They didn't even have a chance to get all the way to "RateMyProfessor". Once the students sat down in these classes, they immediately wanted to run away.
Redditor MildlyAgitatedBidoof asked:
What are some red flags for teachers that scream "drop this class immediately?"
Here were some of those answers.
Insensitivity
GiphyOver the winter break of my freshman year I was diagnosed with a degenerative bone disease in my knees which meant I had to use crutches for a while (then eventually a wheelchair for a time).
I was late to my philosophy 101 class (due to adjusting to my newfound limitations). I apologized for my tardiness and tried to find my seat without making a fuss.
As I was making my way across the classroom my philosophy teacher remarked "everyone, let's just patiently wait for the cripple here to get to his seat."
It's possible she had believed I was one of several skiing injuries that the student body had incurred over winter break, but either way after that first day I never came back to that class.
Unrelated Information
I had a lecturer that did that but it was compounded by the fact that she would have a whole page of text appear on the page letter by letter, with each letter accompanied by either the typewriter or laser sound effect.
At the end of each slide:
"So you can see by that example that clearly what was required was this:"
*click
Pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew etc for about 2-3 minutes of everyone just waiting for the pew-pew-pew-ing to conclude so the lecture could resume.
Also, for no apparent reason, she interrupted her own lectures about 3 times to inform us that if you take the glass plate out of the microwave you can cram the whole microwave full of hot dogs wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling and they will all cook just fine.
1: No they won't
2: The course was something to do with computers, and was not hot-dog/microwave related.
Plugging Your Own Materials
Giphy"These books are required for the class. I wasn't able to get the revision into the bookstore in time, so the only place you can get them is from me directly or from my website. I will warn you, if you don't buy the books you won't get the login information to be able to take the final, which is 90% of your grade."
"Oh, and no, I can't accept financial aid for them, but it's only $250 so it's not a big deal."
Never seen an entire class get up 5 minutes in and leave before.
Excuses
I had a professor that in hindsight I really should have dropped. It was a Western Civilization History class, and the first day the entirety of the class he spent talking about how he missed his old job teaching in Europe because "American students are more lazy and incapable of getting as high of grades."
Then he showed intro YouTube videos from his personal laptop hooked to a projector and all of the "Recommend" videos all had titles like "grinding with thong", "sexy college babe grinding", etc.
I thought he was just eccentric, but the guy was easily the worst teacher I ever had. He would expect you to totally memorize all the chapters-- he would quiz on material that didn't matter for concepts. (Ie: What was the name of Caesar's second cousin?)
When the information would be found in a huge family tree. The only students in the class with A's were women, and he would grade their quizzes differently and be MUCH more lenient. (The students compared quiz results.)
Someone in class called him out and he said that he was tired of teaching Americans and doesn't get paid enough. (Literally)
GPA Cuts For Their Ego
Back when I started college, I got straight A+s in a class, but when I went to check on my overall grade, I had a B+, found it odd and went to question my teacher about it, he said that he dropped down my grade because the class was a bit of a pain in the @ss (he didn't use those exact words, but thats what he meant)
Then I questioned him again about my posture, asking if I did anything wrong, or disturbed class or whatever, he promptly said I didn't and that I was a great student, which made me ask again "Why is grade lower then", he told the same excuse from above, then I asked if he was planning on changing my grade at all, since I had only As, and he promply said he wasn't going to change.
Fast forward a few days, I ended up filing a complaint about him and his method of grading students, and the college made him change my grade. After that he approached me and said something like "Hey u/Phorcyss you didn't have to file a complaint about me, I was gonna fix your grade" yada yada.
Just Barely Passed
GiphyI've had teachers that I just simply couldn't understand due to a language barrier and in hindsight I should have dropped immediately. I learned that basically if you can't understand what the teacher is saying, be prepared to teach yourself a lot of the class.
I had an accounting teacher one time who was Chinese and I remember sitting in that class on the first day scratching my head because I had no idea what she was saying. I looked around and a lot of the other people had the same look on their faces.
The next week I showed up to class and what was once a classroom of about 40 people was now about 12. I should have known right there to drop, but I didn't.
I stuck it out and a few weeks go by and it didn't get any better. I got my first test back and completely bombed it. I told myself right then that I was going to have to teach myself the material and that coming to class was pointless.
So I taught myself accounting by using the textbook. Since I didn't go to class I missed all of her pop-quizzes but just told myself I'll make it up on the tests. I only showed up for tests and the final and lo and behold, I passed the class.
Not Thanking You
My main homeroom teacher/English history teacher/etc in middle school constantly returned my homework for 0 credit, unless and until I re-wrote everything to her standards of penmanship. I had wavy cursive, but not illegible writing, and also WTF mrs Eisner??
She once told me, "Someday when you're grown up you'll thank me for this."
And I thought, no I won't, you *ss.
Am now grown up. Still think she was an *ss.
There was this tiny little teacher's aide in my class, Carla. She was really quiet and nice and was just as bullied by the teacher as we were.
Right after college, I was teaching art classes and running field trips at a children's museum. Carla came in as a teacher with her own class of students, and we recognized each other and had a happy minute catching up.
I sort of roundabout brought up Eisner, not wanting to be impolite, and Carla goes "Oh! She was such a b*tch!" Yes, yes she was. Damn that was validating.
Seems Defensive But Ok
A prof who is clearly off his meds.
Over the course of my one month in the class, he was constantly rude and unbelievably condescending to literally everyone.
Example: We were on a section talking about multiple sclerosis and how its signals misfire from the brain. A student said "my cousin has MS and says this is how he was told what was happening. Is that correct?".
Prof gets red in the face and yells "I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR COUSIN WITH MS!" and proceeds to rant about how interrupting him with stupid questions is a waste of his time. He never answered the question.
During the second week, less that half the class showed up (or a noticeable chunk). He yelled at us that DID show up about how disrespectful it was, then said we would have to learn this section on our own and that we would be heavily tested on it, then stormed out of class. There was no participation mark in the class.
Also, he stated at the beginning of the semester that more that 50% of students dropped his course. Our grades consisted of a 40% midterm and a 60% final.
