People in petty positions of power have the uncanny propensity to overestimate the scope and reach of that power—almost as if they imagine their position as an assistant manager of a box store to hold as much power as the appointed leader of the Istari. Actually, that analogy works quite well… since Saruman also had a tendency to overestimate his power over others. “You have no power here.” Managers love a good schedule, and they also like complaining about that schedule and blaming the schedul…

Well, which one is it? Useless or essential to the business? Contrary to what some managers believe, you don't get to have it both ways. If you treat your staff poorly, they're probably not going to have your interests—or the interests of the business—close to heart. Conversely, treating staff with decency and giving them agency will help you maintain a thriving and successful business. No one likes to have their hand held, no one likes to be micromanaged, and certainly, no one is going to reac…

If you're hired by a client or employer to pick apart their business operations and identify inefficiencies and issues—do you give them an honest answer? Even if it's an answer that they're not going to want to hear? Even if the problem is—well… them? No one would disagree that keeping a boss or client happy is a good idea. After all, these people are paying all or part of your livelihood—and if you were to be fired or dismissed for telling them something they didn't want to hear—even if it's t…

People don't quit jobs; they quit bosses… Most of the time, at least. This saying has echoed off of the walls of this site a thousand times, and yet it remains just as true as in its first utterance. Too many jerks out there have ended up in a position of workplace authority—either by starting their own business or through the power of the Peter principle—and find themselves wondering why they can't keep staff, not realizing that the answer is looking at them in the face every morning when they…

This person wanted to work for a non-profit for free, but the organization was so disorganized that they ended up losing millions. They really lost a good employee, too — this OP was so dedicated to the cause that they actually planned to work for them for three months entirely for free. First, the company insisted the OP shouldn't do that, telling them to send an invoice ASAP. However, they company then decided that the OP was over-billing them, and accused the OP of some pretty terrible stuff…

"I used to be a server like you, and I've gotten stiffed by tables before. It just happens and you need to get used to it" were a restaurant owner's words when one of the waiters approached him after being stiffed on a $3,600 event. Talk about a good manager, huh? OP took to r/Serverlife after a frustrating incident at work happened, where he was forced to wait on a large party with a reservation booking in the restaurant's event room. Per usual, the restaurant was ridiculously understaffed, an…

These workplaces found out the hard way that you can only push your employees so far before they snap.

This story will be familiar to anyone who has worked in service or retail, with both entire industries being plagued by employers who require you to show up early—without being paid for it—or finish tasks after closing after being automatically clocked out when the doors locked. Managing these businesses isn't much better, earning only moderately better pay while being made to work more unpaid hours that actually pushes your earning back down to (or below) minimum wage. Combine this with chroni…

Hardworking employees often get the short end of the stick. Because of their efficiency, they're punished with more work and more tasks, but are never fairly compensated for going above-and-beyond. In this case one employee, who had been juggling the tasks of at least 4 other positions, found himself in a bind when he approached his bosses concerning a promotion.

**This story ends in a huge raise

When a coworker is out to get you, it's not a simple task to evade them. Not only are you trapped in the workplace with this person, seeing their scowling face everyday, but it's not like you can just pressure them to quit. Or can you? In this case, one woman dealt with a vindictive workplace enemy by pulling an uno reverse on them, exposing their terrible work ethic and forcing them to face their lies.

There's some dubiousness to the truth behind this post, and, let's be honest—as with anything you read online—there often is. But this thread sparked an important fervor of discussion around something I think is an important topic: How much information about your personal life do you owe your employer? If you're taking a sick day—do they need to know why? If you're leaving your position—do they need to know why? The answer, in any case, is no. Your employer doesn't need to know more than the ex…

Learning that you're making less than a new hire with less experience is insulting. Yet, companies seem to consistently possess a higher hiring budget than a budget for raises for dedicated workers—with the frequency of stories like this making it seem more like the norm than some fringe occurrence. A female machinist shared her recent workplace experience on the popular r/antiwork Reddit sub. She explained that she had been training a new hire and found out that the trainee was earning a highe…

It's always a good policy in life to take the high road, but when that's not an option, the low road will do just fine—just make sure to set fire to every metaphorical bridge you might cross along the way. This full scorched earth policy isn't the way you should normally go about doing business; for one thing, it's (usually) unethical, and it's not going to make you many friends or get you very far. For that reason, you should always aim to leave things on good terms when you leave a job—you ne…

It's often said that no one will appreciate the job you do until you're gone, and we've yet to see evidence otherwise. It's like being in the driver's seat of a race car; as long as you're driving that car, people will attribute the car's best performance to be owing to the car itself. It's not until you leave the team and another inferior driver takes your seat that people will realize how truly terrible the car is… and that your efforts were making the car appear better than it actually was.…

It turns out they had a choice after all…. The bounds of any authority are limited, but that doesn't stop those wielding it from consistently overestimating where those limits are. And, when you're the assistant manager of a pizza place, the bounds of your authority are probably much less than you think… Your power in that position isn't unchecked—it's not like you're the United States Secretary of Defense or anything. Still, as always, where there exists a single shred of power, there is someo…