CONTENT WARNING: ANIMAL DEATH

We have an office fish. Since we don’t work weekends, we take turns coming in and feeding the fish over the weekend. We all came back after it was [Coworker]’s weekend to feed only to find the fish belly-up.

Me: “Um… what happened to the fish? It was your weekend.”

Coworker: “Yeah, and I fed him. See?”

He reaches behind the tank for the fish food and accidentally pulls out an unplugged cord. He quickly tries to put the cord back. 

Me: “What is that?”

Coworker: “Nothing.”

Me: “That’s his tank heater! Did you unplug it?”

Coworker: “No.”

I pull the thermometer from the tank and see that the water is barely forty degrees. California is warm most of the time, but nights can get pretty cold.

Me: “It’s a tropical fish! You unplugged the heater on a tropical fish.”

Coworker: “We are in California! He doesn’t need it!”

Me: “Clearly, he did, because you froze him to death. When did you do that?”

Coworker: “I don’t know.”

Me: “And he just died last night?”

Coworker: “I don’t know.”

Me: “Was the fish alive when you came to feed it Saturday? Sunday?”

Coworker: “I was busy this weekend. I don’t have time to feed a d*** fish.”

Me: “So… you unplugged the heater on Friday, didn’t tell anyone you weren’t going to be able to take care of the fish like you said you would—”

Coworker: “Well, yeah, but—”

Me: “And then you lied when I asked if you fed it and tried to hide that you killed it.”

Coworker: “You don’t get to interrogate me about a f****** fish, [My Name].”

He walks a few feet away and then turns back.

Coworker: *Yelling* “What kind of fish needs a f****** heater, anyway?!”

Coworker #2: “That one, obviously. Good job, fish killer.”

[Coworker] went to management to complain that we were harassing him. Management took neutral ground because, while the fish was technically work property, it was not a work requirement to come in on weekends. I understand their position, but I also don’t trust [Coworker]’s honesty anymore.

I’m called in to help support a meeting with an angry employee taking out his frustrations on Human Resources. I get there a little early to see what the issue is. It turns out that [Employee] has been demanding a meeting because he claims that he hasn’t been paid overtime. He has already been sent away twice because of his aggressive attitude, so they’ve asked me to sit in to ensure things don’t get out of hand.

[Employee] turns up, slams the door shut, and sits down.

HR Representative: “This is [My Name]; he works with me and knows more about the wages and the clocking-in system.”

Employee: “Oh! Ganging up on me?!”

Me: “Nothing like that. We want to ensure that you get your issue sorted, and I think I might be able to help.”

Employee: “Whatever, I just want my money!”

Me: “Okay, so how much do you think you are owed?”

Employee: “I don’t think! I know! I haven’t been paid for fifty hours this year!”

[Employee] is paid hourly. I’m not sure how he has accumulated fifty hours of extra pay, especially when overtime is being cracked down on massively.

Me: “Okay, wow. Sure, I can see why you are annoyed. Do you have the hours when you haven’t been paid?”

Employee: “Well, it’s all on my time card. You can check there!”

Me: *Sigh* “Help us out, [Employee]. You must have gotten the number of hours from somewhere.”

Employee: “For f***’s sake, I’m doing your job for you again!”

I bite my tongue and let him storm out. It’s several more days before the next meeting. He arrives again, this time with a stack of papers.

Employee: “I did it — did your job! See, every page.”

Me: “[Employee], it isn’t the role of HR to review your pay. It’s finance, okay? We are here to help.”

Employee: “Fat lot of help so far.”

Me: “Let’s just go through your papers.”

Every page has a week of his hours. He has highlighted every day he was early one, two, or five minutes. Adding these up throughout the year, I can see how he has amassed fifty hours.

Me: “Okay, [Employee], I’m not going through all of them. Can you tell me how you apply for overtime?”

Employee: “I fill out the form and put it in at the end of the week.”

Me: “Did you do it for any of these times?”

Employee: “Well, no, but—”

Me: *Interrupting* “And did anyone ask you to come in early?”

Employee: “Well, no, but I was working! I should get paid!”

I told him that we don’t pay just because someone decides to come in early when they haven’t been asked to do. He stormed off, threatening to quit, along with a long list of expletives.

When I told his boss this, he was shocked; [Employee] had more warnings than anyone for being late at his station. He must have been rushing to clock in and then going straight to the break room until someone told him to start work.

[Employee] didn’t get into any trouble then, but he was fired over some other issue not long after.

I am doing an intake for a new kid at the daycare where I work. There’s a short interview, a long amount of paperwork, and the usual bureaucratic stuff. I am in a small back office where we do all our intakes. The kid is playing with toys in the corner while I’m talking to his mother about allergies and such. The kid sneaks up behind me and pulls a zip bag out of my backpack.

