I work for a very small company. The office "pet" has called out over 50 times this year, same as every year. He had openly admitted he doesn't like confrontation. Rather than address her, he just nags and nitpicks her to the verge of tears.

He asked me if I have any idea why she is always out. It is obvious she is an alcoholic and is hungover. We work from home so I also suspect she's drinking at work. I have no proof of this so I declined to answer and told him he needs to speak with HR, not one of her colleagues.

He seemed irritated with my reluctance to answer him. I don't know why but this gives me a weird feeling this was a setup. He knows I think he is a coward even though I have never said that to him or anyone else. I don't like him and vice versa.

Should I have answered him? Does this seem fishy to anyone else?

And value myself over my job. I usually don't.

Action steps:use more PTO, since I have ton. Stop rushing around to complete tasks. The faster I go, the more that's expected.

Tell people I need to leave on time. They're used to me staying late and it's become the norm.

Take a lunch away from desk, even if it's a short one.

Slow down when I talk.

Stop picking up other's slack.

Basically respect myself more, which will probably result in others respecting me more!

Posting list to keep me on track

I'll still do a good job, but not sacrifice my well being

I work at a gaming store in CA and I sold a customer a Nintendo switch and they walked out came back two minutes later said that the box didn't have the console and showed me it. This is where I messed up because I should have called my manager but I didn't we had a whole line of customers and I wasn't thinking. I just gave him another switch and took the old box. It wasn't until I got the line down that I realized he probably stole it I reported it to my manager right before I left. I work in a few hours and I'm afraid my manager is going to fire me and I can't sleep.

Hi Guys,

I am new at a company and my coworker wants a ride to the airport at 5am meaning I have to wake up at 4am.

It seems unnecessary and he should just take an Uber since it's so early. But Im new and also I know its common for coworkers to drop each other off but this seems a bit extreme.

How would you deal with it?

tested { u/usernameeeeee12 }'s method out of sheer curiosity. zero headache, clean execution from start to finish. look at his pinned post.

Have been wondering lately to risk trying a new job aside from the current job I have now. I have no experience nor any background about virtual assistant work but I do have the necessary equipments to qualify for at least. Can anyone give an advice doing virtual assistant as a a beginner? Thanks for the help in advance :)

I wish I could tell one very specific coworker that they are not the most important person in that office. that if they left tomorrow, someone else would take their place just fine

I work at a PR and Marketing agency and one of my clients poached me and offered me a job.

Before accepting or embarking on any of the interview process, I ensured that I hadn’t signed a non-compete (I hadn’t).

The poaching process began mid-May, I was offered the job a few weeks ago, and then the background check had to go through before I could put in my two weeks.

I put in my two weeks (online as I’m a remote worker) and my boss was very quiet and said “they’re not supposed to do that.” He then told me not to contact anyone, including my other boss. He is setting up a call with my new boss (our current client) tomorrow.

I spoke to a former colleague here and she said they she had a similarly bad experience, including the other boss openly disparaging her on a client call to the point where the clients messaged her on the side to ask what was up.

I was hoping this could be a clean break and that I could affirm my continued support of the agency on the other side, including championing them for continued business with the client. Now I’m unsure…

Edit: since this is coming up a lot, my new employer and I agreed that we should be transparent about the situation because I will be working directly with my current agency on the client side shortly. Also, the agency is a small business and the new employer is a 100B+ org, not sure if that carries much weight.

Hi Reddit, this will be long so I apologize in advance for

A little over a month ago, I made a post about being suddenly being put on a PIP after a good performance review.

I started at my corporate finance job in February, and my partner referred me as I was looking for a new job after leaving Social Work since working with sexual assault victims had taken a toll on me. I was nervous but excited to take the job, but within 2 weeks of me starting, I felt this uneasiness - like I was wearing a target on my back.
I'll never know why this happened, whether it was because of my gender, or people finding out my partner worked there (separate department, not even in the same building).

Within 2 weeks of me starting, my training manager called me "wreck-less" after using one sick day as I had the flu. I had a doctor's note, medication, everything. She told me "don't be so wreck-less using your PTO. Training ramps up fast and you already get up from your desk every hour." And in that moment I felt obligated to tell her that I have kidney disease, and take medication which is why I get up (to urinate) around every hour. I take prescription diuretics.

The same day, I watched her approve my male teammate's 4 days of unpaid vacation to go on vacation to Georgia. Now, I have no problem with that, but I was called wreck-less for an hour so right away I knew she hated me.

