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workplace discussion employment issues antiwork workplace-stories jobs employment-discussion job work workplace Horrible Bosses employment in the workplace - 36327173

Manager repeatedly schedules employee when they're not available, leaving them confused as what to do: 'I can't even work that day'

Obey the schedule… Managers love to preach the importance of “the schedule”
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'You are a micromanager': Housekeeper calls boss out on ineffective leadership and unsafe working conditions in epic resignation email

'You are a micromanager': Housekeeper calls boss out on ineffective leadership and unsafe working conditions in epic resignation email

Very few folks have the guts to stand up to their micromanaging bosses. Even when you have nothing to lose, something still holds most people back from really going there like this housekeeper did. Along with the rest of the cleaning staff, they were tasked with unrealistic expectations from their boss while working in difficult and unnecessarily harsh working conditions, from rules about working in complete silence to not having sufficient supplies (and, in many cases, having to purchase their…
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customer support customer service workplace discussion workplace-stories jobs job malicious compliance retail work customers customer workplace workplace malicious compliance employment in the workplace - 36329989

Customer demands refund for 20 minutes of internet downtime caused by their own mistake, customer service rep maliciously complies: '[That's] a little under 2 cents an hour'

Dealing with an endless stream of customer complaints is no way to live your life... Repeatedly pushing that boulder of someone else's problems up to the tip of the hill only for it to roll down again every time the ungrateful person on the other end of the line hangs up. The futility and thanklessness of your efforts is only rewarded by statistics on a screen that you hope are high enough to keep your micromanaging supervisor off your back. Of course, the beauricratic inertia that customers fa…
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Employee's wedding PTO is denied in favor of older coworker's time off request, boss presents an ultimatum: ‘Either reschedule your wedding or you're fired’

Employee's wedding PTO is denied in favor of older coworker's time off request, boss presents an ultimatum: ‘Either reschedule your wedding or you're fired’

In a perfect world, when a couple gets engaged, they each get to take time off their jobs so they can plan their dream wedding. Then, after they get married, without having to even think about work, they would go on a long honeymoon to enjoy their time together as newlyweds. Only after they return from their vacation would they also return to work, where everyone would welcome them with open arms and congratulations. This world is not a perfect world, in fact, it is far from it. We live in a wo…
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Long-time employee fired over Zoom after 40+ years, owner pretends he resigned and promotes son to replace him: 'Ted was cast aside'

Long-time employee fired over Zoom after 40+ years, owner pretends he resigned and promotes son to replace him: 'Ted was cast aside'

Never become too attached to your job. Unfortunately for Ted, his loyalty to the company would never be rewarded. Instead, despite working at his company for more than 40 years, he would be unceremoniously fired over a Zoom meeting. To make matters worse, Ted was given a nice severance package, but only if he went along with a fabricated story his boss concocted that he had actually resigned to pursue other career opportunities. As the Redditor recounts in their post, everyone was distraught af…
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customer support customer service workplace-stories job malicious compliance retail work customers customer workplace - 36303621

Cable company keeps charging for disconnected service, customer gets even by making 8 repeated callouts to his residence on their dime: 'After 8 tech support visits, finally they got the message'

Some organization's customer service departments are appalling for information to call into. Every time you call in, you're starting from scratch, telling the same story and documenting the same requests until you have the entire thing rehearsed down to a science. I've personally encountered this a few times in the last couple of years and it feels like it's only increasing in frequency with the rise of reliance on automated “AI” customer service systems.. After getting stranded in Houston last…
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'No work-related errands at lunchtime? OK': Employee complies with boss's demands about ordering office supplies, delays multiple company projects

'No work-related errands at lunchtime? OK': Employee complies with boss's demands about ordering office supplies, delays multiple company projects

Some employers don't know how good they have it. Here, we have an employee who routinely ordered office supplies during lunchtime out of generosity. This was not part of his job description; he just did it knowing it would help with the general workflow in the office. One day, after doing this for years, the errands took a bit longer than expected and the employee was chastised for taking a “long lunch.” From that point onward, the employee was instructed to only order office supplies through c…
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 'You're not capable of doing my job': Micromanager takes 3 months sick leave but refuses to let employees take over, they comply, resulting in manager drowning in work upon her return

'You're not capable of doing my job': Micromanager takes 3 months sick leave but refuses to let employees take over, they comply, resulting in manager drowning in work upon her return

A good manager should know how to delegate their tasks to the people who work for them. When a manager is unwilling to let some of their responsibilities pass on to their employees, both so that the employees can learn and so that the manager would be able to free up their own time, they are lacking some important leadership qualities. A crucial part of managing others is helping them develop and expand their horizons within the workplace. If my manager had to leave for three months, I know she…
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 service industry waiting waiter server tales from your server talesfromyourserver Retail customer support entitled entitled people entitled parents karen karens karens in the wild karen-customer

Restaurant serves entitled Karen after she writes scathing 1-star-review over $2 dispute, provides hard evidence and turns public discourse against her: 'Below is the truth along with supporting evidence...'

