37 Completely Horrifying Things People Found Out About Their Coworkers
We all have that one coworker. If you don't instantly know what I'm talking about, I mean that coworker that you have an absolutely wild story about (and oftentimes, stories in the plural). Either their behavior was completely unhinged, they left under extremely odd circumstances, or you discovered after the fact that they were the leader of a drug smuggling ring, or something.
^ Imagine if you were one of Walt's former coworkers at the high school he taught at. And if you taught Jesse, too??? "Yeah, one of my old coworkers became a drug lord with a former student." I'd be telling that story at every BBQ and cookout.
Well, recently Reddit user takin-chase asked about *that one coworker,* and people had some really wild stories. Here are the most shocking coworker stories and secrets that came out.
NOTE: There are mentions of murder, shootings, suicide, and sexual harassment.
1."A few young girls in my small town started to go missing or turn up dead on the side of the road. Yup, was the creepy coworker! I remember when the first girl went missing it was a big deal, things like that don’t happen in our area. He talked to me about how there are a lot of unwell people out there and you just never know! Yeah...because YOU did it! Still weirds me out a bit."
2."They worked the late shift in a call centre and while alone in the office pulled down cupboards in the kitchen, cut their arm with a knife, splattered blood around the kitchen, shimmied themselves under a fallen cupboard and called emergency services. Tried to sue the company for unsafe working environment. Didn't know the kitchen had a security camera."
3."He shot himself practicing a quick draw. He shot himself again, demonstrating how he shot himself the first time."
4."Turns out her cancer was faked and she scammed us all out of $100K. Now she's in prison. (Google Amanda C. Riley, I worked with her around 2015–2016ish.)"
5."Dude ran over a fucking human corpse and went about his workday until the cops showed up."
"Some foggy winter morning a guy died on a highway and my co-worker ran over a significant portion of what was left of the guy. He thought he hit roadkill or something, but he was close to work and his car felt fine, so he just clocked in. The cops came a couple hours into his shift and he left with them. They took his car, and if I remember correctly I think it was declared a total loss or something. Never really pried, but from the sounds of it he must have nailed the absolute shit out of the guy."
6."He started getting a thousand-yard-stare while in the office. He sat at his computer and stared at the monitor, which is what we all did, except his monitor was off. One day he didn't come in at all, and a few days later we learned that he had been arrested in another state for stealing a car and attacking the police that arrested him."
7."Literally shot himself in the foot and showed up to his shift with a fresh bullet wound."
8."He murdered his landlord and ate some of the corpse. I think he ate a lung or something, believing it to be the heart. He wasn’t a notable weirdo or outcast and was actually pretty good at his job. I don’t work there anymore!"
9."He was a thirty-year employee. I figured out he was watching the women use the bathroom somehow (drop ceiling bathrooms side by side), but no one but the secretary would consider the possibility (I had no hard proof). Because of my warning, she was able to catch him in the act."
"I noticed some weird movements, like flutters in the ceiling tiles, but I have a visual impairment, so I couldn’t tell what exactly it was. I realized he would often go the the restroom at the same time as women would. When the secretary saw the tile move, she jumped up on a small table and threw up the tile and his face was there and she screamed bloody murder. He was climbing on the urinal and pushing up the tile above it and pulled up the adjacent tile in the women’s room."
10."They went and visited an escort during an entire work trip and didn’t attend any of the very important customer meetings. Submitted an expense report asking to be reimbursed for the entertainment. They were not reimbursed."
11."[My] boss fired him on the spot for proposing to a girl in the office because he deserved her or something (he thought being tall was the important factor). They didn't have any kind or relationship leading up to this; he was serious. Supposedly they fired him 'improperly' and he won two years' pay or something out of it in a follow-up lawsuit."
12."He missed work unexpectedly. The next morning the FBI showed up and went thru his desk. They only found a post-it that read, 'Too slow FBI.' It also had a smiley face on it."
13."After he quit, special investigators showed up asking for him and wanted to know where he was. He had apparently been trying to kill his wife by putting rat poison in her coffee every morning."
14."[I] worked in a different office but, [one guy at my company was a] serial killer. Possibly 25 victims in Southern California. Apparently, he was religious and kept mostly to himself. ... John Floyd Thomas Jr."
15."He went to FL on the company dime to attend a conference. Never came back to the office, we eventually had an all-hands meeting that this person was arrested and won’t be coming back. Out of respect for his privacy, we were asked not to do any of our own research and if we had questions to ask HR. Everyone immediately went back to Google his name — he was caught in a sting operation, Chris Hansen style."
16."Was working with him one day, looked up and there were cops everywhere. He just hung his head, handed me his gloves and said, 'I think they are here for me.' Was booked into jail for molesting his young niece. That was a few years ago and his first parole hearing is in 2035. Honestly, it messed me up in the head for awhile. I worked with him daily for over a year, and never would have guessed it. You would think you would be able to pick up on something like that, but no, they just hide right in plain sight."
