In 2013, I started my first “real job” as a security guard for an industrial storage facility in Central Oahu. At the time I had a coworker who was habitually late to work. This was a massive problem before I had been hired and it continued to be a massive problem while we worked together.

The nature of our site meant that there needed to be a guard twenty-four-seven, so if she was late, the guard working the shift prior to hers would be forced to stay until she arrived. In my first month, I was held back more than sixteen times for anywhere from thirty minutes to three hours due to her tardiness. She never called to say where she was, why she was late, or when she would be in, and it was always a gamble as to what time I would actually get off work.

Within the next month of working, my sixteen-year-old car decided that having an alternator was no longer on its list of priorities, and while I was waiting on getting paid to buy a replacement part, I was fortunate enough to have my father to take me to work. I maintained my standard of not being late for work until the second week when there was a car accident on the freeway and we got stuck.

Three minutes after my shift was supposed to start, [Coworker] called me to ask me where I was.

Me: “It appears there was a bad accident on the [Freeway]. We are trying to push to [Valley] to get off and continue to the site on surface streets.”

[Coworker] immediately went off.

Coworker: “You need to be on time! It’s incredibly important that you’re here to relieve your coworkers! It’s about work ethic. You have a responsibility to be at work not only on time but early for the pass-down of information between shifts!”

I absolutely lost it.

I knocked her down several dozen pegs and told her in no uncertain terms that she, of all people, did not belong talking to anyone about being on time. I outlined all of the times she had been late and how late she had been. I pointed out the fact that I had never said a thing to her about it and asked her how she could have the balls to speak to someone that she had been screwing over since day one about “responsibilities”.

She didn’t have a response. Apparently, prior to my arrival, the other guards had just taken this kind of thing in stride. In her pause, I continued, telling her that she was not a supervisor or an assistant supervisor and that she did not belong calling me and trying to level corrective actions, especially on my personal phone.

She was pissed and ended up hanging up on me after sputtering some nonsense about “tact” and “manners”.

By the time I got to work, she had left, leaving the supervisor at the time manning the guard shack. The supervisor asked me what in the world had happened as [Coworker] had asked him to handle it for her and I told him straight up, verbatim, the entire conversation.

The supervisor laughed. He agreed with me on every point and was actually happy that someone other than him had finally put their foot down with her.

[Coworker] didn’t last much longer past that day. She ended up getting eliminated when Hawaii enacted the Guard Card later that year as she did not possess the required high school diploma or GED to qualify for the license.

Unfortunately, she was replaced by the biggest problem to ever set foot on that property, but that’s a story for another time.

A few decades ago, I was working in a bank that merged with another. The local branches of each were so busy that all the staff was simply combined, with just a few positions adjusted in management.

One day, a man comes to my window to cash a check he has made out himself, except his name is not on the check nor the account. The teller next to me recognizes him as the assistant to an elderly regular from the bank we just merged with and assures me he’s authorized to write and cash checks on the account. Figuring the information just hasn’t been put into the system yet, I go to verify the permission on the signature cards that have been brought over from the other bank.

But he’s not on the card, and there’s no reference to a Power of Attorney or other form that might give him permission to use the account. Back I go to tell the customer I can’t cash his check.

Customer: “I’ve never had a problem before.”

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, but I have nothing that says you’re allowed to write checks or withdraw money from this account.”

Coworker: “Oh, it’s fine, He’s in with [Account Owner] all the time.”

Me: “That may be, but there’s no authorization.”

Coworker: “I’m authorizing you.”

Me: “You’re not a manager. Without the paperwork in place, I’m not cashing this.”

Coworker: “Fine, I’ll do it. [Customer], come over here. I’ll take care of you.”

I shrugged, handed the check back to the customer, and continued my day.

A couple of weeks later, all staff was brought in for a mandatory meeting. We were informed that thousands of dollars were missing from a customer’s account. Yep, it was [Account Owner]’s.

