People Over 50 Explain How Working Has Changed Since They Were Young
Reddit user LightningStrikes818 asked: 'Redditors who are 50+ years old, what has changed the most about working when you started working vs working nowadays?'
It feels like the workplace is constantly changing, especially since the pandemic, with more people working from home, more systems being automated, and more social pressure for workplaces to evolve.
But it's even more jarring to think of how much the workplace has changed for those who have been in the workforce for many decades and how seemingly every aspect of their work has changed... at least once.
Redditor LightningStrikes818 asked:
"Redditors who are 50 years old or older, what has changed the most about working when you started working vs. working nowadays?"
Dress Codes
"Skirts/dresses and pantyhose required of women in many offices through the 1990s."
- hhhmmm0
"Flipside: suits and ties, buttoned-up shirts. Brutal in summer."
- ridleyfiredome
"Pantyhose were high maintenance. I had to have an extra pair in my desk drawer in case of a major run. I had clear nail polish at home and work to stop any runs above the hemline."
"Pantyhose were expensive, I had nice department store hose for special occasions, and bulk mail order hose for daily wear. They had to be washed in mesh bags and hung to dry."
"In the summer I’d get swamp crotch when it was hot and humid, and heat rash on my thighs where they rubbed."
"Heels had to be polished and the heel tips replaced at the shoe shop. Most office clothes were dry clean only, and it was expensive, and yet another errand. Office clothes were expensive, I didn’t have many clothes, I had to plan what to wear and time the dry cleaning."
"I don’t miss the nightmare of heels and hose from the 80’s."
- phineasminius
Electrical Transfer, Who?
"Having to go to the bank to cash my paycheck."
- Cndngirl
"Oh my god, yes, and we needed to wait until after 3:00 PM to cash it."
- Big-Reflection-104
Work and... Strip Clubs?
"We took a company van with a logo on it to take out-of-town guests to a strip club. I don’t even think I can say that out loud at work today."
- scruffles360
"Strip clubs were standard practice. Especially in sales. Many deals closed in those places over my career."
- YOU_WONT_LIKE_IT
Smoking Spaces
"People smoking indoors. Clouds of smoke everywhere in the office and no way for a nonsmoker to avoid it. That was the norm so you just had to suck it up."
- andBobsyourcat
"Yes, at one stage I had the misfortune of sitting next to someone who used to smoke a pipe. I could barely see my computer screen at times for the clouds of smoke."
"Also, the IT support guy would come over to do something and he always had a cigarette dangling from his lips, dropping ash into my keyboard. Urgh! Different times!"
- MickSturbs
Office Parties of Old
"Man, in state government, all the older employees have similar stories of work parties in the 90s. Booze everywhere, smoking, people dancing, and having fun. Everyone brought their spouses, etc."
"Now you're lucky if you see a Christmas cake. People wonder why everything feels like it's coming apart at the seams and people are so unhappy. That aspect of being a human being fun, even at work is gone."
- t00sl0w
"I'm a millennial in industrial equipment sales, and it genuinely feels like you showed up to a party about an hour after everyone was gone."
"Nowadays, I can't even have a beer with dinner and expect to expense it."
- titsmuhgeeee
"Oh man, the office Christmas parties then, versus now?? Forget about it. Like comparing a wedding to a funeral."
- Schyznik
Safety Precautions
"I'm 42 but feel like I want to chime in."
"Health and safety has changed loads. You wouldn't get away with half the sh*t we did when I was 17."
- section4
Constantly, Always Sitting
"I watched office work go from sedentary to virtually immobile. We used to retrieve paper files, pass memos around, and consult with coworkers in other sections and floors."
"Now everything is available on the screen in front of us, everything can be shared with a few clicks. It’s convenient, but so unhealthy."
- MathematicianWitty23
What's a Pension Again?
"Hardly anybody has a pension anymore."
- whitewolfdogwalker
"That's where I feel really lucky to be in Australia, we have mandatory superannuation (a percentage of your pay plus employer contribution goes into a fund for your retirement) and most people will also qualify for an age care pension in addition to their super."
"The pension isn't really enough for our current seniors who don't have much super (due to the timeline of when it was introduced) but generations after that should be relatively well set up for retirement."
- TheGardenNymph
Work Availability in General
"I'm in the UK."
"It was a great deal easier to find work. You'd get vacancies posted in various places and could go down to the Job Centre, browse vacancies posted on postcards on boards, pick out the jobs you were interested in, and get a member of staff to arrange an interview for you. Just like that."
"Dress codes were more formal and you actually had to go to work. If you worked in an office for the right company work finished Friday lunchtime when you'd go with your colleagues to the pub. You'd go back after the 'liquid' lunch hour and work Friday afternoon, but no sh*t got done and work piled up for Monday."
