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AIBU?

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Original poster

To ask what your most stupid work telling off was?

399 replies

BeatleBattleInABottle · 01/04/2025 13:30

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.

OP posts:
Fuuuuuckit · 01/04/2025 15:13

This reply has been withdrawn

This message has been withdrawn at the poster's request

Pancakeflipper · 01/04/2025 15:14

Once a consultant,a dinosaur who had a thing about women working -- called a colleague and myself to one side and in front of our colleagues proceeded to bollockus loudly because a lever arch folder had documents in and the holes to put the papers in weren't fully lined up. It wasn't even us who did the paper filing - we saved everything electronically and we weren't the admin team.

We were told to photocopy everything and re-do it.

Our director quickly dealt with him (rather rudely to our delight).) and ensured he didn't pass it onto our admin colleagues.

PossiblyPertunia · 01/04/2025 15:14

saveforthat · 01/04/2025 13:44

Not me but a colleague was once taken to one side by her manager as she had stapled some documents together and the staple was not quite in the correct place.

This same exact thing happened to a colleague of mine! The staples were not perfectly straight at the top of the documents.

TheFunHare · 01/04/2025 15:17

I handed in my months notice (temping work in a call centre) and they knew I was leaving but on my last shift they expressed surprise, claimed i had not handed in my notice and sacked me. I guess they couldn't handle someone leaving of their own accord!

PossiblyPertunia · 01/04/2025 15:19

I got bollocked by an old manager for sending an email to an internal colleague (same job as I did) starting 'Hey Jane'. Apparently 'Hey' is completely unprofessional and only Hi or Hello is appropriate. After that date I would only email that colleague with 'Dear Jane' and kept my emails obnoxiously "polite".

Berryslacks · 01/04/2025 15:20

@Tugsfh Character was one word for him definitely 😂.

Thebloodynine · 01/04/2025 15:23

RaraRachael · 01/04/2025 13:47

My headteacher once told me to check my facts before I taught a lesson as I'd told the children that "Vesuvius is on the Italian mainland when it's on Sicily". Apparently a parent had phoned up to complain. I pointed out that, as I'd climbed it in the holidays, I was well aware of its location.

That’s an easy fix. What did the head say when you showed him a map?

Cryingatthegym · 01/04/2025 15:25

Oooh I have a good one. Receptionist in a top law firm when I was in my early 20s. I had my probation extended because I wasn't 'sparkly' enough Grin

MattCauthon · 01/04/2025 15:26

I am reminded of another one. Mid level PR person working in a PR agency. We were understaffed and I had found myself as an account manager on a ridiculous number of clients. One of the Account Directors I worked with had 3 clients, two of whom I worked on with him.

It sent him into an almost weekly rage that I had one notebook and did not, like him, keep a separate notebook for every client. He would show me his neatly linked up three noteboks on his desk and reiterate that this was the more practical way to do it. He would rant that I was going to get confused about what was for which client. It went on, off and on, for weeks. Until everntually on one occassion I was wearily explaining to him, yet again, that with 9 clients I didn't have the space and capacity for 9 notebooks to track my workload , never mind space in my bag to carry so many around if I had multiple meetings, when the MD walked past.... I don't remember exactly what was said or how, but it did stop after that! Grin (also, it might have been shortly after that that I was taken aside and told that they appreciated that I had way too many clients and they would prioritise removing some of my workload.)

Same senior person.... big project for a client that I had done 99% of the work for even though really it should have been a lot more evenly split. We needed to complete a whole lot of edits to a bunch of documents and then send over to the client. AD had, in a rather cavalier manner, told me that really, I just needed to get it done as it wasn't complicated as he swanned out the door at 6pm. I was in the office until 11pm finishing the work and, even though I would have preferred to get someone to review it, I had to send it to the client to meet the deadline.

The client contacted the CEO (different to the MD from the earlier story) to complain. There were a few minor typos in the documents. She called him (and followed up with an email which I saw) to say that she wanted to be very clear that she was not blaming me but she felt that the agency was leaving a mid level employee to deliver all the work and that it was not surprising there were typos as I'd sent it at 11pm. She wanted their reassurance that from then on I would not be left to deal with it all alone but would get support.....

.... CEO called me in to tell me I had to apologise to the client and not make the mistake again.

Jokes on him. They fired the agency after that as the client was SOOOO angry about it and she sent him a fairly blistering email which I was bcc'ed on, including saying that she would be contacting me to let me know that if I ever wanted a job on their team they would be happy to have me! Grin

FastFood · 01/04/2025 15:28

My old company was a tech start-up and they were super woke, they had DE&I policies for breakfast.
One day, I got told off because I said "guys" instead of "folks" and it was too gendered.
I also said "it's mental" where I should have said "It's wild" and apparently I was alienating people with mental health issues.

