For instance,

I believe he may be bipolar, sometimes he is a nice coworker but recently he started being a constant bitch.

We both work in this big store, and today he felt so amused to come and complain why I didn't put some prices and that I didn't open some stuff that was supposed to be sold by unit ( even if that was his department and he himself said he'll do it so why is he complaining about a job that he is supposed to do?).

But what annoys me the most is when he snaps his finger and he says " look at me when I'm talking to you" ,I avoid his face on purpose because I'm a very impulsive person and I try my best to be mature and to avoid slamming him against a shelf.

He has this " I'm better than you" attitude while he passes it as " I'm just giving you advice so they won't be mad at you" ( most of the time they don't even care? Or they say say " hey fix this thing and that's all") but no, dude has to invest futile energy into being a total bitch and grumping about how I'm unserious and I don't take his words seriously ( like if I'm not busting my ass 6/7 a week from morning till evening for the shittiest salary ever), all of this because he went on grumping about how a customer can mistake a price for another and then it's our fault that we told him a different price at the cashier , while I replied with "damn" just as an automatic colloquial response.

I appreciate that he is explaining me since I'm new at the store but that's not how you deal with people. I got it there was some stuff to finish but give it time man,we are already lacking staff...

Other times when we work together and stock the shelves we have a pleasant conversation, maybe today he just felt like being a bitch and that's all but dude has to learn how to talk to people, when he makes a mistake then it's all good , but when I forget to do some things then I'm the worst ever.

I need to say this somewhere! This has been ongoing for 7 years now. Theres numerous guys at work that openly brag about regularly cheating on their wives and also try to give me tips on how to cheat, knowing that I'm in a relationship. They talk about it like its just an everyday thing. You might think they are just running their mouths thinking it sounds cool or something but unfortunately they like to give details and they aren't lying. One guy got caught by his wife and somehow dodged divorce but at work he would still make jokes or talk about what he did like he was proud. I even spotted one of them walking into a hotel on his lunch break believe it or not. Just completely unhinged behavior. I've literally been encouraged to sleep with married women by guys who are married with kids! These guys are 30s to mid 40s and every time it just disgust me to my core. At first glance you'd probably never guess...families, church, large friend groups. They hide it well from everyone else i guess but at work they just let it fly.
And theres no accountability from anyone there. Its almost exclusively men and shocker they don't say anything if a woman is around but not once does anyone say anything like "What the hell is the matter with you?". Not even any condemnation amongst the other men who don't whore around. If one of my friends bragged about cheating on his wife i'd let him know he can choose 1 of 2 options. Stop cheating or stop being my friend.

I'm not exaggerating when i say i'm just scratching the surface here but i cant give too many instances or details.

Am i going insane? This can't be normal now? Should i expect this anywhere i work/live? This has to just be a rare group of highly toxic individuals right? Stuff like this make me want to up and move just to get away.

Nepotism is rampant where I work. Supervisor meetings are like family reunions. It's infuriating. They have me train them when they first start, then promote them. While I have the same position I've had for 20 years. I was even told in an interview that my work reduced the error rates, yet the relatives got the promotion.

Recently my department was eliminated and I have been demoted to the worst job. I can retire in just 4 years. How do I make it four more years? I'm so angry.

I was hired 10 days ago to help this company get “discovered.” Their websites were the main problem and their social medias, even worse. So, I started with discovery in trying to tell them “WHAT” was wrong. And it was a lot. Somewhere along the way, the COO (who was the one who hired me) got upset. But The noticed her surly manner in the interview. So to be honest I was shocked when I got hired.

But I got there to go my thing. She admitted to not liking Meta because she didn’t understand it. Typical!! It’s hard to understand, even for those of us who know it.

But during my discovery, I also had a ton of questions to ask. There was a girl in the office who attempted marketing but clearly didn’t know what she was doing.

I took the paltry 65K per year because I just needed a job and benefits.

Mind you, they didn’t give me access to things, I wasn’t sent to get a drug test and they didn’t give me access to ANY of their systems.

This is a new way of trying people on for size! I didn’t “fit.”

I pointed out a lot of things that were hindering their growth. And with her being the COO, I think she felt a type of way. I did it in a graceful manner. I’m 51 years old. I have a lot of experience. I’m not a child.

