'Every conversation with her... leads back to her 5 cats': 25+ Workers who have had enough of "that guy" at their job

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Nov 27, 2023 11:00 AM EST

There's one in every office. Each business place has that one person who everyone else gives a side-eye to. They probably have some kind of personality quirk that irritates everyone. But it's the kind of thing that you can't go to HR for, because what is HR going to do about issues like "Tina is always breathing too loudly" or "Jack has been heating up three meals a day in the microwave and he lets the microwave count down to the beep each time"? These are minor issues, and we all have to live and let live, apparently. 

For these people, however, they have office mates who are extra annoying, and they're ready to share their stories with the world. 

Add as a preferred
source on Google
Advertisement

  • U/Ihlaking asked the r/askreddit community to share their stories of the person in their office who's “that guy,” and requested they share just what they find so irritating. There were a broad range of responses. Some people had issues with small things, like one person who can't be on time to leave, because they always decided to use the bathroom right when the office is about to head out for lunch. Other people had really big issues to address with their coworkers, like people whose whole personalities clashed with the workplace environment. 

    You can check out all these stories below. I learned a lot about what I shouldn't do in an office, and you will too! After that, check out these absolutely hilarious pet names given by shelters: names like “Thicken Nugget,” bestowed to a senior chihuahua.

  • 01
    '[He] goes to the break room, turns off the lights, and takes a nap... I'd like to eat lunch there."
    via airfocus on Unsplash
  • 02
    Office workers of Reddit: In your workplace, who is "that guy", and what does he do?
    via u/
  • 03
    + [deleted] I have a coworker who unironically changed her default Outlook font to maroon colored Comic Sans.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 04
    SeriousJack "Ok we move for lunch at 12:30. Ok with everybody?" 12:30: "Go go!" "5 minutes I'll go to the bathroom". And then we wait for 5 minutes with our jackets on and everything. Every. Single. Day.
    via u/SeriousJack
  • 05
    ▸ [deleted] He manages to slurp any food imaginable. Fried rice. Slurps. Salad. Slurps. sushi?? Slurps. He does it so loud the entire office/audience can here. It is so disgusting.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 06
    -eDgAR- The guy who finishes the coffee and doesn't make a new pot.
    via u/-eDgAR-
  • 07
    I_are_facepalm "Reheats fish in the microwave" guy. No further information required.
    via u/I_are_facepalm
  • 08
    S1NCLARE There is the guy who can't say a normal sentence. He has to use slang for everything. Example: Normal person: "Hey guys, I'm gonna go get some lunch, I'll be back in an hour."
    via u/S1NCLARE
  • 09
    That guy: "Hey peeps. I'm gotta catch some grindage on a lunchable, so I'm gonna jettison the escape pod. Catch you in a jif." No. Just no...
    via u/S1NCLARE
  • 10
    To top it off, he speaks and emails with military terms "ALCON" "Roger" etc. This doesn't inherently bother me, but it sets everyone else off and them complaining makes it worse. He is also an idea thief. We like to get him back by throwing ideas around that we know have failed in the past, then we wait for him to pitch them.
    via u/S1NCLARE
  • 11
    [deleted] At least once a week he warms up fish that smells like it went bad a month ago. He eats fish regularly because "it's healthy to eat fish regularly". I told him I'm pretty sure food that's gone bad isn't healthy for you but he responded with he didn't believe that "food going bad
    via u/[deleted]
  • 12
    megamaxie He runs, all the time. I don't think anything he does is important enough to justify it but everytime he's going to someone's desk he'll break into an awkward walk/run with his hand to his chest normally clutching a file.
    via u/megamaxie
  • 13
    Then when he gets to you he'll put his hands on your desk and stretch his legs like he's preparing to run a marathon, I've never seen anything like it.
    via u/megamaxie
  • 14
    [deleted] The guy who, knowing full well that everyone in the area can hear him, uses speakerphone for everything. Casual chat from his buddy upstairs? Speakerphone. Quick call from the wife? Speakerphone.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 15
    Call from the school about his daughter being a |? Speakerphone. Discussing his latest checkup with his doctor? Speakerphone. 2 hour conference call? right he's using speakerphone.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 16
    The absolute best is when several people in the area are on the same conference call, all using speaker.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 17
    fridaynightadvice. We have two of them. The first one is a higher up who is almost never at work and no one knows where she goes.
    via u/fridaynightadvice
  • 18
    We call her "bigfoot" since there are the occasional reported sightings of her. The other is her spy. She's the type of person who will do laps around the office to report back to bigfoot what everyone is up to. She has been dubbed "the drone." My office is interesting.
