The relationship between an organization and its employees is built on a foundation of trust... breaking that trust can result in negative consequences for both parties. Employers should realize that failing to honor an employee's accrued leave can damage the morale of the remaining team and lead to a loss of trust. Eventually, this will harm the organization's bottom line—in the form of higher turnover, less institutional knowledge, and less productivity—costing far more than fronting the cost…

Jumping through hoops might be fun for your labrador, Charlie, but it does not make up a means of effective management. Sure, it might feel like you're doing something and having a significant impact on your team, but if you took a step back, you'd see that your directives have everyone needlessly running around in circles. Busy work is work, but it's not getting anyone anywhere. This worker shared their experience with a popular online community for workplace matters, explaining how they had g…

Imagine having a coworker so terrible that when you get a new management role and poach the members of your old team, your old HR manager actually gets mad at you for not poaching the awful one. That's a scenario that boggles the mind so completely it's hard to imagine this scenario actually playing out in real life. Yet, that's exactly what his manager reported experiencing in a story that they shared on Reddit. In their account of events, they tell how—a few months after leaving their old job…

Leaving a job can be a difficult decision, especially when you have built strong relationships with your coworkers and boss. Even when the relationship is bad or nonexistent, deciding to leave isn't easy, as you're trading the known security of your current position for something unknown. Still, you need to weigh your current situation against the risks and decide whether or not your current role is going to get you to where you want to be. Ultimately, while leaving a job can be a challenging p…

When you're going out of your way for your employer, at the cost of your own time and energy, it's important to take a look and really think about why you're doing this… If you've been going above and beyond for an extended period of time with no commendation, appreciation, or acknowledgment of any sort, you're just setting yourself up for failure. For one thing, that extra work you're doing and the energy you're using is only going toward setting a higher benchmark for your performance, and yo…

There are a lot of confusing things happening in this story, like how this night shift worker became integrated with their company's development team, contributing significantly to the point where the higher-ups were using their reporting dashboard for their reports. Yet, at the same time, there was somehow no one willing to stick up for them when their head was placed on the chopping block for seeking increasing compensation for their constantly-increasing responsibility and contribution. Stil…

If you were ever to get dismissed from a role for a serious infraction, it would be common sense never to use that role as a reference—yet, doing so speaks to the delusional fantasy world you must live in that got you into trouble in the first place. Whilst working as a retail manager, there was one person I ever had to fire for misconduct. Surprisingly, when that person then applied to our competitor months later, they used me as a reference… without giving me as much as a warning first. My re…

When you receive an offer from a new employer, you may be incentivized to approach your current employer and see if they'll match the offer. After all—as we often discuss, your current employment is a known entity, and so it will often seem preferable to stay in the comforts of the known—rather than branch out into the unknown of the new role that is being offered. Usually, your current employer will come back with what they can reasonably offer, seeking to match the offer you've received. It's…

Having a close-knit workgroup can be amazing; it's the kind of thing that has to form naturally with a bit of time and pressure that nurtures (and necessitates) cohesiveness and codependence. The relationships you form in these workplaces can be incredible and turn out to be life-long bonds, but they can also create a workplace environment that is unintentionally toxic. Eventually, something is going to change. Maybe the company expands, or there is going to be a falling out between people on t…

Sometimes you have to fake it ‘till you make it, that may or may not include your salary. I’m not sure you're on the right side of ethics if you do this.

Starting a new job is always tough. Sure, you might have tons of knowledge and industry experience, but there's always a different way of doing the same old thing at every new organization you walk into. You might think that a square peg would always just fit into the square hole, but your new job may require you to revolve the square 360 degrees clockwise, counterclockwise, and then on a vertical axis—all before putting it in the same square hole you always did before. Sure, it may be stupid,…

Increased responsibility deserves increased compensation. Usually, if you're being given more responsibility, it comes with more stress and added workload, which you have achieved by displaying competency, aptitude, and adequate experience—at least in theory. Unfortunately, at times an employer might try and tell you that they're doing you a favor by bestowing increased responsibility upon you, and why should a favor get you a higher rate of pay? If anything, you should be paying them —they'd a…

Leading from the front is important for any leader—you need to walk the walk that you talk… but when it comes to sales and commission, you don't want to be competing with your own team to make the wage that you should be earning anyways for managing the business. Anyone who has ever worked in a retail environment that heavily prioritizes sales probably has encountered the subject matter of this post. For those who have never worked on a sales floor for commission, if the environment isn't manag…

When you make a request of someone to uphold a certain standard, do a certain thing, or act a certain way, there's a general expectation that you will uphold the same—acting in a manner that makes your request appropriate. It's called “leading by example,” and people seem to really struggle with it, with many leaders making no attempt or actively avoiding having to do so. This job candidate reported being specifically asked by the HR worker, who was setting up the interview, to ensure that they…

Things certainly aren't how they used to be… While that common cliché has been repeated for generations now, possibly since the beginning of human existence, when it comes to the housing market, it's pretty clear that things aren't how they used to be. Gone are the days when a young couple could afford a four-bedroom home on one income while starting a family—raising and somehow funding an entire brood of children. The thing is, your older family, friends, and coworkers might not even realize h…

This worker shared her experience on Reddit's r/antiwork workplace subreddit community, telling of how she had been fired for using her phone from her new job despite never being given any warning that this was an issue. She had just started the new job a month ago, and although it was in a new industry she thought the job had been going well, but had never received any kind of employee handbook or had any rules regarding phone usage explained to her. “If I had been told that I was not supposed…