When you’re a kid, you tend to think you can be anything you want to be, even a dog.

Management naturally steers towards less actual work by ordering employees around rather than stepping up and doing what is needed for the role. So it isn't surprising when some employees begin holding a vendetta. This corporate manager got his own personal annual goals and sent them off to OP, his employee, adding to his long list of responsibilities. Every year, the manager would unfairly get a bonus for OP's hard work. In order to deliver results, OP had to leave his desk at times, even the…

Receipt reimbursement systems in companies are much more complicated than simply giving employees a hard per diem. In this case, OP was working on an off-site short-term project (that in reality lasted about a year) in Singapore, and he was allocated $60 per day for food expenses. On average though, OP was actually spending about half that amount. As the project went on, the customer's client began raising some issues, and OP was told to take the client out for dinner and some drinks. His manag…

At what point will HOA members freely admit that they solely exist to cause trouble that didn’t need to exist?

At a certain point, cutting costs to extreme measures will just cost you more in the long run or cause your entire business to fold under its own weight—or both… simultaneously. The short-sighted pursuit of profit is a trap that businesses often fall into—and why not? It's an easy methodology to follow that makes sense and follows logical reasoning: Spend less, earn more. The issue is that you have to spend money to earn money, and not investing in proper resources can cost you more when you ne…

Sometimes actually following the rules makes you more rebellious. That's right, it's called malicious compliance and it is a tasty form of protest. One person who works in the service industry at a fast-food restaurant played a grade-A malicious compliance tactic that actually had them getting paid more. They had gotten in trouble for starting their closing-shift duties early so they could leave earlier. The place closes at 9 and they didn't want to be there until midnight, so they would start…

Coworkers either become some of your closest friends — or they become the most infuriating plague on your existence you would have never hoped for. They're either some of the most chill and kindest people in the world, or they're nosy, backstabbing, and cruel — there is no in-between. Unfortunately, some workplaces tend to have more of the latter category, and these coworkers make the workplace a toxic apocalypse. This worker had to endure a nosy coworker who was determined to make worse the fa…

Working for a company with a dress code can be exhausting. When you were hired, you had your own style, but now you have a closet full of cookie-cutter outfits that a blind librarian might wear to a funeral. Lame!

Study guides are basically the hail mary of every student, but there are professors who don't believe in this practicality — because they would rather encourage their students to read the entire material, adding to the sublime mountain of headache they already have. In my opinion, any professor who does this is simply lazy. Why don't the students just buy the books and not pay for classes? It would certainly be much cheaper. Thanks for adding to the small fortune I owe to the banks called stude…

Customers often play a dangerous game in terms of refunds, and this game can ultimately result in some bitter consequences. In this case, a customer bought a designer item online, and when it arrived she sent a rude message to the seller, OP, demanding a full refund, threatening OP with filing a chargeback. The catch was Karen wanted OP to Venmo her the money, which is a huge, blaring red flag. OP said they would refund the money if the item was returned, per company guidelines. Karen discarded…

Unnecessary rules and processes must be followed to the letter—because some manager who has never actually done the job decided it must be so. As long as they only waste your time, they'll remain in place indefinitely as you're hounded mercilessly about the resulting drop in productivity (thanks to these new processes.) However, as soon as these processes infringe upon the time of the manager who made them, it's miraculous how quickly they can disappear, which means the easiest way to get rid o…

Rules either exist for no good reason or were written in blood; there is no in-between. The ones that were dreamt up by a bored middle manager somewhere often are more of a means of maintaining control over the workforce than anything regarding safety or productivity, so at the end of the day, they're not the most necessary. Rinsing rice may not be the highest stake workplace activity, so when you're under the pump thanks to chronic understaffing, this is probably one procedure where it's ok to…

No bus trip would be complete without someone have a conversation extra loudly on their cell phone. Bonus points if it's on speaker, which is the way the woman in this story chose to chat with her grandson. Bus journeys can be really great — you can gaze out the window at the scenery, listen to music, or take a nap while you travel to your destination. That's if all goes well, and let's face it, usually there's at least a few passengers who can't get along . On the r/MaliciousCompliance subredd…

Sometimes your actions to prevent something can bring it into existence as if you're unknowingly fulfilling a prophecy of your own making. That's what happened to this boss, who attempted to keep their workers from taking sick days by demanding they get a doctor's note only to have the doctor recommend them to take more time off than they would have in the first place. This is a common experience we've all probably had ourselves or witnessed at some point in our working life. A lot of organizat…

This woman got an amazing opportunity, thanks to a helpful call center rep. That's certainly not a phrase you hear every day. Having to call any large business means you're going to be put on hold while the folks in a call center handle your issue. It's an odd experience — you get put on hold, sometimes you can't tell if you're talking to a robot or a human, and you often have to listen to the worst music ever made, punctuated by someone telling you “how important your call is to us.” Ugh. It c…

We love a wholesome tale when the underestimated employee surpasses expectations.