'I handed in my notice and my boss suddenly stopped talking to me': 20+ Workplaces that were full of drama

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jul 7, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

Workplace drama certainly keeps things interesting during those long shifts! No 2 workplaces are alike, but almost all of them have some sort of interpersonal drama playing out. For example, maybe there's one boss who can't stand her secretary, but she just lets him fail over and over instead of addressing it directly. Or maybe there's a dude who's constantly bringing his kids into work, but no one is brave enough to tell him to keep the toddlers at home for once. And there's often a ton of drama going down through instant messaging and email chains, especially when people need to "circle back" over and over to check on the progress of a project that's barely moved an inch. 

Check out a bunch of workers who were ready to spill the piping hot office tea. Then, read the update about this dude who discovered his cousin's "influencer" daughter went to the family home and posted photos of their home, artwork, and cars: "Family thinks I'm overreacting, but it's my personal property." 

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  • 01

    "What BS are you dealing with at work right now?"

    [deleted] I handed in my notice at work and my boss suddenly stopped talking to me. LOL...
    via u/[deleted]
  • 02

    This is so tacky of him

    MynameisPOG Accidentally mentioned to my boss that my relationship. was ending. He just asked me about it in front of my coworkers, and I got a stern talking to for the tone of voice I used when I told him I'd prefer not to talk about it.
    via u/MynameisPOG
  • 03

