Rumours/Gossip/Urban Legends

[dougiezerts]

Something I've posted before, but I thought I'd revive:
Have any of you heard any juicy--if probably false!--rumours/gossip/urban legends relating to your businesses?
Here's one--and it's true! There was a manager in my office who was known to be really harsh. She fired quite a few employees. Well, she herself got fired. Why? She was caught stealing money from a little store that they ran! (It sold candy and snacks.)

[thegiraffe]

One of my friends is a "team leader" at a large video game company - he leads teams that test the games before they go on the market to make sure geniuses can't break them.

He came in once on his day off to fire someone. From that day on, whenever he came in on his day off, people would scurry like little cockroaches under a light so they wouldn't get fired. It was evidently the running joke.

[Knightmare]

Mine is about finding a poisonous snake hiding in a flower pot. I've heard rumors about this for a long time. Lady buys a plant, takes it home and moves the plant/tree to a different pot. There is a snake under the plant, it bites her, and the lady is hospitalized or killed by the venomous serpent.

I've heard that urban legend for just about every place has an outdoor garden section.

Well, a few weeks ago, I was talking with my mom on the phone, and she told me that a lady bought a plant at a Lowe's in Jacksonville and was bitten by a startled snake found in the bottom of the plant she purchased. Rushed to a hospital and all that, and she told me to be careful at work. I then told her about Snopes, a website about urban legends and myths, and told her is was all a bunch of hoo-ha.

Three days later, I'm working the night shift to put up the Christmas displays. I came in a bit early, around 8:30 p.m. As I walk thru the front doors, I see a about 6 employees circled around the outside lawn and garden Manager.

I amble on over to see what the fuss is about, and the manager is holding a dead, 4-foot long snake that was hiding out in the bottom of a tree (the smaller ones that have the black plastic potter). I don't know if it was poisonous or not, but it did strike out at the manager when discovered, so he killed the snake.


Now, this is off topic, but talking about snakes made me remember this.

Ever been stalked by a snake? I was in July. I was out doing some yardwork, and I was kneeling down removing some tree roots. The lawn needed to be mowed, but I had to remove these roots before I could mow. So here I am, digging away, and I hear something move behind me, and to my left. I look, see nothing, or hear anything more, and continue what I was doing. About a minute later, I hear it again, but closer. I stand up, look about, but still nothing.

I mark it off to grasshoppers. I get the roots up, and start on another tree a few feet away. As I'm working, I hear a noise again, behind me and to the left again.
This time I stand up and walk towards it. I then see a 4-5 foot long black snake zoom away from me! He was gonna kill me and eat me! AAAAH! NOOOO!

Well, it did shake me up a little bit to be that close to a snake and not know it.
I don't know what snakes in FL are poisonous or not. Still makes me shiver a bit even now.

[Rapscallion]

There's a persistant rumour in the wholefood industry that one of the other wholesalers used to have a special pricelist code for wacky baccy. Oddly enough, it didn't show in their catalogue.

Rapscallion

[Kiwi]

wacky backy, um whats that?

green perhaps?

[jnd4rusty]

I believe thats another term for marijuana..also called wacky tobaccy, mari-jane, weed, pot and probably other numerous names..I have never used it but have heard these terms many times.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Not for my workplace, but there was a running urban legend about this kebab shop down the road from the pizza place about how they were scraping roadkill off the roads and making it into kebabs. Dunno whether or not it was true, but it certainly put me off eating anything from there. Cuz it changed hands really quickly, another rumour went out that the previous owner was made into kebabs by the new owner.

[dougiezerts]

Tastes just like chicken, no one'll know the difference!
This IS an urban legend: Management employed someone to test our service be randomly calling 411. However, it was discovered that he was yelling and cursing operators, so they fired his rear end!

[RecoveringKinkoid]

A 4 to 5 foot long black snake in Florida was most likely a Black Rat Snake. Non venomous, and most likely very interested in getting away from you as quickly as possible. You likely startled it, and then it snuck around until it thought it could flee.

Most snakes are not dangerous. Heck, even the dangerous ones are only dangerous if they feel threatened by you and do not think they can get away. You pretty much have to work to be bitten by a snake.

I'm thinking the poor dead snake at Lowe's was probably the same kind of snake. They like to hang out in flowerpots when they are smaller. On two separate occasions, I've found two juveniles living in large pots on my deck. Black Rats will strike at someone who is threatening them, but again, they are not venomous.

[Worker-Intellectual]

My company tried to sue to trademark the words "Crappy Tire"

[Ringtail Z28]

I remember hearing that there was a gang shootout on the sales floor of the Target I used to work at, though no one actually saw it happen. The idea isn't too far fetched considering the area and the number of fights, including a few stabbings, that happened during the six years that I worked there.

[powerboy]

There is a Urben Legend at my work. And it is, that we are going to be opening up about 7 stores . I would love forthat to happen, but I do not see it happening anytime soon. Not with how the bank is screwing us over on everything.

[draftermatt]

There are so many in this place.

1. Boss man leaving at lunch to see his girlfriend.
2. Place is for sale
3. Me and bossman may leave to start our own company. Oh wait, that one I know is true.. he he

[dougiezerts]

I remember hearing that there was a gang shootout on the sales floor of the Target I used to work at, though no one actually saw it happen. The idea isn't too far fetched considering the area and the number of fights, including a few stabbings, that happened during the six years that I worked there.

That reminds me of a rumour I heard that a nearby theme park was a hangout for gangs. In fact, security started searching teens going into the park, according to this rumour.
However, one of the girls in my office worked for the park in the summer. She told me it wasn't true, and security didn't have much trouble of that sort.

[Moirae]

I know of one. Though this is more of a ghost story so maybe you'll have to move it.

Everyone hears lots of stories about hospitals being haunted and for good reason. If a place is going to be haunted, it would be a hospital.

Well, we have an auxiliary hospital in our city. It's generally for old folks that are so bad the old folks homes can't even help them anymore.

My mom used to work there and there was this story going around that the hospital was haunted by a nun.

Patients would talk about someone that visited them in the night, got them a blanket, or a glass of water. Any of the new staff would blow it off.

The thing is, it proved to be true.

My mother was working one day. One of the nurses was pushing a cart along. The cart had bags of blood on it and it was being moved to a new freezer down the hall (they were renovating). A patient called her, so she stopped for a moment in the hallway.

Suddenly, the nurses at the nurses station and my mother (who was cleaning nearby at that time), heard these splishy noises. You know the ones that sound like a bag of liquid fell on the ground.

So, they look around to find out where it came from. Turns out it came from the cart and the two bags that fell on the ground were the only ones that were expired on the whole cart.

Now top that off with things moving occasionally. Like doors opening and closing.

Urban legends can sometimes be true.