So I am a business consultant, and usually during the week we are at client site and get paid for travel, meals etc. The meal reimbursement policy is quite flexible, and doesn't limit what we can claim, like some of the other consulting companies. So we can claim lunch, drinks, whatever.

The policy, however, does lay down a GUIDANCE for a daily limit for food expenses, based on the country where you're travelling. I capitalized the word GUIDANCE, since that is exactly how it is written in the policy - it is a guidance, not a hard limit. For the UK, where my current project is, the limit is £40 per day, which is mostly ok, but can be a bit low if you're in the centre of London for example.

Now I do Intermittent Fasting, so most of the days I don't have breakfast and lunch, and just have one big meal a day, and have no problems keeping to the £40 (usually around £20). On some days, I might go to a fancy restaurant, have a couple of scotches with a steak, and run up a $60 bill. But during the course of a 5 day week, my average meals would run about £30 a day, if not less.

I've never had a problem claiming these expenses in my 9 years with the firm, but recently a new project manager came on board, and he sent back a couple of my expense reports for having meal expenses in excess of the £40 for a couple of days, even though the average meal expense over the week was much less.

I tried to reason with him, told him that it was a guidance and not a hard limit, and I was keeping the costs down on other days, he refused to budge and said I could only claim £40 a day for food.

So guess what, I started doing exactly that. Every day, I made sure I was claiming £40 or thereabouts for food. I started buying meals for the homeless people around the train station to make sure I could make up the £40.

So now, where I was claiming less than £150 a week for meals, I now claim £200 and get some good karma for it.

I work at a french fry stand during my free time to earn some extra money. Last week, we had this customer that was REALLY impatient. There was an old lady who had paid before her. She wanted her fries to be first. I said, "Sorry can't do that." She said she's going to be late for something.

As I cook her fries, she asks me how much time does she have to wait to cook. I said 6 minutes. Only two minutes in, she asked me again! And at 3 minutes she wanted the fries. I told her that they're not yet cooked and are still cold inside. She said she didn't care. I told her to give me the money first. She gave the money, I gave the fries, still cold inside.

She took a couple of fries and ate them at the same time. She spat the fries into the little paper bag they come with. She wanted a refund. I just said, "Sorry can't do that."

Last week I was working from home one day, and got up to use the bathroom and make a cup of coffee. Took 10 minutes, tops. I get back to my computer to a bunch messages from my boss, getting increasingly nasty about something and why I wasn't answering quick enough for her. I send a message back with whatever it was she needed to know, and "apologizing" for not getting back to her soon enough.

When she finally answered me (about half an hour later) she said if I'm not going to be at my computer for any amount of time, I need to send an email to everyone in my office (including high level executives) that I'll be unavailable for X amount of time and why.

So that's what I've been doing. My normal phrasing for the message is: "Hi! I'll be unavailable from this time to this time as I'm going to use the bathroom/make some coffee/etc." Every single person in my office has told me it's fine and I don't need to tell them when I'm going to be gone for a few minutes, where I then forward them the original exchange between me and my boss and apologize but say this is what my direct report has told me to do, and this is the result if I don't.

They all hate her as much as I do now.

Early August 2018, I tried to break up a late night fight between my cat and my parents' dog, and I lost. Didn't realize at the time just how bad cat bites are, so the next morning when my hand swelled up I went to the emergency room, where they gave me antibiotics. I'd been on antibiotics twice already that year, for pneumonia and a UTI, so despite knowing my allergies to both penicillin and sulfa were on my chart, I made sure to request ones I wasn't allergic to, you know, because duh.

They gave me sulfa antibiotics and I almost died. Two days later I'm back in the ER and get different antibiotics. I have good credit and would like to keep it that way, so paid off all my bills as soon as I received them. There was drama with getting additional bills later to the point where I called and asked the registrant to go through my account to make sure I had paid everything, and if I hadn't, I would like to pay it over the phone.

Cut to months later, when I get some very angry calls from a collections agency trying to collect on the bills I had already paid. It took a three-way phone call between the ER, the collections agency and me to figure it out, but we figured it out.

