It would be nice if we lived in a world where people were always honest about their feelings and told the people around them directly when they had a problem, but unfortunately that’s not the world we live in. Passive-aggressive people are everywhere, and these 15 Redditors recently shared the most passive-aggressive behavior they’ve ever witnessed. These people go above and beyond just leaving angry notes on the refrigerator. I promise reading about them will make you feel better about every roommate you’ve ever had.
1. CharlieMinimum’s co-worker Val was honestly a warrior for justice in the workplace.
I worked at a place where the boss was a monster, he would lose his temper, curse, swear, actually hop as he worked himself into a fenzy over practically nothing. A lunatic.
One day he went off at Val, a sweet, intelligent, very religious young lady, that everybody liked. As he ranted and screamed at her, she sank to her knees, then over onto her side, and flat out on the floor.
The boss yelled “WTF are you doing?”
“Well” said Val from the floor “I just figured that as long as you are going to walk all over me, I might as well make it easy for you”
The boss stomped away…..what else could he do?
She had a black belt in passive-aggressive. 🙂
2. I wonder if PsychedelicGoat42’s co-worker even notices that her trash can is always full.
I work in an office that operates in shifts. I am not a huge fan of the co-worker that relieves me. So, whenever my shift is about to end, I always swap the trashcan under her desk for the trashcan in the office with the most garbage in it.
3. johngreenink’s company is run by savage geniuses.
At my workplace, we had two close city office buildings. They planned to vacate one and move us all to the other. This meant redesigning the first office into a much more cramped “open plan” office with far less privacy, and hardly any personal space. When people complained about the extremely cramped conditions that they were going to have to work in, the company responded by offering courses on “How to Get Rid of Clutter in your Life”.
4. rachelicha’s roommate made a classic power play move, though I’m not really sure what the intended goal was.
Day 3 of college: I asked my roommate if she wanted to go to the gym together. She said “no”.
Then, while still making eye contact, she picked up her cell phone, dialed a number, and said: “Hey [Sarah], want to go to the gym right now? I feel like working out.”
5. If you’re not going to wash your dishes, silverkinger is going to leave them in your bed.
My housemate at university never washed up the dishes, always left them stacked high in the sink.
One day we moved all the dirty crockery upstairs and tucked it under his bedsheets – a surprise for when he needed to get into sleep.
That ended up being the night he brought his girlfriend (now wife) home for the first time…
6. porcineChemist’s housemate wasn’t going to go down without one final, indirect “F*** you.”
Housemate moved out. Left us a box of microwave popcorn. Took the microwave.
7. The kid in holden_paulfield’s story was angry about paying for kegs, but somehow didn’t have a problem spending money on the security guards he hired.
UGHHH gonna get buried but, alas !!
We were having a day drink at our house at school and one kid fronted all the money for kegs. My two friends and I didn’t pay him yet because we were waiting to get paid or didn’t see him yet. So this kid literally hires a security guard to not allow us into a party at our own house for not giving him ten dollars for a a few kegs.
Got in a savage fight that somehow ended up with the phrase ” I’m glad your parents got a divorce” being casually tossed around.
8. dirtyqtip’s grandparents needed a middle man to express their distaste for chicken.
I was taking care of my elderly grandparents and started to defrost chicken for dinner. The phone rang and my grandmother answered the phone. She then called me down because my uncle on the other line wanted to talk to me. I pickup and say hello, and he replies “They don’t want chicken for dinner”
9. Must be something about grandparents. Or maybe vyxxer’s grandma just really enjoys making announcements.
My grandma never says anything directly. Like she wants the dishes done she will just inform the world “hey the dishwasher is empty.”
10. Flater420’s grandmother even left passive aggressive notes from beyond the grave.
I love my grandmother, but she was as passive aggressive as they come. We all loved her, but sometimes did have to ask her to tone it down.
In her funeral arrangements, she had put a little note with the notice she wanted to be put in newspapers (both in our region and her family’s home region).For context, she was given 5 years by doctors after a near fatal heart attack, but managed to squeeze another 25 years out of life.
She had died at home, and most of the family had arrived before the coroner was even there, so we were all still very affected, and going through her funeral arrangements. My mother read the note out loud to the family.You never visited me when I was alive. Now you can remember that I’m not here anymore and you didn’t visit me.
That’s not an excerpt, it’s the whole note. The family unanimously decided to skip that part of her final wishes. We were amused (can’t find a better word) at how much that was “classic her”.
11. My jaw actually dropped reading theUSpopulation’s story.
My mom worked at a hair solon. One day I picked her up from work because we had to share only one car at the time. When I was waiting for her to finish her shift, a customer was walking out and told the woman behind the counter — whom she knew by name — exactly this: “You know, I was reading this book and I think you will love it. It is called How to Trim Fat Around the Waistline.”
The room went silent. Everyone was speechless. She walked out with a smirk on her face and the manager told the woman behind the counter to blacklist her.
12. GhostOfGamersPast just raised the bar for awkward wedding speeches.
I was at a wedding of two atheists. The parents of one didn’t care, but the parents of the other were really harsh orthodox Catholics. The speeches at the wedding were amazing! Here’s this groom, standing beside his new wife, and his mother comes up, and goes into her speech with “Some people turn their backs on their loved ones, but God knows that those others will still always be willing to welcome them back…”
It was easily the most passive-aggressive speech I’d ever heard.
13. Atheists seem to be on the receiving end of a lot of passive-aggressive behavior. At least badteacher86 tried to be professional about this.
This happened when I was in university, doing my student teaching rounds.
I’m waiting nervously for the email that tells me where I’m going to be placed, and when I get it, I discover that it’s at a Christian school (in my province Christian schools are part of the public districts). I’m a little worried because I’m super fuckin’ atheist. So I email the faculty dean and ask if she thinks it will be a problem. Turns out she’s an atheist too, so she understands my plight. She suggests I email the school principal and ask.
So I craft a very professional email to the principal, explaining that while I absolutely respect their beliefs and I intend to give my teaching there everything I have, I hope me being an atheist isn’t an issue. Basically it just meant I didn’t want to take part in the ceremonial aspects.
I never received a reply from the principal, but 3 hours later I had a new email with my new placement.
14. sarsXdave is a dude, but his aunt doesn’t seem to care.
My aunt sent me a birthday card with nothing written in it. I don’t demand a card, it’s not usually a big deal to me, but, I was annoyed that someone would buy a card, a stamp, and mail it just to basically say, “I’M NOT THINKING ABOUT YOU!”
While I considered that it might be an accident, this aunt married into m family and has always had her nose in the air, especially around me. I was once visiting my uncle and cousins and when she came to the door, she didn’t say anything to me, turns around, and says, “(Uncle’s name)! She’s here.” I am a dude.
15. lives4pizza, a martyr for passive-aggression, bravely and silently failed a test just to make a point.
I actually did this: in high school I sat in the middle of a bunch of douche bags that copied off all my tests, study guides, (in class) homework, class work, anything that required thinking because I made straight 100s on everything (I rock history). My teacher didn’t make different copies of the tests, it was too much work. They were obvious about it too. So one day I just bubbled anything on a test. Anything! They did the same thing and ye we all failed but after that, they understood that I was sick of it and they stopped until the final exam. I failed a test so they’d fail so they’d stop cheating off me. If that’s not passive aggressive, I don’t know what is.
