A time you’ve got in trouble at work which was incredibly justified

[PinkMoscatoLover]

I was just thinking about the time when I started a new job in 2020. It was office based and we’d always have the radio playing in the background whilst working.

We’d listen to Heart, KISS or Capital FM and these stations would ALWAYS have some sort of competition going on. ‘Text us if you hear X song to win 30 grand,’ those sorts of competitions. Whenever I’d hear the specific song, I’d pick up my work phone and text the number in hope to win.

I was doing this daily for about 3/4 weeks when I received an email from someone relatively high up in the company. They’d sent me a spreadsheet of everytime I texted this number and how much each text cost. I racked up £98.56 or some nonsense like that😅

Luckily I only received a warning and was told not to do this again. They also highlighted that my work phone was to be used for WORK purposes only. Unofficially, my manager told me that the only reason I had kept my job is because I was ‘bloody good at it’ and reminded me to not be so stupid again.

Have you ever got in trouble for something at work and you totally deserved the bollocking?

Nope. I've been bullied and totally didn't deserve it.

I worked as a waitress in a pub. Quite often the landlord and landlady would stay out of the kitchen, only popping down occasionally. When we had excess chips that couldn’t swiftly be used for another order we’d put them in a bowl in the kitchen and all eat a few. Over time this turned into us frying ourselves chips. Then it grew and grew until one day the landlord came in to be faced with a large veg serving bowl of not only chips but scampi, whitebait, chicken nuggets and breaded mushrooms.

Quite rightly me and the chef got an absolute bollocking not only for - essentially - stealing but also eating on the job!

@ShellySarah I certainly wasn’t referring to getting bullied!

@Edwardandtubbs Hahaha omg I love how you guys cooked up a full meal for yourselves😂 caught red handed! Was the Landlord angry or did he let you and the chef get away with a stern warning?

Haha where do I start

Getting caught Emailing all day with this guy at work I was secretly shagging who was a manager (we were hauled in front of the main boss with reams and reams of our often explicit emails printed out) .

Spending hours on eBay and ivillage (remember that?) when i wasn't even meant to go online (same manager as above had secretly given me access even though us lowly minions weren't allowed internet). This was early 00s

Putting a customer on hold on the phone to go and have a cigarette

Putting customers on hold just cos they were dicks and I wanted a break from their shit

Telling a customer to fuck off in more than one job

I will say all of these jobs were in various call centres so fucking hideous with vile customers so believe me when I say they deserved it

I'm self employed now 😆😆😆😆

During lockdown my director sent most people to WFH. He picked a select few of us that couldn't, and had to be skeleton staff. For context, no customers came to our office ever and we were sat there twiddling our thumbs. It was totally unfair and he picked his favourites to WFH.

His wife worked in the company and got WFH because she had to supervise her college aged kids studies. Called it home schooling

We were not happy about this and another girl and I spent most of the day slagging them off on teams. On the company PC

The director had all our passwords and decided to log on our computers one day and go through our chats

Yeah that was an awkward few days. We got a right bollocking. When I asked why he spent his weekends reading our teams messages I really didn't do myself any favours

Oh this makes me sound like a total child but I was about 25 😂
A colleague and I laminated everything possible from another colleagues desk (including his work access pass and a £5 note). Honestly thinking about it makes me belly laugh.

The laminator was confiscated after that incident… apparently laminator sheets are quite expensive.

He was bewildered at first - he thought they were an order waiting to go out (not that we would ever have served food like that) and then we sheepishly admitted we’d cooked it all for ourselves. He shouted at us and told us not to do it again. He was more worried that it was unhygienic than we were taking the piss I think!

🤣🤣🤣

Great thread!!

Yep another phone bill one - used to call one of the engineers that l fancied and talk for ages but we're married now so it was worth it!

Why does someone always have to try and mess up a lighthearted fun thread with comments like this.
If you need to talk about your situation then start a thread or see a therapist. But why comment on something which clearly doesn’t relate to you when it is meant to be lighthearted?

@PinkMoscatoLover
How old were you when you used the work phone for the competition entries?
The whole thing with those is how much it costs and to always get the bill payer’s permission! It’s definitely something a 16 year old might do in a first job so I’m just wondering.

