People Who Could Really Use a Break at Work

Jul 2, 2024

The only thing that is worse than a regular workday is a particularly bad workday. That much is undeniable - nobody likes a bad day at work. And yet, there's something really entertaining in seeing other people having bad days at work. Maybe it's comforting to know that other people suffer from the same problems you have, or maybe some people's problems are just really funny. We're not sure, but scroll through this article to check out some of the most unfortunate and hilarious workplace incidents on the web!

People Who Could Really Use a Break at Work

Jonathan Dunlap

A Mosquito Control Guy Found This When He Came to Work

Ahh, nature. The great outdoors. A vast expanse of beautiful green; trees towering over the ground; mountains casting their sublime shadows over lakes that sparkle. Truly a shame that you won't find any of that where this guy took this picture. Working at a wide variety of parks and natural reserves, the original poster claims that this type of mess is something that he's totally used to seeing, which is incredibly sad.

A Mosquito Control Guy Found This When He Came to Work

ObadiahRain

Oh, to be an office ranger or some kind of enthusiast that has to deal with this kind of stuff. It's sad that the people who care about this the most have to suffer through it the most.

A Valet Was Given This as a Tip

It must be the most infuriating thing ever to work in any kind of service job, to bust your behind just to make sure that everyone you serve is happy, only to have someone tease you like this. Like, you could just not leave a tip, that would be infinitely better. Like, if you're broke just say so. No shame in being broke, is there? So just admit it - you're too broke to leave a real tip.

A Valet Was Given This as a Tip

AyeBeNJI

Whoever designed this has got to be pretty thick-skulled. Like, who on Earth would ever pick this up and wouldn't be too mad to even read whatever it is they wrote on this fake dollar bill?

This Teacher's Dog at Everyone's Homework

We can't believe it. Is this the rapture? What's going on here? Is it possible that the one thing that we know for sure can never actually happen, that a dog ate somebody's homework, actually happened? What's this guy even supposed to tell everyone? No way anyone will believe him. What's even worse is that this isn't just a student who had his homework eaten by his dog.

This Teacher's Dog at Everyone's Homework

paulakoala95

No, no. The person who took this photo wasn't a student but a teacher, meaning that this dog just ate an entire class' homework. Oh, how the tables have turned.

This Person's Practical LCD Monitor Prank Really Went Wrong

Boy, oh boy. If we were like this guy, and we were to show up to our work only to find us that our coworkers try to pull off some elaborate (yet admittedly harmless) prank on us, only for it to go completely off the rails and actually ruin your monitor and damage company property... well, we wouldn't be mad, because technically they didn't damage any of our own property.

This Person's Practical LCD Monitor Prank Really Went Wrong

daroan

So yeah, we actually wouldn't really mind. If anything, they should be the ones that should be nervous. After all, they vandalized company property, not us. Good luck to them.

When Your Boss Fires You for Caring About Personal Safety

You know it's a crazy world when you get fired for trying to tell your boss that you shouldn't block up the fire exit like that just in case, you know, a fire breaks out and people need to get out of the building using the fire exit. We get it, some people don't have the foresight to plan for the unexpected, but to fire someone for pointing it out?

When Your Boss Fires You for Caring About Personal Safety

sudden_chard860

That's way out of line. In fact, it's so blatantly dumb that it's actually kind of funny. Like, it's hard to get offended by something so obviously wrong and stupid.

Some Parents Forget People Need to Clean up up the Mess They Leave

You know you're doing a really good job as parents when you go for a family outing at some restaruant and leave the table looking like this. Now, we're sure the parents didn;'t mean for this to happen, and yet - that just speaks volumes about what kind of parenting they're up to. We'll keep the poor server who had to clean up this mess in our thoughts and prayers. We're rooting for you, buddy.

Some Parents Forget People Need to Clean up up the Mess They Leave

dillonconnerty

Whatever this poor server gets paid to deal with these kinds of people, somebody should go ahead and double it. This probably took a good 20 minutes to clean.

A Weekend's Worth of Ingredients in 4 Hours

Oh, dear Lord. You can tell by the way these two are positioned that they just went through pizzaiolo hell. Apparently, things got so busy at this Domino's that they ran out of an entire weekend's worth of supplies in just four hours. That's way more intense than your average rush hour. The bright side of this story is that these two have earned their fair share of bragging rights.

