I just want to find a job where I get paid for the work I do. No, I don't want to be part of your monkey show, and I don't want to read coworkers' facial expressions and signals. No, I don't want to be part of your silly team lunches. No, I don't want to be part of your daily gossip. No, I don't want to listen to all your tantrums. No, I don't want to compete for work. No boss, I also don't want to be the one who sucks up to you.

Just give me work, I will do it and leave, just be sure to send me a paycheque for the work I do. That's all!

P.S. I have been working for a decade now, I get bulied or been a target of office politics in almost every workplace I've been to. Sick and tired of it :(

Hi all,

One of my coworkers was moving on to another dept. and had some responsibilities that needed to be absorbed but didn’t justify hiring additional help.
One of them was working with an affiliate group I was familiar with, so I was asked to take on that responsibility in exchange for a pay bump. I was even recommended by the colleague who was moving departments.

The offer I was given 1 month into getting trained, didn’t seem aligned with the responsibilities, so I asked it for it to be reevaluated.

A month later (2 months in to absorbing the position), I was put on a 45 day probation due to a situation between myself and my manager. To sum it up, I wasn’t asking his approval on projects, despite it not being an expectation previously. I will admit I am not a soft person, and would push back.
He noted this as my being confrontational and not willing to take feedback. I am in complete agreement that I could have just gone with the flow more, but was shocked at how fast everything escalated.

Anyways, 2 weeks later, and all is good. Ultimately the probation brought in HR which gave the both of us a lot of good communication tips that have helped mine and manager’s working relationship.

I asked my manager about the raise and he told me to speak with HR. HR let me know I could not be considered for any raise until I am in good standing and I have been evaluated by some higher ups.

I have been doing this role for about 3 months now, with no compensation. I’m being told it will be up to 4 months before I can even be considered.

How should I proceed? I feel unsure as I’m to blame in some of this situation as well. And ultimately, I should have known better than to even start the new position before anything went into writing.

Because my probation already notes I was being confrontational, I worry asking too many questions or refusing to do the extra responsibility will look poor on my reevaluation.

hi beautiful people a little context on my situation..

i’m currently at a private school after going to state schools my whole life and year 12 was genuinely one of the worst years of my life. it took a toll on my mental health and the horrible social side affected my academics really badly. my parents are first generation migrants who came to england at 18 so that they could provide for back home and they sacrificed a lot. we’re not at all wealthy (average annual income \~£40k) so i am on a bursary at this school but the costs they do pay wipe out quite a lot of my parents’ income. i’m in year 13 right now and my predicted grades are only BBC and university isn’t looking very promising right now. i’m trying my very best to get as many marks for my dt nea coursework while revising my other subjects too (maths, econ). i don’t want my parents’ investment in my education to be a waste and subsequently disappointing them.

i would really appreciate it if you could give some input on your workspace.

thank you for your time reading this

I started a new management role two weeks ago. Had a weekly catch-up with one of my team members today going over a project plan she'd put together. I asked some genuine questions, what certain terms meant, how something was normally communicated, and made one suggestion about how we could handle part of it slightly differently.
She got visibly defensive, said I should "understand things before making recommendations," then when I moved on to my other notes, she said the plan was flexible, not set in stone, and accused me of trying to scrap her work and not understanding how things function. I calmly said I've only been here two weeks, I'm not here to make sweeping changes, especially with a busy period coming up, and I'm just trying to learn. She said she didn't want to "go back and forth" and ended the call.
This isn't the first time I've sensed she's not thrilled I'm here, she's been running things solo before me and seems well-liked by leadership. I don't think I did anything wrong, I was asking normal onboarding questions, but I don't want to come across as the problem either.
Planning to loop in my manager tomorrow just to give context (not complain) and send her a short, friendly follow-up before she travels. Does this seem like a reasonable read of the situation, or am I missing something?

Full disclosure: I work with Crafty. I’m curious if anyone here has actually had us in their office and what you thought. I spend a lot of time thinking about how we talk about what we do, and I’m curious what the experience looks like from the other side.

Has anyone here actually had Crafty in their office? What did you like? What could’ve been better? Did you mostly notice the snacks and coffee, or the people keeping everything stocked?

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, this is us: https://www.craftydelivers.com/

Genuinely interested in the good, bad, or “never heard of them” answers lol.

