My immediate supervisor and I work in the shipping department for our company We manage and control thousands of pounds of material that ship out of our facility every day. Things move pretty smoothly around here. Sometimes things back up when it’s really busy or if we’re short drivers, but in situations like that, we have third-party companies we can outsource shipping with.

Several times a week, we see emails from some of the owners or sales representatives asking why something that was just produced hasn’t been delivered yet, or they’re in the office breathing down our necks to make sure things are shipped out NOW! Then, we see emails from them saying to not hold orders and ship them out now! Even though we’ve explained to them that we don’t hold orders many, many, many times, they still yell at us for holding orders.

Long story short, if the material makes it to the floor, it has to be out the door instantly so we don’t get yelled at.

Then, we have other people in the company that can do no wrong, regardless of what kind of complaints come in about them from customers and vendors.

Take the ladies that handle Accounts Payable (AP). They can go up to a month before they get to invoicing orders for material that we’ve shipped out, but the owners don’t care, even after customers that have received material have called in asking why they don’t have any invoices for the material they received almost a month prior. This is a constant issue. Also, all invoices needed to be scanned into the server so we have both a paper and paperless backup. It can take multiple months for orders to get scanned into the server, and when we need to access this information it’s not scanned in the server yet. It takes months, but it’s okay — no problem found according to the owners.

These AP ladies constantly “work” from home. I don’t know how they can work from home because all the invoice paperwork is here at the office and they’re not allowed to take it with them because paperwork has been lost in the past. Yet, they’re allowed to “work” from home because they can respond to emails. Emails are about 25% of their normal job, but that’s because they email out invoices to customers, and if they’re not in the office to do invoicing, they aren’t emailing. They literally have nothing they can do at home for work, but apparently, it’s okay by ownership that they can “work” from home.

Next, we have the IT guy; he is never around. We can have computer issues that go on for days and days until he finally shows up. When we call him he’s aggravated that we’re bothering him and he tells us that he’ll be around soon. I usually have to fix most computer issues since this IT guy takes forever, but it’s okay that he can take a week or two to fix a computer issue; ownership doesn’t care.

Then, there are the owners’ daughters who work here. Out of the three owners, two of them have one daughter each that works here. The two girls are cousins. It was like a family feud when they started and worked in the same office space — constant yelling, bickering, and complaining. Eventually, [Daughter #1] was moved to the same building her dad worked in, so the drama between them ended. While it was entertaining to see, it was nice that the childish bickering ended.

[Daughter #1] now takes after her dad; she’s always out, poorly entering orders, and causing a lot of mistakes that cost the company a lot of time and money, but it’s never her fault. It’s always production’s fault or a shipping issue because we should have known the order she entered was wrong and fixed it for her.

The other owner’s daughter, [Daughter #2] started out great for about the first six months. She was always on top of things, never missing a beat, and not making any mistakes. She was set up to work under my supervisor. After six months, she sweet-talked her way into getting a raise, and after that raise, her work ethic dropped off the charts. She started coming in later and later, or she’d call with some BS excuse to not have to work for the day, and her mistakes kept piling up. Here are a few excuses she’s used to get out of work for the day.

Daughter #2: “I can’t come into work today because my cat is stuck behind the drier and I can’t just leave her there. I need the day off to work on getting her unstuck.”

Daughter #2: “My cat scratched my leg, and I don’t have any special antibiotic at home I can use that I’m not allergic to, so have to run out to stores until I find some. I won’t be in today.”

Daughter #2: “My cat threw up on the floor, so I have to take him to the vet and I won’t be in today.”

[Daughter #2] has changed her times from coming on her own accord without asking her supervisor. She used to come in around 7:00 am and work until 3:00 pm. Slowly, over time, she’s pushed her start time out later and later. Her hours are now around 10:30 am to 4:00 or maybe 5:00 pm, and customers are complaining that she’s not available when they need her. But that’s okay; she can’t do anything wrong.

Then, we have the lead supervisor for the floor. This guy is a piece of work. He dresses provocatively — shirt unbuttoned down to his navel so we can see his nipples and pants so tight you can see everything. He pees on the floor in the bathrooms, and he only hires women to work in the Quality Control department and takes bets with others to see how long it takes to sleep with them… yet he can’t do anything wrong.

