Now that it's the middle of summer, everyone and their mother is trying to take a much-needed vacation. Despite the fact that this happens in every workplace every year, many employers still have yet to come up with a system and workflow that allows for employees to take time off. Instead, employees are often subjected to shame and derision from the moment they put in their requests for PTO to the moment their vacation has finally arrived. Here, we have an employee who works for a startup that…

Here's a good rule of thumb: if an employee is handling confidential information, then it's probably not a good idea to let them do their work out in the open. This accountant tried to warn his new manager that it wasn't a good idea for him to cover the front desk on this particular workday, as he was doing payroll (and was the only person in the company capable of handling payroll). It wasn't that the accountant felt “above it" in any way; he knew that from time to time, the accountants in his…

Working in human resources requires keeping a lot of drama to yourself. This poses a problem for those of us on the internet who want all the juicy gossip about all the messed up workplace environments so that we can feel ever so slightly better about our own messed up workplace situations. Thankfully, these HR employees were bold enough to share their stories and spill the tea for the rest of us. It comes as no surprise to report that the vast majority of these anecdotes involve those at the t…

Entitled bosses can lose out on great talent as a result of their massive egos. “He is now down to 2 employees from the 9 he started with.”

How many times do things need to go wrong in order for bosses to listen to their employees? This painter tried to warn his boss that using water-based paint on metal would cause the metal to rust. Of course, he was not only ignored, but his boss was insistent that he follow her orders. Well, the painter decided to comply but was smart enough to get it in writing that he was ordered by his boss to use this specific paint. Let's just say it was not the right time for his boss to flex her authorit…

Just because something is technically allowed does not mean you should do it. Tell this to most toxic bosses in the workforce. That's exactly what this credit union employee did. Unsurprisingly, she was the only worker on her team who had enough of a moral backbone to refuse to trick customers and collect unnecessary lawsuit money. This new policy was pitched by a spineless Karen coworker, who found a loophole in state policy and exploited it to no end. When this employee refused to take part i…

Always document everything!

Just because something seems standard does not make it justified. This employee was told that because of the school policies in their district (they work in the education sphere), they needed to re-apply for the positions they had been working in for the past year. But don't worry: it gets worse. They were also informed that this time around, they will likely have trouble because of “seniority.” So, this employee reacted like any sane person would in this situation; they thought, “What is the p…

Imagine gathering for a company meeting and hearing about all the great work everyone's doing, only to be asked to take massive pay cuts. This was not exactly the greatest display of a healthy company culture. Essentially, this executive at the company, who rarely shows her face and has next to no relationship with the Redditor and the other coworkers on their team, decided that the best way for the company to remain healthy was for everyone to elect a certain amount of money to be deducted fro…

People who go above and beyond at work often have a lightbulb moment when they realize they are being taken for granted. Unless that extra work has manifested itself in a promotion, a raise, or some kind of validation that meets the employee's desires, these workers do not deserve to give so much of themselves over to their jobs. Here, we have a phlebotomist who routinely came into work 15 minutes early until their entitled coworker started taking advantage of this. Essentially, the coworker as…

Is there anything more insulting than desperately looking for jobs, only to find that nearly every posting is filled with typos? It's the kind of irony that makes you wonder if someone is playing a prank on you in that very moment. What makes this hiring manager employable when they can barely string a sentence together? These are folks who have demonstrated a proven inability to carefully proofread their work. They don't understand the difference between the contraction “it's” and the possessi…

Some coworkers have got to develop a thicker skin. In this instance , we have a Karen who has a habit of shirking any additional responsibilities she has no desire to take on and dumping them on other coworkers despite their already busy schedules. Most recently, she did it yet again to a coworker who had enough of her nonsense. This Redditor told the Karen to make a correction to a document, to which Karen responded by going on sick leave for four weeks. The toxic management, of course, sided…

It's tough to be caught in the middle of a work crisis. It's even tougher when you gain intel of serious office drama that could completely affect the state of things when word gets out. Here, we have a recently promoted mid-level manager who is on the younger side and therefore has achieved the trust of the folks on his team as well as a strong sense of camaraderie. However, while his team members are happy with his managerial skills, they do not seem to be content with the company at large. I…

Everyone has made an interview flub at some point in their professional careers that haunts them until retirement. If for whatever reason this does not apply to you, then congratulations because you are a unicorn individual. The rest of us are still having stress dreams about that one time six years ago we embarrassed ourselves out of a potentially great opportunity. Perhaps you got something incredibly wrong about the company or perhaps you embellished your resume to get your foot in the door…

This Karen had the audacity to tell her coworker to stop making great lunches… Of course, the root of this was envy, which is the root of so many office conflicts we have covered here at FAIL Blog. In this instance, however, the Karen coworker was the spouse of another employee at the company, who is on the same team as the coworker who cooks well and often makes extra food for her teammates. It's not that the Karen wanted some of the extra food herself. It's that she felt threatened by her cow…

Let this story serve as yet another reminder to managers and supervisors everywhere that if it can be communicated in an email, there is absolutely no need for a meeting. Here is another tale of a micromanager who seems to be so concerned with their employee's level of productivity and has zero self-awareness considering the fact that they have been repeatedly adding 10+ hours of meetings every week. But then again, who is genuinely surprised here? Micromanagers never realize that they are ofte…