(I arrive for my shift, which starts very late at night. My coworker is a notorious party guy and seems high and jittery.)

Me: “Hi, [coworker]. Are you okay?”

Coworker: “Fine! I’m fine! How are you!” *moves rapidly*

Me: “Okay…”

(I go to the back office, where I find a full dozen of empty beer bottles lying around. They’ve obviously just have been drunk, the smell is strong. My coworker comes in the room, swaying.)

Coworker: “What’s upppppp!”

Me: “Did you… did you just drink all these beer?”

Coworker: *laughs hysterically* “Nooooo! Maybe. A little.” *laughs hysterically and dances*

(I report his drinking on the job to my manager, who suspended him. I had to quit later because I moved, but I later learned he had been promoted to manager!)

(My boss is an extremely abrasive, rude  person. No matter what goes wrong in the office, it’s always someone else’s fault. Her mood also flips on a dime. I’d been working here two weeks at the time.)

Boss: “[My name]! Come here, NOW!”

Me: “Yes, [Boss]?”

Boss: “Who put in this work order? It’s for the 24th of this month, NOT the 26th. This is a HUGE mistake. You keep messing up!”

(The work order is clearly written in her handwriting.)

Me: “I—”

Boss: “No excuses. What do I pay you for?! I am spending my money, now we have to do the order over again, you’re wasting my time! I’m not sure you’re working out as an employee.”

Me: “But, I—”

Boss: “You’re always making excuses! You’re lazy! All you want is to get paid for nothing. You’re young, so you should work hard!”

Me: “But… but I’m trying to—”

Boss: “Go fix it! You make another mistake, and—”

Me: “This isn’t my handwriting!”

Boss: “Stop making excuses! This is your work order! YOUR HANDWRITING!”

Me: “I… I’m sorry, b-but I know my handwriting. Th-that isn’t it. I didn’t write this order.”

(In addition, she can’t spell, but obviously I don’t mention that.)

Boss: “WHAT?! Stop blaming others for your mistakes!”

(I quickly write down the work order on a new piece of paper to show her my own handwriting. With shaking hands, I hand it to her.)

Me: “See? I—”

Boss: *squints at papers* “Oh, okay. You can go back to your desk now, sweetie.”

Me: *speechless*

(After months of verbal abuse, getting my first ever grey hairs, and stress ulcers, I had to leave. Good riddance! I do worry about the other workers left behind, because the boss is awful to everyone working under her!)

(I am the ticket office person for a very small underground show venue. There is no backup, so I’ve had to come to work sick countless times, eat dinner while working in front of the customers, and close my box office to go to the bathroom.)

Me: “Excuse me, [Manager]? My husband is graduating from university on [date]. I am telling you two months in advance so you can find someone to replace me.”

Manager: “No! It’s a Sunday and during [festival]. I need you here.”

Me: “With two months’ notice, isn’t it possible to find a replacement just for that one day?”

Manager: “No. It would be too expensive to hire and train someone just for one day.”

Me: “Maybe you would be training them for more than just a day. That person could be your backup in case I fall ill or have a family obligation. I’m sure a student would be more than happy to work here on-call once in a while.”

Manager: “No. You knew what the schedule was when I hired you.”

Me: “In my six months of working here, I have missed birthdays, Mother’s Day, and Easter. I said nothing because these occasions come back every year. My husband’s graduation won’t. Same for the weddings and christenings I will have to attend in the very near future.”

Manager: “I knew I should not have hired a married 27-year-old! You people just have too much… life stuff going on! Next thing we know, you’ll be pregnant!”

(I attended my husband’s graduation anyway, and quit the job.)

(Two of my coworkers, [Worker #1] and [Worker #2], are rooming together and working in the same department at the factory. Word spreads around that [Worker #1] has been let go/fired, which prompts [Worker #2] to head up to the office to talk.)

Worker #2: “Look, [Worker #1] needs this job more than I do. He’s trying to go to school and needs the money more than I do. Fire me and bring him back.”

Office: “Sorry, we can’t do that. We can’t just switch who’s been let go and who hasn’t.”

([Worker #2] decides not to argue, but really wants his friend to get his job back because he needs it.)

Worker #2: “Well then, I quit.”

(With that, he left his tools and door card on the desk and left the building. Within a few hours after Worker #2 quit, the office called Worker #1 and offered him his job back!)

(The gas station where I work is often interviewing because we have high turnover. My assistant manager has just interviewed a candidate.)

Assistant Manager: “So, what did you think of that last girl?”

Me: “I didn’t like her at all.”

Assistant Manager: “Well, that’s not a good reason to turn her down. She’s got a good resume and needs part-time work, and we need a part-timer.”

(We hire the girl, but over the next few months, she shows up over fifteen minutes late to shifts constantly, is short on her drawer more than a couple of times, and the following spring requests a week and a half off for her birthday. The assistant manager who hired her has since been promoted out of the store, so I’m talking with my current manager.)

Manager: “This is the third time she’s come in late to work, and she was out of uniform, again!”

Me: “I know, but what can we do except report her to corporate, again?”

Manager: *sighs* “Nothing. At least she’s going on vacation soon. We might be able to get stuff done around here.”

(On the day before her vacation ends, my manager calls me into the office, fuming.)

Me: “What’s wrong?”

Manager: “She just called me and told me she would be a day late.”

Me: “Do you need me to cover her shift?”

Manager: “No, I already have it covered, but you know what she told me?”

Me: “No?”

Manager: “She told me the flight was delayed due to weather.”

Me: “Weather problems? Flight? Where is she?”

Manager: “Well, she said she was visiting her family who lives out of state, but I suspect she’s with her boyfriend, who’s also out of state.”

Me: “Huh, really?”

Manager: “Yep. And I just checked the weather reports for ALL the states. There are no storms that would prevent flights anywhere. I’m reporting this to corporate. She was on her last warning anyway, and I just received permission to fire her as soon as she’s back from corporate.”

Me: “Finally. ”

(When I come in the next day…)

Manager: “You’ll never guess who came in today.”

Me: “Didn’t she say she wasn’t going to be in town today?”

Manager: “Apparently. She gave me her uniform and her letter of resignation, just up and quit!”

Me: “Really?”

Manager: “Yeah, and you want to know the best part?”

Me: “What?”

Manager: “Her letter was basically a rant about how horribly we treated her and how she was going to report us to corporate to get us fired!”

(She did file a report! It never affected us as corporate no doubt weighed it against the long list of submitted warnings we had on her file!)