What’s The Worst Shocking Thing You Have Seen in Your Line of Work?

Please share your profession and event you witnessed you would consider the worst and never wants to see again

Comments

    • +1

      I. am. never. trying. on. slippers. in. a. shop. ever. again.

  • +1

    Rat-infested Deli, people work there won't report it, coz it will have to shut down to clean up, so the company ( giant humungous ) decided to hire a 'pest controller' to work out some baits and some traps grim

    • +2

      Reminded me of that famous bakery you see outside supermarkets in malls, that kept on turning up on A Current Affair for bad hygiene and rat crap sprinkles over all their food.

      • the sprinkles make it artisan and justify the arm and leg prices

  • +1

    After every lockdown announcement, two weeks later, Treasury Place Melbourne would just start getting hammered with bizarre mail.

    I'm talking fake anthrax (mostly cornstarch or dish detergent), fecal matter, 'blood' from 'bleeding Victorians dry,' and actual bullet casings.

  • Immigrant worker break his back and hand on shift, finished shift because he was worried he might get fired. No, I won't be revealing where this happened.

  • +6

    As a foreign correspondent working in the West Bank in the early 2000s I was at a 2nd intifada skirmish in Ramallah and one of the other reporters there was Jack Kelley from USA Today. He wrote that he saw Palestinian gunmen ferried to the scene in an ambulance. Nobody else saw this (dozens of reporters were there). The story was then used as cover for IDF troops to open fire on Red Crescent ambulances in many situations.
    He later covered the Sbarro pizzeria suicide bombing that killed 16 people in Jerusalem. Because my office was only 150 metres away I was there within five minutes of the blast and it was truly hideous. But Kelley claimed to have bumped into the bomber just seconds before the attack, and later saw the bombers head still blinking in the gutter. That is truly what he wrote (bullshit because the bomber was launched upwards into the ceiling). Kelley got a Pulitzer Prize nomination for this pack of lies. Then it all fell apart. USA Today discovered their Chief Correspondent had been inventing stuff for years often not even being in the country where the events took place. He was sacked. he'd been protected for years because his wife was VP for USA Today marketing!
    Does one of Australia's most highly paid opinion writers pretending to be a member of Schapelle Corby's family to get into court count as bad?
    Or Australian reporters wearing flak jackets and helmets for their piece to camera when they are a hundred kilometres from the frontline?
    Or the exSouth African reporter Paul Martin who invented a Palestinian reporter in Bethlehem called Saeed Anwar (which isn't even a Palestinian name!), then used that to peddle a series of fake stories in the (Moonie owned) very pro-Israel Washington Times (not the Washington Post). When I rang the Wash Times foreign desk to get the contact details for SaeedAnwar they went into a panic and the game was up. I exposed the fake in the New York Times and Sydney Morning Herald.
    Then there's the very senior News Corp reporter who when covering the Papua New Guinea tsunami at Aitape which killed 3500 people. He wrote that authorities were planning to open a lagoon so that sharks and crocodiles could get rid of the bodies, sparking misery and panic among the bereaved relatives of the missing. All his own invention.

    There are heaps more. But that's not to say that the majority of correspondents I worked alongside weren't brave truth telling people putting their lives on the line to bring you primary eyewitness reportage. But the bad ones are truly bad and I don't know how they live with themselves.

    • Nothing you wrote surprises me, at all. What would surprise me is that some of those dodgy journos applied for jobs with Rupert and got knocked back. The MSM,weaponry, global power and all our futures, is all controlled by the same 'players'.

      • +2

        As I said the bulk of journalists I worked with in combat zones were outstanding. They all worked for MSM… some of them even for Murdoch. Without these primary reporters of fact all the social media and online journos sitting writing opinion would have no idea what is going on. MSM journalists form more than 90% of primary reporting in the world… you should support them. Without primary reporting all you are left with is opinion and comment.
        Australians in general have significant confidence in the ABC… public broadcasters are an integral part of the checks and balances required by democracy.
        And remember most MSM journos are accountable and publish corrections when they are wrong… almost none of online and social media journos apologise for or correct their mistakes..

        • +1

          I deliberately do not lump the ABC in with the MSM.(I should have said so) I rate the MSM as the commercial arm of journalism.The ABC as the public arm. The ABC is so suffocated by the "other arm", it's a constant fight for oxygen. But they still stand taller and with more integrity than most of the others on any day of the week. The ABC is a direct threat to the rise of the right, and some ppl see that as them being 'left'. That's how far down society has slid.