It turned out that [Account Owner] had never authorized or intended to authorize her assistant on her account. Staff from the other bank had simply assumed that this person who came in with [Account Owner] twice a week was allowed to and that [Account Owner] just forgot to do the paperwork because she was old. [Customer] played off that familiarity to make regular withdrawals, and because part of his job was handling the mail, he just didn’t give [Account Owner] anything from the old bank. When asked, he’d just reassure her he’d seen the statement and all was well. This went on for months, and [Account Owner] only found out because [Customer] forgot that the statements would come in with the new bank name.

The manager and assistant manager from the other bank were fired. Every teller from the other bank got a written warning for cashing those checks, as well as a few of our own who’d ignored the discrepancy on the reassurance of the other bank’s staff. Everyone from both banks got retrained in our procedures and protecting both our customers and ourselves. It turned out that there were a ton of rules and regulations the staff at the other bank had been ignoring because of familiarity, and they’d been telling our staff that the busy work was an unnecessary hassle.

I work in customer service and was hired when they were doing some reorganization. Because of some lack of communication, some people they had planned to take on for a little longer weren’t planning to stay, and suddenly, I was alone in handling a whole country only weeks after starting out. My boss was also entirely new to the position; he’d worked with the company before but came to this department after I did.

It became stressful and too much. It had been horribly handled, and my boss knew this, as well. Together, we started setting up new routines while he desperately searched for someone who could help out. In this work, we found trust and an understanding for each other.

Then, the day finally came when he hired a new girl. Hallelujah! It was busier for me at the start, handling the work and teaching her at the same time, but slowly, I could start giving her more work to do, and I was careful not to give her too much at once so she could ease her way into the job and learn it properly.

Eventually, [New Hire] talked to my boss, saying she had nothing to do and that I was so stressed, she felt like she should take on more work. We gave her more work to do. Among these new tasks, she got to handle some special orders for a very important customer where certain items needed to be tagged specially in a separate delivery for legal reasons.

Things went wrong, which was fine — everyone can make mistakes — but then my boss called me in. 

Boss: “She says you won’t let her do any work and that she has nothing to do.”

Me: “If I give her more work, I won’t have much to do myself.”

Boss: “Really? She said you seemed stressed.”

Me: “Well, I’m not, but if she has more time, perhaps she should make sure to get those orders right and double-check them.”

Boss: *Happily* “Right, well, good. It seems we’ve gotten that workload off your shoulders, then.”

However, the issues with the orders continued. After a chain of mistakes, the customer was getting angry and extra action was implemented. I was to double-check the orders before [New Hire] saved them, since two pairs of eyes are more likely to notice mistakes.

I did so. I wrote down the mistakes and told her to fix those before saving them. About a week later, my boss came to me when she wasn’t there.

Boss: “Did you check her orders?”

Me: “Yes, why?”

Boss: “It was wrong again. She says she checked it with you and that everything was fine.”

I panic a bit; did I miss something?

Me: “Let me check.”

Looking through the orders, I saw that all the things I had written down for her hadn’t been changed at all.

Boss: “The customer is really angry. I’m putting you on this task again. Can you try to fix it?”

Of course, I did. However, [New Hire] did not take it very well, wondering why she got the blame when I told her it was good. She also started disappearing from time to time, leaving her phone behind so I couldn’t reach her. This started to impose on my lunch breaks, as we couldn’t leave the phones alone and I was back having the same queues as before she started. She could be gone for over an hour without any explanation other than that she went to talk to a friend. I told her she needed to communicate this and she said she was sorry.

It did not stop, though, despite my efforts, so I went to talk to the boss about it and he said he’d talk to her. After that talk, she came up to me in front of others.

New Hire: “I can’t believe you went to talk to the boss about me! I thought we were friends!”

Me: “Well, maybe you shouldn’t disappear from the job.”

New Hire: “You could have talked to me about it!”

Then, she stormed off.

The next time I had a meeting with the boss, I couldn’t leave because [New Hire] wasn’t by the phones, even though I had reminded her several times. Half an hour later, when our meeting was supposed to be finished, my boss came by.

