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workplace-stories

‘Cool, great start…’: Job candidate ghosts business owner after he sends them unhinged texts about the position and accuses them of being unprofessional

‘Cool, great start…’: Job candidate ghosts business owner after he sends them unhinged texts about the position and accuses them of being unprofessional

Your first interaction with the people you intend to work with says a lot about the workplace you are about to enter, and it should not be ignored, no matter how much you need a job. If you sense that a job, or more specifically, a manager, interacts with you in a matter that raises red flags, you should definitely reconsider your position there. Luckily, the person who wrote this Reddit post was in a position where they could say ‘no’ to the position they were being offered. After receiving a…
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Vindictive manager gets what's coming to them after he berates employee and doesn't back up his promises, employee finds new job offer and considers making a scene while quitting

‘So I switched my LinkedIn back on’: Employee signs remote offer right before RTO mandate is enacted, gets unicorn job offer and considers loud-quitting to spite vindictive manager

"I’ve accepted (pending paperwork) so I’ll be the second lead this company has lost in as many years due to this same person."
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'Karen is speaking as though she is my supervisor...the board members [are] giving strange looks': Company troubleshooter agrees to let new hire take over, business soon begs him to return

'Karen is speaking as though she is my supervisor...the board members [are] giving strange looks': Company troubleshooter agrees to let new hire take over, business soon begs them to return

Don't you hate when everything's going perfectly at work, and then the new hire has to ruin your workflow? No one knows that feeling better than u/ACFF, who got a new coworker and was presented with some genuinely shocking orders from the boss. After that, check out these TVs that are just hung up way too high, like one person who “couldn't keep a straight face when the client told me where he wanted the TV. ”
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work workplace employment Job workplace discussion in the workplace workplace-stories jobs malicious compliance workplace malicious compliance Technology tech support talesfromtechsupport

Major client foolishly insists tech support delete all data, tech support refuses to comply saving the client's business: 'Their entire company basically shut down for an afternoon'

When it's your job to ensure important information is protected, and someone insists that you delete it, even if it's the client themself, you'd be right to pause for a moment and reassess the situation if something doesn't sound quite right. Clients tend to woefully overestimate their abilities in the matter they're contracting you to handle, so they may be asking you to do something they don't fully understand the implications of. This tech support specialist worked for a small organization,…
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employment Jobs workplace discussion employment issues Horrible Bosses workplace-stories jobs employment-discussion job malicious compliance workplace malicious compliance employee mechanic mechanics

New "nepo baby" boss strong-arms lead mechanic into organizing his tools for the boss to use, mechanic locks up his tools and leaves: 'I am currently sitting in my car [...] browsing job listings'

If you've ever worked in an industry with technicians or mechanics, you know there is one rule that must be followed: Never (NEVER) touch their tools—or tell them how to organize and manage them. This is true even if the company provides the tools, but it is especially true if the mechanics buy and use their own toolsets. As one commenter cleverly pointed out on the original thread, this story was shared: Asking a mechanic to organize or tidy their tools so that you can borrow them is like your…
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workplace-stories jobs malicious compliance workplace malicious compliance Jobs employment issues antiwork Horrible Bosses employment-discussion job employee employees overworked-employees

Manager insists all personal phone calls be directed to them in an effort to stop employees needing their phones at work, predictably backfires: 'No phones allowed at work, tell them to call me directly!'

There is just a certain degree of oversight that doesn't need to occur in any situation. Sure, you might like to keep a tight lid on operations and your staff, but you can guarantee there are certain things that you don't need—and probably don't want—to know. At any rate, there reaches a point in your career where enough is going on underneath your level of authority where requiring any one thing to pass across your desk will result in an amount of work that you can't possibly keep up with. You…
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Boss tells assistant to stop chatting with coworkers, she maliciously complies by giving everyone the silent treatment: 'You told me to stop talking to people [...] So I did'

Boss tells assistant to stop chatting with coworkers, she maliciously complies by giving everyone the silent treatment: 'You told me to stop talking to people [...] So I did'

Being a Chatty Cathy is a blessing and a curse in the workplace. On the one hand, people do tend to enjoy the humorous personality in the office as well as the person who's simply easier to talk to than most. That being said, if you're the type of person who cannot read social cues or understand when a conversation should end, your coworkers are going to avoid having to chat with you at all costs. We feel for this Chatty Cath y because it does not seem like things were entirely her fault. Other…
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jobs malicious compliance workplace malicious compliance Jobs employment issues antiwork Horrible Bosses employment-discussion job employee employees overworked-employees

'Try to pile on more work to increase your bonus? Not gonna happen...': Manager tries to put the work of 12 people onto a 7 person team to get a bigger bonus, supervisor won't let that happen

