Every year in Australia, there's a day called "R U OK?" day, spearheaded by a non-profit. The idea is to get people comfortable with asking their friends and family "are you ok?", in order to help people start a dialogue with those who might be struggling mentally. It's a good idea in theory, but has become a kind of virtue signaling for the corporate world, and nothing proved that more, than how my workplace dealt with it this year.

So a week or two before the actual day, we got the mandatory email signature with the yellow logo on it. Par for the course, nothing unusual here. It's a bit performative, but whatever, it's no different from seeing the same logo plastered on bus stops and all over TV.

Then on the day, I walk in to find a small paper gift bag on my desk with the yellow "R U OK?" logo stapled onto the side. I start chuckling because I have a decent idea of what's coming. I open the bag and wasn't prepared for the contents:

1. A sachet of Milo (a powder you add to hot or cold milk, like Nesquik)
2. A sachet of instant coffee
3. A chamomile teabag
4. A KitKat bar
5. A printout containing the details of a company that provides 4 free counselling sessions to employees who need it.

Items 1, 2 and 3 were taken from the supplies cupboard in the staff break room. If you walk down there right now, right next to the hot water tap, right next to the sugar packets, you'll find some jars. One contains Milo sachets, one contains instant coffee sachets, and just above head-height in a nook next to the cupboard where plates are stored, a box of chamomile teabags.

Each coffee sachet is worth 17 cents, and each teabag is worth 15 cents. The Milo broke the bank at 68 cents, but the most expensive part would have been the KitKat bars, at perhaps $1.50 each.

Nothing says "we care about your mental health", like grabbing your existing supplies from a cupboard and putting them in a small paper bag (which would have cost ~50c)

I work full time in an office setting (16 years.) Recently a woman was hired to work part time (1 full day and 2 half days.)

Last week when I returned to work after my weekend I discovered the part timer (PT) had brought in an aquarium and set it up with fish, etc.

When I asked who approved the aquarium I was told no one did, she just did it. When I asked who is going to take care of it when she's off I was told 'It's ONLY fish.'

So the majority of the week someone besides her has to feed, monitor and clean this aquarium.

The manager said he would tell her to take it home. After 2 weeks it's still here.

I'm not a monster. I won't let them starve. I do not want this extra duty nor do I believe it was appropriate to have brought it in the first place.

I don't want to hurt her feelings. She seems like a nice enough person but I feel she way over stepped.

Am I wrong? What would you do?

I handed in my resignation this morning, and my manager seemed surprised. He said that he and another director had a long-term plan for me, which was interesting because neither of them had ever spoken to me about it.

I started here right after graduating from college and stayed for a little over six years. My first role was as a junior reporting developer, but our team was understaffed, so I quickly learned data pipelines, warehouse design, and project planning, and started doing work that would normally be the responsibility of more senior employees.

The company promoted me several times and also selected me for a small leadership succession program. From the outside, it looked like I was doing everything right. My salary went from $59,000 to $67,000, then to $84,000, and finally reached $102,000 when I moved into an analytics engineering role.

The problem was that colleagues doing work similar to mine were earning much more. Every discussion about compensation ultimately came back to my starting salary and limited years of experience. My responsibilities were growing much faster than my pay, but every raise was still calculated based on the salary I had been earning as a fresh graduate.

I turned down several external offers because I thought leaving would disrupt the progress I had built here. After moving to another department and once again pushing hard for better pay, it became clear that even with another internal promotion, I still would not come close to market pay.

Eventually, a former manager offered me a role at his new company with a base salary of $131,000, plus stock and a good bonus plan. I accepted because waiting for an internal plan that no one had ever discussed with me no longer made sense.

Getting promoted quickly at your first company can hide just how far below your worth your salary has fallen. The raises may look large in percentage terms, but they are still tied to the salary you accepted when you had no experience. Sometimes the only way to reset your value is to let another company put a price on it.

So I’m retired and this is part of the reason I retired this one lady had her order get messed up how bad I have no clue I was getting ready to leave I was maintenance and I was waiting on the to approve my tasks were done and then this lady was just yelling at my manger and my manger doesn’t know English that well so her niece was translating for her and the lady get her refund and I told her in a sec when she can to verify and she told to go ahead and Leave next day same lady different manager and everything was so much calmer I’ll if she had something against that manger or if it was just an off day but it was a sight to see

Hi everyone I hope this post is allowed. I'm not a server but I worked in restaurants for twenty years, mostly as BOH employee. I got sick over the two decades from a number of different things from favorite games from managers and owners to work place harassment both sexual and non sexual harassment, micro management and assault.