I keep a backpack on me because I usually go right from class to work. In this backpack are baggies with extras of my epilepsy meds in case I forget to take them before I leave my apartment.

The kid looks at me.

Kid: *Very sweetly* “Can I have some of this candy?”

My eyes go wide, and I snatch the bag from him. I regain my composure.

Me: *Calmly* “No, kiddo. This is medicine, not candy.”

The kid pretty immediately backs down. HIS MOTHER LOSES HER EVER-LOVIN’ MIND.

Mother: *Snippily* “Why can’t he just have one?”

Me: “What?”

Mother: *With a nasty tone* “Just let him have one.”

Me: “Ma’am, this is medicine, and I don’t know what the side effects could be if he takes one but doesn’t have the condition it treats.”

The woman tries to talk under her breath, but she’s not being nearly as quiet as she thinks she is.

Mother: “Greedy f***er.”

I get up from my desk and call my coworker into the room.

Coworker: “What’s up?”

Me: “Can you finish off this intake for me?”

Coworker: *Confused* “Why?”

Mother: *Butting in angrily* “He won’t let my son have any candy.” *Points to my bag*

[Coworker] and I have been friends for about fifteen years; she knows that those are my meds.

Coworker: “That’s not candy, ma’am. It’s medicine.”

Mother: “You are both being very rude. I am going to complain to your manager.”

[Coworker] and I exchange looks.

Coworker: “Her office is two doors up on the right. Go ahead.”

The mother storms off, dragging her kid. The kid is even complaining that his mother is dragging him too fast and that it hurts. The woman barges into our boss’s office.

I don’t catch the whole conversation through the door, but I do catch this.

Boss: “…ever pull that crap with one of my employees again, CPS will hear about it.”

The woman and her kid left about ten minutes after; the mother was bright red and looked embarrassed.

I am now aware that my setup of keeping my pills in a zip bag is dumb and also likely illegal. I am changing my setup accordingly.

A woman and her daughter came into the shoe store I work at, five minutes before closing, looking for shoes for the daughter.

Me: “Can I help you two?”

Woman: “No, we just want to browse.”

Fine, there wasn’t much I could do about it since they still had five minutes. After about ten minutes, they finally picked a handful of styles they wanted to try. I went and got the sizes from the stock room.

The daughter only tried on two of the pairs and just kept switching between them. The entire time, they didn’t really speak to me at all. They also both wore their see-through, mesh masks under their noses the whole time, so I kept a bit of distance between us.

Eventually, the daughter made her choice, and we brought the shoes up to the counter. In the meantime, my coworker had turned off our “open” sign and closed the door, and they were waiting to let them out. While the mother was paying by card, her daughter was leaning on the counter and staring straight at me with a slight smirk on her face. She pulled her mask off and then proceeded to use the back of her hand to wipe her nose, then go back to touching the counter, the entire time looking at me with that, “What are you gonna do about it?” smirk.

Me: *Politely* “You need to keep your mask on over your nose while in the store.”

Woman: *Angrily* “You don’t get to tell my daughter what to do! If I think she needs to be told something, I will tell her. I am her mother! You don’t tell her anything! You are not her mother!”

I was biting my tongue so hard to keep from yelling back at her to do her job, then, but I didn’t say another word to her. I put her receipt on the counter so she could take it while I stayed six feet back (to avoid strangling her), and my coworker let them out and locked up behind them.

Then, I blew up. I still get mad every time I think of this. Now, every time I have to remind a customer to keep their mask on, I facetiously wonder if I should call their parent to have them come to the store and tell their grownup child to wear their mask.

I had a woman completely degrade a coworker of mine over a coffee. We didn’t have hazelnut syrup like she wanted, so she took it out on my coworker by making her remake her americano a number of times while she openly complained to other customers. An americano is stupidly easy to make, and my coworker had a lot of experience making coffee anyway. Finally, we offered her money off of her next order just to get her happy and leaving.

Customer: “The amount you’re offering isn’t even the full price of my coffee! My next drink should be free!”

All because of some hazelnut syrup. To top it all off, when our manager came over, this customer decided to humiliate my coworker in front of everyone — staff and customers.

Customer: “That employee needs to be watched! She doesn’t know what she’s doing!”

Again, she ordered an americano. It’s literally espresso and water. You can’t mess it up.

Luckily, my coworker took it like a champ, and she got some good tips from people who had seen the whole thing. I can’t even imagine how that customer even thought she was in the right over a small cup of watery coffee.