Strange work experiences... care to share?

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[color=#9933ff][font=lucida calligraphy]I have to start a thread like this because I have quite possibly the strangest things happen to me ever since I started being a home aide. I want to see if I'm alone in the strangeness or if other people also have issues. So basically share your work stories and I'll share mine.

As for myself until Mid March I used to clean planes along with being a home aide. One night I was on one of the planes cleaning the back galley and this guy was cleaning the aisle seats. Suddenly I decided I had to head the call of nature and headed down the aisle to go to the bathroom. The guy cleaning the seats stopped me and said: Megan, where do you think you're going. I told him, to the bathroom. He then proceeded to ask me WHY I was going to the bathroom. Well, I looked him straight in the eye and said: I'm going to go change my tampon is that all right with you Ben?

I still don't know if it was alright with him, but it sure got him to shut up for twenty minutes.

I'll share more later, I'm about to run out of time on this computer. Just please share yours too.[/color][/font]

[Boo]

[size=1]I found a squashed bird, a lizard and over a dozen of cockroaches between the lumber that I have to work with. With a bit of luck the creatures are dead, but cockroaches tend to choose living over being dead.

That's about it. My work and my co-workers are rather dull.[/size]

[Allamorph]

[FONT=Arial]During my forays into the world of remodelling Wal-Mart, I have been showered with lipstick, nail polish, eleven-year-old dust bunnies from ceiling fans, and men's underwear.

[I]Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head[/I] has nothing on me.[/FONT]

[Fyxe]

[size=1]Oh, well... McDonald's customers scare the crap out of me. One time this guy charged up to me, shoved his receipt in my face and said something I couldn't understand. He was like really big and hairy, so his appearence was enough to freak me out. Anyway, he proceeded to yell at me about not getting a snack wrap for half an hour. He was still chewing something, so as he was screaming at me, he was also spitting food on me. Attractive.
But, yeah, he was freaking out on me. And then he started yelling about how he had rabbits in the car, and if they died, [I]I[/I] was going to have to pay for new ones. What the hell? It was like 90 degrees out, why would you leave rabbits in a hot car? Obviously he wasn't smart enough to take his food to go.
The sad thing was, he had this really cute little girl that was being very polite to me, while he was being a lesser version of Tarzan.

So once we finally got his snack wrap to him, he muttered something like, "Fast food my ***." My manager was very pissed off about the whole encounter. She freaked out and said, "That's bulls**t, I made that snack warp myself! You know, that snack wrap was probably what he was spitting at you." and she kept swearing, haha. I love my manager.

Otherwise, us workers have some interesting conversations, I guess. Such as today... we talked about how we needed a strip pole in the middle of our work area. So I started beat-boxing some stripper music and we all started dancing. Also, I found out today that our cash registers are cross-dressers.[/size]

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[color=#9933ff][font=lucida calligraphy] Okay now I remember what else I can talk about.

I have a guy with MS who I see every other weekend for a few (eleven) hours on Saturday and six on Sunday. Yeah, I know not too exciting... well it would be boring as anything except every time I go over there he spends the majority of my shift asking me to flash him and asking rather personal questions about my sex life. Seriously it's getting annoying.

I don't work with my co-workers, I work with people I get sent to take care of which is both a blessing and a curse. I have one woman who once threw meatballs (Frozen ones) at me because I got the wrong ones. I've ended up running from the apartment when she gets in a mood and yet my coordinators won't switch me... they won't let my change at all!

Eh... I've also been hit on continuously by one of the grandson's at another client's house. The fun never ends.[/color][/font]

[Darren]

Well I work at Subway *eat fresh* as a "Professional Sandwich Artist." (seriously, that's what the ad in the paper said.) And I have this one co-worker who's a sophomore and started just before I did. She's not very bright, but not stupid enough to be considered mentally ill; a ditz, if you will. (ha, that rhymed) So one day, this customer walks in, orders a sandwich, and I call for her, (cuz she was in the back and she needed to do the veggies) and all she did was stand there and stare at me... Our boss told us that we should never discuss individual jobs in front of customers, (I guess because it makes us seem like we aren't prepared to make their sandwich on the spot and God knows how customers hate waiting) so I simply point to the box of gloves while I put the man's sandwich in the toaster... I don't know where the girl got this, but I guess she thought I was pointing to the word "Rubber" because the box says rubber poly-somethingoranother gloves. And she turns to me and says, "Yes: Rubber... Are you asking me what I think you're asking me?" I'm still not sure what she was thinking of, but I'm sure it had something to do with sex. I was completely embarrassed and the customer looked confused and mad at the same time. I ended up doing the veggies and needless to say, I requested not to be put on the schedule with her ever again.