          Nor do I consider the small % of good journos in Murdoch dominant enough to reshape (or even significantly impact) his destructive agenda and biased leanings.Sorry.
          That said I do have a couple of his better journos who I respect, follow and sometimes connect with by way of feedback.

  • Former deli manager for one of the big two.
    Had a customer relieve herself into the low lying cheese fridge.

  • I saw a colleague washing his feet in the basin in the bathroom

    • I saw the Head Chef of an award winning restaurant take a wee in the little hand basin under his sink because we were in the weeds and he didn't have time to leave his station.

      Didn't wash his hands afterwards.

      Another dude, Chef de Cuisine this time: didn't wear underwear. Was forever shoving his hand down his pants to have a scratch.

  • +2

    I ran an outcall escort agency for a while. Long nights sitting in an office with a dozen fairly liberal-minded ladies, the banter was something else.

    So was the distinct smell when one of the staff came back in from a job and burped right up close….

  • +2

    working at Target.. someone took a dump in the changeroom.. then they used the curtain in the changeroom to wipe their ass, massive shi@stain up and down the curtain

  • +5

    Editor working in mainstream news. All the stuff we don't show you. Plane crash with dead bodies in seats. Tsunami aftermath. And of course the road crashes. Deal with it temporarily in the moment without reacting, or with black humour. Really deal with it afterwards.

    • +1

      I remember when all the tsunami photographs were leaked onto a public server online. I had no idea until that day, what you all deal with. No words.

      • 2004 Boxing Day tsunami happened on my first day in charge of one of Australia's main news websites. My boss and deputy were on holiday. It started as a major earthquake report. Soon… it was a lot.

        • +7

          I was one of only two foreign journalists (the other was from Al Jazeera) to get into Aceh the night after the Tsunami. No other reporters could get in for four days after that and most had headed for Thailand where the white victims were. Indescribable. We were walking through waist high mud in the dark stumbling over bodies. We'd actually unknowingly parked our car on submerged bodies. Wrecked cars filled with corpses were piled five high against trees. 600 bodies on one corner in Banda Aceh: 80 thousand dead in that town alone.. And not enough survivors in town to move the corpses: those who lived had fled in fear. The bodies lay there for weeks bloating and contorting in the heat. 20 years later I still smell it if I use the same type of facemask we wore at the time.
          We took all equipment we knew we could run without mains power, filing stories using car batteries hooked to laptops and ISDN satellite phones. That's how the ABC became the only news organisation in the world to file stories out of Aceh in the first five days after the disaster.

          • @foxinsox8: Much respect for that, and sorry you went through it. I'd been a backpacker in Sumatra five years earlier, so it was personal even covering it from Sydney. Apart from reporting on the hundreds of thousands killed mostly in Aceh, the local angle was 2000 Australians unaccounted for. Gradually all but 26 made contact or were found, but that wasn't clear for days.

            • +1

              @Morven: I have made around 18 trips to Sumatra. It was the very first place I went overseas in 1984! Travelling conditions back then were wild. It's truly beautiful place and I went there 6 times as a tourist/traveller. Then professionally I went quite a few times in the 2000s covering the civil war in Aceh, visiting a suicide bomber's family in Bengkulu, the tsunami and the earthquake in Nias. I'll go back to Lake Toba one day… it's special.

              • @foxinsox8: I ended up at Lake Maninjau instead of Toba, which was magical in 1999. Lakeside hostel run by guys from the mosque next-door. They hung out, swam, prayed, washed sheets and made breakfast. It was just before the post-Suharto "festival of democracy" election where Abdurrahman Wahid was elected. When I went for a walk up the road in my board shorts and t-shirt, there was an angry guy in robes campaigning from the back of a wagon, who pointed and made me a negative part of his speech. Was two years before 9/11 so I just grinned. Loved it there and always said I'd go back.

                • +1

                  @Morven: I went to Maninjau in 84 too. Great place. Nowhere to stay there in those days though.

    • -3

      Here's the news our version of events with poetic license liberally exercised.

      • What a lazy, cliched and ignorant comment

        • -2

          You heard read it here first

          Editor working in mainstream news. All the stuff we don't show you.

          Also see the Trusted News Initiative if you think all they're doing is merely censoring gory images. This article was written by 10 year veteran ABC journalist and presenter Maryanne Demasi PhD.

