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tell me about your oddest colleague?

359 replies

StealthPolarBear · 19/09/2011 21:59

Past or present.
We used to have one who would pick his ears and then make the coffee, it used to have bits floating in the top.

OP posts:
Bearskinwoolies · 20/09/2011 13:44

Worked with a guy in the BTP who managed to get to the rank of Inspector. Was a proper nut job, constant sexual harrassment, used to try and feel you up, wanted to know if you were wearing stockings under your uniform skirt etc. Had a lovely habit of sneaking up behind you and sticking a pre-licked finger in your ear, or trying to pull up your skirt.

He resigned (before he could be sacked) after two seperate incidents with two wpcs on the same night.

IrmaMuthafucker · 20/09/2011 13:49

The woman who's interpretation of smart business attire was a grubby hot pink sateen suit with matching jacket. Her head was not unlike one of those trolls you used to get in Clinton Cards. That coupled with the "Barbie on crack" look was an arresting sight in a sea of muted pinstripe.

CalatalieSisters · 20/09/2011 14:00

Blimey. I came on to post about the man who always wore shorts and sandals even in midwinter. I see now that that is pretty tame, and I vow never to give up my home-alone freelancer status.

Justfeckingdoit · 20/09/2011 14:03

So so many!

We also had a phantom shitter in one of our offices. Not so phantom and after a spectacular poo-gate where a cock and balls were drawn on the wall they were transferred to the head office. Why? So we could share in the joy?

Hence poo-gate 2 with a perfect turd in front of the entrance to one of the floors. The cleaners put a bucket over it and csi type "danger" tape around it.

Half the office had their photo taken next to the crime scene.

The perpetrator did eventually get fired. But for fiddling their expenses, not the shitting.

Gotta love my company :)

FloydieDoydie · 20/09/2011 14:21

We had a temp to do filing, he was in his 50s and had been top level manager in the city before having a nervous breakdown. He stank of BO (proper raw onion smell - vom) and carried a briefcase to work every day with his sandwiches in....until one day we spotted he also had a hunting knife in there. We mentioned this to our manager and thankfully he never retuned.

A bloke who insisted on wearing his camoflage kilt on dress down Fridays, with sandals (no socks) - even in the depths of winter. On normal days, he would change from trousers and shoes into his kilt and sandals to walk home in. A colleague told me she couldn't look him in the eye after he put his foot up on the edge of the desk opposite her to do up his sandals one evening, and got an eyeful of bare testicles

A lady who insists on singing showtunes and high-kicking her way around the office, but thinks nothing of shushing everyone else in a very rude way.

God - the KFC bones thing reminded me of a South African colleague and (thankfully ex)housemate of mine; she was VILE. She cooked all her meat and fish on a George Foreman grill, but despite using it twice a day never cleaned it. It stank to high heaven - it was caked in grease and chunks of meat and fish. She used to use it before work to cook her lunch on and she smell used to make me vomit in the mornings. I started working an earlier shift to avoid it! She had no sense of food hygiene and would defrost meat straight onto the counter - but she imagined she was really clean; she used manky dishcloths over and over again for weeks on end (until me or our other housemate would throw them away) so we always had to re-clean the counters etc. She just used to wipe the stuff onto the floor, and we had to clean that up. The real shocker was the eggs....she always bought those massive trays of cheap value eggs, as she ate eggs with everything (fried usually). Anyway, me and our other housemate noticed once that these eggs were over a week out of date - and she was still eating them. She then went home to South Africa for 6 weeks, leaving the eggs in the cupboard. When she came home, we expected her to throw them out - but she didn't...she ate three more of them first. And she wondered why she had bad guts?! She also had quite bad BO, probably because all her clothes were polyester and only ever washed on a quick wash at a low temperature. Most people at work would be very shocked if I revealed the full truth about her George Forman habits etc....!

Smile
filibear · 20/09/2011 14:25

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AbsDuWolef · 20/09/2011 14:27

FYI, not all South Africans are as barking as the ones mentioned on this thread.

