Special Snowflake Stories

[Coruscation]

The girlfriend of one of our contracted employees rang my BIL yesterday. She asked nicely what job he was doing and when BIL told her, she proceeded to verbally abuse him for letting her boyfriend do a job which involved working with other women. BIL told her firmly (probably, I admit probably not very politely), that if he ever received another phone call like that from her she wouldn't have to worry, he wouldn't have any type of job. He also explained this to the employee.  Employee asked that BIL tell her if she rang again that he was doing his main job which does not involve interacting with any women.

Apparently, she used to wait outside the gate for him to get off work each day so he didn't talk to female coworkers.

Oy vey.

Wasn't there someone on here a few years ago who said that she didn't want her DH talking to other women at work, beyond the bare minimal needs of the job?

Yes, but i think she was expecting him to police himself, not asking his boss to get involved.

[Amava]

The girlfriend of one of our contracted employees rang my BIL yesterday. She asked nicely what job he was doing and when BIL told her, she proceeded to verbally abuse him for letting her boyfriend do a job which involved working with other women. BIL told her firmly (probably, I admit probably not very politely), that if he ever received another phone call like that from her she wouldn't have to worry, he wouldn't have any type of job. He also explained this to the employee.  Employee asked that BIL tell her if she rang again that he was doing his main job which does not involve interacting with any women.

Apparently, she used to wait outside the gate for him to get off work each day so he didn't talk to female coworkers.

I hope BIL told Employee that he is NOT Employee's messenger service!

Indeed.
I don't think BIL should lie to the employee's girlfriend. I don't think he should tell her the truth either. I think he should tell her: "I don't discuss that." or "I don't give out that kind of information."

[petal]

part of the privledge of driving on the road is you must be respectful towards other vehicles sharing that road

If those bikers cant be respectful enough to share the road and let users change into their lane to get to exits then they dont belong on the road.  they dont own the road

[CrochetFanatic]

part of the privledge of driving on the road is you must be respectful towards other vehicles sharing that road

If those bikers cant be respectful enough to share the road and let users change into their lane to get to exits then they dont belong on the road.  they dont own the road

I agree.  It's very nerve-wracking when you can't merge because nobody will let you in, and people behind you are getting impatient.  If there was room for the car to safely merge, then they had every right to do so.  If traffic is really bad, and nobody is letting you in, you could end up sitting there for a long time.  I would think the same thing if it was a row of cars or trucks not letting a motorcyclist merge.  It's that kind of cooperation that helps people to avoid accidents.

[suzieQ]

I think the bikers were in the wrong as well, but if I were caught in that situation, I would speed up to pass them and get off at the next exit before I would slow down to a crawl on the highway.

[BabylonSister]

The girlfriend of one of our contracted employees rang my BIL yesterday. She asked nicely what job he was doing and when BIL told her, she proceeded to verbally abuse him for letting her boyfriend do a job which involved working with other women. BIL told her firmly (probably, I admit probably not very politely), that if he ever received another phone call like that from her she wouldn't have to worry, he wouldn't have any type of job. He also explained this to the employee.  Employee asked that BIL tell her if she rang again that he was doing his main job which does not involve interacting with any women.

Apparently, she used to wait outside the gate for him to get off work each day so he didn't talk to female coworkers.

Erm, I don't think that's the right solution.  I hope your BIL doesn't feel the need to lie.  That woman sounds like a nightmare and the relationship looks doomed to me.

[buvezdevin]

part of the privledge of driving on the road is you must be respectful towards other vehicles sharing that road

If those bikers cant be respectful enough to share the road and let users change into their lane to get to exits then they dont belong on the road.  they dont own the road

I agree.  It's very nerve-wracking when you can't merge because nobody will let you in, and people behind you are getting impatient.  If there was room for the car to safely merge, then they had every right to do so.  If traffic is really bad, and nobody is letting you in, you could end up sitting there for a long time.  I would think the same thing if it was a row of cars or trucks not letting a motorcyclist merge.  It's that kind of cooperation that helps people to avoid accidents.

This was certainly my thinking, and I was surprised at boyfriend's view, and his absolute certainty of its correctness.  So - just googled "rules of the road motorcycle pack" and will be sending boyfriend some links, including the one below.  It says, in part, "if a vehicle wants  to break through the pack on a multi-lane road, give them space to safely do so... Motorcycles do not own the road."

http://www.gmasw.com/riderule.pdf

[Mediancat]

part of the privledge of driving on the road is you must be respectful towards other vehicles sharing that road

If those bikers cant be respectful enough to share the road and let users change into their lane to get to exits then they dont belong on the road.  they dont own the road

I agree.  It's very nerve-wracking when you can't merge because nobody will let you in, and people behind you are getting impatient.  If there was room for the car to safely merge, then they had every right to do so.  If traffic is really bad, and nobody is letting you in, you could end up sitting there for a long time.  I would think the same thing if it was a row of cars or trucks not letting a motorcyclist merge.  It's that kind of cooperation that helps people to avoid accidents.

