It’s pretty embarrassing to see an adult throw a temper tantrum. In fact, it’s kind of humiliating. Buuuuuut, we see it all the time out in public, don’t we?
15 AskReddit users shared the worst adult temper tantrums they’ve ever seen in their lives.
Hard to believe, isn’t it?
1. Amused
“I saw my 21 year old cousin toss his monitor out a second story window because of a video game, then proceed to cry about tossing a $300 screen out a window.
Was pretty amusing.”
2. We’re letting you go
“Guy at work got fired for being an a–hole after he was told 3 times to stop being one. He lost it when he was informed he was being let go. That they “knew who he was and how he was” and that he wasn’t being an a–hole and that everyone was an a–hole to him.
Then he started crying about how he was going to die because he wouldn’t be able to feed his family to finally as he walked past my desk went into a tirade about how it was my fault he was getting fired (I never once complained about him) we worked well together, or so I thought, come to find out later he was threatened by me and had been underhandedly talking sh!t about me. I was oblivious about it since most people didn’t let me know and had gone to HR on my behalf.
On his way out he started throwing items off of people’s desks yelling and crying and finally kicked the glass door shattering the glass.
Last I heard he was still unemployed, as our field is a pretty small world.”
3. Cupcakes are serious business
“I worked in a cupcake shop for a year and people get way angrier about these stupid tiny cakes than you’d believe. My favorite story is about a woman who came in to pick up an order that she placed for blue gender reveal cupcakes.
On her order sheet, it said blue frosting, but didn’t specify a shade, so we chose a light blue since it was for a baby shower. When she came to pick it up she was furious that it was “aqua” and not “baby blue”.
The manager offered to make her new cupcakes with lighter frosting for free. The process of mixing frosting doesn’t involve touching or coming close to it, so he wasn’t wearing gloves. As he was stirring the dye into the frosting, she said she didn’t want it anymore since he was making it with his “filthy disgusting hands”.
She proceeded to throw the box with the initial order at the counter, and seeing that it didn’t do much, she picked up the individual cupcakes and threw them at the ground and toward the register.
When we tried to give her a refund we asked for the last four digits of her card number to confirm it. She refused, saying she wasn’t going to share that personal information in front of “all these people”… two high school cashiers and one manager.
4. Thanks a lot, lady
“I got on a bus at 5pm, the whole bus was filled with people trying to go home from work. As the bus pulled out, the woman in a car behind us must have felt she had been cut off. So she pulled up beside the bus and started yelling at the bus driver through the window. Then pulled her car in front of the bus and got out to yell some more.
The bus driver couldn’t drive away and suddenly the police showed up. We all had to get off the bus and wait for another bus or find another way home. I decided to walk down to the ferry so I had to walk past the woman that caused this and I stared at her trying to understand how she could justify screwing up the commute of so many people.”
5. Hysterical
“I had a roommate in college who spent money lavishly and liked to buy clothes, wear them once or twice with the tags on, then return them. One time we were at Target doing some grocery shopping and she tried to return a few dresses she had worn. One had a large stain on it and she didn’t have the receipt or tags for the others. The cashier said he couldn’t take them because they had clearly been damaged.
She spent the next 30 minutes crying HYSTERICALLY while he tried to ignore her and check out other people. She sat on the bench outside of the Starbucks (that was inside the store), facing the cashier, and just stared at him while crying. It was so embarrassing and I begged her to stop and just leave with me.
Eventually I said I would go sit in the car, and she grabbed me and said “it’s not real, I’m not really that upset. I know how to cry on cue.” That really freaked me out, how she stopped so suddenly to tell me that, then started up wailing again. I apologized to the security guard who said he couldn’t put hands on her to remove her but had to insist she leave. She kept trying to get other customers to look at her and “see what they’re doing to me?”
She sat outside the store for another 10 or so minutes doing this. It was ridiculous. I couldn’t apologize enough to everyone there, but I sure tried. Thankfully we only had 2 months left of living together, but I’m pretty sure that was a usual thing for her to do. Haven’t spoken to her since I moved out.
6. A great Subway story
“Don’t know about “worst,” but I went to a Subway in a gas station (I was hungry, and, never again). The women behind the counter were definitely not happy to be there, and one of them was just absolutely raging to anyone that would listen about how her boyfriend had done f**ked up, and she was going to go home and stab him as soon as she saw him, and that she had been in jail before, and she was fine with going back again.
All of this, she’s just alternately yelling this stuff and screaming, all while people are trying to place their orders. So, it was basically like:
“Hi, I’d like to order a chicken –”
YEAH I DON’T CARE WHAT HE SAYS I’M GONNA CUT HIM THE F**K UP
“–bacon ranch, on–”
I DONE BEEN TO JAIL ONCE I’M OK WITH GOING BACK
“–wheat, please, toasted, and –”
HE will AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.”
7. Nice guy
“I was on the bus once and a guy was sitting in the front at the handicap seats, with a pizza in the seat next to him. The bus wasn’t crowded when he got on, so whatever, but it quickly filled up and he did not move his pizza nor himself. Eventually the bus is packed and someone finally asks, “hey, can you move that pizza so I can sit down?”
He doesn’t even look up, just says “F**K YOU. No.”
So they ask again, and being close to the front the driver says, “you need to move to allow them a seat. That is handicap seating”
“F**k you, too”
Bus is pulled over, and the driver opens the doors. She asks him to move again, he says no again. Doors stay open, she’s fussing with the buttons on top and asking for police.
He makes a stink and tells her to move along. She’s got her hands folded neatly on the wheel just staring at the road, “not until the police take you off my bus”.
He tantrums for a few, but finally does a “f**k this shit” and storms off. As soon as he’s off the last step, doors close and bus is back on its way.
