I have a coworker who is a bit on a power trip but hasn’t a clue what it is we actually do. Not because they are by any means stupid or incapable, but because they only want to hear themselves talk and everything else is inconsequential. They are only kept around because they know a lot of people.

After forty-five minutes of discussing new changes to our software, with them being oddly silent (aka checked out), the team lead decides to end the Zoom call.

Team Lead: “Ok. No one has anything else they want to discuss so let’s end the call here.”

Bad Coworker: “That sounds good. [Boss], are you on the call?”

Note: You can literally see WHO is on the call. It takes all of a second to see that there are four people on the call and he is not one if them.

Bad Coworker: “[Boss]? [Boss]? Are you there?”

Team Lead: “Uuuhh… He isn’t here.”

Bad Coworker: “Oh well. We should make sure he has what he needs for his upcoming talk. So I need you to make sure he has what he needs, ok?”

Team Lead: “Alright. We will talk to him when he gets in.”

Bad Coworker: “Make sure he has a working version. Does he have a working version he can use right now?”

At this point I am rolling my eyes because that is literally what we have been talking about for the last forty-five minutes!

Team Lead: “Uuuh, he will by the end of the day with new changes?”

Bad Coworker: “Ok good. Because we really need bullet proof code for this. He needs something bulletproof. You understand?”

Team Lead: “Yes.”

Bad Coworker: “We cannot go sending him blind you understand? When is the best time to go over and talk about this so we are prepared?”

Team Lead: “Let’s do it tomorrow morning.”

Bad Coworker: “Perfect. Because I really want him prepared.”

Team Lead: “Ok.”

Bad Coworker: “Is there anything else we need to discuss?”

At this point, I was really restraining myself not to just hang up the call. In total, they wasted ten extra minutes of everyone’s time on this unnecessary power move to seem “large and in charge”. (Their words.)

I work in a warehouse. It’s heavy work with long hours. The pay is decent and management isn’t too bad. The big boss sometimes brings his 5-pound, half-blind, dress-wearing Yorkie in with him. We often have parties and food is brought in almost every week as an additional thank-you for all the hard work we do. The job takes up a lot of the day. I often pull 16-hour days, though slow days are still around the 10-hour mark. The job is pretty nice for what it is. Sometimes, people just don’t seem to appreciate good menial jobs. In the few years I’ve been working here, some of my previous coworkers have been fired for the dumbest stuff.

One coworker had some non-work issues that caused a drinking problem. This coworker began to drink as often as he breathed, even hiding bottles around the warehouse and drinking in his car during his lunch. This guy operated a forklift. One night, he forgot to put the forks down after grabbing a kitchen appliance (either an oven range or a refrigerator) and crashed the thing into an overhead brace. The appliance dropped some twenty feet. Luckily, there was no one else in the aisle at the time. Surprisingly, this coworker didn’t get fired for this right away. It was added to the list of grievances though. He didn’t last more than a few months more.

Two coworkers were fired for smoking pot on the job. I think it started with them smoking in one of their cars during lunch. It eventually moved to them ditching work multiple times for smoke breaks. This job lets you take breaks whenever and as often as you want, as long as the work gets done. So things weren’t a problem until the work wasn’t getting done. Both were fired, though one of them also had a nasty habit of crashing the moterized Pack Mule carts used by some of the pickers.

There was the new hire I mentioned in another story who spent her time dodging work so that she could talk to her boyfriend on the phone. There was also the guy who was slowly stealing parts from the warehouse to renovate his house. Door knobs, locks, pipe fittings, toilet paper, and many other things disappeared with him at the end of the day. He got caught trying to steal furnace filters and a roll of PEX pipe and was fired on the spot. Lastly, there was the guy who decided halfway through unloading a truck that it would be a better idea to go to lunch and never come back. He left his stuff behind and everything. I’m excited to see how the next person quits or gets fired.

Was giving birth during the epidemic, so they were low on staff, had extra health restrictions to think about and were overall more stressed than with my first child. No one had bothered to read through my birth plan, and they were constantly arguing against my wishes. I tend to listen to recommendations and I hate feeling like I am being troublesome so I went along with what they said most of the time and tried to be patient, but overall, I had a bad feeling as I was rather scared going into labour and did not feel like I had support from the personnel.

