Some bosses have such low self esteem that they need to push their workers to see their ‘worth’, and you know what happens when people try too hard… they get the opposite results they would expect. That is exactly the case for this young micromanager who OP literally called ‘Babyboss’ in their post. The OP was very valued by their company because they had specialized education, and a deep understanding of a certain subject that was not disclosed in the post. I assume the subject of the work was…

When complying with your boss's request ends up costing the company tens of thousands of dollars, be ready to get fired… unless you have receipts. Oftentimes, your boss has their head up in the clouds and doesn't know how things work down on the ground. There is only so much you can tolerate before you begin to maliciously comply with their recurring, ridiculous demands. This being said, you don't always know what your boss is going to stipulate, so at times, you will have to be flexible with s…

People often ponder what ‘being cheap’ looks like in a company, and it is strongly apparent that those particular people do not work in cheap companies. In too many places, bosses love to assign their employees extra work, giving them multiple jobs to do that don't necessarily fit their job description, and cheap out on hiring somebody else to do what needs to be done. Most of the time, they get away with it. But every so often, an employee shows them who is boss, by maliciously complying to a…

Quite some time has passed since I've last been fired, but the mortifying memory remains carefully carved into my awkward brain, still causing me to shudder when I think about it. I'm sure I have told this story before, but for those of you who are new, I shall suck up the embarrassment and retell it. Back in my tyrannical teenage years, I was looking for a job. Sixteen at the time, I wasn't actually all that tyrannical. I liked to think I had the guts to do anything, but the truth is I was act…

When the boss was out for two weeks, this company didn't make a single pair of glasses the right way. It all could have been avoided if this supervisor would just listen to his employees! Even though c-suite executives make the big bucks, they're rarely as in tune with the company as other employees. Especially in a place like a factory , the employee who works on the machines each day knows way more about the current state of things than a supervisor who lounges in a room alone all day. Even s…

On the one hand, you don't want to be a cog in a machine, on the 9-5 grind, wondering why you ever wanted to work in corporate, but on the other hand, you really don't want to work in healthcare, where the hours are long, the work demanding, the patients rude, low pay, poor benefits, and know-it-all bosses. These are some of the complaints I heard from my own friends who were going through a particularly grueling residency when first becoming doctors. According to them, they over-idealized the…

Anyone who has had a job has probably, at some point, worked through their break—if you're working in certain industries, you've probably worked through many. The integrity of the organization and your manager will be determined when they find out that you've had to finish your breaks to keep up with the workload or a rush of customers. Chances are they quietly turned a blind eye and pretended that it wasn't happening; after all, the store has been understaffed for so long that it's basically t…

Life is all good and dandy when you aren't going through micromanagement at work, but the second bosses decide that they want to become more stringent, you can kiss that dandiness goodbye. OP was working in a field where the urgent response was basically the purpose of said field. One day, OP's employer became super budget-conscious, and no longer allowed overtim e unless it was approved. The problem with that wasn't the scheduled overtime, but the unscheduled overtime. Most of the employees we…

When it comes to their boss's odd behavior, this person writes that they “just figured it out” after five years. As a manager, you have tons of responsibilities. It's can be a lot of pressure — you have to answer to your own bosses while managing a bunch of people. You have to know how to prioritize, picking the most important tasks and getting to those first. And you also have to be cautious what you say to the employees who work underneath you. In the comments, several people noted that as a…

Keeping employees happy and productive is a delicate balance. No one told this to the new HR manager, who took it upon herself to make some “improvements."

New hires are like the runt of the litter; small, without confidence, and in need of some extra assistance. Bosses often underestimate new hires, under the assumption that they should be grateful to have a job, and should want to contribute and 'take one for the team' until they reach emotional burnout. In this case, OP began working in a short-staffed office. The person training OP ended up quitting, which only caused further problems for OP, who was already picking up a lot of slack. Their bo…

Malicious compliance usually ensues after management messes their job up to the extent that employees find a clever way to get back at them or the system while technically carrying out their job description. OP was working as a paid intern for a law firm while they were still in law school, and to say that they enjoyed it would be an understatement. Working weekends and pulling all-nighters was the norm for OP, who claims they were the typical 20-year-old overachiever. Everything went smoothly…

Some companies' policies don't allow overtime, as paying minimum wage employees a slightly more humane salary is just not in their budget. Despite this, managers can overrule this when holidays arrive and they are in dire need of help. In this case, OP was working at a retail store; unsurprisingly, this was the type of company that paid its employees little but expected a lot. The holidays were fast approaching, and management knew that they were way behind, thus they would need many hands on d…

Cost of living is galloping ahead while our wages are crawling at a snail's pace.

Here's a friendly reminder that the words "mandatory" and "requested" do not mean the same thing.

It seems like a common theme for new supervisors to enter the workplace with a big bang, having the desire to prove themselves, leading to a quick and sudden change in the status quo. Oftentimes, this isn't necessarily a good thing. Some are as quick to go as they are to come, and this is exactly what happened in this particular case. A foreman joined a company and naively thought he could mess around with one of their oldest employees (a machinist) when giving him demerit points for being ten…