"You got paid either direct debit, cash or if you were unlucky by cheque. You had to deposit your cheque in the bank or building society and wait for the cheque to clear, usually four days, but sometimes 10 days. If you got paid cash you'd get it in a small brown envelope known as a wage packet which listed all deductions on the outside. It still felt good to tear open the wage packet and take out the cash."
- ElvishMystical
The Value of Employees
"That you chose a career, and you worked for an employee, and they valued your experience. You rose in the ranks of your profession, you became a valued team member, and you stayed until you retired."
"Changing jobs often is frowned on; if you make a job commitment, you follow through on it. People get bothered and quit/move/change really quickly now. That's not necessarily bad, but it has created a gap in expertise; everyone is new all the time, and there isn't any value in having experience."
"If you happen to be an elder in your field with some level of legacy knowledge; it doesn't seem to matter because your boss is likely younger than you and less experienced."
"There used to be jobs what you did to get paid and live, and careers, what you did because you wanted to invest time into being good at something, AND that was how you made a living."
"Moreover, you went to school to be in a career. So you put time and energy into attaining your job, therefore you'd want to stay in it and grow. In theory."
"I'm not sure anyone cares about being in a career anymore. Because we all feel so betrayed by the system; wages not keeping up with COL, inflation, (and inflation subsiding and prices staying high because it's what the market will bear), and when everyone is replaceable, then no one is an expert."
"I'm GenX. I work in healthcare. I work in a broken system that no one actually wants to fix. Those of us working in this system are now just grist for the mill. It's too bad because we spent a lot of time and money going to school to be able to work in our chosen field."
"In contrast, my mom was also a nurse. She had a career. She worked in it until she was 70 and retired. She worked with a team that mostly stayed the same, over decades. I don't work with anyone I started with at my job six years ago."
- bunnehfeet
Business Phones
"People used to answer their business phones."
- BornFree2018
"Oh my god, work landline numbers. I never see those anymore. I don’t even have a phone number in my email signature at work anymore."
"And business cards used to be such a big deal. I used to get really excited to see my name and title in print. I would always send my parents one when I got a new job. What a dork!"
- ptpoa120000
What Work-Life Balance?
"There was a lot more understanding back in the 80's and 90's that each employee had a life outside of work, and work would end at 5:00 PM. You could leave work and go do something that you liked, maybe a martial arts class or some learning workshop somewhere."
"There were no phone calls. Text messages and email hadn't happened yet. Pagers were rare. People were in better shape. They had time to workout and were encouraged by their bosses to go do something to keep in shape."
"These days, it's the opposite. There's no encouragement from your boss or your coworkers other than to just work around the clock. You're never 'off.' Emails, text messages, Slack messages, video calls, and 'tickets' from your company's internal issue tracking system come in at all hours of the day."
"You're tracked in every way possible these days. You're given impossible deadlines. It now takes incredible willpower to break free and 'sneak' away to go workout. You're exhausted all the time, so you lose the desire to workout. You just want sleep."
"Instead of meeting up with friends somewhere for dinner, you are happy to just get home, get something hot to eat from your microwave, and numb yourself by watching YouTube and Reddit."
"What you do now during your downtime is very low quality and is just done to unwind from the stress that follows you no matter where you are. They call this Flex Time, and its purpose is ostensibly to give you the ability to walk away from your work and go enjoy life. Funny."
- mhv64sj
New Measures of Success
"Working for a company for many years was seen as honorable and a sign you were a good worker."
"Now it’s viewed as someone complacent, scared of change, and stupid for not salary hopping."
"I don’t disagree, though; I’ve been at my company for a long time and it’s anything but complacent and always changing."
- MysteryMeat11
"This is why we in-betweeners especially (between gen-x and millennial) have been conflicted and confused about it all. We were raised by older boomers and heard it's best to stay with companies because it looks bad on resumes to not and can even affect your buying things like houses and cars."
"But then when we did, we were let go during times like the recession and cutbacks having to start all over again, on top of not getting raises like the new hires and then confused because we were told staying and being loyal looked good and led to success."
- fidgetypenguin123
A Literal Paper Trail
"Paper. Lots of paper."
"Before email, there were people (secretaries or admins) who would take a memo someone printed out on their computer, make physical copies, and either walk around to every executive’s desk, or put into inter-office mail. This memo could be to a few people, one person, or for a general announcement needed to go to everyone."
"For expediency, these memos would also be posted in public areas (lunchroom, messaging board) if it was a general notice. These memos were often routed from the head manager throughout the department if it was more for general information."
