The daily grind in the workplace can be mind-numbingly tedious, but at least there's a sense of familiarity that can be comforting.
But inevitably, there are many factors at work that can contribute to a train wreck.
We all welcome distractions to a certain degree, but there are some dramas better left elsewhere.
Curious to hear from workers who witnessed things heading south in the workplace, Redditor zana-666 asked:
"People of Reddit what's the worst thing that's happened on your job? (serious)"
Warning: some of the comments involve deaths and the descriptions are not for the faint of heart.
People who work in healthcare have witnessed alarming situations like an episode from Grey's Anatomy.
Taking Matters Into Their Own Hands
"I worked at a nursing home years ago and we had a patient with dementia who was ALOT of work - constantly trying to get up, screaming, throwing things, spitting, hitting. We'd rotate staff as a 'one to one' to keep him safe. Well, one shift his sitter got tired of the constant yelling and moving and medicated him from her own stash. Gave him her personal supply of Ativan and Oxycodone to knock him out. It did work (!!) but she was immediately escorted out of the building and lost her CNA license."
Nurse Rage
"Work as a nurse in an ICU. Two of my coworkers found out while on shift that they were 'with' the same guy. Proceeded to physically fight each other in the hallway. Meanwhile there is a patient coding (in cardiac arrest) down the hallway; annnnd I'm not embellishing another patients family set the trashcan on fire in their room during the code. It was a wild wild night shift."
Pervy things went down while these people were on shifts.
Unprompted Art Installation
"I worked at a Barnes & Noble in Florida and some dude came in with a bunch of Polaroids of his junk and hid them in books in the kids area. A kid found one and showed his mom. We had to close down for the rest of the day and leaf through/shake out all the books in the store to find the rest of them."
Your Underwear Or Your Life
"I work at a high school and a student pulled a gun on one of the teachers in the parking lot after school and made her give him the underwear she had on. He was caught later that day and said he did that because she is hot and wanted to use them later"
– mbogan67
Tight spaces are not ideal work environments, but someone has to work in them.
Confined Spaces
"There's sooo many rules about confined spaces where I work. It always seems so harmless but it's very dangerous if you think about it."
"Whether it's an inspection or something that needs fixing in a confined space we need entry permits, oxygen monitors, continues forced air circulation, 1-2 people as intervention if anything goes wrong, safety harness and ropes to pull someone out if anything does go wrong,... All for a seemingly 'harmless' space."
– Haimonek
Arachnid Attack
"I used to work in low volt integration, wiring smart homes. Being the lead pre-wire technician, I was in-charge of all pre-wire installations unless a more experienced tech was on scene. Being just 23-24 at the time of employment, I was the one to usually go into crawlspaces and attics since most of the older guys didn't want to do it."
"Over a year and a half working there, I've been bitten by two brown recluse spiders and one black widow spider. I still have a scar of one of the brown recluse spiders who bit me on my side, luckily it was just my side that got bit and I am a healthy young adult, otherwise I could've lost something. The brown recluse has NO antivenom in the entire United States."
Bad things may happen at work, but witnessing tragedy will put things into perspective.
The Absent Candidate
"It's not as dramatic, but we were interviewing for a position once and the candidate's husband called to say she'd been killed in an accident on her way to the interview. He actually apologised. It was awful."
Sad Intuition
"Colleague was absent from work for a couple days and wasn't answering their phone so manager and I went to their home. The building manager gave us a key to their apartment (totally illegal of them, I know), and we opened it to find the colleague dead. Already at the door, I could smell something sickly sweet and I knew in my heart they were dead. We had to wait for the ambulance service to come declare them dead… turns out they were sick for days and didn't contact a doctor or anyone else. Just slowly wasted away at home. I will never forget that first look into the apartment."
One Incident Too Many
"Had a guy have a massive heart attack between 2 furnaces in remelt department. It cooked him. His skin split like a hotdog on the grill. It was terrible. Also had a guy that had a air pocket in a molten pot. When the air pocket reached the surface it blew out and rained molten metal him. We had to chase him down to get him in the safety shower. Same place had a guy commit suicide in the parking lot because his wife was cheating with someone on her shift."
Gruesome Accident
"Worked in a steel mill many years ago."
"One day a guy was doing something they've been doing for many years, and the molten steel came into contact with water from improperly dried refractory stones."
"Instant metal explosion that rained down a sh*tload of molten metal on him, he died in less than a day. Skin melting off his body and all the gory details."
"Luckily for me, it was my day off, else I would have been a first responder."
A Horrific Frequency
"Air Traffic Control. Didn't happen to me, but I was working that day and heard the replay. Couple takes off in bad weather and get more ice on their wings than they can handle. They dropped like a rock and screamed on frequency the whole way down. The worst part is the other planes may or may not have heard it and you have to keep talking to other planes like nothing happened until someone relieves you."
– megaPOG
Depending on the job, the everyday mundanity of work can take a toll on your psyche.
But based on the examples mentioned above, some of the best work days are the ones that end with no incident.
When I used to work at a certain amusement park, my coworkers and I heard security personnel talking through their portable radio devices about park guests who were bludgeoned to death by a terrible accident caused by one of the park's attractions.
A miscalculation while docking a large watercraft moored too soon to the dock caused a cleat from the ship's hull to dislodge and fly into the faces of a couple who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Both victims – who were alleged to be on their honeymoon at the time – died instantly from the impact.
My colleagues and I were dancers in between our performances at the theater inside the park. When we heard what happened in our vicinity, we were sick to our stomachs. But the show eventually had to go on.
@Donald_from_HI/X
Sheriff Jesse Watts-retired/Facebook
@bwebster0303/X
