The Most F**ked Up Things People Have Ever Seen At Work
Reddit user AMGBOI69420 asked: 'What’s the most fucked up thing you’ve seen at work?'
Working remotely from home certainly has its advantages, including not having to endure traffic and deal with coworker drama.
But many people found that during the pandemic, the isolation of working from home left little to be desired.
People who have jobs requiring them to commute every day and arrive at the workplace are given the opportunity to be social and feel like they're a part of society.
But being a part of a work environment can come with its own unique occupational hazards.
Curious to hear from strangers in the workforce, Redditor AMGBOI69420 asked:
"What’s the most f'ked up thing you’ve seen at work?"
People in medical professions draw on their endless list of shocking events.
The Crazy Patient
"I was sorting all the psych patients that were hospitalized in my state, and got to this guy: a teenager or maybe a bit older, and he got sent to the ward because he suddenly got aggressive and started to have some episodes that he squirmed in pain/took off his clothes and things like that. Before being hospitalized he was complaining about these things, but nothing the medics did was working and nothing wrong was found, so it should be a psychiatric issue, no?"
"Wrong, he was put in the ward for 2 or so years and lost a lot of his life, being considered insane, because he developed a rare spinal cancer that was hard to detect and caused him extreme pain. Really f'ked up, I don't remember what happened to him afterward, but I not really optimistic that it had an happy ending."
– vtomal
The First Aid Officer Who Couldn't Unsee These
"I was a first aid officer in a corporate job."
"Elderly pedestrian hit by a car in our car park: compound tib fib fracture that tore through her calf muscle"
"Deep laceration with arterial bleeding after some idiot from another department tripped and dropped a metal first aid down a flight of stairs during a fire drill."
– W2ttsy
Patient Left Against Medical Advice
"Patient comes in to the ER, gets full sepsis workup. His chemistries are all f'ked up, he required a manual white cell count because his was so high the analyzer basically said 'WTF?!', his urine was full of white cells and bacteria. You know, your classic 'old person UTI that's gone septic.' We figure he's going to be admitted. Nope, they send him home. Mind you, this was not a case of 'patient left AMA (against medical advice),' this was just the doctor said 'Yeah, seems like you've got a UTI. Go home and drink some cranberry juice.'"
"Two days later, the same patient comes in, with the same complaint. Gets the same blood and urine tests. While I'm doing the manual white cell count, the phone rings. It's the reference lab down the street. The blood cultures on the patient I'm currently working on from two days prior have come up positive. I take the notification and call the ER to let them know. Us labbies figure he's going to be admitted for sure this time. Come to find out, they sent him home again. (Again, not an AMA, a 'Go home and drink some cranberry juice.')"
– coffeeblossom
Those in customer service share their shocking eye-witness accounts.
Trailblazer
"I worked at one of the busiest Walmarts in the country during Spring Break for 6 years... I wouldn't even know where to begin."
"I guess the drunk lady leaving the bathroom with her pants around her ankles while actively sh*tting as she walked across the front of the building and back outside into the wild."
"None of the workers wanted to deal with it so they parked a shopping cart over each turd until the cleaning crew came in."
– UncleGrako
Slimy Salespeople
"Worked at a Nissan dealership where most salespeople where slimy POS. One senior citizen with a veteran ballcap was working on a deal for a car for his grandkid. Nice old guy got tired and fell asleep in the chair waiting for the salesguy to work out the deal with the sales managers. One of the managers from the bullpen walks by and farts right in the sleeping old mans face then runs back to the bullpen where everyone was watching and laughing. It was disgusting, I told the sales guy who I knew was a Iraq vet. He went to the bull pen and screamed in the face of every single one of those f'kers. He screamed so much at them I thought he was gonna pass out."
– adrielago
Work environments can be extremely dangerous.
"Once saw someone step into a bucket of hot fryer oil, it got into their shoes and everything. Was so bad that when they took the shoe off it peeled of skin with it. The person had 2nd and I believe 3rd degree burns. He never came back but I saw the pictures and it was horrific."