Livpool · 01/04/2025 15:29

I left my handbag on my desk and was told to move it to the floor. It was only on my desk because I had a back back and could bend down (which the person knew)

Limth · 01/04/2025 15:31

Office job, not public-facing. I got told off for wearing perfume. I didn't wear excessive amounts of perfume and I wasn't the only one wearing perfume. Turns out my boss took exception to me wearing CK Eternity because it was his ex-wife's signature scent and he couldn't stand to smell it after she'd dumped him and cleaned him out.

LOL.

I wore it every day I worked there from then on.

magicstar1 · 01/04/2025 15:31

I was in a colleagues office and saw a pile of cheques that he should have sent out ages before. As I worked in accounts, I asked him should they be cancelled. He said no, he was sorting it out. A couple of weeks later, this colleague and the CEO came to my desk, where he stood waving the cheques about, ranting about how I hadn't sent them out (while the CEO listened). I said they were nothing to do with me, and he shouted that they were my responsibility, that he'd found them hidden blah blah. I protested a couple of times, but let him finish. Then I asked how I could have possible been responsible seeing they were printed three months before I started work there. He went white and the CEO blasted him. I had a few run ins with him over the years, but never let him win.

Sewfrickinamazeballs · 01/04/2025 15:32

Used to work for a newsagents (a soon-to-be -lost big one) in my teens. One of my jobs was to bring in the newspapers from the front on opening up at 5am. I got a written warning because I had failed to bring in a few papers from the front. The reason I didn’t bring them in? They were covered in blood and teeth from a fight presumably starting in the pub next door overnight and the papers were shoved inside a public bin.

Limth · 01/04/2025 15:33

FastFood · 01/04/2025 15:28

My old company was a tech start-up and they were super woke, they had DE&I policies for breakfast.
One day, I got told off because I said "guys" instead of "folks" and it was too gendered.
I also said "it's mental" where I should have said "It's wild" and apparently I was alienating people with mental health issues.

But "it's wild" is incredibly alienating to all those who identify as non-domesticated non-humans. They should do better.

blobby10 · 01/04/2025 15:33

Late 1980s I was studying for a business studies degree two evening per week so finished work at 5pm, got changed into jeans, left the offices to drive to the polytechnic (yeah, that's how old I am!!! Grin) Elderly business owners used to come down to the offices at 5pm to chat with their managers about stuff - the lady stopped me and said "Not trousers Blobby, not to the office" and when I explained that I had just got changed she told me to leave the office in my skirt and heels in future and change at my destination. Grin

EvilParsnip · 01/04/2025 15:33

Serving a customer.

Apparently I was paid to work, not serve customers.

This was in a haberdashery shop.

Gettingbysomehow · 01/04/2025 15:34

Not looking smart enough on casual clothes Friday. Apparently smart jeans and a nice fleece top were "too casual".
We had no casual guidance or policy to start with, management decided to take the casual day away from us as a result.
Stupidist thing I ever heard.

jellyfishperiwinkle · 01/04/2025 15:35

I still remember working in a pub when I was doing A-Levels and being told off by a customer because the white wine was too cold.

FuckoffeeBeforeCoffee · 01/04/2025 15:36

Not a formal telling off, but my boss got pissed off with me and ignored me for three weeks because I hadn’t said good morning to him.

I was on the phone…

NinjaPaws · 01/04/2025 15:36

Maybe 30 years ago I was getting a dousing for sickness. I asked about the dates I had been off and they said (I don't know the actual days) and finally 12th February. And I said But TODAY is 12th February. Cue a lot of looking confused. I didn't really take them seriously after that.

jellyfishperiwinkle · 01/04/2025 15:37

Yes I was advised that trousers were not suitable office attire for women as a paralegal- by a female partner in a law firm in 1999.

Then I got told off for wearing a layered frilled skirt. Admittedly I was slightly taking the piss there.

Chattie89 · 01/04/2025 15:38

Worked as a TA in a primary school in my twenties and the headteacher was a raging psychopath. Used to put me on playground duty every day. One day it was sleeting, she walked past me shivering with cold and shouted at me to take my (non-gloved) hands out of my pockets. I only stayed 3 weeks.

toebeancat · 01/04/2025 15:40

For stapling sheets of paper together using a diagonal directioned staple in the corner of the sheets. Apparently it should have been straight.

For addressing the board as "Dear all" in an email, when I should have written "Dear Board".

For writing "Ted noted...." rather than "Ted said..." in the minutes.

You get the drift! Insanity.

ObliviousCoalmine · 01/04/2025 15:41

I used to work somewhere where the manager wanted to be cc’d into every single email sent from each of us every time we sent an email.

This obviously meant she had an unreasonably large amount of emails and couldn’t feasibly read them all. She’d then get all arsey about something someone had done (she didn’t like anyone to have any form of independent thought), and then be furious, despite having been included on the plethora of emails about the subject; she just hadn’t read them.