Work stories

[Jessweeee♪]

Tell me work stories! Fun stories, sad stories, angry stories. Current job or past job doesn't matter. Here's one of my work stories:

it's a teensy bit nasty
I was working at the return desk at my super big retail store when I'm hit with this terrible odor. It's a person smell. You recognize person smells when you do service jobs, and this was a really really bad one. Then a lady comes up on a motor scooter and yes that smell is her oh god it's terrible. Then she puts one of our grey bags up on the counter and says "these...are DISGUSTING! I bled through them in not even twenty minutes. Can I have my money back?"
I'm say, "let me take a look here. Do you have a receipt?" She fishes for her receipt while I carefully open the bag. Yep, kotex pads. Oh god. That smell. She said she bled through the kotex pads. I didn't want to know what the smell was. I just did the return and got her out as quickly as possible

[Scotty_ffgamer]

When I used to work at the pretzel place, there was a woman who ordered one of our Dutch Ice drinks. After I poured it, she decided that she actually wanted the other flavor in a smaller size instead; so I put the one I just made off to the side and made the other one. After I finished ringing her up, she asked me if she could have the first one since it was already made and would just get thrown away anyways. I told her she would have to pay for it if she wants it. She proceeded to talk to me about starving people around the world and how much we tend to waste things. Just before she left the line, she looked me in the eyes and said "You are the reason for everything wrong in this world."

That's probably my favorite work story just because I find that statement funny, though similar situations cropped up at least 10 times a day at that job.

[Shaibana]

so yesterday a piglet got born (i work on a pigfarm), but unfortunalty he had no leggs.
his front leggs were small stumps, they just seemed to have stopped developing halfway.
his rear leggs were grown till the paws,his little hoof was just a stump with half a toe nail.

i knew it would not survive long but i helped him a bit finding a nipple to drink.

he survived till half way noon today. he died peacefully under the warmth-lamp

i can post a picture if somebody wants to see it

[noxious.sunshine]

omg the poor thing.. I just teared up.

I once worked at Logan's Roadhouse and okay. I was jacked up, kinda. It was a slow lunch. Me & my bff sucked down a couple of roadhouse teas on the slick & had smoked a joint before doing opening stuff. Later, I had these construction workers come in and sit in my section and one of 'em looked like he was totes on steroids right.

So I get their drinks and then start taking their order ... Steroid Guy orders a grilled chicken & sirloin combo.. I ask him (in my super peppy cheerleader voice) if he just wants the 6 oz sirloin or if he wants to go ahead and get the 8 oz.. Ya know. 'Cuz dude's beefy. He might be extra hungry!

He says.. "What's the difference?" , and without missing a beat and -almost- talking to him like he's a dumbass, I say "The 8 oz is bigger than the 6 oz.!"

Dead silence.

It took me a good minute to realize what he was talking about.

And then it hit me.. and I said, "OH. You meant the -price-... Yeah $5" ... Steroid Guy declines the upgrade and goes to the bathroom. I attempt to take the other guys' orders, but I can't stop snorting in laughter at myself. I actually had to excuse myself from them so that I could go laugh about it. My bff was like "This better be good. My wife done pissed me off." So I told the story and everyone was like "Hell. No. You're an asshole." ... omg it was hilarious.

[Laddy]

Someone at Applebee's said I was a prince!

...It made me happy.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

At the job I just left, I got told by a customer that I was one of the nicest people they had ever worked with and that they always hope to get me whenever they are waiting in line to check out. The next customer after that called me an asshole due to some store policy they disagreed with. It was pretty amusing.

[fire_of_avalon]

So when I was working for Kmart once I walked in the front door around noon because I was closing that night. I shoved my sunglasses up on my head and looked at the service desk and there was this BANSHEE of a woman screaming at the service desk associate. I clock in and head over to see what's going on. The lady was shrieking about someone giving her baby clothes (she was well into her 50's - it's normal for grandmas to raise their grandkids here, but come on) and just bought them the other day and we wouldn't take them back and that was ILLEGAL we were STEALING FROM HER.

So because the rule in retail is you do what you can to make the customer happy I see if the items can be returned but one of them is so old it's no longer in our system. Which means it is YEARS old.

So I tell her this and she continues losing her trout and cussing at me for well over 10 minutes, calls her husband on her cell phone and tries to make me talk to him. I told her I have no need or interest to talk to him about the return. Management gets involved, refuses to return the item, and she still stands there. Shrieking and cussing and threatening. Until. A customer by the magazines looks at her and goes "Why don't you just shut the smurf up and leave? They're not buying it?"

She looked at him like he spit on her, said smurf YOU and left.

About a month later she came back in with a receipt and barcode for a personal safe she wanted to return.

But no safe.

Apparently the safe came without keys and without the combination code in the box.

I tell her I can't return an item unless I have the item.

She tells me she HAS TO HAVE A SAFE THAT WORDS because she's going to the beach on vacation and SHE HAS TO KEEP HER COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF JEWELRY SECURE SO THOSE MAIDS DON'T STEAL IT.

Do I want her to be robbed blind?

I suggest she leave her valuables at home (THIS WAS THE WRONG THING TO SAY. SHE YELLED AND CUSSED FOR LIKE THREE SOLID MINUTES AFTER THAT.)