I was newish at a company and had asked how we booked annual leave. I was told just check with your counterpart to make sure they were going to be there.
I did that then sent an email to manager and other relevant people when I’d be away on vacation.
went on vacation, come home to a disciplinary. no one knew where I was apparently.
I was supposed to have told HR and filled out a request. Whoops!
I replied by letter explaining the process I’d been told and who knew about it.
turned out ok in the end, genuine error and lack of comms

Not me but a colleague, years ago in Ireland and she used used to ring from Dublin to Cork a few times a day. Manager came in one day with a stack of that old computer paper with the perforations and green lines, must have been a foot high. It was her phone calls, he told her it would be cheaper to put a satellite into space or something like that, than pay for her calls. She just got a warning.

Someone I used to work with got sacked for diverting his office phone to a mobile number abroad. He was calling it, claiming he was working so the wife never thought anything of it. Unfortunately managers got phone bills and that particular extension had a bill that was sizeably bigger than the rest of the team put together.

When I was 18 I was working in a call centre, one day a girl was repeating something phonetically and when she said d I shouted "for dick" at her in a really exaggerated way. Unfortunately the call was recordered and you could hear it clear as day. I still have a stupid sense of humour and still laugh about it but it was a justified bollocking.

Long time ago, in my early 20s, I went to work straight from clubbing. I thought I would pass as sober. Turned out I was wrong

First office job. Colleague told me they'd walked into the disabled toilet and caught two other employees in there in a compromising position. It was pretty juicy gossip. I of course shared it with the other assistants my age.

Unfortunately they had a big mouth and shared it with the senior managers when they asked what we were laughing about.

Because compromised employee and myself worked in the same department and it got back to his manager I got very told off from the manager about spreading gossip and harming others reputations. Fair enough I suppose but unfairly I don't think anyone else got in trouble but me!

@Barleysugar86
They didn’t get in trouble for toilet sex but you got in trouble for talking about it? That’s not fair!

My dog was rehomed to me and the very first week he was with me I had to go into work one day. He couldn't be left home alone so early on, so he had to come with me. Dogs are strictly forbidden in campus buildings, but my office is right beside the back stair fire escape leading into the car park. So I arrived, checked the area was empty, snuck him up the stair and he slept under my desk all day. On the way, I checked the corridor and stairwell were empty, snuck him back down the stairs, opened the fire doors congratulating myself on having pulled it off... And there in the middle of the car park stood the entire institute leadership, just coming back from a day seminar. I was not popular that day.

i don’t think it’s entirely clear what they were doing together in the disabled cubicle and I didn’t see it personally but the person who walked in implied it looked dirty. I think he told his manager he was comforting her from some bad news. His manager obviously believed him it was nothing sexual or she wouldn’t have been so mad at me 😂

Worked in a bakery at 16. Was asked to bag up 100 bread rolls that had been ordered for a party.
They were hot fresh out of the oven and I bagged them up in plastic bags. Ruined!

I miss working on magazines when you could come in the day after events, parties, etc, still shitfaced and no one batted an eye. I used to come in to show face, then go downstairs to the Mexican place, get an extra spicy burrito and take it to the sick bay and have a nice lie down under a blanket, dozing with the burrito right by my face so I could sleep nibble. Then come back to my desk around midday, refreshed, work until 1pm, then take my lunch break. Quite often there’d be a hair of the dog Prosecco opportunity around 3pm for someone’s birthday/work anniversary/leaving do.

Times I’ve been in trouble: calling a colleague “milquetoast” and saying another had an Oedipus complex; different jobs. Both times I only got in trouble once they’d googled it, so really I blame the internet. Also both accusations were true.

Wheelchair jousting competitions on night shift.

Watching "Celebs Go Dating" on colleague's iPad whilst the boss was at a meeting off site. Dobbed in by the cleaner.

Oh god, where to start,

Shitty call centre, got caught ringing my own number over and over again so I didnt have to actually talk to anyone.

When HR did a massive email audit and we were all hauled in one by one with printed out copies of how we had used the internet or our email unprofessionally, including ne having a row with my then boyfriend and when i had google image searched myself.

I also used to get drunk in wetherspoons before starting my boring call centre shift at 1pm. I def thought I hid it better than I did.