We don’t always choose who we get to work with, but we try to all get along anyway. Sometimes, though, your workplace hires that one co-worker who makes a long workday somehow feel even longer. Try not to tear all your hair out as you’re reading about these poor souls dealing with some truly awful co-workers.
1. The Case Of The Disappearing Co-worker
We had an assistant who plotted to get me fired and take my job. Some of my workers let me know, because he tried to get them onboard with him. Eventually, due to work politics, I was demoted, but asked to be put on the shift relieving him. After being called in to relieve him by phone a couple of times, which is against the rules, I intentionally came in four hours early
Surprise surprise, he was nowhere on site. I still got a call from him, as if he was on site and needed to be relieved. I let the guards know. They videotaped him and I got him fired.
2. What’s A “Job?”
We had a system admin who would come to work and run his real estate business from his desk while he was supposed to be working. The whole time, he was coughing and sneezing and sniffling constantly. We called him "Itchy." He would also call friends and family and have hours-long conversations with them while we all had to listen.
He picked up the nickname "Thanksgiving dinner guy," because he used the break room to cook entire meals that wouldn't be out of place at a family gathering. One of the offices in another wing had a sheet by the door for people to log when they saw him, and to write down what he was cooking that day. He didn't like any of us and left books like Jerks at Work on his desk.
When he finally got fired, they found out he never did any of his sys admin work. No backups, no password changes, no log monitoring.
3. Liar, Liar…
This girl I worked with when I was a personal shopper tried to get me fired a couple of times because she saw I was moving up faster than her. We both got sent to work at a different location for a couple of months, and she went around bad-mouthing me to anyone who would listen, so they thought I was a terrible employee and that she was amazing.
I proved myself with my work ethic, and they realized she was a liar. It definitely changed their opinion of her. I ended up going to a different location, and when she went back to our original location, she continued to say horrible things about me. My co-workers took my side and called her out. She left not long after on a bad note with them.
4. Taken Down And Out
I had a former supervisor who was a bully, a gossip, and an all-around horrible person that picked one or two people to be her punching bag. My introduction to her was absolutely horrible. I was sitting at lunch, and she came barreling out to one of my co-workers and proceeded to literally scream and curse in his face in the break area.
She also had a habit of gossiping in the warehouse office in full hearing of other people, which made me uncomfortable. It's one thing when a co-worker gossips to another, but it's an entirely different thing when a supervisor gossips about those under them to others. I actually mentioned to a different supervisor that it made me uneasy to be in the office.
While this was going on, she got wind of my complaint. She then decided to make me her target. Over the span of six months, she bullied me and behaved in some really disrespectful ways. For one, She gossiped about me. How did I find out? She started doing it in front of me. It was not exactly subtle. But wait, there’s more!
She gave me a very unflattering nickname. I found out when she blurted it out one time when I came into the office after being paged. She was passive-aggressive towards me in all respects. She actually growled at me, seriously growled at me, in the ladies locker room, and put papers over her face so I couldn't "look" at her.
She frequently sighed or scoffed when I tried to engage in conversation with other people that weren’t her. She ignored me or outright walked away when I needed a supervisor override. She told me I needed "to step it up" with my work. I was the second most productive worker, with the second-lowest fault rate of my department.
To give you an idea of a typical day: the most productive would do around 25 jobs, I would be at roughly 23, the other five people averaged around 15 jobs apiece. I finally had a breakdown after she started doing it in front of other supervisors and the manager. This was a week after I told the manager, again, about her behavior. Nothing was being done about it.
I was ready to just walk off the job and had a breakdown. Someone told the manager’s boss that I was having a breakdown, and she called me directly to find out what was going on. I was walked through an official HR report that went to the front office. She was given one last chance. I told them she wouldn't last a month.
Three weeks later, she had a screaming match with another employee and was suspended and subsequently fired. I later found out she was directly responsible for three people quitting, and one person getting fired because they couldn't take it anymore and threw a pair of gloves at her. Thank heavens she’s finally gone now.
5. An Errand Gone Awry
She almost got me fired because she wanted to find the weakest-looking guy to be her little errand boy. When I told her politely to buzz right off, she told HR that I had been taking work out of her queue in the system. It wasn't a very good lie though, because why would I want to do more work than I have to? I even said this to HR in the disciplinary meeting.
6. An Old Grudge
I briefly had a co-worker at my current job at a local grocery store, who we'll just call "Fred.” Fred was one of those people who are always talking on their phone in the break room, and that's my personal pet peeve at work. More often than not, he was usually arguing with his girlfriend, and he doesn't seem to care that anyone's listening.
