workplace-stories

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When we pay for something, the transaction is clear: I give you money, you give me what I paid for. With gifts, something more elusive happens: For some people, receiving something as a gift creates a sense of entitlement that masks an underlying dependence on what was given to them. Some people defend themselves from that feeling of dependency by treating what was given to them as something they were owed.

University library employee reports increasing student entitlement towards loaned laptops since 2020: 'I've had more than one patron demand I get them a different laptop because the one I grabbed from the cabinet didn't look nice enough'

Manager refuses to reply to employee on her days off, yet keeps contacting them on their time off, employee doesn't respond: ‘Works both ways’

Manager refuses to reply to employee on her days off, yet keeps contacting them on their time off, employee doesn't respond: ‘Works both ways’

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Back when I was in high school, I was terrified of something like this happening to me, the classical story: the boys make a bet to see who can ask the ugliest girl out, and it turns out I’m the oblivious girl thinking she has a chance with the high school heartthrob. Well, this story doesn’t involve that kind of heartbreak, but it does involve someone giving a long, controlled performance to get the information they wanted.

Employee pretends to be friendly with coworker for months only to extract important information about the workplace: 'The friendship part might have been real at first, but somewhere along the way it started feeling more like a project to him'

Anyone who has worked at customer service knows this: there is always a customer who arrives at the very last minute, and then makes you wait for him to finish, and you end up closing the store 45 minutes late because you aren’t allowed to say you need him to go asap so you can close. I genuinely don’t know where these people come from, nor why they don’t seem to have any empathy or understanding of the phrase ‘we’re closing’.

Entitled customer demands employee to open the store even though he was warned it closed in five minutes: 'Like do some customers need to be hand held now or what?'

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IT Helpdesk manager emails demanding staff arrive 15 minutes early to login and be ready to take calls "1 second before" their shift, staff comply and hang up on customers the second their shift ends: 'Sorry to interrupt you, my shift is over. Goodbye'

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When anonymity turns to exposure I just found out there is a rarely used literal antonym for anonymity, it’s nonymity, which means ‘with a name’, of course. So what this company conducted was probably a ‘nonymous’ survey, only they forgot to disclose it. I’ve had the temptation to be really honest in one or two of those surveys, but I always held back because there weren’t many people being surveyed, and it would be really easy to discover who wrote what. Of course, it would all be perfect if w…

Employee finds out his anonymous feedback was never anonymous and is being called to have a personal meeting with the manager: 'It turned upside down when my manager called me out in front of the entire team and mocked about the review i gave'

Manager Blames Employee for Late Reports, Leading Employee to Build a Tracker That Proves the Delays Are Manager’s Fault Entirely

Manager Blames Employee for Late Reports, Leading Employee to Build a Tracker That Proves the Delays Are Manager’s Fault Entirely

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Why New Job Listings Often Look the Same as the “Eliminated” Ones: Employee Laid off During a Restructure, Is Surprised To Discover Their Job Advertised With a Different Title, Former Coworker Says Management Claims the Roles Are “Strategically Different”

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Retail employer demands 24/7 GPS tracking on workers making $16/hour through a “workforce management” app on their personal phones, the employees refuse: ‘Why do they need my location at 11 PM, on weekends, or while I’m on vacation?’

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Alabama regional manager typo accidentally doubled a shift leader’s salary, she signed the form before catching it and reported right away, but has no idea if she owes the money back

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Company demands worker cancel pre-approved PTO or lose his job after sneaky managers hide vacation and sick day policy changes

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Employee stops volunteering extra work until manager notices, leading them to finally acknowledge and change the workload: ‘It made me invisible’

Employee stops volunteering extra work until manager notices, leading them to finally acknowledge and change the workload: ‘It made me invisible’

I was about to make malicious compliance my new religion until I came across this example of it going the exact opposite way it was expected. Maybe it’s time to give up on our mischievous endeavours and turn back to old, regular, direct communication. When something like this backfires, we get two problems where there used to be one.

Manteinance employee maliciously complies with his manager's new rule and in an unexpected turn of events, his manager loves it: 'As you can tell from the title, this did not go how I was expecting'

IT fails to fix employee's computer, leading to their account and login being deleted, employee spends over two weeks unable to work: ‘What a clown show’

IT fails to fix employee's computer, leading to their account and login being deleted, employee spends over two weeks unable to work: ‘What a clown show’

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Some things we can only figure out in retrospect. People often act in ways we deem incoherent and irrational, and only after everything ends can we see the underlying motives for their behaviour. Becoming too close way too fast with someone might be a cause for concern.

Resentful manager goes from bonding immediately with new server to sabotaging her every move: 'Looking back, it suddenly made a lot more sense why she seemed to go from friendly mentor to treating me like public enemy number one'

Boss refuses to admit they underpaid employee after they quit, then proceeds to blame them for their lack of empathy for the business: ‘The working conditions are not sustainable’

Boss refuses to admit they underpaid employee after they quit, then proceeds to blame them for their lack of empathy for the business: ‘The working conditions are not sustainable’