20 Stories About People Who Love Their Work So Much That They Can’t Stop Doing It Even Outside Office Walls

Some people love their work so much that it literally becomes their life. Sometimes these professionals start to forget that the world doesn’t end with the walls of their office, and get into funny situations because of this.

• My relatives work in plastic surgery, so when I had to have cosmetic surgery after a planned operation, the whole family was always discussing my rehabilitation and my nose. How it would look now, what drops to use, etc.?
  After the cast was removed, whenever one of my family members came to visit, they would inspect my nose and assess the quality of the work. They were also always arguing about which methods would help me recover faster. At these moments, I felt I was not in the family circle, but at a scientific conference on plastic surgery.
• I am always eavesdropping on the conversations of strangers. Whether I am walking down the street, having dinner with friends or family, standing in line at the movies, or any other thing in public, I am eavesdropping. I don’t mean to, I just have “bartender hearing” and naturally dial in on the conversation of strangers. It’s bizarre and one day it will get me in trouble. © Victor Williams / Quora

• Everything is fine at our workplace, but there is one disadvantage: there is no dining area. We eat directly during the working process when there are no clients. And if a client comes in during lunch, we hide the containers under the table.
  So I came home the other day, sat down to eat, my wife was doing something in the living room. And then she comes unexpectedly into the kitchen, and I automatically hide the plate under the table. She looks at me stunned and says, “Paul, what are you doing?” I work too much. © Work Stories / VK
• I’m a graphic designer. I tend to touch items in stores just to know their texture. Also, when I’m in a library/book store, I look how books are designed. © ladynaiky / Reddit
• A friend of mine worked as a freelance tour guide for several years: she organized bus tours for tourists to city sights, museums and other historical places. One day she enters a bus and in a loud professional voice addresses the passengers, “Hello! I am glad to welcome you in our city!” Then she sees people’s surprised eyes, and it dawns on her that she has boarded a local regular bus. © gillada1 / Pikabu

• My uncle has been working as a gynecologist for over 20 years and is crazy about his work. At family parties, where a lot of relatives gather, he embarrasses all women. And all because the uncle shamelessly examines them: looks at their chins and cheeks, trying to determine if there are any hormonal disorders.
  Once he even wrote a referral for tests to a distant relative right at the table. She was terribly embarrassed and was sitting red-faced, but she still took the tests (the results were not normal) and went to see the uncle.
• My husband is a driving instructor. After a hard day, he called a taxi. The car arrives, my husband sits down on the passenger seat and says without thinking, “Switch gears, try to smoothly release the clutch and press the gas!” The taxi driver is puzzled.
  The husband is like, “Try it, don’t be afraid!” And then the taxi driver couldn’t take it anymore and said, “Thanks for the advice, but I’ll sort it out myself, okay?” And only then the husband realized where he was. He apologized to the taxi driver, and they laughed about it later. © Work Stories / VK
• I’m an educational psychologist for kids with disabilities. This job has given me some superpowers, one of them is to quickly pull small toys out of a child’s mouth. Once, at a home party, I did this trick with an adult — I pulled a candy out of his mouth because I thought it looked like it was still in the wrapper. Sometimes I call adult people “bunnies,” I can ask if they put their shoes on by themselves, and praise them if they did.
  Bonus: it’s become really hard to have a fight with me. Instead, you can get support and figure out why you’re a boo today or how you’re feeling. I also often have fun things with me, like a squeaky pig or a jar of self-adhesive eyes. And I recently put a crayon pad in the hands of a man who made a fuss and said, “You’re angry. Draw it!” © Lapopa / Pikabu

• About 20 years ago, my husband and I stayed in a hotel between 2 flights. We were tired, so we went straight to bed. At 1 a.m., some men invited women into the neighboring room, so there was loud music and laughter. I was in my twenties, studying to be a teacher.
  I went out in my dressing gown into the foyer, knocked on the door and said in a teacher’s voice, “All right! Everybody shut up. One more squeak and you’re on your own!” People whispered apologies, got dressed and moved to another room. My husband was stunned. © MB / ADME
• I have a habit to write anything on white board and discuss. White board discussion is common for any office environment. But outside office, I doubt it.
  In home, when my mom asked what to prepare for lunch, by mistake, I took a marker from my bag and started to use the big mirror in my home as white board listing all items needed and started to give a logical explanation why we need all this to have a minimal viable lunch. My mom went crazy and said she will make a soup. © Ganesh Arulanantham / Quora
• I worked as a journalist on a TV program about accidents, and I was dating a guy. And this was the first time he stayed overnight. In the morning, he looks at me strangely and moves sideways toward the exit. I ask him what’s wrong.
  And he’s like, “You don’t remember anything?! In the middle of the night, you grabbed me by the shoulder and yelled in my ear, ’Who’s responsible for this road accident?’ Then you rolled over and fell asleep.” Oh, that was awkward.