Cut to the past two weeks, where I have gotten 10 different emails asking me to review the ER. One email, every business day: "How Did We Do?", "Reminder: Give us Your feedback!", "Don't Forget to Review!"

So I did, on Yelp, Facebook, and Google, just like they asked.

"This place almost killed me with antibiotics that my medical history clearly states I am allergic to. Then they had the nerve to send my already-paid bill from their attempted manslaughter to a collections agency - I'm likely not the only person they've tried to bully into double paying a bill. Now it's a year later and they've suddenly decided to hound me for a review."

Go ahead, call me again.

I used to travel for work fairly often, and the company I worked for had very strict reimbursement policies. You had to have a receipt for EVERYTHING or you wouldn't get refunded for it.

On one trip I was staying in the center of a mid-sized city, but the training I was attending was in the suburbs. There was a bus route I could take, and while it took a great deal more of my time it was WAY cheaper to take the bus than a taxi. $1.50 bus fare vs. approximately $40 for a cab. Problem is, there's no way to get a receipt for riding the bus.

So, I email my company's business manager and explain the situation. Ask if I can please get reimbursed for the bus fare without receipts. The response comes -- no, any reimbursement requests without receipts will be denied, and I will have to cover the expense out-of-pocket.

Fine. Cab rides, twice a day, for a week. Totally allowable within company policy. Fares plus tips, the total taxi expenses come to almost $500. My boss questions the request, I show her the email from the business manager and explain that I tried to take the bus (which would have totaled $15 for the week) but was told it wasn't reimbursable.

Over the following weeks, heated discussion ensues between the business office and senior management. Two months later, there's a new policy -- reimbursement requests for anything over $10 must have a receipt. Under $10? No receipt required.

I work nights at a hotel. Back then, the manager would place ads with coupons advertising rooms at a discount. In general, these coupons were a real pain in the butt. They clearly said not valid on weekends or holidays and had expiration dates. I would regularly have to argue with guests because they were trying to use them in violation of the terms.

Anyway, one day this guy comes in and slaps a magazine with one of our coupons down on the desk and stares me down. I sigh internally and look at the coupon. It’s a couple of months out of date.

Me: Our rate for the night is...

Him: I know the rate. It says it right here.

He jabs his finger into the magazine just about punching a hole in our marble counter.

Him: Now you’re going to honor this coupon or I’m going to call my friend who owns the company.

I really want to tell him to go ahead because if he really knew the owner, he’d know that the company is a franchise and each hotel is privately owned. Instead, what I say is...

Me: Absolutely, sir.

You see, what I was going to tell him before he cut me off was that his coupon was out of date and from the height of tourist season. Since the season was over and we’d already gotten snow, our regular nightly rate was almost half of what his coupon said. Since he was insistent that I honor it, I saw no reason not to charge him almost double what everyone else was paying.

I work in a casual fine dining restaurant in a downtown area. Prices aren't crazy but high enough that we dont get a super young crowd... I would say average age of our dinner crowd is 30 to 60 although it varies more on the weekend. I only include this information so you understand why I didn't initially ask for identification (even though you should always check)

Thursday night a table of 4 comes in for early dinner. Two middle-aged Karens and their daughters. Excellent. I'm ready for them to split entrees and tip me 15%. Not the WORST type of table if we're being honest, but nonetheless.

They order a pitcher of sangria and I tell them I'll be right back with that for them to which Momma Karen says to me, "You really aren't going to check these girls' IDs? Her birthday was just last month. Aren't you supposed to check anyone who looks under 40?"

She is correct, of course that I should have asked for identification even though they girls were with their mothers and I was being lazy by assuming they were of age since their moms did not stop them from ordering drinks. I agree with her and tell her that I actually am supposed to check ALL IDs regardless of age, and proceed to look at all 4 of the ladies' IDs.

Unfortunately for Momma Karen, her birthday was a few days previously and her ID had expired. In the state of Michigan it is illegal to serve alcohol to anyone with an expired ID regardless of age so I had to deny her a glass for the sangria, while her daughter and friend shared a pitcher.

She informed me that she, a business owner, is more aware of the law than I, a mere server, could ever be. Why couldn't I "just do my job" and bring her a glass? My generation doesn't respect elders and blah blah blah.

