People don't quit jobs; they quit bosses… Most of the time, at least. This saying has echoed off of the walls of this site a thousand times, and yet it remains just as true as in its first utterance. Too many jerks out there have ended up in a position of workplace authority—either by starting their own business or through the power of the Peter principle—and find themselves wondering why they can't keep staff, not realizing that the answer is looking at them in the face every morning when they…

Whether we like to remember them or not, we have all been in toxic work environments. Perhaps you were at the start of your professional life and you were concerned that all workplace environments and dynamics were like this. Perhaps you were working under a new boss who spent far more energy enforcing ridiculous rules and disparaging the work of their employees than fostering a strong working atmosphere. Perhaps you didn't say anything to your boss before you left the company and you desperate…

This Karen was actually the manager until the employee she fired got her booted too. That's what you get when you were the one who messed up and everyone saw it. No matter how powerful you think you are, if you've gained enough enemies, it will bite you in the butt, which is exactly what happened to Carol. Carol was the assistant manager of a restaurant that employed a high school student who wound up working approximately 60 hours each week (when did he find time to do his homework is the real…

These workplaces found out the hard way that you can only push your employees so far before they snap.

This story will be familiar to anyone who has worked in service or retail, with both entire industries being plagued by employers who require you to show up early—without being paid for it—or finish tasks after closing after being automatically clocked out when the doors locked. Managing these businesses isn't much better, earning only moderately better pay while being made to work more unpaid hours that actually pushes your earning back down to (or below) minimum wage. Combine this with chroni…

$14/hr for a medical professional whose job is saving other people's lives? If that's not cause for concern, I don't know what is.

Being a team player can mean a lot of things. It can mean being a communicative collaborator. It can mean taking on tasks that are normally outside of your primary responsibilities in order to further a collective goal. One thing it does not mean, however, is taking a pay cut. Unfortunately, in this economy, that seems to be one of the latest tactics employers are using to avoid mass layoffs, but one has to wonder if the executives at the top are making the same sacrifices. In fact, one should…

They always say they can't give you a raise but nine times out of ten, the truth is they can. This employee had to jump through hoops in order to get a 0.75-cent hourly raise. Despite finally achieving this small win, he knew that he was worth more, as most employees are. So naturally, he started looking for other work and eventually received a job offer that paid $2 more per hour than his current position. Once he brought this fact to the attention of his manager with the intention of quitting…

Did anyone else have a crazy dream job as a kid that led to some serious disillusionment as an adult? You could have had the aspiration to be an astronaut, to be president, or to be a pop singer. I'd be lying if I denied that my since deleted first email had the words “movie" and "star” in it. It's a common occurrence for kids to dream big, and this is by no means a suggestion that they shouldn't. The disillusionment that comes with adulthood is inevitable, but we can all do a better job at pre…

**This story ends in a huge raise

There's some dubiousness to the truth behind this post, and, let's be honest—as with anything you read online—there often is. But this thread sparked an important fervor of discussion around something I think is an important topic: How much information about your personal life do you owe your employer? If you're taking a sick day—do they need to know why? If you're leaving your position—do they need to know why? The answer, in any case, is no. Your employer doesn't need to know more than the ex…

Learning that you're making less than a new hire with less experience is insulting. Yet, companies seem to consistently possess a higher hiring budget than a budget for raises for dedicated workers—with the frequency of stories like this making it seem more like the norm than some fringe occurrence. A female machinist shared her recent workplace experience on the popular r/antiwork Reddit sub. She explained that she had been training a new hire and found out that the trainee was earning a highe…

This general manager may have been on his way out, but he's going to regret sending that text.

It's always a good policy in life to take the high road, but when that's not an option, the low road will do just fine—just make sure to set fire to every metaphorical bridge you might cross along the way. This full scorched earth policy isn't the way you should normally go about doing business; for one thing, it's (usually) unethical, and it's not going to make you many friends or get you very far. For that reason, you should always aim to leave things on good terms when you leave a job—you ne…

It's often said that no one will appreciate the job you do until you're gone, and we've yet to see evidence otherwise. It's like being in the driver's seat of a race car; as long as you're driving that car, people will attribute the car's best performance to be owing to the car itself. It's not until you leave the team and another inferior driver takes your seat that people will realize how truly terrible the car is… and that your efforts were making the car appear better than it actually was.…

We know all too well at this point that your boss is not your friend.