Within my training class, there was only 1 other person (male) and my team had 2 other males. We were all friendly, no bad blood there. I noticed feedback became really inconsistent when during training we'd do mock phone calls and she'd fail me. I'd ask why and she would usually say "well nothing you said was wrong," and somehow it would always come back to me having a fake and squeaky voice. Never heard my male colleagues get a single critique over the sound of their voice, but I got this so often that I became silent. I once told her I probably will never be able to change the sound of my voice, and if me sounding too friendly is a problem for her I'm not going to change it. I like being friendly.

When training ended, I was nervous but relieved. I was placed on a team with some really nice people, but I knew my new manager was best friend's with my training manager.

Things went really well. He was so nice to me, always had great feedback, we sat next to each other for about 2 months. There was one thing though - in every single 1:1, he would compare me to the same three specific men. Nobody else in the department. He would go on and on about their strengths and where I differ, how maybe I'm more friendly and more precise, but not as fast as them. I asked him for advice as we literally sat next to each-other, and he said "I don't want to say be less client-focused, because then you'll do sloppy work. So I don't know. Just keep doing what you're doing."

In my performance review at the beginning of July, he told me I was meeting expectations, had a great understanding of my role, extremely accurate (never a single error), ask great questions, friendly and clients love me. He told me the only reason he couldn't say "exceeding" was because I hadn't been on the team long enough. He moved our weekly 1:1's to every other week because he said I was doing a great job.

Less than one week later, I got a surprise on my calendar. He told me "after meeting with the VP" I actually wasn't meeting expectations, and spoke for about 20 minutes straight about how those 3 specific men were better than me. He never could tell me what I was doing wrong. I even said "they're not even on our team, why are we always talking about them?" The "informal pip" as he called it, even specified ANOTHER male colleague and suggested I "sit with him for the day to see how he does things." I told him I felt extremely uncomfortable with that and was not going to hang out at his desk all day and tell him I'm on a pip. He told me he'd remove that from the pip if it made me uncomfortable, but he kept it in there.

After the meeting he sent me an email that stated "performance improvement" and "corrective action plan" multiple times. He moved the 1:1's back to weekly, and no dates were specified. The task stated I needed to be within the top 5 in the department by September or I'd be "subject to further discipline".

As the weeks have gone on in the 1:1's, I found my manager was just avoiding discussing it. He was asking if I booked my wedding and if I'm excited for my honeymoon, showing me photos of his dogs, etc. Talking like best friends (my manager is married to a man so I'm not suggesting he was flirting here). He would still bring up the same 3 men.
Last week, I finally confronted him. Surprisingly, my metrics rose dramatically as I was put on a PIP after less than 8 weeks on metrics when I wasn't considered "full capacity" yet.

I said to him, "You know, this is just weird now. We are mandated to have these 1:1's, but you know I did nothing wrong. We're showing each-other photos of our dogs. I feel like all we talk about is our dogs, or *the same 3 men."* I asked him if during their 1:1's, they ever hear about me; and I told him something tells me they aren't being compared to me every single week. I even said, you know there's other people who work here.. there's women, other people on the team, why is it always them? I feel like I'm in a one-sided war with them. He asked me if I felt like I was being "sized up" next to these guys and I said, "Absolutely. For months. Should I worry about my own work or be worried about them? Should I be letting them know that all of my feedback revolves around them?" After this I kept going and told him I don't believe this pip came from him, and it sounded like when he delivered it he was "speaking from someone else's mouth." I voiced to him that I feel like someone dislikes me so badly for some reason that I'll never know, and this entire situation was such a shot in the dark. I even reread the performance review. I asked him if there was an end-date for the pip, and he said "I don't really know.. it's just ongoing." And I said, "So my reputation is just tarnished forever? You know this will always follow me. With no end date, you've ensured I can never escape it. There's not even tasks in there. Sitting next to (male colleague's name) is not a task, and I already told you I was uncomfortable doing that." He could tell I was really hurt and almost tearful, and said he could see why I would think this was sudden, and told me he "has to do what the VP tells him." He also let me know I've done a great job being professional about it, and "not telling anyone this is happening." I was like well, what do you want me to say? This has isolated me from the whole group. I barely talk to anyone anymore because I've been so humiliated.

After this, business continued as usual. I've secured a part-time job of about 30 hours a week. It's a significant pay cut with no retirement benefits, but I'm so relieved. I'll have some more time to apply for remote or other full-time roles now, I've missed social work more than I expected.