Thank you for your time

FloydieDoydie · 20/09/2011 14:30

I'm sure they aren't Abs Smile, I've met some lovely ones too

Ilovedaintynuts · 20/09/2011 14:38

When I was much younger I worked with a woman with terrible psoriasis. Obviously can be an awful affliction. However she would scratch and scratch and scratch all day until her whole desk/computer/keyboard/ floor was 3 inches deep in skin scales. On the occasion you had to go to her desk you knew you would come away with a coating. Poor woman.

WorzselMummage · 20/09/2011 14:51

Oh my south african colleague isn.t barking, she's a good friend, i really like her and she's quite clean and doesnt smell at all... her bone munching does turn my stomach though [vom]

LindyHemming · 20/09/2011 15:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

OTheHugeRaveningWolef · 20/09/2011 15:37

I had a paper-round when I was 13, and there was a man who was employed to help with getting the rounds together behind the newsagent. He had a wooden leg and a speech impediment, and I swear he was a paedophile.

He used to come right up behind me and whisper 'awight gorgeous' into my ear while I was trying to get my round together, until I rounded on him and started hurling abuse. Bizarrely in spite of the fact that he'd be sexually harassing me, he still didn't seem to understand why I was calling him a creepy fucking wanker and telling him everyone hated him. Confused

TheLaineyWayIsEssex · 20/09/2011 15:40

We had a phantom shitter too. Seems there is an epidemic ...
It came to a head when one morer senior manager stood in a fresh specimen one morning
We had to swipe in and out of the toilets, so they managed to track down the culprit eventually. She later resigned not before suing a manager for sexual harassment!
This was in a building in the City, of we rented a floor from a firm of presitigous lawyers. Oh the shame, when we couldn't renew the contract thanks to the phantom shiiter.

Also, used to sit next to a guy who would eat constantly, mainly stinky curries or chinese takeaways, and regulalry belch outloud followed by a pathethic "scuse"

A colleague and former friend used to disappear every lunchtime, and come back regaling us with tales of debauched gay sex in the public toilets near our office and that of a busy City hospital. Fun times powered by gaydar ...

I am sure there are more

HidingInTheUndergrowth · 20/09/2011 15:43

We have one woman who always shoves her hand down her top and adjusts her breasts when she is talking in meetings. Very distracting.

I once worked at a place where a guy took long term sick leave, about a month in I picked up the phone and his wife was on the other end asking if she could speak to him as there had been a family emergency. I had to break the news to her that he wasn't there and hadn't been in for some time, she kept insisting that he had left for work every morning. That was a little akward I can say.

We had a temp for a while who was refered to solely as 'The Temp' who used to insist on telling you about embarrassing details of her friends lives followed by the phrase '...but what really upset's my friend is the way everyone seems to know about it'. She also used to burst into tears at some amazingly random things all the time and then require about an hour of counselling before she could return to work.

Another woman took 4 days off work after her very elderly rabbit died. I have had pets all my life and I know it can be very upsetting but 4 days?!

There was a guy in one office I used to work at who would just go to sleep at his desk all afternoon. He was a bit crap in general so people would just leave him there

...don't you just love the public sector Hmm

TLD2 · 20/09/2011 15:49

Some of mine:
Bloke who was banned from ground floor loo for covering toilet, floor and walls in shit. Was allowed to use other loos though.
Same bloke used to stuff bits of loo roll up his arse, after going to the loo. How do we know this? They used to fall out of his trouser leg when he walked about and they'd have a shitty corner.
Same bloke had porn catalogues delivered to work which he used to show us. They were shemail mags, including hair removal cream and treatments for making men look more feminine.
Same bloke told a colleague, in his 20s, if you were 10 years younger I'd have you. "12 is the best age".
Why wasn't he sacked? Manager and HR, and I quote, "it's his culture" WTF!!

Bloke more recently asking us if we have our bluetooth on on our phones. We all check thinking it's clashing with something of his. Nope, nada. We ask why to be told...
"I have a massive headache. Bluetooth affects my thinking processes".
Also told us the reason he was hungry was because he suffered from a rare condition whereby if he didnt eat every 4-5 hours he'd get hungry and weak. We said yes, it's called hunger.
He also said the reason he was tired was because his brain worked much faster than ours so he got tired quicker.
He was shit at his job and couldn't do the most basic things, too busy "doing reverse psychology" on us all.