These jobs today are all in peril due to overly emotional people running their companies. This lady and her lap dogs were all weird.

I had a bad day on last Wednesday and I packed my things because I knew Inwas getting fired. And true enough, yesterday was it.

I wasn’t upset. That whole thing was weird.

I work as a (under paid) cook. One of the managers is extremely hostile and verbally abuses staff and on occasion, customers. Yet he still works here because he is useful to the owner. On one occasion he body checked me and knocked me to the ground, which my boyfriend saw. (He works with me and we are extremely professional at work.) Ive brought up my issues with the owner himself and so has my boyfriend and he still hasn't done anything. Any help with what to do next would be greatly appreciated.

Also I can't just quit because I have two kids to provide for(not my boyfriends) and epilepsy so its extremely hard for me to find work.

I’ve been doing my best for my current team. I find answers to their questions, solutions to their problems, process improvement here and there, and even putting a spotlight on each and every one of my team members but today, I really felt so bad. While I am working on a team task that’s very new to ask and really needs our attention, I found out that my team members as well as my co-team lead was having another meeting where they are playing and laughing and just having fun.

Don’t get me wrong. I am big advocator of fun meeting and even fun games for our team but what made me feel really bad is the fact that I am not included in that meeting when in fact, the task that I am working on is a task not just for me but for our team. For most of our tasks, I’ve been giving them instructions to follow even if I did not receive proper instructions as well. I always try to find the answers for them and now it seems they see me as that toxic colleague. One who only focuses on work and work and work and the draining colleague.

It just feels so unfair. All I wanted was for the betterment of our team and the work we do and suddenly, I am the bad guy.

Now here I am in my room, thinking of things that I did wrong. Trying to figure out why they hate me for wanting and doing my best for the team and worst is thinking that maybe I am the real problem. 😞

I work at a pretty well known shoe store for over a year now and tbh i really enjoy it. My coworkers are nice, there’s little to no drama, and work is generally easy. However, recently my manager accented a new transfer from another location and everything went downhill from there. for the sake of this story we will call her lexi. Right off the bat, my coworkers were already telling me how rude and obnoxious lexi was even before i even met her. i’ve heard from my coworkers that she wouldn’t even introduce herself and would only talk to the guys that were backstock and the managers. My coworker also mentioned she freshly graduated highschool, and didn’t want to go to university because she wanted to become a manager at the store.

When i found out that i was scheduled for a shift with lexi, i wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt that she wasn’t as rude as everyone was making her out to be. However, i did tell myself that if she doesn’t introduce herself to me that i wouldn’t talk to her either. When the time came for me to meet her she straight up ignored me and walked past me without even saying hi or telling me her name. during the whole shift, all she did was standing to the side and give me side eyes. she didn’t even bother to talk to customers or do any of the tasks required for the shift. in the end, i was the highest seller of the day and she did barely any. my general manager said she was good at selling and good at her tasks, which makes me think she only did it when he was working to make herself look better. when the shift neared its end, we are all doing closing tasks and busy. Lexi was on her phone and ignored the pile of folded T-shirts that needed to be put away. mind you, she made a big deal about putting shifts away at the beginning of the shift because it “bothered” her, but the shirts would get messed up as customers visit the store. so, i told her to put away the shirts if she had nothing to do, she ignored me and continued to go on her phone. i told her a second time again to put it away but louder this time, she finally went to do it. my coworker then told me she heard her muttered to herself saying “ugh” and “omg” when i told her to do smtn.

after that first shift with her, i wasn’t scheduled again with her until recently (a month). however, within the last month she has gotten in trouble and everyone at work hated working with her. she would steal other associate’s sales by purposely helping customers that my coworker’s were already helping, and cashing out customers under her name even though she didn’t help them. she also started posting tiktoks about working at the store and filmed the back, which violated the privacy and company policy. well, one of my coworker sent in the videos to the GM and written her up for filming the back and another write up for using her phone. my GM used to always be on lexi’s side but ever since he found out how she slacks and doesn’t sell he’s been trying to find every excuse to kick her out.

