15+ Employees who were baffled by their coworkers: 'Day 1... she refused to shake my hand'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jul 29, 2025 9:00 AM EDT

40 hours per week, you've got to see your coworkers. Whether they're your best friend, your arch nemesis, or somewhere in between, you're still going to have to work with that person. 

In an ideal work environment, you have a few work besties who you can go on walks with and get coffee and brainstorm. This person has your back, and you can talk about personal issues with them without having to tell them your whole life story. Other people you work with will be strictly business: you have proper meetings, then you peace out, and head back to your desk to churn out those emails or work with clients. But no matter where you go, you're certain to bump into a few workers who you just can't stand. 

Some folks have a real body odor issue that may go unaddressed for far too long (especially during those hot summer months… please don't bike to work in 95-degree heat without a change of clothes!). Others will bring their personal gripes to the office and have long, drawn-out conversations about issues you never wanted to know about. And some are even worse than that: people who are disloyal or undermine you, or those who leave you understaffed during your busiest moments, are sure to become your personal nemesis.

Check out a bunch of workers who just couldn't deal with their irritating coworkers. Then, read about the times retail workers nearly quit their jobs due to unruly customers: "I turn around and see so many clothes on the floor." 

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  • 01
    mamacrocker One I hired. She was our neighbor, a young mother whose husband was a truck driver. I knew they struggled with finances, had been evicted from past apartments, gone to their church for help with food and utilities, etc. When she told me she was laid off from her job at a bank, I hired her at the store I managed. It was the
    via u/mamacrocker
  • 02
    beginning of the busy season and I figured that would give her a few months to get back on her feet while she looked for something back in banking. Instead, she worked for me less than two weeks. In that time, she stole from the
    via u/mamacrocker
  • 03
    register and another employee, was late twice, and quit by leaving her uniforms balled up in a grocery bag with a note saying she "just couldn't do it anymore." That chick was an A1 scam artist and I held a grudge against her for a long time.
    via u/mamacrocker
  • 04
    The... My first job out of college I worked in an HR department. We hired a new VP of HR, so my boss's new boss. Before Day 11 scheduled a flight of hers. and forwarded her all the information along with a friendly email saying that I was very excited that she was starting at our company. I told her to let me know if she needed anything.
    via u/TheFork101
  • 05
    Veryyyy typical email for me to send, didn't matter your role at the company. Day 1, she walks in and asks for me specifically. I stood. up and smiled and went to shake her hand warmly, because who asks for the lowest on the totem pole? She refused to shake my hand and showed me an email. The email I sent her with her flight information.
    via u/TheFork101
  • 06
    She asked what was wrong with it. I was alarmed and read through it again, then had to sheepishly admit I wasn't sure, but I'd love to know for next time. She said, "You come across as SUCH a brown noser! | came to talk to you first so you could rub your face in my a now and we could get it over with." I told her that's how I talk to everyone at the company, I see us all
    via u/TheFork101
  • 07
    as a team and that's how I work. She guffawed and handed me a piece of paper she had shoved in her pocket. "Here, good to know you are for real! You can get started, then." My list of tasks included getting her computer set up (already done), her email up and running (already done), her new passwords (already done), and a few other things for comfort around
    via u/TheFork101
  • 08
    her office which I could complete in about 5 minutes. I did so and returned promptly. She slapped the piece of paper out of my hand and called me a liar. I told her making sure that she was comfortable on her first day was part of my job and I accomplish many of the tasks before new employees arrive.
    via u/TheFork101
  • 09
    She asked me to another employee into her office, so I went and got that employee and brought them down to the new VP's office. That employee was promptly fired, no reason given and the two had never spoken before, and I was asked to that employee out. It was at that moment I decided to start looking for new roles... the new VP basically made me her b
    via u/TheFork101
  • 10
    for the three months while I looked. I was denied any vacation requests, sick leave, breaks, when my peers in my department could do whatever, whenever. I finally got an offer and went to resign with my two weeks' notice. I told my direct boss first, who congratulated me, and he also said he'd tell the VP for me since he was so worried
    via u/TheFork101
  • 11
    about her reaction. The new VP came in screaming about how working for her was the opportunity of a lifetime, how could I pass that up, I am an idiot, that's why nobody can be trusted. Lots of other sh went down with that woman but I was very happy to walk out that door.
