The Best Coworker Memes of the Week (July 21, 2023)

On the one hand, you can't live with your coworkers. On the other hand, you genuinely can't live (or rather, work) without them. What can you do, it's a double-edged sword. You've got your office Karen who actually does her job, then you've got the office Karen who does, in fact, do her job (although grudgingly), and then you've got all the Karens in between. Whether you're working in customer service, in construction, or in a corporate office, you're going to have to deal with people you don't like.

Working remotely isn't always an option, but if it were, would you take the opportunity? At least then, you wouldn't have to engage in the tiresome small talk you feel is being forced down your throat every time you enter a shared space to make yourself a coffee. I don't know about you, but I genuinely couldn't care less about seeing pictures of my colleague's kids. But hey, we do what we gotta do. Scroll down and check out the best coworker memes of the week.

For more, here is a carpenter who refused to take a promotion, then quit, taking $45,000 worth of tools with him.

'The Paper Towel Wars': Annoying coworker battling over shared work area gets a hilariously pettyful surprise

If you have ever had to share a workspace, then you know how annoying and passive aggressive it can be. You might like to leave your sweater on the back of the chair because it gets cold in there, but the other person keeps removing it for some reason. Or maybe your office space buddy leaves empty water bottles everywhere and you end up being the one who cleans them up every time. It's super annoying. So what do you do? Report them to HR? Request a new workspace partner? If you go by Reddit rules, the obvious solution is to get petty. 

That is exactly what this one employee did and it sparked a paper towel war. This person works in a company's quality lab and there are three shifts that go through her shared workspace. The machine they work with uses water in its processing, so there are often spills. So it makes sense that there are paper towels constantly around to clean up any potential messes. However, one coworker seems to be anti-paper towel or maybe anti-clean up, and constantly moves the paper towels away from their work area. After months of battle of brining boxes of paper towels back and forth, OP had it. They then decided it was pettyful time. Them and their team decide to take all of the boxes of paper towels out and put them all over their workspace. So now, instead of just one box by the machine with the water, there were 14 boxes of paper towels spread all over their work area. Now, if the annoying coworker wanted to move the box of paper towels, they would have to move all 14. Is this a win? We think so. Read the entire thing below along with others' reactions and decide for yourself.

'Are those snakes ok back there?' 25+ Wild things passengers overheard aboard their flights

When you're stuck on your flight waiting to take off, it's the perfect time to eavesdrop on the other passengers. You can't listen to your music yet, nor can you usually watch an in-flight movie until you're up in the air. All you can do is twiddle your thumbs, chat with the people around you, or eavesdrop on the folks in your surrounding areas. 

You'll over hear a lot of interesting things, as the people who answered the question "What's the craziest thing you've overheard on a plane?" surely know all too well. From passengers who insist on sharing their whole life stories, to toddlers who don't understand why planes can't pull over for a potty break, these people had some great anecdotes to share. 

Few things are more frustrating when flying than having to wait on the runway for hours. At least in my experience, the plane gets hot and stuffy because the staff don't want to run the AC during this time. People get fidgety and anxious because they don't know why the flight isn't moving. Is it electrical troubles, is there a big issue with the plane? All the wondering can make passengers worry way too much. It's such a relief when the plane finally starts moving, and people can collectively relax and enjoy the flight. Because the best parts of the flight happen once you're in the air: you can get some snacks and a beverage, pop on your favorite movie, and enjoy the flick as you fly to your destination. 

Up next, this boss decided to flood their employee with text messages during a vacation, and the employee provided an update on what they did next. 

'They complained about everything': Party of 13 Karens makes a scene at bottomless brunch

Serving one Karen at a restaurant is difficult enough. Imagine having to serve 13 of them! This thread was posted to Reddit's r/TalesFromYourServer subreddit by u/MoonbounceGuy, a floor manager at a brunch spot who learned the hard way that you cannot please difficult customers like these ones. Not only did this group show up two hours late demanding for the table they had reserved, but they also show up with five more people than expected. Starting on that note alone is enough to make any person in the service industry cringe.

 

Unfortunately, it only gets worse. These Karens must have known how ridiculous they were being. They ate 90% of their plates yet still sent their entrees back to the kitchen. They complained about the service. They complained about auto-gratuity. The list goes on and on. If people like this are not humbled even a little, they are just going to go onto the next establishment and pull the same shenanigans. That's where the manager is slightly at fault here.

 

Hopefully, this post sheds light on the madness that is working a brunch shift. Sure, bottomless mimosas may seem fun from the customer's perspective, but from the point of view of anyone working at the restaurant, there is nothing about brunch that is fun. 

 

Keep scrolling below for the full story and the entire list of all the crazy demands this table of Karens made. For more stories like this, here's one about a wedding planner and her conflict with a Karen.