And expecting people to over- or undershoot their exits is ridiculous. Maybe they know the area, and maybe they don't.  If I'm not familiar with an area and I know I'm supposed to get off at exit 36, how do I know whether it's safe to get off at exit 37?  The bikers needed to let the guy in. They're not a funeral procession and they're not a group of emergency vehicles. They have no entitlement to stay together on the road.

Rob

[SiotehCat]

The girlfriend of one of our contracted employees rang my BIL yesterday. She asked nicely what job he was doing and when BIL told her, she proceeded to verbally abuse him for letting her boyfriend do a job which involved working with other women. BIL told her firmly (probably, I admit probably not very politely), that if he ever received another phone call like that from her she wouldn't have to worry, he wouldn't have any type of job. He also explained this to the employee.  Employee asked that BIL tell her if she rang again that he was doing his main job which does not involve interacting with any women.

Apparently, she used to wait outside the gate for him to get off work each day so he didn't talk to female coworkers.

Oy vey.

Wasn't there someone on here a few years ago who said that she didn't want her DH talking to other women at work, beyond the bare minimal needs of the job?

Yes, but i think she was expecting him to police himself, not asking his boss to get involved.

That was me.

Thank you, Coruscation. You are absolutely correct. I would never call his boss or anyone else at his place of employment.

[siamesecat2965]

I had one at work last night. Let me say that out return policy at my store used to be anything goes. In that, we'd take anything back, any time, no problem.  No receipt, sure, we'll take it back. No ticket on the item, again, sure, we'll take it back. And there were no time limits. We'd take things back if they were worn, say shoes, that hurt feet, or pants that were "too loose" after a wearing, becasue you bought them loose, sure, we'll take them back.

As time went on, company policy changed. I'd say about 4 years ago. We now have a 90 day return policy, which is more than generous, and we will only take things back with a receipt, or tag on, etc. if you can't find your receipt, but have the ticket on the item, if we can find it in your customer history, we can get the receipt info, and therefore, do your return, IF its within the 90 day period.  Now if the merchandise is defective, yes,

No ticket and no receipt, sorry, you are out of luck. I don't make policy, but I do have to enforce it.  So customer has an item she wants to return, but has no ticket and no receipt. Normally, I'd have to refuse, but the manager allowed me to see if we had another one, which we did, so I could make a ticket up, and i found her receipt info, so all was good.

She then returned a couple of other items on the receipt, which had tags. Again, no problem.

The problem arose when she wanted to return a pair of worn, but washed, socks. Saying they were defective beacuse they didn't stay up. But she had no ticket, and no receipt.  I told her i'd have to ask the manager, which I did, who said no.  SS was not happy, saying well, you have them over there (which I don't know if we had the exact ones or not) and carrying on.  I told her I was sorry, but the manager said no.  She then continued with PA comments about how much she spends and how we COULD do it, but the manager was just being a stickler.  Yes, she is following policy. Socks that don't stay up really aren't "defective", therefore she refused the return.

SS then returned the one item she had been going to keep, adn made some more comments. I then told the manager, in case it came back to bite her i.e. customer complained about her. Manager then called CS herself, and was told she was fine, it was her decision, and she handled things correctly.

I am so very tired of people wanting to bring things back for all sorts of reasons. IF there is a legitimate issue, fine, but in this case, it was a gray area, and the manager chose to act in a way that the customer wasn't happy with.

[exitzero]

The girlfriend of one of our contracted employees rang my BIL yesterday. She asked nicely what job he was doing and when BIL told her, she proceeded to verbally abuse him for letting her boyfriend do a job which involved working with other women. BIL told her firmly (probably, I admit probably not very politely), that if he ever received another phone call like that from her she wouldn't have to worry, he wouldn't have any type of job. He also explained this to the employee.  Employee asked that BIL tell her if she rang again that he was doing his main job which does not involve interacting with any women.

Apparently, she used to wait outside the gate for him to get off work each day so he didn't talk to female coworkers.

Oy vey.

Wasn't there someone on here a few years ago who said that she didn't want her DH talking to other women at work, beyond the bare minimal needs of the job?

Sounds like someone I used to work with, Bill. This was in the days before cell phones. His wife would drop him at the train station, and when he reached his stop, he would RUN to the pay phone to call his wife to let her know that he arrived. Then he would RUN to the office (which was only about 1/2 a block away) and get right on the phone to let her know he was there. He would then call her maybe 15 or 20 times a day. (He was reprimanded over this, so he started sneaking around to other people's desks or the pay phones in the lobby, because his wife not ALLOW him to go all day without calling her).

