Most days at work are business as usual—but every once in a while, something WILD happens, and it blows the monotony out of the water. If the situation is memorable enough, it even has the potential to become a company-wide legend that is discussed at the water cooler for years to come. Here are some of the wildest workplace stories ever:
1. Official Resignation
I worked for a daycare center for a whole three weeks. I was great with the kids and it was a fun job, but I just couldn't stand my boss. She was awful all the time. She’d make me get her coffee on my lunch break and then get mad when I'm late from said lunch break. Or she would give me a bunch of tasks right after I clocked out then wouldn't let me leave until they were finished without paying me overtime. Against the law, I know.
She was always threatening to fire me because I didn't show up for work on a day that I took off that she approved weeks earlier. Anyway, just got fed up one day and told her calmly and politely, "I will not be coming back from my lunch break. I am clocking out and leaving". She says if I'm going to quit, it needs to be in writing.
I lost it, grabbed a giant Crayola marker out of one of the drawing bins and a sheet of construction paper, wrote "I QUIT" on it, and signed my name then threw it at her.
2. Nuclear Revenge
When I was getting ‘made redundant’ from one job, one of the last things I did was put my expensive IBM laptop in the microwave for a minute or so. Apparently, according to my old colleagues, it never worked again. The woman from HR tried to ‘get me’ but as she had seen me using my laptop five minutes before I handed it over, there was nothing she could do. They never worked out it had been zapped in the microwave.
3. Get A Room—And A Cab!
I worked at a restaurant and had a couple in their late 40s come in one night and stay in the bar area for hours making out. They were totally sloshed, and their idiot server continued to serve them, which was a big no-no. My boss was having issues with the computer system that night and wasn't aware of the situation, so I told her.
This couple was just disgusting. You could tell they had money but no class at all. The woman was all over the guy, and he was falling backward into the window, getting tangled up in the blinds. The two of them started to leave without paying, and my boss stopped them. She had them sit on a bench outside while she called a cab.
The man insisted he was good to drive, even though he was absolutely not. My boss informed them that she was responsible for making sure the two of them left safely. They argued with her but eventually accepted their fate, and she forced them to pay their tab too.
4. Break Away
We had just gotten a new boss who for some reason hated the friendships that we made. She said I had been stealing time from the company and "caught" me on video outside on breaks I wasn't supposed to have. She pulled me into the HR office and berated me for taking breaks. She had been cutting my hours slowly but scheduled me long enough to force me to take a 30-minute breaks.
The HR girl tried to correct her several times, telling her I was entitled to my breaks, but my boss wasn't having it. She said she had proof of me leaving, but never showed it to me. So, the next time I was scheduled, I clocked in, waited 30 minutes, and just clocked out without saying anything. Nobody ever called me for a no-call no-show.
About a week later, I went back to the store with my friend who was also an ex-coworker and quit the day before and they threatened to call security on us.
5. Took It To The Top Brass
Years ago I was subcontracted to work for a company I won't name. The manager would often blackmail me with jobs to do which I shouldn't have done because it wasn't within my remit, but because I was only one of a couple of men there, she would put it on me and say, “Do you like working here?"
Anyway, my line manager paid me a visit and caught me in the act of doing something I had again been blackmailed into doing. I explained the situation to him and he held a meeting with said manager. That should have put an end to it, but after that, she looked for any way to get rid of me and eventually made up some story.
Skip forward a month or two. What the manager didn't realize was I had made notes of everything her and her team were doing that was against company policy so I sent an email to their head office with it all. I didn't really expect an answer as they were a national company. A few weeks later I had a reply.
A month or so later, they sent me another email to say they had investigated all my accusations and had found them to be true, and thanked me for letting them know. The manager was demoted and sent to another store, and her two supervisors were sacked.
6. The Sixty-Million Dollar Man
I worked in merchant processing for a company that ran credit cards. One day, a business called and said that their credit card batch wouldn't settle. This would happen fairly often for a variety of reasons, the biggest being unstable internet. I looked into the situation, and there was a card that had a $10 charge but a $60 million tip. It was obviously wrong and didn't go through but showed up as a pending transaction on the customer’s bank account for three days.
7. Not Under My Watch
I used to work for Regal Cinemas throughout high school. Having been one of the most reliable employees for a while, a management position opened up and I figured that I would apply for it because it would be more pay. Unfortunately, I didn't get it because I was planning to go to college and wouldn't be there during the semester and only be around for holidays and whatnot. I understood their decision, but the person they hired instead was incompetent.
Fast forward about a month, I'm in charge of our theater cleaning team responsible for 22 theaters on a busy as heck weekend. We pretty much have a set schedule of when theaters are supposed to let out, and thinking that everyone should be responsible enough, I would help out one team do one wing because we had several large kid movies, which always get really dirty, finishing at the same time.
After cleaning all of those kid movies, I find out that one of the male restrooms is flooded. I, being the only one over 18 at the time, don some rubber gloves, plunger, and a mop and go to battle with a poop-filled flooding toilet. Having successfully defeated the poop monster, I am greeted with the woman that was hired as a manager instead of me.
She starts going off on me because the other team I had set up to clean the other half of the theater apparently didn't do anything and couldn't be found. She also yelled at me for not being where I was supposed to be even though I was still doing my job and wrote me up for "being insubordinate" when I defended myself in a reasonable matter.
I later found those kids by the trash compacter stoned as heck and gave them a piece of my mind. I finished my shift, went to the head manager on staff, told him everything, and told him that I was giving him my two weeks' notice. He offered me more pay, telling me how much of a valued employee I was, how much I was respected among the management for putting up with all of the garbage I had to do before and always being available. It turns out that the manager who chewed me out still works there several years later, while I have moved onto an actual career.
8. Success Is The Best Revenge
I quit because of an awful supervisor. A year later, I had built up my small business that they had laughed at. I was just returning from a job when I ran into that supervisor in a Mcdonald's. He sneered, “Are you ready to come crawling back to your old job yet?" I had the most satisfying response ready to go. I looked at him. “Well. I just got paid more for working three hours than you paid me for working 40. What do you think?"
9. She Was A Wild Card
I worked at a Hallmark store. No one under the age of 55 EVER comes in, and the most expensive things I sold were Christmas ornaments. One day, a lady in her mid-80s paused from yelling at me about using a coupon to tell me that I had "an extremely beautiful complexion." I blinked and said, “Thank you,” then she kept yelling at me.
10. Going in Blind
I needed a summer job while in high school so I applied at a local grocery store to bag/stock/clean. On my first day there, there was some sort of confusion as to what I was supposed to do or to whom I was to report. I was sent to the front counter where the customer service manager gave me a till and told me to open a register. Mind you, I'd had ZERO training on a register. I didn't even know how to put the till in it. I told the lady this and was told to go do my job.
Within about two minutes at the register, there was a line several deep and I'm just standing there with the till in my hands. The customer service lady comes storming over asking why I had such a line and I tried AGAIN to explain to her that I was supposed to be a stocker or whatever and that I knew nothing about operating a register. She called me stupid in front of the customers so I handed her the till and told her what I really thought of her. I walked down the street in my uniform and got a job at another grocery store.
11. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
I was a lobbyist for an industry. During a legislative session, I learned about a regulatory change that would impact my industry. The next morning, I was called into the boss’s office and fired. Apparently, the Association president didn’t like the way I did things and got the Board to fire me, but the vote was very close. Six months later, I learned that the President’s personal company had lost $12 million because they didn’t know about the change. When asked why I didn’t tell them, I calmly explained that, once fired, I didn’t work for them anymore. The business went bankrupt.
12. We Got Boxed Into A Corner
While working at an electronics store, my coworker and I accidentally left a table outside on the sidewalk with a number of display boxes of various electronic goods, all of which were empty. The authorities came by that night and took them all, thinking they were helping out because they didn't realize they were empty. The next day we had to pay a fee to get them all back.
13. $40 000th of July
I had a lawyer draw up an intent-to-sue-for-harassment after a new boss required me to work on the Fourth of July. Usually 100-150 people in the office, but that particular day I was the only one in the office. That was the final straw after six months of harassment. I ended up winning a $40,000 settlement. I still smile when I think of it.
14. You Messed With The Wrong Guy
I got cut from an old age home after four years because they confused me with the person I was covering for one shift (who didn’t take care of a resident). I fought it, tooth and nail, but they didn’t budge. But there was something they didn't know.
I had a record of every case of misconduct and neglect from the CNA’s and Board, so I promptly turned over all info to the State and every other advocacy group that would listen. They did, and the entire staff quit or was removed within a month. Wrong guy.
15. She Threw In The Towel
One night, a woman carrying a Pomeranian came into my coffee shop thirty seconds before closing. We were walking towards the door to lock it when she pushed past us and made a beeline for the restroom. She doubled back, grabbed the key, and sprinted in. We couldn’t lock the doors or start closing tasks until she was out. Meanwhile, we had to field people trying to come in and get coffee who wouldn’t believe we were closed because the door was still open.
Fifteen minutes passed, and my supervisor went to knock on the bathroom door. Suddenly we heard the dog bark like mad, “YIP YIP YIP.” My supervisor didn't realize that there was a dog until that moment, and he started to flip out. A half-hour after closing, she opened the door and sprinted out of the store. I went to check the damage, and the toilet was overflowing all over the floor, stuffed completely full of paper towels. But that wasn't the horrifying part.
