There you are, casually going about your day, sipping your coffee, reading the news, when suddenly like a bolt from the blue—your boss calls you into their office or you get a letter summoning you to court. Apparently, someone has filed a Complaint against you. But you’re confused beyond belief! You have no idea what this is about.

As it turns out, it was something utterly ridiculous. So ridiculous, in fact, that people couldn’t help but share their experiences with coworkers and customers online. Redditor u/InfiniteCalendar1 asked people about the strangest reasons someone had a complaint filed against them, and wow, did they deliver! Scroll down to read their full stories.

Bored Panda got in touch with the author of the thread, redditor u/InfiniteCalendar1, and they opened up about the real reason why they asked the question online. As it turns out, the inspiration was an awful interaction with a mean customer. Read on for our interview with the OP.

#1

I’m a firefighter an have had the following citizen complaints:
1. Kicked down a door to help an elderly woman who was on the floor. Her son wanted us to wait until he arrived with a key. He was 5 hours away.
2. I wouldn’t let a guy store his motorcycle in our station for winter.
3. I wouldn’t repair her stove.
4. We took too long to respond to replace a guys battery in his detector that had been beeping. We were performing CPR at the time.
5. I wouldn’t take my boots off while entering a lady’s house. It is against our protocol to take off any of our safety gear. Her house was actively on fire when she made the request.

Image credits: anon

Bored Panda wanted to know what had inspired the redditor to create the thread on r/AskReddit in the first place. "I posted it as I was thinking about how I had a complaint filed against me during my first week of one of my jobs," u/InfiniteCalendar1 told us.

"A lady made up a false story that I berated her for wearing a Confederate flag shirt. This 100% didn’t happen so I assume the customer made it up for validation. I found the situation ridiculous mainly because it’s weird someone went out of their way to try to get me in trouble over something that didn’t happen."

Meanwhile, they shared what they did next. They started off by explaining their side of the situation to the boss. Specifically that what the customer had said happened never actually happened.

#2

I once had a coworker file an HR complaint against me for reading books at lunch. I told HR that he’s probably just offended I’m not reading hardcore pornography magazines on the clock like he does.

Image credits: anon

#3

In gradeschool I was sent to the principals office for lying about my name to a substitute teacher. I gave her my real name and the sub just couldn't believe someone would name a kid Wolfgang.

Image credits: WolfghengisKhan

"Although, apparently, the person who filed the complaint sounded very believable based on the emotions she had. Luckily, the situation was dropped though. In my case, the complaint was defamatory so my first instinct was to defend myself, especially since I was worried about a violation of privacy as the customer claimed to track down my Instagram," they opened up to Bored Panda.

"I just expressed that the situation made me uncomfortable given it was false, especially considering someone claimed to track down my social media. With complaints over small stuff, they’re usually addressed then swept under the rug."

We also wanted to get the thread author's opinion on why some people file complaints for such weird or even made-up reasons. "In my situation, the woman wanted validation as she knows many people today view the Confederate flag as a racist symbol given the history, so she made up a false situation to try to ruin someone else’s day and probably threaten their source of income," they said.

#4

Working in retail I once said "you guys have a great day" I was reported by an elderly women who objected to not being addressed as "mam" she also objected to "have a great day" because she had come into the aquarium store because her fish was dead and she was upset that someone would tell her to "have a great day" when her fish had died.

Image credits: vile_lullaby

#5

A woman ordered a cappuccino and got upset that the one I made her had foam. I explained to her what a cappuccino is, she got angry and said “I know what a cappuccino is!!!”, and lodged a complaint with my manager.

Image credits: SquiddSyd

#6

I have one. Looking back, it was very silly but boy did this p**s me off. Here goes: My coworker asked me if I could cover her shift on sunday (I always only worked on saturday, since I was very busy with university. The place where I worked knew this and happily agreed with it, too.). I said that I could do that, but only if she would take my shift on saturday since otherwise, I would not have time to study. She agreed, only to tell me a day later that she wouldn't be able to cover my shift on saturday. I promptly told her that if that were the case, she would have to find someone else to cover her shift. She told me I was being childish and told management that I was being rude. Management told me to work both shifts and being a 17 year old, I agreed since I needed the job to cover some expenses. I came to work on the saturday shift and the manager tried to tell me off. I told the manager what really happened, but he still sided with my coworker. I promptly told the manager that I had been very clear in my communication to my coworker and that she was in the wrong. The manager said that "I should be more flexible in helping others out". I then told him I wished him luck on working my shift that weekend and walked out without saying another word. The look on his face was awesome. I found a new job as a tutor the next week, at which I was much happier.

