From finding the perfect fun phone case to staying up too late on social media, there’s no question that everyone is pretty much obsessed with their phones these days. And while everyone knows that they can’t use their phone 24/7 since that means nothing would get done, chances are most people have glanced at it once or twice during the day. It is now a default action done without conscious thought, second to breathing.
But this same habit brought a woman working at Amazon negative attention when a returning customer saw her daring to use her phone while working. TikTok user @bustdowncorn shared the upsetting video where an older man is seen yelling at the woman. While he should have said absolutely nothing and done what he came there to do (return an item), he decided to insult her. He is heard telling someone off-camera, “Instead of doing her work she’s talking on her phone” and explained that he was filming her (which was self-explanatory).
The man claimed he was “doing it quietly,” but whether he was loud or silent, there’s no denying that complaining about someone, without having an inkling what and why they were doing whatever they were engaged in was rude and mean. In fact, the not-so-gentleman here got so that he challenged someone to “kick me out of the store so I can’t pick up my package.”
Let’s unpack the moment here. Why was he so spitting mad? Because the employee was “multitasking” and chatting with someone on her cellphone while working? The way he behaves, she may as well have confirmed a one-way ticket to hell with her actions. According to this guy, this was the absolute worst thing anyone could do, but based on the comments section, people are hearing this story and going “So, what?!”
It would be tough to watch this TikTok and not sympathize with the Amazon employee, so naturally, people took her side. TikTok user @chelseahampton91 wrote “He has officially entered his Karen era,” with many agreeing that as long as it didn’t meddle with why he was there, he should have “minded his own business.” (Some also said he looks like Steve Martin, which is plain upsetting because now it’s impossible to unsee that as well)
There’s no doubt that everyone looks at their phone way too often, whether they’re at the office or swearing to sleep after the gazillionth reel. According to Forbes, people look at their cell phones 150 times each day. But a) there is no getting rid of this electronic boon/curse as it’s now a necessity and b) as a stranger, if you do catch an employee doom scrolling, as long as they get your work done and don’t compromise the quality, them making a brief call to a loved one, texting a friend, or scrolling through a social media feed should not be a big deal.