    Very funny situation going on

    aoacyra Lately whenever the mother of one of my students off the father (they divorced >4 months ago) he will send all three of their kids in mismatched clothes with shirts that have some variation of "I love my Dad" or "Daddy's kid".
    via u/aoacyra
  • 04
    I have not seen the same shirt twice and believe mom throws the shirts out and dad just keeps buying more.
    via u/aoacyra
  • 05
    Much_Difference Everything is done in an improvised fashion even when it's identical to something we've done a hundred times before. They refuse to create any kind of system or structure for doing anything and it drives me up the wall. Every single time, every question, every form, every action, everything, needs to be run through a hundred different
    via u/Much_Difference
  • 06
    people and approached as if it's a brand new thing, even if it's routine paperwork we do multiple times a week. It's the most incredible waste of time. Let's say I traveled from Phoenix to Tucson and I need to be reimbursed for gas. I'll go pull out the exact same piece of paperwork I used last time. I'll fill in the
    via u/Much_Difference
  • 07
    extremely basic blanks that I did last time. Name, travel date and time, mileage, gas receipt, sign and date. Submit the form. A day later, I get an email. Oh hey here you put "Tucson" but you need to put "Tucson, Pima County, AZ." Make the change. Ask if there are any other changes. Nope, looks good. Resubmit.
    via u/Much_Difference
  • 08
    A day later, I get a phone call. Oh hey here you put "Jay J. Jameson" but you need to put "Jay Jonah Jameson." Make the change. Ask if there are any other changes. Nope, looks good. Resubmit. A day later, someone pops in my office. Oh hey here you put "Pima County, AZ" and "Jay Jonah" but it needs to just say "Tucson, AZ" and
    via u/Much_Difference
  • 09
    "J. J. Jameson" oops. Make the change. Ask if there are any other changes. Nope, looks good. Resubmit. It finally goes through. Two weeks later, I travel from Phoenix to Tucson and need to be reimbursed for gas. I pull out the final version that finally went through last
    via u/Much_Difference
  • 10
    time, just two weeks ago, after all the changes. I change nothing except the date/time and attach the new gas receipt. A day later, I get an email. Oh hey here you put Tucson, AZ but now it just needs to say Tucson. Oh hey here you put Phoenix but you didn't include the zip. Oh hey here
    via u/Much_Difference
  • 11
    you put J. J. Jameson but it needs to say J. J. Jameson Jr, Esq. Oh hey here you put that it's 113 miles but we decided to start rounding to the nearest five so it should should 115 miles. Oh hey
    via u/Much_Difference
  • 12
    here you put 115 miles but an hour ago we decided it needs to be rounded to the nearest ten-thousandth of a mile. Oh hey we decided to do away with zip codes on these forms. Every. Single. Time.
    via u/Much_Difference
  • 13
    Sal... I have a vendor who gives me the same answer every day that I email him: "Let me check and get back to you." His shipment has slipped by over two months at this point and it's driving me nuts.
    via u/SalemScout
  • 14
    He's doing the same thing to other people in my office on other projects. He's on a quick list to be blacklisted, but unfortunately, the clients love his stuff.
    via u/SalemScout
  • 15
    Sal... A third party keeps insisting that an individual worked for my company. They did not. We have searched everywhere. We have punched in every variation. of their name, birthday, social security number into our system. Dude didn't work here, and "Well this other woman says he did" isn't an argument.
    via u/SaltySolicitor
  • 16
    ETA: As much as I appreciate all the replies, this is not my first rodeo as an attorney, and I wouldn't be complaining if this had a simple fix like "tell them to off" or "stop replying." f
    via u/SaltySolicitor
  • 17
    sba... my boss asked if I would be working tomorrow afternoon. When I said yes, he ominously replied, "interesting". Edit: Update! Turns out my boss completely forgot even saying this to me. He was wondering if I would be working in the afternoon
    via u/sbankss
  • 18
    because he's bringing his daughter in and knew I would want to see her. Thank you all for taking so much interest in this. I'm a 23 year old woman working a college job. I found it beyond funny some of y'all were suggesting I was banging his wife or visa versa.
    via u/sbankss
  • 19
    fun... It's my bosses birthday, not a lot of folks respect her. I'm new to the department and was asked by Don to collect money on Friday to get her flowers. He was going to bake a cake and bring it in. He was sick yesterday so didn't come to work. I collected a measly 19$ from others, awkward af because no one even likes her, topped it up with my own 10
    via u/funplans20
  • 20
    to get a decent bunch of flowers, bought yesterday evening and brought in this AM. Don is in and says "I couldn't find the money you collected, do you have it" I said "I used it yesterday to buy the flowers, wasn't that the plan?" He replies with an attitudey "well no..." I ask why it matters and he says "well I couldn't bake the cake because I was sick so I
    via u/funplans20
  • 21
    don't know what we're going to do now if the money's used up, we can't get a cake now" Another girl nicely chimes in that she will run out and grab a cake and don't worry Don it's all fine. Don's a snippy guy so I don't bother asking him how I was to know he's too ridiculous to go get a cake himself.
    via u/funplans20
  • 22
    Others are running around asking me if I've seen the money because apparently Don's making it well known that I was supposed to collect money but no one has seen the envelope (obviously, I took it yesterday), then I have to explain that I used all the
    via u/funplans20
  • 23
    money so I look stupid. Keep throwing in that I was doing exactly as was asked of me but Jesus Christ Don would it kill you to communicate your change of plans to people???
    via u/funplans20
  • 24
    iFlyHighh Trying to move this f a 40ft fiberglass ladder on my own since everyone called in
    via u/iFlyHighh
  • 25
    rTheWorst Bar manager and 20% of the staff quit. Owner hasn't hired anyone. It's been 3 months. No one can take unexpected days off or call in sick and inventory is at an all time low. (Except the kegs. So. Many. Kegs.) We keep running out of everything. I (and others) have offered to help over the summer and nothing has come of it. The restaurant is
    via u/rTheWorst
  • 26
    expanding and we need more employees but my boss is too focused on having us dust (during construction), replacing glassware with crystal, and setting up public accessible training courses to bother with actual management. Oh, and communication is non existent, so I regularly show up to work and have no idea where she is or what the new procedures are.
    via u/rTheWorst
  • 27

    Maybe she's maliciously complying with some strict directions, but no doubt its causing everyone else to roll their eyes

