Your coolest work moment ever?

[WillParkinson]

Mine was many years ago during the Great Circus Parade in Milwaukee.

One morning I delivered coffee to a woman's room and she had 2 of the cutest kittens in a carrier in her room.

Me: Aw, they're so cute. What kind of kitties are they?
Her: They're lion cubs.
Me: You're kidding? Gee, I'm glad I didn't stick my fingers near them.
She: Oh, they're very sweet.

She walks over and opens the cage door. The two cubs come strolling out and wandering in and out of my legs and I squeal with joy and being petting them. (Yeah, I squealed. Wanna make something of it?)

My coolest work moment EVAH!

[TK421]

1. It involved the humiliation of an annoying customer ( it qualifies )

This lady comes up to the window and asks about ticket availability for a matinee performance that day...taking up probably five minutes ( much to the annoyance of the people waiting behind her ). So we settle on a seat, finally, and then she tries to bring the ticket price down. She inquires about a senior rate ( we only have senior rates on season members ) and I inform her that we don't have senior rates on what we refer to as single tickets ( any ticket purchase that is not a season package in other words ). She proceeded to get belligerent about it, arguing with me about the lack of any discount and said " What do I have to do to get a cheaper ticket? Do a tap-dance for you or something"?

With about twenty people in line behind her, I leaned towards the window and said " Well...you can do a tap-dance for me, and it would probably amuse me...but unfortunately your dance wouldn't change the ticket price". Everyone behind her erupted in laughter and she took her ticket and ran!

I think this is my best moment at my current job :D

[ogneopasno]

2. I have quite a few, but my most recent one is when I resigned in August and my boss said, instead of

hanging around for two weeks and being disruptive, why don't you just leave. Like, right now. So I did. And still got the two weeks' pay. Awesome.

[TK421]

3. Curious...what was their reason?

the boss sounded like a total douche-canoe

[ogneopasno]

5. Oh he was, he was.

The conversation then went thusly:

Me: Well, I can stay for the two weeks...or even until the end of the week...to hand off projects x, y and z.

Him: Actually, sometimes when managers resign it's better if they just...go. It's less disruptive that way.

Me (thinking, Wait, it's less disruptive for me to walk out of your office at the beginning of the work day and keep walking right out the door? Seriously?): OK, I can come in today after 5 to clean out my desk.

Him: I think it would be better if we pack it up for you and you can come pick it up.

Me (thinking, am I resigning, or getting fired?): Ooookaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy.

And then we shook hands and that was it. It was completely bizarre. There were layoffs there about three weeks later, and looking at the group that got laid off, I probably would have been in it. So I think I was on the chopping block anyway. Leaving on my own terms, though, was delicious.

[ogneopasno]

24. ETA: I forgot to say...the whole thing reminded me of when you break up with someone, and they say,

"You can't break up with me, because *I'm* breaking up with YOU!" and you're like, but, I just broke up with you. So you can't break up with me. Wait, what?

[TK421]

4. sorry...double post

weird...I got some message about cookies preventing me from posting, so I thought the original didn't get through :shrug:

[justgamma]

6. My boss sent me to a sucky job.

I was a little po'd. As I was walking up the aisle, I had to burst out laughing. Here he comes up beside me, walking on his hands. Good grief! You just can't stay mad asomeone like that.

[Lucian]

7. When someone opened the door in receiving in the MIDDLE OF WINTER!

Damn! x( :scared:

[justgamma]

15. I'm so sorry.

But jeez louise, I have to get the material off the trucks and into the building somehow. Now if they would heat my friggin' dock, it wouldn't be so cold.

Lol, I work in receiving and all I hear all winter is "Shut the door!!"

[Lucian]

16. Heh.

I was trying to be funny with this post. I guess I failed. :(

[justgamma]

20. No, you didn't, I thought it was hilarious. LOL

It just hit close to home. I even had to look to see if you were from around here. :hi:

[Skittles]

8. giving Gus Grissom's widow a dependent ID card

when I was a USAF airman - death certificate cause of death: asphyxiation on Apollo

[Bertha Venation]

14. Damn, Skittles

Just, damn.

