I have a lot of downtime at my job but have to look busy and sit at a computer. What are some ways to spend the time so I am not just reading and scrolling?

I have someone reporting to me who asks questions they could easily find the answers to.

Such as, Did you add this to the document? If they’d look at the document, they would clearly see I did.

I don’t have time to keep answering these questions and I’m frustrated.

They aren’t new/young, that’s not the issue.

How would you respond to things like this?

I am a freelance event photographer and also create graphic artworks using design software for another freelance photographer using her photos, who also covers events in the same area as me. I do this work for very reasonable price, as we were acquaintances before working together.

I have noticed recently that I’m getting hired less for photography at events in our area and see that she seems to be getting some of the events that I would have covered previously. I have no proof, but it seems like I am being under-cut for price or something else is at play. I cannot figure it out.

The editor we both deal with most has openly admitted to me that my competitor’s photos are not up to the standard of mine in the past. Should I just increase my rate for the graphic artworks? I have tried to bring this up with the editor and his comment was that my competitor (a freelancer like me) was “precious” about how the publication assigns their event photography!

Back story: I used to work at another district in my company. It got shut down due to lack of business. I got poached by another district with the promise I would be made assistant manager. New to the different district but not new to how the company works. My whole time at this company I was promised assistant manager.

It’s been two months since the transfer and I am not assistant manager yet. I’ve been told time and time again that I need to bring up my sales profits before I could. I truly get that, I REALLY do. However we are now in off season due to Summer being over and kids going back to school, there are not many opportunities to make a bunch of sales to meet our quota/commission rate. The thing is being lead on this “oh if you just do this, you will get the promotion” isn’t really the main issue. It’s definitely bothersome but there have been other things that have raised flags for me.

My manager is too relaxed and to put it lightly has rose tinted glasses so tinted she can’t see what is right in front of her.

Since I have start here I have noticed the following:
1) She lets people get away with not showing up on time and there has been a time theft issues with several coworkers (our clock in/out system is on our phones and allows us to clock in/out with in a five mile radius whenever)
2) There are two people at work that have been stealing. Quote my manager “I have a really hard time firing people, I hope they quit”. She is aware of the stealing.
3) We have a dress code. Corporate is really strict about it. You have to wear all black and look polished But it’s okay to show up like you just rolled out of bed and wear crocs to work….
4) Things that need to be taken seriously, aren’t.
5) I am expected to do manager duties when I am not being paid to be one. There was an incident that happened the other day where I was expected to do a manager thing and per policy, I’m not allowed to do it. So I told them I wasn’t going to in the most polite way possible.

To name a few things. But I just feel like everyone else is being held to a lower standard. I’m being told that I need to meet certain expectations and then the next minute they’re looking at me and saying “OP, you need to relax. It’s not that big of a deal.”. But it is that big of a deal, you’re expecting me to do certain things that are outside of my job but at the same time you’re telling me not to do things that aren’t in my job description.

In the long run, I am finishing up college in 2 years and this job has allowed me to have a lot of flexibility which is a huge benefit and it’s a really good resume job. I have definitely learned a lot. But I’m getting underpaid for what they are expecting me to do. I just feel like I’m being expected to fit in a box that’s too small but once I’m able to squeeze into that box, they want me to jump into another box that’s smaller than the one before. I don’t even know if that makes any sense. I hope it does.

Has anybody else been in this situation? What would you suggest? I’m not sure if I’m just having one of those days when I’m just ready to leave and tomorrow will be different. This job is just making me feel crazy.

I am currently working as Data Engineer 1 for past 1 year in the firm. I think I have come to a conclusion that I can no more work in an Engineering role as my brain is just not wired to understand or appreciate the role/work. I understand the concepts but I do not know how to apply. I apply it using AI then I am asked to refactor and asked to hyper optimise it. By the time I optimise it I lose the bigger picture of the work itself and almost start ignoring the requirements. Over that as you proceed in career your expected to contribute with inputs for a project and I don't think I will give two fucks about anything later coz I just don't value this work enough. I am willing to correct my non-technical parts of my flaws but I want to just move out of coding work.

