Who hasn't received an eyebrow-raising message from a current or former employer? You know the kind of message we're talking about. It's the kind that makes you question if this person is fit to be your employer at all. Sometimes, it's an audacious demand that they are in no position to make. For example, I once had a boss ask me to fill in for a security guard position when I was an intern despite the fact that I was woefully unqualified to do so. Other times, it's an invasive question your bo…

No one likes a lunch thief, especially if it's the boss's nepo baby son. This employee worked in a small office of about ten people, so when it became clear that there was a lunch thief among the team, it was pretty easy to figure out who the culprit was. However, to ensure that there was proof, the Redditor had a plan. He brought blue food dye to work and left a few drops in a coworker's half-eaten yogurt. This coworker had complained that the mysterious lunch thief had eaten almost all of her…

Whatever happened to keeping your eyes on your own paper, Karen? This entitled coworker thought it would be a good idea to confront another employee on her team and give them a hard time about the frequency of their breaks and the lack of extra responsibilities they take on at work. It turns out that the Redditor was going to the bathroom frequently because of a medical condition that HR was already fully aware of. As for the extra responsibilities, this was an intended line that the Original P…

There are some pretty embarrassing ways to get fired from one's job. Typically, everyone worries about the reaction from the person getting booted. Will they make a scene? Will they get hostile? Will they call their boss out on their complete lack of adequate management skills? However. more often than not, we come across stories where the people doing the firing should really be the ones who are embarrassed. Here, we have an employee who logged onto a Zoom call with HR. Just when they mentione…

Getting fired is one thing, but not receiving your final paycheck is a whole other ballgame. Here, we have a former employee who was unjustly dismissed by his former boss after calling out the rampant and consistent wage theft practices at the company. Now, he is considering filing a class-action lawsuit along with several mistreated former employees because his boss tried to get away with never sending this guy's final paycheck. It's easy sometimes to accept this kind of treatment due to the v…

Imagine going through the entire job application, interview, and salary negotiation process only to discover that your actual job has far more responsibilities and expectations than you were anticipating. This new hire spent thousands of dollars relocating to a new city in order to be a communications assistant. He had negotiated his salary to reflect the typical range for a position of that nature. However, after beginning the job, he learned that he was the head of the entire communications d…

Imagine signing onto a part-time job only to learn that the people running the store are incompetent high school graduates. It's not that these 18-year-olds are not capable of running a business one day, but as of now, the total lack of professionalism is on full display. It's already pretty awkward to work for someone far younger than you, but that's something the Redditor could get past. Otherwise, they would not have signed onto the position in the first place. What made this job particularl…

Imagine helping build something from the ground up, only to have your contribution entirely dismissed and undervalued. This CEO is giving an Elizabeth Holmes level of ruthlessness after cheating her former CTO out of his promised shares in the company just before its official launch. This, of course, was after two years of contracted work on the CTO’s part in helping develop the app and raise funding for the startup. Once the CEO found an investor who signed onto the company as her COO, this Re…

Every naive employee has to learn how to create boundaries with one's coworkers. A professional work team is not a sorority no matter how much someone may try to create that dynamic. If you find yourself trying to be one of the cool kids at work, take a minute to step back and remember that this is not high school and you likely do not need your work relationships to overlap too much with your friendships outside of work. Of course, there are exceptions and there are plenty of work environments…

Imagine having to endure a week with your most difficult and annoying coworkers only to be reprimanded when you finally take the opportunity to enjoy a night off. This employee was dragged to a week-long work conference where he was attending meetings and events on the clock for full days of work. Those hours of work were followed by endless meals and cocktails with his team. On the final night of the trip, the employee was excited to see that there was no after-work meal scheduled. He planned…

Individuals put in countless hours with the belief that their diligence and passion would finally pay dividends. If and when it occurs, it will be a historic occasion that people will talk about for weeks to come. So, how would you react if it turned out that your management had erred in awarding you the promotion that you had been hankering after for the past ten years? The story below is an account of a frustrated employee. The original poster (OP) had spent a significant amount of time emplo…

Let this story serve as a friendly reminder that any boss who forbids their employees from discussing pay with one another is quite simply not entitled to enforce that policy. This hostess at a restaurant chain knew that instinctually after her manager reprimanded her for doing so. The hostess learned that she was getting paid less than her two coworkers for doing the same job. She brought this up to her general manager, who ultimately acquiesced and gave her a deserved pay raise. However, that…

If your employer failed to correct a mistake in your contract, that's their problem, not yours. This hire began his new position and realized that there was growing resentment from some of his new colleagues. Why, you may ask? As it turns out, everyone else in the office had to begin work at 8:00 am sharp, while the new guy was regularly waltzing in at 9:00 am. That's not because the new hire was always running late, as some of his coworkers likely suspected. He actually thought he was followin…

Who else wants to get in line for a doctor's note from this surgeon? This employee had a serious spinal surgery and, during recovery, was asked to go on a business trip to Shanghai after the startup he worked for was acquired by a much bigger company. Well, the employee tried to explain that he could only go on a flight that long if he were seated in business class, but his new boss refused to believe him until he got a doctor's note. Well, the Redditor's surgeon was happy to oblige, and he eve…

Whatever happened to practicing what you preach? This boss genuinely thought he could get rid of everyone's only work-from-home day each week, only to never abide by the rule himself. He always found an excuse to message his team at least once a week saying he had appointments or needed to stay home for his kids, blah blah blah. Look, we are sympathetic to the fact that people have life commitments and families to take care of during the week. That's why remote work can be beneficial for everyo…

People who sit behind a computer all day working from home tend to think that their struggles are the center of the universe, but the truth of the matter is that the real hard workers out there are the ones who have to be on their feet during the entirety of their shifts without sufficient breaks. Here, we have a team of employees at a "gift shop/information center" who have to endure standing for their eight-hour shifts for no good reason other than that's what their new ruthless manager think…