People Share Historical Facts That May Sound Fake But Are Completely True

It might surprise you to know that the last Civil War widow died not long ago.
Wait, what?
Yes, you read that correctly. Her name was Helen Viola Jackson, and she married James Bolin in 1936 when she was 17 and he was 93.
"He said that he would leave me his Union pension," she later told historian Hamilton C. Clark. "It was during the [Great] Depression and times were hard. He said that it might be my only way of leaving the farm."
Jackson never remarried and kept the marriage secret for decades. Wild, huh? Hard to believe, but it happened. Here's the report from Smithsonian Magnazine.
After Redditor TropicalNuke22 asked the online community, "What's a fact from history that sounds completely fake?" people shared their favorite crazy historical facts.
"They were displaced..."
The Germans and Russians once called a temporary (unofficial) ceasefire in World War I because of wolves invading the battlefield. They were displaced from their normal hunting grounds and looking for something to eat, which turned out to be local livestock, corpses, children, and unwary or incapacitated soldiers. It got so bad that everyone stopped shooting at each other for a while so they could hunt them down, proving once more that the threat of being eaten is stronger than any political ideal.
"With the passing of years..."
The Judo Chop
If you ever watched a spy movie or TV show from the 1960s to the 1980s you probably remember "The Judo Chop." A maneuver spies used to kill or incapacitate people, it looks like a karate chop to the head or neck. Its latest appearance was in an Austin Powers movie. Anyone with even a cursory Judo knowledge knows that there are no "chops" or kicks or punches. It's a body manipulation combat method to unbalance and throw your opponent. And that's true. Yet the Judo Chop is not a fiction cooked up why Hollywood writers.
The UK's MI6 adopted basic Judo techniques in their hand to hand combat training. During WW II the Special Operations Executive (SOE) incorporated it into their training. It also incorporated other "quick and dirty" combat maneuvers from other British combat experts such as Colonel Fairbairn. All were published in a text classified secret for many decades, though much was also taught to the US Office of Strategic Services.
With the passing of years, the loosening of lips, and fuzzing of memories, one of the other combat maneuvers for taking down sentries got conflated with the Judo maneuvers. Perhaps the biggest culprit could be found in the Stafford Hotel bar in St. James' Place, London in the early 2000s. This tipsy old lady, if you were nice, would tell you of her extensive Special Operations Executive WW II exploits. One of the stories included attacking a German sentry with "this judo-chop stuff." She, and presumably other spies, told journalists this story and similar for years until it made it into espionage writing and finally to Hollywood.
The old lady was Nancy Wake, a.k.a. "The White Mouse." Already accomplished WW II spy when she fled to England to join the SOE, she went on to have a legendary career. With her reputation it seems nobody ever questioned her story. Which was good. Secret WW II files declassified in the past 10 years provided testimony by two of Wake's SOE comrades, one of whom was her commander. They, but not Nancy, were spotted by that Waffen-SS sentry on a covert mission. Per their debriefs, Nancy Wake did indeed walk up and strike the sentry with a single violent blow with the edge of her hand. She snapped his neck.
That was a TRIP.
Wild, huh?
Let's continue.
"Bunch of nobles..."
Tl;dr: bunch of nobles gathered in a room. Floor could not support weight and collapsed. People drowned in poop which was underneath the room.
Gross.
Did we mention that that's just... gross?
Let's continue.
"In Anne Frank's original diary..."
In Anne Frank's original diary, she openly talked about her changing body, periods, and her questions about sex but they were edited out of the final print.
"You might be interested to know..."
You might be interested to know that the last U.S. civil war widow (as in widow of someone who fought in the war and gained a pension) died last month.
"But the word..."
Thomas Crapper actually did invent the first reliable modern toilet. (The kind with a raised cistern.) But the word crap/crapper was already a very old slang term by that point. It was just a coincidence. Or maybe he felt like he had no choice. But crap and crapper have nothing to do with Thomas Crapper.
"Scrawled on walls..."
There are penises everywhere in Pompeii.
PENISES
EVERYWHERE.
