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Original poster

Ridiculous work complaints - tell me yours!

522 replies

YourFinestPantaloons · 04/10/2021 12:59

I'm a teacher and Head told me this morning that a parent has complained because she saw me last Saturday night in the local cocktail bar having shots.

Apparently it's despicable that an educator of her child would behave in such a way and lead such a terrible example to pupils - as it turns out, her underage DD was with her (must have been at 11pm IIRC) in the adults-only pub and was 'appalled' at Miss Pantaloons' behaviour GrinGrin

Thankfully my Head is normal and we just laughed our heads off about it. these complaints happen very frequently. A colleague once got a complaint because she was seen with penis paraphernalia in town on her hen do. I think some people think teachers are just robots that turn off at 4pm and have to stay in the classroom over the weekend.

What's the most amusing complaint you've ever got at work?

OP posts:
hogangog · 04/10/2021 19:49

when i was working as an early years teacher in a school with a mixed demographic of pupils, i dared to organise for them to see Father Christmas as a treat. it cost the school more than we charged the parents as we knew it was beyond the means of lots of them, so i thought it would be a nice thing for us to so. well no. apparently, i took away one parent’s fundamental rights to take her own child to see Santa and i ruined their christmas. i was an awful teacher like that.

i was told on my teacher training placement by the head teacher that my accent was wrong. and that i needed to change it asap.

cricketmum84 · 04/10/2021 19:49

@Larryyourwaiter

I thought of another payroll one. Another leaver who rang on the 25th January because she hadn’t received her ‘full pay’. Her last ‘working day’ was Jan 5th and she started new job on Jan 6th. She thought because she had ‘worked’ in January she would get a full months pay. She had complained to her new workplace too for taking 5 days off. It took a lot of explaining and she was upset as she had spent at Christmas expecting 2 full pay-packets. She was a senior employee.
Oh god... as a payroll manager I have had my fill of these.

My personal favourite is "Dave who sits next to me got £10 more than me this month. Can I have a breakdown of his pay please??"

Also autoenrolment - "I told you I didn't want to be in the pension but you still put me in it"

TSSDNCOP · 04/10/2021 19:50

A colleague complained to our manager that I didn't talk to her enough and just got on with my work when we were doing our early morning tasks together.

The manager took this seriously.

I was called to get office for a dressing down that only ended when I asked her to ring the regional manager and ask what should happen to an employee that wanted to work and not chat.

ThatsNotMyReindeer · 04/10/2021 19:52

Someone made a complaint that we sent them a sympathy card following a bereavement Confused

Shieldingending · 04/10/2021 19:57

I’m loving some of these complaints!
I’m a teacher, last year we had to close a bubble because the child’s teacher tested positive for Covid. The parent was furious with me saying that he, “didn’t expect teachers to be spreading Covid” I politely pointed out to him that we don’t all live in isolation, and it is possible for teachers to get Covid as well. Unfortunately the child then the whole family tested positive and were quite poorly. When they were better the dad rung me again absolutely fuming this time because the “Boris Johnson said that schools were safe places and obviously they weren’t because his son caught Covid from school.” That time I was less polite, and just said, “and you believe anything Boris Johnson says??”

BiscuitLover09876 · 04/10/2021 19:57

Colleague complained that we got him a birthday card- they are a waste of paper and all he's going to do is put it in the bin. Confused

pollyglot · 04/10/2021 19:57

Bumped in to one of DS's teachers in a pub once, bought him a pint. I felt he probably needed it 😂
16-year old Ollie in pub, to DH, "I want to buy Miss a drink, because I only passed GCSE because of her."

Eileen101 · 04/10/2021 19:58

That I wouldn't take on their personal injury claim... When they weren't injured. Apparently they "could have died".

Recently someone complained that I hadn't responded to their email. Their reply was at the bottom of my auto response, "Eileen is currently on maternity leave, please contact XXX on XXX number".

MissConductUS · 04/10/2021 19:58

DH used to work for a newspaper company. A home delivery customer wanted to complain to the publisher because he was going away for the weekend and asked to have the Sunday paper delivered on Friday, and was told it wouldn't be possible.

ZoBo123 · 04/10/2021 20:01

Working in a supermarket 6 pm Christmas Eve customer asks where are the turkeys? I explained we had sold out, I "ruined their Christmas"

maisiemoolou · 04/10/2021 20:03

Whilst working on the financial difficulties department of a major bank we had one customer who rang in after receiving several letters over a period of time asking him to contact us.
He eventually rang in demanding we stop sending the letters etc. After ranting and not letting me get a word in, he then said he was going to take his own life due to the letters and hung up.
My manager rang the police (turned out he was known to them) as we had a duty of care and so they could call at his address to check he was ok.
Week later he was given £150 in compensation after complaining that we had stupidly took his threat to end is life as serious and for sending the police round!

TheNestedIf · 04/10/2021 20:05

That the test data I had built a function to randomise wasn't consistent every time the test was run.

LuluJakey1 · 04/10/2021 20:11

@Badlytornfrube

I had a mum complain that her daughter’s knickers were filthy and I should teach her to change them more frequently.

The girl was 12 and I was her history teacher.

I had something very similar. A mother rang and complained that her daughter had a schoolbag full of used sanitary pads and dirty knickers and I had done nothing about it.

