What’s the weirdest thing you ever got in trouble at work for?

I got in trouble during my tenure in a former position at the same company I work for now. We had an interim manager who didn't know a damn thing about what we did or how to do it or the time it took to get it done. They brought her from the San Fernando Valley area to our area and she knew nothing of our culture or team. She would do drive bys once or twice a week to act like she was somehow managing us. We were on deadlines all the time so I declined having cell phone meetings with her driving in the car. She came in and yelled at me and my team. Literally got up on the conference room table and yelled. Like a crazy Karen. She didn't make it, she's gone now 10 years and I'm still here.

Being too polite.

Saying "Jesus Christ".

As in "Jesus christ, insert name here!"

Well I worked for a nightmare boss. I worked as a photography in a photo studio in a tourist town so let’s see…

I got in trouble for not taking a $20 tip from a man who treated me like shit throughout the shoot. He was mean and an asshole and was trying to tip me as an apology or to compensate his behavior and I refused it in front of her (my boss) and was scolded for it.

Then during the Covid lockdown, there were 2 new sets built. Both were my ideas although I did not construct them. Anyways, I did a lot of test shoots with people I knew on them and they came out well. But when the studio opened and I had to work with the stiff, awkward, fat, and old general public I was having a hard time nailing them. So one day I do this very stiff quiet couple, they’re probably the fourth or fifth legit photoshoot ever on this new set and they were good looking and I just felt like I was missing the mark. I was upset at myself and just lacked confidence and I told my boss about it and she immediately called them and asked them if they enjoyed their photoshoot. They said they had a lot of them. I never showed them doubt and I’m a good photographer there on my shittiest day, it was about MY experience and my insecurities and my boss was too much of a cunt to see that.

More recently earlier this year, within the weeks before I left, a mother came with 2 children who were absolutely hysterical. They were too young to understand what was going on. I and the other person working there felt bad for them and made the best of it but it was hell. Again, we told our boss and she called the woman and asked her to come in for a reshoot. The woman said no! And for some reason, we were blamed for the whole ordeal.

But to elaborate from R5, I would basically get in trouble when customers were horrible to me. Some were down right abusive and enjoyed torturing me and the workers there. And the boss would turn around and find a way to blame us. I was manager there and helped run the place so it was always a burn. It’s why I walked out the day I did.

People think being a photographer to the public is fun and easy. It’s not, it’s absolutely a horrible job.

Now I’m my own photographer and choose the clients and do what I enjoy doing, which is taking photos of naked men and collecting a percentage from their OnlyFans and leaving that job and getting my new jobs has made way more time for it.

I was called into a supervisor's office and kindly told to stop taking work home. I was amazed because I'd never done that. I assumed that they were just used to less productivity from their employees. I think this has been an issue for me throughout my working life, because people who were screwing off resented my showing them up. Which is remarkable because I screwed off all the time--I wrote entire short stories at work--but apparently I made up for it when I was doing actual work.

I got in trouble for always calling in sick on days when we had meetings.

My supervisor said: "I noticed you're always out sick when we have meetings. For now on, you have to attend make-up meetings." I attended my first make-up meeting, which was one-on-one, me and my supervisor. Supervisor even had a secretary (3rd person) in there to take minutes of this make-up meeting. Thereafter, I attended the group meetings and didn't call in sick (for meetings, at least).

Ugh! So glad I quit that job!

My supervisor’s boss walked in on me sucking his feet.

I got in written up because someone I worked with did something wrong (falsifying documents) and I should’ve known better or made sure they knew they shouldn’t do that?

I’m not even sure, tbh. But I got the hell out of there, let me tell you. The falsifier was fired not long after I left.

My boss said she wanted me to show some initiative now that I was a manager and do things on my own. So I held a meeting with a different department. She called me in and said I should not have done that without including her.

I was just reading that some lady said she got in trouble for sending an e-mail to six co-workers, but she didn't show respect because she didn't put their e-mail addresses in seniority order.

That's hilarious, R12.

[quote]I attended my first make-up meeting,...

R8 do you work the Estee Lauder counter in a mall somewhere?

I got in trouble for signing my signature with blue ink, was told to use black ink. FYI, this was dark blue ink, no iridescence or sparkle.

I eventually got fired for sending a MySpace message to my fuck buddy that I wanted to hit my boss in the face with a brick. Totally deserved to be fired.

My boss also deserved to be hit in the face with a brick. He harped on my having gone to a better college than him. He called me into his office to ban the word 'absolutely' from being used in his earshot. He called me into his office to berate me for misfiling papers. I am a terrible filer, fair enough but he brought up... college. again. When I got my eyebrows tatooed he banned visible tattoos even though he didn't know that my eyebrows were tattooed until I told him.

A different job I got in trouble when my boss said 'I will remind you that I am superior to you' and I replied 'I consider no man to be superior to me'. I kind of deserved getting in trouble but, fuck him. He had previously said I should shoot my dog. I got spoken to for my reply to that too.

R12 I'd had a similar problem with a tangential colleague, only it was bc I'd CC'd him, a department head, who should've been an original 'To' recipient. Architects and their egos rival the cockiest of Drs.

I was attending a conference in a city about two hundred miles away from my office. My boss who I knew did not like me, located the hotel where the conference was held and phoned me to inform me that I made a mistake in a calculation that I performed. Years later at my retirement luncheon, I informed the committee I did NOT want him attending, if he attends, I will leave. He did not attend nor did his assistant.

R16 I like your attitude

r19, I like that you have good taste!

