My colleague is a female engineer from Germany. She can be very defensive when her ideas are challenged, arguing that she is not wrong and the other person is just bothered by a smart woman from another country.

I am in a meeting with her and several members of management when a problem comes up. This is one of the first video meetings at the beginning of the project in late 2020.

Me: “If we follow the plan as it has been laid out, we will have to delay by eight to ten weeks waiting for the parts to be manufactured and shipped from Germany. I think we should look for local resources, instead. This could save a lot of money in shipping costs and cut down on the timeline.”

Colleague: “No! It must be this way! What is so ridiculous?! Just order them.”

Me: “Well, shipping processes all over the world have been delayed due to the [health crisis]. I’m suggesting we look into alternative options that are just as good that can be delivered much faster.”

Colleague: “No! We purchase from these companies in Germany; they will deliver here.”

Me: “Yes… in two months. We need them sooner.”

Colleague: “[My Name], you need to understand. These products must come from that company. That is how we do it in Germany.”

Me: “I understand, but you’re talking about products that don’t have to be shipped across the world because they are manufactured in the same country. I think—”

Colleague: “No. This is not a debate. We will use the company in Germany.”

Finally, the customer — the one representing the company paying for the whole project — chimes in.

Customer: “[My Name], please get a list of resources. If any of them are the same or better quality as what we are waiting for in Germany, we will reach out to the supplier with the best price. If the local resources fall short, we will delay.”

Colleague: “This is ridiculous! All the time, everyone is doubting me! I will quit!”

There is silence in the meeting. [Colleague] realizes she has overplayed her hand. 

Colleague: “Fine. I do not think you are right, [My Name] but since everyone agreed with the man and not the woman, fine.”

Customer: “I thought [My Name] was a woman?”

Me: “I am.”

Colleague: “You look like a man looking like a woman. How was I to know?”

Customer: “[Colleague], I think you should excuse yourself from the project indefinitely.”

He booted her from the call and told our supervisor that he would not work with us as long as she was involved. [Colleague] was sent back to Germany in a few days. I did find local suppliers who could get what we needed in two weeks’ time and saved thousands of dollars in delays and shipping.

My workplace is close to the train station — about 200m/600ft away. During renovations, they found a buried aerial bomb. In order to safely defuse it, they had everyone in a radius of 500m evacuate and had police lock up the area. Nobody unauthorized was to enter for their own safety. This was across the news on TV and the radio, fire trucks were driving around making announcements, etc.

The bomb was safely defused and transported away.

When we returned to work the next day, we had an angry voicemail from a client.

Client: “I wanted to come by today, but I am standing in front of your doors, and they’re locked! Why are you closed?!”

How he managed to sneak past the barriers and police without realizing he was entering a restricted zone is beyond me.

I’m working at a gigantic retail chain, helping to finish setting up a brand-new store, which hasn’t opened yet, near a tourist location. This location was originally planned to open months ago; however, construction was delayed due to the winter being so brutal that the construction crew flat-out said they couldn’t do what needed to be done until the weather warmed up. This led to all sorts of heavy pressure from high up in the company to speed up the opening.

This particular story takes place as we’re unloading a truck of shopping carts that are stacked on top of each other. A few carriages linked together slip and fall toward one of my coworkers. He catches them but is now stuck at an odd angle. Several coworkers quickly rush to him.

Coworker #1: “Oh, my gosh, are you okay?”

Coworker #2: “Yeah, I’m totally good. Definitely gave my heart a jump, though.”

This unload is being overseen by one of the biggest bigwigs sent to the store from the company’s main headquarters. [Bigwig], who did indeed see what just happened, chooses this moment to chime in like a completely oblivious cheerleader.

Bigwig: *Clapping* “Come on, faster! Faster!

Me: “Never mind him. Safety first!”

