There was a woman who worked at my station. She was a filthy and disgusting person, both physically and in personality.

One day on the TV in the office, they were talking about an LGBT+ event going on.

Coworker: “Oh, those people are sick and disgusting. Why can’t they keep to themselves?”

THEN, she had the nerve to smile, look at me, and say:

Coworker: “Am I right?”

I had just gotten a “Legalize Gay” shirt like two days before, so I made a point to wear it to work the next day. [Coworker] saw me in that shirt and her face dropped. I made a point to walk into my captain’s office before changing into my uniform to file a formal complaint against this woman for her discriminatory comments.

She never said anything else to me after that day.

A coworker once showed up to the office in a white wedding dress with a crinoline, beading — the works.

Manager: “Why did you wear your wedding dress to the office?”

Coworker: “I was out of clean clothes and didn’t feel like doing laundry.”

I have been with this company for nearly five years. During my tenure, we have had an extremely high turnover rate to the point that I am the longest-tenured employee with the second having been here for two and a half years. My other coworkers have been here for anywhere from nine to fifteen months.

Due to this, I have been a strong advocate of documentation and have created hundreds of pages on our documentation over the year. It hasn’t been easy, but a lot of it I completely created from scratch to help train new users. For the most part, people are great. This last batch… not so much. Despite telling these yahoos on several occasions these things already exist, they often have “brilliant ideas” that we need documentation.

I decide my time has come to a close and join the Great Resignation without a job lined up. The plan is to travel the country for a month and gain my sanity back. I announce my leave and make a Table of Contents where all this beautiful documentation is — to which I get a couple of comments about how I should build this glorious documentation. Insert eyeroll.

I am now sitting down and explaining it to them. 

Me: “So, this document goes over how to install [External Software] network licenses.”

Coworker: “Are there instructions in here on how to install [External Software] network licenses?”

Me: *Blinks once* “Yes.”

Coworker: “So, it will tell me how to install the network license?”

Me: “Correct. That is what this entire document is about.”

Coworker: “And personal licenses?”

Me: “No. Just the network license, as that requires special instructions.”

Coworker: “How do you install personal licenses?”

At this point, I am wondering if he is pulling my leg or something. It is literally an executable file. No one in their right mind, let alone one who works at a software company, can possibly be this dumb.

Me: “Like normal?”

Coworker: “So, the network license needs to be installed differently?”

Me: “Yes?”

Coworker: “Are there instructions on how to do that?”

I briefly contemplate banging my head against a wall at this point.

Me: *Sighs* “Just read the document.”

This went around three more times with me just telling him to read the dang thing. This company is doomed.

My company hires from all over the world and requires travel almost constantly. We also offer “home time off,” which is exactly how it sounds; it is in our hiring contract that we can take a four-day weekend every other month to go home to see our families.

I receive a job assignment in a different country, so my contract states that I get a full week off to accommodate the longer travel time. I get tired of going back and forth, so I ask my supervisor if I have to go home during this time off or if I can use it to tour US attractions like Disney or just relax and rest for the week. He agrees that the time off is my own and if that’s what I want to do, I just have to arrange the appropriate travel.

For my next home time off, I decide to take a five-day cruise with my husband. Upon return, I have a slew of emails, voicemails, and texts from [Coworker], who is from the USA. I go through them all and I am just floored. [Coworker] heard (though he didn’t say how) that I was not using my home time to go home, and he threatened to report me to Human Resources for abusing my privilege.

When I return to work the next day, he is sitting at my desk.

Me: “Good morning, [Coworker].”

Coworker: “How was your trip home?”

Me: “Oh, we—”

Coworker: “Or should I say, ‘How does it feel to steal from [Company]?’”

Me: “I didn’t steal anything. I—”

Coworker: “It is in our contract that we have to go home for that time off, not go globetrotting.”

Me: “Not my contract. Please move. I have work to do.”

Coworker: “You might as well write your resignation letter. Once HR finds out what you did, they’ll send you right back to your dirty, third-world country you didn’t want to go to in the first place.”

Me: “Okay, then. You go do that. Just get out of my space. Please and thank you, goodbye!”

[Coworker] did go to HR to complain that I hadn’t gone home. When questioned about why it mattered to him, he said that he had tried to extend his home time off to go to Australia for two weeks and it was denied. By his logic, my request should have been denied, too.

After that, I put in a complaint with HR, showing all the texts, emails, and voicemails from [Coworker] when he knew I was on vacation, as well as his insult to my home country. He was suspended for a performance review and quit before they could finish.

I used to be a customer service “manager” for a furniture store. I’ll admit, some of the issues I had there I brought on myself because when I started I was in a pretty bad financial situation so I didn’t say no to extra work. There was also the fact that I’m competent and actually know how to do things like talk on the phone, schedule deliveries, and order furniture.

Anyway, when I started, I was just a front desk person and didn’t really have a title. Fast forward almost a year, and the manager and her husband (he owned the store) were going to be out of town, so he showed up and pulled the rest of the staff — our three salespeople, our two delivery guys, our warehouse manager and me — into a brief meeting.

Owner: “Okay, while [Manager] and I are out of town, I want you guys to do your best to get us sales. And I’ll be giving [My Name] instructions, so if she asks you to do something, it came from me.”

[Sales Guy] was an a** and regularly crossed the line on sexual harassment, but any time I brought it up I was told to ignore him because “he’s old and he had a stroke”.

Sales Guy: “But is [My Name] a manager? Because I only take directions from managers.”

Rather than reiterating that stuff was coming from him, aka THE OWNER, he just said:

Owner: “Okay, fine. [My Name] is now a manager.”

That sent a horrible feeling to the pit of my stomach because I knew I was f***ed. [Sales Guy] grinned for the rest of the meeting. When we were dismissed, [Owner] left and we went about the rest of our day.

As we all did our thing, [Sales Guy] would randomly wander past the front desk and toss various snide comments my way, like, “Hey, manager, whatcha doin’?” and, “Oh, manager, you need to do [thing].” I glared at my computer and did my best to ignore him.

Maybe an hour later, I got a ping from the owner; he’d set up a webcam so he could spy on the store, and any time a customer walked in, if someone didn’t immediately pounce on the unsuspecting victim, he’d message me to get someone to help them.

Owner: “Can you ask [Sales Guy] to go help that customer who just walked in?”

Me: “[Saleswoman] is working with them. That customer came in yesterday and needed to check measurements at their house before buying.”

While we were having this conversation, someone else walked in.

Owner: “That couple that just came in doesn’t look like they’re working with anyone. Tell [Sales Guy] to go talk to them.”

I stood up and got [Sales Guy]’s attention.

Me: “Hey, [Owner] wants you to go see if you can assist the couple who just walked in.”

Sales Guy: “Is that coming from you with your new manager title?” *Smug grin*

I barely restrained myself from jumping over the counter and pummeling him.

Me: “Will you please go see if you can assist those customers?”

He just continued to give me that s***ty grin and finally went to help the customers. And honestly, that was among the nicer things he did as far as possible harassment.

I hated getting that manager title because A, it was only given to appease the sales guy, and B, the owner decided that with the new title, that meant I needed more work without more pay. And don’t even get me started on the raises I was promised and never got despite asking multiple times. I already did practically everything because the manager didn’t want to do anything, so she’d always tell me to do it.

Honestly, it got to a point where I was actively doing the bare minimum (I would spend the day browsing my various social media pages on the work computer because I literally did not give a f***) and stopped just short of actual violence to get myself fired. I haven’t worked there in several years and I’ve moved 800 miles away, and I still have nightmares about being back there.