Being a rookie in a workplace is never easy. One of the techniques to build a long-term work relationship is making a strong impression on your first day of work. A strong impression is to “impress your boss” or to “display proper work etiquette” and not the other way around.
These Reddit stories took the “making a strong impression” on another level. Instead of displaying charm, some of them displayed harm. Check out these stories that will leave you on a “facepalm.”
1. Lost in Translation
I work in a firm that does a lot of international work. They needed someone who could speak German to do some work over the phone. After hiring some dude, he was told to leave after 2 days when he tried to speak fake German to the clients.
It turned out he completely lied in the interview.
The manager who hired him was embarrassed as he had believed the guy's fake German during the interview.
Sittingonchairs1
2. Tree Planting Rehab
In my first year of tree planting in Northern Ontario, many people quit in the first 3 weeks, about 16 out of 52 people they hired. There was one girl, though I honestly never even met her. I just noticed a tent missing and I’ve then heard some stories.
This girl had decided that she would try to quit her substance addiction cold turkey by working 10 hours a day in a remote wilderness while living in a tent in a swamp for 10 weeks. I don't think she ever actually made it to work.
She just spent 3 days in her tent going through withdrawal before getting a ride back into town.
Fibrglas
3. Dumpster Dilemma
I used to work at landfill sites. Occasionally we do "audits" and hire temps to help. This means the truck will dump all of its garbage in a pile next to the tables we set up and we have to sort every single item in every single bag into categories: Garbage, glass, plastic, paper, organics, tampons, maggots, dog poop, etc.
One year this happened during a heat wave. We had a bunch of temps come in the morning and half of them had quit before 1st break. One of them didn't even have a way to get home so he just sat in some shade and watched us for the day.
Moos_Mumsy
4. From Baby Talk to No Talk
I was chit-chatting with a new receptionist on her first day.
Her: Do you have kids?
Me: I don’t.
Her: Do you want kids?
Me: I didn't see them in the cards for me.
Her: Well, accidents happen. You know what to do if accidents happen.
The next day, she didn’t come back anymore.
BitchyBookworm
5. Firing Chronicles
I have a couple of stories.
Many years back, I was working at a well-known fast food chain between semesters. I was training a new hire whose name was amusing and relevant, but for the sake of anonymity, I'll call him Franklin.
On Franklin's first day, I was training him on the grill and we got to talking about pot. He told me he could get me a bag of high-quality stuff for an abnormally low price on his 15-minute lunch break. I said, “Sure, why not” and gave him a $20 before his break.
Franklin goes on break, and 15 minutes later he's still gone. After an hour, I figured I was not going to see this guy again and I was out $20. After 2 hours, he came back, all sweaty and breathing heavily, telling me he almost got busted and had to run from the cops. He gave me the stuff as promised as well as my change. After the lunch rush died out, our manager came over and fired him on the spot. It was a really good stuff, though.
Not too long after that, I was working in sales at an electronics outlet, and the boss had recently hired his landlord's husband as a new sales guy. This guy is the epitome of unpleasant. He's incredibly rude and confrontational with coworkers.
Every time a female customer leaves, he goes into disgustingly graphic details of all the stuff he wants to do to her. He lasted 2 or 3 days before blowing his lid and cussing out the boss because he wasn't allowed to go smoke whenever he wanted. The guy ragequit and I had to pick up the slack.
One night closing at a different restaurant, a new guy was wiping down the windows and glass doors. It's not even that late, we have another hour or so before closing. A family walks in while he was wiping down the windows, and this new guy gets pissed that they were interrupting his cleaning and just screamed at them, "What the heck!” He was fired on the spot.
Nifty_swift
6. Small Talk Gone Wrong
I was setting up a computer for a new hire in front of him and his boss. The new hire was explaining why he was late and said, "My heck of a neighbor blocked my car in this morning." He cussed his neighbor and added a degrading term for Hispanic.
