I’ve just started working for the Public Works department in my city. I work the day shift, but people are on twenty-four-seven, three-sixty-five to keep the city up and running. We share city vehicles, and the city has a small gas station to refuel our trucks and the police cars and fire trucks. We’re supposed to refuel at the end of every shift.

One evening, I’m getting ready to refuel my city truck and then park it and go home. For some reason, none of the gas pumps will work, so I ask a nearby coworker for help.

Coworker: “Do you know what we do when the pumps aren’t working at the end of a long shift?”

Me: “No.”

I’m thinking I may have to report it to my boss or something.

Coworker: “We say, ‘f*** it,’ park the truck, go home, and make dealing with the pumps the next guy’s problem.”

I laugh.

Coworker: “Enjoy your evening, bud.”

He got in his truck and drove off.

Despite his advice, I did eventually get the pump to work and refuel my truck so the night shift worker didn’t have to.

My colleague is away on a business trip. He set an auto message to inform people emailing him that he would be away. However, not being very good with computers, he did not know you could change how often the auto message is sent out. Thus, it was set to the default, which was to send an auto-reply for EVERY email he received.

Previously, he had to purchase some items from [Brand]’s website for a client. This subscribed him to their mailing list. They sent him a mailer this morning, which is also automated.

And so, the fun started.

[Brand]’s Auto Mailer: “Sale on today!”

Colleague’s Auto Mailer: “Thanks for your email. I am away from 29 November to 10 December.”

[Brand]’s Auto Mailer: “Thank you for your enquiry. We have received your request: (ticket id: 54321). Our team will contact you shortly.”

Colleague’s Auto Mailer: “Thanks for your email. I am away from 29 November to 10 December.”

[Brand]’s Auto Mailer: “Thank you for your enquiry. We have received your request: (ticket id: 54322). Our team will contact you shortly.”

Colleague’s Auto Mailer: “Thanks for your email. I am away from 29 November to 10 December.”

[Brand]’s Auto Mailer: “Thank you for your enquiry. We have received your request: (ticket id: 54323). Our team will contact you shortly.”

Colleague’s Auto Mailer: “Thanks for your email. I am away from 29 November to 10 December.”

[Brand]’s Auto Mailer: “Thank you for your enquiry. We have received your request: (ticket id: 54324). Our team will contact you shortly.”

This went back and forth repeatedly, and they had sent eight support tickets by the time [Colleague] noticed and asked me for help. I about died laughing.

My wife, her daughter, her daughter’s husband, and I are eating at a restaurant during the evening meal. We are sitting in a booth just off the bar area.

The waitress brings our meals. My wife takes a bite of her pasta meal and pulls out a plastic strip that frozen food packages come with to pull and open to empty the contents.

She calls our waitress to show her. The waitress takes the plate back to the kitchen to have it remade.

In the meantime, just around the corner, I hear the waitress complaining to the manager about my wife’s food.

Waitress: “The cook has been hitting on me all week and asking me out. I told him to leave me alone, so he said he was going to ‘fix’ all my meals and that I would regret turning him down.”

The manager brought out a new plate for my wife and never mentioned anything about comping it.

The next thing I heard was the sound of tables and chairs being knocked over in the bar area. I looked back around the corner from our booth and saw the manager and the cook in question in a fight — right there in the restaurant.

We found out that the manager was attempting to escort the cook out of the building after firing him and the cook thought otherwise — at least for a few minutes.

I have been working at a few different entrances at a hospital during the global health crisis, monitoring visitors and handing out masks. One day, I’m working with a security guard who is newer and seems to be one of the better ones so far. I rethink this after the following situation.

On this particular day, I’m at a part of the hospital where all the labour, delivery, postpartum, and antepartum units are. We watch a female patient wheel herself outside using a wheelchair. Once past the doors, she gets up from the chair and walks the very short distance over to the smoking area.

The security guard then starts laughing.

Security Guard: “It’s a miracle!”

I stare at her.

Security Guard: “I just watched a miracle! She can walk!”

I just shrugged my shoulders. I should have said something, but I was having a frustrating shift and didn’t feel like getting into it with anyone else.

Unless you’re the patient’s nurse or doctor, you don’t know everything that is going on. For all we know — and I think this was a very likely possibility — this patient was on bed rest but was allowed to do minimal walking and was instructed by the unit to go by wheelchair anytime she left her room.

I’m sure [Security Guard] didn’t mean to be mocking, but a little sensitivity goes a long way!

I have an office coworker who does the absolute bare minimum to get by, but they do get by. They finish all their assigned work, to a standard considered adequate by the company guidelines, and they are out of the office the moment the clock hits five. They are never late, never below standard, and never in trouble. I admire him!

The world goes bananas for a few years, and we are all working from home. Our entire team is expected to be present for morning meetings over Zoom. We are all in attendance, but our aforementioned coworker is the only one with their camera off.

Our boss is a bit of a micromanager, a total misogynist, and a transphobic bigot, and has had it out for [Coworker] since day one. Our [Coworker]’s talent for always being 100% within the rules is also a cause of infuriation for our boss – another thing I admire!

Boss: “[Coworker], are you there?”

Coworker: “Present and accounted for!”

Boss: “Could you turn on your camera?”

Coworker: “Why?”

Boss: “Well, everyone else has theirs on. It’s easier to communicate if we can see you.”

Coworker: “Yeah, thing is… I’m naked.”

Boss: “What?! But you’re at work!”

Coworker: “I’m also at home, so… nakey-nakey.”

Boss: “You can’t be naked while you work!”

Coworker: “Why not?”

Boss: “Because… because it’s obscene!”

Coworker: “Yet you’re the one who is asking me to turn on my camera and expose myself?”

Boss: “I… I…”

Me: “Anyway, moving on to the meeting agenda!”

I got the meeting back on track and saved my boss from having a fit. Afterward, an email went out saying that all attendees for the morning Zoom call should have their cameras turned on and be wearing work-appropriate attire.

The next day.

Boss: “Thank you all for joining the call, I’d like to… [Coworker]… what are you wearing?”

Coworker: “It’s a dress.”

Boss: “You can’t wear a dress!”

Coworker: “[Female Coworker] is wearing a dress.”

Boss: “Yes, but, she’s a woman!”

Coworker: “You sure you want to pick that scab?”

Boss: “But…”

Coworker: “This is one of the dresses my wife wears to her office and it’s 100% work appropriate.”

I quickly take over the meeting again before our boss gets himself into an HR incident. I know my coworker was intentionally pushing buttons, but since he works so very hard to 100% be within the technical rules nothing could be done, and thank goodness for that, he keeps the meetings interesting!

Any requirements to have the camera turned on for Zoom meetings were rescinded by the end of the week after he started wearing make-up and eyelash extensions (again, never too extreme to be against company guidelines) and it was too much for our narrow-minded boss to handle.