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Original poster

What's the strangest thing you have been told off for at work?

444 replies

NoEffingWay · 07/10/2021 18:08

I once got told off for leaving on time, I had done my contracted hours, all of my work was done but apparently leaving on time was frowned upon Hmm.

The same job told me off when I left 'for only working my 4 weeks notice'. I think they genuinely expected me to stay even after leaving Grin.

OP posts:
Nondescriptname · 09/10/2021 14:35

As junior in a bank, I was supposed using a pencil as a ruler to underline something.
I was told I should have used the cylindrical ruler that was on the desk.
There was no answer, tho, to "Why? I still get a straight line."

Nondescriptname · 09/10/2021 14:38

I was a newbie in care work. A colleague came into a toilet where I was washing a client's bottom.
"Why are you doing that? Do you wash yourself every time you go to the toilet?"

"No. But I would if I'd messed my pants."

Nondescriptname · 09/10/2021 14:39

*I was spotted using a pencil.
Soz.

Bleachmycloths · 09/10/2021 14:40

[quote SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]@Bleachmycloths - the manager in question had no problem with people chatting, reading books or magazines etc, on their unpaid lunch break - I don’t see why knitting was any different. And frankly, why shouldn’t a nurse relax during their break - would people rather they stayed tense, and didn’t go back to the ward/department and their patients refreshed?[/quote]
Of course nurses should relax during their unpaid lunch breaks. Sounds like the manager was being unreasonable.
My point was: if the canteen was a staff only canteen, fine. If it was in view of the public then knitting might look too laid back and people can be so judgmental about things like that.
A couple of years ago when I was visiting in hospital one nurse was grooming and styling another nurse’s hair at the nurses’ station.
I thought “Why the hell don’t you two do it out of view?”
I know that’s FAR worse than knitting in your own time.
Maybe the anti-knitting was just a prat.

Bleachmycloths · 09/10/2021 14:41

Maybe the ant-knitting manager was just a prat.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 09/10/2021 14:45

Why would knitting look ‘too laid back’ to members of the public though? Why would it be more laid back than reading a magazine, having a cigarette or doing the crossword?

We did get members of the public in the canteen occasionally, but it was mainly used by staff - but I don’t think that should make a difference. I’d far rather staff got to relax properly during their breaks, and went back to work refreshed,

That said, I do think your example of nurses doing each other’s hair on the ward is unprofessional.

AllTheUsernamesAreAlreadyTaken · 09/10/2021 14:47

Would people really judge a nurse for having a break? That’s crazy.
Knitting in the canteen isn’t any more relaxing than having a coffee or reading a magazine. Who cares if they were having their hair done?
They’re not robots.

Nillynally · 09/10/2021 14:54

I once got absolutely bollocked for not filling in a staff wellbeing form. I said she wouldn't want me filling it in.

julieca · 09/10/2021 14:58

@AllTheUsernamesAreAlreadyTaken

Would people really judge a nurse for having a break? That’s crazy. Knitting in the canteen isn’t any more relaxing than having a coffee or reading a magazine. Who cares if they were having their hair done? They’re not robots.
Sitting having your hair done at the nurses stating is unprofessional. Would you be happy to see this at a reception desk in a hotel, or at the register in a shop?
AllTheUsernamesAreAlreadyTaken · 09/10/2021 15:00

@julieca
I genuinely wouldn’t care.
Presumably they’d stop if they had an emergency or needed to do something.

deste · 09/10/2021 15:08

Got told off because I hadn't put my dietry requirements on a form for an event I said I couldn't go to.

Same woman, phoning me up the day after my mothers funeral asking when I was going to make up the time I had lost.

My mother died on the Friday and we were meant to post our results on that day but of course I had other things on my mind. Obviously her death wasn't a good enough reason to forget.

I was off sick at another company, when I came back I was shouted at in front of a trainee, why I had given my staff the holiday dates they had asked for. Being off I didn't know what she was talking about,,

Soubriquet · 09/10/2021 15:08

For having someone else call on my behalf to a sickness line. Ok so I am aware that they don’t like that and the person going sick needs to ring up themselves buuuuut, I had had a severe allergic reaction and physically couldn’t speak.

julieca · 09/10/2021 15:10

[quote AllTheUsernamesAreAlreadyTaken]@julieca
I genuinely wouldn’t care.
Presumably they’d stop if they had an emergency or needed to do something.[/quote]
Then I think you have an unusual attitude. Very few jobs would accept people doing this in the workplace.