I took the midterm before dropping the class. It was the hardest test i have ever taken in my life. He expected us to answer questions that we hadn't been taught.
When confronted, he said "you should always be applying the course material to future study". Class average on that was 15%. Highest mark was 68%. Next highest was 32%. He doesn't scale.
Want to complain? Talk to the head of the department. SURPRISE! He is head of the department. HotD can only be held for 2 year. He managed to hold it for 4 due to a loophole or something (no department head wanted to upset him probably).
Yes, he had been required by the university to take meds to keep his job. I don't think he ever actually took them.
Well, Maybe Teach Instead
GiphyWhen I was 18 I took a Beauty Therapy and Science class. One of the units we had was business studies, I had previously sat an A Level in business so I still had notes and books left over.
We didn't have the usual business teacher because she was signed off sick (Cancer I believe) so instead of getting a qualified teacher in, the department bought in a beauty salon manager. Knew nothing about teaching but thought she knew everything about business.
First class we have, she's doing the "Introduce yourself" thing, then she asks "Who in this class is a Leo?" I raise my hand and its only me .... "Oh because in my star signs I ALWAYS clash with Leos. Sorry". Ok so we have a crazy b*tch, the class is sat in a stunned silence as I simply say "Ok cool"
The time comes to write the assignment for the class and me being savvy I used my old business class notes and books and hand it in with the biggest smile on my face.
Results day. Everyone passes with high marks all except me. She has me up in front of my head tutor for "Plagiarism" and "She's clearly copied and pasted all of this from the internet" my head tutor explained that I "has sat a A-level in business so she should know what she's talking about"
My head tutor re-marked my paper and passed it with a high merit. I later told her about what was said, regarding the star signs and how I felt attacked due to some insignificant fact about my birth sign.
Next lesson she announces she's "Leaving due to my teaching methods being questioned and having a complaint" whilst glaring at me, the rest of the class was relieved.
[username deleted]
Segregation And Racism
If they segregate students
I had an American history class where on the first day the teacher told everyone that no one was to sit in the furthest left row of seats.
Those seats were reserved for the what she called idiots. Idiots were people who arrived late for class.
My class before this ended five minutes before this class did and was on the other side of campus. I took the safe route and dropped the class.
This was before the school made it a rule that you had to have ten minutes between classes, and the professor was an adjunct professor.
On an unrelated note I had an English teacher at this same school that thought when someone had a number on the back window of their car, a number the dmv makes you put there due to some issue with your registration, it meant they were bad drivers and essentially on notice.
She thought this because she said she had only ever seen Asian drivers with them. The girl who explained what it actually meant knew because she had had one, and was also Asian.
That last teacher I know for a fact no longer works as a teacher.
Mental Health
I had some issues with my schedule and wasn't registered for a particular course on the first day of class, so I registered and attended on the second day.
He had already paired up the class into groups of 3-4 on day 1 for a project that would span the entire course and count for a large part of our grade.
When I asked if I could be joined into a smaller group he told me no, that I could do the work solo for the semester. I was peeved, but needed that course as a prerequisite for something I needed next semester so I silently fumed.
After week 2 I had "failed" two reports because he just didn't like what I wrote. Not that the reasoning, research, or writing was unsound- he just didn't like the subject so he gave me failing grades.
I dropped the class, took it with another teacher the next semester, and graduated a semester late because of it.
I don't regret it. He was a horrible teacher and I'm sure my mental health would have suffered if I had continued in his class.
Flee
Giphy"We'll be doing 3 group projects this semester. I will assign the group and it will be the same group for all 3 projects." NOPE.
Call A Doctor
I had a sociology class where during the introductory lecture the professor went on a tangent about how since she has a doctorate if she was ever on a plane and someone asked "is there a doctor on board" she would say she was a doctor.
If you didn't call her "Dr." she would ignore you. She stated that holding a doctorate in sociology should carry the same clout as being an MD.
No disrespect to sociologists or anyone with a PhD but those are not the same things. She went on other rants about how nobody has ever gotten a 4.0 in her class and she was proud of it.
It was the worst class I've ever taken. She was just an insecure nutcase with a PhD on a power trip. I barely passed. Oh and the course text was of course her own book.
Up?
Saw a course at my college called "Digital Media and American Culture." Sounds neat, I thought, I'll go to a lecture during the shopping period.
The professor is 10 minutes late, an 80-year-old man, who gets up and literally asks a student in the front to tell him how many Facebook friends she has and then "how many REAL friends do you have?!"
Was flabbergasted when he asked if anyone in the classroom had read "1984" and most of the class raised their hands. He was 100% convinced that millennials never pick up books anymore.
Yeah, no.
Christ. Was the class held on his lawn, and was he late because he had to yell at a cloud?
I once had a professor say "you get 2 absences this semester. More than 2 and you fail. It doesn't matter what the excuse is."
Sorry, with older relatives who were sick and dying... and not being a psychic myself to know whether or not I'd get sick or if I'd forget to set an alarm, or any number of unforeseeable things... that level of rigidity and unwillingness to compromise isn't worth it.
Had a class where we were allowed three absences. I got bronchitis and used them up about mid way through the semester but towards the end of the semester I got a concussion from passing out during an asthma attack and I wasn't allowed to look at screens, read, listen to music, draw, exercise (this included my 1.5mile walk to campus), or think too hard for a week and a half.
When I was able to go back to class, I brought him the paperwork from the hospital but he just told me to "read the syllabus" and wouldn't even look at my medical papers saying that i wasn't allowed to go to class.
My grade went from an A+ to a B-. And the thing was, it was a lecture hall with 200 students so it's not like there was any group participation or anything. And it was a 100 level class mostly for freshman.
I'll Stay In Bed Thanks
GiphyProfessor was semi-retired. One of his conditions for coming out of full retirement was all his courses had to be done by 9AM so he could still enjoy his day.
No one passed his 7AM advanced calculus classes...
This is where the "office" part of office hours applies.
Doesn't speak clear English and doesn't hold office hours. (This is for a University in USA)
PS: Holding office hours but never being there doesn't help anyone. By appointment only... but having zero availability also doesn't help anyone.
