Top Stories

People Reveal The Dumbest Screw Ups That Got A Coworker Fired

Have you ever witnessed someone get fired over a really stupid mistake? I have - and it's motivating for the remaining employees to think before we act. I once saw someone get fired to telling the owner he didn't understand what our jobs were. Not the best move, ace.

Onywan asked, What was the biggest scandal or dumbest screw up of a coworker that got him fired?

Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.


50. Just a small, $75 million mistake. NBD.

Giphy

My first day on the job as a "financial analyst" at a large Blue Cross health insurance company in December 1986. It was my first job at a big company. They give me a paper report of their "group accounts receivables report" that's literally two feet thick and ask me to look at it - like I'm going to see anything. So I go through the report and later that day they ask me if I have any questions.

I say "why are the same groups appearing three times in different sections of the report?" My boss says "They're not." I say "sure they are, let me show you." It turns out there's an error in the receivable estimating logic of the report and it's caused the company to overestimate their accounts receivable by $75 million through November. There was a quick investigation and the corporate controller was fired before the end of the week.

mPeachy

49. When you're trying to get fired.

It's a long story, but basically a dude kept peeing in the ficus tree in a conference room.

At first maintenance thought it was an animal doing something in the walls, and gutted the room.

That didn't fix it, so they put a camera in. EVERYONE knew the camera was there, what we would catch was the talk of the office. Dude gets busted on camera, flat out denies he was pissing in the ficus tree.

HR just says, "well, ok, stop then" (old school company that wouldn't fire people unless you flat out murdered your boss).

Dude gets busted AGAIN like a week later. Still denies it even though he is there on tape, peeing in the tree, HR relocates him to pretty much the opposite side of the building, right next to a bathroom, and someone finally has the common sense to get rid of the ficus tree.

Dude now goes in, and just pees in the corner. They finally fired him after that one.

The obvious answer is the dude was trying to get fired, but he fought so hard against it every time it was on the table that it didn't add up. Occasionally i'll look him up on LinkedIn, and based off his work history, i'm going to assume its a re-occurring theme for him.

Linenoise77

48. Way to blow your own cover.

We hired a new guy, on his first day the help desk guy is setting up his computer and the new guy asks, "could you change my username from tscott to twilliamson?' The help desk guy asked why, and he was told that's his real name. So he changed the username then went to HR to mention it to them.

I guess HR re-ran their background check with his new name and found somethings they didn't like, because like an hour later he's being escorted out of the office.

angrylawyer

47. Moronic negligence.

I was a bank teller while I was getting through college. At our bank we had a "limit" system where to cash a check over a certain amount you had to have a manager override the transaction and approve the check themselves. One day I was at a new branch (we got shuffled around a lot) and someone comes in with a $25000 check. We had enough to cash it for him so I asked the manager to come over and take a look and override it.

She didn't, instead she was too busy texting/Facebooking at her desk so she just "remote overrode it" where she didn't see the check or customer and just typed in her password/okayed the transaction from her own computer. Because she did this I figured she must know the guy with the check, maybe he's a regular, etc. So I gave him his money and he was off. A week later we find out the check was a counterfeit. She was fired on the spot for negligence because they had her on camera on her cell phone and remote overriding instead of coming over to look.

EL_DIABLOW

46. Nothing to see here.

Giphy

Security guard hated one person in the office.

He carved "c*nt" into her desk. She found it, reported it to HR, and they went to pull the security footage...which was "mysteriously deleted" for about 5 minutes in the middle of the day.

SheaRVA

45. Really?

Guy decided to share adult meme emails with the girls in the office. Security marched him out of the building.

SausageMcWonderpants

44. Classy.

Somebody in my warehouse hit somebody with a forklift on purpose last night. So there's that.

Jester_Thomas

43. A trifecta of failure.

There was the guy who let himself back into the office after hours so he could watch adult videos on his computer (this was before people usually had home Internet). He wasn't expecting our bosses to walk in with a bunch of potential investors, finding him knocking one out with his trousers round his ankles.

Then there was the woman who embezzled £27,000 and spent it on Facebook games. She made very little attempt to hide what she did so it was uncovered easily when we were audited.

Or the manager who threw a staple gun at a disabled wheelchair user on his team's head. He screamed at him that he didn't know the meaning of disabled, that he had a disabled brother, and that the team member was just a lazy bastard who was trying to get out of work by making up the pain he was in. Team member subsequently found out that his pain was due to spinal cancer. Manager was fired on the spot after it happened.

scribble23

42. You just know he was in a frat.

Giphy

Friend in college had an internship at some engineering company. Went up to a co-worker who had a banana on her desk, and loudly asked "do you ever use that for anything else?".

