Tell us your workplace horror stories.

[buzzlightyearsgirlfriend]

Got one?

Want to tell it?

I once worked with a woman who tried to tell me what to do all the time and boss me around even though we were equals.

I was always looking over my shoulder to see if she was there and about to give me another public lecture about how useless I was.

Eventually, I lost it at her. It wasn't pretty . She sent me an email apologising for her behaviour and justified it because she thought of me as her daughter. The daughter stuff made me blerk a bit, but after that she left me alone.

I'm sure people have worse stories than mine.

[azureline**]

I sometimes worked in our family business when OH was very busy or had to be away. He had a customer who always knew everything about everything and nothing was ever simple with her. Even if it was done as she asked, there was always a BUT and it had to be redone. I used to hide in the office when she came in.

She ended up buyin g the business when we sold. and the next time I saw her, she told me all about the "difficult customers

[just_me_karen]

When i was in my early 20s I had a boss who used to try and beat us up after everyone else had gone home. He was a huge thing too... and of course, none of the other bosses believed us when we complained. So one day, my workmates hid behind partitions and he came in, checked nobody else was about... then started roaring with rage, fists up... He'd almost backed me into a cupboard and they jumped out and busted him.

We didnt want him to lose his job cos he had kids, so we settled for a very long, grovelling, public apology. He was a weird man.

[debra9275]

Buzz, I once worked with an older woman just like that, I'm sure she thought she was my mother. I just handled it very politely but it was so annoying . She didn't make me feel useless, but she wanted me to do everything her way, I compromised a little but still managed to do my own thing. I felt a bit sorry for her really.

[clair.de.lune]

My boss was in her 50's, about a size 8, blonde hair, thought she was beautiful, always chasing after men, she used to wear this bright red skirt like the one I used to dress my Barbie doll in when I was a kid. She tripped over the computer cord once and I laughed & laughed  It was bad

[toon_town_nutter]

We had one who used to time our breaks. Sad sad woman. She never made it to manager even after 20 years of brown nosing. 

[clair.de.lune]

I was working in a call centre and I was on the phone to elly, I thought I put her on hold to take the incoming call but what I did was put the in coming caller onto elly. The guy was a bit distraught and said he thought he was talking to someone in the back streets of Sydney, he didn't realise how right he was

[lis351]

There was one person I worked with, would tell all sorts of lies about me to the boss, until I was eventually 'let go'. Things like I was a druggie, would come to work stoned/drunk, that everyone in the area where I lived were liars and thieves and she thought I would steal from the business etc.

I worked in a restaurant run by a married couple, they would bring their little girl to work every night. She was allowed to roam the dining area and would come into the kitchen after service and boss me around, backed up by her horrid father. I would catch 2 trains and a bus to get to work (2 hour round trip) and wait outside for up to another hour and half to be told there were no bookings and they werent opening tonight, often sitting on the step of the restaurant with no cover from the rain. The final straw was when I was waiting as usual for them to open up and was approached by the mother of the bride who was supposed to be having her wedding reception there the following day and had organised with the couple to drop off things. When I rang them to ask when they were coming, they werent opening again and I had to relay to the distraught woman why they werent coming to accept the stuff for the wedding for organisation the next day.

[*queen.kong*]

Ive got a couple of doozies...

One workmate was a real cow almost from day one of me starting a new job there.  She wanted me to delete a production order.I thought she meant deleting it off our spreadsheets (which I did) but she meant deleting it out of our production system completely. It was my second day in the job (??) not exactly something that a newbie should be doing.  Well she hated me from that day forward when the production team told her off about it, and she tried to pin all the blame on me. She still wouldnt be nice to me even though other workmates asked her why she gave me such a big job to do I had barely started there?? Anyway she went on maternity leave and got made redundant - not enough work for her to come back to as it was a joint role, but I made it more efficient I really wanted to throttle her especially the way she spoke to me everyday, rude, patronising and belittling but I decided to be the bigger person and she got told off by our boss for it and was commended for not retaliating, was hard not to though.

On another occassion I got told off by a workmate at a different workplace, for not saying thankyou for sending an email attachment to me?  Well actually she had a hissy fit right in front of me (??) I was like what the......LOL golly gee If i expected a thank you email from everyone that I ever helped out or sent info to I will be waiting a long time...lol. Anyway I told her in a barely concealed patronising tone that I am really sorry that I forgot to say thank you and I didnt mean to upset you hehe..after that she tried to pin all sorts of ridiculous things on me like this gem...she ran and complained to my boss because she heard that I had not invited her to the movies because she worked in the corporate dept and I worked in operations (I had invited two other workmates) she wanted to take the situation further as in senior management and she wanted an apology!!! I mean...really??? The funny thing was the boss said to me dont worry about it, everyone knows shes a cow

Ok one more, I had a go at a current workmate because it seemed that everytime I was on annual leave she seemed to be "sick" and take leave as well.  No big deal if it wasnt for the fact she did it THREE times in a row to me.  What makes it hard is that if she is away my boss has to drop my role and do hers which REALLY puts my work behind by days.  Well I had enough of this and confronted her in front of my boss and workmates and told her did she realise that she was doing this? She denied it of course but I just told her straight, my boss and I had a meeting and I said that she needs to be more reliable (she takes a lot of leave and uses some lame excuse for being away everytime) she has not spoken to me for three months because I had the audacity to take exception to her slackness. Funnily enough after this event and when I went on annual leave for the FOURTH time she didnt take any days off hmmmmm LOL!!! Actually she has barely taken any sick leave for a while...WHAT A MIRACLE!!! It probably helped that I told her that I was watching her when she took time off...hehe.