Troublesome tales of the office

What do a pyjama-wearing employee, a sleepy member of staff and a client with bad personal hygiene have in common? They all feature in the embarrassing stories collated by AirConUK.co.uk, which has been canvassing input from office workers up and down the country.

One client of the air conditioning and fitting company recalls a female colleague who used to come into the office at least once a week dressed in her pyjamas and dressing gown. Another recalls the story of a certain Dave who got into a row with a client over delivery dates and ended up flooring him with a punch “that would have made Frank Bruno proud”.

Then there was the client who came in for a meeting on a very hot day and who clearly hadn’t bothered to use deodorant. It was all going well enough until one member of the team couldn’t handle the stench any more – and was promptly sick in a bin.

Another anecdote concerns a motivational speaker brought into a company to inspire its sales staff. The person concerned was so enthusiastic about his pitch that he climbed on to a desk to make his point more vividly, only to fall off and break his ankle.

Commitment to your job is to be applauded, but you need to maintain a good work/life balance, otherwise you may end up like the poor chap who fell asleep in a meeting. Rather than rouse him, his co-workers left him to snooze and by the time he woke up it was pitch dark and the building had been locked up for the night.

Last but not least is the account of the employee who handed over some important business papers to his boss. As he went to leave his office, he realised he couldn’t get away; it transpired that he had inadvertently stapled the documents to his tie.