– Mrlionscruff
"I worked at a printing manufacturer and saw something like this happen in person, the guy had his right arm shredded. The wrench in his other hand stopping the machine is the only reason he didn't go all the way through. Later that month a 2400lbs paper roll was dropped on a coworker in front of me. I'm glad to be out of that job."
– Beullersghost
Threatening The Employee
"I worked at a Goodwill for a few years, we had lots of drug addicts trying to shoot up in the changing room and had an occasional OD."
"But the most shocking thing I experienced was the amount of times people physically threatened or attacked me or my co-workers when we refused their donations. Getting in our faces and trying to push us around, one guy tried to hit someone with a car. Another one threw a picture frame that narrowly missed smashing my supervisor's head, another threw such a temper tantrum that he smashed an entire set of chairs and a kitchen table."
"There was also someone who called the police because we changed the prices on soft-cover books."
– carefulwithyrbananas
T.M.I.
"Saw one guy drop dead (office job)"
"One get an arm cut off (Pulp mill)"
"One get de-gloved (Paper mill)"
"But the winner was the day we walked into work at an auto parts store and found the assistant manager f'king another assistant manager. Just going at it."
– Bigdaddyjlove1
Mechanical Nightmare
"Box cutting job saw a guy die after losing his arm to the machine. I still to this day dont know how my room mate at the time kept going to work for another few weeks before quitting."
"We'd go to work stoned off our a**es everyday. And seeing that guy die was a nope for me. I knew it was far to easy for the same mistake to happen to me stoned. Wasn't gonna get sucked in and die for 15 bucks an hr."
"Any heavy machinery related jobs since Ive made sure to ask about work related accidents and how common they are along with when the last one happened."
– idontneedjug
When I was a parade performer at certain theme park, we performed on a day when it was reportedly record-breaking heat, and some of my fellow performers who were dancing atop a couple of the floats collapsed and passed out from heat stroke in view of guests.
It was the scariest thing to see several paramedics bursting onto the scene and taking these unconscious young performers being carried away in stretchers.
Since then, the park instituted a code-90 protocol where the choreography was modified whenever the temperature hit 90 degrees.
It's hard to ignore gossip and rumors at work, whether at the water cooler, in the bathroom, or in an email sent to the wrong recipient.
Of course, sometimes gossip is nothing more than just that, with no truth or validity to it whatsoever.
Other times, however, it turns out to be accurate, and what's more, should it become public knowledge, it could become truly damaging to the company's reputation and business.
Hence why many companies make all their employees sign an NDA, often preventing them from sharing information about whether they continue to work at the company or not.
Not all companies are as careful, however, resulting in some employees leaving with the knowledge that could one day force the company to go under.
Redditor broadway96 was eager to hear the juiciest information people learned about their former workplaces which they weren't supposed to know, leading them to ask:
"What's a company secret you can share now that you don't work there?"
Off The Books, But With Good Intentions
"This isn't a company secret, but:"
"I worked part-time at a Domino's franchise in college."
"The owner was, at first glance, a short-tempered, critical penny-pincher who did everything he could to save a business money, right down to watching over your shoulder to make sure you didn't put too much cheese on a pizza."
"Cheese is called 'white gold' in the pizza industry, even back in 2002."
"But after working for him for a while, you realized why he was so specific about the margins."
"Twice yearly, he would send out generous bonuses (in the form of money orders made out to his employees from his own personal savings account) to the college students working for him."
"the checks/money orders contained the memo line 'keep learning!'"
"The amount of the money orders would be directly correlated to the profit margins of the stores he owned. The dude did legit profit sharing."
"After I graduated, I heard a rumor that he was trying to start up a small education grant trust that would benefit applicants of the Farmer School of Business at Miami University, but I don't think anything ever came of it."
"This owner also played favorites when hiring."
"Every single one of his managers was a former employee."
"Three of the four managers at his stores when I worked there had graduated from my college with business degrees."
"All four of them had a small portion of their education paid for by Marvin Covington."
"Marvin Covington, Oxford, Ohio Dominoes owner from Vevay, Indiana, died in 2017."
"That dude knew how to do business, and do it right."- sunward_Lily
Season 1 Netflix GIFGiphyIt's all in the branding
"I worked at L’Oréal."
