Cheer me up by posting horror stories of crazy people you have worked with.

[kalanamak]

The more sly and untruthful the better.

 

I'll start (this is not the current one I'm dealing with):

 

I used to work with a cook who kept burning the eggs and blaming the fact I sang in the back room while doing the dishes. In fact, he was over at the little sink, looking at his reflection in the paper towel dispenser COMBING his chest hairs.

[CalicoKat]

I once got an email all about horrible me that was intended for another recipient. The writer was so into writing my name that she accidently sent it to me. I printed it and went to my boss with it. When I came back she'd deleted it out of my email, too late!

 

I'd worked there 10 days when this happened. :D

[Old Dominion Heather]

I used to work with a woman who kept a long pinky fingernail to clean her ears, which she did in front of me. (That one is actually true)

[Perry]

I worked at an A & W for a short time in high school. When the cook saw a customer he didn't like, he spit on the grill and fried his hamburger in it. :ack2:

[Heather in AL]

I used to work with a woman who kept a long pinky fingernail to clean her ears, which she did in front of me. (That one is actually true)

 

I worked with someone like this, too.... in a bank setting, so she was all dressed up (back when bank employees had to wear fancier clothes than T-shirts and khaki pants). I also worked with a guy (McDonald's in high school) who used his car key to dig in his ear then proceeded to wipe the key on his pants. :blink: :ack2:

 

I don't know if this counts, but I worked with a girl (same bank as a bove, different dept--- different girl) who told me of the time she worked at Waffle House and while chopping onions, she chopped off her super long fake nail... couldn't find it in the onion pile, and since they were busy, just 'went about her business' and continued making food. :confused: :001_huh: I guess someone had extra crunch in their breakfast!

[Dayle in Guatemala]

I worked in the Dairy Queen with a girl who one day looked at me and said, "I'm a witch and last night our coven put a curse on you.":glare: True story.

[myfunnybunch]

When I was 19, I worked in a restaurant bussing tables. I had a boss whose favorite pasttime was following us around b*tching at us.

 

If he had nothing better to do, he'd go yell at the dishwasher because his feet were too big. (True.)

 

Cat

[wbtx]

my teenage daughters (particularly the one who is about to turn 18 and knows everything)! :lol::lol::lol:

[LizzyBee]

I worked with someone who wanted to get a concealed carry permit so she could bring a gun to work. She used to come in pretty early, but still... I wouldn't have trusted her. She also told the partners that I was looking for another job. It was news to me. Even if I had been, she's the last person I would have told. She tried to orchestrate having the entire admin staff quit at the beginning of tax season one year, but she only managed to recruit one other person to quit with her.

[FaithManor]

I worked, during the first two years of our marriage, in a non-profit organization's help desk department. One of the men that I worked with would get positively "evil" - killer, unbelievable attitude - for three days per month every month. The other women and I began charting it and realized that he had some sort male PMS. We got absolutely sick of dealing with him and one day we had an annonymous basket of "midol, tampons, Kotex, pantyliners, and some carnations" sent to his desk. I am certain he knew it was us but he couldn't prove it. He never, ever gave us atitude again!

 

Totally true story, I snicker every time I think about it. For the record, his wife worked in a different department and apparently, she was not amused! Oh-well, it did the trick.

 

Faith

[joannqn]

My last job which I quit two weeks early because I couldn't stand sticking it out until my planned last day to stay home with my first born....

 

I had two co-workers who were the worst employees. One spent work time balancing her checkbook and making personal calls (ie hunting for an apt so she could leave her husband). The other spent all kinds of time on personal calls and doing her nails. They both arrived late to work, took 20-30 minute breaks instead of 15 minute breaks, took 1 1/2 hour lunches instead of one hour lunches, and left early on a regular basis. But they couldn't do their job because I wasn't a being a good team member and doing their work for them (we were all suppose to help each other out). Instead I was busy doing all of my work, plus some of their work, and all of the file purging (a job that was suppose to be shared), and providing decent service (they were quite rude to their callers. The faxes ran out of paper because I didn't fill them...again it was a shared job. Our computer system kept track of most jobs entered. When giving me work to do, they sorted it and gave me the data entry that wasn't counted and kept the stuff that was counted for themselves. On the very few occasions they helped with my work, they did the same...taking the counted stuff for themselves and leaving me with the stuff that wasn't counted. I left and burned that bridge on my exit interview.

