Category: Professional Confessions

Posted on

People Divulge Which High School Rumor Turned Out To Be True

The high school rumor mill always seemed to be in full swing.

A few hundred teenagers crammed into one or two buildings was apparently ideal conditions for all sorts of steamy stories and imagined thrills to surface every week or so.

By and large, these stories were false. Or at the very least, wildly embellished.

But every once in awhile, one of them turned out to be true. And that was enough to make us believe all the other tales that flew around the hallways.

Redditor Le_Bayou_Cochon apparently wanted to separate fact from fiction.

He asked:

“What high school conspiracy turned out to be true at your school?”

Of course, sexual rumors were a common go-to. 

“There were rumors about a music teacher and a student, but they were both pretty dramatic people and did very little to dismiss the talk. So half the school wanted to believe it for the salacious thrill and half just waved it off as attention seeking and sh**-talking.”

“Teacher got canned without explanation. Most of us just figured it was budget-related. A math teacher filled in on his music/theater roles.”

“Years later I randomly caught up with the student and she said the rumors were true, she freaked out and tried to end things to shake off the reputation, and eventually the teacher showed up trashed and naked on her family’s front lawn, in the rain, yelling out for her.”

“Like a really fu**ed-up version of John Cusack from Say Anything but with less boombox and more drenched wang.” — Dangercakes13

This rumor spanned more than one school. 

“That our IT teacher slept with his students. He was attractive, young, friendly etc, then suddenly a rumour went around the school that he was sleeping with a 6th former (aged 17/18).”

“He was suspended for a while but then ‘decided to leave’ after he was ‘cleared’ of wrongdoing.”

“He got a new job at my cousins high school across town…he did it again there. Got caught with another 17 year old and was fired shortly after.” — Hot_potatoos

In a couple cases, the ending was rather unexpected. 

“Two of the teachers ‘hooking up’ on a Europe class trip. Gone for a week, came back and the rumours started.”

“Two weeks later a rumour started he got divorced.”

“Last week of school they were spotted at a restaurant together.”

“Looked em up a couple years after graduating. They’re married.” — Gone_cognito

“That one of the cheerleaders was dating one of the teachers (in his 40s). A year after graduation, they got married and had a baby. Still together 11 years later.” — Trailmix

Unfortunately, some other rumors were gruesome. 

“There was a girl freshman year who went missing. She ended up being found dead in the river. There were rumors that she was seen on a bridge with her boyfriend the day she went missing. Nothing was ever found and they assumed it was suicide/ an accident.”

“Fast forward 25 years and the boyfriend murdered his best friend of several decades, set a fire to cover it up, and went on the run. Couple days later he killed a woman at a rest stop in the bathroom to steal her car.”

“They reopened the case about the high school girlfriend. That rumor was correct all along. He will be in prison the rest of his life.” — pomegranatepants99

And some were alarming. 

“Lead in the water.”

“Our high school tap water was dark brown and we weren’t allowed to bring our own waterbottles or get filtered water from the cafeteria without paying $3. We sent hundreds of emails asking the school board to look into it, but they said it was fine.”

“In my senior year, a student did a science fair project on the illegal amount of lead in the tap water, forcing the school to investigate and fix all the taps.” — xJaneyDoe

This example was intriguing—and terrible.

“I attended a newly opened high school that apparently used to be a school for troubled kids. Someone told me there were padded rooms somewhere in the school so I skipped lunch with a friend one day to walk the halls and find them!”

“They did exist, but by next year they were renovated into offices and storage rooms. I thought that was pretty interesting and seriously wondered what went on there before it was turned into a ‘normal’ high school.” — E-macularius

One school was filled with surprises.

Two to be exact.

“That there were tunnels under the school that led to a hidden pool.”

“Confirmed by my father who was a maintenance man for the school district. The tunnels were just utility tunnels, the pool is below the gym floor and was abandoned due to financial reasons.” — pondcypress

In one case, someone tried to hide the past.

“My old math teacher was a WWF wrestler, i recognized him from my childhood days channel surfing and couldn’t find anything about him on google, but i was so sure it was him I just asked.”

“I was right lmao” — TheTastySpoonicorn

This one sounds straight out of a movie.

“My history teacher/tennis coach made moonshine and hosted cock fights in his barn. I ended up becoming friends with his son and it was all true.” — m011yRadar

As does this one. 

“That my high school history teacher was putting whiskey in the 2-liter bottle of Pepsi he carried around everyday.”

“He was caught trying to buy liquor for some senior girls and it resulted in a car chase we all watched. The police had to pull out the spike strips to catch him.” — Tylerurby

And finally, some quick thinking, heroic teachers.

“Due to budget cuts or something all of our metal and woodwork shop machines were to be taken away and replaced with worse versions. The shop teachers and drama teachers that were in the building at the time didn’t like this idea, so they hid all the machines in a false wall somewhere in the building.”

“The people came to pick them up and they told them that people had already come to pick them up and that they were late. They did some looking around and couldn’t find the machines and gave up. A few years and 1 principle later they brought the machines back out from behind the walls.”

“And that’s how the smallest high school of our district with only around 450 students became the best school in the district to learn metal and woodwork.” — imfamuspants

If these are true, there’s no knowing which of the rumors you wrote off in high school may have actually been true too.

Posted on

History Professors Divulge The One Fact They Love Sharing With Their Students

History is full of fascinating figures and stories.

Humans have been interesting, wild, strange, goofy, ridiculous, horrible, murderous, and pretty much any other thing you can name.

Time has eroded societies and built new ones, introduced technology and killed off hallmarks of the past.

When you specialize in history you become the keeper of this arsenal of facts.  And even better, you become responsible for sharing them with others.

In a way, you become the shaper of how we, in the contemporary era, experience history.

A Redditor asked:

“History Professionals of Reddit. What is that one history fact that you just love sharing with people?”

Here were some of those factoids.

A King’s Ransom

“Daniel Steibelt, a top pianist in his own right, challenged his contemporary Beethoven to a musical improv duel.”

“Steibelt did believe he had a shot; he was no kid, and had already composed for Marie Antoinette and operatized a successful version of Romeo and Juliet.”

“He showed up to the improv and played one of his own works, for which he’d brought the sheet music.”

“Once it was his turn, Beethoven turned the sheet music upside down and beautifully f**ked the piece sideways and backwards, overturing Steibelt’s style all the while like a cat teasing a particularly boring mouse.”

“No one ever challenged Beethoven to a musical improv again, least of all Steibelt, who never again set foot in Vienna.”-Tmaffa

“The longest piano piece of any kind is Vexations by Erik Satie.”

“It consists of a 180-note composition which, on the composer’s orders, must be repeated 840 times so that the whole performance is 18 hours 40 minutes.”

“Its first reported public performance in September 1963, in the Pocket Theater, New York City, required a relay team of 10 pianists.”

“The New York Times critic fell asleep at 4 a.m. and the audience dwindled to 6 masochists. At the conclusion, one sado-masochist shouted ‘Encore!’”-Back2Bach

“Julius Caesar was once kidnapped by pirates, and when he found out how much they were ransoming him for, he was offended at how low the amount was and told them to raise it.”

“Meanwhile he spent his captivity annoying the sh*t out of his captors, holding poetry readings and generally being a pompous dick.”

“Oh, and he also joked that he’d eventually hunt them all down and crucify them. The ransom was paid, Caesar was released, then he hunted them down and crucified them.”-Tmaffa

Misleading Names

“I like telling people about orphan trains. During the late 19th-early 20th century, Progressive reformers loaded ‘orphans’ onto trains, sending them to the countryside for what often amounted to indentured servitude.”

“Also, some of the kids that were targeted were not orphans, and the Protestant reformers may have intentionally targeted the children of intact Catholic and Jewish immigrant families to make sure they were converted to the right religion.”

“I’ve found that it’s not a very well known part of the Progressive Era.”-[username deleted]

“The Pentagon wasn’t built that way for any defense reason — in fact, it’s not even a regular pentagon.”

“It was designed to fit nicely into the empty field between five major roads, but then later there was some reason why they had to build it somewhere else, I think it was too close to some city or something.”

“Anyway they’d already paid someone to design this five-sided building so they just said f**k it, it’s a pentagon now.”-Tmaffa

“From the memoirs of a Bill Bellamy, a British WW2 tank troop commander: One of our favourite pursuits was to eavesdrop on other squadron wireless nets while we were resting. This could be very exciting and, on occasion, very amusing.”

“One splendid moment occurred when C squadron were out on a standing patrol and Michael Payne, a young and popular troop leader, was in a hedgerow with shelling taking place to his front.”

“Apparently the whole area was covered with cattle, who paid little attention to the lethal objects dropping around them and concentrated on the job in hand.”

“Suddenly over the air came the laconic voice of Mickey, ‘Gunner, you see that poor cow in front which has just been wounded? Put the poor devil out of its misery will you?’”

“He obviously imagined he was talking on his intercom and not broadcasting to the world, because he then remained on the air with his microphone switch pressed.”

“There was a moment of silence and then a rat-tat-tat of the Besa machine-gun. Then came Mickey’s agonised cry, ‘Not that one you bloody fool, the one on the left!’”

“We didn’t let him forget that for a long time.”-Tmaffa

Today Is War!

“There once existed an alleged theoretical state of war that lasted 335 years and 19 days, and was between the Dutch and an archipelago off the coast of southwest England called the Isles of Scilly.”

“What’s more, there were no casualties (because the Dutch forgot that they were at war with the Isles).”

“It wasn’t until a Sicily historian contacted the Dutch about the ‘war’ in 1985, and received the information that the ‘war’ was still technically ongoing, that a peace treaty was signed in 1986.”-CarbonSpectre

“I’m not a history professional but love talking about how the South Korean and US governments launched Operation Paul Bunyan.”

