"The customer is always right" is an attitude that is purveyed throughout customer service... People will love to remind you at this point that one full attribution of the original quote is also reported as being “The customer is always right in matters of taste” meaning that or that customer service representatives should seek “to satisfy the customer regardless of whether the customer is right or wrong.” Both lend to the idea that the customer is not necessarily right about all things, just a…

Whatever happened to “if it ain't broke, don't fix it?” If you're ever in a position where you are joining a company and leading a team that already is.a well-run machine, consider not enforcing your personal way of doing things onto everyone else. Unless the team genuinely agrees with your ideas to change the process, the only person who is really benefitting from this change is you. That is not a good enough reason to uphold the way a team does things. You have to adjust to their rhythm just…

Oftentimes, a little push is the only thing it takes to topple the facade of power presented by someone abusing it. They want you to think there's nothing you can do to circumvent their authority, but they forget that they're just managing an IT department at a medical center, and their authority really isn't all that far-reaching at all. So that one little push (or notifying their boss) is all it takes to reveal the man behind the curtain. This IT worker was responsible for issuing equipment t…

Who doesn't love when a manager's strict and unnecessary rules get called out in front of senior management in the most humiliating way possible? We guess that the manager didn't love it, but clearly, everyone else on this software developer's team enjoyed this comeuppance. This manager, Dave, came waltzing in and insisted that all software developers adhere to a strict 9-5 work schedule with minimal breaks. The Redditor explained how this was not ideal for the team's productivity, given that c…

One of the most respected ways to lead is from the front. Of course, you may be the first one to catch an arrow or a spear to the throat—dooming everyone who was relying on your command and is now floundering, leaderless. But, if you pull it off and make it through the battle unscathed you can sure as heck bet that the troops will love you far more than they would had you been in your command tent at the back of the field. The difference here and the limitation of this anecdote is that there ar…

Some managers make such ridiculous demands that one has to wonder if they are trying to make their employees quit. Sometimes, that is the case, and other times, it's just that these managers have egos and enjoy engaging in power dynamics. If this description fits your manager, our advice would be to get out while you still can. Here, we have a barista whose manager would insist on having a coffee made for her at the end of every shift after everything in the store had been cleaned up and finish…

Micromanagers usually come in two shapes; the first is a recently promoted technical worker with a deep understanding of the work but with poor interpersonal skills and a deep drive for perfectionism who can't bear to let go of the fact they're no longer doing the work themselves anymore, they cling to their methods depriving their workers of agency and limiting their ability to produce. The second is an externally hired career manager who has no understanding of the actual work and compensates…

The way this stubborn CEO handled the fallout of this situation says quite a bit about his leadership style. This formerly in-person work environment went fully remote a few years ago and opted to stay that way, which was a big win for the 32 employees who fought for this change. That being said, there was a catch: the CEO enforced silly idle time requirements, which resulted in heavy monitoring of their productivity on Microsoft Teams. It got to the point where employees were regularly shamed…

When working with a manager who is both incompetent and egotistical, it's probably a good idea to be cautious and take defensive measures… like maintaining a paper trail that can easily disprove any trumped up charges laid against you. It's always best to be on your toes and have a backup prepared, as they could turn on you at any moment should you question one of their decisions or even be too proficient and simply become too much of a threat. This means ensuring that your paper trail could st…

Mistakes and bad decisions happen, it's just a part of the decision making process. As Thomas Edison, the inventor of the lightbulb, famously said, “'I have not failed, but found 1000 ways to not make a light bulb." The quote and attribution varies, but it's usually something along those lines. And that remains true, you don't know and can't learn until you pick a direction and try, but where this becomes an issue is when people and organizations obstinately refuse to course correct, refusing t…

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…

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…

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…

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…

There are certain people you do not want to frustrate in a restaurant, one of whom is most certainly the lead cook. However, as in any fast-paced work environment, people can get hot-headed and conflicts can arise between folks who feel like they are stepping on one another's toes. This lead cook was often stationed in an accessible place in the kitchen so that everyone could easily access him and vice versa. However, on one busy night, the lead cook briefly left his station in the hands of a n…