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. 

'You're a terrible manager!': Karen accosts random dude after incorrectly assuming he is the restaurant's manager, gets served

It turns out we might not be very good at doing a job that isn't actually ours, and that shouldn't come as much of a surprise, except to people like this Karen who refuse to listen to you when you tell them that you don't actually work there. Sure, we've all probably mistaken a complete stranger for an employee of the establishment we're patronizing, but continuing to insist that they must work there and are doing their job poorly after being corrected is downright insane.

This college student found himself in a Karen's crosshairs when she mistook him for the restaurant's manager. When she insisted, he decided to play her game and have a little fun with it. The college student went on to share his experience with Reddit's r/idontworkherelady subreddit community. This subreddit is a haven for stories where innocent bystanders and other customers have been mistaken by someone who assumes that they are an employee. This often paves the way for some great stories about Karens and Kevins and gives people in the service industry a great source of entertainment. 

Read on for the student's account of events. When you're done here, see this dude who was fired from a store where he didn't even work.

'To use the disabled lift, please come upstairs': 30 People who had just one job and still goofed it up

Jobs, how do they work? These people made various levels of mistakes that they really should have caught before it went out to the public. 

Below are 30 people who had just one job to get right, and they couldn't even do that. The funniest versions of this to me are translators or transcribers who messed up. There are people who were writing copy, needed translation to another language, and somehow that never happened. Then you end up with TV captions of a person who says a Korean word, and the subtitles just read, "speaks Korean" instead of actually saying what the guy was saying. 

That's a tiny goof — but there was one furniture store that wrote a sentence in English, then below that reads, "the same text but in Arabic," in Arabic. That's a big facepalm right there. Hopefully anyone who could read it got a good laugh out of their editing lapse. 

Next up, this boss insisted his employee keep cooking until closing time — and he reminded the employee over and over, until the employee agreed to do just that. 

'I have no wish to be in her good books anymore': Employee turns down former boss's repeated requests for help

This boss can't let her old employee go. It's time for both of them to move on. 

U/YlvaNietzsche asked the r/AmItheA**hole community a question they had regarding their boss. For some reason, even though this employee departed the company, their boss is so insistent that they keep on helping. 

Each industry is different in regards to prior jobs. In some industries, it's incredibly important to keep a strong network of colleagues and bosses who can vouch for you as you advance in your career. For others, though, you might need your former boss to recommend you, but you might not talk to them besides that. It definitely doesn't hurt to have a former manager on your side to tell future employers about your workplace skills and the things you excel at. Regardless, this person doesn't want to help their boss, and to use their words, "I have no wish to be in her good books anymore."

In the comments, people assured the OP that they weren't in the wrong. Check out the entire story for yourself below. After that, these hair stylists, barbers, and customers shared the worst haircuts they've ever experienced, from fried hair to bowl cuts and more. 

'You've been given [...] 10 chances to keep your job when you should've been fired': Manager sends unhinged text after employee refuses to cover his shift

This general manager may have been on his way out, but he's going to regret sending that text. Sometimes, people feel that they can say whatever they want just because they're in a position of power. We know all too well at this point that this line of thinking is not only flawed but also asking for trouble. If you're the kind of boss who puts that toxic energy out into the universe, then you're also the kind of person who makes enemies very easily.

 

That's what happened when this general manager sent an unhinged text message after he tried (and failed) to get an employee to cover two hours of a shift. The employee simply said they needed time to think about it and check their schedule, but that comment was enough to make the general manager lose it. He sent a long essay of a message threatening their future employment status and accusing the employee of always thinking about themselves and never picking up any slack. Mind you, this was not the truth; it was merely uninhibited outrage that the manager didn't get exactly what he wanted.

 

Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions in the comments section. For more posts like this, here's one about a shady person from HR who changed the specifics in an employee's signing contract.

‘Don’t mess with my laundry': Resident bleaches neighbor's clothes after they mess with her laundry, neighbor moves out

Doing laundry in your own building is super convenient unless you have a pesky neighbor trying to save a few bucks. In this case, OP was living in an apartment building with too few laundry rooms. There was only one single washer/dryer set per floor with about 12 units in a 3-story building. OP went about doing their laundry, until one day they found their soapy load on the floor of the laundry room with the final minutes of their cycle counting down. To say that they were livid would be an understatement. But because OP was afraid of conflict, they didn't say anything… at first. Well, they didn't exactly say anything after it kept happening, either, but they certainly took action. 

Once OP found out who exactly kept leaving their sopping-wet clothes on the floor, they hatched a petty plan for revenge. Scroll down to read all about the petty details. For more, here is an employee who drove 9 hours out of state for a new job, only to be told to work immediately, which prompted them to drive 9 hours straight home without giving notice.

