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People Share Their Coworker From Hell Horror Stories

I am fortunate enough not to have had truly terrible coworkers over the years but I have run into some downright annoying people. Like the coworker who would go for their millionth smoke break when the rest of us were stressed out working at a busy restaurant. And the other coworker who was late all the time, never answered their emails, and who had to practically be stalked around an office I once worked at the time in the event anyone wanted a response.

After Redditor Fruntledumjam asked the online community, "Who was your coworker from hell?" people shared their stories. I don't envy some of these people and their bad luck.


"She's very manipulative..."

Had a colleague who genuinely enjoyed seeing people not do well and enjoyed when people felt uncomfortable. She's very manipulative and is actually quite good at it. She would ask you questions and sympathize with whatever you've got going on, only to turn around and tell everyone what you just confessed to her.

After about 2-3 months with the company, if she hasn't already somehow screwed you over, you've heard enough about her to know that if you don't want the rest of the room to find out, then you don't tell her.

Yeah, I'm talking about you Carolina.

mcderson9

Yeah, Carolina!

Now the whole internet knows about you and is on to you, Carolina!

"Fast forward 8 months..."

I had a 50-year-old colleague who would message women on sugar baby apps and rub one out over his trousers. He sat next to me.

Kept on happening, reported it. He said he had a genital rash, but admitted to 'messaging people on social media'. I got in trouble for my accusations.

Fast forward 8 months, he's sitting opposite me now. He starts rubbing one out in the open office again. I recorded him. Showed my manager, and he was finally fired.

PenMarkedHand

"People mostly kept quiet..."

He told the General Manager that he might be a bit late for a shift due to his second job. When the GM reluctantly said OK, he apparently took this as thinking he had free reign to come and go as he pleased. He'd show up anywhere from 7:30-8:30 for his 7:00 shift. Then when the doors closed he'd insist he had to "head out" and he had an early morning the following morning, leaving everyone else to do the closing work. He also had other issues like being rude to customers and other employees.

People mostly kept quiet until one day a higher-level manager had to sub on the night shift. When he went to leave early and the rest of us with the work, the manager flipped, "If you lay a fucking FINGER on that money before this work is COMPLETELY DONE, don't bother coming back." The guy insisted he "had permission" and left anyway. When our GM returned and he tried to come back, our manager said, "You warned me you were going to be late ONE TIME, and I never once gave you permission to otherwise start late or leave early. Clean out your locker NOW."

Cyberhwk

"She was constantly complaining..."

This woman who was one of those people who always had to one-up you. Like if you cut your thumb off, she was just recently sawed in half. She was constantly complaining and miserable and it was so draining.

loveonanacidtrip

"She almost got me fired..."

She almost got me fired because she wanted to find the weakest-looking guy to be her little errand boy. When I told her politely to go screw herself, she told HR that I had been taking work out of her queue in the system.

It wasn't a very good lie though, because why would I want to do more work than I have to? I even said this to HR in the disciplinary meeting.

LemonZeppelin27

Nice save.

No one wants to do extra work.

No one.

"She constantly tries to discourage women..."

I work with a woman who is threatened by other women, especially if they are younger and have more education than her.

She consistently tries to discourage women from furthering their education, and constantly tries to get women she is threatened by fired. She is a goddam nightmare.

adoptdontshop1

"He lasted maybe a month..."

I used to work part-time at a shipping warehouse and at one point, we ended up hiring this sixteen-year-old kid.

He made a ton of mistakes that we ended up having to fix for him, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt at first just because he was new. But not only did he never learn, but he was incredibly lazy and lacked any self-awareness. There were instances where he was given a task, but then he'd either d*ck around on his phone most of the time, hideout in the bathroom for like forty-five minutes, and then hoped we wouldn't notice, or just whine to my supervisor that he didn't want to do whatever he was assigned. Because of that, he would often take half the day to do like thirty minutes of work and would then complain that he had too much work piled on top of him. It was ridiculous.

He lasted maybe a month before my supervisor let him go.

ralo229

"It created a super toxic culture..."

Had a co-worker who always gossiped about others and would say horrible things about everyone in the office. It created a super toxic culture and caused many people to leave, not because they didn't like the work, they just hated the culture.

JacksonWills

"That's Fred."

I briefly had a co-worker at my current job at a local grocery store. We'll just call him "Fred.".

Fred is one of those people who's always talking on his phone in the break room and that's my personal pet peeve at work. More often than not, he's usually arguing with his girlfriend and he doesn't seem to care that anyone's listening. He'd do other annoying, gross things like chewing with his mouth wide open and wiping his boogers all over the place, but then there was one day when he tried to flush a hot pocket down the toilet.

Needless to say that it didn't play out so well and that temporarily put an end to our closest employee restroom right by the break room. He surprisingly didn't get fired over that, but he did get fired when one of his old high school teachers came in shopping and he threw a whole sack of potatoes at her. She was an elderly woman who got seriously injured and both the ambulance and the cops had to get involved.

I never did hear about what happened to his old teacher, but Fred on the other hand is currently in jail for not only assaulting his teacher, but he apparently also attacked his lawyer for reasons unknown.

That's Fred.

brosafe

Oh, Fred.

What could we do without you?

Probably a lot.

"Some of my workers let me know..."

