There’s always one annoying person who spoils the fun for everybody else. Whether it’s the coworker who over-indulges at the work party, the class clown who acts out on school trips, or the greedy friend who always takes more than they should, there’s usually someone who takes things too far, often resulting in a collective punishment of some sort. Here are frustrating moments when Reddit users took a loss because someone else took things too far and ruined it for everyone else.
1. Sounds Like He Wanted Free Food Too
I work in a supermarket and years ago any roast chickens that were left over at the end of the night used to be given to the night staff to eat for dinner. This vegetarian worker complained to management that it was unfair to him...
So, they told us that the chickens had to go in the bin from then on. No one got anything.
2. The Poor Animals Are The Ones Who Lose
I work in a supermarket. We used to donate our waste fruit and vegetable to the local zoo to feed the animals, in particular, their warthogs (I think the other animals were on a more controlled diet).
The owner came to pick up the crates twice a week. At first, he took the whole lot, but then he started to refuse some of the damaged foods. Fair enough, but I doubt a warthog would turn its snout up at a split melon. He started to complain that the produce was near its best before date. But then he tooks things up a notch.
One day he arrived as we were unloading a fresh delivery and he started to help himself to the stock as we unloaded it. He was taking full crates of mangos, dragon fruits, kiwis, pineapples, and so on.
We told him he couldn't have those crates and we took them back. He kept grabbing crates of fruit as we continued to unload the truck and we kept taking them back. Eventually, security was called and he was walked off the premises.
We stopped providing the zoo with free fruit and vegetables and we started to just bin it all. But we felt extremely bad for the animals.
Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz , Pexels
3. I Doubt Anyone Wanted To Keep Playing With Him Anyway
When I was in elementary school, I got Crazy Bones banned for the entire school because I was winning everybody’s pieces. I was relentless and didn’t even give other kids a chance. They went home crying and parents started to complain.
I got in trouble for not playing fairly, and that was the end of crazy bones at school.
4. That’ll Do It
The Sears where I grew up used to have free buttered popcorn at their candy counter for kids. Someone spilled it, resulting in another customer slipping and falling and then suing.
The solution? The entire candy section was removed. All. The. Candy. Was. Gone.
5. Not The Cell Phones!
There was a dumb guy who answered his phone in front of the judge presiding over his case at the district courthouse where I live. All cell phones were banned instantly. Not that I’m there too often but in this day and age it’s a real pain in the rear to not bring your phone somewhere.
6. Snarky Teachers
When I was in sixth grade, the boys really liked playing bloody knuckles in the cafeteria before school. They were told to stop multiple times and didn't, so they forced our entire grade to then sit with our homerooms at lunch instead of our friends. But I wasn’t about to take it sitting down.
Three or four other kids and I got together and wrote a letter to the sixth-grade team, Principal and Vice Principal, and school board pointing out exactly where in the handbook it was stated that they would not and could not punish an entire group for the acts of a few.
I typed the letter up and my parents proofread it. One of the sentences was, essentially, "The punishment meted out to us and our classmates who have done no wrong”…
The next day in our reading class, we were scheduled to have a vocabulary test. Anybody that signed that letter had an extra word to define...and it counted toward our score.
That word? Meted.
That was 20 years ago, and even thinking about it makes me mad again.
7. No More DIY Burritos
Hey I am that guy. I ruined it for everyone else.
When I worked at Whole Foods, I use to make my own burritos, I loaded the heck out of the thing with rice beans and meat enough for two meals. One day the store manager walked by and saw how fat I was making my burrito, now you can no longer make anything for yourself it has to be made by another employee.
Oops!
8. If I Can’t Have It, No One Can!
I was working on a TV show and the head of wardrobe told production that we shouldn’t have dessert with our catered lunches because she was struggling to lose weight.
So, of course production cancelled dessert for everyone.
9. Social Media Has Ruined A Lot Of Things
You know who ruins things for everyone else? The “Tik Tokers” claiming to be work-from-home employees showing hacks on how to pretend to work (sleeping on the job, vacationing on the clock, etc).
