Doing good deeds is often a selfless act. It's a golden rule... go through life doing good and your best and expect nothing in return. It's generous way to be, and often the reward is in witnessing the fruits of it's intentions, but every once and awhile it's ok to admit, a little recognition would be warming or just the thought of receiving recognition. We're all human, a pat on the back goes a long way.
Redditor u/David00001729 wanted hear from everyone who has been slighted for a good deed or two by asking.... What is the biggest thing you did but never got recognized for?Salty Salt...
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Worked 70+ hours a week from March through May to put 3000 student's classes online at the beginning of the pandemic. The president of the university I work for regularly thanked literally everyone else under the sun in the weekly campus updates.
Not salty at all.
My Wife's Betrayal
I got one for my wife. My wife and her coworker (both have doctorates in the medical field) were asked to be part of an official task force to help manage the Covid epidemic in our area. They both agreed and their employer let them keep their jobs for when they return. She was tasked with tracking patients waiting on test results, also tracking any that tested positive and who they came in contact with, and then organizing all the data coming from all the separate teams into safety guidelines for the public.
She was working 7-6 for 4 months straight, and some weekends.
Her work has annual, and quarterly awards that comes with a lot of great perks. This quarter they wanted to award it to one of the people who were removed to work on the Covid teams. Everyone knew my wife would get it, all their coworkers knew what my wife has been doing. In the end, the administration picked her coworker instead.
What was his role you ask? He worked 3 days a week, answered phones, and gave a 45 second briefing to public officials every other day using the data my wife and others gathered. He simply got it because he was more visible.
My wife is still really salty about it.
HIM?!
I wrote a poem for a "Why my mom deserves a diamond" contest which the class bully promptly took from me. He ended up winning with it out of the entire county and I didn't say a thing.
How proud his mom and our teachers were of "his" accomplishment was what pissed me off the most.
The 4th....
I placed 4th in state at a high school FBLA convention and they called the wrong name. I got to watch someone who didn't even compete in the competition I was in go up on stage in front of thousands and get my award.
Some New Girl...
Pretty small compared to other in this thread but at my work we have essentially an employee of the quarter award (given out every 3 months) that comes with some nice benefits: extra annual leave days, stay at a nice hotel on the company's dime, free lunch with the higher ups at a fancy restaurant, etc.
One quarter the company was falling apart and I did a bunch of overtime, held my team together, trained new employees, and had to do my bosses job too when he left the job. i'm usually pretty humble but this one time I was certain I had worked harder than anyone else at work and that i'd win the award (this was a large workforce too like 500+ people) and everyone that saw how hard I was working was telling me how much everyone appreciated it and my hard work wasn't going unnoticed.
Anyway they gave some new girl the award the award because she always walked around with a smile and kept everyone's spirits up in during a difficult time (the boss's words not mine) a bunch of the higher up talked to me afterward and told me that I had actually won the award after they voted on who should win but I was vetoed because the big boss liked the new girl (she was way more popular than me) and didn't even know who I was.
That's when I learned not to break my back for my company because forget the little guy right?
In the Nick of Time....
Saving a friend's life. We were in a car together, I was the passenger. Had a rollover accident into deep snow. She was thrown through the windshield, I was still in the car. I crawled through the window, found her trapped under the car, she couldn't breath and was in extreme panic. I pulled her out. After ambulance ride, police reports etc. not one mention ever about how she was still alive. I had nightmares for months.
"that sounds like a lot"
As a child I took care of my mom who was a wheelchair user with MS. From 10-16 years old, I would lift her out of bed, into bed, toileting, dressing, each year she got less mobile. No one in my life told me how much work I was putting in. I'm real tall and was pretty strong, but it was a big job on top of school. The first time I was told "that sounds like a lot" was by my therapist this year now that I'm 25.
