(I’ve unfortunately inherited my dad’s severe reactions to orthodontic work. A procedure that would cause most people a day or two of mild pain will cause me a week of severe pain and residual pain for another two. Nothing seems to help and dentists don’t always take it seriously. One summer, I’m working my first two customer service jobs and I get some dental work done. I’m in my usual pain, meaning I can’t talk for more than a few seconds at a time, which is fine at [Job #1]; it’s the front desk of a gym, so it’s mostly just, “Hi, how are you?” But [Job #2] is cashiering at a restaurant, which means I spend most of my day talking. I go into [Job #2] a few hours after getting the dental work and these are the conversations that happen for the next few days:)

Me: *explains dental work, level of pain, and requests non-talking jobs*

Shift Lead: “Are you sure?”

Me: *in a slow whisper, which is all I can handle* “Absolutely. I cannot talk today and I probably won’t be able to stay on register all shift for at least three days.”

Shift Lead: “Okay…”

(They seem to be willing to accommodate, but then…)

Shift Lead: *thirty minutes later* “Hey, can you get on register?”

Me: “Umm… No? Remember it hurts to talk?”

Shift Lead: “Oh, okay. Are you sure?”

Me: “Yes.”

Shift Lead: *two hours later* “Hey, are you feeling better? Can you get on register? [Coworker] needs to go on break.”

Me: “Can anybody else do it?”

Shift Lead: “Well…”

Me: “Okay, fine, but no more than fifteen minutes.”

(Ten minutes pass.)

Me: “Sorry, I tried but I really can’t. You’re going to have to find someone else.”

(It finally seems to get through, but then, the next day…)

Shift Lead: *in pre-shift meeting* “Okay, [My Name] you’re on register today.”

Me: *thinking* “Seriously?” *saying* “I feel just as bad as I did yesterday. I really can’t. I’m sorry.”

(The same thing repeated the next day, and on the fourth day, I finally felt like I could do half a shift on register without too much pain… Buuuuuuut, you guessed it — the same questions were repeated all day again. I was eventually fine and went back to my normal duties, but having had several customer service jobs since then, the situation seems a lot sillier than I realized it was at the time. It makes absolute sense that they need me on my regular job, but when I couldn’t do it they didn’t hold to the accommodations they agreed to or ask me to go home until I felt better, which would have saved them the cost of paying an employee that couldn’t do their job!)

About ten years ago, I got my first job in a local pub right on the seafront. It was — and still is — a beautiful location, and my best friend also worked there behind the bar. I thought I had scored the perfect job, but due to the actions of a few terrible people, it became a living nightmare. There were many things that went on that you probably wouldn’t believe, but today I’m just going to tell you about one of the milder instances.

The big boss, a giant of a man almost as wide as he was tall, wanted to train me up on coffees. Along with the usual instructions, he told me to just put the jugs of hot steamed milk back into the fridge after we were done with them. They were large pitchers, so the same batch of milk would be constantly heated, cooled, and reheated throughout the day. After the boss had walked away, my best friend quietly told me that it wasn’t safe to do that, and we should throw the old milk away as soon as the coast was clear.

Concerned, I did some research that night and found that, yeah, it’s not safe to keep steaming hot liquids in the fridge, as the repeated cooling and heating keeps the milk in the “danger zone” temperature range too often, which could lead to the growth of bacteria, as well as potentially affecting the temperature of everything else in the fridge.

Being young, naive, and on the autistic spectrum, I innocently assumed that my manager was simply unaware of these facts, and that surely he would be glad to know the truth. I printed off my findings and took them to him the next morning.

Spoiler alert: it didn’t go well. 

He shooed me into the kitchen, physically backed me up into a corner, and began threatening me that — in his own words — “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” and that he had been thinking of giving me a promotion but now he “didn’t think he could trust me.”

I had my hours cut, and of course I never got that promotion, which honestly I don’t think ever existed. If we were ever caught throwing the milk away, it was taken out of our pay. It was a good lesson in never trusting the bosses to do the right thing, a lesson that has been backed up time and time again in every place I’ve worked since.

