There's one in every office. Each business place has that one person who everyone else gives a side-eye to. They probably have some kind of personality quirk that irritates everyone. But it's the kind of thing that you can't go to HR for, because what is HR going to do about issues like “Tina is always breathing too loudly” or “Jack has been heating up three meals a day in the microwave and he lets the microwave count down to the beep each time”? These are minor issues, and we all have to live…

In the world of client service, there's a common belief: go to any length—great lengths—to keep all clients satisfied, under contract, and coming back for more. Most managers frown deeply upon contract cancellation notices, forcing workers to submit justification for cancellation along with what their work group did to try and retain the customer. At the end of the day, the number of contracts signed versus the number of contracts lost is the only metric that's being tracked, so that's the only…

First impressions are important when establishing a working relationship, so important that people tend to read way too far into things during the first interview. It's not unheard of for interviewers to take one single harmless thing you said and extrapolate it into some wildly imaginative reason why you're a risk to hire. Tell the wrong interviewer you like baseball, and maybe they'll decide you're not fit for their team since baseball reminds them of their resentful father who tried to force…

If you have ever worked part-time or seasonal jobs, you know how hectic schedules can get, especially during holidays when most people take time off to travel or be with their family. The open shifts are sadly diverted to the few employees who can still work, leaving them slammed with overtime for their so-called part-time gig.

The burnout from being overworked and from constant exposure to a toxic workplace environment can really creep up on you. One day, you'll think that you're doing fine, under a lot of pressure and stress, but managing it just fine. The next, your composure shatters, and everything you've been enduring hits you like a ton of bricks. Suddenly, you feel the weight of it all. No energy and sinking, you're now struggling to keep your head above the water level of all the tasks you have to complete.

These auto body workers were surprised that one customer was throwing a fit over a pretty minimal fee … it was just $5. Depending on who you ask, $5 could be almost no money, or it could be quite a lot. If you're trying to buy a meal for your whole family with $5, it won't get you very far. But if you've lost your wallet and a bus ticket home costs $3, that crumpled $5 bill in your pocket is a life saver. Plus, in the grand scheme of things, spending an extra $5 at an auto body shop is just a d…

There is nothing like a technical problem at work that allows you to have the whole day to yourself until it's resolved. Whenever a situation like this arises, it's important to luxuriate in the moment. This means you can finally get your act together. You can vacuum the apartment, do laundry, and cook yourself a nice meal. Or you can lie down on the couch for hours on end and finally binge the new episodes of The Crown . Who cares? The world is your oyster, and it's not like you're shirking an…

This lawyer cares much more about their clients than their bosses do. Unfortunately for u/TheRealJohnGalt22, their bosses feel the opposite: forget about the clients, just run cases through as fast as humanly possible. In this work environment, partners at a law firm told one lawyer that they should take a “quantity not quality” approach to the complaints they needed to file. We all want to feel valuable and important at our jobs, and no one ever wants to hear that kind of language from a boss.…

It really feels horrible when an employer retaliates for the simple reason that you gave notice. After all, we're taught and given the expectation that if you don't want the bridge, you give notice to your job, even if you know that the conversation is going to be contentious. But the problem is the entire arrangement is built on trust; you're trusting that they'll show you the same respect you gave them in giving notice and not exercise their right to terminate you immediately. The problem is…

We often talk about work-life balance these days, with many folks managing to keep their professional and personal lives completely separate, meaning no work at home (rip remote workers). However, what happens when a personal issue becomes a work issue, too? That's the situation the OP found herself in. OP has been working at her company for a while now, and there's this colleague who seems to harbor some envy. We will call her Karen.

Navigating a troublesome coworker in the workplace is a daunting experience. With them creating trouble at every turn and drowning you and your teammates in false reports to managers and HR, it's sometimes hard to know where to turn, constantly treading on broken glass-covered thin ice as you all wait for the coworker to either resign or get fired so that you can all return to a peaceable existence. It's wild how the presence of this one person can turn a team on its head , which kinda makes yo…

You find out a lot about someone when they attain a petty position of power, do they take up the mantle reluctantly? Or do they wield their tiny shred of power with impunity? Sometimes you might be surprised to discover how someone reacts , but more often than not the latter category is easy to spot from a mile away.

One company was going through growing pains, and it's workers were feeling the pinch. Most small businesses fail. Perhaps you've heard that old wisdom that nine out of ten startups don't even last more than a year or two. Only the companies that rise above are able to stick around, but even then, not every business is able to scale up. It's something that has to be done with caution. In this case, u/calladus shared that they were working for a company that went from being a tiny privately owned…

There are definitely unwritten rules about using the communal microwave in an office. If you're heating up your lunch during an in-demand time and it's a frozen meal that takes more than five minutes to cook, you might want to step back and let other people use it first. Furthermore, if you're eating something particularly aromatic, consider eating in the break room and not right at your desk. This also applies when you're eating a messy meal. I cannot tell you the number of times I have seen c…

We talk a lot about mutual respect in the workplace, and this doesn't only apply to coworkers; it also applies to managers/owners and their employees. If a worker shows you respect by giving you greater notice than necessary that they will be leaving due to outside circumstances, you will do well to repay that respect by not retaliating. You might get away with it in this instance, but rest assured, after seeing how you treated their teammate, your other employees will never give you notice aga…

There is a reason why they say to make sure to get everything down in writing. This employee had the unfortunate experience of learning that life lesson the hard way after the HR representatives of the mental health facility in which he works kept shadily making adjustments to his contract. As someone who has worked freelance, part-time, full-time, and just about all the variations in between, I can confirm wholeheartedly that companies and bosses are going to make grand promises they cannot ke…