Some employers can be down right insensitive. Some managers only see the dollar signs even when staff is dealing with personal issues. It’s a shame really. There are many statistics that talk about how a safe and empathetic work environment helps productivity. If only the these companies can get out of archaic times, they’d realize their old ways are damaging to the bottom line.
AskReddit was all a blaze when asked,
“What is the most bonkers thing that happened to you or your work and your employer STILL expected you to continue your work day?”
Some stories will have your jaw dropping while others are relatable AF.
12. Still open during a hurricane
“Right after Hurricane Sandy, the bank I worked for had no power for days, so obviously we couldn’t do any banking.
Rather than just close, my manager insisted that the entire staff show up for shifts as usual, just so we could sit in our normal seats in our uniforms and winter jackets to tell any customers who wandered in that we didn’t have power and couldn’t help them with anything at all.
Just about every single person asked us some variation of “then what the hell are you doing here?”
It sucked.”
11. Beware of shady companies and seedy hotels
“Worked for a small graphic design company fresh out of school. They used cracked software, didn’t really pay anyone and were generally shady but I didn’t really think anything of it, until the FBI showed up.
Apparently they also didn’t pay their taxes and so my boss was taken away in handcuffs and the office was closed.
Or so I thought.
Our boss called our creative director from jail and told us to work from this seedy motel room he set up to finish up the assignment or else we wouldn’t get paid.
Nobody showed apparently as we all decided now would be a good time to look for new opportunities.”
10. If you can’t take the heat…take off your tie.
“The air-conditioning broke down and people started passing out from the heat.
But they let us take our ties off, so that was generous.”
9. What a pissy day
“Someone spilled (or poured out) a bottle of deer attractant on the floor under the shelves in the sporting goods section of WalMart.
Stank of deer piss for…well, actually, it probably still does.
They never cleaned it, and we had ammo to sell.”
8. This employer is “bark”-core
“I was working at a pet store and was used to being bitten by the pets we sold, hamsters, ferrets, birds – no big deal.
This day, however, as I was helping a woman who had brought her dog in, it attacked me. Luckily it was a small-ish/medium sized dog so it didn’t get my face, but I had big bleeding holes all up and down one arm. The lady never said sorry, and my manager told me to go to the back, get cleaned up, and come back out and ring on the resister.
So I did, with big blood splatters all over my yellow uniform shirt.”
7. Definitely a toxic environment
“Automotive painting.
Been complaining about my mask parts needing replacing for a few weeks. Finally my mask broke and I refused to paint because toxic fumes where coming into my mask. Being the only automotive painter…. work came to a halt. I was told to get in there and paint or else. I pointed at the security camera and asked him to say that again but a little louder.
He fired 2 people that day but I wasn’t one of them.”
6. Safety not first
“At a factory, sliced my finger open using a cutting blade that had been partially broken, resulting in the spare blade hidden inside it coming partially out of an opening. I grabbed the blade and started using the proper portion of it, but I had unknowingly placed my right index finger right over the exposed spare. I started slicing with the blade and cut a line down my finger from about the middle to the tip.
Immediately started dripping blood all over, called my boss over radio, they ushered me into the nurse’s office. They didn’t want me to go to a hospital or any form of urgent care because that would have been an “incident” and reset the “days since last incident” tracker that people got bonuses for. I was young and let them pressure me into accepting that. So they wrapped it up tight until my finger looked like it had a cast on it, and sent me back to work.
It wasn’t that deep, although it looked nasty. It probably could have used stitches. It healed ok, but I still have a noticeable scar.”
5. “Would you like dust with that?”
“Worked as a busboy for a now closed restaurant.
I came in for my shift one time when they had roofers working on the roof. The section of roof they worked on was all terra-cotta roof tile and they needed to remove it all to replace it. The upper management decided it was a “great” idea to have this work done during the lunch hours and were open for those hours. Little did they all know is there were cracks on the ceiling inside and while the removal was happening the terra-cotta tile dust was raining inside all over the guests and their food. Management still tried to continue restaurant service as usual but the guests were having none of it and just walked out. I come to an empty restaurant littered with tile dust and we were expected to clean it up before dinner started.
It took at least a month for my lungs to clean out that shit because I was not provided any respiratory gear to clean up that mess.”
4. Rain or shine…
“Snowstorm dumped like 6 inches of snow the day before and then rained creating a sheet of ice on the roads. People were literally abandoning their vehicles on the sides of the highway because the driving conditions got so treacherous it was safer to walk.
I had just recently gotten an All Wheel Drive SUV, and was expected to come in that next day, while my coworker who had a two wheel drive sedan was allowed to stay at home until the ice melted. I tried explaining that AWD does not automatically mean safe to operate on icy roads (I didn’t even have chains yet at the time), but that went over like a lead balloon.”
3. Accident or not, there’s no excuse to call off
“I had been in an accident where I was hit by a van when on my bike. I was on my way to the hospital and shot a quick text to my immediate boss to let him know that I might not be in the next day, as I didn’t know what the damage was and how long I may be. He told me to take the day off to be sure I recovered properly.
The next day, his boss called me and asked me where the hell I was.
I told him I’d been hit by a van and he said, “And?”
I didn’t work there much longer after that.”
2. Rules are rules!
“College professor, not a boss:
In college, we had our final semester presentations that counted for 60% of our grade. I was on blood thinners at the time and the night before my presentation, I had an accident in the home and split my head open. 12 hours later, it was still bleeding.
First thing I did in the morning was email my professor with an explanation and a time-stamped photo of blood running down my face. I asked if I could present the following day instead and said that was not possible without a Doctor’s note. I had to go to the doctor, pay a $32 co-pay just so the teacher could write on a note “Philip’s head will not stop bleeding because of medication he is on. I can’t believe I had to write you this note”.
1. S**t happens
“Just a few weeks ago, a toilet on the floor above our 3 offices (branch of a law firm) got stopped up, then unclogged and flooded our offices with shit.
It affected the 2 lawyers, not me (legal assistant). Their desks and papers were soaked, carpets soaked, files soaked. HQ brought us some fans to dry the carpet. The office smelled like a huge BM. We still had clients coming in. No one was ever sent out to clean or remediate anything hazardous (mold, SHIT).
Our office is cleaned every 2 weeks and the cleaners didn’t come last Friday, which would have been 2 weeks since the leak.”
In the end, no your worth and find a company that takes pride in their employees!
In the meantime, tell us your “bonker” stories! Do that in the comments, fam!
