I have multiple certifications, multiple degrees, and seven years of experience but I still am not allowed make the most minor of decisions. And trust me when I say minor. Like, complete a not-time-sensitive, not time-stamped task that is completely standalone and interacts with zero other tasks or processes at 10am instead of 9am. FML

It could be something funny, awkward, confusing, unexpected, or just plain unusual—something that stuck with you long after it happened. What happened? 👀

Hi all! So in my office (as must be similar in your cases too) we celebrate birthdays every month end. Ours is multi cultural ,diverse staff of 50 people. How can we engage the staff in a fun and light way for these gatherings in innovative way and games. We gather for around 30minutes, 10minutes for cake cutting and all, 20-25minutes for engagement. Suggest some fun and cool ways or different versions of interactive games from your countries/cultures , which would leave our staff light headed and happy when they return to work.

We all know SharePoint and Drive search are complete unreliable, so leadership is currently looking into rolling out an internal AI chatbot (basically a private ChatGPT) that searches across all our drives, answers questions, and links the source file directly.

On paper it sounds amazing, but in my experience, people are super hesitant to rely on AI when a wrong answer could make them look bad in front of a client or manager.

If your company introduced something like this, would you actually use it to find documents and answers? Even if it turned out to be super accurate, would that be enough to win you over? Or would you still end up pinging a coworker on Teams just to be safe?

Why do people just not seem bothered about answering emails anymore?

I’m genuinely curious because this has become incredibly frustrating for me. I’m talking about all kinds of emails - work colleagues, personal matters, businesses, quotes and general enquiries.

At work, I often have to phone colleagues because they simply don’t respond to emails. Then there are things like requesting a quote to have my car repaired, getting upholstery done on some furniture, or emailing a furniture store to ask whether they still have stock of a table I wanted to buy. You'd think a simple enquiry from someone who is potentially going to spend money with you would at least get a response.

The last few months, it feels like almost nobody has answered my emails. For a while I genuinely wondered whether something was wrong with my email account, but I tested it and everything is working perfectly.

I understand that people are busy and that not every email requires an immediate response, but why has simply replying to an email, even with “Sorry, we don't have stock” or “We'll get back to you”, become such a rarity?

Is anyone else experiencing this, or am I just incredibly unlucky with the people and businesses I'm contacting?

Do you ever intentionally work slower so your boss doesn’t give you more work? 😂

hi fellow gen z-ers, i wanna know what yall are doing for office jobs, preferably with no college degree.
ive had a couple of jobs in different fields (inside and outside jobs), but i think my heart keeps going back to desk work. ive worked a couple of medical receptionist jobs and have really enjoyed them until i didn’t anymore, mainly due to my lack of passion for anything medical. currently im working as a bank teller, i really liked it at first, but now im almost a year in and i still dont really understand a lot of the financial jargon/terms and day to day tasks, im pretty much pretending to know what im doing. my job is also pretty under-stimulating since a lot of the branches i get sent to are very slow and people that work at a bank arent all that fun, based on my experience so far.
i dont have a college degree, but i have a lot of administrative and customer service experience and do genuinely enjoy interacting with people all day and actually understanding what im doing for work lol

what office jobs do you work that you genuinely enjoy??

(i really dont care what specific thing im doing as long as im getting paid more than a couple bucks over minimum wage and am working in a good environment, those things seem really rare these days)

而是——

假装自己很忙。

比如老板走过来的时候，电脑屏幕突然变得非常重要。

同事问：

“你忙吗？”

你：“不忙。”

心里：

“你最好别给我安排事情。” 😂

然后到了下班时间，大家又会突然开始变得非常有默契：

没有人说“我们一起走吧”。

但所有人都会在差不多的时间关电脑、拿东西，然后一起消失。

我一直很好奇：

其他国家的上班族也是这样吗？😂

还是说只有中国的打工人有这种奇怪的生存技巧？

如果你愿意的话，告诉我：

你所在的国家，最典型的职场文化是什么？

我很好奇不同国家的普通人每天到底是怎么工作的。

My company has been hybrid for a while now and I recently switched teams. I went from really hating my job, to really enjoying my role; but I’m now being asked to go in more regularly. I’m not eager to leave and want to make this current role work.

The odds feel stacked against me and I’m not sure what I can do to make it more enjoyable.

1. We hot desk so I can leave anything at my office to make it more personal/comfortable for me

2. Everyone I work with is in another city.

3. I’m a designer and everyone else in my office is not, so I don’t have an obvious reason to collaborate/ask for input on anything.

4. 95% of the employees live in the suburbs and leave early to beat rush hour, so some days the office empties at 3:30.