          • +1
          • @tenpercent: Maryanne Demasi and journalism are two entirely separate concepts. She was suspended for several dubious reports on Catalyst and can take the greatest part of the honours for sinking the entire show. Anyone interested can search "Demasi" and "Media Watch" to read the full story. She was fired after a major review into the allegations against her work. The kind of review a serious media organisation commits to when faced with such issues. And Demasi must be close to setting a record for retractions in her published scientific work going all the way back to her phD. Search Demasi and retraction.

            Your other link to an anti vax website has all the credibility of… well you. I'm assuming you've delved deep into the cooker world.

            • @foxinsox8: 10% is a proud senior cooker (head chef) 1st class & Ozb's chief climate change denier spokesperson.
              They also hold several national cherry picking awards. Namely lowest quality and highest quantity.
              When the US death toll via the lack of preventative vaccines takes it's toll, Kennedy and his supporters will be nowhere to be found, and/or claim the data and death toll is fake news.By then Trump will have removed the ppl who track the health data in the USA. Data will vanish quicker than the Epsteins client list that Musk quoted. Notice how Musky boy had second thoughts after a tap on the shoulder. Fancy the DoJ and FBI going off the rails. Or were they ever on them? Oh that's right, Musk removed all the law abiding ones or anyone who dared to follow the truth and facts. And we let that poisonous gangster country own our arse.

              https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/new-york/articles/20…

              I suspect Trump will keep Kennedy, only to pay back his electoral support only up until the PR costs him (Trump) a few popularity points

              • @Protractor:

                claim the data and death toll is fake news

                It's been a couple of years so please remind me, what is the difference between "died with" and "died from" covid? And remind me which one was being recorded and reported?

                And we let that poisonous gangster country own our arse

                Wasn't it Biden in the White House at the time? Ah yes, the left vs right theatre. And both teams push forward with authoritarianism and fascism (sometimes cloaked as socialism, those clever rabbits!).

                keep Kennedy

                This Kennedy?

                • @tenpercent:

                  "died with"

                  Whoever was holding my hand when I jumped off the really tall building.

                  "died from" the bastard who was chasing us.

            • -1

              @foxinsox8: Do you always use illogical heuristics to assess information? There's a smorgasbord of logical fallacies in that response.

              You've used Ad Hominem (for other readers, this fallacy attacks the person rather than the argument). "Maryanne Demasi and journalism are two entirely separate concepts." This statement directly attacks Demasi's credibility as a journalist without addressing the content of the article I linked to.

              You also relied on Appeal to Ridicule (this fallacy uses mockery to dismiss an argument). "She was suspended for several dubious reports on Catalyst and can take the greatest part of the honours for sinking the entire show." This ridicules Demasi's work by suggesting it was so poor that it was the main reason for the downfall of the entire show, implying we can't believe anything she says.

              You've also used Circular Reasoning (i.e., assumed what you're trying to prove). "Maryanne Demasi and journalism are two entirely separate concepts" is declared (assumed to be true), and then cherry-picked examples of her work are used to support this claim, creating a circular argument. Cherry-picking is an example of the fallacy of incomplete evidence.

              You've created a False Dilemma (this fallacy presents only two options when more exist). Demasi is either a journalist or not, without considering the possibility that she might be a journalist with flaws or that some of her work might have both merits and demerits.

              You employ an Appeal to Authority (this fallacy uses an association between an opinion and an authority to support an argument, e.g., "Einstein thought X, therefore X must be true"). "The kind of review a serious media organisation commits to when faced with such issues." This implies that because a "serious media organisation" conducted a review, the conclusions must be valid, assuming the authority's conclusions are infallible.

              Next and probably the most heavily relied on logical fallacy is the Genetic Fallacy (judging something based on its origins rather than its current merits). "And Demasi must be close to setting a record for retractions in her published scientific work going all the way back to her PhD." This judges her current work based on past, unrelated retractions, rather than evaluating the article I linked to on its own merits.

              You then finish up with two more Ad Hominem examples. The final sentence attacks the person (me; "you've delved deep into the cooker world") and also the site that republished the article ("anti-vax website"), again without addressing the argument itself or even the content of the supporting article.

              These fallacies are used to discredit Demasi and her work without providing a balanced or substantive argument, focusing instead on attacking her character and history. You have only focussed on the author and the site that republished the article, not the article itself. You haven't even attempted to address any of the content of the article that was linked or the content of the argument where the link was provided. Now who has delved deep into the world of irrational unscientific thinking?

              • -1

                @tenpercent: Another one sells out to AI. The crow will be pleased. It's give and take,though. The spelling and punctuation comes good at the same time the veracity, credibility and integrity of the response falls away.

