Seriously (or is it, cerealously)…. 12 boxes of Golden Grahams cereal.
Not a book, not a DVD. Cereal 🙂
You know how this is done (if you don’t, read about other Monday Giveaways here)… the question is:
What was your funniest or most awkward job experience?
Leave your answer in the blog comment, below! Good luck!
Dear FTC: this cereal giveaway is possible because of General Mills. I’m not touching the boxes, they’ll ship it directly. I’m just a blogger trying to have fun. Go chase someone else. This is for legal residents of the US who are 18 or older, although I have no idea how they are going to determine that. I didn’t even get 12 boxes for myself… any other questions, Mr/Ms FTC? If so, contact the person who left an email address here.
I was working after school at Wendy’s and had been working the drive-thru window most days. After one particularly long day I arrived home, had just walked in the door and the phone rang. I proceeded to answer it: “Hello and welcome to Wendys, may I take your order please?” it was out of my mouth before I realized it and, of course, everyone around me (and on the line) was cracking up!
Top this!
Artificial Inseminator (beef cows)
I was an innocent 16-year-old in high school, working as a receptionist and switchboard operator in a law firm. One of the senior partners had a sleazy brother-in-law who came in from time-to-time on business. One day he stood at my window as if waiting for me to get off the phone and talk to him. I removed my headphones and said, “Do you want me?” He pretended to be shocked and answered “Do I want you?! What would my wife say?” I had no idea what he meant but knew enough to be embarrassed just from his leering. I could have gone through the floor. It was weeks later that I understood the connotation after asking an older sister, then I became angry. My first experience with sexual harrassment.
I had just started working in an office, maybe 1 or 2 days, when the door to the supply room opened and a male co-worker beckoned to me to enter. I hesitated a moment, but my curiosity got the better of me and I entered the supply room. He shut the door. “I’ve only recently returned to the area,” he said, “and my old connections have all dried up. Do you have any idea where I can buy some pot?” I was shocked. My first thought was, “Do I LOOK like a pot head?” My second thought was, “THIS is the drug test! This is the drug test! Instead of having me pee in a cup, they have someone ask me privately if I can help them buy pot! How ingenious that they save all the money of chemical drug testing and yet still get accurate results!” I just said, “Um, no, I’m sorry, I don’t smoke anything like that.” He looked very disappointed but nodded okay. He apologized for asking me, but said he was desperate. Then we both left the supply room.
Back in 1990 I had a month-long stint working for Taco Bell near Pontiac, Michigan, and their slogan at that time was, “Run to the Border”. I would work the Friday and Saturday night closing crew, until about 4 AM. Sometimes I’d man the drive thru window. Whenever I did, and customers would arrive, I’d call out, “Welcome to the Border, may I take your order?” I’d do other interesting things like that, and people began to request me when they’d come to place their order.
I said it was a month-long stint because I had to head back to Cincinnati for my next quarter of college.
In May of my sophomore year of college I had knee replacement surgery. I was in a cast ankle to thigh all summer so I walked “straight legged” but I walked, took the train to work everyday where I worked in the cafeteria of a major bank on Market St in Phila, PA. The bank had a few offices in the old Phila Bulletin building across Market St – a major st in downtown Phila. and a coffee cart had to be taken over there every day for the employees to get their coffee and bagels. One day when I arrived at work my boss said to me that the lady who usually took the cart had called in sick and he had no one else to take it, could I do it? Trying to be the good employee I said sure & I went and got the cart, took the elevator downstairs and across Market St I went cast and all! Wouldn’t you know just at that moment my dad drove down Market St and saw me pushing this big cart across the St, stopped in the middle of traffic got out and began yelling at me how crazy I was to do this-I finally convinced him to push the cart to the bldg where I needed to go…only to find 20+ customers in front of the bldg cheering us on…they got their coffee & bagels…I got an award for customer service!
PS – Today I skip the bagels, LOVE Golden Grahams!!!!!!
My first office job after college (while I was still living with my parents) was at the corporate headquarters of a Fortune 500 company in the Pension Administration department. As one of the younger and most recent hires in my department, I was sometimes asked to do tasks that no one else in the department wanted to do, like clean the department’s refrigerator, or move stacks of heavy boxes. On one occasion I was directed to move some heavy boxes of documents from our floor to the floor where the executive offices were located. As I carried the boxes into the reception area I asked the young and very attractive receptionist where I should place them. She directed me to a spot by the wall just across from the reception desk. When I faced the wall and bent down to place the boxes on the floor, my pants produced a tremendous ripping sound due to the complete failure of the rear seam, i.e., from the waist of my pants all the way down to the zipper. After standing up quickly, covering my backside with my hands, and turning around, I saw the receptionist attempting to stifle her laughter in her hands. Needless to say, I was mortified. Ultimately, I’m not sure which was worse – ripping my pants in front of someone that I was hoping to make a favorable impression on, or having to call my mother bring new pants to me at work!
My best friend and I were walking down the sidewalk and had stopped, waiting for the light to change. I was proceeding to tell her about how I like my job, but couldn’t stand my boss. Explaining all these horrible experiences I’ve had with her and how much I disliked her. After I talked for about 30 seconds, I finished what I was saying and sort of looked around, only to discover my boss had been standing behind me listening to the whole thing!!! I just said hello awkwardly and she did the same, I felt horrible, even though it was true what I was saying.
My daughter and I are reading these stories and really enjoying them. We loved Jeff’s story!!!
We had mice in our department and as one was running thru I calmly dropped a big heavy box on him and killed him. Then I picked up the box and was sweeping him into the dust pan when the CEO came by. The CEO asked me what the mouse did to me and I told him that he ate my chocolate. NO one touches my chocolate or they die.
He later told my boss, she’s tough and my boss said, “she doesn’t ride a Harley for nothing.” From then one he called me Harley girl. I don’t think he ever knew my real name.
I used to work at the bank when I first got married. Fridays were very busy as we were located next to an industrial park and many of the businesses used our bank for payroll. One Friday night, not long after we were married, I jumped out of bed during the night. Hubby grabbed me and asked where I was going. I told him I was all out of 100s and 50s and needed to go get more from the vault. His laughter woke me up 🙂
My first summer job in college was as a computer/engineering technician for a two person company that was set up in the back room of the owner’s home. He had a rack of equipment, but in the middle of it was a tv with a Spock doll on top of it. Well, it turns out that part of the job was to watch Star Trek every afternoon at 4:00 (he was a major trekkie). His wife and two young kids would come out and sit with us and watch it also. It was a great first job experience.
I used to work at a hair salon as a receptionist/whateverelsetheyaskedmetodo. I completely soaked a client once at an attempt to shampoo their hair. I didn’t have their head all the way into the neck rest on the sink, and the water went down their back in an instant. I was absolutely mortified!
I was adjusting an audio amp under power, with meter leads rather precariously placed where a slip would destroy the output transistors.
The boss set off an air horn right behind my head. Fortunately, it is very difficult to startle me, so I just finished up and carefully removed the meter leads. Then I turned around and asked him not to do that again, that it hurt.
It gets worse…. several days later he did the same thing! I asked him what he would have done if I’d been startled and the customer’s equipment had been damaged, and he said that he expected -me- to pay for it.