There's this trend that happens in every industry, across every workplace, where managers think they've come up with a clever and original new idea to increase profits. See, there are really only two ways to do this: Increase revenue or decrease expenses. However, increasing revenue is hard and takes effort and new ideas, so instead, they start looking at the bottom line. The first place they're going to look at at this point is staffing. Employees and labor are huge expenses, and management is…
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Lazy receptionist doesn't make boss's travel arrangements, boss denies her a job years later: 'I am constantly baffled by people who don't do their jobs'

Lazy receptionist doesn't make boss's travel arrangements, boss denies her a job years later: 'I am constantly baffled by people who don't do their jobs'

There is a downside to not fulfilling your basic duties and responsibilities at work. This receptionist repeatedly made making travel arrangements difficult for their boss, often leaving things to the last minute when flights were either entirely booked or incredibly expensive. Despite multiple polite conversations about her needing to improve her efficiency regarding booking travel, the pattern did not improve. What's remarkably amusing about this is that when the Redditor went off to start th…
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'I reached a complete breaking point over donuts': New hire forced to buy everyone donuts during his first week, maliciously complies and scares off annoying coworkers

'I reached a complete breaking point over donuts': New hire forced to buy everyone donuts during his first week, maliciously complies and scares off annoying coworkers

Usually, newly hired employees are given a break during their first week. The first few days are typically about getting settled in, meeting your coworkers, and adjusting to the company culture. However, here, we have a new hire who was almost immediately tasked with buying donuts for everyone at the company. Apparently, there were two annoying coworkers at the office who chose different people each week to pick on and bother incessantly until they gave in and got everyone donuts. You would thi…
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'I'm still gloating over my [win] over corporate Karen': Worker maliciously complies with boss's request to park bike in designated spot, results in six hours of OT

'I'm still gloating over my [win] over corporate Karen': Worker maliciously complies with boss's request to park bike in designated spot, results in six hours of OT

It's always frustrating when someone from corporate swoops down out of nowhere to boss you around. Here, we have a part-time worker at a delivery company who was lectured by an obnoxious Karen from corporate that he had to park his bike in their “correct” spot. Even the worker's immediate supervisor suggested that he ignore the Karen's mandate in certain situations as she likely would not notice, but this worker wanted to prove to the Karen why her unnecessary enforcing of this rule could backf…
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‘I reached my breaking point’: Boss constantly singles out overworked employee, they plan to resign, only to be told by family that quitting is ‘the easy way out’

‘I reached my breaking point’: Boss constantly singles out overworked employee, they plan to resign, only to be told by family that quitting is ‘the easy way out’

Every person, in every aspect of life, has a breaking point. Whether it is with their job, family, partners, or friends. There is always a point that should not be crossed, and if it does, that is usually a sign that things have to change, fast. When you reach that breaking point at work, that usually means that you have to quit and look for a new workplace. There are people though, who look at that solution as a weakness, as if quitting your job because you are unhappy, is a sign that you are…
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'That's my boss and that's my job': Candidate calls office about marketing assistant position, turns out the current assistant had no idea she was being replaced

'That's my boss and that's my job': Candidate calls office about marketing assistant position, turns out the current assistant had no idea she was being replaced

Talk about an unfortunate day for this marketing assistant! She was doing her job and answering phone calls when she spoke to a job candidate… for her position. Of course, the assistant was completely unaware that her position was even up for grabs because that's just how non-confrontational her boss was. Instead, she had the pleasure of finding out that she was on her way to being replaced by hearing it directly from her potential replacement. We also would like to extend some sympathy to the…
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 ‘No vacation for you!’: Overworked employee gets back at micromanager by quitting without notice the day before manager's big vacation, leaving him no choice but to cancel it

‘No vacation for you!’: Overworked employee gets back at micromanager by quitting without notice the day before manager's big vacation, leaving him no choice but to cancel it

When employees end up leaving their jobs, more often than not, they don't leave because of the job itself, they leave because of the people there, or more specifically, because of their boss. It can be really disappointing to actually enjoy your job but feel like you have to leave because you cannot work with the people around you. The employee in this Reddit story felt like they had no choice but to leave precisely because of these reasons. After OP (original poster) got skipped over a big pro…
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UPDATE: Incompetent hospitality employee has a major boomer freakout on employee who filled her old position, walks out for a second time: ‘Bessie went boom again’

UPDATE: ‘Bessie the Breakfast Boomer’ is rehired in a different role, has a major freak out on employee who filled her old position and walks off the job, again

"Bessie went boom again."
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Toxicologist gets recruited for the job they just quit: 'This position was clearly listed on my profile'

Toxicologist gets recruited for the job they just quit: 'This position was clearly listed on my profile'

Imagine feeling the sweet relief of quitting your horrible job only to receive a message online soon thereafter asking if you'd like to be considered… for the position you just left. This complete lack of due diligence can be disheartening, to say the least. We expect recruiters to do the bare minimum and browse the resumes and experiences of job candidates that have been so clearly spelled out for them on their LinkedIn profiles. If those basic expectations were met, then this recruiter would…
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