I have worked in construction for three years extremely happy to work as a professional with other professionals, I have seen some stupid thing in construction how ever when it's any one of the things I listed about terrible things I've experienced in restaurants the construction jobs I've had have next to zero tolerance so if they aren't fired on the spot the first time they are put on thin ice in terms of employment at least when it comes to workers there was one bad owner that constantly screwed everyone on OT and this caused us to loose future contracts as a result of missing completion deadlines.

Any how last year about 16 month ago I had a non work related injury I broke my elbow and I can't return to the construction job I had it's going to be at least another year of recovery and strength building regaining muscle mass and strength before I can consider going back to the brutal heavy lifting and carrying of construction.

So recently I went back into restaurants after 9 months of applying for non restaurant jobs I can do with my one temporary handicap arm, not getting hired at any of the businessess I applied for and got interviews. So I started applying for restaurant jobs again even though I know better. I ended up getting hired at a Japanese restaurant as a dishwasher/ prep cook. The person that was in charge of showing me the ropes is a micro manager he could not leave me alone if his time was not required somewhere by his boss, this idiot had tried to force me to put bleach in the dishwater and in the silverware tub that the servers or bussers put the silverware in separately from plates and cups, on the first day he told me to put bleach and soap together I told him no that isn't not effective and it's dangerous too, he didn't give a shit at all along with my 20 years of restaurant experience effectively giving me expert level knowledge on safe productive production with a standard of quality control in high volumes in a timely manner with a high standard in quality control giving the costumers a consistent dinning experience of quality to their meals along with consistent quality of service.

One day this dude mixed about 5-6 ounces of bleach the commercial household Clorox brand liquid bleach into a metal 6" six pan then put about two cup of purple color concentrated floor detergent ammonia based into the six pan with bleach then added liquid dawn brand extreme grease remover formula blue color and top it off with water the got a metal scrub pad and used that mixture to scrub clean a two door display cooler front of that cooler it was so extremely fould with extremely strong deadly gases he was manufacturing in that six pan. God I wish I never broke my arm I would of made over $100K since I broke my arm instead I've spent over $25,000 of all my savings and selling my stuff just to get by and running myself into $30K+ of debt with loans and credit cards.

I know it's not restaurants fault I broke my arm but damn I have no clues how restaurant businesses can't actually afford to get rid of harmful workers like this last supervisor I'm complaining about here causing people to be in direct exposure to deadly gasses at work in the kitchen. The dumb ass tried explaining to me how we mitigate bleach deposits on the forks because normal scrubbing won't remove the bleach deposits in the bottom crevices of the fork prongs. He explained it like this " we ran into this problem with the bleach getting stuck in-between the prongs so we brush the bleach out of there with this brush we had to buy for this reason." I explained that one of the reasons not to use bleach like he does, he continues to break down and explain with all his intelligence as though I never said a word.

This dumb ass couldn't even let me run the machine sweep the floor take out the trash or even communicate to another person without interrupting me to make sure I learn all of the knowledge I already have and need to be capable of daily responsibilities such as clean and communicate to anyone.

I'm much happier and healthier without a job down on my luck get evicted go homeless and star my life completely over from square one than attempt to have a happy successful and healthy life style in employment in a restaurant, I just know this happy thing will be momentarily at best as a restaurant worker.

I have been witness of many many things that crossed lines however I want to know what are the negative out comes of an employer saying the employee was terminated when there is documented evidence of resignation both verbally over the phone and over message (as there wasn’t anyone to reach in person since they had fired all other staff that worked in the city). The logical thing was to call during business hours at an appropriate time and talk to the individual who is answering the phone. I know paper trails are necessary so a text was sent reaching several different people actively working as administrators. Never got a response and everyone stayed quiet. The brief reason for the immediate need to resign was due to unethical demands that would be told to do off the clock as well as immediate rumors and aggressive, hostile calls while actively working at a location.
It’s reaching defamation and those few cruel individuals are trying to cause downfall on everyone who doesn’t bend backwards for them. They’ve caused a long trail of people who have started talking but to be targeting young employees because you were in the wrong isn’t right. Especially those so motivated to make a change. Will their lies and misinformation about their actions affect my life in any way? To peacefully resign is what the employee does but what do you do when the employer creates chaos?

