Extra Calisthenics Are Not In His Contract
“Many years ago I worked for a large tire store. My manager told me I was moving to slow and ordered me to go run laps around the store. I openly laughed at him and said not a chance. He threw a fit. I got his boss involved. I did not run laps, but I did get a written apology.”
Coming In Hot And Losing It Fast
“I worked in a hotel/restaurant in college and everyone working there, aside from higher-up management, were college students. Anyway, I worked in the restaurant as a busser and the restaurant manager left the job and was replaced by a promoted server. The new manager actually said, ‘Well, there are going to be some changes around here.’ I’ve never seen a head grow so quickly, but he was also incredibly unprofessional. He walked around like a king in his castle, flirting with female servers and bossing around the male employees unnecessarily.
He lasted less than a week, I think. Maybe three days. He threw an ice cube down the front of one of the rather busty new waitresses (again, a college girl) and she flipped out and cried and called her boyfriend. Boyfriend threatened to come in and beat the manager’s behind. And everyone already hated him, so as he walked around looking for support, everyone just shrugged and said, ‘Yeah, that’s tough, man.’ The story evolved over the course of the workday until I heard someone in catering say that he’d stabbed her in the chest with an ice pick.
Anyway, I found him on the dock, shakily having a smoke at the end of the day, his eyes red from stress, his face pale with fear saying over and over again, ‘I just…I just don’t know what happened.'”
Overstepping His Position
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“I was a PA (Production Assistant, the lowest of the low on a film set) for a Kelsey Grammer submarine comedy called ‘Down Periscope.’ One guy was given the meaningless title of ‘key PA’ and decided he was going to help wrangle background extras for this big exterior shot we’re working on.
Now everyone, including the extras, KNEW that the camera was probably framed in a medium close-up on the principal actors, who were doing a scene way down at the end of a dock. Nonetheless, Key PA Guy took it upon himself to start blocking out whole entire scenes of these background extras. I’m talking CROWDS of people. YOU GUYS OVER THERE! You’re families of the sailors who haven’t seen your husbands in 6 months and you RUN from the bus to the fence. BUT YOU GUYS are cadets who get in the way and YOU GUYS are arguing about which car has the right of way. Then ALL YOU KIDS start clapping because you see a BIG DOGGY pulling his owner so fast he TRIPS OVER THE LEASH.
Like the second unit on a Michael freaking Bay movie. He had these people doing his made up little scene over and over and over. He’d yell at them, tell them they did it wrong and reset them ‘Back to One!’ to start over. Madness.
I walked by the guy and noticed this was going on and said, ‘You know the camera is pointed the other direction right?’ He just laughed and said ‘I know.'”
The Office Dictator Dictates Style
“This is so stupid and it still makes me mad to this day.
My company ran a contest where the winner got $100. I won. No strings attached – use the $100 bucks to get whatever you want.
The thing I wanted most was new office supplies. A new pair of scissors, a new tape dispenser, stuff like that. I made a list of items and approached my coworker. You see, she was in charge of our company supply ordering, and if I went through her I could get $120 bucks worth of office supplies for $100 even, down to the penny, including shipping.
‘No, I don’t like the colors,’ she said simply.
I thought she was joking. Her office supplies were covered in Minion stickers. I think we can comfortably rule out aesthetic appeal as a reasonable denial. Also, it’s not her money. It’s not for her desk. The rules of the contest said I could buy anything. There were no stipulations as to what color stapler I was ‘allowed’ to get. I assumed she told a joke and it just fell flat.
A week goes by. I ask her what the status of my order was.
‘No. I’m not going to run that through. I think it’s tacky. And I think it’s stupid that you won.’
I bet if I ordered freaking Minion stuff she would have approved it in a heartbeat.
Wish I could have a nice revenge story, but I just ended up using my money for groceries instead.”
The Quiet Snitch
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“I used to work with a group of other interns in an office.
For some reason I still don’t understand, they decided to promote one of us over the others. Their job was basically just to schedule who was doing what and when. That’s it.
