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Between colleagues, I mean. There's a lot of stress and passive aggression at work but does it ever boil over into fisticuffs?
Not in the workplace but I've seen fists fly at works nights out.
Must be a story behind this!
I've had to step in before fisticuffs, as it was going that way (office job). Taken a couple of hits myself from punters when working in a bar.
Personally a bit of pushing and shoving, no punches though. A colleague witnessed a fight between rival firms at a "do", plenty of booze had been consumed. It was a black tie event at a top London hotel - Foreign Exchange Traders eh ?
Years ago, former company. We had a tech support guys (bit of an alcoholic it turned out) who decked a customer on an evening out to celebrate the sealing of the deal. Fortunately it was signed by then!
Had a hammer thrown at me back in the day in the late eighties. Was setting piece work rates in a factory and had just announced a rate decrease to a section ( of plasticine mixers). They were not happy. As I walked out of the section a hammer flew passed my head 😯
The senior and another partner at a small accountancy I used to work at had a fist fight in the street - they were very fractious. Unsurprisingly the business went tits-up not too long after.
Yes
whilst on a big job in london about 7 yrs ago, i saw 2 chippies (supposedly mates and well into their 50s) throwing punches and then having a good old roll around on the floor. all because 1 had used the other ones chisel without asking 😯
whilst on a big job in london about 7 yrs ago, i saw 2 chippies (supposedly mates and well into their 50s) throwing punches and then having a good old roll around on the floor. all because 1 had used the other ones chisel without asking
maybe chisel was the name of their gay lover?
I have not seen any punch up yet but I sure want to do it some backstabbers. 😈
Got punched when I told a trainee that he hadn't been promoted to a full time position and would have to remain a trainee. He got sacked on the spot.
Got slapped by a fellow PhD student (and ex flatmate) in our office. He got moved out pretty quick and thankfully has moved city now!
I've offered to explain contact counselling on a couple of occasions but never been taken up on it 😈
chrisdw - Member
Must be a story behind this!
POSTED 1 HOUR AGO # REPORT-POST
Just wondering how far I can push it without getting my nose broken. 😉
Witnessed the transition from "banter" to "personal" with the net result of a broken jaw and instant dismissal.
Punched one of my old bosses out cold one day. Called him into the warehouse and just swung at him as he entered. I'd just found out he had been borrowing my then girlfriend.
No disciplinary action was taken against me strangely 😆
Not with colleagues but with patients. I work on a locked intensive care ward for psych patients. People brought in by cops off their chops on me that or acutely psychotic. Often restraining, secluded and deescalating volatile situations. Scary and a buzz all in one.
Selfridges warehouse Paddington London, circa 1996 or maybe 7. Two guys who had previously been friends going at it on a sunny afternoon over a suspected underweight 1/4 of weed. The smaller guy I thought was going to win punched some metal shelving and it was all over. Good sport, it beat looking down at the huge carp in the canal or smoking spliffs in the 4th floor toilets.
It's normal in a warehouse / sorting office / factory job.
And not necessarily a bad thing, done properly.
I would tend to agree, it alleviates the boredom.
Had a fight with a mate at 3am outside an American beer tent on an old Turkish air base whilst on exercise. Our other mates were cheering us on when an American sergeant ran over and told us to stop. We did but only to laugh at him. He walked away in disgust muttering something about crazy Brits. We then went back inside and bought each other a drink. Cleared the air between us.
When I was an apprentice I used to get a lift to work with a couple of blokes. At hometime one of the fellas was late, so the driver left him to get the bus. Next morning the fella who was late walked round to the drivers side of the car & asked him to wind the window down , he then broke the drivers nose.OOF.
On a works Xmas do some moons ago, our MD got in a fight with his biggest customer over a woman. No word of a lie
Yes, and I've also seen trained guard dogs used to discourage it.
Virgin Retail distribution centre, 3rd party logistics provider at the time. The cause was something occurring externally that was brought into the workplace.
Nearly. It got to finger jabbing in the chest between the technical guy and the sales guy, before the sales guy delivered the immortal line 'if this was a pub type environment, I'd be inviting you into the car park'
The tech guy just p'ed himself laughing and the sales guy left shortly after. Still to this day, if the tech guy and I disagree professionally over any point, one of us always has to say pub type environment.
We used to have a fair amount of race based violence at one of the warehouses.. seems to have subsided now, but not before a group of 30ish individuals kicked shit out of each other one summer evening in the car park.
Years ago at a place I used to work the Production Manager told a painter on the shop floor that he was being paid off at the end of the week. Cue pee'd off painter with a full 20 litre bucket of paint. You can guess what happened next
Funnily enough all the following pay offs were done in the manager's office!
Last week, our Boss kicked a female worker on her ass for being late, she turned round and slapped him one, then asked if he wanted some more.
As a 19 year old working on a farm, got head butted and sparked out by the owner of the farm for blowing a tire on a tractor, my nose has never been the same since 😉
Not quite a punch up and a bit long-winded but here goes.
Many years ago went on a 'team building' exercise with a free bar. After the meal had a good time chatting and drinking with colleagues - mostly a great bunch to work with and as we were spread all over the country, we didn't get together very often.
At the end of the evening was with a bunch of the commercial managers. After a while their senior manager (a known bully) joined them and without any ado or provocation told me to eff off. When I didn't he proceeded to repeat himself several times getting nastier about it. Getting a bit sick of it I told him to shut it or join me outside. He didn't respond but looked for support from his team to add weight to his eff off. They declined.