There was blood everywhere. We did a quick search for needles, but there weren’t any. The floor was oddly damp, and the whole women's room smelled like death. After unclogging the toilet, we concluded that the dog was spooked by us knocking on the door and spewed bloody diarrhea on our floor. We then started hiding our bathroom keys five minutes before we locked up.
16. Respect Goes Both Ways
I worked as a casual at a gift shop when I was just out of high school. The shop was owned by a lady that I had worked with for three years at a different location, and I had been working at this particular location for almost a year. I had a good relationship with the owner, but when she opened up the new location, she hired another lady to manage the store.
All the staff disliked the new manager because we had been working in the job for years and knew more about the stock and processes than this new lady, but we were teenagers and this manager was in her 50s and treated us like kids, so we felt that we weren't taken seriously by her. Anyway, I was meant to be working the late-night shift but was super sick.
Being casual, I was able to call in sick up to two hours before my shift at no penalty to me. So, I did this. The new manager lady answered the phone and said, "Yeah that's okay. By the way, I've done the roster for the next fortnight and you have no shifts". My reply left her totally speechless. I said: "No worries, don't stress about finding me a shift, I'm bringing my keys in tomorrow once I feel better. I quit".
The passive-aggressiveness from this lady was the final straw after months of being patronized. I'm still on good terms with the owner over four years later, so that's nice.
17. Going Postal
I had a friend who got fired because the boss's stupid son wanted to start over for the 30th time in the family business. My friend got no severance or payment for sick days he hadn't used or leftover vacation. On his way out, he decided to run one last letter through the old passage meter.
He posted $10,000 and change on the letter and walked out with it in his box. It's now framed. The boss' son embezzled several hundred thousand over the next two years. The building is now the site of a nice parking lot.
18. He Caused A Major Brewhaha
I worked at The Beer Store in a city in Ontario. One day, I witnessed a man accidentally drive through our store wall. He had half his car in our lobby, yet, he proceeded to get out of the vehicle and stood in line to order a drink. I cannot explain how baffled everyone was at what was going on.
19. Forced Presence
I worked for a group home. We had a difficult group of residents, but the company policies were so much worse. Every resident was 14-22 years old. They had moderate mental development delays, they all had a psychiatric disorder from severe ADHD to schizophrenia, and they had also all been convicted of violent offenses. I worked the third shift. My normal hours were 10:30 pm to 9 am four days a week.
About six months into working there, they did a massive layoff. They went down to bare minimum staff to student ratio each shift with nobody extra to call in if needed. That meant if someone called out, a person on the previous shift was forced. It got to the point where I was being forced three out of four shifts per week. And not just a few hours. I was working 10:30 pm to around 4:30 pm the next day, and still having to come in for my following shift.
I had an hour commute each way. So, I'd get home at 5:30 pm from a 16-hour shift, and have to leave the house again four hours later. I managed that for about a month. Then one morning I was told last minute I was being forced. I told them I was done and walked out. That month took a huge toll on my mental health. Swear it took me like a year to recover.
20. Cheaters Never Win
I worked for a government agency and everyone in my division knew this guy was cheating on his wife with someone else in the division. Well, he was a micromanaging idiot of the highest order.
One day he yelled about me talking to a coworker when we were on our breaks, so that day, I called his wife's work number and left a message giving all the dates and times he was with his side piece. Shortly after that, she kicked him out. I have zero regrets. His wife and kids were better off without him—their words not mine.
21. Keep On Truckin’
The company I worked for had an inventory stocking system set up where each part had a unique code of two letters followed by four numbers. My buddy was adjusting some returned parts back into our inventory and meant to add a particular part back in. However, he entered a letter wrong. The part he meant to put in the system was about $12, and the part that was one letter off was a $5 million truck.
He ended up adding that one to our warehouse inventory. Company policy was that we could only adjust up to $500 in inventory and had to report all adjustments over $300. Anything higher had to be done by people in the front office. Needless to say, everyone kind of threw a fit when they saw a random extra $5 million in inventory with no explanation. In the end, we had a good laugh about it.
22. How Thoughtful
After taking a few days off work while my father was having a brain tumor removed and I was still checking emails and attending conference calls from the hospital, my boss gave me a new project. On a Thursday afternoon, she gave me a Monday morning deadline for a project that would take 6-8 days to complete. I worked 16 hours a day to get it done. When we met on Monday, she asked how my weekend was. I looked at her and said, "I worked all weekend".
Then she asked if I got to visit my dad in the hospital and then I told her, "No, I didn't get a chance because I worked all weekend". A couple of weeks later, she pulled me into a meeting and said, "I feel like you were resentful because you had to work and I feel like I was really good when your dad was sick, maybe you're just tired. Are you tired?"
She'd also make comments when I would leave the office on time—not early, on time—like, "it's great that you just get up and go when your day is over. Like I have to go because I have a daughter, but you don't have any kids and you just leave at the end of the day". Um yeah, I don't live here. I don't go home and sit in a dark room counting the hours until I get to come back here.
I'm also not curing cancer. Nothing we do here matters to anyone outside of here. I give you 100% when I'm here, but when my day is done, it's done. I no longer work there.
23. Ghost In The Machine?
I still have access to some of my company's social accounts even after I told my boss how to prevent the account from being "hacked" after a password change.
Every so often, I post things on their page that make them look like they shared it by accident, change their links, or run ads designed to fail that get no traction and eat up their marketing budget. It's been months and they still haven't fixed it.
24. Looks Can Be Deceiving
My first job at a restaurant was as a dishwasher. That meant I was also on bathroom duty. A guy came in and did a bunch of magic tricks for the servers and some nearby children while eating. It wasn't disturbing, and the customers loved him. Twenty minutes later, I had to go see why the men’s bathroom door wouldn't open. Nothing could have prepared me for what I found.
I pushed it open and found the man bloodied on the floor with a puddle next to him like he hit his head on the sink. We called for help, and the hospital told us that he had odd abrasions on his head that didn’t match up. I was given the job of digging through the trash, where I found a broken tape dispenser—just the cutter part. Apparently, the guy had poured water on the floor to look like he slipped, cut his head with the dispenser part, and lay there waiting to collect his cash.
25. Tight Schedule
I was 20 and engaged. My work as a book store manager was not letting me have any time off. I missed my fiancée's prom and other important events. I asked to have part of Christmas off, and I got denied. Then I was told because I didn't take vacation that year, I'd just lose it next year. The final straw came when my boss made a surprise audit of my store on a Saturday evening after I had left to go home.
He did not like my calendar display—and his reaction was truly disturbing. He came to my house to yell at me. He didn't just knock on the door and ask, he came into my house, past my roommates, and into my bedroom where I was in bed, reading. He then proceeded to berate me nonstop for five minutes about my display while I sat in bed. Then he left and told me he'd meet me in the morning and he'd fix it with me there.
I felt that was it. My boss came into my private bedroom to yell at me about a calendar display off hours. I called Amtrak, made tickets to see my fiancée, and the next morning, before I got on the train, I went into my store, met him, handed him the key, and walked out just a few days before Christmas to let him deal with it.
I felt great. I hung out with my fiancée for a week or so at my leisure and got another job a few weeks later. But what’s even better was that the next year, they let me work part-time to train new managers. Weirdest of all? My boss apologized to me and we were friends for many years afterward.
26. Not The Brightest Decision
I was laid off from an Internet Marketing job. It took me by surprise because I was definitely a source of profit for the company. I had a new job about a week later. Two-thirds of my clients followed me to my new company, losing my old company about six times my salary in gross profit on billing. Every one of those clients is still a client today.
27. Technical Problem
I was getting screamed at in a meeting by some marketing jerk that was literally demanding my technical group perform magic on a completely unrealistic time schedule with almost no resources. Literally screaming at me in front of about eight of my peers, calling me incompetent, screaming at me to “just do your job” and all of that. I stood up, said I refuse to be talked to like that and left the meeting.
Normally if you just get up and leave these types of meetings, you’re fired. Boss scheduled a meeting with me later in the afternoon after hearing about it. Figured I’d be walked out, but I was told they fired the marketing guy. I was about to just say “Screw this, I quit,” but the company kept me on and fired the other guy. Pretty happy, it’s been a solid place to work ever since.
28. Never Underestimate Someone
I used to work at a mechanic shop. I would also fix and sell cars on the side. I had an old Dodge Caravan for sale but had no bites on it for almost a year. Throughout that year, there was a homeless man who would push his cart by the shop and ask for pop cans and scrap metal. One day this homeless man pushed his cart as usual and asked me if he could buy my van.
I jokingly said, "Sure, bring me $1,500, and I'll give you the keys." I forgot about him as soon as he left because the idea of a homeless guy buying a van seemed impossible to me. He returned about an hour later and handed me $1,500 in assorted wrinkled-up bills. I was so surprised and impressed at the same time. I signed a bill of sale, gave him keys, and he drove off without plates.
29. Clock’s Ticking
The day after I left my job, I started getting calls from that office, asking about various things. I told them that I would get back to them, and sent an email to corporate and to the management in our area.
I let them know that from that time forward I would be happy to help but my fee was $150 per hour with a minimum four-hour charge and that the clock started ticking the minute that I answered a call or opened an email. So the next day, I got a call and helped the caller with their issues. I then sent an electronic invoice to corporate.