A Weekend's Worth of Ingredients in 4 Hours

The_Sauce_of_Legends

Like, these aren't your regular Domino's workers anymore. They're totally battle-hardened. They've been through hell and they know it. They've developed skin as thick as an elephant's. They are ready to take the world by storm.

This Person's Former Boss Should Think Ahead Next Time

Well somebody got a little ahead of himself, didn't he? It's funny to see somebody so enthusiastic about somebody leaving that you go ahead and dig yourself further into a hole. There's a lesson of sorts to be learned here: it's when things go south that one should truly take a bit of time to do some reflecting and figure out where to go from that point onwards. This guy defintiely didn't do that.

This Person's Former Boss Should Think Ahead Next Time

itkeekz

So let this one stranger we read about on the internet's mistakes guide us through the more troubling times in our lives. Don't jump the gun - try to make the right decision.

Giving "Working Hands" an Entirely New Meaning

So according to the original poster of this photo, what we're seeing here is the hands of a man who works in a lab kept at approximately 14 degrees Fahrenheit (which is approximately -10 Celsius) and has to wash his hands around 40 times a day. Never underestimate just how taxing a life of science can be. It may sound comfy, but it's hard, sometimes physically challenging, work. Rick and Morty just makes it look easy.

Giving

Reddit

The thing about this picture right here, is that this isn't something abnormal in this person's life. This is just one of the side-effects of his line of work. It's the norm for him.

When Two Crews Build a Bike Lane on the 'right Hand Side'

So apparently, what happened here is that two separate teams of builders were requested to build a bike lane "on the right-hand side", except one of them started working on the lane from one direction, while the other team started from the opposite direction. Everything was going swell until the two teams met in the middle and realized they had just built two bike lanes opposite of each other instead of just one.

When Two Crews Build a Bike Lane on the 'right Hand Side'

anthonybad

Now isn't that a funny little coincidence? We think so. It's kind of funny that this type of thing still happens in our hyper-organized society. It's almost endearing, in a strange way.

This Bus Driver Had a Secret Passenger

So the story behind this photo is that it was taken by a bus driver who, two hours into his ten-hour shift, was informed that his bus was housing a peculiar little passenger quite distinct from the regular cast of people you tend to find on buses, on account of him not being an actual human being. You wouldn't be blamed for mistaking this thing for being human, though, given its enormous size.

This Bus Driver Had a Secret Passenger

El_Dief

Like, that thing is huge. How the bus driver went two hours before noticing it crawling around is completely and utterly beyond us. Guess he is pretty good at blocking things out.

When You Work in a Mall and Find This Next to the Bookstore

Truly a tragedy. Think of all the great wisdom and knowledge that's been forsaken right here, sent to the great abyss, gone forever. The original poster of this photo works in a mall that also has a bookstore, and it turns out that the same bookstore is just throwing away all kinds of books. Like, isn't that the one place where you expect people to understand the sanctity of books? A bookstore?

When You Work in a Mall and Find This Next to the Bookstore

Reddit

We wonder what kind of books these guys just decided to throw out. There are probably all kinds of best sellers in that bin, just waiting to be read. A shame, really.

Not Enough Money for Good Wages, But Enough to Waste Food

It's seriously wild that supermarkets will straight-up toss out all that food, but when it comes to paying their employees a decent wage, they're like 'Nah, we good.' Like, seriously? You're gonna waste all that grub, but you can't even hook your workers up with a livable salary? Talk about messed-up priorities. Now listen, we're not saying everyone should be rolling in dough, but c'mon now. Get it together, supermarkets.

Not Enough Money for Good Wages, But Enough to Waste Food

walksov

Besides, if you're going to throw away such a staggering amount of perfectly good food, wouldn't you prefer just handing it out to, we don't know, your workers? Or hungry people? Anything's better than just throwing it in the trash like this.

New Guy Tried to Get Creative With Emptying the Fryer

sirpentious

New Guy Tried to Get Creative With Emptying the Fryer

But, alas, the new guy did what all new guys try to do - shake things up, and now he's going to have to clean up all that oil off of the floor.

Someone's Going to Have to Take the Long Way Home

There's nothing worse than having the only normal road that takes you from home to work and back (as in, the only road that doesn't lead you all across the country) totally obliterated by a natural disaster. That's exactly what happened to the poor original poster of this photo, who had to get creative to find his way  home from work on this fateful day. Hopefully, he managed to pull off some kind of navigational miracle.

