Is your workplace this unusual?

[shootingstar]

Guess it's all a matter of perspective.. I've worked for several different types of employers in different industries; public and private sector; big/international vs. local, small, etc.

And every place has its stories...and where I am I've only been here just over 2.5 yrs.. The lst one below made the local news in paper, radio and tv:

*One of labour brokers from Serbia, who had a contract with our construction engineering company, skipped out of Canada quietly where by his foreign company did not pay federal Canadian taxes.. So now 80 Serbian workers will not get paid for last 2 wks. of their work. They are on work visas only and will have to return back to Serbia.

*Or the 3,000+ yr. old archaeological dig where there are ongoing discoveries of First Nations (native Indian) on the lands where our excavation equipment are about to dig up. It's actually a rare exciting find in Canadian aboriginal history.. since the land here is peaty/boggy..

*Or the Thai labourers (keep in mind, these people are direct from Thailand with work visas) cover their face with cotton balakavas in 80 Degrees F heat. They don't want to get darker.

And on it goes. For the days where work..is just work...I remind myself that in retrospect, there will be stories to remember..

[tulip]

One of my jobs had this mysterious guy from eastern Europe and his occasional posse. Apparently he was working on getting design contracts in eastern Europe for the company I was working for, but he had his own realm. He eventually disappeared with alot of the company's cash, rumor has it. I left before that happened.

A big part of my last job involved archeology. You can't do much in Virginia without digging up stuff from the Civil War or native settlements. I worked on several projects for the Navy that required them to change their plans (that was kinda fun!)

My masters thesis had to be completely revamped because I couldn't get onto the site due to land mines (that was Bosnia in the late 90s).

[malkin]

I work at a school for kids with autism, and in case you didn't know it already, Autistic kids ROCK!!

[bmccasland]

We just have a cast of characters in the office...
"As the Corps Turns"

[alpinerabbit]

I just used to have the boss from hell.

[AlwayzOnDaMove]

I ever worked with middle eastern guy and he was soo cheap lol I'm not saying all of them are like that! oh and he loves women too i meant a lot of women lol
I love to work whatever job it is, it keeps me busy (I'm a little bit workaholic ) but then i don't have enough time to have my break. sometime, I don't even have time to prepare my lunch! ha!

[sfa]

My last job was at a very interesting place with all kinds of characters. I missed the really fun one (a guy who showed up posing as a very wealthy person and promising a large donation, so the office started courting him and holding cocktail events in his honor, all without a penny from him. Turns out he was a complete scammer, but we treasured the photos of him with our music director and Board chair! I was on maternity leave at the time so missed the whole thing.), but I did get to deal with the corporate giant who was involved in accounting and medicare fraud and whose name was prominently displayed in our lobby (until he went to jail, that is), the posse of drunk Irish musicians making passes at every woman backstage, the well to do patrons who got in a fistfight over a box seat, the VP for Finance who tried to "repurpose" the endowment while spending most of his days trolling the halls trying to catch people playing solitare on their computers.

In retrospect, all of this is both horrifying and really, really funny. It DOES make for good stories. But in my new job in a completely stable organization where people come to work and do their jobs and are dedicated to the mission and tend to stay until they retire, it took me a while to readjust. I love it here and I love the lack of drama, but there are days that I miss the colorful people. Sigh.

Oh, wait! I forgot about the time the bomb squad was called in when someone left some electronic equipment behind in the lobby and the other time when the Israeli symphony played and we all had to have security checks and there were snipers posted on nearby rooftops.

Life was never boring.

Sarah