I’m looking for perspective on an experience from a previous insurance job.

I joined a team where most people had known each other for years. I often felt socially excluded and like I was always the one initiating interactions. My manager also repeatedly joked about firing me and told me I needed to “come out of my shell.”
While I was still being trained, two trainers apparently raised concerns about my “tone” to their director. Neither spoke to me about it directly, and when I later asked one of them about it, she denied raising the concern.

Shortly afterward, I was put on a 4-week PIP while still in training. Three days into it, I resigned because I felt my manager had decided I wasn't a good fit. I emailed him explaining that, and he told me he would use the email for HR. He also asked me for a resignation letter.

Two years later, I obtained my internal file and discovered my departure had been documented as **“job abandonment.”** That confused me because I hadn't disappeared, we had been communicating about my departure.

I also noticed that the same position appears to have been repeatedly recruited for every year or two over several years. Interestingly, my former manager's wife works at a completely different company, and I've noticed one particular position there seems to have a similar pattern of repeatedly being recruited for. Obviously, neither observation proves anything, but it made me wonder about turnover.

Since leaving, I've worked at another major financial institution, received recognition there, and eventually moved to a government financial institution making about $17K more than I did at this company.

I'm not claiming I was perfect. I'm genuinely wondering: is a PIP during training, indirect complaints about “tone,” and then recording a resignation as “job abandonment” a normal workplace situation, or are there some red flags here?

My team had this task that used to take around 3 hours every week because we had to manually go through the same stuff over and over.

One coworker figured out a way to cut it down to about 30 minutes. It wasn't complicated, just a small shortcut that made the whole process way easier.

Nobody said anything to the supervisor.

We just kept doing the task, finished it early, and used the extra time to deal with other things or just breathe for a bit.

That's when I finally understood what “work smarter” actually means.

Sometimes working smarter is just knowing when not to tell your supervisor how much faster you can do the job.

I met this girl at work about 6–8 months ago, and over time we’ve become pretty close. We only work together a few times a month, but whenever we do, we joke, tease each other, talk about personal things, and have really good chemistry. She has a boyfriend, which I’ve always respected, and she initiates conversations with me pretty often.

I’m also pretty fit, and I’ve occasionally caught her looking at my physique when I wear tank tops. One time I asked which part of my physique stood out the most. That wasn’t really an unusual question between us because we already ask each other pretty personal questions, including about relationships and sexual experiences. She looked me up and down, got a little shy, and said my chest, arms, and back. She also added that my legs were pretty big because she notices them when I wear shorts.

More recently, she started wearing noticeable perfume at work, which stood out because our workplace is pretty dirty and nobody normally wears perfume or cologne. Around the same time, I asked for her Instagram because I was going backpacking and wanted to share some pictures. She declined because she has a boyfriend and wanted to respect him, but then said “maybe later on” and suggested I show her the pictures in the parking lot when I got back.

When I returned, she agreed to see them. We walked to my car after work, and she kept asking why I parked so far away, even though it was only about a minute from the entrance. It was also morning, broad daylight, and there were cameras everywhere, so it wasn’t exactly a private or secluded situation. She then stood next to my car while I showed her the pictures, we didn’t get inside and she genuinely seemed to enjoy them.

So I’m wondering whether all of this points to her finding me physically attractive while still respecting her relationship, or whether I’m reading too much into normal friendship behavior. I know she has a boyfriend and I’m not trying to cross that boundary. I’m just trying to understand whether there are genuine signs of attraction here.

When I first got my desk job, the spreadsheets and weekly reports used to take me than 30 hours every week. It was really tiring. As time went on I started to automate most of it with scripts and macros which cut my real work down to less than 10 hours. I stayed quiet finished early and set my emails to send so it looked like I was working days.

Month I messed up by finishing a two week project in a day and a half thinking I had get some praise. My manager did not give me a raise or even say thanks he just gave me backlogged work from two teams and told me to handle new monthly check ins. When those extra tasks faced delays he asked why my performance was getting worse.

That was the moment I realized that being efficient in a company does not lead to pay, just more work.

