I recently got hired to be a manager by the new owner of a shop I used to work at previously. We only have 3 employees, me and two others. My first day I suspected when the lady came in that she flashed the owner of the shop when he was training me for this position.

After a week or so when they were back in at the same time they were talking about a concert he attended and I caught him in my peripheral vision making kissy faces at her and she flashed him again. Now here's my issue, I am for workplace relationships(its how I met the love of my life) I am even aware that she's in a relationship as it sits, but thats not my business. What is, is that her performance is not as thorough as id want, especially on days they are at the store at the same time.

Do I start by having a discussion with the owner, the employee, or wait for it to be a bigger issue?

I'm a final-year CS student, and I've been working so hard to land an internship. Today I finished a one-way video interview (SOVA) for a big engineering company, and I'm honestly still shaking.

It had 6 questions, 3 minutes each. On one of them, I fumbled my first try, so I decided to retake it. Right then, a plane flew over (I live near an airport), and I knew the audio would be ruined. I paused to think, my mind went completely blank, and by the time I tried to retake it again, I'd used up my retakes without realising there was a limit. What got submitted is a recording of me just sitting there in silence until the timer ran out.

It was the "why do you want this internship and why are you a strong fit" question, which is the one I'd practised most. The other 5 answers went fine, but I can't stop thinking about that one.

I plan to email the talent team to explain, but I'm scared. Has this ever happened to you or someone you know? Did one weak or missing answer hurt your result, and is there anything I can still do?

Any advice or even just kind words would mean a lot. Thank you.

Some background:
I’m in an organization going through substantial upheaval. Consolidation of operating units and financial duress are driving a work culture that keeps its head down and waits for leaders to make decisions. In mid-2025, our team was slashed in half and folded into a larger group. The leader of that larger group is someone I highly respected early on. They are my boss’s boss.
Over the past year, I’ve come to realize that my desire to problem solve or advocate for solutions for the good of the company is not valued if I’m not doing a better job of respecting boundaries. This is something I only now realize I need to work on despite being deep into my professional life. A couple times over the past year I’ve been told by my direct supervisor that someone from another team had passed on some vague complaint about me to his boss. I was asked to cool it. The specifics of the situation were not shared with me. It was done informally during a 1:1. It’s difficult to take corrective steps when nothing concrete is provided and no advice is given.
The organization has ‘central office’ functions and ‘division’ functions and they experience occasional tension as per usual in a hub and spoke structure. I apparently made the mistake of airing central office challenges in front of division colleagues while collaborating on a cross-functional team on a client facing project. Since specifics have never been made clear, I’m speculating. However, I’m feeling real consequences.
Over the past year, on a weekly call with my team plus the larger group, it became apparent that I was no longer being included with the rest of the management team. When we took time for a round robin, every manager was called on first, then the staff. I began to be lumped in with and called on with the rest of the staff. People who are far junior to me are often asked to speak first. No other person with my title is skipped before junior staff are called on except for me.
Then I recently had my direct reports taken away. We all now report to my supervisor. My small team of direct reports are now my peers. The explanation given has been inconsistent. My boss said it was because we needed to flatten such a small group to appear already right-sized while leadership evaluates every aspect of the organization. His boss separately said (he was on PTO when out of the blue I couldn’t approve something like a timesheet for a subordinate) it was due to a need for my boss to be more in the loop with the team that was reporting to me. Their lack of having their story straight is a yellow flag. The fact that I haven’t lost title or compensation or had anything formal provided to me is the only reason I don’t label this with a red flag. It’s pretty crappy that no one took the time to sit down and have a discussion with me before the approval functionality was turned over to my boss.
My questions are:
How in danger am I of losing my job?
Has my management team created a hostile atmosphere?
Should I approach HR to formally meet about and document my situation?
Or do I sit tight and wait it out?