"I remember making a Reddit post about this same situation on another subreddit and a lady told me the same thing happened to her but with a customer in a MAGA hat. The commenter was nice to her when using the fitting room then the next day the customer with the MAGA hat made up a false story that she denied her and her daughter service and a bra fitting when the store didn’t even do bra fittings. With that situation, there was an obvious lie so her Manager blew it off."

According to u/InfiniteCalendar1, it's probably people who are "pretty unhappy" and want validation who file wrongful complaints. "They're following the philosophy of 'the customer is always right,'" they said.

"I will add that I am pretty left leaning so I definitely don’t support the use of the Confederate flag, but when I’m working I’m focused on my job and not my views. I’ve had customers hold views I disagree with, but I don’t engage on that with them. And I definitely believe that if someone gets fired over a ridiculous complaint—especially if it’s defamatory—they should seek legal action."

#7

When I met my fiance she lived in a rented house. One date we were at her place and at some point we watched a random YouTube video of a raven saying the F word. We laughed a lot for around 5 minutes unable to talk or do anything but laugh. It was in the middle of the day.

The neighboor wrote an angry letter to the owner of the house telling him "to put us back in line, laughing so much in the middle of the day".

What kind of psycho writes a letter of complain for someone laughing for 5 minutes.

Image credits: Antieque

#8

Old lady said I spray painted some garages near my house, I did in fact not, after a while security footage came out that showed her youngest spray painting the garages….

Image credits: anon

#9

I was at work and a man wanted to use his membership card to get a discount on his popcorn. I asked him for the membership card and he said he didn't have it. No problem, we can pull it up by phone number, but he refused to give it to me. I asked for his name, but apparently that wasn't on the card. Neither was his email address (Which I thought was required) he started getting mad that I was "taking too long" And started screaming about "If I made him go back to his theatre Just to get his card" he was calling corporate.

I told him I could look it up from his ticket but needed to go over to my other terminal, but he kept screaming "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE MAKING ME WALK BACK TO MY THEATRE TO GET MY F*****G CARD" I told him I wasn't and I just needed the ticket stub, but it fell on deaf ears nd he kept screaming and carrying on. He was throwing an absolute tantrum and said I was "Wasting his time and taking too long" even though I was ALREADY STANDING AT THE OTHER TERMINAL.

He complained that I made him show his membership card to give him the discount that was only on the card, and just use the card even though he refused to let me look it up for him.

It was the dumbest f*****g thing ever. People will seriously just come out in public just to start s**t with cashiers. I really want to know what goes on in these people's heads to purposefully make themselves angry.

Image credits: dawrina

The most important thing in these sorts of situations is not to panic! If you did nothing wrong (and odds are that in these cases you’re just a confused victim), then you have nothing to worry about. Of course, it’s yucky and mucky to have someone try and ruin your job or life with false accusations, but the world can be extremely chaotic at times. 

Slow down. Breathe. Detach yourself from the situation. What you need to do right now is to figure out what the heck is going on. Go talk to your direct superior, your boss, your HR reps and put all the puzzle pieces together. Explain the situation and be honest. Once everyone’s on the same page, they’ll realize that someone’s just trying to provoke you with weird complaints.

In some cases, however, the situation gets totally out of hand. If someone genuinely has it out for you at work, for whatever reason, then odds are that they’ll go to practically any lengths to try and hurt your career.

In some fringe cases, it’s actually a good idea to seek legal help. Especially if someone’s trying to destroy your reputation and hurt your financial stability. It’s possible to get some free legal consultations. And some lawyers actually do take on cases on a pro bono basis. Know the law. Know your rights. Have someone solid in your corner. And, hopefully, this entire ridiculous situation will be receding in your rearview mirror.

#10

Got a complaint filed against me by a customer for unnecessary rudeness because I turned down a guy's offer to take me out on a date. He asked me (repeatedly) while I was working. Dude was at least in his mid 40s; I was 16

Image credits: Bayonethics

#11

Had a customer call corporate on me because I told her we didn't carry a certain brand of dog food. I worked at a big pet retail chain. The brand she was looking for was our biggest competitors store brand food. I told her this, even showed her the dog food on the competitors website that clearly said "You'll Only Find X Brand At X Pet Store!" As part of the add.


She didn't want to go to the competitors. So I offered to show her a similar brand; though I did advise her to get the food her dog was used to so she could avoid making her dog sick at its stomach. After arguing with me about "how you should make this right!" I just told her I couldn't help her. She screamed I was rude and unhelpful, then stormed out of the store.


Her reason for calling a complaint to corporate? I wouldn't go to the competitors store (which was about four blocks away from my store) to get the bag of dog food for her since she had already stopped at our store.