His new boss was from Central America. He didn't come back after lunch when someone clued him in. Later that day, the boss told me that he wanted to tell me to pick my jaw up from the floor.
Apparently, I can’t control my facial expression from what I’ve heard.
Islandsimian
7. Life Clash with Corporate Rules
It was day 2 of my welding job. My mother had fallen ill the week before and it was only minor. I took the job because we were told she would be fine and she was discharged. It was more money than I was making and it would leave me in a better position financially. It left me 2 hours away from my mother.
Well, that second day came around. I was on my lunch and got the phone call that she was back in the hospital and she was declining fast. I was told to prepare for the worst as they diagnosed her wrong.
So I went to my boss, told him what was up, and asked if I could go be at her side. Instead of being empathetic, he replied, "You're on your probation. You can't leave early for anything"
I just said, "Watch me" and walked away. Family comes first every time in my book. You try to tell me otherwise and I will give zero care.
Drunk_Tavern_Wench
8. NO is not an option
My brother got fired from a sandwich shop an hour after he started there.
He was in college at the time and was only planning to work there for the summer before classes began. In the middle of the first hour of his shift, the managers thought to ask him, "Are you planning on staying here when school starts back up again?" He immediately replied, "No."
Apparently, they were not allowing summer-only employees at the time. He got paid for his one hour straight from the register, which he likes to sum up as "The money I got didn't even pay for the gas it took me to get there."
Blueeyesredlipstick
9. Quit to Cover Up
At the independent school where my son used to attend, the new primary school teacher, a man, left at the end of the same week he began. The principal summoned the primary school parent body to a meeting in the school hall the following night, refusing to say why.
At the meeting, it became apparent that the purpose was to tell us that the teacher left because he didn't feel this was his direction.
Given the school's general horror of putting anything in writing, and given that the principal's explanation for the resignation of another male teacher just months previously was a cover for assault (I know because the wounded student came to me immediately after), I assume this teacher was caught assaulting another student and told to resign.
Falstaffe
10. Comedic Turnovers
I work for a conveyance company and they've been looking for a receptionist who can handle the ridiculous amount of work for nearly 2 months.
3 have successfully gotten the job only to quit soon after. The first, bearing in mind her last job as a receptionist for a GP Surgery, quit after 5 hours.
She was claiming that she was just wasting everyone's time by even trying because she knew she wouldn't be able to do it.
The second and third made it a week each and then both quit. They're still looking for someone able to handle it.
ScreamPrincess28
11. Con Artist in Action
My dad hired this guy for sales who had worked in some pharmaceutical company before. He was given a desk in the sales department and a nice salary. I had a desk in that department as well since I was 16 and I would come into the office to gain some experience during summer break. I was there for 3 hours, 3 days a week.
Anyway, this guy did not know who I was. He probably assumed I was an intern and I started asking him where he was from and questions like that. He started to become a bit inconsistent and I thought I better investigate.
I called HR and asked them to contact his previous employers and get more information on him. This guy couldn't even pronounce certain words properly and boasted about being this hot shot.
HR came back with a report and his previous employer disclosed, unofficially, that he was fired for fudging numbers and they even released his last salary.
His salary was a fraction of what he was offered to us. As an example, his last draw was $10/hr and with us, he was hired for $45. I don't remember the exact numbers but they were just as shocking.
I went up to my dad and informed him. My dad got the HR to escort him out of the building without a moment of hesitation. This entire ordeal lasted a few hours.
I didn't feel bad for him because he lied and misrepresented himself to take money that was better spent with someone qualified.
This also got my dad to install some stricter independent vetting of new employees. Anyone hired from that point on by anyone had to go through a background check from HR and HR only.
Just_a_confused_guy
12. Bark of Conscience
I quit my job at a pet store after 2 days because I found out they were selling puppies from puppy mills. The boss made 2 or 3 trips outside to the truck they came in on and had at least ten different breeds. There's no way she had personal breeders for each one.
