You can't pick your coworkers, and sometimes, it feels like the universe is playing a cruel trick on you with the folks management decides to hire. Whether you're a new employee facing the harsh reality of your new incompetent coworkers or you're a seasoned vet taking in the absurdity of yet another unfit new hire, you know this struggle a little too well. You might've gotten stuck with the colleague who swoops in at the last second and takes all the credit for your work, or the colleague who t…

Oh great, your least favorite coworker is in the office today. I bet just by reading that sentence, a person popped into your head. Maybe it's the dude who insists on taking personal phone calls all day long, repeating himself over and over. Or maybe your least favorite coworker is the woman who takes off her socks and shoes to rub her sore feet, leaving everyone else in the office mortified. Maybe you even have one of those dreaded coworkers who does literally nothing all day long, yet still c…

For every great boss in an organization, there must be a boss of equal and opposing terribleness. Sometimes, these bosses work together at the same level, or one above the other in the chain of command, or sometimes one will follow the other in the same position. It's uncanny the amount of times in your career that you'll have the most amazing and empowering boss only to have the worst boss you've ever experienced immediately after. With these bosses making you repeatedly question just how comm…

Communication, communication, communication

Sometimes, there is only so much poor treatment one can take. It is an unfortunate reality that in certain workplace environments, employees have to expect a certain level of vigilance from management that can, at times, border on micromanaging or even callous. However, the greatest indicator that a workplace is run by decent folks is how they treat their employees when they are going through hardship and need support. In this instance, we have an employee who was in the midst of a health scare…

The best way to comply with your boss's silliest orders is to do things exactly as they insist. It almost allows you, as their employee, to allow them to see the errors of their ways, without actually getting any flack for it. Next, check out these home renovations that went… less than excellently, like one person who admitted, “ I redid my kitchen countertops with brown paper bags .”

Applying for jobs is always a brutal process, and most candidates need all the help they can get. That's why it's especially upsetting that this former employee who was recently let go received a savage reference from their former employer, who had made it seem like they were on good terms. Of course, if they weren't, the Redditor would never have listed their ex-boss as a reference in the first place. Let's also take this opportunity to remind ourselves how references can be useful and how the…

Good luck!

Some companies don't know what they got 'til it's gone.

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…

If you have ever worked in the service industry, then you have definitely met lots of people who could use this training service...

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…

The breakroom is a strange little parallel universe, isn't it? It's the one place in the office where corporate personas start to crack, and you get a glimpse of who your coworkers really are. It’s where you discover the meal-prep guy with their perfectly portioned quinoa bowls, the microwave offender can’t microwave soup without a mini explosion, and, of course, the fridge hoarder whose Tupperware is older than the interns. While most of us do our best to keep the space bearable, there’s al...

Who here hasn't considered selling their car at least once because of all the headache that comes with the burden of owning a car? Not only is it extremely expensive, with gas, insurance, and car treatments, but car issues are probably one of the most annoying and inconvenient things that any car owner has the misfortune of dealing with. Setting aside the money you have to pay to actually get your car fixed, you then have to physically separate from your car while it is at the mechanic for who-…

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…

Scrolling through LinkedIn is like scrolling through Instagram now