The Dali Grind: Surreal Stories about Real Jobs
Have you ever had a work experience that was funny, bizarre, or just plain awful? Share your experience so we can all laugh at those who frustrated you. Email us your stories at daligrind@att.net and we'll post the choicest ones. We don't publish real names of you, your coworkers or your employer.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
  STORY: The Employee Most Likely to Go Postal

My boss, Irwin, hired an assistant for me who, he said performed well on the editing tests. Irwin also told me that this candidate was the one most likely to enter the building bearing arms and firing.

Jay turned out to know little about working in an office. When I asked Jay to make copies and told him to darken the pages a little, he came to me four hours later with over 100 pages he had copied: all were completely black.

Jay was the president, founder, and sole member of his own religion. He had magnetic signs on the sign of his car advertising his religion.

He wrote me long, single-spaced memos of ideas he had on how to improve the company. They were, as he continually reminded me, written on his home computer during his leisure time. He offered suggestions about how to improve our textbooks:

At other time he provided ideas on office management:

For months, I told my boss that Jay wasn't working out. Irwin didn't believe me. I told Jay to start giving all of his work to Irwin to review. Finally, my boss ended Jay's contract a month early but gave him two weeks notice. Every day for the next two weeks, I worried that Jay would enter the building bearing arms and firing. Luckily, I survived.

 
Comments:
Your boss was lucky that Jay didn't sue for discrimination based on his religious beliefs! He sounds just crazy enough to have tried something like that.
 
Yes, sometimes a co-worker is the biggest pain a boss can foist on you.
 
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