While working as a contract administrator in a service-based office, there were a lot of chaotic and toxic interactions.

My client hardly left his office and every time I saw him in his office he was playing on his phone.

One particular moment stood out to me as disturbing in my first week.

Client: We can’t take on any new customers at the moment. We don’t have the staff for it.

He said this casually, in passing.

Me: OK.

I received a phone call from a customer who said she was a referral from a different company.

Me: This customer says she is a referral.

Co-worker: Ok, you can schedule her then.

Days later, I was talking to the customer on the phone about her upcoming appointment. I double-checked with a co-worker about the details.

Client: Sorry. We have to tell her we need to take her off the schedule. We shouldn’t have scheduled her. We just can’t do it.

Me: Oh, wow. I guess I have to tell her we can’t take her on.

Obviously, the customer was very upset by all of this and threatened to leave a horrible review about us online. We had to talk to her for half an hour to get her to calm down and get her back on the schedule.

The next day I was visited by another Manager in the office.

Manager: You should not have needed to take her off the schedule to begin with. She was a referral from the company I’ve partnered with, so that was fine to schedule her.

Ummm… the circles of B.S. here are crazy.