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76 People Who Were So Weird At Work That Their Colleagues Still Can’t Forget Them
You spot your dream job, apply for it, ace the interviews and sign a contract. Then, you celebrate. It feels like a match made in Heaven… Until you meet Sally who sits in the corner cubicle. She devours a whole chicken every day, wears bright yellow bunny ears, and has a pet rock that she consults for advice whenever she’s struggling to meet a deadline. “I did not sign up for this," you think, as you watch Sally slurp her matcha from a toddler's sippy cup.
Work can be chaotic enough without the added weirdness of certain colleagues. You can either grin and bear their bizarre antics, or you can take the therapeutic route by writing about your rather strange office encounters. Over 1,000 people chose the latter when someone said, "Describe the weirdest colleague you’ve ever had. I'll start..."
Bored Panda has put together a list of the utmost best responses. Some may have you howling with laughter, others could see you cringe from second-hand embarrassment, and a few might even lead you to believe that Sally isn't so weird after all.
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#1
We worked at the same clinic for a while. She was always so quiet. You couldn’t make it a full day without one moment of shock as you’d turn and she’d be inches away from you. Every time, she’d get the tiniest smirk on her face, turn, and continue her rounds. Almost like it was a never ending game she never lost. She didn’t have a defined role, either, just an ever constant presence each day. And yet we all knew her role there was more secure than any of ours.
I really miss that clinic cat.
Someone once said, "Let your weird light shine bright so that the other weirdos know where to find you..." And clearly, certain people didn't need a second invitation.
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#2
She was 35+ had just moved out of her parents house. Down the street. Her mom still packed her lunch every day. Her dad was a cop. She unironically wore rainbow unicorn leggings (like for a child, but she was almost 6’) to work on “casual Fridays.” One time she told me I was “brave” for wearing blue and black together. THE UNICORN LEGGING WOMAN. I think about this stuff every time I get dressed it’s been over ten years.
Kristiina Männiste 1 hour ago
Tall people can like cute stuff too! And now louder to the ones at the back: TALL PEOPLE CAN LIKE CUTE STUFF TOO! (sorry for yelling)
#3
One guy I worked with had nothing personal on his desk. No photos, trinkets, etc. He never wore a coat and during the bitter cold he would sprint to his car. The reason? He said if he ever quit on the spot or got laid off all he'd have to do is walk out the front door to his car.
BubuPanda 4 hours ago (edited)
I do understand this. One of my former employers was a bank and if you got fired it laid off, you'd be given no notice and your access would be revoked immediately. I was laid off on vacation and I couldn't get into the building when I got back because access was revoked. It took ages to get my stuff back.
#4
Years ago on my way into the office in the city - what I thought was a - homeless man ran past me, jumped in the air, slapped a road sign and ran off ahead of me. I lost him in the crowd.
When I got up to my office floor there was the homeless man. He was one of the attorneys in my office and it was his first day. The homeless clothes he wore were his “train riding clothes.”
I secretly called him “homeless lawyer.”
#5
I once worked with an engineer that in order to talk to him about your project, you needed to pay cookie tax. I kept a pack of Oreos in my desk to ensure my projects were completed on time.
#6
This coworker rode his bike to work. Would change his clothes under his desk. On your birthday he would sing a birthday song while doing a German dance. If he really like you, he would change into his lederhosen.
#7
Tony “Elvis”, came to work dressed as Elvis Presley every day. Behaved totally normally, dressed as Elvis. People would see him and look around trying to figure out if they were on Candid Camera.
#8
I had a colleague who only ate baked potatoes… which he kept in his trench coat pocket already cooked. Used them as “hand warmers” in the winter, and then ate them for lunch like an apple?!?
Con O Cuinn 4 hours ago
Still less horrifying than people who eat raw potatoes as a snack. I just found out these people exist and I'm traumatised.
#9
Joined a new engineering group shared an office with an attractive lady, didn't take long to figure out she was having an affair with coworker. Came back from business trip early, walked in on the two, her knickers on the floor. I set my bag down & said don't mind me, carry on and walked out. Later both approached me about what I saw, I told him he need to see someone about the mole on his behind. I moved into another office soon afterwards.
#10
Weird older white guy with terrible combover started work. He kept approaching different Asian women in the office asking them “What kind of Asian are you?” In the creepiest way possible. After several complaints of harassment he was fired. I don’t even think he lasted a month.
#11
Not mine, but a friend’s colleague…
A woman at the office got word that her grandmother passed away, and while everyone else was consoling her, a young male colleague piped in and asked “do you know what they are going to do with her mattress?”
