Ask a Manager

Inspired by yesterday’s account of the kid who thought her mom’s boss was a dog: What weird things did you believe about work as a kid, or even just before you started working? Personally, I couldn’t understand why work would be tiring if you weren’t doing manual labor and used to be very skeptical of […]

Last week we talked about animals at work and here are 10 of my favorite stories you shared. 1. The unauthorized dog I’ve worked my entire career at tech start-ups, which are invariably filled with multiple office dogs. Beyond stories of those dogs peeing under desks, pooping in conference rooms, and even one lone kitten […]

Let’s discuss animals at work! We heard last week about someone who accidentally went to work with a bird on her head, and we’ve heard in the past about someone who couldn’t get to work because of aggressive nesting geese, we’ve fielded some drama about bears, and we’ve of course had myriad stories about dogs […]

Last week we talked about people who found themselves in a hole and just kept digging. Here are 15 of the funniest stories you shared. 1. The lunch Early in my career I was interviewing for a position after having just left a bad company (I had to play games to get my paycheck, and […]

Let’s talk about people who found themselves in a hole and just kept digging. Think, for example, of the person who didn’t get a job because a woman she bullied was a rock star employee at the company where she was applying … which somehow ended with her screaming at the rock star and rock […]

Last week, we talked about napping at work and here are 10 of my favorite stories you shared. 1. The hideout I worked at a big box home improvement store for a few years, and we hired a couple young guys to work the lot. Bring back carts, help customers load heavier items or large […]

We saw a surprising number of stories about covert napping in last month’s thread about interns — which reminded me that we’ve had many stories about napping at work over the years, both covert and not-so-covert. There was the summer associate who put on pajamas and napped on top of her desk .. the intern […]

Last week, we talked about strange customer complaints. Here are 25 funny stories you shared. 1. The Bigfoot artifacts I worked in a small history museum and got a complaint that we didn’t have any Bigfoot artifacts, like bones or fossils … from Bigfoot. 2. The bewitchment I used to work in sales for a […]

This week’s “ask the readers” question comes courtesy of this reader: I was talking to one of my friends the other day and the topic of hilarious customer comments/complaints came up. I had one that I’ve carried with me for about a decade now and I wanted to share it: “The worst paper in all […]