My mom tried her best to minimize the work and eventually got homecare, and she tried to keep me smiling and laughing, normalizing it to keep me afloat. Looking back everybody, teachers, friends parents, my mom's friends tried to take care of me, but nobody would admit to me how big of a deal that was, because if they did, I'd probably stop smiling.
And that woulda been okay. I'm grateful either way. They were doing their best. And so was I.
Edit: I'm a woman, just cuz it's becoming relevant in replies. Sadly my username having lady in it isn't the quickest give away!
Covert Ops....
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Covertly provided information to the EPA that contributed to enforcement actions resulting in a substantial reduction in industrial sulfur dioxide pollution.
Underwater....
Saved a family friend's daughter from drowning. I almost went under as well as I was only a few years older than her. I am not looking to get a celebration every year or anything but quite literally what I got in response was "She should have known better."
Meh not the biggest thing but the first thing that popped into my mind.
Intersections
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I sent a 265-signature petition to my city council at the age of 14. I went door-to-door instead of online. It resulted in a set of city ordinances which added flashing stop signs at 3 intersections in town.
A Childhood Lost
That I took over the role as mom to my 10 yo brother, 5 yo sister, and 10 month old brother at age 11. My mom was really sick and in the hospital. When she wasn't, she was in bed. I still went to middle school everyday, while a family friend would watch the two younger siblings, and then I'd take over after I got home. This included watching my siblings, making dinner, doing homework with my brother, and putting everyone to bed. My dad worked and was at the hospital a lot, and I know he tried to be home more, but he almost lost his job.
Our extended family (my dads siblings, grandparents,etc) never reached out, and to this day, I am still dumbfounded how no adult stepped in. It was terrible and it made me grow up really fast. After 13, I still served as a mom, but I was bumped to second mom when my mom would just disappear and ignore her responsibilities. She was never mentally herself again and was very negligent when she was physically well again.
Now I am 30 and those days still haunt me. I think it's because my mother and father never acknowledged my lost childhood. I've tried explaining what I went through to my mom, that I don't blame her for being sick, but that it was really hard and I need/needed therapy. My 5yo sister used to cry at night asking if my mom was going to die. My mom refuses to listen until this day, so I stopped trying.
Thanks for letting me rant and reading my story. I really needed this.
200 Down
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Lost 200lb. Everyone knows me as I am now, they've never seen me fat.
College Daze
Studying broadcasting in college. The program ran the college radio station, and we were all given shifts that changed on a weekly basis. All to give us that real world experience, they ran it as close to a real radio station as possible.
It was Friday night. I was the last shift for the week. On the weekends, the station is on autopilot... runs nothing but a playlist fed into the computer. Now the person in charge of playlists that week was the class screw-up. As I was getting ready to leave, I thought, "I wonder if they remembered to make playlists for the weekend."
I checked the computer and they didn't. This was bad. No playlists in the computer meant the station would be dead on Saturday and Sunday. And since it was Friday night and just me left, I sat down and cranked out some playlists for Saturday and Sunday.
Station ran smoothly all weekend, the class screw-up still passed, and I haven't told anyone until now.
YA Days....
I was offered then given a job by a publishing company in New York to read YA novels and give my opinion. I'm not even into YA, my dad was just at their office for business and I was there for a tour and you know how sales ladies are. She was like, "Yo, you're a young adult! How would you like a job?!" And I, a jobless teen, was absolutely willing to read some shitty ass YA for a couple bucks.
So I do what I gotta do to get the job, and as a dumb fool teen I ignore the big butt red flag "So, we're a little backed up with all of our readers information, but we'll definitely send you the forms to get payment set up soon!" Several months later, they owe me like 130 bucks at this point (I know, crap for pay. What do you do) and I'm just... Exhausted. I'm reading these freaking things all the time, and they are just crap. So crap. I wanna die, they are so crap. But I keep thinking, if I just stick it out a bit more, I'm gonna get my money.
