Your worst ever colleague

[CrimsonCattery]

Just a bit of fun. All my current colleagues rate from amazing to only mildly irritating but in the past have worked with some right wankers.

The worst one was a couple of years ago. Civil service open plan office. Friendly team. One man was the same grade as me and started at a similar time never spoke to me which was fine if a little odd as we were all learning the work. We had the same mentor who was a lovely older woman eho had been doing our job for years. Our boss was also female.

Mentor told me he was completely blanking her and would only go to the men in our team for advice. He refused to take any direction from women and would default to our boss' male counterpart. We hotseated and he started kicking off if asked to sit next to someone of a lower grade (we were still relatively junior) which was bizarre as no one else cared about seniority like that. The men in our team also hated him and he narrowly escaped being hit at one Xmas social after a disgusting comment he made about the women in the team (they refused to share what he said). His work was also crap and he got fired for a combination of that and his terrible attitude.

We later found out from Google he had been fired from his previous job where he should have been helping people because he was unfairly finding against people he disapproved of. It was in the news as he lost an employment tribunal after he sued them.

Have also worked with milk thieves, phantom shitters and other oddballs. Its very dull where I am now in comparison!

@BearBearBearBear - he sounds hideous.

Just also interested in what him being Scottish had to do with it?

Oh I have another one.

The male colleague I started dating who asked me to keep it quiet at work because it was frowned upon. And yes he was "dating" multiple other women in the same workplace and told them the same.

When I was in my late teens, I worked with a girl who was really quiet and hard to get to know. I tried but she just wouldn’t. She then started turning up to work in the same outfits that I had been wearing the previous week, some styles were quite unique to me so it was clearly a complete copy but it made me feel awkward as it was so obvious. She didn’t stay in the job for long, thank goodness as it became more and more embarrassing as people started commenting to me about it. I guess it was a kind of compliment but it certainly didn’t feel like that at the time.

A teacher who started working in my school made my life hell. She had everyone walking on eggshells but seemed to have it in for me in a big way.
She went for promotion but didn’t get it. This is where the crazy behaviour began.

I could go on and on about various things she did. I wasn’t spoken to at all for about five months. She wouldn’t answer a question and when I would speak in the staff room she would glare at me with her arms folded and sit silently saying nothing. The school principal also had issues with her and stupidly I thought if I ignored her it would all go away.

She slammed a door on a parent coming to collect children for no good reason. I heard it and said parent rang the school and told me what happened as I was class teacher. Instead of speaking to the parent and trying to smooth things over, I got a going over for lying to her and not telling her what the parent had said. I followed school procedure and the principal said I did the right thing but this made no difference to her.

She regularly came into my classroom and started shouting at me in front of the children in my class. Her next issue was that I didn’t break board confidentiality and inform her of matters which were discussed at a meeting. After meetings there was a memo done up on what to communicate to staff and these matters were not on it.

I was called a horrible person, incompetent, how did I ever graduate from college. She started badmouthing me to children she was supposed to be supporting and if they didn’t know something she would say” how could you know that, you have such a bad teacher”. She started telling parents I was a bad teacher and a horrible person and that the principal only got the promotion because her husband who was also a principal helped her out.

It all came to a head when parents wrote letters of complaint. I had been in the school much longer and I suppose thankfully they knew it was all rubbish. One parent came to school to meet her to discuss issues and she wouldn’t come out of her room but later that day left abusive voicemails on his phone. I had a panic attack and fainted on hearing of the latest rumours she spread about me and had to be collected from school and brought home. It was only at the end of the year that she got an initial warning for conduct.

I was quite angry as there had been witnesses for at least half of the instances where she verbally attacked me. She was given chance after chance to change her behaviors from about October to June and they got worse and worse which made me feel quite angry and let down by the end.

The impact on me meant that I totally lost my confidence as a teacher and a person. I also lost my faith in management and trade unions as she had a union writing letters on her behalf over why she didn’t get the promotion. Definitely one of the toughest periods of my life and I’m always thankful to those parents who saw her for what she was.