Also, the sound when you first get there in the morning of all the puppies barking in the kennels made me feel awful. It was one of the worst experiences I've ever had.
Aylahmae
13. Taco Chaos
I quit a job at this taco shop in Houston after a single shift. There were three key reasons.
The first one was we had to do every job in the restaurant, including adding ingredients to molten cheese that the chefs were working on, washing dishes, and most importantly, making sauce distributing it, and capping it into tiny containers.
It was an arduous task, and to make things worse, I asked my co-worker what would happen if we didn't meet our quota before the day was over and he said, "Oh, they'll likely keep us super late. We kind of all sit together and listen to music and make sauce until 3 am." The shop closed at 11 pm.
The second one is I was supposed to be hired as a waitress, but it was explained to me that all employees on the floor, including cashiers and managers shared tips. I was 18, but I wasn't stupid. Getting 20 dollars a week in tips is not exciting, but they made it seem like it was so exciting to have "side money." (We were paid $8 an hour).
And lastly, there was no rhyme or reason to who did what. I was hired as a waitress but was sent back to the kitchen at random to help cook or clean, or out front to be a cashier or waitressing. I'd get snapped at for not instantly knowing where I'd be needed.
This is a small, popular chain with at least 3 locations. No thanks.
CaliBounded
14. Top Candidate to Tank Trouble
My dad is in charge of interviews at his job for landscapers and maintenance crew members. He told me about this guy (let's call him Jerry) who was friends with one of the higher-ups and was looking for work.
Jerry had a stellar resume and recommendations and easily got the job, but on his first lunch break on his first day he remarked, "Heck, they're making me work like some kinda freakin’ wetback" in front of the entire work crew (most of which were Mexican) and my father (also Mexican).
Instead of firing him, my dad assigned him the worst task they had: using a scoop shovel to clean out the septic tank. Jerry walked out on it an hour before quitting time and never showed up again.
Heinrich-The-Dork
15. Disappearing Act
I used to manage a retail swimming pool store. The summer is our busy time, and we can get some brutal summers where I live. We would hire stock help and they would come and go. It’s to be expected when you ask them to bust their balls in muggy 95-degree weather for minimum wage.
This one guy though, we hired him to work the yard. We showed him how to use the forklift (which looking back was breaking about a dozen laws) and said we need all these pallets stacked in a neat pile. If you've ever operated a forklift before, you'll know that getting the forks into the pallet can take a little practice.
Well, he wasn't up to it. I went out maybe 2 hours later to check on him and he was just gone. Poof. Threw down a ninja smoke bomb. The car is also gone. He told no one.
He left the forklift with a pallet awkwardly jammed on the forks, raised about 6 feet in the air. I guess he just got frustrated with the heat and failing at the forklift.
Never heard from him again.
smallof2pieces
16. Turn on the Drama
Little under an hour, my boss hired a guy to work for me. The guy showed up and I told him his day would start walking around with another guy turning on TVs. He had to walk around with a couple of remotes since there were different brands, turn them on, and make sure they were on the right channel.
He started whining that he wasn't hired to do that and he wasn't going to do it. As a side note, the work that comes after the TVs are on is much harder and more skilled, so it's not like I was adding a huge load to his day.
He wasn't having any of it, insisting that wasn't what he was hired to do.
I made a quick call to my boss who said the guy was hired to do whatever I needed him to do, and if he didn't want to do it, then it was my call. I hung up and told the guy to go home. He started crying and he was insisting it wasn't part of his job to the very end.
Seven_bushes
17. Job Jinx
I was once interviewed for a job as a receptionist. The company was smart and progressive. The boss who interviewed me was very pleasant and there were lots of benefits to working for the company, some are training and career prospects.
I was delighted to be offered the job on the spot and I agreed I would start work the following week.
The boss then stepped out of the room and fired the receptionist working in the next office. Evidently, I was getting her job. It all happened within my hearing and she was very upset.