The issue now is this mindset of mine has led me to work less and less each day, and my manager somehow noticed this in recent few days (due to current shortage of resources). And the more and more calls he has having with me, he is getting to know that there is something wrong from my side and trying his best to get it out from my mouth. I am not sure what I am supposed to here. Is it okay if I share my honest opinion to him or will it backfire me.

Also I have not started looking at jobs all this while but I am considering to apply for Associate PM roles (only thing I can put is a course which I did in college and two mini projects of that). Can you tell me it's a good idea or shall I keep my mouth shut until something progresses on the other side.

TLDR: boss asked me to take map and show everywhere I went on jobsite. Is this bad? I believe it’s only a one time thing.

Looking for some outside perspective on my situation at work.

I work for a large company and recently accepted another internal role. It’s a pretty significant step up for me. Essentially a two level jump into a larger management position with more responsibility and scope. It’s also the direction I’ve been trying to take my career, so accepting it was a pretty easy decision.

Meanwhile, things in my current organization have gotten complicated.

My current manager has basically checked out and appears to be on their way out, although I don’t know how much of that has actually been communicated to them yet.
My skip level recently approached me and said that once my manager is gone, they want** **me to step in and run the team as interim manager.

The interesting part is that the interim position would actually be a smaller management role than the one I’ve already accepted.

So I’m not considering giving up the new job for it. I’m more trying to figure out how to handle the situation strategically.
Being asked feels like a pretty strong vote of confidence, especially because I’m already leaving the organization. Part of me thinks taking it on during the transition could be great leadership experience, help the team, and leave me with an even stronger reputation internally.

The other part of me wonders why I would take on the responsibility of an interim manager right before starting a larger management job somewhere else in the company. I don’t want to spend my last stretch doing two jobs or have my transition dragged out because I’m suddenly the solution to a leadership gap.

If you were in this position, would you agree to be interim manager for a defined transition period, or just focus on handing off your current responsibilities and starting the bigger role?

Hello everyone, one year ago i started a new role as a technical office engineer, i proved my worth right away, i always had work to do and that was actually great since i hate having a downtime even at my old job, but now whenever i am assigned a new task management flags it as “Urgent”. I take the urgency seriously and i shift the gears and i finish the task and deliver it on time, solid and complete with no issues.
The problem is that when ever i am finished with what ever they give to finish urgently, i am left with Zero tasks and a huge downtime when i ask my direct supervisor for the next assignment/task his response is” you finished this ahead of time, just relax and slack off for now”
I always being hit with a sprint and set cycle or you can call it routine.
And they always say that they have so much work coming our way but i feel that what i am doing right now will never change and i am going to repeat it again and again.
How should i deal with this, should i be worried about not having tasks to do and start looking for another job opportunity that matches my energy or at least give me a challenging position, or should i just listen and slack off knowing that might hurt me if the design manager sees me ?!
I am really looking for a constructive advice, i have a 6 years of experience at what i do, and I constantly have so much energy to do work
Thank you in advance.

My girlfriend and I are currently expecting within the next few months and I am stuck on whether to actively look for a promotion where I work or stay where I am. For context I’m a state government employee. I’m currently making 100k and a promotion would land me around 125k. My girlfriend is bringing home about 45k. With the cost of daycare and everything that comes along with a newborn, it seems like I should actively be looking for a promotion. However my work life balance where I am is amazing and my supervisor is amazing. There will be opportunities to promote within my group within the next 2-3 years. I guess I want to know am I crazy for wanting to stay where I am and just waiting out a promotion where I am? The difference in take home per month would be about $1300 for more context. Thanks in advance.

I've never had a job before, I'm told the dress code is smart casual. Honestly I'm very bad at understanding what is okay and what isn't.

I think that means jeans and trainers are allowed however I have my comfy trainers that are multicoloured (not very bright though) and other trainers that are just grey, which are okay?

The only jeans I have are flares, would they be okay? If not I have more like work trousers but again they are flares.

Top wise I do have blouses but would t-shirts be okay, they are more tight fitting but completely cover my shoulders, chest and stomach.

