I work at a popular sandwich shop. We get a new hire, and he’s not the greatest of workers. He tends to show up late, if he shows up at all, often with little to no warning beforehand. But it’s nothing too bad, and I start to think he’s an okay guy.

About five weeks in, my manager decides to have him trained to open. On his first day opening, I come into the store for the evening shift to find things are not going well. They ran out of bread earlier in the day and had to bake more. I just think it was super busy that day and the new hire didn’t bake enough bread in the morning. As things go on, I find out more and more.

Every day, the evening worker is supposed to put a certain amount of frozen bread in the retarder, which will soften the frozen sticks and make them faster to bake in the morning. One of the most important opening jobs is to bake all the bread in the retarder. The new hire didn’t bake any of that bread. Not only that, but he didn’t cut any of the vegetables, which is another one of the most important opening jobs. I also find out that when one of my coworkers came in for the midday shift, the new hire was sitting outside in front of the pizza place next door where his girlfriend works and ended up leaving an hour before his shift ended.

Amazingly, the new hire doesn’t get fired for this fiasco, though he does get written up and chewed out, and he is warned that if he misses another day or shows up late without warning, he will be fired.

The next Wednesday, he sends a message to our group chat asking for someone to cover his shift that Friday for him, but nobody is able to. The next day, he sends a message saying that his brother has been hit by a car.

Friday is Homecoming for the local high school, and this is a small town with not many places to eat, so when I come in for my afternoon and evening shift, I find the store packed with high school kids that have been let out of school early. The new hire is nowhere to be seen, so it is just my boss and me left to fend off about forty teenagers. I find out that the new hire didn’t come in for his shift and ended up coming an hour or two later just to tell my boss that he didn’t want to work Fridays and Saturdays. I guess his brother was fine if he was able to take the time to do this. He ended up getting fired.

But there’s still more.

That evening, I am working with the closer when the recently fired ex-coworker comes into the store and grabs the key: apparently, he thinks he’s still opening tomorrow. When he leaves, I quickly excuse myself from the line and send a quick message to our boss to let her know.

When I come back the next day, I’m told that this guy came into the store and started putting the key back in the safe. My manager was there training another coworker to open so he could cover the recently fired worker’s shifts. She asked him what had happened the day before and he nervously and quietly muttered, “My brother got hit by a car.” He was informed that he would not be opening that day or the next day, and my manager went back to training the other coworker. After staring at the register for about ten minutes, he left his store-issued hat on the counter and left the store. A few minutes later my manager got a text from him: “I quit.”

In the end, I guess he did get those Fridays and Saturdays off like he wanted. My manager says hiring that guy was her worst mistake.

At my company, we have a manager who is, well, toxic. This is the nicest thing I can say about her. Other things I can say about her are… pathological liar, narcissistic, and cruel. She is not only not a nice person, but she’s kind of evil at the end of the day. She also loves to ruin other people’s vacations.

It is the last week of September, and I am finally taking my first “vacation” all year to go to my cousin’s wedding. I will be leaving early Friday morning and coming back late Sunday night. I decide to take an extra two days off as it is also my ten-year anniversary that Wednesday, so I am gone Wednesday through Monday.

I also make this manager aware that I have a doctor’s appointment at 4:10 pm on Tuesday due to reduced health because of her abuse.

At 3:25 pm, she sends me a text, right as I am packing up to leave.

Toxic Coworker: “Hey, I know it is last minute, but [Contractor] has a 4:00 pm appointment to get his computer fixed, and I cannot stay around for it.”

I roll my eyes and leave because she doesn’t need me to stay. It is done remotely and the contractor isn’t even in the office. Before I go, I send a reminder email that I am unreachable.

At 4:11 pm, she texts me again.

Toxic Coworker: “Yikes! I forgot you are going on vacation! I hope you have a good one. No one deserves it more than you. <3”

Again, I ignore it. She tries to call me at 5:30 pm. I send her to voicemail.

On Wednesday morning at 7:30 am, I get my third text from her.

Toxic Coworker: “So, will you be in the office today?”

She only does this when I am on vacation, and only immediately after she acknowledged in a text the night before I am on vacation. So, I ignore it.

At 8:15 am:

Toxic Coworker: “I know you are probably on your plane but I have [issue she can fix herself]. I am hoping I can catch you before.”

