I spotted an interesting conundrum on the FT problem page
Should I report an insane coworker…

There's a bloke on another forum who talks in that way and I'm now wondering whether he's insane/unstable. I suspect not but you never know….

That doesn't sound insane at all. He's either ribbing them for laughs or is just a little odd. I've worked with people who would nudge people in their cars if they cut them up on their way into work and would bring big leather bags in which smelt really odd and they'd say things like 'If you try and look in my bag, I will stick a knife up your arse.', stuff like that. And I still didn't think they were insane.

Mad Phil, as he was known, used to get a lift in with us in the morning and would sit there with this bag on his lap. One day Tim was driving and he turned the radio on not realising he had a thomas the tank engine tape in which came on quite loud, Phil tried to get out of the car screaming, while we were driving down the motorway. One day, Phil said he would drive in. So he pulls up outside my house with a screech of tyres. The others all looked at me white faced, checking their seatbelts. Phil had only two speeds, completely flat out and completely locked up tyres. He drove literally two inches behind the car in front and then would wave his hands out of the windows with his fingers up until they moved out the way, everyone moved out of the way.

We never let Phil drive us in again.

And I still don't think he was insane.

I used to work with a bloke called Bill who had a bit of paper that said he wasn't mental which was more than anybody else had that was working there.

He used to get a jab once a month that "controlled" his behaviour. Unfortunately it only lasted about 4 weeks which made for an interesting few days if it was a 31 day month

"he had a thomas the tank engine tape in which came on quite loud, Phil tried to get out of the car screaming"

Ringo Starrs voice has that effect on me now. Too many 5am starts with a small boy who wanted to spend 3 hours watching a 30 minute Thomas video on loop.

I have a dry sense of humour and have said such things on many occasions to see if anyone noticed/said anything. Doesn't mean I'm nuts or harmful.

I worked with a guy (ex soldier) who went insane / had a breakdown while i was there , interesting to watch to say the least. Ended up getting decked by a policeman who's wedding party he gatecrashed. Got sectioned after a while, escaped and was last seen hiding behind a car scuttling around commando style. He was Cornish though.

Very good mate and riding chum is a criminal psychologist – you really watch your behaviour around him 😯

Samuri's post had me almost in tears. Mad Phil sounds aces!

Not sure if he sounds insane, but certainly (from the examples quoted) comes across as lacking in social skills and appears to have the urge to be shocking / controversial. Difficult to form an opinion without meeting the guy, and lots of unanswered questions, ie, are these kind of comments random or has he always come out with stuff like this, is he a 'loner', what are his social circumstances, etc, etc. I'd agree with the first reply on the FT thread, and keep away from him at the office party. Now where did I put that Phil Collins album? ah yes, in the fridge with the dead hookers head !

We had a bloke who strangled his wife's poodle, then left the body in the bin for her to find. Later he went on to strangle the wife but she recovered. He wasn't regarded as mad.

Another bloke had previously worked in one of the local collieries, he insisted he'd taught his pit pony to sit beside him on the underground train because he felt sorry for it having to walk all the way to the coal face.

We used to be given a protective clothing issue every six months including socks, one bloke used to wear his socks, then at the end of the shift put them unwashed in his heated locker, as it got near the end of the six months, he used to bring the rigid socks out and bash them on the table until they were flexible enough to wear. And we used to eat our bait off that table.

You don't have to spend long working in industry to realise sanity is a very flexible concept.

When I went through RAF trade training there was a guy a few courses behind mine who was a few chips short of a happy meal. The night before we were going out on exercise he burst into the four man room I was in, dressed only in his reg grundies with his face covered in brown cam cream singing at the top of his lungs "let me entertain you!". I was speechless.
A few years later I ran into him in the Naafi shop on a training camp. He had picked up a bongo mag and was reading it intently as he walked up and down the isles. He reached the counter to pay for his purchases and continued to read his mag in front of the old girl on the checkout.
The man was a legend. I think he was slightly insane though.

one bloke used to wear his socks, then at the end of the shift put them unwashed in his heated locker, as it got near the end of the six months, he used to bring the rigid socks out and bash them on the table until they were flexible enough to wear.

So what did he wear in the mean-time? Or did he bash his socks every day in order to wear them again. In which case the 6 month period isn't really important?

yours, confused…

one cant be "insane" in my opinion.

everyone has a degree of "this" whatever it is.

some of us can suppress it, some of us just CANT keep inappropriate jokes to ourselves or moderate our volume (Joe, for any aberMTBers), some of us appear to have no social skills one way or another, then theres the people who have so little social skill they end up living on thier own with thier mother and her thousands of cats, and finally, there are the ones who end up chainsawing people a la leather face.

i think its a gradated scale, and you cant NOT be insane, or BE insane.