Now employers think work-from-home employees are rigging the system and not actually working. Hence wanting us back in the office.
10. What A Rat
At work, we got a 15-minute coffee break and 30 minutes for lunch.
However, we always got away with a 20-minute coffee break and a 40 to 45 minute lunch break. This was the standard for years.
Until one new girl started working and we mentioned the break thing to her. Well, she went ahead and mentioned it to the owner next time he showed up and that put a stop to that.
Funny enough, not long after that every veteran staffer there had left, leaving just her and few other newbies left.
11. The Eyes Are Watching Now
So, in our building in our college, there was one guy who kept drawing on walls with permanent markers. The drawings were sloppy flowers that were as big as a person. They were found in multiple classrooms and even in the elevator.
A few weeks later, we had cameras installed inside classrooms. My friends and I used to play cards (which were not allowed on campus) in our classroom during our vacant hours. When the cameras were put up, we couldn't play anymore.
12. What A Waste!
An inmate in Texas named Lawrence Russell Brewer, who was up for execution, asked for his last meal to be two chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pint of ice cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts.
He didn’t eat any of the food, and now no one in that Texas institution is allowed to have a good last meal.
13. So Much For Boosting Morale
For work, we have mandatory training day every six months which would cover the basics of our roles, etc. It's as tedious as it sounds.
The trainers who conduct the courses know this and therefore let everyone go a few hours early. It allows us all to catch up on our work or even just have a few drinks afterward if you like. Just an all-around morale booster really.
Well, that was until a new person joined our team and COMPLAINED that the mandatory training finished early. This was taken to upper management of course and now we no longer get let out early. They just find more work for us to do right until the end.
14. Not Cool
My parents live on a no outlet dead-end street. If you go farther up the road towards the end of the street, you can hop a fence that would lead to the dumpster and staging area for a Coca-Cola distribution plant.
When I was in my teens, we used to sneak back there because they left most of the trailers unlocked. You could open them up and snag cans or bottles that had just fallen out of the shipping crates and were rolling around the ground.
We did this for years with no issues. We felt sneaky, and it really didn’t hurt anyone because they were products that were left behind in the corners of the trailers. We are fairly sure the workers knew we were doing this, but no one said anything.
This all ended when a neighbor kid saw us doing it. He decided it would be fun to rummage through the dumpsters and trailers and toss the cans/bottles into the air and watch them explode. They left a HUGE mess and the following week the dumpsters/trailers were all locked and they set a camera up in the back of the plant parking lot.
I only knew it was him because he bragged about doing it and was upset that he couldn't do it anymore. Meanwhile, he ruined the innocent fun the rest of had been having for years.
Let’s just say the other neighborhood kids weren’t too pleased.
15. Music Can Really Affect The Mood
I worked with one girl in the kitchen who kept playing her music too loud. Sure, we get turns playing music, but hearing Three Days Grace songs that we’re over played 10 years before she started working there was not exactly enjoyable.
Then one day the owners said it was too loud because they could hear it in the dining area so we had to switch to their approved stations on the establishments speaker that the whole restaurant had to listen to.
We were no longer allowed to choose the music, and you can only imagine what we were forced to listen to instead.
16. She Made It “Dangerous”
At my university, football (American) tailgates were big and pretty much the only reason people went to the games in the first place as our football team was not great.
One innocent day, the tailgating begins. Sometime in the middle of the festivities a college woman decided to do a backflip off a pick-up truck, smashed her head (she's okay now), and tailgating was forbidden from that point on.
I graduated several years ago and I'm not sure if they brought tailgating back, but it was banned for the rest of my time there and I haven't heard news of tailgating being allowed again. A lot of people were angry about that one.
17. Some People Take Casual Too Far
My company used to have casual day every Friday. We were allowed to wear nice jeans, t-shirts, sneakers, etc.
One Friday a girl decided to wear sweatpants with “Juicy” printed across the rear—but there was just one problem. That was also the day that the CEO chose to visit our facility.
One look at Juicy Butt and casual day was taken away.
