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People Reveal The Craziest Thing They've Ever Witnessed At Work

People Reveal The Craziest Thing They've Ever Witnessed At Work
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Be honest, most of us aren't exactly thrilled to go to work. Quite a few of us spend the day drudging away through monotony wishing for something to shake things up ... but what do we do when something actually does?




Reddit user zarfytezz1 asked:

What's the craziest thing you've ever seen at work?

It turns out my crazy work story (watching my rage-aholic 'roided up boss chase 2 interviewees around the parking lot because they had questions and he felt disrespected) was pretty tame compared to what some other people have witnessed. So here we go, get ready.

Away we go, folks.

Lion Pee

Giphy

I'm fairly certain that a guest came into our zoo with the intent of receiving a Golden Shower from a lion.

For some backstory, if you've never seen those videos of lions pissing on zoo guests, you should look it up. Males can spray urine 10+ feet, through the caging. It STINKS worse than you could ever believe (we've had guests puke before when they got sprayed), and is just about impossible to wash off. You don't want to put water on that, trust me. It's super musky, and there's hormones in it for territory-marking, so it's meant to withstand water. I'm just going by personal experience, but whenever I hose a puddle of lion urine I feel like I just aerosolize the stench.

We even have signs up warning people that lions can spray urine.


One day, this guy comes in during the morning, and first place he goes is to the lion exhibit. Stands 5 feet from the bars. I caution him about the urine and he ignores me.

Half an hour later, I notice he's still right there, standing almost still. I tell him "I'm not kidding, they spray through the bars sometimes." He nods and backs away a bit...ten minutes later I find him closer to the bars than he was before!

I think okay, whatever...not my fault if you get peed on. I told a couple coworkers about this guy as we went about our morning chores!

Another keeper told me, half an hour later, that he got sprayed by a lion. Apparently he was pretty calm about it and didn't start retching like most people do - walked straight out of the zoo and back to his car, drenched in lion urine.

He must have smelled of sour, muggy lion BO crossed with eau de catbox for the next couple days at least. I wonder how he showed up to work like that.

Worst part is we got complaints from guest the rest of the day, between the lion exhibit and the park exit (where this dude dripped lion pee all over the place), that it stunk like a litter box from hell. Tried out best to clean it but without much luck.

The keepers were all laughing their butts off about this story for a week, though.

- yogootter

The Exact Moment

I was a manager at a small casino running a blackjack tournament.

I watched a man have a heart attack before my very eyes. It was the end of the round for that table the man advanced to the next round. As soon as the hand was over and was about to congratulate him I saw the exact moment that he realized that something was wrong. He grabbed his chest and his lips instantly turned grey.

It just so happened that the person sitting directly to his right was respiratory nurse. She realizes immediately what's happening and throws him on the ground and starts CPR. She took full control of the situation like a hero in the movies. It was horrific and awe inspiring at the same time.

The man made a special visit to the casino two weeks later to let us know that he was okay.

To me, this wasn't crazy because I watched a man almost die. This was crazy because I saw the exact moment that he realized that he was in trouble. I saw the exact moment the nurse's instincts and training kicked in. I'll never forget it.

- Benkei929045

The Retail Gods

There was a fire in the store I work at, towards the back of the store. We were getting everyone to evacuate and a woman would not leave.. she told me that since the area she wanted to shop in was not on fire, if she wanted to assume the risk of bodily injury that I could not stop her.

I had to try to balance not losing it on her with getting her to leave. Luckily, an older authoritative firefighter had just walked by and heard her, and he turned around and physically picked her up and bitched her out as he took her to the exit. It was as if the retail gods finally cut me a break. He did what we all wanted to do. It was absolutely glorious.

- genericAFusername

The Boo Boo

I worked in an office with a woman who was definitely high drama. I'm talking to our boss in his office and I hear WAILING coming down the hall towards us. It's that sound a 3 year old makes when he's hurt, wants attention,and is fake crying but somehow louder. I can't handle that kind of thing so I bail in a hurry and hide at my desk.

She reached my boss's office not long after I fled and collapsed Platoon-style still bawling. On her way to lunch, she had tripped and fallen in the mud so her pants were muddy on the knees and she was crying that she had a booboo. Our boss's boss took her to the ladies room to clean her up.

This involved the crying woman removing her pants so our boss's boss could try to get some of the mud out at the sink. They worried entirely too much about getting sued and she got coddled as a result. I believe crazy lady was in a stall while the director cleaned her pants for her. Doesn't make it any less insane. Crying lady spent the rest of the day gleefully telling anyone who would listen what happened. I still can't comprehend any part of this.

She should have been canned. She wasn't particularly good at the job and her frequent outbursts caused a lot of problems. You could never tell if she was on her meds or not. Sometimes she'd throw a temper tantrum because she didn't get to put in her lunch order first (she sent home for that one with pay but she came back the next day with no repercussions.) Ugh, I haven't worked with her in years and this kind of nonsense still irritates me.

- SVUroo

Like Nothing Happened

Ok I worked as a spa/salon manager for awhile. I'll make this as succinct as I can...