They called and said it was only a ten-minute call and they were willing to pay me twenty dollars. I reminded them of the e-mail and told them if I didn’t receive payment in full ($600) within thirty days I would notify the credit-reporting agencies and start legal proceedings.
Three days later, a check arrived, FedEx next-day delivery, signature required, and strangely enough, I have yet to receive another call or email from any of their employees. I can’t imagine why…lol.
30. Lucky Mistake!
Years ago, I was running the lottery machine in a 7-Eleven store. One day, I was punching in the numbers of a regular customer who was also very superstitious. I can't remember what the number was that I was supposed to put in, but I accidentally put in “3333” ten times for $1. Because the guy was superstitious—he didn't want his tickets ripped apart—he bought the mistake tickets. That night, “3333” was drawn, and he won enough money to pay off his house.
31. Cut Off Time
I'm a bartender and I was working in some terrible Mexican restaurant downtown. The tips were bad because the food was bad so we were barely ever busy. So already I'm living in NYC making barely $400 a week when I'm used to making more than double. At this point, I've been there for two months and I hate it more and more every day.
Around this time my mother gets really bad pneumonia and due to complications, it degraded her heart. So, she had to have open-heart surgery to repair a valve. It's a risky procedure and my mother is touching 65. When she gives me a date for her surgery I go to my manager and give her a basic breakdown of the situation and tell her I need four days off from X to Y so I can be with my family.
Now, let me state that staff turnover was incredibly high because in addition to us making horrible money the manager was a complete and utter moron, most staff left after a month. But she says no problem, and just to play it safe I send emails and texts to her confirming that I indeed do have these days off. She agrees. I think cool, no problem.
Well, I was wrong. Three days before the surgery the schedule for the week comes out and I'm scheduled throughout the entire week. I immediately go to my manager and ask what is up because I'm not wasting away behind this moldy, rat-infested bar in the West Village while my mom has surgery. No kidding, this woman has the nerve to say I didn't request off at all!
When I show her my paper trail stating that yes, I did put in a request she says "What difference does it make if you're there the surgery is going to have an outcome whether you're there or not". And starts to rattle off how I need to be a team player and I'm messing things up by requesting off and yadda ya. Her voice fades off and I literally see red. I say nothing and go back to work.
This is at 5 PM. Happy hour and our rush starts at 8 PM. I'm the only bartender on. Fast forward to 8:30, my bar is slammed, I have a bunch of drink tickets from the servers and it's a mess. My manager comes behind the bar and instead of offering any assistance she tells me to not bring "home drama to work". I stare at her in disbelief for a moment, truly stunned that such a tone-deaf moron could possibly be in charge of anything.
I laughed in her stupid face and walked right out the door and went to go see my mom.
32. Just Following Orders
I worked at a radio station selling airtime in a town of 30,000. When I took over my route, a retired Army major was occasionally hitting $6,000. I took billings over $8,000. Three months later, I was fired (I was the only man), and a young cutsie 22-year-old girl was hired.
She had zero experience. My sales manager/station owner’s wife told me to “clean out my desk”. I did just that, trashing everything including sales invoices for the month. She made a big point of letting me know I wouldn't be getting my commissions.
I waited patiently for my salary check ($1,500 at the time) at my desk, then walked to the bank and cashed it. Two days later I got the call. I was expecting it, but it was still so, so sweet. “Where are all the sales invoices for August?" “In the trash”. “What!?"
“You said to clean out my desk. I did”. Then I hung up. I heard later the young girl didn’t work out, and the station went bankrupt. Sad, isn’t it?
33. What Are The Odds?
When I was a waiter, we all had to save our credit slips until the end of the shift. We had to enter tips into the computer based on cost, card carrier, last four digits, time, and table/seat number. Once, I had a table split a check with two Visa cards, so both of them had the same table and seat number. Naturally, both paid at the same time because they were splitting the check and paid the same amount. Both had the same last four digits on their cards. They tipped different amounts, and I was 100% unable to determine who tipped which amount. The odds were staggering.
34. Get Your Storey Straight
I used to have a really terrible retail job in a department store. I was making $7 an hour. I worked in the part that sells bedspreads and bathroom items and other boring stuff. One afternoon, some regional managers came for an evaluation. They determined that everything in the department, including floor display furniture, had to be moved all around AT ONCE! Like, this had to be completed within a day or something. Because, you know, sales will just pick up like bang snappity boom if we do this!
The store Assistant Manager who was second in charge orders some guys from receiving to start hauling merchandise to the stockrooms in order to get the displays moved. I'm hanging at the register since my only other duty is to tidy the department up, which I can't do because it's in shambles. Then, she ordered me to get the merchandise back from the stockrooms and put it back on the floor. It was towels and washcloths that the guys had taken into the back not 20 minutes ago.
I do. One of the stock guys comes back and is like, what the heck are you doing? I'm putting this out on the floor as the manager told me to. So, he goes and tells her. She comes back and lays into me for going against the program. I remind her that she asked me to do this specifically with detailed instruction. She gets confused and probably realized it was her mistake.
But instead, she tells me to hash it out with the stock guy. I decided this job wasn't worth the hassle, told her that, as store manager, it was her responsibility to delegate tasks in an efficient manner, and she was the one who ought to have straightened this out. I walked out. It wasn't my most mature moment, but whatever, no regrets.
35. Justice Was Served
A lawyer I know to be smart, capable, and thorough was treated terribly by the litigation partner of a major old-line Austin law firm. (A lead litigation partner who brought in clients but had never tried a case).
The young lawyer was mercilessly hammered every day by the litigation partner. After a month or so, he was fired for pointing out some problems in court documents drafted by the partner. He wasn't offered a severance package.
Within three days the fired lawyer had a job working for the appellate court judges who often heard appeals filed by the firm's litigation partner.
The fired lawyer was now in a position to closely examine any appeal filed by his former firm and their litigation partner and point out all of the partners' future errors in public court opinions.
36. I Was Part Of The Jet Set
It was the first week of my job as an intern at a Fortune 500 company. The long-time intern I was working with had taken the week off. However, they needed one of us for a meeting which was on the other side of the country. I got to fly with some of the top engineers and executives to their East Coast branch for a day on the company jet.
37. Bottom Line
I worked at Best Buy and was a full-time employee in the home theater department. At the time we were four months into a new system that allowed us to see our sales numbers; revenue, services, margin, etc. I was a model employee, all my numbers were best in-store and district, I had a great return customer base and had scored two perfect secret shopper scores in the past three months.
It was time for my yearly review and I was prepared, awesome sales numbers in hand, ready to receive my well-earned raise. In the three busiest retail months of the year, November, December, and January, I had made $389,000 in pure profit for my store, not sales, but actual profit. After requesting a raise, I was informed that I had capped out in my position, at what must have been a bank-breaking 9.75 an hour.
I left that day devastated, after two years of busting my butt for Best Buy I was basically told to go screw myself. I returned to Best Buy the next morning and told them to shove it. My yearly take home after insurance and taxes was 12,900.00, 1/30th of what I made my store in profit in three months.
38. Locked Out
I had been working with someone for almost a year as a temporary employee and was told that when the job officially came open, it would be mine. This was mostly data type entry, but some of it was sensitive material so it had to be password protected.
I interviewed for the job, but they brought in someone from out of state. My supervisor was furious when she found out that they hired someone else. So, when I tried to give her my password, she refused to take it and I didn't bother to give it to anyone else.
They had to bring in someone to hack their own computer, and to top it off, the company then had a hiring freeze, and the person they wanted couldn't be hired. My supervisor told me they were now without someone working the position, and they had spent quite a bit of money to have someone come in to bypass my password.
Funny, they never even bothered to call to ask what the password was. In the end, after all of that, they asked me to take the position. I did, but only with a pay raise and additional hours.
39. An Accident Waiting To Happen
I was walking into work and found a piece of paper on the ground. I went to reach for it and ended up getting a paper cut. I thought, "Well, that stinks. Now it's going to be irritated all day." I got to work, and as I was climbing the stairs, wouldn't you know it, I tripped and skinned my shin. I thought, "Well, this just isn't my lucky day." I went to the bathroom to clean up the scrape—but my trials weren't over.
As I was walking out, I slipped and hit my head on the sink. Now, I had a paper cut, a skinned knee, and a massive bump on my forehead. I thought, "Wow, I don't know how this day will get any worse." Well, it did. I went to my desk to do some work when I realized I needed to copy something. As I was copying, I leaned over into the paper intake, and it sucked up my tie, ripping it clean off.
I sat down in defeat and tried to continue my work but didn't get much done. It was almost the end of the day when I got a letter. I reached for my letter opener and started opening it when the letter opener slipped and cut my thumb right open. There was a hospital across the street, so I decided to walk over. As I was doing so, I tripped on the curb and fell into the street. As I was stumbling back to my feet, a dumb teenage girl driving wasn’t paying attention and slammed right into me. All I could think of at that point was, “Accidents happen.”
40. Asset Incognito
I worked for a big chain tire store in a very rich part of town for a while. I was overqualified for the job, but it’s what was hiring. One day I get a call saying another tech got fired for failing a urine test. I get in and our lead tech comes in with a torn bicep and has to be gone for a few months. I'm now the most knowledgeable person in the shop, taking on a ton of extra duties and extra hours.
