To ask what your most stupid work telling off was?

[BeatleBattleInABottle]

I need cheering up so if you'd like to share the most stupid reasons you've been told off for at work, that would help!

I've just been issued a formal warning for not following sickness procedures. I returned to work today after being off work since last Monday. Literally "Hi, welcome back. Here's a warning". The reason I didnt follow sickness procedures was because I texted my boss each day instead of phoning in. She replied so she received them. Why did I text? I collapsed on Sunday evening and was in hospital until Sunday. TBH they are lucky I remembered to contact them at all for the first few days. I certainly wasn't in a state to talk.

Same job a few months back. I was organising a conference for 350 people. I needed to confirm numbers so sent a professional email to everyone asking thrm to confirm attendance, dietary and other requirement etc. If they hadn't replied by the deadline, I would phone them. Plenty of time to do this. Nope. Not good enough. I had to recall the email and spend 3 days calling people instead. Great use of time, boss!

Finally, last month, I was sent an email bitching about me. They'd obviously put my name in the address, instead of the subject. I just replied "I don't think this was meant for me". Apparently that was "unprofessional" and upset the people who'd sent it! In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have replied, just to watch them squirm.

Yes, I'm stepping up my job hunt.

Sent an email signed off with the short version of my name. Apparently I shouldn't use "Beth" but Bethany. It was an email to Mick, Dave, Liz and our service head Jim. They all used their short versions but my manager couldn't see that. I was so annoyed. Now have new manager who absolutely couldn't care what version of my name I use so long as I'm polite and have my email signature with my job title and my preferred name.

As a new and fairly junior member of a professional team, I was asked to make a copy of all key documents relating to a project, and put them in a new file. This had been requested by the client, admin staff had no time, and the 'sell' to me as that it would help me get up to speed on the project. No problem. Protocol was that there should be a copy/note of all communications on the paper file, so I should just have needed to decide which had key info, photocopy and file. But it became very clear that very little had ever been filed. I received a series of tellings off (mainly loudly and in front of the whole office):

• Number 1- for not looking properly, the documents MUST all be there, and to suggest otherwise was offensive to the team
• Number 2 - having recreated the file using word etc documents saved on the electronic file, for missing key e-mails. E-mails sent before I joined the team and that I had no way of knowing had ever been sent.
• Number 3- for asking other team members if they had copies of the above mentioned e-mails. Apparently this was a waste of their time. When I asked how I should have got copies without asking people who were included on the e-mails I was told to 'show some initiative and find a solution'.
• Number 4- when the task took significantly longer than it would have done if everything had been on file- for wasting time on an admin job. The job that I'd been specifically asked to do, and specifically told NOT to ask any of the admin team to do.
• Number 5- for mentioning in my defence that the reason it had taken so long was that nothing was on the original file. Apparently this was an accusation that the manager and her team had not done their jobs properly, which could not have happened and to suggest so was unprofessional.

I later found out that the manager was in a relationship with the person who had my role previously and should have kept on top of the files.

Oh yes, similar to you I was told to call people more rather than email. Even though it is far more time efficient to send one email to multiple people than call each individually. Amongst other reasons I left shortly after!

Got a disciplinary for having my mum call in sick for me instead of doing it myself... I was sedated in hospital at the time.

Another one, in a very toxic work place got told off for taking a 20 minute break during a 9 hour shift... I walked out there and then never to return.

Ha! Reminds me of one manager who bollocked the team for “using nicknames”. And I mean in terms of Deb for Deborah, or Nikki for Nicola. Nothing untoward 😂

she was also adamant that you don’t make friends at work…

I have had to explain to a manager (in front of HR) why as a deaf employee I would struggle with telephone communication. Upon joining my team, I had exemption from covering the duty line. I still do duty line (even though it is a challenge for me). However, this apparently was not good enough and she wanted evidence going back to before she started that clearly stated I was exempt from telephone communication. I undertook research to try and find if there was academic papers, as to why a deaf individual would struggle with telephone communication. Strangely I could not find any.

I was taken to one side and very seriously told off for photocopying two pieces of paper that were personal and not declaring it and paying for it ( should have filled in book ).
I am still annoyed that I just apologied and paid up as that year is spent about £60 if my own money on recourses and bits and bibs that I could have claimed back but didn’t

it was my C V that I was copying 😂

Headteacher's talk at the start of the school year, lasted about half an hour. She drew to a close but then started again. I said to my friend next to me "I thought she'd finished".
Someone overheard and told on me.
Called into the HT office where she told me off for being so personal and nasty.
Ludicrous.