Hey, you were warned.
I had a biology class with a professor who wore a fanny pack and had stains on his shirt. On the first day, he said that the class would require at least 4 hours of studying every day.
The professor also said that he didn't mind "crushing our dreams" and giving us an F. The class was full at the beginning and ended with 3 students.
Sounds like the only dreams that were crushed were his own.
Probably has tenure and only needed to grade 3 papers. They're living the dream.
Source: had 500 students last semester.
Success is lovely revenge.
GiphyI had an accounting professor tell us that there was no way you could get an A in her class with a full time course load and a part time job.
I remember being infuriated because I supported myself and had a full time job and a full time course load. I would have dropped it if it she wasn't the only prof that taught it.
I got an A and felt super smug. But I still have nightmares about that class.
Professor Potty Mouth, tenured at Trump University
In retrospect, if the instructor casually says dumb, inappropriate sh*t.
Look, I'm all for an environment in which instructors can have fun, relate to students, not just teach course material out of a textbook. Those teachers are awesome. When I say "inappropriate", I don't mean telling a few jokes here or there.
I mean: talking about his "dog-faced" ex-wife on the first day of class. Yup. Good chance the dude is a huge narcissist who will waste time patting himself on the back instead of teaching, and designing tests to purposely trick students just so he can feel clever about being right. (Only had this happen once, but the guy was the worst.)
or I mean: when a teacher tries to be too relatable, tries to sell him/herself outside of an educational context, and eventually sends you a Facebook message earlier asking if you want to come by his place later. For some drinks. When you're 18 years old. (Also happened to me!)
Test after test after test after test after test...
They hand out the syllabus and you see that the first 4 chapters are covered in week 1 with an exam scheduled for week 2. And then, upon further examination, you realize that this is a recurring theme for the next 15 weeks...NOPE!
More red flags than a golf course.
GiphyFrom one I just dropped:
-no exams, at all
- a ten page paper was worth 50% of the mark and the other 50% was from giving a presentation to the classes
- there were two extremely expensive textbooks, which she told us at length about how hard they were to find and that the bookstore didn't have any (she said she called the publisher and even they didn't have any copies)
-the textbooks were required starting next week and the discussions would be based off of the textbook readings (the fastest shipping would still take at LEAST two weeks to get the books there!!)
-she was very condescending and rude
-said that if we didn't have prior background into <subject> it would be an extremely steep learning curve (but there wasn't a prereq for the class in <subject>)
I bet she says, "Eebeetha."
"You'll have to forgive me if I don't understand your American sentiments, as an international, I'm unfamiliar with your culture."
Stated by a woman who lived in America till the age of twelve. She thought she was the most intelligent person because she'd been able to live abroad. Worst professor I've had.
Fail.
Linux class: I'm a hired consultant and I've never used Linux before. Thanks ITT Tech, please discharge my fraudulent student loan debt now.
There's an app for that.
Giphy"You should learn how to do everything long hand" The exact quote from my Grad School finance professor. Yup- time value of money calculations without a calculator....
I get the thought that you should know the mechanics, but let's be honest if your accountant started doing math with pencil and paper you would run. Dropped that class after bombing the first test. Took it again the next semester and the first day the he passed out the cheat sheets for every brand of calculator made. Solid A- that time
Integrity.
I had a teacher that I loved but everyone hated.
My economics teacher was an absolute madman.
first day of econ-
Madman- " FIRST RULE!.. ANY AND ALL CELLPHONES ARE TO REMAIN OFF!. IF I SEE YOU USING THEM, I WILL THROW THEM OUT THE DOOR!"
cellphone rings
its his
madman looks at class.. grabs cellphone and throws it out the door
Madman- " didn't need to talk to my wife anyway! "
Just a little nuts.
I had a counseling professor (of all people) try to assert that there is no way of knowing that mental illnesses are real, so we shouldn't have to treat them as such.
That's absolutely absurd, so I asked him his opinion on the use of brain scans to show trends in the brain function of people with a mental illness (depression, adhd, schizophrenia, etc) in comparison to healthy brains. He didn't have one.
So I dropped that class and ran. Took it again at the same school with a different professor, and he basically admitted that the other guy was a little nuts
I've made a huge mistake.
Giphyfirst week of class has homework that takes 10 hours to do
Professor: "The assignment last time was simple to get you up and running. We'll have longer ones starting this week"
Miscalculus.
"You should take this teacher, if you just show up for the final he will give you a passing grade."
Fresh out of HS me thought that this sounded great. First day of class, 45 chairs in the class are all full and there are people lining the wall to get in.
Fast forward to the final, me and maybe 10 other people attend. I pass the class, even though the teacher was awful. This was precalculus.
I show up to Calculus the next semester. First class, "We'll review the stuff you'll need to know from your pre-cal class to succeed in this class. Here's a practice worksheet."
I couldn't do a single problem, I had not learned a thing from my precal class and knew that I would have to retake it. In the long haul it pushed me from my science major to a liberal arts major. Would not recommend.
A D! You did it!
In an English class for the 12th grade, I was handed back an essay and with it a mark of 64% (hard teacher but I'm not the best at English) with this mark was a comment that read "Excellent Work!". That's when I knew, this b!tch was Lucifer.
In a similar vein, once received an exam back with 53% and the note "Great job! You're starting to understand the subject matter!"
To be fair, I came into the class not speaking the language so was learning chemistry and German at the same time.
When you have to buy *their* books.
GiphyA red flag that the teacher has a really bad ego problem is if they require you buy their books. Especially if they ONLY recommend books they've written.
Yes, you are the ONLY person who has ever written about James Baldwin. No one else has anything remotely worth adding to the conversation. Also, using your students as a means of increasing your sell numbers/making more money is a sh*tty, egotistical thing to do.
How cunning linguists are made.
So my senior year I took this Intro to Applied Linguistics class. I had learned a couple languages by that point, it was my last semester of school, and it was my only real class - I was writing a thesis and taking a directed readings.
I was taking this class as an elective having already finished my major simply to keep me at enough credits to stay on campus. Nonetheless, it was something I was really interested in, and was excited for.