#12
I worked in an office where celebratory cakes were at least every 2 weeks. One day I was asked by the lady cutting the cake if I wanted to take some home because there was a ton leftover. I said "Sure, it was a delicious cake!" A different co-worker called me over to her desk and simply said "watch". I saw that heifer cut the cake, lick the knife with her tongue and proceed to keep cutting. THAT was the reason there was so much laying there! I've never eaten office potluck again!
#13
I had a colleague that was really great about sending gifts for anniversaries, and such. It would always arrived in a large manila envelope marked "lab results enclosed" and the name on the return address was "Reverend Seymore Pooty." He's missed tremendously around the office.
#14
We never identified the culprit, but someone in our office building went in the fridge and ate the chicken off the top of a colleague's salad, then reclosed the Tupperware pot, leaving just chickenless salad.
#15
I had a colleague who would bring a gallon of whole milk to work each day and drink it out of the container. He’d bring the jug to meetings with him and drink the entire thing. Total criminal vibes.
#16
I had a colleague that would bring a whole rotisserie chicken to work, and eat it at his desk for lunch throughout the week. Just with his hands. Just sitting at his desk, pulling bits of chicken off and just eat it. Every week, for a few months until he moved on.
#17
I had a coworker tell me that immigration was bad because "what if I go to someone's home and they make me take off my shoes??"
Two things:
1. In Canada, this is pretty much standard for all houses except some rare instances/occasions in my experience
2. The guy was a MF-ing immigrant.
Lots of other examples, but that one really sticks out.
#18
I worked with a guy in the 80s who went shopping in his lunch hour. He came back with some bedding and a female collet asked what he had bought. "Black satin sheets" he replied "I only sleep on black satin sheets". "Goodness!" My colleague said "Are they tricky to wash? What programme do you use on the washing machine,,?"
He looked at her blankly. " Oh I don't wash them. I just buy a new set every 6 months"......
#19
I had to repeatedly tell a male that clipping ones toenails at his desk is not good. I did eventually take it to HR and he stopped.
#20
I had a manager who enjoyed bringing his pan flute to work, talking about his cape, and showing off his magic rock collection. I kind of enjoyed him actually (minus the pan flute playing)
I had another manager who dyed himself blue for burning man, but couldn’t get the blue off, so he was just blue for a week at work. He also ran for mayor of our college town under the platform that he was “the Party King of Davis.” Oh, and he also gave himself scurvy one time, just to see if he could.
#21
I had a colleague who used to steal other people’s lunches and eat them in the shared kitchen like it was a perfectly normal thing to do.
One day, I walked into the kitchen and saw him enjoying MY lunch - opened my box and was casually eating my food.
I approached him and asked, “Did you bring this to the office? If not, why the hell are you eating it?!”
And he looked at me completely unbothered and said, “It’s in the shared fridge, so I consider everything in there shared.”
What a weirdo.
#22
On my first day at a new job a few years ago, an older colleague showed me a super fuzzy cupcake from his own first day of work in 1989 that he had stored in a little plastic box ever since then.
#23
I worked with an engineer who refused to learn how to use microsoft word. He’d print out a report, and to mark it up, he’d cut and tape the sentences and paragraphs back together with hand written comments, and then expect a younger engineer to retype it all for him.
#24
I shared an office wit a man who drove 150 miles on Monday morning to work. He lined out of his van during the he week never showering. I showed him the shower that is available in our building. I offered to let him come to my house to shower. No luck. By Friday, it was unbearable. I told his manager and HR that if this wasn't resolved, I would be working from home. This was before there was a way to work from home.
#25
As a government contractor, I worked in lovely old Victorian building in DC. I worked in the library. We got a new project manager, a white guy 50-60s and a former lawyer. In the library we had one toilet for the staff both male and female. His not so solids splattered the seat and back of the toilet. Asked him to clean it up, even posted a sign. He said it was not his JOB to clean after himself in a shared toilet.
It’s been 20years and Frank H should be gone by now.
#26
Wife had a colleague who would not throw anything away. When he saw people cutting up boxes for recycling, he would get incensed and yell that they were "destroying city property."
After he retired, they found 100+ coffee cans that he had snuck back out of the trash and hidden in an unused room.
#27
I had a guy who would put his motorcycle gear on his desk making his working space ridiculously small. He would then recline his chair and sit cross-legged at his desk while eating grapes and nuts for more or less the whole day. Occasionally he would move his mouse and do some design work - then sit back to think of it was ok. He would have breaks every hour.
