1. Wait A Minute

At my 10-year high school reunion, we had a decent turnout, maybe 100+ people. We were at a pretty nice hotel banquet hall. There was one guy I had known all through high school, Chris, and he was a well-known stoner. I saw Chris walk into the banquet hall, stop in his tracks, and turn around in a very slow 360-degree circle, surveying the entire room.

He just said, "Whoa," and he looked visibly alarmed. He stopped, and his eyes settled on me. I said, "Hey, Chris! Long time no see, man!" He kind of slid over to me and whispered in my ear, "This is weird...I'm pretty sure I know every single person in this room". And that is when I realized he was wearing the same clothes as all the banquet hall workers.

Chris was working as a server at his high school reunion, and he had no clue what was happening. I walked him out to the front lobby and explained it was our 10-year high school reunion. He was mortified, beyond embarrassed. He was never contacted and didn't even realize it had been ten years since we graduated.

He just knew he was working another catering gig in a never-ending series of catering gigs. I made him take me to his manager. I explained what was happening and told the manager there was NO WAY this guy was working his high school reunion.

Awesomely, the manager agreed. We found a different suit jacket and tie for him, and I took Chris back to the party. He ended up having a good night.

Foo-Fighters-Fan

2. Pay Him No Mind

At my five-year reunion, there was one guy who was always kind of a marginal figure in high school but a nice person. After some sort of discussion, he got his paycheck out and got loud, saying, “Now do you think I’m a loser? Don’t believe how much I make? Check this out”.

Of course, he just made things worse, and everyone was laughing at him. I mean, he had his paycheck on him.

kev_61483

3. Odd Man Out

During our reunion, a social group of "cool people" that I had cordial relations with during high school but was never part of all met up and were pretty happy about it. Then, over drinks, it somehow came out that all of them had been sleeping together during high school, except for one of them.

He had always seemed like a core member of the group from the outside, not unattractive or anything, but for some reason, he was just never clued into the fact that all his friends were getting it on with each other end masse for basically as long as they knew each other. There was some very eye-opening loud screaming.

imariaprime

4. Top Prize For A Teen Mom

At my 10-year reunion, the organizers were doing the thing where they give "awards" for the person who came the farthest to attend, the person with the most kids, etc. The award came up for who had the oldest kid, and people started shouting out their kids' ages.

When it quieted down, this shy girl unexpectedly stood up in front of everyone. She whispered, "Eleven". Then we all realized why we had stopped seeing her right before graduation.

InfinitePizzazz

5. Wrapped Up Nonsense

When I was in 7th grade, this rich snob, John, grabbed a wool scarf my mother had knitted for me off my head. He threw the scarf into a pile of muddy leaves and jumped up and down on it.

When I went home that day, my mother was furious when she saw the torn, muddy scarf. She made me tell her who did it, then she called the school principal and yelled at him.

The next day, John got pulled into the principal’s office and paddled. That was back when they still paddled kids. Fifty-five years later, at our 50th class reunion, John came up to me and angrily said, “You got me into trouble in seventh grade!!!” I got “him” in trouble?! And he’s still mad about it 55 years later?

I said, “John, you were a [jerk] in high school, and you’re still a [jerk],” and I walked away.

GrandmasHere

6. Hand Him Over

I was at a small college reunion with my core group of friends from university. This was about five years after graduation. We all partied pretty hard in school but mellowed out in our late twenties.

We decided to all meet up for dinner at a local bar/restaurant. One guy showed up already plastered, with a duffle bag full of multiple packets of illicit substances and the bottle he started on before meeting us.

He decided we were boring, finished his bottle in the restroom, and refused to come out. He ended up passing out in there. The bartender booted him out. He came alone in an Uber, and we had no idea where he lived.

None of us wanted to take him to our places, so we dropped him off at his last known address, which was his parents’ house. Both of them answered the door, and we handed him over. It was past midnight and incredibly awkward.

tallmatcha

7. Mean Girl Mash Up

It's been a decade since I finished school. I would see an old classmate sometimes when he did maintenance work in my apartment block. About a year ago, he asked if I was going to the reunion organized by some of our classmates. I said no because I couldn't think of anything worse and also hadn't been invited.

When I next saw him six months later, I asked how the reunion was, and he exasperatedly explained that it had been a real gong show. The mean girls who had started planning it together fell out and then started each planning their own, so there were about four tiny awkward parties, and everyone was confused.

bubblegummustard

8. Miserable In High School And Out

The people who were supposed to plan our high school reunion dropped the ball, so I figured it wouldn't happen. Then this other dude from our high school stepped up to plan it.

He was in a graduate program and also working part-time at a banquet hall and said that his boss would give us the banquet hall space for free. It was a nice gesture, and he seemed really into it.

He had been a miserable person in high school—grumpy, sullen, unpleasant, and mean to other people. He came out in college, so maybe the weight of having to keep it a secret was part of why he was so unpleasant; maybe he'd be more fun now. But the truth would soon reveal itself—and it was not at all what I expected.

I was working a terrible job and had no savings at the time. So, I was neither interested in having my former classmates pity me nor was I wanting to shell out a lot of money to attend, plus my ex might be there and that didn't feel worth it. The organizer made a Facebook event and asked people to Venmo him the cost of admission before attending. He wanted something like $15–$20 ahead.

It didn't really feel worth paying for, but maybe if there would be some drinks included or something, I would go for an hour. I sent him a private message asking what the admissions ticket covered since the space was free, after all.

He then posted a truly peculiar message on the Facebook page. He said that i f the cost of admission was too steep, "Message me and we can work out some financial aid". What?

I then publicly posted, asking what the admission cost covered. There was no response. Other people asked too. He said it would go towards having a bartender and server dedicated to the event space, as well as towards food. Fair. It turned out HE WAS THE SERVER. My friend showed up having not yet paid him, and he barred her entry.

The people who had paid the admission cost showed up at an empty banquet hall. They were given a menu by their former classmate and told to order their food and drink from him. He pocketed the admission ticket money as his fee. After an hour, he brought out one grocery store sheet cake for 75 people to share. That was it.

SaltWafer

9. A Surprise Ending

I was at my 10th reunion of a graduating class of about 850. It was a well-funded high school, and every class had a trust fund to fund reunions. A good friend of mine was our treasurer and organized it via Facebook. We started big with a ballroom, setting for 1,000, figuring spouses, etc.

A year out, there was lots of interest, but not as much for 1,000 people, so we scaled back. Six months out, there was less interest. Lots of people reconnected via Facebook and lost the drive to care, so we scaled back more. Three months out was the deadline for attendance.

The school’s alumni association would dispense the funds based on class size and allotment for the milestone. We hadn’t put a deposit down because the target kept moving.

Two months out, my friend finalized things and did a formal cut-off. She had kept taking RSVPs for a month due to a lack of interest. The day of it was at a local bar. Not a small bar, either.

Some 25 alumni showed up out of 150 RSVPs, and with spouses or whatever, there were around 40 people. The worst part was knowing so few people cared, but the best part was the treasurer’s smirk the entire night.

The school had allotted $50 per person for this, $15,000 with instructions to pay everything fully.

We drank and ate to the point of almost being Roman, and the bill was $7,500 between the food and venue rental. She paid the bill, then handed everyone $100 from the envelope, and then handed the rest of the envelope to the manager and was like “Here’s the tip”. Roughly $3,000 went to the waitstaff and crew.

Psykerr

10. Dude Was A Rock Star

It wasn't really bad, just odd. A guy came with full KISS-style makeup on—white face, black shapes around his eyes, and black lips. We were too awkward and polite to mention it, so everyone just chatted with him as though it was completely normal to turn up like that.

Fall_On_Me

11. The Joke Was On Them

One guy had made not one but two fortunes and had a net worth of well over $100 million by our 20th reunion. He had high-speed modem patents in the late 1980s and was an early investor in broadband. He'd already retired.

On our classmate's update bulletin, he listed his occupation as "unemployed and unemployable" as a bit of a gag. Some of the well-meaning but clueless types sought him out to offer encouragement and tips on how to find work.

MastadonBob

12. Begging For More

A former classmate went around panhandling at my 10-year reunion. I didn't know his name and had no memory of him whatsoever, but I noticed he was sitting up front with the people who organized the reunion.

Towards the end, one of the organizers got on the mic and said, "By the way, I promised [name] that if he showed up, everyone would give him a dollar," in a tone that sounded to me like she was joking.

But no. He worked the room asking for handouts. He needed gas money to get home, even though he lived locally. He must've been completely immune to embarrassment. I'd probably hold up a supermarket before I resorted to something like that.