The first day I and about 25 other students show up and the professor walks in with what must have been a 20 page syllabus. An unbelievable amount of reading, assignments every week, group projects, online blogs, you name it.
We spend the first session just going through the syllabus, maybe make it halfway. It was bordering on unreasonable, potentially impossible, but I'm stubborn and I had very little else on my plate that semester and I figured why not stick it out. Might actually learn something.
First class was on Thursday, next meeting was on Tuesday. When I walk in all of a sudden the class was only about 12 people - more than half of the other students had dropped.
The professor walks in, smiles, and says "Good! It worked! Now I know that you all actually give a sh!t. Take out your syllabi, we have some trimming to do."
Spent the next 20 minutes crossing things off, changing dates and literally ripping entire pages out of the syllabus. It was glorious.
That class ended up being one of those rare classes that was easy as hell, yet intellectually challenging and enjoyable all at the same time. As far as I'm concerned, that prof is a genius.
Online
I have gotten my entire degree taking online classes from the University of Houston and their are two things that scream "drop this class."
- You are required to log on to blackboard at least 3 days a week. — I didn't register for an online class because I've got ample hours in my day to log on and do school work I take online classes because I have the ability to successfully compete weeks worth of work in 1 day.
- You are required to use lockdown browser for exams and have your webcam on and you must give me a tour of the entire room with the camera and the volume must be on and it must be during normal working hours. — nah no one invades my privacy and my normal working hours are 11am to 9pm not much I can do about taking an exam before 5pm.
You're late
Giphy"If you arrive late then you're absent"
This is also isn't reflective of how the real world works. If you're at your job and you're five minutes late for a meeting, you can't just blow it off entirely. You have to go in, own up to your lateness like an adult, and try to catch up.
This is also isn't reflective of how the real world works.
That's all of college.
Sure, seems fair.
Let me tell ya'll a story from second year university. I had a course that started in second semester, and due to weather the first class had to be cancelled.
Okay, that's unfortunate, but obviously not the teacher's fault. She sends out a class wide email saying "here are the slides I would have shown today, can you all please read through them in preparation for tomorrow?" Okay, seems reasonable enough, I can understand that.
But then I'm reading through those slides I found this, which I'm going to quote to the best of my memory:
"If the class misbehaves the homework assignments will get longer and more difficult, and the final exam will get more difficult."
Excuse me? I have literally never met you and you're already threatening me? What the f---? So yeah, to answer your question: that.
Yikes.
I had a French professor who said to me, "you're not on the streets anymore" because I was the only Black person in the class.
Chemistry is the Devil's magic.
GiphyI was taking a general chemistry class and a fellow student asked a pretty great question. I had the same question but I can't remember exactly what it was.
Our professor, who by the way was a very nice and brilliant man, answered it with "You should have learned that in your physics class" and then continued on with the lecture.
I didn't need to take physics for my major... The next class session was our first exam and that specific question was on the exam, class average was 44%. I dropped the class the next day.
I once had a teacher tell us we should've learned something already from the class that the class we were currently in was a prereq for.
A term paper in physics...
I took a physics class when I was in college. Day one, I am paging through the syllabus (which was like 5 pages long by the way) and I see that there's a 5 page paper due later that week.
I asked the professor if that was a mistake. He said it was not. I dropped the class that afternoon.
Edit: This post is getting a lot of attention so I will address what seems to be a common theme in replies I am getting. I agree that a five page paper is not a large amount of work.
The red flag was more about the fact that there was a term paper assigned for a hard science like physics. I did not need the class to graduate, I only took it because I was interested in it. So I decided it was probably not the right fit for me.
Can't block bad vibes.
When he pulls a cell signal blocker from his briefcase on the first day of class. Yes this actually happened to me. Half way through the semester he went on a 3 week vacation and we had a stand in prof.
Learned more from the stand-in prof then the actual prof.
OR
When the prof says "you guys will not need to learn X" and proceed to skip some important topic. I was getting a business degree majoring in IT.
We had a programming class and our professor said "you guys aren't comp science majors you wont need to know this". He proceeded to skip constructors in a java course.
Aren't cell signal blockers illegal because they can stop a 911 call from going through? Unless you're not in the US, then I dunno.
Your debt hard at work.
GiphyI had a teacher that was consistently late for every single class. It wasn't 5 minutes late, it was more like 30-45 minutes late every time. When students wanted to complain about her tardiness to the department, she would respond with, "Go ahead. I have tenure anyways. It won't do a thing."
Never again.
A group project worth a substantial amount of your grade.
F*ck group projects.
Two years in and I've only had one group project, which is even more difficult in an online degree program. Everyone was great except one guy, kept arguing about the topic (which he joined the group based on the topic) elected himself group leader, kept asking everyone to get their sh*t done, didn't even contribute to the final piece of the project. F*ck you Maurice!
- Stranger Saves College Student's Grade By Switching Pants With ... ›
- People Divulge The Most Recurring Themes From Their Nightmares - George Takei ›
- Therapy Patients Divulge The Red Flags For Bad Therapists - George Takei ›
- People Describe The Worst Thing They've Ever Dropped - George Takei ›
- The Biggest Red Flags People Ever Ignored That Blew Up In Their Faces - George Takei ›
"Why was that one guy fired from your work?"
Sleeping On The Job Is One Thing...
"HVAC residential installer."
"Had a co-worker take a nap in the customer's house."
"In the customer's bed."
"Was confused why he was fired."- Wiggles349
That's Called Stealing...
"Work at a payroll company, we had an employee who Switched like 20 direct deposits to her own account."
"It was all very traceable and she was caught like later that day."- Familiar_Cow_5501
"Once worked at a big online retailer (Not amazon), we had 3 warehouses we shipped out of."
"One was smaller and only held one specific brand of item."
"The warehouse manager of that warehouse was fired and arrested at work."
"Turned out he was fulfilling orders printing labels with correct addresses, which would be emailed to the client."
"Then he would the next day do redirects through the Fedex system and assign new tracking numbers so the old ones wouldn't show final delivery address, just that it was changed."