One day a very professional looking well dressed woman came in for a massage and sauna. She was from out of town, never been in before. During her massage she made some funny sounds and apparently some funny smells. She doesn't say anything or get up or indicate that anything is wrong. After the massage the therapist goes back into the room to discover that this lady has had diarrhea all over the table. We're very concerned about cleanliness and hygiene so there is a mad dash to clean and disinfect.

In the meantime, this woman has put on a robe and walked straight into the sauna. Where she removed her now-poo-filled robe and sat in her puddle of filth for like 30 minutes.

She left the robe and went to the dressing room. She dressed, came out, paid like nothing happened and left. The sauna was shut down to be disinfected. Our poor spa attendant frantically cleaned everything in the dressing room only then to discover this woman had destroyed a bathroom stall. All over the seat, the floor, etc. Spa attendant cleaned it but the smell was still overwhelming and she didn't know why. Until she found the woman's soiled panties in the trash.

The End.

- sarahhatespants

No Public Restroom

I worked in a clothing store that didn't have a public restroom. The owners told us that under no circumstances were we to take them to the restroom that the employees use. They micromanaged and watched the cameras like crazy so I wasn't about to break that rule.

Well, one night a woman was pissed because we didn't have a public restroom and so she walked to the big trash can we had by the back where we were doing some work and literally sat in it, peed, and walked out. In front if everyone. Like it was nothing.

- Flamingogal

The Urn

I work in a skilled nursing facility, and one of our residents had the ashes of his deceased wife with him following her service. Her son ran in the next morning, through the lobby, past the nurses station and into his room, grabbed the urn and sprinted back out to a getaway car. This was a second marriage, and the son felt her husband didn't "deserve" the remains, so he stole them.

- SilentPear

A Pallet Spear

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I saw a pregnant coworker get speared by a wooden pallet.

We worked as order fillers driving around on electric pallet jacks picking cases of product to stack on pallets behind the jack. The bays with the product went two deep and were on rollers. Every time a person picked the last item off a pallet they were supposed to pull the empty pallet out and put it in a return area.

She went to pull the empty pallet out but it was broken or decayed so as she tried to take it out the pallet behind the empty one came forward and the empty pallet shattered. She got pinned against her jack and a piece of wood caught her in the side.

Of course the company we worked for treated its workers like trash, so when one of the supervisors came by and saw she "wasn't bleeding that much" he actually asked her if she was okay to keep working even though she was bawling her eyes out!

If I remember correctly the supervisor talked her out of going to the hospital. Both things were a little shocking to witness, honestly. As far as I know the baby ended up fine but it really sucks when an evil corporation is your daddy.

- IJustBoughtThisGame

The Ladies Room

A picture of the shotgun poo in the women's bathroom.

My department is practically all women, so one day one of them is talking about the 4th floor in our building and how she walked into the bathroom to open the door to one of the most horrid smells ever. As she walks in she opens the door to the stall and there the nightmare is. This wasn't like a disgruntled employee doing this to be an ahole. This was straight up shotgun blast of poo.


Turns out it had been going on daily for a few weeks. It got so bad that our work placed a sign on the women's door to the bathroom saying: "If you are the individual causing the mess in the women's bathroom, please see a doctor or contact our health services line @ 1-800-***-****."

There was also a picture I was shown from the women's bathroom on our floor where a lady decided work was the perfect time to shave her lady parts. There was a legit pile of pubes all over the floor.

My dad worked at a big department store as a janitor. He always said the women's bathroom was hands down the nastiest.

- ArcticPuppets

"Boy Stop!" 

Guy found out he was getting fired and ran off and hid somewhere in building. We work in a massive place so 99% of people didn't even know he was being looked for. A few hours later he turns up at managers desk throwing tables and fire extinguishers at anyone who had clothing identifying as a supervisor. He was trying really hard to just hurt a manager - any manager.

A big guy from the dock sees this from distance. Big guy walks over with purpose of a fricken action movie star, grabs rampaging dude by neck, and in one action lifts him in air and shouts "Boy Stop!" Big guy then proceeds to slam the fired man into floor and sit on him until police come.

It was just total one sided dominance. I've never seen a large adult (able to lift a table over head) so easily overpowered. Dock guy probably saved a life or at least saved someone a serious injury. Think they gave him like 2k in shares as a thank you.

- Sutekh338

Tae Kwon DooDoo

While teaching martial arts 10 years ago, I saw a kid stand in chunbi (ready stance) while soiling his pants. It flew up my face, onto the mirror, and onto the ceiling as soon as we started practicing front snap kicks; it was being flicked off his kicking foot.

Everyone was so mortified that I didn't have time to react. I tried to divert everyone's attention away.

- Pokey-The-Bear

The Missing Nipple

When I worked as life guard at an indoor water park I saw a guy's nipple piercing get ripped off when he went down a body slide. There was blood everywhere. His entire nipple was gone but he was so scared from the ride he didn't even notice the pain till he sat down in the infirmary.