"We once had a wave of new hires (about 20 people in our company of 400) and each got their own announcement. So, 20 people and 50 copies was two reams of paper. Copied. Hand carried or inter-department mailed. For one set of announcements."
"Oh, and each department admin had their own routing slip (small piece of paper with each person in the department’s name) that was stapled to the announcement. When you got the memo, you read it, crossed your name off, and gave it to the next person on the list."
"That’s where 'they must not have gotten the memo' comes from."
- UncleGizmo
It's interesting to look back on how things have changed. While some things have definitely improved, like improved safety precautions and more relaxed attire, other things like a sense of work-life balance have certainly declined.
If people were able to choose their working conditions, it'd be interesting to see if they'd choose today's working conditions or a different work-life balance...
Jobs That Pay Well For Absolutely No Reason
Reddit user FlintTheDad asked: 'What’s a job that pays extremely well for no reason?'
Though we may not like to think about it too much, we can all agree that living is getting more expensive by the week, and it's more important than ever to have a good, stable job.
But there are some jobs out there that have a questionable salary, though not in a bad way.
Redditor FlintTheDad asked:
"What's a job that pays extremely well for no reason?"
Slot Machine Repair
"Repairing slot machines. I'm currently at $32 per hour and the benefits package and vacation time are incredible. Some days are busy, but last year I managed to read a few books on shift."
- Ok-Sign5282
Support for Tech Support
"My job doesn't make six figures, but I'm overly compensated for making sure Tech Support doesn't cuss the customer out and pointing out what they could have done better."
"I'm not even the supervisor, I'm just the judgy f**k sitting in the corner office."
- judasmachine
Questionable Talent
"I worked as a recruiter for Microsoft during the pandemic. There was such a fever pitch for tech talent that we were basically throwing $175,000 checks per year at anyone with a pulse and a GitHub."
"We have a lot of amazing tech talent, but some of the people we hired had no business being there. Like, literally just twiddling their thumbs and handling one or two small kanban-type projects each week while reaping almost $200k a year. All of the big tech firms did."
"If you're wondering why they all laid so many people off, that's a big part of it. New hires now are being offered much smaller paychecks."
- Agatha_Penderghast
Management Consultant
"My job as a 'Management Consultant.'"
"I earn six figures and my only real task is to listen to my boss whine. That's it."
- BadAlphas
The Football Game
"Chase Daniel has been in the NFL for 14 seasons, has thrown 273 passes, started five games, and made 41 million dollars."
"Your answer is third-string quarterback."
- bargman
Mail Delivery
"Mail carrier for Canada Post. I make $230 a day (wages are based on route value) and I was home before 9 AM on Friday. I started at 7 AM."
"Mondays are longer, and Christmas can suck, but for 10 months of the year, I work a max of four hours a day. Unionized. Benefits that are better than Blue Cross and I pay $15 per month for PTO, personal days, etc. It's the best job I've ever had."
- skylla05
Genius Translation
"I once learned of a guy making 300k translating genius talk to others."
"He would talk to the genius engineers. They would tell him their ideas, since they are too socially awkward to do it themselves, and he would explain their idea to the rest of the team."
"That sounded like a great gig."
- SquirrelYogurt
Night Shifts at the Gym
"I get paid just under $80k working nights at a gym. Get all my work done in less than two hours and can basically do whatever for the other six. Watch football. Scroll Reddit. Whatever."
"Not awesome money but excellent for what I do."
- Human_Alternative_
Microphone Performances
"The 'let's get ready to rumble' guy and his brother, the 'it's time' guy, both make millions for holding a mike and saying a few lines."
- YouPeopleMakeNoSense
Birthday Party Clowns
"The average clown salary in the United States is $63,000 per year."
- mimzaroo
Lawn Mowing
"Honestly? Lawn mowing. I make ridiculous money running a landscaping and lawn care business (5%/95%). It’s hard to overestimate how much people will pay to avoid physical labor."
- SlothfulWhiteMag
9-1-1 Operator
"I'm a 911 operator and make $36 an hour with no degree needed."
"I mean, I do have to listen to some pretty f**ked up s**t, but luckily I've been emotionally dead for over a decade now so it works out well for me."
- Razvee
Medical Administration
"Medical administrator. I know a married couple with the same med admin bachelor's degree, and a one a year online master's in medical admin. They walked out of college into six-figure jobs over ten years ago and now make ~$500k each."
"I can't tell if they actually do anything for the hospital. During the pandemic, they took advantage of healthcare loans they didn't have to pay back. They also would post all sorts of (hashtag) front-line healthcare workers' s**t during the pandemic... from their second vacation home because they worked remotely the whole time. Scabs."