It was several years before they brought it back. Though sometimes they would have a fundraiser where you PAID to be able to have a casual dress day.
18. It Was Me, I Ruined It For Everyone
It was my senior year at college, and I REALLY just scraped by. Like counting credits, trying to figure out if I’ll have enough to graduate. It was to the point that my GPA second semester was below 1.0.
But I did it. I had just enough to make it through, and get shoved out into the real world with a diploma. One of my professors had many comments about how I shouldn’t have graduated, and some of my peers felt it wasn’t fair.
The following year, my program initiated a policy where anything below a C in any of the core classes in the curriculum won’t be able to graduate.
Sorry slackers, I messed it up for you.
19. This Went Way Too Far In More Ways Than One
I was at a high school party and the girls participated in "shirtless o'clock".
Essentially, at midnight and they just pop the shirts off. My buddy decided it was perfect time to play the dollar game with one of them. Which is when you bet a person a dollar that you can make their chest jiggle without touching them. You wave your fingers, make a show of it. Then just grab, jiggle them, and give the person a dollar and admit you lost the bet.
Shirts went back on lightning fast, and that was the end of the shirtless ladies for us.
20. He Ruined It For Himself
The national paper used to have a contest with extremely obscure literary questions. I was one of the winners once, then one of the runners-up. The third time I and two other people started sharing answers to questions on an online bulletin board.
What we didn’t know was that it was totally searchable by Google. So, our answers became everyone’s answers.
The paper got a record number of correct submissions. So, they retired the contest.
I basically ruined it for myself because it really was something I enjoyed doing.
21. Those Kind Of People Are Never Quick
I was working at a restaurant, 10 minutes before closing a group of kids comes in, and said they wanted to eat something "quickly”. We told them we couldn’t since it was almost closing time, but the manager insisted that we served them and said, "It’s never too late for customers".
That group of kids made me (the waiter), two barmen, two cleaners and two chefs wait another hour before actually closing. They certainly weren’t “quick”.
The worst part was that it was a Saturday, and every single one of us had been there since 9:00am, and the time was now 11:00pm.
The only good part about everything was that overtime paid two-and-a-half times the normal hourly rate, and I worked eight hours overtime.
22. No More Free Dinners
At work we used to go out to eat for each person’s birthday, and for the start of new hires, on the company dime.
That is, until one of the guys started finding every excuse possible to go out. Let’s go out for Veteran’s Day because I’m a vet (no disrespect intended there). Let’s go out to eat for this guy’s one-month anniversary. Hey, it’s a Thursday.
The company quickly shut down ALL of our get togethers using company credit cards.
23. Collective Punishment Isn’t Right
I've been working in a four-star hotel for seven years cleaning the rooms. For the past six years, we've been allowed to wear shorts in the summer months as long as they're black or blue, no white or bright colors and definitely no prints. Everyone obliged, and we were able to work comfortably.
Last week, my dumb colleague decided to wear white shorts with massive Mickey Mouse pictures on them. They looked like pajama bottoms rather than shorts to wear out and about.
Because of her, we are no longer allowed to wear shorts in the summer and only long-legged trousers—and that’s not the worst part.
It's currently 30°C where I am right now and the work days are extremely uncomfortable. I know it doesn't seem like much but shorts make working a bit more bearable.
Now we are all extra cranky, and we take it out on her.
24. This Is A Real Bummer
A friend of mine used to work in a brewery in the summer breaks. They were allowed to bring cans that were dented home with them to drink. No real restrictions.
So, one guy filled up his car with cases full of dented cans and tried to sell them on the street at a discounted price.
No more free cans for anyone.
Donatas Dabravolskas , Shuttrestock
25. I Would Have Fought This
Two years ago, my school chose approximately 30 kids to go on one of those educational guided trips to India. There was this one senior (I’ll call him Jim) who was turning 18 while we were there, and in India the drinking age is 18. So, the tour company we were with specified that he would be allowed to have one drink, once a day.
But Jim decided to smuggle a whole bottle of booze through TSA and (attempt to) take 18 shots for his 18th birthday.
