You might think that your actual job is the most important part, but what’s equally vital is working with the right people. The colleagues who surround you and help make up the atmosphere in your workplace can either lift you up with their support or make you curse the day you ever set foot through the door. The friendly folks of Reddit have been sharing their facepalm-worthy stories about the very worst coworkers they’ve ever encountered after user Fruntledumjam started up a thread about colleagues from hell on r/AskReddit. The thread went viral with 35.3k upvotes, 132 awards, and a whopping 8.4k comments.
Check out some of the best stories below and be sure to let us know about the very worst people you’ve had the ‘pleasure’ of working with below, dear Pandas. Remember to grab yourself some popcorn for this and don’t forget to upvote the stories that made you cringe the most.
In order to learn more about how important colleagues are to our everyday welfare and how to deal with problematic coworkers, Bored Panda reached out to Dr. Vaneeta Sandhu, a workplace psychology expert who is the head of emotional fitness at Coa. “Benefits and pay are, of course, important aspects of a job but research continues to support they are not the top reasons why people leave a job,” she explained in an interview via email. Be sure to read on for her full insights, as well as for our interview with the author of the thread, Fruntledumjam.
#1I quit smoking due to a coworker that would follow me to every smoke break to talk about their problems when I needed some god damn me-time.
Its been 3 years, and I still haven't bothered to pick the habit back up.
Image credits: Lil_BootySnack
#2Jerk coworker threw away a Secret Santa gift because 'she didn't like plush toys' in front of the person who gave it to her.
Image credits: julijanej
#3Tony. He never did his job but loves to tell you how to do yours.
Image credits: PetronyaVandor
Dr. Sandhu, the head of emotional fitness at Coa, told Bored Panda that our work environment plays a “significant role in our job satisfaction.” Naturally, our coworkers have a hand in shaping that environment. “They help us feel connected to an organization and can help us enjoy the work that we're doing. It's difficult to emotionally separate how we feel about our ‘colleagues’ from how we feel about our ‘job.’”
The clinical psychologist gave an example how an employee who feels a sense of purpose and belonging in a job where collaboration opportunities are available will have an even stronger feeling of belonging in an environment where their relationships with colleagues are nurtured.
#4Had an assistant who plotted to get me fired and take my job. Some of my workers let me know because he tried to get them onboard with him. Eventually, due to politics I was demoted but asked to be put on the shift relieving him (we would work 12 hour shifts on weekends). After being relieved by phone a couple of times (against the rules) I intentionally came in 4 hours early and he was no where on site. I still got a call from him when he should have relieved me like he was still on site. I let the guards know and they videotaped him and I got him fired.
Image credits: charlie2135
#5She was a lady in her 50s. We worked at a drs office. Nothing was EVER her fault, she could not take even the nicest constructive criticism, and constantly complained about EVERYTHING. One of my nicest co workers ever (who was around the same age so not an ageism thing) often was the recipient of her blame and because she never took responsibility, it was regularly the same issues she never learned to correct. They bickered a lot after a couple years of this. One day the nice coworker went to the car to grab her anxiety med, and the obnoxious one went to the office manager and then HR saying she thought the nice one went to get a weapon to hurt her. Like what?! She didn't even own a weapon? And the nice one GOT FIRED. I was absolutely SHOCKED. Any lingering respect I had for her was gone. I've had a lot of jobs and met some sh*tty people but she was the most stressful nightmare who could boohoo her way into getting pity parties on cue.
Image credits: ItsAnEagleNotARaven
#6I worked shifts. Can't go home unless I pass over my reports to the next person face to face. One particular b*tch loves coming in late. Not 5 or 10 minutes late, I'm talking 25 to 30 minutes late. Best part, she loves b*tching about how everyone is always on her ass for coming in late.
She literally lives 5 minutes walk away from work, so no one knows why she's always late.
Image credits: kandnm115709
Dr. Sandhu, highlighted the fact that we all tend to be more critical when we’re under stress. What’s more, we can view others’ behavior as more critical than it actually is.
“If you are experiencing a colleague as persistently rude, this is an opportunity to share feedback with them. Prepare to have a feedback conversation with them where you share concrete observations you've made and most importantly, talk about the impact on you. For example, ‘I noticed that you interrupted me twice during that meeting. The impact on me is that I don't get to share my ideas and feel like I'm contributing to the team,’” the expert shared what we can do to change the situation for the better.
“If you do not feel safe sharing feedback directly to this person, look to your manager for support on how this rude behavior impacts you,” Dr. Sandhu said.
#7I had just left an abusive bf and told everyone at work that if he shows up say im not there. One male manager decided to tell him exactly where I am and told me I have daddy issues.#8I work with a woman who is threatened by other women, especially if they are younger and have more education than her.
She consistently tries to discourage women from furthering their education, and constantly tries to get women she is threatened by fired. She is a goddam nightmare.
Image credits: adoptdontshop1
#9I fully acknowledge there are far worse things, but she microwaved salmon.
Meanwhile, the author of the thread, redditor Fruntledumjam, went into detail about what (or rather who!) inspired them to create the viral thread on r/AskReddit in the first place. They've got a coworker from hell to deal with themselves, and they wanted to see what similar situations other internet users have dealt with.
"I have somebody at my work who finds anything and everything to complain about. We have a cleaner, and the place I work at is in a warehouse, so it’s not exactly the cleanest. But the cleaner keeps leaving notes inside the break room, asking people to please at least wash their dishes and clean up spills," they said.
"So the complainer continues to complain (as you do) about absolutely nothing. She also brings a generally bad attitude to new people, and will give you the silent treatment if you’re new. On top of that, she yells at the administrator about (you guessed it) things that don’t really matter in the long run. And considering that the admin is also my girlfriend, I don’t like her too much," the redditor shared their personal story.
#10We had a sysadmin who would come to work and run his real estate business from his desk while he was supposed to be working. The whole time coughing and sneezing and sniffling constantly. We called him "Itchy". He would also call friends and family and have hours long conversations with them while we all had to listen.