    via u/TheFork101
  • 12
    TL;DR: new VP was a b made my life h I for months while I looked for a new job.
    via u/TheFork101
  • 13
    Cheezburger Image 10535693312
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 14
    [de... Job: ER Registration She smelled bad. She never shut up and always talked at max volume.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 15
    Very very stupid. Needed a Chevy's waiter to read and explain the menu to her. Needed to keep a list by her work station to remember how to spell basic words like stomach and heart and emergency.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 16
    She asked me how much I would pay for a laptop. When I asked what kind, she replied: "A stolen one." During a snowstorm she bragged that she was a better driver than everyone else and that everyone else is stupid. The next day we hear that she got her car stuck blocking her apartments parking lot. When she got out of the car, she fell and couldn't get
    via u/[deleted]
  • 17
    back up. A man tried to help her up, but couldn't lift her. After a second man came to help, she insulted the first guy and said he wasn't a man because he was too weak to lift her. She weighed at least 300 pounds. She was fired for sending a person with weakness and chest pain home to get his insurance card. Luckily the hospital's shuttle bus driver recognized him coming back
    via u/[deleted]
  • 18
    out of the ER and was like "Wait, weren't you having a heart attack?" She was suspected of stealing copays. She supposedly marched elderly ER patients to the ATM in
    via u/[deleted]
  • 19
    the lobby and forced them. to pay cash so she could pocket it. This is unconfirmed and we only heard about it after she was fired. Seriously, f that woman.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 20
    Cheezburger Image 10535694080
    via Štefan Štefančík on Unsplash+

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

  • 21
    she... I worked in a bookstore, we had a cafe and the cafe manager was my worst coworker ever. She was nice and all but sooooo unhygienic. We'd had to discuss more than once not using the dish sink in the cafes backroom to bathe herself in. She always smelled slightly sour.
    via u/shesjuststrange
  • 22
    Well one day while covering the cafe managers break an employee discovered a pair of freshly stained underwear that she'd washed in the dish sink hanging off the counter in the cafes backroom. She got fired for that one. Edit: she was not homeless. I'd driven her home more than once when her car was totaled and from what we were told she owned her
    via u/shesjuststrange
  • 23
    home. Other issues? Maybe. Couldn't say and I wont speculate but regardless it isn't a minimum wage employees job to look out for their bosses who make twice as much as they do. Idk how she even got promoted honestly. I will say she was promoted a few months before the general manager was fired and replaced and then she was fired by the new GM after this event.
    via u/shesjuststrange
  • 24
    Nofreeupvotes He was 17 at the time. We'll call him Jerry. We were working in a grocery store when I met him. Jerry wanted so bad to be a bodybuilder-bro. He idolized The Rock. He spent countless hours in the gym every day. He woke up at 4 AM to run 5K, only slept for 20-minute increments through out the day because
    via u/Nofreeupvotes
  • 25
    "that's what Marines do," and he made sure everyone knew about his "no excuses" attitude... And all he ever did was complain and make excuses. Jerry would give speeches about hard work and dedication, and whatever other BS he obviously pulled from a motivational Instagram that day. He really did put time in at the gym though. He had the arms
    via u/Nofreeupvotes
  • 26
    and chest to show it. But if you gave the kid a basic task he was useless. Cleaning the bathrooms? He left stains and toilet paper everywhere. Stocking shelves? Product was always facing the wrong way or in the wrong spot. Offering additional assistance to customers? He never bothered, always got
    via u/Nofreeupvotes
  • 27
    yelled at, and never changed. Even just consistently working was an issue for Jerry because he had to stop like every hour to eat a snack or drink a Monster. For some reason Jerry thought I was his friend, and he would always complain to me when he got yelled at by management. He made up this conspiracy theory that
    via u/Nofreeupvotes
  • 28
    management hated him and wanted to see him fail. According to him he was never actually management was just up, buying him. He would say sh like "they're just jealous. They don't work as hard as me and that makes them jealous." Jerry lived in a fantasy land that was a product of too many quotes he probably got from some bodybuilding
    via u/Nofreeupvotes
  • 29
    calendar. Eventually Jerry quit because he was "tired of the bulls," and he went to work in fast food under his older brother. Jerry got fired by his older brother. Jerry tried joining the military but apparently couldn't hack it.