Yeah. Her whole "you should make it right" argument was that I should leave my store, use my money to go buy her dog food, then apologize for wasting her time.


My manager pulled me into the office my next shift to tell me the lady had called corporate and why. We both had a huge laugh (apparently the corporate office also found the situation hilarious and told her to get stuffed) and he bought me lunch for not losing my cool on the entitled lady.

Image credits: Jesskamess

#12

In a 4 person HR meeting (the other guy, our manager, HR and me) the other guy said I was always angry. The 3 of us looked at him. I asked "why do you say that?". And he said "your face is always red...and angry!".

I'm British, I don't tan well.

Image credits: jallison1234

While these stories shared by redditors are amusing and confusing, they also highlight an important problem: taking up everyone’s time with these weird complaints means that genuine complaints can get lost in a pile of documents for a long, long while. 

And, let’s face it, there are real things to complain about at work and as a customer. If someone’s harassing you, making inappropriate jokes, and bullying you in a workplace setting, it’s essential to put a stop to this. Filing an official complaint is a good initial step, Chron writes. First, put it in writing, submit it in person, and schedule a meeting with the head of HR.

Meanwhile, if you’re complaining about unfair pay, bad working conditions, and unequal treatment, then it’s best to contact a government organization about what’s happening. If you’re a member of a union, they can help you with this. 

From a boss’ perspective, it’s essential that you don’t immediately dismiss an employee's complaint right out the gate, according to Traliant. Don’t be too quick to make judgments either way. Take the time to understand the situation so you can respond appropriately.

#13

Actual feedback I got from a customer:

>Was your request completed to your expectations? 10/10

>Did you feel valued? 2/10

>Comment: This should have been handled by an older member of staff.

F**k me for being young and good at my job. Cost me a good chunk of my bonus.

Image credits: PlaySomeKickPunch

#14

I got reported to HR because a coworker made a sexual joke to me and I laughed. She reported me and HR talked to me because she felt I laughed "too enthusiastically." This was when I worked at the same place as my wife and was very careful to keep my nose clean. That was the last straw, I updated my resume and was gone shortly after.

Image credits: KraziKarter

#15

I once had a complaint filed against me for calling someone a slur in the elevator. My boss called me in, and we watched the camera footage from the elevator. Me and the other person were talking and having a good conversation and laughing with each other. My boss just said "yeah I watched it earlier and I have no idea what they are talking about." So someone tried to get me fired for no reason

Image credits: damnyoutuesday

Something else to keep in mind is discretion. Try to keep the information contained for the sake of everyone’s privacy. That way, you’ll prevent gossip from circulating in the workplace. Lastly, keep in mind that complaints are simply one type of communication (albeit carrying some potentially serious consequences). So don’t actually punish employees for filing them! Otherwise, you’ll end up creating a massive gap between management and all the other workers. And that’s not something that leads to a healthy workplace environment.

#16

My husband is a dentist. A new patient reported him to the board of dentistry for recommending that she get her teeth cleaned. I still laugh when I think about it.

Image credits: QueenMargaery_

#17

I was training a new employee (I was early 20s, she was late 40s) and I told her that if we finished our work a few minutes before break, we could stand around as long as we were available to customer questions. She told on me and I got written up the next day. Now I only train exactly what we’re supposed to do.

Image credits: weeabooty420

#18

When I was a teenager working at an ice cream store, a secret shopper wrote that I was "friendly but did not smile." This write up was posted on the bulletin board like it was a scarlet letter of shame and the manager talked to me about smiling more. 30 years later, I am still friendly but unsmiling.

Image credits: Goldeverywhere

#19

Years ago, back when I worked at a video arcade, there was a kid that had been asking me for free tokens one day. I gave him a few, because we were allowed to give some out each day as "refunds" and it was a slow day so I had extra. He came back a little later for more and then got upset when I didn't give him any more. The next day he came in with his mother and she said that he told her that I took one of the fake plastic guns from one of the "shooter" style video games and threatened to kill her son with it. She told all this to my manager and I was instantly fired on the spot without the chance to say anything. It really sucked because I really liked that job. I got to spend all day around video games, watching people play, repairing the cabinets, which was awesome because I am an avid gamer and it was like a dream come true to work with video games. Ever since i've worked in offices and well... life has been a little more grey since.

