A quick message to any employer who might be reading this–if you want to make your employees feel appreciated, rewarding them by making them work more is never the right answer. Never. Don't even try to think about it. Instead, try and reward them with the only thing that is actually considered a reward for any working adult… money (shocking, I know). Simply give them a nice bonus or holiday treat or whatever you want to call it, because trust me when I say that the only way your hardworking em…

Each and every action has consequences. Because of this, you should think twice before intentionally betraying someone else because you never know when or how it can come back to haunt you. The story that follows is the account of a petty client. The story is relayed by the Original Poster (OP), who provides readers with a detailed explanation of his motivations for starting the years-long payback plan. To put things in perspective, OP hired a contractor a few years ago in order to finish some…

There's this old adage that takes many shapes and forms but usually goes somewhere along the lines of this: You should always be kind, or at least decent, to the people you meet as you never know when even the smallest act may have far-reaching consequences. You've probably heard of or read one of these stories before, and it's one of the oldest tropes for teaching the morale of being kind to others. Where old stories involved a frail old woman or man asking for assistance from a character, onl…

Every young adult who has a job these days, in this economy, has realized how impossible it is to keep up with inflation. No matter how many graphs have been published showing how much the cost of living has risen in the past 20 years, compared to the average monthly pay, the gap just keeps on growing. So when an employee asks for a raise in their pay, after being a top performer and doing an exceptional job, raising their salary to keep up with inflation, doesn't actually count as a raise. It…

It's always a better end to the story if you quit your job than if you're let go. Unfortunately, this overworked, underpaid, and undervalued employee had quit what he believed was a toxic work environment. However, after some time away, his old boss reached out and lured him back in with the promise of the promotion he likely always wanted. In fairness to the employee, he likely felt flattered that they seemingly needed him so much. Unfortunately, that flattery only went so far. A mere six mont…

Picture this: your manager is incompetent, you do most of their work for the better part of the year, and then, she tries to fire you! That's right. You would think the final part of that journey would be a well-deserved raise or promotional opportunity. Perhaps some acknowledgment of all this hard work and going above and beyond would have been nice. Instead of gratitude, all this manager felt at the end of the day was threatened. This Redditor shared how she managed to come out of this toxic…

Bad experiences are a dime a dozen when it comes to interviewing for a retail role; in no other line of work are there so many desperate interviewing managers looking for such a high level of effort and experience for such minimal pay. Usually, if an interviewer takes issue with you, there's no coming back from it, no avenue of recourse; after all, they're the ones doing the judging, and you hold very little control over the situation outside of your ability to walk away. Yet, sometimes, a hidd…

You know that feeling everyone occasionally gets at work that you're being watched 24/7? Well, what if you suddenly discovered that this was actually the case? Sometimes when you have a micromanager for a boss, you get the feeling that someone is breathing down your neck and following your every move, as if they are just waiting to point out an error or give you a hard time about the way in which you go about fulfilling your daily responsibilities at work. This obviously does not make for a ple…

Typically, when your boss tells you to do something, you do it. Even if they say not to come to work, you'll (gladly) not come to work. That's exactly what happened when this entitled boss told her employee not to come to work the next day. She was reading off everyone's schedules in person at work the day prior and then told the Original Poster (OP) not to come in, so the OP obliged, as anyone in that situation would. That is, until the next day rolled around, and her entitled boss started b...

If you talk the talk, you better walk the walk. If you can't, you're in for embarrassment… and possibly even worse outcomes than that. This assembly line worker had an interesting story to tell about what happened to them and his coworker. This coworker, Richard, kept stealing the credit for his work, which is a surefire way to lower that employee's morale. It can be so dispiriting to work for ages on something, only to realize that no one knows you actually did it. When you see the big bosses…

Don't accept that job until you've vetted the company well. I know it's hard not to accept the first gig that offers you a contract, but it's worth your time to spot red flags before signing on. One person mentioned another great one, which is having a lot of very young people who are running an older company. Young people are great, of course, but it signifies that the company can't retain their older workers, who probably left to find better wages . And it implies that they're hiring youngste…

Bad bosses will come up with any excuse imaginable to justify their poor management skills. This manager messaged his employees and used the rainy weather to justify delaying payment to his employees. The Redditor's coworker was smart enough to ask why he was forced to work under these weather conditions and yet he couldn't get paid on time. Employment should always be a two-way street, people, and that applies to every aspect of the professional relationship. This sounds like a grown-up versio…

Be very very careful with anonymous surveys… you never really know if they're actually anonymous or not! In some workplaces, HR will send around anonymous surveys every now and then. They can address mundane topics, like asking if people want more employee events, and trying to take the temperature on morale. Other times these surveys are directly asking how leadership is doing, and those feel risky to answer. Even if the results come through a third-party service, it can't be that hard to figu…

Imagine waking up to an email in your inbox from your manager enforcing a mandatory “deep clean” shift on your one day off. Any sensible human would likely groan and decline the offer. And yes, no matter what this manager says and no matter how he tries to frame it, this is an offer as the employee's contract makes no mention of this “deep clean” shift. Furthermore, this manager had absolutely no plans to adjust the coming week's schedule to accommodate the weekend day or to try to carve out ti…

Job interviews can be nerve-wracking since, especially when you don't know what kind of person will be interviewing you. After all the hard work of job searching, updating your application materials, and researching companies, you finally get an interview. While it can be a relief to get an interview, sadly, the hard part is just beginning. If you're lucky enough to know the names of the hiring team beforehand, you can research them to mentally prepare yourself for the interview. Maybe...

Since the job market is the one place where it is perfectly acceptable to look out for your best interests, it can prove to be a horrible place for the faint of heart. Your family's health and welfare should come first. Because of this, you will be taken aback by the story that follows, as workplace loyalty is rare and hard to come by. The Original Poster (OP) works as a mechanic. Having worked for the same company for a few years, he was largely satisfied. That all changed, though, when one of…