Let me tell you, I’ve had my own share of office dramas — from crazy co-workers to bosses that were all too bossy. You name it I’ve experienced it. And I’m sure you have stories, too. We all do.
So when a recent Reddit thread asked, “What is the small scale work drama happening in your office right now?” people sure had a lot to share, ha, ha. Let’s take a look at some of their fascinating answers.
This Office Thief
“Someone’s been eating people’s sandwiches at work. They only take sandwiches. I’m legit invested in this because I wanna know…why just the sandwiches?”
I seriously can’t stop laughing at that and now I’m invested in this drama too. Don’t you want to know?
This Nosy Parker
“Our operations manager fell through the ceiling of the conference room. He wasn’t invited to the meeting and wanted to listen in.”
OMG, that’s insane. Am I right? I so wish I was there to witness that, ha, ha. That must’ve been quite the scandal in that office.
This Toilet Bandit
“We have a serial toilet clogger. Someone uses half a roll of toilet paper to wipe and clogs the damn toilet at least twice a week. It’s gotten so bad that the poor maintenance man had signs made up that say, ‘Please flush after two wipes.’ Apparently, she can’t read, because it keeps happening.”
Yeah, Nancy, can’t you read?
This Boss’ Boss
“No one gets along with our boss, so the company hired another ‘boss’ to be our point of contact — he’s her deputy. The original boss has started gate crashing Zoom calls, she’s calling people on their days off and writing emails saying they’re unprofessional for not picking up (on their day off!) and told a pregnant lady about to go on maternity leave that she’s not happy about the pregnancy. A WhatsApp group has been made up where everyone is voicing their concerns to the deputy boss and things are getting out of hand quite quickly.”
Awkward!
These Cake Wars
“One of my coworkers is always trying to one-up me. I brought in some homemade cookies for National Cookie Day, and she brought in a cake that was almost twice the size. I’m petty, so I brought in a cake twice the size the next day.”
I bet everyone in the office is cheering this one. Free cake, ha, ha!
This Wedding Drama
“One lady is getting married and invited everyone in her department to the wedding, except for one coworker. And she asked the others not to tell. So obviously everybody in the building knows.”
Oh, will the secret get out? I really want to find out.
This Bossy Boss
“My boss rearranged all the tables so that he can see what we are doing on our computers from his office. Since it’s an open office workspace, it’s very loud, so we got noise barriers. These blocked his vision, so he said we don’t need them anymore. It’s 12 people in one big office room on the telephone talking at any time. I can barely understand my own words. Everyone is angry.”
OMG, that office sounds like fun, huh?
This Act Of Defiance
“One colleague refused to sign another’s birthday e-card, and now they won’t speak to one another.”
I wonder how long will this office feud continue. Not that I like this kind of drama, but I find it quite fascinating how invested some people are in keeping stuff like this going, ha, ha.
This Vanishing Act
“Some jacket that was in the exact same spot for about 10 years vanished, people are going apes*** crazy.”
Oh, I love a good mystery. I wonder who took it? Was it somebody from IT? Was it that janitor guy, or was it that lady who often talks to herself? Ah, the plot thickens, hee-hee.
This Good Deed Gone Bad
“Our department is struggling with retention, so the admin bought a popcorn machine to try to boost morale. Think movie-theater-popcorn-style popper. Guess what no one does? Clean the damn thing. Emails are being sent and checks are being made at the end of every shift to make sure it’s been cleaned. It’s a perfect example of a good plan backfiring since now it’s just one more thing to worry about. I give it a month before it gets put in storage.”
I can just picture that.
This Over-Sharing
“Someone was pulled in to HR today about keeping their personal life away from work due to lots of recent over-sharing. The air was thick with tension as this person remained silent for the rest of the day.”
Oh, come on, it was you? Wasn’t it?
This Office Reno
“They’re installing new furniture and people are NOT PLEASED about the new floor/seating plan.”
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Ah, people are creatures of habit, so when something like this happens, it’s not easy to adjust. Just give them time, and I’m sure they’ll love the new setup. Here’s hoping, ha, ha.
This Real Life Jigsaw Puzzle
“We have a jigsaw puzzle on one of the spare desks to give people the opportunity to sit down for five minutes and de-stress. However, there’s a piece of this puzzle missing and everyone is pointing fingers at each other and trying to work out who has stolen/hidden the piece. My two cents is that it’s just a missing piece, but it’s fun to sit and watch the madness unfold.”
And it was supposed to de-stress people, right?
This Office Rivalry
“Two coworkers applied to be supervisors. One has the right degree but is apathetic to everything. The other has good instincts and is highly motivated but doesn’t have the degree. Guess who got the job. Now the go-getter is learning to let the apathetic one fail.”
I would love to see this play out.
This Artsy Type
“Someone at my office is a note writer. You know, the kind that loves leaving laminated notes around the office saying things like, ‘Please finish milk before opening new bottle.’ They’re everywhere, and a new one pops up every week. The kitchen is almost entirely made out of notes now. Now someone has started leaving reply notes on their notes with pictures of Dr. Evil from Austin Powers saying, ‘NO.’ I don’t know who’s doing either of them!”
I guess somebody got a new laminating machine, lol.
This Total Blunder
“A new hire lost the master set of keys for the entire building. If we can’t find them, then we’ll have to replace every single lock, which will cost thousands of dollars.”
Yikes, I wouldn’t want to be that person in the office right now. I bet it’s like crickets every time they walk by everyone.
This Classless Act
“The old manager wrote a list of pros and cons for each employee for the new manager. She left it out where it could easily be read. There are three to five cons for each person and one to two pros. She hasn’t left yet. Everyone now hates her.”
Wow, can you believe that? If that’s not a lack of class, I don’t know what is, ha, ha. If she wanted to give this info to the new manager, she should have done it in private and not left it out for everyone to see. Am I right?
This HR Gaffe
“We’ve just received our pay increase and bonus figures for the year except HR sent a number of letters to the wrong people. Some of them work together, doing the same job, but with different rates of pay and bonuses. Bedlam.”
Oh, no! I bet there will be some animosity in this office now.
Whoa, can you believe those stories?
Have you ever witnessed this much drama in your office? For your and everyone else’s sake, I hope not. But it was fun to read these, huh? I can’t believe how petty some people can get, especially in an office work setting. I mean, after all, it’s just a 9-5 job so let it go. Am I right?