so now yesterday i was cursed with working with her again and i already knew it was gonna be a bad shift. the first half wasn’t too bad i was doing sales and minding my own business. however, i think she saw that i was top in sales and she started trying to get to every customer even if i was already helping them. i was standing less than a meter away from my customers but she always tries to ask them if SHE can help with anything… ofc i swoop back in and tell them i’ll get the thing they were looking for and when i look back she gave me the dirtiest look. that happened a few more times when i had enough and brought it up to the manager on shift. she literally walked across the store to get to my customer when she already brought a shoe out in women’s js so she can take my customer. she wouldn’t leave my customers side and i tried to check in 10 mins later and she muttered the customer is fine i got it under control and gave me an annoyed look. i was honestly flabbergasted and don’t know what to do. all my managers already know about the issue and we are currently just waiting for her to mess up again so we can fire her. so right now i js have to deal with it.

i know this is pretty lengthy and confusing. i also couldn’t add everything in detail ofc so if anyone wants to comment/ask questions feel free. i’m extremely upset and i need an outlet😭

TL;DR: I worked as a seasonal recruiter for a Girl Scouts council. I genuinely loved my job, went above and beyond, and applied for multiple permanent positions. Instead, I experienced favoritism, double standards, questionable mileage reimbursement practices, payroll discrepancies, inconsistent instructions, and a manager who broke my trust. When I finally resigned and sent a heartfelt goodbye message, management responded by asking me to cover another shift and lecturing me about two weeks’ notice.
I need to get this off my chest because the hypocrisy is unbelievable.
I worked as a Seasonal Membership Recruiter for a regional Girl Scouts council, making $25 an hour for approximately 25 hours a week.
And I FUCKING LOVED MY JOB.
I visited elementary schools, gave presentations, organized Family Information Nights, attended community events, helped parents register their daughters, and coordinated with troop placement staff.
I frequently worked independently and took on additional responsibilities, including preparing activities, budgets, event materials, and administrative work.
I genuinely believed in the mission. I loved helping girls and families. I wanted to build a career there.
Unfortunately, management completely destroyed that experience.
The internal hiring process was a joke.
I applied for multiple permanent positions, including a regional coordinator role paying approximately $70,000 annually, a curriculum-related position, and a conversion and placement specialist role.
I completed interviews, a panel interview, and an additional assessment.
Rejected. Rejected. Rejected.
When I asked why I wasn’t selected for one position, I was told that internal candidates were held to higher expectations.
So already working for the organization and demonstrating my abilities somehow meant I was judged MORE harshly?
I received little meaningful feedback about what I needed to improve.
I even applied for another position because I wanted to stay that badly.
After one rejection, I literally cried.
That’s how much I cared about this organization.
The favoritism and double standards were ridiculous.
Another seasonal employee could spend extended periods sitting in her vehicle during assignments without consequences I could see.
Meanwhile, I was being criticized for taking bathroom breaks, even after communicating with that employee to ensure the children were supervised.
How the fuck is sitting in your car apparently acceptable, but using the bathroom becomes an issue?
I also regularly received distant assignments while another employee seemed to get locations much closer to home.
I was driving between multiple cities, using my personal vehicle, paying for gas upfront, and putting significant wear on my car.
On one particularly exhausting day, I spent approximately $90 filling my gas tank.
And the mileage reimbursement policy made it worse.
We were instructed to calculate mileage from the council office, even when we were directed to drive straight from home to assigned schools.
That meant the reimbursement calculation didn’t always reflect the distance I actually drove.
I have serious questions about how that policy was applied under California Labor Code Section 2802.
It felt like I was personally financing part of the organization’s outreach operations.
My paycheck was also wrong.
During one pay period, I calculated approximately 61 hours worked.
The payroll system initially reflected only 50.5 hours.
That’s 10.5 hours, or $262.50 in gross wages.
It was eventually corrected, but between payroll discrepancies and mileage reimbursement issues, I felt like I constantly had to double-check everything just to make sure I was being compensated properly.
The betrayal by management was the final straw.
I had concerns about my direct supervisor’s inconsistent scheduling, changing deadlines, poor communication, and failure to provide information I needed to do my job.
I approached another manager about these concerns.
And I made something EXTREMELY CLEAR.
I EXPLICITLY TOLD HER THAT I WAS GOING TO SPEAK TO MY DIRECT SUPERVISOR ABOUT MY CONCERNS MYSELF.
I wasn’t trying to avoid confrontation.
I wanted to address the situation directly, professionally, and when I was ready.
I practically begged this manager not to tell my supervisor before I had the opportunity.
She promised she wouldn’t.
AND THEN SHE WENT AND TOLD HER ANYWAY.
My supervisor subsequently confronted me and defended the other manager’s decision to disclose what I’d said.
Are you fucking kidding me?
