My manager put me in charge of a team dinner at [Restaurant #1]. Shortly after the invite went out, [Coworker] came to my desk.

Me: “Hey, what’s —”

Coworker: “You picked [Restaurant #1]?”

Me: “[Manager] did, yeah.”

Coworker: “[Restaurant #2] is better.”

Me: *Shrugs.* “To each his own, I guess.”

Coworker: “You should change it.”

Me: “Um… No, that’s what [Manager] picked.”

Coworker: “[Restaurant #2] is better. That’s where we should eat.”

Me: “They can’t accommodate our group.”

Coworker: “So? Invite fewer people.”

Me: “Look. I have work to do. The meal is at [Restaurant #1]. If you don’t like it, don’t go.”

Coworker: *As he’s walking away.* “…b****.”

Two days later, he comes back to me.

Coworker: “So, I talked to [Manager] and he said he wants [Restaurant #2].”

Me: “When?”

Coworker: “This morning.”

Me: “Okay.”

Coworker: “So you’re gonna change it?”

Me: “After I confirm with [Manager].”

Coworker: “I just told you that’s what he said!”

Me: “Then there’s no issue with me double-checking.”

Coworker: “So, you don’t believe me. You think I’m lying.”

Me: “If [Manager] says he wants it changed, I will change it. But not until I hear it directly from him.”

Coworker: “Jesus Christ, it’s like you’re committed to being r*****ed.”

Me: “Go away, [Coworker].”

Coworker: “No. You are not my boss, and I’m not—”

Me: “Then you can sit here and watch me tell HR how you’ve been acting.”

Coworker: *Glares and leaves.*

I spoke with my manager, and he confirmed that not only did he *not* want to change the restaurant, he actually hates [Restaurant #2] and would rather have no dinner at all than go there. He also said he would have a word with [Coworker] about integrity and honesty in the workplace.

The day of the meal comes, and at least half of the people who said they were coming are not there. [Manager] is questioning me when my phone rings.

Me: “Hello?”

Coworker: “Hey, we’re here. Where are you?”

Me: “Um… we’re also here. Where are you?”

Coworker: “At [Restaurant #2] with [people who are missing].”

Me: “Why? We’re at [Restaurant #1].”

Coworker: “I told you to change it to [Restaurant #2]!”

Me: “And I told you that [Manager] picked [Restaurant #1].”

At the mention of his name, [Manager] motions for me to hand over the phone. I do so, and before [Manager] can speak, [Coworker] starts going off again. I see [Manager]’s face go from confused to shocked to irritated.

Manager: “Well, [Coworker], since you decided to tell people that the venue had changed, you can pay for their meals.”

He ends the call and returns my phone.

Manager: “Do not let him expense anything from tonight.”

Me: “Okay.”

The next day, [Coworker] tried to tell everyone that I had lied and sent him to the wrong restaurant on purpose. My complaint to HR also got him in a heap of trouble; apparently, he has a history of “bending the truth” to get his way.

He was put on a week-long unpaid leave of absence. When his week was up, he did not return and could not be reached. [Manager] wrote this off as job abandonment.

I’m stocking some seasonal cards when I overhear a customer on the phone.

Customer: “Yeah, I’m just getting a congrats card for [Name].”

Pause.

Customer: “Because she got a promotion.”

Pause.

Customer: “You don’t have to remind me, but what’s done is done. She got it, I didn’t. I want to prove that I’m happy for her. She’s going to be my manager now, after all.”

Pause.

Customer: “No, I’m just getting something simple. I mean, I still wanted that promotion too! I’m going for a “yay… I guess,” card.”

Pause.

Customer: “Oooh! I found it!”

Pause.

Customer: “Yeah, it says a simple ‘congrats’ but all lower case, in a font that looks like it regrets it.”

I had to stop and look over. The card was all white with the tiny word ‘congrats’ in a simple typewriter font dead center. Based on what I overheard, it looked like the perfect card for the occasion!

I was interviewing for a position in a warehouse when, mid-interview, the manager took off for a smoke break.

So I stayed and waited. And then the fire alarm went off. So I left for the fire alarm.

When the alarm was over and everyone was returning to the building, I went back to the manager’s office and sat down to wait for him to finish my interview.

Rather than finish my interview, he started chewing me out for ‘wandering out.’

During the fire alarm.

Midway through being chewed out for leaving, DURING THE FIRE ALARM, something inside me just went DING! I practically felt the ‘parking expired’ flags pop over my eyes in a cartoon fashion. I was just absolutely done with it.

I simply stood up, gathered my stuff, and left without explanation. The manager kept trying to talk to me as I left, saying the usual ‘You’re not a team player’ style dismissal/begging. I didn’t even have ears to listen at that point.

They didn’t call me back, and frankly, I didn’t want them to.

They snapped back and tried to tell unemployment that I’d ‘refused a valid offer of work’, but fortunately when I set the record straight with the unemployment office it did not impact my benefits, including a short cell phone recording as proof – It’s OK, big signs all across the property said that we were being monitored and recorded, and that counts as consent! – I continued to receive unemployment until I found a more suitable position.