I used to have a manager who literally watched what we were doing over our shoulders , God knows when she did her own work.

That sounds awful cotdottons , there are some truly dreadful people out there.
The bit about being glared with arms folded rang a bell with me. There was a long term staff member at my workplace who was difficult. I had to give a talk one time and she sat there, arms folded, looking aggressively disinterested is the best way to describe it. At the end she asked a couple of passive aggressive questions designed purely to show me up.

She left the workplace but recently called wanting to speak to the manager to see how things were going, all friendly saying 'it's me, Sheila, you must remember me, I worked there 30 years.. . '

I was polite but refused to acknowledge that I remembered the woman! Fuck me, if you're going to be rude to everyone then don't expect to have your ego massaged in return. Silly self-important cow.

(Mistakenly posted this on a similar thread - but this one is more appropriate!)

My ex-job share person. She undermined me whenever she could, bullied members of my team when I wasn't in, regularly passed off my ideas as her own and co-opted MY assistant (who was a similar nasty cow) to report to her things that I and my team were doing.
I stood it for 2 years by which time the job, which I had loved previously, was intolerable.
When I told my team that I was going to another school, their reaction was one of, "You can't leave us with her!" and one said, "Can you take me with you?"

5 years on she can suddenly pop into my mind and I feel murderous. Then I tell myself that I never have to see, listen or speak to her again!
If by any chance she is a Mumsnetter and recognises the situation - yes I am talking about you sociopath.

When I was 21 I had a job for about 2 months. Left because the staff were horrible to me. The manager would nit pick at me for everything. Tell me my uniform had to be perfect while not wearing the proper uniform herself. Tell me i wasn't allowed to wear makeup even tho she wore a god awful orange foundation to dark for her skin and thick black eyeliner everyday. Make constant passive aggressive remarks to me. Another colleague who unsurprisingly was her best mate. 'Rob the nob' I referred to him as to my dp. Would single me out as 'youngun' because they where all in their mid 40's and I was 21. Tell me everything I did was wrong and could be sacked for it. Literally back me into a corner and belittle so no one could hear. Would come in and say hello to everyone and offer them all tea and coffee except me. I would come home in tears to dp. After 2 months I found out the only person there who was nice to me was leaving. So i quit and refused to work my weeks notice. Never used them for a reference either. Nasty fuckers.

In every school I've worked in there has been a clique of staff, usually teachers, but the previous school I worked in was the worst. We were supposed to supervise our class for the first part of lunch but they would always go straight to the staffroom, meaning they had an extra 15 minutes every day (precious time when you're a teacher!). They would then spread out over the staffroom table and talk loudly the whole time. They often spoke negatively about other staff members and laugh about them, including me (I never really went in there because of them). They essentially hounded out several members of staff, including me, by being loud, unkind, domineering and aggressive. The head knew what they were like but did nothing to stop then, in fact she promoted several of them even though they were barely out of their NQT year. I was already leadership but struggling to stand up to the whole gaggle of them, as if you spoke to one about behaviour they'd ask come down on you. As I said, the head did nothing and was a bitch herself. It was the happiest day when I left there, but it left me with little confidence in myself that I'm slowly building back up. Absolutely toxic place if you weren't in their group.

I forgot about the vet I had the misfortune to temp for. I was a receptionist. I had come from an office background, lots of experience with computers, word processing, spreadsheets, marketing etc. Wasn’t allowed to touch the computer in the office. Nor were the other receptionists.

Shouted at constantly by the miserable cow head vet. She belittled everyone. She’d stand over your shoulder as you were taking down a message and while you were still on the phone she’d shout at you, in full hearing of the person on the other end that you hadn’t written down enough information. Well funnily enough I’m still on the bloody phone and the client hasn’t finished speaking! Piss off and don’t interrupt me! Her partner was a gutless twit that never stood up to her or for the staff.

