When your business is essentially employing people who could be easily contracting for themselves (without the need for your siphoning off their earnings), it's probably best to treat them with a bit of respect. This goes doubly if they're your best performer and highest earner. Sure, by employing them, you're providing them the security they might not otherwise have, but as soon as that security is compromised, they will start questioning their situation. Sometimes reducing wages may be a nece…

Ew, ew, and more ew

Treat others how you would like to be treated: the golden rule. Regardless of your religious beliefs or affiliations, it stands to reason that this is a good principle to follow in order to build a moral foundation for one's actions. This “golden rule” or sometimes “ethic of reciprocity” appears universally throughout civilizations and cultures, dating back as far as 2000 BCE in Ancient Egypt. Despite its ubiquity in philosophy and religion, small business owners somehow seemed to have missed t…

Do warning signs baffle you? Specifically, the type that read 'Do not stand in, on or around while operating'? It seems like kind of a given. Well, you haven't met my coworkers. Company safety matters should be taken seriously — guidelines are in place for a reason. That reason is usually that it is potentially saving employees from ending up as a pile of mush, buried 6 feet under. If someone had to make a sign, there is usually a reason. Well, apparently my coworkers are not the only ones in n…

This IT guy was working for a large firm as a contractor for their IT department. His experience was one that people often have within a giant, bloated corporate behemoth: The managers were unreliable, the expectations were too high, and the company had an odd culture that tried to give you more work, as congratulations for a job well done, rather than pay you fairly. That sounds like something that the owner or CEO thought of one day when they were sitting on the toilet, and all the "Yes Men"…

Toxic workplaces love “fake” promotional roles—used to saddle workers with more responsibility and workload with a little-to-no increase in pay. They serve as an effective method for What stands out here is the impossible situation of being stuck in a terrible employment arrangement and being unable to find an exit route. People forget how much energy it takes to look for other work. When positions are limited in your sector, you can find yourself working what is essentially another full-time j…

Working interviews are a thinly veiled scam intended to draw upon a new source of unwitting workers for free resources, ideas, and labor.

Management doesn't have any idea what you do; let's just get that out of the way. Sure good managers might be great at that higher level of planning, business relationship, and organizational-navigating junk… but when it comes to the actual production? When it comes to what you do ? It's all just numbers and words on a spreadsheet. And let's be real; it doesn't matter— nothing really matters in a modern company, so long as the money machine goes brrrr, that line on the chart goes up and investo…

It's often said that when going for a job interview, you should be kind and courteous to everyone you meet; famous anecdotes about not holding the front door to the building open for the person who ended up being the hiring manager reinforce this idea. Why, then, don't we extrapolate this idea and apply it to our daily lives—both professional and personal? When one lives their life in this way, they negate the chance of saying the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time, like this sor…

Certain companies have a knack for treating their employees in embarrassing and dehumanizing ways—toxic policies ensuring that you hate every second you spend on their premises. Checking bags and searching for personal belongings is one of these policies. There's no reason for it unless you're dealing with high-security clearance. Why are you so worried that an employee is going to steal a pair of sneakers that were produced at literal slave wages?

Some people think that they are above consequences, and this problem becomes worse when they're in a technically untouchable position and continually have their beliefs reinforced by successfully getting away with antisocial actions and behaviors. This delusional employee must have been binge-watching 80's action flicks because her entire stratagem is eerily similar to the bad guy's from Lethal Weapon 2, relying on that (razor-thin) diplomatic immunity to get away with anything and anything. Th…

Some things aren't meant to be discussed in a professional workplace setting, as any discussion around them could be found to be offensive or off-putting. Conversing on topics like politics, religion, sex, and drugs (along with any other highly personal, private, or polarizing discussions) is a surefire way to get yourself acquainted with your company's HR—who may not be all that happy about all the extra paperwork you've caused them. No… some topics—like sharing your worst trauma, are better s…

Some things stand out to you immediately as being out of place—like feeling the skin suddenly crawling on the back of your neck when you're walking through the park at night. We're primally—well… ‘primed’ for picking out when things are potentially dangerous; that innate survival instinct works wonders for picking up when things aren't quite what they seem. However, some people are cunning and practiced in their duplicity, and chances are you might miss the subtle hints that things really aren'…

I think it's safe to assume here that this guy did not, in fact, get the job… but—hey, job interviews are stressful experiences, and each of us handles that stress in different ways. I, personally, make it through a job interview by completely blacking out from the stress and dissociating from my body; I couldn't tell you what happens in the time that follows, what I say or do—or even who I become is completely unknown to me. Now, I wouldn't recommend this strategy for coping with interview str…

What is it about the workplace that causes grown-ass adults to lose all common sense? Sure, they probably don't want to be there—but none of us do either, and we're not going around making life more intolerable than it already has to be. The similarities between what you experience in the workplace and middle school classroom are just a testament to the fact that most people never mature; instead, living their lives in the same perpetual state of petty behavior and hatred as they did when they…

Is your personal time less important than your coworkers just because you don't have children? This woman was asked by her Karen coworker to cover an evening call for her. Karen's son had a soccer game that she wanted to attend, and she was getting desperate. The woman, who has since deleted the post, so we are unable to get her username, responded that she was unable to cover the call for Karen as she had plans already. She had a volleyball game to attend that she was partaking in. Further, sh…