You asked for it, lady.

When I was in high school I had a part time job working at a local restaurant. One day I came in and was scheduled to wash dishes, no big deal. I walked into the back and came to find out that the morning shift did not have a dish washer therefore there was a mountain of dishes. No bueno. On top of all of that, we got slammed that night.

As a minor, I was required to take a 30 minute break in order to work my full shift (4-10pm I believe). As I clocked out for my break I asked my manager if she could have someone cover my position while I was on break to prevent an even worse situation than was already at hand. She responded, ‘Won’t be able to. You’ll just have to stay late and finish it.’

An important thing to keep in mind is that this manager was notoriously lazy and unhelpful. She never lended a helping had to get things done faster. She would rather stay 3 hours past close sitting in the office waiting for us to finish our closing duties instead of coming out and helping and getting everything done in a timely manner. She also was not very familiar with child labor laws in Ohio.

Since I was a minor, not only did I have to take a 30 minute break, I also could not work past 11pm on school nights. So after clocking back in from my break, I resumed washing the mountain of dishes that had accumulated. I took my time and didn’t rush to get everything cleaned, but also wasn’t going extremely slow on purpose.

10:59 rolls around and I walk into the office to tell her that I am leaving. She asked ‘got everything done?’ ‘Nope!’ I said. ‘It’s a Wednesday night. Can’t work past 11pm. Labor laws. I left the water turned on for you. There’s still a lot left!’

The look on her face was priceless. I clocked out with the biggest smile on my face knowing that she was going to have to leave the office and do something for once. Asked another manager the next day to see what time she clocked out. 1:15am!

I am a grown man, and I can tell when I am sick. I know my body a little better than a doctor does in terms of recovery and if it is something I'm not sure of I will see a doctor. But my place of work has this silly rule that if you are going to be out 3 days you have to have a doctor's note.

Anyway, I got food poisoning the other day. It was the middle of the night right before I was going to go in before it started to hit and I knew what was coming. It was going to be 36 hours of running to the bathroom followed by 24 hours of being super tired from not having eaten for the last 2 days and not having had any sleep for the last 48 hours. It's a full 3 day recovery for me. The first 36 really are the worst though.

So I called in sick on Tuesday, and Wednesday and was going to call in sick on Thursday too to get my much needed rest and be 100% for work on Friday. But when I called in this morning I was told I have to get a doctor's note to miss this day. It's stupid because what is a doctor going to tell me that I don't already know. But my doctor also hates these types of rules so she had my back.

I went to her this morning and told her what my work said. She asked if maybe I might have had chills during my time being sick. So I said yes. She said she doesn't feel comfortable saying it was just food poisoning and is going to say it could have been a stomach flu. She's writing me a note to be out until Monday now.

So now I have 2 days of just rest and relaxation followed by the weekend. Thanks for forcing me to go into the doctor!

I am mixed race (white and Middle Eastern) and I have a Middle Eastern name. Some people can't see past the name and treat me differently, so I've developed a thick skin.

I was in a multiple-day board meeting and volunteered to make the mid-morning coffee run for everyone. One of the senior board members requested chai (tea with milk), and when I asked how she wanted it, said, "You're brown, you know how to do it."

Hmmmm.

I let the comment slide, and headed down to the coffee shop. Problem was, I legitimately did not know what "you're brown, you know how to do it" meant. My dad always liked his mint tea with a bit of honey in it rather than sugar, so I had an idea.

I ordered the board member a large chai and then proceeded to pour out about 1/3 of it. I then took the squeeze bottle of honey at the end of the coffee bar and filled up the 1/3rd of the cup that I had poured out. It was less a drink and more of a slurry when I tried to stir in the honey, and it goes without saying it was sweet to the point of being inedible.

I brought everyone their drinks and handed the chai slurry to the board member. The weight of the cup threw her off, and she hesitantly took a sip before recoiling in revulsion.

She looked at me with a mix of anger/disgust/confusion on her face, and said, "What the [bleep] is this? How much honey is in here?!"

With barely concealed glee, I looked her dead in the eye and said, "Oh, that's how brown people like it."