- nieceyluv123

Christmas Blackface

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My boss attempted to dress in black face for a Christmas party. We were in a work band together, set to perform to 100 or so workmates. My boss (a senior exec in our government department) thought it would be a good idea to appear dressed as Lenny Kravitz - complete with black face. She used a kind brown foundation that didn't work as she'd intended.

No one noticed. I only knew because I saw her applying the make up and told her it wasn't a good idea. She just thought she was paying homage to Kravitz. I was relieved when it didn't work.

- dinnersateight

The Trial

I work in a glorified call centre, and one day we were told that a woman was coming in to do a trial shift was coming in. So far, so good.

About an hour before The Trial (as she will henceforth be known), ALL of our phones went down. They came back on intermittently, so we were still having calls coming through. At one point, an agent (J) turns around to our manager and says:

"Hey, do you have a trial coming in today? Because I think she's drunk...".

So we play it off because we're stressed out about the phones not working and forget about it for half an hour. Just to set the scene, my department is in a small annex off the main office as we're always in the phone, we need to keep the noise down. So we get a knock on the door and one of our big office colleagues is stood there, looking absolutely terrified. She pauses for a minute, steps inside, closes the door, and says,

"Your trial shift has just arrived...She's off her face."

At which point, we all turn around and look at each other. We don't really have time to think because suddenly this very tall, very skinny woman sidles into the office like a giant drunk spider. She's wearing the same clothes she wore to the interview yesterday. Her eyes are the size of the moon. Her tights are completely torn and her leg is bleeding. She is absolutely shitfaced.

Me, and the other three girls in the office spring to attention. I start muttering about getting water. Another girl goes to grab the first aid box. My friend J from earlier just stands up and walks out.

We meet in the kitchen and decide we'll have to go back into the room because our manager hasn't come out. So we come back in and very drunk trial shift girl is lolling around in a swivel chair. (Now is probably the time to mention, we don't sit in a traditional office layout, we are in a U shape around the outside of the room.) We all sit back down, and drunk girl is in the middle of the U. We all have our backs to her and the phones STILL aren't working.

The Trial starts burbling about how she doesn't need to actually learn our job because she already knows it. My manager (who was later fired) is doing to nothing to contain the situation. We start saying "Look maybe you should go home, come back tomorrow, tomorrow is a new day etc" and she loses it. Starts screaming at all of us, waving her arms around, and we are all absolutely terrified because we can't move away from our desks.

My manager finally decides to stand up and do something. She gets The Trial's attention and gently suggests that she might go home. The Trial stands up and start threatening my manager. All the while, we are all still sat at our desks, not able to move. Out of the corner of my eye, I see my friend S inching her hand towards a fruit knife she'd left on her desk. Still not sure whether she was grabbing it to get it out of the way or as a weapon of self defense.

It gets better (or ever so worse) from here. The Trial is now shouting how she deserves a job because she came all the way to our office and hurt her legs (Remember the ripped tights). My manager tells her to leave. She sits down on the swivel chair and starts taking her tights off. In the middle of our tiny office. When her tights are around her ankles and her legs are akimbo, the director of the entire company walks in and says "WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON HERE?"

The Trial swivels around, flashes him, and screeches "WHO. THE. F*CK. ARE YOU?!"

My director replies, very smoothly "I own this company, who are you?"

Drunk girl then goes "YOU NEED TO LEAVE" to the big boss, at which point he turns around to wall and very calmly says "I'm giving you ten seconds to put your tights on, get you bag and leave. Otherwise I am calling the police."

So drunk girl does as she's told, is escorted to the door and very promptly falls down the stairs. This all happened at two in the afternoon in an office. I have never seen anything like it.

- slostoooooo

Morphine

A mother used a needle and syringe to suck Morphine out of her child's IV line (the child had cancer) so she could hide in the bathroom of their hospital room and shoot it up.

- catchypseudoname

Stealing Their Youth

The man who would rig the toilets in the boys bathroom to not flush so he could come and collect the pee of boys and drink it so he could "steal their youth". We eventually caught him and he went to jail but god what a mess that was while it was occurring.

- doziedozure

Pet Crematorium

I'm a server at a local bakery/deli. One afternoon a lady (probably in her late 50's) comes in and asks me where she could find a crematorium for pets. Nothing too weird as there used to be one just down the street, but they closed down about a year ago.

I noticed she was carrying a grocery bag with something white and fluffy in it. At first I thought it was maybe a teddy bear...Then she opened up the bag to show me what was 2 dead cats inside. The smell was awful, like they have been deceased for quite a while.

I felt bad because she smelled like feces, and cat piss. I feel she may have been suffering from a mental illness or going through grief, probably both. So I gave her the best advice I could with a phone number and directions to the closest veterinary clinic, as they might know more and hopefully be able to help her. Made for an interesting afternoon...

- Iceyblue8

Mike Dropped Dead

I work in fancy restaurants as a cook and like in any kitchen, our sous chef was ALWAYS coming high on speed, but he was AMAZING at preforming his job (we shall call him Mike). One morning after having talked to him a few times about his use, Mike comes in to work looking worse than ever. I ask if he is alright, he says yes he just smoked some really strong weed.