 

At another job...a call center...I had another co-worker who blamed me for her inability to get her job done. It's because I talked to her too much. However, I met and exceeded my call quotas while she barely hit half of hers. Hmmmm....the numbers just didn't add up. She also accused me of stalking her to our boss, and after one blow up where our co-workers were obviously not buying her story, she went home and slept with her platonic male roommate.

[mom2jjka]

I worked in a bakery and the cake decorator used to lick the frosting from the tips of the icing bags while decorating cakes... usually wedding cakes. :ack2:

[JustGin]

Worked for a furniture retailer years ago and one of the salesmen was a real case. One day another of the salesmen came into the office and said, "you won't believe what we caught Reese doing! He was taking his partially finished coffee and pouring it back into the common coffee pot, swishing it around and then pouring himself a fresh cup." Ewwww!!!

[Melissa in Australia]

I worked in a bakery and the cake decorator used to lick the frosting from the tips of the icing bags while decorating cakes... usually wedding cakes. :ack2:

 

It isn't liking, it is sucking to get the icing nozzle flowing again. That is the way I was taught at cooking school. After a while you get thoroughly sick form all the icing.

[MyThreeSons]

At one company, we had weekly department meetings. We drew up a list for who would bring donuts to share each week. One man, who was known for his frugality, said he was on a diet and wouldn't eat donuts, so he shouldn't be on the list. Sure enough, each week, he declined to eat donuts during the meeting. HOWEVER, there were always leftovers, which were set out on top of a filing cabinet in the general office area. He would saunter by when he thought no one was looking, and slip a donut or two into an empty file folder, then go back to his cubicle and stuff the donuts into his mouth. :tongue_smilie:

[Melissa in Australia]

At one company, we had weekly department meetings. We drew up a list for who would bring donuts to share each week. One man, who was known for his frugality, said he was on a diet and wouldn't eat donuts, so he shouldn't be on the list. Sure enough, each week, he declined to eat donuts during the meeting. HOWEVER, there were always leftovers, which were set out on top of a filing cabinet in the general office area. He would saunter by when he thought no one was looking, and slip a donut or two into an empty file folder, then go back to his cubicle and stuff the donuts into his mouth. :tongue_smilie:

That is sad. I know how it is to have to live frugally.

[MyThreeSons]

That is sad. I know how it is to have to live frugally.

 

Oh, but he didn't "have to" live frugally. He made and had plenty of money.

[Violet Crown]

One of the support staff where dh worked was ineffective and offensive. He especially liked to show photos of his latest trip, and 'accidentally' include photos of himself semi- or entirely nude. Oops, how did that get in there! They couldn't just fire him because he'd been a whistleblower, so they had to get all their ducks in a row to get rid of him.

 

Finally he told one of the employees, in a bar, that he fantasized about coming to work with a gun and taking care of the people he didn't like. That did the job.

[G5052]

Frequent lunchtime "meetings" behind closed doors with just two people (staff told to not bother them under any circumstances and to hold all calls), checking into a hotel for an official meeting but spending much of the time in a coworker's room having "meetings," using the office shredder to get rid of lovenotes associated with the "meetings"...

 

:glare:

[Halftime Hope]

Straight out of college, I worked in a doctor's office as an in-office lab tech. I ran a small lab for doing all the common blood tests like UAs, CBCs, BGs, etc. and drawing labs to be sent out.

 

One morning, the back door to the office was not locked like it usually was, and I came in to find the office mgr (the MD's adult, married-with- kids son) drinking teA with the receptionist in an exam room.

 

Ick!

 

I didn't stay at that job long.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

I worked in a bakery and the cake decorator used to lick the frosting from the tips of the icing bags while decorating cakes... usually wedding cakes. :ack2:

 

That's gross.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

It isn't liking, it is sucking to get the icing nozzle flowing again. That is the way I was taught at cooking school. After a while you get thoroughly sick form all the icing.

 

But...but...that's still gross. Weren't you taught to clean it out before putting the frosting on the cake? Did they charge extra for the Chef Spit Special? Maybe that's why wedding cake tastes so good.