Commander_Cyclops

13. You Won’t Get Any Dancing Here

My 10-year reunion ended before it happened. Our class president—traditionally in charge of organizing—took a hard turn into a Footloose character after high school.

Her event planning included no drinks allowed—not even BYOB—she was adamant there would be no music or dancing, and ones were to be spouses only. Two guys happily told her they'd bring their husbands, and she ousted them both from the Facebook page.

The venue was the high school's soccer field in Iowa in August. We were welcome to bring our chairs. A few people offered to bring beanbags and bocce, and similar games. She said no because it would make the reunion "too much like tailgating".

Suggested entertainment was a guided tour of the school, which had undergone zero change since we graduated. Catering was from Hy-Vee, which is a grocery store. Their food was okay, but the tickets were $60. It was not $60 a ticket good. It was ultimately canceled because out of our class of 300, fewer than ten people bought tickets.

kenjiandco

14. Mic Drop

We had a teacher in high school who told us, "By the time you reach your 10-year reunion, at least one of your classmates will have died," during a discussion about mortality. The 10-year reunion arrived, and nobody from our class had lost their lives. The Saturday night of the reunion, we're partying and having a good old time.

One of the organizers got up to the microphone and was making some announcements. She suddenly got a blank look on her face and dropped to the floor. She suffered a brain aneurysm; she was gone before she hit the floor.

ndphoto

15. Wrong Way Match

At my 10-year reunion, there were two married couples who dated the opposite one back in the day. Well, two hours into the reunion, I saw Guy Number One feeling up Lady Number Two. I shrugged it off, thinking that maybe my eyes were messed up from being a little tipsy. I went to use the restroom and saw Guy Number Two with Lady Number One. Now, I knew something was messed up.

Another hour went by, and I heard some yelling and name-calling. Lady One and Lady Two were catfighting each other. Guy One and Guy Two came from different angles to see what was going on. Then, they saw it was their wives going at it. They tried to pull them off of each other, and the wives started hitting their respective husbands, calling them cheats.

Pandemonium broke loose between the guys, and they started beating each other. The wives started brawling again as well. We finally broke it up. Both the women and the men had bruises and torn outfits, and bloody lips. Well, Lady One went home with Guy Two, and Lady Two went home with Guy One.

About two or three weeks later, we found out that they all got divorced and got remarried to the people they were hooking up with at the reunion.

Coiledviper

16. Looting Loser

The organizer at my 10-year high school reunion had set up a donation table for a college scholarship in memory of a classmate that had passed. This was in a midwestern USA city, so it was just a table with a glass bowl for attendees to drop money into. No worries, right?! WRONG.

Some jerk took all the donations and just walked out with probably at least a grand in cash when he had the chance. I never heard what happened to him, but everyone knew who did it. I have a feeling he will not be invited to any more reunions.

PhillipKatsabanis

17. A Grand Slamming Time

We'd been there less than an hour, having a great time reconnecting. Suddenly, an old friend approached and said, "Is that your wife over there? She's pretty hammered". As we watched, she tripped and fell face-first, full-body crash onto a table where many of my old classmates were sitting. The table broke, and food and drinks flew everywhere.

I walked over, scooped her up, and half-carried/half-walked her out the door. She had taken a Xanax before going (unbeknownst to me) and started slamming drinks as soon as she got there.

ImVerySerious

18. Last-Minute Cancellation

Someone I knew from school tried to arrange an unofficial reunion as the school wasn't going to do one. He was socially inept, so he would say and do odd things, but his heart was always in the right place. He put in a lot of effort, but very few people responded at all. Those who did mostly made snide comments about the event behind his back, like dissing the location, etc.

Close to the event, he canceled and sent everyone a (justified) message about how they can all go suck eggs, and he was just trying to do something nice and wanted to catch up with people. That was received with more snide remarks too. He passed unexpectedly just a few months later from a heart attack.

JustJenR

19. Two-Time Turmoil

The class officers did a five-year reunion on Thanksgiving weekend at a local bar. They only invited who they liked, about 30–40 people. One of the people they didn't invite had become a law enforcement officer who talked his supervisor into running a checkpoint. Almost half the people who went ended up going to the slammer that night.

Two of the organizers ended up with other charges as well. The 10-year started better but still ended up being a mess. They decided to go on a picnic at the same place we had our senior picnic. One of the class officers had started a catering company and gave themselves the job.

About one-third of the people ended up with food poisoning. Thankfully, Covid caused our 20-year reunion to be canceled.

leathermaker

20. Booted Over A Booze Bilker

I went to my partner’s five-year at the local Elks Lodge. He grew up in a really rich town, so it was super extravagant. The best part was the open bar until 9 PM and then cash afterward.

We were all having a great time until some jerk decided to ruin the immaculate vibes. He snuck into the basement and took a bunch of bottles (literally multiple boxes). When the bartenders found out at 8:30 PM, they were furious and booted us all out. They ruined what would have been an excellent night.

hareliza

21. No Great Expectations

My 10-year reunion invite came up, and I thought, “Yeah, looks like it could be fun”. I noticed the venue was a fancy restaurant. I was disappointed, expecting some sort of party. The room was very limited.

I started reaching out to all the friends I had kept in touch with. Not one of them was even remotely interested in going. My old high school best friend suggested we catch up at his place and drink instead, so I bailed on the reunion.

It turned out that almost no one went. One of the girls who organized the thing was begging my mate to go because she was so embarrassed about how few people had RSVP’d. She ended up bailing herself. The ten people who went had to be split up since they booked a place that was not intended for large groups of people.

Unironically, the same group who organized it took it upon themselves to organize our end-of-school formal. They decided that we didn't want to go with the original plan and completely replanned it without really consulting the general student body.

So many people bailed on it that they had to start inviting ex-students just to meet the minimum required to move forward with the date. I don't know why I expected anything good from their reunion.

Gnemlock

22. Same Name, Different Outcome

My sister, now-husband, and I were all in the same graduating class, along with my husband's best friend, John Smith, who was very popular in high school. He was a super nice guy and stood out in a crowd. If you didn't know him, you certainly knew of him, even in a massive school.

The 20-year reunion rolled around, and my sister was the only one who wanted to go. She called right after, very upset. There was a huge memorial wall for John Smith, who had just passed! None of us knew! My husband was like, “Huh? But we just saw him”.

He called him up and was like, "Hey dude, are you dead?" He wasn’t. He was surprised but alive. It turned out that the much less popular John Smith was the one who passed. They made a lovely memorial for the wrong guy, who was forgotten.

underpantsbandit

23. Living In Denial

My husband's 10-year reunion rolled around. The whole thing was just sloppily put together, and it was pretty clear the class was not interested in getting together. The gathering place kept changing every couple of weeks. At first, it was renting a place and getting food catered.

It's pretty typical in my town for most people not to go on to be successful by any means, so asking mostly unemployed or minimum-wage workers to cough up $200 to attend just didn't work out.

Venues kept downgrading to accommodate attendance until they got down to having a bonfire out by the lake, BYOB, no fee, just come hang out for, like, an hour or something.

Throughout the fiasco of finding a venue, a majority of the class declined to go. There was a good handful still marked as going, but with everything changing and people starting to tune out midway through, a lot of people forgot to change their status from going to not going. Two people showed up. That was it.

One was my brother, who had nothing better to do, and the other was the guy who had helped put the mess together. The gal who set the whole thing up was pretty mad about it, and the random dude that helped posted a long rant on the Facebook page about how awful people were and how they should've appreciated the efforts it took just to hold the pathetic gathering.

My husband had me sit and flip through the page after everything was said and done. It was pretty obvious the gal was in serious denial the entire time, despite it being pretty clear nobody wanted anything to do with the event.

magicrowantree

24. The Gang’s All Here

The high school I went to had a really big gang problem. A great many people didn't attend due to being in the slammer. Some of those who were in gangs in high school had worked their way through the ranks. One, in particular, was pretty high up, and he decided to show up.

It was generally peaceful until somebody made a shocking move—the guy decided to stick him with a sharp object.

The dude who got shanked was a colossal jerk to me through all of high school, and now he was bleeding profusely from multiple wounds. Being an off-duty medic, I did what I do, half expecting him to bleed out on the gym floor. He didn't remember me; there wasn't that movie moment between us.

I doubt he even recognized me. I just kept plugging holes and thinking I shouldn't have worn my nice shoes. The authorities and EMS arrived. A few people were taken into custody, and he survived. I ended up tossing my favorite dress shoes and a nice pair of pants because they were too stained to rescue.

Zenmedic

25. Old News Was Bad News

I was at my 10-year reunion. Some girl confessed to cheating on her high school sweetheart, thinking enough time had passed it wouldn’t bother him. She thought wrong. The two of them hadn’t seen each other in years, and, as far as I knew, they broke up shortly after high school ended.