Final straw was when I was comforting a man who’s dog had been rushed in following an accident and had died. She told me in his hearing to get back to work. I told her no. After he’d gone she bollocked me for talking back to her. I told her that I was a fully grown adult and would not be spoken to like that. She just huffed off back to her office and was even more vile than normal after that. When my three month contract was up they called me into the office and told me that they didn’t think I was compatible and wouldn’t be keeping me on. I was icy polite and left with dignity but I wish I’d told them both to shove the job up their cold dead arses, the absolutely vile pair of bullying cunts.

Angela, in Suffolk, if you’re reading this, good.

My first job out of uni, I was a receptionist and the company was run by 3 brothers, one of them was nice but the other 2 were vile, the main one used to snap his fingers or whistle at me like a dog to make him a drink, I wish I had spat in it, he used to try and get me alone and once at a party wanted to take me to a hotel, also when I announced I was pregnant they didn't speak to me for a month as they asked in my interview if I was planning on started a family and I told them no (I didn't know I was already pregnant at the time), so many stories at that place, once the women's toilets were blocked and he walked through the office with the pipe in his hand with a women's tampax and asked who did it belong to, also the finance director said I should of taken it up the backside if I didn't want to get pregnant
I got promoted to the accounts office and I put up with it because I wanted the experience to move onto another place.
The worst thing was once when I came into work one morning, the whole place was locked down by the police as it was a Crime scene, turns out somebody had been caught stealing from them and they got him into the office, tied him up and tortured him all night, the police also took away their shotgun licence (they were also farmers), such a strange place to work.

@Lorddenning1 Jesus Christ

@MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig I wish I was making it up, so many dodgy bad things that happened in that place, I know loads more but u don't want to out them too much, just glad I know longer work there, the final straw for me was when they said they are combing businesses so our workload was going to double, said we weren't getting a pay rise, I was also still on the receptionist wage by this point, even though I was managing the companies ledger and proven myself that I could do the job, the lasting line from the boss was if u don't like it go and find somewhere else to work, so I did and their faces were priceless. My new job was my beat job ever, annual pay rises, bonus, boss used to make u a drink and say thank you every night when we left. Old place tried to recruit me back after a few months and I told them I wouldn't do it for a 24k gold pig

Lied about his gran dying to get a day off the same day one of his colleagues was actually at his grans funeral.

I've had some awful managers who literally screamed in people's faces or were completely incompetent. I've had a colleague falsely accuse me and 2 others of bullying just to get signed off sick, a colleague sexually harass me for months before assaulting me in a taxi and I've had an older man scream at me because he didn't do his job properly and needed someone to blame. Luckily for me the new CEO heard him and later in a meeting tore him a new one when he tried to blame me.

All bad but my favourite bad colleague story is this:

We had a lady who was the worst one upper and such a know it all. A colleague was really upset one day as her dad was having double heart bypass surgery and she overheard and said "So? My dad had treble heart bypass surgery and died but you don't see me crying." Then just walked away leaving the poor 17 year old in tears.

She also "knew" I had been having an affair with someone. I absolutely hadn't and I overheard her saying she had evidence of it but was waiting for the right moment. She went white as a sheet when I walked out the toilet cubicle and asked her for the evidence.

We got so sick of her one day in a staff meeting when she kept on adding her opinion and talking over the person who was the expert there to train us. We made up a fake illness that someone's cousin had and started talking about it near her. She piped up how dangerous this condition actually was and that her cousin had lost a toe - but almost his entire foot - because of it. 3 of us had to walk out the meeting because we couldn't stop laughing. I can't remember what the illness was called but I can just remember how angry she got at us laughing.

At 20 I got a job in a small, unique restaurant. 10 tables or so, only booked once per night and the customers were encouraged to stay all evening and when dining was done, the disco lights were switched on, tables were moved slightly, blaring music came on and it was for all intents and purposes, a club until 1am or later. The food was expensive but the drinks were very, very limited. One type of beer, one white wine and I think, one red. God knows how it was popular but it was. Hidden behind the bar were the bottles of coke and lemonade we used for spirits so not even on tap.