He picked up the nickname "Thanksgiving dinner guy" for using the break room (full kitchen) to cook entire meals that wouldn't be out of place at a family gathering. One of the offices in another wing had a sheet by the door for people to log when they saw him and what he was cooking that day.
He didn't like any of us (the feeling was mutual) and left books like "Jerks at work." on his desk.
When he finally got fired, they found out he never did any of his sysadmin work. No backups, no password changes, no log monitoring.
Image credits: Niblek
#11I briefly had a co-worker at my current job at a local grocery store. We'll just call him "Fred".
Fred is one of those people who's always talking on his phone in the break room and that's my personal pet peeve at work. More often than not, he's usually arguing with his girlfriend and he doesn't seem to care that anyone's listening. He'd do other annoying, gross things like chewing with his mouth wide open and wiping his boogers all over the place, but then there was one day when he tried to flush a hot pocket down the toilet.
Needless to say that it didn't play out so well and that temporarily put an end to our closest employee restroom right by the break room. He surprisingly didn't get fired over that, but he did get fired when one of his old high school teachers came in shopping and he threw a whole sack of potatoes at her. She was an elderly woman who got seriously injured and both the ambulance and the cops had to get involved.
I never did hear about what happened to his old teacher, but Fred on the other hand is currently in jail for not only assaulting his teacher, but he apparently also attacked his lawyer for reasons unkown.
That's Fred.
Image credits: brosafe
#12We worked in a store that sold specific and fairly expensive products, and there were 4 of us working there, including the owner. The woman in question was basically his second-in-command.
She seemed totally cool at the time, but then I got fired. And then a month later, our other coworker got fired. So it was just the two of them, and, when the owner was busy, it was often just her.
It wasn't long before he realized that she was stealing hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of products when he wasn't around, and that she'd manipulated him into firing his two other employees so she could have the store to herself.
He has new employees now and they're awesome. I plan on visiting a lot more once I'm vaccinated.
Image credits: princejoopie
In Fruntledumjam's opinion, it's always best to trust your own judgment before labeling someone a coworker from hell based on rumors alone. "If I had my way, I would choose to ignore them and not make myself a target. If you’re just starting out, it’s best to listen to if other people are talking of one certain person, observing the behavior of the certain person, and then making your own judgment. There’s always going to be gossip at any job you work at, and sometimes it’s true what people say, but sometimes it’s the one who started the rumor that’s the one to look out for."
The redditor shared with us that they also had another unruly colleague at work who never showed up because he'd always have hangovers from the night before. Other than that, "he really was a lovely guy."
#13This woman who was one of those people who always had to one up you. Like if you cut your thumb off, she was just recently sawed in half. She was constantly complaining and miserable and it was so draining.
Image credits: loveonanacidtrip
#14My old boss could be really good, but here are some of the things leading up to her getting fired:
• she would berate people into taking her random vitamins
• she would insist that we all attend her hot yoga class. She would get people to do it by putting them “on the clock”
• she would pinch your arm if she didn’t like what you were saying to a customer
• I had to share a room with her at a conference. She slept naked. She got so drunk she went to hang out with a random couple in their room, came back & puked all over our room
• she would climb ladders in front of customers while wearing tiny dresses
• and on and on and on
I worked at a fancy bathbomb store in the UK. No, she was not my type (my type is men).
She would pit me & the other floor managers against each other. We would have to go to her apartment when we were on the clock to make the schedule. She didn’t own a microwave because of .... the microwaves, I think?
She really hated our only male floor manager. Probably because he’d applied for her job before she got it. He was no threat, so I didn’t get why.
Right before she got fired we had a team meeting in a park. Employees brought their dogs, smoked, and were down right mean to her. She brought it all on herself but it was awkward to watch.
She had a few redeeming qualities, but her awful ones are much more memorable.
Image credits: KingOfHanksHill
#15An MMA fighter with serious PTSD (although it sounds like he was crazy and mean before he went to war). I have brown-ish skin, and he would threaten to kill me multiple times a day at work. Once he put me in a a sleeper hold just to put me down for fun, and two other guys had to get him off. Guy was laughing maniacally the whole time. Sometimes he would hit me around the waistline when no one was looking, so no one could see the bruises. Threatened to kill me and my family members if I ever reported it. Our supervisor was an ex Army Ranger, whom I deeply respected...but he defended this guy through it all and I never understood that. Finally the guy got fired after two years and ended up in jail for a while, but those were two terrible years.
Image credits: sexyebola69
There is one upside to having coworkers from hell, however. They might actually force you to make positive life changes that end up benefiting you, just so you can get away from them. For instance, redditor Lil_BootySnack explained how they quit smoking just so they could get some peace and quiet from their stalkerish colleague. It’s a win, overall. Health: 1; coworker from hell: 0.
Completely honestly, I’ve been blessed. In all the different places I’ve ever worked at, I don’t think I’ve ever had a ‘nightmare’ coworker who made my life a living hell. That’s not to say that there’s never been any arguments or disagreements, but everyone’s been quite professional, friendly, and (as cheesy as it sounds) pretty much wholesome.
However, far from everyone’s as lucky as I’ve been. So it’s useful to learn how to deal with difficulties in the workplace without resorting to lawsuits and/or quitting in the most dramatic way possible.
#16He told the General Manager that he might be a bit late for a shift due to his second job. When the GM reluctantly said OK, he apparently took this as thinking he had free reign to come and go as he pleased. He'd show up anywhere from 7:30-8:30 for his 7:00 shift. Then when the doors closed he'd insist he had to "head out" and he had an early morning the following morning, leaving everyone else to do the closing work. He also had other issues like being rude to customers and other employees.
People mostly kept quiet until one day a higher-level manager had to sub on night shift. When he went to leave early and the rest of us with the work, the manager flipped, "If you lay a f**king FINGER on that money before this work is COMPLETELY DONE, don't bother coming back." The guy insisted he "had permission" and left anyway. When our GM returned and he tried to come back, our manager said, "You warned me you were going to be late ONE TIME, and I never once gave you permission to otherwise start late or leave early. Clean out your locker NOW."