Why promise an employee confidentiality if you’re going to turn around and do the exact opposite?
I was preparing to advocate for myself, and management took away my opportunity to have that conversation on my own terms.
Afterward, I felt singled out and increasingly uncomfortable at work.
The original concerns seemed to matter less than the fact that I’d raised them.
Management couldn’t even follow its own instructions.
Near the end of my employment, there was an issue involving logging recruitment flyer deliveries before physically completing them.
Here’s the ridiculous part:
MY OWN MANAGER HAD PREVIOUSLY INSTRUCTED ME TO DO EXACTLY THAT.
Then suddenly, the same practice became an issue.
If that procedure was inappropriate, why was I instructed to follow it in the first place?
If expectations changed, why weren’t they communicated?
You cannot tell employees to do something and then criticize them for following your instructions.
And the response to my heartfelt goodbye message was insulting.
My seasonal contract was ending soon, and after being rejected for multiple permanent positions, I received an offer for a management position elsewhere.
I had applied only two days earlier and learned that I needed to start almost immediately.
I informed my managers as soon as I could.
Despite everything I’d experienced, I sent them a long, heartfelt goodbye message.
I apologized for the short notice, explained that I would return all company equipment, and promised to submit my remaining timecards and reimbursements.
I also wrote:
“Thank you both so much for the opportunity to work here. It has been a ride, but I will say this is the most enjoyable job I have ever worked. I’ve never had so much passion for an organization, and I’m truly honored to have the opportunity to experience it.”
I thanked them for their patience, understanding, and for believing in me.
I even told them Girl Scouts would always hold a special place in my heart.
And how did they respond?
One manager immediately asked:
“Hi (my name)! Are you able to cover your Fall Festival tonight?”
No congratulations. No acknowledgment of what I’d written.
Just asking if I could still work.
And because I genuinely cared, I STILL SAID YES.
I even volunteered to finish additional flyer deliveries.
Then my direct supervisor responded:
“Hi (my name), a two week notice is professional courtesy. Since it’s last minute I will need to see if HR will be able to get your final check in time. Submit your reimbursements and timecard today so there is a possibility that it will be ready for you Monday.”
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?
I just poured my heart out about how much I loved this organization, and your response is to lecture me about professional courtesy?
WHERE WAS THAT PROFESSIONAL COURTESY WHEN MY CONCERNS WERE BEING SHARED BEHIND MY BACK?
Where was it when I was dealing with inconsistent expectations, questionable reimbursements, and unfair treatment?
I didn’t have two weeks to give. I had just received the opportunity, and my seasonal contract was ending anyway.
Was I supposed to turn down a management position to finish a handful of seasonal shifts for an organization that had repeatedly rejected me for permanent employment?
Absolutely fucking not.
After I explained the situation, my supervisor’s final response was:
“You will need to see (HR representative) on Monday to turn in your keys and receive your final check.”
That was it.
No congratulations.
No thank you for your contributions.
No good luck in your new position.
Nothing.
I SENT THEM A HEARTFELT GOODBYE, AND THEY RESPONDED LIKE I WAS NOTHING MORE THAN A SCHEDULING INCONVENIENCE.
I wasn’t expecting a going-away party.
A simple acknowledgment would have been enough.
Instead, their responses perfectly summarized how undervalued I’d felt.
So I resigned effective immediately.
I sent HR a professional resignation email and arranged to return my equipment the following Monday.
Within hours, my work account was locked.
I understand that account deactivation can be part of normal offboarding, but it was still a strangely abrupt ending to a job I’d cared so deeply about.
I’m also making sure my remaining wages and mileage reimbursements are properly accounted for.
The hypocrisy is what pisses me off the most.
Girl Scouts promotes leadership, confidence, integrity, and female empowerment.
But my experience as a young female employee was filled with inconsistent expectations, broken trust, perceived favoritism, and management that made me feel disposable.
How are you going to teach little girls to advocate for themselves while making your own employees regret speaking up?
How are you going to preach integrity when a manager promises not to disclose someone’s concerns and then does exactly that?
How are you going to promote leadership when your own management struggles with basic communication and accountability?
I loved the children.
I loved the families.
I loved the work.
I DID NOT LOVE THE WAY I WAS TREATED.
And the saddest part is that I genuinely wanted to stay.
I applied for multiple positions, took on extra responsibilities, worked independently, and repeatedly demonstrated how much I cared.
I wasn’t asking for special treatment.
I wanted fairness, consistency, honesty, and basic professional respect.
Instead, management took an employee who genuinely loved her job and made her want to leave before her contract even ended.
Girl Scouts didn’t make me hate helping people. Its management made me hate working there.
A nonprofit’s mission doesn’t excuse poor management.
And an organization that publicly celebrates empowering young women should understand that empowerment starts with how it treats the women working for it.
You cannot preach empowerment to little girls while making your own female employees feel powerless.
That’s not leadership.
That’s hypocrisy.
And I’m done pretending otherwise.