[sparrow]

I worked in the IT department of a major university. There are plenty of "characters" in IT, especially high end programmers. My absolute favorite was a woman who had her entire office filled with stuffed animals. She carried one with her wherever she went, including meetings. Sometimes during the day she would load up a little red wagon with several "friends" and take them for a walk around the building, stopping by cubicles and introducing them.

 

She had worked for the university for more than 20 years and was a very well respected programmer. I just loved seeing who she would choose to accompany her to the water cooler! Would it be the large snake to wrap around her neck or the parrot to sit on her shoulder :D?

[staceyobu]

But...but...that's still gross. Weren't you taught to clean it out before putting the frosting on the cake? Did they charge extra for the Chef Spit Special? Maybe that's why wedding cake tastes so good.

 

I know! They teach you to lick icing!?! That can't be right!

 

These are hilarious!

[OnTheBrink]

Let's see...When I was 17 I worked at KFC and one of the cooks and I would joke around a lot. Nothing serious or sexual, but just making jokes. Well, apparently, that upset his wife and I suspect he told her stories to feed that jealousy, because honestly, there was NO interest on my part toward him. I was off to college and I certainly wasn't interested in a 25 year old married chicken cook. I had loftier goals! LOL Anyway, she did things like leave notes on my car threatening me to leave her beloved alone, stop throwing myself at him, called me a "bleach-blonde" (I've never bleached my hair IN MY LIFE!), etc. She even somehow messed with my car and pulled some sort of cables to keep my car from starting. Finally, it got so bad, the manager fired the chicken cook and it all stopped.

 

Then, a few years later, working again at another KFC, I opened the walk-in fridge and found one of the cooks eating cole slaw out of the prepared containers with his hands. He'd scoop out some slaw, eat it, close the container and open another. This was after he'd handled some raw chicken, too. I ended up tossing the whole tray and making more. He got so mad that I'd caught him, he threatened to kill me. And, it wasn't an angrily expressed sentiment, it happened after I'd gotten in my car to go home. He followed me out to the lot, stood in front of my car, aimed his finger at me as if shooting a gun and said nothing. Just glared and pretended to shoot me. It was scary. For a few weeks after that, he continued to be threatening, doing the gun gesture thing. I quit after that. The manager wasn't the least bit interested in the situation, regardless of the possible liability on so many levels! (contaminated food, an employee threatening another, etc)

 

So, never eat at KFC and fcol, never work there!

 

At my current job, there's a cleaning lady that makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. She's very nosy, way too familiar-acting. When I come in, she usually demands to know where I've been on the days I don't work. How come I wasn't there, how come I could be off "having fun". I've told her I'm only PT, but she still does this. She comments on the contents of my trash can. I eat at my desk and she'll comment on the food trash. It's just weird. I don't like strangers acting so familiar with me or asking nosy questions. It's not just me, either. There's another co-worker two cubicles over who feels the same way about it her.

[Diane in CO]

I worked in the IT department of a major university. There are plenty of "characters" in IT, especially high end programmers. My absolute favorite was a woman who had her entire office filled with stuffed animals. She carried one with her wherever she went, including meetings. Sometimes during the day she would load up a little red wagon with several "friends" and take them for a walk around the building, stopping by cubicles and introducing them.

 

She had worked for the university for more than 20 years and was a very well respected programmer. I just loved seeing who she would choose to accompany her to the water cooler! Would it be the large snake to wrap around her neck or the parrot to sit on her shoulder :D?

 

 

I LOVE THIS! Thank you for starting my day off with a good laugh :D

 

Diane

[MBM]

Back in college my boss, a kooky but very nice nun, used to write numerous notes on little Post-its. I worked for a museum and sat at the gift store's cash register on weekends, and any time she left me a new receipt booklet, she'd write a memo to remember to remove the plastic before I wrote any receipts. LOL.

 

Another boss, who I believe had serious anger issues, would call me at home and allow the phone to ring for as long as she could handle just to harass me.

 

In high school I worked at McDonalds, and all but one manager was nice. The mean one would make us mop behind the counter and then dump a shake right after we finished just to make us mop up again.

 

I have some other good ones, but they are too racy for this board.

[Pajama Mama]

When we were first married, I was going to school part time and working full time at the Olive Garden. I waited on a group who worked at another restaurant. They suggested that I work at their place because I was just so awesome-lol. I called their boss and got the job--it was closer to home and better money. I told them that I just found out that I was pregnant and they still hired me.