#20

I was processing customer returns and a fishing rod had paperwork saying it wouldn't catch fish, another one said their boat was too tippy. Not sure if it was the same guy

Image credits: Electrical_Dirt9917

#21

Out of the blue, a complete stranger who had just been released from state prison sued me in family court asking for visitation with our 10 y/o non-existent child. Apparently he had gone to a party at “my” house and “we” had a one night stand in my basement bedroom (my basement is not finished). When “I” got pregnant I promised to have an abortion but did not, and now he was ready to step up and be a dad! How did he find me? He couldn’t remember an exact address so he went through my neighborhood on Google Maps and was “sure” it happened in my house. For weeks he refused to believe he had the wrong person until I went to the police station and had an officer email a family photo to him while he had him on the phone and vouch that it was me in the photo.

Image credits: jenel2583

#22

I got sued in small claims court by a mentally ill man who said I stole $1000 worth of roast beef and 2 sun tanning lights from him. It got continued twice and by the time we had our day in court, he forgot what he sued me for and just went off on a tirade about me being an a*****e.

Image credits: SteveMcQueef81

#23

I worked at McDonalds. A man put a complaint in because I wouldn’t let him in after we’d already shut.

Image credits: GardaTerror

#24

I once was told there was a high-level (manager and up) meeting being held about me… on account of my emails being written too well.

:/

I can write quick, well-worded emails, and someone in upper management thought that I must have been spending too much time writing my emails, possibly as a means of appearing to be superior to others.

Image credits: FormoftheBeautiful

#25

Being too nice. I worked inside a coffee shop that was inside a grocery store during this time. Man walks in and I greet him and ask him what he’d like to order. He literally bolts and complains to the IT guy that I was too nice and too happy. He came in to inform me what had just happened and he wouldn’t stop laughing at me.

Image credits: YellowSphinx

#26

That I didn't warn the customer that a fresh cream cake needs to be kept refrigerated.

Image credits: Antmon666

#27

I’m a nurse and my husband’s crazy ex called my work with a litany of complaints against me. Things as small as “she’s stealing the narcotics” to “she tried to strangle my grandma.” She was desperate to get me fired so I couldn’t afford to live with my then-boyfriend. My manager called me into her office and said, “What the hell is going on?!”

#28

A girl reported my son for assaulting her in school. She claimed that her neck was still hurting her the night after the "assault." Now, my son is autistic and at the time had an aide that followed him around everywhere. Even setting aside the fact that my son isn't violent (he's more likely to break down into tears than actually fight), why didn't his aide see this assault?

Upon looking into the matter we had our answer. The normal aide was out for the day and the substitute aide left our son to get his lunch in the cafeteria while he (the aide) got his own lunch. Now, our son's IEP specifically stated that he was not to be left alone in the cafeteria. The noise and chaos wreck havoc with him. So the aide leaving him alone in that situation was a breach of his IEP which could mean we could initiate legal action if we wanted.

Furthermore, our son claimed that he saw the girl, walked up to her and tapped her in the shoulder to get her attention in order to say hi. This was corroborated by security camera recordings.

We were told that technically our son broke school rules with the shoulder tap. We countered that they were free to punish him for a shoulder tap but then we'd go after the school for violating his IEP that put him in the situation to begin with. In the end, he was simply reminded not to touch other people even if he thought it was a friendly manner.

Meanwhile, I don't think the girl was punished at all even though she had been going around school telling people that our son assaulted her. (Including telling her sister who was mildly friendly with my son, trying to break that up.) She was brought in for a meeting where she reiterated that she was assaulted and her neck still hurt. Then she was shown the shoulder tap video. At most, she might have gotten a warning, but that was it.

#29

I almost gotten written up at work because a local radio DJ came into the store and “I treated them like all the other customers” as in I didn’t fall all over her “celebrity”.

#30

My mom got an angry message on eBay about her handmade wedding dresses for 18" dolls promoting child marriage, because American Girl dolls are only supposed to be 11. The woman insisted she should have a disclaimer to or something that says "for pretend play ONLY" to clear up this ambiguity.

That was more than 10 years ago and we still crack up about it.

#31

My dad got the police/ firefighters called on him because our racist neighbour immediately assumed we were making a fire???? In our backyard??????????????????


Anyway we were having a BBQ lol the firefighters were so p****d.

#32

A coworker hugged me when I gave her a birthday present. Later I was pulled into my supervisor's office because someone reported us for "inappropriate PDA."

Image credits: TheChesterChesterton

#33

I once got called into the managers office because I tried to start a Mexican wave in the call centre. Three of us were involved, in different parts of the call centre.

I had to laugh as the manager very seriously read from a sheet of paper "attempted to start a Mexican wave".

#34

I worked at Pier 1. On Black Friday a woman tried to have me fired for putting her purchase in a paper bag with a tear at the top.

