Ridiculous work complaints - tell me yours!

[YourFinestPantaloons]

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

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?

Teaching is full of ridiculous complaints. Mine have stemmed from observations where I have sounded too Northern and sat down for too long! This is why the profession is hemorrhaging experienced teachers.

Huuuge complaint on the local fb group just last week that the primary school hadn't given enough notice of photo day, so a lot of parents had photos that were no good because their children were scruffy or dirty and had they KNOWN they'd have sent them clean and looking smart.

My favourite parental complaint was when one of the mums of one of the 10 year olds in my class complained that another member of staff had stolen her child's trainers and was wearing them unashamedly.

Trainers were in the son's PE bag when he actually looked.

@nosuchluck25

Teaching is full of ridiculous complaints. Mine have stemmed from observations where I have sounded too Northern and sat down for too long! This is why the profession is hemorrhaging experienced teachers.

I was once told, in all seriousnness, that there was absolutely nothing wrong with my lesson content, knowledge or behaviour management.

But I just didn't SPARKLE!

I wore a glittery top to my next lesson observation, and all my colleagues knew why.

I've just finished work and had a bonkers complaint just as I walked back in from my break
Woman had bought a kids happy meal-shoved herself and her kid in the car and driven home
Food was cold by the time she got back (at least an hours drive away) so she'd driven back to return it
Whe she was ranting about how useless we where,her kid ran off upstairs and she didn't run off to collect him-she carried on ranting at my boss
She then turned on me,ranting that it was my responsibility to keep an eye on her kid while she was screaming at us
She was told,sharpish,that I'm not a free babysitting service and that she's not welcome back,to which she screamed that she's never going to come back to 'this shitty place'
Guess we'll see her next week when she tries to come back and pull the same stunt,just like she's done every week for the last 6
God knows why she does this-it must cost her a fortune in petrol

More from my days working in a computer repair shop…

We often had people bring in computers that were running slow. Often, the cause would be viruses and pop-ups and it would become apparent that they were from porn sites.
This was in the days before smartphones and laptops so full computers with monitors were the way to access the internet and porn, and things like pop-up blockers weren’t as main-stream.

I had a woman who became very irate when I explained that the repair to her computer wouldn’t be covered under warranty as it was a software issue and not caused by a hardware failure. She was screaming that there were pornographic pop-ups and she’d sue us for “putting smut in front of (her) children”.

She shouted and raved for about five minutes and I was getting pissed off so tried to get her to a stage where she’d twig what was happening.

So I explained that there was a history of unusual activity from untrustworthy sites and these caused pop-ups.

Nada.

So I elaborated and said that the sites were very adult and graphic in nature and we would have to restore the computer to factory settings and there’d be a charge.

Still not happy.

Explained again that there were viruses on the computer that came from (graphic and very specialized) pornographic websites and we detected several key logging viruses so were also recommending that she changed passwords, cancelled any cards used online etc. because it looked like the computer had been used to buy access to porn sites.

Then I thought the penny dropped.

Nope.

“Well that’s not possible because all of my children are too young for that kind of thing and the only other people who use that computer are me and my husband so it has to be something wrong with the computer and we shouldn’t have to pay for it”.
Peppered with lots of cursing and name-calling.

I was so close at that stage to showing her the log-ons from her husband’s emails, the receipts in his inbox for porn and fetish-wear,
details of his credit card saved to websites, transcripts of his website searches. He was majorly into gay porn involving nylon stockings and latex.

So I gave her two options- take the computer away and I wouldn’t charge for the diagnostic, or let me fix it and charge her.

She took it home.

Two days later, very sheepish husband came in with the computer asking for it to be reset to factory settings and set back up, then he offered to pay extra to have it done same day- my theory is that he wanted it done before she got home from work so he wouldn’t need to divulge that he had brought it in for repair.

That I wouldn’t take her yr 8 son to Paris without a valid passport.