So, working 60+ hours a week as the only tech with ANY diagnostic abilities I ask for a raise/promotion. I’m rejected, but the guy that was hired on a week earlier, amazing tire buster but can't do any mechanical repair past changing an air filter, got a double promotion and a dollar per hour raise. I put in my notice on the spot.
41. A “Miner” Inconvenience
I worked security at a gold mine. In the normal performance of my duties, I got stuck in a wash on the outskirts and had to have a tow truck pull me out. The patrol vehicle suffered minor damage. My boss accused me of lying and fired me.
The day after my firing, I was called to the Imperial County Sheriff’s Department to talk to the FBI about a theft that had occurred at the mine a few months earlier. Because I had worked security at the mine longer than anyone (including my supervisor), they (who I had shown how the theft could have occurred) had some loose ends to tie up to wrap up the investigation.
Through questioning, it became abundantly clear that the person they had charged with the theft had to have help stationed nearby. I suggested that the alleged thief was a good friend of my supervisor, and to look in my supervisor's general direction. They were able to piece together that the supervisor had been involved.
One arrest later, and he accepted a plea deal in return for full cooperation. I lost my job. He lost his freedom for five years. I’d say I came out the winner in this case.
42. Hiding In Plain Sight
When I was in the Marines, I was offloading some new generators with a forklift. The generators were painted in camouflage, and two of them were on the truck's bed, stacked side by side. I couldn’t differentiate that there were two and thought there was only one large one. I knocked a 30K generator off the truck and destroyed it. They did a small investigation and I was scared for days, but luckily, all I got was chewed out.
43. Coming Out on Top
I was working at a sporting goods/automotive store with a fairly large staff with around 35-40 people. One of the guys in automotive was gay, not flamboyantly, but it was pretty obvious. He was middle-aged, portly, but an extremely nice guy who was a genius in terms of cars. He had been with his partner for nearly two decades and they were quite happy. However, our new general manager was awful, and she made comments about his romantic preferences for nearly a month. He tried not to show it, but I could tell it was hurting him.
Then, his partner's company suddenly exploded financially, in a good way, massive bonuses, huge raises, very cool things happening. The two of them decide that they now have the money to move to Vermont, get married for real, and basically retire. So, at a store meeting, my automotive friend says he has an announcement. He tells us that after many years with our company, he's retiring, effective immediately. He thanks us all for being good people to work with and that he enjoyed his time here. He then took off his name tag, walked over to the General Manager, and stood there for a moment.
I held my breath and waited—it was utterly legendary. He then held his arm straight out in front of him, and dropped the name tag on the floor. His hand then rotated, arm still out, and morphed into the most perfectly formed middle finger I have ever seen. He spoke five words, very quietly. "Screw you, you hateful woman". He then turned, and walked out the door, head high, and with a "hater's gonna hate" strut. The rest of us were silent as the General Manager turned bright red and stormed off to her office. Then we laughed and cheered.
44. Karma’s A Glitch
I worked at a Biotech Research company. My lab was a support lab for the majority of the company. My direct boss was ‘downsized’ and my lab was transferred under a different group.
Apparently, this new "Boss" was partial to the employees in his original group. He sent them to work in my area although they knew nothing about the technology. One woman decided she knew better about "everything" and re-programmed a very large and expensive piece of machinery.
The entire lab came to a crashing halt. That cost the company almost $250,000. I got let go and he kept her. Guess what company went out of business?
45. I Wasn’t Loving It
At the McDonald's I worked at, the doors to the bathroom were extremely heavy and horribly engineered in that they would slam extraordinarily fast. Some kid didn't read the warning sign and didn't move her hand out of the doorway fast enough. The top of her finger got cleanly cut off. I immediately got her a cup of ice to put her finger bit in. I was about to call the ambulance when her mother said they could not afford one, so she immediately drove her to the hospital. There was blood everywhere, and I had to clean it up.
46. On the Hut
I was 19 and working for Pizza Hut as a manager. The store manager left me understaffed and with half a box of cheese in the freezer. We usually went through about 2-3 boxes a night. It was the middle of a busy shift and we're out of cheese and my dining room is full and I'm understaffed and furious having to deal with angry stupid customers.
I walk into the dining room and yelled "We're out of cheese people. Everything is on the house!" I ordered the one waitress to not clean a single table, finish up, and go home, the same for the one prep cook. The place was destroyed. The store manager opened with a nice letter from me. He called me and tried to convince me to come back.
47. A Mass Exodus
I was the manager of the nuclear division of a large international company. We had about 100 people in the division when I was laid off along with many others at my level.
Almost immediately I was asked to join another company that was our client and I recruited about 12 of my former employees (engineers and designers) to join my new company. Within a year there were only about 15 people left in the nuclear division at my old company.
I was the one that brought in most of the work and it dried up after I left. The person that made the decision to lay me off was at least four levels above me. I had never met him and he had no idea what I did or how I did it.
Flickr, Nuclear Regulatory Commission
48. This Was Not In My Job Description
My boss and his wife asked me to write a completely made-up letter of recommendation for his entitled son to get back into college after he was booted out for cheating. This earned me the title of "Marketing Analyst" on my resume, despite the fact that I was an administrative assistant. Then when the said wife was in a "pain clinic" for three weeks, my boss had me overnight her a package filled with magazines. Before I sealed it up, he made sure to carefully hide pills between the pages.
49. Request in Denial
I was a manager at a company where the executives were ineffective. I worked 60 hours a week most of the time and had to do all of my director’s duties because he didn’t understand our systems. The work environment was also pretty hostile and passive-aggressive. People cried on the job daily in other departments, slightly less in mine. Managers and staff would snap at other departments the same way the executives did because of the stress.
I tried to take care of my department and make sure they weren’t being abused or taken advantage of. I had three days' leave for a passing in the family but had to work every day from home and the funeral itself. It was especially vexing because it was to re-do the same thing every day that my boss would just forget to complete and need to be done again the next day. I brought this to his attention, as well as all the other issues, and he said he would try to do better. Months went by and it got worse.
Finally, our team sat down with him and told him things needed to change. I told him that the environment was more hostile and aggressive than ever and the team agreed. He told me that was my perception and we needed an attitude change, then left for a meeting, which I had provided the data for him. I cleared out my desk and left after quitting with HR.
For me, the kicker is that he kept assigning me tasks and insisted that I was still working there for days. Never been more relieved to quit in my life.
50. Safety First!
I was an automotive tech for a few years. My manager was the nephew of the owner. His favorite line was “if you don’t do (xyz), you can take it to the house (fired)”. I guess he could tell that every employee was turning against him, as we were all one day pulled one by one into the office to have a “talk about morale”.
Two of us were already talking about starting our own small shop, taking our loyal customers with us. I guess the nephew found out and was none-too-happy about it. The next day, we both received a call informing us that we were suspended for two weeks due to the smell of "drink" on our breath (which there wasn’t).
Immediately, I went into defense mode. I got on the horn with the EPA, informing them that the manager instructed us to dump oil and oil filters, antifreeze, differential fluid, and transmission fluid into the dumpster. A day later, I found out that the EPA had hit him with a huuuuge fine. Two months later all locations were sold off.
51. Tis the Season
I was 21 working with UPS. I worked as a truck loader for the first year and became the fastest loader in the warehouse just because I like working quickly. Only wanted to become a supervisor because my manager was really easy to work with and always wanted to help with solutions to problems. Once they promoted me to a supervisor, they transferred my manager to a different warehouse and didn’t say why.
I worked as a supervisor for a year and once peak season arrived in November to early January, things were getting crazy and my manager was just a yes man to his boss. He never helped solve issues, just said “figure it out” or “just get it done". Well in November, my best friend and I had won a World Series of Beer Pong satellite tourney to get free entry and stay at the Flamingo in Vegas for the Tournament worth $600. The tournament was from January 1st-5th.
Well during peak season, it’s nearly impossible to get time off and I looked at this tournament as a once in a lifetime opportunity with my best friend. Things were just getting so crazy and they weren’t approving any vacation requests. I wasn’t getting assistance from my boss with the workload so I just said whatever I’m out.
Come to find out my manager, his boss, and four other managers got fired for changing time cards to make their production numbers look better, which is why they shipped my cool manager away because he wouldn’t participate in the dirty deeds. My best friend and I placed 46th out of 500 teams. It was one of the best memories I have to this day. No regrets.
52. Irreplaceable
I worked for a doctor who was forever hustling a buck. I taught biofeedback and relaxation techniques and he thought anyone could do it. I returned after lunch to find his wife in the patient chair. He told me to teach her what I know so that I could be fired and make his wife work for free.
“No problem," I said. “What you do is put the indicator on the dominant digit, blah, blah” (total nonsense). Her eyes filled with tears. “I have no idea what you are talking about and I can't do this!" Well, she didn’t end up replacing me. I got certified and left when I was ready.
53. I Had To Deal With More Than Just Sneakers
I used to work at Foot Locker. One day, a former Green Bay Packers player came into the store. The store wasn't busy, so I was the only associate on the sales floor. After repeatedly being sent to the back to get a different shoe style, I started complaining for this guy to make up his mind. My concerned manager—who was in back stock doing some paperwork—decided to pop out on the floor and make sure everything was okay.
