You know your work environment is toxic if you have to describe your supervisor as a “tyrant.” This employee had one of those bosses that no one likes. Not a single person in the company is happy to see that boss when she walks in the door, probably because she had a habit of flipping out over any and everything. No one wants to have a micromanager boss , especially not one who is constantly flipping out. It's not good to have to be in a constant state of fight or flight over office work! And t…

The finance department at this company learned exactly who they shouldn't be messing with. U/thelastword4343 shared their story of some very petty revenge within their job as a project manager for a small company. Project managers have a lot to take on, and they need to be very organized. This person claims they are, but the company's finance department just doesn't see eye to eye with them. That can happen in companies: different departments feel territorial or hold petty grudges, and it can a…

This dude had the worst first day at work ever, as his manager can tell you. I mean, you have to be a memorably bad worker to get the boot after a single eight-hour shift. Poor u/LazerMoonCentaur was a manager at a cafe, and one day, they got stuck with the least competent employee ever. Next up, these people shared stories of the most tech-illiterate people they know like the person who had to show someone “multiple times how to open Excel .”

This person is completely blind to the consequences of their impatience. Luckily for the rest of us, their story is an unintentionally funny tale of workplace ignorance. There's always that one coworker that just doesn't pick up on the job. They could have all the training in the world, but they still don't understand basic tasks. They're the person who needs your help ten times per day when you're not even their supervisor. Other times, “that one coworker” will do their job so badly that every…

This person gave their company half a year to replace them , and that still wasn't enough time. That's a generous offer! Most people give the usual two weeks' notice when switching jobs. It's the common courtesy to let your employer know that you're heading for the door, while also giving them time to strategize and start the hiring process for your replacement. U/Knowslittle wrote that their employer was making them do the jobs of three people . This worker was stretched so thin that it was be…

This employee was confused by their boss's latest comments, and they decided to comply to the best of their abilities. For many women, being told to smile more is an unfortunate rite of passage. It's usually said by some older dude as the woman is working or just walking around, minding her own business. There's no winning in this situation. If you smile back on request, you feel degraded, and definitely not smiley. If you don't smile, they'll say something about kids these days, and why can't…

This boss felt confident in telling one employee to quit … but he didn't think they'd actually do it. In a story to r/Maliciouscompliance, this employee shared what happened when they worked for a company with high turnover and low pay. U/Catacombs3 wrote that it was a continuous cycle. People would be hired, trained, and could often hit their targets. But paying your employees a low salary means they can't be loyal to you: they're always going to be looking for someone else who can pay them mo…

If you do something badly enough , you might not get asked to do it again. In the workplace, you've got to do this strategically. You want to mess up some basic chores in order to get out of them, but you also don't want to be viewed as being bad at your job. This is common in many workplaces. Even though we all do dishes every day, in the office, everyone conveniently “forgets” how to load the dishwasher. Other people will pretend they can't figure out how to work the printer, and someone else…

Working in a contract role gives you a lot of protection from bad bosses. But no one told that to u/Wrong-Ad-2507's boss, who seemed clueless about how that all works. It can be really difficult, if not impossible, to stand up to your boss. For a lot of people, the intimidation of it all is too much. It can be hard to ask for a day off, for example, without your boss demanding to know what you're doing and why you need that time off. Other people will constantly work late hours at their boss's…

The new CEO of a startup had a brilliant idea: why not make every employee work from 9 AM to 6 PM with no exceptions? There are benefits to working hourly and for working salaried . With hourly jobs, you better make sure you're on time, down to the second. Lots of retail or restaurant jobs depend on their workers being there on the dot, and there are consequences for clocking in too late or too early. But the good side to that is that when you clock out, you're done. Many places literally won't…

If you talk the talk, you better walk the walk. If you can't, you're in for embarrassment… and possibly even worse outcomes than that. This assembly line worker had an interesting story to tell about what happened to them and his coworker. This coworker, Richard, kept stealing the credit for his work, which is a surefire way to lower that employee's morale. It can be so dispiriting to work for ages on something, only to realize that no one knows you actually did it. When you see the big bosses…

Don't accept that job until you've vetted the company well. I know it's hard not to accept the first gig that offers you a contract, but it's worth your time to spot red flags before signing on. One person mentioned another great one, which is having a lot of very young people who are running an older company. Young people are great, of course, but it signifies that the company can't retain their older workers, who probably left to find better wages . And it implies that they're hiring youngste…

Be very very careful with anonymous surveys… you never really know if they're actually anonymous or not! In some workplaces, HR will send around anonymous surveys every now and then. They can address mundane topics, like asking if people want more employee events, and trying to take the temperature on morale. Other times these surveys are directly asking how leadership is doing, and those feel risky to answer. Even if the results come through a third-party service, it can't be that hard to figu…

This manager had a great idea: why not switch around her employee's hours just to keep them on their feet? Just kidding, that's not a great idea, it's a terrible one, obviously. Doing shift work is all well and good if you work the same 3-11 or 7-3 shift. As long as you're always working mornings or nights, it's easy to plan your life around it. But when you find yourself working nights and mornings back to back, it becomes an issue. And if you're stuck working any time of day, not knowing when…

This manager will have to be careful with her phrasing in the future. One of her employees decided to take her literally, and it cost the store time and money . Managers have a lot to deal with on any given day on the job. When they step in the door to start their shift, they have to start the day by trying to get people to cover someone who's called out. Then, they might have to work the registers for a while and talk to customers with the most inane questions imaginable. In their down time, t…

This dude thought he had bragging rights because he was “training right now to be a supervisor there”