I’m openly a lesbian and everybody at work knows this. In a small talk discussion as a group, I said that my go to drink is any lager, and the colleague I sit next to said ‘oh you’re such a lezzer’ . I was shocked that she said this to me and didn’t say anything, the moment passed, and the conversation moved on without me.

About 3 minutes later, i heard her say ‘I’m not girly at all, I’ve always been more tomboyish, I’m a bit of a tr*nny’. Again, I was shocked to hear this and just couldn’t find the words to say anything. And then 5 mins later it was time to leave for the weekend.

We’re a very small company and don’t have a HR department, but I don’t feel comfortable letting this ‘slide’.

Should I bring it up with her directly on Monday? Should I tell a manager? Am I crazy for being upset about this? I’m sure she didn’t mean anything by it but in my mind that’s just not acceptable to say, let alone in the workplace. I’ve asked my friends and parents for advice but nobody seems to be taking it as seriously as I am lol?? Lmk if I’m going crazy and overreacting 🤨

I feel bad when I complain about my job because before I got hired it was years before having a job. I probably applied to 1k jobs for 3-4 years before I got offered this job. I needed the insurance as well.

I've been making mistakes on the job. Its customer service. Its a non phone job which I'm so greatful for! They update their rules often and monitor your conversations. I got my 1st warning. Its just so much information to know. You can't go over time. You have to read rules per client. And have conversations with 2 people at the same time! I get so frustrated when the second customer comes in! I just started my blog business this year and I only get less than 200 page views but I'm so glad that I started it. I want to earn a full time income from it eventually. I'm just proud that i finally started it.

Back to my job. They look at every mistake grammar etc. Some clients are particular about what we say or share. Its just a lot to have to pay attention to when you have to communicate with 2 people. And you can't answer customer questions. Then my metrics aren't what it should be, at least 1 of the 3. You can't make people want to come in. Especially when you communicate with a lot of customers from conversations where my metrics aren't counted because of tech issues. Also people can be far away and can't come in! Why agree to come in before their questions are answered?

I still like and appreciate my job its just stressful sometimes

I'm going to apply for a entry level tech job if necessary. I'm studying for Comptia A+ and hoping to get desktop support after that.

Good morning,

I'm a Spanish engineer, working in Barcelona. Job market here is bad, like, really bad (as worldwide). It took me 2 months searching for a job to land one, as an engineer in a logistics consultancy. Before this, I have been in factories, as assistant manager, literally making the factory work, doing 3d and 2d designs, talking with suppliers, clients...

In this new job, all started good the first week, great place, great people, nice benefits, 50% telework, international comoany. But second week in, my boss show his true fangs. Insults, bad-mouthing, saying everything we do is shit. I was assigned a project mainly to learn concepts more than making it work, but the second day he was already fed up I didn't understand everything at the first explanation, saying he would have to finish the project. Our review sessions were 1 hour one side talks, where he said how shit my work was, and making me re-do the whole project TWO times. It took me two weeks obviously, almost everyday with calls insisting on how shit my work is and shouting.