"Everything got redirected to his house."
"He then was re-listing the same items on Ebay under a VERY similar company name to the one he actually worked for (not exact but changed the word World, to National)."- CoolHandRK1
Stealing Mike D GIF by Beastie BoysGiphyNOT Ready Player One...
"He spent the entire time playing a game on his own handheld console instead of testing the game we were doing overtime to actually test."
"Got very angry at being let go."- silverandstuffs
Violence Is Never The Answer
"He shouted, cursed at and invited the cleaning guy to 'meet him' outside to fight because he was denied access to the restroom until it was fully cleaned."
"The cleaning guy is known for being extremely calm, polite and nice to everyone."
"For someone to have a problem with him means that they have to be a certain kind of entitled a**hole."
"This happened in view of at least 10 co-wokers, me included."
"Everyone was confused, but our manager was proactive about it."
"He told the guy to meet him at the HR office, and was promptly fired."
"After the manager returned, he made a quick meeting."
"His words were: 'We're all grown adults here, well, some of us are'."
"'I just want to put it out there and say that I'll be considerably harsh to anyone that disrespects any coworker, specially when they're responsible for making sure that your a** cheeks sit on a clean toilet'."
"'Also, don't invite people to fight you if you're not willing to go through with it'."
"After the meeting was over, some of us asked him what he meant with that last sentence and he told us that the guy got violent in the HR office and invited him to fight in the parking lot when he was told he was getting terminated."- novato1995
Season 1 Fighting GIF by GaslitGiphyOh No He Didn't!
"Stealing the boss's Pop Tarts."- MGris24
If Your Going To Lie, Always Cover Your Tracks...
"He claimed he was in the national search and rescue brigade which is entirely volunteer-based."
"They are sorta like our troops, they get perks and can't be fired if they get called out and so on."
"He skipped work all the time claiming it was because he was called in."
"One day someone from the office decided to check if he was and turned out he lied about the whole thing."
"I'm pretty sure he got blacklisted by the entire city which would explain why I haven't heard anything about him for years."- Lizzy_Of_Galtar
You'd Think He Would Have At Least Used Incognito Mode...
"Well, there *was* the new CFO who was shown the door at lunchtime on his first day."
"Then the stock email about 'Do not use the corporate internet to visit inappropriate websites' was sent out."- OldBob10
She Wasn't Even Working From Home!
"She watched Netflix at her desk and took naps."
"With the volume up."
"Her desk was in the middle of the office, there was no hiding."
"She also f*cked up a lot."- SuperstitiousPigeon5
Truth Is Often Stranger Than Fiction
"Worked at a publication."
"Hired a new guy who was super nice and everybody liked him."
"Within a week, found he was plagiarizing everything he wrote."
"Immediately gone - no questions asked."- phznmshr
Could He Have Possibly Been Bird Watching?
"He was keeping sick and injured birds under his desk that he found on his lunch breaks and using binoculars to watch people in other offices."- seanofkelley
Bird Watching GIF by Team CocoGiphyIt's Not Private If It's On The Country's Dime...
"Using govt funds to see his mistress."- Acceptable-Result-47
Tragic On So Many Levels
"He was caught stealing cash from work, and spending it on sex workers."
"Turns out he had terminal cancer and wanted to go out with a bang."- Throwaway7219017
Up In The Air...
"Salesman addicted to frequent flier points."
"He'd book flights with four segments each way, meaning extra nights in hotels and basically doing almost no work two days a week."
"He was told repeatedly to book direct flights but just wouldn't."
"Two kids in college and the finally fired him."- mekonsrevenge
check in george clooney GIF by Paramount MoviesGiphyThere is often more behind someone's termination than what people hear.
Sometimes it's bad blood, sometimes it's criminal behavior, sometimes it's budget cuts.
Most of the time, though, people are just really, REALLY, bad at their jobs...
Usually, it’s men that get a bad reputation for being creepy, and we rarely hear about when ladies have crossed that line. But women are guilty of doing and saying some weird things too. If you don’t believe me, here are 50 hilarious tales of when Reddit users experienced full creep mode from a lady friend.
1. Crazy Level Confirmed
Last year I changed the privacy setting on my Facebook account to make some of my posts public. I soon found out this was a huge mistake. My crazy ex-wife who I had successfully ghosted for 20 years jumped on there and tried to strike up a conversation. How crazy, you ask?
We were at a restaurant with her family one time and I got that “spidey sense” feeling when a woman is angry and not saying why. It eventually came out that she saw me "holding hands with the waitress and planning a quickie in the back room". I never interacted with the waitress beyond ordering food from her.
Another time she confessed that she purposely caused a rollover accident before we met, in an attempt to hurt her family. Another time I was taking a shower and smelled smoke. It was coming from the plastic handle of the butcher blade she had hidden in the bathroom light fixture.
2. Took Her Long Enough
A girl I dated stalked me for five years after we broke up.
She kept writing me letters at every address I lived during that five-year period. If she didn't have the address, she'd send them care of my parents. The most memorable one is the one where she told me she was married and "he's a great guy but he's not you".
Once, not long after I'd moved to a new address, I came home and found a box of cookies she'd FedExed to me.
Eventually I moved to a new state. I knew from her return addresses that she lived and worked there, and was worried we'd run into each other, but realized that was pretty unlikely. Then after less than a year, she found me through a blog I was keeping and left a message on my voicemail demanding we meet.
I posted a message to her on my blog telling her to stop following me or I'd call the authorities. Up to that point I'd been ignoring her, hoping she'd take the hint. That night she called, and I repeated my threat to bring the authorities in. I haven't heard from her since.
Five years. And we were only together for six months in the first place.
3. This Went Way Too Far
woman with sunglasses standing outdoor during daytimePhoto by Katsiaryna Endruszkiewicz on UnsplashBack when I was 16 and still in school, a female classmate became really obsessed with me. She would send me tons of weird messages. She was also always trying to pair with me in science class, and just staring at me a lot of the time. I was usually just polite in return, and never went out my way to interact with her. But then it escalated.