I realised that might be me one day so I left and never went back.
CamillaCreek
18. First-Day Flops
This happened before I started working at my current job.
A guy came in on the first day hungover as heck, probably still drunk. He said his friends took him out to celebrate the job. They cut him some slack.
Comes in for day 2, he was still piss drunk wheeling in a chair he found on the street.
He was told to leave.
More recently, we had a guy start working that you knew wouldn't last. His dad was a notable person in our field so he got hooked up with the job. On his first days, he kicked his feet up on his desk and went to sleep. He was gone shortly after.
Jk186861
19. Workplace Love Triangle
There was a new hire guy who revealed he was dating the wife of an existing employee. This employee and his wife were going through a difficult divorce.
It turns out that he'd been told to apply for the job by his girlfriend.
The manager checked if the existing employee was okay with this, and he replied, "Not really.” The new hire was gone after that.
He lasted a day and a half, I think.
ColdSilenceAtrophies
20. Scam Job Package
It was me. I was hired to be a computer sales agent. I was told that I was going to be selling hardware and stuff, all related to a computer product. I then hit the floor ready to make some money and what was the surprise? We were trained for three weeks (learned about software, hardware, retailers, company’s background, etc.) just to sell “smart protection” packages.
I was not alright with it at all, but I tried to give it a shot. Since it was at a call center, and they were inbound calls, I was receiving calls from the consumers of the product asking for some setup guidance. Some were asking me to help them by giving details about our prices, their budget, and our hardware.
Nope, I was not able to say anything to them unless they bought the smart protection package. Those packages were two plans: 12 dollars a month or 100 for the entire year and you would have 24/7 guaranteed tech support over the phone.
8 out of 10 calls would be old-timers asking for help and I was supposed to scam them with their money in exchange for selling them the package and then redirecting the call, otherwise, we would have to hang up the phone.
I was not willing to scam people, especially old people, to transfer their calls to tech support. I quit the same day and I got banned from their call center because of that. Wankers.
JesterTheZeroSet
21. Almost Quitting Before Starting
We did a new employee orientation. This one woman went on lunch break and did not return.
We later found out she was trying to get a raise from her actual job and used this process to show she was serious about threatening to leave.
I think our HR Dept. was not too happy with her little stunt.
Losman94
22. Talked Back and Busted
I work at a pretty well-known expensive venue hall in Chicago where we get all kinds of wealthy and important people. Well, one day this guy who was on his 3rd day on the job was talking about how hard he would make love to a certain guest. As he talked about that, “that guest” and my boss walked behind us.
It turns out “that guest" was the person who booked the place and was going to thank us and tip us for our good work. The guy was told to leave, but I still got tipped. It was a win-win situation cause he was a moron.
Uzziel8
23. Fake It Till You Make It
This guy got hired to our IT Helpdesk following a telephone interview. He was taking ages to answer emails and do other tasks. It turns out that every time he had an email come in, he would forward it to his friend via his online email account.
Another shock was that “that friend” was the one who'd been on the other end of the phone during the interview. This guy who turned up for work didn't have a clue what he was doing. He lasted a day and a half before his manager sacked him.
Sarcastic-Me
24. One-Day Employee Discount Special
The guy I was training while I was working for a pizza shop just didn't show up the next day for work. He used the employee discount for some pizza before he left for that training day. I never saw him again.
I'm wondering if that's a common thing for people to apply for a job at a restaurant and get an employee discount for one day.
PaleoSteno
25. A tale of “Know Your Place”
My assistant lasted a shift and 43 minutes. She spent much of her first shift telling me, her manager, how to do my job until I shut her down hard. Then after I left for the day she was an arrogant, "I'm better than you" little witch to my third key holder and one of the other staff.
She refused to do any cleaning tasks because she was the assistant. Mind you, we all did them, including me. Then when I talked to her about it the next day she was close to tears and told me she was asking to be transferred back to her old store because she couldn't work under these conditions.
