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People Describe The Dumbest Thing They've Seen A Coworker Do On The Job

Reddit user Adrian0091 asked: 'What‘s the dumbest thing you‘ve seen a coworker do on the job?'

woman in black long sleeve shirt using macbook
Photo by Magnet.me on Unsplash

When I was in college, I worked at a restaurant as a hostess. Since I previously only babysat and tutored, a restaurant was a whole knew world to me.

Two of the girls who worked the same days as me were the ones to train me. They were a couple of years older than I was and had been working there for a year already, so they had a lot of experience. They not only taught me how to do the job, but gave me a lot of tips to make some of the more tedious tasks easier.

They both seemed like responsible girls, so when I came in the week after my training was over, I was shocked to hear they were both fired. According to a server I'd become friends with, the girls had snuck in some alcohol on what was supposed to be a slow day (it was a Tuesday, which was always our slowest day) and decided to have a "party at the host stand."

They got completely wasted and basically kept tripping as they led guests to their seats, even as they told the guests to watch their step. When one of the girls accidentally poured a milkshake over one guest and had to call a manager to smooth things over, they were caught and fired on the spot. I was cringing at their stupidity!

Apparently, I'm not the only one who has had to deal with co-workers doing something utterly stupid while they were on the job. Redditors have borne witness to this and are eager to share their stories.

It all started when Redditor Adrian0091 asked:

"What‘s the dumbest thing you‘ve seen a coworker do on the job?"

Such A Pretty Display

"I asked one of the new kids to stack the shoe department."

"Easy if but a bit boring. I showed her, stack by brand then size, big at the bottom, small top yeah?"

"She decided to organise it by the color of the boxes instead because it looked prettier."

"Took me hours to fix that mess."

– Lizzy_Of_Galtar

Oooh, Burn! (Quite Literally)

"In high school, working at a Chinese restaurant, was there basically to take orders and bus tables. Another dude I vaguely knew from high school got hired there. Nice, popular dude, but not much common sense. Within his first two weeks, he went to make himself some food (we were allowed to do that to a certain extent), and he dropped some wontons into the deep fryer. When he decided they were done, and as we were having a conversation, he just REACHED HIS HAND into the oil to retrieve it. I don’t think I even reacted for a moment or two, and then rushed forward. He somehow ALSO didn’t react for a moment or two before pulling his hand out and yelling out a cartoon-style “YEEOUCH!”"

"He went to the hospital, and quit the job."

– CwAbandon

Umm...Huh?

"One dude once photocopied a slice of pizza. We found cheese and stuff inside the machine for weeks. Was pretty funny though."

– LinusMeindl

"Inside? Did the idiot put the pizza into the document feeder or something?"

– MechanicalHorse

"How else would you feed the machine pizza."

– andtheIToldYouSos

Spelling

"I saw a tattooist I worked with tattoo "Laugh now cry Ladder" across a guy's chest..."

"He was let go, and a few years later, a guy came in with "Warior" across his upper back in bold letters, wanting it fixed. Same tattooist lol."

– hurrythisup

"Cry me a ladder."

– Deleted User

"Cry me a liver."

– iqtrm

"Crimea river."

– MagicSPA

Yikes!

"Telling the manager on duty, “I’m not the one eating it, so why should I care?” when the manager was trying to explain to her how to correctly prepare a customer’s food."

– 2gecko1983

"Watched a coworker of mine at a Pizza Hut (1976) clean off the food prep counter with a gross floor broom. The kitchen was open, so people at the tables could see the food being made, and someone saw him and yelled out to the other customers, and people started walking out."

"Cleared it out."

"Once the manager figured out what happened, he fired the guy on the spot."

– big_d_usernametaken

Misstep After Misstep

"Admitted to not having spoken to any of the business stakeholders, but instead "made up their own story.""

"This was at the end of what was supposed to have been a four-week information-gathering phase of the project."

"That afternoon, when one of the managers went to escort her from the premises, they found her by the printer with a stack of confidential documents."

– WitShortage

No Cell Phones At Work

"Worked with a lot of hazardous chemicals. Had a coworker who was notorious for being on his phone. We had to use a pump to put a hazardous chemical into a tank. Problem was you couldn’t look at the destination and pump the pump at the same time. Someone had to pump and someone had to watch. So I specifically asked said coworker to not look at his phone this one time. Tank overflowed and spilt the chemical everywhere because he was staring at his phone. Took hours to clean up."

