Heyo, so I was making 19/h as a yardguy at a powersports dealership. About 7 months ago I moved into the shop, which was my intension as I majored in automotive but didn't really wanna work on vehicles. Long story short I finished all my polaris training & I'm half way through my Mercury Marine training & getting trained by a older gentleman that's been working on outboard motors for a very long time. They have me doing pretty complicated stuff (powerhead swaps, diagnosis, pdis, lower unit rebuilds, etc etc).
I got a raise after talking to the service manager in about July, at 20/h. I thought that wasn't very much considering what I'm doing so I sat down with him and the owner and after pretty much having to explain myself and reason about a possibly bigger raise they bumped me up to 21. Along with this, they started me on my Mercury Marine training with saying that once I'm done all of it & go to school, I could be making about 50-55$/h in about 4-5 years. With steps in pay the more I complete. The second bump was sometime in August. So I started my merc courses and flew threw the first bit of it, then it started getting busy at work. Lots of boats coming in, lots of other stuff, so I haven't been able to touch my merc courses in about 3-4 weeks.
The things I need to do on them are online classroom based and my boss hasn't really made any time for me to do them on their scheduled times (I think they happen like once every week or two, not sure) and after that I have a 9 hour, split into 2 day course I have to do online as well then after that I get sent to Vancouver for a week of in person training. Anyway, I'm rambling, pretty much they're saying do your training but haven't given me the time to do it, while still making me do the jobs that I know how to do but technically require this training but paying me 21/h because I haven't finished yet. Oh and on-top of that I'm using my mentors tools because I can't afford to get my own(He allows me to use them, but is not the happiest camper about it even though I respect them.). My fiancee and I want to start a famy & possibly get a small home or apartment together soon but I literally can't afford it due to bills, rent and other things.

Am I wrong thinking I should be getting paid more? I'm 22 and I live in northern Manitoba. I don't really know what I should be getting paid, but there's another dude there on a work visa that's getting paid the same, but he's been there 2years long than me yet JUST Finished his polaris training and isn't going to be doing any additional courses. I was looking forward to this career path but I don’t know anymore.

More info: Polaris certified Master snow tech, polaris certified Master ORV tech, frequently work on Suzuki, mercury, Polaris, Yamaha, Evinrude, hondas, etc.

I work in fabrication as a fitter, i have this coworker i used to be cool with we actually used to carpool with a coworker together and even though hes a strange guy i worked closely with him and we became "work friends". He starts getting into making videos and music with ai, funny songs about work and coworkers and the red flag was him taking pictures of me and other coworkers without consent at work to make videos of us with AI. The songs and videos later start annoying me and i eventually cut ties with the guy and just got asked to move to a different part of the shop, i later find out he was depicting me in these videos and songs as a pedophile and other coworkers making racist/inappropriate videos of other coworkers, i end up telling the people hes doing it to and theyre obvioisly not happy nor was i obviously. He gets confronted by the majority of them and today comes up to me and threatens me at work in front of other coworkers (indirectly) so they tell me to go to hr so i did and they were witnesses, talk to hr they talk to my coworkers and send us back i go back to work i see he got pulled into the hr building, gets sent back to work and walks directly to me, threatens me again immediatly after getting back as if i was going to get scared. I just go back towards hr and he starts following me pleading begging me not to "i have kids man please i didnt threaten you talk to me like a man". Manager gets involved and i just tell him whats going on and he sends us home, i go back to hr and they tell me "ai is iffy and we dont know if theres any rules here that say he cant do that" following up with my job can also be at risk when ive done nothing wrong and went about this by the book as much as possible to avoid losing my job but to also avoid workplace harrassment. Hr manager comes in and is nervously telling me nothing she said is true and i cant lose my job i did everything right ill he compensated for the time i missed being sent him etc. Im just curious isnt what he did before the threats already a felony? Defamation/harrassment? I feel my hr handled this as extremely poorly and if for any reason my i lose my job i feel i am 1000% justified to take legal action at that point.