Only dude I ever knew to be fired from an internship.

CWoww

41. Too Far

When I worked in an ICU I worked with a married couple. They seemed normal for the most part. The husband especially, but the wife was a little... uh.. high energy.. still not that weird. Or so we thought.

Anyways the woman wrote herself multiple death threats (one was written in blood, don't know if it was hers) and would put them in her locker. Then she'd put on this full show complete with tears and a full freak out every time she'd "receive" one of these letters.

They installed a camera in the locker room and that's when they found out the psycho wife was putting the letters in her own locker.

Obviously she was fired. Her poor husband still had to work with us while this thing was going on. He finally just quit. I felt bad for him with everyone gossiping about his crazy wife.

40. Sofa So Long

One of the salesmen told his girlfriend that he was the VP of sales. He snuck her in after hours and took her to the real VP's office - he had changed the nametag to the one from his cubicle - and they had sex on the sofa in the office.

The next day he BRAGS about it to a co-worker. Got fired and the sofa was hauled away that very day.

Bellamy1715

39. WoW

A guy brought in his gaming laptop on the night shift to play WoW and got nothing done.

One night the boss sneaks in, walks up behind him and calls our 800 number from his cell phone. The employee completely ignored the incoming call and got fired on the spot.

TooDoeNakotae

38. Intern-al Struggle

Giphy

i interned at a computer security company. the kind that is VERY serious about security.

the first thing they told you when you got in, is that your phone should be turned off at all times when you're on the premises. you also had to sign a document agreeing to it before you were able to enter.

a new intern got caught on facebook on her phone on her first day, not even 2 hours after she got the speech and signed the document.

she got chewed up by the boss, got a written warning right away and got told it was her last warning before being fired.

that afternoon she got caught a second time using her phone.

there were tears. the guy from our university responsible for the interns even came to the company and pleaded her case. didn't work.

she had to repeat the last year of her master's degree because of that. dumba**es will be dumba**es.

(oh and another intern was fired while i was there because he took his work files home with him, work that included a full map of the company's network and some other critical stuff)

JeSuisCharlieMartel

37. Pirate's Life

Worked in a pizza shop. I was the cook and the night was winding down. One of the guys was outside smoking. He had a soda cup that our manager thought was his so he took a sip. It was Jack and Coke. That guy was a delivery driver.

EmpathLessTraveled

When I drove, I would routinely swing through the liquor store so I could deliver beer with pizza to regular customers (at a tidy profit) and that's small potatoes compared to the other drivers who sold weed.

Certs-and-Destroy

36. Pushing Luck

Dude used his City Arena Employee ID Card to get in to a NBA Championship Game. Then, rather than chill in the corner and watch the game, he flashed his card to get past security and get courtside. Coach Carlesimo wasn't having it. Called Arena Management and reported this yahoo getting in the way and bugging his players. Dude lost his gig with the city, ultimately got kicked out of the Union. If he'd just snuck in to the game and chilled quietly, he could have watched the game and nobody would have said "Boo" to him. But he had to push his luck till it gave out.

Outlander56

My manager and I snuck into one of the NBA finals when Orlando was in the playoffs. We were Subway employees, so we just walked in the back like we belonged and flashed our hats to the guard. We're able to walk around the locker room and backstage areas. Finally made our way up to nose bleed behind the goal. Only one person asked us to move down. Seats didn't matter, because we pulled it off!

unsupported

35. Food Fight

Giphy

I once worked a couple of summers on a casual contract in a food factory, one of those ones that makes microwave meals. We worked in the cooking area and would have a laugh during the shift but were all mature enough to know when to get on with the work.

Anwyay there was one kid who started with me fresh from school and really wanted to get taken on permanently.

A couple of months in we both get offered full time positions, I turned it down as I was going back to college a few weeks later so no point but this kid took it.

Having done all the paperwork he started his first week on the job, it would also be his last. Most of the meals were made for big brand companies and a very major customer was coming in for a visit during the week.

This meant us basically all having the day off from work so we didn't screw up but instead a sample line was being run just so they could see the process and we wouldn't lose the contract.

