The last 50 years have brought an unprecedented amount of technology and reform to the way we do business. Those writing Science Fiction around that time might have predicted that we'd either be living in a utopia where we no longer needed to work to live or we'd be living in a dystopian world where few oligarchs, like the fictional Eldon Tyrell, hoarded wealth from the masses like dragons sitting on a pile of gold, while many struggled just to survive in a world of decaying infrastructure amid…

The age-old workplace practice of requiring workers to go to the doctor after missing a day of work to get a sick note feels a little strange; it's infantilizing in the sense that the only other thing like it in our lives is when we had to bring a note from your mommy into grade school after missing class. If your boss wants to treat you like a child, you might as well act like one and act like you don't know a thing. The real problem comes in the form of the fact that it's impossible to get in…

Working in modern workplaces can be exceptionally exhausting. Constant distractions due to open-plan offices tear employees away from their work. At the same time, success is attached to social and political status with heavy reliance on the “optics” of busyness rather than employees' actual effectiveness in completing their tasks. The reality is that we all work differently, and forcing all staff to work what you perceive to be the “appearance” of hard work will result in a performative cultur…

You've probably heard that old adage about the new hire who goes in for their first day of training ready to do everything by the book but is instead surprised and maybe even disappointed when they're instead taught all of the shortcuts that the experienced grizzled employee has developed over the years, cutting out the parts of the process that are superfluous and unnecessary. The problem is that by learning and only using the shortcuts in the first instance, they're never going to understand…

"I spilled coffee onto my clothes. Never make that mistake again. I brought brownies in. Never do that again, people could have allergies."

Giving honest feedback is tough, but the only thing harder is receiving it. Especially when the content or implications of that feedback catch us off guard, we might think we're doing everything right and are contributing far above our pay grade and described role, and yet, the visibility of our contributions may not be what we think it is… and we might have fallen afoul elsewhere within our supervisor's expectations. See, it all comes down to perception, which never quite matches up with the r…

Being told that there's absolutely no way you can or should possibly be paid more for your work when you've taken on the responsibilities of not one but two vacant levels of management above your actual role is disappointing for certain. It's almost more disappointing, though, when you get another job offer for 32% more than your current pay, and when you tell your employer the news, they're more than willing to give you the money you originally asked for and more. As always, in situations such…

If workers aren't being paid for their time, the real charity is the business itself… Businesses love to “contribute” to charity almost as much as they love using pizza parties as a band-aid solution for morale. For one thing, it's a great look for the business after the marketing team gets its hands on the photos taken on the day and then makes a bunch of social media posts grossly exaggerating the company's involvement and contributions. Even more importantly, almost all expenses involved in…

If you've ever worked in an industry with technicians or mechanics, you know there is one rule that must be followed: Never (NEVER) touch their tools—or tell them how to organize and manage them. This is true even if the company provides the tools, but it is especially true if the mechanics buy and use their own toolsets. As one commenter cleverly pointed out on the original thread, this story was shared: Asking a mechanic to organize or tidy their tools so that you can borrow them is like your…

There is just a certain degree of oversight that doesn't need to occur in any situation. Sure, you might like to keep a tight lid on operations and your staff, but you can guarantee there are certain things that you don't need—and probably don't want—to know. At any rate, there reaches a point in your career where enough is going on underneath your level of authority where requiring any one thing to pass across your desk will result in an amount of work that you can't possibly keep up with. You…

There's this trend that happens in every industry, across every workplace, where managers think they've come up with a clever and original new idea to increase profits. See, there are really only two ways to do this: Increase revenue or decrease expenses. However, increasing revenue is hard and takes effort and new ideas, so instead, they start looking at the bottom line. The first place they're going to look at at this point is staffing. Employees and labor are huge expenses, and management is…

After remaining loyal to a company for several years, what would be the final straw for you to call it quits? If you don't have any work drama, the most common answer is probably for a better salary elsewhere. Lots of employees boast about job hopping in their early career in order to reach a desired salary. Some even claim that it's the only way to significantly increase their earnings, as a lot of jobs don't give regular raises, and if they do, they are hardly enough to keep up with inflati...

Some people just don't respond well to rejection, even when that rejection comes in the perceived form of an employee handing in their notice even if they've never treated the employee well or cared much for them in the first place. Anyone who has been around the block a couple of times in their career will know how this goes. They'll say it's about betrayal and the fact that you're leaving your ream high and dry with a touch of “How could you do this to us,” this might be followed by silent tr…

“Math is important.” “You're going to use this one day, so you'd better pay attention.” Welcome to today's edition of “Is your employer smarter than a 5th grader…” These are things we were told in school, and it's clear some people didn't listen. That's all well and good; it's not like you're actually going to use differential equations in your everyday life, but it stands to reason that having a base understanding of the way the world works or even having the ability to accept that there are t…

“Rules for me but not for thee” is a phrase you'll see bandied about whenever there is an unjust application of rules by undeserving leaders in instances where they are making themself an exception to their own rules without any explanation being given. This hypocrisy will earn them the ire of their subordinates, who are disgruntled at the lack of fairness and the fact that they're having their own conditions worsened.

Trust that the employee knows how to do their job.