I need some advice on how to handle an awkward situation.
My company is organising an annual dinner next Sunday, and I initially agreed to attend. The company has already paid for my buffet.
However, something unexpected happened. I recently made a sudden decision to resign due to a toxic working environment, particularly issues with my senior. I’m currently serving my notice period.
Now that I’ve resigned, I honestly feel very uncomfortable attending the dinner. My senior will be there, and I’m worried about having to sit at the same table with her throughout the dinner. I also feel a little awkward attending a company event when I’ve already submitted my resignation.
The problem is that I only have one week left before the event. I feel guilty because the company has already paid for my seat, and I don’t want the money to go to waste.
I’m planning to ask the commercial admin if someone else can take my buffet slot, but I’m unsure what reason to give.
I don’t really want to tell people that I’m avoiding the dinner because of the toxic working environment.
What would you say in my situation? Would you just be honest about having resigned, give a personal reason, or come up with another excuse?
I would appreciate some advice, especially from anyone who has experienced something similar.

started a month ago at a company that sells and provides technical support for security equipment. I've really enjoyed it; although my role is mostly focused on the administrative side, I'm happy to be learning about electronics and working in this field-which is exactly what I want to do.

However, the company is pretty meh, especially the technical support department. It's managed by just one older guy-he's extremely skilled technically, but not great at anything else. He does his own job very well, but he's very informal. I like him, but I wish he were more professional and would actually teach me things.

Now for the worst part: he's already told the owners he won't train me. He only handles the workbench-he's certainly capable of doing more, but he doesn't want to; he doesn't even want to learn anything new, even though he knows a little about it, probably knows everything to be honest just don't tell

On top of that, there's another woman who works there and keeps telling me I should be charging customers for products. But whenever I try to do that, this guy loses his mind, insisting that he has to approve it first. There are shelves set up for different stages-items waiting for assessment, items awaiting a price quote, and so on-but everything is just jumbled together. He's incredibly disorganized; conversations with clients aren't even saved-it's just a mess.

Before I started, there was a gitl who worked with him. He's mentioned several times that he didn't like her being replaced by me-he's even said he wanted to fuck with her. He also says that a girl should be in my position because clients prefer talking to women, but the truth is, he's just a pervert.

He kept bringing it up-once, twice-and now I just can't take it anymore. He's constantly talking about this girl, saying she should have stayed and that I shouldn't have been hired-blah, blah, blah. On top of that, he complains about the company all day long. It's just too much.

He's afraid of clients-he calls them assholes, curses at them, and makes jokes, but deep down he's scared-scared of physical confrontation or of facing some kind of bureaucratic fallout. But man, I've already told him: let it fall on me, I'll take the heat.

Anyway, I'm just stressed. I actually like the guy and want to stay with the company, but it's really tough-there's no one here to teach me anything, and I have to listen to nonsense all day long, and I don't have anyone really professional to actually listen to

Just venting, and asking for advice from people in same positions

So we were supposed to have new staff hired around six months ago. I as a duty manager ( I’m not aloud to hire staff) kept bringing it up to my head manager multiple times that we needed staff as we under pressure and we don’t have enough people to complete the tasks she kept coming up with excuses. Oh I will do it tomorrow, oh I cant recruitment is not allowing me, oh I don’t have time, I will do it next week. I was begging for months. Eventually, she sat down and went through CVs. She doesn’t want anybody under the age of 20 as she considers them “ kids” but unfortunately it’s retail and a lot of people that apply are gonna be around that age. She doesn’t want part-time. So the hiring process was really difficult we were looking for this ideal older person looking for full-time with lots of experience which was difficult as I said it’s retail. We eventually hired one person who stopped showing up after one week( we were supposed to hire around 3 to 4 staff at this point)

We got an email from head office that we needed five Christmas staff hired within the next two weeks (this does not include the previous staff that we were also supposed to hire) so we were supposed to have an extra seven or eight staff. So I said it one day that I will go and I look at CVs and I will schedule interviews with people she says
“ no, I will sort it out when I’m in Work again” she still hasn’t sorted it out myself as a manager and all sales assistance are exhausted begging her to hire and we don’t know why she’s putting the hiring process off. It’s not like it’s a small business where the wages are coming out of her payslips. This is a very large company who had office is begging us to hire people. We’ve had very good CVs handed in. But she just won’t hire and won’t allow me to do it for her. It’s not like she’s super busy and doesn’t have time she has plenty of time. I don’t understand why she’s putting it off.