Had an assistant who plotted to get me fired and take my job. Some of my workers let me know because he tried to get them on board with him. Eventually, due to politics I was demoted but asked to be put on the shift relieving him (we would work 12-hour shifts on weekends). After being relieved by phone a couple of times (against the rules) I intentionally came in 4 hours early and he was nowhere on site. I still got a call from him when he should have relieved me like he was still on site. I let the guards know and they videotaped him and I got him fired.

charlie2135​

Let's just say I'm happy not to have dealt with any of these people.

Life is hard enough. I'll be sure to walk in the opposite direction if one of these people so much as looks at me.

Have some of your own stories to share? Were you that coworker? Feel free to tell us about it in the comments section below!

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Things People Secretly Love But Would Never Admit To In Public

Reddit user sweet_chick283 asked: 'What do you secretly love that you would never admit to in public?;

Collection of VHS tapes
Bruno Guerrero/Unsplash

What makes us all unique is our passions and the things we love, whether it's singing in the shower, reading books, or listening to specific music artists.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where we are judged for our various tastes and interests thanks to social media, and it makes us consciously selective about sharing the things we love on the internet.

Curious to hear about people's personal desires under anonymity, Redditor sweet_chick283 asked:

"What do you secretly love that you would never admit to in public?"

These aren't really chores for the following Redditors.

Good Clean Fun

"Mopping, im a janitor and generally hate my work... but damn mopping is so good."

– MrDDog06

"When you have a great rhythm going it is something special. I get the same feeling while I vacuum, but won’t let my wife know I enjoy it."

– Bogus_34

Act Of Unwrinkling

"Ironing clothes. A dozen of them. Can’t explain how it relaxes me. I told one person and they looked at me like I’m crazy."

– eerie_white_glow

"My mum misses the days when dad would be out on a Friday night, my brother out with friends and me upstairs quietly playing PS1. She would pour herself a Bacardi & Coke and do the ironing while watching her TV shows."

"I'm sure she doesn't really miss it now that we've moved out and they've retired but it was her wind-down after a busy working week so I can see how people can find it relaxing."

– xdq

Our solo actions can spark joy.

Big Brother Is Watching

"pretending to be on the Truman show and whenever im in my house i act all inconspicuous so they dont know that i know that they’re watching me."

– Bec_121

"C’mon man, you’re not supposed to let him know. You signed a contract when signing up for live views. I’m reporting you."

– doeswaspsmakehoney

The Multi-Tasker

"Playing video games naked at home while eating cheese."

– thickening_agent

Releasing The Kraken

"I love the feeling when you've eaten good fibre and let out a solid long train log in the toilet. That feeling is heavenly."

– therapoootic

"Even better when it’s a clean wipe and not a poo crayon."

– TheWarmestHugz

Ultimate Comfort

"My (male 41) weekend routine is coming home from work, make hot chocolate, start a fire, dress in a ugly pink nightgown made for old ladies and watch forensic files."

– crazyloomis

Some people are obsessed with collecting things.

So Kawai

"Sanrio stationery stores. All those different multicolor pens, a thousand kinds of erasers, spiral bound notebooks galore... my kids sadly have absolutely no appreciation for this wonderland..."

– HavingNotAttained

It's A Staple

"Office supplies have a weird, special place in my heart ever since I was a kid. They don't even have to be 'cute' necessarily."

"Japan's legendary stationery stores is unironically a reason I want to go."

– _CozyLavender_

Not Caring Anymore

"The older I get the shorter that list gets. Not because I love less things, but because I don't care about hiding it."

– Bi-Beast

"YES!! I'm 53 now. I'm working my first job in public since 2006. Today is Halloween and we're allowed to dress up so I am sitting here waiting to go to work dressed as a VERY bad Wednesday Addams. My bf said I'd 'look stupid' because no one else will probably dress up and I'm like, 'WHO CARES!' My makeup looks horrible and not like I practiced, but I DO NOT CARE! I'm having fun with it anyhow and I don't care if my coworkers dress up or not. I'm bein' ME! :)"

– deanie1970

Honorable mentions start here.

The Savior

"Picking up worms from the street and sidewalks when it rains and moving them into the dirt so they don’t burn in the sun, every time it rains I do this."

– sky_kitten89

Hero Of The Moment

"Yoooo I scoot SO many snails and worms. I work as a tech/mechanic at an automotive shop, I had a peoject car towed to my house the other day and it was covered in snails. I saw them when the tow guy/coworker was unloading and I was like, 'oh! It comes with free snails!' and began moving them. He laughed then realized and said, '... Oh, you're serious. Uh... Okay.'"

"I don't care who knows it. These little things barely can look out for themselves, why shouldn't we if we can take a moment to help? I don't care what happens next, it probably doesn't matter overall but I can help this moment."

– chris14020

Why should some of the hidden desires mentioned above have to be secret?

Redditors opening up about some of these would make them a hit at parties–no shaming.

As a matter of fact, I'll totally be down for a Forensic Files viewing party where we all make hot chocolate, light the fireplace, and cozy up together in our respective pink ugly nightgowns for old ladies.

historical reenactors
Sigmund on Unsplash

We've probably all heard some variation of the saying "Truth is stranger than fiction."

Real life isn't just strange, it can also be downright ridiculous.

History is riddled with moments of absurdity.

So ridiculous that people have a hard time believing real life is, well, really real.

Keep reading...Show less