“And the US went to combat readiness DEFCON 3 (the US went to DEFCON 2 over the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Gulf War; the US last went to DEFCON 3 on 9/11) because of a single poplar tree that blocked the line of sight between a United Nations Command checkpoint and an observation post.”

“To be fair, this was also called the Korean Axe Murder Incident and had to do with the killing of two United States Army officers in the Joint Security Area (JSA) located in the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).”

“The U.S. Army officers had been part of a work party cutting down a poplar tree in the JSA that partially blocked the view of United Nations (U.N.) observers when they were assaulted and killed by the North Koreans, who claimed that the tree had been planted by Kim Il-Sung.”

“North Korean propaganda machine immediately spun this incident in their favor, describing how American aggressors forced the North Korean guards to defend themselves.”

“The CIA considered that this was a pre-planned attack and evaluated their options and the US went to DEFCON 3 the day after the two US Army officers were murdered.”

“Originally, the plan was to trim the poplar tree but now it was decided that – back with completely overwhelming force – the tree had to go.”

“South Korea and US initiated Operation Paul Bunyan which resulted in the following:”

“-Task Force Vierra (a convoy of 23 US and South Korean vehicles) drove into the JSA without warning the North Koreans at 0700. The vehicles had a compliment of two eight-man teams of combat engineers equipped with chain-saws to remove the tree.”

“-Task Force Vierra would be accompanied by two 30-man security platoons from the Joint Security Force, who were armed with pistols and axe handles. 1st Platoon secured northern entrance to the JSA via the Bridge of No Return while 2nd Platoon secured southern edge.”

“-Another company had activated the detonation systems for the explsoives on Freedom Bridge and had the main gun of a combat engineer vehicle aimed at the middle of the bridge to make sure that it collapsed should explsoives vailed.”

“They were also building rafts on the Imjin River in case an emergency evacuation was required.”

“-A 64-man task force of South Korean Special Forces accompanied them, armed with clubs and were trained in Tae Kwon Do but bore no firearms.”

“Once they parked their trucks near the Bridge of No Return, they began throwing out sandbags and armed themselves with M16s with grenade launchers.”

“Some of the commandos also had claymore mines strapped to their chests while holding the trigger in their hands, shouting at the North Koreans and daring them to cross the bridge.”

“-A US infantry company in 20 transport helicopters and seven Cobra attack choppers were right behind them. And behind those helicopters were B-52 bombers escorted by F4 Phantom jet fighters. F5 and F86 fighters also took flight to provide overwatch at higher altitudes.”

“FB-111 fighter-bombers and more F4 Phantoms were deployed, and the U.S.S. Midway (aircraft carrier) and its task force was moved just off-shore.”

“Near the DMZ were more heavily armed US and South Korean infantry and artillery units, an air defense regiment with mobile surface-to-air missile batteries and main battle tank platoons were waiting to back up the special ops team.”

“Bases near the DMZ were prepped for demolition in case of a North Korean counter-attack. 12,000 more soldiers and 1,800 more Marines were deployed to Korea, and nuclear-capable strategic bombers were called in to circle over the JSA.”

“Task Force Viera – who was directly responsible for cutting down the tree – totaled a little over 800 men.”

“North Korea deployed about 200 troops in response and were all armed with small arms and support weapons, and were deployed in buses but they didn’t immediately disembark their busses because they were bewildered by the show of force that was arrayed before them.”

“When they finally got out of their buses and set up their machine gun positions, all they could do was watch in silence as the tree was felled. After all of this, a six meter tree stump was left standing.”

“All of this because a tree’s foilage was blocking the view of an observation post.”-Tangowolf

“I love sharing the story of Deborah Sampson. She was effectively the American Mulan. During the Revolutionary War she masqueraded as a man to fight.”

“While she did eventually get caught after being wounded, she managed to avoid that issue once by digging a musketball out of her thigh!”

“She was the only woman following the war to receive a soldier’s pension. Awesome.”-22glowworm22

Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie!

“Melbourne was once terrorised by a crime gang that consisted exclusively of men with one leg and crutches.”

“‘The Crutchy Push, with one exception, consisted of one-legged men. The exception was a one-armed man who kept half a brick in his sewn up empty sleeve. He led his followers into battle swinging the weighted sleeve around his head.’”

“‘Behind him came the men on crutches – each one expert at balancing on one leg. The tip of the crutch was used to jab an opponent in the midriff. With the enemy gasping for breath the crutch would be reversed and the metal-shod arm rest would be used as a club.’”

“It gets better.”

“After several incidences of their member outrunning cops sent to track them down, the police got together the ten most violent police officers in Australia, called them ‘The Terrible Ten’ and sent them to beat up the Crutchie Push with hoses, because Australia is clearly one giant Carry On movie.”-suitcasedreaming

“So about a thousand years ago a Pope, declared that his predecessor was a wicked priest and shall be tried for vile behavior. The problem was that his predecessor was dead and 6 feet under.”

“So, logically, the Pope exumes the body and puts it on the defense stand to stand trial. The corpse loses. Thus the punishment was the cutting off of the three fingers on the right hand used to bless people, and the mutilated corpse was put back to rest.”

“Later the good ole Pope decides that the punishment wasn’t severe enough, so he RE-EXHUMED the dead f**ker, tries him again, finds him guilty, again, and dumps the dead pope in the Tiber F**KING River.”

“Thankfully a monk retrieved the body. The Great Schism between the Catholic and Orthodox Christians happened 60 years later. If you don’t believe me, google the Cadaver Synod.”-Saramello

Truth is stranger than fiction when it comes to history and any history buff will know just how true that is.

And strange things and funny history facts are being added every single day to the ongoing compendium that is the human experience.

Posted on

Tattoo Artists Divulge Their Worst ‘Tattoo Virgin’ Stories

Getting a tattoo can be very exciting. Maybe you’ve been deciding on what you wanted for a long time and saving little by little to have enough for a sizable piece.

There’s nothing like the nervousness and excitement of that very first tattoo. In fact, when we experience that kind of pain, our body releases endorphins. That might be why we keep going back for more after we’ve gotten our first done.

However, some people faint during their first tattoos from that pain. That’s caused by Vasovagal or ‘reflex’ Syncope. Our blood pressure and heartrate can drop and cause us to be a puddle on the floor before we know it.

Redditor ArthurThyKing asked:

“Tattoo Artists of Reddit, who was your worst ‘tattoo virgin’?”

There are tons of first timer stories of people passing out, being rude to their tattoo artist, or having unconventional things happening to them while under the needle. We compiled this list of the best stories from real tattoo artists.

Always eat a good meal.

“One of my coworkers was tattooing a girl on her 18th birthday or something like that. She was getting script on her wrist, nothing huge but after 3-4 lines her face drained of color and she went completely limp and passed out.”

“He had caught her so she didn’t fall out of the chair but we then heard the sound of something similar to a leaky faucet as everyone realized the poor girl peed herself when she blacked out.”

“After a few minutes and a soda to get her blood sugar back up one of her friends brought her some gym shorts to change into as we cleaned the area. She finished the tattoo that day like a f*cking champ but we’ve never seen nor heard from her again.”

“I’m sure she was mortified…remember kids always eat a good meal before getting tattooed or pierced no matter how small or simple you think it is.” – Gemini_Sol

“Worth mentioning that this advice is for everyone. I’m a large guy and I felt really faint during one tattoo as I simply hadn’t eaten or drank enough.”

“Chocolate bar / sugary drink beforehand and a bottle of water for during is something I now consider essential pre-tattoo purchases.” – cat666

Trying to act tough.

“Piercer but I have seen sh*t. A very large guy came in and wanted a tattoo on his inner arm fat. Tattoo artist tried to talk him out of it because of the loose skin in the area. Guy is like ‘I have a high tolerance for pain’.”

“Well now he has a curved line on his inner bicep. They tried three times and he couldn’t sit still and the pain was unbearable.”

“He was jumping out of the chair while a needle was near his arm. And yes, when he left we sh*t talked him for about a week. Mainly because he just was acting so tough before hand and wouldn’t listen.” – I’mStillaPrick

It’s backwards!

“I’ll take this one. I had a client who got a Jesus fish with Greek letters on his chest. I put the stencil on, he looks down says ‘looks good’ and we do the tattoo. Guy sits like a CHAMP through his entire first tattoo.”

“I finish up after about 45 minutes, he checks it out in the mirror and immediately goes pale, starts to sweat and sits down. Dude looks at me and says ‘it’s BACKWARDS!’ All shook.”

“I look at his tattoo, look at him on the floor, look at the mirror and tell the guy ‘I’m gonna take a photo of it for you to see, because you don’t know how mirrors work’. A couple minutes go by as I’m handing the dude paper towels.”

“The guy stands up all quick and try’s to play it off like he was just messing with me even though for a minute there, there was a corpse on my studio floor….” – tattoosbyjerad

“Imagine you didn’t point out the mirror effect. So next time he comes in he writes/draws out the plans backwards to get the right affect hahahah.” – OutrageousFix7338

“Okay no lie, that is exactly what happened to one of the football players at my old high school. Our school logo was a capital F between two offset parentheses (it was supposed to look like a hurricane, yes it was stupid) and the moron got the tattoo done so that it looked correct in the mirror. He has yet to live it down, and that was ten years ago.” – ArchaicGeek

“Getting your high school logo tattooed really screams ‘I peaked in high school’ But getting it backwards?? That screams ‘I haven’t peaked and probably never will’.” – luckyveggie

He was impulsive.