[Mr. Maul]

[size=1][color=DimGray]Our store was graced with the presence of a transvestite once.


Man, that chick was a man.



[/color][/size]

[roymund]

I work in sales, and I get some wierd one (thats pretty bad comin' from me!).

My all-time favorite:
This couple gets married (Arranged marriage, never met each other), and move in together. She starts her job that dya, and he has 10 days before he goes back to work.

(I sell flooring.) Th couple decides that they want new floors, so she sends happy-new-hubby out to get them. She gives VERY explicit description of what she wants, 4 whole words.

"Pick out something nice."

I tell you that poor guy was on trial there. He has known this girl only a few days, and has no clue what she would like.

So he comes into my store and borrows 437 samples of flooring. His entire pickup truck is loaded down as he pulls off.

Can you beleive that not a single one of these 437 was 'nice'!

[Panda]

I have many, many strange animal stories from the vet clinic. Here are a few of my favorites.

[b]Tampon eating dog.[/b]
We had to remove tampons from the stomach of a dog who got into a box of feminine products and decided to eat them. The owner told us that the dog has been known to steal food (candy bars, bread, rolls, etc...) off of the counter so it must have associated "plastic wrapping" with "food". Needless to say the dog was a bit bloated with puffy tampons when we took him into surgery.

[b]Jean crotch eating dog.[/b]
A client brought her dog in after it had decided to eat the crotch area of several pairs of jeans. This dog also has a history of eating panties. Apparently there is something about the scent of the owner's...area.... that attracts the dog. It never ate other family member clothes, just the mom.

[b]Woman with muu-muu pulled up over her head.[/b]
While waiting in the exam room with her pet for an appointment my best friend who is the office manager at the vet clinic walked into the room to get some updated information from the owner. The owner, a fairly robust woman, had hiked her muu-muu up over her head. So when my friend walked in all she saw was this woman's very large and dimpled butt, granny panties and back fat rolls. She said Oh! Excuse me! and promply walked out. We, to this day, have no idea what the woman was doing. Nor do we want to know.

[b]"Arthritic" dog house call.[/b]
My boss went to the home of an elderly woman who said her dog's legs were stiff. Sounding like it was an older dog with arthritis we packed him up with medications and everything needed to give an exam on site. He came back to the office with a bizarre story. As he pulled up to the house he noticed the owner "sweeping" the front porch and the ol' dog laying nearby. As he gathered his stuff he noticed that she wasn't sweeping the porch, but shoo-ing flies away from the dog. As he reaches the dog he realized that the dog was dead. The legs were "stiff" because it was dead! Being the good guy he is, put his stethoscope and listened to the dog's heart. He informed the owner the dog had passed and offered to dispose of the remains.

Well, I think that is a good start. I have tons of weird stories. I might come back later to add more. Like the story about the cereal stealing monkey with a broken leg, 25 lbs. angry albino python who put his owner in the hospital for 3 days or the time we "cast out the demons" from a guinea pig and it got better. So many weird pet stories...

[Gavin]

[SIZE=1][b]Washing the boss' car[/b]
Exactly what it sounds like. One day on my last job, for which I was hired to help paint a large Georgian house I was asked out of the blue to wash down his car because it had gotten a bit dusty from the gravel driveway. I think it may have been in response to the fact that I was involved with his daughter at the time. [/SIZE]

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[color=#9933ff][font=lucida calligraphy] While I may never be able to top Panda I may be able to top myself.

I [strike]just got done[/strike] never even started my 4:30PM assignment today because as soon as I walked in the door the woman demanded that I get on the phone and order a $25 hair piece for her [U][b]OUT OF MY OWN BLOODY CHECKING ACCOUNT![/U][/b]

Well as you can imagine I was a bit shocked and told her no. I was then barraged with a string of profanities and she accused me of stealing money from her. So I just walked out the door of her apartment and walked outside to call my supervisor... and one of the poor woman in the office was already on the phone with her.

This happened about half an hour ago and I was supposed to get a call back about it. Somehow I don't see that happening any time soon. Oh well... early start to my weekend.

I have one other story before I go to work.

I also work as a hospice aide and I had this one guy who I'll just call Fish. Well two weeks before he died Fish's older daughter was in the room with him and asked if he wanted something to drink. He said yes, but not water. So she asked him what he wanted Fish (may he rest in peace) said Whisky. Now it was 10AM, but keep in mind this guy is in hospice, he has cancer and doesn't have long to live. So his daughter poured him a shot of whisky, watered it down and let him drink some from a straw. Then being the polite guy that he was, Fish immediately offered some to his daughter and I. His daughter and I both declined pointing out that it was 10 in the morning. Damn I miss that guy. [/font][/color]

[Minako]

I once worked at a [B]doggy daycare[/B]. It was horrible, 'nuff said.