I shrug it off, as he wasn't acting intoxicated, and continue on with my day. About an hour into prep and this guy drops dead on line. Heart stopped right then and there! My co worker luckily knew CPR and ran to him immediately, as I called an ambulance. She was lucky enough to have gotten him back before the ambulance came. He is fine. My co worked was traumatized. We all still work at the same place.

- TBubbaPain

The Hat

Some dude almost got himself killed because he wanted to get his hat back.

Backstory: I work at a world famous amusement park, so naturally we get tourists from around the world coming each day of the year. I was running the Drop Tower ride, the ride that was to the immediate left of the roller coaster. The rides are so close together that on quiet days, the operators of both rides walk over and chat until guests arrive. Now that I think about it, the close proximity of the rides is what probably saved this guy's life.

I'm working the drop tower with my partner, let's call him Bob. I'm saying goodbye to our most recent batch of guests when Bob says to me that he thinks he sees someone running around on the floor in the restricted area of the roller coaster. At first I thought he was joking because who would be stupid enough to jump the fences and gates to run around the tracks of an active roller coaster?

But yup. Sure enough, some redneck looking dummy was casually wandering around the tracks like he was out on a jaunty Sunday stroll. The last train had just finished minutes ago, meaning the next train was due to be run again. It was sheer luck that Bob had noticed because the idiot in question had been walking around behind the pillar that held up one of the loops, meaning the operator couldn't see him from her operation panel. Bob ran to the phone to call our manager, and I ran as fast as I could to the ride operator to signal not to run the ride.

The operation panel for the roller coaster was far on the right, and the drop tower was to the left. Thankfully, I had gotten to the operator just as she had turned everything on but had not dispatched the new train yet. She saw me make a giant 'X' with my arms which is our sign for "DONT RUN THE RIDE" or "STOP THE RIDE" which we only use for emergencies. The rides are so loud we are required by to wear hearing protection or we can be personally fined, so we use hand signals to communicate.

The ride operator hit the emergency stop which cuts the power to the motors and wheels. I explain that there was someone on the floor, then proceed to help the guests off the ride. The operator is screaming into the microphone at this point, which is drawing attention. When the man realized he was caught, he made a bolt for the maintenance shop, climbed the stairs the millwrights used, jumped a gate and ran away into the park.

Security had been called as well but we never caught the guy. The roller coaster was closed for the rest of the day for an investigation. Video camera footage revealed that he had stuck his arm through the bars of the maintenance doors which were kept locked to turn the doorknob on the other side to let himself in. I'd like to add that there is also a giant sign plastered across the front of the door which read "ABSOLUTELY NO ADMITTANCE WHILE TRAINS ARE IN MOTION". The fact that this man ignored the sign, nearly dislocated his arm in the process and STILL proceeded to walk around the tracks of an active roller coaster only furthers my belief that this man was stupidity in human form.

After the operator, Bob and I gave our incident reports to management, operator later told me that the same guy had been causing problems and had been on the coaster earlier. For our park, we have a no loose articles policy. No bags, hats etc. This was because not only could things fall off/get damaged during the rides but they could fall into the machinery and cause mechanical issues. Apparently that this guy had been arguing with her, refusing to take off his hat even though she explained repeatedly that only religious headwear was allowed, that due to the speed and fact that the ride had multiple loops and inversions, that his baseball cap was guaranteed to fall off.

He eventually gave in and put it in his pocket when she told him that either the hat came off the ride or he would. Once the train was dispatched and climbing to the top of the hill, he put the stupid hat back on. The ride operator used the microphone to tell him to take it off but he ignored her.

Surprise, surprise! It fell off.

When the ride was done, he complained that he wanted it back but obviously she showed no sympathy. She explained that he would need to wait for a few hours until our next safety inspection until it could be retrieved, since the millwrights were the only ones authorized to go on the coaster floor. After she told us this, we put two and two together and realized that this idiot had put his life in danger to retrieve a hat.

When the time came for the next inspection, they found said hat. It was a 'make america great again' hat. This all took place in Canada, but that certainly explains a lot.

- Asanyx

Mario

I've worked at a golf course for the past 3 years doing course maintenance. One of the people I work with is a hard working 61 year-old man named Mario. One day on the ninth hole, which is a straight par 4 with an island green surrounded by a pond infested with moccasins, Mario was tasked with weed eating. As I finished mowing the tee box and made my way to the green, I heard a blood curdling scream.

It was Mario.

I witnessed him yank a 3-4 foot copperhead off of his Achilles heel and throw it in the pond. Before I could offer to help, he had already rushed to his car and took off. He drove himself to a nearby hospital. He was back at work 2 days later!

- penney20

Can't Have It Back Now!

Giphy

I used to work at a bead store when I was 16 that sold beads, gemstones, chain, and findings for people who like to make jewelry.

One day this woman ran in and started stuffing strands of stuff down her bra and pants. I noticed and when I walked over to her she started running towards the entrance yelling "I already shoved it up my crack! You can't have it back now!"

I called the cops.

- juliaakatrinaa507

People Describe The Creepiest Things They Ever Witnessed As A Kid

"Reddit user -2sweetcaramel- asked: 'What’s the creepiest thing you saw as a kid?'"

