Generally, your working life, including everything that comes with it, is reserved for—well, work—including your laptop, phone, and such that your employer has provided for you. By contrast, your personal stuff is for your own personal use, and that's why it's—well, personal. There are very obvious things you should and shouldn't use each device for, and those things should be kept separate. Sure, these lines can blur and often will—after all, not everything is black and white.

Some workplaces function as if they're kindergarten classrooms and as if the employees are children who are incapable of making their own decisions and undeserving of self-determination. It's insulting, really, when you work in one of these places where constant oversight and continual encroachment into what freedoms remain are a part of everyday policies. Existing completely devoid of agency saps any empowerment employees feel and, over time, will make them less motivated in their jobs. Of cou…

Things took an interesting turn in this post, where a candidate shared their story of leaving an interview after feeling that their time had been disrespected. The candidate recounted their experience of attending an interview where the interviewer was late to attend. They found themselves still waiting after the appointment had been scheduled to start. After being asked to wait for a moment, a representative of the organization returned, claiming that the interviewing manager had been delayed…

Workplaces that rely on scheduled shift work often have an unhealthy obsession with said schedule, holding it in as paramount even when it extends out of the bounds of sanity or reason. Things like scheduled leave, availability—or, as it turns out, even being fired—have little importance when it comes to a scheduled shift… If it's on the schedule, you'd better be there no matter what. Managers who aggressively adhere to this schedule often act as if it were scripture passed to them from a highe…

There is no shortage of stories online consisting of a misguided manager who establishes a blanket “No overtime” policy that ends up getting maliciously complied with by some worker or group of workers to the tune of disastrous results. It's probably wisest at this point to never implement any policy that strictly forbids workers from working overtime. Instead, set the expectation that any necessary overtime will be worked before forcing those overtime workers to jump through as many hoops as p…

Carrots on sticks dangled too long in front of you soon stop serving as motivation and instead turn into an inescapable torment. An ever-present reminder that you'll never get anywhere in this place. It's hard not to feel demoralized when you've been putting in extra effort to help your company and/or achieve record numbers and profits, only to get nothing in return to reward you for your efforts. Of course, it's foolish to do more than your job description requires under a thin promise that yo…

As they say: It takes all kinds. It's our differences, our unique skills, perspectives, and experiences, that make us who we are, distinctive in our approach and demeanor from the other folks. The sum of our parts makes us decidedly better at different things, and when we band together, there's no telling what we can accomplish. While that's all feel-good and hunky-dory, and while we should always seek never to judge, it's worth recognizing that, sometimes, these unique traits come together to…

Working at a bakery is a dream come true for some, and honestly, what is not to like? The place smells like a literal heaven, and you get unlimited pastries. I might be exaggerating the ‘dream come true part’, because although the latter is true, there is still the pesky issue of the actual work. It can get repetitive, and the pay isn't great (in other words, don't expect to retire early), and to top it all off, you have annoying customers who have obviously never worked a day in their life, an…

Call me biased, but managers are never ‘in the wrong’. It is always the employees who get written up for their manager's mistakes, and this story is as infuriatingly accurate to that statement as it gets. Why upper management punishes its workers via breaking the law is beyond me, but not enough workers are suing them for it, so until they do, management continues to get away with it. In this frustrating case, the OP was working at a fast food place in Oregon for about 9 months, when one day, h…

The original poster of this thread points out that working in customer service at a call center isn't quite the enjoyable gig one might imagine… But really, it's hard to imagine anyone holding the belief that working in a customer service call center is a thrilling job… rather, quite the opposite. The images that a call center evokes are synonymous with the most bland and beige of existences. Anyone who has worked in customer service is already all too familiar with how difficult people can be…

So cringe

For some reason, employers become extremely cynical whenever their employees need a day off work, even if the cause given is something extremely plausible (and statistically likely), such as the contraction of the flu during the height of flu season. It's almost as if it's a projection of the employer what they themself would do if placed in the employee's position. “Surely,” [Employer] reasons. “[Worker] must be making it up to skip out on their work duties.” For they, too, would have done so…

Agreeing to something only to find that the terms of that deal have changed is an altogether disappointing experience. And why wouldn't it be? An expectation has been set that hasn't been met, and usually not in your favor. While sometimes you might fight and argue to reach the terms of the original deal… Sometimes, all you can do is pray that the deal isn't altered any further. Even though the terms of employment shouldn't be like making a deal with Star Wars Darth Vader—well… sometimes it is;…

Employers regularly have this idea that they need to save money on the cost of labor to decrease their bottom line. This usually comes about when there has been some quarterly meeting about what the company can do to increase profits. Rather than coming up with anything new, some bright-eyed manager will boldly propose that the company reduce the cost of labor—thinking themselves to be the first to ever do so, making them, therefore, a business genius . To be fair, reducing the cost of labor is…

Usually, when we negotiate leave dates when starting a new job, we'd expect those dates to be honored—not thrown to the wayside as soon as we're locked into our employment. After all, that's all part of the bargaining process, and once a bargain is struck, every agreed-upon detail becomes the foundation for the rest of the relationship. This worker shared how their extended family goes on a trip every year, this time with a significant personal reason motivating the trip, and they've already bo…

It's a bummer when well-intentioned actions lead to unexpected consequences… This worker would occasionally go out and buy office supplies for their colleagues. It was a kind gesture that seemed to them to be constructive to the business. Unfortunately, their boss didn't seem to care about the benefits, only taking issue with the simple fact that they were absent for longer than the duration that their lunch break allowed. You know, the typical controlling manager nonsense. In response, the bos…