To ask for stupid reasons you've been told off at work?

[chailatte123]

I once asked a member of the Senior Team if she had dyed her hair.
Apparently this was very rude.

Absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, but neither is farting. Yes, is not the same, but I am making a point. If I don't want to talk about whether I had my lips done, I die my hair to hide my grays or using spanx, you shouldn't force me to by asking me. Telling me I look good is enough, I decide if I want to share. I hope it makes sense, I am not being bitchy.

For pronouncing a colleagues name wrong
For getting a puppy, it meant I couldn’t spend time in the evening writing up my notes - in my own personal time.

If she only dyed her hair to cover greys, she likely hoped it was completely unnoticeable and just looked like she still had her original hair colour. And if she felt bad about going grey, she could have taken the question as a dig about her ageing and not hiding it successfully.

I had a customer query that needed answering within a fairly tight timeframe. The Director of that branch of the company was in the office that day so I went to ask him thinking he'd possibly either know the answer or know where I could look. Before he could answer the Director of one of the other branches (who was dating him and was also the daughter of my boss) said to me "Well have you tried using your initiative to find the answer rather than running to Director?"

This was the same woman who asked me to put together some data for her. When I asked her how she wanted the data presented she said "Oh use your best judgement." So I did and when I presented it to her she went "Well that's not how I wanted it, you'll have to redo it." Bitch.

I volunteer in a cafe and I was told off for using the white bread board for cutting bread!! Apparently that is not what it's for and I should use the paper plates to cut the bread.

A member of my team drinks water from a really fancy glass bottle. First time he did it I joked it looked like vodka. He agreed and we laughed together. At no point did either he or I go to our CEO and make a complaint. People are odd at what they perceive to be issues.

I wouldnt consider that rude at all. I often compliment my boss on her appearance.

Well, we'll have to agree to differ if you don't consider a remark like 'Its almost like we like each other and get on' to be sarcastic.

At a new school, I printed some exercises for a class with the wrong printer settings (think it was landscape, not portrait), which cut some off and I had to reprint them. Showed a colleague who came in, in a "whoops, what a pain" way and she went bright red, put her head in her hands while breathing out loudly and told me our manager was "literally going to murder [me]"!

(For wasting pennies out of our department printing budget, apparently)

I've also been (verbally) told off more than once for putting perfectly correct and work related things in writing when a senior manager would have preferred an informal spoken conversation without anyone else present... I still find it jaw droppingly unfair because it's a very obvious (verbal, no witnesses, off the record) admission that the senior manager wants to take credit for your your idea/ thoughts/ insight/ whatever or wants to correct or deal with something without a paper trail or whatever.

I know finding things unfair is childish btw. it just never stops being disappointing.

I've told this story before on another thread, but as a student I once had a temp job in an office that involved comparing the details on a pile of documents (sales orders or similar) with the details on a computer printout and then filing away the documents.

I started on Monday morning, was shown what to do and diligently set to work. By mid-afternoon I'd finished and went to see the person who'd shown me what to do to ask if there was anything else for me to do. She looked at me in shock, like I'd just landed from Mars, and went off to see the manager. After lots of arm-waving and shouting she came back and told me that I'd somehow managed to complete in a few hours what the regular staff member was taking an entire week to complete. What's more, that person gave the impression that she was "always oh so busy" and was constantly complaining about her work load.

While I wasn't directly told off, there were one or two staff members who were very cold towards me for the rest of my week there, refusing to let the supervisor allocate me to help them and generally ignoring me - I suspect that I'd unwittingly revealed to management that some of the staff were swinging the lead.

The secretary i was working for asked that I get a written warning for the quality of tea id made.

The boss took me in a room to discuss it.

I was 16 and cried.

Evil bitch

How ridiculous! Our nursery staff always wore trainers and comfy clothes. I suspect they
spent half the time crawling around on the floor so you wouldn’t want to have nice shoes on that would get scuffed. Bizarre.

That's what you take from that story? Maybe she was an old fat cow, I've met plenty

I was once told off for NOT flirting on the phone with clients.