Only took two weeks before we found out she was keeping detailed notes on all of our mistakes and taking them to upper management. They promptly told her to calm the heck down and decided to do away with the position.
She made a lot of enemies that day. She had ambitions of working at the company and was trying to make us all look bad. I think that one may have backfired on her.”
This Guy Really Hates His Co-Worker
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“My Dad opened up a chain of scrap yards that eventually ended up being wildly successful. My Dad is also a person who has the life motto, ‘Never give your kids things because they will turn out to be entitled brats!’ Needless to say, me working at his most successful scrap yard did not lead to a high paying position or fast rising through the ranks. It was so bad that this manager named Ryan actually had to suggest to my Dad that it was time to put me in management after 4 years of busting my butt harder than any other employee and even being the one to train him in a year prior. Pops didn’t trust me running companies at this point in time, which in hindsight makes sense.
But I finally got a management position where I had a small crew on second shift. It was 3 weeks before Christmas and I tell my dad I was looking to go balls to the wall on Christmas spending so I could finally feel like I’ve given back to everyone that was important to me. I was a bit selfish prior to that point I’ll admit. I had picked out all the gifts I had wanted to give my girlfriend at the time and the rest of the family (around $2,400 worth). I was about 21 so this was a big amount of money for me at that time and I was determined. Instead of being an entitled prick like most rich kids, I simply asked if I could work tons of extra hours so I could earn enough money to buy these gifts. He says, ‘Well you better get busting your butt and talk to the other branches and find out if you can get some overtime in cause you’re gonna need that time and a half for a Christmas list like that.’
Over the course of the next 2 weeks, I worked 80 hrs a week and totaled 160 hours with 80 of it being overtime at multiple different shops that I drove all over to get to. I told everyone (including this Ryan dude) how ecstatic I was to have made enough to get everyone everything they wanted and enough left over to treat myself. Everyone congratulated me on the work ethic and it finally came time for me to go and collect my money.
So now it’s payday and 2 days before Christmas. I head to the main office to turn in my hours’ sheet and the secretary tells me she needs to make sure it’s okay with Ryan before she pays me. At this point, I’m a little confused as to why she needs to do this as it has never been common practice before that point. So she brings my punch card to him and he comes back over to the office and says, ‘I’m not paying you this.’ (Mind you, my Dad had just given him a $68,000 truck that he just bought but didn’t like anymore and it had like no miles on it). I, of course, asked what the heck he was talking about. He responds by telling me he isn’t going to pay me that because it’s more than he made so there’s no way he’s going to authorize me to cash it out. I am absolutely dumbfounded at this point but figured maybe there was some confusion or something. So to clear the air I explain to him that my Dad and everyone else at multiple shops ok’ed me working these hours and they can all verify that I did, in fact, work every minute that I said I did. Don’t know how much you guys know about recycling metals and the ins and outs of the business but I BUSTED MY BUTT for that check. I could barely function from exhaustion.
He then explains to me that even if my Dad ok’ed it (the freaking owner who hired him) he was not cool with it and the most he would pay me was the hourly wage with no overtime because otherwise, I would make too much. Since y’all don’t know my Dad, I feel I must inform you he is a HOT HEAD. At this point, my blood is boiling. We all hate the guy that pulls rank or acts entitled but I had no choice cause this guy was a straight entitled, power hungry, money grubbing, unappreciative MONSTER! So I inform him without raising my voice or acting irrationally that when the guy who signs his checks tells him to pay someone, he probably shouldn’t argue. He tells me he doesn’t give a hoot, this isn’t going to fly. I let him know I’m going to call my Dad on the spot if he doesn’t pay me and he can work it out with him, but not until I tell my dad every word of the conversation. He tells me he doesn’t give a snot, my Dad doesn’t have a say. I chuckle and call and inform my Dad of everything. My Dad ended up yelling so loud to ‘PUT RYAN ON THE PHONE,’ after calling him quite a few names that were less than professional and you would have sworn he was on speaker phone but he wasn’t. I hand the phone to Ryan and to this day I’m not quite sure what he said but I’ve never seen a guy so red. He walks back into the office and pulls out my $3,500 cash and never really spoke to me again after that. Freaking entitled prick. And to think the whole time he knew that most of this money was for other people in the Christmas spirit and I worked harder than anyone else to earn it. Oh, I’m sorry you work 40 hr work weeks doesn’t make as much as me doubling your work hours, you poor miserable thing. Should I go fetch your brand new Chevy Silverado 2500 HD loaded plow truck for you that you didn’t spend a dime on? That’s the worst I’ve ever seen someone let power get to their head. EVER.”