She ended up getting really creepy, and getting me in a lot of trouble. At one point her messages became genuinely worrying, and I did not know what to do. I remember the night it got really bad was when she sent me a picture of my name carved into her arm. I had no idea what to do. In hindsight, I should've told someone straight away.
The next day in fact, I was preparing to tell one of the teachers or just anyone, possibly to get her help. But before I could she was telling people I told her to carve my name in her arm. It was as a pretty bad time. I got targeted at school that day, had the authorities come to my house, my phone got taken, and I was being treated like a felon.
Everyone apart from my two main friends at school seemed to think I was in the wrong. But I was in for worse. The next day while at school, I get called into the principal's office and told I am being expelled. My parents were called. They were very angry and took me home. They didn’t want to listen to my explanation or side of the story.
Thank God that night the authorities came around with my phone and told me they'd established that I had nothing to do with her doing that. They apologized to me and seemed pretty genuinely sorry.
4. Her Timing Was Off
I was seeing this girl and we went out three or four times. Eventually we got to intimate times, and I brought protection but she said it was fine, she was on the pill. A few days later she called me crying, looking for me to console her.
Turns out she was crying because she wasn't pregnant. She wasn't on the pill at all, it turned out, and now that she wasn't pregnant after our romp, she thought she must be barren. Young me learned an important lesson that day and I didn't speak to her again.
5. This Is Just Cruel
I met a girl a while back when online chat rooms were popular. She just got out of a bad relationship. We started chatting and from the get-go I told her I only wanted to be friends. We shared similar interests, enjoyed each other's company, and through talking found out we actually didn't live too far from each other.
We'd meet up from time to time to play video games and hang out. After about two weeks of being friends, she admitted that she was having feelings for me. I said that's sweet but I only see you as a friend and I'd like to keep it that way. From that point on she would make intimate advances, which I kept refusing.
She progressively kept going into more detail of all the "nasty things" she'll do to me. Most of which made me feel super uncomfortable. After a month I couldn't handle all the uncomfortable behavior and decided that we couldn't be friends any longer. When I told her our friendship was over, she threatened to tell lies to the authorities about me.
It's hard to describe what I felt that day, but it was mostly fear. I blocked her from everything and blocked her phone number. Luckily that was the last I heard of her.
6. I Bet He Chooses His Words More Wisely Now
man in white dress shirt holding black penPhoto by Caroline LM on UnsplashMy dentist told me this story once. He was still studying to be a dentist and they would work free clinics, often in the poor areas around the campus, for practical requirements. A girl came in a few times to have some cavities filled and by the last session, he said, "Great, we're done, all your holes are filled".
To which she apparently replied, in the chair giving him bad sleep-with-me eyes, "not all of them". His wife (then serious girlfriend) was the dental assistant, and he says the combination of location, situation, and the circumstances creeped him out so much he nearly ran out of the office.
7. It’s The Hair That Got Me On This One
Ok so here’s mine. I was at summer camp for blind and visually impaired people, and we were going somewhere. I was on the bus and me and my friend were talking and all of a sudden, he said: “Oh yeah, by the way there’s this girl that told me that she likes you and that she’s going to sneak into your room and watch you sleep. She wanted you to know that".
I didn’t believe it at first, but the next morning I noticed that I lost some hair. And then I thought to myself, “Okay, what the actual heck is going on here”. And then it happened every night. The next year I went, it happened again, and then I started to make sure my window was locked.
I then heard knocking repeatedly, plus: “I know you’re in there, open the window”, in a whispered voice. I got the heck out right then and there.
8. A Secret Admirer Gone Too Far
Back when I was 19-20 years old, I had a part-time counter job at local shop. After work, I started finding notes tucked under my windshield wiper when I went out to my car. They were casual, "You’re so cute, I want to get to know you" type of notes. There was no name or anything, so I just kind of shrugged it off and went about my business.
The notes started becoming more frequent, and eventually turned into full on love letters. They talked about being lonely and wanting to be my girlfriend, but she was too shy to talk to me. At that point I started to get concerned, so I asked the people I worked with if they knew anything.
None of them knew a thing about it, but thought it was hilarious. Then something really put me over the top. One night I went out to my car as usual. This time there was nothing on my windshield, but I get in my car and notice a wrapped present with an envelope taped to it. I open the gift, it's a very expensive bottle of booze, which I threw out.
I read the letter and its super inappropriate and vulgar, clearly from a woman. I still have no idea who is doing this. This keeps on going with a different gift the next few nights; a CD from my favorite band, a gift card to a restaurant. At this point I'm super freaked out and talk to my boss to see if there is anything they could do.
They basically shut me down and wished me good luck with the issue. That night I triple checked to make sure my car door was locked, and sure enough, after my shift another bottle and a letter. I called my boss the next day and quit. Never went back, never found out who it was.
9. Gotcha There
woman in blue tank top standing beside white wallPhoto by ThisisEngineering RAEng on UnsplashI started a new job and I shared a small office with a woman my age and a couple of other people. She was kind of cute but also weird and super naïve; she grew up in a very rural area. She'd flirt with me a lot, but I wasn't interested.
So, she started sending me emails. They were super long, detailing her whole day. And she sent them to me every day. I never responded. Then one day she sent me this long email confessing her love. I replied with the (very obvious) reasons why it wouldn't work and asked her to stop sending me emails every day.
She didn't. They kept coming. This went on for months. I asked her in person and online to stop, but I still got these email memoirs every day. Eventually, I had another female office mate who was her friend have a talk with her. Finally, the emails stopped.
Not too long after, I moved very far away. Like, the other side of the world far away. That's when I found out some extremely disturbing news. Another office mate sent me an email after I had been there a few months asking me what city I lived in. I told her, and she wrote back that she had heard the crazy emailer was moving there.
To this same small city halfway around the world. That couldn't be a coincidence, right? I asked the office mate for more details, and it got creepier and creepier. She was moving into my neighborhood, she had gotten a job nearby, and she was looking for an "old friend”.
It was about a week before the old office mate finally came clean that she was messing with me.
10. New Girl Intuition
The girl I was dating asked if I had changed the locks since breaking up with my ex, even though the breakup was months prior. I'm like, "No, but she wasn't a crazy person so I never worried about it".
