Higher education is interesting in the sense that it can mean wildly different things because—well, people are wildly different themselves. We perceive, retain, and apply information completely differently from one another. No two people are the same. While holding an advanced degree can mean you're intelligent, it doesn't necessarily mean that, and it's usually the people who insist that they're better and smarter than everyone else because of their degree who fall into that “not necessarily”…

The differences between loyalty to a workplace with older and younger generations always boggle the mind. The fact that many people over the age of 50 have happily committed to the same workplace for decades, sometimes without so much as a raise, is crazy, especially when younger people have such a short attention span they often can't commit to finishing a 2-hour long movie. My mom, for example, has just celebrated her 30th anniversary with the company she works for, and I had 3 different jobs…

New bosses love to bring in new ideas, barreling into situations they know next to nothing about and waving their authority in order to make broad-sweeping changes that they say are for the better. Meanwhile, everyone else glances sideways at each other and braces for the worst. You can probably see where this is going, as it always does with these types of situations: short-sighted cost-cutting hamstringing vital operations that only cost the company more in the long run when everything goes b…

Would you ever CC your boss's boss on an email? It's a bold move to make! This person, u/ShamyJane, was just utterly fed up with their boss's unfair behavior. By the time they wrote him and his boss an email, they must've lost all faith in his abilities to lead. It's a plead from the employee to the boss to please do something to change the working environment! It seems like the original poster only did this out of desperation… and a desire to see him get what he deserved for being so impolite…

Every business owner had to deal at least once in their career with clients who disappeared without paying for the service they got. Some cases end with a happy ending, with the owner managing to find the client and get them to pay, but other cases remain unsolved, which means the owner never receives the money they were owed. This leads some business owners to find other ways to get back their money's worth, even if it means unleashing their most petty selves. Much like the owner in this Reddi…

You'll repeatedly encounter people who think they know better than you, even when it comes to the responsibilities of their own job. Most upper managers have this cynical view that their subordinates are just slack-jawed lackeys without a single decent thought. They probably think that whatever job it is their subordinates are doing, anyone could do, completely blind to the fact that this single employee is pulling more weight than anyone else in the organization—including them. Heck, there are…

It turns out that if you tell a contract worker to work fewer hours, they'll… do exactly that. So it's surprising that this client was under the impression that she was getting more for her money after trying to bully this worker. U/rentacle couldn't wait to share her malicious compliance story of “corporate stupidity” with the world.

Serious workers don't play about their vacation time . It's not like most of us just love working ourselves to the bone. To be fair, a lot of people love their jobs, and many will stay at the same company for decades. It's great to get into a rhythm of working until you start to feel those signs of burnout, and then having the luxury of taking a week or two off . Those two weeks can make a huge difference: spending time with family and friends, traveling, or even just relaxing and sleeping in c…

Every person who has ever worked in IT or Tech Support knows that having sharp 'people skills' is just as important as understanding computers and technology. Every day, those employees have to deal with people having technological issues, so they need to know not only how to handle the problem, but also how to handle the people with that problem. That can get incredibly tricky, as people are not at their best when they are having issues, and many simply don't want to learn when their issues ha…

Finally, a greedy company gets what they deserve!

Requesting time off from work is kind of a weird ritual. While you're technically “asking” for time off, that time is, is usually less of a “want” and more of a “need”—even though your employer will treat it like the former. It's not as if you can ask your cousin to reschedule their wedding just for you or your entire family to reschedule their family reunion. Still, lots of businesses have periods of high trade where they're exceedingly strict about granting any time off—or there during holida…

Here's a story about one grandfather who had an interesting job as a bridgekeeper. I imagine that's the kind of job that's automated today. But in this man's day, he and his wife would keep an eye out for boats each day and let them through when they needed to cross under the bridge. Many years ago, people would take multiple breaks throughout their workday, like this grandpa who was supposed to take two separate coffee breaks . It also was fairly common to go home for lunch. Many school kids d…

It's nice to think that you're irreplaceable. It's that sense of security that lets you sleep at night, not worried that you'll lose your entire livelihood should your employer choose to replace you overnight. That confidence and knowledge can get you a long way and actually help you to be successful in your role. That said, change is inevitable, and it's almost certain that you'll eventually move on from your role or even need enough time off that someone needs to be seconded into it. Gatekeep…

Work smarter, not harder

If you've ever daydreamed about quitting your terrible job, consider this your sign to find a happier career path. There are a few different ways one can quit a job . The proper, respectable way is to write out a professional letter stating that this is your two-week notice. But the folks replying to this r/AskReddit thread couldn't stand to work at their awful jobs for another moment. They took the less professional but way more satisfying route of rage-quitting right on the spot. As you can r…

What's the point of having vacation days if you're not allowed to use them?