 

I gave OG 2 weeks notice. I worked about 7 hours and agreed to pull another shift for a manager who was my friend. I told him I had to eat in between since I was preggo and constantly hungry. He said absolutely. He was gone for the day and another manager(who was a jerk)saw me eating in the back(I had a receipt). He started yelling at me in the restaurant in front of my customers. The OG started a new policy of not eating unless clocked out which I had no problem with. But I was pregnant and the other manager said to eat on the clock since I was helping them out(I ate fast). He started flipping out about writing me up and blah, blah, blah. I told him about the other manager and that I had no intention of not eating for over 12 hours when I was pregnant. Other customers in the restaurant where commenting on his rudeness. He was just nasty so I quit and walked out.

 

I get that places want you to quit because they are afraid that you won't show up anyway. But this guy was crazed and trying to make me an example. I spoke with the manager who I liked later and apparently there was a big arguement about how the jerky guy handled my issue.

 

I still like the OG food though.

[Barry Goldwater]

from NBC's show, "The Office." right down to exact quotes...had to stop watching the DVDs for awhile because they made me twitch...too many examples to quote, but here's just one...

 

'I pay you to do a job, and you use that money to feed your family, so it's really like I'm feeding your family.' :banghead: (actually said that in real life, and that was an exact line from the show).

[stripe]

This guy started working where I was working and asked me out. When I declined, he spent most of each day calling up his friends to make fun of me. Like I cared! He was generally inept. My boss was too chicken to fire him. Then the guy announced (after being there for about 2 months) that he was going on vacation for two weeks. They called him up the night before he was due back to tell him not to bother returning.

 

Then there was the lady who went to the bathroom everyday to do something. Or she did it at her desk. It involved a white powder in little lines.

[MBM]

When we were first married, I was going to school part time and working full time at the Olive Garden. I waited on a group who worked at another restaurant. They suggested that I work at their place because I was just so awesome-lol. I called their boss and got the job--it was closer to home and better money. I told them that I just found out that I was pregnant and they still hired me.

 

I gave OG 2 weeks notice. I worked about 7 hours and agreed to pull another shift for a manager who was my friend. I told him I had to eat in between since I was preggo and constantly hungry. He said absolutely. He was gone for the day and another manager(who was a jerk)saw me eating in the back(I had a receipt). He started yelling at me in the restaurant in front of my customers. The OG started a new policy of not eating unless clocked out which I had no problem with. But I was pregnant and the other manager said to eat on the clock since I was helping them out(I ate fast). He started flipping out about writing me up and blah, blah, blah. I told him about the other manager and that I had no intention of not eating for over 12 hours when I was pregnant. Other customers in the restaurant where commenting on his rudeness. He was just nasty so I quit and walked out.

 

I get that places want you to quit because they are afraid that you won't show up anyway. But this guy was crazed and trying to make me an example. I spoke with the manager who I liked later and apparently there was a big arguement about how the jerky guy handled my issue.

 

I still like the OG food though.

 

I love Olive Garden's salads and could eat bowlfuls! Sadly, we do not have any nearby. sniff.

 

Back when I worked as a waitress at the Cowboy Cafe, the other waitresses and I used to while away our time eating nachos and dip while watching the front end. All of the customers could see us and couldn't care less as long as they got their food and coffee. Ahhh, now that was a fun job.

[spradlin02]

I used to work with a guy who would come over to me at my computer and stand behind me while very, very loudly eating an apple. And I hate mouth noises. If I ever wanted to punch someone.

 

Right now I work with another guy who'll try and talk to me while I'm reading during my lunch. He too brings his food and chews very loudly while smacking his good. Man, that's just the fingers on the chalkboard for me.

[Melissa in Australia]

But...but...that's still gross. Weren't you taught to clean it out before putting the frosting on the cake? Did they charge extra for the Chef Spit Special? Maybe that's why wedding cake tastes so good.

sorry, it isn't to put frosting on the cake, but to do the lace icing. You need very thick royal icing, so thick that a thread of it will stick straight out until dry. it is so thick that it doesn't flow very well, and so it gets stuck in the nozzle, especially if you put it down for a sec. to fix a mistake. the only way to get it flowing again is to gently suck on the nozzle. squeezing the icing bag really hard to get it to flow will just make the bag burst.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I worked a day job and was transferred to night shift for reasons unknown to me at the time. I worked with this woman who told all kinds of stories- like that she and her twin sister escaped from East Germany and that her boyfriend was a pilot who flew all these famous people. I never knew what I should believe. She started telling me about the guy with whom she had been working, until they switched his and my shifts. She told me he was stealing from the company, that he would sleep on the job, that he would snoop through the garbage cans, etc.

