RARE PHOTOS: Ridiculous workplace drama stories - The Real Truth

A manager kept bringing cakes to raise morale a bit, in and the group of office huns reported him to higher management because they were all always trying to diet and he was "spoiling it".

He stopped bringing cakes and sweets in. None of them ever even lost any noticeable amounts of weight.

Sad day.

Birthdays got banned in a veterinary hospital I used to work in.

One of our student nurses was working his 21st. With it being a 21st we decided to make a bit of an effort. A few of us got the night staff to let us in an hour before our shift started and we decorated the staff room with balloons for him. Our head nurse reported it to upper management because we didn't decorate when it was her 36th birthday the week before. We had gotten her a card and cake like we did for everyone but we didn't bother decorating because it wasn't a big birthday.

Birthday celebrations were then officially banned. We started throwing secret birthdays in the stock room without her, we'd just wait until she was in her office.

Teenager got us all called into HR for bullying because she didn't think badgers existed and that we were making it up, including apparently putting fake google search results on her PC.
mental.

We had a table tennis table for breaks. One worker was really good and was unbeatable, but not arrogant about it, just a bit of fun. Came into work one day and someone had snapped all the handles off the table tennis paddles, bent the net, stamped on all the balls, kicked in the table. Someone had come in at night and put the table tennis table out of action. A big mystery ensued. Who was the table tennis saboteur? The management checked the office CCTV a couple of days later. It was the office champion!!! He’d been beaten by a food delivery guy when working late, and smashed up the table. Managed to hold onto his job by the skin of his teeth, blaming ‘stress’. He left about 6 months later because of the shame.

A guy at work everyday used the communal kitchen cutlery, licked it clean and put it back in the drawer. He was spoken to several times but didn't see anything wrong with it.

He also used the teaspoons to mix mackerel salad so quite a few people had fishy tasting cups of tea.

I still can't understand why it's not a sackable offence.

I worked in a call centre about 20 years ago and I represented a charity who had a series of summer events to raise sponsorship. Let's call the charity 'Cancer Research UK', because that's who it was.

One day a lady calls to pay for her friends and family to participate in an event. Having been told to improve my customer rapport, I thought I would ask why she wasn't also taking part, to which she tells me she'll be on honeymoon. "I think I'd rather be on honeymoon," was my response, and the call continued as normal, albeit less chatty than before.

A week later, I was hauled into a meeting with my manager, their manager, and two people from the charity. Why? Because the dork I spoke to thought I had said "I think I'll rob you while on honeymoon," and then put in a complaint. She also (apparently) cancelled her wedding and honeymoon as a consequence!

Worst still, I had to listen to a recording of the call, and nobody should have to listen to their own voice. It was also crystal clear what I had said to the caller.

A colleague complained about me when Princess Diana passed away, as I apparently "wasn't acting sad enough". Utterly bizarre.

A friend told me about a pretty juicy one that happened at a Christmas party. One of the co-owners wives started an argument with one of the secretaries, nobody he knew heard the start of it but it was a pretty back and forth exchange of insults and increasing volume.

Till the wife said something like "I don't know why you're arguing just admit it, you're sleeping with my husband". The girl suddenly looked confused and didn't say anything back. Then someone from the back of the room said "No she isn't. It's Garry who's sleeping with him." At which point the man who'd been sat next to the secretary and the co-owner went absolutely bright red and wouldn't look at anyone.

The wife had a moment of stunned silence, mumbled an apology to the secretary and went and sat back down just staring into space for about 10 minutes, before getting up and calmly, if slightly shakily, walking out.

Apparently Garry never came back in and a month later the co-owner sold his portion to the other two and moved abroad.

I think my favourite bit of it is how my friend ended the story. "It was a shame, cause he was the only one of the three that actually knew what the company even did. And, that secretary was lucky, cause she was sleeping with one of the other owners and his wife is actually mental.".