This restaurant brought receipts—literally, when serving this freshly-baked smackdown of a belligerent local Karen who left them a scathing review on a community group. The post got “around 300 comments,” prompting the restaurant to reply. They gathered timestamped screenshots of the encounter along with the actual receipts of the Karen's transaction in order to refute her claims and turn the tide of public discourse against her. When you seek to publicly humiliate another person or organizatio…
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'Worst that happens is nothing': After getting rejected from a job, man sends an email to recruiter disagreeing with their decision, causing recruiter to retract the rejection

'Worst that happens is nothing': After getting rejected from a job, man sends an email to recruiter disagreeing with their decision, causing recruiter to retract the rejection

Every person who has even been through a job searching period got at least a dozen emails automatically rejecting them from a job. We all read the lines: 'We regret to inform you…', and we all know that most of the time, no one on the other end has glanced at your resume for longer than 10 seconds before deciding you are not a good fit. Very often, that rejection can come from job postings that are simply perfect for you, postings in which you check every single box they are after, but still yo…
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Barista gets back at unprofessional coworker by giving him decaf coffees for 5 months: 'He'd have 4 coffees and still be yawning'

Barista gets back at unprofessional coworker by giving him decaf coffees for 5 months: 'He'd have 4 coffees and still be yawning'

Sometimes the best way to get payback on a coworker is to enact your revenge covertly. They may never even know that someone is sabotaging them; truthfully, they may never need to know. All that really matters is that you are achieving that satisfaction and they are unknowingly getting their much-deserved comeuppance. Of course, we save these kinds of plots and schemes for people who really deserve them, and this barista's coworker certainly qualifies. He was guilty of flirting with female empl…
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karen attempts to commit credit card fraud using her mother's card, employee claps back but the entitled karen tries again the next day

‘Get bent, Janet’: Hotel customer attempts to rent a room with absent mother's credit card, employee flags her but she tries again the next day

She swears up and down that “no other hotel has EVER had a problem” with her using a credit card that doesn't match her identity.
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'I've learned my lesson…': Employee finishes assigned work early, boss finds out and sends employee to a different state to complete other's tasks, leading to a dispute when they return

'I've learned my lesson…': Employee finishes assigned work early, boss finds out and sends employee to a different state to complete other's tasks, leading to a dispute when they return

Every employee faces the choice of whether or not they should power through their assigned work and finish early, risking their manager finding out and giving them even more work, or simply take their time with the work they have been given, that way making sure there are no addition tasks handed to them. The employee in this Reddit story chose the first option, and they are now regretting it, as they learn that hard work is only rewarded with more work. OP (original poster), has been given mon…
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employment job jobs Horrible Bosses work workplace antiwork workplace-stories employment-discussion workplace discussion employment issues in the workplace - 36258053

Boss tries to stall and not pay after tricking employee to agree to a bonus instead of a raise: 'I agreed to no salary increase, in exchange for receiving a large bonus in late summer'

There's an age-old saying that a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush, meaning that a guaranteed value will always hold more value than the prospect of something greater. This, too, is true when it comes to employment. The fact of any trade in capital is that the person buying will always want to pay as little as possible, and the person selling will always want the highest possible price for their goods. While this is simple economics, it really just speaks to how the monkey part of…
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'That's not a valid excuse': Employee calls in sick only to discover boss wrote them up for 'no call no show', employee reports manager to HR in response

'That's not a valid excuse': Employee calls in sick only to discover boss wrote them up for 'no call no show', they reports manager to HR in response

When working for a big corporation, 95% of the time HR is there for the company and the company alone. They don't really care how their employees feel within the workplace, all they care about is how everything affects and looks for the corporation. This means that they are not in any hurry to help employees out if they have a problem, unless that problem can reflect badly on the company, only then are they extremely happy to help and make sure you don't go off and sue anyone you work with. The…
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Boss announces employee's departure at company meeting despite employee fully staying there: 'Everyone was asking where I'm going'

Boss announces employee's departure at company meeting despite employee fully staying there: 'Everyone was asking where I'm going'

When it's officially announced that an employee will be leaving a company, typically the employee knows about this in advance… It turns out that in this scenario , it was merely an assumption made by the employee's boss, but the employee has everyone at the entire company asking about their professional future. Furthermore, the boss was attempting to replace the employee on an important project that they built from the ground up while still requesting their continued assistance on the side. Obv…
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