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Client disregards advice resulting in faulty $10k order of embroidered company t-shirts: 'Have fun refunding a $10k order!'

This is something that comes up now and again that anyone offering specialized services to clients will certainly resonate with. It's amazing how often a person or an organization will pay for services, products, and the expertise that comes along with them, only to refuse to accept the advice that they're paying for. And with ego-fueled hubris, they suddenly decide that they know what's best. The old adages might tell us that “The customer knows best” and that "The customer is always right in…
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Employee automates boss's job and boss's boss's job and gets them both fired: 'I automated all her tasks and the CEO fired her'

The last 50 years have brought an unprecedented amount of technology and reform to the way we do business. Those writing Science Fiction around that time might have predicted that we'd either be living in a utopia where we no longer needed to work to live or we'd be living in a dystopian world where few oligarchs, like the fictional Eldon Tyrell, hoarded wealth from the masses like dragons sitting on a pile of gold, while many struggled just to survive in a world of decaying infrastructure amid…
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Customer refuses to pay for oil change, demands mechanic put old oil back in: 'His truck might last another year at best'

It's always important to be weary when money is involved, and the fact that everyone has heard a tale or two about a scamming or dishonest mechanic adds to their apprehension when facing a service bill. The problem with thinking everyone is trying to get one over on you all the time is that you'll blame everyone for everything and find yourself constantly at odds. Typically, these types of demands from customers are a way of avoiding footing the bill or in the hopes that you might knock somethi…
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Boss makes employee get doctor's note, doctor gives them even more time off: 'Now he’s paying me 4 days, 32 hours. He can’t refuse a second of it'

The age-old workplace practice of requiring workers to go to the doctor after missing a day of work to get a sick note feels a little strange; it's infantilizing in the sense that the only other thing like it in our lives is when we had to bring a note from your mommy into grade school after missing class. If your boss wants to treat you like a child, you might as well act like one and act like you don't know a thing. The real problem comes in the form of the fact that it's impossible to get in…
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Employee gets buried in busywork when boss sees their clean desk, going forward they pretend to be busy with decoy files and folders: 'I learned my lesson'

Working in modern workplaces can be exceptionally exhausting. Constant distractions due to open-plan offices tear employees away from their work. At the same time, success is attached to social and political status with heavy reliance on the “optics” of busyness rather than employees' actual effectiveness in completing their tasks. The reality is that we all work differently, and forcing all staff to work what you perceive to be the “appearance” of hard work will result in a performative cultur…
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'I clock in every day [and] play video games or whatever': Employee automates all their work being able to complete their 8-hour work day in 10 minutes from home

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…
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Employee walks out of performance review after being told they don't respond well to feedback, internet is divided: 'I was stunned…'

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…
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Employee offered disappointing 5% raise, gets a new job paying 32% more and rejects employer's counter offer: 'Less than a month ago 5% was all they could do...'

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…
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Visitor refuses to clear entry with storage facility security, finds themself locked in and unable to leave: 'He had to wait until 4:30 AM to get out after my shift'

It's important to remember in any circumstances where you want to circumvent security and gain entrance to somewhere that you're going to need to get out as well… and the same thing applies when you're trying to get back into somewhere you've gotten out of. Anyone who ever snuck out as a teenager knows exactly how this goes: getting out is pretty easy, but getting back into your room in the wee hours of the morning without waking anyone is exceedingly more difficult. Mom, if you're reading this…
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Boss repeatedly asks employee to work shifts while they're on leave to enjoy the birth of their first child, employee quits instead: 'How about I take a permanent vacation...'

“ Most employees don't quit their jobs....they quit their bosses!” This phrase has been bandied about in internet employment discussions for some time and remains steadfastly true. Any job—well, almost any job—is tolerable to a certain level just as long as you enjoy the people you're working with. Even the most grueling work at odd hours can be managed as long as you have solid, reliable leadership and coworkers whom you enjoy. In these types of workplace cultures, the work itself is almost se…
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Business tries to pay employees in pizza for representing the company at local charity: 'Asked us to do paid charity work then changed it to unpaid at the last minute'

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…
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Major client foolishly insists tech support delete all data, tech support refuses to comply saving the client's business: 'Their entire company basically shut down for an afternoon'

When it's your job to ensure important information is protected, and someone insists that you delete it, even if it's the client themself, you'd be right to pause for a moment and reassess the situation if something doesn't sound quite right. Clients tend to woefully overestimate their abilities in the matter they're contracting you to handle, so they may be asking you to do something they don't fully understand the implications of. This tech support specialist worked for a small organization,…
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New "nepo baby" boss strong-arms lead mechanic into organizing his tools for the boss to use, mechanic locks up his tools and leaves: 'I am currently sitting in my car [...] browsing job listings'

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…
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Manager insists all personal phone calls be directed to them in an effort to stop employees needing their phones at work, predictably backfires: 'No phones allowed at work, tell them to call me directly!'

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…
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'Try to pile on more work to increase your bonus? Not gonna happen...': Manager tries to put the work of 12 people onto a 7 person team to get a bigger bonus, supervisor won't let that happen

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…
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Coworker is dismissive and impolite to new hire, so they take "her" unofficial parking spot

Everyone is going to have bad days, but when your bad day is also someone's first impression of you, they're probably going to think you're just like that all the time, and at the very least, you can't blame them for being cautious in ensuing encounters with you. Similarly, when you're new, it's always best to follow the rules, whether or not those are written company guidelines or unspoken social agreements and the status quo of the existing team. Coming in and rocking the boat will earn you s…
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