              • @tenpercent: Jesus, you just regurgitated an entire uni subject. AND IT (THE UNI SUBJECT) WAS SHORTER

              • @tenpercent: Well done Googling argument fallacies. But you haven't actually responded to any of the points I raised about Demasi's errors in journalism and science which are many. Amazing that you would hold up as your shining example someone who has been so comprehensively exposed as a fraud and a shonk. Demasi has been discredited by numerous bodies: universities, scientific journals, official reviews and inquiries. Just saying that these are fallacious doesn't make it so. It's not an attack "on her character and history" as you put it: it IS her character and history.

      • +3

        @tenpercent - as well as lazy and ignorant, you're also toxic to the notion of truth. We have a couple of journalists here talking about the horrors they've seen and the resulting trauma. You could have supported them - they are doing work vastly more important and dangerous than your own, or, given they are here anonymous on a public forum, you could have asked them for their own take on the media and truth. Instead - you imply they don't report the truth.

        How you could use this eyewitness account as evidence for media "poetic license" is beyond me. Why you would want to do so troubles me even more.

        • -2

          they are doing work vastly more important and dangerous than your own

          Are you sure? You seem to be making assumptions.

          How you could use this eyewitness account as evidence for media "poetic license" is beyond me.

          How? They literally referred to "all the stuff we don't show you" and gave an example. It doesn't get any easier than this.

          Why you would want to do so troubles me even more.

          Why does that trouble you? I am very intrigued by this specific comment. What sort of fantasies or conspiracy theories are floating around in your mind when someone uses the words of a self-described "editor working in mainstream news" to highlight one of the major problems in our society (i.e. unbiased truth and transparency in journalism).

          • +2

            @tenpercent: This is what you, and those like you, do:

            1. Make an outrageous statement to advance whatever agenda you have.
            2. When called upon it, offer some weak anecdote, but with lots of detail, in support of it.
            3. Then argue back and forth on minor details, while your outrageous statement stands.

            This is from the playbook of fascists, authoritarians and ideologues everywhere. You are not using discourse to offer compassion, to seek understanding of an idea or person, you are using it advance your agenda which to sow distrust in science and the media. I don't know why you are doing this, but I know what your game is and I'm not going to play it.

            • @AddNinja: This is what you, and those like you, do:

              1. Make an ad hom statement with lazy use of tired cliches. Finish up with some insidious insinuations and false assertions.
              2. When called upon it, ignore the dispassioned question put to you in response (namely why you are so troubled by someone highlighting misinformation practices of mainstream media and how nonchallantly they are boasted about), and begin using strawman arguments about 'some weak anecdote'. Now I'm curious, which anecdote are you referring to?

              This is from the playbook of self-titled 'fact checkers' and other leftist authoritarians who want to shut down open discussion.

          • +1

            @tenpercent: "they are doing work vastly more important and dangerous than your own"

            "Are you sure? You seem to be making assumptions."

            ten percent is clearly right here. You have failed to take into account the risk of sepsis from incorrect opening of a tin of baked beans in the kitchenette in his Mom's basement. Oh the humanity.

            But let's hear it from the man himself… ten percent: go on… tell us about the dangers you've faced.

  • The amount of people at my work still using their phone cameras to "screenshot" instead of pressing window + shift + s

  • Gangrene and all sorts of wounds. Different variations of flesh eating bacteria. Fungal infections driven through chronic incontinence.

  • +1

    I was working in HN when someone defecated around the toilet seat in the staff toilet.
    A customer came in to print photos that included images of women at a party flashing their breasts. Several male staff members took unauthorized copies of the photos.

    • unauthorized

      Is there a form they were meant to fill out first?

      • They were required to have a mammbaship card.

        • It'll give them some good mamories at least

  • -2

    Share that publicly? On this forum? Buhahahahaha. There's a risk some muppet will try to dox or contact an employer. I'm sure employers won't mind having their dirty laundry aired. This reminds me of criminals who take video of themselves committing the crime. No thanks. Next.

  • High voltage

  • I have seen someone with 20 years experience commit untested code that doesn't work to UAT. Over and over again…

    • +1

      That is shocking - the only place for untested code is production.

      • Best way to test - instant feedback when it's wrong. UAT is for losers.