    Ganglebot I work with a woman who cc's her boss on all emails. Her boss follows up on all of the emails 5-10 minutes later. They looks like this: Woman: "Hey Ganglebot, we're starting this new thing so can you send us X, Y and Z when you have a chance - thanks!"
    via u/Ganglebot
  • 28
    Her boss, 5 min later: "Ganglebot, as per [woman's] initial request, we need these things to move forward. In our previous meeting on May 4th, at 2pm you indicated you could. send these to us. I ask you to please send these along ASAP as our initiative depends on good information. Please confirm receipt and indicate when we can expect these documents."
    via u/Ganglebot
  • 29
    Cheezburger Image 10525502720
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 30
    Rai... Girlfriend took the time off in advance to see a best friend she hasn't seen in two years for literally one day. Work is currently telling her that they're scheduling a mandatory employee meeting everyone needs to go to or else you get fired. Keep in mind there is barely anything important that ever gets announced at these.
    via u/Raichu4u
  • 31
    So... I was offered a job at another location. I told my boss about it and my current company offered me a raise to stay. I took it. It's been 2 months and I haven't seen the raise in my paycheck yet.
    via u/SouthernGirl2016
  • 32
    UPDATE: I emailed my boss and asked for an update. They assumed I understood that the raise would begin at our new fiscal year which starts July 1. So it will be in my next paycheck.
    via u/SouthernGirl2016
  • 33
    Co... Jeff cuts his fingernails every day in his office. How do they grow so fast? Is he a werewolf? Also, he scrapes every last tiny bit out of his yogurt container. It's so loud and he does it for like 3 minutes straight.
    via u/Costner_Facts
  • 34
    Humanoid Robot Boss doesn't understand how time works.
    via u/HumanoidRobot
  • 35
    Au... I do sound for cover band at a hotel that feels like they're better than or at least equal to an act that sells out stadiums. Every night I deal with 5 60+ year old musicians with expectations that would make Mariah Carey say that's too much.
    via u/Auditor93
  • 36
    Yse... Client had a full 10 months to review a demo site that we had up. They made a couple of nitpicks and claimed they were happy with it. The site went into staging a few weeks ago and they immediately came up with a list of 50+ issues with it and demand it be fixed or they won't renew the contract.
    via u/Yserbius
  • 37
    EDIT: It's a bit complicated. I think part of the issue is that the upper management didn't look at the site until it was in staging and they are the ones that noticed the problems. We are releasing patches on a nearly daily basis which is keeping them happy. Just today that said that all the major roadblocks are out of the way and the site can go to production.
    via u/Yserbius
  • 38

    Surprise!

