Generally, in your working life, you might expect that, as you gain experience, skills, and knowledge, you'll be making more money… throughout your career as well as your time in a singular role. Where you might not be too surprised and even expect to be rejected a request for a raise or two, you'd never expect to have your boss approach you telling you that they're slashing your pay in order to get “more bang for their buck." Openly telling you that they're going to be saving money solely at y…

How can this employee not interpret this new bonus policy as a personal slight? This dude had been working at the company longer than literally everyone, but when he hit 25 years on the job, he only received a plaque. Now, two years have passed, and suddenly the CEO announces that two coworkers have just reached 25 years at the company and are each going to be rewarded with bonus packages of $25,000. Meanwhile, the other guy is still getting nothing more than his cheap plaque, which is probably…

When enforcing strict adherence to company policy and legal employment obligations, it's probably important that you understand those obligations first. It's also incredibly likely that someone who has been navigating the ins and outs of those legal obligations out of necessity for their livelihood will know more about them than you, an average Joe manager, do. Just an important reminder of the fact that being in charge doesn't necessarily mean that you have the most experience in every given s…

Working with a team that you really enjoy being a part of is one of the smallest graces you can hope for in what's otherwise deep, begrudging resignation to your working life. Unfortunately, like most of the good things in life, the balance is delicately struck, and one small change can turn them on their heads. After spending almost seven years at this tech company working with a true leader of a manager who always stood up for his workers and encouraged autonomy and a healthy work-life balanc…

When you decide to leave a job, it's the norm to give a two-week notice to your employer. This provides management with a heads-up and helps them prepare for your departure. Although two weeks is obviously not enough time for your employer to hire and fill your position, it is enough for you to wrap up any remaining work and prepare your role for someone else. There are tons of reasons for leaving a job, and it is not always personal. Sometimes, people want to take some time off to spend with t…

Being the longest-standing member of your workgroup usually means that you have memories of how things “used” to be, memories of the “before times” that probably stretch back long before even your manager worked here. The problem with this is organizations almost always trend in a negative direction when it comes to working conditions and benefits for workers; after all, there are only two ways to maximize profit, and cutting costs is far easier than increasing revenue generation. As a result,…

There is nothing worse at work than having to bother your manager every day to do a simple task that would make things exponentially easier. The lack of action can say a lot about the kind of manager you have. First, he could be intentionally making things difficult for you and playing mind games. That's the cynical take, but it's not an impossibility. Next, there's the slightly more generous take, which is that your manager is not the brightest bulb. Yes, that's the kinder interpretation of th…

These days, it's not unusual to hear back from a job you applied to months ago asking if you're still interested in that first-round interview, and—hey, things happen and there are any number of reasons why the hiring process for the position you applied to might have gotten delayed. Sometimes, hiring gets sidelined in favor of more pressing concerns that the management team is dealing with. Sometimes, there is not quite as much room in the budget as management thought there was. Maybe they had…

Nothing like having to work the job of 2 other people, amiright??

There is a lot a job candidate can do to mess up their application. Sometimes, it's not exactly their fault. Job postings can be notoriously vague and shady. Who hasn't ended up in an interview where you suddenly realize that this so-called “great opportunity” is far beyond what you thought it would be? However, every so often, the interviewer is not at fault. Sometimes, and I know this may be hard to hear, we may be responsible for not getting hired. These hiring managers shared what they beli…

It's hopefully no secret to anyone at this point that if you're given an anonymous questionnaire at work asking for your honest and critical feedback, there's a pretty good chance that that questionnaire is not, in fact, anonymous. That, or there are plenty of ways that it's going to be traced back to you regardless of how “anonymous” it actually is. After all, if they receive one response that's pointedly critical and you're usually the one who has no problem voicing your feedback, chances are…

Let this story serve as a friendly reminder to never underestimate the power of the IT guy. This employee ended up going from leading a robust team to being a one-man operation following the arrival of the company's new highly problematic CFO Pam. Pam started getting rid of employees who had been around for a long time one-by-one, so this Redditor knew his time was coming. One day, he was tasked with training Pam's 21-year-old nephew in all things IT. She clearly thought that his technological…

The promise of promotion is a proverbial carrot on a stick that often gets dangled over workers' heads, encouraging them to do more and work harder for longer hours, taking on additional responsibilities, under the guise that this “growth” will soon earn them a promotion that pays them properly for the work they have been doing. Of course, while this holds merit when honest intentions are had, all too often this is exploited to get workers to do things they're not being paid to do… This employe…

If this new hire doesn't shape up, she's going to lose that brand-new job . Imagine fumbling the ball that badly! They say you get one chance to make a first impression, and there are few times in life when that's more important than your first weeks at a new gig. If a company has just hired you, you should probably be acting happy to be there, ready to learn, and eager to get to know how the team operates. You're learning where you fit into the bigger picture of the company. During this period…

It's weird to think that at one point, workers derided the cubicle, the confines of those grey-carpeted walls symbolizing their oppression. Whereas now, anyone in open-plan hot-desking office spaces would trade anything for the privacy that those same grey walls offered—a space to call your own outside of the immediate watchful gaze of your micromanaging boss where you can keep your things and not have to cart them around with you every day. So, in a way, it's easy to see where this coworker wa…

Imagine having to clean up this boss's mess! This employee compared notes with some of the other women on her team and realized that something strange was afoot. Essentially, 13 female employees either quit or were fired as they were approaching their late 20s. All of them were newly engaged, recently married, are about to start a family. The way HR attempted to get away with this nonsense was to give these women “disciplinary action” months in advance and to accuse them of not pulling their we…