I was working as an assistant manager for a large field installation, managed by a local organization but funded by a foreign company. One of my tasks was to prepare and send out to all stakeholders the weekly progress report every Saturday, after aligning it with the site manager.

The first week of work goes by, on Friday afternoon, I align the content of the report with the site manager and ask the central office to share with me the report template. I get silence as a reply. 

Saturday rolls in, still nothing in my mailbox, and it is almost noon. Rather than missing the deadline for sending the report, I decide it’s faster if I just recreate it in MS Word from the PDF example I have been given. I spend some time browsing for some images used in the template (smiling sun for good weather, clouds and rain for the others), put the template all together and fill it in with the aligned content, convert to PDF, and then send it out

With that out of the way, I started driving home: the installation site was three hours driving away, and all of the crew would sleep on site during the work week. 

Not even one hour into driving, I get an agitated call from the central office director:

Director: “What have you done? Why have you sent that odd file?”

Me: “What do you mean by an odd file? I have asked for the template, got none from central, and rather than missing the deadline for sending the report, I have recreated one on my own. Should I have rather missed the deadline?”

Director: “Listen, I understand why you did it, but you must know this: managers are stupid. They don’t read the content; they just look for differences, and if they see any, they start asking questions. Now we are going to get a lot of questions only because the smiling sun in your file is different from the one in the template. Next time, grill the secretary to send you the template, as I will do right now.”

And with that lesson of wisdom, I was left driving for two more hours, pondering how nice it must be to get pretty pennies to play spot the differences.

I used to work for Best Buy from 2006 to 2010. I worked on the customer service desk, and we were always busy, but we were also expected to answer the phone as soon as it rang.

Thankfully, we’d developed a (non-manager-approved) means of giving ourselves some breathing room when we got a particular type of call (that happened multiple times a day).

I’m helping a customer when the phone rings. I apologize to them and answer the phone:

Me: “Thank you for calling Best Buy, your home of all things electronic. How can I help you?”

Caller: “Can you transfer me to the electronics department?”

Me: “Sure!”

I put them on hold for sixty seconds while I finish helping the customer in front of me, and then I re-greet them. They have no idea that they’re still talking to the same person.

Caller: “I want to return my router/modem. I didn’t realize I had to pay for internet service; I thought it just gave it to me.”

[Manager #1] is not particularly friendly, specifically toward me. I don’t know why or how to change it, but he is perfectly fine and happy interacting with the other two women in my department. This makes things particularly awkward for me because our seating arrangements were just changed, and he is now directly beside me with only a plexiglass panel between us. I used to have the corporate calendar taped up, blocking our view of each other, but after the fourth time it disappeared, I gave up. 

[Manager #2] used to love me. He was new and asked me to assist in completing some tasks that he had not done before so that he could do them by himself. I helped him with the first few, then he just started passing things my way and expected me to do it all on my own.

I didn’t know how to do the last batch of tasks. I told him as much, saying I could either reach out to the correct people and work with them, or he could. [Manager #2] did not like this response and came storming to my desk.

Manager #2: *Aggressively knocking on my desk.* “Hi! You free?”

Me: “Sure. What—”

Manager #2: “—Why are you telling me that you can’t do that last list?”

Me: “Oh. I just don’t know how. I know who to go to, though, so—”

Manager #2: “—So why would you say it’s my job? Do you think I have tons of free time?”

Me: “I uh—”

Manager #1: *Stands up with a heavy sigh.* “What tasks?”

Manager #2: *Names a few.* “Which she should be able to do, but—”

Manager #1: “[My Name], I am going to advise you against doing any more extra tasks that come from [Manager #2] unless it is approved in writing by [Our Boss].”

Me: “Okay.”

They stare at each other for a few seconds before [Manager #2] leaves. [Manager #1] sits down again.

Me: “Thank you.”

Manager #1: *Without looking at me.* “Don’t mention it.”

Our professional relationship remained largely the same, though I noticed that he tended to stop doing his own work when [Manager #2] came by my desk. [Manager #2] has not asked me to do a single task for him and frequently complains about how nobody wants to work with him.

I work at a pizza place that’s part of a food court in a mall.

Customer: “Hi, I want one pepperoni pizza, please!”

Me: “Okay, that will be $16.”

The customer pays, and doesn’t say anything. I give them their change, give them a pager, and tell them:

Me: “Okay, it will be a few minutes.”

Customer: “Okay.”

They stand in front of me, just staring at me.

Me: “If you would like, you can take a seat over there, and I’ll page you when your pizza is ready.”

Customer: “I’m just waiting for a slice.”

Me: “Oh! You want a slice!? I thought you wanted a whole pizza!”

Customer: “Yeah, just a slice.”

Me: “You said you wanted one pizza. Why would you think a slice of pizza costs $16!?”

Customer: “Eh… I’m from New York.”

I used to work at a big blue chain store where we had mini-meetings called “Huddle Time.” The manager would gather everyone a few times a day, basically to hype us up about sales and make us share our “customer service goals.”

It always felt awkward. Customers either had to walk right through our group or try to squeeze around us, and heaven forbid if they actually needed assistance. Management would tell customers, to their faces, that they could wait a few minutes to be helped. I have no idea how they got away with that…

There are two major incidents, though, that I can’t forget.

First, I was helping two customers when my walkie-talkie blasted to life. No earbuds back then, so everyone heard it.

Duty Manager #1: “[My Name]! Huddle time, over by [Department]! Drop everything and head there!”

Me: “[Duty Manager], I’m helping customers right now.”

Duty Manager #1: “I did not stutter, [My Name]!”

I shot my customers an apologetic look. [Customer #1] stared daggers at my walkie.

Me: “I’m sooo sorry!”

Customer #2: “Don’t worry, dear. We can do what you can’t.”

[Duty Manager #1] got chewed out by Corporate after that, which is ironic since they’re the ones who made the Huddle Time rule. 

The second time, Huddle Time hit just as my shift ended. [Duty Manager #1] snagged me as I was about to sign out and insisted I join. It dragged on, so I ended up working overtime. 

A couple of days later:

Duty Manager #2: “You ran fifteen minutes past your shift. You know you’re supposed to clock out on time, right?”

Me: “Sorry, [Duty Manager #1] made me join Huddle Time.”

Duty Manager #2: “Then you should have clocked out and THEN gone to the huddle.”

Me: “Hahaha! No, Huddle Time is work-related. If I’ve clocked out, I’m leaving. That’s what labor laws mean.”

[Duty Manager #2] just glared at me but dropped it. I quit about four months later.