    Ba... For some reason I thought my contract was up end of August. It isn't, it's up at the beginning of August. I talked to management and it was a total surprise to them, and now they're scrambling to possibly get me a salaried position like they promised but also saying "Idk...the budget might not let us..."
    via u/Babbledoodle
  • 39
    So I don't know if I'll have a job by the end of the month, or if they'll manage to create something before I leave. Either way I'm looking for jobs.
    via u/Babbledoodle
  • 40
    _Dust Devil_ Im on my two week notice right now so I'm being treated like sh and having a bunch of extra work piled on
    via u/_Dust Devil_
  • 41
    asoiahats Assistant forwarded me a call from a friend/colleague of mine. She got one syllable of my friend's name wrong which wasn't a big deal. The friend and I are working on a big deal so she's called multiple times since then. My assistant has got her name wrong every time and despite me correcting her each time, the corruptions
    via u/asoiahats
  • 42
    are getting further from the mark. Happened again yesterday, the worst butchering of the name yet. I wanted to yell at her, but I took a breath and I said "her name is . When you consistently say her name wrong it sounds like you're insulting her. I know you're not trying to insult her but she is a personal friend and she brings us a
    via u/asoiahats
  • 43
    lot of business so please do try to get it right." I don't think I could have handled that better, but she flipped out at me, then told a bunch of the other staff about what an a-h el am. Ugh.
    via u/asoiahats
  • 44
    [deleted] budget issues we as a management team just waived our annual increase to make sure there was enough for all of our employees. as we're giving them their annual reviews, raises and new salary info, they don't know we're not getting anything this year.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 45
    YerMomsASherpa An inbox full of emails followed by text messages asking if I got the email 2 minutes after it was sent followed by a phone call asking if I got the text message just as the text message notification pops. up. The phone call then covers all the information from the email and the text message. Calm. the. 1. down.
    via u/YerMomsASherpa
  • 46
    daibz Management is to cheap to pay for another worker so the responsibility is passed to a different person every night. It goes against the policy and procedures of the place but they dont care.
    via u/daibz
  • 47
    doge_code The sole developer of an application that electrical engineers for some of the biggest companies (Apple, Samsung, Toshiba, etc.) around the world rely on is on a month long adventure in Africa. I am currently the only person maintaining the application and I was given access to the repository just 5 days before the creator became unavailable.
    via u/doge_code
  • 48
    Cheezburger Image 10525502464
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 49
    blai... My gluten allergy did me dirty. Boss just told me that she's actually going to take the time I spent in my bathroom out of my paycheck. Thank god this is my last week. Edit: wow guys thank you for all the support! I'm so glad people actually care about issues like these because it's a real problem
    via u/blairwitchreject
  • 50
    blage My last day is Friday so they made me write a guide on how to do my job because no one else knows how.
    via u/blage
  • 51
    [deleted] We're supposed to do more "upselling," but it's verrry hard to do in our department when customers just want to pretty much get in and get out....... hopefully I'm not fired for it.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 52
    [de... My robot is not doing what I design him to do and is making my work a lot harder. The irony. Edit: the robot is supposed to take data from a banking core system and make diferen tasks. Can't say more than this cuz I love my job and don't want to get fired.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 53
    And no people are not getting fired because of the robot. The company is ran by people that really care about its employees and they hardly ever let go of people. We take tasks that people really hate or take. too long.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 54
    openletter8 I have a good point, but I'm dismissed with, "Well, that's not going to happen." It can, we just have to.
    via u/openletter8
  • 55
    [deleted] Being acquired by a much bigger company. Disruption with a capital D.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 56
    Andromeda321 Astronomer here! I submitted my PhD (yay!) and it turns out part of the process in the country where this is happening (The Netherlands) is I have to pay to get over a hundred copies of my thesis. The department actually recommends 200-300, because "you'll want to give one to everyone in the department, and send them
    via u/Andromeda321
  • 57
    to luminaries in your field, and just save them in case someone wants one in the future..." Meanwhile everyone not from the Netherlands will stare at you funny if you say this and say they maybe printed out one copy for their parents and another for their adviser because, you know, we have the internet now. Which I 100% agree with; this mainly seems like
    via u/Andromeda321
  • 58
    a great way to kill trees. Unfortunately for the trees. though I've realized getting your doctorate is a "their ball, their bat, their rules" situation, and 400 years of tradition doesn't budge easily, so I'm just gonna have to print the things. Sooooo stupid!
    via u/Andromeda321
  • 59
    [deleted] hey you know that job that takes all day to complete you do? "yeah..." heres 6 more "wait hang on i..."
    via u/[deleted]
  • 60
    oh also you know that job that takes like 3 guys all day to do? "uhh...yeah" yeah can u do that 3 times a day from now on too.....your phones ringing btw...
    via u/[deleted]
  • 61
    Ijustbechillaxing My work crush is talking to me more and I have small heart attacks each time
    via u/Ijustbechillaxing
  • 62
    AnxiousMom4 I don't want to work 70 hours a week. How dare I want a life work balance
    via u/AnxiousMom4
  • 63
    PM_ME_STUFFZ I hate my boss and I'm leaving this job in like a month, moving across the country and maintaining no real connection to the city I'm living in now. So my ability to give a shor actually push myself to work is rapidly approaching zero. Lot of my day is spent with the door close and splayed out on ky office couch.
    via u/PM_ME_STUFFZ
  • 64
    essrisify They just decided that I will no longer have access to book appointments for students, due to that meaning I'll have access to viewing adviser notes... even though I'm legally obligated by FERPA not to reveal or share any information I come into contact with.
    via u/essrisify
  • 65
    I'm the desk receptionist so... booking appointments is like, 75% of my job...
    via u/essrisify
  • 66
    Ashenlarry I said yes to every request asked when I was new and in between bosses. Now I have exponentially more responsibilities than my initial job description without a pay increase.
    via u/Ashenlarry
  • 67
    monkeyharris There was a free buffet lunch at work planned for tomorrow. It was rescheduled for today, the day that I am not in until after lunch, and no one was informed. Those that were there got lucky. Me...not so much.
    via u/monkeyharris

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