Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Strangest thing you have ever got into trouble for at work?

264 replies

NoEffingWay · 21/05/2022 21:04

Not 'looking like I was listening in a meeting'- I was actually listening and was able to recite information but apparently that wasn't good enough!

For 'not having a degree'- I was a Saturday girl in a shop, I was 16 at the time. Confused

For 'being tired'-I had a baby at home and was getting up at 4am to look after them so wasn't feeling well rested but was expected to pretend I was energetic Grin.

OP posts:
VikingLady · 25/05/2022 23:41

Talking a man out of suicide. It fucked up my call averages for the day, apparently.

notbloodylikely · 26/05/2022 10:58

For having a baby due in August, it would be disadvantaged its entire life apparently. At nearly 17 DD has managed admirably despite this enormous burden.

SophiaLarsen · 26/05/2022 11:22

For the suspicion I had an 'ulterior motive' and that I was 'trying to catch people out' with zero evidence provided, in fact they refused to provide the evidence! Probably because there wasn't any.

emsie12345 · 26/05/2022 12:49

Complaining because a colleague was talking loudly about his wanking habits and making rape threats. I shouldn't have complained because it was "just banter". Also, more recently, being on time. 🙄

IndyMamaRex · 26/05/2022 12:57

For tidying up instead of standing round gossiping.

Got transferred to a new salon & there were more staff than space to work or dogs to groom. So rather than stand around doing nothing (we had an inspection due at any point soon) I decided to do some cleaning. Wiping the dog hair off the walls etc & deep cleaning the baths….the manager took deep offence to this & phoned her manager to bitch about me 🤦‍♀️ Sorry if I didn’t want the salon to fail it inspection & us all getting a screaming at for they place being a pig sty. Sorry I have standards & would rather earn my wage than stand around bitching about other colleagues.

Springcleanforthemayqueen · 26/05/2022 13:36

When I worked as a waitress for a popular burger chain in the 80s I got into trouble from the manageress for scraping a rejected meal into the bin. She was furious that she couldn't reuse the items.....

I then worked in a local stationers and got a bollocking for incorrectly completing the corporate account invoices when working the till alone. No bugger had actually bothered to take the time to show me.

After that I got an admin job in the civil service and my team was scandalised that I hadn't turned up for the 8.30 taxi run to our outstationed branch. I might have done if anyone had actually said it was part of my job......turns out I needed to be psychic too.

TheWitchOfShields · 26/05/2022 14:37

Not RINGING in sick, when I had severe laryngitis and had lost all speech and any ability to make any sound 🤣 I emailed my manager but that wasn't good enough.

Not ringing the absence line with enough time before my start time - they only opened at 8am, I started work at 8am.

Ringing in to advise that after I'd walked through 2 and a half foot of snow, caught a metro train to the bus station and waited for and hour and a half for the works bus to turn up, alongside a huge number of colleagues, to be told buses all cancelled due to adverse weather, I wouldn't be in work that day. The senior manager I spoke to was furious and expected us to get taxis the 10 mile into work from the bus station (no guarantee we'd get home as there was no let up in the snow)

Being told I shouldn't being staying off work with conjunctivitis as they were short and it's 'not really that contagious'. I went in. Transferred conjunctivitis to my other eye and also to two other colleagues 🤷‍♀️

That whole place had me round the twist, that all subsequent jobs have left me answering questions such as 'can I have a word please' with 'why, what have I done?'

Ritascornershop · 26/05/2022 15:27

Got told off by the power mad manager for not filling in a fiendishly complicated time sheet when I developed a migraine at work and could barely see. Tried explaining, did not compute for her. More bollocking. I escalated it to the boss who said all I need to do is verbally let the manager or boss know, and they’d pay for a cab home if I needed it.

Also told off for doing annual inventory when every other worksite of our employer did it annually, but my coworker had not done one in over 10 years and she felt it made her look bad 😑

Why do people make work worse than it already is?

yellowsuninthesky · 26/05/2022 15:28

For using an A road rather than a motorway to go to a meeting, so it was 2 miles further. When I claimed expenses which were x amount per mile, my boss had a moan about it. I told him there was nothing in my contract that said I had to use the motorway when the A road was just as good.

The same boss's PA told me off for refusing to answer my mobile phone while driving as well. They were an awful pair.

yellowsuninthesky · 26/05/2022 15:36

nc888 · 24/05/2022 18:47

I just want to point out, after reading most of this thread, that it's mainly women bosses who are cunts.

Men have their faults, but I refuse to work for a woman boss. They're the fucking worst.

I agree. MNers hate it when you say that, but I've had (many) more bad experiences with female bosses in my adult career.

Although in the interests of balance, I had a Saturday job in a branch of John Menzies when I was in what is now Y11 and the male store manager there was an arse.

