They always say that you should fake it till you make it, and it's no secret that a little bravado will get you a long way. Sure, there might be an inverse relationship between confidence and competence—since you need to know enough about something to know how much you don't know, which makes you less confident as a result. But a lack of competence certainly doesn't stop people from getting jobs when there's confidence on display. But what do you do when you fail so epically upward that you fin…

The problem with writing or saying too much and flagging issues with your organization is that leaders will just default to considering you to be the problem, especially in instances where they are actually the problem but don't want to own it. And, let's face it, any issues within an organization are issues with leadership. At the end of the day, they're setting the course, and issues fall on their shoulders. But, they're not going to want to accept that, so someone who is flagging issues, whe…

Taking the initiative will get you far in most workplaces, even though it's technically your manager's job to make sure you have work to do. But the last thing any manager wants to do is chase staff around to make sure they're being productive, and anyone who has managed staff who never do anything they haven't been explicitly told to do knows how frustrating this can be. So, just them knowing that you're actively trying to get as much as possible done without their oversight will bring them so…

Higher education is interesting in the sense that it can mean wildly different things because—well, people are wildly different themselves. We perceive, retain, and apply information completely differently from one another. No two people are the same. While holding an advanced degree can mean you're intelligent, it doesn't necessarily mean that, and it's usually the people who insist that they're better and smarter than everyone else because of their degree who fall into that “not necessarily”…

You'll repeatedly encounter people who think they know better than you, even when it comes to the responsibilities of their own job. Most upper managers have this cynical view that their subordinates are just slack-jawed lackeys without a single decent thought. They probably think that whatever job it is their subordinates are doing, anyone could do, completely blind to the fact that this single employee is pulling more weight than anyone else in the organization—including them. Heck, there are…

Requesting time off from work is kind of a weird ritual. While you're technically “asking” for time off, that time is, is usually less of a “want” and more of a “need”—even though your employer will treat it like the former. It's not as if you can ask your cousin to reschedule their wedding just for you or your entire family to reschedule their family reunion. Still, lots of businesses have periods of high trade where they're exceedingly strict about granting any time off—or there during holida…

There are a range of reactions you might expect from an employer when you quit your job: they may be upset, get angry, or pretend like they don't care at all, whereas the jobs you are actually sad to leave will probably want to celebrate with you and congratulate you on your continued growth—even if they're a little mournful about it too. However, the reaction to your resignation you'll probably never expect is a flat “no” as a response. There's not

If you hate your job, you've probably fantasized about doing exactly this. Letting everyone know exactly how it is and saying the quiet parts out loud—finally declaring that the emperor has no clothes once and for all. Of course, while your coworkers will whisper This coworker's resignation went viral after they sent an email out to all staff at their company outlining, in a humorous way, everything that they despised about their time working for the company, doing so with a levity and sardonic…

Obey the schedule… Managers love to preach the importance of “the schedule”

There's an age-old saying that a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush, meaning that a guaranteed value will always hold more value than the prospect of something greater. This, too, is true when it comes to employment. The fact of any trade in capital is that the person buying will always want to pay as little as possible, and the person selling will always want the highest possible price for their goods. While this is simple economics, it really just speaks to how the monkey part of…

Organizations really, more than anything else, love scapegoating lowest-level workers for mistakes made by management and general organizational incompetence. The only thing that comes close is their love for simultaneously insisting that you should have just “handled” something on your own, even though the process you were following stated explicitly otherwise. Really, the truth of the matter is that they just hate having to handle any customer issue that has escalated to them, so there's no w…

There's this idea that sums up how we end up with so many incompetent managers, which is called the “Peter Principle." You've probably heard of it before, but if you're just coming across the term for the first time, it's basically surmising that people who are good at a job get promoted to the next level, even if that promoted position really has nothing to do with the skills they've proven to be apt at. What's unfortunate about these situations is moving into management is really the only way…

There's something about the realization that your manager is younger than you that triggers complex and deeply confrontational psychological crises and self-evaluation, making you wonder how and why you never progressed to that point, or at least passed the point you're at. What happened? What went wrong? Where did things go off course? Even if you never really wanted to be promoted to a management position in the first place, having someone younger than you as a manager for the first time may…

Typically, earning a bonus is a sign that you have assuredly gone above and beyond your employer's expectations for your role; it's more than likely you've contributed considerably to any increased revenue the company might have reported, and so, in a sense, you're just getting your cut. The thing is, this is cash in your pocket for you (after taxes, of course), and you'd probably never imagine that the company is going to come looking for it. This worker reported that once they had handed in t…

This guy is living the life that many people wish that they had; instead of being stuck on site or in the office for 40 hours a week, he has managed to finish his work in only 25 hours, even taking showers during meetings to cut down on personal responsibilities. "The dream," as some may call it, though there are debatable ethics involved in doing this. On the one hand, if you're completing your tasks and even performing well above standard, Is there really any problem with doing this? Even wit…

When you owe someone money, nothing is going to go over like a lead balloon, quite like showing up with something new and shiny to show off. You probably even did it at least once to your parents as a kid when they gave you money for lunch, and you went out and bought Pokemon cards instead. You know the type, that friend who you loaned 100 dollars to for rent, yet they still somehow have new clothes every time you see them. Your roommate who borrowed money for groceries but always seems to have…