He'd do other annoying, gross things like chewing with his mouth wide open, and wiping his boogers all over the place, but then there was one day when he tried to flush a hot pocket down the toilet. Needless to say, that it didn't play out so well, and that temporarily put an end to our closest employee restroom right by the break room.
He surprisingly didn't get fired over that, but he did get fired when one of his old high school teachers came in shopping, and he threw a whole sack of potatoes at her. She was an elderly woman who got seriously injured, and both the ambulance and the authorities had to get involved. I never did hear about what happened to his old teacher.
7. Never Hire Family
This is the classic story of a co-worker who was a relative of the owner. He started working with us a few years after me, and was immediately given a great position. I had been doing the work for this position for the year it was vacant. I trained him, but he seemed disinterested, and for the next three years, I did most of his job while he took credit for it.
Of course, that was only when it came to work that was done well. When there was an issue, I got thrown under the bus. Every time I walked by his desk, he was watching F1 races or soccer. I eventually asked for a raise, outlined what I was doing which was essentially two jobs, and was told there wasn't enough budget. I knew what I had to do. The next day I quit.
Shortly after that, they asked me to train him on all the work I did for him, to which I politely declined.
8. Young And Foolish
I used to work part-time at a shipping warehouse, and at one point, we ended up hiring this 16-year-old kid. He made a ton of mistakes that we ended up having to fix for him, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt at first just because he was new. But not only did he never learn from his mistakes, but he was incredibly lazy and lacked any self-awareness.
There were instances where he was given a task, but then he'd either mess around on his phone most of the time, hide out in the bathroom for like 45 minutes and then hoped we wouldn't notice, or just whine to my supervisor that he didn't want to do whatever he was assigned. Because of that, he would often take half the day to do like 30 minutes of work and would then complain that he had too much work piled on top of him. It was ridiculous.
9. Fight Club: Workplace Edition
She didn’t officially work at my store’s location. She was supposed to be at another location training to be a manager there, but her predecessor was still working at said location, and the upper management/boss didn’t want too many people working there at once. So, she had to work at my store’s location instead. As soon as she started, she had a problem with me.
I don’t know why, I’ll never understand why. She essentially bullied me from the get-go and when I told my manager about it, she claimed nothing could be done since the rude lady wasn’t officially under my manager. But one day, she went too far. She started bumping into me and saying, “You have a problem with me? Let’s take it outside.” Stuff like that.
I was half her size, I’ve never fought in my life outside of sibling squabbles, and I have terrible social anxiety. So I went to the bathroom, called my significant other to come pick me up, grabbed my things, and walked out on my shift. I didn’t say a word to anyone and left her there alone during the lunch rush. Honestly, she deserved it.
I later learned from my friend who also worked there that my manager didn’t blame me, and officially, on my papers, she said I left for “personal reasons.” She was a nice woman and I don’t blame her for not being able to do anything. Upper management at this chain was very irresponsible and didn’t seem to care about that store location whatsoever.
10. Not My Problem
We had a guy on the night shift that would come to work, clock in, and then drive away, come back at the end of his shift and clock out. The manager was told about it a number of times but said "I didn't see it, so I can't do anything about it." This guy was doing this for over a year. I asked what was up and the manager said, "He has mama baby issues."
11. Obsession At Work
I have a co-worker who was an absolute nightmare. He spread rumors about me and told people I got the job by sleeping with some manager I've never met in person. He had a history of becoming obsessed with women at work and some have left because of him. It got so bad that another contractor within our workplace noticed and took action.
This contractor, who has an office within our building, had to blast out a company-wide email telling staff to not attend their office because my co-worker would continually go down there and flirt or harass the office lady. He turned into a stalker and still continues to park his car next to mine and stare me down in front of colleagues.
Turns out, the guy has Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and isn’t exactly self-aware. It eventually became way too much for me to take, so I tried to complain. When I complained, HR labeled it as a "personal issue" and victim-blamed me. I was asked by the top manager, "But you wanted it, yeah?" Disgraceful. He will get fired eventually.
12. The Office Gossip
I had a co-worker who would call people individually and complain about other people. It got to the point where people were fed up. They were telling the people he was complaining about, and tell them what he was saying. It got a little too personal for me, so I sent his manager an email to have an unofficial conversation about his behavior.
I was allowed to stay anonymous, so at this point, I was. His reaction was chilling. He lost his mind and ended up going off sick for seven months due to the stress it caused him. He constantly asked HR who complained about him, and that he wouldn’t be able to come back to work if he didn't know. I dropped my anonymity because I didn't want him off work, I just wanted him to change his toxic behavior.
