Let's be real, we've all broken rules at our place of employment at one point or another. Whether or not we've gotten caught, that's another story. Toeing the line with your job is not the smartest idea, but there are the rare occasions that we do, in fact, get away with it.
Sammy-J23 asked: What was a situation where you thought, "I'm going to be fired for sure" but it turned out completely fine?
A happy ending.
"A colleague who had just been told he was going to be made redundant sent out a f-you email to a wide slew of the customer base and staff then trashed our development AS/400 (yes, I'm an old guy). He did it by logging on remotely using my login details.
Two months of suspension, suspicion, investigation and me crapping myself until it was finally tracked it down to him. They apologized, gave me a pay rise and asked my not to seek recourse with him as it was in the hands of the police.
He and I discussed it about 2 years later. It was a short conversation."
Is this Flowers for Algernon?
"Worked as a Research Assistant while in college. My boss worked with mice brains and gave me a couple practice ones to learn how to slice and mount them onto microscope slides.
Eventually, she let me move onto the real thing. She literally said "this brain is really important, I've been working on experiments with this mouse for 6 months".
In my anxious state I dropped it down the drain with the water running... She was not happy in the slightest but didn't fire me at least."
Karma came to her.
"Kind of the opposite. I had booked a few "vacation days" to help my mom move to Florida. While in Florida, employer called me six days before I was scheduled to be home and said they needed me the next day, no exceptions. That was 1600 miles that they wanted me to drive nonstop for a 4 hour shift in the afternoon the next day.
I made the trip. I worked my shift. Then they fired me after my shift for no apparent reason (found out later that my boss did this on purpose to prove a point to some fresh blue-blood employees). I was livid, but there was nothing I could have done. However, the employer was a (now former) friend of my mom's and all of her retired Bridge-Club friends.
After the news got out that she had made me drive 24 hours at the drop of a hat simply to fire me (which incidentally cost my mom $500 in movers' fees to finish the move that I wasn't able to), she lost enough of her local patrons that she couldn't sustain the business and filed for bankruptcy less than a year later."
Bullet dodged.
"First day at my first job out of UNI: I pushed my code changes straight onto develop. I landed a great gig as a junior software developer at one of the very few studios in my city, and was loving it, but got distracted when pushing some code. Instead of my feature branch, develop suddenly had this untested bit of fresh graduate muck all over it.
I was freaking out thinking they were going to fire me and give me a fine or something, but they were really chill and understanding about it all. Never made another git mistake again though!"
We've all seen a teacher do this.
Giphy"I was a teacher, accidentally said the f word in front of the students since they were provoking me. None of the students bothered reporting it to the principal. I felt like I was pretty lucky."
That's a forgiving boss.
"I had a bad jaw infection because of a tooth. The doctor put me on antibiotics and gave me tylenol with codeine. I took two before I went into work and brought the bottle with me.
Well after an hour the pain was still killing me so I took another two. Repeat every hour for 3 hours. Let's just say I could not stand up straight and was really out of it. Someone noticed me wobbling and got the boss. He came over and asked me if I was alright and what was wrong so I told him. He asked me where the bottle was and then took it and locked it in his desk drawer.
He walked back over to my work station with a chair and asked if I was okay to keep working. I told him I was so he set me in the chair and let me continue. Never said a word to me about it after and gave me the bottle back at the end of the day."
Oops.
"I let a guy walk out with about $50 worth of food because it was my second day and I had no idea how to ring up phone orders.
Another time my drawer came up $10 short. I still don't know what happened but I never heard anything about it after that day."
Nice cover.
Giphy"Worked in the oil-field for a while.
One of the plant operators would sleep all day (for some reason) in his office chair, with his hands/head on the desk.
One day, some of the higher-ups walked into the room. I was pretty sure he was about to get fired.
Without skipping a beat, he said "In Jesus' name, amen" and then stood up to greet everybody. The boss nodded his approval and they all started talking about the plant.
The guy got caught sleeping on the job, and managed to look good doing it."
Speaking to the manager doesn't always work.