SlowHorses · 26/05/2022 15:43

I don’t agree it’s mainly men or women but I will say they have different qualities in how they can behave like shit bosses. Men can be arrogant, aggressive misogynist little napoleons. Women can be those these too but play a more psychological game and it’s more likely to be manipulative in my experience; gossiping, passive aggressive comments, gaslighting etc. If someone shouts in your face you know they’re pissed off at least, covert back stabbing is harder to confront.

Ritascornershop · 26/05/2022 17:09

I’ve found women are far more likely to nitpick other women, to bully and intimidate and name call at work.

Gobbolinothekitchencat · 26/05/2022 17:15

Told off for sending out letters with my job title, ‘Graduate office slave’, apparently reading graduate would make the client think we were unprofessional. I asked what to write and was told to drop graduate. A month or so later the same manager told me off for using a job title which was two grades too high, the aforementioned ‘office slave’. I asked what I should write and was told not to bother with a job title. Then a month or so later was pulled up about the lack of job title 😳

Mayim · 26/05/2022 21:52

I worked for a Council and was responsible for getting booklets of exam results printed. They had a cover made of light cardboard. The cardboard came in all sorts of cupboards and one year I chose pastel blue. This got me into trouble as it was decided that this might be politically biased and all of them were thrown away! I then had to get them redone in a different colour.

Greyskiesaregonnaclearup · 26/05/2022 22:46

By far the worst manager I've ever had was a man. A hideous, vile bully I worked under for 4 years. The only saving grace was he was dumb with it so my union regularly knocked him back.

Because it was deemed 'unsafe' for the pair of us to share an office without anyone else around, I spent a few years being moved around other offices. As soon as my boss realised I got on with whoever I shared an office with, he would organise an move and I would be moved to a new office with new people. This happened three times in two years. The last time was in a larger office where everyone got on well and worked hard at the same time. Nobody had an issue with that.

I'll never forget the boss then meeting with me to tell me there were concerns our office was 'too jolly'. I was the one who got told off, nobody else. I left shortly afterwards. Fuck him.

CruCru · 27/05/2022 19:13

In my last job there was another woman with the same first name and a surname that rhymed with mine. One senior dude was much too senior and important to remember that Anne Clark does XYZ and Anne Spark does ABC. We should have had a hive mind you see.

Orangewinegum8481 · 27/05/2022 21:11

A male boss told me that my lipstick wasn't the right shade and then presented me with a 'sexier' shade for my customer facing job. Never returned from my lunch break.

nzborn · 27/05/2022 21:15

The same thing happen to me apparently a supervisor had complained,
Manager was nice about it though.

Redglitter · 27/05/2022 22:52

Being NEARLY late when i was early shift 🙄

I started at 0630. I'm not a morning person and generally arrived at work about 0627. I'd be logged in for half past and the colleague i worked with was always in sharp so let the night shift away sharp & did the handover. Then when we were night shift he left sharp & I stayed to do the handover

I was told it had been noted i was 'nearly late' and should try & be in earlier. 🙄🙄

BarnacleNora · 28/05/2022 01:30

For eating my bowl of soup at the table in the staff room rather than balancing it on my knees on the sofas. Apparently I was being anti social.

Got off lightly compared to a colleague after I left though. She was getting married and invited another member of the team who was a good friend of hers outside of work. The manager hauled her into the office and told her that this wasn't fair and she either had to invite the entire staff to her wedding or nobody at all.

The level of control the manager and owner thought they could wield over their staff's private lives was honestly breathtaking. It was my first full time job after leaving school and took me a while after leaving to realise that their expectations really weren't normal!

Newestname002 · 28/05/2022 04:15

@BarnacleNora

The manager hauled her into the office and told her that this wasn't fair and she either had to invite the entire staff to her wedding or nobody at all.

Hope she put him in his place and said "No!"" What an awful cheek! 🌹

notprincehamlet · 28/05/2022 08:45

I was a Christmas temp at a vair naice department store - had to provide my own uniform, was on little more than nmw and I was told off because my jumper wasn't cashmere

BalloonsAndWhistles · 28/05/2022 08:51

For emailing my manager and saying:

’I won’t be in today as I’ve had a seizure’ Apparently that was rude and I should have said: ‘Is it ok if I don’t come in today as I’ve had a seizure?’ I mean, was she going to say no!!

BlueBloodedBlue · 28/05/2022 09:04

For getting pregnant aged 37 because the bitch of a CE had assumed I was infertile as I didn't have any children when I started there aged 30. I had, unsurprisingly never discussed my fertility status)

i was the first member of staff ever to have dared get pregnant (small Charity) and she made my whole pregnancy so stressful I'm sure it was a major factor in DS being born 6 weeks early and tiny.

Only upside was she decided she didn't want me back and so offered me a decent pay off not to return. As I had no intention of ever going back, I was happy to accept although I do wish I'd had the energy to have reported her officially.

IhatMMc · 28/05/2022 09:38

For not writing school reports when I was lying desperately ill in a hospital bed. Best thing I ever did was leaving that job and sticking two fingers up (not literally) at that hateful, bitter and twisted headteacher.