“One shop I worked at we had a couple come in on the day we did $100 two inch by two inch tattoos, they both were getting these small triceratops outline tattoos behind their ears, nothing too crazy or detailed so maybe about 15 minutes each in the chair at most.”

“The guy is losing his mind, he’s hyperventilating, laughing, jumping up and down and yelling questions at all of us, visually very nervous. He tells one of our apprentices that this is his first tattoo and keeps asking them how bad it hurts over and over again, the owner went into the back and grabbed an ammonia packet, worried the guy would pass out the second needle touched skin.”

“Turns out it was this couples first date, he had told her he was impulsive and she tried to call his bluff and suggested they get matching tattoos. To his credit he got the tattoo and didn’t pass out, paid for them both too!” – Hellcathowl

“They later got married due to a series of escalating dares.” – MC_Hale

“FIRST DATE!? Wow. I kinda respect that though.” – casseroled

“My first tattoo was the outline of three stars behind my ear. I could hear the buzzing and feel the artist fiddling around behind my ear but was anxiously waiting for him to start, thinking that it would feel like a scalpel to my thin skin.”

“Nah, he gave a firm wipe of the ink and said ‘Done!’ I said ‘Bullsh*t’ 😂 he flew through it so easily that I didn’t believe him. So now with a dozen good sized tattoos later, I’m always wanting another one thanks to how well he did my first.” – harleyqueenzel

The ex’s name.

“Girl comes in to get her ex boyfriends name tattooed as a tramp stamp…. Comes in with friends and proceeds to scream throughout the process of doing the outline and she leaves with a half outline of her ex’s name.” – bobjones136

“… why would anyone tattoo their ex’s name on themselves?” – sixthandelm

“Because now he has to come back!” – Traskk01

The newbs story.

“It’s not the worst, but I love this one. At the expense of my very good client, I generally use this story to help newbs ease in to my chair more comfortably.”

“So it was his first and I’m getting my stencil prepped. He was so nervous, he was basically white. Kept asking if he was good. Yeah he was ok..I guess. Place the stencil on him and ask him to take a look.”

“He looks at his arm and immediately passes out in the chair lol. He’s sliding out of the chair, we get him back up and he comes to. He got over it, eventually and has his sleeve.” – -THE_ENDR-

“I was getting lettering and dude finally got to my spine. He asked me how I was doing. I said a little light headed, but keep going. He said nope we are stopping for 15 minutes. I guess he’s had a bunch of people pass out on him.” – Daggermoth

“I had the same deal. Got the crook of my elbow done. I was feeling real shit but I didn’t want to stop because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to start again.”

“The artist noticed me sweating, getting dizzy, and breathing hard. He handed me a glucose tablet and some water then got me a cool towel until I could handle it again.” – smaugismyhomeboy

He couldn’t make up his mind.

“Not a tattoo artist, just heavily tattooed and have a lot of friends who are artists. Allow me to tell you the story of Danny the Dummy.”

“Danny at the time of the story was a 21 year old oil field worker who had more money than sense, he wanted to get an entire sleeve tattoo done but couldn’t decide what he wanted, he would come in for a consult, the artist (my friend) would take everything he said and draw up what he wanted, then he would come back and completely change his mind.”

“That’s not the reason why he’s called Danny the Dummy though, he’s called that because, among other things, he never once could remember the name of the animal he wanted to get. He first asked for a lion ‘pack’ on a mountain with the moon above them and them roaring into it.”

“My artist friend said ‘oh you mean like the end of lion king?’ and Danny said yes. The next time he came in he said the animal was wrong and when he showed the picture it was a wolf pack, so my artist friend drew that.”

“Danny comes back and decides he doesn’t want that, he instead wants an ‘eagle in flight’, so my artist friend draws that, and if you guessed the animal was wrong you’re keeping up, he in fact wanted an owl in flight.”

“After this my artist friend was basically done with Danny, he was going to do this last drawing and if Danny changed his mind again he was going to fire him as a customer and blacklist him in his shop. Well he drew an amazing owl in flight and Danny said he loved it, so finally a date was selected and Danny was going to come in and get it.”

“Well Danny never showed, about half an hour past his appointment time my artist friend calls him and Danny says ‘oh damn man, I’m sorry, I’m out of the country today, I’m in North Dakota’…..the artist is based in Arizona.”

“Danny thought that different states were different countries. Never saw or heard from him again and my friend ended up putting that owl on a coworker of his that loved the drawing.” – amalgamas

“I hope your friend charged him for each drawing. That’s a lot of time and effort. Most artist I’ve been too usually ask for money down to draw up the concept.”

“One, it means you won’t get a no show because they already got money into it. And two, if they no show well you didn’t waste your time drawing the art.” – Metal-Butterfly

“$60/consult.” – amalgamas

Undefeated.

“Not the worst client. But just an unfortunate event. The apprentice at my shop who had only been tattooing for a little under a year was tattooing this girls wrist recently, her first tattoo the word ‘undefeated.’ Gets the tattoo, it goes smoothly, she likes it, walks to the lobby, shows her dad, he likes it.”

“Walks back to get bandaged up, gets bandaged, they walk back to the counter as he’s explaining aftercare she blacks out. Falls back hits her head on a giant painting hanging on the wall (an ed hardy original) the painting falls, glass breaks.”

“He runs over picks her up and is checking the back of her head. Realizes a giant piece of glass had punctured her shoulder/trap. EMT comes, tell her she needs stitches, they end up having to take her to the emergency room where she got 6 stitches.”

“The next week the girl brought him a giant tub of cookies. She wasn’t the worst, but it was an incredibly unfortunate experience for the both of them. His first time having someone pass out and her being ‘defeated.’” – tattoocaleb

“She can claim the tattoo is undefeated. It took her out.” – GloInTheDarkUnicorn

“Hey, she only fainted after leaving the ring. She’s still the champ.” – ActuallySatanAMA

He couldn’t sit still.

“There’s a few different ways you can go with worst. Is worst most reactive? Is worst most picky and unreasonable?”

“I’ve been pretty lucky in the grand scheme of things. My worst most reactive / annoying client was this dude who was very clearly a drug addict.”

“He came in, wanted a simple tribal tattoo on his stomach, I saw sure no problem but he starts haggling me about the price, at first it was $400, then he said no more than $200, we finally settled on $300 after about 20 minutes of back and forth.”

“I get all setup, we start the tattoo, within a minute he says he needs to stand up, that’s he’s in too much pain and needs to walk around. He walks around for about 2 or 3 minutes, then lays back down, gets tattooed for another couple minutes and then same thing.”

“He does this constantly throughout the entire tattoo. During this time he was constantly scratching his head, twitching all over and complaining loudly.”

“But the worst part wasn’t the fact that this 2 hour tattoo turned into almost 4 hours. The worst was that he kept going out for smoke breaks, but kept only taking 2 or 3 puffs, putting the cherry out and then putting the smoke back in his pocket.”

“So all I could smell the entire time was musty cigs, it was fucking disgusting. (The cigarettes smelled old, if you’ve ever smelled old cigs you know what I’m talking about. He also kept putting it in the pocket that was right beside my face).” – CircleK-Choccy-Milk

“No chance I’m haggling with somebody who’s about to permanently mark my body.” – Barbarossa7070

The loudest appointment.

“A friend who had never had a tattoo before wanted one on her ankle and was adamant about that. I told her several times that the ankle is a very not fun location, and asked her if maybe she’d prefer the shoulder instead.”

“She insisted on the ankle. Okay then. The moment the needle touched her she hollered. You sure you want to keep going I asked?”

“She said yes. That was the loudest appointment I ever had but to her credit she made it through.” – Odeiminmukwa

The tears just kept coming.

“Oh wow, reading this thread is bringing up some repressed client memories. My worst one by far, though, was about five years ago when I was apprenticing in a college town.”

“This girl came in with her boyfriend for a traditional butterfly above her elbow, I was still super new so it took me way longer than it should have (maybe 2hrs). I lay her down on her stomach with her arm bent at her side—this is relevant later.”

“Anyway, we start tattooing and within maybe 10 mins she starts getting a string of texts from her freshman friends, telling her they’re essentially ousting her from their group and they don’t want her to contact them again.”

“Super mean stuff, obviously she’s upset. As she’s relating all this to her BF, she starts crying, then full on sobbing. I asked her if she wanted to stop, but she insisted on me continuing, and I felt too awkward to counter her.”

“She continued to sob on and off for probably another hour, while I just kept plugging away at this dumb little tattoo. At this point she had cried so much that her tears had gathered where her arm was pressed against the massage table and had started to spill over into my lap.”

“So I’m feeling uncomfortable as hell, and now also damp. THEN, as I’m within 30 mins or so of finishing, she begins whimpering, then moaning…loudly. At one point she tells the BF ‘this is more intense than anal’ and I wanted to die.”

“As soon as I finished and checked her out, my coworkers (who had all been waiting on me to close) were like ‘what the actual f*ck was going on, and why did you keep going??’ But in the moment, all I could think was to finish the tattoo asap.”

“To her credit, she came back (a year later!) and told me she had been too embarrassed to come back but loved the butterfly and wanted another tattoo from me. Her second session was pleasant and without incident.” – More-Presentation-52

These stories are definitely unique.

Hopefully, we’re able to learn from these professionals tales so we can be better first timers.

And remember to treat your artists well when they’re putting something permanent on your body.

Posted on

Cruise Ship Staff Share The Most Disturbing Insider Secrets All Passengers Should Know

Whether we’ve been on such a trip before or not, many of us enjoy ruminating on the fun that could be had on a comforting cruise.

But after hearing from some Redditors with cruise ship experience, the voyage may not be as merry and happy-go-lucky as we might have thought.

