Working in entertainment production is one of those things that sounds awesome - and make no mistake, it is.
It's just that it's also one of those jobs that means when your partner calls you at 1 in the morning to ask where you are, and you tell them you're out measuring lemons for Beyoncé... it's not a euphemism and it's not that weird.
Queen Bey wants a bowl of 15 evenly sized lemons for her dressing room, Queen Bey gets a bowl of 15 evenly sized lemons for her dressing room.
And because catering runners care about doing their jobs well and usually have a multi-tool on them anyway, Beyoncé is getting the sexiest, most uniformly sized, lemons we can find.
Reddit user Tacoma__Crow asked:
"What was the oddest job you’ve had and why?"
Lemons for the Queen doesn't even begin to scratch the surface, honestly.
Weight Ballast
"In small rural town, I (15M) close to 200lbs got a job as a farm Hand expecting to work planting and harvesting."
"I was quite a large athletic lad at the time."
"And I show up for my first day of work and the planting equipment on the back of the tractor was missing some parts."
"So my boss told me to climb atop the planting equipment to make sure it would plant deep enough"
"FML I got hired to be a heavy object, weight, ballast."
"I will never forget my first job as weight"- Logical-Tomato-215
A Google-izer Or Is It Googlee ?
"Googling stuff for people."
"I used to work for kgbkgb, which was this text messaging service where you could text a number, ask any question, and get an answer for $.99."
"This was before smartphones became super huge, so it was a bit of a helpful gimmick back then."
"However, for everyone that we got asking normal questions like movie times, or what restaurants were open near them, or stuff like that, we got A LOT more people asking very stupid things that I would have to Google."
"I have this album of a bunch of weird questions that people sent to us."
"It was an interesting job that helped cover some things when I was in college, but it also had me using Google for a lot of weird sh*t."- -eDgAR-
evan peters google GIF by The Orchard FilmsGiphyOne Day
"I was employed by JC Penney for literally one day."
"I didn't quit, and I wasn't fired."
"That was the term of my employment."
"This was back in 1998 and I was entering my senior year of high school."
"They had a huge sale in the store and they hired dozens of people to cover every department because they were anticipating huge crowds."
"This was not a Black Friday sale, but they anticipated correctly, nonetheless."
"One of the shift supervisors gave me some busy work to start the day, folding shirts or whatever."
"After lunch I was basically asked to walk around from time to time and pick up any knocked over merchandise."
"The last few hours got boring, so one of the other supervisors that I had been chatting with throughout the day invited me to hang out during his break."
"His words were, 'what are they gonna do, fire you?' "
"Good times." - ThePreachingDrummer
Ring
"I was the girl that crawled out of a fake well at a Halloween hay ride once ."
"That was actually pretty fun!"
"Why: I was 14 and after four weeks working Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays all evening I got $150!."
"Under the table of course."- CaseyBoogies
The Ring Movie GIF by Arrow VideoGiphyCorpse Uber
"Transporting deceased people who our county declared John/Jill Does to the proper county or city coroner once they were identified."
"Some obscure state law back in the 80's made it illegal to transport that particular type of dead person while the sun was up."
"Screwed up job, but it paid $15 an hour back in 1985."
"Guess it paid so much because most people were unwilling to do it."
"That was a hell of a lot for a college student to turn down."
"Interesting fact."
"When you hit a bump in the road, with an unprepared corpse, their bodies will gurgle, and sometimes air comes out of their lungs and hits their vocal cords."- Leftstrat
3D Pictures
"When i was a teenager I sold those magic eye pictures at a mall kiosk."
"Y'know the ones you have to stare at for a while till your eyes make out a 3d picture?"
"All day I had to try and help frustrated people try and see the f*cking sail boat."- Reddit
Fancy Title
"My first job was with a temp agency; worked in an accounting office going through boxes of records and making sure there were no staples or fasteners in anything."
"Then the boxes would go to another dept to be scanned onto microfiche."
"I had some fancy title, like 'Accounting Clerk' and was making over $11 an hr., back when min wage was still like $5 and change, so I thought I was living large'."
"A funny part of the story is that I started on a Friday, and came to work in khakis and a polo-Monday I came dressed the same way and got spoke to about dressing professionally because Friday was casual Friday and not normal dress code."
"Lol felt dumb having to wear business attire and a tie when I was in the back in a cubicle pulling staples out of documents."- HalfBeatingHeart
Cutthroat Cookies
"Worked for the girl scouts and ran the cookie sale for a regional area that included a major American city."
"Craziest and most stressful job I ever had."