Kid doesn't get the importance of this and comes out of cold store with some mash potato to throw at someone, this would have been ok on any other day as long as senior management weren't around but not this day. Instead he hits one of the visitors. Kid was gone within the hour and left in a flood of tears.

Hamsternoir

34. BEER. NOW.

Trying to steal beer from a walk in cooler by emptying packs of beer or 40oz bottles into a trash bag and "throwing them away." She didn't know that there was a camera in the walk-in cooler.

Edit: If I knew my gas station story was this entertaining, I would have told you guys more stories a long time ago. cmpgamer

33. What's AOL?

HR received an email from some random AOL account that was using our President's name as the friendly name. The email said, "Hi, I am unhappy with my bank's customer service. Can you change my direct deposit to the following..."

She changed it. CarterLawler

32. Every little thing....

We're in a field where you have to record every little thing you do in case you get audited by the state. One of my coworkers was copy and pasting the notes for six straight months and skipping out on going to actually see any clients. It was found out when one of the clients called and asked a supervisor why they hadn't been seen in so long when they were supposed to be seen once a week. Mist2393

31. A few nips...

Giphy

Coworker got caught barfing into her trash can. They found hundreds of empty nip-sized bottles of vodka in her desk. Barkingpanther

30. Employee Discount.

A salesman at my old job would sell whatever he was selling TVs, furniture, mattresses to customers then after they left he would go back into the system and give them a discount in the amount that it would take to buy another item (usually a tv) then take the TV home. Inventory matched and no one was on to him until someone came in for a refund and things didn't match up. passengerv

29. Show me the receipts!

My company has its own courier service and during the day's work they are allowed to have a few drinks during the day, grab a meal and hand in the receipts to our accounting and be reimbursed. The drinks of course can't be alcoholic - it's like water or coffee, or soda or some kind of refreshment. These courier handle money among other things and it should've gone without saying that they can't be under the influence of alcohol during their working hours. (plus they drive)

Weeeell, apparently it needed to be said. Because one genius went 'hey, BEER IS A DRINK' and he bought a ton of beer and tried to hand in the receipt for it to our accountant. He also had moments when he tried to hand in grocery receipts too.

"You can have a meal, Bogdan!"

"This is food!"

"IT'S A DOZEN RAW EGGS!" AccioSexLife

28. She Nasty! 

Cursed out the CEO's wife and ended her rant by saying "what are you gonna do, fire me?" papayaregime

27. So Sleepy!

Giphy

We had a contractor who fell asleep in front of the CEO when he was giving a tour of the facilities to the board members. Also, solitaire was on his screen instead of work. It was pretty bad. rheidaus

26. The Flip!

Worked the phones for a furniture retailer a few years ago. Had an agency temp who muted his headset, flipped it up and surfed the Web for a good ten minutes, and afterwards replaced it and told his customer who he'd had on the line the whole time that his computer had crashed.

I watched as the deputy manager casually walked over, waited for the call to end and then escorted him out of the building. Trimem

25. TRACKED!!

We had a guy take one of our GPS-TRACKED trucks to a competitor and put in an application. On the clock. undeadpenguins

That sounds more like a giant FU to his employer! theflyinghillbilly

24. I was Blind. 

A co-worker who I trained in electronics managed to steal almost $8000 worth of IPads. I always felt like garbage for not realizing it but also it wasn't necessarily my job to look out for employee theft and he seemed like such a good guy. The worst part is that they knew he was doing it but let it continue so they could charge him with a higher sentence. The_Snickelfritz

23. The Fruit Ninja! 

I worked at a supermarket, and once two girls went out the back of the produce section with a bunch of fruit and veg and knives and filmed each other doing "fruit ninja," then posted it on Snapchat. One of the girls was Snapchat friends with our manager and two days later they were gone. God, I feel second hand embarrassment just typing this and I barely knew either of them, it was just so stupid. ganoz

22. Too Salty...

Dumbest screwup: I work in a site that manufactures chemicals for blood typing. We had a guy start here in the development lab who, pretty much straight away, it became obvious had lied about his previous experience working in a lab. Someone asked him whether a liquid he had added was glycerol or BSA, so he stuck his finger in it, tasted it and said "tastes salty so I'd say BSA"...