Until my mom just said no more. I was doing poorly in school, and the disappointment that my very first job was a bust was eating me alive. So I stopped sending them in. And a few weeks after my last assignment was due, I get an email for my freaking forms to be paid. And I never filled them out. And those buttheads made out with like 15 of my freaking essays. Which I know was my own fault, but I was a kid.
To the Grape
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2 majors and 2 minors in 4 years of college while working 3 jobs. Family was late and missed my graduation and drank all the wine they bought me as a present.
I just want help.....
I'm currently taking care of my 96 year old grandma. She has 4 living children, 10 grandchildren and a number of great grandchildren. With the exception of one of my cousins, none of them give any care or are geographically close enough to her to do anything but call her on the phone once a week. When I was 22, I took care of my mom for years, while she was ill, prior to her passing and got shit on by her family before and after she died. Now my moms mom needs help and again no one can be bothered to show up. It's infuriating. I don't even want recognition, I just want help.
Damn Covid
Finished my sophomore year taking both high school and college classes (I go to an early college and this is pretty much known to be the hardest year at my school). At the same time COVID-19 had just hit and no one else is home but me. My grandmother who has been bedridden for five months at that point needed a full-time care service. We could not afford having a specialized caregiver around the house, so there was no question that I would do it. Both of my parents are working and I'm 16 years old, doing online classes at home.
The transition was rough and I'm hit with new assignments with strict deadlines everyday. School is hard enough online, and it's harder when you have to look out for someone who is paralyzed from their third stroke. Everything from feeding, changing, and giving her a bath. I did it alone.
This went on for at least two months. At one point, I didn't do my assignments for three days and fell extremely behind. My mental state was terrible. I thought I wouldn't make it. I wanted to end it all but I couldn't. I wasn't going to leave before my grandmother did.
After the school year ended in May, I never heard from any of my teachers or classmates again. It all ended so quickly, even though each day was hell for me. As silly as it sounds, I didn't get a pat on the back or anything. With all those sleepless nights, I managed to end the school year with straight A's. Everyone expected me to do it and I somehow... did it.
We'll call him Dave....
I was offered a significant promotion before someone else who had seniority, we'll call him Dave. Dave and I had already discussed his desire for this promotion and he was pretty excited about it, and he was certain he was going to get it. I declined the offer and directed my boss to Dave who of course happily took the offer. It just felt morally wrong to take it when I knew he wanted it, and the large factor of him having more job knowledge and experience than I did. The defining qualities as a worker that made my boss choose me was reliability and dependability.
I never, ever let my boss down and was willing to learn anything.
I was offered another promotion and I took it this time. Dave became distant with me, my new coworkers were buttholes and clearly didn't want me there, and my old coworkers (some of whom I've fed because they couldn't feed themselves and their children at the same time) started to drift away and no longer would stop to chat. I found out that Dave was spreading rumors about me.
About how I only got the promotion because upper management needs something young and pretty to look at, and that someone else deserved it more than I did. I spent an entire year working directly with this guy and we used to have a fantastic work relationship.
He still has no idea that his new position was because of me.
'Indiana meets Japan'
I designed an 'Indiana meets Japan' wall mural for the hall leading to the library of my high school. Had a bridge, plants, and the Indiana state tree on one side and a cherry blossom tree on the other. Flower petals from both drifting on the wind and everything.
I didn't get to sign my name on the mural after it was all done since I didn't put the pencil work and paint on the wall. Even though the kids who painted it had to bring me out there to help them figure out a spacing issue the teacher hadn't foreseen.
This wasn't a tiny thing either. We're talking floor to ceiling design in your average 'entrance' hallway from one section of the building to another. If that makes sense?
It's been ten years and I'm still moderately pissed over it.
Homeward Bound
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I paid the down payment on my best friend's house but never told anyone. She has 5 kids and they all needed stability and something to really call their own. Had just cashed out on an investment when she told me she's found a house but didn't have cash for the down payment. It was like serendipity. I had the cash so I gave it to her. I really love her and would do it again.