"It seems all cute and charming until you have 30 furious cookie moms screaming at you in your office at 6:30 AM on a Saturday because the truck carrying 5 pallets of thin mints is stuck in a blizzard."
"I had to break up fist fights between parents because someone 'stole' someone's spot outside of a grocery store. It's cutthroat."
"Anyway that job was decades ago and I still have stress nightmares about it!"- Neither-Copy785
episode 19 GIFGiphyKitty Sitting
"Not a job exactly but one awesome day."
"I used to work in the concrete business."
"We once had a job pouring a slab for residential parking and a neighbor nearby had a kitten just a couple months old."
"It would not stay out of the concrete as you can imagine it thought us picking it up and washing its paws was a game."
"Eventually the boss told me to grab the kitten and go hold it hostage in the truck."
"So I spent the next six hours sitting in the truck with a super friendly kitten sleeping on my chest."
"I got paid to babysit a kitten."- Sectaguy
GiphyKept That Swamp clean
"Swamp Janitor."
"Official title was 'invasive species removal technician' but really I was a swamp janitor. "
"There was this invasive aquatic plant that would completely take over swamps and choke out all the native life, so my job was to go in with a rake and pitchfork and literally just clean up the swamp of this devil plant."
"Some parts were cool, watching eagles fish, seeing turtles come up for air and big fish swimming in the water but a lot of it sucked."
"The plant had sharp seeds that would pierce your skin and your waders."
"You'd get leeches, tics and mosquitos on you all day."
"Physically exhausting with lots of sun."
"You'd have to haul the plant matter to giant compost heaps that were full of snakes, for some reason the snakes liked it."
"It was a unique but grueling job."- UniverseBear
bathroom stall GIFGiphySee the Pyramids Along The Way..."
"Multi-Level Marketing."
"Kid told me about a really cool energy drink company back in high school."
"I wanted money."- 992882
Smooth Operator
"A bank was digitizing their records."
"I got paid to remove staples and creases from paper so all their old records could be scanned without issues."
"10 hours a day, just removing staples and creases."- Both-Grocery-7008
Not The Job, But The Clientele
"I'm a host at a local restaurant and I have met both the most mundane and weirdest people ever."
"My favorite story is that a few months ago I had 3 different people, all men in their 40's to 50's, come in one after another say almost the same thing."
'They all said 'can I get a table for [large number here]'."
'I have to say, they were all in different parties, completely strangers that walked in 5 minutes apart with the same line."- f---thezodiac
Lisa Simpson Restaurant GIF by The SimpsonsGiphyHappy, Despite People Looking Down At You
"Shoeshiner."
"15 year old female and I needed cash."
"Would shine shoes at car washes and country bars, usually made $100-300 a day."
"Oddly fun and met a ton of people, got other odd jobs from businessmen like hostess check in at events and functions."- Starlettohara23
Left Them Feeling Blue
"Got a job through a temp agency working at a scrap metal plant."
"Because I wasn't 18 yet, I couldn't operate most of the heavy machinery or the fork trucks."
"So they put me in a side room and had me siev cobalt."
"So for a while, I would run the positive motion conveyor, which was just a big table hooked to a rotary motor so it made all the stuff on it 'hop' from one side to the other."
"At one end, they hung a 1-ton bag of cobalt over the conveyor."
"At my end, I had a metal grating over a bunch of barrels."
"As the conveyor advanced, the dust fell through into the first barrels."
"My job was to pick the big chunks of cobalt off of the grating and toss them into another set of barrels."
"It was hot and humid, and cobalt dust is blue, so every day I came home looking like a damn smurf."- Hephaestus0308
GiphyPaid To Pillage?
"I (14NB) had a gig exploring abandoned places to take stuff out of there."
"It was interesting."
'I didn't record but I explore abandoned places."
"For my job, it was houses."
"For my hobby, I did schools, funeral homes, summer camps, hospitals, day cares, etc."- Lonely_Person_1670
Better not have snuck a sip!
"Serving beer when i was 10 years old with my 9 year old friend in the most alcoholic country in the world."- Old-Command-7706
A Sign Of Bad Things To Come.
"So not really a job but when I worked for this restaurant in my home town I got called in on one of my days off."
"I only worked like 3 or 4 days a week, and I was 16 and thought I could use more money."
"So I go in to see about 7 people with my same position there, I was a dishboy, and I was so confused I ask the manager what they needed because they didn't disclose it over the phone."
"They asked me to scrub all the trash cans as if someone else couldn't have done it and it was a very slow day."
They weren't happy about it and just told me I couldn't go home until I did it."