When he saw the player, he became starstruck and asked the dude if everything was cool and if he needed anything just to let him know. Seconds later, the customer sent my manager to the back stock with me. After getting the styles and sizes the Packer requested, my manager and I came out together. That's when I finally realized what was happening: The guy was gone along with all the shoes.
I said, "We need to call security, you know the guy's name," and my manager was like, "No way, man, he's a Packer! I ain't reporting him for anything!" A few days later, Corey Williams of the Packers came in with a couple of other dudes. He and the other guys were doing the same thing, asking for multiple sizes and styles of shoes. I thought they were pulling the same nonsense the last guy did.
So, I politely asked for the shoes on the bench so that I could put the unneeded sizes away. Corey Williams glared at me, demanded I leave ALL the shoes on the bench, and go "fetch" his other sizes while giving me a gentle gesture to scurry along. I held my ground and apologized as we had a six shoe to a bench limit policy, which we really didn’t, but I was worried.
I told him I, unfortunately, couldn't bring any more pairs out until the unneeded sizes were put back into stock. Corey looked straight ahead for about five seconds, then swiftly reached into his right pocket, pulling out a wad of cash wrapped in a rubber band. He pushed it directly into my chest, causing the rubber band to break and cash to fly everywhere, and yelled, “I got money!”
Before I could brace myself with a backstep from the impact, he scooped the money off the bench and floor, wrapped it up the front of his shirt, and scowled at me. In a matter of seconds, he and his friend kicked off the shoes and stormed out of the store. My manager was asked what happened, and as I was telling him the story, we heard a violent knocking on our glass front window.
It was Corey Williams holding a bag from Champs, flipping me off, and screaming something along the effect of "Competition gets your money now!" Footlocker owned Champs, so at the end of the day, the Champs manager brought down Corey Williams’ money to us, and I deposited it in our safe.
54. Terrible Management
About 10 years ago when I was working in retail as an assistant manager, I was transferred to a nearby store to essentially act as manager while the current manager was on leave for stomach cancer. There was no extra pay involved, and I wasn't terribly happy about having to do it, but I wanted to prove myself and played the part. Fast forward nine months, the original manager returns and re-assumes the position of acting manager.
Almost immediately, I didn't care much for the guy. He seemed shallow, petty, and had little regard for the well-being of his employees. Again, I played the part and was civil. Around three months later, my grandfather had passed, and my family was in the process of deciding what to do with my grandmother, as she wouldn't be able to afford their house. Talking to my boss about this, he mentioned that he couldn't wait until his grandparents passed because he would inherit all kinds of awesome stuff.
Especially because of what I was dealing with, but also in general, I was disgusted by him. My family had finally worked out on a somewhat short notice being able to move my grandmother and sort through her belongings because she was moving to a much smaller home and couldn't bring everything. It was expected to be an emotional affair for the entire family as the family had a lot of history and memories in that house. The date of the move was a scheduled working day for me. Things were typically flexible as far as having shifts covered, so I didn't think it would be a problem switching shifts.
When I brought it up to my boss, he showed absolutely no regard for my situation and told me that I couldn't switch shifts. There was no valid reason for this. It was just him being his manipulative self. I lost it. In a store full of customers and other employees, I blew up at him. I'm pretty sure I called him every name in the book as he sat there wide-eyed and mouth agape. When I was finished, I tore my uniform shirt off, threw it on the ground, and walked out.
When I returned from helping my family, my district manager requested we get together and talk. She listened to my story, and after having heard various accounts of what happened, pleaded with me to stay with the company by finding me a position at another store. I didn't expect that in the least. Six months later, my former manager had been fired for theft and I soon was promoted. Later, it was found out that he never actually had cancer, but just wanted to take a paid vacation at the expense of everyone else.
55. Don’t Know Her
My boss made my life at work miserable. Then I was transferred to another department where I had a great boss, and we uncovered all of the old boss’s screwups. Politics arrived and my new boss was bought out of his contract and the department went back to the old boss who violated the law and company policies. I complained to HR and got a nice buyout. A few years later, the old boss was looking for work and I was contacted for a reference by the recruiting agency. I didn’t say much and that spoke volumes. She never got the job.
56. Looking Good Until The End
I had to spend three days cleaning a condemned building. It was bookmarked for demolition in the coming weeks. I had to sweep, mop, and clean a structure that was going to be destroyed because a general was coming through in a few days. He was going to inspect the progress of the demolition of the buildings in that area, and they didn't want it to be dirty for him.
57. Lifelong Accomplishments
After working for 37 years, I requested leave from work to care for my partner who was dying of cancer. I had eight weeks of PTO time and was denied the request, so I quit to care for him in his last month of life.
58. A Costly Mistake
The boss came in and had a massive rant about something that someone else had done. He fired me, I went home and started another job almost immediately. Two weeks later, I got a phone call: “I need the password for the office server”. “It's in an envelope in the backup safe”. Turns out, he had thrown out all my paperwork including the server password. I felt I had been unfairly dismissed, said I was going to go to a tribunal, and had been advised to say nothing to them until it was resolved. Two years of medical research was locked away until my dispute was settled.
59. Put On The Brakes!
I worked at a camp for kids with disabilities. One of my coworkers was at the top of the stairs with her camper in a wheelchair. She turned her back for two seconds to get a hat for her camper WITHOUT putting the brakes on the wheelchair. There was a slight slope and the kid rolled down the cement steps, head first, splitting his head wide open. It was just awful. I will never get that sight out of my head.
60. Moment’s Notice
IT manager here. I was working for a company that didn't consider us a real department. Lots of things leading up to this, but the last straw was an announcement that a satellite office was being shut down and any employees that could, would relocate to our office. We, the IT department, found out about this at the same time as the rest of the company MONTHS after the decision had been made.
Nobody told us anything, and this would involve obscene amounts of extra travel, hours, and stress as we accommodate the moves, the infrastructure, and everything else involved with such a move. I left in the middle of the announcement. My boss, the CFO threatened me to fire me if I don't do the work. Well, you can't fire someone who's already quit.
Then the CEO calls me and asks me back to negotiate. I agree to come back for six months if I get a 25% raise for myself and my entire team. After six months, I left and they laid off everyone else.
61. Dial Tone
I once worked at an environmental testing lab for seven years and was terminated for accidentally not doing a duplicate test on a sample that the EPA wanted tested. Turns out, no one else in the lab knew how to do the tests I did.
So a couple of days later, my lab manager calls me up on the phone at home and tries to act all sweet and telling me that I got a raw deal (even though he was the one that reported me and put all the blame on me so that he wouldn’t get in any trouble).
He then asks me really nicely if I could please tell him how the test was done. I’ve never hung up a phone so hard in all my life.
62. The Lone Wolf
I worked at a fabric store not far from where I lived, stocking merchandise. Some years back, I had a customer—a furry in a wolf costume—who was showing me what he wanted without saying anything. I went ahead and showed him where to locate what he wanted, and he thanked me by honking his nose while making a very soft, high-pitched squeaking noise. It was odd.
63. Baked with Power
I worked at Walmart for a month in the bakery section. I was doing fine and getting along with the other employees, but then we get a new assistant manager. This woman has given other family members of mine problems at different Walmart stores. When she found out who my mom was, she started harassing me and would patronize me in front of customers.
The worst part was that she would have me work the bakery by myself until closing every night when everyone else got to leave at 2 PM while I would stay until 8 PM. She also made me work in the deli section, wouldn't let me take my breaks, and wanted me to clean the bakery every night alone. I had been working alone from 2 pm-8 pm for four days straight.
On the next day I came in, and right before the other bakery employees were about to leave, I tossed my vest, told another employee I quit, and left.
64. A Snow-Brainer
My boss eliminated my position as a cost-saving measure, and as I was clearing out my stuff, I mentioned to her that she’d need to contract snow removal, as I was the guy that did the shoveling, scraping, and salting.
“Oh," she said, “I never thought of that”. I was laid off right before the winter snow arrived, and this is the sort of contract that one needs to arrange several months in advance, and the cost to have sidewalks cleared promptly and preferably before business hours was likely greater than my monthly salary.
Everyone else in the office were petite women who had to be absolutely immaculately groomed, and sweat and scent-free, and shoveling snow was well below their pay grade and skill set anyway.
65. Trying To Talk Trash
I was at work and came across a guy who couldn't figure out how to use a trash can. It might have been dementia, but he walked around and around it and didn't seem to be able to see the hole in the can. So, I grabbed some trash off of my floorboard to sort of demonstrate where the trash can hole was, but regardless, he still didn’t seem to figure it out.
66. Shift in Tragedy
I quit my first job when I was 15. It was the summer, and I was a lifeguard at a pool where one of the best club swimming teams in the US practiced daily. I was good friends with one of the better swimmers on the team, but it was more of a relationship where I looked up to him in a major way. He was really kind and smart and funny, anyone you asked would have nothing but good things to say about him.
One day I was woken up by my mom who was good friends with the kid's parents and she told me that he had passed on in a car accident the night before. I was extremely distraught because he was one of the best people I had ever met, but I still went to work that day. At work, I couldn't focus, I would randomly break out in tears and start hyperventilating, I lost my faith in God, and it was overall a really terrible day.
