“Local Contractor Cannot Respect His Community, His Local Community Happily Returns That Disrespect”

In public places, we all expect others to act according to social norms — to be respectful and not overly disruptive. And so, when someone doesn’t, it usually creates quite a diversion.

Like in this story, where a group of people came to their local library with various goals, but were disturbed by a man who thought it was a good decision to talk loudly on his phone there. So, when no pleading to stop worked, the group came up with an interesting revenge plan.

More info: Reddit

In public places, we expect all people to follow social norms so everyone can have a nice time, but some people decide to go against them, disrupting everything

Image credits: dusanpetkovic / Freepik (not the actual photo)

Like in this story in which a group of people came to the library to do their own stuff, but were disturbed by a contractor making his phone calls there

Image credits: chote99 / Freepik (not the actual photo)

They tried asking the man to lower his voice, asked for librarians’ help, but nothing worked

Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)

So, they recorded many instances of this man being loud and rude when called out

Image credits: Oberon Copeland @veryinformed.com / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

They posted a video on local Facebook groups and pretty soon the man was known as the jerk of the town

Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)

He tried coming and confronting the library group over it, but it was unsuccessful, as they managed to even get a forced apology out of it

Image credits: Bosuns_Punch

From that point on, he never showed his face in the library ever again

The OP’s brother had to study for his ship’s officer’s exam. Yet, for him, home was full of distractions like video games, so to focus better, he went to their local library. There he sat in the back, next to a window with a beautiful view.

He wasn’t there alone; a few other guys would hang out there too, and the author’s brother made casual friends with them. And then there was another person there – a local contractor. He came into the library once or twice a day to do his business over the phone. The worst thing about it – he did it very loudly. 

You probably know that a stereotype of libraries is that they are a place where people have to be silent, or librarians will forcibly shush them. And while, yes, libraries aren’t supposed to be the loudest place on Earth, Bored Panda interviewee librarian Mychal says that completely silent libraries don’t exist anymore.

He explained: “Library people have realized that more dangerous than a stereotype, there is fear of the library because of all the shushing. People, for a very long time, were terrified of when they were going to be asked to leave the library for the smallest noise. This fear led to them avoiding the library altogether.”

The thing is that libraries are supposed to be a place for people to study, read, and relax in quiet, but also for people to make friends, and kids to have fun. This leads to some noise there, which isn’t such a bad thing, according to Mychal. 

Circling back to the story, this loud construction worker was disturbing the peace of OP’s brother and his friends, so they tried to ask him to keep his voice lower, but that didn’t work. So, they turned to librarians for help. 

Our interviewee noted that librarians do not get noise complaints that often, but the amount is enough for workers to have a plan of what to do in such cases. 

Image credits: Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

He also added that it’s better to let library staff handle disruptive behavior instead of doing it yourself: “It is much easier, more effective, and less likely for disruption to become a true incident report if the library user brings the problem to the attention of library staff so that they may intervene.”

Mychal also explained that when employees intervene, it always depends on the situation of how they react. Sometimes they have suspend visitors for a day, a week or even month due to their poor behavior, but other times they get scolded for a moment. A similar thing happened to the noisemaker in the story – he was scolded, but the second the librarian turned away, he continued his act. 

So, the library folks decided to take the matters into their own hands. They recorded every rude thing this man told them when asked to shush, put that into one video, and posted it in various local Facebook groups. As you know, netizens are a powerful force, which was proven once again here. 

Pretty soon, this noisy man was dubbed one of the biggest jerks in the town. They also learned it wasn’t the first place he had disturbed – he was booted from the local Dunkin Donuts for the same behavior.

A couple of days later, the man came back to the library and tried to confront the individuals responsible for his new title in town, but they weren’t having it. Instead, they basically forced an apology out of him. And then, they never saw him again.

When this story was posted online, people praised the OP’s brother for his creative revenge plan. As our interviewee put it: “The library exists for the community.” In this story, people who were disturbed by an inconsiderate man came together to shame him for his repetitive behavior. 

Again, as Mychal said: “The expectation of behavior in libraries is that you visit, don’t hurt yourself or others, and have the best possible library day.” So, finding a way to nip the opposite behavior in the bud was important to these folks. And hopefully, they taught this man a lesson.

Do you agree with the way library visitors handled the situation? What would you have done in their shoes? Share your takes in the comments!

People online thought this revenge was pretty well done and praised the group who came up with it

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