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When we're intoxicated, or even the slightest bit tipsy from having a little too much to drink, our immediate perspective on things is hazy.
But there's nothing like a bit of alarming news or a jarring incident to snap us out of the fog and focus on the moment.
Sometimes alcohol isn't always to blame for our impairment.
It can be a state of mind, like a perpetual numbness from being complacent in life, and all it takes is one shocking moment to rattle us back to our senses.
Curious to hear from strangers online about this type of scenario, Redditor Known_Challenge_7150 asked:
"What’s one thing that sobered you up real quick?"
These individuals were witness to shocking events that sobered them up right quick.
Bleeding Out
"Got out of a taxi and found a naked man profusely bleeding from his head crawling up the driveway in my condo. Called him an ambulance completely forgot I was absolutely wasted until 45 minutes later when I'd helped him translate and in to an amublance and stepped in my front door."
"Later a few days later learned he'd slipped in the tub and literally crawled out for help. Poor dude. He was fine but I genuinely thought he was going to die there."
– DongLaiCha
Tragic News
"At a bachelor party and we got a phone call that the groom’s father had suddenly passed."
– accountnameredacted
Bottom Of The Barrel
"I went to visit my parents back in July. I was homeless and deep into fentanyl addiction so I lost a lot of weight. My folks could see it. They knew something was up. Anyway, I spent the night and I was getting ready to leave in the morning and I looked at myself in the mirror for a good long time. I finally had enough and told them everything. They took me to detox, from there I went to rehab. Graduated in August and been living with them ever since then. I have 160 days clean and sober."
– Crotch-Monster
A reality check can be enough for some people to snap out of it.
Like Father, Like Son
"Was driving a drunk friend home, he had been on a bender again and was smart enough to call me for a lift rather than try and drive. As I helped in to his house his mother came down the stairs and said 'your as drunk as your father' and went back upstairs. I haven't seen him drunk since then, he still drinks but the thought of turning into his dad scared him out of hard drinking."
– psycospaz
Busted
"Flashing blue lights."
– FiddleOfGold
"This sobered me up just thinking about it."
– redmaple_syrup
Losing Sight
"Woke up to no sight in one eye. I had cataract surgery so just thought one of the lenses had slipped and it was an easy fix. Eye doc says nope, you had a stroke. I loved soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and salty food, which caused high blood pressure, which caused retina damage. Over six months was able to get most of my eyesight back with medication, and all back within a year. Trying to navigate life with one eye was very sobering. Started taking HBP much more seriously."
– MissHibernia
Quitting The Bottle
"Looked up someone I went to highschool with who was an awesome guy. Found out he had been dead for 3 years from alcoholism, at age 33. I made an overnight change. I hadn't started drinking that night yet, 10 months ago. Haven't touched it again since."
– omgtater
These disturbing moments were enough for Redditors to immediately come to their senses.
Unplanned House Guests
"Me and a buddy Woke up in someone’s living room, realized neither one of us knew the people, they were just nice and let 2 drunk guys sleep on their living room floor. We didn’t even say goodbye."
– Oneinsevenbillion75
Serious Health Warning
"Elevated liver enzymes."
"And the knowledge that this sh** was gonna kill me and I just couldn't orphan my family over it."
"So I opted for recovery, instead."
"Clean and sober since June 5, 2009."
– Far_Meal8674
The Joyride
"Grew up in a rural area. The little town hosted dances at the hockey arena, everyone (adults and kids) went and they overserved everyone, regardless of age. I was maybe 16 or 17 and was absolutely sh*tfaced, and jumped in the back of someone's truck with about 8 other people to go back to someone's cottage for after dance drinking. The driver (still don't know who it was) started racing one of his buddies and we whipped around small dirt roads, flying around blind corners on the wrong side of the road, going god knows how fast. It was basically a disaster waiting to happen. It was crazy scary and I was sober and thankful to be alive when we finally arrived."
