It's not often that the villain wins in the end—unless it's the second part of a trilogy, and you need to set up the third part so that our heroes are fighting back from the brink of defeat… a la Star Wars' second (fifth) installment The Empire Strikes Back . See, ending your story with a conclusion where the villain wins usually doesn't provide a satisfying story structure—unless things have been leading there the entire time, and that's the point the story is trying to prove. [SPOILERS: No Co…

When you're young, spry, and fresh out of college, the first thing on your mind is probably trying to get a job. With all these student loans piling up and your parents breathing down your neck about “finding a stable job”, it's easy to overlook some obvious red flags in the workplace. Oh, sweet summer child, be careful what you wish for...

This waitress wanted to share a story about a family interaction at her job, but commenters took the customers' side! The OP has a few memorably cringe lines. If a waiter ever handed me water and in the same breath told me about how it had “came out of the dinosaurs years ago. [It's] just filtered super well," I'd hesitate to eat there. What a weird thing to say about a fresh beverage! Perhaps one of the worst ways to make water sound appetizing is to remind the customer of how water filtration…

What's the opposite of a work wife or work husband? It's a work nemesis, as these poor professionals can attest to. If you have friends you're starting to not get along with, you can stop texting them or inviting them over. But with your colleagues , even if they're really annoying or irresponsible, there's not a whole lot you can do to avoid them. Maybe you and Dave from finance don't see eye to eye on politics, but you'll still find yourself working on a spreadsheet with him while rolling you…

As nerve-wracking as it can be, starting a new job can also be an exciting experience. New challenges and opportunities await… Unless the job you've been hired for isn't actually as advertised. See, there's this thing that can happen where all optimism you had for the new role evaporates as you slowly realize that the job you've been hired for doesn't actually exist in the way you thought it did and the organization you're working for has no idea how the job they hired you for should function.…

There is something to be said for creating a healthy distance with your coworkers. Most folks understand this choice. The ways in which people choose to draw boundaries between their work and their social lives are personal choices. However, as much as you would think everyone would understand those choices, some folks simply don't get it. Like the coworkers who keep inviting you to events that you continually turn down…

There are so many red flags to look out for in corporate culture these days, but having to produce a sick note in order to work from home for more than two days has to be at the top of the list. In this case, we have a sick employee who had to go to the hospital numerous times for a rare cold/flu that was not easy for the doctors to diagnose. Obviously, we know what you're thinking. This illness sounds like your worst nightmare or the beginning of a horror movie. Instead, the horror story reall…

Bosses tend to think that the rest of the workforce is contractually obliged to bow down at their feet. Whether it's the fancy suits or the overly dressy shoes, anyone in a position of power over their subjugates feels entitled to a certain level of respect in the workplace– even if they haven't earned it.

They say you can't have your cake and eat it too– and when you're working in a corporate wasteland of business casual dress codes, a haughty sales team, and pushy supervisors, it's tough to secure your own slice. Sometimes employees will crumble under the pressure of toxic positivity, but others will go to great lengths to get their revenge against C-level management.

We've all dealt with that one coworker who's a total slacker. Although they proudly wear the same job title as you and rake in the same amount of money every month, it seems like you (a hard worker) are the one working double shifts. And for some reason, since you're the one pulling their slack, nobody else bats an eye. However, no matter how slacker-y our coworkers are, we've got to look out for our own department when the folks from the ivory tower come down.

We're nowhere near the Holidays, and yet we already have employers being awful about time off on Christmas. Here, we have a single parent who works as a dietary aide at a medical facility. We trust her when she says this is not exactly an environment she is comfortable bringing her kid to work in on any day, especially Christmas. When she recently learned that the daycare where she sends her kid would be closed on Christmas, and she realized she had no other alternative but to request time off,…

... and the food wasn't even provided.

When you're the go-to person in your workplace, continually asked to step up or fill in for your boss when they're away and taking on their excess work when they're overloaded, you'd probably expect that you'd be the next in line for promotion, a shoo-in, essentially having already displayed an aptitude for that level of work. You might especially expect this if you had worked in similar roles in the past and had taken a step down when moving into your current role for reasons not related to pe…

Snow season is upon us in the northern States and like they do every season, some residents seem to have forgotten the importance of appropriate snow-gear. Somehow every year, there are procrastinators (who are apparently incapable of checking the weather forecast) that are neglecting to make appropriate arrangements for the upcoming snow days. Karens everywhere are ready to accost their local minimum wage workers, morphing into their final form as the rudest, most entitled customers in town.

How bold of this company to take a few minutes of every employee's day for free! U/afazihdob had a great workplace tale to share from their time working in retail. The OP laments that although they worked at numerous retail chains in their career, their bosses at one store were notoriously strict about latenesses. If I were ever a manager at a retail or food place, I wouldn't be able to take clocking in seriously at all. I just don't think it's the end of the world if an employee is two minutes…

Your boss might be more internet-savvy than you know. While going through the hiring process, it's crucial to ensure your social media presence is squeaky clean. Maybe you remember a few tasteless tweets from ages ago, or you have a few hot takes that shouldn't have been shared to Facebook. Even if those posts are old, they aren't harmless. Anyone who knows how to do control+F, allowing you to search a webpage by phrases, can find any salacious information on your profile. Even a quick Google s…