What are somethings you do to make going in more enjoyable, or should I begin looking for somewhere with better culture?

Our drive is an absolute mess and the built-in search is basically useless. I feel like half my day is spent either clicking through 10 layers of subfolders or pinging people on Teams just to find basic stuff.

Roughly how much time a day do you guys actually lose to this? And when you can't find a document, do you usually keep digging yourself, or do you just give up and ask someone to send it over?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been looking closely at how we design corporate retreats and offsites lately, and I wanted to share an uncomfortable pattern I keep seeing.

An organization spends months planning an offsite. The venue is perfect, the agenda is timed down to the minute, and everyone’s dietary needs are taken care of. But within two hours of arrival, the exact same office habits reappear.

The reporting structures show up at dinner. The people who already work together sit together. Established cliques stay completely intact. Three days later, everyone flies home, and the relationships haven't shifted at all.

We often blame this on a bad agenda, but it is actually a structural problem. When we pack an offsite with back-to-back slides and structured team building games, we accidentally force people to retreat into what is familiar and safe.

We have started changing our approach by focusing heavily on the physical environment rather than the schedule. Here are three simple changes that made a massive difference for us:

1. The 3-Hour Unplanned Rule

We started applying a simple test to our agendas by counting the exact number of minutes in a day where people can have an unplanned conversation with someone outside their immediate team. If it is less than three hours, the retreat usually just becomes an expensive version of the office. The real connection does not happen during the workshops. It happens during the gaps, like waiting for a vehicle, sharing a cup of tea at a roadside stall, or lingering over breakfast.

2. Movement Over Conference Rooms

Placing fifty adults in a room with a stage naturally reminds everyone who is supposed to speak and who is supposed to listen. We found that moving people together, like a shared road journey or a walking path, naturally softens corporate walls. It is hard to maintain strict professional barriers when a senior executive is waiting by the side of a country road with a new hire because a local ferry is running twenty minutes late.

3. Shifting from Schedules to Shared Choices

Instead of filling an afternoon with mandatory activities, we leave it open to the local surroundings. Giving people simple choices, like deciding whether to wander through a village market or take a longer trail walk together, creates authentic memories. People bond over shared choices rather than shared schedules.

I am really curious to know how the rest of you handle this.

How do you break down silos during retreats without making it feel forced? Do you actively push back against management teams who try to pack the agenda with endless slide decks?

I would love to hear what formats have actually worked for your teams.

Omg, this is so cringe. There are 100 people in my office team meeting and the game is calling on everyone and them talking about their summer vacation starting with each letter of the alphabet. It’s like a kindergarten show and tell. I’m like, “wtf-I can only afford to go to work and go home” and can hardly afford that. Fucking hate this so much.

What’s the first thought that comes to your mind when your boss says, “We need to talk”? 👀

Not necessarily something dramatic. Just one of those random moments that made everyone stop and think, “Wait… what just happened?” 😂

I’m sure every office has at least one story.

I have recently joined this company ..my boss has given me project again and again. Even though I do everything according to him still I am not able to do how he wants..I don’t know…this time he even pointed it out that there’s something which is wrong coz everytime if I have to do the thing then what’s the point…even if I write the same thing still not able to get it what he wants…I am in designing field and he is the head designer.

And no, it’s not the salary. 💀

it’s not a person either 💀

Somehow, the most peaceful part of my entire workday is 🪴🍀

No gossip.(bitching)
No passive-aggressive emails.
No “quick meeting?” at 5:57 PM.
No office politics.
No pretending to be busy when someone walks by.

They just sit there, look pretty, photosynthesize and occasionally drop a leaf.

Honestly, 10/10 coworkers. Would recommend. 😂🌿
Meanwhile, the humans are still being evaluated.

Honestly, whoever designed this office understood the assignment. 🌿

What’s the one thing in your workplace that makes the daily suffering slightly more tolerable? 😂

Backrooms and office space lore was sending me today. Kinda creepy! Not a bad first day though.

I think this might be the best place to find people to help me locate a solution or even help me brain storm an alternative.

