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toxic-work-environment

'You don't leave a company high and dry all at once?!': Boss enforces three months notice after mass quitting, causes more backlash

'You don't leave a company high and dry all at once?!': Boss enforces three months notice after mass quitting, causes more backlash

Talk about a way to turn your few remaining loyal employees against you! This boss decided that the best way to respond to a mass quitting was to send a hostile message to the remaining folks on her team enforcing new strict policies. Those policies were that if anyone decided to leave, they needed to put in three months' notice before doing so. First of all, this boss must be foolish because she simply cannot enforce that when it comes to at-will employment. Second of all, what she should be d…
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Employee goes out with Karen coworker, Karen makes a scene at the restaurant, then demands to be driven home: 'I've never invited [her] out since'

Employee goes out with Karen coworker, Karen makes a scene at the restaurant, then demands to be driven home: 'I've never invited [her] out since'

Hanging out with coworkers outside of work hours is always a strange experience at first. Some people get along in a work environment, and it doesn't take until meeting up in real life for you to realize that the two of you just don't gel outside of work hours. This employee discovered a bit too late that his coworker was not just a strange person to hang out with outside of work, but it turns out they're a Karen. Sometimes you really don't know these things until you see someone ordering food…
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'What's the different between a 6 oz sirloin and a 12 oz sirloin?': 20+ ridiculous questions entitled customers asked their servers

'What's the difference between a 6 oz sirloin and a 12 oz sirloin?': 20+ ridiculous questions entitled customers asked their servers

Servers should get an additional 20% tip every time a customer asks a self-explanatory question. It turns out people are just as ignorant in restaurants as you would think. This collection of questions real servers were asked by entitled customers just goes to show that thinking before speaking is a lost art. Instead, people are asking questions like why the menu did not properly state that the risotto had rice in it. People are asking what the difference is between a 6-ounce steak and a 12-oun…
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Employee quits, then orchestrates an audit to get former boss fired three years later: 'She couldn't prove that she didn't misuse funds'

Employee quits, then orchestrates an audit to get former boss fired three years later: 'She couldn't prove that she didn't misuse funds'

Imagine putting a toxic work experience behind you and thinking you've completely moved on until the opportunity to get your boss back conveniently arises. Sure, you may have transitioned to bigger and better things in life, but you cannot help but admit that you still harbor a little resentment from those horrid years you endured under such problematic leadership. This Redditor put in her notice after her bosses accused her of doing zero work despite all the evidence proving otherwise (meanwhi…
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'Do you take me for a fool?': Call center workers share their most memorable encounters with entitled Karen customers

'Do you take me for a fool?': Call center workers share their most memorable encounters with entitled Karen customers

Anyone working in a customer-facing position should get the medal of freedom for keeping their cool despite having to confront numerous Karen customers per day. However, as you'll see with some of these stories , sometimes keeping your cool is impossible to help these customers out, calm them down, or even just get them off the phone. One of these call center stories sparked a core embarrassing story from back in my intern days. My job that summer involved answering and returning phone calls co…
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Entire team asked to take 70% pay cut after incompetent boss messes up contract negotiation: 'Virtually nobody is accepting this insulting offer'

Entire team asked to take 70% pay cut after incompetent boss messes up contract negotiation: 'Virtually nobody is accepting this insulting offer'

Imagine your boss getting your entire team together and then casually asking all of you to take a massive pay cut. It's possible that you've been in a similar situation, where you have been encouraged to “take one for the team,” so to speak. But here's the truth: taking a pay cut is far from taking one for the team. It's taking one for the boss, who likely has not been asked to do the same. In this specific instance, how could you be taking one for the team if the entire team is getting hurt by…
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Employee figures out toxic boss is watching their every move and no one else, plans payback: ''The camera is pointed directly at me'

Employee figures out toxic boss is watching their every move and no one else, plans payback: 'The camera is pointed directly at me'

It's easy to feel like your boss is always watching over you like a hawk, and nine times out of ten, they have more important things to be doing than monitoring your every move. However, every so often, you may find yourself in a sticky situation where your greatest suspicions have been confirmed, and you are stuck in one of those toxic work environments that everyone writes about on the internet these days. When this happens, the key is to immediately start thinking about ways to protect yours…
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'Sorry, boss. I got other plans': Boss confronts employee about not attending weekend work party, employee tells boss to reschedule work events for the actual work day

'Sorry, boss. I got other plans': Boss confronts employee about not attending weekend work party, employee tells boss to reschedule work events for the actual work day

Socializing with one's coworkers is important, but why does it have to take up so much of one's personal time? Sure, these events are typically not in the office. They might be at a bar, a restaurant, or the boss's home, which is ten times nicer than anything you could ever afford. The reality of the matter is that regardless of location, you're still networking with your coworkers. You're still on the job. It doesn't matter if food and drink are on the company because your time is actively bei…
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'You really can't win with her': Top Infuriating Coworker Stories of the Week (June 9, 2024)