My Aunt has been a travel agent for over forty years. She has some far-fetched stories which I refused to believe until I became a travel agent myself. This is one of them.

My aunt had a new client come in and book herself a flight overseas in the late 1980s. Immediately, this client was very demanding and frighteningly specific in her needs. She had never travelled before, but had an event she had to attend.

Client: “So, can you tell me what aircraft I’ll be flying? And how big are the seats? Do I really need a passport to go to France? And it needs to be a smoking flight, but none of those cheap brands, and how many bags can I take? Can you make sure they will take proper American money? Will they be speaking foreign? Do I need to take my own toilet paper? All these countries are so backwards. And…”

My Aunt ended up writing everything down – where to go in the airport, flight times, airlines, who to ask if you get lost, parking, how to go through security, how to request a seat, how long she had to be there beforehand, what the meals would likely be, how long the flight was. Everything.

Well… almost everything.

The day after the flight was due to depart, my aunt receives a hysterical phone call from the client.

Aunt: “Hello [Travel Agency], how can we help?”

Client: “It’s [Client] and I want my money back! You’ve ripped me off! How dare you do this to me!”

Aunt: “What happened? Where are you?”

Client: “I’m at home! The flight never came!”

Aunt: “Was the flight delayed? I can ring the airline now and find out what happ—”

Client: “No, they never picked me up!”

Aunt: “What do you mean? You didn’t book transfers as you said you would get to the airport yourself?”

Client: “The plane never picked me up! I waited on the sidewalk all day, and they never came!”

Aunt: “What?! The flight doesn’t pick you up from home? This is why I gave you directions to the airport, where to park—”

Client: “I threw all that parking stuff out because I have paid for a flight! They should be picking me up!”

Yup, the client was convinced that the 747 would just land on her driveway and she would embark from there. No amount of convincing from my aunt, her manager, the owner, the airline representatives, or anyone else would convince the client that planes don’t collect from any houses anywhere. When the client was asked if she had seen any other plans land on her street, the client asserted that no one else flew!

She did not get a refund.

I work for a major tax preparation company. We allow you to take your tax prep fees out of your refund. If your prior year refund gets seized for whatever reason, we don’t get paid, and so a debt remains against you in our system.

If you come in again, and do your taxes with us again, in another year after we didn’t get paid, and still opt to take the fees out of the refund, we will take both tax prep fees out of your refund.

I have a client. He’s filing his 2023 taxes with me. His 2022 federal tax refund was seized to pay some debt of his. He wants his fees taken out of his refund. I explain to him that we will also take the prior year’s fees out of his refund. He agrees to this.

His refund comes in. He calls us.

Client: “Hey. Why is my refund smaller than you said it would be?”

Me: “How so?”

Client: “My refund is supposed to be [amount before our fees are taken out].”

Me: “We took the fees out of your refund, so your refund after that should be [slightly lower amount], after our fees and prior year fees are taken out.”

Client: “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Me: “It’s on the paperwork you signed. I have a signed copy in front of me in your digital file.”

Client: “No, I don’t mean that.”

Me: “I don’t quite understand?”

Client: “My refund was [smaller amount than the amount from after our fees are taken out].”

Me: “One moment.”

I logged into the IRS website and checked his refund.

Me: “It looks like your refund was seized to pay a prior year debt.”

Client: “Yes, I know about that, but why didn’t you tell me?”

Me: “Because we didn’t know about the debt?”

Client: “No, you took your debt out.”

Me: “Yes, but we didn’t know about this other debt.”

Client: “But don’t you have it in the system?”

Me: “No.”

Client: “But you knew about it.”

Me: “No. We knew about what you owed us. This was someone else.”

Client: “But why did it get taken from my refund?”

Me: “Because they petitioned the federal government to do so.”

Client: “But why didn’t you tell me about it?”

Me: “Because we had no way of knowing.”

Client: “No. You knew about my prior year debt.”

Me: “That debt was with us, of course, we knew about it. This debt is with someone else.”

Client: “But you didn’t tell me about it.”

At this point, my next client came in, and I could spend no further time on the phone, so I transferred him to my manager with a warning that this client was particularly dense.

Four hours and seven clients later, my manager calls me.

Manager: “So, that guy you transferred to me…”

Me: “Yes?”

Manager: “You warned me he was dense.”

Me: “I did.”

Manager: “I just got done with him.”

Me: “It took four hours to get through to him?”

Manager: “No. I got fed up with him and had other work to do, so I transferred him to headquarters. How many clients did you do while I was talking to him?”

Me: “Why?”

Manager: “So I can fill out this worksheet to show that talking to him into overtime was a productive use of my time and that we made more money as a result of it than it cost me.”

Me: “Oh. Seven”

Manager: “Terrific. Thanks.”

The guy just came back in to do his 2024 taxes with a $25 coupon. So, I guess now I know how corporate handled it.