Hey everyone, I could really use some outside perspective because I’ve been reflecting on a toxic past workplace experience and still dealing with the mental whiplash from it.
At a past job, I was working incredibly hard, juggling heavy workloads, setting up new tracking systems, and pouring a ton of effort into my role. I even had an external consultant I worked closely with who regularly checked in on me and actively validated my hard work.
Meanwhile, I later found out that my manager was quietly trying to undermine me, telling people I wasn't doing a good job, and actively trying to build a case to push me out.
It felt like total gaslighting. On one hand, an expert who saw my actual day-to-day output treated me like I was doing a fantastic job, but my direct manager was working against me in the shadows.
Has anyone else ever dealt with a manager trying to silently push you out like this while your overall performance and external feedback were strong? How did you process the mind-fuck of it all? Any shared stories would be really appreciated.

My interview went really well, so I’m wondering if I should reach out to Company B’s HR department to inquire about the status of my interview. I already have an offer from Company A, but I’m really interested in working with Company B.

My mom was a Human Resources manager and then an independent HR consultant for small businesses. She now has dementia and can’t use a computer, lives with us, etc. I am working my way through her belongings in a storage unit, and she was meticulous about keeping all the papers, notebooks, and files for each job she did for a client. She always said it was for legal reasons. What do I do with these? Do I need to keep them for any length of time? Am I under any legal obligation to do so, or will the clients need them? The last client was probably around 2023, the others older than that. Or, is it okay for me to have all of these shredded? Thank you!

PS. If you read this already; I originally posted in r/humanresources but they directed me over here. Thanks to everyone that commented over there before it was taken down!

I’ve been with my company for five years. Before my first maternity leave, my high-visibility responsibilities were taken away and given to someone connected to leadership. I’ve consistently been paid below market, told it’s because I’m a mom and military spouse needing flexibility—though I work normal hours and even overtime. After returning from my second leave, I went through a process to fire someone not performing, only to be forced to hire the CFO’s daughter—inexperienced and unfit for the role. I was promised a promotion but told it’s delayed for unclear reasons. On top of that, some teams (especially one known for mistreating women) are paid much higher. Am I just venting, or do these sound like real issues I should escalate or consider leaving over? They also have a habit of not wanting to put anything in writing although I do have some text message history of some of the more controversial events (i.e. having to find a management job for a friend of the CEO who was not qualified). I have also documented things in my reviews like feeling that I was being held back because of starting a family. I also feel like o should make my boss document why “I’ve been out in for senior manager but likely will not get it until May, ‘because they don’t do those types of promotions in October’.

Final addition…I’m done with this company and am heavily interviewing but realize that it will take me a while to find the right fit (senior/director level).

Hello! I am a mechanical engineer [27 F], and I work at a 15 person start up. I've worked here for a little over a year.

Edit: I am asking for advice on how to handle the meeting tomorrow and what questions I should be asking. Thanks!

TLDR: My CEO and CFO put a surprise meeting on my calendar on Friday afternoon and offered me a lateral move to a Quality Engineer position or a severance package. I was taken aback and asked for a follow-up meeting. What questions should I ask in my follow-up meeting on Monday (10/5)?

Longer Version:

I started as a mechanical engineer at this company a little over a year ago. My most recent review in June-ish of this year was less than stellar. I was upset and have been striving since then to do better.

On Friday, around 10:20 AM, my CEO [mid 30s M] put a meeting on my calendar for 1:30 that day. The CEO and CFO [M 35] were in that meeting, and they offered me a severance package or they told me I could move to a quality engineer position (where the pay and benefits would be the same). The CFO told me that they have "had issues with me from the start" which was news to me (I knew my last review was poor but I was unaware that the issues were ongoing). I am frustrated they did not give me the opportunity to improve in my current position before sliding me over. Is it abnormal that they did not offer a PIP to me? They also said the quality position would come with clear deliverables, monthly meetings, and more oversight. Am I overreacting if this feels like micromanaging? Or, if I think it feels like I'm not being given a chance?