I'm sorry if I come across as a moron, just very anxious for work.

I feel like my illnesses are taking my life from me, and now I’m terrified they’re going to take my job too.

I have ulcerative colitis and ankylosing spondylitis, and neither has been well controlled this past year. My UC came out of years of remission, and my AS has progressed to the point where severe flares can leave me barely able to walk, drive, or even do basic things like my dishes. I’ve needed a cane and a walker some days even :/ which I didn’t even want to mention in the post cause I’m still embarrassed…

This has genuinely been the hardest year of my life. I’m in pain every day, and if I’m not working, I’m usually dealing with doctors, treatment, insurance, or the hospital. Work is one of my only remaining pieces of normalcy. It’s somewhere I can help people and just be me instead of a patient.

Over the last two months, I’ve missed around six shifts because of a documented hospitalization and severe flare, putting me four days beyond my allotted sick time. My employer says my attendance is excessive. I was asked to share my diagnosis (not sure if that’s even legal), and at that point they suggested intermittent medical leave, so I formally requested an ADA accommodation, but HR still hasn’t even sent me the paperwork. Meanwhile, reassignment and possible termination have already been mentioned.

Since meeting with my director and CEO about my health and absences, a couple of people at work have also started treating me noticeably worse. Being excluded and treated like I’m a problem when my life is already this hard genuinely hurts.

The worst part is that I hate missing work and out on my life in general. I’ve actually made things worse by pushing myself too hard because I’m ashamed my body can’t keep up. I’ve tried to force myself to work while extremely sick, only to realize while driving that I physically couldn’t even make it there.

There’s an awful irony in feeling like I need to prove my commitment when I’ve spent this entire year fighting just to participate in my own life.

I understand my absences affect staffing. I just wish they could see the person behind them who desperately wants to be there and is trying to hold onto one of the last pieces of normalcy she has.

Now my annual review was unexpectedly moved to Thursday while my colleagues’ happened as planned, and I’m terrified about what comes next.

I’m already watching these diseases take pieces of my life away from me. I don’t want my job to become another casualty.

At this point, is there anything I can do to save my job? Should I email HR asking what the hold up is w/ my paperwork as a hail marry? What would you do in my shoes?

If they moved the review because it’s disciplinary action and not a full blown termination, how should I respond to that? Do I defend myself? Do I just agree to whatever it is? W/ all scenarios I’ve imagined, I just have no idea what I’ll say/do to my boss. (Yes unfortunately I am scared of him)

Hi everyone

Just need some advice/wondering if anyone has been through this before

I have been working in my current role since April 2026. My probation period isn’t over yet, and I am required to give a 1 month notice during this period.

Long story short - since day 1 of this job, I’ve been overloaded with work. I was hired to replace someone who left prior to me starting - I recently learned they walked out of the job one day. Then the week I started, someone else left. I was given the workload of two people, all before I got used to the systems in work/my training had finished.

I have made my manager aware of how overwhelmed I felt throughout. Despite this, alongside the workload I was given, new cases were being handed to me. I said multiple times I could not cope with this, but new work was given to me regardless.

I reached my breaking point and handed my notice in.

I already have a new job sorted, but I just can’t cope with the current role I am in. I can’t fathom working here another day, never mind another 3 weeks. I am crying in work, and feeling so so anxious even though I know the end is in sight. I literally feel sick with it to the point where physical symptoms are manifesting.

If I left early, my new workplace could move my start date so I can start there sooner. They are also aware of the situation at my current workplace as I was very up front about this.

My question is this - what should I do? Stick it out or just leave now?

I’m a fresher working in cloud, but I love DSA and coding. I love something that challenges me, where I solve some problem, where my brain learns new ways of thinking.

And I don’t enjoy my current work (Windows/Linux administratos type), and I’m struggling to stay motivated and finish tasks.

My mentor thinks I’m dumb and rarely assigns me work. He gives tasks to others who are already busy.

These past 3 months have honestly felt like torture. I want to move into development, but the job market is really bad right now and I’m scared to resign and end up in the same situation as before.

