The typical workplace is usually pretty boring, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The lack of drama allows employees to concentrate on their responsibilities. But people are people, and sooner or later, they stir something up.
There’s a post on the subreddit r/AusCorp — a place where members of corporate Australia come together to discuss and gossip about their roles and industries — that has everyone sharing the biggest scandals to have shaken their offices.
From hiding alcohol stashes to helping competitors, and, of course, engaging in romantic affairs, here are the juiciest secrets that came out.
#1
Don’t actually know, but I’ll never forget the leaving announcement. Usually even for people leaving on bad terms there’s a nice email sent around detailing their achievements and wishing them well on their next endeavour. This one was just
“Barry is leaving the business
In his 11 years he worked in operations, R&D and corporate affairs.
His last day is today.”
I have some theories but I never did find out just how bad he screwed up.
Image source: chrismelba, Getty Images
#2
A few years ago a colleague swapped out the innocent brownies in the kitchen for the not so innocent ones :)
It was an interesting afternoon to say the least.
Image source: pool_keeper, Joanna Stołowicz
#3
IPhone left somewhere by accident. Picked up by another staff member and taken home. Police retrieved it.
Don’t know if anyone was punished as there was a flimsy excuse. There is now a bit of paper stuck on the wall near where it happened that says something about taking things to lost property. Nowhere else in large office space is there any kind of warning.
Image source: flippychick, Bagus Hernawan
#4
I would say it’s the not-so-secret alcoholic that keeps liquor in her desk but it’s actually the woman who stopped showing up for about 10 months except every 2 weeks to collect her paycheck.
The boss “didn’t know” for about 8 of those months and then said if she was fired it would make him look bad. Boss just waited for 2 more months until her project expired.
Image source: paesanossbits, Ben Iwara
#5
A woman who had beef with another lady put dog excrement in her Tupperware lunch in the fridge.
Image source: Infinite-Scene-1078, charlesdeluvio
#6
I’ve watched my HR lay off 1/3 of the company to look more profitable on paper.
And then after laying off 100+ staff they gave themselves promotions and pay raises before working with management to deny promotions and pay rises for the remaining staff.
Image source: anon, Timur Weber
#7
Worked at Qantas. High level EGM was seen and heard openly berating a low level employee in front of a whole lot of people. Was marched up to Alan’s office and fired on the spot. Apparently wasn’t the first time this person had treated people like this and this was the final nail.
Image source: Revolutionary_Two916, Yan Krukau
#8
A past employee faked her own d***h to avoid paying back pay advances… it’s our family business and we actually probably would have not worrried about her paying it back she had issues. Great worker, s**thouse with money.
Image source: anon, Pablo Merchán Montes
#9
Oohhh federal police turned up to a government offices. Internal fraud happens more than anyone would like to think. Was quite a sight when they turned up and arrested an individual in the middle of the day. The code of conduct had quite specific examples of what was deemed fraud.
Image source: Suspicious-Care5830, Kindel Media
#10
Tech architect had a contract role with a competitor. Got busted when he rolled out the same presentation to them as us and forgot to Change the branding on the ppt deck. Turns out he Had a bunch of offshore guys directly contracting to him doing all the work and was working for a couple of other competitors too. Always wore nice suits.
Image source: whale_monkey, 祝 鹤槐
#11
Top salesperson has been sleeping with the boss’s wife for years. Everyone on the team knows about it. Nothing has changed.
Image source: JacobAldridge, Anna Pou
#12
A self proclaimed ‘lesbian’ in the office was sleeping with the married supervisor with kids and literally all of us knew and were stepping on eggshells around them for 6 months and they thought it was a secret but it was so blatantly obvious and awkward.
She used him to secure a permanent position and he was moved on.
Image source: RoMiBe94, Andrea Piacquadio
#13
I used to work at a place where two employees who were both married had an affair then divorced their spouses and married each other. Two years later the guy has an affair with a client then he divorces and marries client. Everyone is somehow shocked.
Image source: awooawooawoo, John Photography
#14
I work in a pharmacy setting, and we regularly fire people for stealing medications.
Pro tip: if you plan to work a medical gig just to steal meds, you’ll most likely get caught. If there’s anything they strictly keep a count of, it’s the controlled medication.
Image source: labbykun, Getty Images
#15
A lady at my partner’s work put her baby in a car seat to take it to daycare. She was running late and forgot the kid was in the car, so she drove to work. She parked and went inside. This was in the midwest in the Summer. The kid did not make it. My understanding is that no one mentions it. It’s just a tragedy all around.
Image source: featherpin, Getty Images
#16
One morning I came in to find half the PMs and BAs hanging around in the lobby. Turns out their manager had been running a secret recruitment business which he hired them all through and pocketed the commissions.
He had been marched out and all their passes were deactivated.
Image source: hudson2_3, Tahir osman
#17
Senior exec suggested an underlining needed a good slap for not meeting a target in a fairly large meeting. Underling said “I’m on level x in room y. Come down and try and I’ll knock you out!”.
Image source: Western-Ad-8518, Steve DiMatteo
#18
A manager and director were having an affair while each was married with kids. No one would’ve suspected anything until they started having massive arguments in a meeting room in another floor every week at 7am. They both became very unstable and would start crying for no reason.