Image credits: Cyberhwk
#17KC. KC forgot to show up for her interview, but was somehow still hired. KC seemed to have all the signs of adhd, and admitted she probably did, but her dad was a doctor and said it wasn't a real thing so she never got treatment. KC told long, rambling stories about things no one cared about, and would try to read personal items in your purse. KC worked the late rotation after the supervisors left, and would just read fan fiction leaving everyone else to work the joint queue while doing nothing herself. KC bounced on a rubber exercise ball that squeaked. Everyone got theirs taken away because KC fell off hers and they were deemed a safety hazard. KC would kick her shoes off and rub her fingers between her bare toes at her desk. After everyone left, KC would raid their candy jars and snack drawers with her toe hands. The only nice thing the evil supervisor ever did was fire KC.#18Had a co-worker who always gossiped about others and would say horrible things about everyone in the office. It created a super toxic culture and caused many people to leave, not because they didn’t like the work, they just hated the culture.
Image credits: Jackson_Wills
Psychologist and author Sherrie Bourg Carter writes on Psychology Today that jerks at work are fairly predictable. “Divas will be divas. Complainers will complain. Suck ups will ... well, you get the picture. Although you may not always be able to predict the exact details of each and every drama they'll create, you can probably predict the ‘theme.’ Use this to your advantage by anticipating the next conflict and being prepared with a response.”
So instead of reacting instinctively, think about how you’ll respond the next time there’s a major drama or somebody tries to ruin your day by being annoying, bullying you, or not giving you a moment’s peace.
#19A few years back at my old job we hired a web developer who on her first day on the job yelled at our CTO cause her mouse didn't work. she proceeded to be not just unpleasant but actively hostile to everyone she interacted with. I came in one morning at like 7am cause i needed to test some stuff and saw her at her desk eating a box of 711 wings and chugging a 2litre diet coke. she then threw the box of bones into a bin and missed, spilling it everywhere and she yelled really loudly "F**KING GOD DAMN IT UUUGGGHH" while me and 3 others were in the office. we all gave her the benefit of the doubt of extreme anti social programmer personality or maybe had personal problems to deal with and everyone tried to be nice.
the last straw was when she berrated at the most beloved guy in the office, one of the IT personnel that everyone liked, and she gave him a sort of school master style talking down to infront of the whole office cause her internet was slow.
she was fired within like 2 weeks of hiring.
also she smelled like old eggs and mildew.
Image credits: Illidariislove
#20She almost got me fired because she wanted to find the weakest looking guy to be her little errand boy. When I told her politely to go screw herself, she told HR that I had been taking work out of her queue in the system.
It wasn't a very good lie though, because why would I want to do more work than I have to? I even said this to HR in the disciplinary meeting.
Image credits: emonZeppelin27
#21Going through a court thing with my ex coworker atm actually.
She's a nurse that apparently had her license taken away prior to her hire at my work. Our HR didn't bother checking I guess. The first care meeting we had with her, she started accusing the black staff for stealing. She had been there a week and didn't know what she was talking about (the team ran the best out of the whole company). She was determined to make everyone feel uncomfortable. She'd stand near the bathroom pretending to wait to go inside, while listening to people chat in the kitchen/staff room (the bathroom was a one person bathroom and was obvious when no one was inside it). She'd chase staff down the hallways screaming at them for stealing, then when they showed her they had nothing in their hands, she'd say "OH I WASN'T YELLING AT YOU I WAS YELLING AT MYSELF"...
She'd tell the black social worker she shouldn't wear straight wigs because "black people don't have straight hair". She'd also tell the staff they weren't working hard enough to get a raise when they asked for one in a meeting with one of the bosses (prick). He was racist too so he promoted her.
Finally after months of this bullsh*t, she finally f*cked up bad enough (a client had to go to hospital due to her negligence) and the family demanded to have a meeting about her attitude. She refused to acknowledge that she f*cked up, tried to blame me for "not reminding her that lunch was at 12pm" and told HR if she was going to get in trouble, she'd quit.
My social worker friend who was fired for complaining about this nurses racism is currently in a court battle with the company and how they received tons of complaints about her racists sh*t, and did nothing. F*ck that company.
Psychologist Sherrie also points out that problem-causing coworkers love causing chaos, so you have to refrain from engaging in it, even if you might be tempted to put them in their place. If you keep your interactions brief, polite, and to-the-point, you won’t reinforce their bad behavior.
What’s more, you also have to remember not to take things personally. I know, I know, it’s always easier said than done. However, problematic coworkers might have a lot of unresolved personal issues which cause them to lash out or act in problematic ways. That’s no excuse for rude or unruly behavior, however, it’s important to remember that we’re all human. Flawed. Imperfect. And... always looking forward to the weekend.
#22Had a guy that I worked with in my meat department at the store I work at, he would lose his mind over any little thing and get super angry and make everyone very uncomfortable. I was training a new guy and he was on one of his tantrums so I had to get my managers to help me out. One time he got so mad that he threw an actual meat cleaver in the wall and the dent is still there to this day. He got fired a few months ago and it’s been the happiest that the department has been in a long time.#23This woman named Laurie use to be an operator at my work, I've since replaced her. I worked as her assistant for 2 years. She always made the job 10 times harder than it was and would very rarely pay attention to the trim system on the winder, causing many many many paper blow ups (huge pain in the ass to clean up). Every shift I knew I'd be working my ass off for a solid 12 hours. Looking back, I get why she was the way she was. She was literally the only woman employed on the production floor and was constantly trying to prove herself. She eventually just got so fed up that she stopped caring. Near the end of her time there, we actually got quite close on a personal level. Some of the stories she told me about what some of the guys would do to her actually made me so sad for her. So what started as my coworker from hell, is now actually one of my good friends! Funny how things work.#24I used to work in a call centre and although we had our share of terrible hires one girl stood out.
