It's hard being nice in this world. We all want to be kind, but the Lord above does love to test us by sending the devil corporeal form. Elders always taught "lead with kindness, kill with kindness," but often making kindness the weapon of choice has lead to being shot in the foot. Not that there is anything wrong by continuing with niceness, it's just not foolproof.
Redditor u/woAh_tEchoNology wanted to know how far people have NOT gotten with kindness by asking.... When has being nice backfired completely ?
Women of the Bible.
GiphyI was becoming friends with a woman from Bible study. My husband and I went to her friend's New Year's Eve party. We would work out together. She had a cousin who was having a baby and I gave her all our un-needed baby stuff (like $2000 worth of strollers, crib, etc.). As I am with all my friends, I was extremely generous.
Six months later, I learned she was having sex with my husband. That I introduced to her. Stabfacenotback
Yeah of course, no problem.
This girl who used to work with me asked me for a ride home after work, me being the nice person I am I'm like "yeah of course, no problem" it's 15 min in the opposite direction of my way home from work but it's fine, I'm doing someone a favor.
She then tells me "hey, you can drop me off right at this corner coming up, I can really walk the rest of the way" so I'm like "are you sure sure?? It's no problem to drive you all the way home" she proceeds to tell me no, so I let her get out,
Maybe a week later I find out that she was telling everybody how I KICKED HER OUT OF MY CAR. Yeah, never gave that chick a ride ever again. teenygoblin27
The Writer.
GiphyI am an engineering major and we had English linguistics class and we were given an essay to write. English isn't our first language so many people struggled with that, i did mine way ahead of the deadline and a guy from my class asked me to write his on like the very last day. I wrote his essay out of sympathy. Submitted it.
After a week we got an assignment to draw some figures and i suck at drawing and that guy has his own insta for sketching and arty stuff like that and he did that assignment for 6 people but refused to do mine saying boys will make fun of him for helping a girl. He wasn't ashamed to take my help but has a problem in helping me. I really do hate that guy. iselenaii
Always on My Phone.
Not sure if this counts. I was a long term temp for a company last year. Sometimes one coworker would bring in treats, breakfast, or candy for our four person team. So I started bringing stuff too. I would buy breakfast on random days for us. I worked really hard there and took a lot of initiative with projects.
Being a team player didn't do anything for me though. One of the team members was constantly complaining that i was "always on my phone." But everytime I looked up from my work, she would be on hers. I tried to always be nice to her but she still had influence on me being let go from my assignment. London82
What is Wrong with People?
There was the story awhile back where some dude tried to help a lady get her car working again. she later accused him falsely of sexual assault. ruined his life, she was recently arrested and the man was set free. kingbane2
Never be Too Nice....
GiphyAt my old job, I would usually be asked to stay until closing if I wasn't scheduled to. I would usually agree for the extra hour's worth of money, so eventually they stopped asking. I would be scheduled to work until 8:00 or 9:00 and when I would announce that I was ready to leave, they would give me a confused look and say I was closing.
I quit soon after that because I didn't like being taken advantage of. I still don't actually know if I was getting paid for those extra hours or not.
I also had a friend once tell me that he couldn't trust me because I was "too nice." I think that says more about him than it does about me, though. SweetPeaPiggy
Bad Assignments.
When I was at college we had to do a software development assignment. This was for an electronics engineering degree and most people weren't that interested in writing software. I loved doing that stuff though and was good at it. So I ended up doing the assignments for six different students in class. I changed them all slightly so it didn't look like they were all just copies.
I ended up with the worst mark on my own assignment. The other six students who handed in my assignment all got better marks than me. The professor said that he marked me down because it was obvious that I'd copied someone else's assignment. saugoof
Stop Voting.
When I was really young, in school the teachers said people should always be nice to EVERYONE no matter what and they also said "treat people how you want to be treated."
My 6 year old logic : "if I were nice to my main bully he would stop."
What I did: I voted for my bully to be one of the school counselors and some other girl who I didn't really know, and guess what? Those exact people got chosen.
What happened: the plan backfired and my bully ended up with more power.thehungrysquidkid
Dudes Flip Out.
GiphyI was leaving a casino in downtown Vegas and held the door open for a couple coming in. Dude flipped out and called me a gay slang for holding the door open for him, asked me if I thought I was tougher than him. I just kept walking but turned around to see him shirtless as his lady dragged him back inside. Sin-A-Bun
Joe & Paul & Pizza!
I worked with two guys - Joe and Paul. Joe was incredibly nice, probably too nice, and well-liked in the office. He was just a really good guy. Paul was kind of a socially tone-deaf a-hole and people didn't really like him very much.
Paul mentioned he and his wife were moving to a new apartment in town and didn't have anyone to help with the move. Joe, being a nice guy, offered to help. So, Joe went over to Paul's place at 8am on a Saturday and worked his tail off until noon, when everything was done. Paul ordered some pizza for delivery once they were in the new place. The pizza guy came, Paul gave him $40 for the pizza and tip. After they guy left, Paul says to Joe, "You owe me $20 for the pizza." Joe kind of looked at him strangely and said "Oh, I didn't think to bring any cash with me today." Paul goes, "That's fine, Joe, you can give it to me at work on Monday."