Another place I got told off for my till being down by the exact amount that a customer had stolen in petrol, and which I had reported, but when the police spoke to my manager, my manager told them not to charge the culprit. So where they expected the money to be I don't know!

Another place I got in trouble because I wouldn't lend the boss's wife my favourite boots.

This may partially explain why I went self employed in my early 30s!

I was told off for giving a customer more toast than they ordered. The manager said 2 slices was one piece of bread toasted and cut in half and I thought it was 2 pieces of bread toasted and cut in half. The rest of the staff thought the same as me and I was genuinely confused

For being 3 minutes late back from my lunchbreak. When I was about 40, I had a new office manager (she was 23,) who she was trying to make her mark, and charged up to me as I walked through the door, 3 minutes late from lunch, and said (hand on hip, head tilted,) 'WHERE have you been?!' her face purple with rage. I said 'errr, to lunch.' She said 'you are five minutes LATE!' 😡 I said '3 actually, and it's because I got stuck at a checkout a bit longer than I would have liked. I'm sorry... ' She went on.... 'I am not having it, there is literally NO excuse for bad timekeeping, you will be on a warning if this ever happens AGAIN!'

I actually laughed, and said 'dude, it's 3 minutes!' 😆The other 5 colleagues in the office were struggling to not piss themselves laughing, this little madam throwing her weight around like a big boss. I said 'I have worked half an hour to 45 minutes past my finish time, as a favour to the company, 4 times in the past 2 weeks, with no extra pay, as I am salaried. In fact, I have always done this quite regularly, does 3 minutes really matter that much?'

She continued ranting, and almost had steam coming out of her nose! 'NOOOOOOOO excuses, I'm not having it!'

I was like 'OK then. I will work 3 minutes after my finish time tonight to make up for the 'lost time.' (I had literally lost another 5 minutes because of her having a go at me and ranting at me - in front of everyone else! Like fuck was I making that up though!)

Never EVER worked any extra time again, not a fucking microsecond. A number of times she begged me to stay an extra 20 to 30 minutes or so, so this or that certain task could be finished,' and I said 'no.' and walked off, every time.

She knew she had burnt her bridges. And the area manager was furious when he found out why I was refusing to stay over ever again. She never apologised though, so I never worked over again. Until she left 15 months later.

I forgot one: I once got told off for very quickly writing a short poem to encourage colleagues to use my services instead of just writing it in prose. Apparently it must have taken me ages. It was doggerel and took me no more time than writing a normal email. I just wanted to be creative and catch people's attention so they would remember they were supposed to use me!

Many years ago, dd broke her leg and needed surgery. She was staying at my mum's a hundred miles away. I had to leave work to get to her mid afternoon, on a Thursday. She had surgery on the Friday. We had been due to go on holiday on the Monday - A/L booked for three weeks. On the Monday and Tuesday I went into the office to make up the time and get things ship shape for leave. On the Thursday FIL dropped dead.

A couple of days before I was due to return I phoned.to let my boss know that I'd need the Tuesday after the BH off.for the funeral.

Her words "we'll look.forward to seeing you, you've taken a lot.of time.for all.this already". I tersely said, I haven't, I've been on annual leave and am.asking for one co.passionate day". She said "I suppose that's correct actually".

She was a new boss. She was terminated within the year. Had I not been doing professional exams I'd have told her to.stock the job where the sun doesn't shine.

Another one! I was told off for being delayed on a trip from the office to a job because I got stuck behind a tractor. And then I was told off for pushing back on that and telling my supervisor that I couldn't get round it and there was nothing I had been able to do. He reported me to the company owner who bollocked me when I got back.

Your manager is in the wrong here for not understanding what a slice of toast is!

For failing to ask a customer if they had a store loyalty card when I could see they had it in their hand ready to give me.

Stapling documents together before posting. Apparently it's "chavvy" 🙄

City people no doubt, who think you should tailgate and toot your horn!

(I’m being silly of course but it does happen. Some people think food grows in the supermarket.)

School based, many years ago.

For buying Apple computers rather than PCs. I got the sole blame - even though the decision was a joint one, fully minuted and transparent.