After she broke the news, somewhat nonchalantly as well, the guy flipped out and smacked her. Then, he started screaming at her. She ran away, at which point he broke down and said something about wasting his high school years and left.

BobMightBeCool

26. Life Just Got Worse

My wife and I went to her high school reunion at a brewery back in Michigan. A former friend of mine showed up after a bit. That friend happened to be in the same graduating class as my wife. I didn't attend the same school. She got there, and I asked how she had been. Her response was, “Really bad”.

She told me that she and her boyfriend split up, she had a low-paying job, and so on. It also didn’t help that she didn’t get along with most of her old classmates who attended. The night went on, and everyone was catching up and having a good time.

My former friend said goodbye and went out to the parking lot to her car. She came back in, saying someone ran over her car. Everyone assumed she meant someone hit her car and dented the bumper or something. Nope, someone with a truck or SUV ran over her car, drove on top of it, and took off.

norse_noise

27. Making The Grade

It was a fifth-year reunion. One of my former classmates attended with his girlfriend, but then he disappeared and left her alone almost the entire time. He was in bed with Miss Musa, our ex-English teacher.

An argument ensued and after he left with Miss Musa, and let the girl leave by herself. My friends and I felt so bad we followed her and gave her girl advice. They had been sleeping together since 10th grade.

Ilooovepink

28. Broken Dreams

Someone confessed to me that I was his “dream girl,” even though his fiancée was his date to the reunion. I barely knew the guy in high school. That was bad enough, but it gets worse. Unfortunately for his fiancé, she didn’t know anyone there, and he refused to leave with her. He said, “I’m not leaving with her, I’m leaving with you,” to me. I told her to text me when their car was outside.

Then, I whispered, “Let’s go” in his ear, walked him out, and put him in her car. I’ll never forget the look on his face when he realized who was driving, and I said, “Yeah, that’s how tonight is going to end”. They still got married.

erineestevenson

29. Crushed By Reality

This was not my reunion, but my husband’s. In high school, my husband was (and still is) a very reserved and quiet person. He tolerates no nonsense, though. We arrived at the venue, and everyone was mingling. All of a sudden, a woman called out my husband's name and ran over. He introduced me, and she lost her ever-loving mind.

Apparently, she had been in love with him since elementary school but hadn't ever said anything, and she planned on asking him on a date that night. She had no idea he was married or that his wife was seven months pregnant. She burst into tears and started yelling at me incoherently. We left less than 20 minutes after arriving.

alexzandria1111

30. Justice Was Served

I went to my high school reunion, but I honestly don’t know why I did. The friends I kept in touch with, I kept in touch with. However, one friend managed to convince me otherwise, and so I went. The reunion was mostly people trying their best to one-up each other in their bid to look successful.

I sat down at a table next to my friend, where I was actually enjoying my time catching up with long-forgotten acquaintances. During the reunion, two people stood out the most. First, there was this chick I barely recognized. My friend and I kept asking each other if she was in our graduating class or a spouse of one.

I found out later that she spent close to $80,000 for cosmetic surgery, hence, why she was unidentifiable. She was so proud of herself that nobody was able to recognize her. The other was a guy who was so snooty back in high school. We’re talking about the cliche “if your address wasn’t within a certain neighborhood, you weren’t good enough to acknowledge” kind of snobbery.

He arrived late for the dinner portion, and all the seats at his old friend’s table were already taken. So, he sullenly sat down with the likes of us, people you looked down on all your teenage life. I took pity on him because most of the people at the table probably remembered his attitude as well and ignored him.

I started asking him questions about how he fared since graduation, etc. I asked, “So what are you doing now?” He told me he was working at a law office. I replied, “That’s impressive. Are you a Lawyer? Studying to be a Lawyer?” He said, “No. I’m working on it”. “Oh? Articling?” He replied, “No”.

So, I asked him, “So what exactly is it that you do?” At that moment, the DJ cut the music so that the MC could announce that dinner was to be served shortly.

But before that happened, the Snob got frustrated with all my questions and stated loudly into the unexpected silence, “I’m a mailroom clerk!” Everyone stared, and accidental justice was served. The Snob was taken down a peg or two by his own hands.

OneRaisedBrow

31. Love Bites

I went with my wife to her reunion. I may have had one or three drinks before arriving, and when I got there, I remembered hearing a story of a guy who was my wife's third-grade boyfriend. Later in life, he had a rough time of things. As a joke, I wrote his name on my name badge and went about my business.

Not long after, a rather strong and stocky woman turned around, looked at me, then at my name tag. When she saw the name, she looked up at me, screamed excitedly as loud as I've ever heard, bear-hugged me while lifting me off the ground, and bit my neck. No blood, but she gave me a decent bruise.

Doc-in-a-box

32. Reunion Rental

At my 20-year reunion, two guys showed up with rented “dates”. One guy had been pretty popular and was pretty nice, if not a bit wild, in high school. The other guy was a hanger-on to the popular crowd, whom I barely remember.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Both of them had SIGNIFICANTLY let themselves go and looked like trash, yet they were strutting around with these girls who looked young enough to be their daughters.

The girls seemed disgusted by them but were playing the part for which, they were paid. The guys both proceeded to get plastered and brag about how successful they were and how they were sleeping with these girls. It was very cringe-worthy.

dhemrick

33. Out Of My Shell And Onto The Floor

I went to my reunion despite the high school having been difficult for me. I was the self-conscious girl who was pretty jumpy when someone would talk to me. I've long grown out of that, so I figured, why not go and see who I could talk to now? I spent the night talking with some people who I never talked with before because of the whole high school clique thing.

It was a great time, and then someone decided they were going to get severely trashed. He started an altercation with another guy for no reason, and the two of them crashed into me, and we all fell over into a table, breaking it in the process. I had some pretty intense bruising along my torso and hips. I also had a bruise going across my right cheekbone.

The authorities were called, and the dude was taken into custody. The guy he picked an argument with was taken in as well, although not charged with anything, and I was sent to the hospital. I had to take time off work for a few days. The guy's wife was nice enough to pay me back for my hospital bill, though.

jtrisn1

34. There Are No Words

I was one of the first recipients of an alumni scholarship from the class of 1999. For their 20th reunion, the guy who organized the scholarship reached out and asked me to come as his guest to give a speech encouraging people to donate. I lived about an hour away but felt pressured and thought, sure. After all, I got the benefit. Why not pay it forward?

I wrote a speech, practiced, and wrote notecards. I showed up at this hotel, and the party was in the front lounge. It was swarming with people ten years older than me. I found the guy, and he started introducing me, explaining what I did now but got it wrong every time.

I asked him when I was going to speak, and he said later and told me to enjoy the food, then disappeared. By random happenstance, in this sea of people having a reunion, I ran into a guy who worked for my old community theater. I clung desperately to him so I wouldn’t be alone.

I found the guy again and asked him when I was going to speak, and again, he said soon. Then, I asked him where because I realized there was no stage, and the party was spread all over the lobby. He pointed to where the DJ was and where everyone’s pictures from high school were playing on a screen. Another hour passed, and it was time for the group picture.

Everyone herded over, and I stood nearby to be ready. I am among the spouses, girlfriends, boyfriends. They asked who I was there with, and I said I was giving a speech. They asked when; I said soon. At an adjacent party, a band started playing very loudly. People began shouting to be heard. It dawned on me that I may not give my speech.

I went to find the guy and asked when I was going to give my speech. He said, utterly guileless, that it looked like I didn't have to, but he hoped I had fun! I got home at midnight from someone else’s high school reunion with my unused speech in my purse. I haven’t heard from him since.

ScathachRises

35. Repeating A Wrong

I waited at a high school reunion in a restaurant. There were about 20 ladies, and there was one woman who was kind of odd but nice. She ordered a glass of vino but no food. I was not paying too much attention, but all of a sudden, she was gone. The women were reassuring themselves that they did nothing wrong, and it was no one's fault.

When it was about time to pay the bills, I had hers, but she was still MIA. The women looked surprised and said, "She's not still here?" I finally found her in the bar by herself. She paid the bill along with her bar tab and left awkwardly. It turned out she was accidentally put on the email list for class reunions and showed up even though it wasn't her class.

When the women asked which Debbie she was because no one could remember her, she got really upset and stormed off. The women said she didn't even have a Facebook picture on her profile or anything, so when they tried to look her up, that didn't help either. The weirdest part was that she did this at the last reunion, too.

The same thing.

-hot_ham_water-

36. Wrong Choice Of Reunions

My 10-year and my husband's 10-year reunions were both on the same weekend. We decided to do him because it was well organized and looked like fun, plus we hadn't been back there in quite some time.