“It will be fine because it’s a school trip and they never check all the passports!”

“What shall I do if they do and I’m not allowed to board the ferry?”

“Well! Bring him back to school or I’ll come and pick him up! (5hrs drive from Dover!) 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

The head dismissed that complaint pretty quickly!

I worked in a camping and outdoor shop, that sold walking shoes and boots. We had a lady try to return some mens shoes because, she’s a woman. The soles were muddy so they obviously been worn! (For the record, it was quite common for men with small feet or teens to buy ‘ladies’ shoes and boots, not so common women buying menus shoes).

@YourFinestPantaloons

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

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?

What was the parent doing in a cocktail bar, surely the main person in the child's life is the parent, not the teacher. At least the teacher isn't having to care badly for the child with a raging headache on Sunday!

I work in a famous London Theatre. Under 3’s are not admitted,. A couple turned up with a baby about 3-6 months old in a carry car seat. When told they could not enter with a baby, we suggested just one see the show so they wouldn’t lose all their money, and the other parent could sit in the foyer with the baby. They then came back and asked if they could leave the baby in the cloakroom. He was likely to stay asleep, and if he woke up and cried we could come and get them. Wtf???

@ktjb39

A parent complained at school that her child was sweating in the PE lesson

As a teacher in a High School I often felt like complaining about sweaty, stinking children. I was once talking to a pupil and turned to him as he breathed out and I had to quickly leave the room, summon a colleague and part company with my lunch in the loo, I can smell his breath even now, 40+ years on.

@ChipsNCurry

In contract to the OP's situation- I bumped into DS's class's teaching assistant out in a pub this weekend and I bought her and her partner a drink.

Then they got involved in the sambuca shots we were doing 🤣

The teachers and TAs do a fab job and need to be supported in letting their hair down once in a while 🥳🍷

I get this a lot too and it's lovely but I learnt my lesson after once being cajoled by a parent into downing 5 tequila shots they bought me, and then had to face them a few days later at parents evening still feeling a bit hung over

Now I just say "Oh thank you just half a pint please"

@ladymalfoy

A parent complained that I'd accused her DD of plagiarism. We were studying An Inspector Calls for GCSE Drama and the DD had cut pasted her essay from Sparks Notes or somesuch. The proof? She'd left the hyper-links in.

I once had the answer book to our Maths text book nicked by one of the local scallies, I knew he'd taken it because a) he started doing homework for the first time and b) his homework included answers like '12.5cm, accept +/- 0.3cm'.

A new graduate started work at DH's company. Everything was fine from Monday through to Thursday but she failed to show on the Friday. No word from her, nothing. She also failed to show the following Monday with again no communication. She did turn up on the Tuesday and breezily announced she'd been away at Glastonbury. No apologies, nothing. She was told her behaviour was totally unacceptable and given a formal warning. The next day the girl didn't come to work, but her Mum stormed into the offices absolutely raging that her precious snowflake had been treated so horribly, and that we needed to understand how much her DD loved going to Glastonbury. DH tersely pointed out that her DD needed to understand his company's policy on unauthorized leave.

@CookPassBabtridge

Shocked at all these about teachers drinking. Do they really think teachers can't go out and socialise and have fun when off duty!?

Working in a Military school we were once at a Mess drinks do and one woman who was well away suddenly said to me 'Christ, I hope you've had less than me, you've got my son all day you poor sod!'

Oooh YY about the parents getting pissy at teachers being due a baby in September. My lovely colleague got loads of grief for that!

@JudgeJ indeed, you'd be surprised how much I bump into pupils drinking with their parents in tow aged 16/17.

Oh and I got a formal complaint from a dad to our governors because I accidentally got a dot of ink on the front of his son's exercise book. No exaggeration, apparently I'm setting the example that it's fine for standards to slip.

The sad thing is these pupils are utterly miserable under the weight of pressure from home, and their own mum and dad can't see the damage they're doing

I used to work in Asda.