No Quarter Given
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“Back when I was pregnant, a girl I was waitressing with (just us 2) was going to be a manager but wasn’t a manager yet.
She flipped out because I had a contraction and sat down a minute. She screamed in front of our patrons that she was my supervisor an she was better than me, and if I didn’t like it I could freaking leave. I clocked out and quit on the spot.”
A Dressing Down
“I worked at Blockbuster. One of the employees (Melanie) got a key holder promotion over me. We didn’t really like each other but it wasn’t a blood feud.
One day, the manager calls me to sub in for someone who called out sick. It’s my off day, I’m at college and don’t have my uniform. I tell the manager this and she says she needs a body here to work the register, come in UNDRESSED, just get here ASAP.
I show up in normal clothes and I’ve been working for about 6 hours. Melanie comes in to rent something because it’s her day off and flips the heck out. She goes back to the office and proceeds to write me up for failing to comply to dress code and so on. She then proceeds to try and make me sign it then and there, all while off the clock (she is still hourly). She does this for the next 2 hours until the store closes. No dice. I tell her to take off. Manager comes in the next morning to a total mess.
Melanie gets written up for working off the clock, tells her I acted on a direct order from her, and she needs to get off her freaking high horse.”
Everything Changed With A Promotion
“I work at a retail establishment. One guy started at the bottom of the totem pole with the rest of us. He’s a gigantic nerd who totally owns it, and we respect him for that, and I actually really like him for the most part.
But his nerdiness, organizational skills, and attention to detail got him promoted to assistant manager (alongside half a dozen other people). Overnight he turned into Bill Lumbergh from ‘Office Space.’ Suddenly closing-time chores turned into, ‘Yeah, I’m going to have you two take out the trash, and you clean the break room. When you’re done, come to see me if anyone wants to clock out ten minutes early.’ He’s still the butt of a lot of our jokes, mostly to his face, but you can almost see him lick his lips and enjoy the flavor every time he gets to tell someone what to do.
Dude, you’re the least-senior manager of a team of eight people overseeing eight other people. The height of your power is to ask a 20-year-old to clean the break room, and hope that they don’t just quit on the spot. Please keep doing what you’re doing, because it never stops being hilarious.”
Taking The Bull By The Horns
“In college, I managed one of the university-owned convenience stores. I had to run to one of the stores across the street to grab some cups or something and jokingly told worker 1 that he was in charge while I was gone.
I was gone for maybe 10 minutes and when I came back worker 2 was taking apart and deep cleaning the pop machine. I asked him what he was doing since we only do that at the end of every week and he said worker 1 told him to do it.
I didn’t know whether I should be mad he abused his power that quickly or proud of him for taking that initiative.”
Taking The Marching Orders To Heart
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“I once worked part-time doing inventory – we would go to stores like the Bay and Whole Foods, and literally count everything on the shelves with our fancy dancy machines. This one man was given ‘leadership’ of the home section. Now he wasn’t actually given any management power, made the same amount as everyone else, all that. Just literally he was told, ‘Ok, you and these people are going to the home section, divvy it up however you want.’
He went full power-trip mode. Micro-managing how I counted towels. Patrolling the aisles watching us all. Yelling unnecessarily. From that day on, he was known as King Tut.”