    via u/Nofreeupvotes
  • 30
    Tried becoming a cop but couldn't hack it. Now he's a valet at the local mega- church and he recently turned 25. He'll probably get fired or quit there too.
    via u/Nofreeupvotes
  • 31
    ThreadMenace Worked at an Americanized Japanese fast-casual restaurant. We used to cook these gigantic pots of noodles. Like, you better use proper lifting procedures or you'll hurt yourself. It was a daily affair. From the stove they get tossed in an ice bath and then portioned into roughly one million individual bags. Obviously nobody liked doing it, but it
    via u/ThreadMenace
  • 32
    had to be done. This one kid, who always sucked, (slow, late, dumb, complained, just generally bad) decided that if he just poured them down the garbage disposal he wouldn't have to portion them. Not including the water it was probably 40 pounds of noodles (18kg).
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  • 33
    Well, it clogged the pipes to such an extent that floor drains across the back of house started flooding and we couldn't use the dishwasher or drain sinks. And guess what?! We just cooked more frickin' noodles!
    via u/ThreadMenace
  • 34
    I know it's not the biggest deal, but the selfishness required to destroy product/property, screw our shift over, REALLY screw the next shift over, and the stupidity to think nobody would notice, just to escape some tedium when he was going to be in the building all day anyway, just boggles my mind.
    via u/ThreadMenace
  • 35
    [de... I work with a "rockstar" employee. This means they're brilliant, but a nightmare to work with. They frequently forget to attend meetings, work hours that. off everyone else, they're a complete hypocrite when it comes to working standards, b everyone else, about ; off their coworkers by their constant
    via u/[deleted]
  • 36
    (but mostly valid) complaining and can't follow the simple rules everyone else in the company has to follow. Unfortunately they're absolutely amazing at their core job and we'd be f ed without them because our workplace is obsessed with hiring cheap over qualified.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 37
    So we s k it up and have them contribute in a different way to our already stupidly toxic environment. Why the f haven't I left this sh show of a company yet?
    via u/[deleted]
  • 38
    Cheezburger Image 10535694848
    via A F on Unsplash+

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

  • 39
    Victoria-Wayne My manager. After break a girl didn't come back and I asked why and my manager said it was because her grandfather passed away. And then said: "She could have at least finished her shift."
    via u/Victoria-Wayne
  • 40
    Moctor_Drignall She was actually a very nice person, but she made my job so much more difficult. When I was a new graduate vet at my first job, there was another new vet working there as well. Now, I have some self-esteem and confidence issues myself, but she was something else. For months, she'd come find me for nearly literally every other consult to get me to
    via u/Moctor_Drignall
  • 41
    examine her animal to "make sure she didn't miss anything" or talk to her clients because she wasn't able to say things like "no, this doesn't need antibiotics" to them. I as effectively doing two jobs half the time.
    via u/Moctor_Drignall
  • 42
    It got even worse when one senior vet got sick and the other quit, so it was literally just me an her at what was supposed to be a four vet practice for six weeks.
    via u/Moctor_Drignall
  • 43
    BitPoet Roger. He was a software developer, he was very very smart and stupendously incompetent in the ways that only really intelligent people can be without everything collapsing around them. Everyone hated him. We cheered when he finally left.
    via u/BitPoet
  • 44
    He was condescending to the point where he would stand behind people and tell them what to type on their computers. He believed that allocating memory, and using locks in multithreaded code was error prone, and the source of Junior programmer mistakes. He was a colossal al hole.