In the official meeting with HR, he brought up my mental health, saying that it was no secret that my depression had caused me to over-exaggerate my emotions. He got an official warning because he counter-complained about the company, and lost his appeal as well. Eventually, he decided to quit and stop wasting everyone's time.
13. Let The Games Begin
This co-worker loved to try to pit people against each other with gossip. My grandfather passed. I live in the South, and he still lived in the mountains of West Virginia. It was midwinter, and a storm was expected. I made the decision not to go to the funeral for fear of being snowed in out of state. I continued to work to keep my mind off of things.
Another co-worker lost a family member a couple of months later. She went home for the funeral. She posted pictures on Facebook about seeing friends she hadn't seen in years. This apparently ticked off Miss Gossip. She started telling everyone about how horrible she was to be out with friends when she was gone for the funeral.
When that co-worker and Miss Gossip had it out, that co-worker brought me up as an example of how people deal will grief differently. Miss Gossip immediately ran and told everyone how that co-worker called me heartless. Suddenly, everyone thought I needed to be mad at that co-worker. I just told everyone to consider the source, and that it was none of my business.
14. Time For Some Detox
We had a co-worker who kept bringing negative and toxic energy into the workplace. I remember one day, she kept coming up to my desk and saying, “Can you check my back? I think there’s a knife back there.” Like, haha, do you get it? I was tempted after a while to say, “I have no idea what you are talking about!” but I didn’t want to engage.
She requested a two-week vacation at the last minute, and was of course denied because other people had already been approved for that time off. Being totally melodramatic, she quit and sent a group text to everyone saying, “I won’t let our boss destroy my marriage!” Like she was being brave for quitting a perfectly fine job because she didn’t get her way.
She also borrowed money from multiple co-workers and never paid them back. A year ago, we heard she had reapplied to work for us. As you can imagine, none of us wanted her back at all. In fact, multiple co-workers went to our new boss, and begged her not to hire her. Yes, she was really that bad of a co-worker. I’m so glad she’s gone.
15. Management Is Overrated
Steve was an outside hire. He was a “co-manager” at another store. To me, that translates to, “he was a manager who couldn’t handle being a manager.” Steve got hired in as a second-in-command. He was really inept at running the sales floor, but we cut him some slack. Our location is quadruple the size of most stores in just about every way.
After about 3 months, I realized he was not really picking things up. Not just that, but Steve felt as though his set schedule didn’t matter. He came in late and left early. If someone asked him to cover, he just had us swap shifts because he didn’t want to do it. He ended up getting an attendance warning from our Store Manager, Mary, but it didn’t change things.
Mary quit about four months after he was hired—and the reason why was brutal. Mary couldn’t handle Steve’s ineptitude, and eventually, they left because of it. Now that Mary was gone, Steve got promoted to interim First Lead. Basically, Steve thought he was on easy street. Corporate heads came through at one point and asked us how it was going with Steve. We spoke the truth: Not good.
It was even more detrimental when Steve showed up almost two hours after he was scheduled, when we told the corporate heads he’d be in the building. He did not call. Paul, our other lead, was left with people they’d never met before, which was great because Paul was an adult who could handle things. Basically, they ended up hiring Paul to become our first-in-command.
We chugged through a disappointing holiday season. Steve and Paul are basically going around in circles, with Paul trying not to kill Steve the whole time. Meanwhile, Steve rarely made it to work on time, and ended up, quite a few times, making Paul and I switch days because Steve didn’t want to work late. I was also running my departments and Steve’s departments, because Steve just hid in the office all day “writing schedules.”
Paul and Steve had several conversations about Steve’s performance over a period of a month and a half, and Steve got put on an official action plan. This basically meant: “One more mess up and you’re fired.” Steve finally, FINALLY, got fired. The last I heard, he was going to culinary school.
16. Real Life Game Of Thrones
This co-worker would tell peers at my level horror stories about the way I would supposedly treat her. At the same time, I was dealing with my own staff complaining about her lack of work ethic. I was overworked before she got there, and after she started, I felt no relief. Little did I know that her gossip was actually turning people in the company against me. And then it hit the fan.
Eventually, it all came to light when she made an accusation that was so far off that HR couldn’t even believe her anymore. When she was found out, and finally let go, she caused a public scene. For weeks afterward, co-workers came up to me to apologize for believing her. My own staff always had my back through those times, which I think is why she didn’t “win”.
17. The World Is Unfair
She was a lady in her 50s. We worked at a doctor’s office. She could not take even the nicest constructive criticism, and constantly complained about EVERYTHING. One of my nicest co-workers ever often was the recipient of her blame, and because she never took responsibility, it was regularly the same issues she never learned to correct.