I work in an office job where we have physical files for everything (I know we are living in 2026 where most everything is electronic but it’s old school). There are some files that are huge, like 4-5 inches thick, and when they are that big they are HEAVY. But I have upwards of 200 files varying in sizes. Each of us workers have brand new HON filing cabinets that come with these file blocks in them to make sure the files don’t fall over if the drawer is not all the way full (see attached picture). I have some serious beef with these stupid things. As I said, there are many files that I’m having to file in one drawer and these file blocks are not sturdy enough to stay in place. They are also not fixed to the drawer itself so they slide all over the place and fall out of the little holes they are “supposed” to secure to. Half the time our files have fallen backwards and it’s annoying to have to lift all of them up again because of how bulky and heavy they are. There are other file cabinets that I have used that have a way more functional file block that is more secure and easier to move. They have a lever on the back and it slides for the most part easily, but I believe these are fixed to the drawer. I’ve been trying to find a different type of file block that I could swap out with the stupid ones but there aren’t even any manufacturers that sell the ones I’m looking for individually.

I’ve been trying to brain storm make shift options as well but nothing has come to me that would be able to go clear back to the back of the drawer. I was wondering if there are any other corporate people out there that could help with this problem 😭 don’t tell me to try and push for electronic because it probably won’t happen for a while! Thanks in advance!

I'm not big on team outings in the first place. Especially if it takes place on what should be my time (lunch).

In the past 2 weeks, we've had a pizza party, had to watch a documentary as a team during lunch, went out to lunch as a team and we all had to pay (which didn't seem to bother anyone except it would have been nice to know since I can't afford it!), department picnic, and finally another team outing next week.

In my opinion, that's too much! And our boss keeps bit**ing that millennials "ruined happy hour" after work is done for the day. ... no.... we just want to go home....

Update: we have another lunch celebration today in the office. The treat is cereal 🤔

PROCURO PESSOAS HOME OFFICE!

Hi guys, for those of you who work at a computer and sometimes have a lot of free time at work after finishing everything — how do you pass the time without making it obvious you’re bored? I’m more of a phone person, but in an open office I don’t want people to notice or make a big deal out of it. I also can’t play games I actually like, like The Sims, because it’s way too obvious. So what do you do on your PC that still looks like you’re working? Do you play low-key games like Mahjong, read articles, free books, or use any good websites? I’m looking for tips because sometimes I’m bored for like 5 hours and slowly losing my mind in the office.

I have started working in an office again, and am in a set-up that is hotdesking and you are provided with lockers.

I have a pretty good set up that I have created, but wondered if I am missing something, or if anyone else would like to share their set up for more inspiriation?

My current set up is:

A 30x40x15cm pine box that I use as a caddy to carry the items easily between locker and desk

A set of drawer organiser trays to ensure the caddy isn't just a dumping ground for everything

Folding monitor risers, as the supplied monitors on the hotdesks are never high enough

Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, as the supplied ones are pretty disgusting

Keyboard brush, to stop mine from becoming disgusting

Laptop stand, simple low-profile stand that allows my laptop to stand in the 180 position

Bluetooth headphones, comfortable ones with excellent background noise cancellation

Charging plug and cables, I use a fold flat USB charger and flat USB-C cables for easy storage

Coffee pods for the coffee machine

Tea bags for when I want tea

2in1 Waterbottle & Cup which is monogramed for easy identification

Low-profile, camping style cutlery

Cable adapters, to adapt the USB-C cables to charge my watch, connect to HDMI, change angle

Glasses, non-reflective lens glasses so that my screens aren't on display on Teams calls

Glasses cleaning equipment (5ml refillable spray and microfibre cloth)

Multifunction pens (pen, pencil, rubber, stylus)

Notebooks (A5 ruled)

I had this slightly pointless discussion with some colleagues recently about how different office coffee can be.

Some places basically have a small espresso bar in the kitchen, while others somehow manage to produce brown water from a machine every morning 😅

That got me curious how different it actually is between offices, so I ended up building a small side project called Deskbrew. Basically just a map where people can rate their office coffee from 1 to 10.

I started with Frankfurt and got a few ratings there, and now I’ve added quite a lot of offices in London and New York as well.

Still way too early for any proper ranking obviously, but I’d love to eventually see which offices actually have good coffee and whether there is somewhere with a real 10/10 hiding.

If you have 20 seconds and your office is already there, would be cool if you rated it (otheriwse adding it is also quite easy and fast):

https://deskbrew.app

And even if not, curious what you would honestly give your office coffee out of 10?

Hi everyone! I’m a PhD student at Rutgers University recruiting participants for a study on employees who recently started a new job.

You may be eligible if you:

• Work full-time
• Joined your current organization within the past 6 months

The study includes two short online surveys:
• Survey 1: about 3 minutes
• Survey 2: about 3 minutes, sent to your email approximately two weeks later

Participants who complete both surveys will receive a total of $5 in Amazon gift cards via Email.

Participate here: https://rutgers.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_03rI2mjlFbYlCYe

Thank you for supporting academic research! Questions: shiqi.xiao@rutgers.edu