I work in a bakery as the only woman. The guys are still surprised whenever I carry really heavy stuff or fix things. 

Some of our ovens are built like a closet, with the “shelves” being metal and heated to the appropriate temperature. The breads are baked in sets of metal molds set on rolling wagons that fit into these shelves, putting each batch of molds above a shelf. The oven is about two meters deep, fitting two wagons. 

For some weeks, we’ve had issues with these wagons getting stuck, especially the one in the back. They go in fine, but getting them out sometimes takes a lot of swearing and several big, strong guys pulling — a lot of fun in front of metal heated to 250° Celsius.

I’ve heard a lot of grumbling about it, but the first time I see it happen is also one of the worst times; the wagon is stuck almost all the way back, meaning they can’t even reach it with their hands. Three guys are trying to pull it out with some L-shaped metal pieces. 

Ten minutes pass, and someone’s bleeding after slipping. I get a bandaid.

Me: “Can I take a look? I mean, if it goes in easily, it should come out easily, too, right? Obviously, brute force can’t be the answer.”

Coworker: “No, we’ve got it, don’t worry. We’ve gotten all the others out, too!”

Twenty minutes pass, someone’s gotten himself burnt, and the third one nearly cracks his head open after falling backward when the hook slips off. I’ve offered to look several times, basically begging at the end. 

Finally, they give up and retreat to discuss how to distribute the remaking breads on our other oven types. Obviously, this is unfixable! 

Sensing my chance, I grab a long wooden hook and my phone, turn on the flashlight and drop down onto the floor to look at the wheels. I’m assuming I’m guessing wrong, because surely, the issue cannot be that the wheels have only turned halfway and thus being dragged sideways instead of rolling.

This has gone on for weeks, after all. One of them would have checked! 

Lo and behold, the back wheels have gotten stuck sideways. I maneuver the hook into place on the wheel and give it a sharp pull, and the wheel turns into a proper-ish position. After repeating that for the other wheel, I grab the metal hooks, position them, plant my butt on the floor and my feet against the doorframe, and push and pull backward with all I have… and the wagon comes forward, screeching and reluctantly, but forward it comes. 

And that’s how a problem that had progressed to the point where the replacement of a whole, expensive oven was being discussed was solved by simply replacing a few wheels, and how my big strong coworkers learned that asking someone who can’t solve things with brute force to have a look is a good idea.

I work in a clean room in a high-accuracy lab. We do work for all sorts of companies — automation, aviation, military, etc. Mistakes are not acceptable, so we have strict rules and procedures to follow. When things do go wrong, it’s normally minor and picked up by one of the overchecks we do.

I’m checking some parts on a machine and notice it clearly isn’t right. I check it on the backup equipment, and yes, there is a problem. I shut down the machine, lock it off, and finish the work on the backup.

It takes me a while but I finish and put it in the collection area. I notice another set of parts my coworker set down.

Me: “Did you check these today?”

Coworker: “Yeah, and?”

Me: “I have the backup. How did you check them?”

Coworker: “On the [main machine], duh!”

Me: “But I have the key. How… how is that possible?”

Coworker: “Ugh, I don’t have to explain the obvious to you.”

He snatched the key out of my hand.

I debated what to do, but in the end, I had to raise it to my boss. Turns out [Coworker] had never checked them at all and just copied the last report he did. All his work had to be rechecked, including some of the stuff already given back to the customer. It was incredibly embarrassing for the company and department. Officially, he quit, but I don’t think he had a choice.

I work on a moving assembly line. It’s simple work, it’s boring, and the money isn’t great, but after working in so many companies that have fallen over, it gives me peace of mind to have security at work.

A job goes up on the board for more work but a bit more money. I talk with the manager and he lets me know that they are looking for people who want to “step up” and that this is a good way to show that.

I apply and get the job; I’m told no one else applied. I get on really well but get crap from some of the guys. One guy goes beyond banter and seems to have a real problem with me.

Me: “All right. You got your part tally sheets?”

Coworker: “What?”

Me: “The sheet you fill in to show how many parts you’ve done.”

Coworker: “I didn’t do it. If they want to know how many parts I make, they can come and count them.”

Me: “Err… okay.”

I mark “not done” on my sheet.

Coworker: “What? Are you going to run and tell them?”

Me: “Well, no, but I have to put something down or my numbers will be off.”

Coworker: “Little suck up, you’ve changed. You think yourself all high and mighty.”

Me: “I’m doing my job, mate. You don’t want to do yours? Fine. But I’m not getting crap because of it.”

He swears at me for a bit.

Coworker: “I could have done your job, but I’m not a suck-up, ratting people out.”

Me: “I thought it was because you could barely count without using your fingers.”

That wasn’t the smartest response but I felt good about it. I noticed he wasn’t in the rest of the week. Someone had heard him threatening me behind my back, so they called him into the office, where he threatened the manager, who sacked him.