 

Well, something happened and she was switched to days and the guy she told me about was put on nights with me. I was very cautious of him at first, and kept my guard up. But, he did nothing weird, did his job well, was very nice, etc. I think the crazy woman I worked with just made up stories about him to either get him in trouble or just because she was a pathological liar. I don't know.

[Lara in Colo]

I used to work for a family owned business and the boss brought her young daughter with her. I was in charge of the monthy birthday cake (where you put all the names for that month on the cake) She was very angry that I didn't put her 1 yr old on the cake and yelled at me, then didn't speak to me for the rest of the week. (I was 19 at the time)

 

Same child would be unattended on the weekends (when we were all gone) and child was rummaging through my desk and started to choke on a sunflower seed. I was told not ever have that in the office again.

 

Lara

[elise1mds]

Actual true story: When I was a small-town reporter I worked with a guy (he was the sports writer) who totally thought he was still in high school. He was 38 and still wore the same pants he did 20 years before. Not the same SIZE pants, the SAME PANTS. He was starting to get a gut and would sometimes come in with them unbuttoned. He also still lived at home.

 

To top it all off, he drove (still drives, and this was 10 years ago when we worked together) a VW Thing... and had a MASSIVE fear of ninjas. He would take a different route home from work every day, at a slightly different time, so the ninjas couldn't follow him. The rest of us in the newsroom swore that one day we were going to have a ninja sitting at his desk when he came in, just to watch him run.

 

I do love these memories...

[kalanamak]

He would saunter by when he thought no one was looking, and slip a donut or two into an empty file folder, then go back to his cubicle and stuff the donuts into his mouth.

 

There once was a woman named Maud,

Famed at home and abroad.

She never was able

To eat at the table,

But back in the pantry, my GAWD!

[duckens]

Oh, where to begin!

 

As a teenager, I worked at Baskin Robbins. The boss required us to be there 10 minutes early, and would threaten us with firing if we weren't there early....but we weren't paid for that time.

 

We were also required to pick up bananas, marachino cherries, etc, before our shift if the store was running low. So one would have to leave for work a half-hour early to do this for our boss-with-the-big-house-on-the lake. And, of course, we were never paid for this extra time.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

Then there was the temp job that I took where the other office folk were asking me to do things after hours, that was not part of my job description, that I had no idea how to do, and I would not be paid for.

 

(It's not as dirty as it sounds).

 

We were 2nd shift. They wanted the books to be dropped off at the office manager's house after hours. Usually the assistant manager did this, but she wanted to sluff the job off on me. Let me be clear that I had only been to the manager's house once before (catching a ride home with the assistant manager), I was not the driver, it was dark, and I didn't know I would have to take notes for directions. Also, they couldn't give me an address for the manager's house, and I wouldn't be paid for it.

 

-------------------------------------------------------

 

The worst was a pair of young women through another summer temp job. I was happy to have simple, straightforward line work at a factory that paid well and even had overtime!!!!

 

I had a major bill with the IRS ($600+) to pay off. (My previous boss didn't withhold taxes for me, then insisted that I was "self-employed." The IRS decided that wasn't the case, but I still owed the $$$).

 

We three women worked in a "work cell" to make windowsills. We worked 2nd shift.

 

There is no other word for these women but "b*tches." I didn't think that at the time; I just worked very hard to make them happy, but NOTHING made them happy. In retrospect, I can't think of any other description of them. They did everything possible to make me miserable because they felt like it. It was very much like high school. I think the problem was that I didn't have a penis. Other women had had problems with this pair, too.

 

Sometimes our workcell didn't have any work to do, so we would be shipped out to other parts of the factory to work. No one else had complaints about me on these nights.

 

It got so bad that they shifted me to days for one week because of their complaints about me. At the end of that week, the day manager of our workcell was quoted as saying, "Duckens isn't the problem."

 

All of these things could be brushed off as personality differences, but there were a few issues that are not to be excused.