I wasn’t in his room, but I was told by my friend who witnessed it that he took 17, threw up all over the room, and his roommates’ luggage, and then passed out on the floor—but the chaos didn’t stop there.
This one kid who Jim was rooming with was laughing so hard that he threw his head back, hitting the wall hard enough that he started bleeding. He went to one of the teachers for medical attention and she wound up walking him back to his room, where she found out that Jim was absolutely HAMMERED lying in a puddle of his own vomit.
He wound up being suspended for like three weeks, and there was a whole court hearing. He had to stay on the bus for the rest of the trip.
My school used to take one international trip a year, as a matter of fact there was already a trip scheduled to Japan for the next year. Everyone who was going already knew that they were going, and everyone was super excited about it.
But after this incident, all future international trips were canceled, along with the Japan trip, which people had already paid for and everything. When the Japan group found out, they were insanely mad at him. I’ve never seen a group of kids so mad. They did get their money back, but that was not the problem.
26. Why Do People Always Have To Take It Too Far
The owners of a company I used to work for had an annual holiday party and awards dinner for the employees and spouses/partners at a swanky private club. Everybody got a couple of drink tickets and then it was a cash bar after that. It was usually an enjoyable evening for everyone, and we always looked forward to it.
One year, a couple of recently-hired yahoos drank way too much and ended up having a brawl on the club's doorstep. Officers were called. The party ended early. The company owners were barred from having any more holiday parties at that swanky club.
The next year, we got free soda and a boring selection of appetizers at TGI Friday's immediately after work, and no awards. The year after that, nothing.
27. The Sin Of Gluttony
I work in a pizzeria/pub. We had two big employee perks that depended on your age. If you're over 21, you get a free drink at the end of your shift, whatever drink your heart desires. That still exists. If you're not 21 yet, the other perk was called a free "shift potato". Which meant that basically you talk to the cooks and get a big helping of fries, tater tots, curly fries, etc.
Well one of the dishwashers at the time slowly began to ask for more expensive foods. He started out asking for an order of potato skins (which cost $9), then worked his way to asking for free burgers and pizza.
My bosses eventually were made aware of what this idiot was doing, so now no more shift potatoes.
Maria Lindsey Content Creator , Pexels
28. The Payphone Era
A buddy of mine in high school was a phone phreaker—meaning he could manipulate a phone signal to make free calls. He went to my job once and set the payphone outside to make free long-distance calls.
Eventually, he went off to college, and around that time the people in the neighborhood figured out what he did. They would use it sparingly, and everyone kept quiet about it, so it worked out really well.
However, one guy ruined it by staying on it for hours and hours every day. Eventually, the phone company caught on, and came and removed the pay phone.
Thanks a lot, you jerk.
29. Kids Today Don’t Know Science Like We Did
A few years before my high school class, we were allowed to use Lithium in experiments. Yes, that Lithium, element number 3.
Well, you're supposed to scrape off a little lithium into a dish, then put it in a beaker half full of water, and watch as it skitters across the surface of the water harmlessly. That's great, and for years, people did it right.
Sometime around 1994, some students had finished the experiment, had a golf-ball sized piece of Lithium remaining, and decided it would be a brilliant idea to drop it down the sink.
Well, sinks have S-bends and S-bends contain water. The consequences were disastrous. The resulting explosion blew the sink into the roof, the doors off the cabinet and into the legs of the kids, they had to go to hospital, there was a bunch of investigation... and the subsequent banning of lithium experiments anywhere in the school, ever.
We did make other things that exploded, and the school across the road was even worse, but that one person who ruined it for everyone was the guy that blew up the science lab.
Chemistry for the straight A kids is awesome. I learned more about explosives in that class than anywhere else, and almost a decade later, got to put that knowledge to good use when I found someone with a munitions manufacturing license.
I think most kids nowadays don't get to have the level of fun we did, and it’s likely due to the dumb kids who ruin it for everyone else. I imagine there’s a lot about science that kids today will never learn in a high school classroom.
30. One Fine Day
In high school we had a 200-person petition to get a microwave in the lunch line. We finally got it and some dumb kid blew it up first day by cooking a fork in it.
