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workplace-stories

'If you have a problem with my direction, you come to me': Entire team complies with boss's vague instructions, putting her job in jeopardy

'If you have a problem with my direction, you come to me': Entire team complies with boss's vague instructions, putting her job in jeopardy

Don't you just love it when your boss is on thin ice and decides to take it out on the entire team? You know, as if it's their fault that she's an incompetent manager? That seems to be a frequent occurrence in the workplace. It's certainly nothing new that people in high-pressure situations act out unfairly, but it can be difficult to stomach when the person acting out is also the one who signs your paychecks. Let's start with one obvious truth that always needs to be restated: your boss's tant…
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'The case was hopeless...': Lawyer saves restaurant owner from a rapacious landlord's iron-clad contract

Landlords are just about one of the only things that could make us root for lawyers. The lesser of two evils really comes into play when those two parties are in the same room together. The powerful preying on the weak is one of the oldest tropes in storytelling. What's not to love about a story like this? A wily lawyer who wants to do the right thing—but still doesn't work for free—coming to the aid of a desperate owner of a local restaurant (that happens to be the lawyer's favorite.) The cart…
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'I saw red, but then I had an idea': Woman engineer punishes her coworkers by agreeing to "get coffee" for them

'I saw red, but then I had an idea': Woman engineer punishes her coworkers by agreeing to "get coffee" for them

If you do something badly enough , you might not get asked to do it again. In the workplace, you've got to do this strategically. You want to mess up some basic chores in order to get out of them, but you also don't want to be viewed as being bad at your job. This is common in many workplaces. Even though we all do dishes every day, in the office, everyone conveniently “forgets” how to load the dishwasher. Other people will pretend they can't figure out how to work the printer, and someone else…
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30 Hardly Working Memes for Overworked Employees

30 Hardly Working Memes for Overworked Employees

Being lazy on the job is something every single worker has experienced. No matter how good of a worker you are, or even how much you love your job, everyone has downtime in which they simply need to be a little lazy. There are actual studies that show that out of the 8 hours a day that people work, the average amount of time workers actually get work done is 3 hours. This means that 5 hours of those 8 are for workers to simply idle by, scroll on their phones, or stare into the abyss. Hopefully,…
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Construction worker offers former micromanager a job, setting the record straight and teaching him a valuable lesson in humility despite of the claim that he will ‘never amount to anything’

Construction worker offers former micromanager a job, setting the record straight and teaching him a valuable lesson in humility despite of the claim that he will ‘never amount to anything’

There will be those who want you to fail and those who want you to succeed. However, regardless of who is around you, you should constantly strive to be the best version of yourself. The story below tells the tale of a resentful construction worker. Despite all the challenges, the Original Poster (OP) started his own construction company. To put things in perspective, during his undergraduate years, OP looked for a part-time job that could help him balance his academics and become somewhat fina…
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'Look it up': Customer talks himself out of a price-match and has to pay more when retail associate looks it up and realizes it's against their policy

In retail, the number of customers who are convinced they know better than you is endless… Better than you when it comes to the products, better than you in terms of your store's policies, and better than you when it comes to the legalities under which you're trading. Having access to all the information with little understanding has emboldened people into thinking that they're experts after a few Google searches, even on impressively technical subjects. Of course, the rehearsed script often ru…
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Worker calls out company for asking for donations to help a struggling coworker: 'A lot of us are already struggling to make ends meet as it is'

All throughout the 2000s and 2010s, we used to eat up “goodwill” stories about people banding together to help their fellow—coworkers by donating PTO to a sick team member and crowdfunding to help cover the cost and medical debt of sick community members. All this really begs questioning, questions that are finally being asked more frequently in discourse online. Where these types of stories are no longer viewed purely as “wholesome” or “heartwarming” but rather as a sign of the dystopian, soci…
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workplace discussion employment issues antiwork workplace-stories jobs employment-discussion job work job candidate interviews workplace Horrible Bosses job interview interview employment in the workplace - 25481989

'You were not qualified': Job candidate messages interviewer to decline role, receives unhinged response in return

Rejection is a hard pill to swallow, no matter what form it comes in. You can sugarcoat it any way you like, throw around the whole “It's not me, it's you,” “It's just not a good fit,” and your words are still going to have the same message: “You're not good enough for me." This, of course, is a brutal affront to anyone's ego
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'I was too stunned to speak': Boss tries to earn social approval by mocking overworked employee during meeting, coworkers back them up instead of taking his side