 

1) Break time for the entire factory would be at different times on different nights. Fridays had a different schedule; so did nights we only worked 8 hours instead of the usual 10 or 12. There was no mention of this at orientation.

 

The two women would wander off sometimes. I didn't know if they were going to visit other friends on the floor or going to the bathroom or whatever. I kept working. An hour later when I would ask about break, they said, "Oh, that was an hour ago. You can't go on break now." They'd do that as often as they could, several times in a night if they dared. They didn't inform the new person of break time, and they refused me break when I asked.

 

2) As I said above, they left me. Alone in a factory because EVERYONE went on break at the same time. With dangerous equipment. If anything had gone wrong, I would have bled to death before they returned from break. This was also against company policy and probably wouldn't look good for OSHA, but I didn't know that at the time.

 

I worked with them for 3 days before deciding to go back to school, but I still needed to pay off the IRS. I needed one class to get into the program I wanted, so here was my schedule:

 

7-8am: class

9-noon: sleep

12:30-1:30 commute

2pm-2am (sometimes getting out at 10pm or midnight): work

2am-3am: commute

3am-4am: shower, clean up, etc

4am-6:30am: sleep

 

FWIW, my brother thinks that I have always been lazy and unmotivated.

 

--------------------------------------------------

 

Through all, I am not opposed to do extra for employers (including babysitting next Monday for M1's family even though I had asked for the day off on my January list of "days the babysitter is not available this year".)

 

I DO get incredibly angry at how exploited I was for the things these supervisors asked me to do that was against the law: working for no pay, a dangerous work environment, and refusal to allow federally allowed breaks.

 

I NEVER WANT MY DAUGHTER TO GO THROUGH WHAT I HAVE FOR WORK AND TO PAY FOR SCHOOL. NEVER!!!!

[Gooblink]

These are hilarious, sad, and make my work history seem incredibly boring. :) I'm sure I could come up with a story or two, but...whew!

 

There've been a few creepy things. When I worked for American Airlines I was stalked and don't know by whom. I'd find "flattering" notes on my windshield at home and at work, but the "sender" never did come forward. I did have my suspicions...and a gun.

 

Once, years ago when I was a waitress, a customer handed me a folded note. I stuck it in my apron with the intention of reading it on my break. About 20 minutes later he came back in and asked if I'd read the note. When I told him I hadn't, he asked for it back! I never found out what it said!

 

Another customer of the same restaurant, who was about 40 years my senior (and a prominent member of the City Council), showed up drunk, pounding on the door of my apartment asking if we could "talk." I didn't answer the door, but was ready to call the police before a neighbor came to the rescue and chased him away.

 

I guess you were asking about co-workers. Yeah, there've been some goofy ones, but I pretty much got along with everyone, I suppose. :)

[Slartibartfast]

When I worked at McDonalds there was another manager who when he would get busy in drive-through, he would throw a hissy fit.

 

It was really odd, he would kick the shake machine, complain extensively under his breathe, and snap at people.

 

It got so bad even the non-English speaking employees would make fun of him. They would put on the headset, shout "MIOS DIOS!!" kick the shake machine and swear under their breath at people, in Spanish.

 

It kept progressing, so one day he finds the employees who do speak English crying to the heavens (in Spanish) "MIOS DIOS!!!!" Kicking the shake machine while swearing in Spanish, then they would drop to the floor dramatically and tear at their hair while rolling around. He had no idea what was happening but WOW do not ever put yourself into a position where high school students do a dramatic monologue because of your drive-through behavior.

Edited July 2, 2010 by Sis

[Crissy]

My horror story involved Bob.

I was in my early twenties, he in is mid to late sixties.

 

He started bringing me roses, then writing me letters. I told him in no uncertain terms that I was not interested.

 

His letters became increasingly suggestive, then downright vulgar. Eventually he made sure I understood that I could have full access to his complete porn library. :001_huh:

 

It took far too long, but eventually my boss convinced him that he needed to find another job.:glare:

[runmiarun]

Thanks for the laughs and cringes tonight. I needed the reprieve.