She said nothing. I was not asked to make a coffee run again.

So I have worked in IT most of my life. One day it was slow so the manager asked me to check the firewall logs for anything suspicious. Pretty soon I find indications of a female staff member accessing some racy content of an adult nature.

This staff member had a reputation for blaming her slow productivity on her computer/network/mouse etc. so she was given no quarter.

I go up to the large office where she was, surrounded by many other staff members but her monitors are facing a wall and only she can see them. I politely as to speak to her in private for a moment in a meeting room.

Her response: "No, I don't have time, I'm too busy."

Again I quietly said it would be in her best interest to have this conversation discreetly.

Her: " Look! Stop wasting my time and say what you need to say."

I pause, clear my throat, and say loud and clear, " OK the IT manager has asked that you stop watching adult content on your work computer."

There's a moment of stunned silence where the staff member turns beet red and everyone stares at her including her manager.

Me, "Okay, see you later."

And I turned and left the office.

This just happened today at school, so it’s still fresh in my mind.

We were in algebra and we were taking a test. The teacher was out of the classroom for a bit, and someone asked me for the answers. Now I had secretly hated this kid for almost a year because he had destroyed my $210 phone and only payed me back $20 and said “hopefully this will be enough for a screen protector.”

So anyways it turned out he had skipped a question, so he accidentally had about 75% of the questions answered in the wrong box, making them all wrong. He asked me to erase them for him so he could copy my answers because his arm hurt. I was just about done with mine, so I finished it and erased his, but instead of giving him my answers, I turned my paper in. He now had 5-10 minutes to answer about 30 questions.

The teacher then walked back in while he was pleading with me and asked what was going on. I told him that David was trying to copy my answers. No regrets.

I was an employee who always turned up to work early as I hate being late and just got on with work as soon as I arrived which was usually 30 minutes before my shift, never took a lunch break, instead just eating at my desk and working as I was busy all the time. I would often stay late to get the days work done otherwise it snowballs into the following day and I can never catch up. I also did a lot of things for people that wasn't technically my job but I often knew more about the query than the department that was supposed to deal with it.

One day, I was stuck in traffic due to an accident and called ahead to let them know I was going to be 5-10 minutes late. I got there about 5 minutes late and promptly got on with the already surmountable amount of work. Later that morning I was called into the managers office and dressed down as I didn't come and apologize personally for being late. I explained that I called ahead and I'm always in early unless it's out of my control and never take a lunch break. This didn't matter as that was my choice and I'm expected to be there on time and just do my job.

So that's exactly what I did. Anything that wasn't my job I asked them to contact the relevant department as I couldn't help, I sat at my desk and didn't log on until my start time, took my lunch and left on time. This caused a lot of issues as everyone knew to call me any time during working hours for urgent things. Within a week managers were having a go at me as they were having to take calls during their lunch and I had made this issue as I was 'too helpful' and now I'm being petty because I got told off.

I was looking for another job anyway but this made me realize I was just a number to the company.

Within a month I had another job. Last I heard there were 5 of them doing my old job plus a supervisor. From a company where you were expected to be grateful for a $500 pay raise every other year this must have put a huge dent in their budget.

My boss is a lunatic who will often, without prompting, flip out and accuse me of wasting time.

(I literally do the work of five people -- I run the office and the other employees, do invoicing, accounting, tech support, admin stuff, etc. but also graphic design, photography, website design, videography, content creation, and social media among others. I am dead by the end of every day, which is usually 12 hours long.)

This flip-out happens meanwhile he's constantly interrupting me for stupid stuff instead of letting me work. He has no self awareness of this no matter how many times I try to point it out to him, and if something doesn't get done, he again loses it and accuses me of wasting time.

A few months ago, he demanded a full accounting of my time. This was after he interrupted me repeatedly for discussions about frivolous topics, and I was at the end of my freaking rope.

So: here is an excerpt of the 'Full Accounting Of My Time', as he requested.

11:45 - 12:20

• Editing and working on hype video, including organizing, trimming, melding clips.

12:20 - 12:55

• You stopped me for religious discussion, reading several Biblical parables aloud and explaining them.