"I worked in a call centre for an internet provider and website host. I literally told one of our biggest customers (I believe it was actually the biggest, the dude had a website and 10 links with us) to find another provider, since he was being overbearing and even said it was generally better just to pressure us, the attendants, instead of sending their own technicians to solve internal problems.
Then, obviously, he said he wanted to talk with the manager, and I, very respectfully, denied this, since I was doing my part of the protocol. Then, he threatened to call the commercial sector and talk to their manager himself (a little context here: the commercial was crap. They're pretty much on the customer's side every single freaking time).
I thought it was the end for me... But here comes the plot twist.
The commercial indeed transferred the call to their manager, but he was busy and told them to just transfer to the C.E.O, and oh Lord, they actually did it.
The C.E.O himself told the guy to find another provider."
Yikes.
"I work at a radio station and one time accidentally deleted an entire commercial break and just played news room music on top of it and literally no one noticed."
Bad news, indeed.
Giphy"I deleted a production database once. It was very bad news. The reason I didn't get fired was because the DBA involved should have checked the request with my boss first. I basically specified the wrong server (I was fairly new) and gave them the production instance rather than the dev instance (dev would have required no authorisation).
The good news is it was backed up of course.
I was praised for owning up straight away and procedures were changed so it wouldn't happen again.
Made me feel sick as hell though!"
That reply-all button is nothing but trouble.
"Was doing work for a difficult customer. Customer emailed several people within my company and theirs, about all the stuff that went wrong in their perception, how it was all my fault, etc. They were actually unreasonable, many things were not my fault, and some things were utter lies.
I did a reply-all and took out all the customer addresses from the "to:"-field, and gave my view on the whole situation to my colleagues (without getting nasty, I stayed professional), etc. Immediately got a call from my superior, yelling at me.
Apparently I forgot to check out the "cc:"-field as well, so my email went to some people of their company.
Got called into the boss's office the next day. Was sure that I would be in trouble. Luckily he wasn't upset at all, agreed that this customer were total a**holes, but I do have to be a bit more careful with the reply-all button.
Lesson well learnt. Always check where your email is going to. When typing a new email, enter the recipients after writing the email."
That's stressful.
"I used to work with older adults with mental challenges. We would do chores together and cook together, you know give them a safe home and help them live in it.
One day I was taking my client to the laundry mat in her complex. She was a bit unsteady on her feet so I told her to wait at the stairs as I took the laundry up then I would help her. She didn't listen and fell straight backwards on the first step cracking her head. There was a lot of blood.
Everything was ok and my bosses understood I tried my best to keep her safe. I was terrified though, head wounds bleed a lot."
$3.50 an hour would've been a sweet deal.
Giphy"First week in on a business trip with my boss. At a hotel and she asks me to find out if we can use a private area for a conference call. I ask the front desk and the lady:
"We have a conference call we need to jump on. Is there a quiet space we can use?"
"Sure. We have conference rooms. How long would you need it?"
"Only a few hours."
"Sure. It's three fifty".
"Oh wow. Great. What if we used it the whole day?"
"Same price."
So we used that room for 2 days.
I'm checking out and notice a $900 charge. I, in my naivity, assumed she meant $3.50 per hour. No no. $350 per day. Plus $60 per day for water service. Plus tips and fees. The hotel rooms themselves werent even $300 a night.
I checked out at 4am so I couldn't talk to anyone. I tried calling before my flight to straighten it out but didn't get ahold of anyone. It was the only time I was on a plane that hit a lot of turbulence and thought "well maybe it's not so bad if we go down. Then I don't have to tell my boss."
It was fine in the end. We work for a multi-billion dollar company. But man oh man was I prepared to pay that out of my paycheck to keep my job."
Whoops.
"Accidentally broke an $1800 touch-screen POS terminal at the Home Depot I worked at. Even though I only cracked the glass, they had to replace the entire terminal.
Assistant store manager got super uppity and acted like I murdered his mother. I was young and he struck the fear of god into me. He had me quaking in my figurative boots.
The next day, the store manager called me into his office and I thought I was done for. He ended up laughing about it with me and said, "It's okay, it happens. It was $1800, but it happens." Could've been a LOT worse."
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.