Redditor maudiestirling asked:

“Cruise ship staff of Reddit (cleaners in particular), what are some disturbing secrets passengers should know?”

Some came ready to deliver.

“A lot of people die. Depending on the line, it’s not unusual for a couple a week.”

“Depending on the age of the ship, there are decent odds someone died in that room.”

“Also, if you receive an upgrade mid-cruise, there’s a reason why a room is suddenly available.” – Watertightdoors

“That if you die onboard at sea from something other than natural causes (heart attack, old age), your death will probably not be investigated properly.”

“Ships need to get back to port on time to load up the next set of passengers. Which means details are swept under the rug.” – cruisefromottawa

“Especially if you’re on a flag of convenience ship far from that country’s territory. Panama, Liberia, or Malta aren’t going to send someone across the world for one homicide.”

“If the death happens in international waters, the country of the ship’s registry is what law applies and who has the right to prosecute.”

“Only Malta might even try and that’s assuming you were near an EU port where they might be bound to investigate as part of being a member.” – SouffleStevens

“I was touring a ship for a future event. The ship was about to leave for a 100+ day cruise.”

“I saw a lot of old people getting on with oxygen tanks. I asked him what happens if they die on board.”

“He said it was very common for old people blow their life savings to come to spend their last days on this cruise. He also said they have a fully functional morgue.” – Crusha79

“I’ve been working on ships for almost a decade now, engineering department. When the Eb*la scare of 2014 went down, I was crewing a passenger ferry.”

“During a safety meeting, someone asked what would happen if we got a passenger showing symptoms.”

“We were told the ship would be quarantined until the disease had run its course. Imagine just sitting in the bay on an Eb*la ridden ship.” – i_hate_msds

Others said disappearances are common, as well.

“There have been a few relatively high-profile cases where someone has disappeared from a cruise ship, there are plenty of places to hide.”

“Rebecca Coriam and Amy Lynn Bradley are two of the most well-known ones.” – Chalantcop

“On my last cruise, my wife and I were woken up at 3:30AM by the Captain over the loudspeakers throughout the entire ship. He announced that a 15-year-old girl was missing, requested anyone with any info call a specific number.”

“It was really unsettling to be woken up like that and given that information. My wife and I started talking about it and I remember saying, ’15-year-old girl on a cruise in the Caribbean unsupervised, all this booze flying around? She’s been raped, murdered, stuffed into a suitcase, and thrown overboard.’”

“My wife just stared at me disgusted and asked, ‘What the f**k is wrong with you that you would think that?’ Law and Order SVU, my dear, that’s what.”

“About 15 minutes later the Captain came back to announce they found her safe and sound. She was in the library and fell asleep (SURE she was.) Still, it was unsettling and left an impression on me.” – dinosaur_copilot

Some stressed the importance of traveler’s insurance.

“Getting airlifted off a ship in a medical emergency costs a fortune, and your insurance will likely not cover it. It’s the best reason for purchasing travel insurance.” – Scrappy_Larue

“Travel insurance is also cheap. I think it was $20 for a week for me and my wife the last time we traveled. Included like $1 million in airlifting coverage on top of other stuff.” – RedTib

Some talked about work conditions and expectations.

“I was a musician on cruise ships for a year. As mentioned before, you’re not going to get cleaners on here because their work schedule is a disturbing secret. Anyone that works below deck and not always in view of passengers usually works 70-80 hour weeks while sharing a cabin the size of a closet with 4 people.”

“Also, crew members from India aren’t allowed to get off the ship in the US during their first contract (maybe two, can’t remember) because too many Indian cruise ship workers would get off the ship and never come back.” – whiteglassfan

“Are the stewards trained to read minds? Or are they just amazing at their jobs? Do they have monitors watching the doors to see when you leave so they can clean?”

“I was taken along on a ladies cruise by a cruise-crazy family member (husband’s aunt), and I’d never been on a cruise before. We stayed in the Concierge level (because the one who was paying was posh).”

“My room steward was a Filipino man and he absolutely made my stay amazing. I asked about an extra pillow one day to use as a body pillow, and he took pillows and sheets and made me this big Tootsie roll thing for a body pillow. Every day it was rerolled with a clean sheet.”

“I loved the toiletries and used up an entire bottle of lotion every day on my sunburnt body, so each day I began finding 3 bottles of lotion with the clean towels.”

I ordered an iced tea with 2 lemons in 2my room after dinner 2 nights in a row and for the remaining nights of the trip, when I came back to my cabin after dinner there was a cold iced tea, 2 lemons each time.”

“I swear, the second I left the room for meals it got cleaned or turned down or fancied up.”

“I was a poor slob who spent a week feeling like a queen because of that guy.”

“I asked my posh host about tipping etiquette at the end and she gave me an envelope for him. It had $400 in it. I added another $100 from my spending money.”

“He made the trip for me. Thank you, Filipino steward dude on my Celebrity cruise in April 2013, you rock.” – chickenpants80

There were also some gambling tricks. 

“Not sure if it’s true or not, but a casino staff member told us that the poker machine payouts are set higher in the first two days to make you win, and thus make you want to play more.”

“Then as the ship enters international waters, they don’t need to have the same regulated payout percentages and it gets lowered to like 50 percent, so you have a very very slim chance at winning anything after the first few days.” – smallpotatoes_

“This is why gambling on poker machines is so utterly stupid – they can be programmed to deliver payouts whenever the owners want.”

“It’s not like gambling on roulette, or a card game: those are based on physical objects which can’t be manipulated like a computer program can.”

“H**l, you could program a poker machine to never pay out, but you can’t stop a roulette ball from falling in slots with a particular probability.” – humanoid12345

It may be fun to go on a cruise, but this particular group of Redditors was ready to remind us the trip may not be as great as it appears to be.

Even if we don’t see something worrisome on our trip doesn’t mean there was nothing to worry about.

Posted on

Aestheticians Share Their Biggest Client Horror Stories

Not every job is a glamourous endeavor.

Sometimes you work in the deep underbelly of the world, making things work behind the scenes and helping society function as a silent hero.

And then there’s aestheticians, people who work in salons or a spa and remove unwanted hair—often with wax.

And sometimes things go wrong. Beauty isn’t pretty, it would seem.

Also, in case it wasn’t obvious, some of these stories are certainly NSFW.

Be warned.

Reddit user, Hairy-Whodini, wanted to know:

“People who shave or wax private parts for a living – what are your horror stories?”

It’s Nature

“Laser Tech for 4 years. Lady started her period on the table mid session. Luckily the area was completely covered for sanitization and I was almost done zapping her. Finished up and sent her on her way.”

“She was MORTIFIED, I felt bad for her. Not her fault, aunt Flo is a nasty cruel bitch sometimes. Lol. She gave me a generous tip tho, that was nice.” ~ JadedFennel999

Stepping Up To Be Practiced On

“I wasn’t the practitioner but my BF and I were practice models thanks to my high pain tolerance and he was the only male willing to do it. They did sugaring practice…”

“I had a girl get her hand sugar wax glued to my arm for 20 minutes, another get her hand stuck literally to my bf ass cheeks, and a third girl got her glob of wax stuck to her own face.:.all in the span of one session.”

“I felt so bad for them, the trainer had to go get the dissolve spray stuff to unstick everyone.”

“Also one girl apparently accidentally got a tampon stuck to the wax and pulled earlier that week…” ~ S3xySouthernB

Missing. Parts…

“My mom was an aesthetician and she told me of a horror story she had. A woman came in for a Brazilian waxing, a regular of my mom’s.”

“My mom said that she must have been dehydrated that day, which can make the skin easier to tear, because when she pulled the strip way, she ripped her lady bits. Blood everywhere.”

“My mom described it as ‘looked like a bowling ball down there’.”

“The woman was totally chill and made a joke saying something along the lines of ‘I guess I won’t be having sex for a while!’ It took a while to heal but she eventually did go back to my mom as a regular again.”

“And made sure she was hydrated.” ~ 

The Worst Class Of All Time

“When I was in cosmetology school, we had to practice Brazilians on one another. My usual class partner (who was chefs kiss at waxing) wasn’t there for the day it was my turn to be waxed, and I was partnered with another girl.”

“I liked her as a person but omg she had no idea what she was doing.”

“She wasn’t pulling my skin at all so I was trying to grapple down there and make everything taut. She was waxing in improper directions, and PULLING THE STRIP THE WRONG WAY THEN HAVING TO REWAX AND DOING IT AGAIN.

“A classmate stood over my face at one point and asks ‘how’s it going?!’ and I SNAPPED. Do NOT approach me while my coochie meow meow is being massacred.”

“The prof ended up having to take over. By the end of it, I had burns, some tears, and my entire no no square was red for a week. 0/10 do not recommend.” ~ funnygirlsaywhat

Take. A. Shower.

“I talked to a beautician friend about this once so I’ll just get the big one out of the way…”

“People who don’t wipe properly and lie about it like they did.” ~ MrShortPants

“Who the f-ck doesn’t shower before this sort of thing?” ~ prostateExamination

Even The Instructors Get It Bad

“Not my story, but our teacher in beauty school. She was waxing someone on her period (not uncommon, just wear a tampon) and she didn’t realize that the wax had stuck to her tampon string.”

“When she went to pull the strip, the tampon flew out and was obviously an embarrassing mess. Now we’re taught to put an applicator over the string or push it out of the way while laying the strip.” ~ supagirl277

“One of my instructors in beauty school told us about when she was a student and her class learned to do waxing (back then cosmetologists in my state were taught to wax everything but these days we only do neck and above).”