– BigTiddyOstrogothGF

"A coworker of mine was fired for using his cellphone in an electrically classified area, cell phone wasn't explosion proof, not to mention the fact no cell phones on the floor, they gave him a warning, second time they walked him out."

"Bad part for him was that his wife found out he was talking to his girlfriend."

"Twenty years down the tubes."

"As we liked to say, "He fired himself.""

– big_d_usernametaken

Ewww!

"A guy I worked with sent a spreadsheet round with all the women in the office ranked in a spreadsheet and graded overall based on 1-5."

"He was somehow shocked he didn’t pass his probation."

– downfallndirtydeeds

Thank God He Was Fired

"My best friend, he took his mop bucket and poured it down a water fountain instead of using the closet with a sink that was literally right next to the water fountain. He got fired the next day."

"He told me he was in “f**k it” mode with the job and he didn’t care. We worked at a hospital."

– MrFavorable

""Who cares if sick people get exposed to a little bit of antibiotic-resistant flesh-eating bacteria.""

– Brett42

Get Right Back Up

"There were 2 of us installing an air conditioner. He had a bit of work outside that required him going up a ladder about 3 or 4 feet, not high. I was inside doing wiring."

"I heard a loud thud and scream, so I ran out to see what happened. He fell off the ladder. I've seen gruesome injuries from stupid thing like this before, so I ran outside to help him out. No injuries, he picked himself up and got back at it, I went back inside."

"Five minutes later, same thing. I walked out to check on him again after a small fall. He was ok again, but I told him to chill out and watch what he's doing. I went back inside."

"Heard another thud from outside. He fell again. I just looked out the window the third time and went about my business."

– DrVanNostrand6

*Cringing*

"He opened a Skype window (yes, this was ~10 years ago) and started messaging me to sh*t-talk a person who was in the same call as us."

"Except, he forgot he was sharing his screen."

– zyygh

R.I.P. Press

"After checking the correct lock-out tag-out procedure was followed, I assured an employee that it was safe to change dies on a horizontal press. But he was skeptical so unbeknownst to anyone he put a piece of tooling steel about the size of a coffee can under the die base. Some of you know where this is going. He made the tooling change, forgot his “safety measure”, and cycled the press. We all heard a $400k press eat itself in a fantastic swan-song of a noise that would take Stephen King four pages to describe."

– Idontfeelold-much

The Stupidity Of The Human Race

"Late 90’s, I was a custodian in a NYC public school to pay for college. One of my coworkers accidentally spilled about 15 gallons of gasoline in the school parking lot. He didn’t want to get in trouble for spilling that much gas so he thought the best course of action was to burn off the gasoline. Of course gasoline burns with huge billows of black smoke so he panics and tries to put out the fire BY DRIVING HIS CAR OVER THE GIANT PUDDLE OF BURNING GASOLINE. Fire department shows up within minutes and sees him doing donuts in the giant fire and they spend a whole hour screaming at my coworker about how f**king stupid he was."

"Edit: and in 1997 when this happened, gas was 97¢ a gallon. He could have replaced all the gas for less than $15."

– -Words-Words-Words-

"I'm a veteran of the Internet, and enjoy reading accounts like this. I must have read thousands."

"This is, hats off, quite literally one of the most stupid decisions I ever heard anyone make."

– MagicSPA

I really don't want to believe that last one really happened!

Do you have any great stories? Let us know in the comments below.

The Dumbest Thing People Have Pretended To Like To Impress Someone They Were Dating

Reddit user Adventurous-Ebb6556 asked: 'What is the dumbest thing you have pretended to be interested in because you wanted to date someone?'

When I was 11, I developed a crush on a boy who was obsessed with X-Men comics. Wanting something to talk about, I told him I loved the X-Men, and was dying to read the issue he had on his desk, which I knew was new only because my brother was into X-Men and I was the one who took him to the store to purchase it.

The boy seemed pretty impressed and asked me who my favorite X-Men was. I said Wolverine since he was the only one I knew. The boy agreed with my opinion.

That night, I looked up biographies and power descriptions of a bunch of X-Men characters so I would be able to discuss the characters with him the next day. However, the next day, he didn't want to discuss the characters, but the events of the newest issue. He asked me if I had read it, I stupidly said yes, and he asked me what my favorite part was.