She would regularly ignore her phone because she "didn't feel like taking calls" and would spend all her time on Facebook etc. One day she told the staff she was going in for a major operation and would be off for 2 weeks. Although she wasn't the most popular staff member at this point everyone still got her a card and put money in to buy her some gifts for when she was off work.
About 3 days into her absence and during what would have been her surgery time, another girl spotted her shopping for makeup with friends, and then took photos of her. When the girl came back in she was met with death stares from 100 colleagues, and when asked how her operation was she hammed it up and said she was still in pain.
The manager immediately screamed at her to get in his office and was so loud that the rest of us could hear every word. HR got involved and she was gone in 24 hours, which was followed by her attempt to sue for unfair dismissal. Thankfully she didn't get far.#25His name was Lenny, and he was a mess. His first day, he drove a van over the side of a loading dock, punctured the oil pan, and then didn't tell anyone until one of the long haul guys asked why the dock was blocked.
I was riding shotgun with him once, and he was driving. He was also nodding out. While driving. And trying to eat soup at the same time.
He once had me drive to the post office to pick up a package for him. It was a brick of hash. Sent to his full name. At the post office. He opened the package in the truck to show me all the hash he had.
He claimed that he was the bosses cousin.. well.. he was. He was The Boss's cousin. And an assistant tour manager. He died of a drug overdose while on tour.#26I was a coworker from hell. I was real strung out and high all of the time, and a bad influence on my other coworkers. Much regret#27A vet's office I worked for hired a girl to work as a tech whose only relevant experience was working in a non-medical boarding facility. She thought she was hot stuff. She expected to waltz right in with zero medical experience and get promoted to management above techs that had been working there for years, by sucking up to the bosses. Problem was, not only did she not have the experience, she also lacked the work ethic and desire to actually do any of the tech stuff. She just wanted to be able to cuddle puppies, sit at a computer, and boss peons around.
So, instead of learning how to do the job better, or actually putting in any effort, she decides the best way to get promoted is to make everyone else look bad and feel miserable. When things didn't go her way, she would make vague meritless complaints that her coworkers were being mean to her. Every week, someone was brought into the office about it. The thing is, the other 20-odd employees pointed out that, maybe, just maybe, if she was the one having problems with everybody, it could have been HER.
In the end, we lost about half the staff because of this chick. Ended up having to hire folks with no veterinary experience to replace people that had been there 7+ years. So, it wasn't just the staff that suffered. Quality of care took a noticeable hit. I stuck around for another year, but finally between her and the by then obvious management problems, I had enough.
After I left, she got bold enough to send threatening text messages to a couple of coworkers (we all had each others numbers to coordinate weekend duties). They reported her to the cops, and they arrested her while she was at work. If not for that, she'd probably still be there kissing the right asses while running off staff.#28First day of work she lit her desk on fire.
Second day of work she ate her lunch and broke out n hives.
Third day of work she arrives at work and sat in her passenger seat until one of us went out to check on her. She claims she hurt her back trying to pick up her purse and had one of her co-workers drove her home
Would not let us use the same microwave as her as she claimed she was allergic to garlic.
The list went on and on... until she was fired. Oh Marian I wonder where you are now as you were so entertaining.#29Okay, this may not be my most hellish coworker, but I have a weird one for you guys.
My first ever job was at a coffee shop chain. The location I was at was connected to a gas station/convenient store. We kinda had an 'L' shaped corner of the store. As such, we didn't have a ton of space, including room for the larger ovens needed to cook bagels. So instead, we would have our bagels delivered to us from another (larger) location down the road.
For awhile the baker was this really weird, quiet girl who seemed to lack social self awareness. She always seemed a little unclean and just lingered a little too long around people without really saying anything. Honestly she just put out "not quite right" vibes.
Anyway, one day I head in at 6 and there are no bagels. I ask my manager if the store down the road was running behind or if they had a call out. (Both were fairly common.) My manager points to the rack of newspapers the convenience store had by the entrance and tells me to read the headline.
Apparently the weird girl was in FBI custody. Basically there was a couple who had kidnapped a minor (I won't get into why, as it may be a TW for some). Weird girl was renting a room from the couple, knew what was happening and never told anyone! Somehow they were all found out and arrested and the young girl was reunited with her family.
Reading the story, the whole thing felt very twilight zone.#30Had a colleague who genuinely enjoyed seeing people not do well and enjoyed when people felt uncomfortable. She’s very manipulative, and is actually quite good at it. She would ask you questions and sympathize with whatever you’ve got going on, only to turn around and tell everyone what you just confessed to her.
After about 2-3 months with the company, if she hasn’t already somehow screwed you over, you’ve heard enough about her to know that if you don’t want the rest of the room to find out, then you don’t tell her.
Yeah, I’m talking about you Carolina.#31The 50 something Turd that was the owners son. Spoiled brat, reminded me constantly who he was if I stood up to him. Creepy as hell too, could never just tell any of the women they looked nice, actually told me one day that my legs looked nice...I was wearing a skirt. That was the last time I wore a skirt to work for a long time.
I immediately started looking for a new job within a month. There were so many other things that occurred I was turned off from working for a small family owned business since.
Image credits: soaringcats
#32As a teenager, I worked at a bowling alley. I greeted a new girl as she came in, and she just stuck her tongue out at me. Within the hour, she was fired for dropping a ball on a complaining patron’s foot.#33Girl I worked with when I was a personal shopper. She tried to get me fired a couple of times because she saw I was moving up faster than her. We both got sent to work at a different location for a couple of months and she went around bad-mouthing me to anyone who would listen, so they thought I was a sh*te employee and she was amazing. I proved myself with my work ethic and they realized she was a liar and it definitely changed their opinion of her.
I ended up going to a different location and when she went back to our original location she continued to say horrid things about me. My co-workers took my side and called her out on her BS. She left not long after on a bad note with them.#34My manager a few jobs ago. It was a tech company. We were the marketing team, which really just meant digital marketing. She had a very loose grasp on how our various tech platforms worked, and one day said to me when discussing her exasperation at posting a YouTube video to our brand channel:
"I don't really understand the internet."