'I armed a multi-million dollar financial nuke': Worker quits and goes full scorched earth on the way out

It's always a good policy in life to take the high road, but when that's not an option, the low road will do just fine—just make sure to set fire to every metaphorical bridge you might cross along the way. 

This full scorched earth policy isn't the way you should normally go about doing business; for one thing, it's (usually) unethical, and it's not going to make you many friends or get you very far. For that reason, you should always aim to leave things on good terms when you leave a job—you never know where the road might lead in the future. Even if you don't need the reference—and will never return to that company—you never know when your reputation for being difficult to work with might precede you.

Still, sometimes you're left with no option, like in the case of this worker who learned they were making half the market rate for their job, which prompted them to go full "Oppenheimer" on the company on their way out the door by arming "a multi-million dollar financial nuke." They shared their experience on Reddit's r/antiwork subreddit, telling in a very lengthy post how they managed to enact one last act of revenge on their employer.

Once you have finished here, check out this client who refused to pay a developer that proceeded to dismantle their entire life.

'That is so selfish of you!': Karen neighbor gets mad at farmer for harvesting their crop that she wanted to steal

In kindergarten, you learn that you can't have something just because you want it. Like when you wanted Stewart's red ball, but he refused to share, after taking it anyways and subsequently refusing to apologize, you probably found yourself in timeout in a tiny chair in the corner as negative reinforcement of the fact that you shouldn't take things that aren't yours… Wherever you are now, we hope you're doing well, and we hope that Stewart is no longer having to fend off bullies who want to take his toys.

Maybe some people just missed kindergarten or something because, for some reason, they still don't seem to get it. The sheer audacity of these people will never cease to amaze you. Just when you think you've seen and heard it all, another person comes along and demands something that they blatantly have no right to... This Karen actually demanded the literal fruits of her neighbor's labor. No, this is not an idiom—although the irony is palpable… The only idiom here is the Karen herself.

Read on to see the farmer's narrative of events; she shared her story with a popular online community seeking to share her bewilderment at her neighbor's behavior. Next, see this neighbor whose property line dispute ended up revealing that his house was over it.

20 Red Flags in Job Interviews That Made People Walk Away

Everyone has a mental list of red flags to bear in mind when walking into a job interview. You might even keep a physical list with you at all times. That list might include a list of preferred benefits (healthcare, PTO days, etc.), a base salary requirement (they better be upfront about this one!), or even buzzwords that provide a window into a toxic work environment (anyone who utters "we're really like a family here" is a potential employer to walk away from immediately). This collection of job interview red flags made folks walk away on the spot, and if they didn't, they certainly regretted not doing it then and there.

 

The stories certainly bring me back to being fresh out of college and completely naive about how to advocate for myself in the workplace. Little did I know at the time, but I was conditioned to think that I could only be so lucky if anyone wanted to hire me at all. I didn't take pride in my skill set, and I certainly didn't feel like the reverse dynamic (i.e. that a company could be so lucky to have me on their payroll) was a possibility. Like many adults who become disillusioned with the workforce very quickly, I came to understand that gratitude for being there can blind you from seeing what a potential employer is putting on the table.

 

Keep scrolling below for these red flags. When you're finished, here's a story about a front desk agent who walked out mid-shift.

'Lou was let go': Coworker gets fired, comes back to beg for free food and steal tips, gets banned

Going back to an old job is always awkward, especially when you were fired from that job… especially when you're coming back as a customer to beg for free things—and especially when you go back to beg for free things and steal from your ex-coworkers' tip jar. Like, this guy actually managed to get himself demoted from line cook to customer and then somehow managed to get himself demoted even further from the position of being a customer too.

In the end, it's incredibly fitting… since you can't spell "lousy coworker" without "Lou." So it really shouldn't be all that surprising to us that this guy was a proverbial, metaphorical, and literal waste of space.

Lou's former coworker shared an account of their infuriating and bewildering experience dealing with him on Reddit's fittingly named r/EntitledPeople, where members share their stories of the entitled people they encounter in their daily lives in order to vent, decompress, and share in amazement at people's sheer audacity. Read on for their account of events; when you're done here, check out this worker who refused to indulge their mooching coworker.

'Her hair breaks off in my hand': 15+ Stylists and customers whose haircuts went wrong

Everyone makes mistakes, barbers and hair stylists included. There are lots of jobs where mistakes are fine or even encouraged. Barbering is not one of those jobs. Hair stylists have the important role of helping you find the look that will suit you best and leave you happy and confident in your looks. 

