People Explain The Craziest Thing Their Employer Expected Employees To Work Through

20. It was like a hurricane didn't just happen

"Hurricane Katrina was going to make landfall that day, and the owner of the restaurant I was managing at the time got super pissed when I said I wasn't coming in..,

After the storm hit and devastated New Orleans, the owner was calling me because they needed people to open the restaurant. The roof had blown off of my house, and I was asking him where was I going to live while I worked for him. He said to just get a hotel, as if he was paying me enough to afford such a thing. I also think hotels were pretty well full? Not sure."

mkicon

19. Designer pirates

"Worked for a small graphic design company fresh out of school. They used cracked software, didn't really pay anyone and were generally shady but I didn't really think anything of it, until the FBI showed up.

Apparently they also didn't pay their taxes and so my boss was taken away in handcuffs and the office was closed.

Or so I thought.

Our boss called our creative director from jail and told us to work from this seedy motel room he set up to finish up the assignment or else we wouldn't get paid.

Nobody showed apparently as we all decided now would be a good time to look for new opportunities."

whereegosdare84

18. It'll be there forever

"Someone spilled (or poured out) a bottle of deer attractant on the floor under the shelves in the sporting goods section of WalMart. Stank of deer piss for...well, actually, it probably still does. They never cleaned it, and we had ammo to sell."

becauseiamtheDM

17. Hopefully the managers let it slide

"The bank across the street from my office was robbed. Not only were we expected to keep on working, the CEO sent out an email forbidding employees to discuss it and telling managers to discipline those who did, even if the employee was on break/calling their family to tell them they were ok."

PM_ME_YOUR_WEIRD_PET

16. Maybe be nice to the person caring for your loved one

"I work home health aid. Nice old lady but the daughter is a wack job. Long story super short, I was called an imcompenent idiot because her mother had an accident IN THE BATHROOM and it got all over the floor. I was so floored I didn't say anything. So I assumed I would be sent home (24 hr overnight care), she then told me to not be mean to her mother and left the house."

mxD34

15. When management doesn't care about your major accident

"Part of my job at a vitamin company was doing pick-ups and deliveries. One day when I was bringing a load of stuff back for a big run I got t-boned by a lady talking on her phone and running a red light, she scrunched my van into a telephone pole so the fire department had to cut the van apart to get me out. Once I got to the hospital and was able to make a call, I called the company to let them know what had happened. The production manager only wanted to know why it was taking so long and how soon was I going to be back and he didn't want any excuses."

xx000o9

14. Eyes are more important than fried chicken

"During my study I worked at a very well known fried chicken restaurant. When taking the chicken out of the fryer some frying oil came up and landed in my eye. Of course I went straight for the eye shower to clean it out. While I do this the manager walks up to me and asks if I couldn't have put the chicken on the plates and into the elevator first. I quit the next day."

Kobrakay86

13. The supervisor couldn't even pretend to care

"I was a nurse working in a dialysis clinic and got a call from my grandmother saying she didn't feel well. After doing some telephone triage, it was apparent she was having a heart attack and needed to go to the ER immediately... I left after notifying my supervisor. I hadn't even made it to my car when I got a call from the nurse manager, who verified that I had left. I told her yes, my grandmother is having a heart attack and I'm on my way to meet her at the ER. She then asked me what time I would be reporting for my shift the following day.

I quit on the spot."

t0psyturvy

12. Sales over everything

"Last year I worked in a small store at a mall and halfway through my shift a guy had a heart attack and died in the back of our store. We had to close the store so the paramedics could try to save him without people in the way. Our district manager told us it was up to my manager if she wanted to stay closed, because it's kind of traumatic to watch a guy die, and my manager said she'd discuss it with my coworker and I. Then, while my coworker was having an existential crisis in the back room, I saw her reopen the store without even talking to us and started ringing out customers on the security cameras (one of which got really pissy with me when I was trying to close the store originally, because I wouldn't open the jewelry case to let her browse our jewelry...). I left, taking my panicked coworker with me. I don't work there anymore."

hxppybeann

11. I wouldn't ask to leave

"If there were tornado sirens, we were supposed to stay seated keep working until the boss said so."

onionask

10. A sign on the door would have sufficed

"Right after Hurricane Sandy, the bank I worked for had no power for days, so obviously we couldn't do any banking. Rather than just close, my manager insisted that the entire staff show up for shifts as usual, just so we could sit in our normal seats in our uniforms and winter jackets to tell any customers who wandered in that we didn't have power and couldn't help them with anything at all.

Just about every single person asked us some variation of 'then what the hell are you doing here?' It sucked."

ostentia

9. They go to take their ties off, how thoughtful

"The air-conditioning broke down and people started passing out from the heat.

But they let us take our ties off, so that was generous."

I_throw_socks_at_cat

8. I'd sneak on home then

"Federal agents with a search warrant shut down all the computers so they could image the drives.

We puttered around for hours before we finally got sent home at the regular time. However, long lunches and gym visits were permitted."

gud_spelller

7. Who hasn't sat in a powerless/internetless office "just in case"?

"The power went out at 8 a.m., but we weren't allowed to go home. We sat around doing nothing for nearly eight hours, 'just in case' the power came on. Then our boss said if it didn't come on by 4 p.m., we could go home and the work schedule would be pushed ahead a full day. Power came on at 3:50 p.m. and we had to do our full workload."

DenL4242

6. Blood splatter is bad for business...

"I was working at a pet store and was used to being bitten by the pets we sold, hamsters, ferrets, birds - no big deal.

This day, however, as I was helping a woman who had brought her dog in, it attacked me. Luckily it was a small-ish/medium sized dog so it didn't get my face, but I had big bleeding holes all up and down one arm. The lady never said sorry, and my manager told me to go to the back, get cleaned up, and come back out and ring on the resister. So I did, with big blood splatters all over my yellow uniform shirt."

TentaclesAndCupcakes

5. Some employers just don't listen to their employees

"I told my employer I was moving across country and that my last day was in two weeks

The day came and they called me as I was on the road asking if I was going to come in"

clem82

4. When results matter more than safety

"Automotive painting. Been complaining about my mask parts needing replacing for a few weeks. Finally my mask broke and I refused to paint because toxic fumes where coming into my mask. Being the only automotive painter.... work came to a halt. I was told to get in there and paint or else. I pointed at the security camera and asked him to say that again but a little louder. He fired 2 people that day but I wasn't one of them."

IRDragonBorne

3. Don't let employees bleed in a workplace

"After leaving school I had an evening job at the cinema and I was punched by a patron, was still then expected to carry on for another 4 hours despite my bleeding everywhere

Let's just say I didn't come in for another shift after that!"

Lethal_bizzle94

2. Do your own paperwork!

"I got a call one day from my cousin saying our house had been broken into. I went home to deal with it and file a police report, and it was honestly so stressful. My supervisor then rang me to ask what time I was planning on coming back to work later in the day because she had paperwork for me to finish."

safetyschools

1. Getting hit by a car wasn't a good enough excuse

"I had been in an accident where I was hit by a van when on my bike. I was on my way to the hospital and shot a quick text to my immediate boss to let him know that I might not be in the next day, as I didn't know what the damage was and how long I may be. He told me to take the day off to be sure I recovered properly.

The next day, his boss called me and asked me where the hell I was.

I told him I'd been hit by a van and he said, 'And?'

I didn't work there much longer after that."