Man Shares A Fail Story From When He Hid Under The Pharmacy Counter At Work And Then The CEO Arrived

No matter how confident and self-assured we might be, the vast majority of us still want to make a good impression on our bosses. Unfortunately, human beings tend to have problems with timing and not tripping on their own two feet when it comes to important moments.

Case in point, Christian A. Dumais shared a story on Twitter about how he was hiding inside a pharmacy counter when the CEO walked in. It’s a hilarious tale about embarrassment that, well, minor spoilers—has a surprising ending. Have a read below, dear Pandas, and share your thoughts about Dumais’ story in the comment section. We hope you have a good chuckle, just like I did. Oh, and before you ask, Dumais might be a comedian, but the story is 100% certified true.

Dumais told Bored Panda that while he can laugh about what happened now, he was mortified at the time. "I have a whole library of stories like this, where I start to do something 'funny' or 'cool' and it ends up turning into a ridiculous and/or humiliating experience." Read on for more of Dumais' insights into working as a pharmacy technician, how our bosses should be the ones impressing us, and what lies at the core of the writer's storytelling.

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Dumais revealed that working in a pharmacy is tough, emotionally draining, and can cause a lot of stress. "To see people on their worst day in need of medicine, or to see people breaking down when they realize the price of the medication—these were huge life lessons for someone like me who was in university at the time. I was so lucky to work with such caring and diverse people, and moments like the ones in my story were much-needed back then," he shared.

A few years after that, Dumais was promoted to a pharmacy auditor. It was a huge step up for him and came with a lot of responsibility. "And I remember being at the company's headquarters and passing the CEO in the hallway. He didn't recognize me, but I remember thinking, 'All right, it's over. This job was fun while it lasted.'"

Unfortunately, Dumais also had some sad news for us. His former colleague, pharmacist Rick, passed away 8 years ago. "But he brought [the story] up the last time I saw him, along with a lot of other funny moments."

Bored Panda also wanted to get Dumais' take on what employees should do to make a good impression on their bosses. However, he flipped the script on me and pointed out that, actually, things should actually work the other way around.

"I work with different clients that represent different companies. These companies have different work cultures and attitudes, different industries—some are even in different countries, as well. And what I've learned, especially in the last year, is that it's more important for the boss to make a good impression. If they work hard, show off a positive attitude, etc. then it makes the employees want to work harder," he said. "Life's too short to work for terrible people."

Dumais said that the CEO in his story had "every right to be annoyed or angry" and that if the boss had yelled at him or sent him home "for being an idiot," he wouldn't have had much to defend himself with. "I wasted an hour of the company's time. There was plenty of work to be done. Instead, he heard me out and decided to laugh about it. That told me a lot about the kind of boss he was," he highlighted how small stories like this one can tell you a lot about the people in charge.

He also opened up about the importance that writing and storytelling have in his life and heart. "Storytelling is a big part of my life, both professionally (working in marketing and public speaking) and personally (writing, standup, idiot on social media)," Dumais quipped.

He explained that people respond to authenticity and honesty, no matter how embarrassing things might sound. It's all about creating genuine connections and having a laugh, after all. "I tell a lot of funny true stories from my life in my stand up (and on Twitter) and the ones people respond to are the embarrassing ones. Everyone has had moments they're ashamed or embarrassed of, and the instinct is to bury it—and when you hear someone else tell a humiliating story about their life, it gives you permission to forgive yourself.

"It's me offering you an authentic piece of myself and hoping you can use it to put yourself back together again. And if not, at the very least, I hope it made you laugh and forget about things for a while. That's what any story can hope to achieve."

Dumais’ story made a few people laugh on Twitter, but it went absolutely viral on Imgur. At the time of writing, a post about his story has over 9k upvotes. People were absolutely delighted.

Some suggested that Dumais should have jumped out and scared the CEO. While others confessed that they’ve been in similar situations before. See, this is the type of fun, wholesome, and hilarious content the internet was made for.

Dumais isn’t just a comedian: he’s also a writer, digital marketer, and public speaker. I take my hat off to him because he’s published over 18 books, 300 stories, 500 articles, and 1k newsletters. While I’ve got him beat in the articles department, Dumais is lightyears ahead of me in terms of everything else.

Writing seems to be in his blood and we can clearly see that from the way he presents the humorous tale of how he got to meet the company’s CEO. Dumais shared some of his writing tips on his website.

For him, finishing a story is the important thing, not just starting it. He also recommends doing lots of reading, taking a walk whenever you get stuck, writing down all of the ideas that pop into your head (“you won’t remember the idea later), and getting off social media if you actually want to get any quality writing done.

What’s more, he says that it’s all right not to know where the story is going. Which is probably the exact thing he was worried about while stuck in the pharmacy counter, sweating with panic.