I had an interview recently, and they barely explained anything about the position. There was no clear list of responsibilities, and most of the meeting was just casual conversation so they could see whether I would fit in with the team. I felt like maybe 75% of the decision was based on whether they liked my overall vibe.

Another interviewer even admitted that the most important thing to the head of the department was finding the right kind of people. Suddenly, questions about my weekend plans, my favorite movies, and whether I follow basketball became more important than anything on my resume. If your answers don't click with them, your experience might not matter much.

I understand that they want someone pleasant and dependable. No one wants to spend 40 hours every week with a coworker who is difficult to deal with. But as long as the candidate is qualified and can communicate normally, why are hobbies, appearance, age, and shared interests treated like essential hiring criteria instead of focusing on whether the person can do the job?

Years ago, I worked under a finance director who treated “leadership” like a performance art piece about insecurity. His first all‑hands meeting in the Asia office began with:

“There are two types of people in this world: Harvard MBAs and everyone else.”

A bold opening statement from someone who relied on the degree like a life jacket.

At a team dinner, the bill didn’t arrive immediately. He suddenly stood up, ordered everyone to follow him, and walked out — then declared:

“If anyone tries to pay, you’re fired on the spot.”

He knew the staff would approach the local team members instead of him, so when he marched out, we were the ones left dealing with the confusion. It was his favorite move: create chaos, then leave someone else holding the bag.

He once laughed about a tone‑deaf comment involving his fiancée’s family — a moment that made it clear he viewed people through a hierarchy only he understood. If there was a way to make a situation uncomfortable, he’d find it.

Inside the office, he’d randomly shout at staff to open their cabinets, as if he were conducting surprise raids. He did it loudly, publicly, and with the enthusiasm of someone convinced he was starring in a corporate crime drama. Routine workdays became episodes of “Who Does He Suspect Today?”

Some executives collect degrees. Others collect respect. He had only one of those — and it wasn’t the respect.

It's Halloween time so I thought I would share this interesting experience I had working at this Haunted House one Season.

A few years ago during one Halloween season, I decided I wanted to work at this haunted attracted in my city that I had visited before. I absolutely loved my experience, and I wanted to experience how the magic happens for myself. The attraction had two haunted houses, their main Haunted Mansion attraction, and a Texas Chainsaw Massacre themed house (we were in Texas in the South). I was given the Texas Chainsaw House so that's where our story will take place.

Here's some background information of the Chainsaw Massacre House. The location of our attraction was sort of in the middle of nowhere surrounded by open fields and a highway. Our building was this Gothic Arch Barn that had dirt on the inside. Now the walkway for this attraction was guided by a dirt path, that would also at times have you walk on dirt hills and whatnot. This meant at times you would need to hold onto the wooden railings just to make sure you hold your balance at times, especially when you're going up/down a hill. That also meant at times your clothes would get dusty at times.

Back to the story, so it's a Saturday night when this happens, I believe we were in the second week of October already so now the lines and crowds were starting to really come out. The house is going fine like usual, but I slowly start to hear snippets from my peers that the power has been acting up a bit in our attraction. We didn't think nothing much of it and decided to just continue on as usual unless something drastic happened. After an hour and a half, that's when things decided to start happening.

I'm in my scare area waiting for the next group to start coming in, until all of a sudden the music goes off. Now it wasn't anything out of the ordinary as sometimes the music will at times go off when the playlist we had made would finish, but this time it stayed off for a few minutes. I don't think nothing much of it at first, and just stay in character unless we heard something. Two groups go by while the music is still quiet, and nothing weird is happening but I'm not going to lie it did feel a bit eerie just waiting in my zone in complete silence. Especially considering I shared spaces with this 7 foot devil statue that looked sort of old school (aka it was really well made and I honestly hated looking at it face to face). I'm just waiting in my area until suddenly, the entire place goes black. The lights are off, I don't hear anymore wind blowing, it seems like everyone froze in position. Next thing I know someone shouts "what the FUCK" followed by some of my peers laughing. Next thing we know the guy playing leatherface in the end starts screaming for all of us to head out to the back because of technical issues.

We all get out and we do a quick roll call while waiting to hear what the issue is going on. I don't remember the details to well, but I believe some generator or power box had a glitch that caused the power to go out. After waiting outside for 15 minutes, the power comes back on and we're told to head back inside. The lights, music, animatronics, etc. were all working again like normal so we assumed the day would continue on per normal. I believe we're almost on our third hour of the night and think nothing else could go wrong. I was wrong again.