I share my name with a saint. On their day, I jokingly tell people it's Saint [my name]'s day, worship me or similar. I said it to a couple of people at work and I got the sorts of reactions you'd expect but one grown adult cried (as in actual tears) to the manager about how upset he was by it. He was so devastated by it, he quit and a new rule was made so that anyone who shares their name with a particular day, they must book it off. I don't think they'd cope with having a May or June.

I got called into a meeting because someone reported me for looking on a bands website at my desk.
The manager was even all “Don’t try to deny it!”
I was just so shocked that I was being reprimanded for looking at Bon Jovis website on my break. This was over 20 years ago and I still chuckle at the ridiculousness of the whole thing!

A senior (Head of Geography) colleague's husband walked out on her after a twenty year marriage. She only told her closest friend at work who was asked to keep it quiet. She had a spectacular meltdown at the end of year staff party because someone asked her how her husband was.

I know a woman who worked in.a teacos superstore who found out her partner (who also worked there) was sleeping with a team manager.
So she printed all their rude texts etc and placed them all around the staff area for every staff member to see.
She got away with it, too, as there was nothing in Tescos HR guidance that they could punish her on at the time.

Using made up names - 2 girls at work called Rebecca. Rebecca Taylor and Rebecca Johnson. Rebecca Johnson marries her long term BF, who's Dave Taylor. Becomes Rebecca Taylor. Original Rebecca Taylor goes mental, tries to file a complaint through work and hasn't spoken to her in 2 years (work in same team). Complaint says "she's stolen my name".

People I used to line manage.

One of them was joking that she's perfect and never does anything wrong. She is from Zimbabwe and is black

One of the colleagues in the office just asks her the following 'how can you be perfect?, you're not white, blonde or have blue eyes'

Queue awkward tension when she didn't realize how what she said is seen as racist...

At a place i worked recently there was a big drama with the cleaning company because someone was doing poo's on the toilets, like on them, rather than in them.

I was “accused” of being gay (back when that sort of thing was still an issue”. I was also accused of beating up a colleague for being gay in a homophobic attack?

Actually my colleague had a week between moving outbid his flat and into his new one, so was staying with me, and he’d been in a martial arts competition at the weekend and was a bit bruised up.

I heard about a couple of guys who were using the office ID pass printing machine.

They thought it would be funny to take a picture of one their private parts & make it into a photo ID. They then pinned it up on a noticeboard.

A co-worker saw the pass pinned up & complained to management. One confessed, the other came up with an unlikely sequence of events including trousers falling down at the wrong time that led to this pass being printed accidentally.

The ironic thing was the person who reported them wasn't actually offended, they thought someone else entirely printed it who they had a grudge against. Once they found out the wrong people were in trouble they tried to withdraw their complaint!

One time an order came in and the company gave some free helium balloons with the order. The guy in charge of orders gave some people balloons and kept a couple next to his desk. There was a Halloween party at the business and everyone was dressed up and slightly drunk. A guy goes to get the helium balloons first as decorations then they start doing the voice thing with them. Everyone has a laugh, everyone was fine with it. The Monday comes around and we come in and this guy is furious, he starts stopping people and doing interviews as to who stole his balloon. He literally then starts standing in the corridor stopping everyone getting full witness statements. I got stopped and he starts saying things like "I know by around 10pm the balloons had been taken, what did you witness around this time?". Eventually the person who took them just says sorry but then has to buy him a new balloon.

A guy walked home with a girl after work once because they live in the same direction and had worked together for a while. She just moved in to a new flat and the guy was looking for a place himself. When they reached it he asked her what the flat was like and if he could have a quick look inside with the idea being to see if it was something he would like to get himself.

She said no then went to HR the next day and claimed he made a move on her and had been "stalking" her for weeks (which was entirely untrue).

In the end it was regarded as a big misunderstanding and they carried on working together as friends/colleagues for years but i dont think they walked home together again.

I said hello to a colleague and told her that her perfume smelled nice. Next day I was brought into a HR meeting with my boss because this passing comment made her feel uncomfortable. Safe to say I never said anything to her again.