“Her instructor grouped the ladies up and then told them, ‘ok, go ahead and remove everything below your waist’ and the students proceeded to wax each other. Talk about getting to know your beauty school pals well!” ~ BurningValkyrie19

Please Don’t Talk To Me…

“While in esthetics school during Brazilian training I was a model for 2 girls. One of the girls spreads my butt cheeks apart to the point my skin was hurting to evaluate the situation and she commented on how nice my butthole was.”

“Will say it was extremely awkward and interesting sitting there on all 4s while they wax me lol. Just for reference, typically when waxing you start from the back coming forward or at least that’s how we were taught” ~ Kashhuu

Take. A. Shower. People. It’s Not That Hard.

“Oh wow I have so many. I am a full body waxer and I probably do 15-25 Brazilians a day.”

“The amount of women who come in with poop in their butts is ASTOUNDING. Like it’s a regular topic of convo between me and my coworkers.”

“I used to have a male Brazilian client who would always tell me I was hot during his wax and then ask me to leave the room when I was finished so he could get dressed (in private, after I already saw the whole kit and caboodle??).”

“And then there would always be a mountain of tissues in the garbage. Not discreet bro.” ~ msnic21

Throw Away The Entire Internet

“A coworker was doing this nice lady’s bikini. When the time comes to do around the butthole, the lady grins and says « you’ll get a little surprise! »”

“So coworker, of course, wants to know what she means, client tries to get cute by going « oh, you’ll see, haha! » Coworker stands her grounds so the clients finally says that she was back from a trip where she got some sort of butt worms that she called her « little buddies » and that she says are « very cute, haha! »”

“Coworker sent her out without touching the client’s butt.” ~ Leipreachn

“Oh Damn. I’m leaving my phone in the garbage just reading that. Goodbye!” ~ RegularLisaSimpson

Just All Of The Worst Stuff

“STDs, unknown smells, unknown discharge, and a guy who blew his load everywhere while I was waxing his balls. Beauty industry is not glamorous at all.” ~ _3309

Oh. My. Lord.

I think I’ve hit my TMI limit.

Posted on

Doctors Share Their Craziest ‘I’m Glad You Mentioned That Symptom’ Moments

Believe it or not, doctors are human, too. They don’t always get it right and it can be difficult to narrow down symptoms and come to conclusions.

That’s why many of them might ask you a million questions–or repeat some that you were under the impression you had already answered.

Doctors depend on you just as much as you depend on them! That’s why it’s up to patients to advocate for themselves and be as open, direct and as honest as possible about any and all of their symptoms.

As you can imagine, all doctors have crazy stories about how they were able to come to a diagnosis… and how it came down to a patient mentioning something, no matter how innocuous it might have appeared on the surface.

Doctors—and some patients—told us about medical problems eventually detected and treated after a Redditor asked:

“Doctors of Reddit, what’s your ‘I’m glad you mentioned that symptom’ moment’?”

“The oncologist decided to stage the cancer immediately…”

“Family member recently had a breast cancer diagnosis and in passing mentioned their hip hurting really badly. The oncologist decided to stage the cancer immediately and it had spread to the bones, specifically the hip and spine.”

“Was encroaching on the spinal cord…they started radiation fairly quickly and were able to control its progression on the spine before starting hormonal treatment. But it’s a good thing they did mention the hip pain as they usually don’t like to “complain” as they put it.” ~ surfinwhileworkin

“She was relatively young…”

“Absolutely lovely patient presented with low back pain. We worked together for a few weeks, she was getting better, and she mentioned she got up several times a night to urinate. She was relatively young, that isn’t super normal, so I asked how often.”

“Six to eight times a night! Not only was she exhausted from lack of sleep, she mentioned intercourse had been painful for years since the birth of her child. She thought it was normal, and just suffered through.”

“No one wants to talk about urinary or fecal incontinence or pain with intercourse, but it happens so frequently in reproductive age women I’ve started screening questions so I can direct people to pelvic floor physical therapy.”

“She caught up with me later and said the PT was life-changing.” ~ anthrologynerd

“20 minutes later…”

“I was a patient. I’d gone in to see one doctor, complaining of headaches. My eye was red and swollen, and I was sensitive to light. She said it was allergies and migraines, and told me to use eye drops and take Midol.”

“After two weeks, it was so much worse, so I saw a different doctor in the same building. I gave her all the same symptoms, but this is where I changed it.”

“I said, ‘The pain in my head is so bad, it’s only on this side, it feels like fireworks behind my eye, and I want to take a knife and cut my head right here’ – I pointed directly at my temple – ‘so the pressure can be released.’”

“Apparently the delusion of believing I’d survive that, combined with the way I described the pain, clicked something in her brain.”

“20 minutes later I was on the way to the ER with a diagnosis of orbital cellulitis which was eating its way towards my brain and had been for nearly three weeks. They were close to removing my eye and surrounding tissue but I luckily responded to the emergency antibiotics.”

“The pain was so bad that I was screaming even on morphine. Eventually, they switched me to Dilaudid when my dad mentioned that morphine didn’t help him or my grandfather. I guess we metabolize it too quickly or something?”

“So I learned two things that night: If I hadn’t mentioned how severe the pain was and the lengths I’d go to for it to stop, I don’t know if they would have caught it before there were more serious consequences.” ~ itsbadtonight

“I had stomach pains for months…”

“I had stomach pains for months and kept going back to my GP about it. We tried tons of different meds, but I still kept waking up in the night with this horrible stomach pain. Finally, probably my 7th or 8th appointment, I mentioned having shoulder pain when my stomach hurt.”

“Boom.”

“She immediately knew I had gallstones and had to have my gallbladder removed. I think because I was young and in good health, it didn’t even occur to her until I mentioned the shoulder pain. Apparently, that’s a symptom of gallstones.”

“Doctors aren’t perfect, but people have to be their biggest health advocates. If I had just given up or gotten frustrated, I might never have figured out the problem.” ~ ScarletWitch2138

“Months later I started seeing flashes…”

“Patient here. My eye doctor mentioned in passing that I needed to come in if I ever saw new flashes or floaters. I am young but very nearsighted.”

“Months later I started seeing flashes. I wasn’t worried about it but did have my doctor’s voice in my head so I made an appointment. Sure enough, my retina had detached and I needed emergency surgery to save my vision.”

“I am so thankful the eye doctor casually mentioned that and I listened to my gut.” ~ moor1238

“I had a dude come in…”

“I had a dude come in with abdominal pain and vomiting. Had been vomiting for days. Was going down the surgical route with him until he mentioned that he showered up to 20 times a day to help with the pain.”

“Turned out he had classic cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome.” ~ kenhutson

“He also was extremely malnourished…”

“Doctor currently in residency here.”

“Had a patient I was taking care of in the inpatient medical ward who was admitted for seizures in the context of alcohol withdrawal.”

“He was a young guy who had become depressed due to several life stressors including divorce and losing his job which exacerbated his pre-existing alcohol use disorder.”

“He also was extremely malnourished (not uncommon in alcoholics) and had a very low BMI. Apparently, he had zero appetite due to depression. At one point he had started feeling better and his appetite improved.”

“However, his heart rate was consistently very high for no clear reason and he was experiencing palpitations. I had a hunch to check electrolytes and several had dropped to very low levels. The reason for this is something called ‘refeeding syndrome.’”

“Basically if someone has not eaten for a while and suddenly starts eating a lot, they become very insulin sensitive which can lead to electrolyte disturbances that can cause abnormal heart rhythms and even death.”

“We put him on continuous cardiac monitoring and aggressively replaced his electrolytes, but it was scary how at-risk he was to going into an arrhythmia simply for just eating food.” ~ PMME

“I had food poisoning once.”

“Google doctor.”

“I had food poisoning once. For a couple of days, I didn’t eat anything, couldn’t hold down much water. The vomiting passed, still didn’t feel like eating, could drink water though. Felt like death, really weak, on edge, like I was going to die.”

“‘Impending feeling of doom.’ – I Googled that phrase plus ‘food poisoning’ and came across electrolyte depletion.”

“One dose of rehydration salts and I went from ‘I feel the end is near’ to ‘F*ck, I’m starving, where’s the nearest Subway?’ in about 20 minutes.” ~ nousernameusername

“My doctors in the U.K. said I was just getting older…”

“Patient. I was getting awful brain fog, getting pretty sleepy in the day but almost insomnia at night, I’d get random heart palpitations that made me feel sick, manic states of anxiety at night, and I’d get a UTI pretty much every other month.”

“I felt like I was losing my mind. My partner at the time just said I needed to exercise and lose weight. My doctors in the U.K. said I was just getting older and the UTIs were normal for reproductive age.”

“I went to my doctor to talk about getting another set of antibiotics for a new UTI when I mentioned I had been getting some heart palpitations. Luckily he probed further and sent me for a blood test.”

“Turns out I have a lifelong autoimmune disease that attacks the thyroid, essentially depriving me of hormones and sending my adrenal gland into overdrive.”

“Now I’m medicated I no longer have any of those symptoms aside from afternoon sleepiness. I hate to think what state I’d be in if I didn’t get it sorted when I did.” ~ MD564

“This lady had been seeing nothing…”

“Black stools. Folks, if you’re having black poops for f*ck’s sake, mention that sooner rather than later.”

“This lady has been seeing nothing but black for MONTHS before she thought to mention anything. We found several gastric ulcers and a hemoglobin level that circled the drain.” ~ RowanRally

These stories are wild, and if you’re currently re-evaluating your prior approach to doctor’s appointments, then good. They’re there to help you, so you might as well be honest, right?

The lesson here, and we’ll repeat it, is be your own advocate. You are your best advocate.

Speak up!