Someone's Going to Have to Take the Long Way Home

BoneReject

We wonder how we would have reacted in his place - would we be mad about the fact that our way home just got, like, seven times longer? Or would we actually be kind of entertained by the whole thing? Something like this doesn't happen every day, after all.

When You Come to Work And Find This

Imagine waking up early, getting dressed in your best outfit, and making your way to work with a spring in your step. You arrive at the office, ready to tackle the day, only to be told that you're being let go. Talk about a buzzkill! Not only do you have to deal with the embarrassment of being fired in front of your colleagues, but you also have to start job hunting all over again.

When You Come to Work And Find This

otter_vomit

It's a rough day for sure, and one that no one wants to experience. On the bright side, at least you have the rest of the day to wallow in your misery and eat all of the leftover birthday cake in the break room.

Someone Is Not Happy

Okay, so as a truck driver driving industrial amounts of glass from place to place, this is probably one of the worst things that could ever happen to you on the job. Like, imagine what a blow to your professional reputation this kind of thing would deal you. But, one should always look at the bright side - you cannot say that this doesn't look cool as hell. Like, look at all that glass.

Someone Is Not Happy

skeetac

It almost looks as though a tidal wave was bursting out of that truck, only to immediately freeze. This is the kind of aesthetic contemporary artists would kill for.

Coworker Stole All the Tips Again

This picture moved us so much that we decided to write a little story about it: It was just another typical day at the coffee shop, with the exception of one small detail - the tip jar was empty. The employees couldn't believe their eyes when they went to divide up the earnings and saw that there was not a single penny in sight. Suspicion immediately fell on one of their coworkers, and the suspect list was long.

Coworker Stole All the Tips Again

TMOJBAR

There was the barista who always seemed to be short on cash, the shift manager who never seemed to tip, and the new hire who was always a little too eager to please. Alas, the suspect was never found.

It's Cart Chaos

What's going on here? Is this some kind of new Mario Kart map? No, that definitely isn't what this is. This is just the parking lot of some random supermarket somebody works at. His job? Cleaning up after the annoying people who don't put their shopping carts back in their place. Seriously, guys. This is exactly what we lack as a society - we should all be making each others' lives easier, not harder.

It's Cart Chaos

Connect-salamander88

So let's all make a pact to always (or at least, almost always) make sure the shopping carts go back to whence they came from so that people don't have to run around cleaning up after us.

So Lucky

Wow. We're pretty sure the person who won this little card must be thanking his lucky stars. Not everyone with a job has the privilege of earning himself unpaid time off. Oh, wait. Everyone with a job has that. In fact, even the unemployed have that; that's pretty much all they have. This is just a really weird and manipulative way of giving your employees fewer shifts. That's all this really is.

So Lucky

Reddit

We love how the card also says" We love our team" at the bottom. Yeah, we're not sure we completely buy into that.

This Should Have Been a Simple Yellow Line

Now before you go roasting these Wizard of Oz fans for what appears to be trying to paint the yellow brick road, just remember that painting roads is a thankless job. Just ask any road crew worker. They'll tell you all about the endless hours spent standing in the scorching sun, dodging cars and trucks while they try to get the job done. And let's not forget about the smell of the paint, a toxic concoction that's enough to make anyone dizzy.

This Should Have Been a Simple Yellow Line

But hey, at least they get to wear a cool reflective vest. That's the real prize, right? But you know what they say - no pain, no gain. Or in this case, no paint, no gain.

Nice Email Name

Damn, somebody really got unlucky when it came to the work email lottery. Mr. Steven Hart here really lost that one. Like, we wonder who's to blame here. Probably the person who made this email for him; he probably could have just double-checked his work to see that everything was good in the hood. Would he had done so, he would have discovered that not all was, in fact, good in the hood.

Nice Email Name

johnnyhf

But guess that's just the way the workplace email lottery works. Whoever said life was fair was either wrong or lying. Steven Hart knows that more than anyone.

Back to the Future But With A Paint Truck

We're not sure what kind of twisted speed demon possessed the driver of this paint truck, but he definitely got the urge to set his truck into 5th gear. This driver was thirsting for some high-octane, pedal-to-the-metal action, and that's exactly what he got. Only thing is, is that he left an incriminating trail of yellow paint behind him. Apparently, the driver went so fast that he actually broke the paint truck speed record.

Back to the Future But With A Paint Truck

puggelky

That's right. The esteemed driver managed to reach a staggering 88 miles per hour. Isn't that something? It must have been wild. Wish we were there to see it for ourselves.