I then pointedly glared at him, and to my surprise, he quieted down. I was slightly embarrassed, as I clearly didn’t think before I spoke, but I didn’t beat myself up too hard, as pretty much all of us were more than a little tired of the constant prodding by the company at this point.

That was years ago, and mostly, I’m still baffled today that someone that high up actually listened after being told off by a ground-level hourly employee.

I was helping to open a new store. There was brown paper over the automatic doors, which were not turned on and there were still construction crew members everywhere.

I watched a dude look at the “WE ARE NOT OPEN YET” sign for a good minute and then push his way through the doors.

Dude: “Are you open?”

I work for a construction company as an inventory admin. My job is to basically schedule counts of our warehouse and input the numbers they give me for inventory. Then, I try to see what the problem is when the numbers on the last count and the current count don’t add up. There is a little bit more to it, but I will not bore you with the specifics.

The problem with this job is that when you have been doing it long enough and are good at it, there is less work to do. In the beginning, when counting one rack out of sixty racks of material would take a few days, it was fine because I was always busy. But now that everything is in order, the entire warehouse can be counted in three days. This leaves me bored most of the time.

To fix this, I studied up on the cloud-based ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) service that we use for all internal and external transactions and have become sort of an expert on it. Every single aspect of this company uses this ERP service to do its job. Timesheets, HR, payroll, accounting, scheduling, management, manufacturing, ordering from vendors, delivering, inventory, etc., all run through this ERP service. So, it is very important that this service is up and running perfectly twenty-four-seven.

I became so proficient in this service that our Vice President decided to cut ties with our consultants with the ERP because I could do what they did but better, quicker, and MUCH cheaper. For reference, we were paying these consultants $5,000 a month just to be on standby if we needed them, and we had to dish out more money to fix those problems depending on how many hours of their time was spent on it. It was something like $200 an hour, and they took weeks to fix anything. I could fix the problem in time for my daily afternoon shift break.

I never got an official job title or raise of any kind for being an expert on this service. The company just saw me being able to do it and let me fix things that happened so they no longer needed outside help. I wasn’t too upset because it gave me something to do, and I was glad to help the company save money, even if none of that money fell my way.

Skip ahead a few months. We now have a new warehouse manager. Someone in the warehouse messes something up in inventory by sending a bunch of materials to the wrong job with no records of it being shipped. We are talking about a half-a-million-dollar screw-up here.

On the same day, our ERP has an update that causes a bunch of bugs with our accounting department. I decide to work on the ERP problem first because the warehouse problem is more of a delay problem and is not actually stopping anybody from doing their job at the moment, while this accounting problem means our bills are not able to be paid. You can guess what kind of issues we will have if bills are not paid.

The ERP bugs turn out to be quite big and numerous, so it ends up taking me a couple of days to figure out, but I fix it before any bills are actually due and decided to take lunch a little early to celebrate a victory. Crisis averted.

The new warehouse manager storms into my office after I get back from lunch and is LIVID. Apparently, the bosses are pinning the blame on him for the warehouse screw-up. And considering he is the one who oversees shipments and personnel in the warehouse, the blame is rightfully placed. He starts laying into me, yelling and screaming like a child.

Manager: “Why haven’t you fixed our problems in the warehouse yet?!”

Me: “I was fixing an ERP issue and have not had time to look at the warehouse problem yet.”

He gets even angrier.

Manager: “It’s funny how you have time to take early lunches but not to do your job.”

That pisses me off but I hold my tongue and keep calm about the situation.

Manager: “You are to only do what is in your job title, and leave the ERP bulls*** to the people competent enough to handle it!”

Since this guy is technically my supervisor, I have no choice but to obey. I ask him to send me that in writing, and he snarks and storms back into his office. Five minutes later, I get an email stating that under NO CIRCUMSTANCES am I to work on anything related to ERP unless it involves inventory.

I do nothing but inventory from that point forward, knowing d*** well that we will be essentially coasting until we hit a problem that I will refuse to fix.

