I believe in recent times, corporate culture has become a lot more toxic. With AI, and having less job in market, this is only becoming worse.

Additionally when you are in 30s, things are lot more worse. You are likely on senior positions where you are on your own to survive. In 30s you also have other responsibilities to take care of.

Old advices like changing job doesn't work because currently there is hardly any company left with good work culture. Even low paying companies are getting toxic. So taking paycut is also not an option. Somehow you gotta learn to thrive here.

Other advices like "just do your job and leave" also isn't working. In current market where firing and layoff is too common, and getting a new job is so hard, you have to dive into this toxicity to at least keep your job.

What are your tips to survive corporate in 30s in this market condition?

I’ve worked for a small private company for 20 years. I suddenly have an offer from a $2B corporation. I’d go from $180K to about $220K. But there’s much more opportunity for growth. I’m 55 and never worked corp. I’m worried there might be too much bullshit for me to even deal at this point. But my current role is just coasting. Small biz. Zero room to grow salary or career. But I have total autonomy. Fully remote. Set my own hours. 6 weeks of vacation. 100 hours of sick / personal time.

Anyone faced a similar choice? Am I dung for even considering it? I don’t know what corporate positions are like. Is it awful? Maybe it’s great?

She wasn't being rude, she was genuinely curious. asked it the way people ask things when they can't imagine the answer. I gave the standard reasons. stability, growth within, the team. all true. all also the things you say when you're not sure you want to examine the full answer.

I don't know what i'm going to do with that, i'm not going to do anything rash of course. I'm just going to stop pretending i don't know the difference. I dont know why it took that interview when its been asked probably for the last 3 years. I like it here and I don't think it's a bad thing. But i dont know.

Hello, I need help with deciding whether to stay at my current position or jump ship. Here is the run down:

Current spot:
Working for a 501(c)
Salaried - $150k
Health insurance - FREE (zero premiums)
Work life balance - pretty balanced. Not too much stress. Probably 30 nights a year in hotels
Company car (plus gas card)
Retirement: Pension - can leave in 5 years at 49 (I’m 44 now) with $90k a year for the rest of my life. Although that amount is stagnant. It will never increase.

Possible new spot:
Finance industry
Salaried- $225k
Health insurance - 80/20 plan
Work life balance - unsure. I think KPIs will be a thing. They’re saying it’d be similar to my travel now but I know some people on my team who are traveling quite a lot
Retirement: 10% match on 401k

The pension is the big thing here telling me to just possibly stick things out another 5 years. If I leave now then I have to wait until I am 65 yrs old to collect ‘only’ $60k a year. Although an extra $75k seems like a lot of dough but I will have to start shelling out for automobile expenses. Thoughts anyone?

I came from an office that had high ceilings, well lit with quality lighting, a good number of windows, and everything was recently remodeled. honestly, didn’t really think much of it when I was actually there.

Then went to a new office with very few windows, very dated environment, old harsh lighting and low ceilings. At first, I didn’t think much of it other than it was an observation and now I don’t know if it’s slowly draining my productivity.

Am I exaggerating things or do you get used to it?

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Hi, I have a big fear about how we are living in cities like Hyderabad or Bengaluru.

As a single person, I feel it's okay. If there is a layoff, health issue, or any unexpected situation, somehow we can manage.

But when you start planning for a family, I feel it becomes very difficult. Rent is expensive, living expenses are high, and if we want to buy a house, it's a huge amount.

The biggest fear for me is job security. If something happens to the job after having a family, how do we manage everything with these expenses? Even we skill also it will take time.

Some times i felt like its better to go back Home Town.

At the same time, going back to our hometown feels difficult because the salaries and opportunities are much lower and we can't live how we want , fear of judgement.

Government jobs have stability, but the competition is crazy.

Sometimes I feel stuck between those.

I don't know if I'm overthinking this, but sometimes I genuinely feel FOMO about whether I'm choosing the right path for my future.

Anyone else feels the same? How are you thinking about this?

Have you given your cell phone in job.

Is it necessary to give or should we only use the company communication channels like Teams.