- secderpsi
Event Technology
"Event technology. 75,000 dollars per year to set up projectors and microphones. Most of the day consists of waiting to break everything down after the event. Lots of downtime, like a lot. I was able to finish my Associate's degree with all the downtime."
- Rock33A
Optics Retailer
"Optics."
"You can be a normal retail sales associate and sell eyeglasses at LensCrafters and make up to $29.00 plus commission plus paid time off, sick leave, retirement, health and dental insurance, and free annual eyewear with a high school diploma."
- JustSomeApparition
While some of these jobs are likely more work than these Redditors suggested, it's cool to see that there are jobs out there that pay more than the work required, which is a refreshing opposite to the many jobs in the world where people work way too much for far too little money.
Just like building trust, it takes a long time to build an impressive reputation, but it can take only one big mistake to ruin it forever.
Some people still find themselves impressed by how quickly their perception of someone could change, though.
Redditor nastrohan asked:
"What's the best example of, 'It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it' that you know of?"
Foot Immediately in Mouth
"At my old company, we produced consumer goods and licensed lots of high-end pop culture brands."
"On a call with a team representing a very popular and iconic space movie franchise owned by The Mouse, one of our senior partners was sitting through a call on rights or sales numbers or whatever with like 20 people."
"He thought he was on mute and said something to the effect of, 'How much longer do we have to listen to this obese idi*t jerk himself off, talking about his bulls**t anyhow!?!'"
"The call was abruptly ended. All follow-ups were ignored. Maybe a week or two later, we got a letter terminating all current and developing licensing deals for cause citing contract violations, and the company was effectively quietly banned from ever doing business with any brand under that Massive Mouse Umbrella."
"That dude lost them hundreds of millions in future business in about 15 seconds. When you first start, you’re told never to suggest pitching anything owned by The Mouse and then get told the story."
"The company was the worst job and work culture I've ever had. I'm amazed it stays in business."
- GrayBox1313
Free, Terrible Advertising
"This reminds me of that guy who sold his old company truck to a used car dealer and ended up seeing it in the news with some terrorists in the Middle East driving it. Mounted guns and everything on that thing with his business and his name painted on the side. Great advertising."
"He was forced to close shop after because of the bad rep. It's sad when you think about it since he didn't deserve it, but it's a great example."
- TheBFG420
Leading a Double Life
"My father."
"I grew up believing he was an honest, hardworking, and loyal man."
"While he was absolutely a hard-working man, finding out when I was 21 that he had another house, woman, and child 20 minutes down the street that he went to on his frequent 'business trips' dispelled the notion that he was honest and loyal..."
- ThirstyWeirwoodRootz
The Terrible Insinuation
"A large government organization I was working for had another related organization added to its portfolio, so as many people as possible from both organizations got together in the foyer of the building (3000 people maybe) as the boss talked about the synergies of the two groups, etc."
"There were national news cameras and s**t, it’s a big deal politically here."
"Then the camera panned to the crowd and caught a guy on one of the walkways on the third floor making the machine gun fingers and pretending to shoot thousands of government workers below..."
"Just call him FORMER middle management..."
- whoodzzz
Going Several Steps Too Far
"I used to work for a humanitarian aid non-profit. My old boss was the sweetest, most wholesome, super Christian woman I had ever met."
"A year after I left that job, I read an article about how she kidnapped two kids from an event she worked on because she thought the father was a Satanist or something (he was an atheist)."
"I would've never pegged her as 'that kind of Christian.'"
- AStrangerSaysHi
A Snapchat Affair
"A local couple, the husband was a city alderman/real estate agent and his father was a former mayor so their surname and family were very well-known."
"His wife was a beloved teacher and cheer coach/sponsor at the high school. Apparently, she was trying to snap someone explicit pics on Snapchat and accidentally sent them to everyone on her snap including students, friends, family, fellow church members, etc."
"She was fired and her husband divorced her because he wasn’t on Snapchat and wasn’t the intended recipient of her spicy pics."
- WthAmIEvenDoing
A Questionable Business Model
"My Mom ran a daycare for almost 20+ years. It was her own business that she build up. Not only did I attend it, it was my first real job. And I fell in love with childcare because of it."
"We were very accommodating, we weren’t too strict. Our goal wasn’t to get a three-year-old to read at a fourth-grade level. But to give parents what they needed, making sure the kids were safe and well cared for. Helping out along the way with potty training and weaning and such. We had such a long waitlist. But still found a way to get the children who really needed it care."
"My mother sold it to a larger chain daycare when she retired. They made a bunch of changes, made a bunch of promises that kids will be reading, potty trained by two to three years old, perfect little angels."
"Every child is different. You know why every child was potty trained by age three? Because if they weren’t, they were kicked out."