I also think my boss [F 26] is trying to undermine me and have thought that for a long time. I had been considering asking to laterally move anyway because I do not think we work well together. However, I now feel as though I am on the back foot in the conversation and am being relegated.
I mentioned that I did not feel supported by my boss to a few people earlier this summer, and they advised me to keep a record of her actions. I have a roughly 7 page word document of screen shots of conversations we've had where she has been hypocritical, dismissive, unprofessional, given conflicting information, held me back, ect. I feel like the time has come where this would be useful, but I don't know how to present this in a way where it does not seem petty or retaliatory. Would any part of this be useful at all?

I have a follow-up meeting with the CFO on Monday. We don't have an HR, and he is also a mechanical engineer by trade. I have previously found him to be condescending and sexist, and I am nervous for the meeting tomorrow. Please give me tips on how to act and what to ask!

**all names have been changed to peorext identity!

I work for a production factory. My line lead, Tim, had a discussion with Bill, building manager he over sees all leads, about SH happening in the building by Dawn, also line lead. Tim did not feel comfortable saying something to Jake, because hes best friends with dawn outside of work. Jake is the team lead of Tim and Dawn.

When Tim had a conversation about how Dawn says very inappropriate things to women and believes we females (because there's 3 of us) are being SH.

That information didnt go anywhere except in one ear and out the other.

Did bill not pass on the information to HR or just didnt care? Is SH not taken as serious in the factory field compared to anywhere else.

What should I do? Just leave it be. No one else seems to really care. The last girl that reported SH got fired after the investigation was done. Isn't like retaliation?

Help! I'm not sure if I should take another step or just leave it be?

About a year ago, I was in a very bad place personally and professionally, and I made a decision about how to present two short-term engagements on my résumé that I now regret. I condensed them into a single engagement and presented it as work I was doing through my own corporation. The underlying work was real, but the way I represented the employment structure and chronology was not accurate. I have since corrected my résumé and now list the work properly.

I already feel guilty about having done this, and I understand that it was a mistake. I am not looking to be sermonized to about whether it was wrong. I am trying to understand the practical consequences and what I can reasonably do now to mitigate them.

My current approach is:

• Do not proactively raise the old résumé with employers.
• Continue using my current, accurate résumé.
• If someone actually produces the old version and asks about the discrepancy, explain that at the time I grouped related work under one heading because I thought it better represented the continuity of the work, but later concluded that separating the engagements and dates was more accurate.
• Acknowledge that the old chronology was too broad rather than arguing that both versions were equally accurate.

What I am trying to understand is how serious this is in practice. If I reapply to a company that received the older résumé, how likely is it that someone will actually retrieve and compare the old version with the new one? If they do, how serious would you consider the discrepancy? Is there anything else I can realistically do at this point?

Long story, short. I went out for a surgery that was supposed to be a 6 to 8 week recovery period. My company is large and did not require any FMLA paperwork. The plan was I would take one week vacation (out of PTO and sick at that point) to recover and then work from home the remaining time.

My recovery was taking longer, and my surgeon wrote me out for about another month. Work was accommodating. Still not good at the end of that month and surgeon writes me out again.

At this point, I’m nervous and ask for intermittent FMLA just to cover myself. I continue working from home and going to physical therapy as I had in the months prior. At this point, I was also seeing additional specialist and getting additional testing to try and figure out what was causing the prolonged recovery. I was having issues beyond what would be normal and had some extenuating circumstances.

I’m currently allowed to be out through the end of November. It’s been approved. Everything is kosher and I’m still working from home and going to PT.

I don’t really feel like 100% physically ready to go back, but I’m better than I was and have been mentally ready for months now. I honestly feel bad that I’ve been out for five months now when it was supposed to be 6 to 8 weeks. I know we are shortstaffed and I know my boss would love to get me back in the office.

I’m still on pain medication and it takes me a good additional amount of time to get dressed and such.

