Call center coworkers turn on Danny, an entitled new hire who watches TV at his desk during downtime and gets the internet banned for everyone: 'Management looked the other way, until Danny came around'

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
May 17, 2026 12:00 PM EDT

In a world full of hard workers, favorite coworkers, healthy workplaces, and acceptably friendly managers, don't be a Danny. 

This dude was ornery about the privileges that managerial staff turned a blind eye to, getting emboldened by his free time at his new job. However, when this new hire at the call center, Danny, started blatantly watching TV shows at his desk on his work computer, flaunting his time wasting to every passerby in the office, managers were forced to crack down on the rules… For everyone in the department. 

With the internet outlawed and nothing to do between calls but twiddle their thumbs, the entire staff turned their backs on the flagrantly entitled new hire because he had ruined the last good thing they had going for them. 

In the workplace, nobody likes a boot-licker, a micromanager, or a blatant slacker, and somehow this Danny guy engaged all three of the worst characters in the office before the end of his first week. Some people bring chaos in their wake, while others help smooth it out, and this new guy expected everyone else in the workplace to pick up the slack when he created it. Everyone with a shred of a work ethic has encountered this kind of coworker once or twice during their careers, but none are quite as annoying as Danny.

At least, now, the coworkers in the office won't be spending time at his cubicle when they have a spare moment. The break room will be full of office chatter and gossip, especially now that phones, books, crafts, and all personal devices are banned from the employees' desks. Managers had a forced hand here, so they're hardly to blame. When one worker scandalously disregards simple rules, more rules will be put in place to enforce them. 

That's why you never take advantage of a good thing in the office, because you never know when that wonderful perk will be outlawed. Next thing you know, they'll be packing up the coffee maker, emptying the work fridge, and banning all chatter and gossip too… That'll be the day that everyone walks out.

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    Cheezburger Image 10631140096
    via Cnava+ (xaviernau)

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    Dumb rules are there for a reason I've worked for a few different companies over the years. And every single one of them has some really dumb rules. Everyone just
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    complains about these rules but nobody ever wonders why these rules are in place.
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    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    Years ago I worked at a call center. Management was pretty chill - as long as you did your job, they left you alone. It wasn't very busy either. Most days you would have a
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    few minutes between calls. And people would use that time to surf the net on the computer (this was before smart phones) or whatever...and
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    management kind of looked the other way. Until one day, this new hire - let's call him Danny - came along. He
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    started watching YouTube on the computer between calls. Problem was, people from other departments would walk by our area,
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    and they would make comments to our manager about how we were not busy enough, staff had time to watch YouTube, etc. So the manager told us to not
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    watch videos on the company computer because it was bad optics. Message received. Right?
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    Cheezburger Image 10631139840
    via Getty Images (Bojan89)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    The following day Danny brought in his personal laptop with movies and TV shows loaded. He started watching shows between calls on his personal laptop, "The manager said no
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    watching videos on the company computer. This is my personal computer." So new rule: in between calls, no more doing anything. Just sit there.
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    No surfing the net, no personal devices, nothing.
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    Danny is a giant moron. And people like him is the reason why we have stupid rules at work.
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    Cold_Swordfish7.... I worked in a call center that had a very slow time at the end of the year. We would read books, one lady knitted blankets and others brought stuff to draw with.
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    None of us would have thought to watch videos, that is going too far. They need to fire that Danny guy.
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    Killing-time-13. I called these rules a "drinking the bleach" rule. It was put in place because someone did something dumb they drank the - bleach because the bottle did not explicitly say not to
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    so now the bottle explicitly says do not drink the bleach. People like that make it harder for everyone else.
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    Over Table3898. This is why dress codes exists. Some people just can't be adults. Most can, but not all.
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    GeneralTonic ⚫ Should have made the rule: NO DANNY He was the problem, not the use of the internet during downtime.
    via GeneralTonic

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