Dealing with needless paperwork and bureaucratic annoyances is just a part of working for an organization. Chances are the larger the organization, the more they're going to have a strong attachment to arduous processes and ever-increasing stacks of paperwork. There are other factors, too; depending on how controlling and pedantic each manager up the chain of command is, you might end up with more or less paperwork than the expected amount for your organization. If the biggest baddest boss love…

Imagine having the audacity to talk openly about the $15K you casually spend twice a year on luxury vacations for your kids while your employees are actively struggling financially. One has to wonder if that “hard-earned” money could have been used to keep your employees from having to live paycheck-to-paycheck. This thread was posted to Reddit by u/Ranier_Wolfnight , who shared exactly how all this drama went down on a conference call. Evidently, at the beginning of said call, the CEO was atte…

No one wants to work more hours per week. For more money, maybe, but what about working more hours per week for the same amount of money? No thanks. Nowadays, a four-day workweek is becoming increasingly popular, with studies showing that employees are actually more productive when the workweek is reduced by a day. And it makes sense because an extra day off can help prevent burnout and improve overall work-life balance. In fact, a shorter work week could motivate employees to complete their wo…

One employee found themself without a car, and it was only because their workplace refused to give it up. It was a weird situation to be in! The employee, u/FMLitsSML, shared their story of the petty revenge route they had to take just to get their own car back. Layers of bureaucracy don't help any employee to be independent in their work. This person was responsible for showing clients around and entertaining them. It's pretty common practice in certain industries: it's a way to reassure payin…

Knowing how to effectively communicate with your peers, subordinates—and especially your managers—is (unfortunately) one of the greatest determining factors not only in the success of projects but in how you're regarded within the company, too. Work too hard and say too little, and you'll still find yourself first on the chopping block when it comes time to lighten up the load of payroll, while saying too much and not doing much at all will usually keep you moving up the chain of command. Yes,…

Imagine getting let go by your boss over a year ago, only for him to reach back out and offer a gift card if you find him some qualified new employees. Here's the best part: instead of a personalized message, this dude framed his email as if his former employee was part of a “company alumni” group and that this referral process was part of a contest. From our perspective, a personalized message would still have been insulting but it would have been far more effective than this framing was. Stil…

What the customer wants, the customer gets. That's the rule of the land at one company, but this person's boss had them take that idea way too far. Companies make their employees go through the hiring process . They read their resumes, make sure they have a college degree, and reach out to references. Then, when that highly qualified employee actually does start their job, the company doesn't care about their qualifications one bit. It must be infuriating, especially for people who are talented…

This manager could only do one thing: sink every department he was put in charge of. As much fun as it probably is to hire a bunch of your friends to work with you, that strategy is going to come with some drawbacks. Next up, these people had some completely awful meals at the weddings they attended, like one person who had to eat “plain boiled chicken with no seasonings.”

What is the value in enforcing who gets to have a cup of coffee in the office? The only potential answer to that question is for a toxic manager to be able to flex his muscles and enforce his sense of authority for literally no reason other than to do just that. This time, we have a manager who did not like how his employee offered interview candidates a cup of coffee, as they were not present in the office for “whole day events.” So, he went ahead and enforced this absolutely bogus rule.

Time may be a construct, but it's the same for everybody. We're all bound by the 60 minutes every hour and the 24 hours in a day–and when you're paid by the hour and working on a strict schedule, time becomes law. For the retail employee in our next story, time became more than just a means to collect their paycheck, it became a great way to get payback on a salty micromanager.

If you think your boss is goofy, just wait until you hear about how other peoples' bosses act.

Who wouldn't react this way? Sometimes, people will mistreat you so egregiously that you have no choice but to drop all the niceties and call this person out point blank. That's exactly what happened to this Redditor , who worked in a body shop and had expressed to his manager over several years that he wanted the opportunity to take over for painting when his much older coworker inevitably retires. The promotion would not only result in a pay raise, but it was also far more in line with what t…

This CEO just made a huge mistake . Better still, he has no idea what he's done, or how colossal his mistake has become. When you finally get a job with a nice salary , it can transform your life overnight. You can pay off your debts, stop worrying about making rent, and have a little extra to treat yourself with. It makes it feel like all those years of working unpaid internships or minimum-wage jobs have finally paid off. This worker found a startup company that was willing to double their cu…

If you've ever worked a job that relies on timesheets, you know how this goes… Management (usually of the upper variety) wants to keep better track of how and where staff are spending their time, they pressure staff to charge out more hours to jobs, trying to keep them from posting “unproductive” uncharged hours. Suddenly, clients are getting charged more hours, and therefor paying more, for services implement The really interesting thing about management wanting to better track

Having a Karen coworker feels like going into battle every single day of the work week. You have to walk into your place of work ready and prepared to be lectured, condescended to, and poorly treated. If the Karen in question is your equal, don't worry: she'll still talk down to you no matter what. Having a Karen for a coworker is largely about picking and choosing when to defend yourself and when to be the bigger person and let her nonsense go in one ear and out the other. Generally, you want…

Strict adherence to policy is a double-edged sword; if you demand unquestioning obedience to the rules when it benefits you, then you need to hold that same zealous ideal when things aren't stacked to go your way. Unfortunately, we humans seem to really struggle with this and love nothing more than changing rules, or our interpretation of them, to suit us best—sometimes without realizing we're doing so. After all, we're all the heroes of our own stories, and we have the uncanny ability to hold…