"Now I hadn't even clocked in yet and I was unaware that I could've just left but I was scared of losing my job so I did it and I think I lasted there for another 2 or 3 months before I was like nope I'm done."- nuchiha44
Trash Can GIFGiphyWeird Can Often Be Fun
"Working in an old brick quarry that was now a landfill."
"Collecting and sorting scrap metal for recycling."
"Also operating heavy equipment, a john deere drot and a cat d7 bulldozer."
"Best job of my whole life, so much fun."
"Super dangerous but had a blast 10/10 would do again."- dowend
Okay so we've measured lemons for royalty, been a taxi for dead folks, and been an overpaid staple remover with a fancy title.
You're up, readers.
Got anything that competes with that?
Cringey coworkers, we've all been there. The worst I ever encountered was a male associate at a higher end jewelry store. He was good, his sales spoke for themselves, he looked like a model, which perfectly showcased the touches of diamonds he wore. Really, he didn't need to suck up to be noticed as a good employee...but he did anyways and it came back to bite him.
He would gossip to bring other salespeople down and make them look bad. After sharing an especially personal and mean-spirited comment about another coworker I looked at him in disdain and said "I would hate to hear what you have to say about me when I am not here." He sputtered a bit trying to say something along the lines of how I was different etc.
The environment wasn't for me and I left although months later it turns out he was fired after trying to spread false and damaging gossip to a regional manager about the boss. He could have just been nice to people and gotten promoted his own merits instead of tearing people down.
It's such commonplace for these situations to occur one Redditor by the name of ActualWater1994 wanted to her more cringe-inducing stories.
They asked:
"What's the cringiest/ worst examples of butt-kissing you've seen at work?"
Reddit did not disappoint.
That came back to bite her!
“Part of my job is delivering children's books to some agencies to hand out. One month our executive director didn't like the book that came in. There were a couple lines she felt were inappropriate."
“She asked me not to deliver them and she would order new books. A coworker of mine noticed I didn't deliver them and took it upon herself to do it. The executive director doesn't care for her and she was trying to get on her good side."
“She thought she could make herself look good by making me look bad. I thought she went to lunch, had no idea she was out there trying to do my job. She came back and proudly tells others that she did my job and maybe now the director will be pleased."
"She came to my desk and angrily says, in earshot of the director, 'I just went and delivered the books that you never delivered. I shouldn't have to do your job on top of everything I'm already doing for this agency'. I just looked at her and said 'Well that was dumb'."
"She went to the director next and told her that she delivered the books since she seen it hadn't been done and asked if there were any other tasks she could do for her. The director was pissed!!! She was planning on returning those books so she could order different ones."
"They weren't labeled with our logo yet either, which she would have seen if she checked. It's required that we put our logo on them. The director tore into her for overstepping her boundaries and trying to make me look bad. She tried so hard to kiss her butt and it backfired big time. Oh and I was praised in front of her for listening."
Blatant butt-kissery...
“My boss sent me out to get her boss a birthday card and gift, which was all fine and good as it meant an escape from her for an hour or so. The card was nothing out of the ordinary, but the cake was very fancy and not your typical office birthday cake. I then had to swing by Tiffany's to pick up the bracelet that was the actual gift, just from her to her boss. Expensive gifts to colleagues let alone managers, were not the done thing there (and it wasn't even like it was a bank or anything high end) so it seemed horribly out-of-place and blatantly butt-kissing.”
No one likes a braggart.
“Had a coworker in my marketing team who was a lead designer. He was often pretty dismissive of junior level employees, or would try and one-up everyone's stories (you tell him you stayed at a hotel at the beach over the weekend, he tells you he stayed in a penthouse at the same beach for a whole week).”
“He also always tried to be in proximity of senior staff members and would brag loudly if they were within an earshot, hoping they would hear how awesome his life is, I would assume. One day, a VP from our company had come up to talk to somebody in a pod close to ours.”
“The pretentious designer loudly asked me about my weekend, I gave him an answer. He responded loudly, one upping my answer, noticed the VP wasn't paying attention to him at all, quickly got up, hovered behind the VP while he was talking to the other employee.”
“Eventually the VP cracked a joke and the designer let out the loudest, fakest laugh I've ever heard, startling the VP, who up until then was not aware that this guy was standing behind him. VP just got an awkward close lipped smile, quickly nodded his head, and walked away. Designer came back to our pod, sat down, and started working as if he was never mid conversation with me."
Awkward Smile GIFGiphy"I just looked at him and kept walking.”