Do you think the school replaced it? Not a chance.
31. The Wanderer
In my high school, they had whole grades go on field trips to cool places only one year before I went there. By the time of my class, there were no more field trips. What happened is that this one kid had gotten separated from the group on a field trip to New York and people had to hunt for him in a big city where he had never before been and knew no one there.
Everyone was frantic. He showed up at the end of the day, having spent that whole time going on a tour of the Statue of Liberty, by himself.
The next year, that same group went on a field trip near the Canadian border. The same kid wandered off from the group. He ALMOST went over to Canada, and then he realized that if his teachers had been angry about him touring the Statue of Liberty, they would be absolutely furious if he left the country. So, he instead went drinking with a random fisherman. Somehow, a teacher found him and he was taken back to the group and obviously in big trouble.
Also, in the same class as that kid, there was one girl who was extremely short and skinny. During the field trip to Arlington Cemetery, it was raining and windy. She put up her umbrella and got briefly lifted off the ground like she was Mary Poppins. She floated for a split second until she panicked (along with everyone else around her), let go of the umbrella, and fell to the ground.
That obviously wasn’t her fault, but after those trips the school didn’t do another one.
32. The Birthday Thief
This happens every year to my father.
He shares a birthday with our neighbor, let’s call him Bob. Every time we throw a party for my dad, Bob comes over and acts like the party is for him, making himself the center of attention and thanking everyone for coming.
He ruins the whole mood.
33. Work Parties And Booze Don’t Mix
The end of year work function was the highlight of the year, at my job. They would really splurge on good food and entertainment, and provide enough booze to keep everyone happy.
One year some loser decided to take full advantage of the free booze. He swore he never drank (because of religious reasons), but by the sheer amount he drank, this definitely wasn’t his first time drinking.
As the night went on, he became more and more aggressive (and inappropriate) and continually touched the female staff, cornering them demanding to be kissed, etc.
He was pulled outside, his wife was called, and he was sent home. He blamed work for all the happenings because they served booze, and played the religion card. He didn’t get so much as a tap on the wrist for forcefully touching women, either!
Next year the end of year function was stale sandwiches at tea time and three bottles of champagne for the roughly 200 people.
I left the following year but heard end of year function has since been canceled, since apparently the small amount of booze is still too much of a temptation.
34. Yikes, This Could Have Been So Much Worse
Metra trains in Chicago used to have windows that would open.
On the Burlington Northern line, while coming home from 3rd of July fireworks on the lake front, someone who I knew personally decided it would be a good idea to see how much of his body he could fit out that window.
There was a thud, his body went limp and when they pulled him back in he was missing a pretty good portion of his head.
Metra windows don’t open anymore.
35. That’s A Tough Loss For Everyone Else
When I was younger, we used to get free fruits during lunch at school. Then some guy (and his friends) threw them around the classroom instead of eating them, so the school decided to cut the fruit entirely. Even close to 10 years later, the kids haven't gotten their free fruit back.
Oleksandr Canary Islands , Pexels
36. Give Them An Inch And They Take A Mile
The pizza place I worked at would let closing employees make a pizza for themselves to take home at the end of the night since it was late and all the other restaurants were closed. Until Terry started working there.
When everyone else was making normal pizzas, Terry was loading his up with so many toppings he would have to run it through once, add more toppings, run it through again, add more toppings, and run it through a third time! Then Terry started making multiple pizzas.
Once management caught on the free pizzas stopped.
37. That One Bad Egg
In German class in high school, we had the opportunity to be a part of an exchange program where we get paired up with one person from a school in Germany. They stay with us for three weeks in the fall, and we stay with them for three weeks in the spring.
This trip happens every two years and it's something all the kids look forward too. There's a lot of trust with this trip, as the German teacher wants us to be able to have the full experience in Germany. She had previously spent the last few decades building a relationship with the exchange program, and she put a whole bunch of care into this thing. So, she was careful to make sure only trustworthy kids could go.