We got a customer complaint that we didn't have any Tesco Finest Pesto in stock

@SionnachRua

A parent complained because I would not write individual notes in every child's homework diary, inquiring as to why they hadn't answered her birthday party invites.

A parent complained because after she signed the "I do not consent to my child receiving sex ed", we took her out of class for that lesson.

A parent complained because no, I would not buy and cut up a birthday cake for her child to eat in school. No, not even if she handed me a cheque at the end of the day.

A parent complained because we called to notify them that their young child - who had not been brought to school that day - was behaving dangerously in a shopping centre and the guards called us, as the child was in school uniform. Apparently it was humiliating.

I could go on...

My sister-in-law was having a screaming session because she had missed some event, her 5 year old hadn't given her the notice, pre-texts etc. She was going to complain to the school and tell them that the reception teacher should check all the children's bags, about 28, on Monday morning for any missed notes and phone any parents who needed to know. Her mother, a lovely, gentle, ex-teacher said she couldn't believe her daughter was so stupid, surely on Friday a parent could check through the one bag of their child.

Someone complained to my manager that I was too young to be working with her, what could someone of my age possibly understand about life etc.

I was two years older than her.

Working in a library some years ago. We had recently upgraded the public computers and purchased more of them, and had publicised this locally. A woman came in just as we were about to close at 7pm one evening. She left a folder of papers on the enquiry desk and left pretty smartish, saying she'd pick them up the following day. We were puzzled, and a quick glance at them showed they were school exercise books.
She returned the following morning and went absolutely ballistic at staff because we hadn't done her children's homework. We tried to explain to her that the bit in our fliers and posters that said that the computers could be useful for children doing homework (this was early 2000s and fewer people had internet access) did not mean that staff would do children's homework for them. She called us all the names under the sun and complained to her local councillor and the Head of Libraries that her children had got detention for not doing their homework and it was our fault!

@peaceanddove

A new graduate started work at DH's company. Everything was fine from Monday through to Thursday but she failed to show on the Friday. No word from her, nothing. She also failed to show the following Monday with again no communication. She did turn up on the Tuesday and breezily announced she'd been away at Glastonbury. No apologies, nothing. She was told her behaviour was totally unacceptable and given a formal warning. The next day the girl didn't come to work, but her Mum stormed into the offices absolutely raging that her precious snowflake had been treated so horribly, and that we needed to understand how much her DD loved going to Glastonbury. DH tersely pointed out that her DD needed to understand his company's policy on unauthorized leave.

I possibly spoke to this mother on the phone! I worked at a head office and someone's mother, thinking we were their local centre, proceeded to tell me that her daughter wouldn't be coming in (2 hours after her shift started) because she went to Glastonbury and "you know what kids are like" errrr, she has a JOB. she's not a kid. Bizzare

Years ago I worked in the kitchen at a national trust castle and there were peacocks who liked to wander round the garden. A woman fed all her sandwich to a peacock, then came and asked for her money back and a free sandwich because a peacock had eaten it.

during lockdown a mum who refused point blank to provide masks 'if you want them to wear them, you buy them'

A stroppy soldier told the Head of the Army school that if he wanted his son to use a pen, pencil and ruler the school should provide them. Fine said the Head and went into military mode.

The boy had to parade outside his Office once he arrived at school, he was given the supplies and signed for them. At the start of Break he had to return them and at 10 minutes before the end of Break he had to report to the office to have them reissued. This went on all day, lunchtime and afternoon break, the next day he had his own equipment!

My head teacher complained to my immediate boss that I had twice been sitting down during a lesson. A) it’s the first time he’s been near the department in about a year (twice in one day!) B) I have limited mobility and a blue badge C) I’d only just come off crutches following an issue where my kneecap slipped, trapping a ligament and meant I couldn’t weight bear. Bloody unbelievable. Kids were all sitting quietly working away both times.