“I had this coworker at target that would go on the biggest power trip for no reason whenever he was on guest services. Guest services is the people usually at the front of the store where you do returns and stuff like that for anyone that doesn't know. We all would alternate doing it, and it was usually with a manager — there's literally nothing special about it besides that it was slightly more tolerable than being on a register."
“Whenever said coworker would be on guest services he would think he was manager and was the most unbearable person for the hour he would be doing it.
One shift I was walking to the bathroom, which you had to walk past guest services to get to, and he went out of his way to loudly ask me where I was going in that managerial tone I'm sure you're all familiar with as if he was a manager."
"I just looked at him and kept walking.He would do similar things like that to everyone and it was just the cringiest thing I've ever seen. I've never seen someone become such a kiss-*ss because they did a slightly different role from everyone else for an hour — and everyone did guest services like we literally just alternated throughout the shift."
No one wanted to work with him...
“Happened recently at work. One particular co-worker is almost insufferable with his behavior. Constant trumpet blowing with his lackluster work, endless comments about how much money he has, degrading other team members to get some kind of moral high ground and get in good graces with management."
“Whats more cringe is his posts and interactions on the team member WhatsApp group, really fake or cheesy crap that definitely is not his character at all. Basically everything that he does involves trying to sh*t on someone to look better at his job."
“Anyway, he thought he was top sh*t after one of the managers recently left and applied to take the advertised Duty Manager role. He was shut down almost immediately and apparently one of the night managers straight up told him that they did not want him to work nights due to nobody wanting to work with him."
Former Flat Earthers Explain What Finally Made Them Come Around | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
That’s the way the cookie crumbles...
“Other receptionist at my work is a huge *ss kisser. Calls herself head receptionist when she's really just a part-timer that doesn't do her job right. Will constantly have 'meetings' with the bosses and take credit for things other people do. Most recent example is when a client brought us donuts and left them at the front desk."
“I was in a room but heard the convo between the client and her about the donuts being a gift. Then heard her walk to the back and announce to our boss that she (receptionist) ordered them donuts because they work so hard"
They added the sweet ending to their coworker's donut deception in another comment.
"I walked into the breakroom when the boss was in there, pretended to see the donuts and went 'Oh! Mr C did stop by with those donuts after all!' My boss must've suspected something cause she got a look on her face but smiled at me and told me to add him to the thank you card list."
"I guess it got back to that receptionist that I 'tattled' on her because the next time she was in she critiqued me on a bunch of things. Most annoying trait about her though for me is when she talks to me, she hardly ever makes eye contact and will just stare at my arms (which have scars). Only me, no one else."
“Just be yourself.”
“My supervisor is always trying so hard to be best friends with management where I work, there are many examples to choose from but this one makes me cringe the hardest due to the sheer expense: my manager is a big lover of fresh coffee. So yeah, my supervisor spent a small fortune on a fancy coffee machine for herself, even though I remember having a conversation with her at one time about how she can't stand the taste of coffee.”
“She comes to work everyday with the branded travel mug that came with the coffee machine, but, instead of coffee inside it's extremely milky tea. I asked her about it and she uses the machine for hot water. Just be yourself, people would like you more god dang it all!“
Office baby shower...
“I work with a woman who threw a baby shower for a manager's (not her manager though) wife, thrown in our office. Meanwhile her equally pregnant ‘friend’ in the office was invited to the party but received no shower of her own or even an acknowledgement from the suck up.”
“Funny thing is everyone hates the manager so nobody really stayed longer than they had to. Also she tries to call us out for not getting gifts for for the manager on national boss's day as if him being paid more to f**k things up for us isn't enough already.”
Magic the Gatheing cards...
“One of my co-workers knew the branch manager was obsessed with magic the gathering, so he pretended to have 'connections' with someone at Wizards where he got 'free cards'. Turns out this guy was actually just buying the cards."
“One of my other co-workers saw him buying a booster box at a Walmart nearby. He was literally bribing the boss for favors with magic cards that he paid full price for. The sad thing? It worked."
“Everyone knew this dude got preferential treatment. When he f**ked things up, manager dude would always cover for him. He got promoted to a position he definitely didn't deserve over someone else who was way more qualified."
“We even tried letting bossman know that he was just buying the cards at the walmart nearby, but he didn't believe us. So yeah, a few thousand in magic cards got the buttkisser raises worth 5x that."
d&d love GIFGiphyDating the boss's daughter, *mega-cringe*.
“The worst was a guy I worked with at my last job doing HVAC...because the boss was going to get a full report on whatever crew he worked with that day. If you said something negative about the boss, he was going to tell. If you were a minute or two late coming back from lunch, he had a pic on his phone with the time stamp."
