We're tackling something we all have to deal with at some time or other: work drama. Each week, I'll be bringing the juiciest stories from across the web right to our little virtual water cooler. From toxic bosses to nightmare workplaces, I'm here to speak a little justice on behalf of the average worker.

While you're here, please note that this weekly series is meant solely for entertainment purposes. Please do not have your HR team call me tomorrow saying you heard it from Joel at Digg.

Nearly All The Men I Work With Are Creeps, And Their List Proves It

For some context I work in the live event production field. It is very male dominated. When I'm out on shows for my company I have to work with a lot of freelancers in the area, and work with the same ones often. These freelancers have always been weirdly flirty, but I've gotten good at just ignoring it. Well I found out through one of the freelancers I actually like that most of the men have a bet with a pool of money going to see who can sleep with me first. Most of these men are in the range of 30 to 50 years old.

It was honestly horrifying to hear, and I don't know what to do. I went to the union rep about it, but he just basically said he can't do much without any proof to the claim. I brought it up to my company and they said basically that hey we will do our best to keep you off shows with them, but we can't guarantee that as the freelancers in that union have final pick on who's on the show.

So now I've come here to vent as I don't really know what else to do.

Might be the unpopular opinion — but just expose the live event company. They clearly don't care about you, or the likely fact that you aren't the first woman this has happened to. Looks like the union isn't going to do anything for you either, and there's clearly no protocol in place for this kind of vile stuff. The choice of staying silent here will only exacerbate the problem in the long run, so good on you for speaking up. Read the rest of the thread here.

A Co-Worker I Once Trained Embarrassed Me In Front Of Everyone During The Morning Meeting

I'm a hospital janitor. We have one lady who comes in a few hours before everyone else. She has her own list of things to do, but part of it is being clean up duty for pretty much anything that gets called before everyone else shows up, assuming the thing in question can't wait.

Pretty much any time she gets a call about "we need this re-done" she makes a scene about it in the daily morning meeting. There's usually about 10-15 of us, and our boss.

Well... this morning when I walked in, she's sitting there waiting for everyone else and the morning meeting to begin. She pulls me aside, and pulls out her phone to show me some pictures she took. She got a call that a room I did yesterday needed to be touched up. I left some blood on the wheels of the bed... whoops... she really sat there and laid into me about it.

I'm a really good employee so hearing it kind of stung. I work my ass off... I never call in or show up late, and I actually stay late fairly often. I work myself down to the bone all day every day.

But, whatever. She's probably telling me this out of kindness, so we can avoid things like this in the future. Fun fact actually... I trained her when she started, teacher becomes the student I guess.

But no. Remember what I said above? After the morning meeting was over and our boss said to get to work, she pulled out her phone, was NOT using an inside voice, as she spent a few solid minutes really hammering it home about how bad I did. She was making sure each and every person who was in the room heard and saw about it. Some of my coworkers were giving me looks as if to silently says "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

I would completely understand if she wanted to talk with our boss one on one about it... but that felt completely unnecessary.

Fun fact as a quick footnote... I've been called for that kind of thing many times. Cleaning up after coworkers... yes... including her. I never make a scene about it or tell anyone though, unless it's frequent enough that my boss should know... which I'll tell her in private. I just do it and be on my way. God that was humiliating.

When answering life's tough questions, I find myself quoting the great philosophers RuPaul Charles, who once said, "If they ain't paying your bills, pay them b—tches no mind." That's exactly what you need to do here. Your co-workers, including her, aren't signing your paychecks, so you really don't have to take it. Also, with how hard you're going at that job, you need somebody to remind you that they need you more than you need them. I agree with the majority of comments: just get your money and go. Honestly, there is no gold star waiting for you at the end of years of unpaid overtime. Yes, take pride in your work, but what she did was shameful. If I were there, I'd correct her and point out how disrespectful she was being. I'm sorry this happened to you, but enough is enough. You gotta do your job, yes, but you're not paid to endure stuff like this. Remember that. Read the rest of the thread here.

