Giving someone instructions that you don't actually want them to carry out is foolish and bound to make you look like one when they follow through with your commands. It's crazy how common power-tripping bosses use this tactic, thinking their power is absolute over their subordinates. They risk everything on a single ego-fuelled order, daring their workers to call their bluff, only to be surprised when they do. This worker shared their experience working for a boss who frequently would wield th…

One has to wonder if the boss was willing to take the same pay cut!

When you're doing great at your job, taking on extra duties, and performing admirably, the last thing you expect is to be replaced as a cost-saving measure—especially by your boss's (presumably unqualified) daughter. But, this can happen when your profession is a necessity that your bosses don't understand… and there are certainly some old hats hanging around in various institutions who still don't quite “get” the point of social media marketing. It's akin to the common adage about the catch-22…

Employees working in sales commissions will tell you that the environment is pretty intense, and with good reason; you often come across workers who will do anything to get ahead. Such as this employee, who noticed that a relatively new coworker of hers was about to close a massive sale, and swooped right in to grab the customer for herself. The coworker in question, OP, caught her red-handed, and immediately told her as nicely as he could, to back off. She assured him, as snakes often do, that…

Finance is probably one of the least “metal” things out there. In fact, finance workers are probably a direct antithesis of rock and roll singers.

You can always judge the strength of someone's character by their willingness to accept, acknowledge, and correct their own mistakes. Similarly, a manager blaming their worker for organizational failure above the worker's pay grade says much about their leadership. It's completely fair for a worker to expect that everything is taken care of when they have followed the instructed process. Reprimanding that worker—via poorly structured text messages—for the ensuing lack of communication between t…

This may be one of the best malicious compliance stories we've read to date, and the reason for that is the novelty, hilarity, and downright relatability of the details. A tyrannical boss had taken her reign over a government department where she was less than kind to her employees, OP included. At the time, OP was a technical writer and had been slowly transferring an old employee handbook into a modern and actually useful doc (ex: one page with policies and links to useful websites, like Offi…

You know you must be particularly bad at your job when your Daddy is best buds with the CEO and you still can’t help but get fired. That’s what happened to this Redditor’s coworker, who was hired with next to no experience yet found a way to boss literally everyone around her and take credit for their work. One day, OP wrote up a report and handed it to her, only to watch her immediately head directly into the CEO’s office and give it to him, all while acting like it was her report. Well, you c…

Is there anything more humbling and potentially humiliating than a job interview?

There's nothing worse than being uncomfortable at work; that's why you'll never catch me in a suit and tie. That and the fact that copywriting isn't really the right field for dressing to the nines. So I'll rephrase: That's one of the reasons why you'll never catch me in a suit and tie. Imagine being told that you can't do something because “the policy” or SOP only to come to find that it's not actually a written rule at all. The hilarious thing that happens here is how quickly something gets c…

People love to stick to policy just as long as it benefits them and their ends. It's surprising how quickly an unchangeable, steadfast rule will change just as soon as it no longer serves the powers that be. This is extremely common in workplaces where workers are told that something must be so because “it's policy” or “the process.” Like wearing sandals to work

If you’re in need of a workplace story with a happy ending, it doesn’t get much better than an entire department uniting with the goal of ousting their boss. The fact that it was a success is one thing, but the fact that the Redditor managed to get herself a promotion (her former boss’s position, no less) is another. This thread was posted to Reddit’s r/ProRevenge subreddit, and if you’re currently stuck in a job with an awful manager who lashes out and threatens you and/or your coworkers, feel…

Have you ever entered a workplace, friend group, or any social group and been warned to watch out for one particular member? It's an unfortunate aspect of our social nature; we always need a group or individual to be “othered” to feel like we're “in." While it's important to keep an eye out for red flags and not make yourself too vulnerable to possible exploitative behavior from these people (if what people say is true), it's just as important to form your own opinions. You might find that this…

Breaks are one of the most essential rights of your daily working life, and they're not something to be treated as a privilege that can be taken away as punishment—like a parent taking away their child's favorite toy. Yet it's astounding how many managers and small business owners try this—completely unaware of the legal framework they must operate within and intentionally hiding behind their ignorance to shield them from questioning their morals and ethics. Would it be too much to ask that emp…

We all know that feeling when you're at work and you feel like you're being watched. Well, turns out this employee actually was being spied on at all times. Her boss was looking at the security cameras regardless of whether or not she was actually in the office. First of all, let's start our breakdown with the fact that this horrible boss needs to get a life of her own. You know there's a problem when people on Reddit are recommending that OP check her country's surveillance laws. As for the wo…

At some point in your professional life, you have most likely had a fantasy of seeing your boss get fired.