Good riddance.
CherryWolf
26. Security “Sitting Pretty” Guard
I worked as a security officer in a large entertainment venue for about 8 years and due to my seniority would often train the new employees. We do a lot of patrolling, a lot of responding to alarms, a lot of getting out and helping the public. Had a guy 6 hours into his shift quit because it was too much walking.
He knows he works in security, right? Yeah, He does. Okay, he can shut up and go back to the gatehouse then. He can read the paper and log truck license plates all day if that's what stimulates him.
DrCrashMcVikingnaut
27. Fired Before the First Play
I worked at a radio station. Our program director caught a new DJ coming in for his first shift with a stack of records of just one artist.
The program director said, "You're not playing three hours of just that one artist on your show.” The DJ replied, "It's a free country, I can do what I want."
He was fired before his first shift even started.
Capilot
28. Door-to-Door Debut Quit
I got a door-to-door marketing job (getting people to subscribe to charity). After 2 days of training, they sent me out with one of the other workers. After 40 minutes of them taking the lead, it was my turn.
I felt super uncomfortable going to people's homes and forcing our business on them. We woke up one poor girl who worked the night shift and gave them the spiel. She said she'll look at it (the charity) online. Then my partner straight out lied and said it would cost more to donate online.
Got out of there after one attempt.
The_Shambler
29. Caught in a Feathery Lie
I worked in a walk-in aviary during high school and it was not the best.
One day a girl came in for a trial so I had to show her where the feeders were, how to work the register, and other pretty dull stuff. It was January, so it was really hot out.
She left after 2 hours when her mother came to check how she was going because according to her, “She was too sensitive to the heat.”
Her mother turned to her and said "You're kidding right? You sit under blankets all day at home."
MoscaMye
30. Safety Director is not in Safe Mode
I hired a guy to be a safety director of an offshore drilling company. His credentials were impeccable, his degree checked out, and he had good references. His first morning I took him out to help with a mandated employee drug testing.
He started to act a little strange. I figured that maybe he was nervous about the new job. But, on a hunch, I showed him how the breath alcohol tester works. He blew into the machine and he hit .16, this sicko is drunk.
Immediately fired him 2 hours into his supposedly new job.
Imnotmyself125
31. Job Today, Maybe Tomorrow
This dude came in for the job interview and was happy about getting the job. He didn't bother showing up the next day even though he was told he'd start tomorrow which he himself suggested and agreed to.
When the manager called him, he said, “I didn't feel coming in today but I’ll show up tomorrow.” Needless to say, he was fired basically before ever even working.
Brainiac3397
32. No Questions Allowed
I worked at a restaurant for an angry old Italian woman. During this guy's first-morning shift, on the huddle-up meeting, she rants and raves about the usual nonsense and asks, "Any questions?" in a challenging tone.
This guy wasn't paying attention and raised his hand, asking, "What do you do with the leftover mashed potatoes at the end of the night?" She told him to "Get the heck out!" He was fired. He was there for roughly 24 hours.
HotHamnCheese88
33. Crying Gone, Permanently Gone
This happened about an hour into training.
I worked with infants at a daycare and I had a new hire that I was training. One of my 4-month-olds had been crying all day. I could tell my trainee was getting fed up with it even though she'd only been in my room for like half an hour around the infant.
I was busy changing diapers and making different bottles and didn't notice that I could no longer hear that baby screaming. I finally realized it when I grabbed his bottle out of the bottle warmer and couldn't find him.
I started freaking out and asked the trainee where he was. Turns out, she had just opened the back door, put the baby on the ground outside, and left him out there to get rid of the crying. She begged me not to tell, but you don't just put a baby outside.
Right then, one of my directors came by to see how everything was going and I told her what happened. The trainee was fired before she had even officially started working.
