Most employees hope to be appreciated and valued while they're happily employed at a company, but the unfortunate reality of the working world is that employers often don't understand that value until they're about to lose you. When that happens, all of a sudden your contributions to the company seem so important that your bosses become increasingly afraid of what the workflow will be like in your absence. As we said, it's a very self-involved line of thinking, since you've been hoping for vali…

If this employee's boss thought he was expensive before he got fired, well, it turns out he was even more expensive to fire. There has to be something gratifying about proving to your boss that they made a mistake, and in this case, making it far too late for them to back out of their poor decision-making. It all started after this Redditor's boss pulled him aside one day and told him that they needed to have a discussion during his next coffee break. When OP walked into the meeting and saw the…

Imagine developing a startup for two years only to get fired right before the company is officially registered. As upsetting as this situation may be, we've seen employers behave this way before so we cannot say that we're surprised by this. When it comes to startups in particular, we know this kind of shady behavior is pervasive. What's especially upsetting, in this instance, is that the developer seems to be integral to the success of said startup. In fact, his work was not only an integral i…

Bosses never know what they've got until you're gone. This dude was one of those non-profit employers who assigned the amount of work a salaried employee would complete to an intern without paying them properly. That intern eventually pursued a career in a similar field and would go on to receive a graduate degree years later. Seven years following that joke of an internship, his former boss reached out and asked for his help with some grant writing. Now that OP worked regularly as an independe…

Employers regularly have this idea that they need to save money on the cost of labor to decrease their bottom line. This usually comes about when there has been some quarterly meeting about what the company can do to increase profits. Rather than coming up with anything new, some bright-eyed manager will boldly propose that the company reduce the cost of labor—thinking themselves to be the first to ever do so, making them, therefore, a business genius . To be fair, reducing the cost of labor is…

Bosses should never underestimate their employees' ability to get the pay they want somewhere else. This dude not only denied their overworked loyal employee the raise they deserved, but they also had the audacity to tell them that the only way they could negotiate a higher salary is if they got a competitive offer at another company. Either this guy wanted his employee to leave (and his team's productivity level to implode) or he really underestimated the Redditor's ability to find a better jo…

Pulling far greater than your own weight at work—or in any team—is a common frustration to experience and can make you feel like you're carrying an incredible burden on your shoulders. What's worse, it can make you wonder whether any effort is even worth it… Why bother working so hard if your coworkers are just going to refuse to do their fair share (and get away with doing less) anyway? This is something that you first encounter in grade school in the form of group projects, with some members…

Is this business owner trying to run his company into the ground? It would almost be a better decision on his part to make his inexperienced nepo baby son his co-CEO. Whoever thought that firing the IT guy with over 40 years of experience on the job and promoting the owner's son instead should be, well, fired! What happened to Ted, whose story was shared by a coworker via this Reddit thread , is unfortunately all too common. Ted was given a generous severance package in exchange for a promise t…

There are various ways to deal with your coworker's annoying quirks and eccentricities. Taking their supplies and throwing them in the trash is certainly not the most adult way of handling things. That being said, this employee seems fully convinced that what they did was the only way. In short, this Redditor confirmed that the strange odor they were smelling was emanating from their coworker's sweater, which he always kept at the office and therefore never washed. When OP asked the coworker ab…

How many red flags does one need before it's time to quit and run? Imagine going through an interview process and being told an hourly rate that you're comfortable with should you get the position. Then, you get said position and you're told the exact same number as you sign the contract. Now that the contract is signed and you're beginning to schedule your training, you're told a wildly different number by someone else. You contact your boss and they tell you not to worry about it. You move fo…

Every now and then, you'll come across some dense manager who thinks that they're a business genius for coming up with business strategies that no one else is using… and for implementing policies into the business that they're surprised aren't already being followed. All too often, there's a good reason why these strategies and policies aren't more commonplace… because—well, they're illegal. Still, laws and reason won't stop some people, who are either too stupid to realize they're breaking the…

At this company, there is zero room for error when it comes to driving the company trucks . Employees can never use the trucks for personal use, so if they don't like it, there's the door. This salesman clearly values his job, so he followed the rules to a T. Some companies are extremely strict with their property. Whether they're monitoring every keystroke you type into your computer, or keeping an eagle eye on the company van's GPS, it can put every employee on edge. Businesses like this almo…

Anytime a micromanaging boss tries to implement something new, the effects are often actively counterproductive.

If you're working for a boss you don't like, quitting is the best feeling in the world. And these people had an added bonus: they were able to tell their terrible bosses exactly what they thought about them before leaving. They say that people don't leave bad jobs, they leave bad managers . If you've ever been in a great job that quickly goes downhill when your favorite boss leaves, you know exactly what I'm talking about. A good manager can shield you from blame so that you can do your best wo…

Imagine having a new boss who felt the need to watch your every move, including your bathroom breaks. If you've ever been in this position before, we imagine you found a loophole at some point because one simply cannot get their work done well without much-needed breaks. As for monitoring bathroom breaks, that simply feels hierarchical in a way that is no longer conducive to healthy work environments. It's merely invasive. Managers should have way more important priorities on their hands than n…

Filling in for your boss can be an enlightening experience and open you up to the opportunity for new growth, learning, and perspective. It shows you all of the administrative things that your boss might handle that help shape their own approach to things and that, while they have more oversight, they might not have as much insight into every detail you handle in your role. Usually, this will be done as a favor to your boss, assuring them that at least someone is looking out for their role and…