Four mistreated baby dolls are hung by barb wire
Photo by J Lopez

For many childhood memories are overrun by living nightmares.

Yes, children are resilient, but that doesn't mean that the things we see as babes don't follow us forever.

The horrors of the world are no stranger to the young.

Redditor -2sweetcaramel- wanted to see who was willing to share about the worst things we've seen as kids, so they asked:

"What’s the creepiest thing you saw as a kid?"

Serious Danger

"Me and my best friend would explore the drainage tunnels under the Vegas area where we grew up. These were miles long and it was always really cool down there so it was a good way to escape the heat of our scorching hot summers. We went into this one that goes under the Fiesta casino and found a camp with a bunch of homeless people."

"Mind you we are like 11 years old lol. And we just kept going like it was nothing. It wasn’t scary then but when I look back at it we could have been in some serious danger. Our parents had no idea we did this or where we were and we had no cellphones. We could have been kidnapped and never have been found."

oofboof2020

Waiting for Food

"I was at a portillos once when I was 12 and I was waiting with my little brother at a booth while my parents got our food. This guy was standing with his tray kind of watching me then after a couple of minutes he started to walk over really fast not breaking eye contact with me."

"He was 2 feet from the table and my dad came out of nowhere and scared the s**t out of him. He looked so surprised and just said he wanted to see if I’d get scared or not. He left his tray full of food near the door and left. My folks reported him but we never went to that location again since we found a better one closer to home."

nowhereboy1964

Captain Hobo to the Rescue

"When I was a pretty young teen, my friends and I were horsing around in San Francisco and started hanging out to smoke with some homeless guys. Another homeless dude came up and began aggressively trying to shake us down for anything (money, smokes, a ride, drugs- all of it) and wouldn’t take no for an answer."

"We got in over our heads and could tell this guy was now riling the other 2 guys up and they were acting like they wanted to jump us. Some grandfather-looking old homeless man appeared out of nowhere and yelled at us to get the f**k out of here- nice kids like us don’t belong down here at this hour!!"

"Captain Hobo saved our lives that night. My parents sincerely thought we were at a mall all day lol."

FartAttack911

Survival

tsunami GIF Giphy

"I was 7 and survived the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. Witnessed the wave rise way above the already massive palm trees (approx. 40ft?) and my family and I watched/heard the wave crash into the ground from a rooftop."

faithfulpoo

These Tsunami stories are just tragic.

On the Sand

Scared The Launch GIF by CTV Giphy

"We were a group of kids who went to swim in a local lake. And there was a dead body on the beach with their hands raised and their legs bent unnaturally that local police just took out of the same lake. I've never put my foot in these waters again."

oyloff

Be Clever

"I was walking to school and I was about 5 or 6 years old and some guy pulled up beside me in his car and asked if I would get in. He also offered me sweets to do so. I said no. The creepy bit was when he calmly said ‘clever boy’ to me, then drove off. I’ve never even told my parents or anyone else about this as it would most likely freak them out."

OstneyPiz

Bad Jokes

"Dad's side of the family pranked me by burying a fake body on our back property and had me dig it up to find valuables. Was only allowed to use a lantern for light. They stuffed old clothes with chicken bones. Sheetrock mud where the head was... Random fake jewelry as the treasures... I was like maybe 10 or 11.. I remember digging up the boot first and started gagging because it became real at that point."

Alegan239

YOU

Who Are You Reaction GIF by MOODMAN Giphy

"Woke up to find my little brother staring at me in the dark, asking, Are you really you?"

PrettyLola2004

Siblings can really be a bunch of creepers.

No one should talk to others in the dark though.

Woman stressed at work
Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

When we hear about other people's jobs, we've surely all done that thing where we make assumptions about the work they do and maybe even judge them for having such an easy or unimportant job.

But some jobs are much harder than they look.

Redditor CeleryLover4U asked:

"What's a job or profession that seems easy but is incredibly challenging?"

Customer Service

"Anything customer-facing. The public is dumb and horrendous."

- gwarrior5

"My go-to explanation is, 'Anyone can do it, but few can do it for long.'"

- Conscious_Camel4830

"The further I get in my corporate career, the less I believe I will ever again be capable of working a public-facing job. I don’t know how I did it in the past. I couldn’t handle it in the present."

"I know people are only getting worse about how they treat workers. It is disturbing, embarrassing, and draining for everyone."

- First-Combination-12

High Stakes

"A pharmacist."

"You face the public. Your mistake can literally kill someone."

- VaeSapiens

"Yes, Pharmacist. So many people think their job is essentially the same as any other kind of retail worker and they just prepare prescriptions written by a doctor without having to know anything about them."

"They are very highly trained in, well, pharmacology; and it's not uncommon for a pharmacist to notice things like potentially dangerous drug interactions that the doctor hadn't."

- Worth_University_884

Teaching Woes

"Two nuggets of wisdom from my mentor teacher when I was younger:"

"'Teaching is the easiest job to do poorly and the hardest job to do well,' and 'You get to choose two of the following three: Friends, family, or being a good teacher. You don't have enough time to do all three.'"