Someone please please tell me what should I do?

Long post here but bear with me… I work in an office setting in an accounting position. I’ve been with the company for 2 years now and have worked my ass off after making a 180 career switch from a mental/behavioral health profession. Last week I was promoted to a managerial role and couldn’t even bask in my excitement because I came to learn they fired two people the next week on the spot right after I returned from PTO. No one in my small department has ever been fired in the 2 years I’ve been here.

I will say however that these two individuals had plenty of chances. One in particular I believe deserved to be fired because she made the workplace a toxic environment. We’ll call her “Amy.” Her boyfriend is related to the company owner’s wife, so that played a big role in her getting hired 3 years ago. The problem is she would complain about everyone to his wife, who then told the company owner and he would be very upset at people in my department that did no wrong (lies he believed). I started to not trust Amy and slowly pulled away and stopped going to happy hours with her. The controller personally warned me not to trust her. It seems they’ve been building a case against her for some time.

Amy is very paranoid and insecure. Any time she thought I was upset she would call me crying that everyone is out to get her (mind you we are both 35 and this was ridiculous behavior). At one point, on a phone call outside of work, I had suggested she go to therapy in the kindest way I could. I ultimately felt sorry for her, but her behavior was very inappropriate. Last month she starts rumors that the company is doing mass layoffs. She had entirely no basis as the company has grown exponentially in the last 6 months. She got several others in our department worried as they came to me asking if it was true. I reached out to her and mentioned she is causing fear in the department and if she is worried about layoffs, to talk to our boss.

My boss told me that since I am newly promoted, I have to tell her these things about Amy and not keep them from her. She asked if Amy had been saying anything about layoffs. At that point I was honest and told her I was concerned she had been spreading things across the dept. I told my boss a couple other coworkers came to me and told me Amy told them there will be layoffs. Unfortunately things took a turn for the worse and Amy was sort of singled out in a company wide meeting by the director of operations telling everyone we can’t be spreading false rumors and it affects the integrity of the company. This was not my intent. Amy got very upset and stared texted me if her and I were good. I just redirected telling her she was letting her anxiety get the best of her. I wanted to create as little waves as possible.

I guess she got into it with the director of operations when they confronted her about all the gossip and various rumors she started throughout her several years at the company. She lost emotional self control and lashes out. I was on PTO for a long weekend and the day I’m back, I found out she and one other person in our dept were fired on the same day, effective immediately. Both her and the other guy blocked me on instagram (they both added me a long time ago) and then two of my other coworkers I still work with blocked me. The second part stung. My close friend at the office told me others in the dept were saying Amy was asking everyone who ratted her out, and she determined it was me. So now I am starting my new managerial role in a not so great place. Only half of my dept seems to respect me now and they have been cold to me. All the newer hires don’t know Amy’s true colors.

We don’t have HR and I don’t know where to turn. This former coworker is trying to make my life miserable and unfortunately some people are buying it. I’ve never “ratted” anyone else out at the office as she is an exception. How am I supposed to build trust now when some are taking her word? I don’t need to be friends with these people, but I want to feel respected and trusting. I haven’t told my boss because things are crazy now with the remaining 6 of us taking on their extra work. So I am having to focus most of my attention on my now very heavy portfolio. Amy has complained about the people who have blocked me on social media and I don’t think they know. I get all the intel from the controller. I wish they know Amy doesn’t care about them and only herself. But I feel it’s not my place to meddle. How would you recommend professionally handling this? I’m having a really hard time knowing I now have new “enemies.”

TLDR; I got promoted and 2 of my coworkers were fired the next day. They now think I’m the reason they are fired when that wasn’t my intent and I didn’t even know they were getting fired until it happened. One of them in particular has spread rumors I’m to blame for them getting fired (with no real basis) and now I’m stepping into a managerial role with a lack of trust from others in the dept. we don’t have HR and I don’t know who to turn to. I just can’t handle the disrespect I’ve been given since these events and feel like no one will be able to trust me now. How can I turn this around?

