Getting on with the daily grind can often be a wearisome chore, especially when you find yourself needing to do your coworker's tasks for them in addition to your own. It's not like you had enough to do as it was. Now you're busy going around picking up after them as well, and to make matters worse, you know, mentioning it to your boss won't do a thing to solve the problem and might even end up with you being labeled as not being a “team player.”

Maybe safety measures seem like common knowledge to us, but lots of companies would rather save a few bucks and let their employees take on the risk. That's why there's OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which doles out punishments for workplaces that don't protect their workers. However, OSHA is very understaffed, and there's a lot that slips through the cracks. Have you ever seen videos of demolition workers who are trying to bring down a building by themselves? They wil…

There is no shortage of stories online consisting of a misguided manager who establishes a blanket “No overtime” policy that ends up getting maliciously complied with by some worker or group of workers to the tune of disastrous results. It's probably wisest at this point to never implement any policy that strictly forbids workers from working overtime. Instead, set the expectation that any necessary overtime will be worked before forcing those overtime workers to jump through as many hoops as p…

Carrots on sticks dangled too long in front of you soon stop serving as motivation and instead turn into an inescapable torment. An ever-present reminder that you'll never get anywhere in this place. It's hard not to feel demoralized when you've been putting in extra effort to help your company and/or achieve record numbers and profits, only to get nothing in return to reward you for your efforts. Of course, it's foolish to do more than your job description requires under a thin promise that yo…

When you're pushed too far, sometimes you just can't take the heat anymore. These workers know the feeling all too well, and they shared the moments that were the final straw before they quit their job on the spot. As much as you try to vet a company before you join, you just don't know what your job will really be like. You can keep an eye out for red flags during the interview process, but you won't really know what it's like until you spend a few weeks emailing with your boss or calling clie…

What do you do when your manager is a thieving fraudster, and their boss refuses to listen because, on paper, your manager is getting good results? This is something you'll likely come across during the long course of your career, and you might be dismayed to find yourself powerless in the position. Heck, most bosses will be willing to look the other way for someone who is performing high in whatever KPI upper management is currently prioritizing… Just as long as things look good and people are…

If you've ever had a boss that you are clearly smarter than, you know it can get pretty awkward really fast. We all want to think we're super smart and sophisticated, especially in the workplace . Many people try really hard to appear on top of things and in tune with exactly what's going on at their workplace from day to day. However, some bosses just don't care. It's baffling — they'll have a whole job that involves giving a darn about a workplace, and yet they'll happily sit in a back office…

It's a bummer when well-intentioned actions lead to unexpected consequences… This worker would occasionally go out and buy office supplies for their colleagues. It was a kind gesture that seemed to them to be constructive to the business. Unfortunately, their boss didn't seem to care about the benefits, only taking issue with the simple fact that they were absent for longer than the duration that their lunch break allowed. You know, the typical controlling manager nonsense. In response, the bos…

If you're working for a boss you don't like, quitting is the best feeling in the world. And these people had an added bonus: they were able to tell their terrible bosses exactly what they thought about them before leaving. They say that people don't leave bad jobs, they leave bad managers . If you've ever been in a great job that quickly goes downhill when your favorite boss leaves, you know exactly what I'm talking about. A good manager can shield you from blame so that you can do your best wo…

Sometimes, the games and manipulation start from the interview, with the hiring party pulling ticks, like showing up late, to “test" candidates, claiming to be testing for traits like “loyalty” and “patience” when really they're just looking to see how much of a pushover the candidates are. Really, if you're pulling stunts like this, you're probably discouraging the best candidates from working at your company, which you probably think is fine since you're obviously looking for desperate and pl…

If you go to work and grind hard, props to you. Truly. Depending on the career you choose, it might be necessary to put in some early mornings and late nights. Work-life balance is very important, though. It's one of those buzzwords that everyone talks about, but actually achieving a nice balance takes some work. Some people really enjoy the grind, though. They thrive on waking up at 4AM to exercise and meditate, then work a 12 hour day, then brag about it on social media. These people will tel…

The workplace presents itself with many challenges... Chief among them being painful social interactions with the dreaded coworker . Take, for example, Trish, who brings her needlessly pungent soup every day for lunch. The soup smells as if it has been assembled with broth made by soaking the feet of aged retirement home inhabitants before distilling the soaking to carefully concentrate the very essence of foot odor. Trish heats her foot soup in the kitchen microwave daily, where its putrid sce…

This bakery owner kneaded a reality check, and—well… he sure got one. Trust some small business owners to think that their power over their workers is absolute and that they own and orchestrate every part of their lives. Unfortunately, in communities where jobs are scarce, this can literally be the case. Whilst traveling and working in cafes in small towns, I personally witnessed a local cafe owner, an absolute demon of a woman, torpedo the job prospects of a single mother who worked for her. A…

If you're hired by a client or employer to pick apart their business operations and identify inefficiencies and issues—do you give them an honest answer? Even if it's an answer that they're not going to want to hear? Even if the problem is—well… them? No one would disagree that keeping a boss or client happy is a good idea. After all, these people are paying all or part of your livelihood—and if you were to be fired or dismissed for telling them something they didn't want to hear—even if it's t…

Be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it. After a weary and sleepless night, hopefully this glass manufacturing plant owner has learned the right lesson. If you've ever seen anyone perform glassblowing or watch an artist create a figurine out of hot melty glass, you know how hot this job can get. Glass doesn't like to melt until it's a nice toasty 2700–3100° farenheight. Anyone around these operations needs special protective gear and certifications to ensure everyone's safety…

The human brain has a tendency to cherry-pick relevant details and information that support decisions we've already made and opinions that we've already formed. Confirmation bias is a real and relevant thing, especially in the world of ubiquitous information. No longer do we have to be a specialist in a topic in order to access the information that was once only readily available to us. But do we have the skills, experience, and training to interpret that information, or are we merely overstati…