She said if I didn’t change the locks, she wasn’t comfortable sleeping over. So, I changed the locks. I wasn't prepared for what happened next. This ex sent me an angry text the next day saying, "So you changed your locks huh? Real nice, jerk". Apparently she had been coming over this whole time and doing who knows what.
11. Young Crushes
When I was about 17 years old, I worked at a cafeteria and some girls (who were around 11 and 13) were chasing me for weeks. They even waited in front of my door when I had to go to work to chase me all the way up there.
One day I was working and the cafeteria was full of people when the 11-year-old girl said "When can I sleep with you?" Everyone instantly looked at me. Uncomfortable isn’t even the right word to describe my feelings at that moment.
12. Blood, Sweat And Tears
person cutting vegetables with knifePhoto by Alyson McPhee on Unsplash"Did you enjoy that dinner? I put my blood in it. Now part of me is inside of you".
Yes, this actually happened. I thought she meant she put a lot of work into it, like, "blood, sweat, and tears", so asked her. Nope, it was way worse than I thought. She actually showed me the cut she made to bleed herself into the dinner.
13. Run, Just Run
This girl I was seeing said, and did, something super creepy: "Just so you know, I wrote your name on my leg with a boxcutter so I'll always have you near me". I had no idea how to respond to that. I really hope it didn’t scar forever, because we are definitely not still together.
14. Woof, Woof
When I was in grade school, a girl snuck up behind me in gym class to sniff my butt. I caught her in the act, and just felt gross.
15. Stand-In Boyfriend
smiling man standing near green treesPhoto by Warren on UnsplashI have a good creepy story. There were some foreign students in a local university, who all told their family and friends back home they have an American boyfriend. They decided to work together to trick the people back home by getting a random average guy to pose in pictures with them, and even treat him to a nice dinner. I’ve was that guy.
16. Friend Zone Revenge
Someone I considered a friend started to catch feelings for me. She then found out I had a girlfriend and I didn't feel the same for her. Her response was deranged. First, she found out who my girlfriend was somehow.
She then messaged her and tried to tell her that I was cheating on her with her and that I was…into younger girls (the "friend" was a couple of years younger than us). Luckily, I was with my girlfriend when she got that message so I could explain the situation, then we blocked her.
The next day she messaged her again from an alternate account.
17. Cruise Ship Creep
I once got a message on Instagram from a girl I had met on a cruise saying she loved our time together and asking if I preferred her over my girlfriend. I had maybe spoken to her once and always with people around, so obviously nothing had happened.
My girlfriend was with me when the messages came through, so it was tough to explain at first. You can't really prove something isn't true without witnesses. Looking back now, I just wonder why someone would ever actively try to mess up someone else's life for no reason.
18. Oh, So It’s That Kind Of Party
group of people tossing wine glassPhoto by Kelsey Chance on UnsplashIn my early 20s, I was at a party and the hosting woman suddenly, full-on grabbed at my pants. Strange, yes. But what made it creepy is that we were right in front of her mother, who was cheering her on.
19. And This Is Why We Don’t Use Phone Books Anymore
Some girl found out my address from the phone book—this was the 90s—and she sat outside my house for multiple nights. She stayed ALL night, just watching my house. I live in the middle of the woods, miles outside of town. We only had one date and agreed to leave it at that. I found out some time later what she had been doing.
20. Anything But That
The creepiest thing a girl has ever said to me was: "I kind of write Twilight fan fiction". It was an instant deal breaker for me.
21. Not Cool
a young boy holding his hands upPhoto by Oyemike Princewill on UnsplashI met this girl online and talked to her a bit. I did start to like her. Later, I found out that the picture she showed me of herself was actually a picture of her friend who had died from cancer some years back. I was mortified.
22. Never Give Up
I’ve had a girl create about 50 different Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram accounts, all to try to get me to friend her. I’ve never met this woman in person, and yet every few weeks I’ll get a handful of friend requests from her.
23. Too Soon
A woman once said to me, “I want a baby. I think you'd make beautiful babies”. I was only 18-years-old at the time. That definitely creeped me out.
24. She’s Closer Than You Thought
people sitting down inside vehiclePhoto by Mitchell Johnson on UnsplashI chatted with a girl online for a few days back in the day. One day we were chatting and she said that I looked sad on the bus that morning. There was just one problem. I had never met her in person.
25. Sealed With Love
I would have to say the creepiest thing for me was when a girl I barely knew figured out my class schedule. She would then leave me letters in sealed envelopes, giving them to my teachers to give to me.
26. Well, You Don’t Win If You Don’t Try
I was going to head home after a night out, and as I was getting into my taxi a girl jumped in after me. I asked what they were doing and she said "I'm coming home with you". Nope. The taxi driver helped me and she got out of the car eventually, but only after I repeatedly shot down her advances.
27. Hopefully She Wasn’t Projecting
brown short coated dog running on green grass field during daytimePhoto by Emil Priver on UnsplashI’m going to keep this one short because it really packs a punch…I once dated a girl who thought it was suspicious that a single guy had a female dog.
28. Daddy Issues
A girl I was hooking up with asked me to dress up in army gear and act tough. Okay, sounds reasonable enough, everybody is allowed to have their tastes in the bedroom. But I didn't know what she was really planning. She timed all this so that her dad was getting home mid-act. I freaked out and ran out of there.
29. That Escalated Quickly
The woman I was seeing carved my initials into her arm. Me, being the genius that I was, was flattered and married her.
I was not a smart man. We later divorced after I found her in bed with her teenage cousin. I’ll say it again: I. Was. Not. A. Smart. Man.
30. The Trash Took Itself Out
green trash bin beside brown buildingPhoto by Jake Heidecker on UnsplashA girl came up to me and said: "I had a dream that you and I messed around behind the dumpster, and I can't get it out of my head. Come on, let's go". And then she grabbed me by the waist to lead the way.
For context, I was in high school and this girl was "friends" with my longtime girlfriend, and everyone knew about our relationship. It was closed, monogamous, unexciting, and sweet. And this fake friend pulled this nonsense.
