Just when you think you know your co-workers, you just might be proven wrong! We’re diving headfirst into the wild world of unhinged co-workers. From sneaky stalking rituals to jaw-dropping criminal acts, get ready to be shocked as real people spill the beans on their craziest encounters with colleagues who redefined the term “unpredictable.” Get ready, because these stories might just make you appreciate your co-workers a whole lot more. All content has been edited for clarity purposes.
“She Couldn’t Handle Living The Lie Anymore”
“Many years ago, the bookshop I worked at hired a new employee with terminal cancer. It was a very sad situation since she was quite young. She wasn’t around too much due to the chemotherapy and other doctor appointments. But when the employee was at work, she was in the children’s department. She was a pretty good children’s bookseller and was a huge fan of a fairly major American children’s author. She ran the UK branch of his fan club and knew him personally. The author occasionally flew her out to the United States for events.
One day, the employee wasn’t at work, and all employees were called to a staff meeting. We were informed she had passed away. There was a lot of sadness, and her close colleagues were devastated.
Only a few days later, one of our employees happened to go into a Mcdonald’s in a nearby town.
Guess who was working behind the counter? Go on, guess.
As it turned out, the employee was never sick. She made the whole cancer thing up, as well as faking her death, for reasons we never really fully understood. The consensus was it started as a way to connect with her author hero and kind of spiraled from there. In the end, she couldn’t handle living the lie anymore, so she had her mother tell people she died. And then, she got a job at McDonald’s a few miles down the road and was surprised when she got found out.
It was a pretty ‘what the hell’ sort of experience for us all.”
“He Was Such A Creep”
“When I worked at a grocery store, I found out one of my male coworkers was stalking another female coworker.
It was a 24-hour retailer, and she was a morning shift employee. He worked on the night shift, so I figured there was no way the two employees would know each other.
One day, I was filling in for another manager. The male coworker walked into the breakroom and began taking pictures of the morning shift schedule.
‘Why are you looking at the morning schedule? Don’t you work nights?’ I asked.
The coworker replied, ‘Somebody texted me and asked if I could send them their schedule.’
I thought nothing of it and went about my shift. Later in the week, I went into the store when I was off work. To my surprise, the male coworker was there, too. I caught him staring at the female coworker from a different aisle while she was stocking. He had no idea I caught him, and she had no idea he was watching her. I ended up secretly following him after he left the store. He ended up following her home after her shift and sitting outside her house. She was 17 years old, and he was 38.
I ended up calling the cops, and he was escorted off her property. I helped her get in touch with the right resources for a restraining order. He ended up violating the order multiple times and wound up going to jail.
He was such a creep.”
“We Talked About Him For Years”
“Years ago, I worked in retail. When I was working at the store, my boss hired a guy named, ‘Gary.’
My boss explained, ‘Hey, Gary has anxiety. Try to go easy on him, okay?’
I understood and could relate. I did everything I could to help Gary make sense of the hellscape of retail.
Gary’s behavior started with little forgivable things like forgetting a task here, forgetting things there, and accidentally giving customers the wrong information. You know, newbie retail mistakes. However, Gary quickly devolved in popularity as his complacency grew over time and his helpful attitude shrank.
He started messing around during his shifts and getting caught on his phone while ignoring backup cashier calls. He would make stabbing motions make the manager’s back, tell off new employees, and play it off like he was some innocent dope who didn’t know any better.
To everyone’s surprise, none of this got him fired. Day after day, employees complained about the responsibilities Gary ignored and how he purposely gave customers blatantly wrong information.
What ACTUALLY got Gary fired was how one day, he brought a dog into work. The dog happened to be wearing a super expensive collar. He claimed he almost hit the dog on the way to work and how it was running around wild. Gary tried selling the dog collar to a random customer, then tried to ‘adopt out’ the dog to a coworker. This coworker was competent enough to take the dog to a local vet where they found a microchip and contacted the actual owners. This is where the fun began.
As it turned out, Gary never found the dog at all. He straight-up KIDNAPPED the dog from his neighbor and tried to pawn it off. The neighbor lawyered up immediately and tried to sue Gary. Plus, he threatened to sue the store manager if Gary wasn’t fired.
Suffice it to say, Gary was gone the very same evening. Nothing else came of it, but we talked about him for years and years.”
The Cemetary Scammer
“I previously worked at a cemetery. A woman who worked there before me, ‘Stacy,’ was crooked as hell.
The big thing that got Stacy fired happened when a CHILD died and the family started paying on a grave marker. Now, markers were expensive, and the family bought an extremely nice one. It took a while to pay it off completely.
From time to time, various family members would come in and make payments anywhere from $50 to $2,000 for the parents. Stacy took the money, wrote a fake contract, said the money was a down payment, and merrily took the commission.
When people weren’t paying on the false contracts the employee made, she got caught. Plus, the parents came in asking how much was left on the marker after another family member came in and put down $2000. Imagine the family’s surprise when they figured out they still owed more money than they thought.
The family had to wait almost an extra year to get their little girl’s marker put down. It was so sad.”