They hired a little party boat to cruise around a lake for two hours. Before that, they had a meet-up across from the lake for lunch and a happy hour bar hop.

The festivities started around noon, boarding was at 10, and everything was supposed to be over at midnight except those who wanted to do an after-party. The first problem was the lake they picked was 45 minutes away from the area they all lived. People had to find their rides, which was a bit of an issue since many didn't have vehicles.

Eventually, most people who wanted to come were able to carpool. However, a couple of cars were pulled over on the way because they had been pre-gaming and shouldn't have been driving, or the passengers were throwing empties out on the highway. This was in the middle of the afternoon.

Problem number two was lunch and happy hour were the responsibility of the individuals. Not everyone believed they should pay, so some people ran up tabs in the name of the school's class of 2005 reunion and then ghosted. The restaurant and bars got angry and started stopping any patrons who said they were there for a reunion.

They then held them until authorities arrived, even though some of those people didn't add to the tabs. We thankfully arrived late and only went to the last bar on the list. We had already paid for the drinks we had, so we dipped before they rounded us up too. But things were still about to get bad, real bad.

Some of those places were trying to sue the school to get their money. The next problem was the boat; it wasn't huge. It had a main enclosed area, a small deck on both the front and back connected by a very narrow single-file gangway on either side, and an even smaller standing-only area on the roof.

Everyone boarding was already pretty tipsy. The cruise was split up, so the first thirty minutes were had a where are they now, in memoriam, pub quiz thing, etc. Then an hour was unlimited drinks and snacks with dancing and mingling. The snacks were baked goods that had been carried from venue to venue.

Things started a little awkwardly because the emcee was one of those who was stopped for drinking and driving. The second in command was held up at the bar, and the third person was already vomiting bright blue and pink over the side of the boat.

Eventually, someone started things off, made bad jokes that no one laughed at, got mad, and quit. People then found a boom box, turned on music, and started mingling, eating more baked goods.

Suddenly, a ton of people started getting sick, about 30 of roughly 70 people. Not only were they puking but it was coming out both ends for some. There was only one bathroom for each gender on board, so it was a nightmare. We were at the furthest point on the lake by then, so it was going to take a while to get back.

It was a mess; people were throwing up whatever they could find. The captain only had one person on board trying to help, but it was a losing battle. Since that was in the enclosed space, the rest of us tried hanging out on the decks to try to get away from the smell and the noise, so we were all scrunched together.

I had gotten separated from my husband but was chatting with people I'd met earlier through him when a guy came up and started hitting on me. We all just kind of laughed it off. After some drinks, I started to feel woozy and soon passed out. When I came to, I was in disbelief—I was inside a hospital, and I couldn't believe what happened. When they found me, I was turning blue. I was having seizures and had choked on my vomit.

The hospital told me I was drugged with GHB. They wound up keeping me an entire day because I was also covered in hives, and they weren't sure why. Over half the people on the boat had contracted Norovirus from suspected contaminated baked goods. I'll never attend any kind of reunion again.

kitschywomble

37. Not Suitable For Children

My 10-year reunion was held at a bar owned by a former classmate; it started at 10 pm. The owner told people, “Adults over 21 only”. People said they needed to bring their kids and were told no. Several people brought their babies and toddlers anyway. Things quickly spiraled into chaos.

Parents drank like teenagers, and the kids ran wild. The owner called the authorities, who watched the parents be negligent. Parents were removed by some officers, and their kids were taken out by others.

WeedleBeest

38. The Vindictive Valedictorian

Our former Valedictorian, who was pregnant at the time, was getting high in the bathroom. Then, she got it into her head that the reason her husband was trying to get her to leave early was because he was trying to hook up with some other lady who was there.

She refused to leave, but some of her friends and husband got her to go outside to cool off. Two hours later, she got called up to the stage for a speech. She went off on everyone. Every dirty little secret or rumor from high school, she just vomited up and aired out everyone's dirty laundry.

A lot of relationships that had been together since high school got into altercations that night, thanks to her. All the big "popular kids" got dragged. It was like watching a trainwreck.

Permalink

39. Move On, Buddy

A classmate did a “comedy act” and began slamming a specific teacher that was well-loved and respected by those who knew her. He was one of those kids who got away with everything, and this teacher didn’t let him. They had one incident where he was caught trying to put something in the yearbook without her knowledge.

She caught him, and he was tossed off the yearbook staff. Although he seemed to do okay for himself with school and career, he apparently couldn’t let go of this teacher daring to do her job. So, we were “privileged” to hear his pathetic comedy act slamming her. It was sad that he couldn’t move on.

NovaNerdMonica

40. House Party Gone Haywire

I went to a tiny private high school. The graduating class was 60 people, and the majority of us were pretty close, so we decided to have an “unofficial” reunion five years after graduating. It was hosted at our class president’s parents’ very bougie house, complete with a gorgeous pool. We all got pretty trashed since most of us were still only 23.

It was all good fun until someone’s plus one girlfriend decided to squat in the MIDDLE of the pool deck to pee in front of EVERYONE. She then proceeded to BARF on her puddle of pee. Then our class president, our host, had to go to the hospital due to an allergic reaction to some of the potluck food.

SimonEbolaCzar

41. Their Ruling Reign Came To An End

We had the jocks, preppies, and cheerleaders. They were the people who ran our school. Everything from the pep squad and dance committee to the yearbook and class president. They were a small group but great at manipulating people. I was a nerd in high school, so for our 20-year reunion, I tried to volunteer.

I was told to sit down and shut up. The reunion committee—and you can guess who they were—held a vote on where to hold the reunion. The overwhelming majority voted for a beach party. That didn’t suit the clique, who decided to hold it at the high-end hotel that belonged to one of their fathers.

So, there were two reunions held at the same time. Seventy-five percent of everyone went to the beach party. I got an email asking why I volunteered to help if I didn’t go to the “right” reunion. I told them to get back to me when they grew up.

calladus

42. We Got The McBoot

I was attending my 20th high school reunion with my girlfriend. I am a "person of color," and my girlfriend was Persian and with a dark complexion. We had driven about 120 miles to get to the reunion in my hometown and stopped at a McDonald's before we got there.

I needed to change clothes into something a little less comfortable while she waited in the lobby and ate. An Iranian woman can't just sit in the lobby and have a Big Mac or chicken nuggets without raising an eyebrow or two.

And her darkish boyfriend can't walk into a bathroom with a suit bag and spend 10 minutes or so changing clothes without being told to leave by the kid with the shift manager hat on. They had called the authorities and reported me/us as suspected terrorists because I must have exceeded the bathroom time limit while being the wrong shade of brown.

They thought I was putting an explosive in the bathroom to destroy the restaurant. I thought it was the funniest thing I had ever heard. My girlfriend and I had only been back in the US for a few weeks from deployment in Afghanistan.

The real kicker for me was that this wasn't just any McDonald's. This was the McDonald's that I used to work at many, many moons ago. It was my first real job other than a paper route. I used to work there, and they booted me out.

We were still in town the next day, so I had a little chat with the store manager about it. I wasn't even mad, but it was the principle of the matter. At least it made a good story at my reunion, which turned out to be pretty uneventful in itself.

capodecina2

43. Flabbergasted By A Familiar Face

My ten-year class reunion was a three-day event. The second night was the formal night which everyone and ones attended, with catered food, a rented venue, an open bar, a band, and the works. The night was going smoothly, and people were letting loose and having a good time.

As I went back and forth to grab drinks at the bar, I had this feeling that I knew the bartender from somewhere or had seen him before. I asked some friends, and they said the same. So, by the next round, I brought it up and said, “Hey don’t I know you from somewhere?”

He looked me straight in the face and went, “Yeah, I was part of the graduating class, I didn’t even get an invite”. THE POOR GUY GOT HIRED TO WORK HIS OWN REUNION THAT HE WASN’T EVEN INVITED TO!!! The worst accidental mistake I’ve ever been a part of, and I’m now that jerk who recognized him just enough to bring it up.

goldenmonkeybuzzer

44. No Cause For Celebration

At my 10-year reunion, I was talking to a couple of girls I knew. I asked one girl how her dad was. She got sad and quiet all of a sudden and said that he had cancer. I said, “Oh! Did he kick it?” meaning did he beat the cancer? She said, “Yeah,” so I replied, “Hey, that’s great!” I then merrily carried on with the conversation, changing the subject.

However, I could tell from the look on her friend’s face as we kept talking that something had gone wrong a few beats back. So, I circled back and said, “So, how IS your dad?” I'll never forget the look on her face. She answered incredulously, “Uh...He’s not here anymore”.

