Contientious Coworkers

Slackers, whiners, flirts and worse—some coworkers can make the nine-to-five feel like the ultimate tolerance test. We asked 515 readers to dish on their quirkiest co-worker encounters.

"This kid had an excuse for everything. For someone who went to a really good college for finance, he was as dumb as a box of rocks when it came to excuses for not doing his work. One day he had to leave early because his roommate's girlfriend brought home a stray cat and he got fleas from it and they had to bug bomb the apartment."
-Kitty Serrano, 23

"He's a nihilist. He's very unhappily married, but he doesn't realize it. He just complains the entire time about anything and everything and he really dislikes working for Starbucks. I think he's just one of those people who are never happy ever, but he doesn't want to quit because he doesn't want to be a quitter, and he isn't bad enough to get fired so he's just stuck."
-Jacob King, 24

"I work in a small office with this guy who came on to me. For about two months we flirted, and then I found out that he has a girlfriend in New York, which isn't really a big deal. But he was so mortified that his secret came out that he basically stopped talking to everyone we work with, and he stopped doing his job. For about two weeks he'd come in and leave, and for the eight hours in between he'd basically send personal emails and watch TV online. Finally, things are just starting to turn around. But it was frustrating because I work with what he completes so I couldn't do my job either."
-Amanda Kasper, 23

"If I made a mistake, she would talk about it and say how stupid I was, but she would do it with me there, and I could hear it. Just because you're in a cubicle doesn't mean it blocks off noise or is a sound barrier. She was a heartless wench."
-Anthony Zeimet, 23