On walls, streets, posts, carved into wood and stone, arranged in tile mosaics. They're all over the place. You can't swing a cat without whackin' a schlong. They're used as arrows to point to brothels. Scrawled on walls in graffiti about how good the women are in the city. When you went to the baths, you'd put your clothes in little cubbyholes, and you'd remember which column of cubbies you left them in by the mosaic of a particular sex act above said column.
"After swallowing a golden fork..."
There was a man named Tarrare, a French soldier who was known for his unusual appetite and eating habits. Because of this, general Alexandre de Beauharnais decided to use his abilities to military use. He was intended to swallow documents from opposing countries, and those documents were intended to be recovered from his stool.
However, Tarrare also was filled with infamy during his later years. He was blamed for the disappearance of a 14-month-old baby in a hospital, and he was chased all around the hospital before he fled.
After swallowing a golden fork (which was never found) Tarrare soon contracted Tuberculosis and diarrhea before dying shortly after. Because his corpse rotted quickly, surgeons refused to dissect it. But a surgeon named Tessier decided to do an autopsy, which revealed that his digestive system was extremely large; pus was all around his body, his liver, esophagus, and stomach were abnormally large, and ulcers covered it.
"Finally..."
After the Dravlians killed Igor of Kyiv, his wife Olga took revenge when she was Regent.
First, Dravlian messengers, who were tasked to inform her that she was to marry their king, were carried by the people of Kyiv and were thrown into a trench that was dug the first day, and the messengers were buried.
Second, she invited Dravlian dignitaries to Kyiv, by telling them that she would return with them to accept the honor of her betrothal to the king. She invited them to a bathhouse, had the house locked, and had the house burned with them in it.
Third, to mourn the death of her husband, she told the Dravlians to prepare a quantity of mead at the site of her husband's death. The Dravlian's got drunk on the mead, and she ordered her people to kill them.
Finally, she drove the survivors back to their city. She ordered tribute and would let them go in peace. The tribute was three pigeons and three sparrows from each house. She received the tribute, tied a piece of sulfur on the bird's legs, and attached a piece of cloth to the sulfur. She then had the birds released, having set the cloth on fire. The birds returned to their nests and subsequently burned down the city.
In AD 950, she went to Constantinople and converted to Christianity. She Christianized eastern Europe and was later made a saint.
Get ready...
...because this next one's a wild ride."A few years later..."
Thomas H. "Boston" Corbett was a hatmaker who lived in Troy, New York. As a part of his job, he was often exposed to mercury, which resulted in some noticeable mental health issues. His wife and child died, after which he moved to Boston, where he became a homeless alcoholic and eventually joined the Methodist church and started preaching enthusiastically in public. He attempted to imitate Jesus by growing his hair long, and was soon known locally as the "Glory to God Man." If someone cursed in his workplace, he'd loudly sing or pray for them in response.
In 1857, he was approached by two sex workers on his way home. He was apparently deeply disturbed by the encounter, and went home to consult the bible. After some light reading, he decided to cut his balls off with a pair of scissors to avoid temptation. He then ate a meal and went to a prayer meeting (where nobody apparently noticed an expanding red stain in the crotch of his pants) before seeking medical attention.
A few years later, the Civil War kicked up and Corbett decided that his lack of a sack did not mean he was short on fortitude, and he enlisted in the Union Army. He immediately got in trouble for all of his behavior, including carrying a Bible at all times, loudly reading scripture, holding unauthorized prayer meetings, and arguing with superior officers. He regularly condemned his superiors for violating God's Word, and at one point he verbally reprimanded his Colonel for taking the Lord's name in vain and using profanity, which landed him in jail for a few days. The military eventually had enough and court-martialed him for insubordination. They sentenced him to be shot, but his sentence was reduced and they just discharged him.