It’s a funny misunderstanding in hindsight, but to this day, I’m annoyed that she thought I had nonchalantly asked if her cancer-ridden dad had kicked the bucket and then celebrated when she told me he had.

UntoldEnt

45. Her Psycho Stunt Backfired

Our boy's swim team, which I was a part of, and the girl’s swim team were very comfortable with each other the year I graduated. I'm pretty sure every girl on the team had seen every boy without clothes on more than 20 times. The coach was retiring that year, so he didn’t care what we did.

The other way around was mostly true as well, as almost half of the girls graduating with me tried showering with us at least once or twice.

That year, my team captain threw a graduation party for us at his parents' house, and once the weed and drinks came out, we all made ourselves extra comfortable in the backyard pool. Ten years later, a reunion was planned, but it never happened. Ten years after that, a semi-formal twenty-year reunion took place in a very fancy hall.

One guy who had become very successful paid for almost everything. While we were all eating and talking and having a good night, this girl came bursting in like she had a mission. She started going on and on about how everyone treated her terribly in high school and how she didn't get an invite to the reunion, which went out to everyone on Facebook.

Tickets were available to buy for almost a year before the event. She also said how she didn't get an invite to the party ten years prior, either. At that point, everyone was confused. She went on to say that she wasn't invited to the graduation party, even though she lived right next door.

We on the swim team started looking at each other like, "Does she think our party was an official school party?" No one was invited to that; it just kind of came together.

Then, she pulled a bunch of papers out of her bag and started going from table to table, hurling the loose printer pages onto each table. When she got to our table, we could see that they were pictures from both parties that she had taken of us from her window.

I guess she was trying to embarrass us. She was promptly thrown out, and someone gathered all the papers and threw them out. Then, suddenly, everyone started laughing about it.

We were all old at that point, coming up in our 40s. Most of us were overweight, if not in terrible shape, and suddenly someone showed up with pictures of us in the buff from when we were young, fit, and hot. Half the people at the reunion were at the original party, so it's not like this was some deviating shocker.

The pictures from the second party were much more embarrassing, as people who were married were acting like they weren’t. However, I think no one besides those of us who were there really caught on that these photos were from two different decades. If they did catch on, no one mentioned it.

Zero111of160cru

46. Let’s Get It On

At my 15-year reunion, two of our very popular, promiscuous, beautiful girls from high school were both going through high-profile divorces. Once about 60% of the people left, and all the rest of us were still there dancing, they got up together and cleared a circle around them on the dance floor.

They took off their clothes and started making out and rubbing against each other while the live band played. My husband and my best friend and her husband, and I were getting ready to leave when it started. We stopped and watched in disbelief like the rest of the group.

To think we almost walked out and missed this! No one could look away, but no one wanted to see it! Our husbands said it was the best reunion of their lives and never miss one now, hoping for a repeat performance.

GeekyAccountantGirl

47. A Party With A Premonition

A girl who didn't show up had her picture on the "In Memoriam" table with a candle lit. She didn't keep up with anybody, and everyone couldn't believe she was gone, but no one knew what had happened. The truth hit everyone in the face like a runaway train. She was, in fact, alive and showed up around halfway through, much to the surprise of everyone else. It was like seeing an actual ghost.

I was already shocked, but then she pointed at ME and called out MY name. Turns out, she thought I was the one spreading rumors about her "passing", since I was part of the planning committee for the reunion. Thankfully, after I explained to her that it the whole ordeal was just a miscommunication, she calmed down.

While she wasn't really happy about it initially, it all ended as a funny story. Then, she passed a year later. Our 20th is next year, and she'll be on that table again but won't be showing up.

Permalink

48. Why Didn’t Anyone Tell Me?

At my 20-year reunion, I saw our class president, who married his high school sweetheart. We were all close as a class, and she wasn't there, which was uncharacteristic. I asked him where she was. He said, "Don't ask".

I was kind of confused by that, but they had been married a long time at that point, and I just figured maybe they had an argument or something. I found out not too long after that I was the last person in our class of about 150 people to hear she had tried to throw herself off a bridge. It was awful.

She had some underlying mental health issues nobody knew about. She's OK now after multiple surgeries and lots of therapy, but I still cringe thinking about when I asked him about her. I can't believe nobody told me about what happened to her.

Redrum Bunny

49. Pick And Choose

My 10-year high school reunion was, of course, organized by the “popular kids”—the girls who still lived in our small hometown and were past their peak. They were rotten people. By the time our reunion rolled around, four from our graduating class had passed. At one point during the reunion, they had us all sit-down, and they dimmed the lights for a slideshow.

It was a memorial for ONE of our lost classmates, the one they were, of course, good friends with. I was so furious I stormed out. Maybe because I was friends with another girl we lost, but how self-centered do you have to be to have a class reunion and not have a memorial for everyone gone?

Permalink

50. High School Secrets Spilled

I had this friend who got someone pregnant back in the day, and she kept the kid. They had both been great about it, and he helped financially, but that was the extent of his contribution. She married soon out of high school and met a great guy who has been the de facto dad.

Our reunion was a day to bring-your-kids-if-you-had-them type of event, and someone let it slip that my friend was that kid’s “real” dad.

The kid heard it, and it was a MESS. Everyone was trying to figure out who said that, and how someone could spill that secret, etc. In the end, my friend pretended he was shocked and laughed it off as a joke, which, honestly, in front of the kid was probably a good move.

Toubaboliviano

1. Fight You in the Unemployment Line

He grabbed the back of my neck and said, "If you ever say I'm wrong in front of a customer again I will beat you up." I went to the GM and told him, and my supervisor was relieved of his duties about 5 minutes later.

PostedIntel

2. Cash for the Camera

I took a cell phone video of her taking money from the safe and putting it in her wallet. I knew she was doing it, and I also knew that the moment it came out that money was missing she'd blame it on me. She was so stupid that she didn't realize she should stop doing that while I was standing ten feet away with my phone out and facing her.

yowiezowie

3. Should Have Focused on Your Own To-Do List

The CEO publicly praised me for completing a task that my boss had struggled with, so my boss retaliated by forwarding all of his tasks to me in an effort to overwhelm me with work. I actually found his job pretty manageable, which the CEO also noticed and fired him, giving me his job and office.

karatelemon

4. Headcase at the Head of It

I was working maintenance at an ice rink. The rule for anyone who knows how an ice rink works is if the Zamboni doors open, you get the heck off the ice. Some jerk decided to ignore the fact that they were open, and that I was standing in the doorway, and decided to rip off one last slapshot. The puck bounced off the glass and hit me in the head. I was okay, but reported it to my boss, because we have to fill out an incident report for things like that.

The boss asked, "Are you okay?" I said I feel okay, then he responded with "Well, we don't really have to report it then do we?" I reminded him of the protocol, but it was clear he didn't want to do it. Since he wouldn't do it, I sent a descriptive email of the incident up to the administration, because I felt there should be some sort of documentation/paper trail, in case, god-forbid, I ended up having a brain hemorrhage or something a few days later. The boss was fired by my next shift.

grizzfan

5. Uhh, What?

When I was being fired, I told management the manager had said he wanted to off his ex-wife and her new boyfriend to orphan their child. He was fired shortly after and the authorities showed up to take him out of the building.

snaafuuu

6. The Fall of a Drama Queen

A tenured faculty member was controlling of the personal lives of members on her "drama team," She made them simulate lewd acts onstage and filmed it. I told the Dean. She was terminated. Saw her around town the other day and safe to say...11 years later...she still HATES me.

printandpolish

7. Dishonorable Discharge

My (former) immediate supervisor in the Armed Forces was a misogynistic jerk who just so happened to also enjoy occasionally harassing me for fun. He would discreetly touch me in front of everyone to see if I dared say anything back, so he could then berate me for "giving him attitude.” The breaking point was when he grabbed my hand and forced me to touch him during a pat-down. Moved on to a new unit, reported him. Turns out there were 7 other women with similar experiences—as there always are. He gone.

Aimeenumbers

8. Not Moved by His Excuse

Our executive director was moving and took my practicum student and a low-level employee to his house to help him move furniture. I told him that was unacceptable, both from a respect and a liability perspective. His response to me was, “You know since I hired you, I can fire you, right?” I told him to go ahead and try it, then promptly called our board, who dismissed him that week.

secondguard

9. Bad Grief

I phoned him to tell him I won't be at work for the rest of the week as my mum is terminally ill in hospital. The next day (about an hour after she passed), he phoned and asked why I wasn't at work. I just hung up on him so I wouldn't say anything that would get me in trouble.