• I had a funny story a few years ago. I met a lady and invited her to my place. We fell asleep in the morning. I wake up around lunchtime.
  The lady is all glowing and repeats, “It’s so nice, so nice!” I was proud at first, but then I asked her what was the matter. She said that she started to wake me up, and I took her by the hand and went back to sleep.
  She didn’t want to bother me, it seemed so cute to her. I didn’t tell her that I was dreaming that our equipment was being stolen, we were catching the thieves, and I was holding the thief’s hand while the police were coming. © mich2lych / Pikabu
• I worked in a boarding school as a teacher. One day I went to a friend to discuss something. He had a pile of clothes on his bed.
  He went out, and I folded them neatly without thinking. He was so pleased! I really didn’t do it on purpose. © Elena Smirnova / ADME

• Got up in the morning, showered, shaved, dressed and headed off to work, picking up a newspaper while walking to the subway. Read the paper on the train, pleasantly surprised that I actually got a seat for the 45-minute trip!
  Got off at my stop and was mystified by the sparse rush-hour crowds on the sidewalk. Looked carefully at the paper I’d just finished reading. It was Saturday. © OriginallyFromNYC / Reddit
• I used to work at a pet shop. After that, I got a job as a secretary for my university. Picked up the phone one day and cheerfully answered it, “Hi, thanks for calling our pet shop, where pets are family! How can I help you today?”
  The person apologized for calling the wrong number. I told them not to worry about it, it happens, no problem, then hung up the phone and waited for them to call back so I could answer the phone normally. © enjollras / Reddit

• My mum worked at a sewing factory for a while. Her duties were buttoning, marking, and she also had to clean up the threads left behind by the seamstresses. This could range from simple rubbish to uncut threads sticking out.
  And now imagine the picture: my mum is travelling on the bus, sees a man in front of her with a thread sticking out of his jumper and pulls it off automatically. She realizes that she has caught a glitch, but it’s too late — the man is looking at her with amazed eyes. And this happened more than once. © velikijslava / Pikabu
• I’m on the subway train, and suddenly I hear, “Kate, are you getting off at the next station?” I reply on autopilot, “Yes!” And there is a hurricane of thoughts in my head, “Who is it? How does he know me if this is the first time I see him?”
  Apparently, it was reflected on my face, because the guy just pointed at the badge on my chest, which I forgot to take off after work. © Gea1900 / ADME
• I’ve been working with special children for a long time. My brain has firmly grasped the idea, “If a child runs away, they must be caught and returned to the person from whom he runs away.”
  Once my wife and I went to the sea and saw a child running past us. Only by my wife’s dazed eyes and the bewilderment of the child and his mother, I realized that I had just caught a boy of about 5 years old on autopilot and returned him to his mother. When I explained, everyone laughed. © SedoyBard / Pikabu

• It’s been a year since I haven’t worked in sales. I went on holiday with my husband. I saw that the stalls by the cable car were selling a lot of honey. I bought a lot of honey for my friends and family.
  The seller was so shocked by my generosity that she said, “Thank you!” And I replied on autopilot, “Thank you for your purchase! Come back again.” My husband laughed for about 15 minutes. © Adekvatna1524 / Pikabu
• I came to work on Friday and everyone is congratulating me on something, everyone is so happy to see me, smiling. I didn’t understand what it was all about. But I didn’t have time to think about it. It was the end of the month, I had to make a report — I was thinking only about this.
  Lunch. My mum calls and wishes me a happy birthday! I was shocked. How hard should you work to forget about your own birthday?
  I was listening to my mum’s congratulations and thinking, “Am I living the right way? I have no family, no friends — I have no time, I work all the time, since the first year of university. I think there’s something wrong with my life, it’s time to change it...” © Work Stories / VK

And here is a bunch of weird job interview stories. Don’t miss a chance to read them.