    via u/BitPoet
  • 45
    Years later, another co- worker was getting his security clearance. I got interviewed as a reference. One of the questions was "did the applicant get along with everyone?". I said "yes, except for one guy". The interview said "I've heard all about Roger, and I don't think I've ever encountered a more universally despised person".
    via u/BitPoet
  • 46
    tamadrum32 The "subject-matter expert" who was supposed to be my mentor decided she was threatened by my existence and seized every opportunity to try to get me fired. I didn't get fired. I worked extra hard to figure it all out on my own and eventually got promoted because of it. you Janet. So f
    via u/tamadrum32
  • 47
    The... Had a girl starting her PhD in the lab I worked. She was the embodiment of entitled, lazy and spoiled. She'd come late, leave early, do next to no work and constantly complained she needed more money. After a while we all just hated her, mostly due to the fact that while we all worked our off, she did next
    via u/The_Sceptic_Lemur
  • 48
    to nothing but bosses didn't seem to care at all and just let her hang around in the lab for years. When the time came to hand in her thesis we were all curious what she'd hand in since she basically hadn't done any work. I was convinced she'd somehow weasel her way out of it, like she had done all the time. I was convinced that when you can pull off being in a lab for years doing no work but noone
    via u/The_Sceptic_Lemur
  • 49
    fires you, you must be somehow a bit clever to pull that off. But nope, she failed so spectacularly like I'd never seen anyone fail before or since. So note to everyone: you can't be lazy and stupid; you can only be one of the two. Update: Since a few people asked, here's how she failed: It was a combination of
    via u/The_Sceptic_Lemur
  • 50
    shortcomings. One issue was really basic admin stuff. Things like not sticking to the required format, not handing in additional documents which were required and/or not sticking to deadlines when it came to handing in the written thesis itself. And apparently she wanted to hand in her thesis without checking back with her advisors/Pls. When they
    via u/The_Sceptic_Lemur
  • 51
    did get the thesis to check, turned out the content of what she had written was apparently not exactly up to scratch. As far as I know, they gave her another few months to fix all the shortcomings, giving her a new deadline, but she never handed anything in.
    via u/The_Sceptic_Lemur
  • 52
    mcknightrider I use to work at a debt settlement law firm....they were pretty and you were better off handling the debt yourself. But that's beside the point. I worked in Data entry with her. She got suspended for a few days for actually tossing the mail rather then processing it. This included settlement offers and up to
    via u/mcknightrider
  • 53
    date balances or harassing e-mails, letters from debtors. But that's not what made her the worst co- worker. Like I mentioned this was a debt settlement law firm. We took monthly payments from people in order to settle their debt so we had sensitive banking information to process their
    via u/mcknightrider
  • 54
    payments. Well she got caught using their information to buy things. online. That's right, this women literally stole money from the poor! People who are already in debt and she stole from them! The lowest of the low. She went into HR crying and begging not to fire her. They told her they
    via u/mcknightrider
  • 55
    didn't call her into fire her, they called her in because the police were outside to arrest her and they escorted her out of the building and arrested her.
    via u/mcknightrider
  • 56
    withoutlebels120 My former GM. He managed to talk his way to the top but didn't really know anything. He was also a creep who tried to hit on every women in the office and would often try to use his position and title to get favors. He made the work environment so toxic that almost 40% of the work force quit. Still, the
    via u/withoutlebels120
  • 57
    owners loved the guy because he knew how to talk his way out. I was already planning to leave but he made it even easier to go. Last I heard the company is struggling to hire people and is not doing well but he's still there collecting a six figure salary. I'd like to think he'll get what's coming to him but life sometimes just doesn't work that way.
