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toxic-work-environment

'Employer is trying [...] to force me to resign': Boss tries to cheat employee out of unemployment compensation, also denies PTO request

'Employer is trying [...] to force me to resign': Boss tries to cheat employee out of unemployment compensation, also denies PTO request

Someone make sure this employee is getting in touch with a lawyer ASAP. If you are new to the workforce, please take this unsolicited advice from this group of complete non-experts here at FAIL Blog: do not ever let your boss try to pressure you into signing a resignation letter. If you have or have ever had a boss try to get away with this nonsense, please know that they could not be more transparent in their ridiculous attempts to get out of providing any unemployment compensation. Now, there…
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'They nervously laughed that the meeting was timed badly': Employee fired 1 hour before office Christmas party that he already paid for

'They nervously laughed that the meeting was timed badly': Employee fired one hour before office Christmas party that he already paid for

Office Christmas parties – you either love ‘em or you hate ’em. Some are awesome, some… not so much. I guess it's the luck of the draw. But have you ever heard of a company making you pay to join the party? Well, that's what happened to the OP. And to top it off, he didn't even get to go. He got fired one hour before the party. Talk about a holiday bummer.
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'We didn't sell enough to pay you guys': Bakery owner late on payroll, employee calls her out, boss send condescending text

'We didn't sell enough to pay you guys': Bakery owner late on payroll, employee calls her out, boss sends condescending text

Imagine your boss not paying you and then giving you a lecture about your inability to handle finances well! It takes a special kind of cognitive dissonance and tunnel vision to have that level of audacity. It's the kind of narcissistic “main character syndrome” behavior we have seen in a lot of anecdotes about horrible bosses here at FAIL Blog. What's especially amusing here, however, is that when this boss was backed into a corner about being late on payroll, instead of owning up to her mista…
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'I have cost the company $12. I quit': Employee shamed for scanning food item incorrectly, quits on the spot, managers have to scramble

'I have cost the company $12. I quit': Employee shamed for scanning food item incorrectly, quits on the spot, managers have to scramble

Managers who make a big fuss over small mistakes should be careful. Otherwise, they might end up losing all their employees one by one. No one is saying that being detail-oriented on the job is not important. Of course, it's important. But there's a way to motivate employees to pay attention to those details without making them feel like nothing they do is correct. Moreover, it's also equally important (if not more so) to empower your employees and make them feel welcome, at the very least. Her…
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'This led to them doubling down on their stupidity': Business docks employees' pay for leaving work 59 minutes early, employee calls their bluff and takes them to court

'This led to them doubling down on their stupidity': Business docks employees' pay for leaving work 9 minutes early, employee calls their bluff and takes them to court

This company was great at first, but slowly became too toxic for one employee. Cultivating a professional and pleasant atmosphere in a workplace takes effort from every person in the building. If employees are happy, they'll probably be friendlier, which will make collaboration easy. When employees are dissatisfied at their job, though, cliques start to form between different branches of the business, and employees might harbor resentment towards management . After all, if management is in char…
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'My coworker reported me': Coworker tries to get daycare worker fired, boss almost does until they check security footage

'My coworker reported me': Coworker tries to get daycare worker fired, boss almost does until they check security footage

There's no greater sign of a toxic workplace than having a coworker looking over your shoulder at all times, waiting to see you mess up. Oftentimes, these are the folks who are threatened by someone else's presence, especially someone they think is the competition. However, just as it was in this situation, the employee did virtually nothing wrong and the coworker was just seeing what they wanted to see. To me, this phenomenon feels reminiscent of high school behavior. I remember when a classma…
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'Can I get paid all that I would make here in advance?': 20+ crazy questions job candidates actually asked

'Can I get paid all that I would make here in advance?': 20+ crazy questions job candidates actually asked

Who hasn't messed up an interview before? I'm sure we can all agree that everything is a learning experience, and sometimes you have to learn by making mistakes. We all know that mistakes can build character, blah blah blah, but really? If I could go back, I would erase all the mistakes I made in job interviews. I don't think those mistakes led me to where I am today. I think that this line of thinking borders on delusional. The truth is that sometimes, you don't think before you speak and you…
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'What a complete waste of my time': Manager tries to get employee written up for forgetting to take notes, manager's boss intervenes and fires her

'What a complete waste of my time': Micromanager tries to get employee written up for forgetting to take notes, manager's boss intervenes and fires her

Some managers spend way too much time micromanaging than getting anything productive done. We all know what it's like to have a manager who seemingly has made it their only job to watch you like a hawk. Perhaps that intense vigilance is just in your head… just kidding, you're probably not wrong. Most people with authority like to spend more time flexing that authority than using it for good. In fact, when I have found myself in a position like this employee, I don't even care if the manager use…
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‘Don’t go through them too fast’: Supervisor tells employee to slow down productivity, cue malicious compliance