Random Co-Worker Just Wiped Her Hands On Me, WTF?

She comes out of the bathroom stall, walks to the sink beside me, wets her hands (NO SOAP!!!), turns to me and dries her hands on me. From my shoulder, to my bare arm, all the way down to about my middle thigh. Just completely dries her hands off on me. I said “And no soap???” She said she was going home and walks out. I don’t give a damn where the hell you’re going you should use soap! And then to dry your hands off on me! I had to go to the break room to get paper towels to dry my arm off cause we only have those electric blowers in the bathrooms and that’s how wet my arm was. I’m beyond disgusted but should I have told on her?

Edited to add:

I did end up telling a manager and they are going to have a talk with her, I can update if anyone would like that.

I do not know her at all. I recognize her face as someone who works at the same place as me and that is the extent of my knowledge of her.

I don’t think I made this very clear but this interaction from her using me as a human cum rag to walking out of the bathroom was all of like 3 seconds. This woman was in a hurry I guess to disrespect me and run away.

Customers were there and my responses and actions were limited. I can’t punch someone or cuss them out in front of customers unless I want to lose my job, and I really like my job. I’m not gonna lose it because of one person and their actions, that would be letting her win if this is a dominance thing.

You handled this as best you could. I cannot believe a grown adult thought this was appropriate, and I'm with the comments that suggest this may have been a power move for her. Personally, I would've recreated my favorite scenes from "Kill Bill" on her, but your approach works too. Thank you for not listening to the comments saying to just clock her, even if she low-key deserved it. Read the rest of the thread here.

Did This Lady Go Out Of Her Way Just To Torment Me And My Teenage Co-Workers?

So, I work for a certain hated oil change corporation. I usually float between vehicles that we have in the bay, upper and lower. I heard one of my coworkers talking to her, and then he turned around and looked very... sad. So I walk over, and ask him what happened. He explains that she wants to do any serious work at the dealership, so I go and talk with her. She goes into a rant about how her last visit to another location went. I assured her we always follow procedure and that we will take good care of her. I investigated her engine bay, nothing too concerning except that she came in with about 2 quarts of oil when her vehicle took about 7 quarts, a worn serpentine belt and her coolant was about an ounce below where it should be. She seemed calm and receptive after that, I wrote my recommendations on her invoice and even added a discount for her troubles. I lead her out of the bay and she parks, impeding traffic of our exit and gets out of her vehicle and calls someone on the phone while looking at the front of her vehicle. I walk up and ask what's wrong and she basically stabs the car with her finger while pointing to the bumper and starts going on about how it always happens, how my company always seems to do something wrong, etc. So I take a look and it's a few clips that were disconnected, a few that were broken and then I kind of analyze the situation for a moment and I honestly couldn't understand how she thinks we did it? She then says that she wants to talk to someone more competent while I'm snapping the clips back in while lying on the wet ground and fixing it. I thanked her for her patience and instructed my manager to speak with her.

We all work hard here. I'm glad that I didn't get angry or argumentative but I wish I could have told her about herself.

Did she intentionally come to get an oil change just to belittle teenagers and talk down to actual skilled and certified employees? Why would she come to a place that she apparently hated so much?

Yes, she absolutely did this on purpose. As someone who's worked in customer service, I'll tell you, sometimes people just come in looking for someone to beat down. You could offer them the red carpet treatment, discounts and admit fault in the end — but it'll never be enough. Their goal isn't to receive good customer service; it's to remind everyone, including themselves, that they can get away with this kind of behavior. Usually, these people face little to zero consequences. Plus, throw in cell phone cameras, and suddenly anybody puts on a show. I hope your management does a better job in the future of redirecting those customers to get some help, or hell. But just know, the comment section has got your back, because once you've worked in a service job, you really do learn to never be that disrespectful to people. Read the rest of the thread here.

Check out last week's edition here.

[Image credit: Shardar Tarikul Islam]