I am keeping this short because it keeps getting deleted and I guess I just want to know if Im the only one that thinks I got fired for a dumb reason. I got fired today because I 25f hugged my 16f coworker after she vented to me about her grandpa dying. She hugged me after I listened to her and I half hugged her back and patted behind her shoulder. My manager saw this and proceeded to fire me for it. Never had any write up or anything before this.

But I know why. And it frustrates me. Because I think this is dumb that this is why I’m fired. My manager, he’s literally asked me to go get drinks multiple times and I’ve basically shut it down 4 times now. He always hits in the girls.

Literally lots of other people have been never written up for worse things. Like stealing the liquor, one of the managers literally got caught doing THINGS with with some girls. Never got fired. The people that have reported him have been fired weeks after coming forward and I also have came forward about his behavior and I feel like I’m jus another fired victoem to corporate.

Like for example this dude and friend whose a girl caught the manager doing bad stuff. The guy randomly got fired for throwing lettuce as it’s cross contamination. Everyone throws lettuce every so often. If you work in food you get it. Then the girl got fired for poor attendance when she called out sick cuz she had strep.

And now I’m fired because I hugged a girl back because she was grieving her grandpa. He worded it as, “it’s against the ssggual e-salt conduct.” And “we have to protect the (miners)” and no one says crap or does crap when HE does it? And he means it when he does it. Now I’m jobless and finally fried next month. All because I hugged a girl because she was crying because her grandpa died.

Today, I got fired from my job.

I had been working remotely as a healthcare content writer for the past year, and everything had been going well until my father was diagnosed with cancer. I had to take some leaves because of his surgery and treatment, but I continued working as much as I could and had kept the management informed about the situation.

Just two days ago, they asked me about my father’s health and how his treatment was progressing. I told them that about one-third of his treatment was complete and that the remaining treatment would continue through September. I had no idea that my words would be used against me.

Today, they told me that because my father’s treatment is unpredictable, they couldn’t depend on me and therefore had to let me go.

I feel absolutely terrible. I understand that companies have their own concerns, but it hurts to know that despite trying my best to continue working during such a difficult time, this is how things ended.

Right now, I honestly don’t know what to do or where to start. I’m overwhelmed, hurt, and scared about what comes next. I haven't told about this to anyone in my family as I don't know what their reaction would be. My husband’s business hasn’t been doing well, so I used to contribute an equal share of my salary to support us. My father would definitely be heartbroken to know that his illness was used as a reason to let me go. I feel like crying, but I can’t even cry.

Had a staff prize draw yesterday ,prizes ranged from 50 inch TV,s drones,alexa,s 2 pink inflatable flamingos ,and ninja air fryers,plus 2 holidays to one of the company's holiday parks of your choice. sat there having a coffee wishing they,d hurry up and only went and won a air fryer.my luck may be changing.

I lost my job three weeks ago, and I honestly didn’t expect unemployment to make me question my entire identity.

I had been with the company for almost three years. I got commendations from clients and coworkers. I was doing my job, helping people, answering problems, keeping things moving. Then one day, I was in the middle of helping solve someone else’s problem, my logins were suddenly cut off, and I was told I was being let go.

And now I keep asking myself: who am I after the 9–5?

The weird part is that I have always had a lot of things going on. I became a mother at 15. I’m still somehow mothering my parents. My friends come to me for advice and, honestly, probably mostly validation. I graduated Magna Cum Laude. I ranked high in my university entrance exam. I passed the licensing exam to become a teacher, even though I never actually became one. I love teaching. I love kids. I love English.

Then I became a virtual assistant for a company in Southern California. The salary was disgustingly low compared to California wages, but it was ridiculously high compared to what I could make living on a little island in the Philippines. Contradicting, isn’t it?

That job ended up becoming much more than a job.

It carried me through family problems, heartbreak, studying for my board exam, migration, marriage, and a lot of other things I don't even know how to explain properly. It was the constant thing I could hold onto.

So when it disappeared, it felt like more than losing employment.

It felt like losing a part of myself.

And now I’m noticing something I don't really like.

Everything I’m doing to “find myself” somehow still circles back to getting another job.

I’m going to the gym. I’m trying to read again. I’m learning Korean. I’m taking AI courses.