Well, here's where the crappy colleague comes into it: the owner was just gross. A nasty dirty man with no concept of food hygiene.
He'd go to the toilet at the back of the kitchen (separated by a small corridor). He didn't shut the door so you got the view of his back while pissing.
He never washed his hands.
Ever.
To add to this, he had something against having a scoop for the ice. He kept taking away the small glass I was using and told me to use my hands. So much so he'd get really mad at me for not wanting to.

The cheap white wine was bought in bulk. 50+ cases in the cellar. The tiny bar didn't have any fridges so every night we had to haul ice from the cellar repeatedly and use the three sinks to hold all the wine and beers in ice. When the wine wasn't chilled yet he'd pour it into a glass of ice for a minute and pour it back into another glass THROUGH HIS UNWASHED FINGERS!
He also made me iron his clothes before I started my restaurant work. I was the only waitress and as it was an expensive place, the tips were at least £20 per table. That's a good £200 a night, usually more.
I never got any. He kept every penny while I was on £3.20 an hour.
I was so relieved when I was let go after the Christmas period, especially as he'd tried it on with me.

@FeelinFagin
That's just GRIM! 🤮

Thankfully it closed by the end of that year. I guess once you've had the unique experience of dining then dancing in a small room the novelty wore off and diners didn't continue to go back all the time.

Either that or someone reported him to Environmental Health!

Either that or someone reported him to Environmental Health!
I do hope they did!!

Wasn't you was it OP? You'd have been more than justified - filthy tip-stealer!! 😁

Toomuchtrouble4me, your teacher: did he teach English?

Alas @Happynow001 it wasn't me. I'd no evidence (we were still using Nokia 3210's back then). He was such an obnoxious bloke too. Customers would ask him to ring for a taxi so he'd call one.

Taxi: "Hello, A2B taxis"
RP (Restaurant prick): "I know! I called you"
::turn and smirk to the waiting customer thinking he was fucking hilarious::
RP: "I need a taxi at (Restaurant), now"
Taxi: "Okay, where is (restaurant) please?"
RP: "Where it's always been!"
::puts phone down. Another smirk to the customer::

My nice man manager (Hi Peter!) who led a management buy-out and became an arsehole of an owner/boss.

All of a sudden the bonuses dried up and "we can't afford" that became the mantra. Then a new accountant let slip that Peter's wife was on the payroll in a non-existent job and enjoyed a company car.

And don't start me on the lies he told.

I left.

I briefly had a boss earlier this year who nitpicked every last thing I did, was breathtakingly rude to me in front of customers (it was his business), humiliated me loudly in front of colleagues for something I'd "done wrong" and then demonstrated to me how to put stickers on buckets. I stood there watching him, my face burning with rage; I've never been so angry. It was a temporary job for five months; I lasted three days before ringing and saying I wouldn't be back.

The others all disliked him too but it was like he was trying to prove that I didn't know what I was doing even though I've worked in that sector for the past 10 years; I think he thought I was better than him - I absolutely didn't. Still wish I'd told him he was an arsehole.

Place marking

I used to work for a family firm, mum and 2 brothers. Small staff (which was myself on reception, the cleaner and 3 fitters,)At christmas they bought me and the fitters a lovely cheese and biscuits hamper and presented us with them in the office at the end of the last day of work before the holidays, but nothing for the cleaner, so I halved mine with her in front of them. Their response was that they didn't think she would appreciate one 😕 she was so gutted and gobsmacked. I had been there roughly 8 1/2 months and we were house hunting, they were perfectly ok with my having personal calls as I was full time and no such thing as mobiles in those days! I had a viewing arranged for a couple of days later. The day of the viewing I had d & s so was off sick. My dh and ds1 went on the viewing, leaving me at home. The next morning I got a letter sacking me because they had seen our car outside the house, which was fairly close to our office. I rang them to say that I was at home and not at the viewing, but was sacked anyway. Later found out they had never kept a receptionist longer than 9 months, and always found some little pathetic reason to sack them. And to this day they still haven't kept one for more than 9 months, don't know how they manage it Tbh. The best laugh for me was I got took on by their competitor for much more money, better hours and nicer people the following week.