HOWEVER, pidgeon holeing people isnt a bad thing, raise a concern, keep an eye on it, but ffs tread gently, a person could be really hurt by the implication they have a thing for toddlers or something ;s

"one cant be "insane" in my opinion."
Should I invite you to the unit I work in then?

i THinK ThAt lEttER mIGHt aCTuaLLY bE FroM My BoSs

😯

I used to work in the Patent Office, there was a spate of "dirty protests" where a bloke would spread his night mud all over the walls of toilets. It got so bad they they reckoned he was importing the stuff from home in carrier bags to smear all over the place. He eventually got caught and was diagnosed as in the middle of a breakdown. Got 12 months on the sick and returned to work.

Major: "Morning, Fawlty!"

Basil: "There's a psychiatrist staying in the hotel, so DON'T SAY ANYTHING!!!"

I used to work in a pub and i'd get a lift in most evenings with one of the chefs. He had the ropiest old C reg Cavalier ever and no insurance or tax, but mitigated this by driving with the lights off so the fuzz couldn't see him.

i THinK ThAt lEttER mIGHt aCTuaLLY bE FroM My BoSs

"NURSE – he's out of bed again"

Whats a coworker?

So what did he wear in the mean-time? Or did he bash his socks every day in order to wear them again. In which case the 6 month period isn't really important?

He used to wear the wear the same socks every shift for six months, then new socks were issued and the cycle began again

can't you just bite him?

Terra – Member

So what did he wear in the mean-time? Or did he bash his socks every day in order to wear them again. In which case the 6 month period isn't really important?

He used to wear the wear the same socks every shift for six months, then new socks were issued and the cycle began again

I think he means what did he wear when he took the socks off…..

He drove literally two inches behind the car in front and then would wave his hands out of the windows with his fingers up until they moved out the way, everyone moved out of the way.

Sounds like a casual driving to me if you ask.

My first proper job was with the DHSS (as it was then) it was very hard sometimes to distinguish between the customers (some of whom were, let's say, on the fringes of society) and the staff, especially the guys in the fraud dept, One of whom I caught one day threatening a bin in the car park verbally, it was following him all over the place apparently…

I'm still waiting for someone who sits near Hora to join the thread….

"one cant be "insane" in my opinion."

damn right, they sectioned me just for being naked on a hotel roof flinging dung at low flying aircraft, that's perfectly **** normal I'd say…….. bastrds

jah – wasn't there a horse involved somewhere ?

I used to work with a bloke, who was a goth and when he got flustered or thought the person he was speaking to was an idiot in would throw in completely random words.

At first we thought it was deliberate, however after a while we weren't so sure.

Oh yeah and when we needed to test some network speeds and needed a big file he had one handy (doesn't everyone) it was a 40 minute recording of him sat in a derelict warehouse listening for ghosts, which he listened to on his iPod on the bus in.

Er, hmmmm yeah, there was a impulse buy pony, with no garden to put it in, kids being really pleased and wife being really quite annoyed, thanks for reminding me of that:)

A work colleague used to cut his finger and toe nails on his drawing board using a scalpel. And he cut his own hair (without a mirror) using a pair of blunt office scissors.

When I left to go travelling I got a card from everyone in the office and from him I got a small cutting of each of the above taped inside the card.

I had a guy working for me on one of my project teams. My boss' boss hired him when i was on holiday and from one look at his CV and a quick (illegal) background check I had some concerns. Well **** me if he wasn;t absolutely hatstand. Somehow or another they had decided to not ref check him which, had they, they might well have found out some of his history.
I had a mare with him – he used to work all the hours, well be at work anyway, and kept p1ssing on his seat/wetting himself. He'd ramble on and turned up at work one day in a dress. Bear in mind this was a very conservative BigN consultancy. I tried everything i could then gave him to HR. They gave up to so I sacked him because he couldn;t do his job and was stressing everyone out and decided to wear the consequences when he went to employment people. During this time I'd done a big check on him and discovered all sorts. I genuinely did try and help him out, got him counselling etc etc. The day he shat on my car windscreen however was one thing too far for me.
Turns out about 18 months after i last saw him he killed himself after sending threatening messages to my boss. Apparently he also said he would have threatened me but didn;t know where I lived ! Truly odd and scary. A psychologist friend who was running a training course we were on at the start took me aside on day 2 and told me he was certifiable and wtf was he doing in this job ? Good fooking question my friend ..

kept p1ssing on his seat/wetting himself

I remember one of the warehouse guys used to be like like in my first company. It didn't seem to bother him either, he was like that old woman on little Britain who would carry on talking to you while piss was streaming across the floor. He had a thing for the young lads in the company as well and all new starters were told not to let themselves get trapped in a dead end by him.

Thinking about it, that's such a world away from how things are nowadays. If someone like that was employed now who took pleasure in trapping young lads into corners and talking dirty to them while rubbing his crotch, they'd be sacked out of hand and criminal charges would be brought.

25 years ago we were told not to let him get us in a corner and watch out for him pissing himself, that was the official line from HR.