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I had a six month Specialist position in HR at a local university. The man at the next desk, let's call him Mr Sloth, liked to walk and think when he was wrestling with the best approach to tackle a problem. I had been in the position for only three weeks. One day, he got up to walk and ponder when, suddenly, the director bellowed from her office "who gave you permission to get out of your chair!" I thought this was hillarious, and was listening for his comeback. I was on the verge of bursting into uncontrollable laughter when I noticed that everyone was pretending that they didn't hear anything. Mr Sloth slowly returned to his chair and quietly sat down. Apparently it was normal in the HR work environment for a 40 year old woman to bellow at a 50 year old man as though he was a badly behaving child in primary school.
Actually, her Mom did the right thing by stopping by. Sometimes an appearance by the wife puts the "the man is mine!" message across much better than having dad fend the gold digger off.
Her mom is an immature as she is. Who wants to be married to a man that you have your daughter watch like a hawk? I'm single, but if I would NEVER marry someone I couldn't trust.
To contribute to the thread things I've experienced at work.
People (this happens A LOT in teachers lounges) opening refrigerators and eating whatever they find.
The lady who did after school had a problem with me. She would leave my room a wreck or leave presents. For example, she would use GLITTER and it would be all over the place. Not like "You accidentally got glitter on my chair(s), I'm gonna whine". Like she was there was glitter all over the place like it was NYE. Once she saw me cleaning it with tape (and getting it all) no more glitter projects. She broke toys in my room and vandalized things. She would leave soda cans and used tissue. On her last day, she went into my bathroom and left a used kotex OPEN. The funny thing is (there were cameras). She was seen to be the last person entering the bathroom. She was called up to be fired and claimed she was in the hospital. A few hours later she was seen walking around the local shopping area.
In my job before that, the other prek teacher used the laptop all day, yelled at students, made the aide do all her duties, and plagiarized things she handed in.
People bringing their spouses/girlfriend/boyfriends around the children and into the building. That's illegal in NJ without a background check.
Retail: Kid poos on floor Office: Not inside, but out in the major road next to my window, a truck caught on fire and the cab burnt to nothing. Automotive Shop: Mechanic got fired, came back that night and smashed up 20+ cars in the parking lot, including my own parked there.
2. Boss asked employees to vote on a very unpopular plan to cut pay, then counted the votes himself and announced that we had voted to cut our own pay.
.
Oh, good grief.
By chance, did you get a photo of your co-workers' faces when he announced they'd voted themselves a pay cut?
I used to work with someone who was so mean towards coworkers that our office had a "designated crying area". It was a corner of my office that couldn't be seen from the hallway. Anyone that needed to calm down or cry, away from prying eyes, was welcome to come to my office and stay in that area as long as needed.
This person was so difficult to work with that after her long time assistant retired she went through ten or eleven assistants in less than a year. Some quit after only a few days or week of needed to work with her. One woman said that she "would rather scrub toilets at the downtown bus station than work with this person even one more day."
She made the boss in The Devil wears Prada seem like a cross between Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, Jr. and your sweet, loving grandmother.
You would think that the supervisors/bosses would notice. Ten or eleven people quitting their job rather than work with this woman? Numerous staff crying because she yelled at them for no reason at all? Nope, none of the bosses noticed. In fact, she was the "Golden Girl" who was perfect and could nothing wrong. The rest of us suspected that she had naughty pictures of big boss. But she continued to be "above the law" for close to 30 years, through many different bosses. Did she have naughty pictures of all of them? Why did she "get away" with things that everyone else got reprimanded for? The rest of us never found out.
However, her "number" finally came up. Unfortunately for her the big bosses finally decided to do something to her when her life was a very low period. While the rest of us knew some of her difficulties (parent dying, child moved far away) we weren't aware that she was also fighting a deadly health problem. They made her final two years before retirement a living nightmare.
I once worked at govt. office that was supposed to help people with disabilities obtain and maintain employment but all we ever talked about was whether the paperwork was done in a timely manner. We'd have staff meeting after staff meeting in which this one poor guy would be berated because an assessment would be a day late or some other such nonsense. Never, ever, not once ever talked about how to help people find a career that was a good fit. It was crazy.
The caseload I took over was filled with folks who were clearly not going to be successful on the career track they were headed. The state picked up tuition for all sorts of folks who didn't stand a snowball's change of getting or keeping a job in that field
Many folks with alcohol issues were in college to be alcohol addiction counselors. This was more common than you would think and odd given that they couldn't be licensed until they were sober for at least two years.
And no end of people with significant mental health issues that were in college to be social workers. I mean people with regular bouts of inpatient care.
One fellow had been in college for several years to be a Medical Assistant. When he finally got a job, he carried cupcakes in his pockets that he would take bites out of as he took vitals and got medical histories. It was a short lived career.
There were some who got on the right track and hallelujah for them, but it was a hit or miss operation.
Last edited by GotHereQuickAsICould; 03-12-2014 at 04:26 PM..
I had been working at a Natural Foods store. The owners also ran a cafe a few doors down. Came in one morning and the microwave (for employees and customer use) was gone and everything that had surrounded it was strewn on the floors.
I cleaned it up so we could open. Owners never said a word about where the microwave was. A few days later discovered it had been moved to the cafe since theirs was broken.
Fast forward a few days - a friend had a very old orange colored microwave she was getting rid of. I got it and installed it in the break room so we could at least heat up our lunches. Owners used it too - never inquired where it came from.
