Business horror stories

We recently asked our readers for their business horror stories. Thanks to all the readers who responded. Feel free to share additional stories in the comments section!

Ok, cue the scary music and prepare to be scared!

Lesson learned: Don’t be nice to people

“I felt sorry for a woman who worked for me. She had trouble fitting in with everyone in the office, so I started being extra nice to her. She took that the wrong way and started stalking me after hours … and when I continually rejected her, she claimed that I was discriminating against her.”

Men’s Room or Women’s Room?

“A man in our office had a sex-change operation. Now, that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that he was in transition so there was an issue of which restroom he should use — the men’s or women’s.”  

Great referral, but no profit

“I once got a referral from a partner who asked me to add a commission for him. The lead moved very slowly and after a month or two of back and forth and negotiation, it finally converted into a project. Only later did a realize…I forgot to add in the commission. What a feeling of dread. Awful. We eventually paid off the commission. It wiped out all the profit from the project. Scary, and sad.”

An HR problem of a different color

“My company hired a graphic designer … who was color blind. That was a bit of an issue.”

Unsend! Unsend!

“My boss was upset with a client who had a last-minute change to a project. Above her request, he wrote to me: “I really want to kill this lady but she pays us a ton of money so we have no choice but to do it.” He then hit “reply” instead of “forward” and then SEND. Needless to say, we never had to make any changes for that client again!”

How may I – and only I – help you?

“While working at a fast-food restaurant at age 16, my boss quit on the spot and walked out in the middle of the Friday-night rush. I was left by myself having no idea what to do.”

Economic downturn. ‘Nuff said.

“All of 2009 was pretty horrific for my business.”

The Christmas gift I had to keep giving

“I delivered personalized pens to my clients at Christmas time. A nice gift — or so I thought. Turned out the pens didn’t work so I had to go back to every client and deliver a new pen. It was so embarrassing.”

Getting ‘busy’ at work

“My boss and the sales director were having an affair. No one else knew this except for me — because although they had “closed door meetings,” the walls in the office were very thin. Too thin. Yuck.”

Definitely a bad day at work

“A guy in our office died at his desk. It was really sad. But what was even worse was that he was dead all day at his desk. It wasn’t until the end of the day that anyone even noticed.”

Did any of these spark some of your own Business horror story memories? Feel free to share them with us in the comments section!