    via u/fridaynightadvice
  • 19
    ConstableGrey He's been working here for less than a month and he's demanding all of the newest equipment we have. We had two no- bezel monitors that were set aside for certain employees, so he came and took both of them (still in the box), and set them up in his office.
    via u/ConstableGrey
  • 20
    It felt good when we got to go take them away from him and give him some old monitors. I thought about giving him some 4:3 monitors, but I'm not that mean.
    via u/ConstableGrey
  • 21
    retrouvailles26 "That guy" is Judith, who likes to sit at her computer and laugh juuuust loudly enough that you have to ask "What's so funny?" and won't stop laughing until someone acknowledges her. She's also constantly complaining about her back pain and will do her PT stretches not two feet away from my desk.
    via u/retrouvailles26
  • 22
    + [deleted] We have that guy who creates tasks to make him seem necessary. Constantly reworking costing formulas, then forcing us to fix them when he screws them up.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 23
    krebstarpatron He's a talker. "Good morning, Bob." "Well, I'm not sure if I can say it's good. It's definitely the morning, I'll give you that, but good is a bit of a stretch. It's Tuesday though, which is one better than Monday! Just being honest, hahaha,
    via u/krebstarpatron
  • 24
    because you said good morning, and I thought, 'Well I'm not sure if I can agree with that.' Seriously though, good morning."
    via u/krebstarpatron
  • 25
    Magnusprim3 Our guy is the guy who thinks he's so clever about avoiding work, but is in no way fooling anyone.
    via u/Magnusprim3
  • 26
    He's also the guy who tells our boss he has narcolepsy when he falls asleep at his desk, but refuses to go to a doctor for proof. I'm pretty sure narcoleptics don't jolt awake when their boss walks by, dude.
    via u/Magnusprim3
  • 27
    MadDogTannen. I once worked with a guy who's boss caught him sleeping at his desk while working on some training. His response was "oops, sorry. This training is really boring."
    via u/MadDogTannen
  • 28
    jonnieve When a coworker tells an story, that guy gets into the conversation with a better story that happened to him or someone that he knows.
    via u/jonnieve
  • 29
    ron_e123 The one who still makes the awful hump day joke. Every. Week. Come the off it bro.
    via u/ron_e123
  • 30
    hank_moo_d The guy that makes long pauses between sentences, maintaining eye contact. "You see, i was watching tv last night..." 10 seconds of eye contact "and some show was on..." 15 seconds of eye contact while drinking water
    via u/hank_moo_d
  • 31
    mylifebelikelawl Whistles all day. I am just about ready to kill him any day now.
    via u/mylifebelikelawl
  • 32
    WhiteEraser The company I work for is full of them. Here's a brief description of some of them: Chain-Smoking Trucker Lady: She hates everything and everyone. She is out smoking every single 30 mins, despite the fact that she had cancer twice. She also likes to cook raw
    via u/WhiteEraser
  • 33
    chicken and various game in the (not re-heat, actually cook). She also rarely bathes and has the microwave worst smoker's cough I have ever heard (she sounds like she is coughing up a lung) Anytime she passes by someone she loudly sighs in order to voice her distaste for everything.
    via u/WhiteEraser
  • 34
    The Loses EVERYTHING: Accounts payable lady loses everything. Then she blames it on everyone else. It's gotten so bad that a form was created just for her. Every time someone hands her paperwork, they have her sign off saying she received it. A witness is always present.
    via u/WhiteEraser
  • 35
    The strolling troll: He trolls the office constantly, just lurking about. During his trolling, he always stops at every printer to rummage and snoop. As a result, printed papers get wrecked, put out of order, or he just takes them to with people.
    via u/WhiteEraser
  • 36
    The Singing Whistler: He sings and whistles about everything. It's Wednesday? Better sing and whistle about "Hump Day." Has to run to the bathroom? Better announce it through song. Gets yelled at by the CEO? Better sing and whistle in the most enthusiastic loud manner so that the entire office may hear.
    via u/WhiteEraser
  • 37
    The "HA!" Lady (who also got the boot recently): Everything she did she would finish it with a loud HA! You could have told her your dog died and she would still go HA! It wasn't quiet either, it was loud, so loud that I could hear her HA! from in my office, which is not even on the same floor as her cubicle.
    via u/WhiteEraser
  • 38
    no_talent_a_clown. Goes to the break room, turns off the lights and takes a nap. That's where the microwave is, and the refrigerator, and various other things, like the table. I'd like to eat lunch there, perhaps.
    via u/no_talent_a**_clown
  • 39
    NonorientableSurface. He's... special. We joke about having a twitter feed along the lines of "S#it my dad says", called "Oh John" (Not his name :P) Some of the amazing things he's done/said: • "Coworker (Female), how much do you weigh?"
    via u/NonorientableSurface
  • 40