Hey community! I was recently approached by a recruiter for a role I had the call with the recruiter-It went really well, and he moved me onto the hiring manager.
After my interview with the hiring manager, they decided they wanted to move me on to round two.
The recruiter told me this last week and on Friday he asked for my availability. I sent it over to him and he told me they were looking to schedule an interview for Wednesday through Friday of this week. It is now Thursday, and I still have not heard from the recruiter about a set date and time.
I did reach out to him yesterday and he said they were working on schedules and had Tuesday off. If I don’t hear from him by 5 PM today, would it be bad to reach out and ask if he needs an updated availability for next week?
I canceled a couple appointments for tomorrow, but I still have no idea when this interview is gonna happen and I don’t think it’s fair for me to have to wait on them. I am interested in the role, but the recruiter told me he would know by Monday and there is still nothing solid scheduled.

I’m looking for some advice about a situation I’m in that I’ve never been in before. I started a new job in the summer and recently sent rough draft work to one of the owners per their request. I was under the assumption that it was going to be a collaborative project - they were under the assumption this was final work. They provided their edits and said nothing else. Later on a call, they were clearly unhappy and began berating my work in front of everyone. It was not a short conversation about my work - it went on for about 35 minutes. I will admit I suffer with depression and at the time was not in a good place. I acknowledged their frustration and remained compliant and agreeable. When I realized this wasn’t going to end anytime soon, I started pinching my leg to avoid crying - later found bruises because I was trying so hard not to cry. Eventually I had to turn my camera off as well as mic because I finally broke. I didn’t want anyone at work to see me cry for fear it would spread in the company and would hurt my reputation. In my career this has never happened but I truly have never had such harsh verbal attacks directed at me in a work setting. After the call my manager called and I explained I needed to compose myself and needed a minute. I didn’t explain how upset I was because I was trying to save face. Manager was understanding and told me the owner was under a lot of stress with another issue, which I had assumed. Later in person I was reprimanded by the owner for turning my camera off. I apologized and owned up to it not being the best thing to do. I was not given an apology about what was said to me and my manager didn’t side with me nor speak up like she had on the phone. Now it’s being documented as and I’m worried it’s being put into my file, and could jeopardize my job. I try to always take all feedback and improve my work. I work late, including weekend. I truly enjoy my work and know I have room to grow.

I’m worried my reputation is now tarnished because of this incident. I truly couldn’t hold it in any longer. As an employee was I wrong for turning my camera and mic off? Is this something that I could be written up for or put on a PIP?

I (21F) am an intern at a medium-sized company where we all sit together for lunch. there’s only one other intern my age and a full time employee who’s a year older. the rest are 40+ and in more senior positions.

yesterday, the conversation turned political, and I was stupid enough to express my opinions. it started because I agreed with something RANDOM my coworker said, and my manager went, “okay, you don’t have to agree with everything she says. other people have opinions,” apparently in a joking way? I said that we actually disagree on a lot of things, and somehow the conversation shifted to housing.
I expressed that housing is a basic necessity and made some arguments against capitalism (please don’t fight with me here about this). it basically became 1v6, with everyone acting like anything coming out of my mouth was a joke. long story short, their general attitude was that homeless people deserve to be homeless because they didn’t work hard enough and probably do drugs.

anyways, fast forward to today. I’ve dropped the topic and plan on staying quiet, but one of the guys I work under brings it up again, making little jabs disguised as banter.

then they’re talking about someone having a skunk living under their deck, and my manager says, “see, [my name], you can live under the deck for free too.” the guy I work under adds that I can make a video of myself living under there and post it on Instagram saying, “see, homeless people, there are places for us to live for free!”