The girl was 14, had only been at our school for half a term, and I taught her GCSE English- I wasn't her form tutor, had no idea what she had in her school bag and had never met the mother.

amysaurus87 · 04/10/2021 20:14

I used to work in a cafe, someone once complained that the cheese toastie they ordered (with extra cheese!)was too cheesy...

Stoppochoco · 04/10/2021 20:25

@BiscuitLover09876

Colleague complained that we got him a birthday card- they are a waste of paper and all he's going to do is put it in the bin. Confused
Wonder if he's on mumsnet.
AppleWitch · 04/10/2021 20:26

I worked in a theatre that produced an edgy version of a classic story. After an age guidance was put on it, we were offering refunds to anyone who had bought a tickets for an under 16.

A woman complained because her daughter was 35 and she wasn't offered a refund.

Also people complaining that they didn't expect said play to be about war when it was quite famously set during a war.

sarah13xx · 04/10/2021 20:33

Oh ffs, how dare you enjoy yourself 🤦🏼‍♀️
I’m an infant teacher, we literally get the blame for EVERYTHING! In lockdown it was obviously my fault people’s children didn’t behave in their own home. I forgot I should have brought them up to be better behaved than that, oh no wait 🤔 One mum asked how to make her daughter do her reading because she was just doing fake yawning every time she tried to do it. Eh, you’re the parent! 😂 I’ve had the blame for all sorts over the years and 9 times out of 10 I just have to politely agree like it’s somehow my fault 🤷🏼‍♀️

Entschuldigung · 04/10/2021 20:34

I used to run our school's buses. One parent complained that her child had missed the bus that morning and hadn't been able to come to school

I asked if he was at his stop at 07:50 (time the bus was due). She said he was probably there at about 08:10 but she always told the bus driver if he didn't need the bus so she was shocked he didn't wait for him and it had meant he'd missed a day of school.

I pointed out the driver couldn't wait 20 mins with a bus full of passengers on a busy road in the middle of rush hour when he had no idea whether or not her son was going to turn up

I also asked why he missed a day of school when he could have caught the public bus service that goes near to school which he always used to go home in the afternoon. She STILL thought we'd been unreasonable.

CharityDingle · 04/10/2021 20:35

@ZoBo123

Working in a supermarket 6 pm Christmas Eve customer asks where are the turkeys? I explained we had sold out, I "ruined their Christmas"
I have read similar, on another forum I'm on. People breezing in last minute on Christmas Eve, looking for whatever the must-have toy or gadget is, that has been long sold out. Then angrily telling retail staff that they have ruined their Christmas, or ruined little Jimmy/ Jane's Christmas.
JustLyra · 04/10/2021 20:39

We got an official complaint from a parent after we removed their child's playscheme place. In week one they'd been an hour, ninety minutes, an hour and thirty minutes late for pick up for the first four days.

We refused to take the child on the trip (it was both in our rules and I'd been shown a screenshot of them making plans to be VERY late for pick up) and cancelled their place for week two.

They complained because the playscheme is primarily staffed by volunteers so "they didn't have work to get to so what's the problem?".

My other favourite was the six serious complaints we received when we upped the cost from £10 a week to £25 a week (£5 a day) because we lost a source of funding. £25 covered morning or afternoon Mon-Thur and all day Friday.
Everyone that complained could easily afford the increase, none of the people who genuinely struggled complained.

WithMyEncyclopedia · 04/10/2021 20:43

@FuzzyPuffling

"Please can you sellotape more quietly?"
I'm going to be honest... I worked in an office once where someone spent the afternoon reeling parcel tape off a roll and onto cardboard boxes, repeatedly, for hours, and the sound was like NOTHING ELSE. I can imagine it decades later and it still goes right through me.

I wouldn't be an arse about it though, just quietly seethe and moan about it on MN!

Gilmorehill · 04/10/2021 20:44

@MissConductUS

DH used to work for a newspaper company. A home delivery customer wanted to complain to the publisher because he was going away for the weekend and asked to have the Sunday paper delivered on Friday, and was told it wouldn't be possible.
Omg that could be the stupidest ever.
Lizlou85 · 04/10/2021 20:44

I worked in a travel agency years ago and a lady signed the booking forms to say she was aware of vaccinations needed for Kenya and would obtain medical advice. She came in a while later screaming at me as her husband was allergic to the vaccinations and it was my fault as I hadn't warned her there could be an allergic reaction.

viques · 04/10/2021 20:55

@Clovacloud

About 25 years ago I had a temp job in Uni holidays. It was working a cafeteria for a company. Apparently I made a bacon roll wrong for someone, so he had me fired. To this day I don’t know how shoving some bacon in a bap can be done wrong Hmm
You put the bacon in upside down I expect. Rookie mistake. Grin
Standrewsschool · 04/10/2021 20:57

@SpaceSmudge
“ The most common complaint is when customers ask for cash back (because the main tills no longer do it, they get sent to us.) They then flounce out of the store upon being told that they can't have cash back if they don't make a purchase of any amount.”

To be fair, I get annoyed by this. The supermarket in question, has been doing cash back at tills for donkey years, and suddenly without warning, stopped doing it. I don’t want to queue up at another till, and buy a token bar of chocolate, just so I can get cash back.

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