Here is where it gets weird- The original microwave finally came back after several months. I had a friend in the midst of a messy divorce who was starting over so I packed up my microwave (which had been on loan) to give to the friend. Came in to work the next day and the male half of the owner couple gets within inches of my face and starts screaming that I had stolen the orange microwave! I stayed calm and slowly explained. He kept screaming. I asked him if he knew how the orange microwave got there to begin with and the vein on his forehead looked ready to burst. Then he slammed his fist next to my face onto the back of the refrigerated cooler - so hard several shelves of dairy hit the ground on the other side.
Needless to say I turned in immediate notice. When I went to his wife to do so she said "I didn't hear anything. No one will believe you. And, really, you were asking for it." WTF? Prior to this they loved me and had been trying to talk me into accepting the open store manager position!
Some people are just nuts. All this over an ancient orange microwave older than some of their employees?
Last edited by cat_link; 03-12-2014 at 04:18 PM..
Reason: typo
One young man in a wheelchair who blew through a tube to get it to move was signed up for a month long, all day long welding and machining exploration program. I pointed out that as he was paralyzed from the neck down, there was no way he could even participate in the program let alone pursue a successful career as a machinist or welder. I was told I needed to quit placing barriers to success.
Wow.
I work in Government too. I'm not overly surprised by this. Sometimes, we really miss the forest for the trees.
We have a very mentally ill gentleman who comes in every day and harasses the frontline staff for a bus token. He will call his caseworker, his social worker, whatever manager will take his call. He will stand in line (while others are waiting) and, gotta give him this -- in a very calm, cool tone -- ask and ask and not take 'no' for an answer and pester and harass and ask for that bus token. I got called downstairs one late afternoon, as a coverage person, and wasn't aware of his extensive history. I approached the client service specialist to ask, why not just issue him the $1 bus token? Get him out of our hair, save us a ton of phone calls and case notes and paperwork, a win-win all around. When she explained the real situation to me -- issue one token, he'll be back the next day for two -- and his extensive history of coming in every day, multiple times a day .... I realized it was a real problem (and wondered why their supervisor/manager hadn't found a way to put an end to it).
So, in real problem-solving mode, I approached the deputies who are situated right in the lobby, not more than 20 feet away from where the client service specialists are located. I quickly explained the situation, including my assessment that said gentleman was mentally ill, unable to advocate for himself, and would just need to be asked politely, by a person in obvious authority, to leave the customer specialist window once he's asked his routine question and received his routine answer. The deputy looked at me as if I was on crack -- actually, I should back up and say, the deputy that I addressed the question to rolled his eyes at me and looked away; I then made eye contact with the next in line, who looked at me as if I was on crack -- and said, "He's not being disruptive, I can't ask him to leave." I wanted to examine his badge to ensure it wasn't issued from a kid's playset, but held my temper and asked him to define 'disruptive' (and wondered why he'd think, with his gun and his badge and his position of authority and his 4x to 5x the salary of the clerks in front of him, that this problem is theirs to solve). He said that 'disruptive' means he's yelling/screaming/threatening. I asked him if he thought, perhaps it could also mean, one person holding up a line of dozens, wasting 15-20 minutes of an employee's time, asking the same question phrased slightly differently over ... and over ... and over again ("I need a bus token. I have to go to the VA today." "Sir, I told you yesterday and the day before and the day before and every day for the past year that we don't issue tokens unless we send you on an agency related appointment." "But I need a bus token.".... rinse, repeat). The deputy looked slightly uncomfortable (that could have been his ass shifting in his chair, though) and said, no, he's not being disruptive so long as he's not threatening the employee.
So I asked the deputy to reconsider his definition while I was going to run upstairs and call our director to see whose definition she thought made more sense. He all but laughed in my face at the veiled threat. Well, I should back up to say, he rolled his eyes at me. The deputy who had ignored me earlier laughed in a direction aimed at my face.
I did provide a brief summary of the issue to our director, who agreed that this is a problem that the deputies need to handle. We also checked in with his mental health case manager to ensure some kind of follow up there, too .....
And ....
Years later, this man is still showing up in the lobby, daily, asking for bus tokens .... only he's also added a new verse to the old one-trick pony show, and applies daily for benefits he is not entitled to. Daily. Every application has to be reviewed, pended, and denied. Daily.
No offense, but how old were you when you worked there? You sound a bit immature. Wow, some lady wanted to know if your dad was available and you called your mom? A lot of trust in your father.
Office flings aren't that big of a whoop. Why did you, or anyone, care how she was paying for her things as long as wasn't stealing? (Not that I imagine law offices keep cash in the building.) It was unprofessional they were having sex there, you seem way too interested in the going ons of your former coworkers.
I was in my 20's. I called my mom because I thought it was FUNNY, I never worried about her stealing my father.
The other secretary and I didn't care how she got her money, it's called talking while you work. Also known as gossip!
Too interested? I'm sorry but walking into a professional office and finding 2 people engaging in whatever it was they were engaging in is going to be discussed. I had never walked in on anything like that before or since, maybe I'm too naïve, but the other secretary and I paused to discuss it.
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The funny thing is (there were cameras). She was seen to be the last person entering the bathroom. She was called up to be fired and claimed she was in the hospital. A few hours later she was seen walking around the local shopping area. 