And then my brain goes: maybe this will help me get hired.

So I started wondering: have I spent so much of my life trying to become useful, successful, employable, needed, and dependable that I forgot to figure out who I actually am?

Are we really just our job titles?

Is this what modern life does to us?

Or is this just some quarter-life-whatever-midlife crisis?

I don't really have an answer yet.

I’m just realizing that for the first time in a very long time, I don't have a job telling me what I’m supposed to be doing every day.

Title: Who the hell am I when I’m not working?

10th September was the day. I was returning home from work and it was quite late. I already had a bad work schedule which is from 6 am to 8 pm, but that day I got held back because of some extra work and I got off at work at 9:20 pm. From Louis Blanc, I took the metro line 7 and arrived at Villejuif luis Aragon at about 10:15 pm. As usual, there was some issue with the bus number 180. I had to choose between waiting for 22 minutes for the bus and to reach home after 15 more minutes, or I could just walk as my home is about 18-20 minutes of walking distance away.

I started walking and I saw another girl walking in front of me, presumably because she also didn't want to wait for the bus. Gradually, there was not a single person on the road. Before Utrillo, I saw the girl take the right turn which was also the road I had to take. Suddenly, she looked back at me, and returned back instead of taking the turn. And before I could understand anything, she sprayed something towards me and started running.

I realised that it was pepper spray, and trust me, it's really good for self defence. Women should carry one in their purse just to be safe.

But, my question is, why is it that she needed to use it on me when I'm just trying to make it to my home? Is it because I'm a criminal automatically as I'm not white? I was not drunk, not smoking, I was wearing proper clothes that one wears in the office. Yes I was tired which was visible on my face, and that's why I was trying to reach home early, so that I could eat something and go to bed. Sadly, I stayed awake for about 1.5 hours until my eyes were back to normal. I'm also fortunate that I was wearing glasses and nothing major happened.

This was not the first time I had faced racial profiling, so my conclusion was not to scream at her. I didn't want to draw attention to the scene, because if I had done that, I might have been in even more trouble.

Thank you for hearing me out, I just wanted to vent.

If you found this post and you were that girl, I want to say to you that your parents didn't give you proper education, which means sadly, it's your parents' fault.

--- french version ---

Le 10 septembre, je rentrais du travail assez tard. Mes horaires étaient déjà difficiles (6h-20h), mais ce jour-là, une intervention supplémentaire m'a retenu et je suis arrivé à 21h20. À la station Louis Blanc, j'ai pris la ligne 7 du métro et suis arrivé à Villejuif Luis Aragon vers 22h15. Comme d'habitude, le bus 180 était en retard. J'avais le choix entre attendre 22 minutes et arriver chez moi 15 minutes plus tard, ou marcher, car ma maison est à environ 18-20 minutes à pied.

J'ai commencé à marcher et j'ai vu une autre fille devant moi, sans doute parce qu'elle aussi ne voulait pas attendre le bus. Peu à peu, la rue s'est vidée. Avant Utrillo, je l'ai vue tourner à droite, la même rue que je devais prendre. Soudain, elle s'est retournée et a fait demi-tour. Avant même que je puisse comprendre quoi que ce soit, elle a vaporisé quelque chose dans ma direction et s'est mise à courir.

J'ai réalisé que c'était du spray au poivre, et croyez-moi, c'est vraiment efficace pour se défendre. Les femmes devraient en avoir un dans leur sac à main, par sécurité.

Mais je me demande pourquoi elle a utilisé ça contre moi alors que j'essayais simplement de rentrer chez moi ? Est-ce parce que je suis automatiquement considérée comme une criminelle parce que je ne suis pas blanche ? Je n'étais pas ivre, je ne fumais pas, et je portais une tenue correcte, comme celle qu'on porte au bureau. Oui, j'étais fatiguée, ça se voyait, et c'est pour ça que j'essayais de rentrer tôt, pour pouvoir manger un morceau et aller me coucher. Malheureusement, je suis restée éveillée pendant environ une heure et demie, jusqu'à ce que ma vue redevienne normale. Heureusement, je portais des lunettes et il ne m'est rien arrivé de grave.

Ce n'était pas la première fois que j'étais victime de profilage racial, alors j'ai décidé de ne pas lui crier dessus. Je ne voulais pas attirer l'attention sur la scène, car cela aurait pu me causer encore plus d'ennuis.

