5 Workplace Horror Stories That Will Spook You

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5 years ago

Halloween is just the corner. You are probably finalizing costumes for yourself (and kiddos, if relevant). You are getting excited about the mix of fun and fright that only Halloween can bring. I thought we could play a bit with the Halloween theme and share “horror” stories from the workplace. These horror stories are a bit cringeworthy and uncomfortable (but, at the same time, a little funny and entertaining).

Below I list a few that I’ve come across in my career. Some of them involve me directly (others are just stories I’ve heard from my friends about their experience). If you want to play a game, read each of the stories and try to guess which ones involve me. The answer is at the bottom (no peeking).

Workplace Horror Stories That Will Spook You

1. Cited for speeding in company parking lot

A few years ago, an employee drove through her company’s parking lot. Security had heard about people speeding in the lot and set up a station to catch the offenders. The speed limit was 5 miles per hour.

One day she received an email from her boss saying that security cited her for speeding in the parking lot (by going 8 miles per hour). She was annoyed, but not embarrassed until she realized this citation was recorded in her company’s formal HR system. It required an action plan that had to be approved by her boss’ boss (who reported to the CEO of the company).

The employee had to write a statement saying she understood the speed limit, and that she drove at a speed above the limit in the parking lot by 3 miles/hour. She had to attest that she would abide by speed limits in company parking lots going forward.

In the end, this statement had to be read and approved by her manager, and her manager’s manager. It is still stored in the company’s HR system.

2. Didn’t mean to Reply to All

In this story, an employee received an annoying email from her manager. He sent a note to a few people on the team asking them to do some menial tasks that the team felt was pretty annoying. Pretty common, right?

This employee decides to forward this email to her colleagues and make a comment about her manager. The comment was something like, “Great, here he goes again!”

What the employee didn’t realize is that — instead of forwarding to her colleagues — she replied to all. So, her manager received this email in which she made a not-so-stellar comment about him.

Needless to say she was in a tough position. She had to apologize to him, and had to live with the never-ending torment from her peers.

There’s a great lesson to be learned here about avoiding “reply to all!”

3. Are those flies?

A kind and generous employee found herself with excess fruit that she had picked from her garden. She couldn’t imagine using all of the fruit, so she brought some in to her workplace to offer to her colleagues. Certainly everyone would appreciate freshly picked apples, strawberries, oranges, etc. What could go wrong?

It’s still unclear what exactly happened, but the presence of this fruit created a bug infestation in the office. In particular, flies starting swarming the fruit and spread throughout the entire floor. Pest control had to get involved to get rid of the flies and return the office to its former condition.

4. Walked into men’s restroom

When a new employee arrived to work her first day, she eagerly needed to find the restroom. But, she didn’t know her way around! She kept walking around and around, trying door after door but only found stairwells, closets, and exits. She was becoming quite uncomfortable after drinking a lot of coffee that morning!

Finally, she found the restroom, opened the door and walked in. Her sense of relief changed to horror when she saw a bunch of men at urinals. One of them turned and said, “ma’am, this is the men’s restroom.”

Needless to say, she was mortified. Luckily, she didn’t know any of the men since she had just started. Maybe they remember her, but no one ever said anything.

5. It’s just the roofers!

An employee sat in a meeting of about 20 of her colleagues in her Silicon Valley offices. She was listening to the discussion when all of a sudden, she heard a loud rumbling. The room seemed to shake. She thought, “wow, this must be a big earthquake!!”

Well, if you live in California, then you know what you are supposed to do to protect yourself in an earthquake. If you don’t live in California, then let me tell you that essentially what you are supposed to do is get underneath a big table and cover your head.

So…you can probably guess what happened? Here is this lady sitting in a meeting. There appears to be an earthquake. So she jumps underneath the table and covers her head.

After a not-so-short period of time, someone tells her that “it’s just the roofers” making the noise. Their trekking on the roof and hauling equipment made the walls and roof shake a bit.

A key lesson about workplace horror stories

While these stories are certainly entertaining, there is a key lesson we can learn. Since I know each person involved in the stories above (or I am, in fact, the person), I can attest to the fact that each of them kept their job and continued to thrive in their career after these horror stories. We spend so much time worried about embarrassing ourselves. In the end, when inevitably do, we learn it’s really no big deal in the end. Yes, there is probably lost sleep, and some social anxiety after. But, with time, it all goes away!

The bottom line

OK, want to know which stories above involve Mrs. Type A? You aren’t peeking are you?

No, really, are you peeking?

No?

OK. I was the star of #4. Did you guess right?

I’d love to hear more horror stories from your workplace in the comments below! If you’d like to read more, check out this Buzzfeed articleBuzzfeed article.

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