‘You can't have kids, or you won't get promoted': Boss warns employee they won't be given promotion if they have kids, employee seeks legal advice

Some managers just don't have the brains or the cells that are supposed to accompany them in order to lead a team. In this case, OP was working in finance, and like many other employees in similar shoes, she was hoping that one day she could get a promotion. Her dream was basically crushed by her boss who told her that if she was gonna have kids in the next few years, there was no way she was getting promoted. First of all, that's very illegal. Second of all, what did her boss expect her to do, just not have kids? OP was shocked at her boss's behavior and had a hunch that something wasn't quite right. So she did what anyone else would do… she turned to r/careeradvice.

She explained the entire bizarre situation, and luckily a lot of people who had gone through similar things had a lot of good advice to give. Not to mention lawyers who gave their own legal advice. Scroll down to read exactly how it all played out. For more, here is a story about HR quashing an employee's raise, leading to the entire company tanking.

'She was uncomfortable, she could barely perform the check': Employer mandates "bag checks," employee makes it interesting

Working for an employer who is certain their workers are stealing from them is a lot like when your parents were convinced you were secretly going to parties as a teen when you were doing nothing of the sort… Or like having a partner who is certain you must be cheating on them despite you giving them no reason to doubt you.

As with anything, when someone repeatedly accuses you of doing something that you're not, it's more of a reflection on them and reveals the things they would do in your place… They're subconsciously letting you know what their own internal moral compass deems to be possible behavior. Your employer is certain you must be stealing from them because they wouldn't think twice about taking advantage of any opportunity like that which might present itself; your parents thought you were partying because they did when they were your age, so you must be too; your partner thinks you're cheating on them because they would cheat on you if given the right chance—if they haven't already.

Still, working in an environment like this really stinks and is incredibly demotivating. It really just makes you wonder why you're working to impress someone who secretly despises their workers. Sure, it must happen, but in all my time in retail and managing stock, I've yet to see it happen—or even evidence that it has happened. 

This employee made her employer regret the decision to enforce this draconian policy, loading her bag with items that were sure to humiliate the bag checker. 

Read on. Next, check out this HR that tried to change the dress code to catch workers out, leading them to maliciously comply with the changes.

'Sorry ma'am, this coupon is expired': Cashier 'helps' customer who demands to use outdated coupons

Some people just wake up entitled, convinced they're better than everyone else. And these people love to bug retail workers until they lose their minds, as u/amaranthinenightmare shared in their story to r/MaliciousCompliance. 

The woman in this story is every retail worker's nightmare. She's the kind of person who shows up at 7:45am to bang on the windows of the store until it opens at 8am. She's the type who will unfold all the clothes the employees just folded, only to then demand you find her a different style in the back of the store. Other types of these entitled customers love to try on tons of clothes in the dressing rooms, then leave them in a giant pile on the floor for employees to hang up. They think the world revolves around them and their needs. 

At the clothing store the OP worked at, the customers were wildly entitled, and this OP was nearly at their breaking point. There's only so much rude behavior one can take before they hit their breaking point, and the OP was no exception. At least they got some hilarious revenge on this Karen. 

Although there was nothing technically wrong with what the OP did, they definitely left this woman both embarrassed, and without a story to tell to her friends. There's no way the customer will go around telling the story to her friends, family, or even when she writes a one-star review of the store (which seems likely). Hopefully, this customer has learned her lesson about demanding things that she can't have. 

Next up, these people had one job… and they still messed it up so bad. 

'I didn't like the look on your face!': Manager gets employee unjustly fired, employee gets him blacklisted from other jobs

Be careful who you fire! There is that old saying you occasionally hear when you're younger that the person sitting next to you today could be your boss tomorrow or could at least be your ticket to a job. Well, the reverse scenario is very much the truth as well, so the best takeaway, in that case, is to always be kind to the people you work with on a regular basis. You never know when the tables might turn.

 

That's exactly what happened to this Inept Manager, as the Redditor called him, who was merely jealous of the fact that OP had an office with a door that he didn't have. Now, there was a reason for OP having this office. Firstly, she had worked there much longer than others at the company. Secondly, it made the most sense for her disability. Yet despite this fact, Inept Manager couldn't get over the optics that a person under him had a better office. Eventually, he sabotaged his way into getting her fired, but she was able to get a nice pay-out because she had warned HR about his behavior well in advance.

 

You would think the story stops there, but just you wait. After not much time, Inept Manager was looking for a position at OP's new company. Lo and behold, the roles were reversed, and OP did not shy away from interrupting the hiring process. Keep scrolling below to see how she did it. For more, check out this post about a shady HR person and a signing contract.