At 9:30 am:

Toxic Coworker: “Never mind. Fixed it.”

At 10:15 am:

Toxic Coworker: “Where do I find [file that has nothing to do with my job]?”

At 11:00 am:

Toxic Coworker: “Found it!”

It goes like this every hour on Wednesday, where she tries to pester me with non-issues. I never responded until she eventually got bored and left me alone for the rest of my vacation. She never bothered me during my time off again.

CONTENT WARNING: Needles

I’ve had a chronic illness since I was a baby, which has caused me to experience a lot of medical tests and treatments. When I was thirteen, I had a medical event and started breathing abnormally. My mom had to call 911, and I was taken to a children’s hospital. I was immediately admitted and put in a private room. I had a few tests, was put on oxygen, and was hooked up to a bunch of monitors. Then, a new nurse came in.

Nurse: *Visibly nervous* “Hi. I’m going to take some blood today.”

Me: “Okay, it’s no problem. I’m used to bloodwork and stuff.”

The nurse continued to look uncomfortable and started shuffling around the room, getting out supplies. I noticed that the needle he pulled out was really unusual, as it was extremely large and wasn’t an IV needle, which is what is usually used for blood work when someone is admitted to a hospital.

He sat down, and I could see that his hands were shaking violently. He put a large white towel under my arm and cleaned my entire arm with orange antiseptic, the kind used for surgical sites.

Me: “Why are you using that? Why not just use the regular alcohol wipes?”

He didn’t answer but started putting a tourniquet on my arm and handed me a stress ball.

Nurse: “Squeeze that as hard as you can.”

The nurse unwrapped the needle and I could fully see the size of it. It was enormous, and my heart started pounding. I’d never seen a needle like it, despite having constant IVs and blood draws throughout my life.

The nurse was now trembling like a leaf in the wind.

Nurse: “This is going to hurt… a lot. Stay still; that’s really important. Don’t move at all, even if it hurts.”

Me: “Okay…”

I was terrified. I had no idea what was going on or why a simple blood draw would hurt so badly.

Nurse: “Breathe in… and out…”

As I let my breath out, the nurse (still with shaking hands) held my wrist down and plunged the needle into my forearm. It was put in at a strange angle, pretty much at a full ninety degrees, and was stuck in very deep and forcefully. I was immediately overwhelmed with pain, my vision started tunneling, and it took every molecule of effort I had not to move or scream. It seemed like it took forever, but eventually, the tubes filled with blood and he pulled the needle out. Then, he just bandaged my arm and left, without acknowledging anything that had just happened.

I was fully weirded out by the entire experience. I was certain, at the time, that the nurse was incompetent or something, especially since he seemed so nervous.

It wasn’t until a full eight years later that I found out what even happened! I recently requested a copy of my records from that hospital and saw the write-up from that visit. I was floored to see that the test they were actually performing was an arterial blood gas (ABS)! In the test, a large needle is put straight into an artery, and it is considered to be extremely painful — so painful that it is unethical to perform it on anyone without giving them local anesthetic first. Not only was I not given local anesthetic (AS A CHILD AT A CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL), but nobody bothered to even explain what was going to happen, what test they were performing, or that it was any different than a regular blood draw or IV.

It truly was one of the most memorable (and horrible) things I’ve ever experienced in a medical setting, and I never went back to that hospital.

I was working in a gift store in a mall. There was a dude by the incense, and when I walked by, I overheard him say:

Customer: “They make fun of my rituals now, but we’ll see who’s laughing when I burn down that g**d*** mountain!”

And I sometimes wonder what he’s up to. For anyone wondering, despite living in a very dry region, and despite that mountain being one that does catch fire somewhat often during fire season, the mountain did not catch fire that year, despite that crazy dude’s attempts.

A few years ago, I was working in a video game shop. A guy in his mid- to late twenties came in already angry as he had dropped his phone in the parking lot and cracked the screen. He was arguing on the phone with his father, getting increasingly irate as his dad wouldn’t buy him a new one.

Then, the card reader failed because his chip was broken, he knew it was broken, and he had no other way to pay. He screamed like a feral warthog, football-spiked his phone onto the floor, snatched it back up, and stomped out, leaving me to sweep up shards of glass.