When someone ruins what could have otherwise been a great job for you, there's no better feeling than helping them on their way to unemployment as well. This worker made the tough decision to leave a job they loved due to the unbearable attitudes of the workgroup's executive directors, who had a propensity for taking credit for others' work and rewarding themselves for doing so while deriding those workers who had actually done the work for them. After being accused of underperformance in what…

You're always told that you should be friendly with team members—but not too friendly. Despite encouraging team bonding and after-hours unpaid recreational activities with your team, organizations have a tendency to get a little weird about things if you get too close or if things get too recreational . This, of course, doesn't apply in the service industry for some reason, where it's generally expected that staff will almost certainly engage in an interpersonal free-for-all. Still, this parano…

For all the bosses out there, forcing your employees to work as fast as they can will not get you anywhere in the long run. If you decide it should reasonably take an employee X amount of time to complete a task, and they give it to you in that amount of time, that should be considered a win. And that's exactly how this company used to run. Even if an employee could complete a task in ¾ of the time allotted, they were still compensated for the time requested. But not anymore. Now, even if an em…

Being charged with the responsibility of a section of a business usually means that it's implied that you'll hold that section's interests at a level of most importance and not jeopardize them over petty slights and egotistical battles with your subordinates and external parties. Yet, some people can't help themselves and let their ego get involved in every possible decision, finding themselves battling for superiority at every step of the way rather than managing the task they've been employed…

Health and Safety is no joke—though often made into one by one of those weird things in workplace culture that is handled with complete polarity depending on the organization you work for. If you work for a “cowboy” small business owner whose organization's growth has far outpaced the professionalism of its structure, one where the owner is used to taking risks that place themselves in danger, relishing these moments with machismo and bravado, bragging about them for years afterward. They now f…

There's this weird thing that happens in employment, you're there to get a paycheck—no question about that. And while your employer will want to pay you (close) to market rate if they want to keep you they're always going to want to pay you as little as they possibly can get away with. You want more, they want to pay less, probably figuring that they'll get the same amount of work out of you regardless. This dynamic will hang over any employment agreement you enter into. There becomes a point t…

A surprising amount of experts and analysts get hired to improve the efficiency of businesses that they know nothing about, putting more effort into marketing themselves and trying to ensure corporate clients than into ensuring their analysis offers any actual value—or that their statistics hold any actual significance. At the end of the day, all they care about is that they're able to give the client some result, a result that the manager who hired them is going to take at face value since the…

It's often said that HR is never on your side, but is merely there to maintain an equilibrium that will prevent the organization from opening itself to vulnerability or liability. They are there to manage the “human” resources of the company, and—well, that's you . Still, in instances where you're dealing with someone in the organization—be it a boss, coworker, or other party—who is so incredibly off base with their actions or reasoning, then it just makes sense to go to HR and help them see yo…

Have you ever had a job you loved so much you wished you could go back? Maybe it was a summer job you had as a kid or a random contract that ended up being better than you expected. There are so many jobs out there that it's impossible to know about all of them. Well, these employees share the random odd jobs they had that ended up being the best jobs they ever had. Whether it was great because they had the best coworkers, the benefits were amazing, or they barely had to put in any time for wha…

We work to earn money to support ourselves and our families and to give ourselves a chance at a life of better comfort and the space to pursue our individual interests. Sure, some of us might be lucky enough to reasonably enjoy our work and even find fulfillment in it, but it still serves as the means to an end. In short, you work so that you can better enjoy the time spent not working. And in some sort of weirdly depressing poetic sort of sense, the two are permanently at odds with each other.…

Being overworked and understaffed, working long hours at odd hours, is no way to live your life. Still, many of us are doing so in order to eke out a living in this wild world. It can even seem manageable while you're in it, grinding out the hours to keep up with an ever-increasing workload to keep the bossman happy while seasonal demand runs its course or to cover for that vacant role that they've yet to see fit to fill. The reality is, by trying to do the right thing and keep everyone happy,…

People will always be willing to better their own situation at the expense of others, whether it's that guy in front of you who sees fit to recline his seat for the entirety of a 15-hour flight despite having no one in front of or next to him, or something like cutting a queue in traffic or manipulating the schedule so that they don't have to work a shift that they find to be inconvenient. Everyone's the hero of their own story, so they, of course, won't see themselves as doing anything wrong.…

When you actually like the place you work and can tolerate the people you work with, it's easy to reason that going into an office once in a while might present some benefit. But if you're being forced to go into an office where no one talks to each other (except under duress) just to do all of your work alone in an isolated room and all your meetings over Zoom anyway… It's easy to scratch your head and wonder what the point of all this really is. This worker shared how their employer made the…

Hiring—especially in the way it's usually conducted—is not an exact science. There's a whole lot of speculation and social shadowboxing going on with elaborately constructed facades masking true personalities in order to seem more put together and desirable according to the bizarre decorum of the entire process. The entire thing is based more on “vibes” than any concrete Superstition seems to reign on both sides of the interview table, with everyone having their own tricks. Even the most well-i…

When you're in charge, it's pretty important that you follow your own rules, drinking the Kool-Aid that you've set out for everyone else to drink. Anything else would be hypocritical at best, causing dissension and demotivating those you're supposed to be leading and generally just setting a bad example. Conversely, being consistent and fair in your leadership helps foster a culture of accountability; by holding yourself to the same standards you've set for everyone else, you demonstrate the in…

Taking time off work is probably just as important as the work itself. Being able to step away, take a break, and come back with a new perspective will likely benefit your work—besides, you've earned it. Although, of course, what you'll often find happens is that the freedom and relaxation your vacation offers you makes returning to work even more difficult than it already is on a normal Monday. Being denied the chance to take leave can mean missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, fami…