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'There is no such thing as business ethics': Top HR nightmare stories featuring entitled bosses and unprofessional coworkers

'There is no such thing as business ethics': Top HR nightmare stories featuring entitled bosses and unprofessional coworkers

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…
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‘Enough was enough’: Tired team fired by boss after complaining about unreasonable expectations regarding workload

‘Enough was enough’: Company employees confront management about overwhelming workload, boss fires entire team as a result

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.”
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'I followed your instructions to the letter': Painter maliciously complies with boss's orders to use corrosive paint, costs boss a fortune to fix

'I followed your instructions to the letter': Painter maliciously complies with boss's orders to use corrosive paint, costs boss a fortune to fix

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…
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Credit union employee pressured to follow unethical new policy, quits on principle, gets huge payout: 'I made it very clear that I would NOT be participating in that'

Credit union employee pressured to follow unethical new policy, quits on principle, gets huge payout: 'I made it very clear that I would NOT be participating in that'

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…
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'[My] signed 20k contract is [...] nowhere to be found': HR informs employee that his signing bonus is $10K instead of promised $20K

'[My] signed 20k contract is [...] nowhere to be found': HR informs employee that his signing bonus is $10K instead of promised $20K

Always document everything!
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Boss tells employee to re-apply for their own position because of district policies, employee walks out: 'I will not be re-applying'

Boss tells employee to re-apply for their own position because of district policies, employee walks out: 'I will not be re-applying'

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…
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Scorned deli employee gets revenge on boss by outing his cheating habits to his wife: 'She looked at him. Looked at me. And couldn't say a word'

Scorned deli employee gets revenge on boss by outing his cheating habits to his wife: 'She looked at him. Looked at me. And couldn't say a word'

This person realized that it's never too late to get petty with a bad boss. In fact, sometimes waiting to reveal your hand can make things worse for that person! Up next, these people explained what it's like to be around their out-of-touch wealthy friends, like one woman who encouraged a commercial flight to hurry up by telling another passenger, “ Go have a word with the captain … Tell him who you are.”
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Boss asks employees to take $5,000 out of each paycheck to be team players: 'My management actually has the nerve to ask me to be paid less'

Boss asks employees to take $5,000 out of each paycheck to be team players: 'My management actually has the nerve to ask me to be paid less'

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…
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'I stopped coming in early': Frustrated phlebotomist sticks to normal work hours to spite toxic boss after he took entitled coworker's side

'I stopped coming in early': Frustrated phlebotomist sticks to normal work hours to spite toxic boss after he took entitled coworker's side

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…
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29 funny job advertisements filled with typos and spelling errors: 'Be ponctual'

29 funny job advertisements filled with typos and spelling errors: 'Be ponctual'

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…
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Karen goes on sick leave for four weeks because her coworker asked her to fix a mistake: 'I refused to do a task she assigned me'

Karen goes on sick leave for four weeks after receiving coworker's constructive criticism: 'I refused to do a task she assigned me'

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…
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Mid-level manager learns about impending mass quitting, struggles to keep the company from going under: 'People are actively ready to leave'

Mid-level manager learns about impending mass quitting, struggles to keep the company from going under: 'People are actively ready to leave'

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…
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Top Interview Memes for Desperate Job Candidates Who Loosely Embellish Their Resumes

Top Interview Memes for Desperate Job Candidates Who Loosely Embellish Their Resumes

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…
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Office Karen picks a fight with coworker for making too many elaborate lunches: 'She doesn't have a right to demand that'

Office Karen picks a fight with coworker for making too many elaborate lunches: 'She doesn't have a right to demand that'

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…
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'I am so sick of these meetings': Micromanager adds 10+ hours of meetings to employee's schedule to review why not enough work is getting done

'I am so sick of these meetings': Micromanager adds 10+ hours of meetings to employee's schedule to review why not enough work is getting done

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…
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'Ok boss, let's see what ya got': Call center Karen argues with new manager for 5+ hours to get extra day of PTO

'Ok boss, let's see what ya got': Call center Karen argues with new manager for 5+ hours to get extra day of PTO

Trying to negotiate with a Karen employee can come at a price. In this instance, that price was time. This Karen, who was actually referred to as Kay in this Reddit thread, thought she could argue her way into getting an extra holiday off while her coworkers were expected to go to work. She was not able to merely request PTO because she had already used all of her days. Since her new manager, Dan, seemed a bit kinder than other supervisors, she thought she could get away with this. Dan, however…
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