About halfway through my shift, I went to my boss and asked him if I could go home because I was really upset. He told me, "No, you can't. Going home isn't going to bring back your friend, and your job should be your primary focus during the day". I replied with something along the lines of, "You can shove it. I quit," and stormed out. I didn't have any regrets after doing that, I felt like it was the right thing to do, and no one thought any less of me for it.
67. Double Or Nothing
I got hired to rebuild an electric system for a municipality. I was a year into it and almost done when raise time came around and everyone got $1-an-hour raise but me. I went to the next board meeting and requested an equivalent % raise.
They laughed and said nope! Then one board person said I was temporary so they wouldn’t give me a raise. I stated I didn’t know I was temporary and would have to look for another job. Made a phone call the next morning, had a new job paying much better starting the next Monday.
I called the Mayor and told him I quit. He told me to come to the office at 2:00. The board members were there and the woman that told me I was temporary started giving me a hard time about two weeks' notice.
I waited until she was done ranting and told her that because I was temporary, notice wasn’t necessary. I then negotiated to work weekends for time-and-a-half of my new pay rate to finish the substation controls. When they called me for an outage on the 4th of July because none of their workers would answer the phones, they paid me double my rate. Minimum for holiday pay. They never called after that!
68. Bathroom Bungle
I was working late one day and thought I was the only one still in the building. I was nervous being there alone because there was a prior incident in the building where two women who came in on a Saturday had been murdered. I was in the women’s restroom when a person I thought was a man suddenly walked in. I said, “Hey, this is the women’s room. Get out!” It turns out it was a woman. She replied, “I’m sorry, what did you say?” I just excused myself and left.
69. Hanging Up My Apron
A very long time ago, I worked at a Kinko's. Either the manager or the assistant manager was on duty every day of the week, in theory. Both of them were lazy. Neither stayed for more than an hour of their shifts and they trained me to do the daily paperwork. There was a deadline for when it had to be sent to corporate so that often had me leaving the front counter one person short during our busier times of the day. When it got slammed, I'd have to go through the whole procedure to stop what I was doing.
First, I had to wait for the safe to open, put the money in marking how far I had gotten with the counting and trying to resolve any cash vs receipts mismatches, and go up front to help after taking four minutes to pack the money in the safe. Then I'd have to reverse it when I came back. So, eight minutes shot every time I was called up front, and often that was as often as every 10 minutes during busy hours. 18 minutes gone for 10 minutes’ paperwork.
I'm in the middle of my final quarter of school when I get a scathing performance review. I was leaving the front unattended for too long. I pointed out that I shouldn't be doing the paperwork in the first place, but of course, that didn't fly. Apparently, the district manager had just laid into the manager for never being in the store when the DM came by and I was going to be her punching bag.
I don't get angry often, but blaming me for not being at the counter while I was doing her job made me livid. We agreed that I'd take the three-day paid "decision-making leave" where I would decide if I really wanted to continue working there. I would never have to do the paperwork again. I was two weeks from my portfolio review, and I had no time to be looking for a job.
My first day back, the assistant manager comes in for his shift. "Hurry up and go do the paperwork. I've got paintball in an hour!" I said, "Screw you". I rolled up the apron and threw it at him and walked straight out the back door. As satisfying as it was in the moment, I was freaking out about how I would pay rent all that night. I got a job right after my portfolio review, so it ended up working out in the end.
70. Say It With Flowers
I knew someone who was working in a garden center who got fired, through no fault of their own. Apparently, the manager was disliked by most of the staff. The employee got the most epic revenge.
Opposite the garden center, there was a muddy bank and the dismissed person returned after dark and planted a load of daffodils in the banking. This was in the Autumn. Come spring, they obviously bloomed—and they spelled out “(manager’s name) is a moron”.
71. Copy That!
I used to manage a copy and print store. One day, I had this very innocent-looking lady in her 70s come in. She had me copy several covers to cleaning/repair manuals for various armaments and heavy-duty munitions. This wasn't too out of the ordinary since my store was the closest copy place to our county fairgrounds, where we had gun shows about every month.
Less than a week later, she came back with a slightly odder print job. I looked them over, and my blood ran cold: covers for about a half dozen homemade explosives manuals, tactical tags for maps—marking IEDs, enemy/friendly units, rally and objective points—and detailed maps of our local air force base. This clearly sent up a few red flags, but for some reason, refusing to copy them for her just didn't seem safe.
After she left, I notified my regional manager and the FBI. Two agents were at my store in less than 15 minutes. They erased all the hard drives on my copiers, and I spent the next two hours answering questions. I got a call from one of the agents a few days later with a few final questions and the standard, "Thanks for doing this service to your country." I never heard anything more related to that incident.
72. Low Ink Levels
My boss didn't do payroll before leaving on a business trip and left it to the poor office manager to tell people they weren't going to get paid on time. I walked out of the staff meeting saying I'd be back when paychecks arrived. By the time I got home, I was mad enough to call my ops manager back and quit. Why didn't the boss do payroll? The stated answer was printer toner cartridge at home was empty. Guess he'd never heard of writing checks with a pen.
73. Not So Fast
I was accused of something and the owner told me I had to come to another town to get my last paycheck. By law, they had to provide my paycheck at the store where I worked. The store was going to move to the larger store next door. I filed a lien which prevented them from moving. I got my check pretty quickly.
freepik,wayhomestudio
74. That Punk Took A Bite Out Of My Paycheck
I was bartending on Thanksgiving eve. The place was packed. My boss was cheap and refused to let anyone work but myself and my 5-foot co-bartender. This turned me into a bouncer/bartender. I had a very unruly, punk kid come down to my end, obviously overserved, and demand that I give him free drinks for the place being so packed.
I calmly explained to him that he was more than welcome to leave or buy a drink. He decided to buy himself and his three friends drinks. Before I gave them their drinks, I asked them to see their stamps or IDs. When none of them showed me any proof, I asked them all to leave, as, per the law, anyone without valid 21 proof was not allowed at the bar.
The other three agreed; however, the young man, who demanded free drinks, refused to leave. This is where things got messy. After a loud disagreement, he finally figured the best way to resolve the situation was to spit on me. After being spat on, I put him in a headlock and dragged him out of the bar. While I was holding him—kindly asking him if he was going to be calm—he proceeded to bite through my skin between my thumb and index finger.
When I finally had my wits together, I searched for the kid, but he was gone. I decided I had had enough and threw everyone out. By the time I had finished closing, it was 6 AM. The bite wound was deep, and I needed to go to the hospital. I got nine stitches in my hand, had to be tested to see if I contracted anything, and didn't get home until 9:30 am Thanksgiving morning. But it wasn't even over.
Then at 8 pm, I had to go open the bar for the evening. I arrived to find a town officer sitting waiting for me. It turns out this officer was the father of the kid who bit me. He wrote me four citations for allowing underage kids into the bar, called my boss, and had me taken off for the night. The tickets cost me everything I made on Thanksgiving eve, and I lost roughly $700 from not working.
75. See You, Motel 8-er
At my first job out of college, I was informed that it might involve some "light travel," which was fine. However, about two weeks into working there, this turned out to mean they wanted me to spend 6+ months in a cheap motel room with my slob of a boss in Arkansas. Now, I'm a young guy and can handle most types, but I think it's incredibly unprofessional to have to see your boss in nothing but his tighty-whities as he brings back trashy chicks from the latest dive bar and makes you leave the hotel while he screws them.
I'd have complained but the guy above the two of us was his longtime friend and fraternity brother—I wasn't winning any arguments. I spent three months there before they brought us back to the main office for a one-week stretch and I decided that this just wasn't for me and I couldn't go back. I walked into the main office and just told them it wasn't for me and gave my two weeks. I handled it professionally.
It was them who decided the next day to bring me into the conference room where about 20 co-workers were sitting only to have the boss make me stand while he called me a quitter and let them know that "This is what someone who isn't committed to their job" looks like. The next day I came in and my stuff was in a box and I was told that my two weeks' notice was not needed and they didn't want me to return.
Two weeks later I had an interview for a better paying job which I've been in for four years and haven't looked back.
76. The Surgical Approach
I worked for a surgical instruments supplier. I found out that no sales manager lasted more than three months because they fired them on a flimsy excuse and then followed up all the quotes/leads generated.
Sure enough, at my three-month review, I was fired for not making enough appointments. I later researched the managing director and found out that he was barred from this position as he was an undischarged bankrupt.
I reported him to the relevant authorities and he had to resign his directorship, putting his son in his place and still effectively running the business. I reported him again, and he got a massive fine and barely avoided prison.
77. This Job Stung Like A Bee
I worked for a landscaper. Upon mowing a new client's back lawn one day, I discovered a large hole in the ground with bees flying in and out of it. They appeared perturbed by the mower. Wanting to avoid a righteous stinging, I pointed this out to my boss. His "solution" was absolutely insane. He wanted to pour gasoline down the hole and ignite it! And I did it!
After I tossed the match, the hole indeed lit up. Then I noticed something was wrong... The fire pushed the entire underground colony out through the other six or seven previously undiscovered holes around the lawn, surrounding us with thousands of angry bees. I should have quit that day, but it took a tree almost falling on me and getting paid in gas RC cars to make me finally look elsewhere.