CrankyFrankie · 09/10/2021 15:20

“I hope her arsehole grows tastebuds” 🤣🤣🤣 brilliant putdown @SirenSays, I’m banking that one!

Groovee · 09/10/2021 16:20

For not knowing where a child’s shoes were. The child wasn’t in my room. One of the staff in her room was still in the building and knew full well where the shoes were but was hiding then bitched about the parent. So I got spoken to it. And they wondered why I left.

SigningClerkWoes · 09/10/2021 16:42

Working in a job centre we sometimes had missing girocheque reports from customers. So as per instructions we had the customer fill out the forms, we phoned the post office to check if it had been cashed and to stop it if it hadn't.

If it had been cashed we asked the PO to hold onto it so we could collect it for investigation and we then put the forms on the team leader's desk so she could break the news to the customer that they weren't getting a replacement cheque and it would be investigated.

This was standard procedure.

One day, we had about 15 people put in reports, all 15 cheques had been cashed and all forms were marked as such and duly put on the TL's desk and we carried on seeing customers.

A while later I and my 4 colleagues were hauled into another office and bollocked by the TL because she had seen the forms and replaced all the cheques because she hadn't looked to see which box had been ticked.

And because she got a bollocking from above, she calmly tried to throw us under the bus by saying the forms weren't clear.

Unfortunately for her, the office manager took no shit, she knew the procedures and wouldn't let her blame us but it didn't stop the TL being a vindictive bitch to us for weeks because of her error!

sospspsp · 09/10/2021 17:11

Taking too long to have a shit.

I shit you not!

(Ps I am not a man, but I had an upset stomach - I had also worked for the company over 10 years and not ever had too long a shit before, so I feel sad that I blotched my copy-book as it were GrinWink)

groundcontroltomontydon · 09/10/2021 17:21

Temping at John Lewis for little more than nmw, I was reprimanded because my Primark jumper wasn't cashmere enough

HeyFloof · 09/10/2021 17:32

@bloodywhitecat

I was told off for talking to a body. I used to work in a children's hospice and we sometimes cared for children who had died, I was checking on a little one before the family came to spend time with them and was telling the child what I was doing. The nurse in charge told me off for doing it because it was unnecessary and "freaky". The nurse in charge didn't last long in a hospice role and I continued to talk to the children whether they were alive or not.
Just wanted to say thank you. You are an incredibly special person.

When my baby died, I had to leave him in the hospital, and then later in the children's mortuary. The MW told me they (and the mortuary staff) always went in and regularly checked on and talked to "their" babies, and gave them a cuddle. It made such a difference to me know that he was still treated with care and gentleness.

itsgettingwierd · 09/10/2021 18:13

@blessedbethechocolate

I worked in a special school where I was regularly attacked. I had learnt to keep my face passive but one day got huge clumps of my hair ripped out and was bitten. Next thing I knew I was being told off for showing emotion in my eyes.
That's dreadful.

I work in special Ed and I'm the behavioural support lead. If staff get bitten or hurt like that I tell them to take a deep breath and come with me. Intake them to an empty office/room away from the classrooms and any visitors that may enter the office and then smile and tell them to let it all out - say what they need to say. I then make them a drink.

Everyone knows it's one of the possibilities in special Ed. But no ones superhuman and immune from the emotion when it happens.

Mirw · 09/10/2021 18:45

Similar to being too private. I was screamed at because I wouldn't tell my colleagues what sex my partner was (is). I spoke about my partner but never called him by nane and he never went to work nights out. Everyone thought he was a her. And I said nothing to change their minds!! Boss finally flipped and screamed at me... My answer "none of your nosy business" and was told in a scream I would be up on a disciplinary. My reply "Bring it on. Remember I am a member of a trade union". Still waiting on the disciplinary...

YukoandHiro · 09/10/2021 18:46

For chatting socially to the assistant who sat next to me because she wasn't the same grade as me (I was in a more senior, graduate position). Grim snobbish attitudes

DrDreReturns · 09/10/2021 19:23

I used to be a deputy team leader of a team managing staff who analysed results from a lab. One day there was not much work coming out of the lab so the staff were at a loose end. We got told off because the 'staff didn't look busy.' We didn't get a constructive suggestion as to what they should be doing.

Ddot · 09/10/2021 21:55

Sacked for putting my dick in the bacon slicer.

She got sacked too

JasonMomoasgirlfriend · 09/10/2021 22:50

Zzzzz