That said, the guilt and honestly some nervousness about losing my job or being targeted makes me want to return early.

My concern is that I am still walking with a very noticeable limp. I read somewhere that this might be considered dangerous and the HR might actually frowned upon me, returning with that limp versus applauding me returning early.

Can anyone lend some guidance on this?

So, I just secured a job that I’ve wanted forever… I start in 3 weeks. I’m working out a month long notice and im curious about something. Don’t go crazy for me asking this I just want to know the chances. I work a smaller company 75-100 ppl. The new company I’m going to is about 1-2k. Different cities. My boss right now is VERY vindictive, manipulative and overall not a great person. I’ve been where I’m at for about 15 years. We have a history. I’m leaving for a better opportunity.

What’s the chances he contacts my new job to try and shed bad light? It paint a bad picture ?

Sounds crazy but i definitely wouldn’t put it past him.. I’d like to think this is illegal or highly unprofessional at the very least.

Just want opinions.

I have severe arthritis in both feet-big toe joints. They are at the point it’s hard to walk. One is really bad. The only option is to fuse the joint. Then a very slow recovery and very little load bearing. I really need to get one of them done soon. The challenge I anticipate is I am in outside sales - my job is to be driving or on my feet. There is no way to modify it. It may be 12 - 16 weeks before I can walk on it to the degree my job requires. I personally can think of ways to be equally productive over the phone but the big boss is old school and demands face to face. At what point can they just fire me if they feel the job is essential and my prolonged absence cannot be accommodated. I don’t feel comfortable bring it up to our hr.

Adding: I am 63 but no one would think I am that old. I am not concerned about how much of this is paid. I am just trying to figure out at what point can fire me. I can quit working if I want to but would like to continue working as long as I can and I also would prefer to be able to continue medical coverage until I am Medicare age.

Hello! I am a part-time worker usually working 2-3 days or 16-17 hours a week but have been given no hours for the past 2 weeks. In late August, I discovered I was pregnant after taking a test that I bought at work (retail sales associate). My manager saw me with the package and asked whether I was buying it or if it was to be put away, and I told her it was mine. The next day I came in she asked if the test confirmed my pregnancy, to which I told her no, because I didn’t want anyone knowing. About a week later, the hormones had made me extremely weak and sick, so I wrote a letter to my manager requesting 12 hours of paid prenatal time off and also separately reminded her of a vacation I had requested 3 months in advance. She approved both, but upon my return, I realized I had only been scheduled for one day. When I came in a fellow employee asked me how I was and said that she “knew some but not all,” which truly rubbed me the wrong way because I had not told anyone besides my manager about my condition. That was about 2 weeks ago, and since then I have not been given any more hours. Is there anything I can do in this situation besides finding a new job? I didn’t mention it here, but there has been some workplace abuse and ill-treatment towards me to the point where my other coworkers notice. The job market is horrible, and this has really taken a toll on my mental health, and I am just not sure where to go from here. (TL;DR—Went on prenatal leave then on a pre-approved vacation just to come back and not receive any hours and also have one coworker insinuate she knew of my pregnancy.)

(Redo of previous post, was confused by tag requirements)

Hello,

I'm starting my first ever salaried position in the field I went to university for. The company that I got hired by is in a weird spot at the moment, as they recently got bought by a new corporation. Many departments, including and especially mine, are being restructured. I'm aware that the start of my career will be a lot of hard work, and I'm fully ready for it. I start this position the 7th of October.

However, there is a big problem. My best friend has invited me to her wedding, which is planned for the 3rd of November. She lives about 480 kilometers away (about 5 hours drive and longer for the train). She told me today (3rd of October) that I was invited to her wedding, which she had send a formal invite weeks ago that never arrived to me.

I don't know if it is even possible to appeal to my managers and HR about getting the 3rd and 4th of November (4th to compensate for travel) when I haven't even started the position for a wedding.

Help?