History NotAlwaysWorking / TropesFToL

* ForWantOfANail: [[https://notalwaysright.com/dont-freak-about-the-leak/137007/ A plumber called to fix a leaky toilet at a family's house]] drops a part down said toilet, but doesn't bother to take it out and just leaves it. This leads to the part blocking the pipe and causing it to burst, flooding and trashing the interior of the entire ground level of the house and causing the kitchen ceiling to cave in, forcing the family to live in hotels or with relatives for three months until the house is habitable again. During this time, the submitter ends up losing their job because it ends up costing too much for them to take a train to their workplace when they only make minimum wage. When school starts back up, the submitter's parents go through a lot of trouble to get a hotel closer to the submitter and their sister because until now they were well over an hour away from each other. The family goes through all of this trouble just over their plumber dropping a part down the toilet.

** Corporate at [[https://notalwaysright.com/mishandling-and-manhandling/193137/ this store]] is implied to be this. For starters, they put [[PointyHairedBoss a manager with only a month of retail experience who's only worked at a small store with very little customer interactions]] as a substitute manager at a much larger store. Not only does the new manager prove to be hopelessly out of her depth, but she throws an actual temper tantrum at an elderly customer with dementia before manhandling them out of the store – ''during an event in partnership with a dementia charity!'' Human Resources then completely botches their response to this incident by taking the new manager's side ''and'' making her substitute position permanent. It's only when half the staff prepares to ResignInProtest, the dementia charity moves their event elsewhere, and the store's reputation plummets that HR admits they made a mistake and the new manager agrees to leave.

[[NotAlwaysWorking/TropesAToE Tropes A to E]] | Tropes F to L | [[NotAlwaysWorking/TropesMToS Tropes M to S]] ([[PointyHairedBoss/NotAlwaysWorking Pointy-Haired Boss]]) | [[NotAlwaysWorking/TropesTToZ Tropes T to Z]]

* ALessonLearnedTooWell: [[https://notalwaysright.com/dont-make-things-harder-for-yourself/276449/ This co-worker]] takes much longer to do tasks than everyone else. The submitter shadows her to see what the problem is, and finds that she's "researching" just about everything about every order she processes, even when that's supposed to be done by other deparments, taking ten minutes on orders that usually take thirty seconds. When the submitter asks her about this, she explains that at previous jobs, every order she processed was considered "her" order, so if something went wrong, she would be held responsible, so she felt she had to follow up on every little thing. On the other hand, she's so worried about getting into trouble that the submitter can't decide if her previous jobs were ''that'' scary or if she's just so paranoid she did all those extra tasks herself out of fear she wasn't doing enough.[[note]]Most commenters favour the former explanation[[/note]]

'''Boss:'' ''*sticking her head out of her office*'' “I’m sure there’s context for that, but I’m not sure I want to know it, [Submitter]. I’m just glad I already had lunch.”

* LuddWasRight: Seemingly the belief of [[https://notalwaysright.com/still-hoping-it-will-just-be-an-ifad/65287/ this shopkeeper]]. The store has an iPad equipped with a credit card reader, but he refuses to honor the submitter's credit card or even accept the submitter's attempts to learn how to use it.

* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: [[https://notalwaysright.com/bad-management-really-revs-my-anger-engines/277602/ This manager]] deliberately makes her workplace an awful place to make her workers quit so she can replace them with newer ones with less pay. After the submitter quits and moves to a new town, they get a call from the police, which leads to them finding out that the manager now lives in the new town, but is unemployed and convinced that her old staff are out to get her.

* FailedASpotCheck: Now has [[FailedASpotCheck its own page]]!