Needless to say he was fired on the spot. fantalemon

21. Inspector Gadget?

Giphy

Building inspector who wasn't bothering to actually do inspections. Got caught when a property owner asked why he had been billed for an inspection at an address that had been razed the previous year. Can't inspect what's not there. nagakagan

20. Mail Felony! 

I used to work at the post office. In December there's always a flood of mail (both packages and letters) so we temp hire like 10 extra people drivers and ~30 extra for mail (small-ish town). This one temp-mailman would load his car with the mail for his route and then dispose of it and spend the day at home smoking weed.

When he was found out he was fired and charged with a felony. Turns out that destroying mail in the amounts he was doing is considered as an act of terrorism (since there's a lot of official documents that go through the mail system), He's still a deadbeat and he's also not allowed to leave the country because he's on an international list of known terrorists. gardyna

19. Bunch of Winners....

I have three, all at the same company. One was an alcoholic and he got caught drinking hand sanitizer. The other one was caught f***ing our intern in the supplies room.

Take a pick! Jauxerous

18. The Huffer.

Not me but my friend works at a tech store and his coworker got fired because on day 3 of his job, he was found in the back huffing really expensive compressed air that the company needed a special license to have. WaviestMetal

17. Being Fueled.

Giphy

Heard about a guy who got a job at a float plane company. He was fueling a plane and someone called coffee break time so he left.

He was fired day 1 for spilling many liters of fuel into the water because he didn't turn off the pump when he went for coffee break. canehdian78

16. Invisible People.

I worked for a short time as an insurance salesman. When I joined my office, there was this guy who was just killing it in policy sales. My first quarter there he was top salesman in the nation and we had a big office dinner to celebrate. A few weeks later, he quits showing up at the office, we wonder what is going on. Turns out he was selling policies to people who either didn't exist or friends and family members then paying for the policies himself.

Then after a few months he would let the policies lapse. Of course, after his big quarter he couldn't keep up and company auditors got suspicious. Huge scandal since the president of the company had shouted out congratulations to him in a company presentation. Got him fired, as well as our office and regional managers demoted as well. Everybody working in the office at the time found different work soon after (myself included)... MaestroM45

15. Porn Crash. 

One of my colleagues watched porn in his office laptop at home and unknowingly downloaded virus and when he connect to our VPN. It spread everywhere causing the production to crash and 3 hours of downtime. The it team found the source and he was fired.

Treat your office laptop well folks. it's ok to check Amazon or match score but never any suspicious websites. Indianfattie

14. Family Affair. 

Two coworkers. Both married. Both have kids. They hooked up.

Everyone knew or thought they knew. They agreed to both leave their SO's and hook up for real. He told his wife and kids and filed for divorce.


She did the same but her SO wanted to give it another shot. She agreed. Next day at work was a crapstorm. Guy loses his mind and (obv) gets into an argument. (never physical).

She is sent to a different department. He was let go. (fired). Lanceth115

13. Not that phone fool!

Giphy

Had a friend that did cable. He thought the customer was hitting on him at a job because "she was dropping serious hints and jokes." After he left, he texted her on his COMPANY PHONE saying something like "I'm gonna screw the crap out of you." Within, like, 15 min he was back at the office being terminated. whiteout14

12. Fire it Up! 

Screw up... breakfast cook was grilling two 10oz beef tenders to take home. When confronted about them by the owner of the establishment, she proceeded to say a guest called down and requested them (they're only on our dinner menu). So he checks phone records and finds nothing.

Fires her right there... anyways, the stupid part here she should have just wrapped them up in a takeout box and grilled them at home and she would still have her job. Ironically, she was grilling them to take home to her boyfriend who had just gotten his first job in 3 years or something. mattbridel

11. Scamming reward points....

I worked for the largest telecommunications company in the country (Australia), who has a point system as a staff benefit scheme, so depending on much of your KPIs you achieve depends how many points you get.

Points can be used to pay your phone/internet bill, but only so many points get allocated per sector. The member of middle management who was in charge of rewarding the points and wasn't eligible to participate in the scheme so instead over X amount of months she was adding the points as dollars on her bill, to which she was stocking up with free staff plans iPhones, and then re selling them and waiving the disconnect fees on her account. She got busted after clearing about $10,000 on her account and trying to refund it back to her bank account.

Everyone was glad to see her go after finding out she was scamming the teams out of their rewards points. xTacoMumx

10. The Good Run. 

Boss decided to have an affair with the accountant in order to get approvals for needless lunch/dinner meeting expenses as well as international travels that provided no benefit to the company or her position.