They bickered a lot after a couple of years of this. One day, the nice co-worker went to the car to grab her anxiety medication, and the obnoxious co-worker’s reaction was chilling. She went to the office manager as well as HR, saying she thought the nice one went to get a weapon to hurt her. Like what?! She didn't even own a weapon? That’s not even the worst part. The nice one GOT FIRED. I was absolutely SHOCKED.
18. Stay Grounded, Please
This was a person that was in the aircraft qualification training squadron at the same time as me. He wasn't an intentionally terrible person, but his lack of self-awareness made any interaction around him difficult and exhausting. He washed out of another flying career field. In initial training simulations, he refused to use established procedures.
That was bad enough, but there was more. He managed to fail his first instructional ride, despite it being nearly impossible to fail if you show up. He could not figure out how to take leave, despite several people walking him through the process. Rather than trying to solve any problem, he would announce it to the rest of the room, and if no one jumped in to help him, asked the nearest person.
He managed to both frustrate and take up the time of the kindest instructor I knew because he didn't have a basic understanding of a training airspace. In a bid to get back to more pressing tasks, he gave me an apologetic look as he suggested that I, being a smart student, could probably help him get up to speed. I could not.
19. OSHA Rules, Schm-OSHA Rules
I worked with a guy that was a supervisor in another department. He was both dumb and a jerk, which was a terrible combo. He would constantly insist that I do things that violated OSHA rules or were physically impossible. He wanted me to work on a 20-ton bridge crane while he was using it. Obviously, I said NO. I wanted to leave work intact, thank you very much.
Every time I would refuse one of these ridiculous demands, he would send out an email with EVERYONE CC-ed, from the area manager, plant manager, all the way down to my boss. Soon after, I left for a better job, he was fired, and they closed his email account as he was writing a manifesto. I heard they hired security to keep a look out for him for the next month.
20. Why Only Have One Job?
I was in a software engineering group, and one of the co-workers would show up about an hour late every day. Two times a week, he'd bring in bulk packages of junk food from a wholesale store and sell this stuff throughout the day. He'd go to lunch at around 11, for two hours at least, then come back and be on the phone arranging ski or canoe vacation packages, which he got a cut of.
21. Color Me Surprised
I worked at a little gas station. I had a co-worker we'll call "Jenny." Jenny was on "light duty," as ordered by her doctor, when I first started working there. Her injury was a heel spur, and she never missed an opportunity to complain about it. She wasn't supposed to lift more than like 30 pounds or stand for more than a half-hour at a time. Not a big deal right?
The first time I came in to relieve her from a shift, it was a busy Friday afternoon. She had two full pages of her coloring book colored in, and thought it would be cute to write that on our task list for the day under "additional tasks completed.” Alright, annoying, but she's youngish. What do you really expect from a 20-something-year-old with a medical issue?
Over time, her antics became more and more ridiculous. A stray dog wandered over to the station and she brought it inside. She let it wander around the inside of the store, where there was plenty of food on the shelves for it to get into. She then proceeded to make a Facebook post about it, and also wrote those things on the task list as if it were part of her job.
Eventually, the assistant manager told her she couldn't bring her coloring books to work anymore. She'd been off light duty for months, but continued sitting at the desk coloring during all her shifts while neglecting all her cleaning duties. She cried and walked out mid-shift when she was told, and then filed a complaint with corporate, claiming she was being bullied by the assistant manager.
22. The Purrfect Solution
I once worked with a guy who genuinely believed cats could reproduce with rabbits and would argue at length about it almost every day. The first time I told him it was impossible, he searched "cabbits" on Google Images and said, "See! Told you!". Maybe not the worst, but definitely the dumbest. Keep in mind, this guy was 32 years old.
23. Fight Fire With Fire
My first day at work, I noticed the back of my female supervisor's arms were covered in green, purple, and black bruises. I'm talking from elbow to shoulder. Naturally, I asked her what happened, and absolutely could not believe her answer. She said that our boss would sneak up behind her, pinched the back of her arms, twisted, and then laughed hysterically when she cried out.
I am a super-passive, terrified-of-confrontation type of girl, but the one and only time he did that to me, I turned around and told him if he ever laid a hand on me again, he would regret it for the rest of his life. I was taking martial arts classes at the time, which he knew, and between that and I think the fact that no woman had probably ever spoken to him like that before, he backed right off.