* FailedASpotCheck:
** [[http://notalwaysright.com/needs-to-switch-to-oh-wait This employee]] completely misses the labels on the cabinets.
** [[http://notalwaysright.com/signs-this-store-needs-more-signs Subverted here]]; the signs the customer apparently missed ''don't exist''.
** [[http://notalwaysright.com/if-at-first-you-dont-succeed-tray-again Another subversion]]; the rotisserie trays the employee can't find... aren't where the coworker said they were. The coworker is ''very'' unhappy when she finds out.
** [[http://notalwaysright.com/cant-take-that-back This manager]] apparently failed to notice that one of their employees uses a wheelchair for ''three years''.
** [[https://notalwaysright.com/a-shout-out-to-all-the-non-employees/137002/ A grocery store manager]] doesn't realize that the submitter doesn't work at her store until he points out the ''completely'' different uniform (with his company's name) that he's wearing. By that point she had already yelled at him and threatened to write him up. [[OhCrap Oops.]]
** [[https://notalwaysright.com/waitressing-should-not-be-in-her-wheelhouse/184932/ In this story]], a waitress and the management at a ballpark restaurant nearly throws out a couple whom the waitress has claimed stole a table meant for a party that included one person in a wheelchair... with the blatant evidence toward the couple being the party in question (most obviously that the husband is ''in a wheelchair'') somehow flying over their heads completely until they check the reservations. The embarrassed manager comps the couple's meal as an apology and later chastises the waitress.
** [[https://notalwaysright.com/theyll-be-perfuming/65142/ This store worker]] makes a running prank of asking coworkers to help them move stuff in a certain closet, then commenting on the smell of perfume. Every coworker assumes it's a local urban legend about a perfume-scented ghost, and not ''the shelves of perfume right in front of them''.
** The cashier in [[https://notalwaysright.com/when-a-thief-is-not-a-thief/258435/ this story]] becomes so focused on selling protection plans for printers (and getting the employee incentive for doing so) she fails to notice that she's not actually scanning the printers themselves, allowing the customers to leave without paying for them.
** It takes [[https://notalwaysright.com/were-big-fans-of-simple-solutions/264112/ one night tech]] a few minutes to figure out what the day techs couldn't fix in over a year: that problems with a CRT monitor are being caused by a neighboring coworker's desk fan.
** [[https://notalwaysright.com/youve-fallen-for-one-of-the-classic-blunders/232795/ This vindictive manager]] fires the submitter via text message during their vacation, not seeming to realize that she sent the message in a group chat. ''[[AlwaysABiggerFish With her boss]]''. The moron is swiftly fired and the submitter reinstated.
** [[https://notalwaysright.com/their-brains-must-have-been-on-the-same-circuit/275858/ This woman]] is absolutely irate that her printer has stopped functioning... while both she and her colleague are completely oblivious to the fact that their lights, computers and phones are ''also'' off because they tripped the power with their heaters.
** [[https://notalwaysright.com/not-very-closed-minded-opposite-day-edition/282117/ This restaurant]] is closed to customers to hold a private party... but they forgot to remove the sign afterwards, leaving them confused as to why nobody is coming in the next day until somebody asks if the sign's still valid.
** The guards in [[https://notalwaysright.com/remember-fire-bad/285072/ this story]] have absolutely zero reaction to a visible fire on the monitors, despite one camera becoming just an orange rectangle, until someone bangs on their window.
** [[https://notalwaysright.com/but-did-he-get-to-keep-it/303530/ A psychology teacher]] sets up an event where his students are caught shoplifting to intentionally put them through the emotional trauma (with the blessing and supervision of both the store manager and the police). Good in theory, but in practice none of the employees ever noticed, even as the students were instructed to 'steal' bigger and bigger items, up until one student managed to leave with the store's service ladder ''with the assistant manager holding the door open for him'' simply by [[RefugeInAudacity claiming he was servicing the air conditioning and had forgotten his own ladder]]. The store (and the entire company, since it was the company's home location) went through extensive retraining afterwards.
** [[https://notalwaysright.com/now-thats-what-you-call-a-clean-sweep/304288/ A cruise ship safety instructor]] runs a bomb search demonstration, with one 'bomb' that everybody knows about (a box with "bomb" written on it) and one that nobody knows about (that looks slightly more real, but still obviously fake). The demonstration comes and goes, and while the first one is found, the second one isn't, and the instructor assumes this trope of the crew... until he finds the second one back on his desk in his cabin. It turns out that he'd hidden it in the area assigned to his cabin's housekeeper, the one person who'd seen it before, and who [[WrongGenreSavvy assumed it was just lost property and returned it to its owner]].

** [[http://notalwaysright.com/all-sales-are-irrational This cashier]] feigns excuses for not wanting to do a refund, including "maybe it's got a corset type style" (which it doesn't) and "the computer isn't working" while blatantly messing around with the POS. This then leads to "I can’t give you a refund because the IT guy is driving," after which [[BlatantLies the computer miraculously starts working again]] to service the next customers in line.

* LethalNegligence: [[https://notalwaysright.com/good-thing-didnt-weight-longer/99375/ This boarding kennel]] leaves the submitter's mother's dog without food for ''three days'' when the food the submitter's mother left them ran out. By the submitter and their mother's admission, their mother should have calculated how much food was needed better, but the kennel also made no attempt to contact her when they ran out.

