I was originally hired as an Emergency Medical Technician by a hospital. After a few years the local Fire Department took over EMS. The only thing that changed is that the taxpayers had to pay to have our ambulances repainted and we all got new uniforms.
One day while driving my partner and I get flagged down; the man's truck had caught fire. We could see visible flames between the cab and the box. My partner grabbed the fire extinguisher on the console and I ran around to the back and got the fire extinguisher from the rear compartment. We doused the flames before the engine arrived. We made our report on the radio and went back to the station to restock.
We were later told that the fire extinguishers should only be used if our vehicle was on fire, and not for civilians.
So, we were supposed to sit in Fire uniforms, in a Fire vehicle, and not put out a fire.
I got in trouble at work because I sent an email to my manager about some new servers that were being installed, but didn't appear we had access to the management console. I let her know the entire team will need access so we could properly support the machines. I was pulled into a conversation... How dare I presume my direct manager who only managed my team, have any idea what we do!
(Lost all respect for her that exact moment)
We were changing office buildings and were packing our desks for the move. They have us boxes and bags for everything. The bags were oddly large, which I commented on by saying "these bags could fit a small child". Apparently some people took offense at that, as I was later sent up to HR to explain myself.
I was written up for not being happy, and again for smiling too much later in the year. I'm a software test engineer.
There was a super insecure manager a bunch of years ago. I didn't report to him, but occasionally worked alongside him.
I had been working with one of our customers for a few weeks on a feature they had requested. It was something out-of-the-box, so understandably, if you didn't know the context, it would be rather confusing.
Manager is set to run a meeting with them, and asks for my help as the technical expert. No problem. We get into the meeting, and the customer asks some technical questions. Before I can get a word in edgewise, Manager proceeds to pull the most inane shit out of his ass for a good 10 minutes--clearly knowing nothing that's going on, but not letting that stop him. After the customer is sufficiently confused, and Manager is starting to look a little panicked, he finally turns to me.
I figure I'll try to save him some face, so I start my reply with, "I'm not entirely sure, but are you asking...", repeating their question back. The customer is clearly relieved that I know what they're asking, and I provide the answers. Crisis averted! The meeting ends and I head back to my desk feeling good.
Until Manager storms up to my desk and proceeds to scream at me, "IF YOU'RE NOT ABSOLUTELY SURE ABOUT SOMETHING, DON'T ANSWER! NONE OF THIS 'I'M NOT SURE' BULLSHIT! NEXT TIME THINK ABOUT WHAT THAT LOOKS LIKE FOR US!" and storms off. Nice projection, asshole.
I was new enough to not have the presence of mind to respond, so nothing came of it (though he was demoted not long after--possibly the shittiest manager I've ever known) so it all worked out in the end.
Worked for a small business which did electronics repair, and which had recently picked up e-waste recycling. Our boss, the owner, was known for getting baked out of his mind and imagining things which he needed to tell his staff, and would think the next day that he had actually told that thing to his staff. Just to give you an idea of the kind of guy the owner is, we had two company-wide group texts for the 11 people on payroll. One had everyone, and the other had everyone except the owner. The owner never knew about that one, and honestly that arrangement was a necessity to keep turnover low and by extension the business from running aground.
Anyway, my coworker is talking to a customer at the counter, who is dropping off an old television to be recycled. The customers leave, and the owner walks in.
Owner: "Wait, is this a plasma? We can't take this!"
Coworker: "why not?"
Owner: "We can't do plasmas! We've never done plasmas!" sees the stack of plasma screen televisions "What the fuck?! Who accepted these?"
Me: "Dude, you've never mentioned that we can't do anything with plasmas before."
Owner: "Yeah! It was in the class on e-waste recycling."
Coworker: "You were the only one who took that because you didn't want to fly anyone else to Vegas for a four day conference."
At this point I think the owner started to realize he hadn't actually disseminated anything other than the logistical aspects of the e-waste business to the employees.
Owner: "So, what, no one knows what we actually accept for e-waste?"
Me: "I don't think so, man."
The owner looks at me with obvious anger and with that look that says he's about to blame me for something.
Owner: "So, what y'all want a fucking list or something?"
Coworker: "Yeah, that would be great, actually."
The owner turned red, looked about ready to angry-cry, and walked out. Went home and got baked. I don't think he ever actually put a list together. The e-waste thing fell through a few months later after I left because the warehouse he was renting and illegally living out of was like a quarter the size needed, and there wasn't any money left for processing equipment. He franchised a corporate brand like a year later.
Fuck you, Matt, you goddamn moron.
I like how the company-wide group text tidbit had nothing to do with the rest of the story.
Reminded me of watching the extended cut of LoTR, where some scenes were just fluff.
I reported the multinational company CTO for not being able to keep his hands off me (I'm a guy btw) and a load of other employees. That report came on top of other reports of abuse, fraud, and briberies.
Mind you, this company wa so about protecting whistleblowers that I had to sign a contract about it. VPs were outraged and vowed to protect me.
I made the report, week later called into an emergency meeting with the CTO and head of HR is there too and I'm fired. I sued, won, and in that time learned that the CTO was fired the next day because, amongst things, he fired me. Even so, they didn't cancel my firing, didn't rehire me, because now I was toxic.