It's easy to tell the difference when your hair has been butchered. People give you weird looks, compared to getting lots of compliments when you've had a good haircut. Sure, hair grows back if you aren't a fan of your new 'do, but it can take months or even years. 

Raise your hand if you've ever gone to get bangs and then immediately regretted it. My hand is raised. As a young adult, I remembered how cute I had looked with full bangs as a child, and thought, yeah that will probably still look good on me. Let me tell you, it did not. It was my fault, not the stylists. But I, just like many other clients, just didn't know what I was getting myself into. 

After that, check out this story of a wing shop worker whose coworkers can't believe how many orders he's messed up. 

'"Have fun!" I said, as I clocked out': Hotel housekeeper 'sorts' linens exactly how boss directs them to

Don't tell this housekeeper how to do their job. Their boss tried, and it didn't end well. 

When you do something for long enough, you start to develop shortcuts to make your life easier. Maybe you have a template you use to save time while writing emails if you're at an office job. Or for those in retail, maybe you're super fast at making drinks because you're used to measuring things by sight. You get into a rhythm and try to do your job as quickly and accurately as possible. 

Enter this employee, who is a housekeeper at a hotel. That's known for being a physically demanding job — how would you feel if you had to strip dozens of beds, vacuum, clean surfaces, remake the beds, change linens like towels and washcloths, and more tasks, all in a few minutes. And after all that, not every hotel room will even leave a tip for their housekeeping staff. 

This person is used to the daily grind of laundering linens, but their boss doesn't seem to have much faith in their sorting abilities. At least this housekeeper was able to maliciously comply. Their pettiness meant that their boss was stuck doing more sorting. 

Next up, this wing shop chef doesn't understand what he's doing wrong — all while breaking one health code after another. 

'It was a disaster': Retail workers quit and take down an entire store

It's often said that no one will appreciate the job you do until you're gone, and we've yet to see evidence otherwise. It's like being in the driver's seat of a race car; as long as you're driving that car, people will attribute the car's best performance to be owing to the car itself. It's not until you leave the team and another inferior driver takes your seat that people will realize how truly terrible the car is… and that your efforts were making the car appear better than it actually was. 

For those reading who aren't fans of motorsport, I'll summarize with this: Your workplace is like a big tank of water that's leaking water out of a massive hole, and you're like a big ol' piece of Flex Tape holding the whole dang place together.

Still, in any case, you'll be long gone before anyone is able to recognize the effect you had, just exactly what happened when these underappreciated retail workers made the decision to split. One of the workers shared their experience with Reddit's r/antiwork workplace discussion community, where community members share their thoughts, stories, and experiences with workplace issues and other employment concerns. In their recounting of events, they shared how their departure marked the end of the organized, well-oiled machine they had been operating and how the decline in the operations of their warehousing management marked the effective end of the store's thriving business.

See their original post and the reactions below. Next, see this worker who discovered the new hire was making more money than them and quit on the spot.

‘Take the promotion or you’re fired': Carpenter gets even with boss who gives him an ultimatum, taking $45,000 worth of tools

Management often cut the branch they're sitting on, find themselves on the floor, and then have the audacity to complain about it. In this case, OP was working for a whopping 20 years as a lead carpenter for a construction company. They hired a new president and brought in a coaching company along with him. The coaching company in question was attempting to get profits up from 50 to 750 million a year. Thus began their detective work, starting with who earned how much at the company. OP was making 65k a year (before the bonus) at the time.

OP got called into the office for a meeting with HR, the president, and 'the coach'. The president told OP that their pay rate fit a different role, a superintendent. Then he told OP that he either changed his role to be a superintendent, or he was fired. OP glared at the president but asked him to give him the weekend to think over it, to which the president hesitantly agreed.

That weekend, OP hatched a clever plan for petty revenge… scroll down to read about it. For more, here is a company that crumbled after refusing to give an employee an 8% raise.

'He messed up pretty much every order he got': Wing shop worker baffles coworkers with inability to learn simple tasks

Everyone has that one coworker who can't do anything right. Messing things up because they're new is one thing. But then there are people like this guy Andy, whose coworkers are sick and tired of him messing up food orders over and over again. 

This dude doesn't seem to grasp even the most basic of restaurant rules, such as "don't eat raw chicken, even if it's only a little bit raw," and "always wash your hands before preparing food." These are things one should know even if they're not working in a professional kitchen. 

The turnover at some restaurants is so high that their standards are really low. You wind up with incompetent people working there all the time — until they eventually get fired, that is. 

Read this person's hilarious story of their most clueless coworker. Then, check out some regular folks who tried their hand at baking, and made some creative mistakes. 