You’ll be happy you did and doctors will thank you later.

Posted on

Mall Santas Confess The Creepiest Thing A Child Has Ever Asked For

It’s Christmas and that means time to have a chat with Santa.

Have we been naughty or nice? What is on your list?

My mother used to take me to see mall Santa every year. And every year I’d ask for the common superficial gifts.

I always assumed the rest of my peers were asking for the same things. As I grew older I came to find out that was not the case.

People have been asking these mall Santas for things that could get all of us on a Dateline NBC episode.

It seems some kids think Santa is a hitman. That is a request that can keep you up at night.

Redditor SantasCousin wanted to get into some scandalous Christmas tales from all the mall Santas out there.

So they asked:

“People who have been Santa at the mall, what’s the creepiest thing a kid has asked you for Christmas?”

I have a feeling it won’t just be the children indulging in questionable requests and behavior.

Let’s get to some details.

Can I have the Leftover?

“Had a kid ask ‘Santa, what happens to all the dead kid’s toys?’.”  ~ marxroxx

“I feel like he just sees a business opportunity.”  ~ ReverseTuringTest

Boyfriend Santa Says…

“My boyfriend is a Santa for private events, and has been doing it for over 20 years, so he has a BUNCH of stories.” 

“He was doing a private adults-only party, so all of the ladies were being a bit flirty, but nothing crazy. ‘Santa Baby’ started playing and the ladies dragged him onto the dance floor.”

“He shimmies a bit and goes to sit back down when a woman grabs him and starts grinding on him.”

“He tries to get away from her in character (‘What will Mama Claus think?’), but she keeps on grinding and starts to moan.”

“Finally, the hostess notices and gets her away from him, but she kept trying to get to him the rest of the night.”

“The saddest story was definitely when a little kid (4 or 5) crawled into his lap and, with a big, sweet smile, asked Santa.”

“’Can you make my mommy love me?’”

‘My BF has to hug the kid so he wouldn’t see him tearing up and told him that that was a request for a higher power and that he and Mama Claus would pray about it.”

“Kid seemed happy with that response.”  ~ nursejacqueline

Bad Elves

“I wasn’t a mall Santa, but one of the elves who took the pictures.”

“We had two Santas: one was narcoleptic and we had to keep waking him up, and the other would bring his own homemade bags of coal to give to the kids who would cry.”

“And we’d have to try to seize all the bags before he started his shift. That was a fun job.”  ~ craychel

‘get better and not die’

“Not a Santa, but I remember being in hospitals a lot as a kid with serious stomach issues.”

“I remember asking a mall Santa if I could ‘get better and not die’ once when I was about eight or nine years old.”

“When the mall Santa looked at me sadly and said he couldn’t do that, almost in tears, I asked if my old dog that died as a puppy could be brought back as a zombie so ‘we could both be dead together’.”

“‘And if I could come back as a zombie too so I could stay with my parents so they wouldn’t be sad’.”

“Looking back, that was really creepy and I think I broke the poor guy’s heart.”  ~ Emmax1997

For the Menu…

“I wasn’t a mall Santa, but I played one of his elves.”

“I think the worst thing a kid ever asked for was some reindeer sausage. He figured Santa could slaughter one of his reindeer for the venison.”  ~ Dubioushonesty

“Ikea in the UK sells, or at least used to sell, reindeer meat its delicious maybe he had some and wanted Santa to bring him more.” ~ homingstar

One Big Kick!

“Not a mall Santa but I was the ‘Best Buy Box’ for a number of Holliday seasons in the early 2000’s.”

“One year we set up a chair where you could take a picture with me. Soon it turned into people just telling me what they wanted for Christmas.”

“Sometimes I’d have a stack of $5 gift cards and I’d give them out randomly.”

“One kid sits down and says he wants to kick me in the crotch.”

“The suit was heavily padded and there was a good 10 inches or so from the bottom of the box to my love spuds.”

“Being 19 and wanting to put on a good show, I said sure.”

“Kid winds up and musters the best kick he had. I played it up even though he actually hit my thigh. I remember everyone thinking it was so funny.”

“I loved the early Holliday seasons working there. Some of my best memories came from those times.”

We had a fantastic management team who were like family.”

“Then it all changed and everything went sour. Such is life, I guess.”  ~ mcfuddlebutt

Security for Santa Please! 

“Former mall Santa, even bought a professional suit because I hated the one they provided. I got a few creepy stories that involves, college students and adults.”

“Kids: A little girl no more than 5 was screaming bloody murder when it was her turn.”

“Kids get scared of Santa, not that uncommon. Her dolled up mom was having none of her child’s tantrum and the Elves were pleading with her to not put the girl on my lap.”

“She did and at her kid instantly stopped screaming.”

“Just had this look of pure hatred at her mom for the remainder of the photo session.”

“I swear, I thought I was on Candid Camera (before YouTube y’all) it looked so acted out.”

“Attempting to talk to the little terror, I asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she looked at me and softly said just above a whisper, ‘for my Mommy to die’.”

“NOPED myself to a break after that one. It was the inside joke for the rest of the mall Santa season, (whispering to each other between kids) ‘I want you to die!!!!’”

“College Students: One rather lonely overweight gal kept getting in line several times a week to get pictures with Santa.”

“I was in college myself back then and I’m pretty sure she was working herself up to asking me out.”

“Extremely shy, awkward and had some hygiene issues.”

“She only paid for one of the photos but the elves remember seeing her throughout the week when I wasn’t on shift.”

“Apparently only got pictures with me.”

“Adults: I was in my 20’s and the perverted things the MILF’s whispered into my ear while sitting on Santa’s Lap were definitely something for the naughty list to be sure.”

“It became so frequent for the younger Santas to get groped, teased, etc…, that the Elves were told to stay close when adults got their pictures taken. Elf security to be sure.”  ~ Draidr

Bad Sister

“Not a Santa but was a kid that asked for my sister’s tears in a bottle.” ~ LMNOPede

“Today her tears, tomorrow her soul muahahahaha.” ~ WreakingHavoc640

Not a fan of babies…

“Not a mall Santa, but my fire department does a Santa visit to all the houses in my town.”

“We have a few guys dress up as Santa and we drive around going house to house in the fire engines.”

“One year when I was Santa we go to a house with a married couple and two kids.”

“The woman is clearly pregnant. The daughter, about 10-12, creeped the hell out of me.”

“I asked her what she wanted for Christmas and she looks at her I assume step mom and says dead pan. ‘I want the baby to die’.” 

“Jesus Christ, kid.” ~ pokemon-gang

A Kid’s POV

“I remember when I was a little kid, my sister asked Santa for a pony.”

“I was next, so I asked for rat poison… for the pony. 10-year-old me was an edgy little as**hole.”  ~ Redpeng11

For a stew or a spell?

“My grandmother was a Mrs. Claus, one year a kid asked for a dead chicken.” ~ memelordsupremelawd

People can be weird—all people, including kids.

And clearly kids are the weirdest.

I couldn’t do this Santa gig.

Or the elves or Mrs. Claus. I’d be turning kids and adults in to the authorities left and right.

I would also certainly have a stun gun on hand.

Geesh… whatever happened to asking for toys? Games? A puppy? Peace on Earth!!

This is more Halloween than Christmas.

Happy Holidays?

Posted on

People Explain The Reason They Walked Out Of A Job Interview

Job interviews are a major head game.

On one hand, they’re very exciting. An invitation to interview is one of the later steps in the journey to landing a new job.

And yet, they’re wildly performative, forcing us not to be ourselves, be polite, show off our skills and demonstrate general likability all in less than an hour.

It’s no wonder Redditor JimmySaulGene wondered about one of the more chaotic ways that could all go down.

They asked:

“People who walked out of a job interview, why did you do it?”  

For one person, it all came down to personality.

“Years ago, I went to an interview, and sat down with the man who was to interview me. Sat in silence while he read something on his computer for a few minutes, then waited for a minute or so while he looked over my resume (it was a small business, he is the same person who called me to set up the interview and he’d had the resume for a few days.)”

“He finally looked up at me and said, ‘Well, I’m not sure why you applied for this job; you really don’t have any of the skills or experience I’m looking for.’ He was just so arrogant and I felt like he was trying to make a power move to make a lowball offer.”

“I didn’t apply to any job that I wasn’t qualified for. I was just instantly pissed that he was playing games. I calmly said, ‘Then I’m not sure why you‘re wasting my time,’ and I stood and walked to the door.”

“He said something like, ‘Oh, no, let’s talk,’ and I told him I wasn’t interested in working for him.”

“I had a job already, I just wasn’t terribly happy with it, so I really didn’t feel like putting up with his b.s.” — RumBunBun

Another person was stunned by a big twist. 

“Showed up for a construction/trades workers ‘hiring event.’ I’m a plumber by trade and work was bleak as hell in my city at the time, so I went. Sh** looked legit until they sat us down to speak about the work scope.”

“They claimed to be one of the companies that were building Rogers Place in Edmonton. After they gave us sketchy details they said ‘however, if you don’t want to do that you can….’ And started speaking about how to do door to door sales of mostly chocolate in the higher end communities around the city.”

“They talked construction for maybe 15 minutes and the rest was door to door chocolate sales and unicef fundraising and how we can have an income of 150k+ a year doing that. I left probably 20 minutes into that. I had a friend who champed it out and stay the entire time. The stories he told me were hilarious.”

“Ironically, 30 minutes after I left, I got a call from a company who was actually a contractor on the Rogers Place job and ended up working for them for 4+ years.” — kokumslayer69

In this example, the Redditor was a fly on the wall.

