Workplace B.S., how much do you have to be subjected to?

[jimmie ray]

I started this thread for a new friend, who's dealing with it, now. We all have, although I feel the worst must be in the past, as far as my situation. I hope this at least gives comfort to some of you - sorry if it sickens some, along with that:

I worked for over 20 years in a large manufacturing facility. I did test work, but also had a somewhat private cubicle in the Engineering office. My supervisor - a fat, belligerent Iranian, and a young Russian fashion model looking secretary, both sat in fully glass surrounded offices, right next to each other. I began noticing my supervisor standing behind his chair, several times a day. He would stare back menacingly, if I looked at him as I passed. I asked my coworkers in the office what he could be up to? They all said they never saw this, except one guy who said "Yeah, and do you know what's in the cup?" I did see him coming out from behind the chair, with a partially full cup that he would march over to the kitchenette, and toss the contents into the sink.

The young secretary was watching this day after day, and finally ran to the head of the department crying "make him stop, make him stop". She was told to go back to her work, and not look in the direction of this animal. A few days later, she was so upset that she had a nosebleed, and could not do her work. She was immediately fired, and escorted out of the office.

I went immediately to the owner of the company, a respected man who often invited me to share ideas at his office. He stopped me halfway through the story, and said "and then he throws his urine in the sink,in front of everybody - right?", with a long laugh. He assured me it was all my imagination - that no one else had come forward with such nonsense, and that this girl had resigned with no given reason.

I heard that the secretary was eventually given a settlement of $60,000, to not take this to court. I was given an unbearable workload, and told all my results were lies. I was never invited to another meeting, or the owner's office, again. During the first layoffs, I was bunched in with all the dead wood, and informed of my dismissal with leering smiles.

Suffice to say, in spite of what each day holds for me at this different workplace, I always look back at that time of horror, and shake it off.

[Led Zep Girl]

Thank you for starting this thread. Thankfully, everything at my workplace is good for the moment. I can't help but stay positive as to what the future holds for me & my co-workers. Working with the public is a hard job. You never know who your going to be dealt with. I would share my hardships here, but I feel I need to forget those experiences & move on.

[sickagain98]

While I was cleaning out this house my neighbor was renting out a year back(this was over the course of a couple days), I'd find a crusty, and sometimes sticky substance on the carpet. So each time I'd find one of those stains and clean it up (without gloves), I'd think, "What the hell - its probably just honey or something anyways". It wasn't until I found a condom wrapper in the bathroom garbage that I realized what was going on in that empty house. I found out a few weeks later he was a flaming homosexual as well. I cringe thinking about that experience to this day.

[beetleron]

so what........i always store my honey in a condom

[docron]

While I was cleaning out this house my neighbor was renting out a year back(this was over the course of a couple days), I'd find a crusty, and sometimes sticky substance on the carpet. So each time I'd find one of those stains and clean it up (without gloves), I'd think, "What the hell - its probably just honey or something anyways". It wasn't until I found a condom wrapper in the bathroom garbage that I realized what was going on in that empty house. I found out a few weeks later he was a flaming homosexual as well. I cringe thinking about that experience to this day.

doesn't this belong in the 'News that makes you say WTF!?' thread??

[sickagain98]

I bet you do, but I'm not about to ask what type of "honey" that is.

[sickagain98]

^this post belongs to beetleron

[sickagain98]

docron, this wasn't in a newspaper. its a TINY bit similar to the piss in the mug experience at the top.

[jimmie ray]

^ I kept wondering about if the issue at work would someday be in the paper, but that company kept people too scared to voice anything against this man. Sometimes news stories about workplace abuse or discrimination seem petty, in comparison. Your rental neighbor assumeably didn't do anything directly in front of anyone, or toss his bodily fluids in a place where others might wash themselves or serving ware, right after. Sorry to say, this probably won't be the last time you put your hands in something sticky, and ponder...WTF???

[Janvier]

for some reason the "b.s." I have to endure at work does not come from co-workers or superiors, but from customers. Customers can turn into a company's biggest liability and can easily make the brightest of days end into your worst nightmare. And I have concluded that there's no point in arguing with a customer, even if he or she is wrong.

Not long ago when I was a member of another message board I was personally attacked and insulted by some senior members, my reaction was: I already had an awful day at work and I don't need other people to bother me in the evening when I log onto the forums for some leisure time, so I quit said forum and just post here where I like it better.

Of course in the nineties I used to have a much better job with many perks which I presently don't have.

[jimmie ray]

^ That penis of yours seems to wiggle it's way into a lot of topics here, Major.

[chillumpuffer]

I used to work for an incredibly weird man. His wife lived and worked in London but they had a place up here. So he never appeared Monday and very rearely turned in Friday. Some of his excuses were hilarious, the walls of the flat have just collapsed, his toaster had exploded - can't come in etc etc. I was left in charge of around 12 people who were employed to pack things in boxes for a large multi national company for basically peanuts. Not to generalise these people were the lowest form of person, no qualifications, many had criminal records and nearly all were drug users. It was piece work and the targets set by my boss were truely ridiculous. It was stressful just to make sure they came to work and it didn't help that my boss was constantly on the blower hassling me about how many boxes had been packed. Not surprisingly the staff took the piss as well as most of the stock that had to be packed. I hated it. But it was needs must at the time.

