20 Real-Life Office Stories That Are Too Funny to Be True

If you thought nothing could top the chaos of Dunder Mifflin, prepare to be amazed. From bosses who look like something out of a sitcom to co-workers who manage to turn a Zoom meeting into an episode of Black Mirror, office life is a spectacle in itself. Internet users have shared their craziest anecdotes, and we’ve rounded up the best to prove that fact always trumps fiction. So grab a coffee (or better yet, a lime tea) and enjoy these stories that will make you laugh, cringe, and wonder if you really want to go back to the office on Monday.

“Someone in my office put masking tape in the bathroom stall so no one would see him there.”

• My office was having a terrible year. Sales were down, morale was at an all-time low, and layoffs were imminent. But instead of listening to employee concerns, management came up with a “sensational” idea: hold a funeral in our warehouse. How? Well, we were asked to list our grievances on paper, then ceremoniously marched to the front and put our papers into a shredder. The shredded paper was placed in a cardboard coffin and the pallbearers carried it to the dumpster, followed by a manager dressed as the Grim Reaper. The CEO then delivered a eulogy in a Power Point presentation that included a series of musical interludes by Kid Rock. It was the most uncomfortable experience of my career. It also didn’t work. Most of us don’t work there anymore. @littlemeah / Reddit
• On my first day of work, the receptionist had made some strawberry cookies and was eager for me to try one. I don’t like strawberries at all and didn’t feel like eating a cookie, but she was so sweet that I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so I told her I was allergic to strawberries. What she did next left me speechless: she just threw them all away! A whole tray, she threw it in the trash and told everyone not to bring strawberries into the office. So for the past three years, I’ve been pretending to be allergic to strawberries. @Unknown author / Reddit
• Back in the 90’s my wife’s department had a single shared laptop so people could work from home as needed. But half of her department was in NC and the other half in CA. So if they needed the laptop, they had to FedEx it across the country to the person who needed it about 4 or 5 days in advance. @RoboNinjaPirate / Reddit

“I keep a pack of gum on my desk at work. I tried to grab a piece and discovered this... I hate my coworkers.”

• At our monthly meeting with the entire office staff, we had a serious 45 minute discussion about the type of toilet paper to use (single, double or triple ply). Highlights of the discussion included arguments that you don’t need double ply because you can just fold 2 single ply sheets together, 2 ladies going into detail about how it feels to use single ply vs. double ply, some employees feeling that their voice should count more because they have a weaker bladder or bad digestion. It was nice, but also scary, and 45 minutes was just too long. @steun88 / Reddit
• My husband decided to bring me flowers at work for our anniversary. Most of my co-workers came to my office and complimented my flowers. Almost all of them commented that the flowers did not smell (which will become important later). Then, after the flowers have been sitting on my desk for four full days, this lady, let’s call her “Barb”, walks down the hall to my office and sees my flowers. She comes running into my office, sniffs the flowers, and starts screaming at me. “I knew it! Your flowers are giving me an allergic reaction! Get them out of here right now!” I freaked out, apologized, and told her I would put them in my car by the end of the day. She ran out of the room. As I walked outside, I saw Barb standing by my car. She was clearly waiting for me to see if I’d put them away. I did, went back inside, and spent the rest of the morning being chewed out by my managers for “almost killing Barb.” Despite the fact that they had all seen the flowers and said nothing to me prior to this incident. When I asked her about it later, she said she wasn’t allergic to the flowers specifically. She is just “very sensitive to smells” and it was the smell of the flowers that set her off. @whamanraman / Reddit
• I was late for work because my alarm didn’t wake me up and that day I had to start the morning meeting. I managed to brush my teeth and get dressed before entering the meeting room and most of my coworkers were already there. But I immediately noticed a change in their expressions, one by one. I knew something was wrong...very, very wrong. Then I remembered that I hadn’t taken out my curlers. They were the ones you sleep with that are supposed to give you beach waves. I’d noticed while I was getting dressed, of course, but I told myself I’d take them out on the way to the office. Unfortunately, I was so busy dodging traffic and rehearsing what I was going to say at the meeting that I completely forgot about them. I went ahead and gave my presentation with my curlers still in place. I figured if I acted confident and like it was no big deal, no one would say anything...but it’s been 3 years and I’m still not over it. It’s a common story around the office, but at least I didn’t get in trouble and I think everyone had a few laughs. @Sick__muse / Reddit

“The radio plays the same songs over and over, so I made radio bingo for the office.”

