Shoutout to all the good managers out there! It's far too common these days to hear about toxic management and the enforcement of bogus new policies that actively hurt employees while benefiting companies at large. So when we do come across a story where a decent manager defies these types of unnecessary rules and regulations in the name of protecting their more or less powerless employees, we have to be grateful for the few nice authority figures that are still out there. Here, we have a manag…

Playing pranks on your fellow employees is a dangerous game. First of all, there's the obvious: it's unprofessional behavior. That's a given, but of course, there's more nuance than that. Coworkers with so much time and energy on their hands to play pranks on others in the workplace might as well get the word “annoying” tattooed on their foreheads. Furthermore, you never know how your fellow employees will react to a prank. Perhaps they will explode in frustration and anger. Or, as was the case…

Employees should never be pressured to stay late, especially when they are not getting paid overtime to do so. Here, we have an overworked employee who became known around the office for refusing to give in to his toxic boss's requests. Even when he was pressured to stay late for unpaid work because of a last-minute assignment, the Redditor still packed his belongings and left at the end of the day. When his boss and coworkers caught wind of this pattern, they bequeathed the Redditor with the n…

No one enjoys getting assigned a new task at work right before the end of the day. The reality of the matter is that most tasks can wait until tomorrow at that point, and if it cannot, then that's on management for holding off on assigning said task for so long. This story serves as yet another example of how communication within a strict corporate hierarchy can lead to bad business. Here, we have an employee who was asked to complete a task at 4:50 pm that was evidently urgent. This would be f…

We all want and need an advocate in the workplace, someone to have our backs in case other coworkers or authority figures start taking us for granted. Of course, in an ideal world, that's what human resources should be, but let's be realistic for a second. Human resources is all about protecting the company at the end of the day. Sure, they might project an image of solidarity with employees but always be careful not to be fooled by this facade. Now, this manager was against their boss's reques…

Any employee who is only allowed to leave work early with managerial approval knows how great it is when that approval to dip out is granted. Yet somehow, there is always something or someone that gets in the way when those rare blissful moments do happen in the workplace. Here, we have an entitled Karen coworker who was 12 years older than this Redditor and who had a completely different job in the kitchen where they worked. In fact, the Redditor points out that this Karen left early from work…

The audacity of this assistant is insane and maybe a little iconic. Charlotte was a 50-year-old administrative assistant who reported to the CEO of a small company. The CFO was a 27-year-old, and Charlotte was clearly threatened by the age difference. When she was tasked with creating the organizational structure chart, she refused to acknowledge that the 27-year-old, who shared this Reddit thread, was senior to her. Apparently, the CEO refused to back the CFO when this hierarchical conundrum b…

It's always funny when managers decide to be strict about their overtime policies. If they want employees to abide by a “no overtime without managerial approval” rule,

We expect our employers to act in good faith. That being said, instilling all of your trust in your boss without making sure to protect yourself is a recipe for disaster, as this employee unfortunately has recently learned the hard way. He had been consistently depositing money into his retirement account for the last few years. However, when he checked his account most recently, he soon discovered that his boss had been “withdrawing money from his paystubs” yet had not contributed that money t…

It's not easy saying no to your employer, but every so often, it's more than necessary to stand your ground. This is crucial for several reasons, but most of all, one needs to make sure one's employer understands the limitations of their so-called “control" and jurisdiction. It's one thing to draw mental boundaries between work and life, but it's even more challenging to make those essential boundaries known to your boss. This employee was leaving the company for seven weeks for paternity leave…

This bizarre coworker needs to get her act together. She seems to be relying way too much on this Redditor for her lunch plans, but it goes beyond the classic mooching. When the Redditor brings their own packed lunch, the coworker refuses to eat anything at all. But when the Redditor wants to go out to grab lunch, the coworker immediately latches on and tags along no matter what. She has completely rejected the concept of bringing her own food or going out on her own during lunch hour. Furtherm…

This group of employees wasn't sure how to handle the workplace weirdo … because he doesn't technically work with them. This person wrote in for advice using a throwaway account called u/throwRA-nonSeq. They shared that they work in an office complex with a bunch of different businesses, and there's one dude who's being an utter creep. He's being just annoying enough to really weird out the other employees, especially the women, who he seems to target in particular. But, as is often the case wi…

Let this story serve as yet another reminder to never give your employer the benefit of the doubt if they are not going to reciprocate. Here, we have an employee who worked for over three years as a traveling supervisor and had seen the once-gracious company bought out by a larger corporation, after which the treatment of employees gradually worsened over time. When the Redditor decided to finally put in his two weeks' notice, his boss forced him to pay for his own travel to get home. Now, many…

One would hope that most managers who work with student workers would be sympathetic to how challenging it can be to balance education with employment. Let’s face the facts: if it weren’t necessary, most folks wouldn’t take on all that responsibility. And yet, there are still far too many employers in this day and age who become far too concerned with their own insular experience that they are then unable to step outside of themselves and understand how hard things may be for their student work…

Most employees have had to deal with someone ever so slightly senior at the company thinking they are in charge of them. For those of you who have seen “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” yes, we are talking about the Perpentuas of the world. Here, we have an office Karen who assumed her coworker was her assistant and who frequently took credit for her coworker’s projects. This ultimately did not bother the coworker as she was confident in her work and knew that the real folks in charge were well aware of…

There are a number of reasons why HR might reprimand you for something… but this seems a bit far-fetched. Here, we have an employee who, like any other twenty-something employee in the 2020s, has a personal social media account where they post photos with friends and the occasional relatable memes. This past weekend, the employee shared a relatively benign photo of their friend group grabbing drinks on a Saturday night. There was nothing inappropriate documented that could come back to bite the…