The next day I sent the area-manager a WhatsApp message explaining what he'd be done and attached a video of him breaking the freezer door while having a tantrum which cost the store nearly £5000 in lost stock and the repair costs (which he'd told the AM had broke on its own). He got fired that day and I got two weeks off with full pay.

AkariAkaza

10. My Boss is a Heartbreaker

I had a doctor that constantly ignored patients in serious pain. He thought all of them were faking it to get pain killers. After a senior director at Microsoft had a heart attack in our ER that he refused to do an EKG on, and the guy didn't make it, I went to management and told them what I had seen.

quiet-nurse

11. Take a Mile in My Shoes

I was fired because I "abandoned my job" while on short-term disability, even though I was on approved leave. They made a date for me to return, never informed me (by their own admission), and when I obviously didn't return to work...I was fired. The locker I had at work had my work boots in it that the company pays $90 a year towards.

However, there isn't a pair under $100 available. So, you always end up having some come out of your paycheck. At that point, they are yours regardless of the company line. They disagreed and said they were thrown out, I reported them stolen, and the HR director responsible for getting me fired was fired.

r48811

12. Higher Learning for Somebody

About 15 years ago, I worked at a major university in the IT department. After I was hired, it took me a couple of months to realize my boss was a sociopath, as was his #2 guy. Once I realized what I was dealing with, I just tried to keep my head down because I didn't want to job hop so soon after leaving my last job. But they made that impossible.

We had a database administrator and I was interested in becoming a DBA so I talked to him a lot about what I should do to transition from a programmer to a DBA. The VP of IT, my boss’s boss, would stop by and talk to me and ask me about my aspirations, so I told her about wanting to be a DBA and that I was actually taking night classes so I could.

This was a woman who my boss referred to as "she who must be obeyed" in a totally disrespectful manner. As the months went on, I saw more and more egregious behavior by my boss and his #2 toady. We had a large corporation consulting on transition to their database. This included a young guy who was doing the database install including ordering the right equipment and migrating the data.

We also had student workers in our department. They were students who worked part-time hours. One of these was a young woman. The big corp young guy and the young woman started going to lunch together. Apparently, this was offensive to my boss, who threatened both of them with termination for "fraternization.” The university had no such rule, my boss was just making it up as he went.

About six months after I was hired, the DBA quit. I went into our weekly staff meeting and at the end, my boss announces that I'd been promoted to DBA. My spidey-senses were tingling because of his tone of voice and because this was the first, I was hearing about it. After the meeting, I went to his office to thank him and tell him I really appreciated the chance.

He was very angry. Apparently, his boss had made him promote me. I had no idea. The next thing I know, I'm being called into my boss's #2 guy's office. He tells me that performance reviews were coming up and I would have to be reviewed on job description of DBA rather than the job description of my old position. That is, unless I turned down the DBA position.

Yep, he was threatening me to get me to turn down the promotion. I asked him to see the written description of my old position as well as the one for DBA. He couldn't give them to me because they didn't exist. Now, I can be a pretty stubborn gal, and this really made me mad. I didn't do anything wrong and now my job was being threatened.

Part of my job duties during the six months of my employment involved working with the head of every department of the university, including the law department. I had a good working relationship with every head of every department. So, I made an appointment with the university's head counsel. I explained the situation to him including my boss's boss making him promote me and my boss threatening me with my performance review.

I told him that, although I was studying to be a DBA, I was really not qualified to be one without some hard work and if the university didn't want me to take the position, I would absolutely turn it down. I also mentioned my boss's nickname for his boss, and the issue with the student worker and the big corp guy. Apparently, the student worker had already filed a harassment complaint, so the head counsel knew about it.

He told me I had been promoted by someone (boss's boss) who had every right to promote me and I should not worry about anything. He said if my boss gave me any more trouble that I should let him know. A week later, my boss and his #2 toady were fired. My boss ended up working at a small city college and is there to this day. I pity his employees. I left the university about two years later and had a successful career as a DBA.

awhq

13. Not Tickled to Work With You

In college, I worked in a take-out restaurant just off campus, and we were all employed by the school. I was 17-18 years old (back in 2007/2008) and my boss, the manager, was a 40-something creeper. Hitting on me, touching me inappropriately (trying to massage my shoulders, tickling me, putting his hands on/around my waist) despite me asking him to stop.

Then he friended me on Facebook, I declined, and suddenly my work schedule was changed. I was on shift during hours when I had class, and when I explained that problem, I got taken off the schedule altogether. I told the assistant manager what was going on (which I was explicitly told by the manager not to talk to the assistant) and he reported what was going on to upper management—boom, the manager was fired. I worried for a while if he was going to come after me for that.

singlebuttaken

14. Big Boss is Watching You…for Now

My manager wanted to prove I was slacking off so he could write me up. So, he watched CCTV footage then wrote, printed out, and SIGNED a detailed 17-page Word document what I did in the past two days. With timestamps (like, 07:59 arriving, 08:01 speaking with co-worker A and B, 08:07 sitting down to my desk, etc.). He told me that he's not happy with my work ethics, and if I won't improve my efficiency, I'm fired.

I took the papers and showed to his boss and told her that I'm not happy with my manager’s work ethics and his efficiency might be better if he wouldn't watch 17 hours of CCTV footage to spy on an employee. She was terrified (it would've been a rock-solid lawsuit for me, but I love my job) and we had to search for a new manager. Also, I got a raise.

CrazyHussarHU

15. A Matter of Life and Employment

I worked at a facility that manufactured medical devices, mainly catheters. One day, a work order came in and my manager came into the clean room to hand me the work order and to enter in the order specs (things like dip speed, dwell time, extraction speed and cure time) for the production run. Entering in the specs is literally the one thing I wasn't allowed to do.

That had to be done by a supervisor or the manager. After he leaves, just for the heck of it, I double check the specs before I start the test run. The specs were off. Like, WAY off. I call the manager who literally just entered them in and asked him if he knew something I didn't and if he wanted me to correct them. He vehemently told me to leave the specs as is and run the machine as per his specs.

I ask for his reasoning (something I don't normally do, but I had a funny feeling) and all he said was, "They won't know the difference." Now, considering these catheters go INSIDE of people and can cause serious injury if they are faulty, I call up the production manager and tell him what’s going down. He's on the phone for less than ten seconds, and all he tells me is to stop production and to hang out.

Cool, I hadn't even started so I left the clean room and took a break. Not even five minutes later I hear some yelling, a door slam, and the production manager goes into the clean room to enter the specs into the machine and has me verify the specs right in front of him. He turns to me and says, "If this ever happens again, with anyone, let me know. Personally."

They put him on suspension and sent him home. They started an investigation, (there's a ton of paperwork and lots of paper trails when it comes to medical devices) and it turns out he had been fudging the numbers for a solid month and not with just this customer. The company that had been ordering the products threw a fit, and said they would find another manufacturing company if you don't fire the guy (my boss) immediately.

It was a multimillion-dollar contract at risk, so he was gone after the week-long investigation. All I got was a measly handshake and thanks from the owner of the company. In short: the boss was knowingly fudging the specs on medical device manufacturing. I found out, told his boss, he got fired.

warrantyvoiderer

16. Freelancer’s Choice

I took a phone call on my cell when at my desk. Middle manager came up and screamed at me. Yelling about how I was not allowed to take calls for clients while at that office. I was a contractor and made it perfectly clear that I did work for multiple clients prior to doing work for this company. The CTO’s office was 10 feet from mine. He came out and stood in his doorway listening to the rant.

When the middle manager was done, I just looked over at the CTO and said: “it’s him or me and at the moment I don’t give a hoot which you pick.” CTO walked the middle manager out right then. Funny thing: I didn’t hang up throughout the incident. And it was my wife on the other end. I was spending about 70 hours a week at their site digging their staff out of a hole they had dug themselves in.

Aleyla

17. In Bed With The Enemy

I’ve told this story a few times before, so I’ll keep it short. I didn’t get my boss fired, but she blames me. Boss and I didn’t get along, but she didn’t have the authority to fire me. But she promised her boyfriend my job. So, she hires her boyfriend in another position, with the plan they’ll drive me to quit, and then she can just promote him to my job. This lasted for about a month.

She fired him when they broke up. He confessed their scheme to me on his way out (we’d actually become friends at this point), and I tell him he should really tell HR. HR does their investigation, she’s fired because “sleep with me and I’ll give you a job” is textbook harassment. And she tells anyone who’ll listen that it’s all my fault because I didn’t quit like I was supposed to.

originalchaosinabox

18. Skimming Off the Top

Not me, but my GF at the time. We were both working at a small burrito chain, she was front of house manager and I was kitchen manager. Above us was one senior manager and then the owner. We did tip pooling based on hours, and the senior manager always told my GF not to count the tips every night, as he divided it up at the end of the week.

