It's hard to be taken seriously as a manager when your messages are overflowing with typos and misspellings.

We've said it once, and we'll say it a thousand times: When making a demand from an underpaid retail worker who would probably rather be somewhere—no, anywhere else than standing here listening to you, you'd better choose your words wisely. You might end up with exactly what you wished for—just… not quite how you pictured it. (The monkey's paw curls .) That's what happened in this classic case of malicious compliance, which was shared to the popular Reddit sub of the same name by Redditor u/Lai…

Backpacking through a foreign country while working on a holiday visa puts you in some strange situations in some strange places with some still stranger people. That's part of the joy of the experience; reflecting back on these situations with slightly rose-tinted glasses and wondering just how the heck you managed to get through it gives you a kind of “second-degree enjoyment.” Plus, you'll have

It's amazing the lengths that people will go to place blame on anything but themselves, especially when that person is an old employer seeking to blame you for their own mistakes. It's no secret that, after you leave a toxic workplace, everything will be blamed on you—but this company has taken it to another level. This worker, Redditor u/NimboStratusSuck shared their story to Reddit's popular r/antiwork subreddit, claiming to have been contacted by a previous employer who was seeking to get cr…

The fear that ChatGPT, or some other AI, could replace your job in the near future is an absolutely real one—especially when your job mainly consists of writing short, accessible pieces that someone may or may not even read when they visit your webpage. ChatGPT assures me, when I ask it, that there's no way that it could replace a human writer completely… but what if that's just what it wants me to think so that it can covertly plot to put me out of business? How are we even certain that ChatGP…

Getting contacted by an old workplace is a lot like running into an ex-lover. There's all this history of shared trauma and buried emotions of all sorts on either side. You had so much intimate knowledge of them once, but now they're a complete stranger. There might be some longing and regret but, deep down, you know it's better that you went your separate ways. This Redditor, u/AcrolloPeed, shared their story of an experience like this to Reddit's r/IDontWorkHereLady subreddit community. The c…

Getting fired from a job is never a fun experience; it can be a major blow to your self-esteem, and the often sudden disruption to your daily routine, along with a sudden loss of income, can cause significant undue stress. Almost always, it feels like a major step backward, like someone has plucked you up out of your life and placed you down somewhere else entirely. What's more, there's this sense of failure and embarrassment that you feel follows you into each ensuing job interview, hampering…

It's incredibly frustrating to be blamed for something you didn't do, especially when the person blaming you knows fully well that you didn't do it and is taking advantage of your inability to prove otherwise. It's often said that “There are two sides to every story, and the truth lies somewhere in the middle.” but that's just blatantly untrue on account of a little thing called lying . That entire adage relies on the fact that both people are honest about their experiences and perspectives. Im…

There's no workplace event more heartbreaking than experiencing the sudden dissolution of a supportive and thriving workplace culture. Most workplaces that claim “they're family” are toxic… but when you actually have a team that operates like an extended family unit, it's magical and makes working—well—tolerable, at least. It's one of those “show don't tell” types of deals. If you have to tell someone what they're experiencing, it's not going to be nearly as powerful as letting someone reach th…

Sometimes managers and business owners manage to convince themselves completely that everyone is out to get them. They're certain that their “lazy” workers are looking for every possible option to screw them over by slacking off on the job. Sure, there might be some workers like that out there. But from what I've seen in the workforce, they're completely outnumbered by those who are going above and beyond. Why jeopardize those workers' morale just so you can control the one bad egg? Why cut off…

Some bosses should be very careful about what they demand.

This manager took issue because one of their workers was taking discarded bread loaves from back-of-house disposal. Anyone who has worked in food service or the service industry has witnessed this at some point: perfectly good food going to the bin just because they can't move the product and donating the food to a shelter would present a “lawsuit risk.” So away it goes, right into the dumpster. It's always a shame to see all perfectly good food go to waste—even if you have plenty to eat at hom…

There is a quote that is often attributed to the likes of Bill Gates and Walter Chrysler that goes something along the lines of “Always choose a lazy man to do a hard job because a lazy man will find an easy way to do it.” Whether or not either of them actually uttered this string of words (or was the first to do so) is up for debate. But the sentiment rings true in many instances that require innovation: Why hire the guy who is content to do things by the letter when you can hire the guy who w…

There are a lot of people in this world with a lot of different beliefs, and we would do well to seek to understand and accept them. Still, there are some things in this world that just don't seem to add up to any rational sort of thinking. It's all well and good to follow a belief structure that carries a sense of morality and ethics. But what do you do when that structure prohibits you from using the tools of your trade? Is it your organization's responsibility to cater to these needs? Or is…

There's an age-old saying that can—although said in many different ways—be summarized as: If you're going to break the rules, don't break two rules at the same time. It's a simple, logical rationalization that boils down to mitigating risks. When you break multiple rules simultaneously, you just multiply your chances of being caught. In addition to that, when you get caught for one… you're probably going to get caught for both—and pay the price for both. There's also the added risk of more peop…

It's no secret that the human resource department isn't as benevolent or employee-focused as we might have once been led to believe. At the end of the day, that seems pretty obvious, and we find it hard to believe that the wool could ever be pulled over our eyes. After all, it's in the name . It's an entire department of the company that exists solely to manage and mitigate one of its most costly resources… humans—aka you . Still, HR managers manage to either be the sweetest, most hospitable pe…