There's a moment in everyone's working lives when you suddenly become disillusioned and everything else becomes crystal clear. It's like the reverse of the moment in The Wizard of Oz when the world goes from being black-and-white to full technicolor. Instead, your rose-colored lenses disintegrate and everything becomes, well, bleak and cynical. After five years of working to the bone at the same company and repeatedly being denied a promotion, this Redditor was able to get their boss to basical…

This long-time employee was wise beyond his years as he let a new hire try to make changes in their company's warehouse . He knew that you can't always make people listen to common sense. Some people just want to be correct 100% of the time so that they feel powerful. Instead of wasting his breath on arguing, this long-term employee just shrugged his shoulders and let the manager handle it his way. New hires often feel like they have something to prove. Especially managers---they think that sin…

Every office has that one coworker who thrives on gossip, but what if that coworker has an even more worrisome ulterior motive? It's one thing to form a friendship with your other coworker and to engage in mild and meaningless gossip about office dynamics. After all, when you're spending eight hours a day and five days a week working with the same people, it's inevitable that cliques will form, tensions will occasionally arise, and rumors will spread. Even if you have no desire to engage in tha…

If you're free to work, you'll work for free… At least, that's what a lot of hiring managers these days seem to reason. If it's not asking you to develop a new sales vertical and make actual cold calls, it might be asking you to use your marketing expertise to develop an actual campaign—all with the assurance that you might get the job.

Every lateness at this company equals one point… and if you gain enough points, you'll be fired. This employee took their system to heart, and decided they couldn't risk gaining any more points. Anxious people will completely understand this story. The employee explains how they were under a minute late, yet still received a point for being “late.” The computer systems don't care if you're one second late or five minutes late, it's all the same to the employer. So then the employee decides to b…

Some people are convinced that other people are plotting against them at every turn—continually suspicious that everyone else is constantly scheming to swindle them out of petty cash. Really, this is probably just an admission of their own thought process—as they say, your reality is a mirror reflecting your inner world… and the reality probably is that these people constantly anticipate underhanded tactics because they wouldn't hesitate to use them themselves.

Imagine the thrill of getting hired at a new company only to be shamed on the very first day for having to recline a certain way because of health issues. This Redditor had a known disability that required them to recline on the job, but given their role and several years of experience in the field, it really should not have been an issue. Her seating position had absolutely no effect on the job she was performing, but of course, in the eyes of her traditionally-minded boss, her appearance came…

Every landscaper's nightmare

Never assume, always make certain. Otherwise you might find yourself in the same situation that this boss did. There's a pernicious assumption that people who speak English as a second language aren't as smart as everyone else. There have been studies showing that people think this way about ESL folks. But in reality, speaking multiple languages shows that you're really bright. After all, if you aren't speaking in your first language, you kind of have to translate everything people are saying t…

Sometimes, the opportunity for getting payback on your awful coworker does not arise until many years down the road. In this case, Jessica (said awful coworker) got this Redditor fired after they had called her out for doing nothing on the job. Of course, the wrong person was punished and everyone secretly knew this, especially the Redditor. However, while it seemed that the story ended badly for them, the opportunity for payback arrived years later when OP found themselves at a bank where they…

When you work is customer service, sometimes it's easier to hook it up for a customer just to get rid of them. We all know that there's a certain leeway that managers are privy to extend to clients, but that of course is at their discretion. If all of the sudden a snarky Karen starts insulting the manager personally, things might not go as planned for their 'oh-so-important' refund.

The interview process is unique because of the high stakes involved for both parties; the implications of ending up with a dud candidate can be disastrous for an organization or workgroup of any size, and a candidate ending up in a job that's not the right fit can be a huge misstep for them as well in their career. Likewise, the interview process is hugely resource-consuming for both parties, so wasting the other party's time with missed or rescheduled interviews and misleading promises or expe…

HR might not be your friend, but they can certainly hear and see everything. Let's take a moment to consider the good HR reps out there and to think about all the unnecessary drama they have witnessed. Most of these folks do not take any pleasure in cleaning up everyone else's mess. Sometimes, these messes can be a result of tension among coworkers; other times, they can be physical messes. These ridiculous and cringeworthy stories have been compiled from this r/AskReddit thread, and they certa…

Memes to send to your favorite coworker before happy hour

Getting written up for a bogus reason in the workplace can be unfair, and being written up for a family emergency that caused you to miss a shift (that wasn't even yours in the first place) really fits the bill. Unfortunately, in most circumstances, you'd probably be stuck in the role for quite some time, especially if your life was already at a precarious point due to the aforementioned emergency. In fact, your power-tripping boss is probably counting on it.

What would you do if your boss asked you to print the whole internet page by page? Or what if they asked you to water the plants while it was literally raining outside? These people shared stories of the absolute dumbest things their bosses have ever done---including those two examples above! Some bosses rely heavily on their employees to keep things running. For example, in some offices, the assistants will be the first ones in and the last ones out, tasked with answering phones, working with…