– foxfood9116
The human psyche is a fascinating thing, isn't it?
How we can automatically focus on something urgent at a crucial time, even after getting buzzed from drinking too much alcohol.
But as we're in the thick of the holidays, it's a good reminder to drink responsibly and stay off the roads if you drive to your celebratory destination.
Cheers. Stay safe. And happy holidays.
We've all complained or vented about something in our lives which, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't exactly a problem, or is very easily solved.
Then there are those who complain about things that others almost hope will happen to them at some point in their lives.
These are known as "first world problems", as they are problems that pretty much only the world's one percent faces.
From having to fly business class instead of first class, or being served Roederer instead of Dom Pérignon, these complaints are often met with amusement, bewilderment, or even anger.
Redditor jennimackenzie was curious to hear the most absurd "first world problems" anyone ever complained about, leading them to ask:
"What’s the most ridiculous 'first world problem' you’ve seen people get worked up over?"
"Tale As Old As Time..."
"I once knew a mom who was legitimately devastated, to the point of tears/grief, because a doctor predicted her 8 year old daughter's final height to be around 5'2","
"Which wasn't tall enough to get cast as Belle at Disney World."
"That was the child's (and her mother's) only dream in life, apparently."
"Didn't appreciate my suggestion that she could be Minnie or Mickey."
"Lol!"
"Only a face character would do!"- TravelLovingMom
"Must Be Funny, In A Rich Man's World..."
"My boss from about a decade ago was this insanely rich dude who always went to the bank to get fresh and crisp currency."
"He'd call the bank in advance to make sure they had some on hand."
"I think he was a germaphobe."
"He had a trash can that he'd throw $1 and $5 bills in that he thought was 'dirty' and regularly just donated it vs spending it."
"I asked him why he did this and he said it was too much trouble and asked if I wanted it."
"I said f*ck yeah dumped it into my bag and when I got home it was close to $400 in singles and fives.
"Another time, he wanted to upgrade all the computers in his studio, so we went to a store and bought 10 PCs."
"They all had $150 mail in rebates and he wasn't bothered to go through the trouble of mailing them in."
"3 weeks later I received $1500 after spending a whole afternoon filling out all those goddamn forms."- azninvasion2000
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Who Wore It Better?
"When I was about 19 years old, I was at my boyfriends family BBQ."
"I was wearing this pretty floral sundress."
"His cousins girlfriend showed up in the same dress and she was SO mad that she went and changed."
"I will never understand being upset when someone is wearing the same thing as you.'
"Did you really think that your shirt you bought off the rack is going to be unique to you?"
"No."- mertsey627
Seeing Red! Or Blue In This Case...
"The blue of the balloons wasn't quite the same as the bridesmaid's sashes."
"Years ago my wife and I attended a wedding."
"It was very low key."
"The dinner was in the dining hall at the university where the couple met, cinder block walls and all."
"It was a Baptist wedding - no booze and very serious."
"The dark blue balloons attempting to liven up the hall were a slightly darker shade of blue than the sashes on the bridesmaid's dresses."
"The bride lost here sh*t and absolutely raved for nearly an hour."
"I can't remember how they finally managed to talk her down."- mechant_papa
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See You In Court!
"Rich neighbors who end up in expensive court battles because they disagree about where a tree can be planted or whether the color of a fence fits in with the street’s 'amenity'."
'These disputes get really heated and rack up huge lawyers’ bills."
"The most pathetic part is after the judgement when they are arguing about who should pay the other party’s costs."
"Lots of affidavits filed citing the 'emotional distress' they had to endure, or painting themselves as brave warriors who were forced to take a stand to fight for 'justice'."
"Also lots of pompous litigants insisting that the judge refer to them by their 'Dr' title."
"An absolutely insane dumpster fire of entitled rich people problems."- ElectrocRaisin
It's Always People With Money Who Don't Want To Pay!