“The guy interviewing me interrupted the interview to scream at one of his employees. Like red in the face screaming and berating the guy. And then tried to just pick up where we left off like it was nothing. No thank you.” — DrunkBeavis

This Redditor just had a bad feeling. 

“I’m a vet tech. Interviewed at a primary care, single doctor practice. The manager was over 25 minutes late to my interview. While I waited for her, the front desk staff ignored me while they talked crap about the techs, manager, and clients.”

“The manager said they did not believe in referring to any specialists, because ‘Dr. A is a specialist in everything from grizzly bears to canaries.’ He was not, he hadn’t even done a rotating internship and definitely had not done any type of residency program.”

“I had already worked in a toxic clinic, but at least the doctors were competent. When she asked if I had any questions, I just asked if I could have my resume back, so I didn’t waste the paper.” — Karbar049

This one was, well, just bizarre.

“Applied for a software developer position for an online retailer. First round of interviews was a traditional technical skills and whiteboard coding session, second round was a cultural fit interview with HR.”

“I assumed it would be an one on one interview with HR, it was a room with 20 something people applying for anything from legal to finance.”

“They asked us to stand up, then crawl into a ball and pretend we were flowers opening. At this point I honestly thought it was some kind of prank, then I saw everybody around me doing it.”

“I just said thanks for the opportunity and left.” — neolabaque

Another case came down to timing. 

“I once went to a job interview for a large welding shop, in the middle of a rain storm. After talking to the interviewer for 30 or so minutes, he walked me out to the shop floor to take a welding test. The machine we went to was in decent condition, but was literally sitting in a puddle of water.”

“The welding table’s legs were rusty and not grounded well, and also in said puddle. Over half the shop was flooded. I turned around and said ‘No thank you.’ Then proceeded to walk out the door. My life is worth more than $20 an hour.” — Alpha_Hellhound

This Redditor played with nothing to lose. 

“I should have; I stayed there out of morbid curiosity to see how low they would go, but I had made the decision I wasn’t gonna work there early in the process.”

“I’m glad I stayed. The last thing that happened in the interview was the CEO personally asking us all to promise that, if we ever make a mistake, the company will calculate how much that mistake cost us, and we will voluntarily pay the company that amount.” — Oudeis16

And of course, there was the guy selling snake oil. 

“I was approached at work (bagger for a major grocery store chain when I was 16) by a guy who asked me if I would be interested in making $1100 a week. He told me to meet him at one of the empty businesses in the same plaza after work.”

“He went on this long spiel about the melaleuka tree from Australia and how his company made soaps and shampoo out of it. Then he told me for $500 he would train me how to sell the products. I just turned and walked out the door with him yelling behind me that I would never amount to anything with my attitude.” — DeusEx-Machinist

This person strayed slightly from the prompt, but what a story. 

“Slightly different – I actually interviewed and was hiring by a call center that focused on getting donations for a variety of non-profit organizations (I was desperate). It was on a Thursday, and I was told to show up the following Monday.”

“When I showed up Monday morning, the entire business unit was completely empty. Like, stripped to the floor, wires hanging from the roof empty.”

“When I was there the week before, I saw around 20-25 cubicles of people all working diligently, a managers desk at the far back, and waiting area chairs with a table, all in one large room. To this day I have no idea what happened, I just know they got out of there quick in 3 days time.” — Digideegs

This Redditor found out how to have a good time regardless.

“Pyramid scheme advertised as ‘sales and marketing.’ “

“It was a group interview. They served wine for fu**s sake! They had obvious stooges initiating conversation about how great this opportunity was.”

“I got very drunk and stopped being polite about it.” — wonderbrawl

For most of us, interviews are pretty standard fare.

But should they turn out like one of these, feel free to show yourself out.

Posted on

Workers Get Poetic About Their Profession Using Only Haiku

We spend much of our time at work each day so it makes sense that people develop a sense of humor about it all. We also spend a considerable amount of time talking about what we do for our living, too.

Think about it. When was the last time you were hanging out with new people and to break the ice, they asked you, “What do you do for a living?”

It happens a lot, right?

But suppose you’re bored of launching into the same song-and-dance, the same boring explanation each time? After all, the answers you give have been committed to memory by now, haven’t they?

Imagine if someone asked you to describe what you do in the form of a poem. Things would get much more interesting then!

That was the principle of the matter here thanks to Redditor Lost_Borealin asked the online community:

“Writing only in haiku, what do you do for work?”

IT professionals definitely understand the struggle written about here:

“How can I help you?”

“Oh my god, it is blinking.”

“Try restarting it.” ~ TrafficGreat

And here’s another from someone in the same profession:

“You broke your laptop.”

“Somehow this is my problem?”

“Yelling won’t fix it.” ~ zerinsackeh1

Law school students definitely have heavy workloads, but this person is almost in the clear, hooray!

“I am in law school.”

“I do research for money.”

“Graduating soon.” ~ -MoodIndigo-

And here’s a peek into the future:

“I used to do that.”

“Now I write briefs all damn day.”

“But it pays the bills.” ~ OneFingerIn

X-ray technicians are undoubtedly busy these days!

“I see black and white.”

“Gray all over in between.”

“When X-rays hit you.” ~ -CrowWill-

Here we have a submission from someone representing Chipotle!

“Black or pinto beans?”

“You know guac is extra right?”

“Any sides with that?” ~ Noosents

And while not a job, here’s a submission from a satisfied customer:

“Whaddup cake day bro.

” “I ate Chipotle tonight.”

“It was damn good, thanks.” ~ TheMulattoMaker

Here’s a submission from someone who is not working currently—and we’re sorry to hear has been sick for some time:

“Work was years ago.”

“Unfortunately got sick.”

“On Reddit all day…” ~ GeniusEE

Here’s another person who’s unemployed—and we appreciate them being such a good sport:

“I am unemployed.”

“Guess I sit around a lot.”

“God I need a job.” ~ theEluminator

And now for a few submissions from the service industry.

Like this one:

“Put away returns.”

“Are you ready to check out?”

“Refrigerator.” ~ azemetrx

And another—this one from a store manager:

“May I speak with the-”

“Manager? That’s me, Karen.”

“Screaming then ensues.” ~ TitanCatTC

One from someone outlining the bane of every service worker’s existence:

“Is this a dollar?”

“Have you changed your prices yet?”

“Hey, do you work here?” ~ Euclybx

Another, this one from someone who has a knack for rhyming:

“Arranging produce.”

“So that customers buy it.”

“Just to deep fry it.” ~ MackeralSky

Another, this one from someone who does the same thing:

“At a grocery store.”

“I put out all the produce.”

“Throw out all the bad.” ~ ggfchi

And one more, this one from a restaurant worker:

“Service industry.”

“But I cannot stand people.”

“So I bus tables.” ~ skinnybastard

Here’s someone doing some very important work that I’m sure many people are grateful for after the hellish last year-and-a-half that we’ve had:

“Vaccine researchers.”

“Rely on me to fill studies.”

“With lots of people.” ~ bellyflop2

Hey, remember what being a college student was like?

Don’t remember?

Well, here’s a reminder:

“Nothing but schoolwork.”

“Occasionally homework.”

“Ugh anyday now.” ~ Pagalingling40

Here’s someone who’s in school and decided to be clever… we see what they did there.

“What is a haiku?

“I’m in school so I don’t know.”

“So is this a haiku?” ~FewJackfruit1432

Here’s a teacher telling us how it is.

“I help shape young minds.”

“I put up with their parents.”

“I’m not paid enough.” ~ edgarpicke

This person perfectly summed up what it’s like to work remotely—so we’re guessing their life didn’t change much when the pandemic hit:

“It’s much like before.”

“I still help people.”

“But now I’m in my PJs.” ~ slice_of_pi

This person probably has some pretty interesting stories about the people who come into their shop:

“I need some money.”

“What is your collateral?”

“Maybe this TV?” ~ Winquisitor

We’re taking an educated guess here and guessing that this person does something with… wait for it… products:

“Writing about products.”

“Creating ads for products.”

“Posting about products.” ~ snowstormspawn

Oooh… we’ve got someone special over here.

Anyone have any educated guesses of their own?

We’re thinking something with a high security clearance.

“It is very rare.”

“Can’t be too specific.”

“Don’t want to dox myself.” ~ Hlodvigovich915

Okay, you know how hard scientists have worked over the last year to get us to understand the importance of taking the COVID-19 vaccine?

Here’s a submission from an epidemiologist who just had to express their frustration:

“Poxed populations.”

“Epidemiology.”

“Revered, then ignored.” ~ annoyedgrunt

Next one is a lawyer?

Someone in publishing?

Either way, they’re keeping you out of legal trouble:

“You can’t publish that.”

“It is copyrighted art.”

“Get permission now.” ~ Frysiel

Here’s a submission from someone who works with disabled individuals in their capacity at the Social Security Administration:

“Disabled people.”

“They want to go to work soon.”

“SSA questions.” ~ trashytamboriney

And here’s another submission, this one from someone who doesn’t sound too happy with that same government agency:

“Disabled people.”

“Waiting on phone forever.”

“Then disconnected.” ~ Batfink27

Here’s one from someone who’s definitely sick and tired of working in software development:

“So sick of fixing bugs.”

“So sick of feeling dumb every day.”

“Lots of money, but crushing.” ~ bctwoPoint0

I know what you’re thinking.

You’re thinking, “Hey, Mr. Writer! Give us a haiku of your own! What’s it like being a full time writer?”

Well, sorry to disappoint you all, but writing haikus isn’t my strong suit.

If you must know what being a writer is like, then I just want you to imagine sitting in front of your screen all day, largely in solitude.

But here’s one last one from an editor:

“Your mistakes are mine,”

“words to correct and refine.”

