Economy & LaborSEP 13, 2023

Managers Asked To Share The Weirdest Complaints About Employees, Here’s 30 That Didn’t Disappoint

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The customer is always right might be one of the most incorrect statements of all time, next to Lord Kelvin, president of the Royal Society of London famously saying “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible,” only to be disproven a few years later.

So one netizen was curious to hear what were some of the most unhinged things managers had ever heard a customer or coworker complain about an employee. So if you have worked in a customer-facing job, or have just had some strange colleagues, prepare for some unfortunate flashbacks and get comfortable. Be sure to upvote your favorite posts and share your own thoughts and experiences in the comments section below.

#1

Managers Asked To Share The Weirdest Complaints About Employees, Here’s 30 That Didn’t Disappoint

I had a customer complain that our carrot sticks were too thick and were for horses. She threw it at my server...which she then ran to me in tears. I walked out there and she was just some stupid c**t who wanted to make someone have a bad day. Her words were, “it’s our job as customers to let you know every thing that’s wrong.”

How about you f**k your self and treat people like human beings?

SalveBrutus, Antoni Shkraba

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224points

#2

Customer called my manager because I was off the clock and wouldn't help her. It was my day off and she demanded I help her because she knew I was an employee there. I just walked away while she had a tantrum in the store.

Rxckless92, Talal Hakim

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194points

In a money-driven world, some people forget that just because you are parting with your hard-earned cash, doesn’t mean you are entitled to anything and everything. You wouldn't throw a fit if someone who has to just hand you a coffee wasn’t smiling. And if you would, I would suggest you reevaluate a significant part of your life.

Other examples here range closer to traditional definitions of paranoia. For example, the chance that a retail employee could and would curse you is near zero. Of course, if someone really was a wizard, witch, warlock, or any other flavor of mystic, why would they be working at, for example, Best Buy? Similarly, if these people have such arcane power, what exactly do you think a complaint to a manager will do?

#3

I'm not a manager, but I once worked with a manager who liked to share the oddball complaints with us.

The manager of another department made a formal complaint against me because I was too *friendly*. He felt it was a huge waste of his precious time to have to say hello back to me every time we passed in the hallway.

One of my colleagues had a complaint made against him for being too *helpful*. He offered to press the lift call button for a woman in a wheelchair, who couldn't reach it by herself. She found it 'belittling'.

Another colleague was accused of being too *happy*. Whistling a tune while walking from one work order to the next. Disgusting.

And I collected another complaint for being too quick. A user claimed that I couldn't possibly have fixed his computer in the few minutes I spent in his office. The manager got him to switch it on and he had to admit that it worked fine now.

I_throw_socks_at_cat, Andrea Piacquadio

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181points

#4

I once had a manager come up in a sort of serious way and say "so, um... One of your co-workers said you were asking about his favorite teletubby and he's just kinda a little freaked out about it" One of my proudest moments at work.

anon, 70023venus2009

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181points

#5

I'm a bartender, and I had someone complain that the fish our restaurant served would give her coronavirus. Second best complaint was that she didn't like me serving her because I was "being haunted by something."

dollyeyedgore, Valeria Boltneva

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179points

More often than not, the real issue is entitlement, not delusions and spellcasting. Customers seem to believe their word is law and everything from the shape of the glass to the demeanor of a worker can be adjusted to their will. We all have our preferences, but fortunately, the vast majority of us don’t believe that what we want is so dominant that we would go talk to a manager about it. Some people’s greatest battles, it seems, are with delusions.

#6

Karen didn’t like one of our Cashier’s giant [breasts] distracting her 12-year-old son.

randy88moss, Andrea Piacquadio

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172points

#7

I work in a gas station so we sell a lot of cigarettes I had a young looking lady asking me to fire an employee because he carded her. She was 28. I don't know about you but I would have taken it as a compliment.

anon, RDNE Stock project

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166points

#8

I own an establishment that serves alcohol. We had a guy complain that the bartender was pouring his beer into "gay glassware" and I need to train him to pour beer for men into manly glasses. He was dead-a*s serious.

fukn10ply, ELEVATE

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150points

Anyone who has worked with enough customers will know that there is a sizable subset of people who really just want to talk. The more “clever” in this cohort understand that making a complaint is one of the rare cases where a customer service representative will not just drop the call. So they concoct the most outlandish complaints, arguments, and weird suggestions just to hear a voice on the other end.

#9

Not a manager but years ago at a job I got called into the office of the big boss. My boss was also there. I was told about my unacceptable behavior from that morning. Confused, I asked what I did. Apparently, my boss passed by my desk that morning and said “good morning” and I said nothing back. They told me it was unprofessional to be giving her “the silent treatment.” I laughed because I thought they were joking around. They were totally f*****g serious and didn’t believe me when I said I just didn’t hear her. They gave me an hour speech about how mean and unprofessional I was and how bad I hurt my bosses feelings.

gouwbadgers, Djordje Petrovic

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150points

#10

Manger at Walmart. A older woman would call at least once a week for a month to complain that my employee was a witch who put a curse on the toaster she bought and she wanted the employee fired.