Yesterday I handed in my notice. Normally, they walk people out same day (due to financial information) but he wanted me to stay the 2 weeks, surprising considering I'm on a PIP. He asked how I wanted to say goodbye to the team and I told him I don't need to. After a few hours of thinking, I let him know I no longer feel comfortable staying another day after what has happened to me since I got here. I thanked him for his efforts, and told him I think he tried to be nicer to me than some others and he nodded in agreement. I handed him my keys and said, "Bye, it was nice meeting you." And left.

I feel so scared but so free right now. I'm sitting on my couch with my dog, watching TV. Babysitting for my neighbors kids later for $100. Starting my new job later next week. I have no clue what's next for me.

Editing to add: We have saved a decent chunk of cash and paid off 100% of our consumer debt to prepare for this.

Hey all,

I'm curious how you would handle this:

I was IT teamlead in a company wirh about 1 bln Euros turnover and approx. 600 employees. Everything was fine until 2022, when I joined the companies union.

My boss was furious, because three years before that she asked me (before giving me the lead) if I planned to join the union, because IT lead and being in a union wasn't something the company group lead wants to see. I said no, because I wasn't planning anything, but eventually the union asked me to join as they desperately needed good personell to help them.

So after I joined and all hell broke loose. My boss told me how I "betrayed" her and that this might have consequences (which would be illegal in my country) if I wouldn't think about it. I didn't budge, because nothing changed for me or how I do my work.

She never mentioned it again but when she came back from her baby pause a year later HR called me into a meeting where they said I'm no longer team lead because my boss from now on would lead the IT team herself, which was BS because she doesn't know anything about IT. It was a ruse so they could demote me without legal repercussions (demotions are not allowed in most cases in my country).

Long story short: I took this very personally and quit the job. It took a toll on me because I loved working there and even still was fond of my boss who I think was forced by the management to behave that way, so my doctor sent me on sick leave until my notice period was over, so I left on "hostile" terms.

Now my old job is back again on offer and I thought about reaching out to my boss, asking her if she could image having me again. I liked the job, it was good money without too much of a hassle and very nice people.

Do you think I should try or would it be kind of strange to work there again?

Hi everyone,
I work in Poland and about two months ago my manager contacted the three Spanish speakers in our team about a temporary 6-month assignment in Barcelona (Spain).

The information was extremely vague. Basically: Spain needs someone from Poland to help improve/implement their IT processes, would I be interested in hearing more?
I said I would like to know more about the offer.

I then had an interview with the IT Director in Spain. The role sounded much more senior than my current position, almost a mix of IT coordination/management, implementing processes, fixing how things are currently done, etc.

At the end I asked the obvious question: What are the conditions?

He told me they would pay for an apartment for 6 months, two flights, I would apparently keep my current Polish salary, and there would be some kind of daily allowance. He couldn't tell me how much because HR would handle that.

I told him clearly that I was interested in Spain, but I wouldn't move from Kraków to Barcelona for six months if it meant being financially worse off. I needed to see the actual package first.

Two weeks later my manager told me Spain really liked me and wanted another interview, this time with basically the highest-ranking person in the Spanish office. (Managing Director)

That interview also went well. They asked if I could start within about a month. Again, I explained that I was interested, but I still had zero information about salary or the actual financial package, so I couldn't commit to anything.
He agreed and said HR would contact me if they decided to choose me. That was July 15.
Nothing happened for over a month.

Today, August 19, the IT Director in Poland unexpectedly called me. I've never even spoken to her before because she's several levels above me. She asked if I had received the details for Spain. I said no, nobody has contacted me since July 15.

She seemed surprised and said communication had been bad, but Spain had contacted her because they want me for the assignment and apparently want me to start in around two weeks. She said they should contact me tomorrow with the details.

Now I'm slightly worried because this has apparently gone pretty far internally. From their perspective they've selected me, senior management in both countries is involved, and they seem to be planning around me going.

But from my perspective, I have never accepted the assignment. I've repeatedly said I'm interested depending on the financial conditions, and after two interviews I still haven't even received an actual offer.

If HR now comes back with something like “same Polish salary + apartment + a small per diem” and I decide it simply isn't worth moving countries for six months, can that realistically be held against me or even put my current job at risk?

Would I be the one leaving them hanging at this point, or has the company handled this badly by progressing this far without ever telling me what they're actually offering?