And at my high school, we had to *cough*wereforcedto*cough* do 16 hour of "community service," most of it had to be at the school thrift shop, where the profits go to the school. (I went to a small christian school) And I was working one of the shifts with my friend, and this guy comes in, with a handkerchief wrapped around his head, and is very "feminine" let's just say. (We called him the transvestite.) He claimed that he bought an electric shaver that was in the glass case (don't ask me why) and said that the clerk that sold it to him let him come back and pick it up. Ok, that was fine and dandy, but when we asked for the receipt, he kept insisting that he had already bought it and wanted it. We just asked for the receipt, that's all. He finally said that he'd go and get it, and we never saw him again. Me and my friend laughed so hard when he left. He was just such a funny character, and we couldn't help it!

That's about as weird as it gets for me.

[SunfallE]

[COLOR=goldenrod]There have been so many! But I'll stick with the two that stand out the most. The first one was quite some time ago. I was still finishing up my college degree and working as the assistant manager of a Sinclair gas station. For the most part the job was pretty laid back and easy to do. It was a small station and business was busy, but not too bad. The experience wasn't so much strange as it scared the hell out of me.

I was about to get ready to close for the night when some guy came sailing in and held the place up at gunpoint. At the time I thought he was kidding since even though he had a ski mask on I was sure I had heard his voice before. I even asked him if it was a joke. But his foul language and threat to blow my brains out if I didn't give him what was in the till convinced me that he meant it. So I gave it to him and he left. He didn't get a lot though and he wasn't the brightest of robbers. The jewelry I was wearing was worth more than the twenty bucks he made off with. lol

The second experience was only a few years ago when I was working as a truck driver. I was hauling some goods from Salt Lake City, Utah to Reno Nevada. I had stopped in the desert about one hundred miles from the city at a rest stop where trucks could park to get some sleep. It was night time and I had barely fallen asleep when a loud explosion rocked the truck. Which as heavy as those things are takes some doing.

Needless to say I woke up thinking some other idiot had backing in my trailer or something like that since I couldn't imagine something exploding in the middle of the desert, but when I got up and checked, it was another truck parked about a hundred feet away. The trailer was on fire and some of the tires had exploded. So I ended up awake for a while watching it burn down with the rest of the truck drivers who were there.

The police showed up, but tire fires are pretty damn hot and being in the middle of nowhere, by the time they showed up the trailer was history. It was interesting to see the other tires explode when the fire got to them though and somewhere I've got some pictures of the fire.

Anyway, maybe later I'll post some more since I've seen some pretty crazy things while I was driving though the western states. [/COLOR]

[Petie]

[font=Verdana][color=blue]I work at Staples and not too much of interest has happened there so I don't think I'll be topping too many of these stories but here goes.[/color][/font]
[font=Verdana][color=blue][/color][/font]
[font=Verdana][color=blue]As a little background info, Staples sells Technical Service Plans for expensive electronics and Product Replacement Plans for the cheaper electronics. Essentially, they're extended warranties.[/color][/font]
[font=Verdana][color=blue][/color][/font]
[font=Verdana][color=blue]One day, this guy comes in with a $180 shredder he bought eight months ago but with the Product Replacement Plan. For whatever reason, it didn't work any more. No problem - I went to get him a new one. Problem is, the only ones we had left were on the top of some high shelves. So, I get a ladder, climb up, grab the thing and the ladder (not a vertical one - more of a rolling stair case) shifts under me and the shredder falls. It hits my head first, followed by the light (fluorescent tube and fixture) above me. Everything shattered but luckily the box directed the falling glass past me and to the floor.[/color][/font]
[font=Verdana][color=blue][/color][/font]
[font=Verdana][color=blue]A little shaken, I get the last one of that shredder we have, bring it to the front, tell them what happened, clean up the glass, and continue my day. What makes this story funny is that the guy ended up making $15 on his exchange. The plan for that shredder is $15 so with his replacement, he bought another plan. The new shredder was free but there was a $30 mail in rebate on it at the time so he essentially made $15 for us giving him a new shredder.[/color][/font]

[han ki-tae]

Hello everybody,

I was out of the lounge for a bit. Good to be back.

My type of wok draws a lot of interesting people to me. I work for the Custome Service Cener for one of our Medicaid agencies. My reps. love to share their 'special' calls with me.