"The cosmetics from L’Oréal and Lancôme are practically the same."
"But Lancôme costs like $20 more."- BayBel
A Literal Comic Book Villain
"I worked at a comic book store that offered a service where you paid a small premium to have sent in rare comics to have them graded at CGC."
"A few months later we had many customers coming in to check the status of their comics."
"We contacted the owner to see what was going on, and he would always claim that there was some distribution problem."
"Fast forward a few months, we found out he was taking customers graded copies and selling them online while trying to return back issue versions of their original comics."- ZealousidealWay1139
The American Healthcare System Everyone...
"Health insurance dude."
"When you file a claim, it is often denied because they're counting on you not escalating it."
"Once you do, your case goes to a 'medical management group' which ought to be called the 'we don't wanna pay' group."
"Keep escalating and involve your doctor."
"Fight for the insurance you paid for."- theUttermostSnark
Pop Culture Politics GIF by PBS Digital StudiosGiphyWow.
"The vehicle modification shop at Chillicothe Correctional Institution in Chillicothe, Ohio dumps waste coolant from the machine shop into a storm drain that empties directly into the Scioto River, because the chemical disposal tank is a 55 gallon drum in the paint shop, and that's much too small.
"They can't throw me into solitary confinement for complaining anymore."
"This happens about once a year, when the machine's coolant reservoirs are emptied and the coolant replaced."
"It's not on a schedule, it's one of those things that you do when work is slow."
"Each machine holds 15-20 gallons, and usually you just add more as it evaporates, but eventually it gets nasty and needs replaced."
"It's supposed to go in a waste tote to be disposed of safely, which is what every non - government machine shop does."
"Being able to prove this is being done would require knowing when they're going to do this, and that's a decision that's often made spur of the moment - hey, work is slow, let's have a clean up day."
"There aren't any phones in the machine shop, either."
"A container to store the waste properly costs $200."
"Why waste taxpayer money when we can just poison the taxpayers instead?"- Pariahdog119
Neat Freak! But It Paid Off...
"I don't think it's a bad secret at all."
"But back in college, I delivered pizzas for Papa John's."
"The store manager must have had an undiagnosed case of OCD or germaphobia or something."
"Because every night, he would assign someone to do the cleaning duties (mopping floors, double checking expiration dates/throwing away expired stuff, etc.)."
"And every night, he would absolutely lose his temper and berate whoever was doing the cleaning."
"They were going too fast, they weren't cleaning everything, whatever."
"After that, he'd always take over the cleaning himself."
"He was amazingly picky about the cleanliness and food quality."
"'Expiration date is three days from now? F*ck that, I'll order more'."
"Throw that sh*t away, we're not serving it'."
"He would also go out of pocket to buy special cleaning products 'because that worthless bullsh*t that corporate wants us to use doesn't get the job done'."
"He also went out of pocket to hire some kind of specialist to clean out the fountain drink dispenser, ice machine and all that stuff."
"'The machine needs to always be as close to brand new as possible!'"
"One stand out moment for me was when he reduced a cashier to tears by hollering 'Would you eat off this floor? No? THEN IT'S NOT CLEAN ENOUGH!'"
"He wasn't telling her to eat off the floor."
"He was just making a point."
"After we'd closed the store, he'd kick all of us out, lock up behind us and stay until something like 2am cleaning the place."
"You always knew when he closed because you could smell the chemical scent still lingering in the air."
"The end result of this was the store, the food, the equipment and the facilities were always in squeaky clean condition."
"Customers (somehow) picked up on what a perfectionist the store manager was and bought from us all the time."
"Because there's a lot of peace of mind that goes in with knowing your food was cooked by someone willing to throw ingredients away BEFORE the expiration date, stay in the store until God knows when cleaning everything, etc."
"The true irony was how much the boss hated himself because he didn't think he was doing a good enough job to run a clean restaurant with fresh ingredients."
"It didn't matter how many compliments he got from customers or how many service industry veterans said they'd never worked in a place as obsessive about freshness and cleanliness as his Papa John's store, he was convinced his store was still a filthy barn."
