I recently dropped my longtime ISP for multiple reasons. The most recent was a large price hike they tried to mask behind a deal that if you had automatic withdrawals with a debit card, you would save $5 a month, but if you had automatic withdrawals linked to your checking account you would save $10 a month on your monthly bill.

I thought I was going to save some money on my bill, but I came to find out that my bill actually went up $18, and they deducted $10 for having auto-pay linked to my checking account. In the end, I was still paying an extra $8 a month, plus the extra $12 in price increases over the past two years. To top it all off, this ISP still had a data cap of 1.2TB that any family of four-plus people could easily exceed.

This ISP company is large, all over the United States. They not only offer Internet but cable service, cell phone service, and even landline service. Their job is connectivity with devices on a massive scale.

Now that I’m done with that ISP, I have to return their X-Box. (It’s not an actual Xbox gaming system; it’s just what the company called it because of its name.) I never used nor even asked for it; I don’t even know what the stupid thing was for. It got shoved into a closet and forgotten there for the last few years. I have to ship it back to them on my dime, or I can drop it at a local store of theirs. I opt to drop it at a local store. If I don’t return it within thirty days, I have to pay them money for it.

A couple of days after I cancel my old ISP service, I have time to head to one of their local stores to return the X-Box. I arrive at the store, and a nice handwritten sign is taped to the entrance of the store as I enter. I don’t remember the exact wording on the sign, but it pretty much says that the store’s Internet is down and they cannot provide any services that require access to the network or systems.

I enter the store and am greeted by an employee there. He tells me that their network is down and he can’t assist me with anything that requires network access.

Me: “I’m just here to return this X-Box since I canceled my account with you guys the other day.”

Employee: “Oh. Okay. Once our system is back up, I’ll scan it in that you’ve returned it.”

Me: “Okay, thanks. You know, it’s kind of ironic that a company like this that is driven on connectivity has network issues right now, isn’t it?”

Employee: “Uh.” *Staring blankly at me* “What do you mean?”

Me: “Never mind. Have a good day.”

A company with a net worth of over $150 billion, and its store locations are having network outages. I guess the employee just didn’t understand the irony of it all.

My workout buddy and I went to a restaurant. The waiter stopped by and asked if we wanted to order drinks. We said no, just water, because we’d just been working out and were very thirsty. Plus, my buddy tends to get post-workout migraines, and if he does, then I’m the driver.

Before we could say we wanted appetizers — we were, after all, very post-workout hungry — the waiter vanished. Twenty minutes later, people who’d come in after us were getting their appetizers.

We weren’t able to wave down our waiter, so we walked out.

I know alcohol and even soft drinks boost the total and corresponding tip, but that’s no reason to ignore water drinkers.

On my way to work after getting off the streetcar in the morning, I meet a coworker.

Coworker: “You’ve seen the unionists at the streetcar stations?”

Me: “Yes.”

Coworker: “They’re boring with their petitions! It’s bad enough that I have to leave early now that we have fewer streetcars.”

Me: “You know what the petition is about?”

Coworker: “What?”

Me: “The petition is against the lack of streetcars in the city, especially in our area.”

As we were really early for our workplace due to the lack of streetcars — it was either that or be late — he finally went back to sign the petition. Unionists aren’t such a pain when you agree with their petitions! But maybe you should listen to them first!

I never had any leadership training, so I will not claim that my conduct in this story was in any way perfect. I did what felt correct at the time.

I was working as supervisor of our production area. We’re a company for document management, so people’s main tasks were to take documents out of folders, remove staples, form neat piles of paper for the scanner feeding trays, and stuff like that.

During that particular time, we had one job that required more complicated prep. I don’t remember the details (this was ten years ago), but it involved sorting the documents by various criteria and thus was more demanding and time-consuming. The task could probably have been done more efficiently, but the CEO of the company himself had decreed how that particular job was to be done, and thus, we pretty much had no choice.

We had put one specific coworker on that task, and he was clearly unhappy with it; he was muttering complaints under his breath, and his head grew redder and redder. Then, when I happened to pass his workplace, he called out to me:

Coworker: “Who decided to do this task in this stupid way?”

I was in the middle of three different things, so I was admittedly somewhat curt when I replied over my shoulder.

Me: “[CEO] told us to do it that way.”

Then, suddenly, [Coworker] sprang up, got in my way, shoved my chest, and shouted:

Coworker: “That’s not how you talk to me! Don’t talk to me like that!”

I am male, but I’m neither big nor strong; [Coworker] was a head bigger and had at least 30 kg (about 66 pounds) on me. Even if I had wanted to fight him, I would have stood no chance. So, my only option was to remain calm.

Me: “[Coworker], please sit back down and continue your work.”

He kept shoving me.

Coworker: “I’m not doing that! What are you going to do? Huh? Huh?”