Image credits: Wide_Ocelot

#35

After 7 years in the same company wearing the same kind of clothes, some jealous female co-workers went to the HR this summer to complain that I dress like a w***e...

#36

A woman threatened to have my dog euthanized after she came up behind me and my dog and grabbed his tail and he spun around and snapped at her. She had a muzzled aggressive dog with her as well yet she began yelling and cursing and demanding I provide documentation of his vaccines. Psycho….

#37

I was one reported for telling a driver to have a good day instead of telling him to have a great day.

#38

I jokingly told co-workers I was feeling disgruntled that day. The administrative assistant (whose job I was actively training for) overheard me and reported me to the boss. I had to have a sit down meet with them both and got written up for not "boosting team morale". Another time the same AA went into the bathroom after me and noted that I did not refill the toilet paper while I was in there. Again, had to have a meeting over it. I was SO happy when she left.

EDIT: I was a large public bathroom with 4 stalls. I didn't leave the place without any toilet paper. One of the stalls was running low and apparently I should have checked it and put more rolls in.

Image credits: SugarHooves

#39

A colleague complained to my boss that I was mocking her because I had drawn a smiley face on a note to her.
My reasoning behind this was to avoid her taking my note as a critique, but I guess she was just searching for a reason to complain.

Edit: corrected the spelling

#40

I don't know if anything ever got filed, but when I worked at a divorce firm, I had a woman call because she wanted to press charges against her son's ex-girlfriend and her friends. I asked for more details (so I could tell her we didn't practice that area of law but she should call, say, a civil attorney or something).

She told me that this old girlfriend, she was messing around with her son's body and stole his sperm.

Me: Wat.

Her: She and her friends--I don't like these girls--they went to where my son's body was and they messed around with it and stole his sperm.

Me: Where his body was?

Her: Where his body was. In the cemetery. She's a thief.

Me: Uh, try a civil attorney, we can't help you.

#41

I got suspended from elementary school by the librarian for telling a much younger student that his shoe was untied when he was wearing Velcro

Image credits: i_fruitcake

#42

I work at Walmart

A customer complained that I was on my phone the whole time.
If you work at Walmart or any retail place. then you know we have those stupid android handhelds. I use it to make sure grown adults aren’t stealing and to do age checks and stuff.

My manger looked at the video and was like yeah. That’a not a phone it’s just something she needs to do her job…

Customer just couldn’t comprehend that.

#43

Working at the library, asked a patron if she had a home computer before I showed her how to use a database from my screen.

She went to my manager to complain that clearly I had assumed that because she was hispanic, she must not have a home computer!

...I'm hispanic.

Icing on the cake: the manager she complained to (who was NOT hispanic) did not own a home computer. A lot of people in the area didn't. When she told the patron as much, the patron left in a huff and never returned again.

#44

I worked in a couple video stores and I'm a white male. Was accused of charging late fees because I don't like lesbians. I honestly had no idea this woman was a lesbian and could not have cared less had I known. I didn't judge a book by it's cover, unlike someone else in this transaction.

Image credits: anon

#45

When working at a car wash I had a drunk driver complain to my manager that he didn't trust me with his vehicle. He was p****d that I, a woman, confronted him for skipping the line, nearly hitting one of my co-workers, and reeking of booze.

My manager thought it was funny, but I was ready to call the cops.

#46

I was a recent new hire, and transferred between divisions. I responded to my new Managing Director with an affirmative “Yes, Ma’am” when she gave me some new tasks during a meeting. She reported me to HR for sexual harassment and insubordination. I am from the Texas. This is how I was taught to show respect.

#47

Nursing assistant here. Had a lady report directly to the hospital supervisor because I told her I’d be back with her ice chips In about 5 minutes and took 15 minutes. Couldn’t tell her it was because a gentleman down the hall was about to p**s his pants, and my apology wasn’t enough apparently

#48

My manager once wrote me up for tapping my toes to the music. What a f*****g c**t, glad I quit and found a much better job

Image credits: anticipate_me

#49

I once had a coworker whose husband was Jewish, and she took every opportunity to mention this fact and talk as if she were an expert on Jewishness.

Having many Jewish family members myself, I figured that since each of us had Jewish loved ones it'd be a topic we could bond over. When she talked about her husband and her cross-cultural Jewish experience, I'd relate my own experiences with my family.

It wasn't long before I was called into HR and told that she was "highly offended" by how I talked about Jewish people. Not a word I said about my family or Jewish people/culture in general was anything but the highest praise and affection.

The HR manager explained that this particular coworker was a consistent pain in her a*s, always coming to her to complain about being offended by one thing or another. In this case, she didn't think any genuine offense was taken, but rather that the woman felt special for having a Jewish husband and that me also having Jewish family must have made her feel like she wasn't special anymore.