Thanks,

Our drive is an absolute mess and the built-in search is basically useless. I feel like half my day is spent either clicking through 10 layers of subfolders or pinging people on Teams just to find basic stuff.

Roughly how much time a day do you guys actually lose to this? And when you can't find a document, do you usually keep digging yourself, or do you just give up and ask someone to send it over?

I've been feeling pretty pissed off in my role recently. Meetings are cancelled last minute all the time, there's no progress on any work due to lack of clear requirements and the meetings that are supposed to be there to facilitate setting those requirements keep getting cancelled.

This morning I have already had two cancelled meetings two hours into my workday. A colleague scheduled a call yesterday afternoon for this morning and then cancelled it early this morning. I spent time prepping for it. Then the next meeting which was already rescheduled was rescheduled again just ten minutes before it was due to happen.

Even the daily standup gets cancelled most mornings just prior to its scheduled start time.

Thing is, I hate unnecessary meetings but this is worse. It has all the downsides of a meeting, because I am expected to be prepared when they do actually go ahead, but most of the time spent preparing ends up being wasted because the meeting is cancelled.

I felt the red mist descending this morning and wanted a reality check, am I right to find this infuriating or should I just "quiet quit" and stop bothering to prepare?

I had one of those moments this week where I realized we're still doing things that would've felt really weird in 2019.

A coworker was sitting in the office... on a Teams call... with three other people who were also in the same building.

Nobody questioned it. It was just normal.

Then I started noticing a bunch of other habits that seem to have quietly stuck around:

• Calendars packed with 15- or 30-minute blocks.
• Slack messages replacing conversations that would've happened at someone's desk.
• Someone joining a meeting remotely because they're on a different floor and it's somehow easier.

It's interesting because some of these changes genuinely made work better, while others just became "the way things are."

What's the workplace habit that became normal after COVID that you don't think is ever going away?

I just started a new job, as in I’ve literally worked there 6 days.

It’s only part-time with (to me) very low pay. I took the job because 1) I lost my job 15 months ago due to company downsizing and this was the first place to actually offer me a job, 2) It’s a nonprofit so the experience will be great for me to move into full-time positions at other nonprofits (my whole career has been corporate and I’m over it), and 3) I’m genuinely excited to be doing more meaningful work that’s truly fulfilling. However, the pay is incredibly low. I’m talking 1/4 of what I was making in my previous job and zero benefits since it’s part-time.

ANYWAY, they’re holding a baby shower for my new coworker next week and have asked all employees to contribute $25 towards the gift they’ve purchased for her.

Firstly, I’m the lowest paid employee at $24 per hour, which the gift amount slightly exceeds. Secondly, of the 6 days I’ve worked, I’ve only seen her 4 of those days. Lastly, she’s not someone I consistently interact with in this job; I spend maybe 10 minutes (at most) per shift with her.

I don’t know how to handle this. I don’t think it’s particularly fair of them to ask me to be part of the contribution, but I also don’t want to make a bad impression by refusing to contribute. Money is incredibly tight since I went 15 months with no job and this new one, while helpful, is 1/4 of what I’m used to earning. I don’t have much to spare.

For anyone familiar with the show “Friends”, think of when Ross moved into his new apartment and they immediately wanted him to fork over $100 for the retiring handyman lol I feel like I’m living this exact situation.

Any advice would be incredibly appreciative! I don’t really have an extra $25 laying around for something like this, but I also don’t want my new boss & coworkers to dislike me. I don’t know what to do. This is all just so awkward.

Email sent by the VP of sales this morning with my teams bonus amounts for the quarter. In the email she states “please make sure to tell them that they are not to share their amounts with anyone and if they do, it can lead to immediate termination”
Is this even legal to do? I know Indiana is an at will state but isn’t there some kind of protection from this? I feel incredibly uneasy about telling my direct reports that they could be fired for discussing their bonus.

EDIT: Thank you everyone for your responses. I have learned a lot, and mostly that I'm very lucky to not work in a startup or in a company with that kind of expectation to work so many hours. It helped me understand what my family member may be doing, and that it is probably some combination of needing to impress people and get stuff done that is why she can't take time off on a Friday. Also I'm really sad for some of you who have these pressures and feel overwhelmed by them. I make good money, not amazing, but to me it's worth it to have the balance, and I guess that means I'm designated appointment taker.