This went on for what felt like a long time but was probably just a minute or two. Then, another coworker got up and tried to get in between us and de-escalate. At this point, I got scared, because [Coworker #2] was pregnant at that time, and who knew what would happen if [Coworker] actually took a swing and hit her instead of me?

Me: “[Coworker], I can’t work with you like that. I want you to go home for today.”

Coworker: “I’m not going! You can’t send me home!”

Me: “All right, if you won’t take it from me, I’ll let [Boss] tell you.”

I walked over to my desk and called [Boss], who was the branch manager for our location. I told her that [Coworker] had attacked me and I would like to send him home for the day. She told me to send him over to her office. To my surprise, he did go there without any complaints.

About half an hour later, he returned, sat down at his desk, and continued work without any words.

[Boss] then called me over to tell her my side of the story. I gave an account of what had happened and told her that I really thought he should go home for the day because I didn’t know what he would do.

Boss: “Yeah, when he got over here, he told me that if you said another word to him, he would hit you in the face. I can’t send him home; that’s what he wants. But I will write him up.” 

I was flabbergasted. [Coworker] had outright told her he was seconds away from hitting me, and she had sent him back to me? Also, if all he wanted was to go home, he would have gone the moment I tried to send him home; that reasoning was bulls***. Unfortunately, I was too timid to be assertive at that time in my life, so I just accepted it and went back to work, trying to avoid [Coworker] for the rest of the day.

The next morning, I was called into [Boss]’s office. [Coworker] was already there, and [Boss] told me that he wanted to apologize. [Coworker] mumbled some stuff about both of us being men, and that’s how we behave, after all. (Note: that’s not an apology.) I asked what guarantees I had that something like that wouldn’t happen again, and he told me, “This will never happen again.”

The way [Boss] sniffed at my question clearly told me she thought I was the unreasonable one for not just accepting the non-apology. It was obvious that I wouldn’t get anything else out of either of them, so I just accepted it and went on with my day.

I later learned that while [Boss] did give [Coworker] a write-up, she did not hand it to Human Resources, thus not making it official — deliberately so, as she did not want it to reflect badly on her leadership.

Unfortunately, this is not where this story ends.

A few months went by. I tried to avoid any confrontations and let [Boss] handle [Coworker]’s assignments as much as possible.

[Boss] then decided she wanted [Coworker] to learn one of our more complicated data entry jobs. It would fall to our head of data entry (DE) to teach him said job. [Head of DE] already had some misgivings about him; they both came from the same Eastern European country, and he reminded her of gang members she had known there. But she needed the help and so agreed to teach him.

I only know what followed second-hand, as I was not present. [Boss] and [Head of DE] called [Coworker] into the data entry room to start teaching him. However, he had none of it. He shoved [Head of DE] away from him, shouting:

Coworker: “No! You’re not teaching me! I want [My Name] to teach me!”

By all accounts, [Boss] went white as a sheet when that happened.

[Boss] later called me into her office (I had heard about the incident by that time) and told me that I would not have to teach [Coworker]. In fact, he was on a limited contract that would run out in about six weeks. She would just not renew his contract, and then he would be gone.

Obviously, no one, especially not [Head of DE], was happy to hear that they would have to work with this guy for another six weeks, but unfortunately, that’s what we ended up doing. Since [Boss] hadn’t filed his attack on me officially, I suspect she didn’t even have the legal handle to fire him directly.

I did get a small comeuppance, however. About two weeks before [Coworker]’s contract ran out, he came to me and asked whether I had already scheduled time to teach him that data entry job. I told him in no uncertain terms that I would not and would never train him in that job. I would not reward him for the way he had treated [Head of DE]. I was not willing to take time out of my schedule at his whim. If he had wanted to learn that job, [Head of DE] would have been the person to ask, but he had squandered that chance.

He left without another word after that.

A customer called into our shop for wheel studs. I found out what size she needed.

Me: “We only have four in the size you need.”

Customer: “No problem. My mechanic will go in and pick up what I need.”

He came in and picked three different threads and sizes along with the ones the woman had called for. All right, my dude. You do you.

She called back the next day screaming.

Customer: “You gave [Mechanic] the wrong ones! Now my rotors are scratched to h***, and it’s all your fault!”

I laughed and handed it off to the boss. He calmed her down, told her he’d replace the rotors free, and so on. He finished the call, and I commented:

Me: “I can’t believe a fellow worker would screw it up this badly.”

Boss: “Wait. What?”

Me: “Yeah, she works in a different location; she had me do an employee discount on the wheel studs.”

My boss spun around, called her manager, and chewed HER a new a**hole for an employee who intentionally had incorrect parts installed and then called her own company screaming about it. It got her fired in the long run, due to the way she reacted and screamed at her boss.