  • Way back in my uni days, I worked at service stations (for two different chains) so I have a few good stories to tell. The strangest thing was one night, when a colleague was serving a woman in her early 20s, the woman's friend, who was directly to my right, standing outside the building, flashed her friend that my colleague was serving. The woman being served thought it was hilarious and asked my colleague if he saw it (he didn't). She then asked me if I saw it (I did) and then she proceeded to ask me many questions about how attractive I found her friend, thoughts on her body etc. Since my colleague missed out, the woman said she'd ask her friend to do it again. Whilst her friend didn't want to, she then spent the next 10 solid minutes with her shirt pulled up over her breasts and touching them rubbing them, getting her friend to touch them and rub them etc. Very bizarre behaviour. It was a very busy servo so a number customers also got to see the performance.

    Otherwise, I nearly got fired for a comment I made on a forum post where a member was bad mouthing the servo chain I was employed at. I posted a reply that ultimately stuck up for my employer but of course, it wasn't really my place to say anything and it wasn't all that professional in terms of how I worded it. Another member on here baited me into telling them what location/s I worked at so I just replied with 'North Brisbane'. At the time, my Ozb username was my first name which was uncommon.

    After being called in for a meeting, days later, I realise that a member had likely dobbed me in. It was a strange process where the Area Manager interviewed me and it became very evident that she wanted to fire me based on her unprofessional attitude towards me. This process went on for a few hours and I was asked to just wait on site until a decision was made on my employment. I was getting annoyed with this treatment so I said I was about to leave and they could decide whatever they wanted as I didn't care. The Area Manager mentioned that upper management were voting on whether to terminate my employment or not. Meanwhile I mentioned that I was due at another location to start my shift but was told to just wait and call the Site Manager to tell them what was going on.

    Anyway, I ended up keeping my job, which I was grateful for. It was very strange hearing from the Area Manager how unhappy she was about the decision for me to keep my employment and if it was her decision, I'd be fired. I think what saved me was I had always been friendly with everyone and higher management when they had reason to attend a site.

    I learnt a valuable lesson that day…

  • at a warehouse i used to be employed at, no one had a forklift license. I was informed of this proudly by the workplace bully.
    they had two forklifts, one lpg & another a toyota electric forklift if memory serves.
    both had blank log books, both had cracked, treadless tyres
    they made me ride the tynes to retrieve items, yeah place was a hellhole.

  • Shocking? I had a coworker who cleaned the toaster crumbs out under running water. Then proceeded to put in two slices of bread and flick the thing on. Pretty sure she was toasted more than the bread. Thankfully, she is ok and someone came to assist at just the right time.

  • +2

    A leadership staff was fraudulently was using my signature on timesheet to claim overtime. Got paid thousands of $$$.

    Set up a plan, he got caught. Instead of responding to the allegations, he lodged a bullying claim against me (LMFAO!)

    Was able to fk him off….took a while though as he stopped coming to work and responding.

  • +4

    17 identical Acknowledgements of Country in a row at a 10am meeting that was scheduled to last for 20 minutes.

    • Multiple personalty problem. Don't let HR find out.

    • Was everybody enjoying it or wasn't anybody brave enough to say "stop".

      • This is a typical public sector workplace post Covid.

        The most you'll get in terms of pushback is a barely audible exhalation and some foot shuffling.

    • I assure you this is still happening - every speaker wants to do their own, in some teams we belong to.
      My friends in a different college also say some teachers do this, so they'll be hearing it every hour or two too…

    • You’re better off doing your own. But state that it’s not a traditional “welcome to country”. This is a
      “Welcome to my country”
      You don’t have to go too far down this rabbit hole though (because Australia voted “no” and spent $364 million of your tax paying dollars to do it)

  • An honest real estate agent

    • No such thing, he was just an above average liar

    • Bet he was unemployed.

  • Various forms of dead people. Hard to pick the most shocking (and being respectful).
    All I'll say is, the most gruesome kinda didnt look like people.

  • Not work related but happened while was at work - Bourke St Mall incident from 2017 - James was shot right outside our office building - saw it all happen from our windows looking down.

    Unfortunately one colleague was hit by him on Bourke St, and later passed away.

    Not sure if the pram I saw trapped under the vehicle was the for the same baby that passed away as well.

  • +1

    I'm a software developer, and I've seen an Australian startup founder duo sell their company for AU$1.6 billion dollars. Neither of them know much about tech.

  • Not shocking after the first couple times you see it, but there's often girls crying in the fire exit stairs or bathrooms. Wonder where the boys are crying?
    Same company, a manager was about to go down for collusion but conviently left the country (for vacation) and announced a new job before they could get her

  • +1

    New employee on their first day exhibit overcompensation and behaving like they've been there for years.

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