 

Many years ago in a galaxy far away, I worked for a construction company. My department was the in-house hardware and lumber store for the company. One of my subdivisions had a builder who was a former Marine drill instructor. He thought it was just rollicking funny to call me all the names he formerly used on his recruits while in the Marines. After about a month of this fun, he showed up one day at the office to try his schtick out in person since an order had been delivered wrong. He started in on me while I sat at my desk. I stood up, leaned over, got in his face, and very quietly said, "Your mama would be very disappointed in your behaviour. She didn't raise you to talk to southern ladies this way. You know better." The blood drained completely out of his face and he stammered an apology. Turns out, his mother was a saint who raised him after his father died in Korea. After that, he never said another mean word to me. We ended up being good work buddies and shared many guffaws.

 

My last boss before becoming a SAHM believed that every other word in a sentence used within the confines of the office must be the F word. Unfortunately, the confines of the office could be loosely delineated based on who was around to hear her sentences. Complete strangers got the hear the best of it.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I used to work as a maid for a very famous interior designer. She was a very difficult woman to work for - very dramatic, very temperamental but everyone excused her behavior because she was a "genius". She used to scream and swear at people to get them to do her bidding. I very respectfully but firmly told her after the first day of work that I had a very strange condition - I heard things very well if they were said politely but had severe hearing loss if screamed at. She treated me very well indeed. And I worked hard for her. But then after a year I gave notice because I had had a better job offer actually in my field. After that, she refused to talk to me at all. She would stand right next to me and scream down the stairs to her assistant her instructions to me. The assistant would yell back up to me, "Did you hear that, Jean?" I'd yell down, "Yes" and do the chore. :glare:

 

I always felt a bit sorry for that lady. I felt sorry that people had let her believe that her genius meant that she didn't have to have any social skills and that she could treat others like dirt. And I felt even worse when I came to work one morning when her design business was on vacation and found her in tears. She told me how nice people were to her face because of her fame but really hated her guts. I felt sorry because I knew it was true and she really didn't see how to change it.

[Corraleno]

I used to work for a large nonprofit institute, with a crazy pathological liar for a boss. After I'd worked there for about a year, she was out "sick" (in Puerto Vallarta I think) for a week, so I took the project I was working on to the director of the institute for approval. He told me to tell Ida that she'd done a great job on it. I told him I'd done it, and he said Ida had shown him all the preliminary work and previous drafts during the departmental meetings, and that BTW I really needed to stop missing the meetings. I said "What meetings?" :confused:

 

Turned out she'd been sending me out of the office whenever there was a meeeting and then telling the director that I knew there was a meeting but hadn't come back from lunch yet, which was a "chronic problem" with me. Then she'd show him all my work and claim it was her own. :glare: I asked him to please copy me on all future meeting memos, and I would definitely be there.

 

Ida had major issues with alcohol and certain powdered substances, and she always kept a bottle of vodka in her desk drawer. Her chemical problems got worse and worse, and she would alternate between screaming at everyone in the dept and then crying/begging us to help her finish assignments so she wouldn't get fired. One day, she spilled an entire bottle of vodka on the carpet, which stunk like crazy. She was drunk and yelling at the secretary to clean it up, and the director (who was rarely in town) called to ask when would be a good time to go over the most recent designs. I said "Now would be perfect." :D

 

So the director walked into the design department to find Ida drunk and screaming, and the place reeking of vodka. Six weeks later, after putting up with unbelievable cr*p for several years, I was head of the department. :coolgleamA:

 

Jackie

[stripe]

He started bringing me roses, then writing me letters. I told him in no uncertain terms that I was not interested.

 

I had a guy who showed up and insisted he and I were the same religion (if he was, he was remarkably uninformed about it; my co-worker didn't buy it). He suggested that we move off together. To somewhere warm and wonderful, that would be good for his health. Specifically, his brain cancer.

[Kate in Arabia]

I worked for an Islamic publishing house for a while. They had a non-Muslim working as a graphic designer; she decided to quit, but just before she left she sent the final drafts of a book to the outsourced printer and had inserted explicit language throughout the book. Fortunately the printer noticed and called to check -- I mean, generally a printer would just print off whatever we sent as final. That could have been a huge loss of money to a tiny company that could ill afford it.

[angela in ohio]

I worked for a children's theater group locally, and one of the board members physically attacked me in a meeting (I was the office secretary.) He grabbed me by the head and shook me. Now it's funny, but at the time I was freaked out. I came home shaking and crying, and dh called him and went Pa Ingalls on him. Then he threatened to sue us. :D