I am a regular at this coffee shop — so much so that they start making my order as soon as they see me walk in. I got my wisdom teeth out, and as my regular drink needed a straw, the barista and I had to do some brainstorming to figure out a way for me to be able to still have my drink.

Fast forward about two weeks. I’m still on the no-straw diet and I go into the shop to see that they are having some kind of corporate inspection.

This new guy takes my order and starts making my drink exactly how I need it. Now, to be fair, this drink looks really weird. It is in too big of a cup, it has the wrong lid, and it is just a mess. This corporate bigwig comes up and starts chewing this poor employee out.

Bigwig: “This drink is all wrong! You’ll be fired for this!”

I’m not a very big person but I lean as far over the counter as I can and get up in this guy’s face.

Me: “Actually, this employee is following my instructions to the letter.”

Apparently, I was scary, because he wilted and mumbled an apology to the employee and walked away.

It’s three days before I go on a nine-day vacation, including a four-day trip to Disneyland for my birthday and my youngest sibling’s graduation. Since my mom told me about this early, I asked for the time off back at the start of June when we changed our time clock system. It is now the last week of July.

The department manager is in the head office working on the next week’s schedule to be issued today. The department phone rings and is answered by [Coworker #1].

Coworker #1: “Hey, [Department Manager] is on the phone asking for you.”

Coworker #2: *Joking* “Oh, sorry, you can’t go on vacation.”

I laugh and walk over and pick up the phone.

Me: “Yes?”

Department Manager: “Hey, next week, [Other Store] needs a closer—”

Me: “Next week when I’m on vacation?”

Department Manager: “You’re on what? I don’t have you on vacation.”

Me: *Pauses* “I asked for it like two months ago.”

Department Manager: “I don’t have it in writing.”

Me: “Well, no, because I put it into the new system.”

Department Manager: “You needed to put it in writing.”

Me: “You guys decided that two weeks after I asked and [Store Assistant Manager] assured me it was in the system and I didn’t have to submit it again.”

Department Manager: “I make your schedule, not him. I knew nothing about this.”

Me: *Thinking* “Okay, pretty sure everyone else does.” *Out loud* “Well, we have an issue then, because I can’t cancel, and I asked well in advance and was told by the second highest manager in the store that it was done.”

After a little more back and forth, he agrees to put it in because the system screwed me. I walk back up to the front of the department and point to [Coworker #2].

Me: “It’s not funny when you’re right.”

Coworker #2: “WHAT?!

Me: “He had no idea I was going on vacation.”

Literally Every Coworker Who Heard Me: “HE WHAT?! HOW?!”

This is still infinitely better than my former store and manager, and when I talked to him later, my manager agreed that Disneyland from Monday to Thursday was a non-negotiable trip.

I’m a proposal writer. A few weeks after the health crisis hit the US, I was laid off by my now-former employer. Several months later, I was still out of work. I’d been cranking out job applications right and left, and I FINALLY heard back from a technology company that looked good on paper, and the job description was almost identical to what I’d been doing at my last job. But the red flags started popping up almost immediately.

First, their hiring manager emailed me asking for basic information that had been included in the application. Fair enough; I figured they wanted to make sure I wasn’t a bot. Then, they asked for a copy of my resume, which I had included with my original application, but again, whatever.

Next, [Hiring Manager] reached out to me on Thursday, asked when I would be available for a phone interview that upcoming Monday, and gave me a list of open time slots. I specified my preferred time slot and [Hiring Manager] thanked me and said his colleague would call me on Monday during that time slot. Maybe two hours later, [Colleague] emailed me and said he will call me tomorrow — Friday, not Monday — at a completely different time slot. I replied to [Colleague], CC’ing [Hiring Manager], asking for clarification. [Colleague] emailed me back to say he’d be calling me for my phone interview on Friday during the time slot he’d indicated.

Okay, now I was annoyed — thankfully, my schedule was open on Friday — but decided to be a professional and see this through.

Then, I realized that [Colleague] had also emailed me the ENTIRE email chain where he and his colleagues had decided they should interview me. Again, this was at a technology company, where they should have had at least some idea of information security.

The next day, [Colleague] called me — on time, surprisingly — introduced himself as the owner of the company — I checked after the call and he was — and opened the “interview” this way:

Colleague: “Now, [My Name], I’m guessing you don’t know anything about [Company], so I’m going to tell you about us and what we do.”

Cue a fifteen-minute-long (not exaggerating) rambling lecture in which he told me his entire life’s story and a (very brief) history of the company. He never once talked about the role I had applied for, their clients or industries their clients were in, or anything even remotely related to the job. Once he wrapped up, he dropped this on me.

Colleague: “Now, [My Name], are you married?”

I responded with shocked silence. In the US, employers are not allowed to hire or fire based on your marital status and legally aren’t even allowed to ask you that question. At that point, I decided nope, I’d see the interview through, but I was absolutely NOT going to accept the job if offered.

