Have you ever come across a job listing and immediately knew you wouldn't want to work there? Maybe the listing used phrases to describe the company culture, like "we're a big family," or stated that they required candidates who could "perform well under stress," setting off major red flags in your head. That's not really the type of environment you're looking for when you're trying to find your dream job. But the kinds of red flags you can find at companies go way further than those examples.

Instant karma is the best, especially when it involves a manager who is out to get a new hire for no reason other than ego. This story is about a new IT manager, who clashed with a paranoid facilities manager at the manufacturing company they both worked at. The IT guy knew his stuff, but the micromanager was overprotective of jobs that 'belonged' to him, and often told him to get lost. For context, the micromanager controlled a critical production machine with an outdated computer system, and…

Taking time off work is probably just as important as the work itself. Being able to step away, take a break, and come back with a new perspective will likely benefit your work—besides, you've earned it. Although, of course, what you'll often find happens is that the freedom and relaxation your vacation offers you makes returning to work even more difficult than it already is on a normal Monday. Being denied the chance to take leave can mean missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, fami…

You'd think being the grocery store employee who hands out free samples of food would be a pretty sweet job. No retail job is safe from the crazy customers of the world. But there are few things more universally adored than free food. If you go to certain grocery stores on weekends or at certain hours, some provide free samples all over the store. You can walk between the aisles and sample what are usually the weirdest foods you can think of. I've sampled a strange brownie-flavored dessert humm…

Oftentimes in our lives, a weary, exasperated manager with sagging eyes will give us an order, desperate for us to follow it without asking questions. Depending on the dynamic of our relationship with that manager and the nature of the request, we might be more than happy to follow their direction—or we may, instead, choose to follow the literal meaning of that direction but not necessarily the intended purpose of the direction. This “malicious compliance” to their request will help balance the…

One employee's bad habit was starting to impact everyone at the company. There are two types of workplaces: the kind that punish you severely for being even a minute late , and the kind where people routinely stroll in 20 minutes late without a care in the world. Lots of places that are strict about tardiness are retail places or other places that do shift work. Meanwhile, lots of offices allow their salaried employees to come and go as they please, so long as they're getting their work done. W…

Workers often leave their companies for better opportunities not because of the company itself, but because of bad management . The management structure of a business has a lot to do with an employee's day-to-day life. Some people have bosses who are micromanagers who want to hold their employees accountable for every minute of the day. With your boss breathing down your neck 40 hours each week while you're trying to write your emails and do your tasks, it's easy to get sick of the scrutiny. Ot…

Time, in a sense, is a resource that we spend doing different things, which is why when we talk about “spending time” on something, there's a literal sense to it. Through the sheer course of its slow march, the way we spend our time through the things we do, the things we think about, and the way we prioritize our responsibilities and personal interests goes on to shape who we become, what we know and what skills we possess. It might be a facile generalization, but for those familiar, I like to…

There are always going to be certain things that are best off communicated to only their intended audience. For example, you'd probably hate to accidentally send your parents a text detailing your weekend plans with your friends or other intimate details about another personal relationship. No matter what age you are or how close you are to your parents, certain things are better off left undisclosed. The same goes for an employee-employer relationship. Professional decorum relies on certain th…

This woman found out the hard way that she got what she paid for. She just didn't know that she was paying for something in the first place! U/OneGlassOne had an excellent tale of malicious compliance to share. They and their coworker work in a line of business that deals with commercial imports. They write that people need to fill out lots of paperwork when importing items into the country, probably in a similar way to declaring your valuables at the airport. This woman told the original poste…

It's hard to escape the conversation surrounding AI and the growing likelihood that we may soon find our jobs replaced by it. Yet, while some have attempted it, most seem to be falling short of success. While AI is proven to be effective at handling superfluous and repetitive work, it doesn't yet understand the subtlety and nuance of specific tasks, often lacking necessary details or fabricating information and then confidently reporting it as fact. So, at the very least, even where there is ef…

"The customer is always right" is an attitude that is purveyed throughout customer service... People will love to remind you at this point that one full attribution of the original quote is also reported as being “The customer is always right in matters of taste” meaning that or that customer service representatives should seek “to satisfy the customer regardless of whether the customer is right or wrong.” Both lend to the idea that the customer is not necessarily right about all things, just a…

Unless the issues being raised are completely out of left field and hold no water, an organization should always treat them seriously. Even purely as a means of covering themselves from any legal or operational vulnerabilities. Being dismissive or even retaliatory against a complainant might make the headache or “problem” of them calling attention to it go away, but there's a good chance that their fears coming to fruition and the ensuing grievance will be much more of a headache than dealing w…

The line between being a smart and impressive job candidate and being perceived as an entitled person who is hard to work with is very blurred. As a job candidate, you are expected to ask the right questions at the right time, and anything other than that can ruin your chances of securing the job, something that unfortunately happens to a lot of people. When I read the Reddit story down below, I initially didn't think that the questions the job candidate was asking HR were inappropriate and eve…

When you've been in the workforce long enough, you know that what the boss says, goes, no matter how hard you might roll your eyes about it. In some jobs, you have bosses that make you question how they ever got the job in the first place. They're the boss who constantly does things that seem wrong in the eyes of the other employees. Sometimes it might seem like they have their priorities so backward, as was the case with this person, u/RScommitted. They shared this great story of malicious com…

One day, you're going to quit your job—and that's a fact… Whether it's over a disagreement, for relocation, for growth—or because you're leaving the workforce for good. When that time comes, it will be up to you (mostly) on what terms you want to leave on. Do you want to leave on good terms, possibly even despite long-held grudges? Or do you want to set the world ablaze—full scorched earth policy—burning every bridge behind you as you go? This worker shared the resignation they were planning on…