She moved to a competitor once her position was untenable, but then he got a lower level role with the same company a couple of months later.
Image source: SithKnightWhoSaysNi, Jonathan Borba
#19
A divorced couple worked at my company in separate departments. The ex-husband went to the ex-wife’s house to pick up their kids one night and got into an argument with the ex-wife’s boyfriend, who was a cop. The cop shot him. The ex-husband died. The ex-wife was not exactly contrite about it.
For weeks or even months after that, the ex-husband’s coworkers were on a warpath against the ex-wife and her supportive coworkers. This is in HQ for a big company and there were regular outbursts if those people saw each other in the lobby, elevators, cafeteria, etc. It was wild.
Image source: elevenghosts, Getty Images
#20
Years ago I worked at a company that hired a sales guy who was pretty hard-working and definitely put out a, ‘I am trying to come back from a dark time in my life’ kind of vibe. We all really liked him as a first impression, but we didn’t get a chance to know him very well. One day he went out to his car at lunch, drank himself to a point of insensibility, then came back into the office like nothing was wrong. When his boss called him on it, he took a swing at him and missed by a mile, spinning himself around and almost falling over.
He was immediately fired —I don’t even think there was paperwork involved. He was only a few weeks into the job— and escorted out of the building. By unspoken rule, no one talked about the incident. Enough time has passed now, I don’t even remember the guy’s name or really any more about it than I’ve said.
Image source: faceintheblue, Getty Images
#21
I used to work for a large insurance company in Colorado Springs, CO – When I worked there they had nap rooms which were used for other nefarious means.
My favorite workplace scandal is when one coworker stopped cheating on his wife with another coworker because he found a new workplace hookup. Work hookup #1 anonymously called the mans wife to rat him out AND security to bust in on him and his new hookup.
Image source: snugglebunny822, Blue Bird
#22
Came about after I’d left an organisation and found out when catching up with mates from there.
The receptionist had access to a company card to book travel for people, catering, general expenses.
She stole something like $30k. Vouchers, personal expenses etc. Must’ve been doing it for at least 4 of the 8 months she was there because it was apparently lots of relatively small purchases.
Not sure how she thought that would be missed by finance, or at audit time worst case. As my friend said ‘if she had two brains she’d be twice as stupid’.
Image source: lostandfound1, Getty Images
#23
Used to work at a place that had drama every week.
My female coworkers T and M were at a pub for friday afternoon drinks along with half the office.
T introduced her new fiance to everyone. T got quite drunk, has a jealousy streak and didn’t like how M was interacting with her man. T punches M in the face.
On the following monday upper management announce the successful applicants for a new team. M sporting a shiny black eye is announced as the Team Leader and T is her new 2IC.
Image source: J4Starz, Himanshu Choudhary
#24
I worked for a very professional and large organization and for a period of about 6 months there was almost daily poop on the floor in the ladies bathroom. Nobody knew who or why.
Image source: No_Ninja_4933, Random Retail
#25
Lots of stories in industry of chairs/laptops being thrown at people in anger.
One guy/girl had s*x on campus, both dismissed. He’s still in industry and known for soliciting his underlings to orgies. Despite this, he’s very senior where he is and extremely well liked. She’s in industry and known for being absolutely lovely, but hasn’t shaken the stigma sadly.
One office manager (not corporate, private firm) stole the entire payrolls superannuation for YEARS then fled OS. Company was too worried about bad PR to do anything about it, and staff too worried about reputation in small industry to sue. So he got away with $100k’s and the firm said “oopsie”.
Image source: anon, Getty Images
#26
Principal on the fast track to partnership at big 4 got caught banging a cadet in his office on a weekend. Both walked on the Monday and I believe there was a lawsuit where the cadet got some $$$. Interestingly, he split from his wife and they actually ended up staying together for five plus years and she was a stepmum to his kids!
Just looked him up, and he’s now a partner at a small mid tier firm having previously been a partner at a big mid tier.
Image source: Aggravating_Bus_6169, freepik
#27
I was an admin assistant for a mortgage team and our boss (male) was having an affair with one of the mortgage lenders (female). It was an open secret, they’d go for three hour “lunch breaks” and we’d find her draped over his desk, and it was super awkward when her husband kept dropping by to surprise her, and the other mortgage lender broke down because she was having to pick up the slack. Worse still, the dude she’d been having an affair with *before* our boss who ALSO worked in the building was pissed off she’d stopped banging him to bang our boss and was becoming an absolute liability. It all came out when they tried to blame me for her missing a meeting with a (very important) client because they were “out to lunch” when I had 100% proof I’d scheduled it correctly. He shouted at me in front of everyone, and a few of us went to HR. The entire company ended up getting restructured so he was no longer managing us, she left about a month later because she was pregnant with her husbands baby (allegedly), and they were leaving on a trip around Australia (pretty sure she got paid to leave.
Worst bit was taking the phone calls from their respective spouses and having to lie to them.
Image source: Kedgie
#28
Two people in the office were secretly in a relationship and we only found out when he was arrested for domestic violence against her.
