Venting Workplace Horror Stories

[SchizoGymnast]

To start: I love my job. It's fun and stimulating and I meet amazing people. I get to help change lives, and my life has been changed as well. We have bomb ass parties, it pays well, and I plan to stay for a long time. I could tell plenty of funny, successful, heartwarming stories about this place.

With that said, I've had a pretty craptastic couple weeks and very few people in my circle understand the kind of work I do. So I wanted to vent.

My job might kill me. Quite literally.

I work in a homeless shelter where there are no bag searches so you know there are weapons and where people use hard drugs out in the open. I walk down the sidewalk in the winter, I have to check to see if the people lying there are still alive. I have to give Narcan on the regular. Recently a man threatened to cut another resident's head off and eventually ended up stabbing someone else. Police know us all by name. Last week, a client assaulted staff and destroyed my food and medication. To some clients, the only name I answer to is, "Retard." If you've ever worked with wealthy clients, you know what entitled Karen behavior looks like, but *some* homeless take it to a whole other level. They will dump food on the floor and demand you clean it up. There is, of course, graffiti on the walls and poop everywhere.
Dirty needles everywhere. And then there are the fights. Constant fights, like in prison. Someone's hogging the microwave, someone ate all the ramen, someone stole my toothbrush.

Then there is a surprising lack of common sense for people who live on the streets. One time, a man wanted to press charges because someone stole his ID and debit cards. Apparently he left them on the sidewalk outside the shelter. He didn't bring them IN the shelter and...you know...lock them up, or keep them on his person. He left it on the damn street and is legit mystified that someone stole it.

And once in a while, I have clients who insist on filing police reports for...stolen drugs. Illicit drugs. They're admitting to law enforcement that they are in possession of controlled substances and...expecting cops to...give them back the illegal drugs. The best part is when they try to do this while on parole or probation. Do you know how much willpower it takes for me to not laugh at this? I do it. I'm a professional but you can't make this up, man.

Now, I want to hear YOUR funny/wacky/scary workplace horror stories! And go!

 

[NoPoint2Life]

Thanks for telling your story. I think a lot of of us can't imagine being a person who works in your position and this is only solidify that for me as well. That sounds like way too much.

Only thing I can think of for me off the top of my head was that we had this relatively new young guy in our department who worked a lot with me. I was the lowly assistant totally stressed on a Friday because we had a big meeting to prepare for on Monday as well as some extra projects going on. I guess he wanted to help me which is sweet. But as someone who has no common sense, he had even less than me. I got a call from him on Sunday that he had gone in all by himself just to work on some stuff to help me ( no one ever went in on sunday) and never bothering to think there might be alarm codes to get in the building. He didn't know what to do because the alarms were going off. I at least had the phone number of a couple of people who I knew would have that information. Needless to say, they were not happy, had to change all the passwords, and looked at my department the next day like we were working with an idiot. And since I trained him, it was almost like I was guilty by association. New instructions on getting permission to access the security codes were quickly emailed out.

There's probably something better. I just can't think of it right now.

 

[SchizoGymnast]

Thanks for telling your story. I think a lot of of us can't imagine being a person who works in your position and this is only solidify that for me as well. That sounds like way too much.

Only thing I can think of for me off the top of my head was that we had this relatively new young guy in our department who worked a lot with me. I was the lowly assistant totally stressed on a Friday because we had a big meeting to prepare for on Monday as well as some extra projects going on. I guess he wanted to help me which is sweet. But as someone who has no common sense, he had even less than me. I got a call from him on Sunday that he had gone in all by himself just to work on some stuff to help me ( no one ever went in on sunday) and never bothering to think there might be alarm codes to get in the building. He didn't know what to do because the alarms were going off. I at least had the phone number of a couple of people who I knew would have that information. Needless to say, they were not happy, had to change all the passwords, and looked at my department the next day like we were working with an idiot. And since I trained him, it was almost like I was guilty by association. New instructions on getting permission to access the security codes were quickly emailed out.

There's probably something better. I just can't think of it right now.

Proof that taking initiative isn't always a good thing.

 

[GlassMoon]

Wow, that sounds like a really tough place to work in, @SchizoGymnast ...

In my workplace, the worst part was being gaslighted by the boss to violate basic safety rules risking my own health and lie to potential business partners. He also willingly risked the health of other employees and contractors by not telling them about necessary safety precautions. He also tried to make me commit fraud until I told him that it is illegal and we could both be held accountable - then at least he did not pursue that further.

I had to work with someone who had a degree in one field but no experience in mine. The person failed to respect basic safety guidelines risking the health of both of us several times and they tried to argue that ignoring safety rules in some cases was not a problem. When I asked the person to do low-level preparatory tasks, they got bored and seemed to want to do only high-level tasks.

 

[Paizen]

Please work somewhere else. You are a vulnerable class and it's weighing on you. I am so scared by your description as I am not a criminal and weak. I would not survive in a place like this if it ever got that bad.

 

[SchizoGymnast]

Please work somewhere else. You are a vulnerable class and it's weighing on you. I am so scared by your description as I am not a criminal and weak. I would not survive in a place like this if it ever got that bad.

I'm touched by your concern. I don't think I've ever felt threatened while working there, oddly enough. I don't know if I'm numb to it or I love the adrenaline, but if anyone threatened to cut my head off, I'd dare them to come say it to my face. Sometimes you just have to assert dominance.

The pay is phenomenal. That helps.
Update on the madhouse:

Several of our clients were sent to jail, one for a high speed car chase, another for drug trafficking, and not too long ago, I had to physically charge a trespasser out of the shelter like I'm a damn bull.

We have had two deaths from illness and I have been going to funerals a lot. And whatever is being laced with the drug supply is causing everyone to tweak out.