17."Threatened to stab a coworker. Sacked immediately, stabbed someone else two days later. Still in jail."
18."She got incredibly drunk at an office party and attempted to give lap dances to a number of higher-ups, including our (married) VP. She was blacked out at the time, came in the next day like nothing had happened."
19."At a major customer-facing conference, employee (and my colleague) of company hosting it in Las Vegas, gets blind drunk around mid-day, relentlessly heckles his own colleague speaking on stage in front of hundreds of people, is forcibly removed from the session room, proceeds to fall over in a very highly trafficked area of the hotel for conference goers, is sick all over themselves, passes out in the middle of the floor, pisses self, all whilst wearing the company badge and gear in full view. Never saw or heard from them again."
20."They held someone at knife point robbing them, ordered them to drive to the victim's house where he threatened to kill the victim and his mother. The victim was able to get a knife out of their center console and stab said coworker, paralyzing them. He was ultimately locked up for 40–80 years I believe. He is also suspected of murder in a separate case. Wild shit."
21."He was the life and soul of the office, a proper family man, and a trusted department manager. His wife was sadly diagnosed with cancer, so for a couple of years, he was on reduced hours to look after her and his young son. Sadly, he passed away (never found out how), but the strange thing was the police had to reach out to the company as he had no next of kin. Turns out he didn't have a wife or son or any other close friends or family."
22."During an ambien and alcohol-fueled binge, he beat our other coworker to death with a hammer."
"He was my trainer at the restaurant we all worked at. Everyone partied on the weekends but he took it way too far and was taking, like, 15+ ambien as well as alcohol."
23."He threatened to poison all the managers after coming into work completely wasted, got fired, got ran over by a boyfriend who attempted to kill him, and ended up getting ran over again and actually killed when he moved out of state and decided to bike down the middle of the highway at night."
24."I had an internship as an electrician in a hospital and one of my colleagues was a middle-aged, fed-up-with-life dude... He had a wife and kids to take care of but was always showing up late, going shopping while still punched in, and just generally had a lazy attitude towards work."
"The boss sent him over to another hospital nearby where after a few months the groundskeeper called us in to tell us someone had been sleeping in the vent room for a good while (weeks) and there was a mattress there and a reading lamp. We immediately figured it was our guy but no proof.
Anyway the hospital where I worked had eight floors, and the fourth floor was off limits as they had closed that specific department (can't remember which specialists where in there) but some of us could access this floor to do maintenance work.
So he gets transferred back and a couple of months pass. Colleagues starts noticing he's ... gone for weird periods of times, until one day one of the security guards does a round on fourth floor (all abandoned and dark) and hears moaning coming from one of the rooms.
The guard starts walking there when the moaning stops abruptly and a person fucking bolts out of the room with a jacket over his head and trousers halfway pulled up (strong pull out game). Dashes to the doors like Casper the horny ghost and then this poor lady he was fucking was just left there. He'd even dragged in a worn out mattress for the occasion (and they say chivalry is dead).
Anyway so you have to access the floor by swiping your card and entering your personal code so we had our Scooby-Doo meeting the next day where we revieled our horny-ghost-on-floor-four must've been our collegue.
Aaand he was fired. Oh, and he lost his family too."
25."Male employee took female employees' house keys out of her purse and had copies made on his lunch. When the female employee got home from work that day, he was waiting for her in her bedroom. Thankfully she got out quickly and without harm and was able to call the police."
26."The police came in; he stood up calmly and put his hands behind his back. They cuffed him and as he walked out he turned and said, 'Can you please phone Mrs Smith and let her know I will have to reschedule our appointment tomorrow?' Never saw that dude again."
27."An ex-coworker went to a McDonald's where his ex-girlfriend worked to kill her and a few others. Killed a few, went back to his car and realized he locked his keys in the car so he went back and shot himself. He was so out of it, he didn't think to just shoot out the window of his car, thankfully. The message he left behind was after McDonald's, he was going back to a previous work place to kill his old supervisor. I was in a different department when this happened but it would have been bad if he made it there."
28."College Junior, 1980s, office job proofreading. I get a new partner. A few years older than me, Army-style haircut, very fit and muscular. He is nervous so I give him easy stuff and bring him along slowly. After a week or so he relaxes and tells his story. He joined a cult as a teen, the Moonies. He rose through the ranks until he was running a team of teens traveling the country raising money for the cult. They sold flowers and magazine subscriptions door-to-door, in malls, train stations, and airports. He drove them in a van and they all slept in one room at cheap motels. His job was to watch them, keep them in line and earning."
"He did it for years, always traveling, barely sleeping until he finally had a breakdown and ended up in a psych ward. Working with me was his first real job back in the world. We did fine, he was always on time and like me, read books during downtime.
I found out from my supervisor that they gave him to me because if he went berserk I had the best chance of surviving at 6' 4" and 230 lbs.