Having learned absolutely nothing, a couple of weeks later Corbett re-enlisted in the Army in a different unit. He was captured by the Confederates in 1864 and sent to Andersonville Prison. On the way there, he risked his own life to get a wounded Union prisoner water despite repeated threats of being shot by their Confederate captors. At Andersonville, Corbett picked up scurvy, malnutrition, and exposure but recovered after being exchanged for a Confederate prisoner after five months. Corbett was promoted to Sergeant and later testified against the Commandant of Andersonville Prison after the war wrapped up.
Come to 1865, and President Lincoln was assassinated. Corbett's regiment was sent to apprehend John Wilkes Booth, the assassin. The regiment tracked down Booth to a farm in Virginia and surrounded the barn where he was hiding. Since Booth insisted he wouldn't be taken alive, they set the barn on fire to try and persuade him to leave. Corbett was stationed at the back of the barn and, seeing Booth through a crack in the boards, promptly shot him in the back of the head with his revolver. Ironically, Booth had been hit in a very similar spot to where Lincoln had been shot, but there was a big difference in their reaction to it. Lincoln had fallen into unconsciousness immediately, while Booth screamed in pain, was paralyzed from the neck down, and suffered in agony the entire time he waited to die for over two hours as his repeated requests for someone to please finish him were denied.
Secretary of War Stanton's orders had been for Booth to be taken alive, so Corbett's commanding officer was a bit pissed off that Booth had been killed on his watch. When Colonel Conger asked Corbett why he had shot Booth, he claimed it was because Jesus had told him to. Corbett was promptly arrested again. When personally interrogated by the Secretary of War, Corbett agreed that he had violated the order, but suggested that Booth looked like he was going to try to shoot his way out of the barn. Corbett maintained that he was trying to inflict a disabling wound, but that his finger must have slipped and he ended up shooting booth I'm the back of the skull instead. Stanton basically said "F**k it" at that point, gave him a pat on the back for avenging Lincoln, and had him discharged again. On his way out of the War Department, he got cheered by a massive crowd, and went to have a portrait taken at Matthew Brady's studio down the street as he signed autographs and told stories to the horde accompanying him.
After the war, Corbett was plied with offers, but declined most of them. People offered to buy the gun he shot Booth with, but Corbett turned the offers down as the pistol belonged to the government. He declined the offer of one of Booth's pistols, since he didn't want a reminder of the shooting. He went to work as a hatter again, but was fired from pretty much every job he had for his habit of stopping work to pray for his co-workers. He moved around a bit before settling in Camden, New Jersey, where he tried to earn money by giving lectures at Sunday schools about his role in avenging Lincoln. He was never asked back, since his behavior was quite erratic and his lectures were pretty incoherent.
Over the next decade, Corbett became increasingly paranoid about people in Washington hounding him for denying them the pleasure of prosecuting Lincoln's assassin. He also got a lot of hate mail for killing Booth, which did nothing to help, and took to carrying a pistol at all times. He ended up brandishing it frequently at friends or strangers he deemed suspicious. While attending a Civil War Reunion in 1875, he nearly shot 3 conspiracy theorists who accused him of faking Booth's death. In 1878, he got some land in Kansas and moved there, living in a dugout home.
Because he was sort of famous, the Kansas state legislature appointed him Assistant Doorkeeper in January 1887, a somewhat cushy position where you get paid to really not do much. A month later, he convinced himself that officers of the House were discriminating against him, and he chased several of them out of the building with a revolver. Corbett was arrested yet again, and the next day a judge FINALLY declared him insane and had him institutionalized. He escaped from the Topeka Asylum for the Insane in 1888 on horseback, and crashed at a friend's place for a while. When he left, he said he was heading for Mexico.
Rather than heading to Mexico, it appears that Corbett moved to Pine County, Minnesota where he lived in a cabin in the woods. He is believed to have died in the Great Hinckley Fire on September 1st, 1894.
"She screamed..."
Gary Ridgeway, the Green River Killer, once snuck up on his own wife, Marcia Winslow, as they were getting out of their car after a party and began to strangle her. She screamed and tried to fight him off until she realized it was him, at which point he stopped and tried to convince her that it wasn't him strangling her, it must have been someone else. She stayed with him for several years after that incident.
Jeez, Marcia.