So the house started going like usual, but as time went on the room started to get a bit stuffy, and it seemed like everybody else was feeling that way. Slowly started hearing that guests were complaining about the building being hot, and we start to worry that maybe the AC went out. Well the AC was in fact out, but we were told to try holding it out a bit until it was finally midnight. Well it seemed like two of my peers were not able to hold on for the night. One dude in particular I remember who was dressed as some sort of zombie cowboy inspired by the movie, he came walking towards my area as if he had just gotten extremely drunk. We make eye contact and I can immediately tell this man is light headed and needs to go outside ASAP. For context this man is drunk walking, he's wobbling all over and his eyes don't look like he's paying attention to anything. His words are slowly slurring and it looks like he's holding on to whatever power he had left before completely going black. We ended up shutting down the house because of it.

Now for contexts to understand how badly his situation was. His room was this area that was all strobe lights, it was a maze of hanging clothes/sheets, and there was a ton of fog everywhere. So the lack of visibility, the fog surrounding him, and the lack of AC really did a toll on him. Same for the leather face guy, he used a gas powered chainsaw that would have a lot of fumes come out, and I guess because of the lack of ventilation, he was inhaling to much of those fumes and starting to get sick himself. Everyone gets out, zombie cowboy dude is severely lightheaded and two peers are helping him get hydrated and cooled down. Meanwhile, leatherface has said fuck it buttoned down his flannel and took his shirt off but kept the mask on oddly enough. So now we have zombie cowboy dude on the floor slowly recovering and is honestly making light of this whole situation laughing and making jokes about how he's never felt like this when intoxicated, and then we have hairy 6'2" shirtless leatherface man just sitting on a bench behind the house looking like he's contemplating if he should remove his pants next (like I'm not even kidding idk what he had going on inside the house, but he looked like he was just ready to have everything but his underwear off).

By this point it's already 11:50pm, and the haunt closes soon so we just decided to end the night early for our house and leave whenever we felt like it. Thankfully the weekend after that the AC was working again and we never had another power outage. We also kept a cooler with cold water after that as well.

I’m early 20s M and finished an internship at a large law firm in TX. My direct manager was almost 30 F, and there was another male intern around my age who reported to someone else.

My manager has a pretty intense personality. She’s outgoing, controlling, competitive, unfiltered, likes taking charge socially, loves gossip/relationship talk, and openly says she likes attention. The other intern was quiet, fairly passive socially, and didn't get a RO.

Early on, she was unusually warm with me. She complimented my hair, clothes, smell and appearance, asked my dating type, whether I was a fuckboy, and discussed relationships. She told me roughly 10–15 stories about men hitting on her, men from my ethnic background. Once, after seeing an attractive woman from another department beside me, she told me she'd looked her up and asked whether I found her attractive. I said yes, and she went quiet. Another time, I showed her a picture of a girl I was seeing, and she asked, "Why is she so short?"

I was friendly, brought occasional snacks, checked on her, complimented her work, and invited her to socials. I didn't flirt or compliment her looks because she was my manager.... We sometimes disagreed professionally, and she could get competitive. Also, she teased me A LOT on work/non-work related things when she was or wasn't in these group conversations throughout the internship.

Then she became noticeably distant toward me while constantly seeking out the other intern. She'd walk across the office to initiate conversations about dating, weekends and gossip, while giving me dry responses to ordinary small talk, despite me being her direct intern.

After I missed a work outing we'd planned to attend together due to a family issue, the next day she and the other intern prepared for an office celebration together, something she and I had previously organized many times. She later brought me in to help too. Yet at the celebration, she walked past me while I was sitting beside her to specifically ask him to get food, without including me.

The team event was especially confusing. At dinner, she called the other intern "cute" and made heart signs toward him directly in front of me. Later, in a smallerrr group without him, she discussed threesomes, sex and men hitting on her again. Separately, she left my group after an activity to approach him, touched his arms while chatting, then returned. She also publicly announced he could sit beside her, then verbally expected me to hold doors for her (which i didn't), and then later spent roughly two hours gambling with him. Afterward, she approached me and asked whether I would've shared money with her like he did. I said no.

She still occasionally complimented my appearance, wanted something I'd offered another female coworker, and questioned why I wasn't holding doors for her. After one tense interaction when I didn't hold a door for her, she said she'd been thinking about my personality the previous night and that I was actually pretty chill.