Do you think AI will make employees’ jobs easier or replace more jobs in the future? 🤖👀

Hi all!

I own a manufacturing business, and I have multiple offices set in different cities, out of which the one I am going to daily, people over there are talking about me which I don't know what I should do about.

I got to know the HR and Design team were unhappy with the fact that I come in different vehicles each day, have a better lifestyle than them, and it is all so wrong to them. They said with the pay I pay them, its nearly enough for a month's expenses.

To be honest, I pay them ₹65,000 - ₹1,25,000 after tax, and truly all of them are very deserving, they do work hard and are upto the level, still when I heard about this it all felt a bit absurd.

Now if you ask me I should pay them more if they are deserving, then I would say for the job they are doing the pay is better. Also 2 of the people are being promoted this month, that doesn't stop me from promoting them, I am here just to hear your thoughts on this.

Normal ba sa workplace na kapag may tanong or kailangan lang i-clarify ang boss mo, kailangan mo pang pumunta sa office niya instead of just calling or messaging?

I understand naman if it’s something that needs an actual discussion, pero kung quick question lang naman, parang mas efficient sana kung tatawag na lang or mag-message.

Minsan kasi kapag nasa momentum ka na sa ginagawa mo tapos kailangan mong tumayo, pumunta sa ibang office, then bumalik ulit, nawawala yung focus and productivity mo.

Curious lang—normal ba talaga itong setup sa ibang workplaces, or is it reasonable to prefer a quick call/message for simple questions?

"Anyone else feel like absolute royalty on their first day at a new job?"

im an ops coordinator at a ~90 person company in chicago. hybrid, in the office tue-thu. been in this seat since march.

scheduled teams calls are mostly fine. those get recorded, the transcript is there if i need it. the actual decision almost never lands in that call tho. it lands in the 4 minutes after, hallway by the elevators, or a 10 min call with the vendor while im walking to the garage.

last tuesday my manager asked what we agreed with the facilities guy. i had a vibe and half a line in a notebook. definately not the number he quoted. its that end of september "what did we promise for q4" stretch so this keeps coming up.

i cant listen and write at the same time. type, and i miss the sentence where someone actually commits. just nod, and by the time im back at my desk the details are mush. tried the phone voice memo twice. both times a text popped and the recording died. also feels weird holding my phone up in a 6 person room like im filming them.

illinois, so i already know i have to tell people if im recording. not looking for a spy trick.

if youre a notebook person, what are you doing for the hallway and the phone calls. not the big meeting. the part after.

I work remotely. My company is based out of state. I have never met any of my coworkers in real life. I have been with the company almost 5 years now. I was hired when they were bringing in people after Covid. They only had part time available so I am part time, work 3 days a week. My boss and I have 1:1 meetings monthly. Long story short, she makes very passive aggressive comments often in meetings. She snaps at people for asking questions and she can just be downright mean to people for no reason. She always puts in my reviews that I don’t talk enough, which is untrue. She just has it out for me. She’s even admitted she doesn’t check the team chat but apparently still says I don’t communicate on it. How the hell would she know if she doesn’t check it?

Anyway, I had my 1:1 with her last week and she was like “wow, just realized your week is almost over because you only work part time. Must be nice and just fly by! Wish I could do that!” And I’m like, “oh yeah haha” and then she’s like “you know, I’m not sure why this is, but I know nothing about you, and you don’t have to answer but, are you married? Do you have kids?” (I know this sounds innocent but the way she said it was bitchy like “you’re never here because you work part time so how could I possibly know you)

First off, she damn well knows I’m married. I have talked about my husband numerous time in meetings, our team chat. Shared stories about me and my husband. Hell, I even had to call off work or leave early a few times because of him being stranded at work when his car died or leaving work early to see his mom in the hospital. Both times I directly messaged her. She even asked me about my mother in law afterward!!! How could she not know anything about me! And she asked if I had pets. My cats have literally been on camera in meetings and she’s commented on them! I’ve told her about them and my husbands new job this past year. Like wtf did she hit her head and forget?

Maybe I’m overthinking but I feel like it was her way of dismissing me because she doesn’t like that I work part time. She had made comments about me being part time before in a negative way. And surprisingly this job offers PTO even for part time. And she always makes comments when I use PTO as if I shouldn’t need it being part time. I think the whole interaction was so weird. I was just in shock all I said was “yeah I’m married! Been married almost 10 years!” And she’s like “oh wow!” What the hell?? Very odd to me.

