It's not the best idea in the workplace to claim responsibility when you don't know the first thing about what you're doing. I'm all for the concept of “fake it till you make it," but within reason, and in this case, this administrative assistant was very much not within reason. One of the first jobs I ever had involved teaching subject matter to high school students and preparing them for college-level material. I primarily worked on reading comprehension, grammar, and SAT/ACT-level math. Howe…

There is something to be said for creating a healthy distance with your coworkers. Most folks understand this choice. The ways in which people choose to draw boundaries between their work and their social lives are personal choices. However, as much as you would think everyone would understand those choices, some folks simply don't get it. Like the coworkers who keep inviting you to events that you continually turn down…

We're nowhere near the Holidays, and yet we already have employers being awful about time off on Christmas. Here, we have a single parent who works as a dietary aide at a medical facility. We trust her when she says this is not exactly an environment she is comfortable bringing her kid to work in on any day, especially Christmas. When she recently learned that the daycare where she sends her kid would be closed on Christmas, and she realized she had no other alternative but to request time off,…

This employee may have had enough with his company, but in the end, his toxic boss had no one to blame but himself. After all, it was the boss that went on a ridiculous rant in the first place. He gave an intern a hard time for asking to leave early because she was going to have to put down her cat at the vet's office. The boss had absolutely no remorse for her situation and decided to yell at her because he thought he could get away with it. This Redditor saw the encounter in plain sight and s…

There is something to be said for listening to your employees, even when they are on their way out. Perhaps they actually have the company's best interest at heart. Unfortunately, some employers are too proud or too self-absorbed to get over the fact that someone under them might actually have a better suggestion for you and for the team you run. This thread was posted to Reddit's r/pettyrevenge by u/flib_bib , who worked in management at an international school and spent much of his employment…

In case it hasn't been clear, workplace culture is undergoing a serious facelift these days. The question is how everyone responds to these (in some cases, very necessary and long overdue) changes. Here, we have a supervisor who specifically told the receptionist staff to never fetch coffee for salesmen at the office, as they are more than capable of making their own beverages. However, you can't enforce these policies and then not have your employees' backs when they follow through. That's wha…

This boss was surprisingly candid about how he felt about his employee. All and it cost him was $50,000! Plumbers can make great money in their professions. It's one of those fields that will always be a necessity, since many people can't fix clogged pipes or water leakages on their own. This guy shared that they began working for a plumbing company near them, expecting to make a decent wage. But within a few months, they realized that their boss was paying them on commission, as well as just b…

If you like to procrastinate at work, definitely be sure to check who's looking over your shoulder. Look, we all have to be honest with each other, bosses and employees included. We all need to take breaks at work. It's literally impossible to always be working. If you dare to think otherwise, you obviously aren't capable of recognizing that the quality of your work has likely suffered as a result of going non-stop for over eight hours a day. Now, for those of you who are able to procrastinate…

There's a special satisfaction that comes with finding a successful loophole to get around a silly workplace policy. Especially when it comes to getting paid fairly for all the work you do. Now, you know that nurses have to put up with a ton of nonsense on the job that makes saving lives more challenging than it already must be. However, this bureaucratic silliness sounds like way too much. This Redditor shared their story via this thread on Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit, which detai…

This employee decided to call their boss's bluff, writing that their boss “thinks she's won.” It's not every day you hear about a boss this overbearing. U/Nerdfury83 shared a story about their new manager at their job---her title really should be “micromanager.” The OP works at a phone job, taking calls that have recorded logs. The OP's boss is so strict that she is literally counting the seconds that OP isn't on a call! While phone jobs are notoriously strict about the time employees spend on…

There is a reason why you should avoid giving your boss your phone number if you can help it. Sometimes, you don't have a choice, but what you do have control over is when you choose to respond to your boss. The reality is that engaging with your boss is part of your paid employment. Therefore, you really only need to do it when you're on the clock. It can be hard to draw those boundaries, especially in this day and age when it's nearly impossible to unplug. However, if you do manage to establi…

There are moments in everyone's working lives when management goes too far and everyone knows it. These are the kinds of moments when you look across the room at your coworker and you immediately question if they are thinking what you're thinking. Perhaps there is a clear look in their eyes or perhaps there is a slight nod, the kind of exchange that signifies, “Are we doing this? Yes, yes we are." What happens next is the kind of solidarity among employees people only dream of… if only the circ…

Every human resources department has been known for some shady behavior to protect the interests of the company rather than the interests of the actual humans who work there. Ironic, much? We all have these kinds of stories, particularly ones that involve employee benefits like paid time off. It's a tale as old as time: an employee requests vacation time for an important event like a wedding or a funeral, their boss approves said vacation time, then shames them in some way as the dates actually…

Sometimes, the best way to inform your boss that their newly implemented policy is flawed is by showing not telling. Lots of workplace practices are put into place in such a way that seems smart and productive in theory… until it's not. Of course, the people who are enforcing said policies often want them to work and refuse to hear any criticism from the people who actually have an understanding of how their workflow looks. This boss was running into some legal trouble and couldn't pay for any…

What part of “time OFF” do these employers not understand? This technician had been working at the same HVAC company for 15 years and saw it expand from virtually nothing to a business that employed over 100 other technicians. Unfortunately, the dynamics within the company changed a bit after it was sold to a larger monopoly. Now, the technician's typical five weeks of vacation time were reduced to two weeks, and seniority didn't really matter at all anymore. Despite these changes, the technici…

It doesn't matter what your line of work is. It doesn't matter if you work in an office, in a restaurant, in a warehouse, or remotely. Chances are you have dealt with an unruly and/or bizarre coworker. Perhaps in the moment, your experience with this person was a cringeworthy one. Perhaps it did not end well for you or for them. However, provided that you came out unscathed, you probably are grateful to have the story. Some of these coworkers range from the unethical to the strange. For instanc…