#28
Coworker had dandruff, walked barefoot to the copier, and cut her toenails at her desk. She also took naps. Her desk was so gross. When they let her go, no one wanted to touch her desk. Our boss sprayed Lysol while wearing a mask and rubber gloves. We found mouse droppings in her top drawer and behind her computer!
#29
A colleague many years ago never had his coat or bag with him at his desk on a Friday.
Every Friday about 2pm he'd disappear with a document saying he "needed to run this past" someone or other.
We were on the 4th floor. One Friday he was discreetly followed.
It turns out his mate two floors down was where he kept his coat and bag etc. He'd go downstairs dump the document in the recycling bin, collect his coat and bag and go home....
#30
Office guy would keep his door open but turn his desk to the wall, rest his phone on his shoulder, and nap. This happened for years. When he finally left, they found hundreds of ketchup packets and semi-bare professional photos of himself dressed up as a gladiator.
#31
We had a contractor who claimed to be Walt disneys grandson. His name was Shane Disney (or that’s what he told everyone) Every day he’d wear his Disney jacket, pinned up pictures of him in his cubicle standing next to Disney security, ect. He told everyone that every weekend he’d fly to Florida where he’d get on the family Disney yacht then fly back on Monday. Come to find out he was an escape convict on the fbi most wanted list. FBI showed up one day and took him away in zip ties.
#32
Had a coworker who would take naps under the conference room table over lunch. One day, an admin came in the room over lunch to prepare a 1 pm meeting and ran out screaming “he’s gone, he’s GONE!!!”
Anyway, Larry the nap guy went on to other shenanigans, including taking deep breaths and physically shivering when women entered the elevator. Beyond creepy.
#33
We had a white dude who would play a didgeridoo in the parking lot on his lunch break. He kept it in his trunk.
#34
My old boss had a desk drawer full of loose Pringle’s chips. He’d politely offer us some (we’d decline, of course), then he’d make duck lips with them while we talked to him. He’d do this to everyone, including the CEO.
#35
The weird colleague is my husband. I’m not gonna out him by telling you the stuff he does at work. Ok! One thing. He used to fall asleep at work under his desk in a sleeping bag he kept there, and he put a sign on himself that said “I’m fine, don’t wake me up, I’m sleeping”.
#36
Had a coworker who was let go after loading his in the cubicles. He blamed other people for him getting fired. And routinely showed up to job sites pretending he still worked for the company.
#37
One lady brought a grocery store bag of raw radishes (unwashed, in that red mesh bag thing) and starting eating them at our 8am meeting.
#38
There was a guy who sat too close to me in the lunchroom. I immediately moved over. He said something about people subconsciously moving when their space is invaded. I looked at him and said I was very conscious of moving to be in my own space.
#39
I worked with a guy who had several oranges in various stages of decomposition on the shelf by his desk. When I asked him about it, he said he was conducting an experiment, in the event he had to go on a long sea voyage, and didn’t want to get scurvy.
#40
When I was a teen I worked at McDonalds. The oddest thing I saw was a coworker who refused to wear slip resistant shoes and would wear slides with the black booties over them. She would also take her shoes off in the break room and pick her feet the smell was terrible. This same woman would go out to the retention pond behind the store and wade about knee deep and just hang out for a bit. Mind you we are in Florida and all bodies of water have gators in them.
#41
I briefly worked with a German guy that ate only bananas and avocados. Like literally only those 2 things. He looked surprisingly healthy, actually.
In hindsight maybe he had extreme ARFID.
#42
We had a creepy caretaker who often stayed too late to go home so he’d sleep in the stock room. He despised me because he wanted my job but didn’t have the computer skills and experience I did. To get him to be friendly and not sabotage my projects, I had to listen to him complain for a solid 15 minutes a day. Eventually, I decided to leave and move to a new area. When I told him, he screamed “what about your mother?” and started crying.
#43
I worked with this guy who started sleeping in his office at night. He was really off and scared the living hell out of a lot of people. We had a system where we’d let each other know if he was on site and I had pepper spray in my desk in case he stepped foot into my office. He had do many weird and scary quirks like pushing people and slamming doors or pounding on the wall. He was a liability and we had to meet with a lawyer about him. Finally eventually fired…
#44
I did not have one, but two!! They were a set of twins that did everything together, including working?? They were almost 30 and were still wearing the same outfits and would complete each other’s sentences, including yours! I’m fairly certain they were suffering from some type of paranoia as well as they kept on talking about “them” watching them. Strangest human encounter I’ve had in the workplace.
