Appearance is important when it comes to your working life—well, really any time you're relying heavily on first impressions and social perception. It's an unfortunate fact that remains one all the same: The book is often judged by its cover. This extends past basic aesthetics of dress and into body language and the way we communicate, giving others a wholly inaccurate impression of our trustworthiness and competency for a role or task. To make matters worse, everyone has their own understandin…

Mistakes and bad decisions happen, it's just a part of the decision making process. As Thomas Edison, the inventor of the lightbulb, famously said, “'I have not failed, but found 1000 ways to not make a light bulb." The quote and attribution varies, but it's usually something along those lines. And that remains true, you don't know and can't learn until you pick a direction and try, but where this becomes an issue is when people and organizations obstinately refuse to course correct, refusing t…

Ah, nepo babies! They never fail to lean into their entitlement when it suits them. Here, we have a college-aged dude whose father essentially founded a company to give his son experience. This Redditor , one of the only full-time employees at said company, had been collaborating closely with their employer on an eLearning course, which was a time-consuming hands-on project for the both of them. However, when it came time for the boss's son to apply for summer jobs, he called the Original Poste…

The business world is not always kind. In order to attract the attention of potential employers, you must not only stand out from the competition but also outperform every other application seeking the exact same position. In other words, your only options are to play and win the corporate game or to fail horribly. To put it plainly, the game is tedious and never-ending. An employee who was taken aback is described in the story below. The original poster (OP) has been actively participating in…

“The worst they can say is no.” A piece of advice oft given to someone teetering on the precipice of uncertainty, deciding whether or not to make a request of someone from whom rejection is almost certain. It's the sort of tip that a friend gives you when you're agonizing about whether or not to ask out your crush who is way out of your league; they probably know you have no shot but the point is the fact that you're going to be rejected isn't reason enough to not ask at all…

When you've shown your superiors how well you can train new hires, you'd usually expect that you would be first up for promotion—after all, one can only train and teach effectively once they have mastery over that which they are teaching. But this isn't always the case… There are a number of untold reasons why your boss might not consider you for an open management position or even to be future management material. Some of these reasons might have substance, while some of them might be complete…

The willingness of superiors to apply rules to themselves that they make for others speaks volumes to the character and quality of an organization. An undercurrent of issues surrounding fairness in leadership can give you a great indication of the toxicity of the workplace. This reaches levels of ridiculousness that can't be rationalized when it begins involving matters that aren't even specifically related to your performance or time that you spend at work and begins leaching into personal and…

There are things in life that you'll encounter, and you'll find nothing you've encountered previously has properly prepared you for it. Usually, these things will be so off-the-wall that there's no way anything could have properly anticipated them. The very idea of being flown out to a final interview and accepting a position, enjoying lavish dinner with the company's owner, only to go into the office and meet the guy who has just started working in the role you thought you had been accepting,…

Sometimes, when you mess around too much, you find out the hard way that there are very real consequences associated with your actions. It's all well and good for you to do as you'd like and act as you please, but when it comes to facing the consequences you'd better come to terms with it. That's what this employer is going to have to do when they realize that their driver went ahead and found another job (with better pay) after being told that his job was no longer available when he tried to c…

Hiring a student worker means you have to respect their class schedule. Unfortunately, most managers not only refuse to do this, but they also often hire students because they feel like they can easily manipulate them into complying with their ridiculous demands. We suppose the logic is that because they have minimal experience in the working world, they can be more easily pressured than the average jaded and disgruntled worker. You know what we mean by the latter… the guy who looks like he's b…

Generally, in your working life, you might expect that, as you gain experience, skills, and knowledge, you'll be making more money… throughout your career as well as your time in a singular role. Where you might not be too surprised and even expect to be rejected a request for a raise or two, you'd never expect to have your boss approach you telling you that they're slashing your pay in order to get “more bang for their buck." Openly telling you that they're going to be saving money solely at y…

How can this employee not interpret this new bonus policy as a personal slight? This dude had been working at the company longer than literally everyone, but when he hit 25 years on the job, he only received a plaque. Now, two years have passed, and suddenly the CEO announces that two coworkers have just reached 25 years at the company and are each going to be rewarded with bonus packages of $25,000. Meanwhile, the other guy is still getting nothing more than his cheap plaque, which is probably…

When enforcing strict adherence to company policy and legal employment obligations, it's probably important that you understand those obligations first. It's also incredibly likely that someone who has been navigating the ins and outs of those legal obligations out of necessity for their livelihood will know more about them than you, an average Joe manager, do. Just an important reminder of the fact that being in charge doesn't necessarily mean that you have the most experience in every given s…

Working with a team that you really enjoy being a part of is one of the smallest graces you can hope for in what's otherwise deep, begrudging resignation to your working life. Unfortunately, like most of the good things in life, the balance is delicately struck, and one small change can turn them on their heads. After spending almost seven years at this tech company working with a true leader of a manager who always stood up for his workers and encouraged autonomy and a healthy work-life balanc…

Being the longest-standing member of your workgroup usually means that you have memories of how things “used” to be, memories of the “before times” that probably stretch back long before even your manager worked here. The problem with this is organizations almost always trend in a negative direction when it comes to working conditions and benefits for workers; after all, there are only two ways to maximize profit, and cutting costs is far easier than increasing revenue generation. As a result,…

The world of business isn't always enjoyable. In the corporate hierarchy, there are those at the top and those at the bottom. Having said that, even if initiative may wind up being rewarded, some managers would prefer you stay in your lane and focus solely on your designated task. The following story is from the point of view of a disgruntled part-time worker. The original poster (OP) works part-time for an organization that fulfills orders. At first, everything was going smoothly; OP was satis…