"No comfort items at nap time. Because they were making little adults instead of babies."
"It took about six months and the waitlist was down to zero. They were offering incentives to sign your child up. They could not bring in or keep workers. I think it downsized but eventually closed."
- lightteenagerbaby
Not On Mute
"We had a guy on a super big important call where my bosses, bosses, boss was speaking and some guy comes off mute in front of 300 people and says, '...Don't get why we gotta be on these stupid fu**king calls. They're all just talking out of their a**es anyway. They're just here to say OhHhHH look...' and then it cut off."
"A way higher-up guy that was speaking said, 'Derrian! (Guy that was talking trash), finish that sentence for us. What have you got to say?'"
"There was silence."
"Then, 'Come on, Derrian. Don't be shy.'"
"There was more silence."
"Then he said, 'Okay, moving on.'"
- 8LeggedSquirrel
The Rumor Mill
"Me. I worked at the same company for ten years and had an excellent reputation. Some wild stuff went down and all the managers except for me had to be replaced."
"My reputation was fine at that point. Then we hired this crazy guy who was lying and saying strange things a lot, then he was sexually inappropriate with a customer."
"I reported all of this to my boss. This crazy guy made up even bigger and more compelling lies… about me. They believed him."
"I didn’t do anything fireable, but they transferred me to a different location. I was told that I needed to 'shape up to save my job' despite ten years of maximum raises and promotions and glowing feedback."
"Two days later, the guy was fired by HR because a customer reported him for sexual harassment. Nobody said a word to me, no apology, nothing."
"I quit in January. F**k Office Depot!"
- Hatecookie
Inappropriate Comments
"I believe there was a cheap jewelry company back in the 80s in the UK whose whole schtick was that its stuff was just as good as the high-end stuff but just cheaper. They had a decent chunk of market share and were on their way to being the largest jewelry store in the UK."
"Then their CEO has a big meeting with I want to say the shareholders and one of them asks how they keep their stuff so cheap, to which the CEO jokingly remarked 'because our gems are all cheap junk' or something to that effect."
"That remark got out to the press out of context and it ruined the company within the year, I believe."
- Ralife55
Racist Rewards
"How about that lady who tweeted something racist right before a flight, and by the time it landed, she was canceled and fired from her executive job?"
"That took five seconds, not five minutes. It’s got to be a record."
- muffinman8urmom
It's amazing how quickly someone's life can change, especially when they've done something stupid.
While we all have to do it so that we can pay our bills, some of us would definitely not work if we didn't have to.
But that has less to do with our work ethic and more to do with some of the terrible work experiences we've had.
Redditor 7Earth7Energy asked:
"In all seriousness, what's the worst job you've ever had?"
Heartbroken Santa
"Store Santa during my college years."
"Sometimes I enjoyed being 'Santa.'"
"But many times, children were sad and asked for things that likely would never happen, like, as I once commented, 'A new boyfriend for Mommy because she was so lonely ever since Daddy died.'"
- Back2Bach
Retail Managers
"Cashier at a grocery store. The work was fine. My manager was a nightmare."
- Dwight_Bright
Fast-Paced Kitchen
"Fast food... I know everyone knows its a bad job, but nobody knows the stress that goes round in that kitchen, it's insane."
- AnnaEatBanana
Unpredictable Cleaning Schedules
"I used to work for a carpet cleaning company. You never knew what you were going to come across that day. There are basically two types of people that use carpet cleaning services:"
"Type One: Pretty much spotless clean house. Perhaps they spilled a glass of wine on the carpet, and they want the stain out. Easy job..."
"Type Two: They had four dogs and never let them out, and there is more s**t in the carpet than carpet."
- Euphoric-Beat-7206
Thankless Job
"Dishwasher. I’ll go to my grave saying that it is the worst possible job you can have."
"Dishpan hands are a real thing and suck a**. You’re the last to leave the restaurant, the least paid, and least respected person in the building."
- Cognitive-Shadow
Plants and Cars
"I can't decide between two, so I'll share both:"
"First, I was 19 and had just dropped out of college. I decided to take a job over the summer building scaffolding in the chemical plants around the Houston ship channel. I lasted exactly two weeks doing that work."
"12-hour days, carrying long metal posts and hammering them together in the hot Texas sun, with the smell of burning chemicals all around you, and a foreman who can't speak English so communicates to you with hand signals and whistles."
"A lot of my classmates went and had full careers working in the plants. I knew then I had no desire to chase that living. That s**t sucked. I hated the work, I hated being there, and I hated that I had no time to do anything because I was always at work or sleeping."
