Work place stories

[xDacY]

I work for a hotel company and stories are pretty endless around here. But I want to share this story and get your comments and thoughts about it.

Recently we had our hotel fire alarm go off and had to evacuate the building until the fire department gave us the ok, it took them about an hour to say everything is safe you can go back in. The cause of the alarm ended up being all the dust in our elevator shaft trigger the smoke detector ( we have a third party company service and clean our elevators and they didn't clean the shaft this quarter) needless to say the situation was out of our control.

Now granted this did happen around 10pm so I understand the guests being upset, but a few of them checked out that night or the next morning stating that the hotel is unsafe do to this alarm going off, and others were down right nasty about the situation. Between all the guests they were split pretty much 50/50 some understood and were ok with it others were irate.

What I told my managers and other staff was, yes I understand the inconvenience of the alarm going off so late at night but they should be happy to know our system works and I case of an emergency it will do its job and get you out.

Comments, thoughts, other stories all welcome.

[aspi]

Were the guest offered a discount, i.e. at least a free stay for the night? If I had been your guest I doubt that I would have left right away - but without at least some attempt to make up for it, you would have lost me as a repeat customer for sure. A hotel has one job: providing the guests with a relaxed environment to sleep. If you can't deliver on that, you're not doing it right. So at the very least, you shouldn't be charging for it in my opinion.

[Nemirthel]

I don't think that would keep me from going back to the hotel. If I found out that it happened all the time because they never clean the elevator shafts, that would be different, but just because it happened while I was there wouldn't make me leave early or not come back. I also really don't see how some people could say it was unsafe.

[Hbgplayer]

Oh, the stories. I work at a retail corporation whose logo is a bullseye and whose employees "team members" wear red and khaki. Specifically, I work as Loss Prevention/Security, so I've seen all sorts of things in person and on our security cameras.
I had a lady walk into the middle of the electronics section, look around, then proceed to pick her nose and eat the selections.
On Christmas Eve I was told to go f* myself and given the bird after wishing a man and his 7-8 year old son a good night and merry Christmas.
Two coworkers had a gun pulled on them after attempting to apprehend a guy pushing out with $1,200 worth of merchandise.
I currently have a bruise on my right temple after a "guest" took exception to the fact that I wasn't going to allow her to return $700 worth of electronic toothbrushes without a receipt, for the fourth time in three days (seriously, how dumb do you think we are when you return $500+ worth of toothbrushes/oral care three times in as many days, claiming to have gotten them all as gifts? I know corporate rolls over on a lot of stuff, but that's ridiculous.)

[Peelee]

I've never understood the desire to not name a certain company, yet call out so many specifics that it's impossible not to know which one it is.

Anyway, I used to work IMAX for a science center in Alabama. We specifically picked our films to have minimal focus on - and even mentions of - evolution, because it honestly wasn't worth the hassle that some people would give us. Problem was, the place had a pretty decent focus on dinosaurs, and so sometimes it was unavoidable. The most memorable complaint was a guy who I had to go out for to get him to stop yelling at the admissions desk (they sold the tickets, but IMAX was its own self-contained department).

Guy had a small kid with him, maybe 8 years old, pretty common for this place. Kid didn't seem like he knew or cared what the big deal was. But he made the kid make the complaint about evolution, and I gave my "sorry, but it's about dinosaurs, and this is a science museum" bit in as friendly a manner as possible. Kid doesn't know what to say, so guy just looks at me and says, "ya know, in Ohio there's a science museum where they let the viewer decide."

[Grinner]

@OP: Sorry to hear that.


*snip*

Damn. I thought my last job was bad...

Just for context, how long have you been there?

[snowblizz]

Used to work for a cruiseline shipping company during summers so my "customers" were our own staff, yet every bit as bad as outsiders sometimes though.

One of my favourites is the person who called and wasn't happy because their salary was less than previously. Since the base salary had risen between those points it was theoretically impossible. They had no overtime or similar. Working down the list of optionals I finally get to the commission.
-The what now?
-You know the commission, the 4/2% kick-back on sales.
-Huh? But in that case I should have tried to sell more?!?!?!
To which I with super human restraint avoided snarking back. One of the main direct things the union has negotiated and apparently no one thought to mention. I'm left wondering how many else don't know they can to some degree improve their pay by selling more.

