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

[NoEffingWay]

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.

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 .

Not trouble as such but I was made to apologise to a customer who’d threatened to kill me

For refusing to laugh when a male customer joked that the Discovery space shuttle crash happened because "someone let the woman astronaut have a go at driving".

Columbia, not Discovery!

Telling someone the wrong information about what we did with a certain piece of post, meaning there were long delays. I wasn't even in when it was supposed to have happened. I'd just had my appendix out. But 'Why would Janice lie?'

Erm - can you not think of a good reason why she would? Because I can and I'm not a manager.

For leaving on time

These are brilliant!

Mine is I was let go during my probation period because I was too proactive I was told I needed to learn to walk before I could run, despite being perfectly qualified and capable of doing the job.

They wanted to hire someone who was proactive, independent, and energetic, and afterwards said actually they just needed someone to fall in line and be reactive.

Such a fucking insult.

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.

Being a one of em 'forinners'.

Addressing a department wide e-mail with 'Dear Colleagues'.

Got a disciplinary for calling people 'colleagues' when apparentlty I was a very great deal more lowly than anyone else. (Which I was not).

Got a further disciplinary when a someone I line managed worked above and beyond at a weekend and I sent her a private message saying 'Thank you, you are an absolute star'. She went to HR to say i was patronising her and infantilising her.

Taking too many smoking breaks. Don’t smoke. Never have.

Smiling. Was working in a nursing home and they were worried the residents would think I was laughing at them. Nope, just smiling because I liked them.

I explained something to a customer who had already told me she had trouble with her memory. At the end of the call I said remember the most important thing you need to do is xyz. I got in trouble for wasting time repeating myself.

Driving too fast in the car park, not reckless speeds either, 10mph... I laughed when the head told me what she had pulled me in for.

I am pretty sure I know where you work and the incident you are talking about!

For not moving out of the way of the office bully in the corridor. Horrible bearded twat.

For not phoning in sick at 9am on the first day I was off work.
It was a planned hospital stay and I was already in theatre at 9am, which they had plenty of warning of but were being as obstructive as possible.
The rule was that you must phone in person and speak to HR at exactly the start of your working day. This was before I had a mobile phone too so it would have had to be a land line. I’d already pointed out verbally and then in writing that this was going to be impossible, and suggested alternatives, but they insisted that I had to find a way.

Eating a small cube of birthday cake that another colleague had given me. On the playground at breaktime because that's when said colleague gave it to me. Another colleague clutched her pearls while hiking her judgy pants and claimed that if a child had seen me, it could 'go viral on Facebook'.

It didn't.

For having a baby and 'a year off' (maternity leave)
While I was on ML (begrudged by misogynistic manager) he basically gave away my job. I came back to a completely different role with no consultation. No job description, informal and then formal warnings for 'not doing my job'. Didnt know what my bloody job was despite repeatedly asking.
Over time it got worse-I ended up with a sales target (I was bloody admin!-not even sales people had sales targets!) and signed off with stress.
Finally found some balls and raised a grievance right to the top of organisation. He was raging and demanded to see my grievance before it went to ACAS as I was 'wasting time.'
My grievances were all upheld. He did have form for managing women out of the organisation.
He reisgned in disgust, I'm still there with my new job description and accompanying pay rise.
i do like giving him a cheery wave if I happen to spot him at local Tesco

By a stranger for “being late to work every single day as people are waiting”

no I work in the building NEXT to the nursery and I am supposed to be in by 9am so getting in at 8:15 (-which also seems to be nursery opening time) is nothing to Do with me and I don’t let them in!!

stranger didn’t look happy when I told them that!

Allowing a 7 month pregnant woman, who reported directly to me, to finish work 4 hours early as she was feeling awful. She had had a really tough pregnancy in general. Her baby was born 6 weeks early.

But apparently me allowing her to finsh her day early was unprofessional.

Oh! And years ago my line manager told me off for consistently starting work 15 minutes late. The irony there was he had got my start time wrong and I was actually starting work 15 minutes early every day.

I was reprimanded recently for (and I quote) "using my initiative." Apparently this is very bad and I should instead only do things when I am told, like the female that I am.

We had a staff member obsessed with holidaying in exactly the same resort multiple times a year. She showed us all a photo one day. I said “Oh, I love that top, you had it on yesterday “.

Dragged by team leader into a meeting room, the picture was 6 years old, team member was mortally offended and never wore the top again.

Team Leader was a known and oft reported bully. Team Member was just ludicrous. I was made to apologise formally

i was a restaurant supervisor at a newly opened hotel. The general manager was way out of her depth and the restaurant manager was sacked 2 weeks after opening for gross misconduct. I stepped into his shoes and fulfilled all the duties of a manager and was referred to as such by all. at my 6 month appraisal she provided nothing constructive just that I was doing a shit job (I wasn’t, out off all the staff Front of house I was the most experienced). A month later I was on the shared email that all staff had access to with the Bar supervisor reading a customer email over my shoulder helping to decipher it as it was badly written. An email came in so we opened it - it has confidential information on and was for the GM so filed it in her folder and told her it was there.

She then started a disciplinary and formal warning procedure that included sharing confidential information with colleagues and ideas of working above my station. The next day she was sacked and a new GM in place as she was just shit at her job. A few days later I had a formal warning letter in my tray. Showed the new GM who shredded it and asked HR why they would start disciplinary procedures over hearsay let alone from a manager they were firing. He then got me formally promoted with a pay rise.

Booking a hotel that was able to be cancelled as it cost more. Then for booking a cheaper hotel that could not be cancelled as they decided they needed to cancel their trip

Shouted at (loudly) across the shop floor for speaking too loudly to a hard of hearing customer.