Having a Karen coworker feels like going into battle every single day of the work week. You have to walk into your place of work ready and prepared to be lectured, condescended to, and poorly treated. If the Karen in question is your equal, don't worry: she'll still talk down to you no matter what. Having a Karen for a coworker is largely about picking and choosing when to defend yourself and when to be the bigger person and let her nonsense go in one ear and out the other. Generally, you want…

This is what happens when you try to manipulate the employees you rely on the most! So many managers think they can get away with unnecessary outbursts, lectures, and mind games, yet what they don't anticipate is what could happen if the employee they are currently messing with just decides to up and leave one day. Here, we have an employee who was voluntarily fixing any bugs in the company's sister without extra payment as this was not expressly a part of his job description. His new manager d…

Everyone has had an annoying coworker at some point in their professional career. You know, that one person you irrationally dislike and who always makes you struggle to not roll your eyes visibly in their face. There are a myriad of qualities that can lead to becoming that annoying coworker. There's the one who thinks they're slightly senior than you are based on absolutely zero evidence. There's the one who plays loud music, eats obnoxiously, or types like they want everyone to pay attention…

Let this story serve as a friendly reminder to always get it done in writing, folks! Unfortunately, this employee learned that the hard way but was still able to walk away triumphant at the end of this toxic workplace drama. When the Redditor's coworker had to leave a big project in order to take care of his father, their boss asked the Redditor take the lead on the project moving forward. The original poster should have seen this as a red flag in and of itself, as his employer was essentially…

Some managers need to learn to calm down. If you happen to not be available that one moment when your manager needs you, please know that this is not your fault, and your manager has absolutely no right to overreact. If you say that you were in the bathroom and they choose to double down in an effort to make their overreaction seem justified, then please know that your manager might be crazy. This employee was told to notify his manager every single time he left his desk after an incident when…

Managers better have a good reason for denying someone's PTO request. Otherwise, they're practically asking for conflict. In fact, the number of legitimate reasons is quite minimal, considering that employees are granted the right to take their vacation days when they sign on to a company. In this instance, the employee was actually trying to take off days that were mutually convenient for both her and for the school in which she worked. However, her department head decided to make an issue out…

Let this serve as a friendly remember to never trust that HR has your back. No matter how charming their smiles are or how friendly they may seem when you're making small talk in the kitchenette, do not be fooled into thinking that anyone in the HR department is supporting anyone other than the head honchos. The grim part of this truth is that it may not even be HR's fault at the end of the day. They too are doing their jobs in an already established system. However, some of these stories certa…

If you feel like your bosses are taking advantage of you, you're probably right. When this realization occurs, it's always a good idea to write out the pros and cons of your current position, to think honestly and critically about the added value you bring to the company, and to assess whether or not your current employment status (salary, benefits, job title, etc.) accurately reflect the hard work you have put in over the course of your time at the company. This project manager worked his way…

Working a job can open your eyes to all sorts of things that you'd never even imagined were possible. Unfortunately, most of these—at least the ones that stand out in your memory—will make you never want to use that service or buy that product ever again. Once the curtain is lifted, it's impossible to close your eyes to the reality of the world as you now see it. Having previously worked in fire alarm maintenance in another life, you'd be horrified how many buildings are non-compliant to local…

We all knew hiring managers can be shady, but this “slight change” during the interview process was about as shady as it can get. Imagine going through multiple rounds of interviews and feeling excited because you're likely to get this position. You're comfortable with the offer from the job posting and you seem to like all of the people at the company with whom you have spoken thus far. Then, all of a sudden, they pull a bait-and-switch on you. Just before your final interview, you receive an…

There are few life experiences that are more humbling than going through a job interview.

Let this story serve as a friendly reminder to never work for a business off the clock. If your company requests that you carve out any extra time outside of your regularly scheduled hours, you are well within your right to request that you be paid for that time or, at the very least, that a negotiation process can take place. Let's be clear: the higher-ups at your company are fully aware of what they are asking of their employees. If the topic of payment for that extra did not cross their mind…

No boss should be remotely surprised when employees expect that the conditions of their contracts will be honored. Changing the circumstances of someone's employment contract should function similarly to negotiations during the hiring process. Everything must be a two-way street and the solution must satisfy both parties. This is why it's particularly shocking in this day and age to see a CEO so out-of-touch when he forced entire teams of fully remote employees to relocate across the country fo…

You never know when speaking a foreign language comes in handy. Sure, it's useful when you're traveling to another country or when you're trying to communicate with someone who doesn't speak your primary language. However, it can occasionally save you from unexpected problems. Here, we have a Serbian employee in an English-speaking office who accompanied their boss to a meeting with a Serbian business. The employee overheard the businesspeople speaking in their language about how they were esse…

It's a great feeling to know that your boss is going to be absolutely lost without you. If the circumstances with which you are leaving your company were at all contentious, there is at least a sliver of satisfaction knowing your former employer will be totally confused and will have so much trouble finding a decent replacement. Of course, it's much healthier to part ways on good terms and with a sense of professionalism. That being said, if your boss fires you because you were providing too ma…

Discovering your manager's failed attempt at disciplining you has got to be satisfying. Not only was this employee already over it and clearly prepared to find another job, but he also found his manager's write-up about him because it was left in the company printer. Let's just say that this so-called write-up was about as unintentionally comical as it could get. First of all, it was full of typos. Second of all, it was full of malapropisms. For instance, when the manager wrote, “I called HR to…