She asks if she can exchange the safe for another one.

Yes. If you bring the broken safe in.

I DON'T HAVE THE GAS MONEY TO RUN ALL AROUND HERE AND GO TO MY HOUSE AND BACK HERE ARE YOU CRAZY? ALL I HAVE IS MY GROCERY MONEY. DO YOU WANT ME TO SPEND MY GROCERY MONEY JUST TO GO GET A SAFE YOU SHOULD JUST GIVE ME ANYWAY BECAUSE IT'S YOUR FAULT THIS IS BROKEN.

So then I told her I will not give her store credit or money or a new safe until she brings the old one and she can leave if she wants. She proceeded to tell me she was going to call WLOS (a local news station) and have them do a report on us and drive us out of business. Then she called WLOS on the phone (I think she was faking it, but she was crazy enough that she might.)

Eventually she bought a new safe and said she would return the old one later, but said we were robbing her of her Social Security and grocery money and that was ILLEGAL.

[Shorty]

I've tried to forget all of mine and it looks like it worked!

[Jessweeee♪]

omg foa at our return desk we had this old guy that came in at least twice a month to return an item he didn't have with him. He came in my first week there and I was about to say the usual "hi what can I do for you today" when my co-worker who was training me was like "sir, are you here to do a return? do you have the item with you?" I was surprised with how blunt she was being so suddenly. And no he has some weirdass story about how "Larry" at the garden department had the shoes he wants to return there with him so he didn't have to bring it to us. We don't have a Larry. Also he doesn't have a receipt but he swears he paid thirty dollars for them. She says "I've told you many times now sir that you need to bring the item here to the counter to do a return." And he's like "okay well I'll go get my shoes from Larry, I'll be right back." I don't see him for two more weeks, when he tries to return a picture frame he doesn't actually have with him. He never has the item with him and he never has the receipt. Also he never really puts up a fight about it. It's always, "I want to return x" "okay let me take a look at it" "I don't have it with me" "I can't refund you then" "but really it's okay because y" "it's actually not okay" "ok bye"

Return desk stories are the best. The best.

[Pant Leg Eater from the Bad World]

My god. I think if I had to deal with people outside the constraints of the military on a regular basis I would probably murder smurfing everyone.

[noxious.sunshine]

My god. I think if I had to deal with people outside the constraints of the military on a regular basis I would probably murder smurfing everyone.

Funnily enough, my bf can't stand 1/2 of the people in his company. They piss him off on the regular and is always making someone do push ups.


I loathed working in retail. -loathed- it. I was working in Wal Mart back in domestics (bedding and junk), but also had to go back and cut fabric on the regular. So I'm minding my own business, re-folding every single towel 'cuz that's all I was allowed to do 'cuz I was preggo and someone starts banging on the bell in fabrics. So I go back there and this woman gets a couple yards of fabric and a couple yards of some trim. The fabric we give an extra inch or 3 depending on how crooked/jacked off the end is, but we don't on trim 'cuz it's trim. It's impossible to screw up.

The woman (who's Ethiopian, btw and the Ehtiopians over there are -rude-) goes "You supposed to give me like 2 extra inches on dat" and I'm like "....No? The fabric, yes. Trim, no." and she's like "You must be new hea" and I'm all "... I've been here for 6 months. I cannot give you extra trim just because you think we're supposed to do that. It's theft and I could lose my job."

So she rolls her eyes, wanders over to the pre-packaged trim and goes "Can I open dis?". And I nearly lose it. "No ma'am. Opening things in the store that aren't already paid for is against store policy." .. She wasn't too happy with me that night.

[Pike]

These customer service stories are the reason I now work at 4am. Because I hate dealing with customers.

One time when I worked at pet store I received a phone call from a very concerned woman who wanted to make sure that bearded dragons could not have sex with humans.

[Laddy]

...what?

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

I used to work in Walmart as a truck unloader. When my boss was sent to work on a remodel in another store I was put in charge due to having the best work ethic in the backroom, making me the temporary back room supervisor.

I did that for about 3 months. And I was pretty much guaranteed the position because my boss ended up quitting after those three months. So I walked in feeling good one day, until I got pulled in to the management office. They proceeded to tell me that it was decided the permanent supervisor position would go to someone else.

The managers I spoke with weren't sure why. It was a decision made from the "higher ups", though I was told that when they were having a meeting about who would get the position all of the managers were really pulling for me. They weren't told why someone else was chosen.

I knew I was the perfect candidate for the job because I was a regular unloader for a year or so, and when my boss was still there I was in charge on his days off, so I had both the work experience as well as the supervisor experience going in to this.

They ended up picking someone who worked in the frozen cooler with very little backroom or supervisory experience. Which seemed like a bad move from my perspective. Turns out it was.

I recently got back with the company in a different position. And on my hire date at least 4 managers agreed "we have to get you in that backroom somehow, we've got to get those guys moving. productivity has been down since you left."

So I was replaced in a position I thrived in for 3 months by someone with little experience and it didn't work out? WHAT A SHOCK! Are you kidding me?

[Araciel]

One time at work.. the end of my shift came and I went home.