1:00 - 1:22

• Video editing, arranging clips in preparation for music and special effects.

1:22 - 1:54

• You stopped me to show several lengthy Grant Cardone videos because "they annoyed you".

1:54 - 2:29

• Video editing, transferring files to HD for compilation.

2:29 - 2:40

• You stopped me to have me watch a YouTube video of a duck.

In total, he took up 3 hours and 28 minutes of my day.

He's mostly shut up about my "time-wasting".

The company I work for is going on a bit of a hiring spree, and that means lots of interviews. Because many of those applying still have jobs, we sometimes do interviews very early or very late in the day. This was one of these days.

When this happens, the company will provide breakfast from the local coffee shop for those coming in early to interview. This is a nice little perk, and today is the first opportunity I've had to take advantage of it. Being the sort of person I am, I made a fairly minimal order of a cheese pastry and a latte. I wasn't particularly interested in wasting the company's money on a nice breakfast.

Shortly after I emailed my order, I was returned an email that said they were only providing food, not drinks, for breakfast, citing price savings and the fact that the office has a coffee machine. This was a bit irritating as I had made an order that was below the average cost of a breakfast item at the shop.

So I replied, asking in that case to change my order.

I found by far the most expensive item on their breakfast menu, but I did absolutely make sure there was no doubt this item was in the breakfast section. It is, after all, a bagel. With cream cheese. And a scrambled egg. And a fried egg. And four different types of cheese. And ham, sausage, steak and bacon. And avocado, spinach and tomato. But a bagel nonetheless.

My order was accepted.

It was inedible. Well, inedible as a bagel. I poured it all out onto a plate and ate it with a knife and fork. Half for breakfast and half for lunch.

Oh, and it cost 4 times what my original order cost, which was rejected because I wanted a cup of coffee.

So this was a few years ago. My crappy bank at the time had a policy about check deposits; over a certain amount (maybe $500) they held them for "24 hours."

Well, I got paid on Friday by check. It was a small employer that didn't offer direct deposit. So every two weeks I went to the bank after work. The tellers were still working but apparently the processing day was over. So my "24 hours" didn't start until Monday and my money would finally be available Tuesday sometime.

This was super frustrating. Especially when rent was due Saturday or Sunday.

But the bank's policy allowed them to cash any check for customers as long as they had at least as much in their total accounts, which I did in savings.

So this became my routine. Get paid. Go to the back. Have them cash out my check down to the penny and then immediately deposit the cash except for maybe 40 bucks.

As you can imagine, this took the teller noticeably longer than simply depositing my check, but hey, policy is policy, right?

I used to work retail a few years back and there were always customers putting tickets where they didn't belong or putting reduced stickers on other items that they weren't for. We were trained to identify when something was wrong and educate the customer on correctly reading tickets to prevent loss.

I was serving a very thin, rude woman buying a lot of fruit and vegetables, when I see her opening her pre packaged mushrooms and putting them into a paper bag that are used for the loose ones. This was certainly not allowed by policy.

Me: Excuse me, I'm still going to have to scan that barcode, I can't put those in by weight, because they're supposed to be prepackaged.

Her: I see other people do this all the time! Just put it in. Isn't the customer always right?

Me: But ma'am, that's unfair to every person doing the right thing. I can't put it in by weight.

Her: Do it, or I'll call your manager and we'll see what they say.

Knowing the manager would just side with her anyway, I relented and put the mushrooms through the scales. $4.28. That was a little high, I thought. While she was packing, I scanned the mushroom barcode and took it back off to see what the actual price was. $2.99. Okay. Lady paid extra because she wanted me to bend the rules for her. I did. I didn't tell her about it. She paid and left all smug. Good for her.

A few years ago, I went to the doctor's to make an appointment (I had to go to the pharmacy next to it so thought I'd pop in instead of calling).

Receptionist tells me they cant take walk ins (I didn't want an appointment then anyway), and can only take bookings over the phone.

So I stood at reception, got my phone out and called the number for the phone right next to her. I made eye contact with her, the whole time, as she answered the phone, and booked me in.

So my friend Talon's dad died about 5 years ago. They got him cremated, so Talon has an urn with his dad's ashes in it.

