Company pizza parties are, at best, a bandage solution for poor employee morale resulting from poor company culture and worker compensation; shelling out $60 for a few pizzas doesn't suddenly erase months of missed breaks, understaffing, unpaid overtime, and other practices that reek of borderline exploitation. Yet — this is the go-to solution for so many workplaces that insist that their exploited, exhausted workers are “family” — if that's really how you treat your family… are they still spea…

It's a sure sign that you need to accept your team is understaffed when you reach the point that you can't afford to have one single worker call out sick.

Being recognized for a job well done is essential for continued motivation — but every one of us would probably also like to be compensated for our extra generated value.

There is a strength in the business world to being extremely particular with how you go about things. Dotting i's, crossing t's, and balancing every column is a sure way to ensure your business smoothly operates — but there is a point where being overly pedantic will only hurt that business.

Having too much work to do and unrealistic expectations from your superiors about that work is a surefire way to make you hate your job… and your entire existence. This will usually happen in some sort of toxic workplace environment where middle managers have been selected and promoted on their willingness to enforce any policy they're told to rather than on any actual skills in operations, administration, or management. These middle managers are more than willing to pass any pressure placed on…

One of the (few) benefits of not operating your own business, and instead working for someone else's, is that you take on none of the risks of the business — isn't that the sole reason why businesses and executive management justify keeping so much of the profits?

Interviewing for a new role within a company or an internal promotion has its benefits, especially when compared to a normal interview process. For one, you'll typically already be at least somewhat familiar with the manager of the workgroup you're interviewing for, which means that they, in turn, have some knowledge of you and the work that you do. This means that you don't have to blindly convince a stranger of your qualities and capabilities like you would in a normal interview—playing the f…

This worker received a request from their boss that they remain available and respond to texts and emails while off duty, asking that they do this “as a favor” and without further compensation. This has sparked discussion in a popular online community around the ethical and legal issues with the request and the precedence it sets.

What should you do when your boss demands that you stick to your rostered hours after you've been working heaps of overtime to try and keep things afloat? Do exactly what they asked, of course. It's always nice to rack up a few hours of overtime here and there to get a bit of extra coin, but having to do it week on week is a sure way to burn out. Rather than rewarding your employer for understaffing the team, sometimes it's best to let things burn a little bit to get a little more support — esp…

What often gets lost in translation in our workplace culture is how important leave is. In fact, it's just as important as the work itself. From a business-first perspective, you need to be able to maintain an appropriate work-life balance in order to remain at peak effectiveness. Even if you're someone who is all about your career, taking time off will help you come back refreshed and reinvigorated—with the right headspace and fresh ideas to tackle your job. This worker shared their story of h…

Patience is a virtue — so states the proverbial phrase — but in a modern world, that idea seldom comes into actual practice. Everything is happening so quickly, changing so suddenly, that waiting or trying to be patient often means that it's already too late. We've all been trained by the idea of “missing out” into giving in to each and every impulse; when, retrospectively, if you don't miss the thing you “missed out” on… did you really miss out at all? I say this having just repeately

Interviewing for a new job can be tough, especially when the employer has unreasonable expectations about the job they're hiring for. Common examples of this will be wildly unmatched desired levels of experience versus compensation on offer or an advertised position that has just too many duties for one person to reasonably attend to. This usually means that the job is a non-starter and not worth pursuing. The employer is constantly going to be disappointed by the tasks that aren't being comple…

It's generally expected that you'll do whatever you possibly can to keep your superiors happy—whether it's your boss, teacher, or parents. But should we really be going out of our way to do something for someone who couldn't care less about showing the same respect in return? Normally, when your boss passed you criticism in the workplace, you might become anxious and worried about this. But should you really be? If you're already performing the expectations of your role, why waste the energy? T…

Sudden loss for a thing that was great about your life can cause grief—even when that thing was your job. Sometimes it will be a sudden change of ownership or leadership; sometimes, it is the same leaders making sweeping changes in policy to increase profits. Sometimes it's a smaller change within your team, maybe a coworker or boss you like leaving for a new role. This last scenario normally ends up with you working closely with someone who you like significantly less than the coworker they're…

Sometimes dealing with management is like dealing with a toddler: You can't just tell them their ideas are bad; you need to apply a negative stimulus — resulting from the idea itself — that shows them why their idea is bad. Trying to simply explain something to either a toddler or a manager is going to get you nowhere — and probably trigger an emotionally deregulated tantrum. That's what this tanker driver decided to do when their manager flat out told them that they weren't going to be paid fo…

Which is it? No overtime… or checking emails at home? You can't have both. Too many employers these days expect their employees to be always available —without receiving compensation for it. Anyone who has worked retail, or in a waged position, has had an employer who has made it as difficult as possible to claim overtime. The store closes at 6:30 pm, and you're only contracted for those hours. So in an inexplicably non-existent amount of time, you have to manage to round up all the customers,…