Would I be the jerk for not taking in my
brother's kid. I thirty two female. I have two daughters
who are six and three. Both my husband and I
have very lucrative degrees, so we've been able to cut

(26:29):
down hours to focus on being a family and still
make a good living. I love being a mother, and
I've always dreamt of being one. I put a lot
of effort into being the best mother I can. People
tend to compliment me on aspects of my parenting or
how independent and responsible my six year old is. I
also got a younger brother who's twenty male. He got
a girl pregnant about eight months ago. He convinced her

(26:51):
to keep the baby, and as she didn't want to
raise it, he made her sign away parental rights and
promised to take care of the kid. My whole family
congratulated him on making the right choice. I advised him
to rethink, but it's his choice in the end. A
couple of weeks ago, at a family function, we were
planning on trying for our third kids soon, and we
will probably stop there as we only want three kids.

(27:13):
My brother later called me and asked me to talk
about something and if he could drop by my house
because he wanted to discuss it. I agreed. Today, he
showed up with my parents and between the three of
them told me they got this great idea about how
I should take my brother's kid. They explained it as
if they were doing me a favor because they knew
I wanted a third kid and I could just take

(27:34):
him in without going through a third pregnancy. They also
explained how my brother wanted to finish his degree and
couldn't do that while raising a kid, so this was
the best alternative for both of us. I told them
I didn't know, and that I needed more time to
think about it, but that I didn't feel comfortable in
the position I was being put in, because raising a
kid is not something to be taken lightly. They were

(27:55):
disappointed in my answer, and after they left, the three
of them separately sent me a wall of time, telling
me to make the right choice and not deny love
to a kid just because I'm being selfish. I don't
feel comfortable raising my brother's kid, but I can't explain
a non selfish reason why I don't want to. I
like having biological kids. I feel one of our kids
being actually my brother's kid would add such a complex

(28:18):
family dynamic. I don't feel ready to face that, and
somehow I just don't feel it's fair. It's so easy
to get all the pats on the back for saving
a kid when you are not going to be the
one to take responsibility. In the end, I'm helping perpetuate
a family dynamic I feel has been going on for ages.
When I told my husband, he told me that they're
absolutely mental and should respect my reasons for not wanting

(28:40):
to do something like this. But I still feel guilty
because I am capable of taking care of the kid,
and if I don't step up, I don't know what
the faith of that kid will be. Am I the jerk?
Not the jerk? Your brother talked to this girl into
keeping the baby because what he was expecting his family
to take care of it. No, it would be wise

(29:00):
to sit down and explain to him that you are
not going to raise a kid. He and your parents
decided was better off with one parent, as that was
the road they were going down before they knew you
wanted a third kid. You want to send me home?
Sounds good. So. I was a sarcastic and easily annoyed
guy in my twenties, and this often didn't help me
get along with older or corporate types. I was working

(29:23):
at a certain pumpkin colored big box home improvement store
one spring and the flooring department. It was just starting
to get warm out and the store didn't have much
AC so I was looking forward to a magical date
where certain employees were allowed to switch their pants for shorts.
Problem is that we had a new department manager I'll
call him Jerk, who was aggressively chasing a promotion to

(29:43):
assistant manager then store manager. He thought he could accomplish
that by being a super by the book jerk and
being relentlessly metrics focused. This translated into a manager who
was a know it all, micromanaging jerk. Anyway, I'm scheduled
to open it front one day on the fabled day
of cooler bottomwear, and I walk in all light and

(30:05):
airy and bare legged. Jerk, who was overnight manager the
previous night, saw me and threw a fit. Why are
you out of uniform? He asked, I'm not I can
wear shorts starting today, I proclaimed, not your position and
your department who told you you could? He retorted, the
employee handbook and SOP. I can show you. If you

(30:25):
don't believe me, I offered, I know the SOP and
your department doesn't get to wear shorts. That's only garden.
Go home and change right now, he demanded, face getting
redder for my defiance. Okay, jerk, if that's how you
want to play it, I'll be back in an hour,
I sighed. Maybe the loss of an hour of pay
will teach you something. So I know better. The reason

(30:47):
I know better is because I'm one of the weirdos
who actually read the entire standard Operating Procedure document, the
Employee Handbook, which is actually just a subsection of the SOP.
And I really hate being wrong, so I check the
SO before doing anything different day to day in my store.
The SOP was like invoking God. If the SOP said so,

(31:07):
that won every single argument. So I go home, change
into pants, but bring my shorts back to work with me.
By now, jerk shift is over, and I asked the
new morning manager on duty, Darren, to meet with me.
Why what's up? Oh, just an SOP issue. Oh okay,
give me like ten minutes. So I swung by my
desk and printed out several things. One my latest paste

(31:31):
up that included my official job title and department number,
the company directory that listed the department names and their
associated numbers, the SOP that dealt with when and which
departments employees can wear shorts, the annual email from the
regional VP confirming which departments could wear shorts, the SOP
detailing the company transportation and mileage reimbursement policy, and a

(31:52):
Google Maps route that marred the route I take to
and from work, the total mileage highlighted. So I meet
with Darren and explained what happened and handed him each
page as they became relevant. At the end, we agreed
that I was right on every single account, and he
asked me what I wanted. One I want the time
I was turned away before I could clock in, So

(32:12):
I want to be paid starting at five am. Feel
free to check the cameras if you need to confirm
when I arrived. Two I want the mileage because Jerk
sent me on essentially a company erin with my own car.
Three I want this letter posted at the clock like
it says it's supposed to be. Four I want you
to talk to Jerk about this because I told him
this was SOP before he sent me home. And five

(32:34):
I'm changing back into my shorts. All of that sounds
more than fair. Get the paperwork for the clock adjustment
and mileage to me today and I'll sign it. The
letter mysteriously went missing from the time clock the next day,
but I replaced it every day until I happened to
see Jerk angrily snatch it off the board and throw
it away. I reported that as well, and the letters
stopped going missing. He didn't talk to me much, and

(32:56):
I was transferred to another department a month later. So
all in all, win win. I think. Support our channel
by joining as a member today and we'll give you
a shout out in our next video. Or come watch
this video next. You won't believe what Karen does in
that one.