It turns out one of the kids in our class was not as trustworthy as she thought. Well, this boy, "A", was on the trip to Germany two years before mine was going to happen. During his stay, he was secretly drinking, and partying a bunch. This was SUPER not allowed, we were all minors and the trip was super strict about that stuff.
Not only that, but he posted a bunch of videos and photos of him doing that stuff on social media. He also bragged to anyone who would listen about just how much he got up to.
The teachers and school ended up hearing about this, and they went berserk on the German exchange trip as a whole. There was talk that there would be no more Germany trip for students, until finally, the trip was still able to happen, but it was changed around completely.
First, we could no longer stay with our host families, we would all have to stay together in a hotel. Our trip was shortened from three weeks to two weeks, and we could no longer hangout with our exchange buddy in Germany unsupervised.
And our trip would cost an extra $1,000 to accommodate for not staying with our host family. Needless to say, everyone in my class was pretty upset with “A”.
38. Where Is The Common Sense, Though?
My high school had a gym class in grade 11 where we would do a lot various sports and activities. We'd go bowling, use the driving range, go skating (normal for Canada), cross country skiing and/or curling. This class was super popular and we usually had a great group of kids that really enjoyed playing and learning these sports, especially the ice sports.
During my year, at the curling rink, one student decided to take the broom and started hacking into the ice with it. So much so that they destroyed a big chunk and the place had to close down to fix it.
When the teacher called him out on it, his answer was infuriating.
He said: "I wasn't told I couldn't do it". There was no more curling after that.
39. Cheaters Always Ruin It For Everyone Else
Well, one time when I was in college, a student cheated on a test. But the teacher was so upset with the whole class about it. So, we had to retake the test. The teacher made a new, much harder version.
Everyone was angry.
40. No Respect For Others
A friend of mine was throwing a nice New Year’s Eve party. She put a lot of time, effort, and money into this event. Some girl came and drank so much right as she got there to the point where she blacked out fairly quickly, but not before breaking a lot of stuff, causing a lot of trouble, vomiting everywhere, and pretty much ruining the whole party.
My friend was terribly upset.
41. She Paid The Price
I worked for a company that started to try a work from home schedule for anyone who wanted it.
One of the bratty women that everyone already disliked took a month to work on a project. Later, we realized the infuriating truth. It turns out, she took a vacation to Mexico and claimed she was working. Once management discovered the pictures of her vacation, they took her laptop away and said nobody will ever be allowed to work from home again.
They didn’t fire her, and she came back to work smug and laughing about it. Until another woman coworker met her in the parking lot after work and she got put in the hospital. She never came back after that.
42. This Guy Was Also The Problem
Unfortunately, I was that person once. I worked in a deli in a grocery store. At night, when we closed the hot foods, we would weigh the food and then eat it so we could account for the food loss still.
I got pregnant and my job was really set on trying to fire me before I went on leave. To the point where they installed cameras in the deli front and the deli backroom in an attempt to catch me doing what everyone else was doing.
I happened to be there the day they installed the cameras so I was highly aware and had to tell my fellow coworkers not to weigh and eat the food anymore. I feel super bad about it but they were really gung-ho about firing me so that they didn’t have to cover maternity leave pay. In the end, I was fired anyway—but I got my revenge.
I sued them for discrimination and I won. I got to be a stay-at-home mom for a really decent amount of time.
But no one in the deli ever got to weigh and eat food anymore. Oops!
aleksandarlittlewolf , Freepik
43. No More Touching The Sea Pancakes
I visited the sea life center in Birmingham when I was a child on a school trip. It would been in 1996/97, so, you were allowed to stroke the rays in one of tanks. That is, until a little kid in another group thought it would be funny to hit one of the rays. He was in for an unpleasant surprise.
The ray retaliated and stung the kid in the hand. After that day, touching the rays was blanket banned at all of their sites.
Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0 , Wikimedia Commons
44. Marshmallows Make Perfect Flame Throwers
Roasting marshmallows was banned from campfires at a summer camp I worked at—and the reason why was deranged.
It was because one kid decided to fling flaming marshmallows at other kids.
