Being a manager is all about knowing people, and believe it or not, in order to be a good manager you also have to care about people. Of course, you have to protect the business interests too (if you want to keep your job) but there's a balance to be struck here—and the best managers strike it true. See, the thing is, having a motivated and cohesive team is actually the best asset a company can have—heck, even if your morals are based on a balanced checkbook, it stands to reason that the best i…

One of the best things to come out of the train wreck that was the last four years of existence globally was the newfound discovery that working remotely was indeed possible for many jobs. Of course, this was something that workers everywhere had been trying to tell their bosses for years, but the top brass, afraid of upsetting the status quo and sending their companies into a tailspin—and wanting to maintain every last ounce of control over their workers—insisted that it just wasn't possible.…

People, and particularly the woefully ignorant, generally only listen to what you tell them if it costs them something in some way, particularly if it's your boss and the thing being costed is their own money. Thankfully, there's nothing to teach common sense quite like the wasted money of a stalled production line with a bunch of workers standing around waiting to be told what to do by their boss who is stuck in a pointless morning stand-up meeting. In this story posted to Reddit's r/Malicious…

Some people refuse to listen until there's a real and tangible consequence staring them in the face. Things like “knowledge,” “experience,” and “common sense” mean nothing to them once they've made their mind up about something. Take, for example, this boss who told her worker that they were no longer allowed to question her and told them very impolitely to just do as they were told. This, of course, led to disaster when, a few hours later, a printing job came through from a customer, and the b…

If there's one thing employers hate, it's benefits; even the greatest employer or boss has likely at one point begrudgingly approved a PTO request or ticked off additional PTO for their staff. And I'll admit, as a manager, when you see a PTO request, sometimes your intrusive thoughts kick in… “Do they really need this week off?" “How about the next one?” “Can't your brother just reschedule their wedding?” Obviously, this is ridiculous, but show me a manager who hasn't had these thoughts and I'l…

Being told to just do your job is kind of fair; it is your job, after all, and the reality of the world is that at some point, it's going to be necessary for you to step in line and let someone else call the shots. Still, is it really fair to “just do your job” when it's not really your job in the first place, and someone else has decided that your job is to do their job too? There's a reason why your boss is paid more to go along with the responsibility that has been handed to them, and handin…

Being injured stinks... and that's something that doesn't even need to be said. There's nothing like being injured to make you appreciate all those times you weren't before. And that's just in your personal life… Chances are your employer isn't going to be particularly understanding, even if you have all your bases covered and have whatever doctor's note your employer requires and covered; legal protections are provided in your area. Yeah, depending on the duration and severity of the accommoda…

It's remarkable how many times problems could have been solved in most workplace environments were it not for the egos of those in charge. Ideally, any functioning team should thrive on ideas and foresight from anyone involved. There is a difference between overstepping one's boundaries and providing helpful ideas for the whole team's benefit. The latter is called collaboration. It's having a team-building mentality. It should not be interpreted as aggressive or threatening behavior; yet, for t…

Managers love things like mandatory training sessions just as much as they hate excuses about why you haven't gotten your work done… Even if you haven't gotten your work done because of all the mandatory training sessions and useless meetings they've scheduled for you.

Even if your work, knowledge, and contributions make you irreplaceable in your organization, your employer is never going to admit it. For one thing, they probably aren't even going to be aware of it until long after you're gone. They probably think that there are dozens of people out there who can do exactly what you do. For another, if they did admit how valuable you were, they know that you'd likely want to be paid fairly for that fact—and that's just never going to happen. No, it's better t…

Merchandizing is one of the oldest professions—wait, maybe that's not the right line… but the trade certainly does teach you a lot about the comings and goings of the working world. Show up on time, take some pride in your work, and you'll do just fine. Add managing unruly clients and battling tyrannical backroom managers to that, and you've got some solid real-world experience.

Working for a small family-owned-and-operated business is either going to be the best job you ever had or the worst by a considerable margin… there's no in-between—and whichever one it is depends wholly on the people who are running it.

Usually, helping your team is considered to be a positive trait and one that your employer will look for when they first hire you, to the point where including somewhere that you're a “team player” is pretty much a default part of a CV. Seldom, if ever, would you ever expect to be told to leave well enough alone and ignore your overworked teammates, leaving them to their fate.

If there's one thing your manager probably hates, it's having more work to do. Whether they're just lazy or already have too much on their plate, chances are pretty good that they won't want to be spending hours combing over your work in addition to what they're already working on. Even the most micromanaging sort will quickly grow tired of the additional work if you can manage to reflect their time-consuming processes back onto them.

Some employers have this tendency to assume that you're trying to get one over on them, constantly accusing their workers of claiming time they're not working or flat-out stealing from the business. Whatever the accusation is, it seems they're always looking over their shoulder, waiting for you to drive the knife in and pick their wallet out of their back pocket. Despite their constant insistence, you'll probably never see any evidence of this happening, with stocktakes always coming out clean…

Employers and managers tend to have a habit of assuming they're getting the worst end of a deal and that you're holding something back from them—as if their workers are colluding against them and not just desperately trying to keep up with their current workload. Even if they're already grossly underpaying you for your work and the value that you provide, they'll still try and convince you that you really could be doing more if you weren't so inefficient. Whether or not they actually believe th…