[Skittles]

18. that was in the 70's

I think she had lost her ID because that would be why I needed to see the death certificate - she was a very nice woman

[av8rdave]

19. I always felt sorry for the Grissoms after the movie "The Right Stuff" came out

They really mischaracterized him and took a LOT of poetic license with the loss of his Mercury capsule.

I never read the book, so I don't know if Wolf was as inaccurate as the movie was.

Guess it never occurred to the movie makers that if Grissom had screwed up as they implied, NASA certainly would have never selected him for the first Apollo mission (or any mission, for that matter)!

[Skittles]

28. I just read how badly that family was treated in general

Betty Grissom said they were pretty much ignored - maybe that's why she was so gracious to me when, having spilled the beans to a Chief Master Sergeant that she was in the building, tons of base officials showed up to greet her - I was mortified but she said she was fine with it :)

[Xipe Totec]

22. My Masonic mother Lodge is across from Ed White Elementary School

I doff my hat to you.

:patriot:

[EFerrari]

9. I did up a benefit and Craig came out and talked for a few minutes.

Everybody came that I asked, which never happens. But it was especially cool that he came out and supported the deal. :)

[MilesColtrane]

10. Playing with an orchestra in front of 17,000 people.

[skooooo]

11. I kicked a hole in their cheap-ass wall...

That was pretty cool.

[Bertha Venation]

12. I broke up the room.

Our choir director's day job was at a well-known western wear store. He wasn't proud of the fact. Time came when he was able to quit that job, and he was grateful. The choir was his pride and joy, and he was a bit stuck up about it.

At rehearsal one night, he told us proudly that someone had come up to him in the mall and said, "Aren't you Bob Phibbs?"

Before he could utter another word, I said, "Didn't you used to work at Howard & Phils?"

:rofl: Bob turned bright red, but the room busted up.

[fight4my3sons]

13. I used to work at Head Start in NY

as a Family Advocate (social worker). I was a link between the school and the home. One of the parents on my caseload was from Haiti and was getting her United States citizenship. It was a huge thing because she had worked so hard for so long. She had multiple disabilities and had gotten out of an abusive relationship. She invited me and another service provider to the ceremony along with her family members who were already in the states. The teachers at the school had made a big United States flag using the kid's hand prints. It was really special. The ceremony was amazing. Definitely a great day at work.

[femmocrat]

17. I haven't had it yet!

It will be last day of school once I can retire.

[Xipe Totec]

21. STS-1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_PUF7DiKp8

[flvegan]

23. Can't say. Thread will get locked.

[WillParkinson]

34. Oooh, I wanna PM!

Hurry. I need juicy stuff. I'll even trade you. <grin>

[fizzgig]

25. i got to play firefighter for a morning

i got to suit up and go into the burn building, spray the hoses, go up on the ladder truck and take apart a volvo with the jaws of life. it was so much fun :D

[DS1]

26. WIthout question, this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dT8FWxw1Ec&feature=related

on over Hawaii

[Turbineguy]

27. An electrical problem.

I looked at the controller and suddenly it appeared to be made of glass and I could see the problem. I told the Electrician what he needed to do and he fixed it.

[Haole Girl]

29. A couple of days ago I helped a woman who was...

told she needed an emergency c-section calm down. We found her mother - who had gotten lost between gates at the airport because she took too much valium - and I convinced her (the mother-to-be) not to drive to LAX to pick up her mother... but, instead, to have someone else do the driving. I might have possibly saved a life or two that day! We all have little ways of making people's lives a little easier, at least, when we try... corny as that might sound.

[Inchworm]

30. First hour on the flight deck of CV-66

USS America

Head on a swivel...



:hi:

[wartrace]

31. I found a problem with a tire that initiated a nationwide recall.

They had been running a tire with the wrong plugs in the mold. They had the kilogram/pound rated load plug in the wrong place. It had been running for months like that until I had it scheduled for testing. Most of the other guys wouldn't have even looked at the lettering in my job. Any accident that involved a vehicle with that tire on it could have cost the company millions even if the tire wasn't at fault. Of course I just told my manager so I didn't receive any recognition.