78. On the Dot
I was working at a call center. My shift started at 10. I badged into the building at about 9:55 and logged on, but the decrepit PC I was using took so long to boot up that when I finally logged in, I was 15 seconds late. I told my supervisor and he said there's nothing he can do and since I was late, I was put on probation and wouldn't be eligible for a raise for another month. He then said that I should arrive 15 minutes early so that situation won't happen again. I handed him my headset, walked out, and have never worked in a call center since.
79. A Wrench In The Works
My friend Bob worked in an oil field. A wrench was dropped down a well, and Bob was blamed. So Bob fished the wrench out of the well. As he was putting the wrench away, the boss said, “You’re fired!" Bob was putting the wrench back in the toolbox, so he got his revenge right there and then. He picked up the toolbox and dumped half of the tools down the well.
80. We Were On A Roll
I worked at a restaurant. We were short-staffed, and the oven steamer was broken. As a result, I had to cook everything, including a lobster tail, in the microwave. The bartender called my coworker and me out into the dining room so the customer could tell us it was the best lobster he had ever eaten. He said, "Red Lobster has nothing on you!"
81. Selective Memory
My manager claimed to have called me to change my schedule, but my phone didn't show any missed calls from his number so he was lying. Then the same day, he scheduled me to work a shift that afternoon without confirming that I was free or willing to pick up the extra shift. When I came into my next shift, he asked why I didn't come in for my scheduled shifts showing me my work schedule that he'd printed out.
I told him I hadn't been scheduled for that shift, showed him the screenshot of my original posted schedule from two days after it had been officially posted that showed I hadn't been scheduled for that day. He said it was fine, smiled and nodded, and sent me back to my shift. Next week's schedule comes out, I have no shifts. I ask what's up, and he says that since I missed a shift and didn't call in to say I'd be missing, I had to lose two weeks of hours. I again asked why that would be happening if I had come in for my scheduled hours, reminding him we had talked about it, he had said it was fine.
He pretended that he didn't remember that conversation. He was absolutely shocked when I quit before the two weeks were over. I got a voice mail three days later asking why I didn't show up to my scheduled shifts that week, and when I called him back asking what about "I got a new job and will not be back" was unclear, he claimed that he had never called me or left a voicemail and I must have just been confused!
Yeah, sure, some guy with your voice took your phone, called my number, claimed to be you, and used my name in the voicemail, mentioning my new job and confusion over my new schedule, to benefit who? To accomplish what? That manager got let go a few weeks later. Found out he had been pulling the same thing with other employees. They erased his name from the front of the building and everything.
82. Slipped My Mind…
A road truck driver I know was fired for dropping off freight at an agency in New Jersey because his tractor-trailer combination was too long for the streets in New York City. But HQ didn’t tell him when he dropped off the load.
They apparently decided to fire him when the agency submitted bills for re-delivery. The agency filled out his semi-trailer and he left, heading west to make multiple deliveries. HQ called him a day or two later and fired him over the phone.
But they didn’t mention his load. The agency didn’t know HQ was going to fire him.
So he left the company semi-trailer (he owned the tractor) in a truck stop parking lot. Somewhere between Ohio (where he made a delivery) and… well… presumably Oklahoma where he lived. And the company didn’t notice for two days… And he ditched their calls for the next day… And he had a sudden bout of amnesia when he did speak to them. Gee, those truck stops all look the same.
83. Best Buds No More
This guy at work started at the same time I did and we become buds. We hang out, play some Xbox, the whole nine yards. We worked together for two and a half years at this store and eventually were the two most senior associates.
A promotion comes up to become a Director's Assistant and basically get an automatic pay-rate bump plus full-time. We are both interviewed, and we agreed that we would put our best foot forward and not hold any regrets.
The dude beat me out in the end, and I congratulated him on his victory. He acts a little off but tells me it was a close run, and he knew I was a good candidate. Then I discovered his brutal betrayal. A week after the promotion, the store director calls me in for a serious sit-down.
He says, "I hear you have been cheating the time clock, possibly stealing, and giving discounts to friends". I deny, deny, deny that and ask for proof, or I was going to sue. I’m given a "forced three days off" while it is investigated by corporate.
I’m called in a week after suspension for a sit-down with the big shot. They apologized and promoted me to the DA position. They tell me that my buddy was caught on tape several times stealing, his electronic journal showed consistent unwarranted discounts, and other activities—even though he had “tipped” them off to my supposed activities.
When they confronted him, he broke down, apologized, and returned some stuff he planned to swipe after his shift. This jerk tried to frame me to get ahead.
84. 4’O Clock Shadow
I worked as a stock boy in the back of Hollister. I never really had any interaction with customers but was still forced to buy their clothes to wear to work. They had all these rules about hairstyles, fingernails, and facial hair. One night I came in to start a shift at 2:30 am to do a floor change, which meant the shift would end around the time the store opened up. I had the slightest bit of stubble on my face, like a day and a half's worth of stubble.
My manager, at 4 am, told me she had a problem with my facial hair and that when the mall opened up, I better go buy a razor and shave before anyone saw me like that, or she would have to send me home for the night. I basically said, "Well lucky for me, I was planning on quitting anyway, good luck with the floor change," and walked out. I left, got a biscuit breakfast, went home, and got in bed.
85. We’ll Be In Touch
I was let go when the owner’s new son-in-law was put in my spot. A few years later, the son-in-law was caught heading up the street with a desktop computer under each arm. I was heading up a department in a different company and received a call from the aforementioned son-in-law, looking for work.
I had it all planned out. He would arrive and I would have security remove him from the building! A co-worker advised me to just interview him and then basically say, “Don’t call us, we’ll call you”. And she was right.
86. What He Does In The Shadows
I worked for an online banking help desk and this 18-year-old boy phoned up, saying he had seen a transaction for $7 to “allpay” and because he didn't recognize it, he decided the bank was robbing him of $7 and that I was in on it and I was a "thieving little jerk”. Then he gets his dad on the phone who stuck up for his idiot of a son, saying I was a pathetic idiot stealing off an 18-year-old boy, even though it was a debit card transaction and I simply worked in the department that helped people use online banking.
But anyway, I phoned our debit card services to see if they could give any more information, and boy could they. I then had the pleasure of relaying back to this little brat’s equally bratty father the following.
"Hi sir, thanks for holding. I've checked with our debit card services team and I now understand why your son would not have recognized the payee “allpay”. That's a deliberately vague term used for discretion when the customer has subscribed to online adult images. That's what it was for. Your son has been paying for online videos of that nature. Would you like to pop him back on the phone so I can tell him it's a payment for this, or will you pass on the information?"
The father just muttered that the issue did not require any further investigation, thanked me for looking into it, and hung up.
87. Big Job, Big Attitude
I worked at Wal-Mart as a "stockman" for about a year. After the summer season was over, a supervisor asked me to move the 80-100+ lb. planks that went around bags of soil from the lawn and garden area in the parking lot back to their storage sheds which were probably a good 500 yards away. She told me to do this all myself and to have it done in an hour.
I went to the planks, and couldn't even pick one up by myself because of how long they were—I'm 6'2" tall and 230 lbs. I got on the walkie talkie and told her that I couldn't lift one by myself and would need help. She basically told me I was just whining and complaining. Anyway, eventually she sent help and after she sent another guy to help me, we were an hour deep in moving these things and only about 1/3 the way done with the job.
The supervisor herself and one more person decided to help us at that point. Anyway, it took six people two hours to move what she originally had told me to do within an hour by myself. At lunchtime when it was time to clock out, she decided to wait for me by the time clock so she could discuss my attitude. I told her there was nothing to discuss and said "Six people, two hours. Screw you, I quit!" and clocked out and left.
A couple of days later they called me to fill out some quittin' papers and for my reason for leaving I wrote "managerial incompetence and poor worker morale". About a month later I ran into a different supervisor who said the supervisor who did this got demoted because of it. Different supervisor begged me to come back but I found a better job working at a grocery store where no one was like the slave drivers at Wal-Mart after that.
88. Keeping It Classy
I heard once that the best revenge is living well. I was fired from a job that I moved across the country to take after seven months. So there I was, in a new place, with a lease, a house on the market 1,000 miles away, and my mother dying. (The triggering event was that I went to be with her without giving “sufficient notice”).
I spent the next six weeks dealing with the initial estate issues, then got myself hired at a place that values me and treats me well. I’m living well, thank you very much. I rarely even think about that earlier situation.
89. Check Out This Piece Of Work
This happened a couple of times over many years when I was a cashier. Every time, I would scan her 1,000 items and hit total, then she decides to start digging in her purse to find her checkbook. After a few minutes, she finds it, and then starts to slowly fill it out. Of course, a line has built and people looked like their life was slowly draining out of them. I felt it too.
I ran the check through the register (it scanned it or whatever) then put it in the bottom of the cash drawer. I hand her the receipt then she held her hand back out. I am not entirely sure why, because I wanted her to go, not give me a high five. She just went ahem at me and said "Where is my check"? I looked at her confused, "In the drawer, where I just put it after the transaction".
"I want my check back," she yelled. "Ma'am we have to keep the check in to deposit in the bank, in case there are any transaction errors". She was shaking her head no the entire time, "No, I have to get it back, otherwise somebody could steal my identity”. I tried to assure her that from the register we put it in the safe at night, then in the morning, and the armed guard takes it to the bank for deposit.
She would not accept it and said that if she could not get it back then she would return her purchase and get it back to buy things elsewhere. This must have been a power play for her, but she messed up. You see I was on my last week at that job. I asked for her receipt, which I got, pulled up her transaction, and hit void previous transaction.