For replying to someone senior that I'd be "with him shorty" instead of shortly

He was very sensitive about his height.

I'd just started a new job. Owner's wife was my boss. She told me off for wasting the self carbon copying invoice forms by putting dates on in advance. I had to point out that the dates were 2 weeks before I started so it was down to the previous employee, not me. She harrumped & said well that is a lesson for you not to do it anyway!

I got told off for coming into work on the last day of my sick leave. I felt fine and able to work and the doctor had told me I could go back if I felt able to but apparently that's not allowed.

Told off for removing an ex employee from a WhatsApp group saying it wasn’t my decision. I was fuming for about 2 weeks about the ridiculously stupid row

Got told off by someone in head office after delicately pointing out that there was a spelling mistake in the big new signage they'd ordered for the shop window. They were total egomaniacs.

I worked on a magazine that was about to go to press (miss that and we’d be fined £££) and there was an issue with the fonts on our work computers. IT instructed me to do a thing on each person’s computer that took 10-20 seconds. Meant we could meet our deadline.

My editor told me off for ‘disrupting the team’.

I enjoyed quitting that job.

I hope you are feeling better and that you find a new job soon OP!

I was once hauled into a meeting with my boss and his boss to tell me off for not flirting enough on the phone with our clients. They told me that being polite and friendly wasn't good enough and I needed to be "phone flirty".

This was in the 90s!

Got told off for using the word "diversity" in a meeting about diversity because I am white and it might make other people uncomfortable.
The other people in the meeting were also white.
Still confused.

I was told off fir something that happened when I wasn't there. Because someone else said it was me...

I worked overseas for a few years. I am a qualified interpreter but did some ESL teaching in an academy to supplement my income.
The boss told my not to tell the students or parents I was an interpreter ‘as it made the other staff look stupid and inferior’ 🤣🤣🤣

I got shouted at for not knowing something that I hadn't been told. When I pointed that out, I was shouted at for not making sure that she had told me. How was I supposed to remind someone to tell me something that I don't know about?? That was the point at which I decided it was time to move on to another job.

I bought flowers to brighten the place up. Boss went nuts (was on holiday somewhere exotic and saw pics of the workplace on SM)
I got a written warning when she got back.
And she wonders why all of her staff left her business.

I was told off by a manager of a cafe for taking my full 20 minute lunch break when I'd agreed to open for her so she could go out drinking as well as close as per my agreed shift, she had sauntered in at midday and sat with a coffee for half an hour and I only sat down for my break when she deigned to start work. She told me that we can't take our full break when it's a busy Saturday and it was unmanageably busy because the owners were too tight to rota on enough staff
She expected me to work 7-7 with one ten minute break, again, so she could go on the piss and start late. I gave my notice in the next day.

I got told off for creating a design for a client.

Boss was insistent we hadn't enough information to create drafts. Client and anyone else with more than a friend egg for a brain could see they needed examples.

I created an example over the weekend. Shared with boss and client. Suggested we take the example to the users.

Boss is FURIOUS. I have completely undermined him, and clearly I'm too stupid to have successfully created the design on the limited info we have.

Design ends up being in the finished product, users happy, client happy.

Why shred it though, rather than lock it away. It was obviously printed off by someone .

He sounds like a character in a book. Would love to hear more

In my first proper job in early 2000s, one of my duties was to open the mail and distribute all items specifically addressed to a person, to that person's office. It was made very clear that everything was to be opened; envelopes and packages. Even if it said Private and Confidential, it was expected that I would open it - the senior folk couldn't possibly be inconvenienced by a sealed envelope.

Anyway, one morning I opened a rather intimate gift which had been ordered by my boss (married, female) to give to her boss (married, male). I put the opened package on her desk without a word and rather hoped she would just stay quiet and embarrassed about it. Nope, I got the bollocking of my life because I should have realised that particular package was exempt from the policy.

Immediately afterwards it was decided that all mail addressed to any particular person should be delivered to their office unopened. I still wonder how many of the other senior folk questioned the reason for the change.