Justfeckingdoit · 20/09/2011 16:19

10 years ago, working in the media was fun. The whole company was staffed by raging alcoholics.

One guy used to sleep at his desk from 2-5 every day. We worked around him.

Mind you, not sure I can talk as I once hired someone because they were still lucid and eloquent after 3 large glasses of wine at lunchtime.

those were the days

aStarInStrangeways · 20/09/2011 16:33

So come on, which one of you has registered come feel the warmth of my silken beaver as a namechange? Grin

Amazed at the proliferation of phantom shitters. Someone I know on another forum had one at their work who started off smearing and progressed to writing POO on the walls, in poo. He said it looked like they had used the turd as a crayon.

None of my bizarre ex-colleagues can really compare to any of these thank fuck.

aftereight · 20/09/2011 16:55

my gay work colleague used to announce he was going to 'drop the kids off' when he went to the loo i was until he explained it was a reference to the days before safe sex...

That put me right off my mini Twirl Bites, I can tell you!

A woman I used to work with was given her own office because she smelt so bad. Not BO, but decaying flesh mixed with unwashed fanjo stink Shock. She was alcoholic, and could be found each lunchtime nursing a pint glass of white wine in the local Wetherspoons (empty bottle next to her). I once threatened to resign as the smell from her in the office was making me gag and nobody would tackle her about it.

Blatherskite · 20/09/2011 17:07

Seems poo and wee are quite "normal" Hmm at my last job someone smeared the toilet seat, floor and walls of a cubicle in menstural blood!

Had to get specialist cleaners in for that one.

Blatherskite · 20/09/2011 17:08

or menstrual even. Blush

ledkr · 20/09/2011 17:10

Gosh-ive been a mental health nurse and a social worker so ive met some very odd ones.A very posh pyschiatrist who used to see our vry unposh drug clients and spek to them as if they were also from knightsbridge,they were already fairly unwell and him using terms such as "have you shat your duvet?" made them even worse.He advised them to "have a chat" the scary dealers who were after them with guns cos they owed them so much money Hmm

Another on whom i worked with in a residential setting used to cook dinner for staff and clients and repeatedly suck the spoon she was stirring it with-openly-she smoked about fifty fags a shift so i never did eat when i was on shift with her

ledkr · 20/09/2011 17:14

Decaying flesh and unwashed fanjo smell omfg?Ugh.

The spoon licker used to go for a crap in the mornings down in the offices cos they werent in untill 9 and we started at 7am.One morning after her constitutional the office staff called out the plumber cos they thought the drains were block cos the smell was so bad.

tittybangbang · 20/09/2011 17:20

Had a colleague who used to come to work in safari suits or crumpled shorts. Had a picture of his wife giving birth naked, legs wide open, baby's head halfway out pinned up next to his desk in the staffroom. You'd watch students noticing it while they were discussing their essays with him and doing double takes. Another 2 members of the same department (sociologists both) hated each other so much - which we all knew and encouraged - they had a fist fight in front of the whole staffroom. FE used to be a great place for eccentrics. Not any more. Sigh

aStarInStrangeways · 20/09/2011 17:20

ooh ledkr you've reminded me of the incredibly coarse woman i used to work with during my student days (bar job in floating pub on the Thames). i'm no fading flower but she was unbelievably rough: smoked fifty Royals a day (while serving up sandwiches to the wanky cityboy clientele), looked and sounded exactly like Waynetta Slob, and once responded to a request from another colleague with the immortal words "you can pick the peanuts out of my shit".

everyone who worked there was bizarre in some way, tbh. jeff brazier worked there for a while, he was probably the most normal person i met there! Grin

BalloonSlayer · 20/09/2011 17:22

Still chortling over:

Also told us the reason he was hungry was because he suffered from a rare condition whereby if he didnt eat every 4-5 hours he'd get hungry and weak. We said yes, it's called hunger.

Priceless!