"If you didn't hang something perfectly level or straight, he'd toss a level on it, snap a pic, send it to the boss. He also came in every Sunday and washed all the trucks (with no pay) to make sure we kept a good image. Found out eventually it had nothing to do with the job...he was just dating the boss's daughter and he was trying to 'prove' himself."
These are some serious cringe-inducing work moments. Sadly enough, most of the attempts would have gone over better if the person had just been themselves and worked together the first place. Others though, well, flattery can get you everywhere...
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We don't have to look very far to spot hypocricy.
It seems that everywhere we go, there is a bizarre hierarchy of rules and expectations.
You're in the top layer of power or wealth?
You get certain rules.
Occupying more of a middle zone?
Your rules are a little different, a little more restrictive.
It can be so infuriating when double standards are as obvious as they are problematic.
And the worst part?
Usually, the person who benefits from the hypocrisy is so powerful and emboldened that they don't even have the decency to be subtle about it.
Redditor Meet_Me_In_Heaven was curious what tripped people's triggers, so they asked:
"What double standard disgusts you?"
Time Zones
"If you owe a company money, you will be charged interest/late fees/service interruption almost immediately after the due date."
"If a company owes you money, you might see it in 4-6 weeks/2-3 billing cycles."
-- rizzo1717
Implied Gender
"Father here. On multiple occasions of taking my either of my children to the 'parents' room to change their nappies whilst out and about,"
"I often receive dirty looks from the mothers and have even been asked to leave once."
"It's a parents room, not mothers. I just want to care for my children the same as you."
-- OnlyGetsGold
Power and Greed
"Right now in Canada, we're in strict lockdown but a dozen of our politicians have been found vacationing around the globe."
"In other words, we can't bury grandma at a funeral, but these politicians can go work their tan."
"Thankfully, many of them have resigned in the last 2 weeks."
-- uMuffin
Exploited Labor
"If you always arrive to work late you're in big trouble. If work never finishes on time, 'shrug, no big deal'."
-- Iammeimei
"I offered to work extra hours in a salaried position to get the company over a hurdle if they'd do the honorable thing and comp me hour for hour for my trouble."
"Outright refused, because 'you're salaried,' even though my giving up a few weekends would make a huge difference for their bottom line."
"So when they tried the extra hours mandatory free overtime thing later i told them to pi** up a rope."
-- JeffIpsaLoquitor
"Unlimited"
"'No limit on sick days' policy followed by an annual evaluation where I was told I took the most sick days."
"Either f***ing dock my pay, take away my vacation days, or change your policy. Don't make employees feel like a**holes because of guidelines you laid out for them."
-- syringistic
An Array of Expectations, All Impossible to Understand
"As a 17 year old I am expected to act like an adult but treated like child"
-- LargePPman
"The same kind of occurs when you're in college. You're basically treated like a kid who can get arrested and drink, since you're still under your parents' wing."
-- CapriciousSalmon
"And yet men only one year older than you lead other men into battle. How we treat people in this age range is really bizarre"
-- Kennaham
Man vs. the Institution
"The employee should give two weeks notice, anything else is unprofessional. But the employer will actively obscure their intentions until the very last minute."
-- Jetpack-Katt
"My last boss had a nasty habit of, upon finding out that an employee was moving to a company we did work for/bought equipment from, he would call said company and tell them 'if you hire x person, we'll never work with you again.'"
"Then he had the audacity to tell me that it was unprofessional of me to tell him I was quitting day of." -- sjtaylor52
Railing Against theß Stereotype
"Baking is for women. I love watching baking shows and seeing the creativity. I was recently inspired to make a father-daughter pact to bake something with my five-year-old daughter at least once a week."
"Next weekend, I am teaching her to make a checkerboard pattern cake (teaching myself, too). Last weekend, we made homemade bread, and she has been asking for a slice of that bread with every meal until now it is almost gone."
-- Jim2718
No Better Societal Mirror Than Hollywood
"Those romantic comedies with the cliché beautiful and smart woman married to the dumbest guy who is lucky to have her. Swap the roles and see people flip out." -- Devistator
"When movies need an ugly guy, they hire an ugly actor. When they need an ugly girl, they hire a smoking hot actress and put glasses on her" -- imaLilT-pot
A Day is a Day
"If I wake up at 4pm and go to bed at 9am, I'm lazy, do nothing all day, etc."
"Wake up at 4am, bed at 9. You're seen as a responsible member of society."
"Doesn't matter if you work the EXACT same number of hours, make the same money, do the exact amount of housework."
-- Elistariel
What double standards infuriate you?
Share them in the comments.
