Navigating Quirky Coworkers: Tips for Maintaining Sanity in the Workplace

[lisab]

What did he get fired for?

He was repeatedly AWOL. It was a justified firing - he had a lot of warnings.

 

[turbo]

Quirky co-worker? How about a married guy with 2 kids who would go to his mother's house to spend the night and sob uncontrollably because he went rabbit-hunting with a co-worker and he didn't shoot a single rabbit and the other guy did? He got into the monument business - headstones on the front lawn - despite the fact that he was making over $60K/year (1980's dollars) as a lead operator on the paper machine that I worked on. We lead-operators (machine-tenders in PM lingo) made more money than our bosses and our bosses' bosses, primarily due to all the forced overtime we had to work. Anyway, that fellow was quite overweight, and every single day, he brought nice fatty, sugary cream-rolls to work for his lunch and breaks and he washed them down with Diet Pepsi (I guess they cancelled) and he constantly spoke in a plaintive high-pitched whine. After ten years for that company, I was vested in the retirement plan, and I decided to find a new line of work.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I have had plenty of quirky coworkers but I don't mind quirky. It's the downright crazy ones that bother me.

I worked with a guy for almost three years that should have been fired at least ten times over. Every time they brought him in for a meeting over a write up he would pull out his very best Johnny Cochran impersonation. He probably got away with so much because no one wanted to deal with him. His offenses: Calling our supervisor a "ghetto n****r" (he would have been fired in a heart beat if he wasn't black himself). Getting a haircut from three female students on his lunch break in a security restricted area. Allowing students to drive around in his car to pick up food and snacks for him. Failing to mention a felony on his record which would have resulted in his not being hired. Disappearing for hours at a time and not answering phone or radio. Looking into the personal affairs of students and even calling their parents to have discussions with them (we weren't even allowed access to students person information). Reading another employees emails. And the list goes on and on...

Another more recent coworker apparently would walk around the property stomping on snails (not just stepping but stomping) and reputedly accepted sexual favours from a tweeker who was stalking her ex boyfriend in return for not calling the police on her.

I'll stop there since I don't think I could top that last one.

 

[lisab]

I have had plenty of quirky coworkers but I don't mind quirky. It's the downright crazy ones that bother me.

I worked with a guy for almost three years that should have been fired at least ten times over. Every time they brought him in for a meeting over a write up he would pull out his very best Johnny Cochran impersonation. He probably got away with so much because no one wanted to deal with him. His offenses: Calling our supervisor a "ghetto n****r" (he would have been fired in a heart beat if he wasn't black himself). Getting a haircut from three female students on his lunch break in a security restricted area. Allowing students to drive around in his car to pick up food and snacks for him. Failing to mention a felony on his record which would have resulted in his not being hired. Disappearing for hours at a time and not answering phone or radio. Looking into the personal affairs of students and even calling their parents to have discussions with them (we weren't even allowed access to students person information). Reading another employees emails. And the list goes on and on...

Another more recent coworker apparently would walk around the property stomping on snails (not just stepping but stomping) and reputedly accepted sexual favours from a tweeker who was stalking her ex boyfriend in return for not calling the police on her.

I'll stop there since I don't think I could top that last one.

Wow, SA, that makes for a tough work environment. Definately a sign of very poor management. I hope there are good people there that offset the crazy ones.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Wow, SA, that makes for a tough work environment. Definately a sign of very poor management. I hope there are good people there that offset the crazy ones.

It was. I don't work there anymore. More because my boss was no sweetheart either. All of my other coworkers were great though. We had to stick together or it would all have just been too much to deal with. The one I mentioned had another outlook. He figured if he could play everyone against everyone he would wind up on top. He eventually, fortunately, decided it was better to have an ally and started being nice to me.

I still work at the same place where the second guy worked but I think that he was fired or quit. My bosses there and most of my coworkers are very nice.

 

[FrancisZ]

The school secretary at my last job generally would yell at the teachers for asking her to make copies. And that's fine; I would have preferred to do it myself anyway. Thing of it is though: she wouldn't let us actually use the photocopier either. Consequently, I did most of my own copies after hours at Staples.

 

[Redbelly98]

Had a coworker who was caught looking at internet porn within his first few weeks on the job. On a computer in a "common area", so how did he figure nobody would walk in and see what he was doing? Miraculously, he wasn't fired then. It was 2-1/2 years before he finally got the boot, I'll never understand how he lasted that long. He was in charge of placing and tracking purchase orders for the company. Purchase requisitions were always being lost or just buried under other papers on his desk and forgotten, until you reminded or resubmitted it again.

He was replaced by somebody even less competent, though not at all personally offensive like the first guy. The second guy was gone within 6 months.