bizarre work incidents

lemon_and_mint · Post by **lemon_and_mint** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:33 am

I'm pretty sure I'm ok to post this, the guy was nearly 60 at the time and it was 20 years ago.

I used to work in a furniture store with a guy who looked like Catweasel's twin brother, only more so.And behaved like it.One day I arrived on the sales floor to find him having a major argument with the manager, who told him he was fired - I don't know what led up to that.

Whereupon, the guy spread his arms, and said very dramatically, "may god forgive you, you know not what you do!".

Then he went and laid on one of the display beds with his arms crossed over his chest, and we spent the rest of the day trying to ignore him.

I can't remember now what happened after that.

How's that for a weird work incident?

lemon_and_mint · Post by **lemon_and_mint** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:41 am

A different furniture store where i was working - part of a national chain -

there were rumours of it going bankrupt and the manager firstly did not know if any of us would be paid, and secondly did not want customers to lose their money by ordering goods which would not be delivered if it did go bankrupt.

However, he could not tell the customers this as it would amount to divulgence of company information and possible libel.

So for a few weeks, whenever a customer came in, he would tell them "sorry, this doesn't meet fire regulations", "sorry, this is infested with lice", and all the excuses he could think of not to sell them anything.

Strange times.And it did close as he had feared.

RedGlitter · Post by **RedGlitter** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:42 am

"sorry, this is infested with lice"

:wah: That tickled me.

I was a hairdresser in the 80s. Toward the end of the day, an elderly woman came into our shop and asked to use our bathroom. We said sure. Later I went back there and there was a trail of poop blobs and streaks leading from our dispensary to the toilet and ONTO the toilet. GROSS!! My boss was always lording it over me that it was HER shop and I was just a worker so I pointed out that since it was HER shop, she was the owner and it was HER responsibility to clean up the mess. Ha! She wasn't happy. :rolleyes: There was even a streak of poop leading out the door where the woman had stepped in it and dragged her pantleg. God.

lemon_and_mint · Post by **lemon_and_mint** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:54 am

oh gross red.

I'm sure others must have stories, after all, most people have worked somewhere.

My exboyfriend worked in a shop and one day, as teenage boys do, there being no customers, he was standing on the desk playing the air guitar.

Suddenly in walked the managing director!

Quick as a flash, my ex explained that he was standing on the desk checking if everythng was ok with the light fittings!

lemon_and_mint · Post by **lemon_and_mint** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:03 am

or maybe its just me that bizarre things happen to?

I will never forget working in a shop with an older woman when i was about 16, one day we were in the stockroom, and she said to me, "you'll have to go up the ladder, I never wear any knickers".I can remember being completely stunned by that revelation.

RedGlitter · Post by **RedGlitter** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:13 am

I worked in a wire tie factory on assembly line. Not exactly a hotbed of class. We had one particularly icky guy working there. Some worker who had recently given birth came in to talk and show off her kid. She was a nursing mother and apparently wasn't wearing pads because she was leaking through her tank top. (Her very tight tank top) This scuzzy guy was ogling this woman's lactating breasts the whole time she was standing there talking to us, with her newborn kid in tow. I was expecting him to drool any moment. I thought "Man, I gotta get a respectable job."

lemon_and_mint · Post by **lemon_and_mint** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:45 am

A customer was with me being really really aggravating over something.I was being my usual polite self, with teeth clenched, smiling.

I had nearly finished with the customer when i caught sight of a colleague making a gun out of two fingers and pointing them towards the customer and jerking his hand up, as if firing the gun.:wah:

Normally I would not have been able to see him, as he did this behind a partition.However, he stood unfortunately in such an angle as to show beautifully in the mirror which was on a pillar to my side.

The customer saw him as well..................

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:50 am

RedGlitter;741723 wrote: I worked in a wire tie factory on assembly line. Not exactly a hotbed of class. We had one particularly icky guy working there. Some worker who had recently given birth came in to talk and show off her kid. She was a nursing mother and apparently wasn't wearing pads because she was leaking through her tank top. (Her very tight tank top) This scuzzy guy was ogling this woman's lactating breasts the whole time she was standing there talking to us, with her newborn kid in tow. I was expecting him to drool any moment. I thought "Man, I gotta get a respectable job."