24. An Unlucky Reaction
I had an assistant manager at Walmart that was notorious for pinching people if they said the wrong thing to other managers or to customers. One day, I was helping a customer in the food section, since that’s where I was stocking that day, and the assistant manager came over to see how I was doing. Apparently, I said something she didn’t like so she decided to pinch my tricep really hard.
This really hurt, especially because of her nails, and I instinctively backhanded her in the mouth. I admit it was a weird, unintentional thing to do, but there was a lot of childhood history behind me getting hurt by my siblings, so hitting back became second nature to me. And that was how I lost my job at Walmart after only working there for four months.
25. You Get What You Paid For
My former company went through a phase where they would hire people who would accept a ridiculously low starting salary for an administrative job. So, they would put a job listing out there, and get lots of applications. They would make the offer to the top candidates, but with a salary that was about 25% lower than a "normal" salary for that type of position.
It was framed as a "cost-saving measure," but all it did was get the top candidates to laugh and say no to our offer. Then we went to second-tier candidates, who did the same, and then, finally, some third-tier candidates who were, let's just say, third-tier candidates for a reason, and pretty desperate for work, would accept the position.
Well, you know the saying, "You get what you pay for?" Yep, 100% true. MAN did we get some doozies in the office back in those days. There was "Vic," who tried to log into adult sites up to 60 times per day during work hours. Although they were all blocked and inaccessible, he was caught by the IT guys. The IT guys could see his search history.
There was "Stacy" who, despite being trained multiple times by multiple people, couldn't even handle the most basic tasks of the job after six months. I'm talking straight data entry and filling out purchase orders. There was "Jess" who came in dressed in skin-tight clothing, platform heels, and fishnet stockings. She spent most of the day walking around the office, showing herself off.
There was "Rob" who came in so hungover 90% of the time that he only got about 10% of his work done on any given day. I could go on. After about two years of this, my former company realized that they were hemorrhaging time and money by hiring these duds, raised the starting salary to a realistic level, and finally started getting some decent folks in the door.
26. Thanks For The Save, I Guess
I quit smoking due to a co-worker that would follow me to every smoke break to talk about their problems when I needed some me-time. To make things worse, I am super introverted. They just started joining me one day and decided I was their best friend ever. They were actually trying to get me to smoke more often, so they could talk at me more.
I was intending on quitting... at some point. But I would probably still be hooked if it wasn’t for them. They were very upset when I quit, so much that they started crying. I can never tell them they are the reason I quit, even though I probably owe them my life.
27. Put Your Feet Up And Relax
I still shudder when I think about this. When I was working at my local community center, one of my bosses would literally put his feet on the counter and clip his toenails and file his bunions while people were trying to talk to him. Yes, for real. We received dozens of complaints, but the guy received no repercussions. He kept this up for four entire years.
28. Anger Management Required
I had a guy that I worked with in my meat department at the store I work at. He would lose his mind over any little thing, get super angry, and make everyone very uncomfortable. One time, he got so mad that he threw an actual meat cleaver into the wall, and the dent is still there to this day. He got fired a few months ago and it’s been the happiest that the department has been in a long time.
29. Misfortune All Around
Let me introduce you to KC. KC forgot to show up for her interview, but was somehow still hired. KC seemed to have all the signs of ADHD, and admitted she probably did, but her dad was a doctor and said it wasn't a real thing, so she never got treatment. KC told long, rambling stories about things no one cared about, and would try to read personal items in your purse.
KC worked the late rotation after the supervisors left, would just read fan fiction, leaving everyone else to work the queue while doing nothing herself. KC bounced on a rubber exercise ball that squeaked. Everyone got theirs taken away because KC fell off hers and they were deemed a safety hazard. KC would kick her shoes off and rub her fingers between her bare toes at her desk.
After everyone left, KC would raid their candy jars and snack drawers with her toe hands. The only nice thing the evil supervisor ever did was fire KC.
30. Giving Nerds A Bad Name
A few years back at my old job, we hired a web developer who, on her first day on the job, yelled at our chief technology officer because her mouse didn't work. She proceeded to be not only unpleasant, but actively hostile to everyone she interacted with. I came in one morning at like 7:00 AM because I needed to test some stuff, and saw her at her desk. Guess what she was doing?
She was eating a box of 7/11 wings, and chugging a massive Diet Coke. She then threw the box of bones into a bin and missed, spilling it everywhere, after which she yelled really loudly while me and three others were in the office. We all gave her the benefit of the doubt, assuming she had some form of extreme anti-social programmer personality or maybe had personal problems to deal with, and everyone tried to be nice.
The last straw was when she berated the most beloved guy in the office, one of the IT personnel that everyone liked, and she gave him a sort of schoolmaster style talking down to in front of the whole office. Why? Her internet was slow. She was fired within like two weeks of hiring. And the cherry on top of it all? She also smelled like old eggs and mildew.