Sadly, the thing is that in any other place I’ve worked, there are always people like these of some kind causing similar issues. You have to learn to work with them or go somewhere else and work with similar problematic people.

I worked at a strip club for over sixteen years. I’ve heard a bunch of excuses about why customers think they deserve their money back.

Every once in a while, a customer would walk in, spend a few moments scoping it out, and decide they didn’t want to be there anymore because there were not enough dancers or too many girls, their favorite dancer wasn’t there, their specific type wasn’t there, we were playing music they didn’t like, we don’t serve alcohol, etc.

I’ve even been told a few times that the girls were unattractive! Usually, when they say that, I tell them:

Me: “Well, sir, I’m pretty sure even they wouldn’t give you the time of day outside of this club.”

That usually broke their spirits. I loved doing that.

A woman and her teenage son are shopping. The son comes up to me and places his hands on my breasts!

Mom: “Oh, it’s okay. He’s autistic.”

Me: “So am I, and no, it’s not!”

The mother complained to the manager and claimed discrimination, and I got written up. Great times.

Two months after I start a new job, I get a jury summons in the mail. I work in a nail salon owned by a Vietnamese man and I am the only non-Asian technician working at the salon. At this point in my career, I’m not sure if I will be able to explain to him what the jury summons means in regard to missing work and that not showing up for the summons can get you in some legal hot water.

Luckily, when I bring my summons to show him, he seems to understand (to some degree) the importance of it. He even has received some in the mail in the past. He does know, also, that sometimes individuals can actually “get out of” jury duty with certain acceptable exceptions and asks if I’ve tried that route. However:

Me: “Actually, I had a jury summons a few months ago that I had to call and ask to be excused from because I was actively job searching and had almost no money at the time.”

Boss: “Oh. See, when I would go to those, I just say my English is no good and they tell me I can go.”

Me: *Pauses* “Yeah, well, there’s no way I can convincingly use that excuse.”

My boss laughed hysterically.

I attended my jury duty that following Monday and ended up not being selected and therefore not disrupting my work week!

I’m filling in at another location of our office due to staffing issues. It’s out of town, but it’s close enough that I just commute back and forth. I have to drive through a couple of small towns to get there. One of these towns has a known speed trap, where the limit drops fifteen mph in less than half a mile. It’s a Wednesday afternoon. I help with my church’s youth group on Wednesday nights, and I’m trying to get back into my house in time to change and head over there.

I forget about the speed trap until I see those flashing lights in my rearview mirror. I groan and pull into the nearest parking lot. I misjudge the turn off the main road and clip a curb with my back tire. I successfully park and wait. Sure enough, a mean-looking cop gets out of the squad car and knocks on my window. I roll it down.

Cop: “Do you know how fast you were going, young lady?”

Me: “Uh… about forty-five. Sorry. I forgot about the decrease in mileage.”

Cop: “And you clipped the curb when you were turning.”

Me: “Yes.”

Cop: “You been drinking?”

Me: “What? No! I just got off work! I’m running late.”

Cop: “Okay, fine. What are you late to?”

I’ve heard enough stories to know that the truthful answer is going to sound like a lie!

Me: “You won’t believe me.”

Cop: “I might. What are you late to?”

Me: *In a small voice* “Church.”

The cop snorts.

Cop: “Oh, c’mon.”

Me: “I promise it’s true. Look, I attend [Large Church] and I help with the youth group every Wednesday. I don’t have proof on me, but if you want to follow me to [Town], I can get it.”

The cop sighs and rolls his eyes.

Cop: “I don’t have time for that. Just give me your license and registration.”

I hand it over and he walks back to his car. In my rearview mirror, I see him typing and then calling someone. He comes back to my car a few minutes later and hands my paperwork back.

Cop: “My system crashed. I couldn’t give you a ticket even if I wanted to.”

Me: “I… What? Seriously?”

Cop: “Have a nice evening, Ms. [My Last Name].”

He smiled, waved, got in his car, and drove off. I was still late to church because it took me fifteen minutes to calm down enough to drive. The youth pastor got a kick out of the story, though!