That could happen anywhere.

gmc · Post by **gmc** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:07 pm

I also worked as a retail manager part of my responsibility was the petrol station. One day I got a call that someone had hit one of the petrol pumps and she was going in to the store to complain since it was our fault she had hit it. Somewhat puzzled I went down to meet her. Started asking for her details insurance company etc so we could claim for the repairs, at which point she became rather annoyed as it was clearly our fault. You see Most petrol pumps are set up on a concrete plinth and she had hit the kerb on this and ridden up hitting the pump. We should have had it painted white so she would have seen it so it was clearly our fault and we should be paying for the damage to her car.

Naturally I still needed her insurance details since the two companies would sort it out and she should inform her company. As I gently pointed out that if she didn't see a six foot high three feet wide white petrol pump painting the kerb was unlikely to make much difference and it was likely the insurance company might not agree with her, comprehension began to dawn and she made a rapid exit. Happily the police were able to trace her and she paid for the repairs. She got off with a warning as I think the police enjoyed the laugh. That one I kept looking for the camera as i was sure it was a set up.

We also had one incident with a woman hitting the petrol kiosk itself and trying to claim damages because the shutter frame was jutting out. She hit it so hard it gouged a chunk out her car and dislodged the frame of the shutter costing several thousand pounds worth of damage.

Then there was the time the tanker backed over the managers brand new company car. It was an hour before I could control the laughter enough to tell him.

RedGlitter · Post by **RedGlitter** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:15 pm

:wah: :wah:

RedGlitter · Post by **RedGlitter** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:16 pm

lemon_and_mint;741710 wrote: or maybe its just me that bizarre things happen to?

I will never forget working in a shop with an older woman when i was about 16, one day we were in the stockroom, and she said to me, "you'll have to go up the ladder, I never wear any knickers".I can remember being completely stunned by that revelation.

EWW!!

lemon_and_mint · Post by **lemon_and_mint** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:29 pm

more stories gmc!

ok this one is not me, it's my sister - don't know if she posts here, if she does she'll recognise herself.

Back in the 80's she worked as a hotel receptionist and she used to tell me about all the weird customers she had, which i used to laugh about, working in shops, you know there are weird people out there!

So one day, she had a phone call from a guy with a very heavy foreign accent asking for a suite of rooms for a week, I think it was, but the unusual thing was that he wanted somewhere safe to put his camels and said he was SHeikh something of somewhere, i forget now.

She was really polite as the phone call got weirder, including the sheiks different wives who must be put in different rooms as they hated each other etc etc.

Finally it was revealed that it was a joke and the guy was a well known radio DJ, and virtually the whole of England had heard her struggling with these requests!

RedGlitter · Post by **RedGlitter** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:49 pm

somewhere safe to put his camels

*hee hee!* :wah:

lemon_and_mint · Post by **lemon_and_mint** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:55 pm

RedGlitter;741825 wrote: somewhere safe to put his camels

*hee hee!* :wah:

The thing is though, sometimes in shops and places you get these weird requests, but its just just possible, however unlikely, that it is true, so you have to just get on with it.She did tell me that at the point with the camels she wanted to say, "this is a joke right?" but if it had been true and she had lost that much revenue her boss would not have been pleased.

Peg · Post by **Peg** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 4:30 pm

When my husband started working at the grocery where I worked, I failed to tell him about one particular customer. It was with great amusement, I stood in the back of the store with a co-worker and watched for what we knew was inevitable. He touched her groceries! She started screaming and he turned white as a ghost. You see, everyone was trying to poison her according to her. You never, ever touched her food. You gave her a bag to put it in and you asked her the prices you did not know. I felt bad there for a minute for not warning him. :sneaky: :wah:

Peg · Post by **Peg** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:35 pm

Being a bartender, I hear a lot of different conversations. The most unusual had to be the 2 guys discussing their glass eyes. I darn near lost it when the one guy said, "I clean mine by dropping it in the water with my dentures." :wah: