Let's talk about the bureaucracy of requesting PTO and how it really shouldn't be a bureaucracy at all. When you sign a contract that entitles you to a certain about of time off, that should be the only bit of documentation involved in planning your personal vacation time. Other than that, you should be able to just send an email announcing that these are the days you're taking off. There should be no “requesting" process. There should be no waiting period between your request and your approval…

Bosses who are annoying about promptness should be focusing their attention on far more pressing matters. Whatever happened to focusing on their own tasks and responsibilities? Whatever happened to ensuring that the employees on their team are supported and fulfilled (well, as fulfilled as they can be given the circumstances of work)? Whatever happened to minding their own dang business? In work-related matters such as this, we often go back to our mantra that if the work gets done and gets don…

This employee had to learn the hard way that many companies don't want innovation , they want employees who will keep their heads down. That is a frustrating lesson to learn if you're a bright young person in their first job, ready to tackle any issue. You find an issue, have a great idea of how to solve it and then… your boss just never implements that idea. They might ignore it entirely, or just tell you not to do that. Then you watch as your workplace carries on as usual. This guy had an esp…

Printers have been the bane of many office workers' existence since the dawn of the printing age, with networking issues, mechanical failures, and permanently low toner/ink levels making tasks that should be easy and simple incredibly frustrating instead. Back in ye olden days of the 1990s, this print room worker managed the printing room of a shipping operation, operating the company's large and finicky dot matrix printers. If you've ever worked in a traditional warehousing or shipping joint,…

Having good working relationships with coworkers is important and can contribute to a thriving team and business—but it's important to know where the line is—or else it can be incredibly easy to accidentally jump across it with a two-footed leap… especially when you have no common sense about how to communicate with other people respectfully. It's not uncommon for coworkers , especially in the service industry and retail, to be incredibly close, bonded through mutual suffering and long, unforgi…

It's giving middle school behavior, not workplace professionalism. When it comes to office dynamics, it can be common for some healthy, playful teasing among coworkers. This kind of behavior is always risky, though, since there's a fine line between teasing and bullying. Furthermore, this is a work environment and not a friend group hangout. Teasing of any kind can be quickly misinterpreted. Now, when it comes to this group of terrible coworkers, we think it's crystal clear that this goes far b…

Restaurant horror stories that are not for the squeamish

It comes as no surprise that at most companies, management tends to periodically enforce tone-deaf rules that can make employees feel undervalued. Sometimes that comes in the form of a new organizational structure, altered schedules, or reinforcing certain ways of doing things that employees know with certainty do not work. However, it comes with the territory of working at a company where management is largely absent but weirdly strict. In this case, we have a pharmacy that shall not be named…

How many people working in customer service, retail, or the service industry have had to deal with this exact same scenario? The closing time was 6 pm—it's now ten after—and there are still customers in the store. You're not allowed to turn customers away—management has forbidden it—still, customers continue to pour in. This same thing happens often, and management insists that every last customer be able to order, forcing you to stay late well past scheduled closing… Yet, every time you try to…

If HR makes a mistake like this, that's on them, not the employee! Employees are expected to be diligent in their paperwork, so shouldn't we expect the same from our managers and HR staff when they're drafting our employment contracts? There are so many instances as employees where we are expected to own our mistakes and stick with them. Let this story serve as a friendly reminder to all the horrible bosses out there because folks, it's a two-way street! This thread was posted to Reddit by u/Ex…

Let this story serve as a cautionary tale: always be sure to get the raise before you take on the extra work. This employee and their coworker learned that the hard way, though the coworker had a much harder time. Once upon a time, their team of three was a well-run machine. It was just the two of them and their manager, the work was well-divided, and everyone enjoyed a healthy separation between their job and their personal life. Eventually, their manager left for a better opportunity. Rather…

We know that the HR team members are humans too, but that doesn't make us friends! You might be one of those working folks who has managed to successfully form friendship bonds with your coworkers. Perhaps you have a work spouse. Perhaps you occasionally grab a drink with your team outside of work hours. Perhaps you text each other memes and pop culture news every day. Obviously, this kind of friendship is necessary. You're spending more time with your coworkers than with most people in your li…

A small-business employee is worried about what a coworker's sudden departure is going to mean for them. When you're on a small team, every absence is noticeable — someone's going to have to pick up the slack. But this guy wants to take things even further, by telling the boss what their coworker is planning. This person turned to r/AmItheA**hole before putting this plan into place. U/DPP_Toku is in an awkward position at their job. Their coworker, “G," is about to leave the company, but for so…

Some toxic work environments have got to amend their sick day policies. Here, we have an employee who was told that he had to come into work to be assessed about whether or not they were truly sick enough. The Redditor explained that as a night shift supervisor, there were instances in which this kind of assessment was important. However, when it came to illness, it's better for everyone involved if employers just took the employee's word for it. Not only is it best for everyone involved health…

It's one thing for your boss to boss you around, as it is literally their job to do that. It's quite another when the person bossing you around is your boss's girlfriend. This bookstore employee came up with a system to manage customer orders that involved a little extra double-checking when each order was processed but ultimately meant fewer phone calls confirming orders to customers, as repeat phone calls were clearly bothering the customer base. Sounds like a pretty good system and the emplo…

One of the joys of the Internet is the ability to learn all about someone's problem and see how they handled it and what their options were so that if you were in a similar situation, you would know exactly what to do. This is especially true of workplace drama, where social taboos around money and work can keep employees and coworkers from communicating with one another when something is up. But that's where the Internet steps in, and in this case, we have a Reddit story that maps out just wha…