    via u/withoutlebels120
  • 58
    Prophet086 In my workplace, people are human. They have a brain, they can understand things, they can think for themselves and they know they can try to fix a common problem by themself before calling for help. I'm the computer guy in a small company of 40 people. We use an in-house program that runs on a Linux
    via u/Prophet086
  • 59
    machine, used for a specific task about 3 times a day. I've made a manual to help the users use the program before calling for help. At first, it was straightforward and short. Over time, people made mistakes when following the instructions. because they skipped a step or didn't act naturally (click once instead of twice to open a folder, etc.). So to fix this, I made the manual
    via u/Prophet086
  • 60
    slightly longer, with details and screenshots. At this point, I had several pages to show how to save a file: "click on the program's save button, on the new window double click on the folder named x, then click on save." all with screenshots of each step, the button circled in red, as if they were mentally and visually impaired. Anyone can use the program, even if they don't have half a brain.
    via u/Prophet086
  • 61
    Every year, I did a personalized training for each user. I spend an hour with them, going through the manual, explaining the steps, answering questions... Well this one guy just didn't get it. He gave himself the mission to make himself look dumber than a pile of steaming Instead of going through the manual, working the steps. and going on with this privileged instruction, he
    via u/Prophet086
  • 62
    spent 30 minutes trying to debate each phrase of the first page of the manual. "That sentence might be ambiguous. Maybe it could be interpreted like this or that." "Instead of this word, I maybe would have used that word." Dude, those words have the same meaning. And why would you struggle with this? Can't you read? Isn't this your native language? How come you're the only one struggling with simple
    via u/Prophet086
  • 63
    sentences? Eventually, I pressed him to move on. I had a schedule to follow and didn't have time for his games. He managed to follow the procedure, pretty quickly actually since we were running out of time. But on the last step, the very last step, he entirely shut off his brain. That last step was turning off the computer. It's a linux so the display is very slightly different. It's a
    via u/Prophet086
  • 64
    CentOS 6 with KDE. For those who don't know, it looks exactly like Windows, there's even the "start" button with a 4-coloured flag in the bottom-left corner. The instructions said to "turn off the computer by clicking on the bottom-left button, exactly like on Windows." What would you expect? Clicking on the button would open some sort of menu, and maybe
    via u/Prophet086
  • 65
    there would be something like "exit" or "shutdown", perhaps in red? Well this guy couldn't imagine anything. He couldn't even find the button in the bottom-left corner. The fact that the manual said "exactly like on Windows" didn't make him think it's the button at the very bottom, the most on the left, that looks like a flag like on Windows. He said "I see several buttons in the bottom-left corner. I don't
    via u/Prophet086
  • 66
    know which one to click on, | can't continue.", crossed his arms, sat back and waited. I tried to reason with him. I tried to make him see he's unreasonable. "What does the button look like in Windows? Where is it on the screen. Look at this button in the bottom-left. Do you think it looks like the start button in Windows?" But he simply couldn't accept that he had to use any mental faculties, however basic, to
    via u/Prophet086
  • 67
    shut down a computer. "Maybe the manual should show which button is the start button. Maybe it would be less confusing." Dude, how come you're the only one who even noticed this isn't Windows? Why are you the only one struggling? I shut down the computer myself and kicked him out. Now, every step has a screenshot in the manual.
    via u/Prophet086
  • 68
    Instead of being a straightforward 3-page manual, it's 30 pages long. People make mistakes because they find it too detailed, skip a step and aren't doing the right thing anymore. Honestly, from the beginning, some people just wing it, never open the manual and never have an issue. The program itself isn't complicated or confusing.
    via u/Prophet086
  • 69
    But that guy, the guy who in my boots, the guy who can shut off his brain at will and play dumb while making an a of himself, he had the nerve to come up to me one day and say (while trying to do some small talk) "I installed Windows 10 on a computer at home. I had this error and that error, did this and that to fix it..." and so on. So he does have a brain.
    via u/Prophet086
  • 70
    He can use an OS with which he isn't familiar, and even troubleshoot it. But he thinks he can make me believe he can't shut down a computer by using the same interface that is implemented in most computers for the last 30 years? Worse still: he sometimes calls me because he's having issues with that program I've patiently
    via u/Prophet086
  • 71
    trained him on when he has an issue. When I come to the rescue, he always says "See? Computers aren't always so reliable after all. All those ones and zeros sometimes get mixed up!" But after one look, I tell him "Read this sentence in the manual. You didn't do this step. You have done a mistake. It's never the program's fault, it's always. yours. You cannot even read."
