10 People Whose Desk Is the Front Row Seat to a Daily Soap Opera

Work can be exhausting, but it’s often the office drama stories and daily chaos that keep things interesting. Some coworkers just seem to attract drama like magnets, turning even the most ordinary day into something unforgettable.

• My colleague left his phone at his desk, and it started ringing like crazy. After a few minutes, I picked it up and answered, “He’ll be back in a minute.” The caller immediately hung up.
  The next day, he confronted me angrily, “Did you tell my wife that I wasn’t there?” I blinked, confused. “I just said you stepped away for a moment.” He sighed heavily and sat down, “She thinks I’m cheating, and she was testing me. That was her friend calling.”
  I felt awful, even though I didn’t do anything wrong.

• For months, my boss complained about his wife. “She doesn’t work, just spends my money,” he said. One day, he brought his wife to the office, and I whispered to her, “Your husband doesn’t appreciate you.” She looked confused, “I’m not his wife, I’m his girlfriend.”
  I stood there speechless. Later that day, my boss pulled me aside and whispered, “Next time, mind your own business.” Turns out, she was his long-time girlfriend, and he had been married the whole time.

• My 35-year-old boss (married with 4 kids) is 2 months pregnant with my 20-year-old coworker’s kid. Additionally, my 30-year-old coworker (married with 5 kids) is 4 months pregnant with the same 20-year-old coworker’s kid. © Timpano_Drops / Reddit

• A few weeks ago, someone put a sock in the office freezer. It was meant to be a homemade ice pack, I think, but they used a gross old stained gym sock with holes in it instead of a clean/brand new one. You can get an actual ice pack at a gas station for like 99¢.
  Anyway, the whole office was in an uproar and the accusatory emails shot back and forth to everyone via the “reply all” button were nothing short of fascinating. In the end, a random coworker removed the sock with a pair of tongs, and it was disposed of. Nobody ever owned up to it. © LimitedTimeOtter / Reddit

• I work in an office building where there are multiple companies per floor, but only 1 multi-stall bathroom to serve each floor. Every single day, someone from the other company (it’s ourselves and 1 other company on our floor) blows up the bathroom, poops on the toilet seat, the floor, doesn’t flush, etc.
  Through careful analysis, cunning detective work, and a fancy Excel spreadsheet, we feel like we have determined who the offender is, but are not sure how to confront her. Now we are getting remodeled bathrooms and have to use the bathroom on the floor below ours. Guess who struck again? © Squidling1 / Reddit

• Somebody stole two packets of biscuits from the cupboard. They’ve asked us to download a week of CCTV off the DVR, assign someone to watch it all, and have had maintenance install a lock on the biscuit cupboard. © Unknown author / Reddit

• Some of the full-time cleaners think gloves are being stolen, so their solution is to lock up the rubber gloves. They don’t count stock regularly, so there is no way they verify that they are being stolen or when it is happening.
  This has escalated to them locking up a large portion of cleaning supplies. These same guys don’t work weekend nights, so if the available box of gloves/supplies runs out, the weekend cleaners are out of luck. © Iradecima / Reddit

• You get “points” for things like being late, calling off, etc. If you get enough of these “points,” you get written up, suspended and then fired. After enough time, the points go away.
  Everybody here plays “The Points Game” to see how much they can get away with without getting in real trouble. On top of how uncool that is, they talk about it incessantly and criticize each other for doing it. It is endlessly annoying. © notsofastandy / Reddit

• Everyone is mad at the receptionist, because she’s pregnant but hasn’t told anyone yet. She’s leaving early almost every day and doesn’t want to do anything, but continues to keep it a “secret”. © cmavrik / Reddit

• There is a guy who sits on my left, and a guy who sits on my right. They loathe each other with a passion. They haven’t spoken to each other in the whole three years I have worked there.
  I sit in the middle, with my headphones on listening to music and podcasts, and pretending that I don’t exist. It is seriously awkward and weird. © Baskerville*** / Reddit

There are always those coworkers who can’t seem to mind their own business. When 36-year-old Andrea found out one of her colleagues was trying to sabotage her, she was understandably frustrated. But in the end, things came full circle — the same person who tried to mess with her ended up facing the consequences.