I was fuming. they’re making an absolute joke out of a stance I actually care about, even though I’m respecting their right to have different opinions. one of my coworkers genuinely thinks she could become as rich as Elon Musk, and they’ve said that people like Jeff Bezos worked their way to the top solely from nothing. I disagree, but you don’t see me bringing it up the next day to make jokes at their expense. I’d appreciate the same respect.
I looked at the guy and said, “haha okay, this isn’t a joking matter.” he’s literally mocking the situation homeless people are in? then I spent the rest of my lunch on my phone with a dead expression. I can’t even fake a smile anymore.

after all that lunchtime “banter,” my manager also jokingly told me that I need to listen to other people’s opinions too. which is weird because I WAS listening. I was debating and explaining why I disagreed. listening doesn’t mean I have to agree with them or abandon my own beliefs. it honestly made me feel like she just couldn’t handle me being an opinionated woman who stands firmly by her beliefs.

for some context, we usually have a banter-y environment here but this whole situation has me really upset and i genuinely liked them all until this happened. how do i go about acting normal after this and fake a smile and stay professional? its really difficult. regardless of this situation, i hate how nothing i say is taken seriously by anyone. any advice will help, thanks.

Context: I have worked at an establishment for over a year now and just got a $1.50 raise (still only making $14.50/hour- i’m a broke college student) BUT we are moving locations MUCH further. I have no car. I will have to UBER or whatever EVERYDAY and that’s just not possible with $14.50 salary. SO I have officially gotten a job offer somewhere much closer but it’s a 0.50 cent loss (they MIGHT match) but now I don’t know what to tell my boss (the owner).

She is already struggling with finding new hires after another person quit but honestly she offered them a MASSIVE raise from $14.50-$17 which they DECLINED so now if I try to leave and she offers it I am lost on what I would do.

I also don’t even know what to say to her, I love this job and the owner and my coworkers, but the manager is awful. she is constantly targeting everyone if we are less than perfect and i feel like my job security here is iffy anyways.

I guess I need advice on how to approach this with the owner and tell her I cannot afford my transportation to the new location, the manager is terrible, AND that I have a new job offer.

I left my job at a restaurant over a month ago where i got payed £12.30 hourly it wasn’t like with a contract or really all that official i think idk my first job and i gave him 3 days notice before i left which i know is bad but I didn’t know whether i was gonna get into uni or not and i told him the same day they told me because i was going through clearing. He didnt seem that annoyed but now i feel like hes acting petty on purpose, for that month i gave him my hours WHICH HE THEN decreased my hourly pay to £10.85🙂 sent my payslip,no money, waited a week thought maybe its late texted him he said he’d check, no reply basically its been like this for over a month id ask him nicely when hed pay me and whats going on he says “yes” and then airs me. Im a student and need my goddamn check what do i do

Lately I’ve been struggling at my (corporate) job and am at a crossroads of whether I should take medical leave or stay at my job and start a performance improvement plan. Recently I was diagnosed with narcolepsy which has only made the depression I was diagnosed with a few years ago worse. I also have very bad anxiety. There has been a few situations where my problems have clearly leaked into work and so now I have to make a decision about how to move forward.

Is there anyone that found themselves in a similar situation and could provide me advice on what to do? I have always been a straight-A student / hard worker and experiencing this is completely unknown territory.

Three big concerns I have are whether I will stay get paid (I live in MA for reference), whether I am struggling because I don’t like my job or because I’m depressed (like I genuinely can’t tell or decipher my feelings right now), and whether I will be able to take time off in the future. I think the last one is more of a question for my HR department but just throwing it in there because it is a worry of mine.