Partner eventually requested a move to the day shift and I got an opera singer for my new amigo. Day shift is busier than nights. Ex-Moonie couldn't cope without my support and went Hulk smash and destroyed the office until the cops came."
29."Head of Corporate Security here. ... A couple years back (pre-COVID) we were spinning a division off and that came with some layoffs. Doing the pre-layoff assessment I identified a guy I was worried about from a potential violence perspective. I’ve been doing this for 25 years and he’s the only one that really really worried me."
"We did it offsite with extra security and it went fine. He was a perfect gentleman about it, no issues.
About six months later, the front desk calls me and HR and says the FBI is there and would like to chat with us. We are in a regulated industry so it’s not all that rare.
As soon as I close the conference room door behind us they pull out a mug shot and asks if we recognize him. Of course we do and I tell my gut instinct story about him. Turns out he flew across the Atlantic, tracked down his ex-wife, got a gun in a country with EXTREMELY strict gun laws, and murdered his ex-wife and her new husband."
30."Kid-centric water park. He put broken glass in the pool because he didn’t get one day of the four day span he requested off."
"We were taught in training that if broken glass was found in the pool, the park would have to be closed for about three days to complete a process to make sure it was fully removed. He figured he could use this to his advantage.He got his day off, him and the rest of the morning shift were sent home while the glass was removed. The park ended up opening later that afternoon after the removal process was expedited. Luckily no one was hurt because this all happened in the morning before we opened to the public. He bragged about it to some of our other coworkers who ended up reporting him."
31."At my old company, union job, we had random drug tests and alcohol swabs. This one dude I knew personally outside of work, and knew he was having problems, was chosen for an alcohol swab one morning at the weekly meeting."
"So the policy as dealt with the union was that if you were selected for a swab or pee test, you could submit that you have a problem and you could keep your job and the company would pay for a 30 day treatment (but no pay while you're gone), but if you piss hot or swab comes back for alcohol, you're fired on the spot. Homedude didn't take the test, and didn't take the 30 days of treatment, and just quit on the spot. I've never seen him since. We're still friends with his wife and kids who also haven't seen him in about 14 years.
... The last time I heard of him was a little while after this. He refused to give his daughter back to his ex wife and had the cops called on him. After that he was never heard from again. Homedude went fully around the bend with drugs and stuff. Was a decent guy when I knew him but became a full on scumbag. But I hope he at least cleaned up. I can’t imagine it’s easy on his daughter having been abandoned by her dad."
32."I used to work in food services at an outdoor museum in Michigan. We attracted a fair crowd of 'that coworker.' ...There was a ... creep I worked with who would stalk the women with his five Facebook accounts. If they left their phone unattended, he’d sneak his digits into it. One day he pulled out a knife and threatened to cut one of the other employees, then went right back to work serving beer as if it were a regular occurrence. They fired his ass that day."
33."He was the boss. He was...interesting. He would dress as Hitler for Halloween. He had a troubling amount of authentic Nazi paraphernalia. I suppose any amount is troubling, but this was... a lot. His office was next to the storeroom. I had to go grab stuff one time, and as the door shut, I heard a bunch of noise from his office. I stuck my head in to see if everything was OK. He goes, 'Jesus you make too much noise, you scared me.' I'm not saying he was in his office jackin it, but he was definitely in his office jackin it. He eventually got fired, and apparently just had to throw his computer away due to the sheer amount of porn on it."
34."My former manager. He would leave days at a time for what we all assumed was to take care of his wife with cancer. Turns out he was cheating with an escort on his wife who was bedridden with the last stage of cancer. Proceeds to move in with escort and have a baby with her. Meanwhile sends attorney to sick wife saying if you divorce me the two kids he had with wife will get nothing (he was really rich). The two kids were left to fend for themselves while taking care of sick mom. We found out when the youngest called my boss asking if he could buy water for them. Wife eventually passes and leaves a good amount of insurance for the kids. Also after internal investigation, manager embezzled millions from company and ran away with his mistress to Las Vegas."
35."Guy who worked in my office for about six months. Older guy, nice but kinda weird, disappeared after taking a giant shit in the stairwell leading down to the cafe. I saw him suddenly get up and walk as fast as possible to the stairwell. There were bathrooms downstairs across from the cafe. But also ones a closer walk upstairs. Didn't think anything of it till I heard a scream about 10 minutes later. Giant pile at the top of the stairs and a trail leading down."
"No one saw him again. Never came back that or any following days, never called or returned bosses calls. Guess he was just embarrassed and decided he was done."
36."[She] came in to work with cat testicles floating in a baby food jar. ... She neutered the cat at home and brought her cat's balls into work. She used to work at a vet clinic and had seen it done so she did it for free at home."
37.And finally..."He gave a student herpes."
What happened to *that one coworker* that you knew? Let us know in the comments!
Submissions have been edited for length/clarity.