31. Money Talks
I have a co-worker right now that is his own special blend of horror. For the record, I work in sales at a warehouse. Here are some of his finer qualities: When the phone rings, he will literally put his hand on the receiver, stare at the caller ID, then look around the room to see if anyone else will answer it before he does. It doesn't matter how busy we are, he does this with every single call.
If a customer walks in the door, he tries to hide behind his monitor, even though his desk is the first one you see as you walk through the door. So let's say he does engage the customer who walked in. Oh, now he wants to answer all the phone calls that come in while he's supposed to be helping the guy WHO IS LITERALLY STANDING DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF HIM.
If it's not a big order? He doesn't care. You ordered one thing that costs $15? He just forgets about it. Then when the customer calls back to complain, he just acts like he never talked to them. Oh, and did I forget that he won't look the product up himself? He makes the customer find the part number they think they need, because he's too lazy to look it up on his own.
32. Computer Are Hard
My co-worker is somehow completely computer illiterate, even though he sits in front of the thing for 10 hours a day. He actively refuses to learn new things or organization tactics for using the computer. An example: a customer called up and asked for a copy of an invoice. In our program, you can generate a PDF copy to email directly to the customer without ever getting up.
But guess what? He's old school. He prints the invoice, walks across the room, puts it in the scanner, scans it, saves the scanned copy as a PDF, then emails it to the customer. A process that should take 30 seconds now takes 10 minutes, especially because he's too lazy to get up and walk to the printer more than once an hour or so.
33. This Sounds Like A “You” Problem
My co-worker won't ever actually ask for people to do things. Hypothetical: Instead of turning on a light switch, or asking someone to turn on a light switch, he would just sit there and say, "Man, kinda dark in here. Wish someone could get that light." Then he just stares at everyone else, waiting for one of them to turn on the light.
If there's a problem, he won't do anything about it. Do you need a return or exchange? Sorry, he doesn't care. Something defective? Don't call him, you'll never get an answer, much less a replacement part. I dread going to work every day just because I don't want to clean up after the messes he leaves for customers every day.
34. A Terrible Scheme
We worked in a store that sold specific and fairly expensive products, and there were four of us working there, including the owner. The woman in question was basically his second-in-command. She seemed totally cool at the time, but then I got fired. And then a month later, our other co-worker got fired. So it was just the two of them, and, when the owner was busy, it was often just her.
It wasn't long before he realized her scheme. She was stealing hundreds if not thousands of dollars’ worth of products when he wasn't around, and that she'd manipulated him into firing his two other employees so she could have the store to herself. He has new employees now and they're awesome. I plan on visiting a lot more when I can.
35. A Sneaky Thief
I was a cashier at a chain store years ago. One day a manager, who I got along with really well, admitted they’d been watching me on surveillance cameras for a few months because my drawer kept coming up short. I told her they can go on watching me then because I hadn’t taken anything. Probably a year later, after I’d quit and moved away, I found out what was really happening.
An old co-worker told me that the accountant got fired for stealing thousands of dollars. She was just taking money out of my drawer to try and pin it on me…and probably did it to someone else after I left.
36. No Boys Allowed
My former assistant manager was terrible to work with. She got caught talking with her boyfriend for several hours, never leaving our department desk, and got in serious trouble. Like, “Do it again and you're demoted back to part-time” type of trouble. In retaliation, she forbade me from speaking to my boyfriend at all when we were working.
One day, a month or so before I got the offer for my new and current job, I asked to take the recycling bin to the back where he happened to work, and she said no. A little later, she got annoyed at me for only facing shelves, and told me to find something else to do. So I took the recycling back and brought freight up. She came to the back aisle screaming her head off at me.
The reason why I got dressed-down was that she told me not to go back there, and I defended myself saying, "Well, you told me to do something else, so I was doing something else!" I turned around and I guess she flipped me the bird before walking away while calling me some choice names. One of my co-workers went to HR about it as it wasn't the first time she's gone off on me.
Up until then, I was just ignoring it, but they were fed up with her general treatment of everyone. We both got called back to write statements, and I wrote that I saw neither the finger nor heard her call me any names, but did go on about everything else. There were no punishments, however. About a week after I left, I got a text from a former co-worker with an update.
She said that the manager was with a customer when HR called her on the store phone. The manager answered, asked her to hold, and DIDN'T PRESS THE HOLD BUTTON! She then called a guest stupid while HR was on the phone. Bam. Cue demotion. It made my life suck when we worked together, but it was satisfying to hear karma had caught up to her.