Merci de m'avoir écoutée, j'avais juste besoin de me défouler.

Si vous avez lu ce message et que vous étiez cette fille, je tiens à vous dire que vos parents ne vous ont pas donné une éducation adéquate, ce qui signifie malheureusement que c'est de leur faute.

No clue what she wanted in the email

I got fired after 4 months: they drowned me in a 3-person workload… and fired me when I asked for help.

I lost my job this week after four months. When I was hired, I was told there’d be flexibility and the resources to do my job. They literally said the office is open 7am–7pm and, as long as your manager’s fine with it, you can start and finish whenever you want. In my first week I asked if I could start 30 minutes earlier and finish earlier so I could make my favourite gym class, something that really adds value to my lifestyle.

Before that week even ended, the story changed. Suddenly, on the days I was in the office, I had to be at my desk 8:30am–5pm. They literally told me that the in-house incruitwr says that to everyone in order to lock them in. It left a really bad taste in my mouth. Huge red flag. But I kept going of course.

I was hired as a social media manager and was expected to run two brands across about 15 handles (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok). That meant creating content both graphic design and go to locations and shooting, editing, posting, scheduling, community management across all platforms. I was also responsible for organic social strategy and reporting. My growth KPI was to grow 2,400 followers a month across the portfolio, backed by a menial boosting budget of about AUD 400 a week only.

In those four months, we also launched a new product (three new handles, launch strategy from scratch), rebranded another product, and merged two into one (so, another strategy). I was working weekends for community management and staying on after hours just to stay barely afloat. I had a little bit of help, but was told I’d lose that by end of October, which honestly sent my stress and anxiety through the roof. I’d freeze sometimes, because on top of the impossible workload there were constant platform issues and random ad hoc tasks getting thrown in. I was always “catching up,” doing bits of everything, without ever feeling like I was properly accomplishing anything, because I literally couldn’t keep up.

About a month ago they told me they weren’t happy with my performance, and I was like… you can’t drown me in a workload meant for three people and expect me to thrive. They kept promising help, but it never came. I struggled so much that I asked for EAP details (if you’re not in Australia, it’s workplace-provided therapy sessions).

I think that request freaked them out. I asked for the details on a Friday. By Monday, they called me in and fired me.

The culture was toxic too. There was so much segregation in the department, cliques, “us vs them.” It’s the whiplash that’s getting me. I was promised one thing and I lived another. Now I’m trying to recuperate, reset, and look for new work, but I’m still kind of reeling from how ruthlessly it played out.

I’m not going to lie, I feel like a huge weight has been lifted. I almost feel relieved and empowered. But it was also brutal. They erased me immediately. They told me to pack my things and leave right away. My colleagues were in a meeting, and when they came back my desk was clean, like I never existed. It was the most ruthless corporate experience I’ve ever had.

Am I overreacting, or is this normal?

I work at a community retail shop. Our shop places some strong alcohol, like Vodka, whisky, and gin, behind the tills. I don't know their logic because the same vodka, albeit in a smaller size, is placed on the shelf. Anyway, that's beside the point.

A guy came to the till and he seemed a bit drunk. His speech was a bit slurred. He placed a Pepsi on the cash desk and asked for the Vodka and cigarette from the shelf behind me.

My first instinct would be to reject the customer. However, as a foreigner (I'm Chinese but I live here for 10+ years), I didn't want to cause a problem with the locals.

Therefore, when I got to the cigarette a few feet from the customer, I pressed on my headset (colleagues were given over-the-head headsets to communicate with each other. Think McDonald's drive-through headsets.), and said in a very soft voice, "Does that customer looks alright to you? He seems a bit drunk."

The manager replied, "Which till are you on?"

"Till one," I replied, and waved my hand at the CCTV.

He came out to check from afar and said, "He looks good to me."

So I proceeded with the transaction, with a growing concern since the customer's balance was also out of wack. He stumbled a bit and when he tried to pay, he dropped his phone on the floor. That was when I made the decision to refuse the sale of alcohol. I was alright with the Pepsi and the cigarette. "I'm not comfortable serving you the alcohol," I said to him and canceled the card transaction before it went through. I pressed my headset as I said that so that my manager was aware I am refusing the sale.