She was dead serious. It was 2014. She was ultimately fired.#35My former assistant manager (I quit that job). She got caught talking with her boyfriend for several hours never leaving our department desk (green hardware store prevalent in the Midwest) and got in serious trouble. Like do it again and you're demoted back to part time. Well, she forbade me from speaking to my boyfriend at all when we were working. One day, a month or so before I got the offer for my new and current job, I asked to take the recycle bin to the back where he worked and she said no. A little later, she got annoyed at me for only facing shelves and told me to find something else to do. So I took the recycle back and brought freight up. She came to the back aisle screaming her head off at me because she told me not to go back there and I defended myself saying "well, you told me to do something else, so I was doing something else!" I turned around and I guess she flipped me the bird (caught on camera) and walked away calling me a bi*ch. One of my coworkers went to HR about it as it wasn't the first time she's gone off on me and I was just ignoring it and they were fed up with her general treatment of everyone. We both got called back to write statements, and I wrote that I saw neither the finger nor heard her call me any names, but did go on about everything else. There were no punishments, however, about a week after I left, I get a text from a former coworker saying that said manager was with a customer when HR called her on the store phone. Manager answered, asked her to hold and DIDN'T PRESS THE HOLD BUTTON! Got demoted the next day back to a cashier for calling a guest stupid while HR was on the phone. Made my life he'll when we worked together, but darn was it satisfying to hear karma caught up to her.#36Not as bad as some, but I'll never forget the 22ish year old girl who spent hours of one shift telling me, with no prompting at all, about how she used to be a raging heroin addict but she was over it now and had become extremely religious. She went into very explicit detail about her drug deals and the things she'd done to get drugs. My shy homeschooled ass was stunned.
The very next day she got fired for stealing 20 dollars from the cash register.#37In civil service, there was this one woman who:
Actively hit other people.
Changed entered times on timesheets without the original party's consent (this is a *huge* no-no legally).
Sabotaged my work and other people's.
No matter how many complaints we submitted, she was never fired. Rumor had it she was never fired because she had some serious dirt on the administration--the kind that shouldn't be leaked to the press.#38Had a manager who's opening line when I first met him was "I don't like you already." Motherf**ker had a major pickle up his arse and even threw a cabinet door at me (got me square in the back but I witnessed him get put into his place by the old lady I was helping - she gave me a good tip too- so that was nice). The worst was when I went into the bathroom and he stood outside the bathroom yelling for me. Apparently "can I finish taking a sh*t" was an inappropriate response (when I quit, my other manager let me know that he has been talked to repeatedly but he is friends with someone higher-up)#39This one coworker changed how I approached working. I was in the workforce for a decade when I decided to take a job with a very small, woman-owned company. It was just the owner and two employees, myself included. I worked my ass off and was very successful the first few months. And soon the other employee started to brazenly slack off, eventually calling in often (with what became the lamest excuses), weekly. Once she was out for almost a month because of a vague family issue that I'm convinced was made up. Our boss was so lenient because my coworker had been there for years. I ended up working harder and extra hours (even weekends) to keep our clients happy and the business going strong, which I so realized just enabled my coworker's sh*ttiness. I quickly burned out, got the hell out, and never let any person or business ever exploit me and take advantage of me ever again.#40Steve. Steve sat in the cubicle behind me and ate ice all night long. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Shake, shake, chomp.#41So this guy wasn't in my department nor in my command structure.....but this guy was the ceo dad, brought in to help out.......
He did things like hold "private" meetings with his underlings, in which he poisoned employees against each other. To not working and taking long lunch breaks. At one time he turned his entire dept against my manager, two dept that wasn't connected in anyway....his actions destroyed friendships, working relationships, trust, and absolutely destroyed the working environment as a whole...#42The guy who touched himself the entire time I was doing the onboard packet with him immediately comes to mind.#43I used to deliver puppies to people who would adopt them from different shelters. I would drive with my troll of a co-worker from Arkansas to Maine and back every weekend. I was basically a puppy santa and I would get to meet wonderful people who have us cookies or other snacks and drinks and I would get to give them a dog and see them get so happy. That part was great. However, the woman I had to drive with was probably the most toxic person I've ever had the displeasure of knowing. She would freak out over everything, but in a very whiny "the world is going to end and you've ruined my life forever" kind of way. For instance, we would take turns driving and one time she told me to drive when we were about an hour outside of new York (I'm from a town of like 200 people and never driven anywhere near a big city) and I told her I didn't know where to go. She proceeded to say "just pay attention" and went to sleep. Of course I go the wrong way and end up on a highway leaving into new York instead of around it and she wakes up as I'm paying like $3.00 at a toll booth and freaks out saying "oh no" over and over again. I realized I went the wrong way for about 10 minutes. She said I was going to get in trouble for going the wrong way and that we can't afford to pay for extra toll booths (even though I paid with my own $3) and continued to freak out for the next hour even though we were back on track ( we only lost like 30 minutes). She even told our boss that I messed up and made us late for all our deliveries even though we weren't. She acted this way all the time. On top of all of that she would scream loudly at the dogs for barking or popping in their kennels. I call her the traveling troll. She was massively obese and never bathed. She had warts on her face and was always nasty and rude. THE co-worker from hell. I quit an amazing job bc of a troll...#44The classic relative of the owner.
Started working there a few years after me and immediately given a great position. I had been doing the work for this position for the year it was vacant.
I trained him, he seemed disinterested, and for the next 3 years I did most of his job while he took credit for it. Except when there was an issue then I got thrown under the bus.
Every time I walked by his desk he was watching F1 races or soccer.
I eventually asked for a raise, outlined what I was doing which was essentially two jobs and was told there wasn't enough budget.
The next day I quit, and shortly after that they asked me to train him on all the work I did for him to which I politely declined.#45Former Supervisor - A bully, gossip, and all around horrible person that picked 1 or 2 people to be her punching bag. My introduction to her was when I was sitting at lunch and she came barreling at one of my coworkers and proceded to litteraly scream and curse in his face in the Break area. She also had a habit of gossiping in the the warehouse office in full hearing of other people which made me uncomfortable. It's one thing when a co-worked gossips to another, it's an entirely different thing when a supervisor gossips about those under them to others.
