10 True Tales of Bad Office Behavior

When you’re on your eighth job in a career that dates to the mid-1980s, you figure you’ve seen and heard it all, especially when it comes to mind-boggling behavior on the part of bosses, colleagues and subordinates. And, writing from personal experience, I think I have. I started out in communications and journalism at a time when people could smoke at their desks, curse like sailors and chase co-workers of the opposite sex as they pleased – regardless of marital status and/or respective job positions. See also Life Before Political Correctness The workplace was not a place for the faint-hearted: One of my bosses had a domestic flare-up in his office during which his (soon-to-be ex) wife hurled paperweights at him. When they took the argument outside, she decked him in the company parking lot (he sported a shiner for more than a week afterward). Over time, of course, corporate culture cleaned up its act, or at least learned to hide the worst behavior, but there are still more-than-occasional lapses involving things like phone conversations, kitchen cleanliness, and overall professional deportment. In some cases, bad deeds go unpunished; in others, justice is served. Here are ten of my favorites over the years.