37. Hatred At First Sight
I had a manager whose opening line when I first met him was, "I don't like you already." He had a major pickle up his you-know-what and even threw a cabinet door at me once. It got me square in the back, but I witnessed him get put into his place by the old lady I was helping. She gave me a good tip too, so that was nice.
38. HR’s Oopsie Run Amok
This co-worker was a nurse that apparently had her license taken away prior to her being hired at my work. Our HR didn't bother checking, I guess. The first care meeting we had with her, she started accusing the Black staff of stealing. She had been there a week, and didn't know what she was talking about. Our team actually ran the best out of the whole company.
She was determined to make everyone feel uncomfortable. She'd stand near the bathroom, pretending to wait to go inside, while listening to people chat in the kitchen/staff room She'd chase staff down the hallways, screaming at them for stealing. Then, when they showed her they had nothing in their hands, she'd say "OH, I WASN'T YELLING AT YOU, I WAS YELLING AT MYSELF.”
39. A Paws-itively Horrible Time
A vet's office I worked for hired a girl to work as a tech, whose only relevant experience was working in a non-medical boarding facility. She thought she was hot stuff. She expected to waltz right in with zero medical experience and get promoted to management, above techs that had been working there for years, by sucking up to the bosses.
Problem was, not only did she not have the experience, she also lacked the work ethic and desire to actually do any of the tech stuff. She just wanted to be able to cuddle puppies, sit at a computer, and boss peons around. So, instead of learning how to do the job better, or actually putting in any effort, she decided the best way to get promoted is to make everyone else look bad and feel miserable.
When things didn't go her way, she would make vague, meritless complaints that her co-workers were being mean to her. Every week, someone was brought into the office about it. The thing is, the other 20-odd employees pointed out that, maybe, just maybe, if she was the one having problems with everybody, it could have been HER.
In the end, we lost about half the staff because of this chick. We ended up having to hire folks with no veterinary experience to replace people that had been there for over seven years. So, it wasn't just the staff that suffered. Quality of care took a noticeable hit. I stuck around for another year, but finally, between her and the, by then, obvious management problems, I had enough.
After I left, things for worse. She got bold enough to send threatening text messages to a couple of co-workers, since we all had each other's numbers to coordinate weekend duties. They reported her to the authorities, and they took her away while she was at work. If not for that, she'd probably still be there sucking up to management while running off staff.
40. Caught Red-Handed
This co-worker would regularly ignore her phone because she "didn't feel like taking calls," and would spend all her time on social media. One day, she told the staff she was going in for a major operation and would be off for two weeks. Although she wasn't the most popular staff member at this point, everyone still got her a card and put money in to buy her some gifts for when she was off work.
About three days into her absence, and during what would have been her surgery time, another girl spotted her shopping for makeup with friends, and then took photos of her. So we came up with a plan. When the girl came back in, she was met with stares from 100 colleagues, and when asked how her operation was, she hammed it up and said she was still in pain.
The manager immediately screamed at her to get in his office, and was so loud that the rest of us could hear every word. HR got involved and she was gone in 24 hours, which was followed by her attempt to sue for unfair dismissal. Thankfully, she didn't get far.
41. Listen To Your Gut
Recently, I was working as a bather for a groomer. My hands were getting extremely cracked and dried, and I asked my co-worker if I could borrow some lotion. I put it on, and by the time I was done, she had a dog in the bath. Instead of interrupting her, I went and dropped it in her purse. I purposefully stood to the side of it and dropped it in from about six inches up.
I did this so if she tried to say I took anything, the camera that was back there could clearly see that all I did was drop it in and walk away. I didn't linger or put my hand anywhere near it. Of course, after I left for the day, she accused me of stealing, and the boss called me. I denied I even touched her purse and told her to watch the cameras if she needed proof. My boss believed me and told the girl.
The girl ended up making a huge scene and the authorities were called. She was told to leave and not come back. I was livid, but I'm so glad I thought ahead to take the exact steps I did just in case something like that did happen. I had a bad feeling about her and had a gut feeling she would try something shady at some point.
42. Unhelpful Overconfidence
My current tool buddy at work is more “tool” than “buddy.” She's by far the worst person I've ever worked with at any job or on any project. We've been running conduit on this job site for about seven months now. She refuses to use a level when bending, or do any calculations because "When you've been in this business as long as I have, you can do it all by eye."
Except her pipes are always wrong. And when they're a little bit off, rather than just adjusting what we've already made, she insists on one of us just smashing away at it until it fits. I got stuck working with her because literally everyone else on our site refused to after about three days of being around her, and they all have seniority.