I actually cassually mentioned to a different supervisor that it made me uneasy to be in the office while this was going on and she got wind of it, she then decided to make me her target. Over the span of 6 months she bullied me and behaved in some really disrespectful ways:
- She gossiped about me: How did I find out? She started doing it in front of me.
- She gave me a very unflattering nickname: I found out when she blurted it out one time when I came into the office after being paged
- She was passive agressive towards me in all respects - Growled at me in the ladies locker room, put papers to cover her face so I couldn't "look" at her, sighed or scoffed when I tried to engage in conversation with other people (not her) Ignored me or outright walked away when I needed a supervisor override.
- She told me I needed "To step it up" with my work. I was the 2nd most productive with the the 2nd lowest fault rate of my department. To give you an Idea on a typical day 1st would do ~25 jobs, I would be at ~23, the other 5 people averaged ~15 jobs a piece.
I finally had a breakdown after she started doing it in front of other Supervisors and the Manager, this was a week after I told the manager, again, about her behavior. Nothing was being done about it. I was ready to just walk off the job and had a breakdown. Someone told the Managers boss that I was having a break down and she called me directly to find out what was going on. I was walked through an official HR report that went to the front office. She was given one last chance. I told them she wouldn't last a month. 3 weeks later she had a screaming match with another employee and was suspended and subsequently fired. I later found out she was directly responsible for 3 people quitting and one person getting fired becasue they couldn't take it anymore and threw gloves at her.#46She didn’t officially work at my store’s location. She was supposed to be at another location training to be a manager there, but her predecessor was still working at said location and the upper management/boss didn’t want too many people working there at once. So she had to work at my store’s location instead.
As soon as she started, she had a problem with me. I don’t know why, I’ll never understand why. I suspect my resting b*tch face had something to do with it. She essentially bullied me from the get-go and when I told my manager about it, she claimed nothing could be done since the rude lady wasn’t officially under my manager.
So one day the b*tch started bumping into me and saying “You have a problem with me? Let’s take it outside.” Etc. I was half her size, I’ve never fought in my life outside of sibling squabbles, and I have terrible social anxiety. So I went to the bathroom, called my S/O to come pick me up, grabbed my things, and walked out on my shift. I didn’t say a word to anyone and left her there alone during lunch rush.
I later learned from my friend who also worked there than my manager didn’t blame me, and officially, like on the papers, she said I left for “personal reasons”. She was a nice woman and I don’t blame her for not being able to do anything. Upper management at this chain was very irresponsible and didn’t seem to care about that store location whatsoever (checks came in late almost every week, we weren’t allowed to have more than two people working in the store at a time, didn’t always have enough budget to order food/supplies, etc)
I’m never working for that man’s chain again. I may work for the same store, but I’m not going to work if it’s one of the locations that assh*le owns.#47Worked with a guy that was a supervisor in another department. Dumb and an Assh*le (bad combo). would constantly insist that I do things that violated OSHA rules or were physically impossible. Wanted me to work on a 20 ton Bridge Crane while he was using it. obviously I said NO. Everytime I would refuse one of these ridiculous demands he would send out an email with EVERYONE CCd, from the Area manager, Plant manager all the way down to my boss. Soon after I left for a better job, he was fired, and they closed his email account as he was writing a manifesto. I heard they hired armed security to keep a look out for him for the next month.#48I used to work part time at a shipping warehouse and at one point, we ended up hiring this sixteen year old kid.
He made a ton of mistakes that we ended up having to fix for him, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt at first just because he was new. But not only did he never learn from his f*ck-ups, but he was incredibly lazy and lacked any self-awareness. There were instances where he was given a task, but then he'd either d*ck around on his phone most of the time, hide out in the bathroom for like forty-five minutes and then hoped we wouldn't notice, or just whine to my supervisor that he didn't want to do whatever he was assigned. Because of that, he would often take half the day to do like thirty minutes of work and would then complain that he had too much work piled on top of him. It was ridiculous.#49They acted like a friend in broad strokes, but over time the little things showed that it was all bullsh*t. The one incident that sticks out to me to this day is when I told her that my mum was hand-making my wife-to-be's wedding dress. Most people respond with some variation of "oh that's so cute" and it's a fun moment. This b*tch? She said "Couldn't you afford a proper one?". Not such a fun moment.#50I worked for about 8 months in an office with a woman that was just so incredibly miserable I had heart palpitations driving to work every day for 7 months and 3 weeks. She always felt overwhelmed, she always felt overlooked, she was nasty, she was lazy. I was her supervisor, and I really, really tried to be a nice as possible to her, help her with work, let everyone leave early when their work was done. It was never enough. We worked with two other men, and she would make them cry daily. Grown ass men, crying because of her, coming to me asking for help. Senior management didn’t want to know about it because she was a superstar in sales. I was at my absolute breaking point when a friend called me up and got me in at his company. It felt like a 100lb weight was lifted off my chest.#51That one guy who uses the handicap booth and then piss on the seat and floor.#52It was my first full time job out of college, and I was lucky enough to work in the same department as the most miserable b*tch on the planet... Jami. She was passive aggressive to the core, but she knew how to suck up to the management, so you didn't dare challenge her on anything. She would never say hello to anyone, but if you made the slightest mistake she would call you out on it in front of everyone. Leaving that department was one of the happiest days of my life.#53A new hire for a different team. So my wife and i work together in a bigger company but you would never know it since she has a different last name and sits very far away from me. Well the new hire sees a shirt she wore one day was for an anime he also liked. He immediately spent 2 hours at her desk asking her way too many questions about her, ignoring the fact she is married. He then proceeds to join us everyday for lunch with some other work friends and only talks to the women at the table. All of whom are happily married. This goes on for a few weeks before i caught him sleeping and snoring at his desk. I email his manager to check on him and is caught sleeping on the job and is fired. We were very lucky he was also a bad employee. One side note, i found out after he was fired he was making sexually explicit remarks to one of the shy women that reports to me. I let her know that she should never be shy about coming forth immediately about any time of harassment or other people making her uncomfortable and that i and the HR team are there to ensure a safe and friendly work environment.#54He was in his 50s, had often uncontrolled diabetes, was 6'4" tall. I was 24, and a foot shorter. Normally he was a teddy bear but when his blood sugar got low he would get violent. He tried throwing punches at me for suggesting he get a coke from the vending machine in the hall (good thing he's slow and clumsy in that state). When we were in the truck together once, and it started making a weird sound, I wanted to take it into the shop and he insisted we didn't need to by yelling at me and pounding his fists on the dash, but we were going to a remote area and I didn't want to have to try and find help if the truck broke down and the radio didn't work. I had to call search and rescue on him once because he didn't come back to the truck after doing a transect (biology job). You guessed it, he had low blood sugar and was not able to find his way back to the truck. He had no education or experience in biology, but he just couldn't be fired from his job driving a plow. With his propensity to let himself get hypoglycemic, he couldn't drive either. So they shuffled him to the wildlife department because he had an interest in wildlife. I was basically his babysitter.