'You really can't win with her': Top Infuriating Coworker Stories of the Week (June 9, 2024)

Every office has an infuriating coworker, and they can really be the difference between a perfectly average day at work and the worst day of your life. This week, we have a variety of difficult team members that range from the entitled to the chaotic. The entitled ones tend to boss you around even when they are just slightly senior according to the company hierarchy. The chaotic ones, however, can be even worse, as these stories will show. Sometimes, you actually befriend your chaotic coworker,…
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Video content creator gets unfairly fired, hatches plan to trick boss into a year's worth of pay: 'My former manager was so desperate'

Video content creator gets unfairly fired, hatches plan to trick boss into a year's worth of pay: 'My former manager was so desperate'

Here's a rule of thumb: try not to unjustly fire someone with the specialized skills you so desperately need. That's what this manager learned the hard way. She hired a video content creator to be a one-man team for all of the social videos for an entire university. Despite numerous attempts to convey to his manager that the KPIs she and the director had set were unfair, this employee was not listened to in the slightest. In fact, his manager was convinced she could get someone better to finish…
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Employee discovers work tracker on laptop, confronts shady managers: 'Please select why you were away from your computer'

Employee discovers work tracker on laptop, confronts shady managers: 'Someone somewhere is watching idle time carefully'

No one enjoys feeling watched at work. Sure, your manager is meant to monitor your progress and your ability to complete tasks and responsibilities on time. That being said, installing spyware to track things like idle time on one's work laptop for even the shortest of breaks is a bit excessive, to say the least. This employee was in the middle of a Teams meeting when he was prompted by a pop-up on his work laptop to answer why he stepped away from his computer. His managers claimed they had no…
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Fast food worker quits without notice, manager tries to get away with paying minimum wage for his final paycheck: 'The pay is still void because there was no two week notice'

Fast food worker quits without notice, manager tries to get away with paying minimum wage for his final paycheck: 'The pay is still void because there was no two week notice'

Let this story serve as a friendly reminder that giving two weeks is a courtesy, not a requirement. If you do end up quitting without giving two weeks, that does not mean you are relinquishing any other prior rights as an employee. To translate to this specific scenario, your boss cannot dock your final pay because of your choice to quit on the spot. In this instance, we have a fast food employee who used to work at a very well-known establishment famous for its donuts (if you catch our drift).…
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'He can't justify giving me a raise': Two-faced boss gives employee glowing mid-year review, then denies him a raise for not going "above and beyond"

'He can't justify giving me a raise': Two-faced boss gives employee glowing mid-year review, then denies him a raise for not going "above and beyond"

Duplicitous managers may praise you one moment and then come up with every excuse under the sun to not give you a raise the next. We've all had managers like this. You know, the ones who don't seem to understand that giving someone a raise means that they have been performing their primary responsibilities well. It does not mean going above and beyond and doing extra, unpaid labor. That wouldn't necessarily be a raise, then. It would be overdue compensation for responsibilities that are already…
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Top 10+ embarrassing work stories: 'I thought no one else was there!'

Top 10+ embarrassing work stories: 'I thought no one else was there!'

Spending up to or more than 40 hours a week in the same workplace environment is bound to lead to the occasional embarrassing moment. Whether it's tripping and falling, spilling coffee everywhere, having a bad bathroom moment, or even a Freudian slip, embarrassing moments are here to stay in life so we might as well embrace their presence in the office. These moments scar us for life even when they are forgettable to pretty much everyone else. For instance, I remember getting up from my desk to…
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New boss flexes muscles and enforces strict break schedule, team compliance causes public complaints: '[It was] a week of utter chaos'

New boss flexes muscles and enforces strict break schedule, team compliance causes public complaints: '[It was] a week of utter chaos'

Every new boss likes to demonstrate their particular way of doing things to their team, but blindly enforcing those rules can lead to unexpected consequences. If you're new to any company, whether you're in a position of power or if you're in an entry-level position, you have to take time to learn and adjust the current system before making suggestions that would radically change things for everyone else. Sure, new voices can be instrumental for productive change, but it's pretty self-involved…
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Boss makes employee put blazer back on in boiling hot weather because of his tattoos: '[I'm] so done with this place'

Boss makes employee put blazer back on in boiling hot weather because of his tattoos: '[I'm] so done with this place'

Let's talk about unnecessary dress codes. Sure, there are certain jobs where the clothing you wear is important. Healthcare workers and firefighters are a couple of professions that come to mind. Uniforms can signify that the person who is about to perform a job is the right person to be doing it. However, in most workplace environments, uniforms are less necessary and more performative. For instance, do all finance bros need to wear a jacket and tie for their jobs? Absolutely not. It should al…
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