Needless to say I was not reprimanded in any way, and the coworker in question was eventually fired. Probably for being a constant chunk of snot in HR's cornflakes.

#50

A patient inside a room, overheard me tell a colleague a joke. Mind you, we were standing in the hallway. It was a clean joke, no swearing etc., but she felt insulted so she complained about me. Cost me 3 days suspension without pay.

"An elderly couple is standing in their bathroom. The wife is looking in the mirror, moaning and whining. She says: 'honey, look, I'm all grey and stuff that isn't supposed to sag, is sagging. I really need you to pay me a compliment!'
He swiftly replies 'Well, your eyesight is darn near perfect.'"

#51

This happened fairly recently. My new co-worker has been treating me like I'm incompetent since he started. One of his favorite subtle insults is to tell me, "If you didn't understand, you should have asked me" when he assumes I've made some sort of mistake.

One day he messed up and failed to accomplish a task the way it had been defined. In a moment of thoughtlessness, and because the phrase on its own is insulting but in a pretty minor way, I told him that if he hadn't understood, he should have asked me.

He immediately went to the general manager to file a formal complaint against me on that basis of that one sentence. They took it surprisingly seriously, though I was pretty easily able to convince them it was a minor misunderstanding.

#52

A senior banker called up my recruiter with a list of complaints. The recruiter called me on weekend mornings to discuss in lengthly detail the banker’s complaints. Found out I was removed from supporting that banker simply because he didn’t like my athletic figure. He was stupid enough to go into too much detail with HR and got put on a 4 month probation. This didn’t stop his behavior he still complained openly because he was convinced he had a right to complain about his female assistant’s figure.

#53

I had a former employer ask me to not drive a certain car to work because people were coming to him angry thinking I was being paid substantially more than them.
It's a 99 Porsche 911 with a salvage title, mileage discrepancies, and high miles. I got it STUPID cheap and drove it for a while as I was repairing and modifying it to race it. I could not convince them that I had less money in that car than their shipping guy had in his 05 silverado. I still drove it for another month.

#54

I used to work as a receptionist. A coworker once reported me for not bringing her her mail fast enough. I grabbed it from the mailbox and delivered it to her maybe 15 minutes later than usual. Even my manager couldn’t take the complaint seriously.

#55

I worked for one of the big coffee shop chains, that had a policy in place that if you saw someone was near the end of their drink, to ask them if they would like another one brought to them, especially if they were busy with kids or working on a laptop etc and couldn’t easily come up to the counter.
I asked one lady who was sat with two small kids if she would like another drink as I noticed she’d finished hers while her kids weren’t even halfway through theirs. She politely declined and I forgot about it.
The next day we have a 1-star review online and three paragraphs about how we made her feel uncomfortable and like we were rushing her out of her seat and she’ll never come back again now because of the way she was treated.

#56

I was accused of racial and sexist discrimination for telling someone how to do her job. Yep, I was her manager. This was a person that I had been forced to hire (literally rejected her 5 times over the course of 2 months, but she kept pursuing it with internal recruiting and HR). My leadership team then forced me to hire even though A) she did not have the actual experience needed (hence why I didn't hire her the first time we spoke) B) she thought that a 2 hour lunch her first day was acceptable with no call, e-mail or text letting me know she was going to be gone an extended period of time. She stated she was with a manager from another department so she thought this was ok. Then proceeded to cry and tell me she was on her period. C) She flat out sucked at her job - never did what she was supposed to do and was put onto initial phases of performance improvement plan.


So then she accuses me of discrimination on the basis of racism and sexism. I (white man) laughed hysterically at this. My team was comprised of 3 black women, 1 Indian woman, a Pakistani woman, 5 white women, and 3 Latinas. I had 1 white guy on my team. None had an issue (I was their manager for 3+ years). She then was transferred to a black male manager in the same department - same issues. Within 3 months she just decided to quit and left the workforce all together to be a stay at home mom.

#57

When I was in high school in my programming class, there was a special ed kid who sat behind me one day, and who had an assistant. The assistant complained to the teacher that I was distracting her student.

I was farther ahead in the project that he was, and the tutorial said to draw some sprites, so that's what I was doing.

Anyway, the teacher told her to stop giving me a hard time.

#58

Friend was contract engineer for tech giant. If you are unfamiliar with the concept, contractors are second class citizens. If there's a perk employees get, assume that it is off limits for contractors.