"Second, Car sales. When I first got out of the Navy and was looking for my first civilian IT job, I was having a hard time getting hired anywhere. I took a job selling cars because it's pretty much what I could find aside from barista work."
"Long, long days. Like 14+ hours, calling 'ups' and calling people on the phone to harass them into coming into the store for some 'once in a lifetime deal.' Having to try and get people to buy a car they won't like because that's the one that would get me the bigger spiff, or trying to f**k them on the price because I'd get a higher commission if I did."
"And it was causing so much grief at home because I was never home, and my wife and son were never seeing me, and we were still not making enough money to get by, despite me selling out my own morals every day and hating myself for it."
"And I was so busy at work, I didn't have time to apply and interview for the jobs I actually wanted. I ended up taking a loan from my gramps to help me pay the bills for a few months while I quit this job so I was able to find IT work, which finally paid off."
- SweetCosmicPope
Out in the Lumberyard
"Working on a lumber mill. I was literally the only employee with all my teeth and all my fingers. Watched a guy take a 14” splinter through his thigh. Board came off the saw and split, half of it opened the guy's leg like stabbing a balloon full of blood. The owner was on the line before medics arrived, yelling at us to get the saws working again."
"I was a medic in the Army and an EMT, so I was working on the injured man. The boss yelled at me to get back to the chain and let the injured man lay there till the medics arrived. I loudly told him to go f**k himself and stayed with the victim."
"He threatened to fire me and I told him I was calling OSHA. He shut up."
- Outlander56
World Runs On...
"Dunkin. Literally new staff each week. They don't pay their employees. And they screw you over so bad, they make you quit. Not to mention they don't even put you into the system on purpose, not expecting you to last long."
"Also, it's not Krispy Kream. They don't make their donuts fresh. They wait for a truckload and they gotta microwave them so they're not stiff and frozen."
"Don't buy from Dunkin. They overwork and severely underpay their staff."
- LueWinchesterSPN
The Family Clique
"A small town family-owned diner. It was my first job, they took advantage of me for being young and inexperienced, I was underpaid, and the family who worked there was very cliquey."
"They made jokes at my expense, excluded me from certain things, and overall just didn't treat me well."
- Lilah_Vale
Fast Food Woes
"McDonald’s was a s**t show. I worked there for nearly two years back in high school. I’ll never forget the cheeseburger lady."
"She would always order a cheeseburger with no cheese (hamburger, but she wouldn’t take that for an answer) One day, she got cheese on her burger. Note that this wasn’t an allergy thing, she just didn’t like our ‘fake cheese.' When she checked her burger at the window, she saw the ungodly sight of cheese staring back at her."
"She slammed the burger on her lap and screamed at the top of her lungs. She just sat there screaming. I awkwardly tried to consult her but instead, I got the burger thrown at me."
"I was 16 at the time, and I knew I wasn’t getting paid enough for that psycho s**t."
- deathmetalish
Call Center Life
"Customer Service call center. No one can pay me any reasonable amount of money to go back."
"It’s been six years since I left and I still hate talking on the phone for any reason whatsoever."
"Whoever invented that stupid metric where if your satisfaction is eight or lower is considered a failure, I hope you get stuck with a thousand pine needles and are set on fire."
- DJVanillaBear
Instant Karma
"This was about 25 years ago. It wasn’t an actual job, but I got roped into volunteering for a St. Patrick’s Day dinner at a catholic church where I lived. There were about 10 of us teenagers and our job was to serve food to the people who’d bought tickets. Corned beef, mashed potatoes, and like, steamed carrots…some s**t like that."
"Anyway, like 100 people showed up and they were the rudest sacks of s**t I’d ever encountered in my life. They treated us like dirt. Total disrespect. And I’m sure their treatment was made worse by the fact that we were kids."
"This was the moment I realized I could never ever work in the food industry. I learned a huge lesson that night and have always gone out of my way to be kind to servers and tip extra. It changed my life."
"But also, the joke's on them. The church refused to let us eat anything until all these a**holes had finished their meals (we were told we had to clean up, too), so we kids just started eating off the plates before serving them. We didn’t give a s**t anymore. Had they treated us better, we wouldn’t have done that. F**k those people."
- idkidc9876
Hospital Volunteer
"I volunteered at a hospital ICU, I was by myself and no one would talk to me. The nurses are pretty quiet and the doctors are major douchebags, and the patients are old and sick."
"Because I was volunteering, I got like $15 credit every day for cafeteria food, but my shift ended right when the cafeteria closed, so sometimes I'd ask if I could leave early."
"The nurses would get p**sed about that and make me stay to the very end, even though my job was literally just to sit there and draw grids for their future logbooks... which I already did all day. Jerks wouldn't even let me get some food."
