‘Normalize standing up for ourselves’: Viral TikTok shows Karen harassing AT&T employee, sparking debate

A woman was filmed harassing AT&T employees after they asked her to leave the store.

The video, recorded by TikToker Alex Barojas (user @pancholocochon1981), begins with the customer asking for the phone number of the store’s owner after tension had seemingly already escalated.

The AT&T employee asks the woman to leave, but she says she won’t. The customer is holding her phone up to record the incident and steps forward toward the worker.

“Ma’am, I need you to get out of my face,” the employee says, pushing her phone away. The woman then lightly hits her chest, telling her to stop touching her phone.

“Are you going to hit me?” the worker says.

“I’m gonna call the police,” the woman responds.

The employee repeatedly tells the customer to get out of her face, while trying to push the customer’s phone away from her.

“Don’t touch my phone. Do not touch my phone,” the customer says.

“Get out of my face. You’re really testing me right now,” the employee says.  “I’m going to slap this woman,” she says to an employee at the desk, before walking away. 

“Go ahead, do it,” the customer says.

In a pinned comment, Barojas said the customer was the “troublemaker,” however, the creator did not provide more context about the initial issue.

The video gained over 2.3 million views, sparking debate about which party was in the wrong during the incident. Many users argued that the employee escalated the situation.

“The employees are extremely unprofessional,” one user said.

“She kept saying get out of my face. All she had to do is walk away,” another said.

“The employee was looking for confrontation simply call the police if she won’t leave when asked,” a third user said. 

However, several users defended the employee and praised her for standing up for herself.

“Can we normalize standing up for ourselves when customers feel like can do whatever they want cause their customers,” one user said.

“IM SICK OF PEOPLE SAYING THE EMPLOYEE IS WRONG! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE WE SEEN KARENS BE ALLOWED TO DO THIS AND BELITTLE THE EMPLOYEES?” another said.

“All the people saying it was the employee fault never worked in customer service before,” a third user said.

Others noted that the video lacks the full context of the situation.

“We don’t know the whole story but I would call the cops before losing my job over a ‘Karen,’” one user said.

“(Customer) is not always right, but in this case 1/2 of the story is missing, rude costumer service,” another claimed.

“Believe me the client annoyed the worker for like an hour,” the creator responded. 

The Daily Dot reached out to Barojas via TikTok comment.