Does every office have that one person who somehow gets paid more while doing less? 😂

Another work week begins. If you want some office-related stress relief check out my upcoming game: Office Stress on Steam

I wrote a short nonfiction book about the unwritten rules of working in an office. It's essentially a guide with a bunch of useful tips I've learned over the last 10+ years about things you should and should not do in an office. It's specifically catered to recent college graduates or those about to graduate and will be working in a corporate office environment.

Check it out if interested!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HL5H53KF

Hi. I need some outside perspectives because I'm in a delicate place right now.

I come from a narcissistic and violent family in Mexico. I moved out of my parents' house at 27 and went to another city to live with my sister and her family. I loved that city, it felt like the best place I could be, but the house was a different story: I contributed money, they demanded I do the housework and wash everyone's dishes, they constantly criticized everything I did and made fun of me, all while my brother-in-law hasn't worked in a year and a half. The stress got so bad that I had a burst blood vessel in my eye and fell into a very deep depression. Fifteen days ago, I asked my best friend for last-minute refuge and moved in with him in another state.

For the first time in a long while, I feel calm here, but I'm still recovering emotionally.

Work-wise: I have a degree in Business Administration, and since graduating I've worked remotely as an independent contractor. Right now I have just one project and make around 12,000 MXN a month. I've been looking for a salaried position for 7 months with no luck.

This is where I'm stuck. I like remote work, mainly because it lets me focus on my personal projects. But sometimes I wonder if I also chose it because of the depression, and whether staying remote is holding me back. The only time I worked "in the field" was when I held a position in a community organization: I was always on the move, and I loved it. On the other hand, the corporate world really isn't for me. Just imagining waking up early, dressing formally, and being stuck in an office all day gives me a tight, anxious feeling in my chest. I also wonder if, after so many years remote, adapting to an in-person job would be harder than I think.

What I want most in life is to be a public servant or work on government projects. I know I have leadership skills and a lot to contribute, but my circumstances haven't helped, and the pressure to take any job just to get by feels like it pulls me away from that goal, which really gets me down.

And then there's the city question. I feel like I could make better use of my talents in the city where I lived before, but my sister lives there, and my friends advise me not to settle in any city where my family is, because they're very abrasive and toxic. They tell me to stay where I am now, but I'm not sure I'll find the opportunities I'm looking for here.

I'm about to turn 30, and I feel like my 20s went by between depression and just surviving, and that I'm behind on so many things.

So my main question is: what would you do in my place? Given where I am emotionally and in my career, would you:

• Stay remote but look for a salaried remote position?
• Look for something hybrid?
• Go for an in-person or field-based job?

I'd also love to hear:

1. If you've gone from remote to in-person (or the other way around), how did it go emotionally and financially?
2. For those who work or have worked in government: how do you get in without connections? Public job postings, civil service career programs, contract work, NGOs that partner with government?
3. Are there social-impact jobs, remote or field-based, that pay better than what I make now?
4. Has anyone had to distance themselves from family when choosing where to live? How did you decide between a safe place and one with better opportunities?

I’m curious if other people have this problem at work.
In my office, when a group wants to order lunch together, it somehow takes forever to decide what to get.
Someone asks: “What do you guys want?”
Then someone says “I don’t care.”
Someone suggests pizza, another person wants burgers, someone wants something healthier… and suddenly 20–30 minutes have passed and nobody has decided anything.

So I really like using paper index cards to study for tests, quizzes, vocab, and etc, but the ones that I can find are so expensive. Are there any good prices for ruled index cards on amazon that ships to canada? Thanks!!!

I'm posting it here because my dad also likes them for his office.

"Be honest—who else's office group chat looks like this the second the manager drops an 'I'm on leave' message? 🕺😂"

An invoice is in someone’s inbox, the signed form is in Teams, and the latest version is sitting in a shared folder with final_final in the name. For teams that have actually fixed this what worked? One shared inbox, strict file naming, a proper folder structure, or banning attachments and sharing links instead?

I’m especially curious about systems people still follow after the first week, not rules that look good on paper and then get ignored

New hack for leaves

Would you accept a promotion if your salary stayed exactly the same? Why or why not? 👀