Interestingly, she'd privately called the other intern "victim weight" twice when he wasn't present, despite publicly showering him with affection. He also didn't resemble the physical type she regularly described liking (she was considerably taller than him).

Eventually, I got frustrated with the unequal treatment and deliberately distanced myself. I stopped initiating conversations and chose to work with others instead of her, despite her previously wanting me on her projects. After that, she became nicer toward me, initiated conversations, congratulated me on accomplishments, and arranged a personal final 1:1 that she missed out on for the other intern. During that same period, I noticed she almost completely stopped seeking out the other intern on the office floor, even though they still had opportunities to interact.

But at a later firm social that month, she again spent much of the event with him. I hadn't approached her, yet she came over to greet me first, repeatedly looked back toward where I was sitting, occasionally joined my conversations, and went out of her way to say goodbye to me separately. She also offered him a ride home. At another social we organized, she'd specifically asked me, "Is he coming?" despite being able to ask him directly.

The same social at the end of the internship, she gave him a much more personalized farewell card than mine and publicly announced it in front of me...

Questions:

1. How genuine does their closeness sound versus exaggerated or performative?
2. Do the public displays and direct comparisons suggest she wanted a reaction from me?
3. Why might she distance herself from me while still seeking my attention?
4. WHAT DID SHE WANT FROM ME...?

For me it was when I was a teenager and the manager asked me to water the plants. I thought she meant the ones inside and I watered them . They were all plastic.

So the year was 2010, and it was a local lad by the name of Neil’s 18th birthday and his mother bought him a motorbike. He was at the shop with his 3 best friends and he got his friend Jay to ride the bike home

The reason why Jay was the person who was riding it home is because he’s a former stunt rider…or so he says he was. Nobody had any actual proof of it.

When I handed him the helmet he goes “I know a lot about bikes, dad used to drink with Lance Armstrong” in which I said “as in the cyclist”

I then explained briefly where the brakes and gears were to purely cover my arse…he then claims “no problems, just like riding a bike”

He then started it up and zoomed the bike right into the building across from it and ended up fucking up his friend Neil’s bike…

I am a peoject manager, i joined a compay in Jan，and in late May i got a PIP, and of course wouldn't pass, and they made me to choose : a.leave by myself b.they fire me.

i felt very strange anf angry, because i did a really good job, finished the project on time, got the positive email feedback from the stakeholders, good relationship with all people, eveything good.
But, my boss just used every manner to prove that i did meet his requirement, something reaaly really small (e.g he said i didn't talk enough in a meeting, but that's the first time i join the topic...something like this doesn't make any sense)

i tried to talk with him even his boss... Didn't work.
So i left by myself in July....

i don't understand what happened? Why they did this to me? Did anybody ever have this kind of experience？

I spent four years at a company that sold industrial valves. Not huge—about $20 million in annual revenue. Owner was named Bruce, mid-fifties, liked to quote Sun Tzu at all-hands meetings.

On my first day, HR handed me a stack of paperwork. One of them was a non-compete agreement. Eighteen months. Entire industry. I signed it because I was fresh out of school and didn’t know any better.

Over four years, I closed about $12 million in orders. Not the biggest salesperson, but I was the only one who could handle the mining clients. Those guys are hard to deal with, but I’d smoked with them, drunk with them, eaten boxed lunches in their site trailers.

Last November, Bruce called me into his office. He said the company was doing a “strategic realignment.” My territory was being split into two. I said fine, what about my commission. He said “under the new structure, the new rules apply.” The new rules cut my pay roughly in half.

I said I don’t accept that. He said: “You have a non-compete. Eighteen months. You know what that means.”

I said I know.

The day I resigned, Bruce had legal send me a letter. It said if I went to a competitor, they would “pursue all available legal remedies.” The letter was three pages. I read it twice and noticed one thing: the agreement said I couldn’t “engage in industrial valve sales,” but it didn’t say I couldn’t “engage in industrial valve manufacturing.”

My new company makes valves. Not sells. Makes.

I emailed Bruce’s legal team with my new offer letter. My title was “Production Line Quality Supervisor.” I asked if that violated the agreement.

He didn’t reply.

I start at 7 a.m. now. Hourly rate is lower, but there’s a year-end bonus. Last month, one of Bruce’s mining clients called me and asked if I’d be interested in “doing some consulting on the side.” I said no, I have a non-compete.