She did some above and beyond work for an employee, so that employee took her to the admin's desk and let her select a piece of candy as a "thank you". (candy jar and contents were paid for by the company). The admin witnessed this and reported her for stealing company property. If the employee had taken a random piece of candy and given it to my friend, all would have been fine. But can't let the subhuman pick their own treat!

#59

Senior engineer accused me of bullying him. For months I made myself available for a couple hours a week to answer this guys questions to help him up to speed. I continue to help him when he starts to get assigned work and I essentially help him start 2 projects from scratch to 85% completion before the incident. Handheld through every line of code, every word typed thinking he'd understand better if I explained the code in detail. After the 2nd one I tell him to at least attempt the work before coming to me.

Messages me 2 days before his work is due for help. He shares his screen, searches through some directories, claims that he lost his code and asks for help again. I tell him I don't think he even attempted it, how unprofessional it is to not version control or check in code into a repo, and hang up on him.

This man has been in the industry more than twice as long as I have (me 7.5 years, him 15+), received ample training (2 engineering classes), 8 months to get up to speed, and still cannot complete simple programming assignments.

Get a call from HR for bullying. The worst part is in the claim he says I did nothing to help him, and only made him feel bad for not knowing how to complete his work. Says that I "didn't train him right" as if a senior level engineer needs someone to "train" them to be a programmer when it wasn't even my responsibility to begin with.


Helped someone then they throw me under the bus when I stop helping.

#60

Not a formal complaint, but I was working one summer McJob as a teenager as one of two workers in a particular role. Place only ever needed one and the other guy had seniority so he got full time and I was getting maybe twenty hours per week. I wanted more but boss wouldn't give em to me. Coworker and I were chatting and he said something like, "I heard other guy is looking for a different job, that'd be nice for you getting more hours, huh?" And I responded that I wouldn't mind that too much.

Little s**t went to the other co-worker and told him I'd said I thought he was a f*****g a*****e and hoped he got fired because I felt I deserved the hours more than him... guy aggressively cornered me in the change room next shift change; I thought he was gonna throw a punch but I managed to convince him I hadn't said anything like that.

#61

I was at a 2 day job interview for a job at a children’s home.

During one of the segments, the male interviewer commented on my clothes, saying he would have expected me to dress up more. (I’m a woman.)

Idk why but this particular org was obsessed with wearing suits. Like, you literally couldn’t pass your yearly performance review if you didn’t wear a suit jacket. Nice dress? Nope. Please go spend $ on a skirt and jacket that you will literally never wear outside of those reviews.

What’s even weirder is I knew they were going to “neg” me on something. I had a friend who worked there and they told me that they specifically “give you feedback” during the interview to see how you take it. If you stand up for yourself you are much less likely to get the job. If you just say something like “thank you for pointing that out, I will do better” it is considered to be in your favor.

So since I was expecting something I managed to keep my cool, but if my friend hadn’t warned me idk how I would have reacted.

I needed a job so I ignored a ton of red flags about that job. I truly wish I hadn’t taken it. It was miserable, and i seriously want to name drop the org bc they are so s****y.

Even if they thought the “giving feedback to see how you respond” was appropriate, how was having a male interviewer comment on my clothing appropriate?!?! I was wearing nice slacks, a very nice shirt, appropriate jewelry, I was modest and well put together- it was so weird.

Then again, in this Christian org we had to sit through sexual harassment training that was literally an hour of them telling us everything that *isn’t* harassment. Coworker comments on your body/clothes/etc? Not harassment. Being asked out regularly even though you say no? Not harassment. Being touched by a coworker? Better hope you had never said a kind word to them ever bc that implies consent. It pretty much came down to not having ANY rights or recourse for sexual harassment unless you already have a restraining order or court order against the person.

God it was such a s****y place to work.

#62

I got hired at AT&T right before Covid hit, so I ended up getting laid off around June 2020. Being that I worked from home (I work software QA) I had to mail back all the hardware they’d sent me— iPhones, iPads, an Alexa, a Smart TV, etc. Anyway, I pack it all up, take it to the local UPS and mail it off with the pre-paid labels they’d sent me. I wash my hands of the situation and assume that it’s over and done with. A day later I get a call from the HR lady asking why I had sent them, and I quote, “a 12 pound box of dirty socks.” At first I think this is some poorly thought out prank— but they are dead serious and threatening legal charges as this was well over $500 worth of stuff which counts as grand larceny… AKA a felony in my state. So I look back at the prepaid labels, which were addressed to my boss’s private residence rather than AT&T proper. So that’s a tad off. Plus twelve pounds of dirty socks is a lot to wrangle up and you’d really have to go to great lengths to make that happen between getting the labels and shipping it off. So they keep calling me and threatening me for hours— so I call my lawyer, and I call the UPS to make sure they have CCTV footage of me mailing everything off during my previous visit— I then tell the s**t heads at AT&T to reach out to my lawyer if they have any other questions. And then… “miraculously” they found all the “missing” equipment five minutes later. The head of my team probably just wanted to sell that s**t on Craigslist or something and make me his patsy. But as soon as they got a sniff of litigation, the stuff just “magically appeared.” A felony pretty much ruins your whole life in the US. F**k that guy and F**K AT&T.