One of the sedatives I was given had unfortunately given me loss of control over my one leg, so I had fallen down onto my knee on my way to the bathroom and after that did not go anywhere without my husband being there to support me and catch me if needed. The doctor was there when it happened, they checked my knee, helped out and made a note. Later as I was sitting on a big ball and holding onto the bed to not loose balance the doctor was by the computer and a nurse came up.

Nurse: “Alright we need to get you up to the bed now.”

Me, being slightly out of it, nods and remains on the ball to wait for my husband to come and help me.

Nurse: “Come on, up on the bed.”

Me: “I’m just waiting for my husband so he can help me. My leg just bends under me sometimes.”

Nurse: “Okay.”

I see my husband, he seems a bit stressed but he goes past me, as I can’t really turn around and look without loosing balance I can’t see what he is doing.

Nurse: “Alright come on now, up on the bed.”

Me: “Is he ready?”

I’m a bit confused as he usually puts his hands so I can feel them ready.

Nurse: “Yes up on the bed now.”

I stand up as she’s rather adamant and once again my leg bends under me and I fall down, hitting my knee, as there is no one there to catch me.

My husband: “What are you doing?”

Me: “I thought you were behind me.”

My husband: “Why?”

Turns out he was talking to the doctor and the nurse just did not understand what we were waiting for as she did not actually take the time to listen to me. My husband thought I should file a complaint, perhaps I should have, but I didn’t want to be a bother.

At the time of this story, it was the summer of 2017, and I signed up for a convention earlier that year. The convention was hosted by an organization I was a member of. The leader of my state chapter gave me a call to talk about transportation, because the convention was hosted on the other side of the state from where I lived.
One thing I should mention is that I’m the kind of person who doesn’t (or didn’t) listen to my voice messages before returning calls. I figured it would be a waste of time for the caller, and I’m not particularly fond of wasting other people’s time. I know now that it was a waste of time the other way around, because the caller would have to explain themselves twice. I was 17 and had really bad social anxiety at the time though, so I didn’t make that conclusion yet. Nevertheless, I don’t believe it warranted what happened next.
Chapter Leader: “Hello [my name], this is [Chapter Leader]. I understand you needed to discuss transportation to the convention?”
Me: “Yes, sir.”
Chapter Leader: “Now, did you listen to the voicemail I left you?”
Me: “No, I didn’t. *chuckles* I don’t usually listen to voicemails so I just called back.”
Chapter Leader: “*raised Voice* That is very disrespectful. You shouldn’t call people back without listening to voicemails first.”
At first I thought he was joking with me, because I was used to those kinds of jokes from my family. Regardless, I still apologized in the seemingly small chance I was wrong. I almost wish I was.
Chapter Leader: “Yes, you should apologize.”
That’s when it clicked for me that he was actually mad at me. I was pretty upset myself at that point, so all I could say was “Uh…” as we sat there for what felt like 10 seconds of tense silence, but in reality I think it had to have been no more than 4 seconds.
I perfectly understand and admit that I was wrong, but you really shouldn’t be talking to people like that. As I said before, I had no idea that wasn’t proper phone etiquette, and nobody ever taught me that it wasn’t growing up. You also have to consider that, since this convention is super large, there’s a good chance you could be interacting with someone with a learning impairment or something similar . This is especially true given how the organization hosting the convention is for people with disabilities, and I am 1 such person.
For the longest time, I was convinced I had some sort of mental or learning disability apart from the physical one I have, and because I was never diagnosed, I’m still not entirely sure if that is or isn’t the case. Regardless, there are almost certainly people attending who have a deeper disability than us, and getting angry at us will only stress us out more and make us less likely to want to interact with adults. Not all disabilities are clearly visible. Please remember that.

Whenever I played multiplayer review games in school, I used a name so different than my birth name that there was no way anyone could guess it was me, since I’m not a huge fan of my name and it was fun to watch my classmates wonder who was slowly working their way up the leaderboard.

One day, we did this in Spanish class, so I used my old Spanish name from past classes. It didn’t blend in with all of the more traditional Western names in the class game roster, and my teacher spotted it.

Teacher: “Who’s [name]?”

At first I didn’t answer, thinking I was going to get in trouble. No one had ever specifically called my username out before the game started.

Teacher: “Seriously, who is [name]?”

Me: “Uh—me. It’s me.”

Teacher: “Oh! That was my mother’s name.”

After class, she told me that she’d been so shocked to see the name on the roster not only because it was her mother’s name, but because it was growing very rare. I didn’t use it in that class after that, but I still sometimes use it as a nickname.