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Tales From the Workplace

7 messages,  Last post on Sep 08, 2008 at 2:14 PM

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#1 of 7 Tales From the Workplace by KarenS HOST Sep 07, 2008 (9:51 am)
Some mighty funny and frequently weird things can happen in the workplace. This is the place to share those experiences!
#2 of 7 OK I will respond to this here. by snakeweasel Sep 07, 2008 (5:40 pm)
On the stories from the sales front line greenpea posted this to me   During tax season I can count on telling between 5-10 clients that I will not be doing their taxes for a variety of reasons.            Is the main reason for none payment of previous work?   I rarely have that as an issue. The usual problems are me finding out that they want to to a fraudulent return. The most common last tax season was a guy coming in and filling out the customer profile that he was married. After asking a few qualifying questions I find that he was living with his wife at the end of the year. That means that I have to file him either "Married Filing Seperatly" or the couple as "Married filing Jointly".   Now whats going on in cases like this is tax fraud. The wife files as "Head of Household" and gets "earned Income Credit" and "Child Tax Credit" which they may not get filing jointly and cannot get filing sperately.   Now when the Husband comes in and gives me information that says he has to file "Married filing seperatly" ethically I have to do so. To do that would mean I have to put the wifes name and social security number on the tax return. Then when the IRS gets the return they will cross check what the wife filed. What will happen is that the IRS will change her return to "Married Filing Sperately" and recalculate the tax return and they will owe all those tax credits back to the IRS.   The husband won't do that and I won't file him as single. So basically I fired them as they go some place else.   Now I know for a fact that they walk out and go directly to the blockheads and not tell them they are married.
#3 of 7 This is why you don't work with a hangover. by madmanmoo Sep 08, 2008 (10:17 am)
I was working as a server at Maggiano's and a nice old lady and her family were celebrating her 80th birthday. They had brought in a giant cake decorated beautifully and instructed me to bring it out towards the end of the meal for them to all enjoy. It was a little surprise for Grammy.   Everything was going swimmingly and we neared the end of the meal. I prepared the cake to take out into the busy dining room and walked out the kitchen with the cake held over my left shoulder with one hand. As I came out of the kitchen and made my first left turn, the cake started to slide to the right as I was moving to the left. I couldn't correct its trajectory and watched in slowmotion as the cake slid off its base and hit the back of a customer. It smashed all down the back of his head, shoulders and back. I fell to my knees behind him and started trying to put the cake back together in desperation.   That didn't work well.   I walked over to the happy Grandma's table and broke the bad news to them. They were actually pretty cool about the whole thing. I had talked with my manager and he decided that we would buy them one of our own cheesecakes to make up for their loss.   So 5 minutes later I had a new cake and took it back to them to enjoy. They only ate about 1/2 of it and asked if I could box up the rest for them. I said sure and walked the cake back to prep station. As I entered the kitchen, the slow motion started again. The cake started sliding to the left as I was going right and it landed with a thud on the kitchen floor right over the water drain. Dead. Gone.   My manager looks at me like I have 3 heads and I thought he was going to tear my heart out. I shook my head in disbelief and tried to finish one of the worst shifts at work I had ever had.   This is what happens when you nursed a brutal hangover at work and your balance was all thrown off. What a day. Replies to this message: kyfdx (Sep 08, 2008 10:46 am) tallman1 (Sep 08, 2008 10:50 am) jipster (Sep 08, 2008 11:06 am)
#4 of 7 Re: This is why you don't work with a hangover. [madmanmoo] by kyfdx HOST Sep 08, 2008 (10:46 am)
Replying to: madmanmoo (Sep 08, 2008 10:17 am) That's a great story!!   We had lunch at Maggiano's last Sunday..
#5 of 7 Re: This is why you don't work with a hangover. [madmanmoo] by tallman1 Sep 08, 2008 (10:50 am)
Replying to: madmanmoo (Sep 08, 2008 10:17 am) LOL!!   That reminds me of when I worked in a nice restaurant as a busboy when I was in high school. I brought out a tray with several dinners for the waitress and promptly dropped the whole thing in the dining room.   They were mostly upset about the salmon because it took longer to cook than the steaks. Interestingly enough, everything was done at the same time when it came time to bring them back out again. Yeah, I watched the cook put the salmon back on the plate. Ugh.
#6 of 7 Re: This is why you don't work with a hangover. [madmanmoo] by jipster Sep 08, 2008 (11:06 am)
Replying to: madmanmoo (Sep 08, 2008 10:17 am) This is what happens when you nursed a brutal hangover at work and your balance was all thrown off.   I don't know if I'm buying that excuse moo. What kind of grades did you get in geometry and physics?   Does remind me of the time the wife, kids and I were eating at Red Lobster a few years back. This female waitress (must have been your sister) was bringing a plate of baby back ribs on a serving trey. She tilted it a bit too far when rounding a table, the plate slide off the tray and into my lap. My wife and kids sure got a good laugh... I was a bit steamed. Think I may have gotten a free dessert.
#7 of 7 Not a restaurant story .... by michaell Sep 08, 2008 (2:14 pm)
A number of years ago, I used to travel to customer sites to teach them about the wonders of the new computer software products they had bought.   One such trip took me to Becancour, Quebec (across the river from Trois Rivieres, about 100 miles from Montreal). In February.   My French doesn't extend much beyond "Oui", and not every student in the class spoke English. So, I'd give my lecture, and one of the students would translate. Took for-freakin-ever to cover a topic this way, but it worked.   What got frustrating was that, occasionally, was that an animated conversation would break out, along with Gallic hand gestures. I knew something important was being discussed based on the information I was giving them.   After about 5 minutes of this, the translator would look at me and say "Yes, go on".   I'm thinking to myself - "Hey, wait a minute! What did I miss?" Was a bit frustrating at times.   I must have done OK the first time because I was invited back to teach a second class.   PS - while my French really hasn't improved much since then, I was able to order a meal in a restaurant by the end of my second trip.

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