#63

When I worked in a call center, one of my coworkers filed a complaint that I said something rude about them to another co-worker. When my boss was discussing it with me, I asked what was said. They said they couldn't tell me. Well, who did I say it about? They can't tell me. So I was reprimanded for saying something about someone and I'm supposed to know WTF that was all about.

(I wasn't in the habit of saying slurs or really anything mean so I was truly baffled.)

I said "well, if I don't know what I said that offended them, how can I know what not to say in the future?" They said "Sorry, we can't help you with that."

Whut?

(I later figured out who it was (because he was a little whiny a*s baby) but never did figure out what was said.)

#64

I had a coworker from a different department call me this morning and threatened me for something his boss had done regarding something I have no control over. I eventually got him to sheepishly admit that there was nothing I had control over in the situation and he was mad his boss had made the decision without consulting him first.

Government work attracts some odd balls.

#65

Used to do appliance installs for a big-box hardware store in college. Disgruntled assistant, going through some life-problems (I gather), upon returning to the store, went to our manager and claimed I had thrown my channellock pliers at him at a nearby install, then left him there and made him walk to the store.

The manager stares at him for a moment, then mentions he was watching for us on the store cameras (seeing us both getting out of the cab of the truck I'd drove us BOTH back in), and then reaches under the desk. "Oh, tyrridon, here's your channellocks. You left them at the customer's house that flooded themselves yesterday."

Manager then proceeds to stare assistant into oblivion, who then slinks back to the install bay, where he tries to convince coworkers that I complained to our manager that they were all smoking out in the trucks and on the job (officially against the rules, everyone else did it, except for me - non-smoker). Apparently did this to somehow get everyone upset at me. Manager comes back a few minutes later. Someone openly asks about it. Manager informs them that he already knew they all smoked at installs, he doesn't care, and I've never mentioned it to him. Assistant just leaves the bay in a huff, largely to avoid the glares from everyone else.

Let's just say that the assistant wasn't much liked after that day...

#66

I taught a technical course. We had a practical exam that consisted of a series of samples of signals that I provided to the class and they had to measure. Each signal was provided for a few minutes then I randomly selected the next signal. I reminded students verbally and by email to not be late for the test because we need to perform a calibration sequence, plus I cannot go back to previous randomly-generated samples. Well one guy showed up 45 minutes late, about 15 minutes before the end of the test. I told him he couldn't write. He immediately went to the dean to complain about me. To this day I'm not sure why but the dean sided with him and I was told to allow him to write the exam.

I later meet with the dean to explain my side of the story and explain that I am willing to rerun the test just for him if I am ordered to but it's not right or fair.

We then met with the student where he explained that he was late for the 8 AM test because of several reasons: He was doing laundry, and was on a long distance phone call, and missed 2 trains, and forgot about the test, and slept-in. The dean finally understood.

The student did not write that test.

#67

I used to work in a restaurant and one night I'd been working hard with no breaks and my boss pulls me aside to take ten with her and a server out back. I don't smoke but she'd tell me I needed to take a smoke break if she felt like it was possible to have a bit of down time

We came back inside and I ran two pies out to the buffet and came back in to the other cook straight up screaming in my face. Taken aback since she'd never done this before, I looked over at my boss who seemed just as surprised and started laughing.

Laughing made the other cook madder, she quit on the spot and yelled in the dining room she hoped I killed someone and got put in prison.

The next day she called hr and accused me of sexual harassment which was quickly disproved by all the witnesses.

#68

I dated a lady who was an OT8 (highest level) scientologist. She was cool at first but within weeks she became drunk and disorderly. When I broke up with her she tried filing some bizarre restraining order against me and had some weirdo private detective (I ended up later on dating his ex wife) who kept like hanging around places I went.

The judge threw out the restraining order and ordered she pay my legal expenses. Like a year later I was in jail and I get notified of a visit. I go and it's some dude I've never seen before. Her ex husband wanting me to testify at their divorce proceedings. How did he even find me? Weirdest people ever.

#69

My former roommate had to do racial sensitivity training at work because someone overheard him talking about a Silver Jews concert he had gone to and reported him to HR.