People Share Their Best 'Employees Don't Leave Bad Jobs, They Leave Bad Bosses' Stories
You could be working in your dream job, but depending on the situation, your workplace could be a complete nightmare.
The relationships you have with your coworkers can influence your work environment in different ways.
For instance, if you have respectful colleagues, it is wonderful.
To top if off, if the people you work with are charismatic and have a sense of humor, that alone can be a driving force of what makes you look forward to punching in every day.
But if you have a superior who is a tyrant and constantly undermines your skills and competence when you know you work hard for the job you love, it can be enough to sacrifice your next paycheck and peace out.
Redditor TolerableMediocrity invoked a cliché about what makes people quit and asked:
"[Serious] They say 'people don't leave bad jobs, they leave bad bosses.' What made you leave?"
Working From Home
"My manager hasn't been great pre-[the virus], but as soon as our company was forced to shift to mostly WFH, she lost it. She demanded unpaid overtime and is of the mindset that WFH is always going to be less productive than working in office, because she says she gets 1/4 of her own work done when WFH. She also volunteered our department as the pilot project to go back into the office when cases were at an all time high, but she herself was not coming in. In addition, she has demanded higher standards and tighter deadlines amidst the pandemic, and does not support us even when our clients are in the wrong. We have had a lot of our team members leave for better jobs recently and everyone is looking to do the same."
Not A Team
"The 'not supporting us even when our clients are in the wrong' part is really frustrating, and definitely the worst part of bad management in my experience. Even if the nature of a job sucks, it is seriously a huge relief to have a boss that will attempt to protect your team from nonsense coming from other departments or clients/company stakeholders. If that isn't done, you're not actually a team, you're just a group of people being whipped and harassed by the same person."
Not Lovin' It
"Probably the worst boss I ever had was at a McDonald's. We had a younger manager for the first 10 or so months I was there, then they decided to bring in a second manager from another store. For the first week or so he was fine, until one day one of the 16 year old girls that usually works drive thru was put on the grill for no reason. She got grease on her shirt and the manager said she looked like a pig and to clean it or go home. She left crying."
"The next day another underage kid asked to just get a drink of water after a 3 hour non stop rush...the kid looked like he was about to pass out. The manager told him no, so he said he'd drink from the sink in the back. He told him if he did that he would send him home. I lost my sh*t when I heard that. Basically told him to f'k off and left, never went back."
"I heard that a month later he was fired."
– oryx506
Abusive Mom Boss
"As a nanny it's weird when your boss is a mom with no actual experience in being a boss."
"The worst boss I worked for wasn't that bad when I first started working for her. Over the course of the year she kept adding more things for me to do. I wasn't just taking care of the baby. I became their maid too with no pay increase. Eventually it got even worse and I was basically her personal assistant."
"She got a taste of power and completely abused it. As a young 19 year old it was hard for me to see how bad the situation was. It wasn't an overnight thing."
"I was eventually 'fired.' The day after I was fired she called me asking where I was."
"By that time the job was so bad. I did everything in that house. From taking care of the baby to hand washing the mom's delicates. She got me a 'uniform' and would reprimand me if it wasn't kept well. Same with hair and make up requirements."
"She was a couple weeks pregnant with baby #2 and was suggest I become a wet nurse for them."
"After I was fired I never went back. This lady flipped out and showed up at my house."
When It Stems From The Top
"My boss was fine, the company was terrible. When I realized I didnt have a pension and could get one at a competitor I booted."
Thanks For Nuthin'
"I had been running the restaurant for weekend nights for 3 years. These were not easy shifts ... 5pm - 3am. Still, I was a night owl and it was my pleasure."
"I took some days off and went to a hot spring with my now wife. Upon driving home I noticed my leg hurt and within 2r hours was in the hospital for an infection that would take 3 antibiotics at once to deal with."
"I called in sick 3 days in advance. My AGM told me it was cool, heal up, and that they would cover my shift. They did not."
"For my first infraction I was put on final warning and 1 step from being fired. After all the years of work. I put in 3 weeks notice the next day."
"F'k you Illegal Petes."
No Compassion
"I worked at Pizza Hut when my grandad (who I was pretty close to) died and had a shift scheduled but I needed to get it covered so I could travel home (2 hours or so) and be with family. I went in and spoke to the shift manager on duty and she made a huge fuss but managed to get it (literally 1 shift, it was a seasonal town and it was off season so work was super sparse) covered and told me 'don't let this happen again'. Easily the angriest I've been at another person. So sorry my grandad dying has inconvenienced you, I'll try very hard to not let any more family members die."