I grabbed her check, the receipt, and the void receipt, then handed it to her, "There, I have voided the transaction and returned your check. Good luck at the next store”. I then started removing her items from the bags and making a stack beside me on the floor. She looked dumbfounded, jaw dropped. "NO, I purchased those, those are mine”.
I kindly, with the most customer service voice I could muster replied, "You told me that if you could not have your check back, you would buy things elsewhere, and I had already told you we were not able to give it back, so I voided your purchase and now you have your check back. " I looked at the next person in line, "I can help the next person".
That beautiful customer stepped forward, right next to the lady, and started a conversation about some cereal she bought. By that time the manager had come over, and the lady began yelling at him. He ended up ringing her items back up in the aisle next to mine and she paid by check but was again unable to keep the check. I could hear it all well, in fact, half the aisle was watching their show of an interaction.
The BEST part was when she was demanding her check back (again) he asked if she wanted him to void it out so she could go elsewhere. She nearly exploded, ripped the receipt out of his hand, threw the bags in her cart, and breaking things by the sound, and stormed out yelling. The cherry on top was that on her way out she turned back to yell more at us and ran into the door frame with her cart.
Laughter erupted from a few kids nearby. What a great day.
90. Mourning Event Staff
A friend of mine passed nearly a decade ago. When I requested the day off for his funeral, my request was denied. I had to go to work after going to the funeral of my 21-year-old friend. I was an event captain, so I had to be the face of the staff for the contact of the event, I tried my hardest to put on a happy face, but I failed. My mood was terrible and the event contact complained to my boss after the event.
The next week I was scheduled as an event server for my whole schedule with less hourly pay, less tip percentage. When I asked my boss, I was told that I had been demoted because of the complaint from the prior event. I quit on the spot, I should not have been forced to work that day, and I should not have been demoted for being in a bad mood after burying one of my closest friends. Screw that place.
91. The Long Walk
I knew someone whose boss fired him, out in the field, while on a service call. The boss had ridden with him. He dumped everything that belonged to the company out of his pickup and drove off. Yep, HIS pickup.
30 miles from anywhere, nobody else around, and NO cell phone reception. He did stop by where he used to work, to clear his locker, collect his check, and tell them to think about sending somebody to retrieve the idiot.
92. That’s On You
I film and edit promotional videos, then post them on my company’s YouTube channel. The day after I uploaded a particular run-of-the-mill video, my manager called me into his office because one of our directors, who hates our department and loves undermining me in particular, sent an email to my manager and a few higher-ups. That's when it got cringey.
In the email, he stated that I had messed up the promo video, because there were “all of these other disgusting videos attached to it.” As proof, he included a screenshot of the end of the video, where all of the recommended videos appeared to star scantily-clad Asian women in suggestive poses. Neither he nor my manager knew how YouTube algorithms worked.
He didn’t realize that the videos were suggested because he, or someone on his account, viewed that kind of content before. I have no idea how my manager explained this to him.
93. Fatal Nepotism
My aunt got me a job as a tech in a chemical plant. As I was young and stupid, I told the guy who was supposed to train me that I got the job through my aunt. He decided to "haze me". After the first shift I already almost decked him as he would handily forget to tell me things and would berate and belittle me all the time. The second shift it continued and while I was working on a pipe, he didn't close it as he was supposed to do.
If I hadn't been aware of the rumbling and rolled away, I would have been blasted by a jet of boiling steam. I went to the team leader, he said I was overreacting but he proposed to move me to another shift. I quit. My aunt was pretty upset with me until she heard, through the rumor mill, that the guy indeed had done what I said he did.
94. The Domino Effect
I was once the manager of a corporate Domino's store and was fired for giving a thief too much money. I filed a discrimination case and during depositions, it was found out that the area manager was taking supplies from the stores he overlooked and was afraid that I would discover him as I went over my bills with a fine-tooth comb.
The day before we went to trial they wrote me a big six-figure check and paid my legal fees. That's sweet revenge.
95. No Connection
A very grumpy high-society woman came to the store saying her brand new 3,000-dollar Microsoft surface bought by her husband was defective because she could not get internet when she was on the move. I quickly realized she was talking about Wi-Fi, so I tried explaining to her how Wi-Fi actually works. Boy, was that a mistake!
I told her that she could not use her Wi-Fi outside her house, but that she could share her smartphone internet connection. She would have none of it. She said I was lying to her and making fun of her. She even asked to speak to my manager, who then proceeded to tell her the exact same thing, almost to the word. She left screaming.
96 Projecting Gossip
I worked at a restaurant and the hostess was convinced I was sleeping with the owner. I was not. She was convinced the money I was using to take a vacation must have come from him and that I was hooking up with him behind his family’s back. She made things really weird and horrible for a couple of days. She told the new hires I was saying nasty things about them and made up really bad rumors about me.
I walked out of a shift after she confronted me in the storage room demanding I admit I was banging this guy. This guy who I never interacted with outside of the occasional table transfer or inventory update was bald, fat, and married, and had hardly said more than a hundred words to me beyond work instructions. After I left, I found out the dark truth. It turned out they were sleeping together and she was crazy. I'm so glad I quit.
97. A Happy Coincidence
My friend transferred from the IT department to a small marketing team which she felt was a better match for her skills and talents. After a while, it became downright unpleasant. The other team member (I did say it was a small team) did not pull her weight and was hostile.
But there was no use complaining to the boss because he was having an affair with the other team member! Anyway, my friend quietly looked around for another job and was offered a post elsewhere at a much higher salary.
She wrote out her resignation letter and took it to work the next day. She delayed handing it in, perhaps not wanting a confrontation. During the morning, the boss called her into the office and told her she was being made redundant!
She took her remaining holiday time and left with a hefty redundancy payment, straight into her new job!
98. Hey, I Know You
Former Uber driver here. I picked up a very well-dressed lady from one side of town who was heading to a very rich neighborhood on the other side of town. During the ride, she made a series of calls and it became clear she was a "working girl" with quite a few customers. It also became clear that I was delivering her to her biggest client.
He was an accident and injury attorney who is known for extremely extensive advertising in my local area. Anybody around here would know his name...and he was supposed to be married with a family and everything. Ah. Well. My passenger indicated otherwise. His house was a very nice mansion by the beach. Law must pay well.
99. Following Up
My insufferable manager followed me after work to my second job because she didn't believe I had one and was just using it as an excuse to get out early. My manager at my second job said, "There's some crazy lady banging on the doors yelling your name". So, I grabbed my uniform from my bag, opened the door, threw it in her face, and told her to shove off.
100. Bye, Karen
After recovering from cancer I went back to work and was called to a meeting with my boss. The first thing she said to me was not hello or any other suitable greeting but, “At your age and with your sickness you should retire”.
I still had six years of service before my retirement date. I stuck it out for about one year and then went to HR and asked them to make me an offer to leave. HR knew of the awful relationship with my boss, who had managed to get rid of all the men in the department.
They made me a very generous offer to leave provided I didn’t take them to court for harassment. I left with a six-digit sum.
A short while later, she was moved to another department. Then she went to another company where she lasted less than six months, then to another company, and yet another company. I think she has changed companies five times in four years.
She's such a nasty person who can’t hold a job down without upsetting all her staff. However, daddy is a famous politician, so she will always get a job because of her connections. Her not keeping down a job was, for me, the perfect kind of karma for Karen.
101. All Good Things Come To An End
I woke up without an alarm, had breakfast, took a bath, and drove half hour to my work feeling great. I even thought to myself on the way, "Lucky me, the traffic is very nice today." Just when I arrived, the security greeted me with the worst words possible: "Good morning, sir, working even over the holiday?" I drove all the way home and had a nap.
102. Overwhelming Toxicity
I visited this one Brazilian family weekly. The couple had a tumultuous relationship—he ran around on her all the time and was known to give her a smack every now and then. Any time she spoke up, he threatened to kick her out. She was undocumented and he wasn’t, so she and her kids would have been homeless or worse.
The social worker and I had been secretly working with her for a while, trying to get the authorities involved, etc. Then, one day, I was doing therapy with the baby when the husband came out to show me the revolver he just bought. His next words were appalling—he said he got it so that he could “deal with anyone who messed with his family.”
I felt terrible because they pulled me out of the home right away and left the baby there. I don’t know what happened to that family. Worst of all, our Brazilian translator just brushed it off, saying, “Eh, that’s just how Brazilian marriages are. “ It broke my heart.
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103. 60 Days
The company I worked at for many years fired me without warning. My boss was a strange guy, and I had seen him fire other people without warning as well. He always offered to let people stay on for 60 days until they could find new work. But they would have to sign a document stating that they were “voluntarily” walking off the job and waiving all rights to unemployment.
When he fired me, he also gave me the option. I did not accept, as it seemed a lot better of a deal to have unemployment in case I could not find work within the 60 days. The company tried to appeal my unemployment, but my case was foolproof—after several years of loyal service, the only black marks on my record were being less than 15 minutes late to work three times. I let the judge in the unemployment hearing know that they offered to keep me on if I had signed away my right to unemployment. She let me know that it was against the law to do so, and ruled in my favor.
Every weekly unemployment deposit was like a tiny victory until I found a new job.