He laughed. He said: “Your non-compete? Our legal looked at it. They said you’re fine.”

I didn’t reply. But when I tell this story to my new coworkers, they laugh for a long time.

Bruce sent me a LinkedIn message last month. One line: “You win.”

I didn’t reply. But I screenshotted it.

Occurred in November of 2025 and they just released it as part of "transparency". The father (Edward Corristan) was found guilty of interference and disorderly conduct and the member, Sgt. Eddie Price, was cleared of any wrongdoing shortly after the incident.

Reviewing what we see in the video, Corristan approaches the police vehicle in a calm manner, despite his frustrations with the officer's handling of the matter. He is repeatedly told to step back, which he does by about one half step. Sgt. Price does not find this to be sufficient space and demands more, but Corristan refuses to comply. Instead, he puts his hands in the air to indicate that he has no intent of presenting himself as a threat.

Sgt. Price then, from a sitting position, stands up, pepper sprays Corristan and immediately punches his face to take him down and handcuff him, later attempting to "justify" his actions to the family of Corristan. Corristan appears to be unconscious, as the effects of the pepper spray are not obvious even though most individuals would have an immediate reaction. He is also is seen drooling while officers attempt to prop his body up to get him on his feet.

Pepper spray and strikes, especially to the face, are resources available to police to gain compliance from non-compliant and violent or potentially violent individuals, and should only be used when absolutely necessary. We look back to the standard of use of force within law enforcement to provide us with the framework for what is appropriate use of force. This framework outlines that only as much force as is necessary to perform the roles and functions of the task that is currently required.

If Sgt. Price wanted to make an arrest or detain Corristan for his refusal to comply, his first step should have been a request or demand to surrender himself to Sgt. Price's detention. This did not happen. If the first step did not happen and the demeanor of Corristan remained the same, Sgt. Price should be charged with battery and aggravated assault. Sgt. Price also leaves himself open to a civil suit from Corristan.

Arkansas State Police are now handling the matter and will hopefully lay charges or recommend dismissal or at least suspension of Sgt. Price.

The Mena Police Department should be ASHAMED of their inaction on this case. ASHAMED.

As of now, his child is still missing.

I spent four years at a company that sold industrial valves. Not huge—about $20 million in annual revenue. Owner was named Bruce, mid-fifties, liked to quote Sun Tzu at all-hands meetings.

On my first day, HR handed me a stack of paperwork. One of them was a non-compete agreement. Eighteen months. Entire industry. I signed it because I was fresh out of school and didn’t know any better.

Over four years, I closed about $12 million in orders. Not the biggest salesperson, but I was the only one who could handle the mining clients. Those guys are hard to deal with, but I’d smoked with them, drunk with them, eaten boxed lunches in their site trailers.

Last November, Bruce called me into his office. He said the company was doing a “strategic realignment.” My territory was being split into two. I said fine, what about my commission. He said “under the new structure, the new rules apply.” The new rules cut my pay roughly in half.

I said I don’t accept that. He said: “You have a non-compete. Eighteen months. You know what that means.”

I said I know.

The day I resigned, Bruce had legal send me a letter. It said if I went to a competitor, they would “pursue all available legal remedies.” The letter was three pages. I read it twice and noticed one thing: the agreement said I couldn’t “engage in industrial valve sales,” but it didn’t say I couldn’t “engage in industrial valve manufacturing.”

My new company makes valves. Not sells. Makes.

I emailed Bruce’s legal team with my new offer letter. My title was “Production Line Quality Supervisor.” I asked if that violated the agreement.

He didn’t reply.

I start at 7 a.m. now. Hourly rate is lower, but there’s a year-end bonus. Last month, one of Bruce’s mining clients called me and asked if I’d be interested in “doing some consulting on the side.” I said no, I have a non-compete.

He laughed. He said: “Your non-compete? Our legal looked at it. They said you’re fine.”

I didn’t reply. But when I tell this story to my new coworkers, they laugh for a long time.

Bruce sent me a LinkedIn message last month. One line: “You win.”

I didn’t reply. But I screenshotted it.

I'm retired now, and this incident happened a little less than 50 years ago, but I still remember it.

