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…

Most people in this world fall into two camps: Those out to make things better for everyone and those in it for their own gain and to meet their own ends. Sure, this concept sounds quite reductive (it is), and the reality is things aren't quite so black and white… It's more than likely people will play to both sides depending on their current needs and motivations. Still, ultimately, I maintain that if you distilled people down to their true purpose and intention, you'd find the original statem…

There was a time and a place when staff retention was an organization's top priority, and it was a point of pride and honor to have and care for long-standing employees. My grandfather worked for the same company his entire life—though he was famously mocked towards the end of his career by a notorious executive (who would go on to publicly defraud the large corporation for millions.) My father was nearly the same, working for the same organization from before I was born until his retirement wi…

This reads heavily like someone chucked a prompt into an AI and just let it rip without any proofreading or comprehension of the output. Still, someone at least must have added something to the prompt along the line of “make this statement as authoritarian as possible" without understanding the direction of Everyone has encountered this customer service rep before who has handled one customer too many and is now on a warpath. Usually this types of attitude is a requirement for doctor's office r…

Just when you think employers and managers might actually be instating policy with their workers best interest in mind you find yourself, yet again, disappointed. When I had heard that some employers were offering “unlimited” leave as a interest, understanding that a happy, motivated, and healthy workforce with a passion for their work is far more productive and creative than

Pets are family, they always have been and always will be—but are especially so for the generations of young (and aging) adults who can't afford and wouldn't have the financial security to start a family and have human children of their own—even if they wanted to. The reality is that, for a lot of people, their pets are the closest family and maybe even the only family that they will ever have. They are treasured closely, and the loss of one is always tragic… With that in mind, members of this…

You'd have to be pretty uncaring, have a lot of audacity, and think that you have absolute control over someone to think that they'd be willing to do the same job with a 30% cut to pay. Heck, even if the worker was willing to take the pay cut, you'd have to know that they would probably be looking for work elsewhere and reducing their output. While this would be common sense to most of us it apparently wasn't to this employer who probably looked something similar to a “surprised pikachu” meme w…

Honestly, has upper or regional management ever volunteered to fill in for a weekend shift? This wouldn't be the first time that an upper manager pulled something like this, going with the old “you have to make sacrifices to go along with your rank” and ignoring the fact that they're not actually paying their “manager” the industry standard for their role, let alone enough to match the gravitas that they're placing on it. Further, they're conveniently forgetting the fact that they're a manager,…

Just do your job and do it right, and you'll be fine… A common train of thought many workers have thought about and shared, thinking that there's no way their job would be in jeopardy just as long as they keep up and don't draw excessive attention to themselves. Well, what about when your boss wants you to take on someone else's job, too? Plus, someone else's job on top of that? Well, you might be ready to tell them to go and shove it, but before you do, you'd better weigh the situation careful…