We hope you're okay now.
Let's continue.
"She was henceforth..."
Chevalier d'Eon was a French diplomat and spy in England and Russia. Once he retired he revealed to the public that he had been a woman the entire time. She was henceforth made to wear gender appropriate clothing for the rest of her life. She went on to write some books and support the American Revolution. But here's the kicker. When she died they found out she was actually a man the whole time. He was double crossdressing.
"This guy was a super incompetent..."
There was this guy in the early days of aviation named William Christmas. He created what is often considered the worst plane ever. He designed the wings to be super thin sheets of metal because he thought it would be better if they flapped like a bird. He had another engineer working with him, Vincent Burnelli, who tried to make changes, such as strengthening the wings, but Christmas wouldn't budge. He pitched this to the U.S. Army during WWI, claiming that they could abduct the Kaiser with it, as it would be able to outrun any German aircraft. Instead, the wings predictably broke off in its first test flight, killing the test pilot (and they didn't tell the Army about it). Then they tested it again, and the same thing happened. The Army withdrew their support after that, and no new prototypes were made.
This guy was a super incompetent aircraft designer, but apparently, he's often credited with inventing ailerons, which has been the default method of controlling airplane roll for the last century.
"One night..."
Henry VIII had a mace with a concealed pistol built into it with which he used to patrol the streets of London at night, looking for ne'er-do-wells like some sort of fat, ginger syphilis-riddled Batman.
One night he was caught by a guard and thrown into jail for a night before he was recognized. Upon returning to court he sent for the (by now extremely worried) guard to appear before him.
Despite the man's understandable terror, Henry congratulated him and rewarded him for his diligence. He had also got on well with his fellow inmates during his brief stay and ordered that conditions and rations for prisoners be substantially improved.
History is fascinating.
It's a shame that they don't seem to teach it all too well in schools and that so many students seem to find it boring. Here's something interesting for you to think about: One day people will think studying us will be boring (but we hope school cirriculums are tweaked before then).
Have some cool historical facts to share? Feel free to sound off in the comments below!
Most of us love animals and take stock of other people's pets. Some people have a better chance of remembering another person's pet's name than the person themselves.
Part of that allure has to do with the fun and creative names that many people come up with for their pets.
The Redditor, who has since deleted their account, asked:
"What is the best pet's name you've ever heard?"
The Autobots Would Be Proud
"I had a friend once who had a bunny named Hoptimus Prime."
- nellirn
Extra Hoppy Beer
"I live in northern Colorado which has a pretty big craft beer scene. One of our biggest and most popular breweries is Odell Brewing."
"One of my coworkers named her dog Odell because he had three legs which, in her words, made him extra hoppy."
- fiveironfreshy
At the Race Track
"I once heard of a race horse named Thunderbritches!"
- whiskey_weasel_
From the 'Tragedy of Julius Caesar'
"I had a friend who had a 14-foot python as a pet named Julius Squeezer."
- TSchwifty35
An Ode to Eminem
"My wife's fish was named Swim Shady."
- josephexotic
Such a Giant, Cuddly Dog
"An Old English Sheepdog named 'Woolly.'"
- Back2Bach
Not Like the Movies
"My cat's name, he's named 'Gremlin'."
"A lot of people believe the movies were the inspiration, I just wanted to give my cat a weird but cute name."
- EldritchDWX
What a Tongue-Twister
"My guinea pig was Wanda Wilhelmina Wobblebottom."
- 84dg3r0u50n3
Tiny But Mighty
"A Redditor once posted a photo of their little, black kitten named Admiral Anchovies."
"That is all."
- Voyeurism_Bot
Social Creatures
"A little pug named Barbecue, or perhaps a corgi mutt with eyebrows named Party Time."
- BaronMatfei
Adorable Stage Names
"I still love the name Kitty Purry (Katy Perry's cat)."
- pirate_elle
Historic References
"Someone in the 'backyardchickens' subReddit named one of their girls Attila the Hen."
- dontforgetthel?be
A Name Upgrade
"A friend of a friend had a cat named Snack."
