I’m busy doing something at my desk. My desk phone is ringing but I ignore it. I have a meeting later that I need to prepare for.

Then, my personal phone rings. I answer it.

Coworker: “We’ve been waiting for you for half an hour now! Everyone is getting fed up.”

Me: “What? Where are you?”

Coworker: “Meeting room one, obviously.”

A little confused, I head to the room. My coworker, boss, and his boss are there.

Coworker: “If you are going to call a meeting, you should at least be on time!”

Me: “I didn’t call a meeting.”

Boss: “This is the (monthly) meeting right?”

Me: “Not for another hour, no!”

All eyes fall to [Coworker]. I can only imagine he caused all this confusion.

Coworker: “Oh, I thought this was… Hang on. Wait… Yes, see! Eight o’clock!”

Boss: “That’s last month.”

Coworker: “Well, it’s a repeating invite, so…”

Me: “Check this morning’s, please.”

Sure enough, he pulls up this month’s meeting and it says 10:00, just as I set it.

Boss: *Sighs* “See you in an hour, then.”

I went back to my desk and prepared for the meeting. Ten o’clock came around. Not only was [Coworker] late, but he had managed to prepare all the wrong information, making himself look even more foolish.

I’ve worked with [Coworker] for many years. She used to be very quiet, refused to talk to people, and refused to go to meetings, but it didn’t affect me, so I pretty much ignored her.

Then, she started to be more outspoken and negative to others. Instead of avoiding conversation, she would be aggressive. She started calling everyone “others” or “outsiders”. To be honest, it was a little freaky and made everyone uneasy. If she wasn’t such a tiny, meek person, I think someone would have complained, but it was hard to take her seriously.

I was in a great mood one morning and completely forgot myself.

Me: “Good morning.”

Coworker: “Don’t talk to me.”

Me: “Okay… Sorry?”

Coworker: “You will be.”

That was kind of weird, but that was becoming par for the course at this stage. A few days later, I found some yellow flowers on my desk.

Me: “Oh, these are pretty.”

Coworker: “They are not ‘pretty’. It’s a curse.”

Me: “Well, thank you for the pretty curse.”

Coworker: “Gah!”

She stormed off.

I mentioned it in passing to Human Resources. They nodded and told me they’d had other “concerns” and would be dealing with them.

I knew it had been dealt with when I turned up to see paint sloshed up the side of the building. We would find bits of plants on our cars for weeks. It bothered a few people enough that the police had to be involved and a restraining order issued.

I feel bad for her a little; she clearly had some unresolved issues at home. But I don’t think black magic is the way to settle them in an office environment.

On my way home from work, a rear pocket seam on my pants starts coming undone. It’s very fixable, and the pants are still functional; my pocket just now has a hole in it. Since I don’t have any other clean work pants and I don’t have time to fix them that night, I decide to wear them the next day and just hope no one notices until I can mend it the following night.

Unfortunately, I’m the youngest in my office by about twenty years, which my coworkers seem to take as an open invitation to “parent” me, no matter how or how many times I ask them to stop. As we’re all waiting to clock in…

Coworker: “Oh, did you know your pocket has a hole in it?”

Me: “Hmm? Oh, yeah, I noticed last night, but I didn’t have time to fix it. I’ll do it tonight.”

Coworker: “I just wasn’t sure you were aware.”

Me: “I know it’s there. I’ll fix it tonight.”

Coworker: “You know, in case you try to put anything in your pocket and it falls out.”

Me: “Yes, I know.”

Coworker: “I just thought you should know.”

Me: “Yes, I know.“

Coworker: “It could be a problem if you lose something.”

Me: “Yes. I know.“

Coworker: “I wanted to make sure you were aware.”

Me: “YES. I KNOW.”

Coworker: “You could drop something important.”

Me: “YES, I KNOW!”

By this point, half the room is staring at us, and she finally seems to realize I’m annoyed.

Coworker: “Well, I was just trying to be helpful!”

