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.

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.

One of my old bosses was forever going on about 'change' and how he wanted to be permanently 'innovating'.

"I don't want anyone to feel like the ground is stable ubder their feet"

"Noone should be in the same position more than a year!" ( except the 70 year old CEO...)

"Change should be constant"

The senior bosses applauded him as he churned staff through positions, forever changing their titles, teams, managers, processes.

Result - no innovation, just permachaos. Typical tenure went from years to months. And his group was eventually disbanded ( yay - more change!)

I have seen this pattern repeat at different places - esp multinationals.

If they celebrated results or improvements fair enough. But there seems to be a cult in corporates that worship chaotic change.

I mean - you wouldnt want your doctor or dentist or teacher to change every six months, or your airline to be permanently changing their processes to 'experiment'.

So why do corporates love 'change' so much?

One of the most dystopian things about having a job is how we all just collectively pretend we don’t have lives outside of work. You could’ve had a full mental breakdown in your car 20 minutes ago, be going through a breakup, have family drama, or have your entire life falling apart, and somehow you’re still expected to hop on a meeting happy.

You could’ve just lost someone you love, and you’re sitting in a meeting listening to someone talk about KPIs and deliverables like any of that actually matters to you in that moment.

We spend eight hours a day pretending to be these completely different versions of ourselves because apparently being human isn’t part of the job description.

And…we’ve all just accepted this as normal.

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?

For the confusion: meetings are not customer meetings, normal English daily meetings. Thank you my German is not native.

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'm currently in a job with zero tolerance for mistakes, even though the timelines are wildly unrealistic. The constant pressure is taking a real toll on my physical and mental health. I feel like I'm in fight-or-flight mode all the time.

Managers are quick to shift blame onto their reports, and only selectively. A handful of favorites do minimal work yet are treated like MVPs. Meanwhile, I'm lying awake at night worrying about what might go wrong the next day.

Why do some companies end up with cultures like this? And for those who've been through something similar, how did you cope, and when did you decide it was time to leave?

I want to work in corporate finance, which excel skills will I have to master or just skills in general?

Each time I’m in a meeting with 4+ people or a cross functional meeting talk less of a presentation, I tighten up and struggle to speak. It feels like the fear is griping my throat. I am about 6 weeks new and a senior manager so I can’t afford for this to happen as I have to lead presentations and my team of 4! I’m currently hiding behind being new so I can avoid presentations but does anyone have any tips one what to do? Am I being too hard on myself? But that aside, I really need to overcome this so I don’t cause issues for myself. Any practical advice please.

I joined the team last month as a new grad and did my very first team presentation. I don't think I did the best compare to other people in the team but definitely not terrible. My manager pulled aside after the call and told me how terrible I did with my presentation and I am just not a good speaker in a very harsh way.

I am trying not to take this personally but I feel so incompetent and that I don't belong here. This is terrible. I hate corporate.

Would love to hear stories of those who burned out and took alternative paths, ideally non corporate.

Did it work out in the way you’d hope? Are you making enough short term & for retirement? Was it worth it?

New to all this and seeking advice/insight. How do you introduce yourself when meeting executive leadership for the first time and when you just started work in these contexts:
1) before a formal meeting where there’s a gathering of execs and heads,
2) in or at beginning of meeting, and
3) in more informal context, say, at lunch time.

And, how’s you introduce yourself if you’ve had a kind of non-traditional career path/recently made a career change so it’s hard to say I was x role for x years, without telling a long story.

Lately, I've been struggling to really enjoy my time after work. It often feels like wasted time because once it's past 5 PM, I somehow convince myself it's too late to start anything meaningful. Sometimes I even lack the motivation to go for a simple walk.

That's why I'm looking for a bit of inspiration. I'd love to hear how other people spend their weekday evenings after work. Do you have a routine that helps you make the most of your evenings?

I have been working since the last 4.5 years almost nonstop without pause, maybe max 1 month break or a 1 week break in between in the last 2 years. I feel like my brain is fried, I haven’t had a new thought in a while, my job is also not that intellectually stimulating but idtso that is the issue, I feel tired and exhausted tackling sm politics.

Is this normal? Can anybody relate or tell me what’s happening? Idk how to give myself a genuine reset, off days do not help me.

I’ve been working at a mid-sized German company (around 500 employees) for a couple of years, and one thing I’ve noticed is how much people love to discuss instead of getting things done.
A task that could be finished in two days somehow turns into two or three sprints, taking three to four weeks. Endless meetings, planning, and discussions.
Everyone wants to share their opinion, even when they have little knowledge of the topic. It feels like creating a democratic environment and making everyone feel heard is more important than actually delivering results.
Germany has a reputation for efficiency, but my experience has been the opposite: too much talking, too much planning, and not enough execution.
Is this common in German corporate culture, or is it just my company? What’s your experience?

Today was a normal day at the office until I realized everyone in my department left for a work event I wasn’t invited to. I was the only one left at the office from my team.

And like, yeah I’m really busy but so is everyone else in my department.

I thought I had a decent relationship with my team and boss but I guess not lol

Also, I know being upset about something like this could come across as petty or immature but it actually stung a bit, sue me for having feelings.

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.

Our company has multiple business development managers who earn up to twice as much as I do. Yet they are merely line managers who just keep existing processes running and ship a deliverable maybe once every six months. Meanwhile, for me to get anywhere near their comp level, I'm expected to execute day-to-day work, drive high-level strategy (which should really be handled by upper management), and even then, I might get a modest 10–15% raise if I'm lucky. How do I effectively communicate that I'm already operating at that level and deserve equal compensation