"I work in a public library."
"People will get so so mad if they have to be put on a wait list for a book."
"A popular book that just came out."
"Ok our services are not only free but so are the books."
"You’re welcome, a**holes."- Switchbladekitten
A Warm Butt Is A Happy Butt!
"My own."
"We have a bidet toilet seat (Fabulous! Everyone should have one!) and not only does it wash your bum and blow dry it, but the seat's heated!"
"It's shocking how much a heated toilet seat makes the whole process more agreeable."
"Except: We had a power outage and I went to use the toilet and the seat was cold!"
"Unacceptable!"
"This shall not stand!"
"I was really upset because it didn't feel good."
"Then I stopped and thought: This is the most first-world problem anyone's ever had."
"I was really pissed because my heiny was tepid."
"I got over it."- DeathGrover
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Holy Matrimony!
"Weddings are a gold mine for this question."
"People get so hyped up over their 'most important day of their life'."
"They'll destroy friendships, go into debt, and have crazy expectations."
"It's not always the couple who go crazy, either."
"Sometimes, it's the parents or another family member who feels entitled to control the wedding."
"It's just a party."
"Be considerate of guests, have plenty of food and drinks, and enjoy it."- magicrowantree
When Fast Food Isn't Fast Enough...
"Having to pull off to the side to wait for a drive-thru order to be brought out to you because your food isn't ready and there's a line building up behind you."- demanbmore
In Case You Don't Think Customer Service Employees Are Undervalued...
"I was working the return desk at a Target next to a military base so I have so many stories."
"One of my favorites was a lady who had her baby shower before revealing the gender and was livid that she had received floral newborn diapers when she’s having a boy."
"It was a huge box of super expensive, all organic diapers, that we didn’t carry and therefore could not return."
"I cannot accurately express her fury and disgust."
"How dare either suggest her boy could wear feminine diapers."
"I suggested she donate them if she didn’t want to use them and she instead threw away the entire box."
"When she left we pulled it out and threw it in our donate bin."
"There have also been multiple times where mom’s order massive toys and when we bring them out to the car they get furious that they aren’t wrapped."
"We don’t offer wrapping services."
"Here’s the thing, if you don’t want your kids to see the toys you got them for Christmas or their bit to day DON'T BRING THE CHILD WHEN YOU PICK IT UP."
'I’ve had multiple women scream and curse me out that I had ruined their kids Christmas by bringing the toys they ordered out to the car like they requested."- clever-mermaid-mae
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Happiest Place On Earth!
"I used to work for Disney."
"That in itself should tell you everything."
"However for fun I'll give you two specific stories one form our tech department and one from my wife who worked bookings."
"I specifically worked for their call center to help with technical issues with magic band and the website."
"Suddenly got worse huh?"
"A right of passage call everyone has at least one story of is the 'Dome call'."
"Basically there is a subset of Disney Guest (TM) that believes if it rains at Walt Disney world there is someone that will push a button to encapsulate the whole of Disney property in a dome to keep out the rain."
"I'm not kidding."
"If this button is not pushed they call our tech department to angrily ask why."
"My wife worked booking."
"Pretty much everything including Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique and Pirate's league."
"These two things did roughly the same thing difference being price and theme."
"BBB was expensive did more and was focused on princesses, pirates league did a bit less and focused on mermaids and pirates."
"Lady called up my wife, and got pissed about BBB being booked up (It goes FAAAAST)."
"Karen: 'Im going to give the phone to my daughter and I want you to tell her how you are ruining her vacation by not letting her do BBB'."
"Wife proceeds to explain how pirate's league is so much cooler and how she can be a mermaid or pirate and basically gets the kid to start demanding to their parents about how they want to be a mermaid instead of a princess."- trollsong
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The horror!
Being booked into a junior suite at Disney World instead of an executive suite!
It's almost as bad as having no money for groceries, or no food to feed you children...
Said absolutely no one.