I was literally saved by the bell, as class ended at that moment, but the lie seriously backfired. I ended up never speaking to that boy again because I could not get trapped in another X-Men conversation. I never lied to a crush again.

I'm not alone in this. People lie about being interested in all sorts of things -- sometimes really dumb things -- to impress a crush or date. Redditors know this all too well and are eager to share their stories.

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People Break Down The Dumbest Thing They've Ever Been Punished For
Image by Dessie_Designs from Pixabay

When I was young, if I spoke out of line my mother would make me eat soap. And not pleasant smelling Dove bars, disgusting, mustard yellow, industrial dish soaps. I always found that excessive. I maybe could've understood if I had the mouth of a trucker but I'm talking about a stray no or you suck here and there. I did learn a lesson, well several lessons. And I never acquired the mouth of a trucker, well... around her. I won't even get into when I briefly was an altar boy who assumed he was allowed to take hazard pay from the collection plate gatherings. Talk about punishment. I do believe the punishment should fit the crime, but so often the punishers seem to get lost in proving a point rather than paying a penance or consequence.

Redditor u/ZetamusMaximus thought we should chat about the times the punishment different fit the crime by asking..... What's the dumbest thing you've ever been punished for?

Keep reading...Show less
People Share The Dumbest Thing They've Ever Heard An Adult Say

Unfortunately, adults are not as infallible as we would like to believe.

More often than not, in fact, kids show themselves to be smarter than adults. Especially when adults say things like this.

Keep reading...Show less
People Share The Dumbest Thing A Customer Has Ever Asked Them
Photo by Blake Wisz on Unsplash

Anybody who works in customer service knows that the customer is most certainly not always right.

And yet, sometimes they really insist they are, even when they are so not. And sometimes the questions they ask are so tantamount to this point that you want to look around for a camera on a reality TV show and see if you're being punk'd.

Spoiler: You aren't...

Redditor Dashigos asked:

What was the dumbest thing you've ever been asked by a customer?

Here were some of those answers.

Oh My, Karen

"I used to work at Enterprise Rent-A-Car (We'll pick you up!). I went to pick up a customer (worth noting she was renting a car for a weekend getaway), called her when I got to her apt, and she came downstairs and had this conversation:"

Lady: "Ok, I'll follow you back to the office"

Me (confused): "I'm here to pick you up and drive you back to the office."

Lady: "What am I supposed to do with my car?"

Me: "Were you planning on leaving your car at our lot over the weekend?"

Lady: "No"

Me (more confused): "Why are you going to follow me in your car? I can drive you back to the office, finish the paperwork, and you can take the rental car from there."


Lady "(not grasping the concept): Well how are you going to get back?"

Me: "I'll drive us both, in this rental car, back to the office, where we can do the paperwork and you can take the rental car from there. That way, your personal car is still at your apt. And when you return the car on Monday, you can drive the rental car back to us, we'll close out the paperwork, and we'll give you a ride home. Sound like a plan?"

Lady: "That doesn't make sense. You're making this way too difficult. I'll just follow you in my car."

Me "(thinking the customer is always right!): Ok!"

"We get back to the office, I finish the paperwork (still astonished she qualified to rent a car), and hand her the keys to the car."


Lady: "Ok, how do I get my car back to my apt?"

Me: ...

Lady: "Can you drive my car back to my apt?"

Me: "I'm not authorized to drive your car. You're welcome to leave it here on the lot over the weekend if you want."

Lady: "Ok, can you drive the rental car and follow me back to my house so I can drop off my car?"

Me: "This is what I was trying to do when I picked you up! There was no need to take 2 cars."

Lady: "I'd like to speak to your manager."

albatross34

Possibly Drugs?

"Context - I was 16 during this"

"I work at chick fil a and I'm taking orders as you do, guy walks up and asks "Aren't you supposed to be in school?". I look down at the clock and see it's 6 pm. I look at him confused and say "No it's 6 pm". He asks again, I say the same thing again."

"Then he yells "Alright, EFF YOU" and leaves"

BLOOBERRYBOY

This Is A Special Level

"I used to work at the UPS store in high school. Our last pickup was at 7:00 and we closed at 8:00 pm. Since we had private information and people's personal mailboxes in the store, security was a big deal."

"It was 8:30. Our tills were counted down, the alarm was set, our copiers, fax machine, and computers were shut down, our lights were off, and we had closed and locked a ginormous red gate that separated the entrance from the rest of the store."