Boss: “[My Name], we have a meeting now.”

Me: “I know, but [New Hire] hasn’t come back.”

My boss looked angry. I had never seen him angry before; he was always happy with a big smile on his face.

Boss: *In a scarily dark voice* “Shut it down. It is on her. We have a meeting.”

When I came back, [New Hire] yelled at me for leaving the post and I told her it was the boss’s orders. The panic on her face as she realised the boss had caught her disappearing made me smile on the inside.

Soon after that, my boss said he had found someone else to hire and that he would let her know [New Hire] would not be staying with the company. The next day, she let us all know she had decided to resign. Most people were sad to see her go, which makes me wonder what I missed.

One day, I decided to buy a fancy iced drink from a popular coffee shop chain at a location inside a grocery store. I wasn’t familiar with their menu, so I asked whether the “lite” drink contained artificial sweeteners; I didn’t know if lite meant low-calorie or low-fat. They said that drink did not have artificial sweeteners, so I ordered it.

Once I got my drink, we continued grocery shopping. I tasted the drink and the flavor was good, but by the time we got to the back of the grocery store, I could tell something wasn’t quite right. My tongue started tingling and felt numb. I wondered if it did have artificial sweeteners and tossed out the rest of the drink.

After I got home and put away the groceries, I looked up the ingredients online and found out that the lite drink did indeed have artificial sweeteners. Back then, I wasn’t a very assertive person, but I was upset about being told the wrong information. I called the main number for the coffee shop chain to complain.

The customer service representative who answered the phone listened to my story. I was expecting an apology, an offer to refund my money, or at least a coupon to try a different drink flavor. But when I complained about my tongue going numb — which could have been an allergic reaction — the response from the representative was:

Representative: “Oh, yeah, that’s happened to me before, too.”

That was it.

I was so shocked by the lack of concern that I hung up without pressing them further.

It’s been over ten years now, and I still refuse to buy anything from that coffee chain, even though that location is within walking distance from my house.

Because of my history of mental health problems, I’m on disability benefits. I work part-time for a local mental health charity, usually about twelve hours a week. I get a text message from the Department of Work and Pensions telling me I have a jobseeker’s appointment scheduled and must attend. I talk to the online Universal Credit Journal to get clarification since this shouldn’t be necessary.

Me: “I got a text saying I have an appointment on [date]. I am not available that day and am not supposed to need appointments as I have limited capacity to work.”

Employee: “Failure to attend can cause a delay or suspension to your benefits.”

Me: “I cannot attend that date; you’ll have to reschedule. Also, I would prefer a telephone appointment.”

Days go past with no further replies, and the appointment is only a few days away. Several years earlier, I was too ill to attend an appointment and the DWP cut off my benefits. I eventually won a tribunal appeal and had my benefits reinstated, but it was a lot of stress and took over two years before I received the back pay owed. Obviously, I’m not keen to go through that again.

Me: “Please note that I have given plenty of advance notice that I cannot attend on [date]. This is not a failure to attend. I am not a jobseeker. I am not seeking employment. I have been told by doctors and psychiatrists not to seek further or alternative employment. I am able to work part-time at [Local Charity] as they specialise in working with those suffering from mental health issues and are uniquely able to support an employee who does. This has all been made clear to the DWP multiple times. Given that the DWP has been responsible for several of my mental health problems in the last fifteen to twenty years, I would prefer not to visit the job centre as it is highly likely to result in an anxiety attack. We are also in the middle of an extremely serious health crisis, in case you weren’t aware. Please acknowledge receipt and understanding of this message, and if an interview is needed, contact me to arrange a telephone appointment.”

I eventually get a reply saying simply:

Employee: “I will phone you on [alternative date].”

I have a lot of stress and anxiety about this. Finally, the appointment comes.

Employee: “Hi. We just wanted to check you were all right since we haven’t had any recent contact. That’s all, bye.”

All that stress and messing about and making me ill just to check if I’m okay? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Department of Wankers and Pillocks.