I tried to go back to my old job, but they convinced me to stay. A year later, they said I had really shown extra effort and offered me another promotion. I never heard from [Coworker] again.

I’m working for a multinational company that employs tens of thousands of staff; our site alone has about 700 employees. One afternoon, as I am merrily doing some design work, I get an email from someone at the corporate office. It’s completely blank and has been sent to everyone. I figure that someone accidentally sent this to everyone, hit delete, and go to get back to my work.

Then, a little message pops up.

Message: “[Email Sender] has requested a read receipt when the email has been read. Do you wish to send? Yes/No.”

Oh, dear. I hit no, figuring the sender probably wouldn’t appreciate a reminder of what they did. I also wonder how many people have their settings to automatically send the receipt without prompting. I manage about twenty seconds more work when I get another email alert. It’s a reply to the original email.

Reply #1: “?”

Someone has decided that the best response to a blank email was responding with a single question mark. But the “best” way of doing this was to hit Reply To All. I hit delete.

Message: “[Reply Sender] has requested a read receipt when the email has been read. Do you wish to send? Yes/No.”

The reply had inherited the Read Receipt request. I imagine the IT departments across various sites not being very happy as the email server starts to fill. I imagine their collective moods worsening when the next message appears.

Reply #2: “??”

This is followed shortly by…

Reply #3: “???”

…and…

Reply #4: “????”

…as a few people decided that this is funny. I guess it is, to a point. I and a few of my nearby colleagues laugh at the stupidity of these people and how they are going to get some grief for clogging the mail servers. All of these want Read Receipts, too. I think we reach “????????” before the emails start to change.

Reply #5: “Please remove me from this email chain.”

This is sent to everyone, of course; there are a few of those.

Reply #6: “Please stop using Reply To All as you are making the problem worse!”

The odd thing is that it wasn’t one person who sends that message; there are several. And they aren’t doing it independently. Each email includes all the text from previous emails, and I can see the previous warnings there.

Reply #7: “You’ve just hit Reply To All to send the message; don’t do that!”

…and so on. I have no idea if those who are adding their warnings are trying to be funny or helpful or are just desperate to be the one who gets everyone to shut up by having the last word. In any case, the last word comes through a few minutes later with a site-wide email from our IT manager.

IT Manager Email: “Please stop responding to the email that was sent in error. These responses are clogging the servers. The email network will be down for a period while we remove these emails”

This email does not request a read receipt. 

A day or so later, I see one of the IT staff and ask him about the events of that afternoon. He visibly deflates as the memories come back.

IT Guy: “We had to disconnect our server from the global network to stop anything else getting through and then go through the servers and strip out every single one. It took hours!”

Me: “What started it all?”

IT Guy: “One of the accountants at corporate was trying to test something and accidentally managed to send a blank message to everyone. You know the rest.”

Me: “What about all those who responded? I noticed that there were a couple of senior directors from this site who joined in the, uh… fun.”

IT Guy: “They were all spoken to. They were told in great detail about server space, exacerbating problems, and exponential growth!”

A few years ago, I worked in a call centre for a major mobile phone provider in the UK in the incoming upgrades department. [Coworker] was an all right person for all of a month while working there. She asked me to cover her shift so she could “hold her father’s hand as he lay dying in hospital” and I agreed so I didn’t end up looking and feeling like a d**k. The day came where I covered her shift, and on my way to work, I got a text from her with her phone login details.

Each employee had a unique eight-number code to log in to the phones and computers to take calls and input customer data. I thought it was weird that she texted it to me but ignored it. I had a fantastic day that day for upgrades. I managed to sell sixteen upgrades, two accessories, and three new lines, which made me eligible for that month’s bonus. I was made up.

[Coworker] returned to work and asked me how the Sunday shift went — she never thanked me — so I told her I’d had a top day and gotten that month’s bonus in one day. She was extremely excited for me, or so I thought. The day that pay slips were released, [Coworker] came to my computer to ask why the bonus wasn’t showing up on her pay slip.

I told her it was on my pay slip because I was the one who earned it, and she said, “Oh, I thought you were using my phone because it was my shift. That’s all right. I’ll just take half. Do you want my bank details and you can transfer it?”

Wow, just wow. No, [Coworker], I’m not giving you s***.

She turned on me something awful, calling me a horrible b**** and cursing my family for keeping her money from her, so I took it to my team leader, and [Coworker] apologised.

And then, the next day, she asked for a quarter of the bonus for letting me cover her shift and have that great day. She got a firm no but decided that must mean I’d accept buying her dinner for a fortnight because it was the least I could do and the least she deserved — her words, not mine. She let me know this when she added s***loads of food to her order and got five drinks and told the lady that I’d pay. She even tried walking off with her tray. She got shouted back by at least five people, and I finally told her to f*** off or I’d go to Human Resources.