When the boss came in he was ridiculous to the extreme. I had the warehouse to keep in check, the day to day running of hundreds of orders, invoicing, keeping check on the minions, timesheets, wages the whole fucking lot. When I made one mistake I was hauled in to his sanctuary and bollocked time and time again. It was so stressful that i used to wake up at night in cold sweats. Once and believe me this is true: I completed a work sheet for a job we were packing. When he checked it he called me in and said - with a straight face " You have changed this sheet haven't you?" "No" I replied. "Yes you have. This writing is from a bic biro and this one is a different pen - look you can see by the ink!!" I laughed so much I nearly pissed myself. I nearly got a tee shirt made that said "... one wrong move". One week we were getting a shit load of stock. I asked him, because of the workload I was doing, could I come in over the weekend and check and bookin the stock. With a long exhale of breath he said " OK I mean i suppose you need the extra money so you can go on hoilday" He even asked me to do a stock check twice as we closing early for the Christmas break and he hated the idea of me having days off.

Finally enough was enough. I got offered another Job and I told him so the day he got in from another of his 2 week breaks. He begged me not to go but I just said sorry mate - go fuck yourself.

The weirdest thing of all though. Out of work he was a really sociable bloke. He smoked dope, enjoyed good wine and food and I had dined at his house with my wife a few times. He had been round to mine and we got on really well. But in work he was a complete madman. I left to work for another madman but I could never start with him. It would take the rest of my life

[Strider]

I'm fortunate in that I don't have any weird workplace BS stories to relate, mainly because I've never really had to work in a "cubicle" environment, which seems to be a major incubator of Workplace BS behavior.

Even my time in the Army was relatively free of hassles with my superiors in the chain-of-command. Only hitch I recall was when a fellow platoon member stole my marijuana. Which I dealt with in such a way that I never had issues with him again.

Sure, one of my current places of employment(I split time at two jobs) can seem like a high school at times...most of my fellow employees are young women and there is always drama with boyfriends, PMS, and cliques being formed, but it rarely involves me.

Compared to some of the horror stories here, my working life has been blessedly free of strife.

Jimmie ray, I actually thought your story was going to wind up with that guy being caught masturbating into that cup.

[jimmie ray]

^ Nope, the story is 100% accurate. Can you imagine that piece of shit shaking out his wad into the sink, like it's the last bit in a ketchup bottle?

[badgeholder]

I briefly worked for Guitar Center in the late '90's. I figured, I'm a drummer, working in the drum dept. should be a natural fit, right?

Well, there was this kid - I dunno, maybe 13 or so, he would come in every day and beat the shit out of a drumset for two hours, then mommy would pick him up. It was like day care or something. He was NOT "trying it out to see if he wants to buy it". He was treating the store like a rehearsal place. He was terrible, too. Drove me nuts!. This is when my insomnia was at it's very worst, too. I was cranky, to say the least. So "being patient" was not really an option for me then. You can imagine the inevitable confrontation, right? I lasted just two weeks there, absolute torture

[Cletus]

I once heard this totally fucked up story from a friend of mine. Not sure how true this is, but what I heard was that his boss would sometimes go into the washroom, unzip his pants, and literally piss all over the walls, while ranting and raving like a lunatic. Again, I don't know how true this is, or it's been exaggerated, but that's what I heard.

[jimmie ray]

I briefly worked for Guitar Center in the late '90's. I figured, I'm a drummer, working in the drum dept. should be a natural fit, right?

Well, there was this kid - I dunno, maybe 13 or so, he would come in every day and beat the shit out of a drumset for two hours, then mommy would pick him up. It was like day care or something. He was NOT "trying it out to see if he wants to buy it". He was treating the store like a rehearsal place. He was terrible, too. Drove me nuts!. This is when my insomnia was at it's very worst, too. I was cranky, to say the least. So "being patient" was not really an option for me then. You can imagine the inevitable confrontation, right? I lasted just two weeks there, absolute torture

That's when you needed one of those "NO STAIRWAY" signs, nearby...

[jimmie ray]

I once heard this totally fucked up story from a friend of mine. Not sure how true this is, but what I heard was that his boss would sometimes go into the washroom, unzip his pants, and literally piss all over the walls, while ranting and raving like a lunatic. Again, I don't know how true this is, or it's been exaggerated, but that's what I heard.

Well, I still haven't gotten away from it, entirely. The college I now work at shows evidence of that in the bathrooms, frequently. The worst is the one the kitchen staff uses, and they're kinda the same ethnic/minority group as the cleaners who should be attending to it..

[IpMan]

When I was in HS I worked for two different grocery chains, Alpha Beta & Fry's. Alpha Beta was ok until the assistant manager got pissed off at me for talking to a particular cashier he fancied and thus, I was fired. Oh, and they were violating the law as well as my typical shift was 4pm to 1am (you cannot work a person under 18 years old after 10pm in Arizona) but what the hell did I know, I was 16 and my parents were old school Europeans who figured I had it damn good since I was not stuck in the bottom of a mine shaft in PA.

Then I worked at Fry's...fuck them! I have always been one of those get to work early, leave late and stay for OT if asked or pick up shifts from other kids who decided to tell management to piss off when a sweet party comes along. Yep, I was THAT chump who believed, for some fucking stupid reason, that if you work hard and do well you will advance within the company. Yeah right. My manager hated my ass and I have no idea why, it was really bizarre. So, after a year of putting up with his shit (daily accusations of this or that which I proved false every time) he was transferred to another store and replaced with a new manager. This was my chance! I put in for my fifth request to be promoted and the new manager informed me his predecessor hated me to the point he placed, in my permanent file at corporate, not to promote or increase pay under any circumstances. He suggested I find another job which I did...I joined the Marines and was taking even more shit at bootcamp three weeks after HS graduation!

Out of the frying pan...into the fryer. Oh well, it made me a better person right? Now excuse me while I spank it in my glass cubicle while oogling my nubile assistant!!!