"Eventually, Snack had a few too many snacks, and they started calling him Meal."
- JuRoJa
Sounds Like a Big Boy
"A French bulldog called Tankerbell."
- blackday44
A Fair Question
"Between Chairman Meow and Benito Meowsolini, uh, there are a lotta cats with dictator names. What's next, Meowseph Stalin? Kitler?"
"Then again, cats are all wannabe dictators..."
- centaurquestions
Not only are some of these names hilarious, but these pet owners were on high creative alert when they named their furry loved ones.
Whether or not to bring children into the world is a very personal decision.
While there are many arguments as to why anyone should, or shouldn't have children, it's not a decision for other people to make for you.
Some people dream of being a parent since they were children themselves, and can't wait to shower their own children with love.
While others always dreamed of having children, but for one reason or another, it simply never worked out.
Then there are those who never saw children as part of their life plan and don't feel any kind of void without having children in their lives.
"Why don't you have kids and/or do not plan on having kids?"
Don't Want Them Enough
"I just don't feel like I want it badly enough, and one should really want to have a child in order to be able to give their 100% as a parent, every child deserves that."- SignificantFunny1523
Prefer A Good Night's Sleep
"Sleep."
"I love sleep."
"I get up when I'm being paid to get up but otherwise my great and immediate joy is sleeping until I don't feel like sleeping anymore."
"I much prefer sleep to children."- DamnIGottaJustSay
How Long Have You Got?
"Why do I plan not to have children?"
"Well..."
"'unrolls a list that's miles long...'"- HagBasket
Superstition
"This curse ends with me."- DaveTheRoper
Too Short A Fuse...
"Don’t have the patience for kids."- Leoimirmir
When Weighing The Pros And Cons...
"I don't see the upsides."- igna92ts
Plain And Simple
"I don’t want to be a parent."
"That’s a perfectly valid reason."- AllyriaCelene
Priorities
"Kids are great if you don’t like money or sleep."- ComplicationOnRS
"Clean house, financial comfort, ability to travel/leave the house whenever we want to."- Dear-Cockroach4589
Knowing What's Best For Yourself
"The whole process seems incredibly painful and difficult."
"I'd f*ck my kids up."
"I have a fearful-avoidant attachment style as a result of my toxic parents."
"I wouldn't be able to properly parent."
"I'm incredibly inpatient and would change my mind 3 months in, if I even made it through the whole pregnancy.'
"I want freedom."
"Having kids means being available and responsible."
"I am not and will not be these things."
"I wanna live for me, live to enjoy life, and I most definitely won't enjoy having kids."
"The world is overpopulated and f*cked."
"I don't see any point in bringing more people to this world."
"I have more reasons but these are my top 5."- mayo_nnais3
Fear
"Because I am scared of being a bad parent."
"I can't bring a life in this world just to screw it."
"Thanks for f*cking me up Narc dad."- WaywardRoads
Too Expensive
"To quote Homer Simpson 'aww I have 3 kids and no money. I wish I had 3 money and no kids'."
"I like my lifestyle."
"I am starting a 'college fund", but instead of paying for a 3-year degree I’m going to blow it on a looooonnngggg vacation."- timberwolf0122
"Cost of raising a kid, and the lifelong stress of raising a kid."- Typical_Conclusion_5
There are those who might call people selfish for not wanting children for the reasons listed above.
Perhaps these reasons are selfish, but on the other hand, they know they would not be able to give a child the attention, love, and support they would need.
It's the people who know this and have children anyway who might be considered the selfish ones.
People Explain Which Piece Of Information They've Learned That Almost Feels Illegal To Know
Everyone loves a juicy secret or insider knowledge.
From knowing about a secret love affair happening between colleagues to understanding how to cheat the system when booking a table at a hot restaurant.
There are times, however, when holding onto a valuable piece of knowledge comes with a fair share of stress.
Indeed, sometimes knowing something which isn't common knowledge to everyone feels like it could get you in pretty serious trouble.
Almost as if the simple act of knowing what you do was illegal.