* LethalChef: [[https://notalwaysright.com/way-worse-than-a-bee-in-your-bonnet/275316/ The chefs at this French restaurant]] accidentally bake a ''wasp'' into the OP's bread, and get a thorough scolding from the OP's teacher for it.

** [[https://notalwaysright.com/goodbye-hotel-hell/307847/ This hotel]] has a severe staff shortage caused by the manager refusing to hire new staff, and the owner won't let the manager fire anyone because of the staff shortage, leading to it being a dumping ground for lazy employees who know they can't be fired. The submitter, who's supposed to only be a desk clerk, is on laundry and breakfast duty and has to clean any rooms that weren't cleaned either if housekeepers lied about cleaning a room or it led to the hotel being overbooked, leading to them having to spend their time off recovering from overworking. The hotel is also prone to do spectacularly incompetent things, to the point where the submitter remarks that the hotel staff "always [seems] to go out of their way to surprise [them] with new, exciting BS" whenever they think the incompetence has reached its limit. The worst is the hotel [[https://notalwaysright.com/not-quite-the-wedding-night-she-envisioned/307840/ failing to register most reservations for a large wedding party]] even though the reservation was placed ''four months prior'' and double-booking one of the three rooms whose reservation ''was'' entered properly, resulting in the bride [[InterruptedIntimacy walking in on a gay couple having sex]]. This latest display of abject incompetence leads to the submitter [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere looking for a new job]], which they get almost immediately, and they don't give their two weeks' notice because anyone who does is immediately removed from the schedule, leading to the manager being blindsided when they quit.

** [[https://notalwaysright.com/not-quite-the-wedding-night-she-envisioned/307840/ This hotel]] fails to register most reservations for a large wedding party even though the reservation was placed ''four months ago''. Worse, one of the three rooms whose reservation ''was'' entered properly was double-booked, resulting in the bride [[InterruptedIntimacy walking in on a gay couple having sex]]. Apparently, this is only the latest display of escalating incompetence from the hotel, and by the time this particular incident happens, the submitter [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere has already found a more competent workplace]].
--->''Whenever I think this hotel has done the dumbest thing possible, they always seem to go out of their way to surprise me with new, exciting BS.''

** [[https://notalwaysright.com/unable-to-own-up-to-ownership/157013/ This bar]] is overdue for [[Series/BarRescue a visit from Jon Taffer]]. When the submitter and her husband visit, they see a very drunk man be let in by the bouncer, who sees a bunk of equally drunk friends, who reveal that they bribed their way in. The submitter and her husband then find out that the pool table doesn't work, prompting the drunk guy to try and "help," throwing them a number of racist and ableist slurs along the way. When the submitter and her husband try to get the bouncer to throw the drunk out, he refuses. Then the waiter throws ''them'' out for "being disruptive" on instruction from the drunk guy, who turns out to be ''[[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem the bar's owner]]''.

** [[https://notalwaysright.com/unable-to-own-up-to-ownership/157013/ This bar]] is overdue for [[Series/BarRescue a visit from John Taffer]]. When the submitter and her husband visit, they see a very drunk man be let in by the bouncer, who sees a bunk of equally drunk friends, who reveal that they bribed their way in. The submitter and her husband then find out that the pool table doesn't work, prompting the drunk guy to try and "help," throwing them a number of racist and ablist slurs along the way. When the submitter and her husband try to get the bouncer to throw the drunk out, he refuses. Then the waiter throws ''them'' out for "being disruptive" on instruction from the drunk guy, who turns out to be ''[[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem the bar's owner]]''.

** [[https://notalwaysright.com/unable-to-own-up-to-ownership/157013/ This bar]] is overdue for [[Series/BarRescue a visit from John Taffer]]. When the submitter and her husband visit, they see a very drunk man be let in by the bouncer, who sees a bunk of equally drunk friends, who reveal that they bribed their way in. The submitter and her husband then find out that the pool table doesn't work, prompting the drunk guy to try and "help," throwing them a number of racist and ablist slurs along the way. When the submitter and her husband try to get the bouncer to throw the drunk out, he refuses. Then the waiter throws ''them'' out for "being disruptive" on instruction from the drunk guy, who turns out to be ''[[ScrewTheRulesIMakeEm the bar's owner]]''.