A manager I used to work under is in the office today for a meeting. I’m in the conference room with him chatting. He sees my coworker coming in and tells me he’s about to start his meeting. [Coworker] comes in, and before I can stand up, she begins this tirade against me, spouting bile left, right, and centre about how I’m incompetent, I’m the reason the company as a whole (not just this office) is failing, and I need to be replaced immediately to prevent further damage. I try to interrupt, but [Manager] gives me a look that tells me to keep quiet.

It takes about ten minutes before [Coworker] shuts up, and she begins shouting before the end. She makes references to several moments, during most of which I wasn’t even at the office — for some, I was actually working with [Manager] at the time. I’m honestly shell-shocked by the experience.

Manager: “Okay, I will take that under advisement. I thought this meeting was for your expenses?”

Coworker: *Going red* “But why—”

Manager: “[My Name] and I were just catching up. I think it’s best we reschedule.”

He said goodbye to me and left. [Coworker] just stared at his seat. I left her there and went back to my office. [Coworker] came into my office the morning after and told me that if she lost her job, it was my fault.

She didn’t lose her job, but several meetings followed, and she now reports to [Manager] directly for something I’m not related to, while I was given her responsibilities and my wages were raised to be on par with hers.

Thankfully, I don’t see her much anymore, but when I do, she stares daggers at me.

I used to work at a furniture store. The manager loved blaming me for everything, even when I had no hand in things. If she didn’t want to do something — like pay a vendor or notify customers about delays — she’d conveniently forget to tell me about it, and then, when someone yelled about it, she’d blame me. She just flat-out wouldn’t tell me about something, and then, when we got called out, it was suddenly my fault that something did or didn’t happen.

One time, she comes out of her office and comes up to my desk.

Manager: “I was just talking to [Customer], and I had to give them free delivery out to [Town] because you didn’t tell them about the fabric backorder from [Company].”

Me: “I didn’t even know there was a fabric backorder from [Company].”

Manager: “The last girl in your job used to go to the [Company] site, and we had a login where she could see that. Then, she’d call customers if anything was delayed.”

Me: “I didn’t know we had that.”

Manager: “Well, you need to pay attention to this in the future. So, from now on, make sure you do that.”

She then walked off without giving me the site or credentials. I had to ask one of the sales guys if he knew what site she was talking about and then call the company and see if I could get our credentials.

And when the furniture finally showed up, and I scheduled the delivery, [Manager] also made me apologize to the customers for not telling them of the delay in the first place.

As for why this specific instance was a slight problem, [Town] is about four hours away from where the store was located. Free delivery out there is a big deal, especially because it meant our delivery guys likely couldn’t do any other deliveries that day since this was a family-owned business with one truck.

A table is complaining through two courses and dessert about how long the food is taking to get to the table.

For dessert, they order the campfire smores, our most popular dessert. It’s melted chocolate with homemade marshmallows and homemade graham crackers that are served with smoldering hickory wood chips for the campfire ambiance. The marshmallows take a few minutes to melt in the oven. This woman at the table sends the manager back into the kitchen after five minutes asking where their desserts are.

The desserts finally get to the table, and they immediately ask for the manager again. I am in the kitchen when the manager comes back in with an ear-to-ear grin on her face.

Me: “What’s the fuss about?”

Manager: “She ate the campfire!”

The lady ate the wood chips, which were both visibly glowing and smoking like crazy. The woman didn’t get hurt but still acted like it was all our fault. I’ve never laughed so hard at work before.

I work as a trainer and consultant for a smaller training business that is steadily growing. I came in at the beginning of the company and have essentially helped with the start-up and reaching out to clients. I am approaching my third year here.

Recently, my company told us that they were looking to promote a team lead. I approached my team lead (who was promoted ahead of me last year) and talked about the idea of going ahead and applying. She basically turned me down.

Team Lead: “You haven’t had enough experience.”

Okay, fair enough. Maybe she saw something I didn’t?

Then, the promotion was given to a guy I had trained who had only been there for six months.

Okay.

Right after that was my year review. We had a scoring system, and in order to get a raise, we had to score at least a seven.

Team Lead: “Tell me about what you’ve done well over the last year?”

I came prepared and showed dates and times of projects that were not only done well but done well within the time frame. During the year, I also implemented three different time-saving ideas that are now used company-wide.

Team Lead: “Now tell me about your one-year and five-year goals.”

Me: “My one-year goal is to lead a team, and for my five-year goal, I’d like to lead a pod, like [Teammate] at [Other Location].”

Team Lead: “For you, I see your one-year goal being to lead a training session. Your five-year goal should be to be a mentor.”

Being a mentor is more work but no pay increase like the team lead.

Team Lead: “Your score for this review is a six. You won’t be getting a raise this year because it doesn’t seem like you’re a team player.”

And then, she had the audacity to tell me that “raises aren’t the end goal”, as though she didn’t know that my rent had been raised $150 in the past three months. She told me that I was on a sixty-day probation and that in sixty days, we would reevaluate if I could continue with the company.

I nodded and smiled because I didn’t have anything lined up.

After I left that meeting, I immediately began sending out resumes. I have three interviews lined up within the next three days. I don’t have a conclusion yet, but I can say with all certainty that I will be leaving here.

It is election season, and I am volunteering at a voting booth. An older gentleman voter comes up to me.

Voter: “Which candidate means I pay less taxes?”

Me: “Well, that depends on a few factors, such as—”

Voter: “God! Just tell me which one! There are only two! I don’t care about any of that woke s*** or social s***; I just want to pay less tax. Which one is that gonna be?”

Me: “I don’t know, sir.”

Voter: “You’re supposed to help out the voters!”

Me: *Pointing* “The voting booth is that way. There, I helped.”

Voter: *Storming toward the booth* “You’re what’s wrong with this country!”