They Needed an Entire Task Force for This One

So the next time you get into some long-winded and difficult conversation about the role of police in modern society, here's a little story you could possibly bring up: what we're seeing here is a sergeant that got his suspenders stuck in his office chair. So stuck, in fact, that he had to call for backup, as in a few extra officers, just to get himself free.

They Needed an Entire Task Force for This One

Brothisjose

Now, we're not quite sure what kind of point this story could convey, but that's just because it could probably be utilized to make any sort of point. So keep it close to your person, you might need it to argue in favor of whatever.

What's Worse Than Entitled Customers? Messy Entitled Customers

Messy customers, right? They're like, the worst. They spill their drinks, drop food all over the place, and somehow manage to get ketchup on the ceiling (how is that even possible?). And then they have the audacity to leave the mess for someone else to deal with. It's like, hello, we're not your personal cleaning crew. But one must stay professional and all, even if one secretly curses them in one's head.

What's Worse Than Entitled Customers? Messy Entitled Customers

https://www.reddit.com/r/trashy/comments/gebzpm/girlfriend_works_at_a_local_target_and_had_a/

It's all good, though. Just another day in the life of a service industry worker. At least you get to wear a super cute uniform, right? And if all else fails, just remind yourself that you're getting paid to clean up other people's messes (sort of).

They Spilled All the Oil

Woah, mister. Take it easy - spill any more oil and you'll have SEAL Team 6 bursting through all the walls of your workplace just to harness that precious oil you've just spilled all over the floor. Then again, when your only other option is having to clean this oil spill all by yourself, maybe having the American military go ahead and clean up after your mistakes isn't such a bad idea after all.

They Spilled All the Oil

Syrlon

Anyone who has ever dealt with oil spills knows just how annoying and pesky they can be, so we definitely don't envy the poor workers who had to clean up this little oily tragedy right here.

Because Regular Coffee Is Boring

Bored of regular coffee? Tired of living your life without finding random bugs inside the things you love to consume, contaminating your food or beverage with their animal presence? Well, we have got just the thing for you - try to find a little lizard in your coffee. That'll surely spice things up. Don't believe us? Well, just ask the person who originally uploaded this picture right here.

Because Regular Coffee Is Boring

MedicMac89

We're pretty sure this little lizard made his day that much more eventful. Like, this is definitely one cup of coffee he will never, ever forget. That much is for certain.

That Explains the Stares

Imagine walking around all day with a huge hole in your jeans only to find out about it the second you get home. We'd imagine there would be an "Oh, so that was all those stares and comments that i kind of, sort of noticed but also not really were about" moment. Yeah, pretty embarrassing. But then again, life is embarrassing, so you might as well just own it.

That Explains the Stares

Kaitari

That's the secret to having a good life - just completely and totally own anything and everything that makes you feel self-conscious about yourself. Trust us, it works like a charm.

Someone Tried to Steal A Car From the Dealership

Trying to steal a car from a car dealership is about as smart as trying to steal a fish from the ocean. Sure, you might be able to sneak past the security guards and avoid setting off the alarms, but then what? Are you just going to swim away with your stolen car, hoping that the dealership employees don't notice that one of their vehicles is missing? But this guy didn't even make it to that stage.

Someone Tried to Steal A Car From the Dealership

Shamblaha87

No, he certainly did not. He just took a car and went ramming into the dealership's glass wall, just hoping for the best. Obviously, that didn't really work out for him.

This Obviously Happened at the End of an 11-Hour Shift

Bad_Ju_New

This Obviously Happened at the End of an 11-Hour Shift

Or you could just, you know, quit your job and leave society; you know - go and build a modest cabin in the woods. Why not? At this point, it seems like you have nothing to lose.

What the Maintenance Guy Found

Uh oh, somebody went a bit too hard on toilet break, and it looks like somebody else is going to have to clean this thing up. Truth be told, we;'r;e not even sure how hard it is to clean a broken toilet seat - we've never broken a toilet seat like this. Wouldn't you just sweep up all the different parts and throw them in the trash? Then again, what about all the sewage?

What the Maintenance Guy Found

Reddit

Guess it's just one of those things we'd prefer to never know or hear about or anything, really. Some things in life are best left undiscovered. Human hubris is our most fatal flaw.

Somebody Took the Door Lock Home With Him

So this guy showed up to work only to notice that he couldn't get in. Strange, something must be up with the door lock, he must have thought, only to find out that there was no door lock - a different employee took the door lock home with him last night and, somehow, didn't notice until the next morning. It probably was the new guy, wasn't it? It's always the new guy with these things.