Sure enough, not even a week later, I get an email from a Human Resources employee that some sort of bug in the ERP system is preventing them from accessing payroll to pay employees this week.

Me: “I’m sorry, but I am no longer able to work on ERP bugs due to orders from [Supervisor]. You’ll have to refer to the ERP system help guide for further assistance.”

I know the help guide is not going to help [HR Employee] in the slightest, but it is no longer my problem so I am not going to deal with it.

Skip a few days later to Friday. I check my bank account in the morning before getting to work and laugh because there is no money deposited. That problem never got fixed. I hurry up and get to work, excited to see the chaos unfold. And what I was expecting was an understatement.

When I show up to work, I see the ENTIRE warehouse staff of fifty people walking out of the front door. I stopped one and asked why they are leaving.

Employee: “I didn’t get paid today, so I am not coming back until I do.”

I go into the office and see the warehouse manager in a panic. He has jobs that need material and nobody to load it onto trucks or deliver.

Me: “Do you need help with anything?”

Manager: *Screaming at me* “Leave my office! I’m getting phone calls out the a** from superintendents of jobs asking why our material hasn’t arrived yet!”

I pass by HR on the way to my office and see a bunch of the bosses huddled up over [HR Employee]’s computer with her, with angry and confused expressions on their faces, I guess trying to figure out the problem. I feel bad for her because it really is something out of her control, but I know she will ultimately be okay because she has been there for so long that they would never fire her.

When I get to my office, I see the VP waiting for me there. He has a very pissed-off expression on his face.

VP: “Why didn’t you fix [HR Employee]’s problem when she emailed you about it?!”

Me: “I am no longer allowed to work on ERP problems as it is not in my job title.”

VP: *Shocked* “Why the sudden change of heart?”

I show him the email from [Manager] and I can see the dots connect in his head. He immediately storms out, and I see him heading straight to [Manager]’s office.

They are in there for a few hours, but eventually, [VP] comes back to my office. He seems calmer now.

VP: *Politely* “Can you fix the problem in HR? And can you resume fixing the ERP if needed?”

At this point, I like the relief of responsibility.

Me: “I will only do it if you officially put it in my job title, along with a raise.”

His calmness turns to anger again.

VP: “I cannot believe you!”

And he storms out and returns to his office.

A few hours later, he sends out a mass email informing us all that he has hired the old ERP consultants to fix the problem and that next week, everyone will be paid the money they are owed, along with the money they earned if they return to work. This one surprises me as [VP] would rather pay over $60,000 a year to consultants than give me a few extra bucks an hour for better work. I think he expects me to change my mind and just do it for my own paycheck, but I decide to wait because I know how these consultants are, and if they manage to fix this problem in a week, I will streak naked through the office. Most of the warehouse staff agree to return but are still upset about not getting paid.

Sure enough, next Friday comes around. Nobody gets paid again. At this point, it is becoming a real problem and the entire staff is becoming agitated. They have bills to pay. I even hear a bunch of the warehouse staff talking about some competitors nearby they could go work for. At this point, I even consider just fixing the problem because the warehouse doesn’t deserve to be treated like that due to poor management. Maybe I am a jerk for this, but I am severely underpaid and can barely afford my apartment; there is no reason I should do extra work for free.

That same day, [VP] returns to my office and hands me papers. These papers say that I will be promoted to a newly created position that deals with inventory and ERP upkeep. It will be its own department and [VP] will be my direct supervisor. It also comes with a hefty raise. All I have to do is sign and agree. I look up at him after reading the paper, and he has the saddest look on his face.

VP: “Please just sign it. The consultants said it would take them weeks to get around to fixing it due to the high volume of clients they have taken on, and we cannot keep skipping paychecks.”

I happily signed it and immediately got to work on the HR issue. I even managed to fix it that same day. It was just a simple problem with the permissions of HR and payroll in the ERP due to the update.

This story is part of our Not Always Working Most-Epic Stories roundup!

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