"Some woman ran up to the door, and like some demon in a horror movie, she hurled herself against the glass and screeched like a banshee."

"Keep in mind, we are very obviously closed with a sign saying we are closed, no lights on, and a giant red gate drawn down over the store."

"She began pounding on the glass and frantically yelling at us. My coworker worried something was wrong, like maybe she was being chased and needed help."


"He carefully opened the door just a crack to ask what was wrong. She immediately tried to wedge her hands and head in the crack and asked "Are ya'll open?" We informed her that we obviously weren't."

"Her logic was "well you opened the door so now you have to help me".

"She began wailing and crying that she had to mail a package. We explained that even if we were open, our last pick up was an hour and a half ago and we couldn't even mail it until tomorrow."

"She protested and protested and we eventually got the door shut and locked. So we just stood there awkwardly in the dark, hoping she would leave. She kept pounding on the glass and saying "I know you're open!!!!"


"As we debated what to do and if we should call the cops, this lady pulled out her cell phone and called the cops herself!"

"The cops arrived, we explained the situation, and the woman accused us of lying, despite the sign on the door saying we closed an hour ago at this point."

"Then, in front of the officer and on security camera, the woman launched herself at my coworker and hit him in the face. She immediately jumped back and began fake crying that he had assaulted her."

"We were dumbfounded. She ended up getting arrested and my coworker pressed charges."

"So the stupidest question I got was "Are you open?".

RedPlanit

Tues, Sat....Same Diff!

"When I was a teenager I had a customer try to fight me because we didn't do the taco Tuesday discount for him."

"It was the weekend..."

dragnansdragon

Drive Into A Ditch I Guess

"This was by far the most memorable dumb customer encounter. Years ago I worked for an Audi dealership as a greeter/shuttle driver and one blissfully quiet afternoon, a middle aged woman in a beige A6 pulled into the drive. Here's how the exchange went down:"

Me: "Good afternoon. How can I help you today?"

Her: "This light came on! (She points to the check engine light with concern in her voice)"

Me: "Yes. That's the check engine light..."

Her: "(interrupting me): No! It's this one!!! (the CEL was the only light on at this point in time)"


Me: "Yes. That's the check engine light."

Her: "Well what does it mean?"

Me: "There are literally thousands of different things that can turn that light on but if you go into the office there, one of our service advisors can plug in a little computer and they'll tell you what's wrong."

Her: "(scoffs condescendingly) So you don't know what it means..."

Me: "Ma'am I think they can help you better than I."

rosecitywanderer86

Not The Same Thing But Ok

"When I worked in a call center for home phone service, I had a guy call and angrily ask why we were still charging him for his phone service, since he had unplugged his phone from the wall a month ago."

Ahead_of_the_Storm

All Living Things Need Water Sandra

"I used to work in a pet store. One night a woman came in and said she had ordered a puppy off the internet and he would be arriving in the next few days. She had never owned a pet and asked several dumb questions, but the one that I'll always remember is "Do puppies need water?"

StupidSexxxyFlanders

Tasty Plastique

"I used to work in a phone shop."

"Had someone come in asking why their phone wasn't working properly. It was visibly scorched and melty. I asked why it looked that way. They said, it came up with an error message saying it had been too cold (not an error message I had heard of before, but I know phones can bring up errors for being too hot, so who knows) and so they had put it under the grill to heat it up."

"The grill."

"Their first point of call was to cook it."

"I said, that's why their phone wasn't working, and no it was not covered under the guarantee."

SlytherinGirl125

.................

"IT, got a ticket from a lady saying her screen is blank. I call, because I saw her in orientation and to be honest she seemed to have never used a computer before (despite being 19, and her title as a receptionist)."

"Ma'am is your computer on?"

"I don't know, how would I check?"

"coworker next to her grunts and turns on computer for her"

"Oh! Ok it's on, now do I have to type out my username AND password to log on?"

"............................."

"No words could properly describe how I felt in that moment."

swank_sinatra

It's Cause She's Embarrassed

"A woman came to the check out and handed me a bag of mozzarella. She asked me what the ingredients were and if there were any chemicals in it. I turned the bag around and started to read the ingredients out to her. She grabbed the bag out of my hand, angrily said "I could have done that myself " and stormed off."

justanotherpolyglott

I guess we've put the age old adage to rest. There are absolutely stupid questions.

Do you have anything to add? Let us know in the comments below.