"What piece of information did you learn, that feels illegal to know?
Contraband Music!
"Sometimes you can play around with URLs and find clean copies of watermarked previews."
"Helps a lot when trying to learn a song that you don’t have sheet music for."- funkycat75
Not Illegal To Know, But Possibly Illegal To Use
"You can order maintenance keys on Amazon for most models of coin op laundry machines."- Reddit
"You can buy many keys online."
"Among them are:"
"There's the Ford fleet keys, which can get you into cops cars."
"There's firefighter and maintenance elevator keys which let you control elevators."
"You can turn them off, or turn it to fire evacuation mode (it just goes to main floor and is then unusable) and even firefighter/maintenance mode which the elevator will only go where you want it to go.''
"It won't stop at other floors to pick up other people."
"Keys for bulldozers, backhoes, and other heavy equipment."
"Often one key will open many models from the same manufacturer."
"There's also something called a Lishi Tool."
"It can be used to pick locks, but it's also set you to tell you the position of each pin in the lock."
"That allows you to have another key cut from code (useful if you lose your keys and don't want to replace the whole lock.)"
"And of course, handcuff keys."
"I've used a real handcuff keys in toy cuffs, so I'd imagine toy keys could work in real handcuffs."
"Generally these would all be legal to own (except the Lishi which is a type of lockpick and has various legalities around the US.)"
"All you need is an internet connection, a credit card to pay for it and an address to send it to."- David2022Wallace
I Mean, They Weren't Going To Use Them...
'If you go to the plant section of a store and walk around, you will likely find a few clippings on the ground."
"You can pick those up and take them home with you and stick them in some dirt and illegally download a plant for free."- periyyas
Can Delete The File, Not The Info
"One time I received an email from my boss with an attachment that he clearly didn’t mean to send."
"It was an Excel file showing the compensation of everyone in my extended department."
"I gawked at it for a few minutes before he showed up at my desk."
"He made me delete it while he watched.'
"He couldn’t delete it from my brain though."- DWright_5
Good To Know, I Guess?
"If you use a natural gas then fire fighters will think it was a gas leak whereas if you use something like gasoline, it leaves identifiable burn marks."- Crash_Junior-
A Helpful Glitch
"Doesn't seem to work anymore, but there was a restaurant chain app that I realized that after I had used rewards points that gave me $6 off one of my orders."
"My usual order was about $12, so about half off."
"I then noticed next time if I selected re-order previous order it would still include that $6 off every time, even though I had nowhere near the rewards points to keep getting that amount off, it just copied all the specifics of the previous order."- turkeysandwich1982
Always Look For The Loophole
"In Australia, no electrical apprentice can work within 600mm of green domes ( where houses are connected to underground power) but you can work as close as you want if you don't have any electrical license."- thorpie88
When You're Dealing With Something Bigger Than The Law...
"Jury nullification is something every U.S. citizen should know about."
"Disseminating information about it could actually lead to charges being pressed in certain circumstances, so it kinda is illegal at times."- Mrgoodtrips64
When You Don't Feel Like Paying
"You can just create a new email and extend your trial limit."- HolyFire-
...Make Friends With A Gardener?...
'In Brazil, it's not illegal to consume and grow hallucinogens mushrooms though it's illegal to sell them."- MuriloJCD
It's always exciting to hold on to secrets or privileged information.
And all the trouble it has the potential to get you into might make it only more exciting.
When I first started interviewing for jobs, I was under the impression that job interviews only go badly if the candidate is unprepared. I was wrong.
I walked into an interview for a staff writer position at a company. As part of the interview, they had me create written pitches for three blog ideas. In addition to pitches, I had to provide writing points.
I left feeling good about the interview and thought my blog pitches were top-notch. I was, at least, right about that part.
After I made several attempts to follow up, I noticed my exact blog pitches on the company’s website. They didn’t even bother to change the grammar. My writing points were fragments, but the company just copy and pasted them, word-for-word, using my pitch as a title.
Then they told me the position was filled. I felt used. I’m still not sure if there was a position available or if they just brought people in to lessen their workload.
