Sometimes, no excuse is better than a lame excuse. Everyone deserves the right to take a break with no questions asked. Unfortunately for the workers of the world, that can be very hard to do when you have a demanding and nosey manager. These employees made the mistake of trying to fabricate valid reasons and coming up short. It's definitely better to say nothing at all if the only “reason” you can come up with is the grown-up version of your dog eating your homework. Luckily, those ridiculous…

Have you ever had a coworker who seemingly will stop at nothing to get you fired? Before we get into this story of how an employee managed to save themselves from getting unfairly dismissed by instead getting their work nemesis fired first, let's unpack how these kinds of work rivalries happen. Most of the time, like most elements of a work environment, it all comes from the top down. If the system is built upon a foundation of unhealthy competition, that will almost never fare well for employe…

Front desk employees often have to deal with entitled customers, but sometimes they have to deal with equally entitled bosses.

In this day and age, we don't expect toxic workplace environments to get away with wildly outdated behavior anymore, and yet as much as we'd like to think that progress has been made, unkind and unfair treatment still does happen all the time. Here, we have a young female employee who was on the brink of getting married when the VP of her company organized a disciplinary meeting threatening to fire her if she didn't pull it together at work. Of course, there was no concrete evidence that she wa…

"No one is happy about it, but one of the people above me on the ‘front end’ always hides her own drink behind customer service, while also getting on everyone else if they have a drink."

Some bosses care more about enforcing ridiculous policies than assessing whether or not said policies are efficient. How many times have you found yourself in a work situation when the easy solution is staring right in front of you but you can't say anything because of your temperamental and particular boss? This truck driver had to deal with a silly new rule about scanning tons of extra paperwork to corporate when all he really needed to do was scan a few signed pages. Of course, despite voici…

Employees who regularly work expected overtime as part of the job come to rely on that money to earn their living. Time is money and money is time, right? So what happens when employers can't seem to afford that overtime payment but somehow maintain the expectations that employees should be completing that extra work? Well, if the employees are empowered enough, then they should let their bosses know the simple and fair truth: if employees must say goodbye to that money, then their employees mu…

There cannot be many folks out there who enjoy receiving unwanted feedback. This hiring manager thought it was a good idea to respond to a job candidate's request to withdraw an application by giving them a completely uncalled-for lecture about what it takes to be a good manager and how to navigate a professional career successfully. As many folks in the comments section pointed out, the truth of the matter is that the interviewer has clearly been having trouble filling a property management po…

Most new hires spend their first day getting an overview of their daily responsibilities and meeting the other members of their team. Unfortunately for this IT worker, that calm, chill first day was taken away from them pretty much instantly. It turns out that on this particular employee's first day, they learned that the company used some obscure and outdated software that would take some time to adjust to and understand. Well, time did not seem to be on their side given the fact that the cowo…

When dealing with toxic management, there's nothing like giving them a final surprise before your not-so-gentle departure.

Imagine thinking everyone was about to throw you a nice going away party after your resignation was announced, only to learn that the party is really a celebration of everyone not having to deal with you anymore. That's what this boss dealt with after he was demoted and later fired for a variety of reasons, one of which involved ignoring serious safety procedures. He was, at one point, the manager of a national sewer and drain company, and he was known for making his team members' lives a night…

This is what it looks like when justice is served. This law partner may have been working in the industry for decades, but his outdated way of approaching workplace dynamics became a major problem. It seems like he's the kind of boss who chooses one lowly employee to direct all of his anger and frustration toward, as if there is nothing said person can do to meet his desires sufficiently. Unfortunately for this summer associate , they became the target of all his antics. Most of this unfair tre…

Making a difference in the world isn't always easy, but it's possible. U/EpicWinterWolf has a family member who knows that all too well, after she gave an unforgettable exit interview at one of her previous jobs. Exit interviews can be tricky. You probably want to tell your boss 101 things they did wrong or could improve on. You may want to disclose everything you think is wrong with the workplace, from the biggest issues to tiny personal gripes. At the same time, you may need a reference from…

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…