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.

I was on a site visit by a main road in the countryside. It was pretty quiet but then a large lorry came thundering down the hill. My boss was leaning into the road with his back to the lorry to get a perspective on a building. I motioned to him to move in and he scowled ferociously and opened his mouth to say something about not needing to be supervised, then looked over his shoulder and sidestepped. Not a telling off in the end but it was going to be.

My colleague was told off for the offensive way that she asked me to make her a cup of tea. This was odd as there was nothing at all offensive about the way she asked. Neither of us know what was really happening there.

I got told off for reporting a colleague for sexually assaulting me. I was a wicked, wicked girl for saying such dreadful things about a lovely family man.

I also got told to get over myself for complaining about a colleague who would run his fingers up my legs when I was working at the standing desk. And to laugh when I came back from lunch early and found said colleague sniffing my chair and asking me if I was ovulating.

Was once sent an email by another department with a long list about of complaints about my department, cc’d to all of my colleagues as well, asking could we do / not do this, that & the other ridiculous, inconsequential thing. I replied “Okay”.

Not my own story, but a friend’s sister was a teacher, and implemented new strategies with her class that really boosted their performance. She was told off because she had the second set, and her kids outperformed the kids in the top set.

Back in the olden days when I was a student nurse I was told off by a nurse manager for not wearing tights during a heatwave. The reason given was that my pubic dust would be a health hazard.

I remember something similar - we worse dresses in theatre (this was in the 80s, before it was the norm for nurses to wear scrubs), and were to,d we should wear tights, to prevent “perineal fallout”!!

Sorry but I really hate this. When I see colleagues whispering in a public area, I think it's rude. Confidential conversations should be held in a private area.

When I was working for a charity shop:

1. Not smiling as I came through the door
2. Walking with a limp (I have chronic hip issues and need a replacement)
3. Getting donations out of the bin (they used to bin half of what they received each week). I wasn't keeping it for myself, I just knew it would actually sell in the shop as it was good stuff
4. When I got a warning for complaining about being letched on by the creepy security guard I knew it was time to leave

Working for a big supermarket:

1. Being screamed at by my manager for not going into a female toilet where a man was busy smashing it up. When I told her she should go in if she was that bothered she tried to give me a final written warning (she didn't succeed but it did have to go to the higher ups
2. Same manager telling me off for IDing people on the cigarette counter
3. Being told off for being a bit fat by my colleagues and that was why I never got invited out - turns out I actually had a thyroid issue that I had to have radiotherapy for.

Aren't people lovely.

I’m an HCSW. Once on a ward I used to work on, a Staff Nurse complained that the hair elastic that held my neat bun in place one day was an ‘infection control risk’ as it had a small silk flower on it! Which might drop off into a wound!
Yet it was fine for her to wear her hair down in a long messy bob whereby hairs could fly off everywhere, because her hair was still approx 1mm above her collar.

Sorry but she had form for being a nasty person who bitched about me from the moment I started work there. one issue she had was that I was ‘wearing lipstick and perfume to attract doctors’ apparently. Who knew.

@IGetWeakI think we must work for the same boss.

I oversee some staff working for the big boss (I refuse to work directly on his projects) and each and every time he reviews something he bleats about it not being the standard company template. When they use it, he complains it’s shit and gets them to change it. Then the next time he complains it isn’t the standard one. Or, he’ll review something monthly for 3 or 4 months then the 5th month he’ll start whining about it all being in the wrong format. He’s such a dick!

In a previous workplace (vets), we closed at 5.30 but were often in the building later (unpaid) to finish notes/phone calls. A lady turned up at 6.10ish, and said she had a vaccination booked for her dog. We explained that we didn’t have appointments at that time, as it was outside our opening hours, so had she maybe come to the wrong practice in error? This was indeed what had happened.

My boss implied I should have seen the patient even though a) she had turned up at the wrong practice and b) I was already 40 minutes into unpaid overtime

I was also told off for not wanting to wrestle a bouncy Rottweiler to clip its nails, at 8 months pregnant ; sitting down to do some work at a computer (again while heavily pregnant) ; not ‘seeing if my colleague needed a break’ at 10am when he’d arrived at work hungover half an hour late at 9am, and I’d covered his consults as well as my own for the first half hour….