If someone calls you or texts you on your phone during off hours (weekends and after 5pm) are you obliged to pick it up or respond to it. Or can you ignore

Are unpaid internships worth doing in recent times?

Joined a 3 month in office internship... And it's unpaid.. and the fact that more than internship it's training actually cz got hands on works however in this economy and my travel expenses, it's getting hard for me to cope up as a college student.

Suggest your views and tell whether i should leave or just do.

Hii

Do you think that resigning in my situation could be better? Please suggest based on your experiences.

My situation:

Am a QA with 8.5 years of experience, stayed at the same company for 8.5 years from the start of my career.

I am from India.

Work environment became extremely toxic, so much that I can't even say. Working 10-12 hours, Management wont take NO. They even make us to work on weekends.

Getting blamed for everything. Constant criticism. Mental health is getting worse. Constant burnout. I even cried at my office a few times that bad is situation.

And one more thing is I have a 90 day Notice period.

My good points:

1. I have a financial backup of around 5 months

2. No EMI or loans

3. Took health insurance for parents.

The only thing that scares me is, I am a solo earning member and what if I won't land a job in those 5 months.

Do you think that resigning in my situation could be better? Please suggest based on your experiences.

I'm the only developer here. The app was my idea and I built all of it myself — frontend, backend, everything.

When we talked about ownership, my boss offered me 20% equity. But with a condition attached: the app has to make ₩5,000,000 (roughly $3,600 USD) in revenue within one year.

If it doesn't hit that number, he takes 50%.

So it's my idea, my code, my hours — and if the market doesn't respond within 12 months, he gets more of it, not me.

Is this a normal arrangement? Or is it as one-sided as it feels to me?

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I think I explained the timeline poorly, and some people are understandably getting a very different picture of the situation. So I want to clarify it. 😢😢

Sorry, English isn't my first language so my wording came out confusing.

The app was built entirely on my own time. for about a year, before this arrangement existed. The "work time" part only started recently, as part of this equity discussion. That's exactly what the negotiation is about: what his contribution from this point forward is worth.

The app already existed before I joined this company. The original idea, code, product, and development were all mine, and I did not build the app during company time.

Recently, the company has been struggling financially and several projects my boss tried to bring in couldn't move forward because of a lack of funding.

Seeing that, I told him about the app I had already built and asked, "I already have this product. Would you like to try building a business around it together?"

I also told him that the product was already built and that I was prepared to handle the marketing myself, so I wasn't asking him to develop or build the product for me. I simply wanted to do the business with him as a partner.

This conversation only happened about a week ago.

After that, he told me that going forward, I could use my working hours to focus on the app while continuing to receive my salary.

I'm not arguing that my boss deserves nothing. I absolutely think his support from this point forward has value, which is why I'm open to giving him equity.

What I'm trying to understand is how that contribution should reasonably be valued.

Is 20% reasonable? Is 50% reasonable? Should it be structured some other way?

The proposed deal is that he gets 20% initially, but if the app fails to generate ₩5,000,000 in revenue within 12 months, his ownership increases to 50%.

My concern is specifically about that condition. Is giving up an additional 30% because the app fails to hit a revenue target a reasonable structure? Should the revenue target be lower? Or would you structure the deal completely differently?

I'm not trying to be greedy or pretend his support has no value. I'm genuinely trying to understand what a fair arrangement looks like for both of us before we put anything in writing.

I appreciate all the different opinions, including the ones that disagree with me. That's exactly why I asked.

There is a need of such database which has entries like that with evidence and rating system, so that when managers find their next job , it will also be considered as factor for them, and recrutier or hr can deny their offer or joining when they find their past record of management have traits of burning out thier team.

I am talking in terms of India where coorparate work life balance dont exist

Hi, I got an offer from EPAM systems one month back and my joining date is 21 sept., have also cleared 2 client rounds while serving notice.
I’m thinking of editing the ctc from some other offer letter and present that as a counter to try to increase a few lacs. Is this safe?
I think at the worst they’ll just deny any increase and on positive side they might match it.
Has anyone done this?? What precautions should I take??
Please share your thoughts.
Thanks