No one dreams of clocking in while everyone else is home savoring pumpkin pie and watching holiday classics. Working on Thanksgiving feels like a necessary evil for those in essential roles, but even then, the thought of missing out on the wholesome chaos of a family gathering is hard to pass up. So, when this employee was finally lucky enough to snag her first holiday off, it was like making it out of the new hire phase and into the big leagues. She was thrilled to finally spend the holidays w…

Doing human resources work isn't always serious. Sometimes, it can be very funny, as the people of the internet will tell you! Though they're sometimes known as the company boogeyman, the human resources department is sometimes needed to step in and sort out employee relations. They have a broad range of job duties, from managing an office to hiring and firing to mediating employee disputes. This can result in some awkwardness at times. As these HR professionals can tell you, it can be very awk…

This is definitely not the tone you want to set before firing a bunch of people on your team! This boss had the audacity to send a team-wide message to boost everyone's morale by including the overused colloquial statement, “just remember that in da clurrb, we all fam.” Yes, it was written that exact way, and no, this message did not get the intended reaction from its audience. Instead, this toxic boss's employees responded with confusion, frustration, and eye-rolls about how outdated and despe…

There's something universally awkward about office parties—whether it's the forced mingling, the questionable food choices, or that one coworker who takes "open bar" a little too literally. Most of us just try to blend into the crowd, avoid making eye contact with our managers, and hope the night ends without too many cringe-worthy moments. But for one unfortunate team, a party to celebrate an employee's resignation was nothing more than a "social experiment."

Working retail is a hectic and endless stream of customer interactions that balance on a knife's edge, with any one of them threatening to teeter off into a full-blown customer meltdown with possibly little to no cause. It's a way of living that leaves you emotionally drained and completely exasperated, while weekends end up giving you just enough time to self-isolate and prepare for your next shift. Meanwhile, despite claiming to have the customer's best interest at heart, upper management mak…

They didn't even bother to read the prompt

Here is another example of why one should never try to form a romantic attachment with a coworker. It never works out for a plethora of potential reasons. In this instance, however, the reasons had less to do with the professional side of things and more to do with this lying coworker's personal life. The Redditor described how their close friend, a 28-year-old male employee at their company, had been engaging in continuous flirtations with his 40-year-old female coworker, who had led everyone…

When you’re applying for jobs, you’re probably checking out every online review you can find to dodge any potential red flags. After all, who wants to go through multiple interviews only to discover that the company’s run by an entitled boss who thinks coworkers should act like “family”? Hard pass. Sites that let employees rate companies are a goldmine for honest feedback—sometimes with details that make you grateful for the warning. Well, after one employee spent six grueling months working un…

Let this story serve as a friendly reminder to stand up for what you were hired for in the first place. If your boss tries to impose new rules and regulations, new responsibilities, and new expectations that were not expressly written in your initial contract, then you are well within your right to advocate for yourself. That means advocating for a raise or promotion if you feel compelled to do so. It can also mean enforcing what's currently written in your contract if you do not wish to accept…

Is it really so difficult to be kind to the customer service person trying to troubleshoot your problem over the phone? I get it, everything's falling to pieces on your end, but it doesn't make any logical sense to be unsavory to the one person who can actually help you.

Karmic interference

It is truly mind-boggling how some employers will treat the workers who are essential to the success and operation of their business. They gamble that they can pay them below market rates and keep them exactly where they are and that their workers will continue to be milked like the cash cow that they are… After taking on increasing responsibility in their boss's small business, this worker knew it was time to move on to greener pastures . They did what they thought was the right thing and gave…

Just doing what you told me to do, boss

No phones? Okay

It's no secret that a lot of employers in as many industries allocate more budget to hiring than they do to staff retention. This is a bit silly when you consider that large organizations will go on to spend tens of thousands of dollars on recruiting, onboarding, and training processes—in addition to value lost due to lost time and productivity of vacant roles. Though some of this cost is silent or not immediately apparent on the books and, in contrast, the idea of approving even half that mone…

Customer service blunders that'll cost you your sleep