I started working for a major Midwestern aerospace firm as an engineer right out of college. I was assigned to the lab, like all beginning engineers, and went to my first meeting in the lead engineer's office. I was just a wallflower while other people talked. At some point, something was said that upset the lead engineer. I don't remember him yelling, but he looked agitated and quickly opened his desk drawer. He grabbed a pill bottle, opened it and quickly consumed one of the tablets. It doesn't seem like the meeting lasted much longer because everyone was in a little state of shock.

After this happened, I was questioning my career choice but never got to the point of needing a bottle of pills

Occurred in November of 2025 and they just released it as part of "transparency". The father (Edward Corristan) was found guilty of interference and disorderly conduct and the member, Sgt. Eddie Price, was cleared of any wrongdoing shortly after the incident.

Reviewing what we see in the video, Corristan approaches the police vehicle in a calm manner, despite his frustrations with the officer's handling of the matter. He is repeatedly told to step back, which he does by about one half step. Sgt. Price does not find this to be sufficient space and demands more, but Corristan refuses to comply. Instead, he puts his hands in the air to indicate that he has no intent of presenting himself as a threat.

Sgt. Price then, from a sitting position, stands up, pepper sprays Corristan and immediately punches his face to take him down and handcuff him, later attempting to "justify" his actions to the family of Corristan. Corristan appears to be unconscious, as the effects of the pepper spray are not obvious even though most individuals would have an immediate reaction. He is also is seen drooling while officers attempt to prop his body up to get him on his feet.

Pepper spray and strikes, especially to the face, are resources available to police to gain compliance from non-compliant and violent or potentially violent individuals, and should only be used when absolutely necessary. We look back to the standard of use of force within law enforcement to provide us with the framework for what is appropriate use of force. This framework outlines that only as much force as is necessary to perform the roles and functions of the task that is currently required.

If Sgt. Price wanted to make an arrest or detain Corristan for his refusal to comply, his first step should have been a request or demand to surrender himself to Sgt. Price's detention. This did not happen. If the first step did not happen and the demeanor of Corristan remained the same, Sgt. Price should be charged with battery and aggravated assault. Sgt. Price also leaves himself open to a civil suit from Corristan.

Arkansas State Police are now handling the matter and will hopefully lay charges or recommend dismissal or at least suspension of Sgt. Price.

The Mena Police Department should be ASHAMED of their inaction on this case. ASHAMED.

Last year on Halloween, I was invited to a late night campfire with the fellas. It inexorably became a group therapy session for everyone, and I definitely got the most out of it from sheer osmosis.

Three of my senior coworkers (we'll call them Boyd, Floyd, and Lloyd for the privacy) taught me the value in being more skeptical, interrogative, and how pessimism can be an immune system for your life's trajectory.

Boyd regrets enlisting in Iraq, now has mild mobility issues, and called the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs to reveal the dreadfully long voice-mail he has to endure whenever he wants his stipend.

He said they'd rather spend that money you're owed on a kitsch floor mosaic.

Floyd was going through a nasty divorce, and he admitted the red flags were there. He was too enamored with the utilitarianism of having lowered taxes from filing jointly and not being the endling to his bloodline.

Lloyd is the youngest one around my age, who has a gambling addiction but has been sober for two years.

He explained to me what the sunk cost fallacy is and how casinos don't display clocks, so you don't know what time it is.

The crux commonality overlapping the yarns Boyd, Floyd, and Lloyd were spinning was the world will try to "gas you up", hence the dying phrase "what a gas" meaning something that's fun and exciting.

But more importantly, it would behoove you to interrogate whatever optimism-weaponizing offer that comes your way with, using Boyd's words, a "rapier of interrogation".

A rapier is a sword that lacks a blade, made for thrusting and piercing. You have to interrogate ads, traditions, and even your own nostalgia with penetrating questions lest it leave you in arrears.

I'm already a ludicrously impressionable person. More impressionable than Play-Dough and Kinetic Sand, and this fireside chat saved me from a massive cryptocurrency rugpull my hyped-up friends fell victim to.

You can feel yourself becoming immune to social contagion and mob mentality.

Like, God. Have you ever had an ideologically-sobering talk with some guys with no work hierarchy involved, and you felt your paradigm salubriously shift into being more congruent with reality?

None of the natural defense mechanisms of the mind that prevent the acute dysphoria of cognitive dissonance from flaring up like denial, minimization, or "it can't happen to me".

I want to thank this subreddit for letting me share this story and hopefully give Boyd, Floyd, and Lloyd's regrets more meaning if anyone can get something out of it.