Worked in supermarket. New manager came in and decided to change everything, everybody hated it. So as a good 23 year old I decided to start harassing him by ordering free magazines, free stuff, furniture, kitchens etc etc online and get it delivered to his house.
One of our engineering teams who normally builds our products in-house was made to bid against contractors who promised the moon.
Them and multiple other teams then had to spend a total of 18 months getting the contractor’s shoddy work up to scratch. When they were done, the senior engineers from three teams left.
Poo Gate
Oh my, if you insist.
It was a grey and damp October when The Incident occurred. At first, some people thought it was an accident - but then it happened again. The first was a mystery, the second an enigma. Both were massive shits that no human could possibly have left - or so we thought.
These colossal beasts were sometimes in the toilet, but sometimes hanging over the edge - trying to escape like a big slug or angry brown whale.
It kept happening, mystery upon mystery. And yet no one observed the source. How could this be?
Soon, these things were not just on or in the toilet, but on the cubical walls and in the sink. They were advancing and threatening to break out of the bathrooms and into the corridors - or who knows where. Would you turn in your chair and see one right next to you when you least expect it?
October turned into November, and then December and with various notices pinned up and emails and whispers and gossip, the poos seemed finally to have gone back from whence they came (or at least, stopped happening).
Then, in December just before Christmas, an awful present was left. It could not have been Santa, although it was definitely from someone who had eaten the world’s supply of mince pies relatively recently. The massive shite was so big it blocked the plumbing and the office had no working toilets at all. There was an exodus of people, leaving early for the day - with that giant turd, Christmas had come early.
Every December I look back on those events and the unexpected gift, and wonder if the magic of Christmas will ever happen again.
I have a couple of these.
First one, I worked for a small engineering consulting firm. Maybe 8 people tops, including the President, who owns the company and our building.
We were renovating the second floor, and I overheard him tell his contractor that he shouldn’t put women’s restroom signs up, because only engineers will work on the second floor and therefore no women. I had an offer within 6 weeks, but disappointingly this did not slow the success of the company.
More recently, I left a position as the facility manager for a biotech manufacturer. My workload was immense, despite a <1yo child, and I was on call for emergencies 24/7.
Around September, I heard rumor that we were planning a plant shutdown over the Christmas to New Year holidays - this would give all manufacturing personnel a guaranteed 2 week paid vacation, while the facilities team of 20 people would be on vacation blackout and have the busiest two weeks of the year.
I brought up the rumor to my boss and begged him to advocate against it. He said he’d try, and within 24 hours told me that he decided to advocate in favor of the shutdown during that period because he doesn’t celebrate the holidays anyway and it’s a great time to get stuff done.
So I got to tell my team, who had family around the world and always agreed amongst themselves who got to travel and who stayed local, that nobody gets to travel for the holidays and we all get to work.
I got a new job very quickly, but unfortunately had to see the shutdown through and worked through Christmas. However, I took one tech with me and heard that the team dropped to under 8 people before we lost touch with current emoyees. They took my departure as writing on the wall and opted to get out before there was a repeat.
Many years ago - many jobs ago, we got a new CEO, and she wanted to make a big splash, so she started firing people. And this is a public, non-profit job, so most people were working in less than stellar conditions simply because they were passionate about public service.
I was two days away from putting in my 2 weeks’ notice because I had landed another job, but they fired me and gave me two months’ severage. So instead of having to work another 2 weeks, I didn’t have to go another day. I said “Sorry it didn’t work out.” and held my smile till I got out the door.
