Customer insulted by grocery worker's nickname: 'They spent the rest of the week trying to get her fired for it'

It seems innocuous, but calling someone "hun" can really bug some people. I admit, I'm one of those people who doesn't care for it. If you're a waitress at a diner who calls everyone "hun," I suppose you can get away with it. But if you're snapping your gum, rolling your eyes, and calling people "hun" with a simpering, demeaning undertone, that's just very irritating. The same goes for "doll," "buddy," or "babe": there's nothing wrong with terms of endearment for people you actually know and love, but for strangers, it comes off as flippant. It appears like you're saying a kind word, but we all really know it's a cutely-disguised sneering insult. 

There's also a time and place for this. Waitresses and retail workers seem to call people "hun" a lot, and people by and large don't seem to mind, but if their lawyer or doctor called them that, they might feel a certain type of way about it. Regardless, if you're called "hun" and you don't like it, you could probably just do nothing about that. Just literally go about your life, and choose any other thing in the world to focus on. It's so inconsequential, but certain folks have a short fuse and a lot of time on their hands. 

Next, read these stories from retail workers whose customers were driving them really crazy: "No exceptions… until a customer complains loudly."