I was angry. But I didn't turn her in because who knows what she'd say I did to school admins. I did tell my then-girlfriend, who cut her off forever.
31. Hopefully He Got A Copy Of This
My ex wrote her 30-page final paper about me, going into great detail about how bad of a boyfriend I was. We were only exclusive for two months.
32. Don’t Forget The Hot Chocolate
I had a girl ask me to break into her apartment and make her hot chocolate in her kitchen, while she hid, scared in her bedroom… then I was supposed to go in and get it on with her. It was some weird role play idea. She really emphasized the hot chocolate though, which is what was weird to me. Especially because we didn’t even drink it.
33. Classic
pregnant near doorPhoto by Camylla Battani on UnsplashMy ex faked being pregnant to stop me from breaking up with her. Every breakup after that, I waited until my girl’s period before breaking up with her. Having a crazy partner bargain with the life of your unborn child will mess you up.
34. What’s In A Name
I was dating a girl named Alison. My Grandma is also named Alison. I had mentioned that I found it a little weird that they had the same name. Her response haunts me. Once as we were becoming intimate, she asked, "Does this make you think of your grandma"? It didn't. Until then.
35. He’s Still Salty About It
I was at a costume party dressed as a piece of bacon, and this girl who had been drinking casually walks up to me, bites my chest through the costume and continues to whisper in my ear "what a juicy piece of meat". I probably stood there for a solid minute trying to figure out what just happened before getting the heck out of there.
36. Midnight Watch
worm's-view photo of brown concrete buildingPhoto by Daryan Shamkhali on UnsplashOne woman I was dating climbed up the fire escape next door and came in through my first floor bedroom window. That in itself wasn't actually the creepy part. What was creepy was she didn't jump in bed or anything. Instead, I woke up to her standing in the middle of my room, watching me sleep.
She actually turned her head to the side with a creepy smile and said, “Hello, sleepy head”. It was freaky as heck. I put chains on my windows after she left that day and told her it was to stop the cat from getting out my window.
37. She’s A Keeper
She said: "I can poo bigger than you can"! as she began dropping her pants. To be fair, we were only four years old at the time, behind my parent’s garage. And though I lost that contest, I married her years later and have since upped my game.
38. Umm, What?
The creepiest thing a woman ever said to me was: "Your lips looked dry while you were sleeping, so I licked them for you".
39. He Needed To Come To Terms With Her Daddy Issues First
man in black crew neck t-shirtPhoto by Noah Blaine Clark on UnsplashI was literally in bed with this girl when she whispers "You know why I’ve always liked you"? I asked why and she said, "You remind me of my dad". I didn’t leave right away, but I didn't call her for a while after that.
40. She Put A Spell On You
Once, my long-ago ex wanted to collect my fingernails and toenails for some kind of spell. And she'd sing creepily by herself in the dark at the foot of the bed. It was the creepiest thing I have experienced to this day.
41. Future Son-In-Law
The creepiest thing a woman ever said to me was: "I should hook you up with my daughter". She said this while she and I were in bed. Oh, that's not all. Her daughter wasn't even 18, and I was in my mid-40s. I was very weirded out by it.
42. How Do I Get A Stalker Like This?
group of people near bonfire near trees during nighttimePhoto by Tegan Mierle on UnsplashThis didn't happen to me, but when my dad was at sleep-away camp as a teenager, this girl had a crush on him so she snuck into his cabin and folded and reorganized all of his clothes. To be clear, my dad didn’t know her at all.
43. He Put Her On The Porch
My ex of less than a week climbed through my first-floor apartment bedroom window. It was 2:30 AM and she had been drinking. While climbing, one of her shoes fell off, and when she saw it she thought that it was another girl’s shoe.
She began to beat me with her shoe while yelling, "Whose shoe is this"? I had to bear hug her to get her to stop, and then I carried her out to the front door and placed her on the porch.
44. She Was Asserting Dominance
This girl didn’t say anything creepy; she DID something creepy. She took my hand, put it between her legs, and peed in it. Without any warning. I was absolutely disgusted to say the least. She said it was her thing.
45. That’s Just Weird
persons left hand doing peace signPhoto by gryffyn m on UnsplashThe creepiest thing I experienced with a woman was when I found half a bag of toenail clippings in her closet. When I confronted her about it, she said, "Yeah, I like to save them for later when I want a midnight snack". I gagged and got the heck out of there, needless to say.
46. Oh, Sorry I Wasn’t Listening
About six months after our breakup, my ex called me because she wanted to see me. It seemed strange to me but I accepted. When we met, she was friendly and all. It turned quickly into a nightmare. At a certain point, she pulls out a sheet of paper in which there was a list written of all the men she slept with after our relationship.
She read it all to me, with an accurate description of every intimate encounter. Well, it was awkward so I just sat there quietly, and then ordered my meal.
47. This One Is Movie Material
My wife and I were in town with our two-year-old son visiting my parents when an old high school friend (she was only ever a friend) came by to meet my wife and son. After we all sat and talked for a few hours and after what felt like a pretty normal night of company, we all got up to say good night. Then the most shocking moment of my life happened.
The friend hugged my wife goodbye then turned to me, grasped me very firmly into a hug, kissed me on the lips, and then whispered into my ear, "Your son should have been ours. I love you"!
She then turned away like it was totally normal and waved goodbye to us and left. My wife didn't see or hear any of it and I never told her. She thinks the girl is a decent person and we'll never see her again.
48. Better Late Than Never
Tattoo neon signagePhoto by Sherman Yang on UnsplashHere’s a creepy one for you. My ex got my name tattooed on her foot...three years after we broke up.
49. Stranger Danger
This is copied from an email I received from a stalker seven years ago: “When you and she have your baby, rest assured, I’ll be the one that raises it”. This was just many of the creepy things she sent me.
50. Whoa, This Is Next Level
I was talking to a girl on the phone who started telling me a story about how when she was seven, she pushed a girl into a pool and watched her struggle. The girl didn't make it. But that wasn't all. Her grandma came home, found out about it, and told her to tell the authorities it was an accident. That was a warning sign right there.