One day a coworker was retiring, and we were all going out to a local bar to say goodbye. Bill called his wife to see if he could go. He passed the phone to me. Mind you, I had NEVER talked to this woman before. She asked me where we going, how many people would be going, would there be drinking there? Seeing as it was in a bar, well, probably. Then she asked if there would be women there. Seeing as I was going, and the person retiring was a woman, and there were several other women in the office, yup, I suppose. Then, NO NO NO, Bill was not ALLOWED to go.

Some guys in the office gave him a hard time, so he came up with a plan. He RAN to the bar, downed a soft drink, said "goodbye" to the retiree and RAN to the subway. He told his wife the subway had delays. He was very proud of his deviousness.

[Lorelei_Evil]

How awful.  Reminds me of my grandparents' horribly codependent and dysfunctional marriage. 

[Ginger G]

THis reminds me of something that happened years ago when I worked in a rather upscale restaurant.  The patrons would pay the server directly, and we had to settle up at the end of the night.   4 teenagers came in and skipped out on the check, which was about $50.  (early 80's!!!).   The server would have had to pay that out of her pocket, but she managed to chase them out to the parking lot, got the plate number and called the police.

I had almost the exact thing happen when I worked as a server during my college days.  In this case, it was a group of about 6 college guys.  I went to the bar to get them a round of drinks, and looked up to see them all filing out of the door one by one.  I hadn't even given them a check, so I knew they were pulling a dine and dash.  How a party of 6 thought they could get away with this on a slow night, I'll never know.  I told the bartender what they were doing, and he runs out after them while another coworker called the police.  I went to the table just to make sure they hadn't left any money, but of course they hadn't.  The police showed up and managed to catch two of them.  We really wanted to press charges, but the next day their parents showed up and met with the manager.  She agreed to drop the charges if they paid the bill in full, plus a very generous tip for me.  We had also given one of them a free birthday Sunday (in hindsight, it probably wasn't even his birthday), and we charged them for that too!

[weeblewobble]

A new one for me last night - SS Idontwannapayus.

I was leaving work right at about 5 last night, and pulled up to pay to get out of the parking garage (it's underground). I was second in line, right behind two guys in a red truck. The management of the parking garage has just changed, and we have new folks in the kiosk, so getting out has been taking longer recently. So, I wasn't too surprised when it took a couple minutes for the guys to pay.

But then it went on. And on. And on. I ended up putting my car in park, because by that time there were at least 3 other cars behind me and there was no where for me to go. The line wrapped completely around the building. At one point, the woman in the kiosk got out and sort of feebly flapped her hands at the people in line, but you couldn't see the end of the line at that point, and there wasn't anywhere for anyone to go. I asked her what was going on, but got no answer.

After another 5 minutes, she finally just waved the guys in the red truck through. I asked what happened when I was paying and she said that they just refused to pay. With the number of people backed up behind them, there wasn't a thing she could do, so she ended up paying their fee out of her pocket.

The guys in the truck were laughing and looking smug, knowing that they had the parking lady in a bind.

They need a new policy for if that happens again... which it will because they have learned they can get away with it.

I would think the standard response would be, "OK, then, I'll call the cops and give them your license plate number."

[Dr. F.]

A new one for me last night - SS Idontwannapayus.

I was leaving work right at about 5 last night, and pulled up to pay to get out of the parking garage (it's underground). I was second in line, right behind two guys in a red truck. The management of the parking garage has just changed, and we have new folks in the kiosk, so getting out has been taking longer recently. So, I wasn't too surprised when it took a couple minutes for the guys to pay.

But then it went on. And on. And on. I ended up putting my car in park, because by that time there were at least 3 other cars behind me and there was no where for me to go. The line wrapped completely around the building. At one point, the woman in the kiosk got out and sort of feebly flapped her hands at the people in line, but you couldn't see the end of the line at that point, and there wasn't anywhere for anyone to go. I asked her what was going on, but got no answer.

After another 5 minutes, she finally just waved the guys in the red truck through. I asked what happened when I was paying and she said that they just refused to pay. With the number of people backed up behind them, there wasn't a thing she could do, so she ended up paying their fee out of her pocket.

The guys in the truck were laughing and looking smug, knowing that they had the parking lady in a bind.

They need a new policy for if that happens again... which it will because they have learned they can get away with it.

I would think the standard response would be, "OK, then, I'll call the cops and give them your license plate number."

Oddly enough, I had a chance to chat with the kiosk lady last night as I was leaving (I left a bit early, so no one behind me). The guys in the red truck work here, and park here every day. She was very offended when they said "good morning" to her that morning, and she ignored them.

I'm hoping they had some reason why they thought they didn't have to pay that day. The whole thing was odd.