Narcissists will always find a way to make everything about themselves, especially when the narcissist in question is your boss. We have all had the experience of working for someone who is just a bit too into themselves. I remember being warned about specific rules of formality around my first boss back when I was stuck in an unpaid internship in my late teen years. All this kind of behavior did for me was it taught me exactly what kind of work environment to avoid. However, sometimes it's com…

Usually, when you name an award after someone, it's done to memorialize their significant contribution to the thing it's being awarded for, and never would you ever expect the person being memorialized to be eligible—lest receive—their own award. Can you imagine if every year the Nobel Prize just awarded every award posthumously to Alfred Nobel? I think the entire process would have a completely different perception.

This nepo-baby got humbled in a way she never expected. If you can't learn important life lessons early in life, life will figure out a way to teach you eventually. There's a reason most people aren't fond of nepotism, or the practice of hiring your own family members to work for you just because you're related. It makes the other workers at the company, who are perfectly qualified for their jobs, wonder why the CEO's clueless kid gets a high-paid position. Even if the kid has zero knowledge of…

You want phone calls? You got phone calls . That's totally fine by this overnight worker, since they usually barely call anyone during their shift anyway. As an employee, you may see the CEO of your company just a few times. Often, you'll be introduced to the CEO when you first start at the job, so it's important to make a good impression. After all, depending on your position and the size of the company, you may just never see them again after that. Most of us just don't work one-on-one with C…

I'm fortunate not to have a job where I have to be on call during the weekends, so when Friday evening hits, my laptop is closed and stowed away until Monday morning. That should've been the case for this OP too, but unfortunately, it wasn't. He was out on a Saturday night celebrating his friend's engagement when he got a call at 9 p.m. from his boss. Considering she was calling his personal phone, not his work phone, he assumed it was an emergency, so he answered...

It's always fascinating when bosses decide to get petty right before one of their employees walks out on them. They have absolutely nothing to gain from being savage and they're probably risking their already lukewarm reputation, yet sometimes folks in authority cannot help themselves. This boss had a habit of taking credit for other people's work, and he even did so when his employee (now off to bigger and better things) fixed a major tech issue at work. Not only did he get petty, but he had t…

This woman told a whopper of a lie, but she wasn't expecting to be called out . Customers learn their behaviors by reinforcement. While it might seem obvious to you to be pleasant to the person on the other end of a phone call , not everyone acts that way. Some folks have been conditioned to believe that the louder and more demanding they act towards customer service reps, the faster their problem will be solved. In reality, as call center workers will tell you, this is almost never the case. M…

This is such a satisfying story (for workers, not bosses). One employee shared this story from a company they used to love, but which quickly went sour after a merger . Despite what managers or HR want to tell you, mergers aren't often positive developments for the current employees. U/allgoodnamestaken98 writes that at the factory they were working at, a merger caused a great workplace to tank, all because three different managers were each trying to prove they were the best. This boss told hi…

These coworkers are at an impasse, it would seem. In some workplaces, peoples' competitive nature can be a positive. When employees are competing to gain clients or meet a financial target, that can make the bonds between workers stronger. It helps to grow camaraderie, and a sense of purpose as you work those same 40 hours each week. Other offices have a different dynamic: employees start to work against each other. This can happen for numerous reasons---for example, having a toxic boss breathi…

This story takes an unexpected turn when a woman discovers her seemingly perfect boyfriend is still involved with his ex-girlfriend. When the two women contacted each other, something about the ex-girlfriend's personality reminded the OP of some gifts her boyfriend had given her. So, she decided to ask the ex if she was missing anything. She was. She was missing the exact items that the OP had received from her boyfriend as a “gift”. But then, it's gets worse.

This boss claimed to be “old school,” but in reality, he was just creating a toxic work environment. You'll probably encounter toxic bosses at some point in your career. You'd think to be a manager, you'd have to prove your communication skills are on point. But no. Instead, this boss manages to make every conversation and task as arduous as possible.

When you get fired, usually you have an idea of what went wrong… even if it wasn't necessarily your fault. But here, we have an instance in which an employee was told they violated so many rules and genuinely had no clue what was meant by that. After some investigating, they discovered that a manager had it out for them ever since the employee refused to break a customer's large bill four months ago. Talk about a particularly specific vendetta to hold against someone! While I personally have ne…

Ahh… the holiday season, a time of year best spent with family and loved ones over incredible meals and through the sharing of thoughtful gifts. With images of bright, cheery, rosy-cheeked faces, Christmas lights, and decorations—maybe a little snow and mistletoe—it's a joyful time intended to bring out the human spirit, gratitude, and goodwill. Well, it should be no surprise to any of us that these optimistic ideas don’t meld well with workplaces. Stark grey walls with hard, cheap furniture. G…

Did you know that the kids these days are referring to the 90s as the “late 1900s"? If that sentence made you want to check your scalp for gray hairs, you're not alone. Aging happens to every living being, and there's nothing we can do about it. We're just along for the ride as trends change and lingo transforms. It's like that saying about how the past is a foreign country. We had less tech back then, and everything was different. In school, our teachers assured us that we'd need to know how t…

Every so often, your coworker asks you to do a favor for them. It might be to proofread an email, grab something from the kitchen, or brainstorm for 15 minutes. However, giving them a free manicure is not exactly the kind of favor one expects to be confronted with at work. This employee's coworker admired their nails and asked them what they were using. You would think the conversation ended there, and the coworker would just take it upon herself to purchase the same product as the employee. Ho…

Now that it's the Holiday season, we are unfortunately subjected to that time of year when we have to get gifts for more people than we'd like. The idea of having to participate in an annual Office Secret Santa on top of all that other shopping is truly too far. Thankfully, I have never been asked to participate in one, and honestly, thank goodness. I'm not quite sure what I've done in my life to deserve that luxury, but I'll take it. Knowing myself, if I were pressured to be a part of an Offic…