Posting in Reddit’s “Malicious Compliance” forum under the username u/I_aim_to_sneeze, the employee said their boss ignored them as they stood bleeding by her desk. The post has garnered over 16,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments from Redditors who said they could relate to the worker’s story.
At the beginning of their post, u/I_aim_to_sneeze said they once got hit with a “profuse nosebleed” at work. Rather than make a big deal out of it, they decided to plug their nose with tissues and keep working; however, the bleeding didn’t stop. So, they headed over to their boss’s desk to let them know they were going to head out and “take care of [their] nose.”
“She [was] talking with one of my co-workers, and normally I wouldn’t interrupt, but given the circumstances, I came up and started with ’excuse me (boss), sorry to interrupt, bu-’…Without looking up, she cuts me off and says, ‘you can clearly see I’m in a one-on-one, please be polite and wait for me to finish,’” u/I_aim_to_sneeze recalled.
In response, u/I_am_to_sneeze did as they were told—they stood quietly by their boss’s desk and “bled.”
“By the time she finally looked up, it wasn’t a pretty sight. She asked me why I didn’t say something sooner, and I just repeated back to her what she had told me,” u/I_aim_to_sneeze wrote. “She sheepishly said, ‘obviously stuff like this would be an exception.’”
Dealing With Nosebleeds
According to the Cleveland Clinic, stuffing one’s nose isn’t an effective way to deal with a nosebleed.
“It might seem to make sense to stuff tissues or napkins up your nostrils to slow the bleeding, but doing so can irritate the lining of your nose and cause more bleeding when the stuffing is removed,” the clinic explained.
Instead, individuals should sit up straight and apply pressure to the bridge of their noses.
“Keep pressure for at least 10 to 15 minutes before checking to see if the bleeding has stopped,” Mohamad Chaaban told the clinic.
If the bleeding doesn’t stop after 15 minutes, individuals should then apply ice or a cold compress to the bridge of their noses. If bleeding doesn’t stop after 30 minutes, then “it’s time to talk to a medical professional.”
Redditor u/I_aim_to_sneeze didn’t say whether or not they spoke to a doctor about their nosebleed, but they did leave the office.
Redditors React
Many commenters criticized u/I_aim_to_sneeze’s boss for ignoring them for so long.
“If she would have acknowledged your presence when she first spoke to you with so much as a glance she would have seen it was an exception,” u/whoozywhatzitnow wrote.
“Literally all she had to do was turn her f**king head for two seconds,” u/brodaget42 agreed.
“Your boss should have looked at you while she asked you to wait. Then asked, ‘is this about your nose?’” u/Zoreb1 offered.
Others shared that they’ve experienced somewhat similar situations at work.
“I worked at a McDonald’s and my nose started bleeding. The assistant manager was helping me with it when the general manager came in to see how we were doing. He found there were a lot of people waiting to be rung up and demanded I be on register instead of ‘messing around in the back.’ So instead of explaining I unplugged my nose and walked to the front and just let it drip onto the floor and everything,” u/Ephemeralwriting recalled.
“Reminds me of a time I cut my thumb open working at Walmart. I went to every single first aid box in the store, and they were all empty…When I complained to our store manager that all the first aid boxes were empty she just said, ‘Oh that sucks. From now on it’s your responsibility to keep them all full. That means you’ll be written up every time we get a complaint about them,’” u/Vypernorad added.
Newsweek reached out to u/I_aim_to_sneeze for comment.
Other Viral Moments
Redditor u/I_aim_to_sneeze isn’t the first poster to go viral in recent days.
A Redditor went viral on Tuesday after sharing a picture of a “morbid” workplace sign telling employees that their recently deceased co-worker “wouldn’t complain” about stress. On Monday, a Redditor went viral after re-posting a photo of a restaurant’s “insulting” job posting. And last week, a Redditor amassed online attention after sharing a screenshot of a “threatening” email several restaurant employees received from their boss.
