This retail merchandiser fell right into her manager's trap. No matter how hardworking an employee is, it just won't be enough for some bosses. But that won't stop that boss from trying to work that employee to the bone anyway! When you're trying your hardest at work, it's tempting to take both successes and failures personally. You want to do your best, and if your manager criticizes you, it can sting. This manager realized that he could push this retail merchandiser to take on way, way more t…

A throwaway line in this person's story was drawing some major side-eyes from those who read it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Too many workplaces disregard this rule , and try different strategies that do nothing but annoy their workers. If you have a hardworking employee who gets all their tasks done and is loyal to your company, that's a benefit to the company. But some bosses refuse to leave good enough alone. Instead of finding an actual issue to fix, they've decided to bother this empl…

As a gardener at a super fancy house , this person was accustomed to big events. They shared that at this place in Massachusetts, they worked on a home that was used for movie shoots and fancy events for the uber-wealthy. U/B****ndogs was pretty used to the demands of the extremely rich : they mentioned that at one point, they were instructed to rake the beach to make it look more even. ("No, it never made a difference," they admitted.) Working with the very wealthy can be lucrative business, j…

One of the worst parts about shift work is being sent home early—despite all the memes and jokes to the contrary. Sure, when you're a student, you might gladly raise your hand to be sent home early since you probably don't want to be there in the first place and would rather be out studying or partying. And you're young enough and in enough debt already from your student loans that it's hard to see how a few hours working is going to make any difference… That or your parents are paying for ever…

Movie theater etiquette can be quite divisive. A lot of movie-goers appreciate a quiet theater. But then, the general public enters. Some people clearly do not want to be at the movie at all, and they show this by being on their phones for the entire run time. Some people bring their kids, who insist on using their iPads or running up and down the aisles. And then sometimes groups of teens come into the movie, and since they're just kids, they don't really care about the movie experience of the…

Working in customer service is never an easy task. The individuals you spend time with have a big impact on your day. Therefore, your everyday activities and troubles vary as you have no control over who comes knocking on your door. A few weeks back, the original poster (OP) was met with an unexpected request. He was instructed to handle Karen, a challenging client, in any way he saw fit, provided he could ensure the client stopped pestering them. Following careful consideration of the legality…

This boss is requesting more emails . In today's day and age, that's a surprising request, because most of us get more emails each day than we can possibly read! If you aren't getting spammed with dozens of random email each day, congrats to you. If you've found a way to avoid the scourge of constant emails, more power to you. Emails have become a bit dated in many businesses. Instead, people have pivoted back to instant messaging in order to quickly contact people. After all, many people can r…

Another week of the grind

It sometimes happens in life that there's a discrepancy between your own abilities and what you imagine them to be. This overestimation can have wildly different repercussions, but sometimes, it just earns you a role in management. See, that unearned confidence seems to translate really well in interviews with people who have no idea that you don't know what you're talking about, meaning that the false bravado can land you a job you were never really cut out for. (Cue managers everywhere lookin…

Some people simply don't have common sense, or even the smallest ability to predict the consequences of their absurd decisions and actions. Unfortunately, a lot of those people end up in high management positions. That means that anyone who has to answer to those managers, sometimes has to comply with unreasonable demands they know would end in disaster, but there is not much they can do about it. Take the manager in this Reddit story for example. They decided to forbid their security guard fro…

Strict managers should always be careful when they're enforcing new policies. Chances are they have made enemies by micromanaging so much already, so if they're going to be difficult and require team members to comply with even more unnecessary rules and regulations, they just might comply… maliciously. That's what happened with this 30-person team of consultants , who were instructed by their micromanager to submit detailed reports about their work progress every day to ensure that productivit…

What's more important: Work or your wife?

In the business world, the response is never a resounding no—rather, it's always ‘Sure, let me see how I can make that happen. When you think like this, you should be taken into consideration for future initiatives rather than being the person who needs to be fired. We recognize that corporate policies can be convoluted, but ultimately, don’t blame the players, blame the game. The story that follows is about a crafty employee. The original poster (OP) has a long history of employment with the s…

This landlord has never heard of the word “boundaries” before. He insists on bothering his tenant constantly! I think for most of us, we only want to see our landlords if they're installing a new light bulb or fixing a leaky ceiling. We certainly wouldn't want a landlord popping over to visit every few days. It's a business relationship, so why does this landlord keep pushing his tenant into uncomfortable scenarios? U/nuclear_wizard_'s landlord Next up, this micromanager was pushing his staff s…

“You're going to stay here until it's finished,” is a command usually reserved for unruly children who are refusing to eat their vegetables at dinner. It's not the sort of thing you'd expect to hear as an adult at work.

Being a fast food worker means you have to take a lot of heat from a lot of unruly customers. To have to deal with an unruly manager on top of all the other nonsense can be too much for some people to handle. This worker confronted his supervisor after he was giving the new employee a tough time on a busy day instead of helping the team out productively (what a concept!). Instead of listening and learning from his team, the supervisor took the opportunity to chastise the Redditor for talking ba…