Never trust anyone in big companies. Never trust their contracts, never trust their words.
I was written up for being too pessimistic. It was about 8 years ago, I was a project manager at a small retail company. I was in a small meeting with my boss and the owner of the company. I was telling the owner all the possible risks associated with this new project I was given, the major one being that we didn't have enough time to complete everything by the owner imposed deadline. Calling out risks is literally one of the main responsibilities of being a project manager. Also the meeting went fine, no one got upset, it seemed everyone understood. A few days later I get called into HRs office with a write up for basically being a Debbie Downer. I was told to be more positive with my updates and stay away from any bad news. I was in total shock! A few days later I put my notice in and found a new job making twice as much. So it all worked out in the end. Thanks for the motivation Todd!
Anybody who spends time doublechecking they're listed where they want in a group email needs to be fired. The company is not in the business of "your ego"
the person bringing the complaint is the one disrespecting everyone.
I didn't stop to greet some customers as I walked in with a cane for the third week in a row due to nerve damage.
I wasn't on the clock, we didn't have a uniform, no name tag, nobody would even know I work there until I put my shit on after I clock in.
By that time I had made it a habit of recording every interaction with management, so I just pulled out my phone, hit the record button, and asked "so to be clear, are you officially reprimanding me for NOT doing work off the clock?" and that immediately shut him up.
Managers get awfully pensive when they have recording devices capturing them.
Depending on where you live, you might be better off not scaring your employers with a visible recording device.
Why not let the law figure out what your bosses were asking for? In the US, attorneys will take these cases for free and be paid only if you are.
That is (hopefully was) a think in some very strict japanese companies. Also, when people had to stamp thing, they would angle their stamps to be "bowing" to the superiors who stamped first. I hope all those traditions are dead
I was born with glass bones and paper skin yet somehow I can still withstand more damage than a middle manager's ego.
I was working in the military. An office job at HQ so we had to use our parade uniforms. I was working nights one week and didn't have any clean black socks, I used white.
Around 8 in the morning I was walking up the stairs to leave and passed the Naval Admiral, who promptly chewed me put for wearing white socks and dress shoes.
I got a verbal warning for referring to someone as a "guy" in my team's group chat.
As in "I've got a guy here who's running into issues with getting his loan processed. How should I proceed with assisting him?"
My language wasn't professional enough, and my manager pulled me aside to warn me not to do it again. I've since left the role, and my new team fully embraces casual conversation (my manager has outright exclaimed that "our software is a piece of shit" to much agreement). Things are much better now.
I introduced myself to a new client (new job) and the boss didn't like that the client joked to the boss that he better watch out for his job because I sounded like a better [what we did] than he did. Which I was. Which was why he hired me. But a month later I was working somewhere else.
I was interviewing for a job as a movie theater manager.
In my neck of the woods there's a limited number of movie theaters, and everyone knows everyone else. So I was interviewing for the job when I'm told
"we heard through the grapevine that after you were fired from your last job you broke into the office and did something unspeakable on the carpet."
I still ended up getting the job.
I mean, this was when I was living in a suburb of Cleveland OH. it's not really a town thing so much as it's an industry thing. I spent 20 years running movie theaters. I worked for all the chains, both national and local. Between managers and projectionists, everyone knew everyone else.
I'm not OP but I still think about a series of events at my first job.
Would have been like 25 years ago, 3rd year plumbing apprentice and I was out on my own. Next job was for a real estate, the house was empty so I had to pick up the keys and then headed to the house, I was busting for a shit and the empty house was calling me. It was a blocked drain so I pulled up fast, cleared the drain before I shit myself and then went to open the back door.. and the key didn't fit, no problem I think as I heard around to the front.. key still didn't work. Fuck I'm in trouble here, there is no time to get to another toilet. I look around and see the access door into the crawlspace under the house which was pretty high, so I form a plan, use an empty bag to line a bucket and grab toilet paper out of the glovebox and head under with my homemade chamber pot. Do the business, tie the bag up and head to the bin to hide it. Once I open the lid I see the bin is completely empty.. I can't put it in there now so I put it in one of the big tool boxes on the back of the truck.
I ended up getting fired the next day, back then I partied pretty hard and was constantly late etc so definitely don't blame the boss. But the poop bag was never retrieved from the tool box. So at some point either the boss clearing it out or the next guy given that truck would have found a bag, opened it and see a big fat log.
I got in trouble for telling a senior manager that he was wrong on a technical issue. He sought expert advice on a control system but when the answer came back it didn't fit his conception of reality and he didn't want to hear it.
Turns out being good at management and being good at solving technical problems are skill sets that very rarely coincide in one person.
I'm in this situation all the time. Simple solution if you're worried about it: alphabetize them by first name. It's fair and if people actually care about crap like this, they can fuck off in general. At least if you're consistent with that, they can never complain. It's insane to me that it's a thing, but people are fragile and it matters a lot to some of them
I didn't give maximum effort according to my pa, when an outside contractor who was giving kickbacks to my supervisor, tried to sell our company a circa 2000 used phone system.
I like to sometimes purposely flip the order so it's ordered as least senior 1st just to fuck with people and see if anyone calls me out on it.