Retail work is one of the most demanding jobs in the customer service industry, and it doesn't take a genius to fathom why. Employees have to deal with daily Karens, a variety of other rude customers that don't quite fit the 'Karen category', lazy managers, and daft coworkers. OP was working a retail job in the paint department when a rude, condescending customer marched in, demanding a color match from a random home depot sign that was bolted into a metal counter. OP explained to the customer…

Getting passed up for a promotion when you know you're the best candidate is heart-breaking—made worse by the fact that it's usually because of some petty political dynamic or so that they can bring in a nepotism hire. Bonus points when the person who successfully interviewed for the role turns around and asks you for help or tries to delegate your work because your peers and managers have recognized you as the “go-to person." Whatever you decide to do at that point… you probably would like to…

One has to wonder if this was actually a covert message about bad breath. If your manager wanted to reward you for hard work, there are so many better ways in which they could pull this off in a non-humiliating manner. For instance, they could give you a raise (ha! wishful thinking). They could give you some sort of employment perk (ha! also wishful thinking). Ok, well, they don't have to write a handwritten note and a pack of gum! In fact, the handwritten note on its own might have been a perf…

Realizing you're being paid far less than you're actually worth is stultifying. Suddenly, everything you do at work becomes an impossible burden as the weight of that knowledge brings you down. You can't help but wonder how long your employer has been knowingly capitalizing off this discrepancy and whether they've been laughing behind your back the entire time as they count the money they're saving on your paycheck.

When you give a demand, it's always wise to make sure that you're not demanding something that you don't actually want to deal with—being woken up before 6 AM anytime one of your employees needs to call out would fit right into that category. This manager tried to tell their employee that they weren't going to be paid sick leave for the hours they missed since they hadn't called out before 6 AM, according to the “company policy.” By the manager's reasoning, this meant that they hadn't appropria…

This boss's comeuppance had to have been a triumphant experience for the whole office.

The ability to admit fault and regret one's actions is, unfortunately, not one everyone possesses. Those people's ego eclipses their ability to feel remorse, and accepting fault would be accepting the possibility that they are fallible. For everything you can say about this customer, at least they were willing to feel immediate regret once their demands were met… There are a lot of instances of this same thing happening where the customer would be celebrating the fact that their complaint cause…

It's ironic how few effective management skills "managers" possess, with their leadership abilities sitting around the same level, which is somewhere around zero. Managers love a good buzzword, but action orientation is not their strong suit. In this case, OP was working as a top-producing salesperson, in charge of training several salespeople and getting their numbers up, which OP did well. An opportunity for a promotion popped up, and OP thought they had the experience as well as the skills n…

There's something inherently risky about hiring someone to create undoubtedly the most important promotional tool for your business, only to turn around and refuse to pay them once you've accepted delivery of the product. It's almost like screwing someone over when it's something you don't understand is a bad idea… Who knew? Stories about developers getting back at clients who refuse to pay are deeply satisfying; there's this classic aspect to it of someone (the client) thinking they're holding…

We give a lot of ourselves to our jobs... but gifts for our coworkers' birthdays? That is certainly not part of our contracts. This employee, who shared his story on Reddit , received two back-to-back emails about contributing to two separate coworkers' birthday gifts. This was especially annoying and bothersome considering the fact that he had never received a birthday gift of his own despite having worked at the company for over three years. Talk about a low blow! Personally, I'm a big fan of…

Quitting a job is stressful and can lead your imagination to anticipate a myriad of possible terrible outcomes. The worst case scenario would probably be your current boss being secret best friends with your new one, prompting them to call your new boss and tell them not to hire you before firing you on the spot. Yes, it's unlikely can happen while working in small towns and close-knit industries—or when you're leaving a company to work for their major supplier. Still, despite wild imagination,…

Have you ever had a pesky stray string poking out of your new shirt or cardigan? It looks harmless enough—just a stray bit of material that accidentally got left over from the manufacturing process. Except, when you go to pull at it, its significance and integrity are suddenly revealed, leaving you looking the fool—with a bit of string in your hand and a gaping hole in your new shirt. That's a great metaphor for what happens when a cheat and a liar finally cross paths with the wrong target and…

What is it with people constantly trying to blame someone else for the thing that they themselves are most guilty of? This hypocritical finger-pointing is just a vapid means of projection that these narcissistic robots employ whenever they feel threatened. This thread was posted to Reddit's r/AITA (Am I the A--Hole) subreddit by the coworker scapegoated by the others, Redditor u/Maleficent_Shoe3791. She had been doing all of the work to make up for their lazy behavior, and they still tried to b…

There's nothing better than loving your job—there's nothing harder than the dawning realization that you're going to have to leave. We all get surprisingly comfortable with our routine—it's just something in our nature. Branching out into uncertainty feels risky, making us shudder at the thought of trying new things. Companies—rather, the people who run them—are the same way, and for that reason, they will be more likely to leave you in your role if it means less change and less new uncertainty…

This review could not have been more measured. Perhaps that's what made the CEO so upset.

We have all had that one coworker...