(I work for a personal injury attorney. My job mainly involves handling irate clients and keeping track of problems with clients, so I describe myself as a trouble-shooting receptionist.)

Boss: *at 8:30* “I need you to focus on clearing [Paralegal]’s calendar today since she’s out sick with the flu.”

Me: “Yes, sir. I can certainly attempt to do that.” 

Boss: *at 10:30* “Why are you calling [Client]?”

Me: “Because it was on [Paralegal]’s calendar?”

Boss: “I don’t pay you to do [Paralegal]’s job! I missed two telephone conferences because you didn’t call them!”

Me: “But… you told me to clear her calendar!”

Boss: “You should have known I had these conferences!”

Me: “I didn’t even pull up your calendar today!”

Boss: “Well, you should always have my calendar up!”

Boss’ Partner: *overheard through phone* “God d*** it, [Boss], you told her to clear [Paralegal]’s calendar! Dial your own calls for once!”

(I work in a retail job while at university. There has been a late evening lecture every Thursday since I started two years ago, and because of this, my availability has remained constant through my job. I come in one morning to see that I am scheduled for next Thursday.)

Me: “Oh, it looks like someone has made a mistake on the rota.”

Manager: “Why is that?”

Me: “I’ve been booked for next Thursday.”

Manager: “That’s correct. Your availability says you can work Thursdays.”

Me: “No, it doesn’t.”

Manager: “I checked it myself while doing the rota. It most definitely is. I don’t know how you’ve gotten away with it quite frankly.”

Me: “I have a lecture late Thursday. It’s been like that since I started. My availability has never changed.”

Manager: *scoffs* “Why don’t we check?”

(He leaves the kitchen and grabs my personnel file from the office. He returns and makes a big show of opening it on the table, spreading all my personal information around — which I later find out results in a couple of others in the kitchen discovering my sexuality — and finds my contract.)

Manager: “Monday: available. Tuesday — oh, would you look at this — available. Wednesday: available, and Thursday…”

Me: “Go on.”

(He waited a couple of seconds before scrambling to put my file back together. He then took the rota and updated it. The experience left me quite shaken about how he handled disagreements, and I ended up putting in a complaint. He no longer does the rotas, as my complaint was one of several about him making errors, and he no longer has access to the personnel files after how he behaved. I’m not sure what else happened with him in the background, but I hope he suffered a little.)

(I work in a call centre for a mobile phone network. I hate it. It is a monotonous, dead-end job with no discretion. I find it frustrating. One day, a Samsung rep from a phone manufacturer comes to train us on their new products. For some reason, I give him a hard time.)

Me: *entering the classroom* “Annyeonghaseyo!”

Trainer: “Pardon?”

Me: “That’s Korean for ‘hello.’”

(His employer is Korean. The class sits down. Later…)

Trainer: “I want to start with a quiz. Does anyone know when Samsung was founded?”

(I raise my hand; the trainer points. I recently read the Wikipedia article.)

Me: “1937.”

Trainer: “Well done. Does anyone know what it was founded as?” *I raise my hand* “Anyone else?” *points* “You again?”

Me: “A grocery store.”

Trainer: “Well done again. What does ‘Samsung’ mean in Korean?”

Me: *without raising hand* “Three stars.”

Trainer: “Well done…”

(The quiz continues. Out of 20 classmates, I am the only person to get a single question right. Later, he is explaining a new feature. Without warning and mid-sentence, I interject.)

Me: “What are you going to do about the argument that a Samsung S4 is just a backward iPhone?”

Trainer: *speechless*

My Manager: *shocked* “Hey, [My Name]! Give him a break!”

(My classmates don’t know what has happened. The trainer is bewildered. The only person who knows what happened is my manager, who is well used to my antics. At the time, the market is dominated by the Apple iPhone 4S and the Samsung S3. Samsung is developing the Samsung S4, hotly anticipated by analysts. I am implying that Samsung copied the name of Apple iPhone 4S, except backward. Later, when leaving…)

Me: “Kamsamnida!”

Trainer: *confused*

Me: “That’s Korean for ‘thank you.’”

(They didn’t put me into any more training with manufacturers after that. I left shortly.)