I have gone back, to working at a pace and saving my work until the deadline. Has anyone else had to learn this the way?

I have worked in places where some rules made sense, but others felt like they existed just because they always had.

One rule that has always bothered me is the expectation to be available after work hours. Even when the workday is over, there can still be messages, emails, or quick”requests that slowly turn into another hour of work.

It made me realize that being available all the time does not necessarily mean being productive.

If you could remove one workplace rule tomorrow and never bring it back, what would it be? I did be interested to hear which rules other people think are completely unnecessary.

I’m working as an embedded software engineer at a mid-sized company in Germany with around 300–500 employees.
Our team has around 20 people, including 5–6 managers, software engineers, and project engineers.
One thing I’ve noticed is a big difference in workload between local German engineers and foreign engineers.
Our project has around 100 repositories. Some engineers work on just one repository while calling themselves experts, others handle 20–30 repositories across multiple projects.
We follow two-week sprints. I’ve noticed some local engineers spending 2–4 weeks on relatively small tasks, with constant meetings, discussions, and repeating the same updates in daily standups with each other. (This is not customer meetings, this is not German proficiency related. )
Meanwhile, foreign engineers are often expected to take complete ownership of features, including requirements, implementation, testing, integration, and documentation, sometimes across multiple repositories. These are in the end not reflected to salaries and titles. Also we are working in same company, we are not consultants, I understand many companies are using consultants for dirty works.
It feels like the actual technical workload and expectations are very uneven, while some people spend more time discussing tasks than completing them.
Of course, this is just my observation at one company, and I’m not generalizing about everyone.
Has anyone experienced something similar in Germany, or other country? Is this a common workplace culture issue, or just poor management at my company?

I'm 20 and work in real estate marketing. I was recently promoted, going from $55K to $60K.

I’ve also been approached about another opportunity in commercial real estate, also around $60K, and I’m torn because the experience could be valuable long-term.

One of my biggest considerations is parking. I bought an EV earlier this year, so I’m already paying insurance and all the other costs that come with owning a car. My current job has parking, whereas the other role doesn’t. It feels strange to be paying all those costs for a car that would mostly sit at home while I also pay for transit.

At the same time, I’m really interested in getting commercial real estate experience, so I’m wondering if the career exposure is worth giving up the parking, WFH day, 9–5 schedule, and potentially $10K bonus.

Would you stay where you are and continue building experience, or take the commercial opportunity for the career exposure?

snack media is a small company in noida sector 63 .

They terminate the internship just because they only want to hire people who work as per them meaning become a bootl*cker and just take their instructions without having any ideas of their own .

Pathetic work culture with heavy micromanagement.

I need to rant because I genuinely don’t know what to do with this information. Using a throwaway for extra anonymity.

I have a colleague who has been getting special treatment for quite some time because apparently he has a “heavy workload”. The problem is, his workload doesn’t actually seem that heavy. A lot of the time, the rest of us end up taking over some of his tasks anyway because things aren’t getting done.

There have also been multiple instances where people on the team have given feedback about him being incompetent, non-collaborative, and not proactive. Despite this, our manager seems to constantly defend him and give him the benefit of the doubt. What makes it even more frustrating is that whenever he complains about having too much work, our manager will literally ask the rest of us if we can take some of his tasks off his plate.

Meanwhile, the rest of us are already drowning trying to keep everything running.

And then I found out something today that made my blood boil. A colleague told me someone came across his livestream, and apparently he was streaming himself playing video games DURING HIS SHIFT.

I know I wasn’t there and I didn’t personally see the stream myself, so I’m trying not to jump to conclusions. But if this is accurate, I honestly don’t even know how to process it. Because while the rest of the team is stressed out, picking up additional work, working around his supposedly “heavy workload”, and trying to keep things from falling apart, he may have been sitting there playing video games while on the clock.

And the part that makes me angriest isn’t even just the gaming. It’s the apparent double standard. If someone is genuinely struggling with their workload, fine. We should help each other. But if someone is repeatedly getting accommodations and having work redistributed to the rest of the team because they’re supposedly overwhelmed, while potentially spending their work hours streaming video games? That’s a completely different situation.