"Eventually, he got promoted to some kind of higher level corporate position (district manager?) that required him to visit other stores and make sure they were all up to spec."
"The end result of that was a LOT of stores in this area all improved seemingly overnight."- EponymousTitular
Season 10 GIF by FriendsGiphyEasy Way To Get Attention
"If you pick up a wall phone at Home Depot and push '7' it activates the store wide intercom."
"This works in every store in my province afaik."- _Zoko_
Be Careful What You Say...
"If you were on Live Chat with Customer Care, I could see what you were typing before pressing send."
"I watched people work through grotesque, racist, sexist statements, fraudulent lies and mistruths, meticulous grammar fixes, and their whole range of emotions in real-time before deleting and typing 'ok'.”- BariatricPressure
2 Secrets For The Price Of One
"Ford parts from Mexico are way more reliable than Ford parts from Detroit, or at least they were before 2020."
"I worked in Detroit and we had some customers who were fussy about us always doing repairs with Michigan parts, but when we had a problem that wouldn't stay fixed we would always secretly switch to the Mexican parts, which did solve things."
"I was a prison guard a decade ago and we installed some facial tracking software in the surveillance cameras."
"One of the inmates panicked while cleaning the unused solitary confinement cells--which is usually a desirable job, it's easy as f*ck and nobody pays attention to you, and he insisted that he be moved out of that job because there was a ghost."
"The ranking officers decided to check the new cameras, and the security software claimed it saw a face behind the inmate at the same time as he was visibly startled in the camera footage."
"We're all aware there are mundane reasons why a new facial recognition system would think it saw a ghost, but since the inmate and the security software both thought there was a ghost it was decided that the inmate should be immediately transferred at no penalty."- NoAnTeGaWa
season 9 GIFGiphyIf some walls could talk!
Then again, any jilted employee will likely do all the talking for them...
The main reason why employees love their jobs is not exclusively due to the line of work they're in or because of the job description.
A lot of it has to do with good morale and work environment -- all of which stem from good management.
However, it takes one major misstep for all the chips to come tumbling down.
Curious to hear about the influence of higher-ups on hard-working employees, Redditor kraam1217 asked:
"What's something your employer did that instantly killed employee morale?"
Companies make business decisions... meaning, it's in their best interest, not yours.
Cleaning House
"I work in a big corporate building. The same older lady came by everyone’s desk towards the end of the day to collect the trash. Just the sweetest lady ever and every time she’d walk to my desk she’d give me a big smile and ask me how my day was and chat for a minute as she got my trash (usually I’d dump it in for her). I had some rough days but she has a way to cheer me up and send me home on a higher note. I know I’m not the only one either."
"So then a few weeks back our work implemented a new policy to ‘cut down on trash usage’. It’s no longer allowed to have a trash bin at our desk and we have to walk across the room and use the community trash to throw anything away. Not a huge deal but the real reason they did it is so they can cut down on cost... ie the cleaning crew."
"Sad to say that I haven’t seen Sharon since."
– schimsl
Big Changes
'We're moving manufacturing over seas.'
"Uhh... all we do at this facility is manufacturing."
'Yep.'
"Never seen a less productive or less motivated workforce. And it was announced over a year before the move too. Would have been better for the company to just spring it on people with two weeks. Although props to them for giving people a chance to find new work ahead of time."
– thedankbank1021
Company-Wide Punishment
"Electrical contractor of 35 (27 of which are out in the field), we earn PTO hours based upon the number of hours worked in a given week. Full-time employees earn what is equal to about 6 extra paid days off in a year, which is typically used for errands, sick days, taking care of children, and so on. One of the field employees is a known (to all other field techs) alcoholic, word makes it to office personnel that this individual was using his PTO because he had tipped too many back the night before and couldn’t make it to work on time. Owner denied his PTO claim and he drove into the office to have a shouting match with the owner."