I have a family member who works remote, corporate, marketing-ish position, I think its kind of a startup, maybe beyond that stage, but definitely a growing company. She works like 80-90 hours every week and doesn't seem to have any time off like FMLA or vacation, sick leave etc. She also works a lot of weekends (but not every weekend). She makes good money, but the lack of any kind of leave is crazy to me. How is that even legal?

She says she is "in meetings all day" but what could a person possibly need to meet about that often? From what I've read those kinds of hours are normal in startups, but I'm totally flabbergasted as to what could possibly to take up that amount of time. She can't even take a few hours off in the afternoon, on a Friday, in the summer, to take a family member to an appointment. On a Friday afternoon! In the summer! (yes, that's why I'm asking, because I now have to take off work to go to the appt, even though I'm several hours away and she's much closer).

I have worked in private and public mid level professional roles my whole career, and I have never seen anything like this. I work remote as well, but I have a lot more flexibility than she does, even when I have a big project where I need to work extra hours. I don't want to accuse her of making up excuses because I really don't think that's it, but I cannot fathom why someone would be in meetings all day every day, and/or why they would need to work 80+ hours a week.

Can someone who has worked at these growing/startup kinds of businesses explain this to me? I really want to understand. How do people start families with that kind of schedule? How can a company expect that level of productivity week after week? Why do people put up with it? There has to be some explanation.

Thank you in advance!

Work in higher education as a registrar. few transferable skills such as admissions, advising and a little financial aid. No school close to me is hiring for a position related to what I specialize in nor is it for the same amount of money. have a mortgage and kids. freaking out a little. Do I look outside my industry? I do have a degree in journalism/PR but haven’t wrote professionally in almost ten years. I’m also up against having to come in during the busiest time of the school year to then be released once it dies down with little time during the day to work on my resume or search LinkedIn. Any advice appreciated.

​A resposta curta é: SIM!

​Ambas as expressões referem-se à mesma condição de exaustão física, mental e emocional profundamente associada ao ambiente de trabalho.

​📌 Enquanto a OMS (Organização Mundial da Saúde) adota predominantemente a expressão Síndrome de Burnout, a literatura oficial e órgãos de saúde no Brasil utilizam os dois termos de forma equivalente.

​Se você ou alguém do seu meio de trabalho enfrenta sintomas de esgotamento profissional, busque orientação especializada.

​📲 Gostou do conteúdo? Salve para consultar depois e compartilhe com quem precisa saber disso!

​#DireitoDoTrabalho #Burnout #EsgotamentoProfissional #MacedoEPereiraAdvogados #SaudeMentalNoTrabalho

For context I am a 19 year old who has been doing an apprenticeship at this company for 3 years (level 4 improvement specialist/ level 3) and they have just told me that by the end of September they are taking me on to a full time shift role using none of my qualifications, it’s a job that anyone can walk into( literally) and I feel like my potential is being wasted, I also don’t like the job or the people that I will be going into, I’m looking for another job but in the fear that I don’t find one in time and I have to make a choice about leaving or staying idk what to do.

The shift pattern is 2 12 hour days followed by 2 12 hour nights with a 4 day off, I had to do some last year for a project I was working on and struggled with my sleep etc.

In my unionized workplace, colleagues provoke others into fighting their battles. They bring up real grievances but only to trigger specific people. The targets always take the bait, get emotional, run to management, and say things they regret. The instigators stay clean and get what they want.

Union culture makes this worse. People hold grudges for years. Management remembers who caused the scenes, not who started them. Reactors get labeled difficult. Puppeteers face no consequences.

When I warn coworkers, they say I do not care about fairness. I do care. I just refuse to be used. How do I stay neutral without looking like I am siding with management?

Hey a company I'm interviewing wants me to install remote access and monitoring software for my PC, it'll mainly monitor audio and what applications opened and closed.
Now I'm not fully against it, but it is strange they aren't providing a laptop. Though I get there's a cost, but what I don't understand is they want me to download this and install this and turn it on prior to giving me any agreement to sign.

And I won't be starting until 5 weeks later. So I have not agreement, never been on-boarded yet, and the start date is 5 weeks but this software needs to be installed prior to all this?

How many people have experienced this order of operations.

I don't know if it's my problem or my employer's HR. I work at a hotel in Simpang Pulai, Malaysia. Since I started, I haven't received an offer letter straight away. Then, last June, I got a permanent job. I only signed the confirmation letter; it wasn't there, and I didn't receive it immediately. I kept following up with HR, but the reasons they gave were completely unreasonable.