By that point, I had thankfully reached the front of the queue, so I badged in and hurried off. There can be a fine line between helpful and annoying, but she wasn’t toeing that line; she stampeded headfirst over it and just kept going.

I have a manager who I can only classify as evil. It doesn’t matter your skill level; she will try to get you fired on the sole basis of you being “too ugly” and/or being better off than her. Unfortunately, she is a high-school dropout and fifty-nine-year-old divorcee who lives way above her means, so even the college graduates straight out of college with a mountain of debt are viewed, in her eyes, as privileged children who had the world handed to them.

Back when I was young and naïve, [Manager] used to use me as a minion to target this one guy. He was a jerk who was bad at his job, but she mostly wanted him gone due to his chronic illness. Nevertheless, she got her way and pinned it on me, framing it that we needed to fire him if they wanted “me” to stay. I just wanted him better managed, man.

The health crisis happens, and since our former target is gone, [Manager] has no one to blame as a distraction for her being unable to do her work. Therefore, she turns her sights on me and begins gaslighting the h*** out of me. Because we are remote at this time, this evil woman is the only one I can talk to at work — by her own hand. She then moves to get me fired by calling me “catty” and “difficult” when I am actually confused and frustrated.

Luckily, that doesn’t happen, and another manager sees what she is doing. He insists that I start working under him, and a year later, I am thriving! I am also able to finally get help for my mental and physical health issues, where previously, [Manager] refused to let me take my sick days off. I even rise to be on the same level as her in a short amount of time.

Fast forward. My new manager leaves the company, and [Manager] tries to swoop in and be all “us against the world” again. She even tries to pit me against a new hire (who is wonderful in every way, but has male-pattern baldness so that is a no for her). I am older, wiser, and in a better mental state a year after the fact, so I manage to stave off her advances. She doesn’t like that very much. Her minion is gone!

Therefore, she fervently tries a new round of attempts to get me fired. But because everyone who worked with us pre-global health crisis already knows what she did to me due to a very public mental break, she has to throw suspicion off of her and make it look like it is OUR boss who is insisting that I be fired. She goes around telling everyone what a valuable member of the team I am to the point that it is beyond creepy.

Meanwhile, she also sets up situations trying to make it look like I am overstepping bounds by privately asking me for tasks for her subordinates, only to send a nasty, aggressive response in front of our boss when I (le gasp!) give her suggestions. Luckily, each time I am able to call her out on it in the sweetest and most apologetic manner (i.e. “I am so sorry. They don’t have to do these tasks. I only mentioned it because you asked, but no worries!”) so she is even nastier for no reason. 

Her whole aim is to make it look like I am needlessly attacking her and questioning her competency while acting like she is this sweet, innocent victim who has done nothing wrong and loves me so much that she sees me as a daughter! 

One day, though, we are sitting in an all-staff meeting when her boss asks me a question about why test cases aren’t matching up.

Me: “I am not sure, as I haven’t had a chance to look at the problem quite yet, but is it possible that it is [reason]?”

His eyes get all wide in surprise and he starts nodding approvingly.

Boss: “You know? I did not. See, [Manager]? I told you she was good! I didn’t even think about it!”

He crows and sings my praises as he fixes his issue for himself. Meanwhile, she is left stuttering with egg all over her face.

Manager: “I-I already knew she was good, [Boss].”

It definitely felt satisfying to know our boss has my back and sees the good I do, no matter how much [Manager] tries to tear me down.

I work as a receptionist. We’ve just come back from holidays when the phone rings.

Me: “[Business #1], good morning!”

Caller: “Hi, I’m [Caller] from [Business #2]. Is the owner in today?”

Me: “Yes, what was your first name again?”

Caller: *Sighs* “I’m [Caller] from [Business #2]. Can you please transfer my call?”

Me: “Okay, [Caller], may I ask what the call is regarding?”

Caller: “I think I’m the one who is asking the questions here. Transfer my call.”

Me: *Stunned* “I need to know what the call is regarding before I’m able to transfer your call.”

Caller: “Thank you.” *Hangs up*