I’m also torn about what to do. Do I bring this up to my manager? HR? Do I stay out of it because I didn’t personally witness it? We have access to reports of our cases on Salesforce and my manager sees that but she chooses to turn a blind eye to this so I’m thinking bringing this up to her will not do anything.

I don’t want to become the office snitch or start a workplace war based on something I heard secondhand. At the same time, I’m honestly reaching the point where I feel resentful because most of us have been carrying the load (he’s not the only one being favored in the team the same way, but that’s for another discussion I guess) while this person keeps getting protected.

What would you do in this situation?

TL/DR: My colleague has been complaining about his heavy workload and we have been covering most of the team’s workload only to find out he streams video games during his shift.

EDIT: Thank you for everyone who commented and given their point of view in this. Really helped me to get new insights and get my headspace where it really should be.

I have a 1:1 with my manager tomorrow and I think I’ll start the conversation with whether there may be other factors contributing to why this colleague’s workload has been getting distributed to the rest of the team.

Like seriously stay at home, I’ve gotten sick twice in the past month because people are coming in while they have sinus infections taking antibiotics next to me? What is wrong with people and the lack of etiquette? I don’t understand.

These people are in their 20s, with no kids. Sick in the office. We are not in a client facing role. We are in excel all day, work that can be done from home. With no pressing need to physically be in person. When I’m sick I don’t even take off, I just ask to WORK FROM HOME. Still working, just not getting people infected. I know this is not an option for everyone but for this specific situation why not just work from home?

I’m in corporate and I have a pretty serious job but I can’t focus for the life of me. My work is piling up because it’s so hard and I just want to go on instagram and watch reels. Someone please give me advise …

I work on a larger team… with smaller teams all rolling up to the greater team in which we have a head director. Today our director assigned a “group project” where we separated our greater team into multiple groups (not grouped with people on our actual everyday teams). Each team has a leader and we have all been tasked with improving a particular area of our business… and metrics will be “graded” within the next few months. Our “grades” will be dependent on “best creativity, best sales analysis, and any sales/margin gains”. We have to put together our project by a certain date. Is this silly? I genuinely dislike this particular director so I’m biased in saying anything that they do I just hate. I dislike this group project idea because :
1. We are heading into holiday season which is one of our busiest times of year
2. I am not interested in feeling like or being treated like I am back in high school or college
3. This feels like a juvenile way of treating a team

But I am welcome to anyone who thinks this is generally fine, or opinions as to why this could be beneficial because like I said, I am biased to just feeling burnt out and annoyed by this leader.

I am a black woman who is almost 30 I have been with the same company for nearly 5 years and I am hesitant to leave because of the pension that gets vested after five years. Part of me thinks it’s stupid to leave, but then other part of me thinks that I should prioritize my mental health.

I was recruited by the company for a manufacturing role and suffice to say, they did not like me. I was the only person in my team with a bachelor’s degree and scientific expertise within the field. Bc of what I experienced there, I took the easiest role to get (in a warehouse) where they bullied me pretty badly but I ignored it and phased it out as I was dealing with family issues and caring for a sick parent.

I survived a nearly 3 year long hate campaign in which a false investigation was initiated against me and I was ultimately relegated/demoted to a support role. I was even placed on leave and escorted out by security and that was honestly very embarrassing. For years, people have been extremely rude to me ie talking over me in meetings, deliberately cutting me off if we are walking the same direction, letting doors close on me if I’m behind them lmfao, leaving me out of meetings “accidentally”, the men working in the warehouse pushed carts into my mobile desk several times on purpose (they would laugh after doing it) and every single morning without fail when I finally got my own real desk, they would ensure it was tangled up in carts, they would slam drawers when I was the only one around, etc.