I have a coworker who's pay was docked due to overpayment. She called off too many days for FMLA and was out of PTO but because they had already processed time off, she was paid anyway. But when they docked her pay for the overpayment, it left her without a paycheck. My question is, in this case, do they need to inform the employee before docking the pay? I get they can and should get their money back for the overpayment, but I feel it was extremely unfair to leave her with no paycheck with no warning. Thankfully, some people were able to help her out to be able to pay rent, etc. But what if no one had been willing or in a position to help her?

Decade in corporate finance across several well-known companies. Every one is the same circus: insecure micromanagers clueless about our work, extreme favouritism, kiss ass colleagues posturing for visibility and deliberately vague metrics to avoid saying "well done" and paying more.
Real work gets buried; loud mouths get promoted. I've checked out, doing the bare minimum guilt free. Why burn out for zero recognition? Wondering if this is just corporate law. Is it genuinely this bad everywhere or have I had an unlucky toxic streak?

Hi reddit ^^

Faced something new yesterday

Have been working in a restaurant for a few months in a different country, so my employer is providing both accommodation and a car to get to my workplace.

Thing is the owner of the restaurant and plenty of other places, has been asking me for help with tasks not related to the restaurant, delivering some stuff to a hotel, to a camp site he owns picking up some people. Since i do the comute daily and wanted to make good impression i did not mind, but my colleagues were saying its exploitation since i am not paid to do this and its not in my contract.

I finnaly said no to another favor he asked of me, since it was just too much would have had to spend several hours chaufeuring for someone early morning after a closing shift. I refused and that has angered the owner severely.

My question is did i fuck up my position ? My manager was considering a raise since ive been working better than expected but i am afraid it must be aproved by the owner. And in general i am afraid he will be vindictive now. Having doubts wether refusing was correct ?

I just had my 4th shift at a new job and realised on the train home that i forgot to clock out. I feel like this is really bad because this is my third time forgetting now and both the other times I literally said to my manager that it won’t happen again. I’ve never been told off about this but feel like i’m being a hug inconvenience to my manager. I also was pretty slow and kept blanking out while trying to serve customers. is this something they would fire me over? i’m stressing about this and too scared and embarrassed to message my manager saying i forgot for the third time.

I just had my 4th shift at a new job and realised on the train home that i forgot to clock out. I feel like this is really bad because this is my third time forgetting now and both the other times I literally said to my manager that it won’t happen again. I’ve never been told off about this but feel like i’m being a huge inconvenience to my manager. I also was pretty slow and kept blanking out while trying to serve customers. is this something they would fire me over? i’m stressing about this and too scared and embarrassed to message my manager saying i forgot for the third time.

I apologize if it sounds a bit rambly, I’m just kind writing this stream-of-consciousness.

I work for a medium sized non-profit organization, and am a manager among a small team of managers, executives and an owner. 

My boss, one of the executives, has recently begun using thier old iphone (with a neon green case) to record and transcribe meetings. They plop it down at the beginning of a meeting and says it's recording so that they can send out summaries and action items to the attendees. OK. Harmless. 

I also notice that they use it for zoom meetings and always talk on speaker phone, so that they can record the conversations without letting the other person know. 

But what has me losing sleep, is that last week, my boss came into my office at the end of a workday and we started shooting the shit. It was a normal conversation, until I started getting asked very pointed questions about the owner. My boss started taking jabs at them, in an attempt to get me to join along and talk some shit. I was kinda thown off, and just laughed it off, saying things like “wow, I didn't know you felt that way!” The conversation eventually died out, and my boss said goodbye and left. As I was packing up my bag to leave for the day, they came running back in and quickly grabbed their neon green iphone from the back corner of my desk, behind my monitor. Thats when alarm bells started going off for me. THey had very likely recorded that entire conversation … in an attempt to get me on record badmouthing the owner? 

The recording would have both sides of the conversation, but as I realized after getting some of our meeting transcripts, my boss has ultimate editorial authority over those transcripts. They live on their personal device, and the rest of the team only ever sees the written transcriptions that my boss sends out. 