Update: 'I did all this work just for it to end up like this?': Guy files for divorce after ex-wife confesses she stalked him for years before they met

Imagine learning that the story of how you met your partner was far from the truth. This dude had been telling his friends and family that he met his then wife seven years ago and knew her as the best friend of his little brother. Little did he know, however, that his wife knew exactly who her husband was when they first met. In fact, she knew who he was over two whole years prior to that "fateful" moment. Perhaps fateful is the wrong word, as it was a highly orchestrated and calculated meet cute. 

 

It turns out she had been stalking this guy during that entire time and had befriended her future husband's little brother with the sole intention of getting more information on him and eventually getting close to him. In this series of updates, which were shared to Reddit's r/BestofRedditorUpdates subreddit, you can track her logic as the truth weighs on her. After her initial post, she got enough feedback telling her to come clean that she decided to finally do so. Her first update unpacked her husband's shocked reaction and his subsequent decision to get some space from her. He decided to stay at a hotel and explained that at the moment, he had no intention to divorce. However, by the time she came back to Reddit with her second update, his entire tune changed.

 

Keep scrolling below for the full play-by-play, her unhinged final update, and the best reactions from folks in the comments section. When you're finished, check out this post about another divorcée who wanted her money back from her wedding photographer after her marriage fell apart.

'I know exactly what must be done': Karen takes dude's spot at gas station, dude blocks her from leaving

There's nothing like a ruthless Karen at a gas station getting exactly what she deserves! These days, there are only a few instances in which human decency can go a long way in general interactions. Most of the time, these instances involve behavior in long lines. When everyone is waiting for quite some time, people can get impatient, and when patience is tested, that's when the Karens reveal themselves in their truest form.

 

Here, we have a Karen who asked this Redditor if she could use the air pump first because she only had one tire to fill up. However, OP had been waiting for a long time and kindly requested if she would wait in the back of the line. She muttered something under her breath as she rolled her window back up. One would think the encounter ended right then and there, but Karen was not having it. As soon as the driver of the car in front of them was on his way, Karen swooped right in and cut off OP. Not only was this incredibly rude, but it was also incredibly unsafe. However, OP found a way to get back at her. He wound up using the adjacent air pump and filled up his car in such a way that blocked the lady from leaving any time soon. We hope that this ruined the rest of Karen's day.

 

For more stories like this, check out these top trending Karens.

'Don't use price labels': Manager's extreme cost cutting measures cost them big time

Extreme couponing is an interesting hobby that serves as a great past-time for house spouses who need a break from the tiring work of pitching the latest MLM fad to old acquaintances. It also makes for some pretty mediocre television that makes for a passable watch when you're drifting in a fever dream and too sick to change the channel. It does not, however, make for a good means of operating a business. And, yet, many managers and business owners out there employ it as a strategy, paying no heed to any advice and forewarning. 

This grocery worker shared their story of malicious compliance to the popular subreddit community of the same name. In their story, they tell how the small local supermarket where they worked was purchased by a national chain that incentivized managers to reduce operating costs in exchange for a kickback bonus. The predictable then occurs here—as we've learned through the course of many of these stories online, if you focus too much business incentive on a single metric, you end up with workers blindly chasing to increase that singular thing, to the detriment of all other areas of the business, which fall to the wayside. 

So, new bonus locked in the manager's sights… cost-cutting initiatives began, leading to huge costs to the business in the long run.

Read on. Next, see this Karen customer who demanded to be helped by a man; the female manager maliciously complied. 

'I put in my formal notice and that’s when the fun started': Employee bests boss who made them drive 200 miles a day for work and refused to sign off important paperwork

The only thing worse than a long commute is a long commute to a job you really dislike. 

Even if you bring a book, music, or a movie, commuting is still annoying to do every day. I used to commute 90 minutes each way twice a day, and it was soul-deadening. Even with entertainment, it's hard to sacrifice so much of your day every day without being paid. If you made me president, I would make every single company reimburse its' workers for their commuting time. If you have to take time out of your own day just to get to the job, you're basically almost working anyway, so these companies better pay up!

This person worked at a pharmacy, and they really wanted to be in a floater position, meaning they could float between stores. Instead, their boss wanted them to stay at one location. This place was dangerous and far away from where u/ClubWag lived. They had to drive several hundred miles per day, only to get to a job they despised. If they couldn't be a floater, they asked their boss if they could at least be paid like a staffer, and this toxic boss still said no. At least the OP got their ultimate revenge through some excellent malicious compliance. In the comments, people loved the story, and some even shared their own malicious compliance tales. 