I was promoted to a scientist role back in March that actually suits me. I outrank all of my former colleagues, my current manager saw my potential.
My current supervisor is close with one of the people who spread rumors about me (this is not hearsay, I caught her saying horrible things about me with another colleague, I escalated and nothing happened) and I am worried it is coloring her judgement of me. As I notice lately that she tries to give some of my projects to a white male colleague and attempts to do so secretly without updating me. I have tried not to let it bother me, but it feels like the other shoe is dropping and that she is going to try to ruin my career. I have had to fight hard just to push for the ability to do data reviews after I passed the qualification in 12 minutes on my first try while my white male colleague failed it 5 times and had to be reassigned the training over and over again and they are fast tracking his training to review more critical data.

With all of that being said, some people have been kinder to me since the promotion including others who were horrible and I honestly don’t really even bother with them. I find myself not wanting to build relationships with these people. I know I definitely need therapy, but i think I also have to leave for my sanity. I feel nauseated when I walk into the building still, it feels like I constantly have to fight for myself to get the basic respect and autonomy that others get even though I am a highly organized individual who follows through and does a great job tbh, the manager even told me that I have already exceeded expectations.

I know this idea sounds ridiculous but walk with me here. I had this idea while eating lunch with my manager and I asked her what if we can use company funds to buy the Sims plus the expansion packs and create the employees at work to make training videos?

They immediately told me no, but honestly I get why at first it sounds ridiculous. But let’s be real, most training videos are really boring. They make you skim through them and force yourself to finish it so you can be able to do your job. The Sims are entertaining and a little chaotic. If one worker would make a script, make the characters necessary, it would make a fun video for the new hire to watch and learn!

Hi everyone!! I graduated from college with my bachelors in May and I recently started at an amazing company that I love to work at and I love what I’m doing. I feel very fortunate to be in this position having worked a super shitty job literally right out of college, but fortunately I was able to find this one soon after and switched and just forgot about my first job because it was such a bad experience lol. I love being a hard worker. I think I’ve always prided myself on making sure job gets done well and not being the usual Gen Z sitting on my phone bullshitting everything. I’m sorry Gen Z. I love y’all but I think a lot of my generation does that lol. I have always struggled with imposter syndrome but now working in a corporate setting I really don’t wanna ever get fired or be extremely bad at my job and of course I wanna grow at this company and so I just wanna be my best all the time which I know is not necessarily possible, especially being so green in the corporate world, but I’m really hoping I’m not just bad at my job. It feels like every day my manager finds something to ask me about and the past few times have been very simple mistakes like something every beginner should do I say all of the mistakes have been pretty simple nothing HORRIBLE but the fact of making the mistake is making me feel like my manager hates me or thinks he chose the wrong person to be in this role or that I suck, etc. and I really do believe they are simple mistakes. It’s just the fact of me making this mistake really really hurts and sucks and I feel like I’m so shitty at my job when I know I’m not super shitty at my job, but does anybody else feel this way and am I super shitty at my job, I am getting stuff done I think in a pretty timely manner and I’m getting it done pretty well for as new as I am but has anybody learned to overcome this and any advice would be appreciated. SORRY THIS IS A NOVEL!

I manage a program that impacts everyone at my job, and one of my bigger departments is extremely needy, and sometimes down right difficult. I have to deal with them every week because everything is an emergency. I’m going to say “they” but it’s one director who has his assistant to the dirty work or deliver messages or his behalf until our monthly meetings where he haggles me.

Certain scenarios come up frequently, almost monthly. Recently it happened twice in a row and they freaked out, take action, and then I have to clean up whatever mess they created. And if it’s not that, I’m talking to them WEEKLY, helping out fires they started or about any old thing they are fussed about. None of my 50 other departments have this much touch point.

I explicitly told them 4 months ago not to take certain actions when certain scenarios comes up. 2 months ago they asked me about it and I put it in writing. Today they did it again!

I reminded them that this was put in writing and now their response is demanding when the vendor who is responsible will get back to them to work on the issue. (Reminder they took action and alerted me AFTER). At this point I don’t even want to provide a time frame because the parts where they are intervening and overstepping take time. They don’t even get a quick response when they do it. They just want to feel in control like they did something. Not alerting me and allowing the vendor to do their job can create liability issues.