    • "I only parked in front of a fire hydrant, why did I get a ticket?!?" • He leaves unopened/opene d yogurt in his desk drawer for days and then eats it. • Will eat an entire loaf of bread out of the bag. He holds a slice of bread in the plastic and eats it
    via u/NonorientableSurface
  • 41
    to prevent crumbs. • Will leave fruit sitting on his desk for 2+ weeks while he's on vacation and then ask where it went. • Runs his own personal business while at work He's special. We love him, but sometimes it's really weird.
    via u/NonorientableSurface
  • 42
    PM_ME_BAD_SELFIES Retail here, "that woman" is never prepared to leave the store when we're done working, but refuses to let you leave without her. We'll be done cleaning up, locking the doors, turning the lights off, and counting down the till, all while she sits there doing nothing and chatting with us which makes
    via u/PM_ME_BAD_SELFIES
  • 43
    us close slower, then when it's time to punch out she's gotta take fifteen minutes to gather up all her which means undoing a lot of the closing up we've done because in one she left her of the coolers or some other douchebaggery. I
    via u/PM_ME_BAD_SELFIES
  • 44
    hate working with her because I end up leaving on average half an hour later than I do when working with any of my other coworkers.
    via u/PM_ME_BAD_SELFIES
  • 45
    [deleted] I used to work for a federal government agency. There was a woman who'd been there since the Carter administration. Not a joke: She'd actually worked for President Jimmy Carter, who was President while my father was 14 years old.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 46
    Her job had long since been made irrelevant by Google News Alerts, but her boss was a political appointee position, which meant nobody stuck around long enough to go through the arduous process of firing her. I eventually asked my own boss about her and she replied that at this point, everyone was just waiting for her to retire.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 47
    Because she was incredibly , and because her job didn't matter any more anyway, an agreement was finally reached in which she would "Work" from home. Her entire job (which she was inexplicably terrible at) was to do a google news search of our agency and email any notable links to her boss, who would then correct the terrible job
    via u/[deleted]
  • 48
    that she'd done before forwarding those links to any relevant people in our office. But when her boss was out sick/vacation/whatever, she would have to send that email to ME. Which was apparently beneath her.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 49
    So she found a work around. She would send the email to our office administrator and tell HER to send the email to me. You know that bit from various sitcoms where a married couple aren't talking to each other, but they're sitting at the dinner table saying things like "Tell your father to pass the salt. "...dad, mom wants you to pass the salt." It was
    via u/[deleted]
  • 50
    a digital version of that. And it drove me INSANE. TL;DR Employee refused to email me. She would email other people not involved in the topic, and tell them to forward the email to me.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 51
    Jaycee3 We have a guy. He always speaks very deliberately and will answer honesly when you ask "hey how's it goin". When a local bar changed locations, he stopped frequenting because no seating "offered a viewpoint of all exits". One time, there was a spill in the stairwell and instead of
    via u/Jaycee3
  • 52
    cleaning it, posted a sign that read "Puddle may be dangerous". He is the closest you will find to a real life Dwight Schrute.
    via u/Jaycee3
  • 53
    + [deleted] She constantly complains about everything. She even begins her complaints with "I'm trying to stop complaining but..." And when I don't respond or complain with her she complains that I'm acting like something
    via u/[deleted]
  • 54
    is wrong. I just don't want to hear you complain for the 10th time about Sue taking more time off from work!
    via u/[deleted]
  • 55
    Tiggered This woman I work with surrounds herself with cats. Statues, pictures, screensavers, motivational posters, notepads. Every conversation with her eventually leads back to her 5 cats. If mittens, betsy, kitty, teller and patrick all d ed in a house fire it'd be the best day of my life.
    via u/Tiggered
  • 56
    Giant Mudcrab She is without a doubt the laziest, most oblivious employee ever. Nearly every day, when I walk by her workspace, she's either dozing or zoning out. Several times I've noticed her flat out asleep on the clock. She also never brings her own lunch and always mooches off everyone else for food.
    via u/Giant Mudcrab
  • 57
    No explanation, no thank you, nothing. She just stares at you until you feel guilty enough to share something.
    via u/Giant Mudcrab
  • 58
    As if that weren't enough, sometimes I'll be working and suddenly I'll hear this obnoxiously loud breathing. Pretty much panting, honestly. I guess some of this is to be expected when you're working with a dog, but whatever.
    via u/Giant Mudcrab

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

opinion terrible coworkers ask reddit boss workplace-stories jobs job funny stories annoying bosses work coworkers askreddit lunch workplace late funny break room opinions
Scroll Down For The Next Article