Imagine going to the grocery store, and while you’re there, you need to use the bathroom. If there were only one bathroom stall and it was occupied, what would you do?

Would you wait patiently as long as necessary, go to another store that has a bathroom, or ague with an employee?

In this story, one old man chooses the last option, and he can’t seem to believe anything the employee has to say.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

What do you mean you don’t have a secret bathroom?

A little preamble before we get to the meat of this.

I work in a pretty small grocery store, in a tiny rural town, in a rural state. So most of the time the set up for the bathrooms is fine. One set, no employee bathrooms, one sink in each, two stalls in the women’s, a stall and a urinal in the mens.

On this fateful day, and for the week before, the urinal had been out of commission.

The man will be referred to as OM (Old man)

Someone was taking a really long time in the men’s bathroom.

OM: I’ve been waiting for ten minutes for the bathroom!

Me: I’m sorry?

OM: Someone’s been using the stall this whole time! And the urinal doesn’t work! I demand to use the employee bathroom!

Now mind you, that guy had been using the stall for nearly 20 minutes, I know because I had been waiting as well.

There isn’t an employee bathroom.

Me: I’m sorry sir, but we don’t have an employee bathroom. You’ll just have to wait, or I think the gas station has a public bathroom you can use.

OM: Wait? I can’t wait! I have a prostate problem! When I have to go, I have to go. Now take me in the back, and let me use the employee bathroom.

Me: Again sir, we don’t have an employee bathroom. We have to use the one out here, just like everyone else. There’s two gas stations that probably have a public bathroom. Or the bar, or maybe the casino.

OM: That’s not true! You’re lying!

There wasn’t a manager working.

Me: Sir, I promise I’m not-

OM: Stop lying to me! I want to speak to your manager!

Now this is where it got kind of complicated.

It’s a freight night, already nearly 9pm with the store closing in an hour. There isn’t a manager working. Store manager, dairy manager, meat department, not even an assistant manager. Just went in order of senority who was in charge. Having worked there about 18 months, I was already number three.

The old man thought he was lying again.

Me: Sir, there isn’t a manager working. And there hasn’t been one working since 5pm.

OM: No manager?! What the hell do you mean no manager?! Who keeps you hoodlems in check?!

The guy proceeded to yell and berate me for the next ten minutes, about both our secret bathroom and the lack of a manager working: until I said I’d go try to find someone higher up the food chain for him to talk to, and went on break for the next ten minutes.

By the time I came back he was already gone

If the old man needs to go to the bathroom that badly, he really should’ve left a long time ago and found a bathroom somewhere else instead of wasting time arguing with the employee.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Here’s how one store handles it when a manager isn’t on duty.

This is a good point.

Clearly, this would make sense.

This store seems to have a bathroom problem.

I can’t blame the guy for being annoyed about the occupied bathroom.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.