Someone asked about embarrassing tantrums witnessed at work and the answers will have you cringing with secondhand shame
12.
‘My old office did Secret Santa one year and one staff member got the other a golden stag Christmas decoration (I looked it up, it was worth more than the £10 budget). The receiver threw a tantrum and complained that she wasn’t ever doing it again because she always gets shit gifts.
‘Every year there after we did a ‘Golden stag award’ for worst or most inappropriate Secret Santa gift. The worst thing was, weeks later I worked out that she was my Secret Santa and all she’d got me was a small panettone (I didn’t complain as I love the stuff but it wasn’t like she went mental with it).’
–Bozzaholic
13.
‘Many moons ago working at a hot desk call centre, sat down to start work at a random empty desk to be greeted with an angry manlet storming across the room to tell me at volume that this empty desk was ‘his’. In the interest of shiggles I wound him up for a few minutes by asking some questions about the concept of ownership in a post capitalist world and how ownership was a oppressing term before. He flipped out and offered to meet me outside for a fight, it was 8:49am on a Tuesday.’
–Benreh
14.
‘We were all brought together to be told there would be redundancies, and this would be the process. One woman, one of the quietest people in the office, got up, ranted about how this was an unfair way to go about things, and then stamped her foot. I had never seen someone do that in real life before, and was so shocked I spent the rest of the meeting trying to keep my laugh in, and well, pretty much forgot about the redundancy thing, so I suppose it was helpful.’
–madjackslam
15.
‘Overheard my colleague and I thought good friend openly slagging off her Secret Santa gift – a hand embossed leather bound notebook. She said ‘I mean, everyone who knows me would know it isn’t me at all… it’s so ugly!’ to our whole team. The buyer of that Secret Santa was… me! The notepad cost quite a lot and was really beautiful. I should have asked for it back!’
–ohnobobbins
16.
‘We had a rather strange guy at work, late 50s, had done a ton of drugs in his life and he could be quite moody. Anyway, he was having a disciplinary in a room with one of the managers and he lost the plot, got up and threw his chair at her. He then stormed through to my office (I was alone and unaware of what had just happened) and screamed at me that he was going to come back with his tartan army and fuck us all. I was absolutely bewildered, I’d always got on quite well with him really.’
–EastOfArcheron
17.
‘Used to work with a very odd lad. After he joined us, for some reason he’d phone his mum at the end of each day to let her know how his day had been. He’d give his day a score out of ten. One day things weren’t going so well for him. He seemed to start simmering in the early afternoon but about 4pm he stood up, shouted ‘WELL THIS HAS BEEN A FUCKING ONE’ and walked out, never to be seen again.’
–DeadBallDescendant
18.
‘Was doing a bit of transportation work for a film crew, heard one guy (about 50 y/o) go fucking full blown toddler tantrum over getting a vegetarian meal instead of a chicken meal. His coworker offered to swap but no, tantrum continued.’
–kwakimaki
19.
‘A guy I used to work with was a bit sloppy with his commitments, but a nice guy and very knowledgeable. He just didn’t like being ‘managed’. Management decided they wanted him out and, when he just failed to turn up one day or call in (later phoning and claiming he didn’t wake up until after 5pm) he was called into ‘the office’ the next morning. Emerged 45 minutes later and pushed a load of files off of tabletops and cabinets as he went out the door.’
–vegan_voorhees
20.
‘Similar to poster: brattish workmate who did f-all. Due to loads of team sickness I ended up being responsible for organising a gift for her 30th birthday. Bought an incredibly cool bottle of highly-rated tequila as that was her drink of choice. She opened it and threw a strop because she assumed it was gin. Did not improve my opinion of her.’
–Up2HiDoe
Some absolutely epic toys-out-of-pram scenarios there. And finally here’s one to help us all remember that some people aren’t just being wallies, they’re having a hard time, and we should give everyone the benefit of the doubt (the first time, at least).
21.
‘1999: a colleague went to see the eagerly-anticipated Phantom Menace a day before any of us (who were all looking forward to seeing it). He conveyed to us that it was a tremendous disappointment at work the next day (without spoilers) and a colleague blew his top, saying he’d ruined it for him and he’d been looking forward to it for two years, etc. He finally burst into tears and stormed off. We all had a good laugh after a brief stunned silence.
‘We found out about a year later that he’d just found out he was infertile in the weeks leading up to the PM release and it was the only thing that had kept him going, knowing he had that to look forward to. We felt so bad. I guess I learned that day that when people react badly to something, or had a tantrum, it’s not necessarily that thing that’s set them off. Big life lesson in humility for me.
‘He and his wife ended up adopting, so it all got better for him. Haven’t seen him in 15 years but that day stayed with me.’
–NoBadPizza00
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