One of our teachers was mad at Talon about something (I'm not sure what) but the teacher demanded to meet Talon's father. He tried multiple times to tell our teacher that his dad, was in fact dead. But Mr. McStupid wouldn't listen to him. He didn't give the kid an opportunity to explain. He just kept interrupting and sent him out.

So the next day, Talon shows up to school with his dads urn and plops it on the teachers desk and says, "You wanted to meet my dad, so here."

I have never seen a teacher so mortified in my life.

I train search and rescue/human remains detection dogs, which basically means we wander around disaster sites, crime scenes, and wilderness area searches looking for bodies or other remains, to put it very simply.

This story is a couple of years back. When I was in college, I was required to take a public speaking course. I have stage fright and social anxiety, so this was basically torture. My instructor was pretty jaded, and didn't much care that I was having a panic attack on stage. She suggested I talk about something I'm more comfortable with, and to toughen up.

The final was supposed to be a demonstrative and informative presentation, and 30 minutes long.

Fine.

My dogs have clearance by campus police to train on the university grounds, and I have clearance from city and county police to bring bio waste materials with me throughout the county. I prepare a fancy Powerpoint presentation, and bring in my big, crazy cadaver dog and scent samples, including a human toe, blood, and bones. I spend half an hour showing how to train a dog to detect human corpses, along with a few vivid anecdotes about some of my past searches. We even let some members of the audience come handle my dog and give clicker training a try (audience involvement in the demonstration was required).

I got an A, but the mildly horrified look on my professor's face was far more rewarding.

I'm a Type 1 diabetic, and I have an insulin pump. When I was in 6th grade my pump was wired, ie it had a tube that went from the pump, which looked a bit like a cell phone, to me. So, I have to take insulin after I eat and I had pretty explicitly told all of my teachers that I was diabetic, but this teacher was a bit thick and a stickler for the rules.

My class had just gotten back to class after lunch and we were reading a book out loud. My pump beeped to remind me to take insulin after lunch, and I noticed Teacher give me a bit of a dirty look, but I ignored it and whipped out my pump to deliver insulin.

Teacher: Stop texting in class! You know the rules. Please bring your "phone" to the front and report to detention.

I was about to protest, but realized this would be an excellent opportunity for some MC.

So, with a smug grin on my face, I walk up to the teacher with my pump in my hand, and it still LITERALLY attached to me, I hand her my pump.

Teacher: What's this cord? Why do you have a chain for your cell phone.

Me (deadpan stare): I'm a diabetic, and this is my insulin pump.

At this point, her face goes sheet white, and I unclip my pump from my body (a bit of a maneuver because it was on my arm and slightly difficult to reach) and walk out of the class before she can say anything and go directly to detention. When I arrive I tell the detention officer I was sent for using electronics in class. Before I even finish, a student from my class walks in and says I can come back to class, and the teacher apologies profusely and never messes with me for beeping or using any device.

So this happened years ago when I was in high school, but I smile every time I think of it.

My high school had a policy that anyone who has missed less than a certain number of school days could pick one class they had an 'A' in to skip the final exam. You could get a couple extra days for college visits, but otherwise it was very straightforward. Awesome policy, and we all loved it.

One year, we had this kid who had been diagnosed with cancer. He spent a lot of his year sick, getting treatment, going to the hospital, running to the bathroom to throw up, etc. Despite all this he finished the year with an 'A' in his Spanish class. It was the only final he would have been able to skip, which he wanted to do because he was very ill. But administration was not going to let him skip the final because he had missed too much school.

He and his parents asked them to make an exception, given the situation, but administration wouldn't budge. His teacher stood up for him, but was told this kid had to take the final exam no matter what. He had missed too many days and there would be no exception.

The teacher said okay, but told her class not to study for or worry about her exam. Then, when all her students showed up for the final, she told them to take out a piece of paper and number it 1-3 leaving one line in between each number. She then asked three questions along the lines of, "What is your name?" "How do you say yes in Spanish?" and "How do you say hello in Spanish?" Then she collected the final.

Everyone got an 100 that year, and she became a legend. The kid has been cancer free for over five years now.