Someone asked about embarrassing tantrums witnessed at work and the answers will have you cringing with secondhand shame
Going to work is bad enough at the best of times, but what if you’ve got someone on the team who is prone to throwing great big childish wobblies?
They’ve been chatting about this on the AskUK subreddit after user franki-pinks asked this question: ‘What’s an embarrassing work tantrum you’ve witnessed?’ and followed up with an anecdote that there are not enough awkward-face emojis in the world for…
‘One of my employees is a beer snob. No other way to put it. Its his 30th this weekend and everyone chipped in to buy him a few gifts with one being a case of his favourite beer which they don’t sell in this country anymore so had to get it sent over from Ireland. As a joke though we wrapped a crate of Fosters up for him.
‘We give him his gifts and we wrote on the label ‘We know it’s your favourite’. He opened it and we all kept a straight face. He looked around we all kept a straight face and then he exploded and said we are all wankers and none of us actually know him and he’d never drink that piss etc, etc. it went on that long most people started to file away out of embarrassment and then his best work mate said ‘That was a joke, this is what we really got you’.
‘It was like a shit sitcom and no one said anything as he opened it and then we all just went about our day and no one has mentioned it.’
Eek. Once you’ve recovered from that, here are some more work-based conniptions that you’ll be glad you weren’t present for.
1.
‘Used to work in an open plan office with a particularly stroppy twat. He lost his rag over something once and stormed out. The storminess was diminished somewhat by his attempt to slam a door with a soft closer, which was stronger than him.’
–Artistic_Bug_7223
2.
‘Worked with a guy in an open plan room, in a team of about 12. This bloke was a bit of an opinionated idiot but did his work, etc. I can’t remember why but he felt slighted by another member of the team and it seemed to have been his final straw. She was at lunch and he ranted for a good five minutes about how he was sick of her attitude towards him and he was going to have it out with her once and for all. He was going to do it in front of us all to show her and us that he can’t be pushed around.
‘She came back from lunch and sat at her desk. We all waited. And we waited. Furtive glances from us between him and her were exchanged. It got very quiet as we waited for this promised explosion. After about 10 minutes, she had a call come in and went off to talk to the user. The room remained quiet for a minute or so, before our boss quietly said, ‘You really told her, didn’t you mate?’.
‘Bless him, he laughed with us at his own stupidity and realisation that it wasn’t all that serious after all.’
–PrinceFan72
3.
‘A guy in my office accused me of using his protein shaker, I didn’t, but he was a bit weird in genera. He got his wife to come in and argue with me about it. This adult man was silently stood in the background whilst his wife screamed at me over it.’
–BuffaloPancakes11
4.
‘A chap who worked in our service team (probably in his 50s) was proven wrong by the apprentice who had just started. He blew up shouting ‘Thats it I’m going home! I’m phoning the Mrs and telling her to put the kettle on because I’m going home, f**k the lot of you’. 20 minutes later he was back at his desk working like nothing had happened.’
–Working-Hat4932
5.
‘At an old job at a relatively large company, CEO was an old school bully type. Basically a couple of people left and on their exit interviews said that the atmosphere was bad. This got back to the CEO, his response was to call a meeting with everyone from the office (around 150 – 200 at this HQ), and started banging his fists on the table shouting that ‘there shall be no discontent’.
‘About 10 people handed in their notice the same week.’
–Marsmanic
6.
‘We keep all of our teabags and milk over the road in other offices. We grab a carton, box and bag of sugar pretty much whenever we need it. Our previous manager HATED going over the road to fill up as he didn’t like the staff over there and tbh they didn’t like him. We work in a department of six other people and this manager was the eldest by at least 15 years. None of us would go over to get tea supplies if he specifically asked, you’re a grown-ass man, swallow your pride and get the goddamn sugar.
‘One day he just popped as he hadn’t had a cup of tea and none of us would go over to get supplies or him, and by popped I mean shouting his head off, trashing our kitchen area, breaking a coffee pod machine and a teapot I bought as it looked cute. A lad who works in our department doesn’t like confrontation so he started to get a panic attack on top of him trashing the kitchen. When he cooled off he was called into the office and was sacked on the spot.
‘Bye Felicia .’
–OverTheCandlestik
7.
‘Worked in an electronics factory one summer as a student. Saw two grandmothers have a full blown fist fight over a swivel chair.’
–Trunkface90
8.
‘Sort of the opposite and I am still embarrassed today when I think of it. On my leaving do for an infinitely better job I was rat-arsed in a pub and told my bosses deputy he was nothing but a servile running dog lackey for a useless piece of shit that shouldn’t be allowed to clean hamster cages for the hamsters’ sake’s.
‘Next day, the same guy stands up and gives a speech about how it was great working with me. He’d also done a whip around and bought all my favourite things and got a lovely card. I was mortified, apologised profusely and slunk out as soon as I could. Carrying all my thoughtful pressies mind.’
–TangerineOld8429
9.
‘I used to teach aqua aerobics and had to get in the pool and break up a slap fight between two little old ladies. Shockingly funny but obviously I couldn’t laugh.’
–Crochetqueenextra
10.
‘I’m a retail manager, does the tantrum have to be a coworker or just within the workplace? Assuming it’s a coworker I worked with an incredibly angry man. At some stage he decided to hurl a plastic tote against a wall. A chunk of it smashed off and hit him in the eye, which caused even more raging and yelling.’
–Drath101
11.
‘One person, who thankfully doesn’t work here now, threatened to sue my boss because they got injured on a work night out. Nothing to do with them being a drunk idiot and falling over their own feet, leading to a trip to A&E and stitches.
‘Same person also had a go at my boss because they wouldn’t be paid before a bank holiday, and they needed the money. Proclaiming that it was illegal to be paid after a bank holiday. They also went home in a huff because we’d ran out of coffee (funnily enough it was their turn to replenish). Charming person, glad to see the back of them.’
–SadieBelle85