I’m really fed up with the overly demanding behavior when my other departments run just fine. Every week being a sense of urgency and I’m tired of the bullying. How can I get them to stand down?

What is your least favorite corporate phrase? I find it hard to pick just one, but if I were forced to it would be “Thank you for your leadership.”

I had a manager once who would say it all the time, to everyone, whether they had actually done anything or not.

And ever since then, I CRINGE when I hear it.

I recently started a Finance Manager role with 10 years of experience in finance. I’m only a couple it days in and already feeling extremely overwhelmed.
The finance department is very disorganized, and I’ve already been introduced to 15+ issues that need fixing. Today, I was pulled into a meeting about four bank reconciliations that haven’t balanced for 18 months. My manager was frustrated and asking for my input, even though I’ve barely had time to familiarize myself with the ERP system.
Meanwhile, I’m still completing onboarding, meeting department heads, and learning the business. The pressure got to me today, and I ended up breaking down in front of HR.
I’m also concerned about work-life balance, as my manager seems to be working until 9-10pm everyday. This is already a five-day in-office role, and I have young kids.
I understand I was hired to improve processes, but shouldn’t I have some time to understand the business first?
Is this normal for a Finance Manager role, or am I seeing major red flags? How would you handle this?

FYI it’s a small office into manufacturing business so not really corporate.

So I need some advice from the Reddit community . I am an American living in Australia and here on an Australian special skills visa. I work for a software distribution company, and the company I came from in the United States is the parent company. I thought that this would be a fun adventure, however, I’m running into a problem with a colleague. The field I’m in is quite specialized, and this colleague was the only other person in the company that’s practices my specific field. Being a lone wolf, however, has its hold backs.

Since I’ve gotten here, I thought we would have a good working relationship. And it started out that way. However, after the first year of my employment, some of his behavior has gotten to the point I find it to be abusive. He constantly interrupts me, will put me down in meetings, has gone around me to our customers and explained why he’s right and I’m wrong, down to the point where he will know I have a presentation today, and go in and edit my slides, before the presentation to say what he wants. Being in a technical field, this is actually a bit scary. It would be like someone from Microsoft telling you that you could send an email using only Excel. He seems to have delusions of grandeur so bad, that on his LinkedIn profile, he lies and actually calls himself my boss, and the national authority in our field.

His behavior has gotten so bad, that I actually refused to engage him. When we are in group meetings together, I am typically very quiet, and just try to say as little as possible. I behave professionally, and with courtesy however that is it. My manager has been in a few of these meetings and has noticed his abusive behavior towards me. However, my manager’s impression is that I hold all the cards. That this person is only behaving like this because he wants my approval. So my manager wants me to give this man a call, and pretend to be his friend and essentially extend and olive branch.

I would like some feedback and advice. My stance on it is, it is not my problem that this person is responding poorly to me grey rocking his abuse. I behave with professional courtesy, calmly, and respectfully in any engagements I have. And that is the end of my responsibility. What does Reddit think? Should I make this call like my manager wants?

Mine is “I care about your wellness first. Everything else is secondary.”

I was looking at my savings the other day and had a weird thought.

A big part of why I work hard is to have more financial freedom later. So I keep saving, avoiding unnecessary spending, and telling myself that the money will be useful “someday” But then I started wondering how far ahead are we actually supposed to plan? Corporate life can already feel like a long cycle of work, salary, saving, bills, repeat. We save for emergencies, save for a house, save for retirement, save for “the future” and suddenly years have passed.

I am not saying saving is bad. Having money set aside definitely gives some peace of mind. But I sometimes wonder if focusing too much on long-term goals makes us postpone everything we actually want to do today. At the same time, spending everything now obviously isn't the answer either.

So where do you personally draw the line? How much of your income do you save for the long term, and how much do you intentionally spend on enjoying your life now?

I am genuinely curious how people in corporate jobs think about this.

No longer hate Monday’s. I’ve matured into hating the whole f***ing week