A cot-worker and I got in trouble for playing board games in the stock room.

Aggressive flatulence.

I've run out of fucks to give.

Somebody reported me to HR for making unpleasant faces at them. I had to explain that I have resting bitch face and it wasn't personal.

Me and a few other coworkers were reported to HR by a cunt that sat in our aisle because we didn’t invite her to lunch (sadly, I’m not joking). We told HR that lunch is unpaid and our time to do whatever we want and we are under no obligation to go to lunch with someone we don’t like. The cunt was seriously unstable and thought this was a good way to make us want to invite her?

[R16], you have a GOOD attitude. Those bosses were absolute fuckwads. I'm going to ww your post. I forgot to do that last time. If I forget to do it again, I'll have something to confess if I ever go to confession again.

I got called into my supervisor's office (a numbingly regular occurrence until I finally walked out). I was told, "You were on the phone and you said XXXX blah blah blah." I asked when this occurred. She didn't know. To whom was I speaking? She didn't know. It was obvious one or more of her department spies was lying or didn't have enough information when they (again) ratted on me behind my back (they seemed to have elevated it from an art form to a Yoko Ono inspired interactive art installation). I said to her, "How can I do anything to correct this issue if you can't give me any specifics about it?" She was silent. I liked and like her as a person. I just wish she had ignored the shit that people came to her about behind my back. I did file a grievance against her for something. And I suspect my grievance + her reputation for mouthing off to people she shouldn't have been doing it to, was responsible for her not getting a sinecure position when a director retired, thereby moving everybody underneath him, up a notch. I imagine HR opened her file and saw the complaints and told her or somebody it was deffo no go. And she thought it would be a shoe in. Tut tut.

As a 20-year-old, I worked a job as a rotating cashier, sometimes at an ice-skating rink - handing out skates, taking tickets, etc. It was always a zoo when one skate ended and another began. People throwing skates in through the window, other people wanting to pay for another skate or rent skates. There were usually two people working a shift. Anyway, during the quiet times (between skates), we would file shoes, and collect dropped tickets which were supposed to be turned in at the end of the night. Generally, if there was a discrepancy between what the till said and the tickets, we would attach a ticket to a VOID slip or something to make it come out right. One day I got called into the office by my manager and was told that they had deliberately shorted my "bank" and that she was putting me on notice that it was suspicious that everything came out even at the end of the shift. It turned out that there was embezzlement going on. I told her there was no way to keep immaculate transactions during the changeovers because of the long lines and the limited time between them, and the crazy rush at the window, but she wasn't having it. I was livid that she was basically accusing me, and told me to that I'd better be VERY CAREFUL (spoken in caps). As it turned out, one of the security people was helping himself to wads of cash on his way to depositing it each evening. I never received an apology though - as though a $10 bank discrepancy could somehow lead to thousands of dollars over the course of a month. .

I got fired because two of my direct reports wore afro wigs on the air. WTF? What do their actions have to do with me? I can’t control what they wear.

Giving away promotional merch to customers who did not spend enough to qualify. I just figured we needed to get rid of the stuff.

Ending my sentences in prepositions.

I remember my first day as a intern working in a Finance & Accounting Dept. There was a work discussion going on and I said "I think" and one of the old crones piped up with "your not being paid to think."

I have a I don’t give a shit attitude towards being reprimanded

ditto r33!

It's so odd to see this topic. I've been dealing with a situation at work recently that fits into this category.

I own my own company and HVAC engineer told a joke to another group of employees about six weeks ago. The joke was, "What do you call a cow that's had an abortion?" The answer was: "decaffeinated." From what I heard everyone laughed but one young woman who inevitably reported the incident to HR. Much to my dismay, my HR director insisted for legal purposes that the employee in question be disciplined in the form of a write up. I think that's absurd but the lawyers disagree and are aligned with HR. This particular employee evidently has a history of telling questionable, off color jokes. Even so, I'm not happy about the write up, not at all.

[quote] a cow that's had an abortion

I don't understand the joke.

I was asked to apologize to a fucking temp cunt who complained about my obscene fucking language. To me that's some fucking weird shit. On her last day I told her good fucking luck getting a real job bitch.

I was fired for mentioning the date of our planned post-COVID return to the office - to a working committee on our office return.

The date was “confidential.”

R37 I agree with your boss. That kind of language is not appropriate in an office.

Having an affair with my boss. They just transferred me to another office.

setting off the carbon monoxide siren because of my Crohn's symptoms.

I had the police called on me because I was in the office on the weekend making a cake. The janitor came in, saw me putting the finishing touches on it, backed out, and called the cops.

(We had a monthly meeting and rotated bringing in treats. There was a genteel competition for making nice, home made treats. It was my turn, and I had made a torte that called for a whipped cream topping. Figured it'd melt on the commute, so I came into the office on the Sunday before with the torte, a mixer, and a pint of whipping cream. Finished it, put in the fridge, turned around and there's the cop with his hand on his gun. "We got a report that someone was in here making a ... cake." "Yes, I just put it in the fridge.")

Go fuck yourself R39

R43 1. Foul mouth. 2. Not suitable to deal with customers.

R42 wins.

R42 is white otherwise he would have been shot down in cold blood.

I got in trouble for having sex with an under 5 in his dressing room.

Talking too much to the pretty, young Mexican girl in Sportwear at Mervyn's circa 1992. The elder women thought it was weird that I, a woman was talking to this other woman too much and they didn't like it because they could smell the gay on me.

That girl became my first girlfriend. Fuck those older busy bodies.

R44 Who said there were any customers around?