When you know you are a valued employee, one your company cannot afford to lose, you have a lot of leverage when negotiating benefits and pay. The problem is, unless you actually threaten to quit, companies will not be in a rush to give you more than they think you deserve, which is usually much less than what you do deserve. So employees threaten to quit, and some manage to get what they want from their current company, and some end up actually quitting and getting a better deal somewhere else…

When people use the term “not leadership material” they can mean a wide variety of things. It can mean that you're not suited to the organization's toxic expectations of complicity and your unwillingness to follow whatever directive is passed down to you blindly. It can also mean that your performance isn't up to standard or that you don't prioritize interpersonal relationships and kiss the appropriate rear ends often enough. “Doesn't do the things I want them to,”

If a workplace can get away with dumping new responsibilities on employees without giving them anything in return, you can bet they will give it a go. There are plenty of employees who won't notice they are being taken advantage of, and will gladly agree to more work with nothing in return. They will probably convince themselves that it is good for the experience, and at least they can put the extra responsibility in their resume, for the next job to come. If you are not interested in gaining '…

It's called a 9-5 for a reason!

The interview process is a long and arduous one for both sides, really, and the last thing anyone wants is for their time to be wasted after such a long process. The relief that comes after simultaneously finally securing a role or finally having someone to fill an empty position on the team is understated, turning energies next towards developing and furthering the burgeoning relationship. While you can expect a lot of anxiety on the first day on the part of the candidate, the last thing you e…

Nothing is more satisfying than using the knowledge you worked so hard to gain for something that gives you joy. And you may call us petty, but sometimes that joy comes from revenge on someone who truly deserves it. Working in anything related to computer science is as good as having a superpower, you can use your knowledge to do just about anything. The employee in this Reddit story proved that with just one code line, you can really mess with someone's life, and OP (original poster) gained a…

Hanlon's razor is one of my favorite adages for maintaining sanity in this crazy world, and if you've read a few of these posts, you've probably seen it mentioned almost as many times. The philosophical razor states that one should “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” This is all well and good and helps one to let go of the atrocious and selfish behaviors they witness from others while out and about in the world: they don't mean to be that way they're jus…

Many a misguided middle manager has had the idea of hosting meetings at a time that is convenient for everyone: say during lunch hour when everyone is on break, so won't have any meetings scheduled… except that break is unpaid and, well, when are people supposed to eat their actual lunch when there's suddenly a meeting jammed in there. No matter how fun they try to make it sound, “zazzing” it up and naming it something they think is cool, like “Power Hour Lunch Sync,” the reality remains the sa…

How long is too long for a shift at a job you just cannot wait to be rid of? Obviously, the answer can be even one minute, but if we're talking realistically, how many consecutive hours can you actually take doing a job you cannot stand? Most people would probably say they manage 6-8 hours of a shift in a terrible job, some have really high work ethics and can maybe endure 10, but there is absolutely no chance any employee out there would agree to 13 hours doing a job they hate, with terrible p…

Picture this–You arrive at work on a random weekday, fully believing you are going to have a great day. Your boss is so pleased with your department's work that they have been promising for months to expand your team, going as far as showing you building plans for your new office. But then, management and HR gather your entire team, all 18 employees, and tell all of you that you are being laid off, essentially disassembling the entire team. They then leave with a big smile on their faces, and y…

Almost certainly, at some point, those working shift work, or in other jobs where timesheets need to be kept, have been told by some manager not to “bother” reporting time that they worked over their shift because it's “inconvenient” for them to report it. Sometimes, this comes in the form of being told that it needs to be at least 15 minutes to be reported and counted for anything, but that's not really true—at all. If anything, if their system can't handle menial minutes overtime, then they s…

By the time you're training new hires in your department and taking on additional responsibilities and work, it's about time to start wondering when that promotion is coming. Let's face it: you're basically contributing at a level as if you'd been promoted already, so all that's left is to make the adjustment to your title and compensation. But, of course, no one likes paying for something they're already getting for free—and employers, first and foremost. So they'll drag out that promotion as…

The proverb “A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush” postulates that you're better off with what you have or are able to get now rather than what you might be able to get in the future. Reson being that While working for an emergency telecommunications company, this worker fell into the all-too-common trap of taking on additional work with the promise that it would eventually lead to more pay. Spoiler alert: It didn't. With the proverbial carrot dangling just in front of them indefin…

Those of us who had the misfortune of working a minimum wage job in retail or at a restaurant know how much those places of work try to take advantage of their employees. Usually, it comes in the form of attempting to get employees to work more for less money, which 90% of the time is not even legal. That is why anyone who even considers working in a place like that should be really careful and look after themselves. Luckily, the employee in this Reddit story managed to recognize the red flags…

We thought the titular contests of the “Hunger Games” series were just some SciFi hoopla, yet here is this eerily similar real-world equivalent: competing for the privilege of working so that you can continue to support your own survival. In fact, “Hunger Games” is a fitting name given the fact that the arena for this real-world analog was in a restaurant. Everyone who has ever worked in the service industry or retail knows that customer reviews are a total grab bag, you can do nothing exceptio…

Question for you, kids–When someone does not like their job, what should they do? Is it A) Keep at it and suffer quietly. B) Disappear and never return. Or perhaps C) Quit with as much respect as you have been given. It might be hard to find the right answer, as we all considered doing any of those three options at some point in our lives. However, the best approach is probably option C, because that is the only way you can be done with a toxic workplace and never look back with regrets. It mig…