"I told off the owner of the business in front of all the vice presidents and the most important customer — in a classy way.

"Backstory: The owner (let's call him Joe) had inherited the business from his much-loved father and mistreated the still loyal and highly capable work force. A big job was coming up for a personal friend of Joe's, so a top installer and I worked 12-hour days in the field for several days beforehand to complete an existing order.

"At six in the morning on the big day, Joe shows up in the alley behind the big job and starts tearing into me. I simply listened to Joe as he carried on and on, as I couldn't get a word in edgewise.

"Nobody deserved to be treated with the lack of respect that Joe had for all of his employees. After that, I walked around to the main entrance, where I found Joe, the customer, and three vice presidents shooting the breeze. I told Joe that I needed to talk to him.

"He said that it wasn't a good time. I said it was as good a time as it had been out back 10 minutes ago. Then I calmly told Joe that it was inappropriate to dump on any employee like that, and it was especially terrible to treat his loyal employees that way, as was his habit.

"For years after that, Joe's employees and I would cross paths in traffic, and they always honked, whooped, and waved." — Scott, Northern California