When Average Workdays Take a Turn For the Weird

Most days at work are fairly predictable. We get into a routine, we do the same things hour after hour, and then we clock out and go home. Some days, however, end up being a little less predictable. Here are some true life accounts of work days that ended up getting weird.

Fire in a Crowded Theater

You’ve probably heard the phrase, ‘like yelling ‘FIRE’ in a crowded theatre’ to describe the onset of utter pandemonium, yeah? This is in fact not true.

We had an electrical fire in one of the projection booths while I was working at a very busy (20-screen) theatre. All of us employees had to go around to the individual cinemas to announce that there was a fire in the building and everyone had to stay calm and follow evacuation instructions.

No one really moved. The films were still running (except the one with the fire in the projection booth) and people were extremely reluctant to leave, even though we TOLD THEM THERE WAS A FIRE. Story credit: Reddit / gypsyblue

Just Google It

I was told–just yesterday, actually–that at the next management meeting, I have to give an hour presentation on how to use Google and its related services.

IT is cubicle doom. Story credit: Reddit / oseary

Jimmy Smits Saves the Day

I work as a background actor in TV and films–a minimum wage job where talking to an actor on set could get you fired (which has happened to many of my friends.) One day I was sat next to Jimmy Smits in a bar scene, and tried to keep to myself.

Next thing I know, my brand new and completely silenced phone is ringing. I didn’t know the alarm would go off even if everything was set to silent. I ran out of the room, only to return to one of the other actors in the scene saying I should be fired.

Jimmy Smits then stands up and announces to the room, “I’m sorry my phone rang, everyone, but I had to take it. It was my agent.” He gave me a little nod as he sat down, and saved my job. Story credit: Reddit / MsDigbyChickenCaesar

Do Not Eat the Display

I work at a Sharis restaurant, which is basically like a regional IHOP in the PNW. In our front display case with fresh pies, we also had a tray of caramel pecan cinnamon rolls that were at least four years old, because they were sprayed with food preservatives and other stuff.

Calcified/hardened, impossible to do anything with. Apparently, we had a host (was eventually fired for good reason) that sold one of those rolls to a customer. A lady asked him for a roll, and pointed at the one in the display case.

Instead of telling her that those rolls were for display purposes only, he apparently took the tray into the back of the kitchen (how no one noticed is beyond me) and hacked at it with a steak knife and god knows what else.

He boxes the roll up, and sells it to the lady – meanwhile no one has noticed that the tray of rolls in the front display case is gone. Several hours later, this lady calls back and demands to speak with a manager. Apparently she had no idea what she was supposed to do with this “fossil.”

Was she supposed to call the health department, the police, or what? I don’t think she tried to eat it, though reportedly she microwaved it and it started smoking.

Needless to say, we gave her a full refund, as well as a free pack of cinnamon rolls. You’d think the guy cutting into it would have realized that if it takes that much effort to cut into the rolls, there’s probably something amiss. Story credit: Reddit / goldy496