Image source: missthrowaway87
#29
Business started to suffer from low income and the single financial controller warned the director of it all, said wages were our biggest cost. His response was to fire her immediately because he claimed he could do all the books, payroll etc.
After several following stuff ups with pay a heap of us resigned. Don’t know how they are doing now.
Image source: -C-R-I-S-P-
#30
Hubby walked into the windowless equipment room just after 5pm and was surprised to find his single cougar manager and young married teammate in there…just standing around awkwardly apparently…he came home and was musing as to why they’d just be standing around in the dark together. Told him my thoughts and his response was “No it couldn’t be that, he’s married”. Oh sweetie.
Image source: YTWise
#31
Partner knocked up a marketing manager.
Image source: JamalGinzburg
#32
Very popular head of an industry super fund, known to be very generous with staff.
Was abusing the company credit card, her PA found out, then all of a sudden PA was accompanying CEO on overseas trips.
Would return company cars without entertainment systems…
Sacked her, but couldn’t recover funds as there wasn’t a policy against the spending….
Image source: LongjumpingWallaby8
#33
Not me but my friend. At a work christmas party she had a colleague in her 40’s grab her breasts and yell out “SEE, I KNEW THEYRE FAKE”.
It’s been a month since the incident and my colleague had been really uncomfortable at work and complained to the managers etc and they basically told her “you just have to move on”.
The lady still works there and no disciplinary action was taken against her.
Image source: throwaway47283
#34
A manager had an affair with his direct report. He was married for a while, so most of his team knew his wife very well.
It all blew up at a work event, when his wife turned up and confronted both of them. There were rumors, and after that it couldn’t be hidden anymore.
All of his team took his wife’s side.
The weeks after this event, both of them were absent from work. She resigned, and he did soon after.
The rumor was that he didn’t see anything wrong with the situation, and that it was none of works business. It’s his personal life – not his work life.
I heard they’re married now.
Image source: zoe1414
#35
A young employee whose first language was NOT English made an enthusiastic statement to upper management in a meeting. After some consternation, the rest of the team had to educate him on the subtle difference in meaning between “It’s up to you!” and “Up yours!”. The team still used “It’s up to you!” as a stealth insult years later.
Image source: Birdrun
#36
Rumour had it that an exec was fooling around with two girls in office at same time neither of whom were his wife.
Bought one an expensive gift but not the other , the other one got wind of it and SHTF.
Exec was not with us very shortly after that.
Image source: anon
#37
Walking past my colleagues door, middle of the afternoon and looked in his office door window. Saw him absolutely shagging an intern. At the same time another colleague also stopped, saw the same thing. He called our boss, who came and a small group watched them have to leave the office and go down to HR.
Image source: anon
#38
Dude at my old job (logistics) was doing deals on the side. He was very meticulous and organized. He even kept a running tally of the money he was skimming from the company on an Excel spreadsheet. He kept this file on his work computer, which he also used to conduct all his business. In all, he had gotten about $30k in 3 or so months. The company found out when he got blackout drunk at a casino at noon on a Tuesday and started asking other sales reps how much they were taking off the top. Needless to say, he was fired.
He also lived across the street from me. About a week later, I hear yelling and his naked girlfriend is thrown out of his house onto his porch. She responds by throwing a brick through his window. He then comes out of his house with a baseball bat, chases her down the street, and beats her with it. He left her in the street naked and bleeding. He then got in his car and drove away, causing the police, who I called, to not be able to arrest him that day. Luckily for me, I had this all on video, which was posted to Facebook and I tagged him in it.
Image source: Fat_Rick_Flair
#39
From my first workplace as a college intern: The Director of Engineering was working on a special project and required the PM’s admin to assist, every day in his office from noon to 1pm. One Thursday they forgot to close the door completely and as it turned out their special project was shagging each other stupid. They were sent home and told not to come back until the following Monday, by which time management would know how to address the incident.
Monday rolls around and they don’t show up. After calling both of their spouses, it turns out that each came home Thursday, made up an excuse to their families, packed a bag and left. Within a few weeks it turns out that their special project also included embezzling $870,000 in company funds and absconding to the Caribbean.
Image source: Flahdagal
#40
Our company driver never got much done. It would take him days to deliver a package down the road. One day our boss calls us into the boardroom and tells us he had been shot between the eyes, while on the beach with a prostitute in the middle of the work day.
A couple of hours after he was found his wife walks into our boardroom – where we’re all being told about his death – with all his life insurance paperwork asking about her payout.
He, and his wife, were devoutly Muslim and his wife gave him a Catholic burial, complete with open casket. I’ll never forget the bullet hole between his eyes.
Image source: eggsaregreateh
#41
Currently if there is one, I don’t know about it, but at my previous employer I was the scandal.
I started seeing my boss in a fast food restaurant. I was a team member and she was the store manager, so theres a good 2-3 levels of management between us. We flirted a lot at work, and then started sleeping together, and all of a sudden I was able to get away with a lot more.
I ended up caring about her a lot, and left the store just so I could date her uninhibited. Didn’t want her to lose her job.
Image source: BigPinkMan
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