"Very next day a company-wide email is sent stating that PTO will be indefinitely suspended because it is being abused. Not even sure if what they did is legal. But instead of dealing with this one employee, they decided to use it as a way to save paying out around 180 earned days off throughout the entire company. This happened about a week ago, morale dropped instantly. Most field techs started showing up late playing around on their phones and leaving early. Couple guys have already jumped ship and sounds like a large number of others are about to follow. I’m going to wait it out a couple of months as I’m owed a yeti cooler and vacation time on my anniversary 😝."
– longhornduck33
Some companies are just shady.
A Steamy Protest
"Small business. 20 employees +/-. Boss made a big speech about austerity measures and no raises this year. A week and a half later he drives up in a brand new Silverado with all the bells and whistles. Expensed to the business of course. He would hate to have to pay taxes on those profits. One of the less subtle members of the staff took a literal sh*t in front of his office door."
– DentedAnvil
Empty Threat
"Telling employees that they are going to fire you if you don't make more sales. Then when someone quits tell them naww that was just motivation. We were never going to fire you."
– lovelesschristine
Fake Incentive
"Boss Pitched a sales incentive trip to Cancun if the team hit the goal. My team exceeded the goal, and then they cancelled the trip. 2 people quit, I accepted a position with their main competitor, and less than a year later, they closed in bankruptcy. Karmas a beach."
– lifecoachannalisa
Wrong Recognition
"I once had a retail manager who sent out a memo that we worked so hard and did such a great job this month that she gets a bonus. That went over like a lead balloon."
– HoboTheDinosaur
Credit Where It Wasn't Due
"Comment repost: I went through this same kind of bullish*t."
"I, along with 9 other coworkers, did a Kaizen project where we cut customer complaints from over 100/month to single digits due to streamlining our process. The plant manager sent out a company wide e-mail essentially taking credit for the whole thing. He noted how he put together this team and under his direct supervision he got the project done without even mentioning our names. That pissed all of us off until the Continuous Improvement manager sent a reply thanking all of us in a big fu**k you to the plant manager. I was just happy that the CI manager was a no bullsh*t guy. I left that job a few months after we completed it and still use it on my resume."
– 69this
The employers in these examples just lack class and empathy.
Egregious Message
Put up a poster that said 'Complaining is like vomitting. You feel better but everyone around you feels sick.'. The morale was already bad but it was just a sh**ty way to take a hit at upset employees rather than do anything positive."
– wild_flower87
Questionable Credentials
"I told the hiring manager that I was disappointed in one of his hires because he knew literally NOTHING about our job and asked him 'doesn’t that cheapen my knowledge and expertise?'”
"His response: 'Well, let’s be honest, your job doesn’t really need all that, does it?'”
"There were four other people my level, with varying fields of expertise, at that meeting, and it got real quiet after that."
– backstagestitches
Unnecessary Protocol
"They banned phones, electronics, puzzles, books, etc. from being used at your desk. I work at a call center. We were expected to just sit and wait for the next call to come in 'distraction-free,' even if it was a super slow day."
– forever_a10ne
If you work in a well-paying, positive work environment where your fellow co-workers look forward to showing up and your superiors treat you with respect, congratulations.
You're in the minority.
Not everyone can say the same. But don't lose hope. Opportunities are out there if you keep on the look out.
And if you're an employer, remember to treat your employees well, because that will influence the future of a successful business.
In one of the more memorable moments of the teen comedy classic Mean Girls, Queen Bee Regina George often rejects Gretchen Weiner's attempts at making "Fetch" part of the commonplace jargon at North Shore High School.
Even if we might not react the same way as the domineering Regina George, who hasn't found themselves rolling their eyes on numerous occasions when people use Buzzwords and contemporary phrases in the workplace.
Be it out of an attempt to appear cooler, or amidst fears of being politically incorrect, job listings, inter-office memos, and speeches at corporate events always feature commonly used buzzwords or buzzwords those speaking hope might find their way into everyday speech.
Much to the annoyance, if not outright disdain of those on the receiving end.
"What are the most annoying corporate buzzwords or phrases you’re sick of?"
How, exactly?
"Take a more holistic approach"- MGM1312
Don't give me adjectives, give me the amounts!
"Competitive pay."- AJackOffAllTrade
Not Everyone Loves Their Family...