"We all know colleagues or remember teachers who were lazy and chose the easy route, but any teacher who is trying to be a good teacher has probably sacrificed their friends and their sleep for little pay and a stressful work environment. There's a reason something like half quit the profession within the first five years."

- bq87

Creativity Is "Easy"

"Some creative professions, such as designers, are often perceived as 'easy' due to their creative nature. However, they may face the constant need to find inspiration, deal with criticism, and meet deadlines."

- rubberduckyis

"EVERYBODY thinks they are a designer, up until the point of having to do the work. But come critique time, mysteriously, EVERYBODY IS A F**KING DESIGNER AGAIN."

"The most important skill to have as a designer is THICK SKIN."

- whitepepper

Care Fatigue Is Real

"Care work."

"I wish it could be taken for granted that no one thinks it's easy. But unfortunately, many people still see it as an unskilled job and have no idea of the many emotional complexities, or of how much empathy, all the time, is needed to form the sorts of relationships with service users that they really need."

- MangoMatiLemonMelon

Physical Labor Generally Wins

"I’m going to say most types of unskilled labor and that’s because there’s such little (visible) reward and such a huge amount of bulls**t. I’ve done customer service, barista, sales, serving, etc; and it was all much harder than my cushy desk job that actually can be considered life or death."

- anachronistika

Their Memory Banks Must Be Wild

"I don't know if I'd call it incredibly challenging, but being one of those old school taxi drivers who know the city like the back of his hand and can literally just drive wherever being told nothing but an address is pretty impressively skilled."

"Not sure if it's still like this, but British cabbies used to be legendary for this. I'm 40 and I don't think most young people appreciate how much the quality of cab service has gone down since the advent of things like Uber."

"Nowadays it's just kind of expected that a rideshare/cab driver doesn't know exactly where you're trying to get and has to rely on GPS directions that they often f up. Back when I was in college, cabbies were complete experts on their city."

"More even than knowing how to get somewhere, they could also give you advice. You could just generally describe a type of bar/club/business you're looking for, and they'll take you right to one that was spot on. Especially in really big cities like NYC."

- Yak-Mak-5000

Professional Cooking

"Being a chef."

- Canadian_bro7

"I would love to meet the person who thinks being a chef is easy! I cook my own food and it’s not only OK to eat but I make a batch of it so I have some for later. So, to make food that is above good and portion it correctly many times a day and do it consistently with minimal wastage (so they make a profit), strikes me as extremely difficult."

- ChuckDeBongo

Team Leading, Oof

"Anything that involves a lot of people skills and socializing. I thought these positions were just the bulls**t of sitting in meetings all day and not a lot of work happening but having to be the one leading those meetings and doing public speaking is taxing in a way I didn’t realize."

- Counterboudd

Not a Pet Sitter At All

"Veterinary Technician."

"Do the job of an RN, anesthesiology tech, dental hygienist, radiology tech, phlebotomist, lab tech, and CNA, but probably don’t make a living wage and have people undervalue your career because you 'play with puppies and kittens all day.'"

- forthegoddessathena

Harder Than It Looks!

"Sometimes, when my brain is fried from thinking and my ego is shot from not fixing the problem, I want to be a garbage man... not a ton of thinking, just put the trash in the truck, and a lot of them have trucks that do it for you!"

"But if the robot either doesn't work or you don't have one on your truck, it smells really bad, the pay isn't what it used to be, you might find a dead body and certainly find dead animal carcasses... and people are id**ts, overfilling their bags, just to have them fall apart before you get to the truck, not putting their trash out and then blaming you, making you come back out."

"Your body probably is sore every day, and you have to take two baths before you can kiss your wife..."

"Ehh, maybe things are not so bad where I am."

- Joebroni1414

Twiddling Thumbs and Listening

"Therapist here. I’ve always said that it’s pretty easy to be an okay therapist—as in, it’s not that hard to listen to people’s problems and say, 'Oh wow, that’s so hard, poor you.'"

"But to be a good therapist? To know when your client is getting stuck in the same patterns, or to notice what your client isn’t saying? To realize that they’re only ever saying how amazing their spouse is, and to think, 'Hmm, nobody’s marriage is perfect, something’s going on there'?"

"To be able to ask questions like, 'Hey, we’ve been talking a lot about your job, but what’s going on with your family?' And then to be able to call them on their s**t, but with kindness and empathy? Balancing that s**t is hard."

"Anybody can have empathy, but knowing when to use empathy and when and how to challenge someone is so much harder. And that’s only one dimension of what makes being a therapist challenging."

- mylovelanguageiswine

Constant Updates

​"For the most part, my job is really easy (marketing tech). But having to constantly stay on top of new platforms, new tech, updates, etc etc is exhausting and overwhelming and I really hate it."

"Also, the constant responsibility to locate and execute opportunities to optimize things and increase value for higher-ups. Nobody in corporate roles can ever just reach a point of being 'good enough.' More and better is always required."

"Just some of the big reasons I’m considering a career change."