At this point I decided to go to bed, leaving with a few of his parting shots following me - he fancied himself a bit of a wit. I returned to his table and gave him some choice words including suggesting that whatever he said I wasn't really bothered as when I went to sleep I would be comforted by the thought that as he was 30 years older than me and would most likely be dead long before me... I was met with stunned silence.
Went to bed thinking that I would be sure to be disciplined for threatening the idiot and may even lose my recent promotion.
Next morning bumped into the senior director whilst being served breakfast. He told me he had received a complaint about my conduct... After those chilling words he clapped me on my shoulder and said it was time someone stood up to the bully and well done!
The bullying senior manager then came over and instigated a mutual apology mentioning that I had hurt his feelings...
No, but a collegue (ex-rugby league guy) once told the FD that if he didn't sort himself out (some internal non-promotion/payrise issues) he'd have his legs broken - the FD went white as he knew my collegue meant it.
as a 10 or 11 year old boy I had a paper round, I had also on this particular day a bag of them snappers you throw at the floor. I was delivering some guys papers happily snapping my snappers when a grumpy man in his late 30's early 40 came out and punched me square in the stomach hard enough so that I was sick. he apparently thought that i was doing damage with the little paper snappers. I waited and waited until I was old enough for a fight on this bloke I waited about 6 years, went back to his house knocked on the door and he answered (I knew he still lived there) I asked him if he remembered the incident and what he was going to do about a angsty 17 year old on his doorstep that he had punched 6 years previous. he punched me again and closed his door. rang his door bell again he came out gunning for me managed to get a swift boot to the front of his knee and he went down like a sack of spuds. I looked at my work for a few seconds with great satisfaction and then was promptly arrested. They guy didn't press any charges and apologised to me and explained that he had been an alcoholic for many years and he was sorry for punching me as a child on my paper round. wish I'd told my dad at the time he punched me as a kid, but thought my dad would take the other guys side.
[i]our Boss kicked a female worker on her ass for being late[/i]
She rides an ass to work? No wonder she's late!
I called someone a 'prick' in a meeting a few years back. He was.
Apart from a roadrage in the car park, that's about the nearest I've seen. Hmm, why do they only involve me..?
[i]what he was going to do about a angsty 17 year old on his doorstep that he had punched 6 years previous. he punched me again and closed his door.[/i]
not quite the response you'd hope for, I expect 🙂
Two colleague's banter progressed to outright insults and a strained but bearable relationship between them escalated to hatred.
One day at work person A sent a snotty text to person B who was at home, person B phoned up and they argued.
Person B hung up the call but then arrived at work about 10mins later and punched person A in the face....person B never worked here again.
I thought it was funny anyway.
A few. First ones were at a fairly well known recruitment group every single year at the Xmas parties. Too many competing companies with some fairly large egos in one place so it was inevitable. After 2-3 years the CEO sent an email reminding people fighting at the party wasn't allowed; it stopped nothing.
Xmas party at my last job, bloke drank a bottle of JD in his hotel room, got a bit lairy with someone who worked for me and ripped his shirt. When my boss stepped in to calm the situation down he chinned him. Bloke woke up the following morning and asked his mate in the same room "Did I do anything daft last night?". He was invited to resign to avoid the inevitable firing and possible police involvement.
I've only seen one fight actually at the office and it was over a football match. Chippy Scot, chippy Englishman and 7am beers during the Japan/Korean world cup didn't mix. Fight was over quickly, both were fired (ostensibly for the fight as the company tolerated 7am drinking for some reason).
wwaswas - Member
what he was going to do about a angsty 17 year old on his doorstep that he had punched 6 years previous. he punched me again and closed his door.not quite the response you'd hope for, I expect
ha ha no it wasn't, taught me a lesson though. if you're gonna fight, fight, don't run your lips like you're going to fight.
Not a punch up but my colleagues kidnapped a director and held him hostage.
but I do work for a French company, so its just an everyday kind of thing.
Yup, I was the bosses son (plasterer) so got all the crap they were afraid to say to my brick outhouse Dad. I spent most of my apprenticeship referred to as "the yid" cos "your old man pays jewish wages." I was always able to scrap and liked my boxing and rugby but kept myself to myself, pretty much because I was unable to open my mouth in front of about 5/6 of the 10 man workforce without getting verbally abused or slapped about.Anyway excuse for the following given....
I was 18 and we were harling a building and one of my main protaganists was chatting up a skull faced female in one of the flats through the scaffold. His mate was making remarks about the young lady's beauty and vitue,so lover boy threw a mash hammer at me,for laughing. He missed,so five mins later I was on the level below when he emptied a bucket of cement/PVA grout on my head. I went down and got my head in the big water drum we filled each night. I then threw his piece bag in the mixer,and as he came down to sort me out with a big smile on his face I crossed from the mark of being a wee laddie to being willing to go ahead with somebody 10 years older than me. I won; my old man paid for it not to go to court,then paid him off when all the details came out.I served my last two years with another firm. Dundee is a small place so I used to enjoy asking him if he wanted to try again for about the next ten years,then became the bigger man.
I've had a 'client' throw a bin through a window and come through the gap with a sword..
No one tried to fight him, the company owed him money, we got it out of our own accounts pretty sharpish.
I'm a lawyer. I would absolutely love to see a fight at work. Ideally one involving my boss getting walloped repeatedly in the face with some sort of axe.
Probably won't happen. 😐
Yes me, but I was on the end of the punch.
Long story, redundancies, me handing them out, bloke with anger issues..
Yagetit?
One of our consultants had a row with a customer at a christmas jolly, punched him in the face. The customer is still a customer, the consultant is no more.