Another interesting one was the person who called me on the 28th wondering why they didn't get paid. The answer of course is that they get paid on the 8-10 the following month (because sales needs to be figured out and such as per above). Which I explained.
-But everyone in this country gets paid on the 28th!!! Everyone! It's like umm... in the law or something.
-You are actually not working in your own country, this is a cruise ship registered in another country and follows all the rules laws applicable there. That's why you get paid in another currency. It is explicitly mentioned in the contract. (I guess fairly close to the place that mentions you get a sales commission, apparently no one reads what they sign, I should point that out for my bosses, maybe we could have snuck something in there:smallamused:)

And if I had a dime for every time someone in a 31 day month called about only getting paid 30 days, the dearth of people complaining in February about 2 extra days, however was deafening. This is half the payroll system being written by idiots though showing 31 days and a -1 day charge. I can sorta see why people were wondering.

Not everyone who called were idiots though. One person managed to find a 10 cent error, some hours were registered incorrectly. They graciously let me credit their next paycheck. Which I think was nice.

Mostly they were idiots though, like the person who wanted an advance on their paycheck before they even started working (actually that was probably more than one). Or the one who tripped in the terminal because they were so drunk when coming to work. To this day it annoys me that we paid sick-leave for that. Our insurer would have none of it and slammed us with a deduction. One of the few times I've agreed with them.

[Winter_Wolf]

I briefly temped at a manufacturing facility, which was all kinds of awful. One thing I do know, we would invariably be three days ahead of our production schedule on Wednesday, and Thursday we'd be four days behind and be stuck working overtime. My conclusion is that a number of floor workers must have been sabotaging things intentionally to get the OT pay. It made me furious because I actually had things I needed to get done during the off days, rather than soak a company whose position was very clearly anti-competence. I'm sure it was first shift, because 90%+ of the regular employees were the day shift and the temps were all night shift. Any temp that screwed up once got booted, so by process of elimination, had to be day shift because every week for five months we'd be doing BS out of department stuff. All my OT pay and then some went to medical bills from crap that I only had to deal with because of the mandatory OT work.

faced with the reality that I was losing money going to a job I hated, I left. Better than the guy who openly started carrying a combat knife and giving people menacing looks. Never reported him because honestly he was one of the people I was more sympathetic to in that vile place.

[qechua]

So mine aren't too bad, working an office job has it's advantages. However, I do still have a couple of more light hearted ones.

You see, I work for the Met Office in the UK, and for those that don't know, we're a world leading weather forecast and climate research organisation. While the first part of that attracts a lot of flak from the press (because LOL you're only 96% accurate at predicting the future 24 hours in advance, what a waste of money, I can do better with seaweed and cows, look I got it kind of right once, give me the £x billions the Met Office costs), the second part attracts some interesting characters. I'm not going into the whole climate change thing because I know what a can of worms that can be, and I'm not a scientist so I don't have all the up to date facts and data, but I think we can all agree that conspiracy theorists are a special breed of crazy.

Now, some conspiracy theories kinda make sense, if you ignore certain facts or interpret things in a certain way. Chemtrailers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory) however, are pretty far gone on the crazy scale. Occasionally, they come onto our site (because we're all obviously in on it, what with our weather control device), and as long as they don't cause trouble or try to enter the building, they can stay (right of protest). Inevitably, they'll either try to shove leaflets in your car as you open your window to open the entry gate, or they'll try to 'secretly' film us speaking to them, then horribly misquote us as support or proof, so our official guidance is "Don't talk to them, just walk by. If they keep troubling you, tell security".

One day, when I was leaving work one of them approaches me. I keep walking, he keeps trying to give me some leaflet. At that moment, the Red Arrows (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Arrows) display team flies pretty much directly overhead, line astern as they come into land at the airport. Each is trailing white smoke (because like most of the RAF, the Red Arrows really like what we do) and they're only about 500-1,000ft up. Fair credit to the guy, he kept peddling his wares and completely ignored the 9 planes flying overhead trailing smoke, but I only just managed to suppress the laughter, while some other guy a few metres ahead completely lost it. I got to my bike, burst into hysterics and had to wait about 5 minutes before I trusted myself to ride home.

