Let this serve as a friendly reminder that sarcasm doesn't function well in the workplace. Every so often, maybe twice a year, this Karen manager decides to lose her mind and accuse everyone of doing everything wrong. She runs a small but always moderately busy convenience store. Well, the other day, she decided it was time for her tantrum. Her employee had just finished restocking and cleaning the store and had returned to the register when his Karen boss came storming and sardonically told hi…

Some people thrive on red-eye flights, while the rest of us are left trying to figure out how they do it. Personally speaking, I have never been able to get enough sleep on long flights especially red-eyes. Part of that is because for whatever reason, I am always seated next to a bathroom, a screaming child, or a sick passenger who will not stop sneezing or coughing. The fact that this boss thought it was a good idea to force his employee to take a red-eye says a whole lot about how he values t…

Sometimes, being a stickler can backfire majorly. This manager learned that the hard way after calling out an employee for expensing a mere $1.02 more than the usual limit. She was given a stern “talking to” despite the fact that she rarely spends anywhere close to the $30/day amount when she travels for work. Well, that all changed quickly when the Redditor decided to maliciously comply following her manager's unnecessary tirade. She shared her story via this thread on Reddit's r/MaliciousComp…

There's nothing that will make someone miss you more than your absence, and sometimes, you need to make yourself out of the situation in order for them to fully appreciate you… Especially when that someone is your coworker who has been making you do all their work for them. If you're not around, who's going to do their work? This employee wasn't about to put up with being pushed around for too long, and after putting up with their coworker pushing their workload onto them for the first two mont…

"People who work hard work more hours…" This is probably something you've heard before and probably from your boss who wants everyone to know how many hours a week they work, wearing their overworkedness like a badge of honor—a testament to their dedication. The thing is… Is this even true? Where did this idea that sitting at your desk for more hours mean you're working harder even come from? It's not as if the simple amount of hours you work actually has any bearing on how much work you've don…

Appearances are important—in any part of life. The first impression someone makes of you will largely be based on how they perceive you before you've ever even had any interaction with them. This, of course, is one of the first things that you'll be told by your parents, guardians, or other older persons who have a vested interest in your life and success. You'll likely hear and read this advice repeatedly throughout your life from teachers, bosses, strangers—and even in short introductory para…

Dealing with needless paperwork and bureaucratic annoyances is just a part of working for an organization. Chances are the larger the organization, the more they're going to have a strong attachment to arduous processes and ever-increasing stacks of paperwork. There are other factors, too; depending on how controlling and pedantic each manager up the chain of command is, you might end up with more or less paperwork than the expected amount for your organization. If the biggest baddest boss love…

Knowing how to effectively communicate with your peers, subordinates—and especially your managers—is (unfortunately) one of the greatest determining factors not only in the success of projects but in how you're regarded within the company, too. Work too hard and say too little, and you'll still find yourself first on the chopping block when it comes time to lighten up the load of payroll, while saying too much and not doing much at all will usually keep you moving up the chain of command. Yes,…

If you've ever worked a job that relies on timesheets, you know how this goes… Management (usually of the upper variety) wants to keep better track of how and where staff are spending their time, they pressure staff to charge out more hours to jobs, trying to keep them from posting “unproductive” uncharged hours. Suddenly, clients are getting charged more hours, and therefor paying more, for services implement The really interesting thing about management wanting to better track

Strict adherence to policy is a double-edged sword; if you demand unquestioning obedience to the rules when it benefits you, then you need to hold that same zealous ideal when things aren't stacked to go your way. Unfortunately, we humans seem to really struggle with this and love nothing more than changing rules, or our interpretation of them, to suit us best—sometimes without realizing we're doing so. After all, we're all the heroes of our own stories, and we have the uncanny ability to hold…

There's this thing that happens every now and again in organizations where someone, usually high up on the food chain, decides that everything—every decision, order, expense, or report—needs to pass across their desk. They do so severely underestimating the gravitas of what they've just requested, with little comprehension of just how many things they're going to be handling, dependent on their pen stroke to proceed. Of course, maybe not right away, but at some point, things are going to begin…

Let this story serve as a friendly reminder to never work for a business off the clock. If your company requests that you carve out any extra time outside of your regularly scheduled hours, you are well within your right to request that you be paid for that time or, at the very least, that a negotiation process can take place. Let's be clear: the higher-ups at your company are fully aware of what they are asking of their employees. If the topic of payment for that extra did not cross their mind…

If you're in a line of work that frequently deals with emergency break-fix scenarios where you're effectively permanently on call and might be expected (or required) to spring into action at a moment's notice at any time, having an expectation set that you'll never work overtime doesn't really work. Yet, that doesn't stop petty managers from setting petty rules for their frontline staff who are handling these types of situations. But, to be fair, it's not as if they really understand the indust…

No one really wants to work overtime—if you say otherwise, you're lying… or have something else at home that you're avoiding. Who on earth would want to spend a moment longer at work than they had to? Of course, there are exceptions to this—that sweet time and a half pay can be pretty sweet. Still, you'll be rolling your eyes when your boss asks you and weighing up whether or not it's actually worth a better paycheck when you're sacrificing all that time doing things you'd rather be doing. This…

Getting fired stinks, but tricking your new manager into firing you so that you can walk away to your new job with a generous redundancy payout has to be the best way to get let go from a position. That's what this employee managed to do, playing along with their new boss's apparent plot to get rid of them and ensuring that they qualified for a cushy redundancy payout that would see them well compensated. When their new boss started, this IT Manager found themself the target, quickly realizing…

Usually, it's wise to have multiple persons capable of maintaining the continuity of the important areas of your organization. This means not having a single employee who knows essential company processes, secrets, codes, and passwords that can't otherwise be found, learned, or replicated by someone else. If you happen to have one of these workers in your organization or someone who is otherwise essential to the operation of your business, you will do well to treat them well. It would certainly…