- blackhistorymonthlea
Telemarketing Drama
"Telemarketer. They moved me from an outside sales position into a telephone sales one where I would be reporting to the boss's 19-year-old side piece. Part of the job was keeping it secret from his wife."
"That's the only job I didn't give two weeks' notice at."
- AdmiralBofa
Deeply Exhausting
"This is not even remotely as bad as others, but babysitting a three-year-old who was obsessed with stairs."
"The kid lived on the first floor of an apartment building and had never really gotten to play on stairs until I was looking after her at my place while her mom was working late and their regular babysitter was unavailable."
"I was 13 or 14 at the time, I think. You can only chase a kid up and down the stairs for so long before you want to curl in a ball and sleep for two days. I played several sports at the time too."
"But after literal hours of her wanting me to chase her up and down the stairs, I wanted to die. Even our dog, a hyper lab mix, had long since pooped out and went off to sleep somewhere, lol (laughing out loud)."
- KittyObsession
Everyone has their workplace horror stories, but there typically will always be that one workplace that was particularly bad with one day that served as the ultimate deal breaker. At least these experiences help us to appreciate the better opportunities that come along!
If we're being honest, we've all had days where we really did not want to go to work.
But sometimes, there's something actively preventing us from being able to go.
Curious about other's mishaps, Redditor SamanthaWallaceJU asked:
"What's the weirdest excuse you've heard for skipping work?"
Save the Cat (For Real)
"I'm an opening shift manager at Starbucks. These are my favorite call-out reasons (from all different people):"
"A coworker called that she was gonna be late because there was a man sitting on her front step. (I told her to be safe and not to worry about getting here until she felt safe. And if that meant calling out, so be it.)"
"Another called out because she was hungover. Not a lie or a made-up excuse. (I laughed and told her to make sure she drank water and to have a good day of rest.)"
"The last one heard a kitten in a bush on her way in and didn't want it getting hit by a car, so she had to try to save it."
"(I left the store on my lunch to help her because she hadn't gotten it out by then. I am not afraid of getting INSIDE a bush to save a kitten. That's how another employee at my store got her first cat! I literally had to take a sink bath before coming back onto the floor because I was covered in dirt and leaves.)"
"My coworker who has major OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) took it to help her with her own kind of emersion therapy. She has since gotten a second cat and loves being a cat mom. It has helped her with some of her OCD tendencies because cats gonna do what a cat's gonna do, ya know? Lol (laughing out loud)."
"Anyway, I'm sure there's more, but those are my top three."
- AmandaExpress
Let's Be Honest
"'I'm just not feeling it today.'"
"I totally understood where he was coming from."
- ChocolateDrizzle69
Grief Matters
"When I started my job, the only person I'd report to is the CEO of this organization of hundreds of employees. Luckily, she's also the most compassionate and competent person in the entire organization."
"I told her I needed some mental health days because a few of my gaming buddies died over the course of a weekend (knowing that I'd probably have to dip into my PTO because they're not immediate family and bereavement time is usually only doled out if a family member dies), and I felt like f**king crying at her compassionate response."
"She told me, 'Grieving is hard, and family isn't always dictated by blood or marriage. Take all the time you need, you'll still keep receiving your normal paycheck, and you won't lose any PTO. I'll let the team know you're not responding to emails or calls. Rest, spend time with your wife, grieve your friends properly, and just shoot me an email when you feel ready to come back to work.'"
"I wish the world had more people like my boss."
- DeepStateOfAffairs
Caught in the Middle
"I had to call in once because the SWAT team wouldn't let me leave my apartment. I found out later some guy snapped and was holding his girlfriend hostage and threatening to kill her and himself."
"I don't know what set it off but when I stepped outside at 7 AM to go to work, a SWAT dude was outside my door with a rifle aimed at another apartment building and told me to go back inside."
"I snapped a picture out my window of all the cops and sent it to my boss."
- diiejso
Something Out of a Suspense Thriller
"I was working from home so I only missed a small part of the day. Someone had shot and murdered someone. Drove away and then ditched the car and ran up my driveway, around the house, and at some point into the shed according to the dogs that came in later."
"I heard the helicopter outside and then saw police walking around my house with rifles and handguns which is super strange in New Zealand as generally cops aren't armed unless responding to an armed threat. Shortly after the AOS (armed offender squad, SWAT equivalent) were ordering me out of the house to ask if I'd seen or heard anything."
"I was so jumped up on adrenaline and it was surreal while this was all happening to see pictures and videos of my street on the news."
"The police were there all day looking for the weapon (the offender had escaped). They bought dogs and metal detectors. As well as detectives to interview us."