– notliam
Not Expecting Termination
"Two days off for the birth of my first child and a writeup the day I returned because my wife had been in labor too long."
"They fired her for being pregnant."
Hard To Please
"I was 18 or 19 working my first job. He criticized my lipstick saying that it was an ugly color, recommending that I wore a bright red lip to go with my bright red uniform shirt. He didn't like my choice of all black shoes. He didn't like the way I mopped the floor, taking the mop from me to show me how to 'properly' do it. He even told one of my coworkers that she couldn't wear a sports bra under her uniform. I quit a few days later."
All The Difference In The World
"I'm a teacher. My principal was good but the superintendent was awful. I was there for 6 years and had seen 3 different superintendents. There was constant nepotism and salary discrepancies even among teachers. Policies changed constantly and we were always asked to do more or do something differently even if we had just changed that thing the previous year. It felt like being in a snow globe. When you thought everything head finally settled someone would come and shake things up again and you would feel like you were in the middle of a storm. Rinse and repeat. I am so glad that I finally left that school district and have found my forever job in a new district. It is a low income school with rough kids, but wonderful management and coworkers. It really makes all the difference!"
Knowing Your Worth
"When a recruiter cold called me and said 'oh you work at x? I'm sure we can get you at least a 10% raise somewhere else.' I started looking around and got a 27% raise a month later. 5 years at the new place and I make about 66% more than I did when I left the previous job that I was at for almost 5 years."
"Keep an eye on places like Glassdoor. Know what you are worth. Don't work for a discount unless there is a really good reason."
The Thing About Karma
"A now former colleague and I both applied for a more senior position that had become vacant. I had vastly more experience; having had a similar role in the past. I was better qualified and frankly, a better fit for the job."
"Even prior to interview, the senior management had already decided they wanted to offer my colleague the position."
"Unfortunately nepotism prevailed and the level of smugness I had to deal with was bad enough, but then they decided to treat me like an idiot child for the next year, rather than the experienced professional that I am."
"I decided to get the hell out after about 6 months, secured a much better job with higher pay and working conditions. I gave my required 90 days notice. My former colleague/manager was so good at their job that they didn't even advertise my job until it suddenly occurred to them that I was due to leave in 2 weeks time."
"No-one was appointed to my position and the manager tried to offload my duties onto one of my team, who promptly burned-out and resgned due to the workload. The rest of the team resigned for better opportunities elsewhere and my former boss left 6 months later under a very dark cloud."
"Karma is a b*tch."
Passive Aggressive Boss
"I've worked at my current job for over a year and a half. The reason I'm leaving is because I've worked my a** off for them and the one moment I was trained for (I mean like 5+ months of training) they gave to their daughter asap. I also found out that I almost wasn't given my raise because the boss deemed my behavior as 'inappropriate' all from little things she could have corrected right on the spot. (Like moving a box with my hands instead of using my knees.) On top of the being called out in front of all staff, being told consistently that all the workers are replaceable, passive aggressive comments even during a simple request, letting your family members get away with things i would get in trouble for and saying they won't go anywhere while dwindling your work because they think you'll quit asap, making our last floor manager quit because they put so much stress on her, coming in when your wife has [the virus], telling employees that if you don't have symptoms that they need to come into work even though most customer are older people, and basically being yelled at least weekly will really make your employees hate you."
The New Boss
"Worked for a business for 3 years. Had a great relationship and reputation. The manager I worked with gets promoted and a new guy is brought in. Instead of trying to learn the dynamic on the department he was a hard a**. Immediately we did not get along. I had a trip planned for a few months. I booked the time off well in advance and made the managers aware of the trip. Checked my schedule for the week and new guy scheduled me. I approached him and reminded him about my trip. He basically told me that I had to work now that the schedule was posted. I was not pleased."
"I went on my trip. He called and asked why I wasn't at my shift. I told him that I was on my trip and wasn't available. He threatened me with a write up. I just strait up told him that I didnt give a sh*t and 'That's the way the cookie crumbles.'"
I never went back."
Job interviews are such a unique experience.
For a brief interval of time, we have to simultaneously try to impress someone with our qualifications, come off as casually pleasant, demonstrate passion for the role in question, and, somehow, be ourselves throughout that whole charade.
Not surprisingly, job interviews are daunting and tend to make us sweat. There's so much on the line, and it all hinges on how we act and talk in an hour or so.
But what if the motivation was flipped? What if we imagined how to do the very worst we possibly could in that situation.
It's an absurd exercise, but it sure takes the edge off.
regrettablycrushing asked, "You have 15 seconds to ruin a job interview. What do you do/say?"
