If you’ve ever encountered a rude Karen, you know their behavior can be unpredictable and cause much drama. They have an uncanny knack for cussing out employees, spitting on strangers, threatening regular people doing regular things and refusing to leave establishments until they get what they want.
If you’re dealing with a rude Karen, it’s essential to understand how best to respond. Fortunately, Dani Weller – customer service team leader at Bionic – has provided some helpful tips.
1. Lose Your Temper
When dealing with someone whose attitude is too much for you to bear, losing your temper is often the result. These individuals do not listen to reason nor show respect for those around them; thus, learning how to avoid them when possible will help ensure a smoother journey for all concerned.
When dealing with Rude Karens, try not to take it personally and remain calm. They are only seeking attention and provoking an emotional reaction from you; giving them pleasure will only make them feel good and smug; don’t give into their demands that leave you feeling worse about yourself.
Another way to respond to Karen is simply walking away. Doing this will prevent you from getting into a fight with them, as you won’t have to tolerate any more of her rude and unkind remarks.
You could also try distracting yourself by thinking about something else. If you feel trapped, think about other customers in the store or even things unrelated to the problem at hand.
Focusing your mind and not getting overly emotional about the situation may seem counterproductive at first, but it actually helps reduce stress from dealing with this person.
If you are feeling overwhelmed, take a break and do something that allows your mind to relax and take its focus off what’s happening. This could include turning off the phone, taking a deep breath, or doing anything else that allows for some solitude and takes your focus off what’s going on around you.
At this stage, it is best to focus on positive thoughts to dissipate any hateful energy being spread by Karen. Doing this will stop her from being able to trigger you and cause you to lose control over the situation.
If you are feeling too overwhelmed to cope, seeking medical help is recommended. Doing this can ensure that you do not end up in a potentially hazardous situation and that the problem can be addressed as quickly as possible.
2. Lose Control of the Situation
No matter your position in life, you will likely come across a rude Karen at some point. As annoying as these individuals may be, their presence causes immense stress and frustration for everyone around them.
Thankfully, there are steps you can take to avoid becoming a Karen in the first place. One way to do this is by not allowing things to spiral out of control.
Traveling can often lead to feeling entitled to certain amenities or experiences. When spending a lot of money for a luxury hotel stay, for instance, it may be hard not to feel that your staff should treat you better than expected.
Unfortunately, these feelings may appear irrational to those you encounter on the road – particularly women.
Therefore, it’s essential to comprehend the characteristics of a Karen before engaging them face-to-face or online.
How to tell if someone is dealing with a Karen? Consider their behavior and how it makes you feel. Does their mistake seem exaggerated or do they seem like a potential threat to you?
This can help you determine if you need to act quickly or simply walk away. It’s also wise to keep your head straight so you don’t feel emotionally overwhelmed and lose your cool.
Dani Weller, a customer service team leader at Bionic, suggests that if you’re having issues with Karen the rude, it could be beneficial to ask them to talk to their manager instead of engaging directly in conversation. According to Weller: “Show them that you are willing to listen and address their problems.”
However, this can be challenging if you don’t know how to approach it. That is why Bionic conducted a study on the most prevalent Karens globally by studying over one million reviews on Trustpilot.
Bionic was able to determine which women and men were most likely to become Karens by comparing the names of top complainers with their actual surnames. Louise emerged as the name with the highest number of Karens, followed by Ann and Jane.
3. Leave the Store
People respond to stressful situations in various ways. Some try to remain calm and ignore the issue at hand, while others take action by finding a way to remove the rude person causing problems.
Although this can be a challenging step to take, it is often the result of Rude Karens causing stress and strain in our lives. These people can be highly irritating and create endless drama in a short amount of time.
These people can cause unnecessary drama in places not intended for it. For example, when Karen comes into a grocery store without wearing her mask and begins shouting at you for wearing one, it is extremely annoying. This kind of behavior should never occur and has become an issue within the community.
These people tend to become loud and aggressive when speaking to store managers. This can result in customers leaving the store, as well as being an enormous hassle for those working there.
When dealing with a Rude Karen, it is always best to remain calm and polite while discussing the problem. Doing this will allow you to act as the bigger person and may prevent Karen from calling the police on you.
Sometimes people just want their point across and will do anything in their power to achieve that. That is why having the ability to speak up when faced with an issue is so essential.
Though it can be challenging, the ability to advocate for yourself is invaluable. Doing so will boost your self-worth and give you the power to make a change.
If you find yourself dealing with a rude Karen in a store, it is essential to be able to calmly speak to the manager about your issues. Doing this will enable you to get the issue resolved quickly and also make Karen realize they need to stop being so loud and aggressive.
4. Call the Police
No matter if you’re a store manager, customer or worker, it’s essential to know how to respond when confronted by one of these annoyances. According to Dani Weller – customer service team leader at Bionic – staying calm and trying to understand their problems will help them feel like they have a voice.
When dealing with a rude Karen, it’s essential to remember their attitude may stem from an underlying sense of entitlement. They believe their needs come first and won’t hesitate to express frustration or anger if they don’t get what they want.
Karens can be a major vector for COVID-19, the virus which affects women in the workplace and causes sexually transmitted diseases. This risk increases when Karens don’t wear masks.
Retail employees need to be particularly mindful of these people. Not only can these customers cause stress and hardship for your employees, but it makes their job even harder for them.
Avoid becoming Karen by abstaining from alcohol. Alcohol makes it easier to lose your temper and take things personally, making it a bad idea to leave a store or restaurant while intoxicated as this could cause accidents with serious injuries.
A common response to a rude Karen is calling the police. This usually occurs because they are causing undue stress to staff members and customers at the store.
Though it may appear harsh, most police departments are unafraid to handle such situations and will not hesitate to arrest someone for trespassing or other crimes. While this response may appear harsh, most people feel safe knowing that police departments are usually confident in handling these types of situations.
Karen may threaten you or someone else with intent, so it is always better to be safe than sorry in such cases.
Though not a popular option, calling the police should always be considered when you come across an unruly Karen at work or as a customer. If you do decide to contact them, make sure they are an officer and there is a legitimate reason for calling them.