Omglookawhale
34. Carless Delivery Driver
I worked as a delivery driver for a pizza shop in college. Anyone who applied and had a driver's license would get hired. So this kid, we'll call him Steve, came in on his first day of work, and this was a transcript of his entire period of employment at the shop.
Steve: So where is the car I am going to use?
Manager: You use your car.
Steve: But I don't have a car.
Manager: Well then you can't be a delivery driver.
Chainsaw_Cock
35. Snap Decision
We had a girl come in for training on her first day at the bakery where I worked. Halfway through the shift she took my coworker's cell phone (flip phone) out of her bag, looked her in the eye, and said, "This is nice", and then snapped it clean in half.
My boss was in such shock that he didn't even yell, just told her to get out, and not come back. Chick wanted to know if she was getting paid too.
Zomgzmbies11
36. How to Get Away from Crime
I've seen people fired faster than this, but the guy who should have been fired fastest was fired after 2 weeks.
I worked at a coffee shop, and we hired some weird sketchy kid. He was 18, but he acted a little like a sociopath and creeped people out. He never laughed, never smiled, and never showed any emotion. He wasn't autistic, but I honestly wonder if he was a sociopath of some sort.
One day, someone saw him putting out cigarettes on his arm during one of his breaks, and while I was incredulous about it, I saw the burns on his arm later that week so they must have come from somewhere.
Anyway, on his first day, he gets trained on some stuff and then gets trained on register. Most of the time, someone is right next to him, but not the entire time. His till comes up 20 dollars short at the end of his shift. They assume he lost it or messed up somehow because he's new.
Then, on his next shift, the same thing happened again. This continued every shift for over 2 weeks until they finally said he was no longer allowed to work on the register. His till always came out 20-40 dollars short.
This guy was stealing from the register on his first day and got to keep working there for 2 weeks, which amazed me.
Scubsurf
37. Hiring Committee with Short-term memory
My old roommate got hired at a country club as a chief. He cooked several meals for them and went through three different interviews. They were impressed and told him to be there at 7 am to prep the next morning.
He showed up the next morning and they said, "Why are you here? Leave before we call the police, the kitchen is for employees only." He left in shock as the same people who interviewed him told him he was trespassing.
Stimbus
38. Inappropriate Fan Girling
I got a job at a cafe where my buddy's girlfriend had been hired the day before as a manager. I walk in on my first day and she's getting canned, five minutes into her shift. The cafe is in a sleepy area of New England where there's a high concentration of celebrities with homes and vacation homes.
One of the first rules was to treat the celebrities like you didn't know who they were.
They preferred some semblance of anonymity and we were asked by the owner to respect that.
My buddy's girlfriend couldn't keep it together when a certain handsome multiple-award winner actor came in that morning. She started hyperventilating and seriously putting the spook into this guy. I came in a few minutes later and she was hanging up her apron and wishing me "good luck."
Professor_doom
39. Rookie Mistake
During the first week of Air Force basic training, a guy who couldn't have been older than 18 got kicked out of the military altogether because of the results of the drug test he took before being shipped out.
Some guys in uniform came to our barracks, made him grab his few belongings, and they took him off. He looked devastated and had tears streaming down his face.
Aett
40. Unwanted Advances
I want to first preface this by saying I was 19 when this happened and going through a very tough time in my life personally. I would have handled the situation much differently today.
I got hired to work in a bookshop and was pretty excited since I enjoy books and reading. Anyway, as I was talking to the manager about orientation, I heard one of the other employees ask who the hot guy the manager was talking to. Someone mentioned that it was the new guy. I didn't mind that a gay guy thought I was good-looking, I actually took it as a compliment.
After an hour. I was watching a video presentation and the guy who commented came in and asked, “How are you doing?” I said, “Fine.” He responded again and said, “You’re cute.” I told him, “I'm happy you think so, but I'm straight and no thanks.”
He came up to me, touched my shoulder, and said, “I can make you forget about women” or something cheesy like that. I told him again, more forcefully this time, “I'm flattered but I am not interested.” That was for him to stop harassing me or he won't like the result.