There was this one of an elderly lady ho was in need of long term care, meaning, needed to go to a nursing home. She was complaining that she was living at the house of a director of a nursing home, that whenever she went out, locked the old lady and the other person libing there in their rooms. One day, the other lady started to have and attack or something, and s**t went all te way up to her hair. She wanted to know if that was legal. Also, she said that on the beginning they had decent food, such as chicken, but know the owner was only ginving them grilled cheese with poopcorn.....

Lol

There was also this other one whose eligibility had been terminated for failure to respond to one of our letters. My rep. sent out the form to reinstate her coverage and explained that once we received the form it could take up to 2 weeks for it to be procded and for us to make a determination on her case. The the member got angry on the phone and said: DO YOU WANT ME TO CLEAN WINDOWS? MY FATHER IS THE PRESIDENT OF THE BROKEN BONES... And then hung up.

[Horendithas]

[COLOR=Indigo]Well most of the strange work experiences I've run into are confidential. But one when I was waiting for a friend at her job is not. My friend works at Wendy's and I was meeting her there, since we were going to go to a movie that evening. While I was waiting some guy in an old beat up pickup pulled up and went inside and got one of the combo meals they offer.

He pretty much wolfed it down so quickly it was a wonder he didn't choke on it and then left, only to puke the whole meal right back up on the pavement next to his truck. And all he did was get in and drive off as if nothing had happened.

Oh and the one that ordered their meal, paid for it at the first window and then drove off without bothering to actually get the food was pretty strange as well.[/COLOR]

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[color=#9933ff][font=lucida calligraphy]I can't believe I forgot this one! It was quite possibly one of my most memorable assignments ever.

A few months ago my weekend schedule was in limbo and they were looking for people to give me. So I was sent to this one woman on a Saturday afternoon to take care of her for two hours.

This woman lived in an apartment building so I needed to be buzzed in. I should have known something was up when she didn't know that I was asking if she could let me in. But hey maybe it's my accent right? Nope. This woman spoke only Spanish, even her care plan was in Spanish!

But the story doesn't stop there, oh no, I called my weekend coordinator and explained the problem I even pointed out: I hardly passed my high school Spanish classes, how the heck am I supposed to communicate with this woman? (See this is why schools in America should start teaching second languages in elementary school) I was told to do the best I can and they'd try to call VNS to send someone to help. Because according to them there wasn't anyone to send out who did speak Spanish.

Well, that sounded like a good idea... For the first twenty minutes, but then I decided to take matters into my own hands so I could at least try to get some work done... I called opperations at the Rochester Airport- where I was also working at the time- and asked to be patched through to one of my co-workers who spoke Spanish fluently. He and I didn't get along too well, but I was desperate. And after I explained what was going on he actually helped me out.

After I figured out her son had helped her out, the woman- who was probably getting as annoyed with this than I was- went to the bathroom then went to bed. I'd been there an hour and never got a reply from a coordinator.

And for a perfect ending to this story, after I'd explained my situation and told them how hard it had been for both me and the client and was told they'd try to find someone else. It still took me calling on Sunday two hours before I was supposed to go back over there to find out they had indeed found someone to go over there who was fluent in Spanish.[/color][/font]

[Japan]

[COLOR=Darkred]Other than dealing with overly obese people at work, I also have to deal with really retarded customers at McDonalds. Like this one lady who came in when the Alexandria and Ninja turtle toys were being sold. She bought thirty each of two different toys. In fact, this very same day, people came in and bought these toys in 5, 10, 15 bundle of quantities, all of them middle-aged or older.

Other than that, my friend who works overnight, handed out bibs to another co-worker's sister. People with the head sets make fun of certain customers. We play the shrek toys over the head sets. Those who ask for breakfast at 2 AM, we randomly decide to wrap their cheeseburger in a mcgriddle wrap. We throw things at eachother and we are a very sarcastic bunch. Gotta love McDonalds.[/COLOR]

[Pumpkin]

[quote name='ChibiHorsewoman][color=#9933ff][font=lucida calligraphy] (See this is why schools in America should start teaching second languages in elementary school).[/color'][/font][/quote][font=tahoma][size=2]I actually was taught spanish in elementary school and knew quite a lot. Learned it since I was 4 up until junior year in Highschool and forgot it all in a year. Think thats impossible? Well if you dont practice or keep using it, you forget it. I learned the hard way. I can still remember a few sentences and the basics such as yo soy somos and some of the verbs but thats about it.

I use to work at Kohls about a year ago on the sales floor, when I had to walk around and ask people if they wanted a free make over for the make up department. When I asked this woman or man, I couldnt really tell at the time, got all upset and told me about how she modeled in Paris as a petite model (this he-she was not petite in any sense) and that she could teach me a thing or two about fashion and make up. I just grinned and walked away. Turns out one of my co-workers knew "her" from her son, who also is a transvestite. The whole time he-she was talking about her modeling career and her husband. It was probably the strangest encounter I can remember.