Image credits: MizElaneous
#55This was a person that was in the aircraft qualification training squadron at the same time as me. He wasn't an intentionally terrible person, but his lack of self awareness made any interaction around him difficult and exhausting.
He washed out of another flying career field. In the first sims (before the flying phase) he refused to use established procedures, resulting in degraded ability to provide required data to external players. Managed to fail his first instructional ride, despite it being nearly impossible to fail if you show up.
He could not figure out how to take leave, despite several people walking him through the process. Rather than trying to solve any problem, he would announce it to the rest of the room, and if no one jumped in to help him, asked the nearest person.
He manage to frustrate and time-jack the kindest instructor I know because he didn't have a basic understanding of a training airspace. In a bid to get back to more pressing (and more likely to be completed) tasks, he gave me an apologetic look as he suggested that Lt PUBspotter was a smart student, and could probably help him get up to speed.
Image credits: PUBspotter
#56This woman who hated me and always had to be better than me. It was awful. First time I have ever cried at work.
One day, I caught her in a bold-faced lie.
I had taken a day off.
She said when I returned that the boss had asked questions about where I had been on my day off.
My boss knew exactly where I had been (I knew because I had told her), so I knew this was a lie and she was just being nosy.
Called her out, she had no response but tears about how I was mean to her (?), it was very satisfying to see her caught in a lie by the boss after years of lying to and manipulating her coworkers.#57My boss - he always talked about other employee's behind their backs when they left the room.#58oh i got one for you guys
So i worked in sh*tty gas station. I had a coworker we'll call "Jenny". Jenny was on "light duty" as ordered by her dr when i first started working there. Her injury was a heel spur and she never missed an opportunity to complain about it. She wasnt supposed to lift more than like 30 pounds or stand for more then a half hour at a time. Not a big deal right?
First time i came in to relieve her from a shift was a busy friday afternoon. She had two full pages of her coloring book colored in and thought it would be cute to write that on our task list for the day under "additional tasks completed"...alright, annoying but shes youngish. What do you really expect from a 20 something year old with a medical issue?
Over time her antics became more and more ridiculous. A stray dog wandered over to the station and she brought it inside. Let it wander around the inside of the store where theres plenty of food on the shelves for it to get into. She then proceeded to make a facebook post about it and also wrote those things on the task list as if it were part of her job....
The thing that really drove home for me how useless this girl was was when the assistant manager finally told her she couldnt bring her coloring books to work anymore. She'd been off light duty for months but continued sitting at the desk coloring during all her shifts while neglecting all her cleaning duties. She cried and walked out mid shift when she was told and then filed a complaint with corporate claiming she was being bullied by the assistant manager.....#59Rick the misogynistic di*k. He was my lead 4 years ago. I am a female engineer, the only one on that team. He was always checking my work and send someone out with me. I thought but was because we had never worked together before.
Then one day in a group meeting with the entire group, he said “Women don’t make good engineers because they can only make decisions based on emotions.”
Everyone’s jaws dropped and they looked at me. I was so shocked. All I could come up with was “yeah, because that is how I figured out how much to put into my 401k.”
I left the group. He invited me to his retirement party. I told him I was happy he was retiring. He thought it was a compliment.
My current “worst coworker” is a lady that always has the attitude of “you’re wrong because you don’t understand.” There are two of us ladies now but she’s annoying. Not horrible though, so that’s a big step up!#60The one who tried to out do me in literally everything because my manager gave me an “employee of the month” as a way to boost morale. The coworker didn’t care about quality of work or service, they wanted to do everything I could and do it better for recognition. She would do the most basic stuff and ask “where’s my award? When am I getting employee of the month?”#61i (F) was a busser / runner at a restaurant when i was a senior in high school. it was a brand new restaurant, so all the staff was new together. there was a server there who was like somewhere in the 26-28 age range (F) & she had been waitressing since she was 17 -18 in a few different places so she was pretty good& well liked by many customers. she could handle a lot of tables & would make great tips, but she HATED sharing them. bussers were to be tipped 3% of the dept sales at the end of the night. she argued that was soo much & TOO much. she argued that she is older & needs the money more than we would because she had a car payment & rent. she made them bring it down to 1.5%. a few months go by, i notice my tips are always lower with her even when she isn’t working in the smaller section. & by the way, she would switch shifts & take off when it would be her turn for her to work the smaller section of the restaurant, so she always had the bigger section. she knew how to finesse it so she always made the most money, & not in a fair way. so i begin to feel she is shorting me because at times i would over hear her saying things like, “she missed that plate, that’s going to cost her.” or she would ask me to make her a dessert then get angry when i’d miss a plate or she would have to run another tables appetizers out because i’m busy making the DESERT SHE SHOULD BE MAKING? i eventually called her out on it & she hated my guts after that. oh well, boo hoo.#62It's a close tie.