[WinkyDink]

39. Thank you!

[leftyclimber]

32. Back when I worked in a kids' clothing store

there was a little girl, about nine, who was a little overweight. She and mom were school shopping. She was crying, not wanting to go shopping, not wanting to go back to school and look fat and get teased for wearing dorky fat girl clothes.

I spent about 45 minutes with her and her mom showing her clothes that looked good on her and helping her find outfits that were cute, girly (she was one of those pink-and-purple girls), and looked just like what the skinny girls were wearing. By the time we were done she was excited about how pretty she looked and about going back to school.

She's got to be in high school by now. I hope she still feels pretty, regardless of what she looks like.

[Kali]

33. My Grandfather probably had Alzheimer's.

Whatever it was, towards the end of his life he wouldn't let anybody do anything to his cattle. (and he carried his 45 until the end)

This place was a mess and it took a couple of years to get things back to semi-normal. "The Moment" came one day after we had had a big gather with lots of people and branded and sorted and shipped and done all that heavy work ranching demands. We needed to take the herd to a pasture quite some distance away. I was paranoid and nervous about not having any more help around. My cousin, who is a REAL cowboy, and I drove the heard five miles over fairly rough, brushy country, through two fences, and across railroad tracks by ourselves. From berserk wild rodeo to a herd handled by two riders. I was so high from the experience. Will never forget it.

[LiberalEsto]

35. Winning a minor award on my 21st birthday

Flashback to 1973. I'm pasting up the front page of a very small newspaper. I'm the news editor.

The managing editor of the newspaper chain walks over to me and hands me a big manila envelope and says congratulations. At the same time one of the front desk staff comes by to give me yellow roses from (I think) my boyfriend or my parents.

I open the envelope and find a certificate saying I won second place for editorial writing in the annual NJ Press Association competition. The managing editor entered the editorial in the contest without telling me, so it is a complete surprise.

I am walking on air.

[MissMillie]

36. walking into the building w/ a Nobel lauriate

Robert Merton

[onlyadream]

37. I have a most UNCOOL moment...

being that I'm not often cool...

When I was 18 (very innocent), I worked with a bunch of guys in a factory. One day we had to move to the other end of the building..so we loaded up boxes and took them to the other side. I had a box in one hand and a home-made dildo in the other. Me, being a dimwit, did not realize that this was a dildo. So, as I walked to the other side of the building, I bopped people on the head with that thing...(I somehow felt that it was a magic wand) - and everyone would burst out laughing. Eventually they told me what it was :P .

[WinkyDink]

38. When I informed my hateful successor that no, I HAD NOT saved any of my notes or tests for her use.

[Lil Missy]

40. Telling a pompous wealthy asshole, "No! You may not visit the lobby in your underwear!"

Not even to pick up a newspaper!

Same guy who pulled into Valet, got out of his car, and took a piss in the Valet area. (Alcohol may have been involved.) :eyes:

[WillParkinson]

41. Do you work in a hotel of some sort?

If so I totally understand. I work at one in Milwaukee and have seen some pretty bizarre behavior from "guests".

[Lil Missy]

44. I did. I was in a high profile position, able to give freebies.

I just didn't have it in me to compensate people acting like assholes.

The guy who drove up and took a piss? He wanted his stay compensated because he was embarrassed.

Kiss my butt.

[WillParkinson]

46. Funny that...

I'm sure you caused them to whip it out and pee all over the place.

[charlie and algernon]

42. spending the day driving around with Janet Reno

three years ago, she endorsed the candidate I was working for and she spent the day going to different events with him. I was tasked with driving her to these events, so we had a lot of time to talk. it was really cool, we talked baseball, cal ripken, working in DC, her SNL skit, lol. It was a surreal, fun day,

[alarimer]

43. I met Nolan Ryan.

Nolan, his son Reed, and Steve Warriner (the country singer) were all out fishing, doing something that had to do with Reed's fishing show (don't ask me what, scouting locations maybe). We were doing a survey at this particular boat ramp (What time did you launch, what kind of bait, all those nosy questions). So we got to interview them. As I recall they didn't have any fish. Ryan was sort of our boss, being on the Commission at the time. This happened in the first year I had this job and it's been downhill ever since. Kidding, sort of.

[WillParkinson]

45. I served Nolan Ryan....

Does that make us almost related? :-)