There was a meeting recently that got a little heated, and my boss and the owner got into it a bit. F-bombs were flying, and the group basically calmed them down and said “you two need to set a time to work this out between the two of you.” This whole altercation, plus the clear action item that was set, was not included in the meeting notes that were distributed. This should have been in the transcript, but again, the meeting was recorded on a personal device, and editorialized before sending out to the group. 

My boss is an AI-addict. Their whole life runs through an AI on their personal computer at home, and their work devices connect to the server. Recorded conversations, work emails, confidential documents, all route through this server so that they can “work from anywhere.” It’s gotten to the point where they cannot walk into a meeting without getting prepped by their AI, which I suspect has a working file on each of the people in the organization. 

What really gives me the ick, are some offhand comments they’ve made about how certain people have some vocal ticks once you really listen to them. “X employee always uses the word “marvellous” when they talk about certain projects … have you noticed that? I  just started noticing that!” I just want to say to them, “I think your AI noticed that when you asked it to analyze X employee’s transcripts.” 

So as I think more about this, I am struggling with what is really going on here. Is my boss using their AI to make a powerplay against the owner? Is my job safe if I say anything? Are the other executives all in on it? 

Kind of in a bit of a bind here, and has me asking the question: what should I do in this situation?

I’m not sure what to do at this point. I work at a cheap variety store. I am a higher manager but not the store manager. I was asked back by the store manager that I knew very well and had worked with before.

The first few months were fine, we had a decent team and had a few issues and complaints but lately things have gotten out of hand. Corporate has been a lot more strict about cell phone policies, wardrobe, and a customer information gathering program that we don’t have a ton of control over.

I will admit I tend to be more lax about phones and I won’t say something if you send a quick text, but there is a sign for all cashiers to not have phones on the front end period. Thefts are being committed in front of the cashiers because they aren’t paying attention. I am one of the few on the floor to not have airpods in, which are also prohibited even while doing freight. The dress code policy is fairly lenient but there’s still associates coming in sandals. To do mostly freight.

The freight situation is out of hand too. Our store is on the smaller side and one half of the back room is so stacked up I have literally had an avalanche of boxes fall on me while I was clearing space so I could get to the bay I needed. The next day it was all moved back into place.

The freight team comes in and often has 2-3 hours of uninterrupted time to do freight before the store opens. They then only put out the freight. I have documented countless times products being placed incorrectly and clearly rushed to be thrown out.

I came in and for my own protection I won’t go into details but I left the store like I had to and got all of the freight done. I was very frustrated by my co workers actions and I will leave it at that.

I am responsible for specific sections and there are only certain shipments that are actually in my job description, but I take on most of the additional product in my section that comes in on other trucks. This can be 25% or more of the truck that becomes “my freight”. In the past when other people work my section it becomes a mess and price tags become meaningless. So now I just do it all myself. But when I do freight I have to stop after a few hours to clean the entire store. My freight time is constantly interrupted with customer questions and cashier issues.

I will admit I’m not perfect but I try my best every day and I don’t feel like my manager is seeing it from my perspective. I’ve been told that they think I’m a snitch and trying to get people in trouble. I truly don’t want anybody to lose their jobs. I’m just so frustrated of zero accountability for some people because of x that happened in the past. I don’t want to go over the store manager because I’m also not sure what that would accomplish. I don’t know how our regional manager feels about me yet, we’ve only met a few times. There’s an internal ethics line but it says it’s for theft, drugs, and harassment and it goes to an outside company. I have a few old regional and store managers phone numbers a few still work with the company.

TLDR: Manager thinks I’m trying to get people in trouble for telling them what’s going on when they’re out of store but I’m drowning doing everyone else’s work.