- GlizzyMcGuire_

Performing Is Not Easy

"Performing arts and other types of art. People think it’s a cakewalk or 'not a real job,' not realizing the literal lifetime of training, rejection, and perseverance that it takes to reach a professional level and how insanely competitive those spaces are."

- ThrowRA1r3a5

All About Perception

"I suspect everything fits this. Consider that someone whose job is stacking boxes in a warehouse has to know how to lift boxes, how many can be stacked, know if certain ones must be easily accessible, know how to use any equipment that is used to move boxes around."

"Not to mention if some have hazardous or fragile materials inside, if some HAVE to be stacked on the bottom, if a mistake is made and all the boxes have to be restacked, etc."

"But everyone else is like, 'They're just stacking boxes.'"

- DrHugh

It's easy to make assumptions about someone else's work and responsibilities when we haven't lived with performing those tasks ourselves.

This gave us some things to think about, and it certainly reminded us that nothing good comes of making assumptions, especially when it minimizes someone else's experiences.

Left-handed person holding a Sharpie
Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash

Many of us who are right-handed never even think about how the world is designed to cater to us.

It probably doesn't even cross your mind that 10% of the world's population is left-handed.

Because of this, there tends to be a stigma for being left-handed since society tends to associate the left with negative things.

For example, the phrase "two left feet" applies to those who are clumsy and therefore, incapable of dancing.

Curious to hear more about the challenges facing those with the other dominant hand, Redditor johnnyportillo95 asked:

"What’s something left-handed people have to deal with that right-handed people wouldn’t even think about?"

If only manufacturers appealed to an ambidextrous world.

Furniture Obstacle

"Those desks or couch chairs that have a small desk attached. They do make left handed/sided ones but they are few and far between."

– Prussian__Princess

"And they’re only on one side of the lecture hall, and it’s never a good seat. There is ONE front row, lefty desk in the entire room and it’s in the far corner, obscured by an ancient overhead projector."

– earwighoney

Everyday Objects For Everyday People

"as a left-handed person myself, one thing we often deal with is finding left-handed tools or equipment. many everyday objects, like scissors or can openers, are designed with right-handed people in mind, which can make certain tasks a bit more challenging for us lefties. we also have to adapt to a right-handed world when it comes to writing on whiteboards or using certain computer mice."

– J0rdan_24

Dangerous Tools

"The biggest risk is power tools. I taught myself to use all power tools right handed because of risks using them left handed."

"Trivial, I love dry boards but they are super hard to write on."

– diegojones4

It's hard to play when you're born with a physical disadvantage.

Sports Disadvantage

"Allright, Sports when you are young. Every demonstration from PE teachers are right handed. You cant just copy the movements they teach you you need to flip them and your tiny brain struggoes to process it. As well, 98% of the cheap sports equipment the school uses is right handed."

– AjCheeze

No Future In Softball

"I tried to bat right handed for so long in gym class growing up because the gym teacher never asked me what my dominant side was and the thought never occurred to me as a child to mention it! Needless to say I never became a softball star."

– Leftover-Cheese

Find A Glove That Fits

"In softball and baseball we need a specific glove for our right hand that's often impossible to find unless you own one, and we have to bat on the other side of the plate."

– BowlerSea1569

"I was one of two left-handers in a 4-team Little League in the 1980s. Nobody could pitch to me. I got a lot of "hit by pitch" walks out of it."

– Jef_Wheaton

These examples are understandably annoying.

Shocking Observation

"Having right handed people make comments whenever they see us write, like we’re some kind of alien."

– UsefulIdiot85

"'Woah! You're left-handed????'"

"I find myself noticing when someone is a lefty, and sometimes I comment on it, but I try not to. I'm primarily left-handed (im a right handed wroter but do everything else left), and every single time I go to eat with my family, someone says, "Oh hey, give SilverGladiolus22 the left hand spot, they're left-handed," and inevitably someone says, 'Wait, really?' Lol."

– SilverGladiolus22

Can't Admire The Mug

"We never get to look at the cute graphics on coffee mugs while we’re drinking from them."

– vanetti

"I just realized…I always thought the graphics were made so someone else could read them while you drink. Hmmm."

– Bubbly-Anteater7345

"I'm right-handed and I often wondered why the graphics were turned towards the drinker instead of out for others to see."

– Material-Imagination

The Writing On The Wall

"Writing on whiteboards is a nightmare. I have to float my hand, which tires out my arm quickly, and I can't see what I've already written to keep the line straight."

– darkjedi39

"Also as a teacher, it means I'm standing to the left of where I'm writing, so I'm blocking everything I write. I have to frequently finish writing, then step out of the way so people can see, instead of just being able to stand on the right side the whole time."

– dancingbanana123

Immeasurable

"Rulers."

"How the f'k is no one talking about rulers? It's from 30cm to 0 cm to me, or I have to twist my arms to know the measure I want to trace over it."

– fourangers

Just Can't Win

"EVERYTHING. The world has always been based around people being right handed. As a Chef, my knife skills SUCKED until I worked with a Left Handed Chef. Then it all made sense."