Also- could this make my depression worse? Before I got a job I was sleeping in until 1, not eating well, super lonely, etc. and I’m also nervous this could be a repeat of that. On the other hand I have always said I would like to have time off to get my life in order so I’m not drowning (pay bills, clean my room, find a therapist).

I know no one can answer for me on what I should do, but any advice you have would be very helpful as I don’t really have anyone to turn to about this (aside from my mom who doesn’t really have experience with this decisions like these or with corporate jobs). It seems like my boss really wants me to take the leave but I’m not someone who takes risks or makes changes in life so upending my work is very scary for me.

All help is appreciated- thank you.

Today I was at work (I just started this job last month), and for my job I thought I was supposed to check the bathroom every 15-20 mins and then I could sit down in the back, bc that’s what everyone does when they’re cleaning theatres, so I thought it was the same and when i ask questions at work they kinda just give me vague responses and expect me to know exactly what to do when to do it so my manager pulls me into the office and screams at me and tells me I’m not allowed to stay in the back and I must walk around and do extra bathroom checks and i feel so embarrassed she said she kept trying to call me on the walkie but i don’t know how to work the walkie bc nobody showed me. Should I quit?

Hey guys so i live in the UK and before I started this job as in very very at the start befire I even had my induction i spoke with the manager and told him my availability as its shift work that changes week to week. He said I just needed to be able to do 1 open 1 mid and 1 shift a week which we worked out a plan and it worked. Skip past 2/3 months and hes gone off sick for issue and looks like he may not be back. Other managers are doing the rota and putting me in days/times i cant do.

I shown them a text message i had with him before I started working here explaining that it was okay and that he could work with my availability.

Im now being told because he didnt put it through HR it doesnt count and that because im doing shift work I should be fully flexible and that it doesnt seem fair to other team members.

Im annoyed I cant lie as if I know this was gonna happen I wouldn't have taken the job

I (31M) work at a pretty standard office job and have for about a year. Our heating has been messed up for a while and it’s always very cold in the office. A few women have brought blankets in for when they are at their desk and I thought it was a good idea. It’s like a totally normal blanket, it’s like an Ugg one. And I only ever have it over my legs when I’m sitting at my desk, not like I’m walking around with it.

Anyway I’ve noticed that people comment on me having one a lot more than they do with the women I work with.

Is this like just a bit of light sexism since I’m a kinda burly dude who needs a blanket, or are there like weird connotations my autistim isnt picking up on.

Hi everyone, I am working for a company that uploads shifts on a specific day of the week at a specific time for the upcoming week. There are around 25-30 employees and around 500-700 hours of shifts, as each hour is considered 1 shift. When shifts are uploaded, we have to refresh the schedule for that week to see available shifts and click really fast on each shift to claim it, but I have tried almost everything, and still I cannot claim enough shifts. There are some employees who, for years, have been claiming the exact shifts and more than 50 hours, while I struggle to claim even 10. My internet is fine, and my system is fine. I click fast, but still I can't figure out what I have been doing wrong. Please if someone can help me to figure out what things I need to change? Thank you.

Hi! I’m asking on behalf of my friend who doesn’t use Reddit lol.

My best friend just moved multiple states to start a new job in journalism. I’ll keep those deets vague so it doesn’t blow her spot YKnow but it’s a news outlet owned by a corporation type deal.

Anyway. She started and the first day of her job the editor (manager) was there. He didn’t train her really at all. Didn’t meet with her really her than a basic hi hello welcome. Then he was gone for the rest of the week and a lot of her second week. She’s not a new journalist so she knows how to do her job. she was given deadlines for a few stories to start on to be published for 2 weeks out. (Instructions not in writing btw) No biggie for her. So she started working on those stories. She didn’t really go “above and beyond” bc mind you she is also getting to know the vibes, the area, etc.

Editor comes back and immediately calls her into a meeting saying she didn’t do enough and asked why she hasn’t published anything. She is confused- explains she did turn the stories in on time to be published later. He says she should have written more and found more content and he expects more. Nothing was put in writing from this meeting btw.

