13 Work Stories That Prove Real Life Writes Better Comedy Than Any Script

Sometimes we get tired from work. And it’s not because we have to do the same thing again and again, but because of unexpected surprises that catch us off guard. In moments like this, it’s your coworkers who come to the rescue and become a source of comfort even during the most stressful meetings. Monday is a tough day, but it gets easier with a good laugh shared with your office friends.

• Really needed a job. Tried to get a position as a loader at the nearest warehouse. I was sitting at the table with the manager, talking, and at some point, he said, “No, you know, you’re not ambitious enough to work with us.”
  In response, I grabbed the table we were sitting at, lifted it, and silently moved it to the other end of the room. He looked surprised and said, “Alright then, we’ll hire you!” © Not everyone will understand / VK
• Bought jeans, wore them to work. Coworkers loved them, and I felt awesome. But then I realized that all the compliments were in the same style: “Cool jeans! Must be expensive?”
  And right before leaving work, I noticed a huge price tag sticking out from the back pocket. Wish someone had told me that! Well, the jeans were actually expensive. © Not everyone will understand / VK

• I worked for a stodgy life insurance company that tried to exercise control over all aspects of their employees’ lives.
  One day I left work early because, as an adult professional, I decided I felt poorly and needed to rest. When I submitted my sick time the following day, I was required to provide a reason for my absence. So I wrote “not feeling well.”
  They came back and said, “That’s not an acceptable detail.” I was floored. So, I submitted a second time with “explosive diarrhea” as the reason. No one said anything after that. © bgea2003 / Reddit
• We were chatting with coworkers about French perfumes. About how it’s almost impossible to encounter that unique trail nowadays. A lady from the neighboring department passed by. We exclaimed, “There it is! The real deal!”
  We rushed to ask her. The woman blushed and said, “Girls, I just came from the bathroom. And I used the new air freshener there.” We laughed so hard! © Natalya Popova / Dzen
• The retail store I worked at had a FB page. So when a cashier called in one morning, saying she was having car trouble and she’d get there as soon as she could, another manager was on FB seeing the cashier’s updates: “Bad hair day... blah-blah-blah. Just told my stupid job I’m having car trouble. Trying to fix my hair. Don’t even own a car.”
  Thanks for the update, hon. Keep it classy. © screwtop / Reddit

• I worked at a newspaper for many years where we published, among other things, official document texts. One day, the layout designer confessed to me about her blunder that had happened a long time ago.
  She accidentally inserted a copied message from her messenger into a document text. She was messaging her husband about something. It went to print just like that. Neither the proofreader, the editor, the district administration, nor any of the readers noticed. © Building Life / Dzen
• I was heading to the boss’s office to get some papers signed, and suddenly, I heard him say, “Sweetheart, you are just a miracle.” And that’s when the secretary walked out of the office. I thought to myself, “What a pair, they are inseparable.”
  I started eavesdropping, heard more flirting, and abruptly opened the door, but there was the boss talking on the phone. The secretary was sitting at her desk with a stack of reports, waiting for him to finish.
  It turned out the boss was just talking to his daughter, she had recently learned to use the phone and was calling him. And I thought I’d catch these two in a workplace romance, like in the movies.

• I got a job as a seamstress. I’ve loved sewing since childhood. So, I sat and worked with pleasure, singing songs.
  All was well, but we had a supervisor who loved to shout a lot. She simply couldn’t talk, just shouted all the time! And she often approached from behind. I constantly jumped in my seat and let out a frightened cry.
  This happened several times. She even started to be afraid of me. Now she comes up so I can see her, waves her hand, and only then approaches. But she still shouts! © Not everyone will understand / VK
• I work as a translator. Once, a client came in, I translated his documents. Since then, he keeps coming to the office with all sorts of questions. Yesterday, he showed up a minute before closing and asked, “Are you dating the director?”
  I was taken aback, and then he pulls out his resume and says, “I just saw you have an open auditor position, I wanted to apply, but I accidentally bumped into the director in the elevator on the first day. I thought maybe he doesn’t have a great impression of me, and you seem to be close. Could you give him my resume?”
  I didn’t even have a chance to reply before he ran off. I have no idea why he thought that, but we all had a good laugh at the office.

• I work from home, and the work is pretty intense. I took on more tasks than I planned, so I didn’t have enough sleep. During another video call with coworkers, I unexpectedly fell asleep.
  I woke up only 6 hours later with a very stiff neck and 40 missed calls. My coworkers tried to wake me up, but my phone was on silent, and I guess I was sleeping very soundly. I expected to get reprimanded by my boss, but instead, he praised me!
  It turns out, I started mumbling in my sleep, and all my mumblings were about work. My boss even gave me a couple of days off and extended deadlines, saying it was a true example of dedication. Apparently, being a workaholic isn’t so bad after all. © Work Stories / VK
• We had a new employee. She was a very strange woman. I even warned the boss, but he didn’t listen.
  Anyway, one day she broke a nail at work, and she worked on the computer. So, this lady made the company pay for a new manicure, and she even demanded moral compensation. Then she outright quit.
  We joke that she probably only took the job for that reason. After all, we don’t know why she left her previous 3 jobs. © Caramel / VK

• Our chief accountant didn’t come to work for the first time in 20 years. The boss decided to reprimand her over the phone, but suddenly blushed, stammered, and ended the call while everyone around was astonished.
  It turned out that Ms. Smith didn’t beat around the bush and dropped the bomb, “I have hot flashes, sir, and I hope you never have to find out what that is like!”
• My husband works as a mechanic far from home, on rotations. Recently, he was urgently called back from vacation.
  He calls from there, and I can hear from his voice that he’s angry, but he’s holding it together. There’s laughter in the background. He tells me, “Please, check the toys in the little one’s basket.”
  I opened the basket and immediately understood everything. Inside were: a hammer, a screwdriver, pliers. Real ones. And in my husband’s suitcase, there were only plastic ones.
  When he was packing, he didn’t notice that our son had swapped out the tools for his own. He prepared Dad for work. © Mamdarinka / VK

What office stories are you ready to tell?
And here are real-life office stories that are too funny to be true.