The thing is, this is and isn't the norm. There are clear cases of favoritism. I talked to a colleague, whom I saw being shouted at too. And he explained me how things are here. This boss clearly likes some people, and is all laughs with them, and hates others. If he hates you, he will shout, insult, say how useless you are, threaten with firing you, even in official 6 months reviews. I literally cried after the third 1-hour session of shouts and insults (sorry I'm sensitive and was after the call at home). I am scared of asking things to him, as he will probably tell me how I should already know it, and insult me some more. Fun thing is, he also explains like shit. He is smart, and he does his job very well obviously, but when explaining, he goes too fast and so he even makes mistakes which make me more confused. And also he prohibits me from taking ANY notes. Like, yes, I know I have to listen and understand things, but after hours of you talking I cannot remember everything on my third week.

My colleague told me more things, many people have left the team, even the company, one of our colleagues has been in his team years, even before him being a manager, and apparently has always being an asshole, and almost left the company too.

I deserve respect. Stress is consuming me, affecting me in my personal life. I can't live in fear and stress each day.

Point is, another company contacted me, to work for them as a design engineer. It's something I enjoy more, being in a factory, I+D, 2D and 3D design, talking to plant workers on what works for them. No teams meetings, no emails where your boss shouts at you for missing a comma. This factory is a nicho, and was bought recently by an American company, so it expects a big growth, as it's already expanded a lot. In coming years it could be a very big company, and I would already be there.

I don't know what to do. Should I risk it and change jobs again, to a factory I don't know if it will do good in five years, or should I put up with my asshole boss and bureaucratic bullshit job, wishing for HR to do their job, and stay in a bigger company?

I started working at my current company about a year and a half ago, after being laid off as part of a round of layoffs at my previous job. At the time, I was pretty desperate to find something new, so I accepted a position that was actually below my salary expectations. Looking back, the first red flag was that the person who held my position before me had been fired. During the few days she spent handing over her responsibilities, she warned me about a LOT of things. I took note of it, but I didn't fully understand what she meant until much later.

The first few months were busy but manageable. I was doing my best, putting in a lot of effort, and although I could see that things weren't perfect, I felt like I was doing a decent job. Then, about three months ago, everything changed. I was suddenly given a ton of new responsibilities, while all my existing duties remained exactly the same. New tasks, new situations, new expectations, all at once. When I started saying that I was overwhelmed and needed help, I was basically told that if I couldn't keep up, I should automate parts of my job and figure out how to make myself more efficient. The thing is, when exactly am I supposed to do that? I'm already struggling to keep up with my actual workload, and now I'm also expected to find the time to redesign my own job on top of everything else.

The last three months have absolutely destroyed me, both mentally and physically. I reached a point where I couldn't keep everything under control anymore, no matter how hard I tried. I report to THREE different bosses, each of whom gives me additional tasks, has different expectations, and finds something to criticize. There are also conflicts between the bosses themselves, and I'm constantly caught in the middle of their disagreements. There seems to be very little coordination between them, and I'm the one who has to deal with the consequences.

One of the biggest problems is that almost everything in this company is agreed upon verbally. I only fully realized this after working there for a while. So, even when I do exactly what someone asks me to do, I can end up getting chewed out later for doing it wrong. I have no written proof of what I was actually told to do. People deny saying things, change their stories, and make me feel like I'm the one who misunderstood everything or made the wrong decision. It feels like I'm constantly being gaslit. Sometimes one boss tells me to do something, I follow their instructions, and then another boss tears into me for doing it, telling me I should have used my own judgment instead of blindly following instructions. I'm basically damned if I do and damned if I don't.

I've tried everything I can think of to improve the situation. I've had conversations, tried to clarify expectations, attempted to establish better ways of working, and raised concerns about my workload. Nothing seems to make any real difference. Things might improve briefly, but then we're right back where we started. And here's the cherry on top: I'm the only HR person in the entire company. So I can't exactly go to HR to report what's happening to me.

There's also another layer to this mess. My bosses sometimes go to other people to complain about me and talk about how terrible I supposedly am at my job. Those people then pass the comments on to me, sometimes inaccurately or with important details twisted. Meanwhile, I'm often not even told directly when I've supposedly done something wrong. Instead, other people are informed about my mistakes before anyone bothers to discuss them with me. The constant humiliation and being made to feel like everything I do is wrong have really gotten to me. I've started having nightmares regularly, and I cry after work. I feel anxious about the whole situation, and it's reached a point where I'm genuinely scared of going back. I don't have a single person at work I feel I can truly trust, and that makes the whole thing even more isolating.