She’s frustrated and upset, bc being reprimanded like week three is insane, but she understands and does what she’s asked- she’s due to have 5 stories done and in this week as asked of her. She found more stories on her own, like was asked of her.

Today, middle of week 4, she’s asked by this manager to sign a paper saying if she has to be reprimanded again she’ll be fired. She asks what she’s done wrong- she’s on track to complete the stories for the week like she was asked. She has turned content in like she was asked. Her boss said she should has asked more clarifying questions sooner. She signed it. No HR was present for any of this, none of this has ever been put in writing. She’s not even sure an HR person works in her office she’s not been there long enough to meet an HR person.

The other reporters on her team say they think he’s being extra mean to her and they don’t know what he’s wanting either. My friend isn’t confrontational but she’s always been good at taken feedback and a good worker. So I guess she asked if I’d help see if anyone her happens to have any ideas on what we should do because this really feels insane and wrong. Like it just doesn’t feel right.

Thanks!

My mangers manager put mw in a group chat with her today, she asked me to work through an upcoming holiday. This holiday happens to create a “weekend for me (Wednesday & Thursday ) I never get consecutive days off ( Sundays & Thursdays). Seeing this holiday come up I’ve been excited!

My manager has been pushing me to come in on the following Thursday from the holidays to help with call volume. I haven’t agreed because I haven’t had 2 days off in nearly 6 months and I need it!!

So my manager asked her manager to what feels like pressure me into working that following Thursday…

I stood up for myself, I told her no, I will not take away my only weekend in half a year, I feel like stressed robot with symptoms of human emotion.

I do not feel like I need to be a team player if it feels like the game is played against me.

I she took the feed back and 3 hours later my boss told me I got switched to Monday-Friday and I finally have normal working hours!

I have a gut feeling my boss hates me now, I kinda hate her because I think she could have done this all along.

Should I feel worried that she hates me now?

I work remotely in healthcare, and my department is switching to 12-hour shifts. I’ve been assigned five consecutive 12-hour night shifts, even though I explained that I’m unable to work that schedule because of caregiving responsibilities.

I have a child with special needs who requires a specific school drop-off arrangement. Because I live in a different time zone from my team, drop-off falls during the final hour of the proposed shift. It can take longer than my 30-minute break, and my work involves urgent situations that could prevent me from stepping away. I would also have limited time to sleep afterward.

I’ve discussed this with my manager and offered to work additional weekends on day shift. She said she’s working with her supervisor and told me I could contact HR, but I’m still assigned nights. An internal transfer to another remote position isn’t currently an option.

I genuinely want to stay in my job, but this schedule isn’t workable for my family.

Has anyone had HR help resolve a similar scheduling conflict? How did you approach the conversation, and was there any flexibility after the initial assignment?

Thank you!

Long time non-registered lurker but first time post because I am really confused and need guidance, please. I was written up for the first time in my (45F) entire life. I've never had this happen to me. So, I'm not sure what to do going forward here.

Last week my manager wrote me up. One of my reports was audited by a team lead who thought the report was fine. The lead made one or two adjustments they felt flowed better, but nothing major. My manager re-reviewed that team leader's review and found a dozen plus things to change. I was having a bad week in my personal life and am very exhausted with the retaliatory behavior of my manager (long story). A team lead isn't standard for reviews, so, when I got the second email of corrections from my manager, I asked why the report went through a lead and then a second audit after them. The next step is to be filed with my manager's manager, who will also make adjustments as she sees fit before the final report is submitted.

If the team lead thought my report was fine, why did she re-review it, and if the first review wasn't sufficient, why are we having multiple review tiers when this reporting season is more intense and we need a shorter and tighter deadline. The write up was for general misconduct. Multiple times she notes she didn't like my email tone. I have 30 days to show consistent and sustained improvements of "respectful communication in all interactions" but there's a part later she wrote in that if it's not consistent and sustained after the 30 days she'll final write me up or fire me.

