And that's EXACTLY the kind of thing that would happen to me, I once told a joke about my cat being lazy right when someone was talking about their cat dying of cancer.

Does she just pay for the whole thing upfront or does she pull out her card at the last second? Because the delivery probably matters a lot more than the gesture itself for catching the fragile ones off guard.

Nah I gotta push back on that one. My current manager actually came from a shop where they had a legit 2 year structured training program that included shadowing a senior manager who had formal certifications. Plus the whole "everyone is just passing down bad info" assumes nobody ever reads a book or takes a course, which is way too cynical. Some people actually study management theory and adapt it to real situations instead of just copying their old boss.