Check out the whole story and comments below. Then, check out these maximum-sized chonky animals who are living large. 

Top 21 Mildly Infuriating Flops of the Week

Our patience is running thin, per usual, thanks to a variety of different vexing mishaps. Welcome to this week's edition of the top mildly infuriating flops of the week. The incidents we're about to showcase may not be catastrophic, but they certainly rankle and irritate. Life has its ways of throwing curveballs at us, and we're constantly dodging them. Whether it's an intrusive neighbor prying into our affairs, or someone like Karen putting her dirty, stinky feet on our armrest on a plane, there is always something that manages to disrupt our peace.

It's possible that our frustration stems from a sense of entitlement or sheer boredom, or maybe it's the lofty expectations we place on the universe. In fact, it might be precisely due to their triviality that these occurrences become so aggravating. Regardless of the underlying cause for our boiling brains, the reality remains unchanged. Scroll down and discover the collective sentiments surrounding these irksome incidents.

For more, here is a barista who quit after one Karen took it a little too far.

'A very obviously used candle': Top 20 Birthday Gift Flops

For some folks, gift-giving is very much not their love language. In fact, some people are so bad at coming up with thoughtful ideas for presents that they should just be barred from doing so at all. It's almost better for the relationship if those folks accept this reality, relieve themselves of the stress of coming up with a good idea that will inevitably be bad, and relieve the receiver of the gift who will have to lie about how great said idea was. In short, bad gift-givers should stop trying. It's almost like genetics: you either have the ability to give good gifts or you don't. 

 

Like many of the folks who shared their horrible birthday gift stories via this r/AskReddit thread, I have personal experience with this top as well. When I turned 12, my mother got me a dictionary. We mocked her for this even then. The next year, she really outdid herself when she got me a pencil cup holder. Not a pencil, mind you. Not even a pen. A pencil cup holder. This is when we accepted the reality that my mom is just not the best gift-giver and since then, our relationship has thrived. So I'm living proof that these kinds of honest moments with the bad gift-givers in your life can improve relationships and expectations. That is, unless the bad gift-givers react poorly to this news and are completely surprised by the conversation. In that case, this person in your life is not just a bad gift-giver, but they are also just plain old delusional.

 

Keep scrolling below for this collection of bad birthday gifts. For more, check out these Michael Scott-esque boss moments.

Update: 'I said, "Guess I’m not a team player"': Boss floods security guard employee with texts and emails while she's on vacation, employee brings in HR

It would take a lot for you to block your boss's phone number, but this woman had to do exactly that. Her boss just wouldn't leave her be as he tried his hardest to interrupt her vacation time. 

U/Pinkyrye shared her story to r/AmItheA**hole, and she provided several updates on her situation as well. Despite working at her security guard job for six years, her boss still gave her a hard time about taking five days of vacation time. Some places really are stingy with time off, paid or unpaid. It doesn't seem to matter to them how hard you work or how long you've worked there — you're just a number to them. And especially if you work in retail or food service, managers are known to try and get you to find someone to cover the shifts you're missing. 

These days, stores have apps where you can trade shifts, give them up, and take them from others. But in the recent past, you'd have to sit there with the phone numbers of every employee, and literally call every person one by one until you found enough people to take your shifts. At that point, you're basically a manager. 

Check out this story below, as well as the immensely satisfying updates. Then, this COO decided to show up to work in a full prom outfit after the CEO mocked her fashion choices. 

'Why wasn't I at my desk? I'll tell you why': Karen Boss asks where employee went after berating her, employee CC's all of HR in her response

Here's a great reminder to be careful what you say out loud at work. It shouldn't matter if you are the lowest-level employee at your company or the CEO, but regrettable words will undoubtedly be held against you, especially if you are already widely disliked by your department. 

 

That's exactly what happened to this Karen boss, who frequently berated her employees, one of whom shared this post on Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit. She would always complete what her Karen boss asked of her, albeit with a little sass that she attributes to being in her twenties at the time. When the employee was five months pregnant, Karen asked her to do something and OP said she was on it but added a slightly sassy "whatever." This prompted Karen to mutter something under her breath that OP and a fellow coworker heard.

 

We'll let you scroll below to see exactly what was uttered, but let's just say that OP was understandably upset. She cooled off at employee healthcare (they worked at a hospital). Once she returned to her desk, she saw a number of emails from Karen asking why she hadn't been at her desk. That's when OP decided to reveal that she heard exactly what Karen said about her… but not just to Karen. She also let all of HR and Karen's bosses know as well.

 

Keep scrolling below to learn what happened next. For more stories like this, check out this post about a coworker's parking fiasco.