I always admired how she just waited. She knew she didn’t need to put up with his garbage, and I’m glad I got to see her wait him out.”
8. All over some glasses…
“I worked at an optical store. A man came in with 10 year old nasty glasses (green nose pads that probably weren’t changed in the decade he had them). He throws them on the table as the arm came off and demanded we replace them. I told him they weren’t under warranty and we don’t carry those glasses (not sure if he even bought them from us). Best I can do is solder them for him to get him by but he won’t be able to close them and they will be discolored since I was heating them up. Well after a full on tantrum he says fine.
When he comes back to pick them up my coworker dealt with him because she saw how pissed I was. She gives him the glasses and he is pissed they aren’t closing and are discoloured (both of which he was told about). He ends up finally leaving and as he is walking out my coworker says “have a nice day”. His response was to throw one of our chairs across the room…
We are in Canada. If he needed glasses and couldn’t afford them there are government programs in place to get new ones…not sure that was his case but just saying there was no reason to get so upset about old glasses.
9. Your fault
“I was at DFW a few years back to fly home. I went to the self service kiosks to print a boarding pass. As I’m waiting to use one, I notice this woman nearly screaming at several employees who were trying to calm her down. She kept saying her flight was about to board and they were going to make her miss it and she wasn’t going to do that so they better fucking figure things out. I mean she was pissed.
The employees kept trying to help her but she insisted on typing everything in herself and it kept being unable to pull up her reservation and she wouldn’t show the employees her confirmation email because she kept telling them it was their “stupid f**king machine” and they needed to fix it.
Finally an employee talks her into showing him the email. He looks at it as she is still yelling that her flight is boarding in ten minutes and he says, “Ma’am you’re supposed to be flying out of Love Field, not this airport.”
At this point I’m finished with what I’m doing but I did hear the woman start crying and the first words out of her mouth were, “Well what are you going to do about it?”
Because I’m sure in her mind it was their fault she can’t read what airport she belongs at. I have luckily not witnessed too many people treat employees horribly at places, but this one was fantastic because the woman being so horrible had completely screwed up everything all by herself.”
10. I require better tenders
“I watched a grown woman bitch at a teenager in a Sheetz because her chicken tenders weren’t the right shape. She stomped her feet and angrily walked out, trying to slam a door that was on a closer. Then when it wouldn’t slam, she opened it and shoved it real hard to try to get it to slam, but the closer prevented it.
So for like 15-20 seconds she was basically in a fight with a door. Like her body was flailing about and her hair was whipping around as she was trying to get this door to slam.
Eventually she gave up and left. The teenager and I just kind of stared at each other in disbelief. She didn’t ask for her money back, or another order, she just stomped out, chicken tenderless.
The chicken tender box was opened and left on the counter, while I am no chicken tender-from a gas station connoisseur, they pretty much looked like a standard shaped chicken tender.”
11. Might be a little unbalanced
“My 24 year old sister couldn’t find her hairbrush so she completely thrashed the house, accused everyone of stealing her hair brush, said she couldn’t use anyone else’s because she has lice which no one knew she had fucking lice, almost broke my Grandmas antique piano, broke glass on the floor, called my dad inappropriate slurs, called my mom a c**t even though she wasn’t home or had anything to do with it, and then found her brush in the corner of her room and laughed over how extreme she acted while everyone else was still getting over just witnessing a 24 year old grown adult destroy the house and scream slurs at the top of her lungs.”
12. One of our regulars
“I used to work at a fast food pizza place, and one of our regulars threw a 15 minute long piss fit because he couldn’t get extra cheese for free.
He left, only to come back 5 minutes later and screamed demanding a refund for the pizza he ALREADY ATE because of it. Meanwhile I’m just in the back making dough like :I and my manager is threatening to call the cops if he doesn’t leave.
Never wanted to work that shift again knowing he went there regularly. smh”
13. I need a light bulb
“Worked for an electrical supply store for years. We mainly serve professionals, but open to anyone, cause money is money amirite? We were open m-f, but open Saturday mornings till 2, because residential stuff. We had a 100k sq ft warehouse. I had probably 10k different SKUs for different light bulbs. The most terrifying request I could get was “I need a light bulb”.
This weekend in question I was acting manager. Lady gets huffy cause line is long (we took orders and picked em, so it can take a minute). Anyway she steps up, and says the magic words, “I need a light bulb”. In order to answer, I need wattage voltage etc. When I ask what kind, I’m told quite loudly “I don’t know, its the electric kind you idiot”.
Yes ma’am. Go grab a 1000w metal halide [think parking lot light] and bring it back. Say that will be 200 bucks. Started screaming about how its not what she needed. Admittedly my reply of “its the electric kind you idiot” was not the smartest, but I couldn’t help myself. Monday was interesting in the boss’s office.”
14. Threw a fit
“Worked at Taco Bell when I was younger, middle aged mom came in and threw a fit, called the cashier a brainless idiot who will never succeed in life and demanded a refund.
All because he gave her the wrong change amount back. He was new and just a kid, working his first job. He didn’t come back the next day.”
15. Yes, you are
“Worked at Papa Murphy’s in high school. A guy came in one evening and ordered a pizza. He asked how long it would take and my supervisor told him it shouldn’t take more than five minutes. The guy looked a little surprised but said he would be back in a little bit because he had something to pick up next door.
A while later he returns to pick the pizza up and upon seeing that the pizza wasn’t baked he flips shit and demands a refund. He even yelled out “Who the hell doesn’t bake their pizzas?” Immediately after he looks up to see the sign, “Handmade. Home baked” to which he then retorted, “Well, I guess I’M the a-hole”. “
Alright, so THAT was embarrassing for us all, right?
Have any stories where you’ve seen somebody absolutely lose it?
Share that in the comments!