[Colleague] started stammering, probably realizing that he had just screwed up big-time.

Colleague: “Uh, I ask that question because this is an on-site position and I need to gauge how open your family would be to relocating.”

Me: “Uh, no, no, I have no problem relocating to Florida.”

Colleague: “Okay, that’s good. So, as a Proposal Writer, you’ll be responsible for [literally reads me the job posting word-for-word]. Now, do you have any experience writing government bids?”

Me: “A little on the state and local levels, but not federal. Almost all of my experience has been with private-sector clients.”

Colleague: “Okay, most of our work is with government entities, but that’s no problem. Well, thank you for your time, and we’ll be in touch with an offer.”

And that was the extent of the interview. At no point did [Colleague] discuss my job history (outside of the aforementioned responding to government bids) or my skills or experience. I figured that was that, and shortly afterward had another interview with a fantastic — and much more professional — company. They made me an offer which I accepted.

But the story’s not over just yet. Oh, no. Two weeks after I accepted my current job, [Colleague] emailed me back to offer me the job — at an insultingly-low salary, too! I wrote a very polite and professional email explaining that I had accepted a different offer. [Colleague]’s response was, and I quote:

Colleague: “Okay. Well, when that doesn’t work out for you, give us a call.”

Yeah… not happening in this or any other lifetime.

I’m working in a library and a young couple comes up to me.

Couple: “We were driving by on our motorcycle and we heard a dog barking in your parking lot. We stopped to investigate and found a dog locked in a car in the sun with the windows barely cracked!”

Mind you, this is summer in Ohio, and we’re well over eighty degrees Fahrenheit. 

I investigate their claim and do find a small, very furry white dog barking its head off in the front of our lot in full sun. I go inside to find the manager on duty, but she’s nowhere to be found. I and all the other staff are very worried about this dog locked in a car.

I begin to discreetly ask around to the patrons currently in the library if they have a dog in their car. I find an old lady who admits to the dog being hers.

Me: “Ma’am, your dog is barking, other people have noticed, and you should probably go check on it.”

Woman: “Thank you. I’m surprised; [Dog] is usually so well behaved while I run errands.” 

She checks out her books and heads to her vehicle.

I watch from a secluded chair in the lobby, making sure she does go to the car and that the dog is still okay the whole time. The dog is fine, thank goodness. 

The manager on duty then reappears and notices me sitting in the lobby. She asks what happened, and I explain.

Manager: “It’s not our business. It doesn’t matter if a dog is trapped in a car or dies in our parking lot. We’re not to tattle to the police.”

I was shocked and contacted my immediate boss. My boss informed me that that’s basically “one opinion of one person in the library” and does not amount to our policies and procedures whatsoever. She also said I handled the situation properly and would not allow the manager on duty to get me into trouble over it.

I work ten-hour days in an office. On one Saturday, I finish my tasks around hour seven.

Me: “Hey, [Manager], I’ve finished my daily tasks. Is there anything else I can do?”

We go back and forth a few times, him asking, “Did you do [task]?” and me answering, “Yes.”

Manager: “I don’t have anything for you to do.”

Me: “So… can I go home early?”

Manager: *Angry* “No! Why would you be allowed to leave early?!”

Me: “Sorry… I just thought I’d cut some time from payroll.”

I have already worked fifty hours Monday to Friday this week, so Saturday is all time and a half pay. It wouldn’t save the company a whole lot of money but it would give me the afternoon to catch up on housework and maybe sleep a little. I ask around and find some small jobs — making photocopies, sweeping, and other five-minute tasks — to do for other people, but those last few hours just crawl along.

When my next paycheck comes, I notice it is short. I go to my manager.

Me: “[Manager], I think payroll messed up. I’m missing three hours of overtime.”

Manager: “No, it’s right. I told them you finished your work three hours early on Saturday.”

Me: “But… I was here.”

Manager: “But not doing your job.”

Me: “I asked to leave to cut payroll; you said no. Now you’re docking my pay anyway?”

Manager: “If you had just done your job instead of bothering everyone else, I wouldn’t have said anything. Instead, I saw you going around doing who-knows-what for hours. I’m not paying you to goof off.”

Me: “I didn’t, though. I was doing small tasks for other people. Go ask them if you don’t believe me. It was—”

Manager: “[My Name], that’s enough. You told me you weren’t doing your job; I deducted your pay. Next time, I’ll just fire you.”

Me: “This is… I can’t even… No. No, no, no.”

I walked out and contacted human resources immediately. They admitted that [Manager] told them I left early and that my time card should be adjusted, but after reviewing the security tapes near the time clock and around the office, they saw that I had not left early and I was in fact working the entire time. HR promised my next paycheck would have the shorted time added on. It was, and the next time I ran out of work to do, I avoided telling [Manager] and just went around asking others if they needed help anyway.