According to Redditors, this type of thing happens a lot. Sometimes even worse things happen during an interview. It seems Redditors have gone through all kinds of horrible interview experiences, and are ready to share.
It all started when Redditor itsPatrii_ asked:
“What happened in your worst job interview?”
Different Position
“I applied for a particular position in a sporting goods store. It was for the hockey/skates section.”
“The manager posted the wrong position, it was supposed to be in a department I know nothing about. She got mad at me because it was apparently my fault that she messed up on the job ad. Like actual mad saying I was wasting her time and this and that.”
– David2022Wallace
“Had something similar. Internship at the governor's office while I was in college. I wanted to work with the judicial nomination committee, applied just for that. Get there, and that internship was actually already full, but she never notified me beforehand. She let me interview on the spot for something else, showed me the list of what was available, and I selected the constituent services office.”
“We start the interview and she asks me all these questions about the governor’s policy positions, which I’m not 100 percent familiar with. She scolds me for being unprepared, so I remind her curtly that this wasn’t even the internship I had applied for and that I WAS prepared to interview for the judicial committee, and that SHE didn’t warn me that it was already full until I got there, so how I could be prepared to interview for something else randomly? She mumbled something like, “oh yeah, right…”
“I got the internship. It was good, but citizens can be nuts.”
– v_rose23
The Phone Keeps Ringing
"Reading these, mine is pretty tame, but here it goes:
I had an interview for a sales position at a life insurance company. I show up and it's actually a group interview - huge red flag there. One person audibly says "f*ck this sh*t" and walks out 10 minutes in. I want to do the same but I'm polite so I stick it out and then leave at the end without saying anything.
2 days later they call back and ask me if I want to come in for an interview. I assume they mean a follow up interview, and I decline and say I wasn't interested. 2 days later they call me again for the same thing. Eventually I realize they aren't asking me back for a 2nd interview, they are so disorganized and their turnover is so high that they don't realize they are calling the same people over and over again. This goes on every couple of days for 2 weeks before the calls finally stop."
– Pizza__Pants
Age Is Just A Number
"I sat down, and these two women stared at me. Finally one of them said, "We thought you were younger." (I am in my 60s). After she said this, she got up and left."
"The other one (turns out she is the manager), was rude and cold, tossed a few questions at me, then got on her cell phone."
"I finally said, "Look if we're done here, (she was staring at her desk, ignoring me), I have another interview." I left."
"Later, I reported both of them to the district office. District manger said, "We've had many reports about her.""
"The manager got fired. I was offered another interview. Declined."
– Ill-Summer-5061
We Just Need Your Help
"It's was for a software engineering position. The entire interview was focused around solutioning for a very specific problem. Was about 45 mins of the interview team saying things like "That won't work, we tried that already.""
"Left the interview without getting a solution to the problem. On the way out, I spoke with HR about what the potential next steps in the interview process were. She informed me they already filled the position, but didn't cancel any of the scheduled interviews."
"I was brought in to solve problems the team couldn't solve. For free."
– SpaceGerbil
"I got flown out for a job in Minnesota. Interview seemed to be going very well. Was there all day and they asked me what I thought were a lot of hypothetical questions. At the end of the interview they asked me to do a case study for them as part of the interview process. I went back home to NY and did the case study the next day. Didn't hear anything from them for a week and decided to reach back out. The response I got from the recruiter was that they liked my solutions for the case study but they seemed too "extreme" for their problem. I responded that I thought this was a hypothetical scenario and if they actually had this problem. The recruiter told me it was in fact a real problem they were having and that they wanted outside ideas."
"So... there was never any job? The recruiter said that if any of the candidates ideas panned out they may consider offering them a position. I felt used. They misrepresented themselves and took my ideas free of charge with the allure of possibly getting a position within the company. Is it a grey area of fraud? Is it actual fraud? I don't know but I was pissed and wrote the recruiter, the hiring manager, the SVP of HR and the CEO of the company a pretty harsh letter about their behavior."