43. Fake It ‘Til You Make It
My current boss is supposed to have a Masters’ degree and ten years of experience, but he knows less than our engineers who have been working there for two years. Basic facts about how our industry works, no skill with Excel or PowerPoint, and of course no people skills. His incompetence is scary but very hurtful to the company.
44. When Time Is An Enigma
He told the General Manager that he might be a bit late for a shift due to his second job. When the GM reluctantly said OK, he apparently took this as thinking he had free reign to come and go as he pleased. He'd show up anywhere from 7:30 to 8:30 for his 7:00 shift. Then, when the doors closed, he'd insist he had to "head out."
Apparently, he had an early morning the following morning, leaving everyone else to do the closing work. He also had other issues like being rude to customers and other employees. People mostly kept quiet until one day, a higher-level manager had to sub in on the night shift. When he went to leave early, the manager flipped.
He said, "If you lay a FINGER on that money before this work is COMPLETELY DONE, don't bother coming back." The guy insisted he "had permission" and left anyway. When our GM returned and he tried to come back, our manager said, "You warned me you were going to be late ONE TIME, and I never once gave you permission to otherwise start late or leave early. Clean out your locker NOW."
45. Credit Where Credit’s Due…
My old district manager partner was a very attractive extrovert, and I’m a guy who likes to keep to himself. I would end up brainstorming a lot of good ideas to further the stores we were in charge of, and she would pass those ideas off to our boss before we could both have a conversation with him, taking all the praise and recognition.
I never said anything because as long as our metrics were met and my paycheck was on time. I didn’t really care…until I got yelled at for “not contributing to the team.” Needless to say, I stopped letting co-workers walk all over me from then on.
46. Marriage Is No Obstacle
So my wife and I work together in a bigger company, but you would never know it since she has a different last name and sits very far away from me. Well, the new hire saw a shirt she wore one day that was for an anime he also liked. He immediately spent two hours at her desk, asking her way too many questions about her, ignoring the fact she is married.
He then proceeded to join us every day for lunch with some other work friends, and only talked to the women at the table. All of whom are happily married.
47. Technically The Truth…
I used to work as a trainer at a very toxic cleaning company. I trained a girl who was very open about not wanting any sort of help during her training period, but was more than willing to let me observe while having a conversation. The minute her night ended, she contacted my supervisor and complained that I would just stand there and talk while she worked, and how I was never doing my job.
She got me written up quite often, but ended up leaving the company after a month to move back to her hometown.
48. This Is The Song That Never Ends…
We work in an office, and I have the misfortune of sitting next to this woman who plays the top 20 hits on her radio all day long. She’s been asked several times, by several people, to at least turn it down, but she refuses. After several complaints to her directly, I took it to her boss. Guess who brought an iPad in to play her music out loud after her boss took away the radio?
49. Some Sleight Of Hand
We had one employee, Johnny, who just didn't want to do any work. He was in the kitchen so his duties were to cook, prep, clean, and restock. His favorite thing to do was prep. Ask the man to make a Big Mac and you'd get the worst sandwich ever. Ask him to slice tomatoes and you'd get perfection. Anyways, one day Johnny comes to me—and when I saw him, my blood ran cold.
His hand is sliced, bad. It’s down to the bone, he’s bleeding everywhere. It looked like he put his hand in the tomato slicer and just smashed it onto his hand. Thing is, he was so calm. He looked pleased with himself. We sent him home thinking that was that. He strolled out, said goodbye to his co-workers and we never saw or heard from him again.
That night, I was sorting out all the tills to take the dailies to the safe drop at the bank. We were missing nearly $5,000 in cash from the manager's safe. Never happened before. Never happened again. Don't know how he did it.
50. A Not-So-Sweet Story
He was in his 50s, had uncontrolled diabetes, and was 6’4” tall. I was 24, and a full foot shorter. Normally, he was a teddy bear, but when his blood sugar got low, he would get violent. He tried throwing punches at me for suggesting he get a coke from the vending machine in the hall. It was a good thing that he was slow and clumsy in that state.
When we were in the truck together once, and it started making a weird sound, I wanted to take it into the shop, but he insisted we didn't need to by yelling at me and pounding his fists on the dash. We were going to a remote area and I didn't want to have to try and find help if the truck broke down and the radio didn't work.
I had to call search and rescue on him once because he didn't come back to the truck after doing a job related to biology. You guessed it, he had low blood sugar and was not able to find his way back to the truck. He had no education or experience in biology, but he just couldn't be fired from his job, which was just driving a plow.
Sources: Reddit,