“Your errors—my job.” ~ LakotaGrl

Posted on

People Describe The Most Corrupt Thing They’ve Ever Seen Their Employer Do

Workplaces can be a bit rough around the edges and, especially if you’re new to the workforce, it can sometimes be hard to determine if everything that’s going on is above board.

Sometimes, though, employers do things that are so obviously corrupt it can be hard to believe they get away with it.

Redditor Chillay_ asked:

“What’s the most corrupt thing you’ve witnessed your employer do?”

No Overtime, Even If You Work Over Time

“Worked in a restaurant that didn’t allow employees to work over 40 hours as they did not want to pay any overtime. Instead of you wanted to work extra or if they asked you to work extra they would delete hours off of your time card to keep it under 40. They always asked you when they did that in a kind of hush hushed way so it wasn’t exactly without permission but I think it was bullshit all the same.” -cloudstrife1191

“Permission or not they’re breaking the law. It’s not suddenly legal because you agreed to it” -Hugebluestr*pon

“My class action lawsuit alarm bells are going off right now. If your employer does this, I would recommend filing a complaint with the US Department of Labor and also contacting an attorney who deals with wage/hour violations who can review the case. These are serious violations that should be stopped.” -UKnowDaxoAndDancer

You Just Can’t Cancel

“Had a job out of college selling yellow pages advertising. A big part of the job was just renewing the old ads in the book and we had to call each business to have them renew their ad. But as the yellow pages book became more and more obsolete more customers would cancel their ads. So the company changed the policy of having us call each business and instead put in a policy that any customer who didn’t specifically call to cancel would be auto renewed.”

“Then they would purposefully send out the renewal notices late enough that the customers couldn’t cancel in time to avoid the following years charges. If one of us did actually get a call from a customer looking to cancel and with time to legitimately do so and we actually cancelled them….fired.” -totspur1982

“Literally Fraud. A lawyer could tear this yellowpage company to pieces.” -Redditor

“And I believe a lawyer did for this and a multitude of other reasons. We also go charge backs on our check for cancellations, even if it wasn’t your original account. A few employees filed a class action lawsuit against the company and won. I got a nice check out of that.” -totspur1982

“I worked for a company like that, the “Customer Service Reps” (people who would field the customer calls asking for returns) were graded and given bonuses for how many sales they ‘saved.’ ‘Saved’ meaning how many people who called to return our products they tricked into holding on to it past the full refund window.” -HamsterIV

Check Your Pay Stubs!

“Growing up my father always told me to save my pay stubs and time receipts. I ended up working a job in my early 20 ‘s at an airport moving cars. I get my paycheck one day and i realize that it’s not right. So i do a little digging, and a lot of math, and i figure out that the company was taking hours from me.”

“I ask around and it turns out that they were taking hours from literally everyone at the job site. After doing more math we figured out that over the six months we all worked together, the company had stolen a combined 400 hours from eight people.” -42spuuns

“Wage theft is more money than all other forms of theft.”

“Robbery, fraud, burglary, etc – none of it accounts for more value/dollars than companies stealing money from their employees through under or non payment of wages.” -inthrees

“Would you like to know why?”

“It’s because if you steal from your boss, you go to prison. If your boss steals from you, it usually doesn’t get reported. If it does get reported there’s no jail time, but you have the option to sue. Suing takes years and the judgment doesn’t usually amount to all that was stolen, and your lawyer takes their cut out of the judgment. The ruling class made theft profitable when they do it, and unprofitable when we do it, and that is why they’re the country’s biggest thieves.” -reverendsteveii

“Also suing an employer will black list you from an industry so f*cking fast. ETA: and whether or not it was fully justified doesn’t matter.” -Kai_Emery

Tip Theft Is Rampant

“I was working at a small brewery / bar, and caught the owner dipping into the tip jar at the end of big nights.”

“It was a new place that just opened and was kind of struggling during the off season. We literally had a staff of two bartenders and the owners (husband and wife), so the bar staff would pool and split that days tips.”

“Come to find out that he was taking a cut of the tips because “he worked there too”. When I confronted him, I explained that its actually a violation of the FLSA. In fact it’s even an exact example listed as illegal things to do with tips. He argued that it was his right as owner and fired me, so I reported him to Dept. of Labor.” -Rustee_nail

“My girlfriend used to work at a deli where the owner was taking half the tips. She’s never worked food, so she suspected it was wrong, but didn’t know for sure. She asked me like “hey is this normal?” as I was a chef for a couple years, and I explained how taking tips as the owner is probably the most frowned upon thing you can do in the food service industry.” -Mirraco323

Why Bother With A Warranty?

“I was a mechanic that found out that the company was not letting me fix customers cars that had oil leaks when the customers had paid for a 200k mile warranty. The manager would tell the service writer to say that the warranty company declined it and eventually started making me take a photo to him so that he could tell me that the leak wasn’t bad enough to fix.”

“The customer paid for a warranty and the company wasn’t holding up their end of the deal because it was costing them money. They are one of the most profitable car dealerships in my town and now have 3 dealerships and are expanding.” -Idontgetitbrah

So Many Kinds Of Tip Theft

“When I used to housekeep at a hotel, our head housekeeper would go into all of our checkouts and steal our tips before we could get to them. I remember a few times seeing tips in my rooms and foolishly not thinking to pick them up before they disappeared. A few of my other coworkers witnessed similar instances.”

“At one point, a guest came up to me and said she’d leave a big tip in her room for me bc it was a mess. I found out later that the head housekeeper cleaned the room herself.”

“She walked out like a year later bc our GM demoted her to regular housekeeper bc everyone had complaints about her. She was a very awful person in general.” -Redditor

“When I was a housekeeper you’d get your room list at the beginning of the shift, so if we couldn’t finish that day the girls would go in all their rooms and take the tips, that way if they were off the next day or the room was someone else’s, they’d get nothing. The head housekeeper though worked salary so wasn’t allowed to keep tips even if they were handed to her.” -Tinycatgirl

“When She Felt We Deserved Them”

“A few years ago I was working/living at a McDonald’s in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The area manager decided to “save” the store so she became very… involved… in its day to day micromanagement. One payday morning she made an announcement that, because everyone kept coming in asking for their checks and bothering her, she would be giving them to us when she felt we deserved them.”

“I called the local Department of Labor, who referred me to the state, who referred me back to local, who then told me they just didn’t care and weren’t looking into it. It eventually resolved itself anyway when she handed checks out the next day.” -twistedlemon732

“See there’s your mistake. You should’ve called McDonalds corporate threatening to call the DoL. Much more effective!” -zvug

“Actually, just call McDonalds corporate. Don’t even need to threaten to call. McDonalds doesn’t screw around when it comes to paying workers anymore. That kind of stuff has led to several million in lawsuit settlements in just the past ten years.” -betterthanamaster

We’ve Known Asbestos Was Dangerous For Decades

“I work underground in the mines. One place started having, what the workers found out later, was asbestos type rock in the ore. The company took samples of it and then said it’s kind of like asbestos, but it’s not old enough to harm you. Later after a bit of more concern from the workers, it was found out that the sample they took came back as inconclusive due to something else. They lied and allowed their workforce exposure to asbestos. I quit after that and found work elsewhere.” -Chillay_90

That’s Not How Overtime Works

“One time when I was a chef in college, I worked 14 days straight, with half of those days being 12 hour days. This all fell in one pay period too. It was rough but it was summer and I was gushing over the amount over overtime I was about to get. It came out to like over 70 hours overtime. I was supposed get almost an additional $1000 dollars on my paycheck. I calculated the math with tax and everything and couldn’t wait to pick up my paycheck the next week for that pay period.”

“I pick it up, and the paycheck is quite larger than I’m used to given I normally only worked 25 hours a week, but there is ZERO overtime on it. It was short almost a a thousand bucks. I got to the HR office the next day (it was located at a different casino) and ask, and they go ‘yeah so in Nevada, you only qualify for overtime if you average 40 hours a week normally.’”

“That sounded like bullshit to me, but I asked my mom who used to run finances for our family business, and she says that IS in fact 100% bullshit. She pulled up the statute online and it clearly said if you exceed 8 hours in a day, you get overtime. It said nothing about a weekly average.”

“So printed that bitch out and drove right back down to the HR office, and showed it to them. The lady at the desk who just told me that lie calls out the head of HR. She would frequent the different locations to check in with people and was always nice, but you could always tell she was shady as fuck. They both seem to get very nervous and in a stuttering voice ‘okay we will reevaluate’”

“I never heard anything or got any apology, but when the next paycheck came, the exact amount of overtime I calculated was put on that paycheck down to the penny.”

“I tell some of the other guys in the kitchen what happened, and apparently the family who owned the casino our restaurant was located in was known for pulling shit like this. Making ‘accounting errors’ knowing a lot of people who do direct deposit don’t even look at their paystubs. Funny how these accounting ‘errors’ always ended up in saving the company money, and never gave the employee extra cash lol. A server no more than a few months later had the same exact shit happen to him. Rat b*stards.” -Mirraco323

Gaming The System

“At the first company I worked at the general manager had all his personal expenses paid by the company. His wife also had a company credit card and was paid a salary but she didn’t work. The company paid for things like their groceries, house mortgage, car payments and family vacations. The kicker is he wasn’t the owner of the company.”

“He had a creative accountant that hid these expenses but the owners became suspicious and they hired an auditor. It took them about 4 years to figure it out. He was fired and his family fled the country so I am not sure what happened to him.” -optoph

If your employer is doing something that seems shady, there’s a way for you to report it if it’s safe for you to do so.

You’re probably not the only one who is affected, and people doing shady things don’t usually stop unless they’re made to.