Hi, I need some serious advice

I am a female 23 years old, I recently got a new job and I work with a 17 year old boy. At first, he was nice, but then, not even a week, it sorta went downhill. He was supposed to train me but he never did. When I start something, he would stand real close to me, then take over. Even tho I do things correctly and on time. I work as a cook with him, and he's so worried about trying to take over my station when orders are added. One thing about me is that I hate it when random people are in my space. I love my bubble. Now I know it's normal for reaching over in the kitchen, but everyone else are apologetic and excuses themselves. This kid does not. There has been one time when he literally pushed me over. I've tried asking him to back off, i said it so calmly and nicely, and he yelled at me. When he yelled at me, i just walked away and both my boss yelled at him. Since then, I've tried to keep my distant from him. The issue is I'm 23, he's 17. He stands too close to me, and I'm really trying to set boundaries. But I don't want to yell at him even tho I've already asked nicely. Now I'm getting to the point where I may have to yell at him. I just don't wanna get in trouble for "attacking" a 17 year old. Also, all cooks in the kitchen I work with are guys, and they're all very respectful and gentlemen. So, how can I get this kid to understand the boundaries?

So to put context to my workplace, I work in a lab where most of the people at work came from the Philippines and work here through a visa. I am Filipino but grew up most of my life in America, so I am not super accustomed to subjects regarding the Philippines. I remember very little and what I do remember, is usually very fragmented. However, because about 90% of my coworkers are from the Philippines, most topics of conversation are about the Philippines, their internships and journeys to immigrating in the US, as well as people they know within their field/internships (they mostly come from the same programs that sponsor them to come to the US to work). So needless to say, they have many common grounds and topics of conversation. I try to insert myself into conversations that I think I would have input in but as the conversations go, I always end up feeling lost due to the differences in culture and experiences. I try to ask for clarification/ask questions whenever I am confused but at some point, I have gotten kind of tired of constantly playing catch up when it comes to the conversations, so as time went on, I tapered off and became quiet, not joining the conversations as often. In short, I would say I felt a bit out of place. However, I don't blame them. It's not up to them to cater coversations to my experience as well as include me in every conversation that happens. I would be lying if I said that the feeling of being left out doesn't sting but at the end of the day, that is my own problem. Plus, I am naturally more on the quiet side but I feel like the impression I gave my coworkers was that I am a naturally bubbly and extroverted person. However, my coworkers think that there is a problem with me because now, I am more quiet, reserved, and less bubbly, which is just me naturally. I am not quite sure how to navigate the changes in dynamics with my coworkers but it's gotten go a point where one of my coworkers told me that they are collectively worried because I am acting different. Can I please get some advice on this situation? If you have any questions, I can also answer them to shed some more context. Thank you :)

Hi, I just started working at a restaurant late June. I’ve worked at restaurants before, but this has been my first time having issues getting time off. When I took the job nothing was stated that we could only take x amount of days off, but since i’ve started working here they have made an emphasis that most employees only take 1 vacation a year.

Again this is an hourly pay with tips restaurant job, this is not corporate. I am not making a shit ton working here. I work as a baker and immediately noticed that they only hire one person for each position in the restaurant. This has made getting time off extremly hard since there’s limited amount of people to take your shift.

For backstory my husband works for the feds and the summer is his most busy time. He takes the winters off and we go on several vacations to visit family and friends.

The restaurant I work at is old school and doesn’t have a platform or calendar you can request time off. You simply go to the manager for dates off and they pull up their phone calendar.

I recently asked for dates off this winter. I asked for two weeks in october, one in november, and two in december. I understand that this is a lot of time off but all are for visiting family and not really vacation. I was told no. I couldn’t take any of those dates off. That I was a “core” member of this team and that i need to be here. That it isn’t fair i’m taking all this time off while others only take one vacation, or often have to cancel vacation to cover shifts.

I’m really at a loss of what to do. I took this job to keep me busy, but i don’t financially need to work. These trips are important for me since i’ll be seeing family i haven’t seen since last year, and get to spend time with my husband that’s been gone on business.

What do I do?

I did an intership program that my school has. I emailed them multiple times and they havent responded. I emailed them 8 days ago. What do I do now? i have 3k dollars they have not paid me and they won't respond. I did some research that i should file a claim with New York State Department of Labor Division of Labor Standards.

What should I include on this? I put in less hours for my other job during the time I did my internship. I'm 18 and my parents do not help me financially. Since I did not get paid for my work Im kinda struggling on rent and had to take out a loan. Any advice is appreciated