Somebody Took the Door Lock Home With Him

redcobra762

Like, how absent-minded do you have to be to take the door lock home with you and not even notice it? Didn't he notice that something was off when he put the keys in his pocket or something?

Someone Had to Clean This

Imagine being the janitor at a place where this kind of thing occurs every so often. Are you imagining it? We'll give you a bit more time to imagine it. Ok, now that you have thoroughly imagined it, we can say this: It isn't very fun, is it? It must be so hard to clean this. Like, where do you even start? We probably would have just quit on the spot.

Someone Had to Clean This

unwanted-tomatoes

Everybody has to draw the line somewhere, and we believe that we'll draw the line at cleaning a public bathroom teeming with stacks of random paper. That just ain't for us, if you know what we're saying.

We Thought This Kinda Thing Only Happened in Dreams

No, to our surprise, this is real - you can actually step into wet concrete and get stuck there. That's wild; next thing you'll tell us is that quicksand is real too. Wait, it is? Huh. So how come this type of thing doesn't happen more often? Like, when you think about it, considering how reckless people tend to be, you'd expect to see this kind of thing at least once a month.

We Thought This Kinda Thing Only Happened in Dreams

Jakolcz

Construction is a wacky profession, we guess. It is also, unfortunately, very dangerous. If you're doing construction, make sure to be safe out there! Wouldn't want to end up like this guy. Or worse.

Clean Up on Aisle Everywhere

Imagine having to be the person to clean up this one. Ouch. Yeah, that's a whole workday, we believe. How do you even go about announcing that this thing has to be cleaned? Would you say something like: "Yeah I'm going to have to clean that huge spill that has darkened and stained the entire cosmos?" At least it looks cool. That's probably the only saving grace this thing has going for it.

Clean Up on Aisle Everywhere

FinestShang

If you're one of the people working at this establishment when this thing happened, you'd be best trying to leverage this accident into some kind of artsy Instagram photo, Might as well, right?

A Fair Review

Well, we hate to take the side of the vandal, but he isn't lying here - he's just pointing out the uncomfortable truth. Now, he definitely could have made his point in such a manner that wouldn't cost the owner of this door a lot of time and effort, and money to deal with, but he didn't, and that's just something we're going to have to accept about life at this point.

A Fair Review

Sister_Ceres

But you can't say that this isn't just a bit funny. Like, just a tiny, tiny bit funny. Because it certainly is. It definitely made us chuckle;

Never Lend Your Things to People You Don't Trust

hattumer

Never Lend Your Things to People You Don't Trust

This guy probably broke out a whole bag of excuses: "It wasn't me." "There's nothing wrong with it." "It was like that when I got it." Classic stuff.

Nothing Beats Traffic on A Big Day

So the story behind this picture is that the original poster of this photo just started a new job in a small town. A town so small, in fact, that whenever there's an accident, traffic gets really congested on the only road in the town. Basically, this guy was deathly late to his job on his first day. Ouch. We're not going to lie - it must really suck to be him.

Nothing Beats Traffic on A Big Day

tinystalker

Hopefully, he managed to explain the whole ordeal he had to suffer through to his new boss. Strange how small towns function, isn't it?,

Someone's In Denial

If it looks as though you're getting fired, and it also sounds as though you're getting fired, and you're no longer required to arrive at your workplace, then you're probably getting fired. That much should be obvious to anybody, but it seems as though this supervisor here, the guy who's doing the firing, isn't really on the same page as us when it comes to what does and doesn't count as getting fired.

Someone's In Denial

ducksoap74

Why do bosses always try to fire you without actually admitting to it? It's like they think we're all stupid or something. "Hey, we just wanted to let you know that you're not really working out, but don't worry, we're not firing you. We're just...kind of firing you. But not really."

Someone Put Chocolate in the Sink

Here is the most delectable and yet bizarre sight you'll ever lay your eyes on: a sink, completely covered in chocolate. Now, we know what you're thinking: 'Did someone accidentally drop a chocolate bar in the sink and forget to clean it up?' or 'Is this some sort of art installation?' Well, maybe. We have no idea. All we know is that some poor sucker had to clean this up.

Someone Put Chocolate in the Sink

fjt123

Our thoughts and prayers go out to that poor guy. Really and truly. He must have had to suffer through that ordeal.