‘Don’t go through them too fast’: Supervisor tells employee to slow down productivity, cue malicious compliance

Supervisors should always be careful what they wish for when providing instructions to employees. This is especially true when it applies to college students with minimal work experience, who absolutely will follow everything their supervisors tell them word-for-word. I remember in my first internship I was getting coffee for my boss and had gotten so used to his very specific order that I literally froze at Starbucks when one time, they did not have his order. I simply could not function or th…
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'She is a textbook narcissist': Top Coworker Stories of the Year

'She is a textbook narcissist': Top Nightmare Coworker Stories of the Year

A terrible coworker can completely ruin your year. So if you feel neither here nor there about the people in your office, let's just say that you have quite a lot to be thankful for, and if that's not apparent, look no further than this collection of nightmare anecdotes compiled from Reddit's r/coworkerstories subreddit. Some of these stories range from coworkers with no boundaries to coworkers who keep shirking their responsibilities to the ones who you discovered get paid more for doing the s…
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'Don't fire me so you can hire your nephew': IT guy forced to train unqualified nepo baby to replace him, nephew tanks the company, boss gets fired

'Don't fire me so you can hire your nephew': IT guy forced to train unqualified nepo baby to replace him, nephew tanks the company, boss gets fired

If you feel taken for granted more than anyone else you know, you're probably the parent of a teenager or you work in IT. Even worse, you might be both. Now, I have never worked at a company big enough to have an official IT person, but I know how grateful my coworkers and I would be if we did. One has to wonder where this lack of proper gratitude comes from considering how lost we would be without the technologically competent folks in our lives and especially in our workplace environments. No…
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'We don't need you, why don't you just quit': Karen and Kevin diner owners challenge overworked server to quit, server maliciously complies

'We don't need you, why don't you just quit': Karen and Kevin diner owners challenge overworked server to quit, server maliciously complies

Who doesn't love a classic “you don't know what you've got till it's gone” story? Here, we have a server fresh out of school who was constantly manipulated and treated poorly by her Karen and Kevin bosses. While I have never shared the particulars of a story, I do empathize with the situation as someone who has worked for ungrateful clients. In this case, I was working in a client-facing role and was already swamped that I did not need this particular person's business. When he started making u…
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'CEO [told] me to help them with my old accounts or he'll sue me': CEO ignores former employee's warnings about outdated system, leads to decade-spanning malicious compliance

'CEO [told] me to help them with my old accounts or he'll sue me': CEO ignores former employee's warnings about outdated system, leads to decade-spanning malicious compliance

Some employers refuse to hear the truth, and if you're lucky, they will have to experience the consequences of ignoring your constant warnings. We all know what it's like to be a disregarded employee. Sure, most bosses say that constructive feedback is welcome no matter what your position in the company is, but in reality, you are likely to be ignored if you are at the bottom of the food chain. When this happens repeatedly, it soon becomes exponentially clear that the problems you are noticing…
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'Think about whether you want to keep working here': Employee makes small mistake, boss loses it, give ultimatum, employee maliciously complies

'Think about whether you want to keep working here': Temperamental boss loses it and gives ultimatum, employee maliciously complies

It's not that employees should be careful around bosses with tempers; it should be that bosses with tempers should be careful around their employees. Those who throw tantrums and who have a habit of unfairly threatening employees should not only be fearful that they themselves might get in trouble for their tirades, but also they just might lose those employees forever and not of their own volition. I once had a friend who willingly took a job with a temperamental boss who had a known reputatio…
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'I thought we were on good terms': Job candidate asks former boss for reference, she sabotages candidate's chances with the recruiter

'I thought we were on good terms': Job candidate asks former boss for reference, she sabotages candidate's chances with the recruiter

They say to never trust your employer, but we always need a former employer for references so do we have much of a choice in the matter? The truth is that we do not. Even after you leave a company, you're still beholden to your former employer in some way. If you have minimal work experience, you might not have another employer to use as a reference. It's the cyclical nature of the working world. Even when you leave one place, you're never really free now, are you? Sure, it's possible to frame…
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'Have fun running the place without me': Coffee shop owner tells manager working 100 hours per week to take time off, manager blocks all work numbers and lets the business fall apart while they're gone

'Have fun running the place without me': Coffee shop owner tells manager working 100 hours per week to take time off, manager blocks all work numbers and lets the business fall apart while they're gone

The relief of taking two whole weeks off, after working 100 hour weeks , must be incredible. Humans aren't designed to work that much. Yet there are numerous career fields that require 16-hour days and working straight through the weekends. Doctors, nurses, and lawyers are among the groups of employees who tirelessly devote themselves to their jobs. But running on caffeine and energy bars isn't enough to keep a person going in the long run. This person shared their own story of when they worked…
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