– dplans455
People Can Be So Rude!
"Fell down the stairs when I was being shown around the building. Ended up breaking both fibula, a few bones in each foot, tearing some ligaments and cracking my tailbone. This happened in September and I'm still in pain."
"After the fall, I sat at the bottom of the stairs crying for about 15 minutes and finally managed to pull myself up. The woman showing me around said "So does this mean you don't want the rest of the tour?""
– Spacey19802
"They just left you there for 15 minutes, crying in pain? Didn’t bother calling for help? What the hell? And how tone deaf is that person to even ask if didn’t want the rest of the tour. Jfc"
– TheBigBluePit
No One Works For Free
"We'd evaluate your performance for a month then you'll start getting payment from second month"
– enticingdystopia
"I'll start evaluating the salary for a month and then I'll come to work for the 2nd month if I like it."
– crazy-diam0nd
Awkward...
"Logged onto a scheduled zoom interview for a highly paid position. Someone was also logged in, waiting. I assumed this was my interviewer. Nope. They were also waiting to be interviewed. Okay…. So we’re competing for the position? Cool, I guess. 4 more people proceed to log on, waiting for their interview. Never done a group interview before but was ready. It was awkwardly silent between us all. About 15 minutes go by… no one is logged in to interview us. 30 minutes in, we all start conspiring that one of us is secretly the interviewer and conducting a social experiment. Nope, we all just got scammed. Logged off."
– Severe_Chipmunk_8954
"Group interviews usually mean MLM"
– HOA-President
The Audacity!
"My background: I’m an Iraq war Army Veteran. Shortly after returning home to civilian life, I had an interview. Interviewer made a comment after seeing Army on my resume that she hoped I understood that if an issue arises at work that I can’t just go war mode and shoot the place up. I was appalled someone would even say something that stupid to me. I literally just stood up and told her to interview someone else and left. Looking back I bet she didn’t think it was her audacious comment, but that I actually would have some crazy reaction and walked out."
– dtownalltheway84
"Should have gone into war mode."
– DogsAreOurFriends
Ouch!
"Not me, but a guy interviewing to join my team was so nervous he passed out, faceplanted on the table, and ended up with a nosebleed. We didn't hire him."
– LionNo3221
Yikes!
"A long, long time ago, fairly fresh out of college, pounding the pavement in Manhattan, looking for work, probably office work but doing anything. I was interviewing at a direct marketing company. “Now, you know what direct marketing is, right?”"
"“Yeah, I said. “That’s what’s called junk mail, right?”"
"He paused for a minute and said, “Well, that’s not what we call it.”"
"It was a short interview."
– DWright_5
Yikes!
"I got a nose bleed. Gushed all over the conference table and down my blouse. Ran to the bathroom and after the bleeding stopped they wanted to continue the interview. So there I was with blood stains all down my shirt and blood all over the table. 🤦🏼♀️"
– geewhizliz
Well, That Went Well
"Went in for an interview for a writing job. The guy started asking me if I would do sales stuff as well and I said I didn't really have any experience in sales. He told me to hold on a minute and left the room. I sat there for a while and realized he wasn't coming back so I got up and left. As I was leaving he was standing outside the door smoking. He said sorry you aren't hired."
– Puzzled-Shampoo5154
That's The Way To Make An Exit!
"She started to gossip about all the other employees, about 5 others. She told me a lot. I ended up taking the job and had to quit thee days later because she made the workplace miserable. As I left I told everyone the stuff she said about them and two others walked out with me. It was awesome."
– Rrath876
Take It Off!
“They asked me to take off my shirt to prove I didn't have gang tattoos, I walked out without saying another word.”
– Flashy_Adeptness8597
“Um yeah, asking someone to remove their clothes in an interview at all is crazy.”
– MsFrisi
“*Silently mouths the words: "I'm wearing a wire - the FBI wants to raid you" while vigorously pointing at my chest”
– apathyduck
I think I just lost all faith in humanity.
These Redditors cannot be alone. Do you have any crazy stories to share? Let us know in the comments below.