Well. Of course, she counted them every night. Turns out the senior manager was stealing almost $500 a week from employees in tips, and because his previous FOH manager never questioned him it had likely been going on for years. She told the owners and he was gone the next day. A week later his wife left him.

Polarpituh

19. The Fall of an Empire

Public agency hires someone out of the private industry at the vice president level. She immediately begins hiring all her cronies and butt-kissers from her old job at very nice salaries for jobs that didn't previously exist. That's the sort of corruption we're used to in North Carolina, so no biggie so far. But she runs out of slots she can just create with a little paperwork so she starts to harass people in order to get them to quit so she can fill their jobs with her friends.

One job was that of an executive assistant, and she was pretty harsh on the woman who had that job. I witnessed some of this and told the assistant to take it to HR—which she did, and HR just told her to document everything. So, she did and one day the VP caught her recording a yell-fest on her phone. The VP wanted to know what was up, so the exec assistant told her that HR wanted documentation and that I had told her how to record conversations on a cell phone (which was OK, BTW, I checked).

So, she yells at the exec assistant, yells at me, and then gets on the phone to HR, yelling at them that they were a bunch of incompetent fools, and that she wanted to know what kinda Mickey Mouse outfit she was working for if she couldn't fire whoever the heck she wanted to fire. Sure enough, HR initiates an investigation that took 300 hours (!!) of interviews with everyone in the department and a board of inquiry headed up by a Senior VP.

She was called to the Senior VP’s office at 4:30 in the afternoon and when we came to work at 8 the next morning, her office was cleared out. Most of the cronies she hired were gone with a couple of months; no one wanted to work with them so with no projects on their docket, they knew the writing was on the wall. When the last of the cronies left, her job was eliminated, and her staff transferred elsewhere. It was like the evil VP and her mob never existed.

Nagsheadlocal

20. Don’t Wake Sleeping Beauty

It was the night shift, and for years this freaking guy had been either locking himself in the office and playing video games all night, or going home and freaking sleeping on the clock…and no, I'm not making that up. Finally, one night, the regional manager showed up for a surprise visit at like 3AM...it was a group effort, the night crew took great pleasure in telling the RM exactly where his night manager was.

FearlessLingonberry

21. They Don’t Teach Manners in Management School

He'd show up every day and tell us a tale of his bedroom exploits. Whether true or not, none of us wanted to hear it. If an attractive looking female came in, he drops what he's doing and stares at her, drooling like a dog in a dog treat factory. After she leaves, he had to say a comment about her appearance. After talking on the phone with a certain manager, he always comments on how nice her bum is.

He'd be so awful to us employees and other managers. Called us bitches a lot despite us getting onto him for it. My female coworkers reported him. We all had a phone meeting with our district manager and HR. He was suspended until the investigation was over and they ruled to terminate him. Surprisingly HR worked for us that day.

sourceofnightmares

22. PowerPoint or Power Don’t?

He was presenting a PowerPoint that I had put together to all the managers in the building. There was something he wanted to add at the last minute that he had never told me about, and when it wasn't there, he screamed at me for like 5 minutes straight. Yelling, name-calling, telling me to prove to him that I had a college degree and wasn't just making it up.

I was a contractor, so I was afraid to complain to HR because I assumed, they'd just fire me, but a lot of other people in the room did. After the meeting, I went into the share drive folder to find the presentation notes where the extra information was supposedly located. I watched the last changed time change from a day ago to the current time, then he immediately called and said it was right there in the notes file. He was fired the next day for unprofessional behavior.

ElToberino

23. Falling Down the Ladder

Not fired but demoted. I got fired and explained in my exit interview how the reason I wasn’t making progress on my project is that I had no idea what I was doing. I was never trained, my work-from-home boss in another location took off for 4 hours a day to run errands and go to the gym, etc. etc. They checked my story out and ended up demoting my boss, taking her off the project, and taking away all her direct reports.

mahawki

24. Deep Fried and Fired

I had a very old, by-the-book manager when I worked fast food. She would always criticize people for not doing their jobs 100% correctly and she often insulted employees. One time while I was on fry duty, I purposefully pulled the fries out a few seconds early and made sure a second manager was watching. She came up to me and said: "I told you before, take the fries out AS SOON AS THEY ARE DONE!! Next time, I'll dip your head in the fryer." The other manager saw, and more people commented on her behavior and she was gone the next day.

theseapug

25. Not Too Old to Avoiding a Schooling

My wife and I worked at a level-four elderly facility on a part-time basis for four years. It was easy, we loved the clients, very low stress, etc. What we didn't know was the administrator was in a time card scam involving herself and several other people there. Other than some minor theft, she was a fantastic boss. They brought in this mousy little number cruncher as her replacement.

Soon after, the place went bad. The woman had no clue how to run a human services job and we all know we'd be out and fast. Soon enough, I got called in on a random day off to have a "meeting" and I knew I was going in to get canned. Taking the lead from a Dirty Harry movie, I stuffed a bunch of papers into a large envelope and was on my way.

She's waiting for me with the town board behind her, all ready to send my puny butt home...but it didn't go that way. I told the board president that I had personally witnessed and documented enough misdoings at the place that her not being busted for elder abuse would be a miracle. Not to mention she was having an affair with the cook. The woman turned the color of old parchment as I listed the places I was going with this information. I was let go, she was too, about a week later and the entire staff was replaced.

The68Guns

26. Bad Teamwork Dies Hard…With a Vengeance

About 13-14 years ago, I was working as a web designer for a dot-com. In our immediate group were a creative director, a creative manager, and two of us who were designers. We were all part of the marketing department. The creative director was a joke. He was brought in by the previous VP of Marketing, who he was friends with.

He hardly did any work himself, and just played online poker waiting on us to send him things for approval. And he'd never stick around late when the rest of us needed to stay late to hit a deadline or deal with a crisis, etc. The creative manager, who'd been in charge for a couple of years before the creative director's hiring, still ran the day-to-day.

So, the creative manager gave his notice that he'd accepted a new job, and when I met with the current VP of marketing to discuss transition, I mentioned that the creative director would need to step up and pull his weight. I guess a similar message was expressed by a number of people, and less than a week after the creative manager's last day the creative director was fired!

This kind of sucked because we went down from 4 to 2 people in our group. I was appointed acting creative manager, and we eventually did hire one more designer. I left the company a couple of months later, too, after the latest VP of Marketing was let go and there was going to be a 10th different person overseeing marketing in my 5 years there. And the jerk creative director?

He'd reached out at some point (looking for files for his portfolio, I think?), and it happened to be in the two-week window where I'd accepted my next job but hadn't yet started so I mentioned my new position. Well, he fires off a copy of his resume to the company president and tried to poach my new job out from under me! On my first day at the new job, the president mentioned that somebody else from that same company also applied for the job and forwarded me the application email to see if I knew him... saw that the date was after he and I had last communicated!

blipsman

27. Who Protects Us from the Protectors?

So, this boss wasn't terrible until we found out what he was doing. I actually used to like him a lot more than my main boss. In high school, I worked as a martial arts instructor. A lot of my friends went to this martial arts school and not actually my high school, so I was very close to them. One of my friends happen to be 3 years older than me so when I was 16, she was 19.

One of our bosses (not the owner of the school but second in command) was an older man who was a retired law enforcement officer. Typically, my friend who was 19 would work the desk after teaching and close up the school at the end of the night (mop, vacuum, etc.) Typically that late, the only people there was our male boss and her.

Obviously, you can see where this is going...bottom line a few of us helped her get proof he was harassing her to get him fired because our main boss (older woman) didn't believe her and accused her of starting trouble. Well, it turns out he had actually done this to many other people who had never reported it and went off to college/quit, but he only ever did it to people who were legally of age (17+).

He was fired and banned from the property, but that was the extent of his punishment. He actually opened his own martial arts school a few years later, so I'm sure nothing has changed. Honestly, this whole situation made me really sad and kinda ruined my whole view of my school but unfortunately my area has a lot of small tight-knit communities, so I know many teachers (regular school) who did inappropriate things (slept with student, struck a child, etc.) never got in trouble and were just asked to resign quietly.

Not even fired. Most of these teachers went off to other larger schools in the area, got caught but this time got punished.

mcguik3

28. Keep the Mind Games to the Field

Not a boss, but someone I worked with was pretty terrible. At my job, we are not supposed to have relationships with the athletes we treat because of HIPAA, also because our bosses didn't want employees who were there to date athletes and get the cool free gear and travel with the team. We were there to be an athletic trainer, nothing else.

