It turns out there is a price to enforcing unnecessary rules and regulations. This Redditor worked as a contractor for various warehouses, often leading the same team of employees. Usually, he needed to be on the phone during the work days so he could continue updating his supervisor, but on this particular job, there was a rule against non-managers having phone access. Despite the fact that the Original Poster (OP) was leading the team and had all the same responsibilities as a manager, he was…

"This gets met with more attitude so I ask if I’ll be getting paid sick time for the day I missed yesterday. He says no, not without a doctors note. . ."

You've probably heard that old adage about the new hire who goes in for their first day of training ready to do everything by the book but is instead surprised and maybe even disappointed when they're instead taught all of the shortcuts that the experienced grizzled employee has developed over the years, cutting out the parts of the process that are superfluous and unnecessary. The problem is that by learning and only using the shortcuts in the first instance, they're never going to understand…

"I spilled coffee onto my clothes. Never make that mistake again. I brought brownies in. Never do that again, people could have allergies."

Giving honest feedback is tough, but the only thing harder is receiving it. Especially when the content or implications of that feedback catch us off guard, we might think we're doing everything right and are contributing far above our pay grade and described role, and yet, the visibility of our contributions may not be what we think it is… and we might have fallen afoul elsewhere within our supervisor's expectations. See, it all comes down to perception, which never quite matches up with the r…

Being told that there's absolutely no way you can or should possibly be paid more for your work when you've taken on the responsibilities of not one but two vacant levels of management above your actual role is disappointing for certain. It's almost more disappointing, though, when you get another job offer for 32% more than your current pay, and when you tell your employer the news, they're more than willing to give you the money you originally asked for and more. As always, in situations such…

If workers aren't being paid for their time, the real charity is the business itself… Businesses love to “contribute” to charity almost as much as they love using pizza parties as a band-aid solution for morale. For one thing, it's a great look for the business after the marketing team gets its hands on the photos taken on the day and then makes a bunch of social media posts grossly exaggerating the company's involvement and contributions. Even more importantly, almost all expenses involved in…

"I’ve accepted (pending paperwork) so I’ll be the second lead this company has lost in as many years due to this same person."

If you've ever worked in an industry with technicians or mechanics, you know there is one rule that must be followed: Never (NEVER) touch their tools—or tell them how to organize and manage them. This is true even if the company provides the tools, but it is especially true if the mechanics buy and use their own toolsets. As one commenter cleverly pointed out on the original thread, this story was shared: Asking a mechanic to organize or tidy their tools so that you can borrow them is like your…

There is just a certain degree of oversight that doesn't need to occur in any situation. Sure, you might like to keep a tight lid on operations and your staff, but you can guarantee there are certain things that you don't need—and probably don't want—to know. At any rate, there reaches a point in your career where enough is going on underneath your level of authority where requiring any one thing to pass across your desk will result in an amount of work that you can't possibly keep up with. You…

There's this trend that happens in every industry, across every workplace, where managers think they've come up with a clever and original new idea to increase profits. See, there are really only two ways to do this: Increase revenue or decrease expenses. However, increasing revenue is hard and takes effort and new ideas, so instead, they start looking at the bottom line. The first place they're going to look at at this point is staffing. Employees and labor are huge expenses, and management is…

There is a downside to not fulfilling your basic duties and responsibilities at work. This receptionist repeatedly made making travel arrangements difficult for their boss, often leaving things to the last minute when flights were either entirely booked or incredibly expensive. Despite multiple polite conversations about her needing to improve her efficiency regarding booking travel, the pattern did not improve. What's remarkably amusing about this is that when the Redditor went off to start th…

Usually, newly hired employees are given a break during their first week. The first few days are typically about getting settled in, meeting your coworkers, and adjusting to the company culture. However, here, we have a new hire who was almost immediately tasked with buying donuts for everyone at the company. Apparently, there were two annoying coworkers at the office who chose different people each week to pick on and bother incessantly until they gave in and got everyone donuts. You would thi…

Talk about an unfortunate day for this marketing assistant! She was doing her job and answering phone calls when she spoke to a job candidate… for her position. Of course, the assistant was completely unaware that her position was even up for grabs because that's just how non-confrontational her boss was. Instead, she had the pleasure of finding out that she was on her way to being replaced by hearing it directly from her potential replacement. We also would like to extend some sympathy to the…

Some people just don't respond well to rejection, even when that rejection comes in the perceived form of an employee handing in their notice even if they've never treated the employee well or cared much for them in the first place. Anyone who has been around the block a couple of times in their career will know how this goes. They'll say it's about betrayal and the fact that you're leaving your ream high and dry with a touch of “How could you do this to us,” this might be followed by silent tr…

Who hasn't received an eyebrow-raising message from a current or former employer? You know the kind of message we're talking about. It's the kind that makes you question if this person is fit to be your employer at all. Sometimes, it's an audacious demand that they are in no position to make. For example, I once had a boss ask me to fill in for a security guard position when I was an intern despite the fact that I was woefully unqualified to do so. Other times, it's an invasive question your bo…