About an hour later, I'm walking to the coffee shop in the store, and I stop to look at a book. This gay dude walked by and pinched my bottoms. I saw dead red immediately and he was just standing there with this suave look on his face. I immediately decked him, walked up to the manager yelled, “I will be suing for sexual harassment.” I had told the manager earlier about the interaction in the room and he heard the first remark and I left. I never stepped foot in that store again, and I never sued.
Kcman011
41. Breathe of Trouble
I worked as a delivery driver/cashier for a restaurant. The owners would get their cooks, who were all undocumented from some connection they had.
One morning I was asked to pick up the new cook from the bus station. I saw him sitting on a bench holding a can in a brown paper bag and knew exactly what it was. He got in the car and asked me if it was okay for him to finish it. I told him I'd wait for him, but I was not going to drive him around like that.
He pounded back whatever he was drinking and then stuck like 5 pieces of gum in his mouth. He explained he bought it at the last stop, to help pass the time.
On the short drive back he just kept asking me about the restaurant and the other guys who worked there.
When we pulled up I told him he should try to avoid talking real close to the owner because I was still able to smell the alcohol on him. He said, “Don't worry, I have lots of gum.” As soon as we walked through the door we bumped into the owner, who stopped in her tracks and started sniffing the air.
The owner walks up to him, takes one good whiff, flips out, and starts screaming "Out! Out! Take him back!" I felt bad for the guy, so I gave him the ride back to the bus station. I couldn't believe how quickly he got fired, but he had no one to blame but himself.
-eDgAR-
42. Flashdrive Heist
I worked in IT. After 3 days we gave a laptop to a new agent to check his connections at home. He came back to work and started to have some issues. We noticed he had a flash drive attached to the back of his laptop.
When we booted up the computer and went onto the flash drive, we saw all our licenses for company software from a shared folder on this flash drive. He was escorted off the premises immediately without the flash drive. Luckily for him, our company decided not to sue him.
Sp00ked_yuh
43. Cart Chaos
I worked in a home retail store in college. For the 2 weeks I was working "the lot" I saw probably 10 guys get canned on the first day and most of them within a couple of hours of starting.
The recurring theme was simple. You were told that you were to retrieve the carts and help customers load their merchandise into their cars. Never tell the customers they need to bring carts back or get someone else to help them load. I swear to God I saw fool after fool telling customers, "You bought it, it's not my problem if you can't lift it," and "Hey! Bring that cart back over when you are done."
Pure freaking laziness. I learned right then and there the meaning of "You can't find good help." A serious amount of messed-ups came through that place.
I was promoted in week 2 to lumber. My secret? Roll the orange carts back to the front of the store without being told to do so every 20 minutes. Not bumming cigs off of customers also helped (one dude I worked with did this all day, and would have a pack and a half saved up for when he got off).
DKmann
44. Denny’s Crash Course
I worked at a computer shop during the summers of college. I was supervised by a guy who taught me tons and was a lot of fun. By the end of the summer, I was doing lots of work unsupervised.
I came back the next summer, and the awesome guy was in a new position. Denny, a new hire, replaced him.
Denny was worthless, incompetent, and being paid far more than me. I ended up training him, and then doing his work (that he took credit for).
I documented all of his antics. After a month, he was escorted out. I ran the floor for the rest of the summer.
Yakra
45. Dish Duty’s Detour to Dumpster
When I was 15, I worked at an Italian restaurant for a summer. All I did there was clean dishes. Not long after I was hired, a kid I knew from school was also hired and worked in the kitchen with me cleaning dishes.
About a week went by and I noticed he was not on the schedule anymore.
I asked one of the cooks what happened, and they told me that he had just thrown the utensils away during his second shift instead of washing them. A manager discovered this after he picked up a bag of garbage and noticed it was heavier than normal and was making metal clanking sounds.
Meltedlaundry