Some employers value different traits than you might expect. Usually, when interviewing for a job, you'd make sure to emphasize how you go above and beyond, think critically, and problem-solve—yet, some employers are looking for someone who does exactly what they're told and doesn't ask questions. For most of us, this wouldn't work for us, but there are always going to be those who are happy existing as a thoughtless void—just as long as they can get a paycheck. It's always painful when you acc…

Imagine having a coworker so terrible that when you get a new management role and poach the members of your old team, your old HR manager actually gets mad at you for not poaching the awful one. That's a scenario that boggles the mind so completely it's hard to imagine this scenario actually playing out in real life. Yet, that's exactly what his manager reported experiencing in a story that they shared on Reddit. In their account of events, they tell how—a few months after leaving their old job…

Leaving a job can be a difficult decision, especially when you have built strong relationships with your coworkers and boss. Even when the relationship is bad or nonexistent, deciding to leave isn't easy, as you're trading the known security of your current position for something unknown. Still, you need to weigh your current situation against the risks and decide whether or not your current role is going to get you to where you want to be. Ultimately, while leaving a job can be a challenging p…

There are a lot of confusing things happening in this story, like how this night shift worker became integrated with their company's development team, contributing significantly to the point where the higher-ups were using their reporting dashboard for their reports. Yet, at the same time, there was somehow no one willing to stick up for them when their head was placed on the chopping block for seeking increasing compensation for their constantly-increasing responsibility and contribution. Stil…

Micromanagement is a boogeyman of the workplace—always lurking. You're always apprehensive that it's going to be there when you walk into a new place and worried that it might suddenly appear out of the blue and ruin something that you once loved. It's also exceedingly frustrating and hugely demotivating One of the most psychologically deconstructing things to experience at work is a lack of autonomy, especially when you had it before and now suddenly have a new manager who refuses to let you d…

If there's one thing that every organization on this earth loves… it's stupid strict rules that have no business existing in the first place—usually coming from a middle manager who decided to write and enact a new policy without ever asking others with more insight and experience for their input. Bonus space on the bingo card here for this manager also being someone either freshly promoted on a power trip or brand new to the organization and trying to look like they're doing an effective job a…

“Red flags start appearing from the very first minute I arrive,” this employee wrote in one jaw-dropping workplace story.

After a lifetime of being told that “It's not personal” and "It's just business" it's surprising how personal employers take a resignation, finally coming face to face with a situation where they're not in control.

When you receive an offer from a new employer, you may be incentivized to approach your current employer and see if they'll match the offer. After all—as we often discuss, your current employment is a known entity, and so it will often seem preferable to stay in the comforts of the known—rather than branch out into the unknown of the new role that is being offered. Usually, your current employer will come back with what they can reasonably offer, seeking to match the offer you've received. It's…

They say comedy is all about timing. You never really know if that's true until you experience a poorly timed joke. For example, depending on the audience's vibe, it's always time for a joke at a comedy stand up show. However, if you're at a funeral and you're asked to say a few words—again, depending on the crowd—that's usually a bad time to crack a joke. Those are pretty obvious examples of comedic timing. A new example has come from a Reddit story . The OP truly made very very poor comedic t…

Companies love to introduce small fees as a means of saving a few dollars or adding an extra stream of revenue. Hey—if you're a bank or network provider with 70 million customers, charging each of them a $0.10 fee every month is going to shore up a clean $84 million in revenue a year, and that's not going to look bad for some senior manager's bonus figure. These tactics can be employed against your employees, too. Nitpicking small costs and introducing small penalties can cause broad-sweeping c…

Having a close-knit workgroup can be amazing; it's the kind of thing that has to form naturally with a bit of time and pressure that nurtures (and necessitates) cohesiveness and codependence. The relationships you form in these workplaces can be incredible and turn out to be life-long bonds, but they can also create a workplace environment that is unintentionally toxic. Eventually, something is going to change. Maybe the company expands, or there is going to be a falling out between people on t…

Giving notice to a job is the right thing to do—when you have the right employer. Like any relationship, the working relationship is built on trust, and a strong relationship that is filled with goodwill should always be honored. But when you know that the person employing you is prone to petty fits of rage—which often include firing people on the spot with no prior warning—maybe it's best not to let this person know that you plan on leaving their business in the next few weeks. After all, they…

Why is it that so many businesses would rather lose $10 in the name of saving $1? Time and time again, extreme cost-saving measures end up costing more in the long run. This engineer left the company they worked for shortly after completing the installation of an important mystery machine (No, not the one from Scooby-Doo.) For some reason, the manager at the client's site kept their number and contacted them personally to come and rectify an error with the machine. They agreed that the engineer…

When it comes to revenge in the workplace, you must be very strategical. When you're trying to build a solid career, it's important not to burn any bridges on the way. You never know who you might be working with again in the future. That being said, when you get a chance for some petty anonymous revenge, it's hard to pass that up. The OP in this Reddit story got both strategical professional revenge AND extremely pretty revenge . It's very rare to get both. She had worked her way up at a brewe…

Sometimes it's important to take a step back and take a look at why you're doing something—especially when it negatively impacts other people. If you can't come with anything other than “because I want to” or “because it's better for me personally” then maybe you should reconsider and not do that thing. For one, you should never have the audacity to think that you can think that you have the authority and skill to rewrite an entire policy by yourself overnight… Add the incompetency of this empl…