This went on for over five years... parent company finally caught on and fired both of them. Wonder if it was worth it? KismetHeartfilia

9. But I Love Wendy's!

Giphy

I used to work in a call center for a retail website. Because we were taking people's orders over the phone and had credit card numbers and stuff, it was a highly secure building. You had to have a badge to enter and be screened by security before you could come in, but visitors were allowed to come into the cafeteria to eat with employees. Some lady apparently didn't have a babysitter and brought her 9 year old daughter in to the cafe and then somehow got her back into the phone area without security noticing.

She put her at a cubicle and put a headset on her to make her blend in.

What actually got her caught was that she decided to eat a full Wendy's meal at her desk (which we weren't allowed to do) which lead a supervisor over to reprimand her. When he came over, he saw the kid sitting there. She was fired immediately. Reddit

8. You Can't Hide! 

I worked in a grocery store at the time. Every inch of the place (with the exception of the bathrooms) was covered by the cameras. There was no such thing as the cameras having a blind spot. I had a security guard I liked warn me to be careful of what I did due to the lack of blind spots and many of the cameras being hidden from view. Despite the fact that there was literally no point during the day when you were off camera there were 6 people that were stealing thousands from the cash drawers and stealing credit card information each week.

All 6 were arrested and walked out of the store in cuffs. Since I liked all 6 and was considered a friend to all 6 I had my cash drawer randomly audited periodically for a few months after that. Every time someone new started to steal, even if I was known to dislike that person, the auditing began again. I eventually quit without notice. gothiclg

7. The Purchase. 

Worked in a warehouse were all the product was stored and shipped. Dude was somehow purchasing product through the company's account, shipping it to his address, storing in his basement, then selling it on ebay. Word is his basement was full to the ceiling with product. He got caught, got fired, and got in trouble with the police. boyjohnnyjohnnyboy

6. Flying Pads. 

I work for a regional airline (pilot).

Parent company finally got us IPads to use as Electronic Flight bags, and distributed them to all the pilots. One guy thought it'd be wise to sell the company iPad and try to activate is Samsung phone as the EFB. Didn't work. Goes to company who ask "where is your iPad?" And turns out he sold it on eBay. Genius got canned for being an idiot, but last I knew the pilot union was working with him to get his job back.

We just got rid of 20lbs of paper that you had to lug everywhere and replaced it with an iPad, and you go and try that shit? C'mon man. bignose703

5. The Airdropper.

I knew a guy who got caught airdropping nudes of another employee into his phone. The sad thing is he's married with three kids and I always looked up to him as a role model until that happened. BandaidPlacementTech

4. Private Parts. 

The CEO had his own private "Executive Lavatory" that was off-limits to everyone else (the door even said "Private" on it).

As a prank, one new hire challenged the rule when he mistakenly thought the CEO was away and the coast was clear. He got caught red-handed when the boss walked in, and summarily fired as a result.

(Apparently, the guy didn't apologize, but told the CEO in a confrontational manner that all lavatories should be available without restrictions.) Back2Bach

3. Last Gear. 

I worked at a large quick lube chain for a while after high school. We had just had a meeting about how if the customer was on site, or if the car was a manual transmission and you didn't know how to drive one, to have the customer move their own car.

This guy finished up on a car. He jumped in to pull it out of the bay. It was a manual transmission. He didn't know how to work one. The customer had left it in gear instead of neutral with the parking brake on.

The guy fires it up, the clutch pops and the car goes flying through the garage bay door. The guy just left. Didn't change clothes or anything. Just left and we never saw him again.

The customer was in the waiting room. The whole thing was on tape. We watched that tape over and over. The customers reaction was priceless. Theo_kerabatsus

2. In & Out.

Giphy

I worked retail in college. One day an employee walked into the backroom, grabbed a laptop from the stock shelves, and walked out. It's baffling because he KNEW there were security cameras. He was fired, and I never saw him again. I always wanted to know what prompted that blatant theft. mryingster

1. All the Facts. 

I'll give you two, from a big computer company I used to work for, about 30 years ago.

A security guard at work was a pot dealer. One evening, there were police hiding everywhere, waiting for the security guard to sell weed to someone. My buddy walked in bought weed, and the dealer was arrested. My friend was told he would not be charged, just fired, and he was escorted to the door. He was quite bitter about it.

Another employee was stealing CPU boards from computers and selling them. This worked until he stole a board from a prototype computer. The buyer didn't know what the board was, so the buyer contacted the computer company to ask. They caught the guy. aRoseBy

REDDIT




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...