"'Our workers are part of our family' or something along the lines of that."- NotJoeMama727
Season 8 Nbc GIF by The OfficeGiphyThat Wasn't In The Job Description
"'We all wear multiple hats around here'."
"I hear this everyday."
"It's just an excuse to not hire anyone else."- ChurchWineDrunk
Don't Sacrifice The Grammar...
"When someone refers to a request as an 'ask'.”- Alpha_State
Life In The "Fast" Lane...
"'Willing to work in fast-paced environment'."
"*ends up in cubicle*."- Raven0uss
Over It Reaction GIF by jjjjjohnGiphyWhere Do You Even Begin?
“'OK guys, we’re going to stay off-line today, take a deep dive to drill down and ignore the low hanging fruit, run some ideas up the flagpole and bubble the consequences to the top of the heap'."
"'The bottom line, according to the hive mind, is that we have to circle back, not reinvent the wheel, and reach out to make sure our deliverables are on everyone’s radar'."
"'Let’s not step on each other’s toes as we touch base, so here’s a heads up, when you’re thinking outside the box, please make sure we’re singing from the same hymn sheet, especially in acurated B2B environment'."
"'We need to leverage cutting edge synergy while optimizing our innovative solutions, otherwise our newly on-boarded micro-influencers will never disrupt the market before the deadline reaches terminal velocity'.”- poxymoron1
Or "Rockstar" Anything...
"'Rockstar developer' fortunately seems to be declining."-Tbone139
It's Not Attractive To Gloat...
"Win win win."
"My companies execs have started saying that for anything that's good."
"Firstly people said win win for something that was good for both parties, this makes sense."
"One popular exec said win win win once for something that helped us, our third party partners and the customer."
"That's fine as a one off and a good play on the original expression."
"But now every exec says it's a win win win when something good happens."
"They're not even a win win, just something that's good for one party."- NotACockroach
Winning The Office GIFGiphyI Should Hope So!
"We have values."- Jakaple
With workplace culture being monitored more than ever, it's understandable why some old school bosses and CEOs want to be more with the times.
As a result, they might choose their words very carefully, maybe too carefully, in an effort to impress their employees, not to mention the public.
However, there might be an even better way of doing that.
By simply being a good boss.
The world's richest person in the world, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is planning to take over the social media app of all social media apps–Twitter.
But let's say we're there already. An unnamed Redditor asked:
"Elon Musk just bought Twitter. What happens next?"
People on social media could follow a trend.
Following A Trend
"People pretend to leave but don't actually leave."
– MrBananaStorm
The Other Platform
"Also: people declaring they're leaving for Instagram without realizing that's owned by Zucc."
– majima__goro
Owned
"next Elon buys Reddit."
– sanman
On To The Next
"Paperwork. Then checks cut to the stockholders to buy them out."
– User Deleted
The potential buyout might not cause any mayhem at all.
Life Goes On
"For me, nothing. Continue with my daily life without twitter, that sh*ts toxic."
– itsMondaybackwards
Ignorance Is Bliss
"Yea why are people so angry about this? I'm genuinely asking, I don't know anything about twitter and Elon Musk."
– doggrimoire
Pet-opia
"Cats and dogs living together."
– tewnewt
Some Things Never Change
"Nothing, Twitter stays the same hellhole lmao."
– ilovecatfish
No New Customer
"I'm not sure I care. Don't use it now, won't use it when he owns it."
– bh0
Some people are just bracing themselves.
Lies Resume
"The return of Donald Trump on twitter."
– laja7
Indication Of Damages Done
"Musk is wanting to boot the bots, which should undermine tons of election interference, but I fear they've already created a self-perpetuating monster. Twitter may be unable to distinguish between extremist and algorithm. Regardless of his success, it is a job that needs to be done."
– borg286
It's Conditional
"If he succeeds in removing 'unauthentic' content, it could be good for discourse. If he turns it into a misinformation free for all, I’m out."
– pallentx
No one knows for sure what's in store for us in a world of Musk ruling over the Twitterverse.
But let's focus on and help fast-track autonomous vehicles for safe public transportation before Twitter begins a potential crash-and-burn trajectory.
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