Joe left and was like "WTF?" but was too nice to say anything to Paul. Joe mentioned the story to Melanie, another co-worker, who was not as nice as Joe (and a busybody too). You'd better believe that Melanie marched right up to Paul and said "Paul, Joe told me that after he help you move his entire apartment for FOUR HOURS on a Saturday morning that you asked him for $20 for pizza? You should have PAID him. What is wrong with you?" Paul's response? "Well, he did eat the pizza." Melanie just rolled her eyes and realized there's just no helping some people.
Joe never did give Paul the $20 and he also NEVER offered to help Paul with anything again. Paul was pretty disliked prior to this, but he became a total pariah afterward! He ended up leaving the company about six months later. Buh-bye, Paul. tappytaps
Good luck in the real world.
I got my younger sister a job at one of my older places of employment. I had left on good terms and was still friends with management so they took her on pretty fast, for me and I really appreciated it. Almost immediately I was told she was giving attitude, calling out like 30 minutes before her scheduled shifts, was complained about by customers when she DID come in to work. I was pissed because my old manager was the sweetest most patient person ever and didn't deserve to have such a lazy employee like my sister. I found out why my sister was acting like this and was told by her that she "had important raids (video game talk) to 'tend' to" and that she "didn't like being told what to do and how to act."
I know this sounds like a fool move but I told my old manager to just fire her, no 'second or third or fourth chances' anymore, she deserved better than a lazy butt like my sister. When she fired her, all my sister said was "k, mail me my last check." And walked out the door, even when my old manager offered for her to stay for her scheduled shift that night. That was 2 years ago, sister has had 4 jobs since then and has been fired by 2 and quit the others for the SAME reasons and now just sits on her butt every day playing video games and eating shit foods. Good luck in the real world.Loves_me_tacos125
Backwards Management....
GiphyI work in a kitchen that has an butt backwards management team. They preach team work and helping each other out, which I already like to do. One of the cooks kept asking me for help with prep, and I didn't mind at all! It was something I already had to do for myself, so why not just do an extra one. Team work right?
About 2 weeks later of helping out this cook with the littlest stuff I got pulled into the office and was screamed at because the cook was taking advantage of me and I wasn't allowed to help anyone any more because my niceness was hindering other workers. They've also told me my niceness in preventing me from moving up at work, which was another awesome conversation to have. DandiLion_21
Not These Earrings.
I was returning a pair of earrings I'd bought for my wife. I'd ordered them online but was returning to the store. The young lady started dealing with my refund without objection but was about to refund me more than I'd paid (something like the full price instead of the sale price I think) so I corrected her. This led to the system being confused beyond her abilities so she had to fetch a higher-up.
This lady flat-out refused any form of refund as apparently they don't refund for earrings (which I'd never heard of before this day). She wouldn't believe me when I said they'd never been worn.
So I was stuck with crappy earrings instead of free money. Georgeisthecoolest
Being Kind.
I had a co-worker tell another co-worker, "you look wayy prettier than you normally do today."
Her intentions weren't malicious but boy did that come out wrong. It did not go over very well. At all. classictamato
p.s. Enjoy your cake day, OP!
GiphyA lady with a cane and I were crossing a busy intersection during a rainstorm.
I offered to cover her with part of my umbrella so she didn't get soaked. Instead, she grabbed the umbrella and walked away with it - cane in one hand and umbrella in the other.
p.s. Enjoy your cake day, OP! Back2Bach
Can I get a referral?
I work with a woman that I ignore because she's inappropriate and teases for attention and has sometimes brought her kids into work with this behavior. One day she comes up to me with a concerned attitude. She asked if I could help her with a referral for a psychiatrist. She acted very grateful. I thought maybe she really needs help. Got her a referral. When I went to hand her the information she busted out laughing and asked why I thought she was serious in front of everyone. I realized it totally backfired on me. But also I have never wanted to bash in a woman's face before. BigMilk0
Eyes on your own Paper
Not so much backfired, but when i was doing my assignments for uni, I was the person people came to for help. I spent so much time helping other people that I had barely enough time to do my own work. animan66
Keep the Dog!
When I was in High school I passed a house with a little puppy out front. After a few mins I feel something run into the back of my legs and it was the puppy. So I picked it up, and brought it back to the house and said " excuse me, your dog was following me down the road. Here he is.
"And handed him back to her and she goes "Do you make a habit of walking onto people's property without permission?" Because I walked up her drive way to give her the dog back. Absolute witch. Pied_piper_of_Canada
No Tissues.
GiphyI used to be a new hire trainer for a call center. I brought in hand sanitizer, tissues, candy, and disinfecting wipes on my own dime. If something ran out before payday, we had to go without until I got paid and could make it to the store. I would even let the class know this stuff was donated, if they want to donate their own, they're more than welcome to. Several times, my manager got complaints from new hires about how I "refused" to provide tissues or more candy after they'd used up what I had. mountlane