• There’s a guy in our office who has trouble controlling his anger, especially in a competitive environment. Of course, he was in charge of the little office games/tournaments we organized. One time we were playing basketball, a little arcade basketball game. His team made it to the finals, but he lost. As we were all congratulating the winners, we heard the sound of a ball hitting the hoop. When I turned around, I suddenly saw a ball flying at high speed toward my face. I raised my hand and luckily deflected it, but it was ten feet away and still stung my hand. After the pitch, he yelled, “STUPID GAME!” We all stood there not knowing what to do as this 30 year old kid got angry that he lost. Needless to say, HR stepped in and he is no longer in charge of the office games. @bryankicks / Reddit
• The CEO sends out a cryptic email saying he has a big announcement. He’s an older guy, so people immediately start worrying that he’s either announcing his retirement or the sale of the company or something like that. We were having a great year at the time, but people were still freaking out that maybe he sold and now our future is in jeopardy. Everyone shuffles into the conference room where he’s standing with a microphone. There’s drinks and candy on the table. He goes into this speech about how it’s been our best year ever and he couldn’t be more proud and he’s heard the retirement rumors but it’s not going to happen anytime soon. So there are 100 people in the room going, “Okay... so...?” The tension was unreal. And then the guy said: “Please help yourself to some candy. Also, the executives and I are going on a Caribbean cruise to celebrate! Join me in congratulating them on this great success!” What followed was the most tepid, stunned applause I have ever heard. I felt like I was in an episode of The Office. The fun-size M&Ms were good, though. @soomuchcoffee / Reddit
• A brand new employee, who was clearly inept and made me wonder why I had hired him in the first place, crashed through the glass wall that separated our department from the rest of the office. It was impossible not to laugh, although I managed to hold it in for a few minutes before running out of the building to laugh my head off. His oily face left a nice Han Solo carbonite print on the glass. @IrritableOwlSyndrome / Reddit

“April Fools at the office.”

• My husband died after a 10-year battle with cancer. I spent three whole days grieving, but my boss didn’t like that I was still “emotional.” She just came up to me and said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, “It’s not like his death was a surprise, suck it up.” @Pyewacket62 / Reddit
• We used to have a person who didn’t exist. “She” would answer questions from customers. It was an attempt to have stability and a familiar name that customers could go to. Several people in my department took turns being her. She “died” recently. We decided to retire her when the company made some upper management changes and we collectively decided the whole thing was stupid. Her death was announced at a department meeting. Half of us laughed. The other half were new and couldn’t understand why we were laughing about someone dying. @HockeyBasics / Reddit
• One time, one of my co-workers (an older man who is usually very quiet, has been there almost 30 years, never rocks the boat or says much) showed up 15 minutes late to a staff meeting with his pants ripped from his left butt cheek to his knee. No one said a word. He didn’t say anything, my boss didn’t say anything, everyone acted like it was completely normal. Well, that’s a very professional response, but man, I was almost convinced I had imagined the whole thing. Bizarre day. @tangerinelibrarian / Reddit

“Our co-worker was on vacation for two weeks and we started to miss him...”

• My workmate was dating two women, wild thing about it was he dated one who had the morning shift and one on the evening. Sometimes I wonder how he managed his time and energy to do that. None of us knew not until girl A and B worked the same shift. @ImpossiblyLivid / Reddit
• I was in a meeting that I knew was going to be a little tense. I had been given a project with absolutely unachievable deadlines, the scope was vague, the questions were vague, and I needed access to data that my department did not have. My boss, who had absolutely none of the Nobel Prize-level intelligence he thought he had, didn’t see the problems with the terms of reference. At the table were two deputy ministers, an assistant deputy minister, a couple of directors, my boss, and me. Deputy Minister A was arguing with Deputy Minister B. Things were getting heated. Things got heated. And what did my boss do? He fell asleep. To make matters worse, he started snoring. I was too far away to nudge him, so the meeting went on without him. In retrospect, I should have walked over and hit him on the head with my laptop. I was too embarrassed. @Hillytoo / Reddit
• We had a single, horrible HR lady. She had two jobs: making our lives miserable and getting cakes for birthdays. In the middle of the day, one of my coworkers asked her when she was going to bring my birthday cake. She was stunned: she had completely forgotten to put my birthday on her list. Being perfect and incapable of being wrong, she first accused her of lying. Repeatedly. For a free cake. Finally, she approached my table and sarcastically asked me if it was my birthday. I told her yes. She was taken aback for a moment before asking for my driver’s license. It was indeed my birthday. But it was raining and she didn’t want to run out and buy a cake, so she gave my co-workers a few dollars and told them to go to the grocery store down the street and buy a cake. Well, she didn’t give them enough money for a cake big enough for the office. She didn’t pay them enough to buy a decent pie either, so they took the last small pie left. And that’s how I ended up with an office birthday cake that said: Congrats On Your Baby Boy Birthday! @TheDreadedLorax / Reddit

If these stories make you feel like your office is an oasis of normalcy, congratulations. And if not... well, at least you’re not alone. But don’t rest on your laurels, because we have more stories that will make you question the sanity of the workplace. You can read this article here, where we tell you about the most eccentric bosses the Internet has ever had the pleasure (or horror) of meeting.