"Literally, everything we do must be observed, then flipped around in our heads, then executed. This is why Lefties die sooner, on average, than Righties."

"I had to learn how to be ambidextrous, just to complete basic tasks (sports, driving a manual, using scissors, etc). I am used to it now, and do many things right handed out of necessity, as wall as parents and teachers 'forcing' it upon me."

"But, at least we are not put to death anymore, simply for using the wrong hand (look it up, it happened)."

"Ole Righty, always keeping us down."

– igenus44

The world doesn't need another demographic to feel "othered" for being different.

But if you're right-handed and tend to make assumptions about left-handed people, you may want to observe the following.

Ronald Yeo, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Texas-Austin told CNN:

"We shouldn’t assume much about people’s personalities or health just because of the hand they write with."
"And we certainly shouldn’t worry about lefties’ chances of success: After all (as of 2015), five of our last seven U.S. presidents have been either left- or mixed-handed."

Word.

Dog lying down on a bed
Photo by Conner Baker on Unsplash

Not all pet owners have the same relationship with their pets.

While anyone who decides to become a pet owner, or pet parent as some say, love their pets equally, some never ever let them leave their side.

Taking their pet with them to work, running errands, even on vacations.

Many pet parents even allow their pets to share their bed with them when going to sleep.

For others though, this is where a line is finally drawn.

Redditor Piggythelavasurfer was curious to hear whether pet owners allowed their pets to share their bed with them, as well as the reasons why they do/don't, leading them to ask:

"Do you let your pet sleep in your bed? Why/why not?"

The Tiny Issue Of Water...

"Absolutely not."

"I have fish."- Senior-Meal3649

Everyone Gets Lonely Eventually...

"I adopted an eleven year old cat the day before Halloween."

"She has mostly lived in my closet since I got her, and she hasn’t been too interested in coming out."

"Last night, she came out of my closet and jumped up on my bed, and crawled under my covers and curled up by my feet to sleep."

"I was so happy!"- YellowBeastJeep

The Comforting Reminder That You're Not Alone...

"I recently lost my Greyhound but I used to let him sleep on my bed with me."

"The company was nice and he was no trouble to have on my bed."- HoodedMenace3

Hungry Cookie GIF by De Graafschap Dierenartsen Giphy

What Do You Mean Allow?

"I have no choice."

"She is a cat, cats do whatever they want."- Small_cat1412

"He lets me sleep in my bed."- Poorly-Drawn-Beagle

Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way

"I carry my old boy upstairs to bed every night."- worst_in_show

Hug GIF by The BarkPost Giphy

Who Needs An Alarm Clock?

"I let my two cats sleep with me."

"They're so full of love and just want cuddles all the time."

"And so do I."

"We've all developed a lil routine."

"Get to bed, oldest sleeps on my feet to keep them warm, youngest lies in my arm while I lie on my side (she the little spoon), then when I snooze my alarm for work in the morning the youngest paws at my face and meeps loudly to wake me up."- GhostofaFlea_

Whose Bed Is It Anyway?

"Yes."

"They're also kind enough to let me squeeze into whatever space they've left for me."

"Although I do get a few dirty looks off them."- Therealkaylor

"I found this tiny kitten screaming her head off under a car."

"Would not come out."

"Got some food and some water in dishes."

"I stood by the tire so she couldn't see my feet."

"She got curious about the food and water and started gobbling it down."

"I thought she would bolt when I squatted down."

"She was too busy eating."

"I grabbed her by the nape of the neck and all four legs went straight out and she tried to scratch me to death."

"I got her in the door and tossed her toward the couch."

"She ricocheted off the couch as if she was a ping pong off a table and I lost sight of her."

"I put out food and water and a sandbox and did not see that kitten for three days."

"On the third day, I came home and she was on my bed pillow."

"I thought she would bolt when I came near, but she didn't."

"I wanted to sleep so I tried to scoot her little butt off my pillow."

"She would not go."

"I put my head down to sleep and that is the way it was from then on."

"She ran the roost."- Logical_Cherry_7588

sleepy kitten GIF Giphy

Sleeping Is A Prerequisite...

"No, he's a cat and he cannot keep still during the night."

"He walks across the headboard, opens the closet doors, jumps into the windows and rustles the blinds, etc."

"If he would sleep he could stay, but alas, he's a ramblin' man."- Spong_Durnflungle

Saying No Just Isn't An Option...

"'Let'."

"Lol."

"It's a cat's world and I'm happy to be on her good side."- milaren

Felines Only!

"The cat does, the dog doesn't and the horse certainly does not either."- Xcrowzz

Angry Tom And Jerry GIF by Boomerang Official Giphy

Is That My Hair On That Pillow?

"My dog is perfect."

"She comes up, cuddles til we start to fall asleep, then gets down to sleep on her bed so she doesn't get too hot."

"Jumps back up in the early morning for wake up cuddles."

"The hair everywhere is the only downside but she is so cozy, what can you do."- HoodieWinchester

It is easy to understand how some people are able to fall asleep more easily knowing their friend and protector is there, in bed, with them.

Though we can't blame others who don't want to run the risk of being scratched or bitten in the middle of the night either...