#45
I worked in a small office and one of my co-workers was Eastern European. Nice enough guy, except that when my mother passed away, and I returned to work, he scolded me if I cried a bit at my desk. He said that crying for my mother would hold her back on her journey to other planets, and I was going to ruin her trip through the galaxy until she could reach her final planetary destination. Yeah that was fun.
#46
I worked with a guy who openly and unashamedly picked his nose in front of everyone. His nickname was “Boog”.
#47
Years ago, I shared an interior office with an IT person. He was nice, bit of a hippie, and he ate weird lunches at his desk. When the food came out, I would normally go run an errand or work elsewhere. One day I was on a call and the food came out. A sleeve of saltines, and a tin or two of sardines. I put that call on hold so fast and yelled: NO! Not in here. no way. go to the kitchen!
#48
I had a Captain on a deployment that ate the jelly out of the little square single serving containers with a spoon. He had never seen jelly before and did not know that it went on bread primarily. This was an officer in the Air Force.
#49
I worked with a guy who would come in every morning, take off socks and shoes, and proceed to PICK HIS FEET. EVERY. DAY. Sometimes there was nail clipping involved, most often it was literally just picking at his feet. He did this for *YEARS*.
#50
I had a coworker that was beyond bizarre, but due to character limits I’ll share one story. She brought a massive bowl of spaghetti in once to share with the office. A few people were heating up plates, and one woman asked when she made it. “A week ago.” Everyone trashed their food and she got so embarrassed she put the bowl (still full of spaghetti) in her desk. About a month later, we thought an animal had passed in our ductwork. They searched our desks and the bowl was still there.
#51
I had a co-worker who didn’t like Harry Potter because “he does things real wizards just don’t do.”
#52
She made a compost bin in the bottom drawer of her desk, had a griddle on her workspace that she would use to make food, and once sent an email with a childhood photo of herself, to the entire office, asking if she “looked like she had Down syndrome as a kid”. No one replied, but yes she did.
#53
In the late nineties a pregnant coworker showed all of us her maternity photos. She was wearing a feather boa. Only a feather boa.
#54
We would rotate bringing cakes for bdays. The last bday brought the next cake. My old coworker brought my cake every year. One year the cake had a piece missing because her husband wanted one. The next year she just brought a piece for me. No cake for the office.
#55
I remember when we had to send out an office-wide email telling people that they couldn’t go barefoot in the bathrooms and cafe. People practically rioted! Someone wrote back and insisted that there were no such rules about this, and we had to inform him about health codes.
Yes, I work in tech.
#56
I was meeting with my first boss out of grad school one day, just before noon. When we finished she said “It’s lunch time, I get my treat!” I assumed she brought something special for lunch. Nope. On days when she doesn’t feel like she is working hard enough, she makes herself earn the right to go to the bathroom. Her treat was getting to urinate.
#57
I worked with a part time clown that listened to circus music. Why did you make me remember this?
#58
I once had an employee tell me I had no right to ask them when they expected to be onsite when phoning in late, and it’s none of my business. This was an hourly employee not a salaried one and I am the scheduler and time keeper.
#59
As a teen I worked for a popular restaurant. On her break, one of the waitresses would eat an entire gallon bag of hard boiled eggs while she rolled her own cigarettes and smoked in between each bite.
#60
I once worked in a retail jeweller’s which was owned by a very flamboyant Ceylonese gem dealer. About three weeks after starting I received a phone call at about 2am from police at Heathrow asking if I could vouch for a man they had detained coming into the country with ‘a lot’ of stones. I was asked to speak to him to verify his voice, which I did. About 2 weeks later when I saw him at work he claimed it was a practical joke on me. I never found out but it scared me.
#61
I was a federal contractor at the SEC and my colleague was straight up weird. Although she was a 50-60 something year old, she’d suddenly give me the silent treatment for days on end for seemingly no reason. She’d just look at me when I asked her a question and she’d walk away. She also had anger issues. The assignment ended when Dump was in office the first time because they cut the funding. No surprise there.
#62
2/2 he called in on the radio says he was on the job site. One of our team bosses dropped by. No one was there. When the team boss came in he was pretty rattled. We both knew this guys alibi just got blown apart. I was already afraid of him. You know his dome people won’t make regular eye contact but when they do they stare a hole into you? That was him. I always felt creepy looking at that knife and him.
#63
A guy I worked with came to work and went straight for his breakfast in the canteen and even on night shift and then disappeared for upto 6 hours, no one including me could find him.
#64
I had to talk to an apprentice who had been late every day for weeks and who’s manager had been covering it up.