My most recent job was working at the Home Depot. Let me tell you, my coworkers there are a crazy bunch. We would have 'home depot parties' as our meetings, which involved throwing things to dunk our store manager into a tank, a scavenger hunt after store hours, hitting eachother with pillows, awards, jepordy, and other events. I've never seen a store do something like that before, or know everyone in the store. I don't know if you would call that strange though, more like amusing.

I love hearing about were everyone else's jobs are for some reason. Maybe that is because I'm "unemployed" now. Looking for an interesting place to work. Suggestions anyone? [/font][/size]

[SaiyanPrincessX]

[SIZE=1]I've been working in a warehouse for a little over a year and a half now. Its okay, but I'm slowly getting very tired of it.

Alot of funny stuff happens though. Everyone there knows I take Taekwondo, and they tease and taunt me about it because they know I can kick them in the head. Lol.

Max, this one guy is constantly making "Bruce Lee" sounds while trying to kick above his waist. There was also a time when he put on this Elvis mask. I laughed so hard. Max is a black man, with a white Elvis mask. I guess you had to be there.

You know the 'baggy pants style'? Well John, someone I work with had that going on and his pants feel down while just standing there. My manager was literally on the floor laughing so hard.

We also tend to throw wads paper at each other, alot. I have a few nick names too.[/SIZE]

[James]

[font=arial]Hm, strange work experiences, eh?

Well, there are a few. For a while I was working for Warner-Village and I had to do a stint at Sea World.

My office was right next door to the Seal Hospital! So every morning I passed the injured seals, who were always happy to say hello. That area of the park also contained enclosures for other injured or sick animals, including a large group of pelicans (they had a funny habit of staring at you when you walked past - it was a little odd, because they'd all go silent as if you had rudely interrupted them). When you were out of sight they'd get back to chatting amongst themselves.

Another odd experience - wandering around the backlot at Warner Bros. Movie World and coming face-to-face with a two-storey tall Tweety. I had actually come out of a second floor office, which backed onto part of the backlot area and I was standing right in front of Tweety's face - he was actually a giant balloon that they were pumping up for a parade. So that was pretty odd, lol.[/font]

[2010DigitalBoy]

[COLOR=DarkOrange]I don't have a job. On that note, strange things often revolve around pie.[/COLOR]

[Nerdsy]

[quote name='2007DigitalBoy][COLOR=DarkOrange']I don't have a job. On that note, strange things often revolve around pie.[/COLOR][/quote]

[color=deeppink]Oh man, you're telling me; I know someone who works in a convenience store, and they've got this habitual vandal that continuously moves the store's pies to the wrong sections. As in, behind the canned green beans. It's less harmless than that hooligan kids who come in and break stuff and skateboard around the store, though.

On the subject of baked goods, there used to be a donut thief at the same shop. He'd steal one or two donuts from the newly delivered bag, and have warm, fresh, free donuts. He never got caught, either; this guy apparently told someone else of his scheme, but the new guy took the entire [i]bag[/i]. He got caught, and the first guy no longer had access to free donuts due to increased security.[/color]

[Aberinkula]

[B][COLOR=Black]Sure we all love baked goods... but does anyone like cooked meats??? Hamburgers are da best!!!![/COLOR]

[IMG]http://www.txbeef.org/images/products/6_EMS_Hamburger_Patties.jpg[/IMG]

[COLOR=Black]See the orafice of beuty? The sweat-like grease just begs to be licked off!

Ha! I don't have a job etither. But at school this strange thing happened to my mother. She ate burger!

BURGER ALL AROUND!!! Everyabody happy![/COLOR][/B]

[Shy]

[quote name='Premonition][B']Ha! I don't have a job etither. But at school this strange thing happened to my mother. She ate burger![/B][/quote]
[size=1]LOL! I'm glad to know I'm not the only person who has been through this experience! I have a very similar story, but it involves Italian food instead of burgers.

We had something called a 'Create Your Own Pasta Dish' at my old job working in an Italiam restaurant. It always seemed like people would always come up with the strangest combinations of pastas, vegetables, sauces, or whatever. The worst was my Mom, who would come into the restaurant frequently and order CYOPs that would make me gag. My co-workers were always shocked to discover that she ordered such strange dishes, let alone enjoy them.

I know it's not a very interesting story, but it wasn't a very interesting job. Does anyone else have their parents visit them at their job? I'm 22 and living on my own and it [i]still[/i] happens.

-Shy[/size]