DerpyTheCow47, Erica Strolen

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136points

#11

I had a 55-ish year old man on THANKSGIVING scream at the top of his lungs at me for about.... 30 minutes because the employee was using the same bathroom that his daughter could potentially use.

In short. one of the employees was using the single-use bathroom. We had four other bathrooms in the Theatre. He got there first and was already inside when she walked up. He was mad that she (his daughter) had to walk into the women's room next to it use THAT Bathroom.

He wanted me to reprimand the employee in front of him, and then fire him "For using the wrong bathroom"

I refused to do so. He literally stomped around and threw a tempter tantrum like a child.

SpacyCats, Maria Orlova

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135points

This, for those who have thankfully avoided such roles, is still a decent situation, compared to the humans that can only be described as a smoldering volcano or rage. Some people have a deep, perhaps innate, desire to shout, scream, and make their power known. Perhaps unable to do it anywhere else, they pick workers as a target.

#12

One of the trades working for me right now asked me to kick a guy off site because he doesn’t talk much. Like, the guy was competent, friendly enough, but just didn’t really have a lot to say about anything. Other workers on site would pester him about things and he’d give 2-3 word answers most of the time.

I get that people like to be able to talk to people working next to them, but how am I supposed to justify getting this guy off site simply for not being talkative?

P0ster_Nutbag, Life Of Pix

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134points

#13

I was working customer service at the time, the guy wanted to complain that the agent he just spoke to was too attractive to be on the phones. I wasn't sure if he was phisihing for a physical description or legit concerned that her voice was going to tempt him to hell and damnation through sinning. Either way, I flagged his account written communication only and he never had to worry about us speaking to him again.

tdasnowman, MART PRODUCTION

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123points

#14

Not my employee, but a lady did complain that the employee was cutting her fudge “too aggressively”.

GiggleTwin, ROMAN ODINTSOV

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117points

The truly weird cases are the complaints from coworkers. Unlike random customers, these people know enough to understand what is normal or not. But it just goes to show that the unhinged folk many customer-facing workers meet also have to work somewhere. If all this work-related talk has put you in the mood for something more lighthearted, Bored Panda has got you covered, check out our article on unhinged work memes.

#15

I used to manage a dominos pizza. The only complaint I personally ever receiving was from some lady who freaked out because her sandwich took so long to make. While she was talking to my cashier up front I overheard her order and had it made and halfway through the oven before she even paid. She waited a maximum 3-4 minutes after paying and then went off on me for my poor customer service and inability to do my job. She asked for the manager on duty and surprise! Told her to get the hell out of my store and not come back.

USDAprimebeef69, Muffin Creatives

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114points

#16

Used to manage a sporting goods store in a strip mall. The whole storefront was large glass windows. I got a couple of comments from customers and other employees that one of the guys was pretending to be a cat. I had never seen it myself, but the kid was a little off typically, so I figured I'd look into it. I drove to the store in a different car than usual on my day off, when he was scheduled for a shift. Sure enough, this 18 year old boy was standing in the window licking his hands like paws, batting at things, and meowing to himself. I watched for five minutes, with customers entering the store and he wasn't even attempting to help them. I called my district manager and told him what was going on. He checked the security camera, thanked me, and told me he'd come take care of it so I could enjoy the rest of my day off.

householdplumbus, Antonio Sokic

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96points

#17

I was a supervisor/manager and an official complaint was filed against me because I told my team to do their work. My project manager had to have an official talk with me, laughed the whole time, and then thanked me for actually making that team do more than go to lunch.

jmartyg, Andrea Piacquadio

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87points

#18

We have a store next to a massage business. A woman complained that the loud cackling of the manager of my store ruined her massage. Really funny.

mastad0420, Elina Fairytale

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87points

#19

My MIL is a customer service manager at a grocery store. She had a customer complain to her once that the cashiers had followed her home and vandalized her yard with the sale papers from the store. She said she would have taken a photo, but by the time she got her camera the cashiers had cleaned it all up.

This same woman had many other complaints, but that was the first one I thought of.

Cadence_828, Nik Cvetkovic

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86points

#20

Use to be a site manger for after school programs. Every single one of my employees (including me) had visible tattoos. Nothing inappropriate, actually very tasteful and well done. And there is nothing in our policies that says you can’t have them.

Had a parent complain to me that her kindergarten age son’s group leader had a visible neck tattoo. It was a very well done rose he got for his mom. She requested that he cover it up due to tattoos being “inappropriate” and “giving her child the wrong idea.” I told her that there wasn’t any other groups for her to put her kid in and that tattoos aren’t against our policy and there was no way for him to cover it up because of location. Then I told her if she didn’t like she could remove her child, as there was a long waiting list.

She didn’t remove her kid. Infact I had said leader do a lesson on tattoos toward the end of the year.

useless_reaper

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85points

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