‘He just stooped to a whole new level of useless today and my brain cannot comprehend it’: Useless produce department worker ignores tasks and dodges responsibility every shift, pushing coworkers into overtime to clean up his mess

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Etai Eshet • Editor
Apr 17, 2025 7:00 PM EDT

There are employees who fly under the radar, quiet, competent, the workplace equivalent of background music: they don't distract or disrupt, they just get the job done. There are the eager workers, the ones whose productivity is as loud and overbearing as their motivational mug collection. And, of course, you can't forget (you probably can actually) the office ghost, the one no one has actually seen working, but everyone hopes will haunt someone else's shift soon.

But then, towering above all workplace stereotypes like a monument sculpted entirely from apathy, is a legendary specimen who manages to exist at the intersection of invisibility and visible dust. This is the coworker who specializes in underachieving with such consistency, it's almost an achievement. Some coworkers quietly do something, this one does nothing loudly.

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  • I’m proud to present to you the produce department’s resident expert in avoiding labor. On paper, he’s part of the team. In reality, he’s more of an anti-contributor, a one-man delegation machine who can push his workload onto others with all the subtlety of a fruit avalanche.

    A man who somehow manages to produce only a breathtaking display of disorder. By shift’s end, the cooler looked like it had hosted a produce-themed mosh pit.

  • "Absolutely losing my mind over how useless my coworker is."

    Cheezburger Image 10494067200
    via prostock-studio

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • I've vented about this idiot coworker of mine before, but he just stooped to a whole new level of useless today and my brain cannot comprehend it.
    via adellaid_e
  • I work in the produce department at my workplace, which is split between the outer section and the cooler. Typically, I like to hang out in the cooler and am the one who
    via adellaid_e
  • works in there the most, but my coworker was told that he needs to stay in there today - partly as punishment for being useless the day before and pushing his responsibilities
    via adellaid_e
  • Cheezburger Image 10494066688
    via dusanpetkovic
  • onto those who start at a later time. Happy for a change, I spend my day working in the outer section with another coworker and we had a lovely time not worrying about the cooler.
    via adellaid_e
  • Lo and behold, Mr. Useless has (once again) proved exactly how little work he actually does while simultaneously being the type to boast about how amazing of a worker he is. The cooler is left an absolute mess,
    via adellaid_e
  • Cheezburger Image 10494066944
    via d
  • with boxes everywhere to the point where it looks as if it hasn't been touched since the warehouse opened that morning at 9am. By 6pm, when it closed, it was still looking
    via adellaid_e
  • horrendous. His behaviour (as usual) gets excused by the fact that most nights, he gets taken from our department to be an EPJ driver and he shirks all accountability because he's not
    via adellaid_e
  • the one that has to deal with the mess later. Myself and two other coworkers ended up cleaning the cooler; this took us 30 minutes, whereas he had
    via adellaid_e
  • 4.5 hours to do one simple task that clearly seemed to be too much for him. This happens every single day, whether he's inside or outside.
    via adellaid_e
  • We have escalated these issues with him to every level of management possible except for the warehouse manager, who is hard to get a hold of because he works
    via adellaid_e
  • mornings/days and most of us work nights. We have shown managers proof of this coworker's horrible work ethic, described his laziness in detail, anything you can think of. I've
    via adellaid_e
  • gone to HR about him in relation to intentional gossip and harassment; they did nothing. Management has received so many complaints and given him so many
    via adellaid_e
  • warnings that they've given up. I almost risked a write-up today by wanting to rip him a new one for giving me so much work to do in the
    via adellaid_e
  • evening, but I just know that he would complain to another manager and I would get yelled at for calling him out.
    via adellaid_e
  • This guy is on another level of laziness and my management is so incompetent that they enable his behaviour by not giving him harsher
    via adellaid_e
  • punishments that would make him reconsider the security of his job. It's appalling, genuinely, and I don't have enough mental energy to dedicate to this. No one in my
    via adellaid_e
  • department deserves to deal with this and it's a daily occurrence. There's nothing we can do and that's the worst part of it all.
    via adellaid_e
  • RegisterLoose9918 I'm very intrigued as to why they kept him after all that. Is he related to one of the managers or are they scared of legal action.
    via RegisterLoose9918
  • LouieAvalon Mac All of you other coworkers need to work together Boundaries clearly - communicate your boundaries regarding the workload. All of you. As a unit. Together. Email or text it both to the lazy coworker and to HR.
    via LouieAvalon
  • Communicate also your boundaries about time expectations. State that lazy coworker is continuing to ask for excessive help and also failing to meet deadlines
    via LouieAvalon
  • Communicate that you and all of his coworkers will not do his job for him or pick up the slack any longer.
    via LouieAvalon
  • Going forwards you will photograph and document for example the state he leaves the cooler in - but going forwards it is going to be left like that for him to deal with. Neither you or the coworkers going forwards will be spending any time doing his job.
    via LouieAvalon
  • It is also not good that you're getting so wound up you nearly clocked the guy. Stay away from him
    via LouieAvalon
  • Don't carry his workload - I'm gonna say it again because I said it under the part about boundaries. Don't do his tasks. Dont take on extra work to compensate for his lack of performance. This is where you're going wrong. Stop. Document it and walk away.
    via LouieAvalon

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management boss workplace-stories hr toxic-workplace manager bosses work coworkers produce department PTO managers supervisor workplace Horrible Bosses work-life balance
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