Friend a postie took a photo of the barcode inside a postbox as the scanning thingy they carry around had run out of battery. Got back to the office and put a new battery in the scanner, then scanned the photo.
Got a 12 month warning for not coming back to the office, getting a new battery, going back to the postbox and scanning it.

Oh, I have a good one for this, I was working in a hospitality business that hosted birthday parties

I mopped the floor (as requested) then got a formal warning because it didn't dry quick enough for the next party 🤨

In the first week of a new job in my mid to late 20s, got told off by a significantly older colleague for wearing a black short sleeve shirt tucked into smart tapered black trousers with a dark maroon pattern on with black shoes into the office. She shrieked ‘do you think you’re going to the beach?!’ in front of everyone, adding that I was very unprofessional. My manager at the time had to take me to one side and explain that I was, of course, absolutely appropriately dressed.

Years later, I am now the manager of this service, and often think she’d be turning in her grave (if she were dead) at some of the things the 20 year olds wear now (all also completely appropriate for the office).

Jog on.
It wasn’t a public area. I work in a school and it was a private personal matter we were discussing in my classroom.
And it was before our actual time to start.
Other colleague was pissed off as she likes to know everything and I wouldn’t tell her.
We are allowed to have secrets from others you know.

I was told off for the “thought crime” of vaguely considering putting 6 pieces of paper (my credit card statements) in the workplace shredder after mine broke. I put them in my bag but couldn’t remember where the shredder was so left them in my drawer. I was asked why they were there so replied honestly. The problem was that I would’ve been profiting from the workplaces’ shredding contract! Previously I was told off for using my Tesco Clubcard when purchasing a £15 item for work which I claimed from petty cash.

I hope you had an apology!

I was once invited to take up a prestigious and responsible role in my existing organisation - my director already held that role, but offered it to me as I was "more than capable" of performing the function. I worried a little that my background was in "x" part of the industry, not the "y" part of the industry that the function dealt with - he assured me that I wouldn't be on my own and he would support me at all times as I grew into it.

Within a month I was given a dressing down by the very same director for failing to draft all the operational procedures for that entire side of the business - procedures that should have been written at the launch 2 years earlier. I also tried to approach him for help on a regulated area I wasn't sure of, and he told me it was very disappointing that I "went to him for everything" instead of being independent. So much for support.

I resigned a couple of months later and he refused to sign my leaving card because I had "let him down so badly." I still have a visceral reaction to his name when I see it in the financial press or on LinkedIn. COLOSSAL bellend and a toxic bully.

Sadly as my username will attest, I still have a work problem now!

Huge row for daring to sympathise with fictional character on Take the High Road. Apparently I had allowed the devil into my life.

I was once asked by colleague to describe what sort of dog i had so i said a small fluffy white Pomeranian - she then went to HR and accused me of racism because i said my dog was white.

The work sickness policy changed and you could only phone in, it had to be you rather than another person and you had to speak to your line manager. We were told that we had to do this no later than 9.15am or it would be recorded as unauthorised absence.

I was warned once for sending an email when I was too ill to come in. I had the flu and had lost my voice. Second warning was for a different illness. I rang in and left a message with someone in the office and was told off for not speaking to my line manager before the cut off. She started work at 10am.

They eventually eased the policy so it made sense but only after several of us had warnings for failure to comply. Apparently someone wondered why the rate of warnings had increased 🤔

I worked in retail at 16.

Was told off for not dressing sexy enough for the clothing brand we were selling. They wanted me to wear heels for 8 hours on the shop floor while dressing like i was going clubbing 🤷‍♀️

Worked in retail and on a very, very dead Sunday morning our lovely sales manager treated us to hot drinks. I had mine behind the counter out of sight and took an occasional sip when no customers were around.

I was off for a few days after and got a phone call from one of the other girls to say her and the sales manager had been dragged into a meeting by the store manager as she had checked the CCTV and seen us drinking our coffee and that I would also be spoken to upon my return.

She did speak to me upon my return about how unprofessional it was to have drinks on the shop floor. I could probably understand it if I had been drinking while serving customers or had left the drink where it could have spilled onto merchandise but it just seemed so over the top.

I got pulled into the office for being early at work, but not early enough.