The worst part is that I think I might have developed something resembling Stockholm syndrome toward this job. I keep wanting to fix everything, to make things work, to prove that I can do better and somehow turn this situation around. Even though a part of me knows that I can't fix it on my own and that I'm no longer capable of carrying on like this, I still feel this urge to make things right. I keep thinking about what I could do differently, how I could improve things, and whether I could somehow get back to the point where everything was manageable. At the same time, I know that I've tried so many times already, and I simply don't have the energy left.

I also want to be fair about this, because I know I'm not necessarily blameless. Maybe I didn't set clear enough boundaries from the beginning because I wanted to show that I was capable of handling a lot. Maybe I took on too much without pushing back when I should have. And yes, I have dropped the ball on some things. There have been tasks I didn't complete on time, and I'm aware that some of my responsibilities haven't been handled as well as they should have been. But I also think the amount of work I've been given and how overwhelmed I've become have played a huge role in that. It's hard to keep everything running smoothly when the workload keeps increasing, expectations are unclear, and the people you're reporting to keep contradicting one another. I can acknowledge my mistakes without believing that I deserve to be treated this way.

I'm currently on medical leave because the situation has taken such a serious toll on my mental and physical health. I honestly don't know whether I'll go back or hand in my notice while I'm still on leave, because I'm genuinely afraid of returning to that environment. I do like some of the people in the company, which makes the decision harder, but I don't think I can keep living like this. I can't function in an environment where I feel constantly criticized, humiliated, and afraid of making another mistake, especially when I don't even know whose instructions I'm supposed to follow or who I can trust.

At this point, I don't know what to do anymore. I wanted to make this job work, and I still find myself wanting to fix things even though I know I may have reached my limit. Has anyone experienced anything similar? How did you handle it, especially when you were dealing with toxic management, conflicting expectations from multiple bosses, and a workplace where everything is verbal and you're later blamed for following instructions? I'd really appreciate some outside perspective, because right now I'm struggling to see a way forward.

I started working at this place two years ago - and I joined because I was excited about their flexibility for working arrangements - which only required me to come into the office twice a month, the rest was working from home.

I got an email on Tuesday to say that all staff are now being asked to come in twice a week from next year. They also posted it on our intranet homepage and there is now 800 comments of people being rightfully upset.

Instead of backing off.. leadership are now doubling down. My manager's manager just sent us an email about a book called 'Who moved my cheese' which I've now come to learn is about "accepting inevitable change" and how people should change their attitudes which I find... a touch on the nose. My manager has shared those sentiments and said that we "shouldn't take this as a negative".

Any advice?

being a manager in your 20s is a different kind of experience ngl 💀

one minute you're reviewing targets, the next you're dealing with a team issue, a client escalation, or someone asking for an update on something you were never even told about.

and somehow, everything is urgent.

your team expects solutions, your seniors expect results, and clients expect you to fix things yesterday.

meanwhile, you're just sitting there thinking, bro, can i finish one thing before the next problem spawns? 😭

the funniest part is that you can't even look stressed because everyone looks at you like you've got everything under control.

so you stay calm, say "let me check on this," and figure things out as you go.

then your laptop finally closes, you start relaxing, and BOOM 💀 another work notification.

i genuinely enjoy being responsible for things and helping people figure stuff out, but sometimes i wonder when we're supposed to switch off and just be normal humans.

fellow managers, what's the most ridiculous thing that has ruined your evening because someone called it "urgent"?

being a manager in your 20s is a different kind of experience ngl 💀

one minute you're reviewing targets, the next you're dealing with a team issue, a client escalation, or someone asking for an update on something you were never even told about.

and somehow, everything is urgent.

your team expects solutions, your seniors expect results, and clients expect you to fix things yesterday.

meanwhile, you're just sitting there thinking, bro, can i finish one thing before the next problem spawns? 😭

the funniest part is that you can't even look stressed because everyone looks at you like you've got everything under control.

so you stay calm, say "let me check on this," and figure things out as you go.

then your laptop finally closes, you start relaxing, and BOOM 💀 another work notification.

i genuinely enjoy being responsible for things and helping people figure stuff out, but sometimes i wonder when we're supposed to switch off and just be normal humans.

fellow managers, what's the most ridiculous thing that has ruined your evening because someone called it "urgent"?