- metalbassist33
That Escalated Quickly
"A new hire sent an email on the morning of his first day: 'Hi, I’m very sorry, but I had to suddenly leave the country and will not be able to come to work.'"
- lovelyb1ch66
Awkward
"Him: My neighbor was burgled."
"Me: Oh, did you see who did it?"
"Him: Yeah, sort of."
"Me: Do you need to give a statement?"
"Him: I'll be here for a while, I think."
"Me: So what happened?"
"Him: I was caught in my neighbor's house."
"Me: ..... [puts phone down]"
- Jimmyboro
Ouch
"I broke my ankle, foot, and toes, and sent my boss photos from the ER X-ray room and still got bit*hed at."
- Navaro27
Like a Broken Record
"I used to work with a guy who missed work at least once every other week, and he only had three excuses."
"1. He got robbed and has to be at the police to make a report."
"2. His car was stolen and has no way to get to work."
"3. His car was recovered and has to go to the police to get it back."
"It was over and over, like he couldn't remember that he already used these same excuses several times previously."
"He also worked an on-call schedule and had his pager 'stolen' at least half a dozen times that I know of. They eventually told him he would have to pay for any further missing pagers."
"Then one day he just didn't come to work and didn't show up for a week. Then he showed up and said, 'I have to quit,' and they took him into an office and talked with him a while and then sent him home."
"We were all told, 'Calvin is taking a 30-day leave of absence,' and we all took bets on whether it was jail or rehab. He never came back, though, so nobody won."
- McFeely_Smackup
Think It Through
"One of my coworkers was in the hospital due to CO poisoning, because he used a gas-powered concrete saw in his basement."
"I ended up doing similar work and when I told him, he said to make sure I set up good ventilation, at which point I told him I rented an electric saw."
"Oh, and he's a mechanical (HVAC) engineer, so he should have known better about air quality."
- eaglescout1984
Different Timelines
"I had a coworker come in an hour late because:"
"'There was a flood and this woman was stranded in her car in the middle of the road. No one else was helping her, so I waded through waist-high water to help her get out of her car. I waited with her for the fire department to come, then came into the office.'"
"This coworker was about 5'2" and skinny. She also lived 20 minutes farther out than I did, but apart from that, we took the same way to work every day. She was an hour late and her clothes were dry. I encountered no flood on my commute."
"Seemed suspicious, but what do I know?"
- lapsangsouchogn
Country Life
"My coworker called in because her neighbors bull had escaped and she had to help him get it back in the yard."
- Coconut-bird
Communication Is Key
"My work was very understaffed on runners last season so a bunch of us referred people we knew who needed jobs. One of the girls I referred came in maybe three times, probably not even, and called in for a week because she had school assignments."
"My manager is fantastic with us university students and understands school comes first (especially since it's a flexible part-time job so missing a couple of shifts isn't a big deal), so she didn't mind even though it left is short-staffed."
"About a month and a half went by and I realized I hadn't seen this girl around (I serve so I don't really see them unless they're delivering to my section) so I shot her a message just basically asking her how she's liking the job, mentioning I haven't seen her much."
"She straight up told me she just stopped coming in because she felt bad that she called out and was worried my manager would fire her."
"I told her if she wasn't going to be reliable or if she knew she was too busy for the job, then she should probably just quit because she's just gonna fire her anyways at that point. She agreed."
"I apologized profusely to my manager about it and let her know what she said because I felt terrible for referring someone who wasn't able to make the commitment."
"My manager just laughed and admitted that she honestly didn't even notice because half of the new hires did the same thing anyways and she lost track of who all stopped showing up and was trying to make a list of who did do that so she could let them go and said I didn't need to stress about it."
"I don't refer people anymore. Safe to say we have a much more reliable runner group now too!"
- Burnt_Your_Toast
Too Stunned to Work
"I had a guy call in because he watched 'Ex Machina' the night before and was too disturbed to come into work. I wish I could say I was making this up."
- SoWhatComesNext
Genuine Emergencies
"I worked a night shift that day and made a coffee run as usual. I saw a car on top of a snow mound and a couple of people looking in the car. Well, I’m in a truck, maybe I can pull the guy down."
"Nope. Guy had a heart attack and died while driving. The car hit the mound and got stuck."
"First aid kicked in so I broke the window and performed CPR until emergency crews came. Medics took over, and I had to go with them to the hospital and provide a statement. The nurse called my work explained the situation and got dropped off back to my truck by hospital security."
"I got three paid days off work. It is what it is and life moves on."
- IxuntouchblexI
Life throws all kinds of curveballs at us, sometimes just in time for work.
The best thing to do is to take pictures and document the situation whenever possible, and hope the boss has a sense of humor or empathy.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/