1st was the store manager who was supposed to be training me to get my own store but somehow decided I was a threat and proceeded to try and screw me over and and actively put a hamper on my training.
2nd was a dude who actively sandbagged his sales numbers in all categories except for one (to the detriment of his commission checks) so he could get praise in the district.#63They told me bare minimum of any task the workstation required, poor communication, disinterested in literally everything, treated details as something obvious I should have somehow known, etc etc. The most awkward workday ever.#64I use to work as a trainer at a very toxic cleaning company. I trained a girl who was very open about not wanting any sort of help during her training period but was more than willing to let me observe while having a conversation.
The minute her night ended, she would contact my supervisor and complain that I would just stand there and talk while she worked and how I was never doing my job. She got me written up quite often but ended up leaving the company after a month to move back to get home town.#65Husband and wife team got hired on and both of them were utterly awful. Manager made the job description crystal clear including the fact they'd start part time and advancement to full time was done on seniority. They made everyone's life a living hell for several weeks until one got a job delivering furniture and the other went to go pump gas at a gas station. I was shocked they left so quickly but everyone was beyond overjoyed to see them go.#66My current tool buddy at work is more tool than buddy. She's by far the worst person I've ever worked with at any job or on any project.
She complains nonstop about everyone and everything. If someone doesn't move out of her way immediately, they're an asshole. If someone is waiting for her to move out of the way, they're still the asshole.
We've been running conduit on this jobsite for about 7 months now. She refuses to use a level when bending or do any calculations because "when you've been in this business as long as I have, you can do it all by eye." Except her pipes are always wrong. And when they're a little bit off, rather than just adjusting what we've already made, she insists on one of us just smashing away at it until it fits and looks like a piece of sh*t.
I got stuck working with her because literally everyone else on our site refused to after about 3 days of being around her, and they all have seniority.#67I'll call her SJ because I don't work with her anymore, and you can't do a lot with just initials.
SJ worked for the company before, but was fired because of her former manager. She was hired back by the newer manager at the time because "everyone deserves a second chance". No, a lot of people don't. She would swipe groceries across the counter and bag them even if they didn't scan, call out almost every shift the hour before because she "can't find a babysitter", have her family come in and stock for her (which isn't allowed at all), complain about her store coupons not working and demanding we change them since "she works here", and most damning of all: THREATENED TO SUE FOR DISCRIMINATION WHEN SHE WAS WARNED ABOUT TERMINATION AFTER SHE HAD HER 10TH CALL OUT IN UNDER A MONTH! She claimed everyone there was racist because she only wanted to check out black customers because she was black and "white folks make her uncomfortable". Look, I'm not racist at all. After she was fired again, she made it her life's mission to give us even more Hell than before. Since she's "the customer now" we have to do what she says or she'll file a complaint. This didn't go on long, but she was also caught stealing when we wouldn't change prices for her. I hate her with an honest to God passion, but even more now knowing she's THE ASSISTANT MANAGER AT THE OTHER LOCATION ACROSS TOWN!
SJ, you are a terrible person. I hope you see this to know everything you do involving that job is wrong and honestly sad. You're part of the reason I quit, and you deserve nothing but the future firing coming your way.
TL;DR: SJ is a coworker I had who was a terrible person in every shape and form. Worst employee I've ever worked with, and I worked with a crackhead before her.#68There was this one guy who had terrible breath, and he never shut up. Would seriously come over to your desk and talk nonstop about bullsh*t for what seemed like forever. The whole time you're sitting there smelling his terrible breath, and of course on top of that he's never doing any actual work. Luckily he was eventually fired, but my company was one of those companies that took forever to fire someone#69The hospital ceo's "executive assistant ". Typical call to the help desk "Finally! Really 7 rings? Why is the mouse freezing? When will it be fixed?" Or, "Finally! When is the printer going to start printing? Come asap. " As low man on the it totem pole I had to handle all of her nonsense.#70A coworker I still hate to this day. Back in 2012 I used to work in an insurance office. This chick was extremely rude to junior colleagues, made a fuss anytime things were not going her way and made sure my life was hell when handing over work tasks. Anytime you would try to confront her she would go and cry to our manager. Oh yeah, she also had a secret chat with some of " the chosen" colleagues where she would make fun of other people's looks and generally start office gossip. I'm extremely happy I quit and I hope I never see her again.#71Dated a guy who broke in and sexually assaulted me after we broke up. We both worked for the same corporation but opposite ends of the city. Years later, he got moved to my office. Would just linger. Sit and stare at me. Just hover around and make his presence known. I had lodged a conflict of interest before he arrived but it got ignored. Eventually I went to our direction of ethics and tried to get it sorted but my poor little ex had a “mental breakdown” in the lobby (cried hysterically and threw himself on the floor like a god damn toddler). Work took his side because “he is clearly going through a hard time”. I was pregnant at the time with my husbands child. They only took me seriously a couple weeks later when I was in the bathroom and started bleeding everywhere and had to call an ambulance. They freaked out in case it was a stress thing. Apparently no one wants to be on the hook for stressing out a pregnant lady to the point she risks losing her kid, so they transferred me out.#72On a contract job, I had to share a small cube with one of the most grattingly rude and obnoxious assh*les I have ever met.
Even worse, she insisted on sitting on a huge yoga ball in there and rocking back and forth on it, so she was constantly bumping into my chair. She also constantly smacked her lips while eating, and she was always eating. I'm pretty sure the yoga ball and annoying eating habits were to try to force me quit so she could have the entire cube to herself. But at the time the economy was terrible, so there were no other jobs available.
Eventually I went to my manager to beg him to move me. And by then he had heard all about her terrible habits and sh*tty attitude from other people. So he moved me as a kindness.
I don't think she stayed there too much longer anyway, as by then she had pissed off most of the people she came into contact with. #Fruntledumjam #WorkRelations #JobDrama #WorstEmployeesEver #OfficeDrama