Team Lead Isn’t A Real Position
“I have a coworker that was promoted to ‘Team Lead,’ with a grand total of one employee under his supervision. For the next week, he proceeded to walk into people’s cubicles and do the Bill Lumbergh pelvic thrust towards them while talking. You know, the move with your hand in a pocket and your crotch uncomfortably close to someone sitting down? That one.
No actual new power was even given.”
She Was So Bad, No One Wanted Her Around
“I use to work at Best Buy. We had an uplifting, good-for-nothing, super nasty woman whose sister also worked at the store and was equally a super nasty. She wields next level ‘witch’ powers and also knew how to manipulate upper management so she was basically impervious to getting fired, as was her sister.
So this girl starts out in operations, which is the registers and customer service. She’s super slow at her job and messed up stuff all the time. I had to constantly cover for her mistakes because fixing her issues and pretending they never happened was far easier than better for my mental health than explaining to management why their perfect angel cost the store $80 because she returned something as new that was actually defective.
Eventually, the entire department turned on her and she decided to move out to sales to avoid the awkward moments with her coworkers. She totally sucked on the floor. She misquoted prices and told customers that she could ‘work a deal’ and then the customer would expect better pricing on a tv. Something we simply didn’t do. So she would manipulate everyone by saying, ‘if you get a credit card I’ll get my manager to knock $100 off this $800 tv.’
So naturally, she’d get credit apps, which upper management loved because that’s literally the only numbers they cared about, but store metrics showed huge numbers in erosion because of all the price adjustments. Eventually, it catches up to her and she’s forced off the sales floor.
At the time Geek Squad needed a drone to prep computers for the holiday season that had bloatware removed and antivirus installed. They moved her there and she was technically a ‘Geek Squad’ agent. At the same time, a management position opened up which she felt was entitled to her because of all the departments she worked in.
Eventually, she convinced herself she had the job after a manager put her down easily by saying, ‘I can’t consider you a manager because you don’t have experience.’ This literally translated in her brain as ‘it’s yours if you can show me your managerial skills. So pretend to be a manager and let’s see what you got.’
So quite literally she didn’t have power but thought she did. Since my area was next to Geek Squad she started giving me daily performance reviews. She wrote up people and would put the forms in the GM’s office (who she sucked up too, a lot), worse yet she would tell people how to do their job, mine included despite getting kicked out of the department because she sucked at it. One day she donned the headset and pretended to the manager on duty while the manager took their headset off to deal with a personnel matter. To which everyone mocked her for. Just before a new manager was expected to be picked she had people fill out a petition for her. No one signed it.
This all went on over the course of a couple of weeks until the new manager was announced. That did not go well with this girl even though the person who was picked very obviously qualified for the job. Her sister threw a fit and yelled at the GM because her sister was promised the job. Her sister ended up quitting shortly after because she accused another employee of assaulting her. But this girl still worked there for a few years and I ended up transferring to Geek Squad and was a full agent. Ended technically above her. She was still an imaging monkey.”
This Temporary Power Is Insane
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“Years ago, while working at a pizza place, our manager had to leave on a family emergency and left a girl in charge until one of the other shift runners could get there and he lived about 45 minutes away.
In that 45 minutes, this girl who was left in charge actually called one of her friends and hired her saying she was ‘the manager’ now, wrote me up for ‘putting too much cheese on a pizza,’ and actually told one of the drivers he was fired because ‘she didn’t like his attitude.’ When the shift runner got there to take over, this girl also told him not to worry about it and she ‘had things under control.’
End result – her friend was not hired, my ‘write-up’ for using too much cheese was torn up, the ‘fired’ driver (who never left the parking lot) kept his job and she quit a few days later because we were ‘unprofessional’ and the manager ‘played favorites.'”
The Instant Power Trip
“First night I made one of our barbacks a bartender he started bossing around other barbacks.
Not like asking for help, but like yelling orders at them.
Dude really showed his colors, he didn’t last.”