So, this employee was there for all the wrong reasons and decided that she despised me because my boss chose me to travel and not her. Her course of action was then to talk to athletes, ask them to spread rumors about me so it would get back to my bosses and get me fired. Unfortunately for her, most of the athletes respected me, told me what was happening, and I reported her to my boss. Since this wasn't the first time that she had singled someone out like this, she was fired.

paradeofthepump

29. Telephone Game

Paranoid, sociopath boss wiretapped all internal phone calls and made life miserable for all who worked in that department. After moving over 1200 miles to the job location, called wife frequently to discuss the job and family progress in moving there. During those calls, I spun a story about how all of his top managers were plotting against him, which enraged him, and he took out his anger on them. Eventually they went to the company owner and complained, and he was fired the next day.

OldGuyzRewl

30. Not Here to Play Games

I used to work at a video game store (I'm sure you can figure out which one) as an assistant manager. A few months after I was hired, I was moved to a different location. The manager there was the laziest jerk I've ever met. When I got there, the store was a mess. The game cases were supposed to be displayed on the wall alphabetically—none were.

The accessories were supposed to be arranged according to system—everything was mixed together. It was nearly impossible to find anything in that store. And the store itself was tiny. Besides not cleaning and organizing, this guy just did nothing. He would spend his shift in the minuscule back room "organizing". He would take a 1-2 hour lunch break almost every day, then go in and change his time sheet to show that he was only gone for 30 minutes.

Granted, the store was slow as heck, but still. I got tired of his BS after a couple of weeks, so I went to the district manager with my concerns. He and the regional manager had me keep tabs on him for a while (noting when he'd leave for his break and when he'd come back). Then, when they had enough evidence, they fired him. I don't know if there were things going on behind the scenes that I wasn't privy to, but I would guess probably.

Song_of-Storms

31. Not Worth the Sum of His Car Parts

He was stealing $5,000 in parts for his personal cars. He also was turning customers into cash jobs for a discount and then pocketing about half the money. I went to HR asked the proper way to report theft. I followed what HR has said, and then we were both fired. The best thing that ever happened to me.

DontTrustTheScotts

32. A Hard Lesson in Bad Leadership

My first-grade teacher smacked me across the face for not memorizing hot cross buns. The smack hurt for sure, but having it done in front of a full class hurt more. I told the principal. We had a sub the rest of the year.

itsdanishh

33. I’m Not Lovin’ It

Worked at a McDonald's in high school at 17. I was being harassed by a co-worker twice my age. He said some really awful stuff to me that made me afraid to come to work. They refused to switch my shifts. They also were working me too much for being under 18 and tried to get me to sign a consent form saying I knew I'd be working the hours I was, when I constantly asked for different hours.

I called the corporate offices and told them. My parents even got a lawyer involved. I quit and a few weeks later a co-worker I went to school with said two of the shift managers, the supervisor, and the store manager were all fired and barred from working with the company again. They brought in a few temporary people who were high up and ended up sniffing out the other bad employees.

Tibbersbear

34. Gaydar Has No Place in the Office

She asked me if I was gay, and had apparently started telling people I was. Then she asked why I didn’t hit on her or if I found her attractive. I really didn’t intend to get her fired. I just told her boss it kind of put me in a weird situation as I was new. I really think she just needed some education on that type of thing as it was at a hospital, and there wasn’t much training for management.

cheaganvegan

35. The Ultimate Strike-Out

Our general manager just quit yesterday before getting fired. We had a bowling party on Sunday, and he came loaded as could be. I feel bad because he is going through a divorce, but he hit on so many of the female employees there. One was 19, and he offered to buy her a car if she went home with him.

acarso12

36. Sick of the Staff

Me and a friend both worked at a small neighborhood shop. The store was always short-staffed. The manager would call me or my buddy and demand we come in for a shift on days we weren't scheduled. This happened very often. My buddy got diagnosed with leukemia and had to quit. Less than a week later they "forgot" to pay me. When the manager called me into work (a shift I wasn't scheduled for) I said I would only come in if they paid me what I was owed.

The manager said I was being "difficult" and "immature" and fired me over the phone. The owner got so mad at the manager for firing one of their only employees, he fired her. In the span of a week, they lost over half of their workforce. I went into the store the next week to pick up my final pay cheques, the owner (who was forced to work behind the till at this point) offered me my job back with a $0.25/hr raise. I said no.

jsmys

37. There’s No Secret to Safety

I got handed a complete mess of paperwork that OSHA requires that hadn't been done in years and was told to forge whatever wasn't there. I sent that email to OSHA with a handful of stuff that was missing that they should ask for when they came. He only made it a couple of days after they came in to review the complaint.

HerrStraub

38. Exit, Pursued by a Boss

I left my last company due to a jerk of a general manager. Many people were leaving over him causing problems, doing things people could easily sue them for, claiming harassment. The list goes on. Everyone informed HR during their exit interviews. Hell, he even tried to make my exit interview not happen. Though they still weren't doing anything.

I had been at my new job for a couple of months now and was STILL getting complaints from my old team almost daily. So, I made an email account. Sent an email to EVERYONE who had an email account within the company explaining what he did/still did with events spanning from his start to the day prior. They fired him within the week and my old crew thanked me.

akujiki87

39. Didn’t Sign Up for Homework

My boss would show up at my house after work hours to discuss work stuff. When I asked him to stop, he tried to fire me. When at the HR meeting the following day, I explained my story and showed them the video from my door camera. They literally go "John (bosses name), we've talked about this" and asked me to leave. Two hours later he walks out and announces that he's leaving.

comradetbm

40. Out with the Old

My direct supervisor, Linda, was a cantankerous older woman with poor education and even worse people skills. About 3 months after I started, I got her so pissed off, just by doing my job, that she cursed me out, got up from her desk and quit. I don't even remember what I said that set her off. I probably asked her if she was done with her half of something that I needed in order to finish my half, and became exasperated when she wasn't, because she'd been farting around all morning.

It was a common occurrence. After Linda walked out, our boss refused to hire her back when she begged (even though she'd been there something like 15 years), because "her attitude was so terrible, and she'd become such a toxic, pathetic excuse for a human being." I got a pretty solid raise, most of Linda's tasks (our boss was not unkind and took over some things herself, while giving me more practical things that I enjoyed doing), and even though my car was fine, she'd always have me drive her car to go make coffee runs, deposit checks, run errands, etc.

It was a Toyota Solara convertible, and she'd tell me to take the top down and have fun. I liked that job, I learned quite a bit, and if I hadn't found something closer to home, for even more money, I probably would've been there quite a while.

WomanOfEld

41. Screw Me Twice, Shame on You

Our desks were separated by a 5-foot cubicle wall. He was under the mistaken impression that it totally blocked sound. Thus, I got to hear all his loud phone conversations, primarily his booty calls including those with his boss's fiancé. I figured it was none of my business and tried to ignore it. Well, there was a position in another department that I was interested in and as per procedure, I handed in an application to my talkative boss.

I didn't hear anything further and followed up a couple of days later, only to be told that something must have happened to the application. I filled out another one and handed it in. As I return to my desk, I hear the boss on the phone with a friend laughing about how he had just trashed my application again and how he was never going to let go of me.

I go to my boss's boss and angrily offer my resignation, telling him what I had just overheard, explaining that I was constantly hearing his phone calls like his booty calls like with and and . He got very quiet and told me to go back to my desk and he'll take care of everything. The next day I come in and boss is gone.

The day after, I have an interview with the other department (got the position). I tend to avoid office drama, but really, he should have stuck to screwing his boss's fiancé, and not tried to screw me as well.

Nymaz

42. The Higher They Creep, The Harder They Fall

It was my supervisor. It got to the point that I had decided to quit. I had my resignation letter in my purse but decided to let his boss know why I was quitting. The supervisor would talk about all the people on our team constantly, but only behind their backs. I got so sick of telling him to cut it out. My husband and I happened to work at the same place (different departments) and my supervisor would make comments about threesomes (with him, ewww), what hotel we picked for our afternoon delight, stuff like that.

It was so bloody uncomfortable. Apart from this, he spent most of his supervising time outside taking "breaks." The problem was that the supervisor was "one of the guys" and I was the only girl. Turns out his boss was disgusted, told his boss who lost his mind. They started an investigation which took three days. They interviewed staff—they corroborated what I said.

They checked the security cameras and saw he was spending most of his workday outside. And was fired. When he was told he guessed (wasn't hard!) that I was the person who complained and tried to get to me to "apologize that I took it the wrong way.” The best feeling was my coworkers surrounding me as he was walked out. That was a lovely ending to it all.

irishmuminacoldland