I said you’re ‘this’ close to being let go due to attitude. At the end of the meeting I asked if he had any questions. He asked how close he was to being let go. I said ‘this’ close with my thumb and forefinger. At which point he stood up. I braced myself for an attack. He tore off his t shirt and shouted right well in that case I’m off. And stormed out of the building into the mall.
#65
He would quote rap songs but in a normal, dad like voice "I've got my mind on my money and my money on my mind." Or "hotel, motel, holiday inn! ".
#66
He ate wild roots and mushrooms that he foraged for around our work. When he got mad he would tell people how he was going to end them (specifically) and what he was planning to do with your earthly remains. He didn’t get fired as quickly as you’d have wanted him to.
#67
Had a freelancer in for a week, and after our morning meeting with the production manager, slammed his fist on the desk and growled “I hate women telling me what to do!”. Also an avid twitcher apparently, but not sure that’s connected.
#68
When I was pregnant and about to go on mat leave, I had to train my replacement. I was eating a biscuit and he *picked up and ate* my half-finished biscuit.
Obviously didn't say anything (British) but I think he realised he'd done something wrong because a little while later he went to the kitchen and brought me back a replacement biscuit. Just resting on the bare skin of his hand
Also maybe the guy who accidentally ordered gay adult entertainment for me to decorate my side of our shared office.
#69
Worked with a guy - nickname Psycho Steve - who used to drink 13 (always 13) cans of full-fat coke every day. Then he would go home and drink a 2L bottle. He was a very strange chap.
Elladine DesIsles 4 hours ago
13 cans plus 2L of Coke daily will almost certainly make you fat, but it is due to the sugar. It actually contains no dietary fat whatsoever. Also, I am really, really not enjoying the mental images that the phrase "full-fat coke" evoked in my mind.
#70
Let me start by saying, this girl was going through it at the time and has come out better than I could’ve imagined. That being said, I once worked with a 21 yr old who would sit on the floor behind the desk, in full view of everyone who passed by, with her legs spread open and the space heater between her legs because she was having cramps. I also worked with a kid who thought acetaminophen was pronounced “assuhtuhminOphOphen”, I can’t think of it any other way now. He also got us banned.
#71
A colleague told me to get my hair cut during work time. He said “it grows during work, so get it cut during work”. He also stood up when talking, apparently he couldn’t when seated. Not once.
#72
There was a gal who routinely took full calls in the bathroom. I think she would mute when she flushed. But it was a massive 8 stall bathroom so sometimes flushes happened. I always wondered how her teammates and clients felt cuz I KNOW THEY HEARD EVERYTHING.
#73
The guy who used to wave his paycheck in my face every two weeks and say “This is why I am more important you, I make more money.”
I never showed him my paycheck. Mainly because I’d work the overtime that he was “too important” for, so I was actually taking home an average of 20% more.
And then there was the alcoholic I was always covering for, but because our boss was an alcoholic too (but when I worked for him had stopped drinking) they got along really well.
#74
A guy I worked with once said he needed to go home early because he had eaten too much at lunch and his pants were too tight and uncomfortable. a woman once wore a skirt with a slit in the back, but wore it backwards. When someone said it was backwards she said it was “European style”.
#75
I work in a high school cafeteria. I arrive at 6am and see a guy with disheveled clothes, long unkempt hair, he’s got shoes over his shoulders, is was digging through the trash cans. I went up to office “I believe there’s a homeless man in the cafeteria”. The office staff locked down the doors and kept kids in the lobby. Police officers came, the guy is gone. They review footage with me. Turns out, the guy was the night custodian Oops sorry guy. I’d never met him before.
#76
I had a coworker who for lunch every day had a gallon of whole milk and olive oil. He would also disappear at random for who knows how long.
Con O Cuinn 3 hours ago
Well, considering he's basically drinking laxatives every day, I can hazard a guess at where he went every day
What do you think ?
Kristiina Männiste 1 hour ago
My coworker once walked into the office kitchenette to find me gnawing on a smoked collarbone of a pig. While some more heavily (down to marrow) gnawed bones were laying on the kitchen counter. We made eye contact and he slowly backed away.... Yes I have learned my lesson and only gnaw on bones, when I can be sure there are no vitnesses.
Kristiina Männiste 1 hour ago
My coworker once walked into the office kitchenette to find me gnawing on a smoked collarbone of a pig. While some more heavily (down to marrow) gnawed bones were laying on the kitchen counter. We made eye contact and he slowly backed away.... Yes I have learned my lesson and only gnaw on bones, when I can be sure there are no vitnesses.
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