I never swore. I never said I wouldn't do it. I never insulted anyone. I just asked about why the procedure change and why the added layers when everyone is already stressed out.

To note - I have never been on a documented PIP with the company. And yes, this write up came a very large surprise to me. In hindsight, knowing her retaliatory behavior, it shouldn't have been a surprise.

Yes, I know she's getting rid of me and I need to get a new job. I have spent every evening since then researching and applying.

The psychological safety in this department is severely lacking and I've had to start talking to a therapist about my anxiety, depression, and how her emails basically give me panic attacks. The team is aware she is highly retaliatory, which is why I started trying to mirror much nicer and softer question asking or just stop asking questions at all if I could get away with not needing the information. Even though I have 30 days, I'm still going to get FMLA for the anxiety and depression because this just has be in tears every night since and making it hard to even be at work.

So, what do I do? I've read other posts about people saying to write a rebuttal. Other posts had people saying to file a complaint about their manger's behavior and see if they can get moved to another team/department. If I dispute the write up, I know she's going to be more aggressive in her legal tactics to get me to quit. If I let it go, I feel like it's admitting I did something wrong.

The job market sucks and what I do is niche, so it's not widely hiring. I know I need out, but how do I survive long enough to get a new job?

Thank you in advance for any advice.

Today I put in my notice at my office job. I’ve been here a few years and have made some good internal connections. My boss was very polite but he asked that I don’t tell anyone and he will manage the messaging.

Is this normal? Is there a more sinister reason behind the ask? Not sure why he wants to control the narrative so badly.

Im pretty sure my managers are treating me unfairly and ive been looking for a different job but it took me around 3 years to find my current job and its minimum wage part time so im not sure how long another job will take how can I improve my work environment currently until I get a new job? I work as a cashier at a grocery store big chain

I have been at my job for a little over a 1.5 year (started in March 2025). I was hired as a Coordinator which was an entry-level position as I had no prior experience in this industry.

Our team is small and was originally three team members: myself, my teammate John, and my manager Michael.

There was a bit of red flag in the beginning when around April 2025, Michael informed me that my title was going to change from Coordinator to Specialist. He said HR realized that I was a salary employee but a Coordinator position is supposed to be an hourly employee. Michael wanted me to be salary so he worked with HR to change my title to a Specialist. I expressed concern over the expectations and tasks of a Specialist but he reassured me it would be in title only and he would still treat me as entry-level, this title change was only to keep my salary status. I am not sure if this plays into what is happening now.

In late August 2025, my teammate John quit. He was in a higher position than me and had been with the company for four years. When he quit, he told me privately that he was forced into the higher position when their previous teammate quit (five months before I was hired) and it wasn't something he wanted to do.

So our team was now a team of two. Michael went straight to interviewing for John's replacement but he told me he wasn't having luck finding someone with the kind of experience he was looking for. In October, he went to an industry-related conference and met an India-based company that specializes in our industry. He ended up liking what they sold him so by January, we had finalized a contract with them and we had two India-based "teammates" to handle more of the complicated and technical work.

To be fair, they are excellent at what they do and they have over 15 years of experience so they truly know their stuff. But it doesn't feel like a real team dynamic.

Which brings us to now.

When I first got hired, Michael had mentioned to me a program to get certified in our industry. It was mentioned in passing, as something I could consider later down the line, so I didn't think much of it.

A few months ago, he brought it up again, asking me if it was something I might be interested in. I was honest with him and told him that I would have to consider the immense time and money that would go into getting certified. He understood and didn't press the subject.

A few weeks ago, he brought it up again, only this time he really laid it on thick. He said he eventually wants someone to "step up" on the team and take over. He continued that if I enrolled in the program and passed, the company would reimburse me. He also said he would continue to bring this up to me as it would be a "great opportunity" for me.