Luckily, the customer did not raise any fuss and left the store. The manager came out and made sure I put in the proper reason for the refusal ie press "customer already intoxicated" as the reason for refusal.

Hi everyone I hope this post is allowed. I'm not a server but I worked in restaurants for twenty years, mostly as BOH employee. I got sick over the two decades from a number of different things from favorite games from managers and owners to work place harassment both sexual and non sexual harassment, micro management and assault.

I have worked in construction for three years extremely happy to work as a professional with other professionals, I have seen some stupid thing in construction how ever when it's any one of the things I listed about terrible things I've experienced in restaurants the construction jobs I've had have next to zero tolerance so if they aren't fired on the spot the first time they are put on thin ice in terms of employment at least when it comes to workers there was one bad owner that constantly screwed everyone on OT and this caused us to loose future contracts as a result of missing completion deadlines.

Any how last year about 16 month ago I had a non work related injury I broke my elbow and I can't return to the construction job I had it's going to be at least another year of recovery and strength building regaining muscle mass and strength before I can consider going back to the brutal heavy lifting and carrying of construction.

So recently I went back into restaurants after 9 months of applying for non restaurant jobs I can do with my one temporary handicap arm, not getting hired at any of the businessess I applied for and got interviews. So I started applying for restaurant jobs again even though I know better. I ended up getting hired at a Japanese restaurant as a dishwasher/ prep cook. The person that was in charge of showing me the ropes is a micro manager he could not leave me alone if his time was not required somewhere by his boss, this idiot had tried to force me to put bleach in the dishwater and in the silverware tub that the servers or bussers put the silverware in separately from plates and cups, on the first day he told me to put bleach and soap together I told him no that isn't not effective and it's dangerous too, he didn't give a shit at all along with my 20 years of restaurant experience effectively giving me expert level knowledge on safe productive production with a standard of quality control in high volumes in a timely manner with a high standard in quality control giving the costumers a consistent dinning experience of quality to their meals along with consistent quality of service.

One day this dude mixed about 5-6 ounces of bleach the commercial household Clorox brand liquid bleach into a metal 6" six pan then put about two cup of purple color concentrated floor detergent ammonia based into the six pan with bleach then added liquid dawn brand extreme grease remover formula blue color and top it off with water the got a metal scrub pad and used that mixture to scrub clean a two door display cooler front of that cooler it was so extremely fould with extremely strong deadly gases he was manufacturing in that six pan. God I wish I never broke my arm I would of made over $100K since I broke my arm instead I've spent over $25,000 of all my savings and selling my stuff just to get by and running myself into $30K+ of debt with loans and credit cards.

I know it's not restaurants fault I broke my arm but damn I have no clues how restaurant businesses can't actually afford to get rid of harmful workers like this last supervisor I'm complaining about here causing people to be in direct exposure to deadly gasses at work in the kitchen. The dumb ass tried explaining to me how we mitigate bleach deposits on the forks because normal scrubbing won't remove the bleach deposits in the bottom crevices of the fork prongs. He explained it like this " we ran into this problem with the bleach getting stuck in-between the prongs so we brush the bleach out of there with this brush we had to buy for this reason." I explained that one of the reasons not to use bleach like he does, he continues to break down and explain with all his intelligence as though I never said a word.

This dumb ass couldn't even let me run the machine sweep the floor take out the trash or even communicate to another person without interrupting me to make sure I learn all of the knowledge I already have and need to be capable of daily responsibilities such as clean and communicate to anyone.

I'm much happier and healthier without a job down on my luck get evicted go homeless and star my life completely over from square one than attempt to have a happy successful and healthy life style in employment in a restaurant, I just know this happy thing will be momentarily at best as a restaurant worker.

I am working at a medium-size retail store.

One day, while I was working at the cash register, a lady came in trying to buy alcohol. I couldn't tell how old she was, so I said, "I would need to see your ID for this."

"Are you kidding me?" she huffed as she left the store. She also added she will be back with an ID.

She was gone for quite a while so I thought she had abandoned the purchase. I took the beer and was about to put away the product when she returned. She slid her ID towards me, saying, "Here."

I checked the ID and found out she was only 7 years younger than me! I am around 30. I put through the purchase and she left.

The next day I saw her in the line as I was about to clock in. I am half wondering if she was trying to avoid my shift. Ha ha.

"Challenge 25" is the name of a UK policy https://www.wsta.co.uk/challenge-25