Sleeping Giant
"I had a candidate tell me 'I have extreme anger problems and I can't help but get loud and hands on when's someone's doesn't get what I'm trying to say'...it was for an engineering internship." -- KeemstarsBlackFriend
"NOT A WHILE LOOP!! A DO WHILE LOOP!!! WE NEED IT TO RUN ONCE BEFORE CHECKING THE CONDITION!!!"
"* shaking the other person aggressively by the shoulders *" -- moistkinkajou
In it for the Short Haul
"Where will I be in 5 years? Hell if I know but in 5 months I better be out of this slop house." -- BroadcasterX
"I thought the right answer was 'celebrating the 5th year anniversary of you asking me this question'" -- biggulpshuhasyl
All Good
"Sorry I'm late I got pulled over, but I was under the legal limit so..." -- lil-miss-militia
"just under the legal limit." -- kindsoberfullydressed
"Keyword being 'was' amirite guys?" -- Poly--Meh
Cartoonishly Problematic
"Excuse me ma'am, can I talk to a man here? Like someone who would be capable enough to interview me? I can't listen and answer to a woman." -- ilikesarcasticpeople
"I wish this was a joke but I once interviewed a guy who asked me who his boss would be."
"When I explained it would be me, the person interviewing him, he laughed and said congratulations for 'getting so far' but that he could not be expected to just do what I asked him to, and also any woman being in charge of a man was 'disrespectful.'"
"He did not get the job." -- TheWaystone
Keep Belching to a Minimum
"Did this already! Was nervous and chugged the last of my coke before going inside. Went to shake the guys hand and say Hello but a very loud long burp came out instead."
"I just dropped his hand and left."
Tough to Schedule
"Do you have masturbation breaks?" -- katep2000
Gauging the Strictness
"Does your employee theft policy offer second chances or would you fire me right away?" -- SlapCracklePop
"Can I steal loo roll? Like, just 1 when it's nearly payday? Or enough that my extended family never need panic buy again?" -- JJY93
Way Ahead of Ya
"Bring a bottle of apple juice and proceed to tell the interviewer that you brought your own drug test sample whilst accidentally spilling it all over the table and their laps...." -- MatteBlack84
"Nah, if you're serious about it you'll use apple cider vinegar. They will never get that smell out." -- whiskeyweedwood
Optimal Performance
"I'm never on time for work as I sleep a lot but at least I'm not tired when I arrive" -- WhiskersCleveland
"In the 5 years I have been at my job I have slept through 3 alarms. As it turns out my natural wake up time is 10am.....2 hours after I start work." -- Ziogref
Pro Tip: Stay on Topic!
"Interview going well."
"Female Interviewer : Do you have any questions ?"
"Me : About you or the company ?"
"Female Interviewer : .............."
"Haunts my memory to this day"
-- ShreyasSodhe
Mid Shift Only
"I had a guy applying while completely stoned."
"He was like « don't worry, I only smoke in the evening. Well sometimes before breakfast too »"
All About Eye Contact
"I will noticeably slide my hands down my pants. Then, while maintaining eye contact, take a deep and drawn out sniff of my finger."
"I proceed with the interview as if nothing has happened."
That Was One Tough Year, Whichever It Was
"'Wait, what year is this?' I actually said that in an interview."
"I had been traveling a lot and got some years and dates mixes up. The interviewer questioned me on how long I had been working in Germany, and I mixed it up. And I actually said that."
"Needless to say I did not get the job."
-- someonesgoat
Suppose Lyme Disease Would Be Worse...
"Here's what I saw someone do to tank their interview in 15 seconds. She stopped mid answer to a question, ripped her pantyhose open, dug out a tick, and then asked for a Band-Aid."
"No, she did not get a call back."
So Much Work to Do
"Walk in."
"I'm black with a boring generic name. I've seen the light go out in many hiring managers' eyes the second they see me. Only takes about 10 seconds."
A Contemporary Offense
"I interviewed someone who rolled her eyes at me when I asked her to put a mask on before we got started."
"Spoiler: she did not get hired."
In and Out
"We have a guy come in and say 'so I actually exaggerated on my cv just to get my foot in the door, I've never actually done any of those things'...."
"ok, bye then."
-- Letheron88
Strengths-Based Culture
"As an interviewer let me say my favorite one."
"Me: What's your greatest strength? Candidate: uhhh well I guess free lifts.. I can do like 80 now..."
"I had to excuse myself and leave the room. Mind you this was some 16 year old interviewing for a grocery store but to this day I still think I should have hired him."
-- serenerdy
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