    via u/Prophet086
  • 72
    It's been years, but I still think about that day with anger. I will never forgive, I will never forget.
    via u/Prophet086
  • 73
    deterministic_lynx Someone who, by now, would go as an entitled Karen. I was still a teenager back then and it was just a side job for me. I was a sales assistant in a bakery. Or, to be exact, in one store of a bakery chain. I had been there almost a year, worked 2-3 times every week and usually
    via u/deterministic_lynx
  • 74
    worked alone, closing the store. I knew what I was doing. So did the apprentices who were my age. They hired a part-time worker. We were the age of her children and she treated us as if she had the right to give us orders. Didn't ask if we would clean the glasses but ordered us to. Didn't do things herself. Knew everything better "No you
    via u/deterministic_lynx
  • 75
    can't take that cloth for window cleaning, take the other". We always take the other one... The most horrible one was when I was with a customer and sold them a very big bread, bigger than our paper bags. I put it into two bags. Not in the plastic bag, as bread really does not belong into plastic bags.
    via u/deterministic_lynx
  • 76
    In front of the customer she told me multiple times how what I was doing was wrong and I needed to do it differently and how dumb and wrong it was. I finished the sale and took her back and I, a 17 year old, scolded her massively never to do that in front of customers again and that she had no idea what she was talking about. Why was I so sure? A month before I had been to a workshop on product
    via u/deterministic_lynx
  • 77
    sales, profession attire and behaviour, promotions. Which covered exactly this behaviour. The apprentices made her quit after a few months...
    via u/deterministic_lynx
  • 78
    Castle-Fist • Worked in my local movie theatre for a couple of years, but was originally just gonna work there over a winter break. I started along with 'Debby'. Debby started the same day I did. By day 2,1 knew pretty much everything I had to do in every possible shift. Debby still needed help opening the register from
    via u/Castle-Fist
  • 79
    time to time, could not fathom that a vacuum cleaner could get clogged, flat out refused to clean the men's restroom, and was constantly on her phone... But here's the kicker. Winter break only lasted for 2 weeks. We were hired to cut the regular employees some slack, as their exams were pretty close (I was in highschool and we have those before break, the
    via u/Castle-Fist
  • 80
    regulars were college/uni students and have exams after the break.) as such, we weren't really supposed to request days off. Yet Debby begged for a day of, claiming it was an emergency, so bossman relented. The emergency? That day was the only day (save Christmas and new years) her boyfriend got of from work, and she just had to go
    via u/Castle-Fist
  • 81
    on a date with him that day. That alone would be bad enough, but the fact she decided to go on a date AT THIS THEATRE, during a day she was on leave for a supposed emergency really tied the whole thing together
    via u/Castle-Fist
  • 82
    Well_thatwas_ran... I worked at a golf course and Sean the cart attendant was the worst I'd say. Sean was just plain lazy, and got the job because his grandfather worked as a ranger there. If I saw my name on the schedule with him, I knew I'd be doing all the work even though I was a clubhouse worker. We'd often run out of carts and
    via u/Well_thatwas_random
  • 83
    have to help him because he was so slow. And if he closed with you....well...get ready to clean the bathrooms, restock the merchandise, vacuum, etc. by yourself. We once caught him sleeping in the cart storage area on a busy Saturday. Needless to say he wasn't asked back the next year.
    via u/Well_thatwas_random
  • 84
    More recently, it was Don. Don was a 60 year old maintenance guy who my pharmaceutical company hired. He had spent most of his years as a maintenance guy at a warehouse, so it was a massive difference. I can't really fault the guy...he had a ton of good experience...just wasn't a
    via u/Well_thatwas_random
  • 85
    good fit. He rarely did paperwork or use any computers...two huge things in the pharma world. Every other day he was asking me how to log into his account. He also liked to just rip farts all day in the office. Nice guy, just a terrible fit.
    via u/Well_thatwas_random

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