'I was too stunned to speak': Boss tries to earn social approval by mocking overworked employee during meeting, coworkers back them up instead of taking his side

The relationship you have with your boss is almost as important as your personal relationships at home. Employees spend more than 8 hours a day with their employers, and likely rely on them with every step they take on their job. They don't have to become best friends, but it is still important to maintain a good relationship with the person who is basically in charge of your professional life. I would not call the relationship that is being described in this Reddit post a ‘good working relatio…
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'If they don't respect my schedule, I'm just going to be absent': Manager ignores employee's conflict, employee maliciously complies, manager gets reprimanded

'If they don't respect my schedule, I'm just going to be absent': Manager ignores employee's conflict, employee maliciously complies, manager gets reprimanded

Not honoring an employee's schedule when they have been following all the rules and going through the proper channels is about as disrespectful as it gets. When a manager rejects your request to not work a certain shift, the message is clear: your life and commitments do not matter. What matters is this silly arbitrary work schedule that is 100% malleable but apparently, that would require too much critical thinking on the manager's part. This thread was posted to Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance…
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Client humbles micromanager in front of entire team after micromanager tries to teach staff member a lesson in business etiquette

Client humbles micromanager in front of entire team after micromanager tries to teach staff member a lesson in business etiquette

Customer service work can be difficult at times. The old adage ‘the customer is always right’ can reach unprecedented heights, depending on the circumstances and parties involved. The story that follows is an account of a customer service representative. The Original Poster (OP) was involved in asset finance, namely with regard to land and cars. But in an effort to find a solution, he chose to bring up the issue with his management after encountering an angry client who refused to abide by the…
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'Guess who woke up to 17 emails from the company?': Team leader pressures employee to work on their day off, demands employee 'write a review by the end of the day'

'Guess who woke up to 17 emails from the company?': Team leader pressures employee to work on their day off, demands employee 'write a review by the end of the day'

Working in a contract role gives you a lot of protection from bad bosses. But no one told that to u/Wrong-Ad-2507's boss, who seemed clueless about how that all works. It can be really difficult, if not impossible, to stand up to your boss. For a lot of people, the intimidation of it all is too much. It can be hard to ask for a day off, for example, without your boss demanding to know what you're doing and why you need that time off. Other people will constantly work late hours at their boss's…
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'We played chicken and won': Startup employees rise up against CEO's new office hours

'We played chicken and won': Startup employees rise up against CEO's new office hours

The new CEO of a startup had a brilliant idea: why not make every employee work from 9 AM to 6 PM with no exceptions? There are benefits to working hourly and for working salaried . With hourly jobs, you better make sure you're on time, down to the second. Lots of retail or restaurant jobs depend on their workers being there on the dot, and there are consequences for clocking in too late or too early. But the good side to that is that when you clock out, you're done. Many places literally won't…
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New boss experiences consequences when multiple members of their team quit simultaneously: 'I'm giving my notice the next day I work'

There's no surer sign that you might need to reassess your leadership "style" than having multiple people opt out, in quick succession, of being under that leadership. After all, as the old adage famously goes, “People don't quit jobs; they quit bosses.” There's no telling the level of miserable or monotonous job conditions some people will put up with just as long as they enjoy working with the people in their immediate team—especially their managers. Good managers are hard to come by, so when…
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Clever employee beats micromanager at her own play of power, micromanager caves to employees request to work from home

Clever employee beats micromanager at her own play of power, micromanager caves to employees request to work from home

There are a few key elements to take into account when searching for a job. The salary is undoubtedly the first, followed by the employees in second place, and the boss in third. The story below is an account of a frustrated and underappreciated employee. The Original Poster (OP) had worked for the same business for a considerable amount of time. OP enjoyed his job and loved his manager. However, as luck would have it, OP's manager resigned to pursue greater opportunities, and the manager appoi…
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'You dug that hole yourself’: Contractor works on resident's property without permission, creating damage that costs $100,000

'You dug that hole yourself’: Contractor works on resident's property without permission, creating damage that costs $100,000

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So if one messes things up, one is probably going to have to face the consequences, that is simply how the world works, although there aren't many people who actually live by those rules. Many people in this Reddit story had to face the consequences of their actions, and not all of them did such a great job. First, there was the terrible neighbor who started the whole drama simply by being a terrible neighbor, but also because he ordered a contra…
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