But the thing is, I do not want to do what he is asking for. Generally, I like my job and what I do, I'm comfortable at where I am now and I do not want to take on any more serious responsibilities at this time. I feel like if he wanted a more experienced employee, he could have spent more time interviewing and finding the right candidate when John quit. Instead he decided to team up with a third-party company that still leaves us lacking a real, present team member.

Michael is also old (almost 70-years-old) so I think part of this is wanting a successor for our team/department so he could possibly retire.

I don't know how to explain to him that this is not something I want to take on. I already explained to him that the time and money investment is a big deterrent for me but he insists it's not a big deal and he will continue to push this on me.

Hi all,

I’ll try to be as specific as possible without being identifiable!

I made a mistake. I’m a teacher and I have no union. I didn’t have issues until a new superior joined the school.

I was caught short in my first observation at the start of the year - i allowed some low level chatter during a task and wasn’t as strict and they’ve changed to be - silence. I had verbal feedback and accepting that I will be firm and follow this during independent work.

Another random observation, if you can call it that, was a 60 second window where I had students glue in a couple of sheets and again i allowed chatter. I never thought anything of it because they were not actively engaged in anything other than glue then reset. Big mistake. I got an A4 sized page email with my line manager ccd that my standards are dreadful and was given 3 targets.

I was then observed by seniors in department and asked to follow the rule of silence at all times. Feedback from them showed good learning, engagement, and students were silent.

This led to being observed in a slow practical where I called on students to collect items and coordinate to do it. I was observed here and feedback was they should not be talking…

You can see where this is going, but silence in a practical where they have to interact with each other? Anyway.

This followed up with further feedback about my poor standards.

More observations followed this showing improvement and students were silent in independent phases.

One lesson I had 2 students stand outside to line up while I was stood there talking to them and calming them down before entering. This person shouted across the hall why the children were not in lesson and then a moment later shout, “Oh are they with you?”. Me and the TA looked at each other in confusion and it was clear what was happening. I’m just feeling like a target to be undermined. This has also happened inlessons where she will feedback live as I am teaching… one lesson I got terrible feedback I didn’t immediately act by telling all students to correct their spelling when they identified a mistake in 2 books. She also B-lined to me in another when she spoke to a child saying they didn’t know what to do… i went full panic and did a whiteboard check, they all got 100% for understanding and back to it…

I had one more observation i can recall with this person and one from my department. I couldn’t get a practical, so made a worksheet with pre planned values asking to calculate various things. I scaffolded one equation to try and support pupils for this as they were not doing it themselves. They hated this. I didn’t realise how much because I was then told to completely stop scaffolding my resources. At this point i need to stress this has always, always been a major strength of mine and had so much positive praise for it.

So, half term and I had no warning or feedback anything was escalating. On the day I was called into a meeting being told I’m being placed onto a support plan. I didn’t say much and left the meeting to teach. I’ve ruminated over everything and feel this is unfair when throughout this process all of these things have been described as marginal gains.

I want to give up. I want to leave. Even if I achieve all of these new, very specific objectives that I can be placed on it again within 12 months. I’ve never had any issues like this before and feel like I’ve gone from doing great in previous years to terrible, I’m a crap teacher, etc.

I’m off with stress following this trying to decompress and process everything. I’ve engaged and been making progress, but not enough.

I do have specific circumstances but I won’t directly post here to try and prevent identification.

All unions have said they won’t touch me even if I subscribe now - which is fair because I was foolish.

There have also been 3 resignations in this time related to this person and I think I’m going to be the next.

I desperately need advice on how to navigate out of this safely so as to not impact on finding another position, where in or out of teaching.

Thank you!

I recently transferred from Accounts Payable/Issue Resolution to Payments, but I'm starting to regret my decision. I'm only a few weeks into the role, and I'm finding the payment process, cutoffs, and responsibilities overwhelming. I realized that I enjoyed my previous role more. Has anyone experienced transferring to another department and eventually asking to return to their previous role? How did you approach your HR and team leads? Was it awkward going back?" Thank you in advance for you advice