They've only been back once since, the same day a C-130 decided to practice bumps at the airport all day. Every ten minutes or so, it was back, lining up for another bump. We couldn't hear a word they were saying, and they gave up pretty quickly. Our insider information tells us they aren't expected back any time soon, since we're clearly dropping chemicals on them to make them change their mind!

[Fri]

I've never understood the desire to not name a certain company, yet call out so many specifics that it's impossible not to know which one it is.


Most of the time it's an attempt of a joke rather than genuine feel for the need of anonymity/secrecy.

Like "I worked in a fast food store that start with M and rhymed with Bcdonald"

[Hbgplayer]

@OP: Sorry to hear that.



Damn. I thought my last job was bad...

Just for context, how long have you been there?
I've worked there since December. It's uneventful most days, but the "events" can go south quick. Luckily the whole pulling the gun thing is very rare in this area and the cops we're immediately all over the area looking for the suspects; they even called in a CHP helo.


I've never understood the desire to not name a certain company, yet call out so many specifics that it's impossible not to know which one it is.

At least with my employer, their "reputation management" group searches for keywords, so I avoid using the corporate name as much as possible.

[Peelee]

Most of the time it's an attempt of a joke rather than genuine feel for the need of anonymity/secrecy.

Like "I worked in a fast food store that start with M and rhymed with Bcdonald"
Ahhhh. That makes sense.

At least with my employer, their "reputation management" group searches for keywords, so I avoid using the corporate name as much as possible.
Huh. That would suck. Also why i only tell stories about past places. I loved McWane Science Center, and they can't do anything to me if i talk about done of the crazy visitors.

Of course, now HIPPA stops me from naming names even if i leave here, but i can still tell stories about people with no identifying remarks at all.

[Anarion]

Bomb threat on the building where I worked in which I was one of the people that stuck around to deal with the police and would have died if the place exploded. Fun times, that one.

[MrConsideration]

I worked in a museum with a a glass floor over a (pretend) excavation to teach people about Archaeology. Each pane of glass is £16,500 because they're specially re-enforced and bullet-proof and all the rest of it. A lovely middle-class woman came down the stairs, I greeted her and we spoke for a while about the History, and I asked her two little children and her if they could just finish their ice creams before stepping on the glass floor which requires specialist cleaning and costs in excess of £16,500 a pane.

I turn around and her children were drawing on the glass in ice cream while the woman smiled at me helplessly like this had nothing to do with her. The glass had to be specially cleaned not long after - costing thousands of pounds and closing parts of the museum for weeks.

At the same museum we had an interactive ride that takes you around a reconstructed Viking city. The ride was pretty vast, but occasionally you'd get people who were too fat to fit. There was an art to pushing the bar in - most women's fat moves to accommodate the bar with a good shove. Beer bellies, on the other hand, are solid as rock, and will literally force the bar out again with the velocity of a rocket. It is an astonishing thing to behold. Because people tend to get rather angry when you inform them that they are too huge to ride, we had to summon management using the radio code 'Can I have a word, please?'. Obviously we got inventive. A sentence. A bloody long word. A paragraph or two.

You didn't want see the tour group that had me say "Duty Manager, could you come down to caps because I need to borrow your dictionary!"

The ride also features a hut where you can see Vikings in flagrante delicto if you turn you head at just the right angle around a corner. Management always tried to cover it up by closing the door but somehow it as always opened again by the end of the day.:belkar:

Also I got to dress like a viking to work, which was pretty rad but terrible in July/August - you don't know sweaty until you've sweated into chain-mail, fox furs and a wool man-dress called a skirta. Even your legs had an extra layer as Vikings wore winingas (https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=winingas&oq=winingas&aqs=chrome..69i57.1720j0j9&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8). Combine that with Rus trousers (https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=rus+trousers&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAWoVChMIpfmQuLXexwIVKErbCh1ASQMO&biw=1242&bih=585) and a helmet and it's like walking around in your own personal ball-sweat sauna.