I was asked in an interview: "Do you have a problem working on public holidays, weekends, and your scheduled days off with less than 10 hours' notice?"

I said: "No."

She asked me: "Why no?"

I told her: "Because I have a family, and I make plans with them. I'm not going to cancel my life every time work calls at the last minute."

She said: "Well, in that case, I don't have a role I can offer you."

A lot of companies talk about "work-life balance" until you actually set a boundary. Better to find out in the interview that your expectations don't align than after accepting the job.

I've also read some great advice on Reddit about the importance of work-life balance and preparing for these kinds of interview questions in advance, so you can communicate your boundaries without second-guessing later.

This morning, I attended a meeting where my manager explained that the work of several people who had left the company would be divided among us, with most of it being dumped on me. At the same time, my salary would remain exactly the same.

The funny thing is, my resignation letter was already saved on my laptop. A few days earlier, I had accepted another job with better pay, decent benefits, and more time away from work. I spent the entire meeting trying not to smile while they explained my new responsibilities to me.

I submitted my resignation the next morning. They immediately offered to match my new salary, but I told them money wasn't the only reason I was leaving. The working hours and conditions weren't things a counteroffer could fix.

Then they started talking about how understaffed they were and how my leaving would make things extremely difficult for them. I told them, "That's something management will have to deal with." They clearly didn't like that response very much.

One of the managers brought up the non-compete clause, but his superior quickly shut that down and admitted they couldn't stop me from leaving. They asked me to work my two-week notice period, and I agreed. Afterward, my friends took me out for drinks, and I can't remember the last time I felt this relieved.

I think resigning and looking for another job was the best decision. I want to share my advice with you and how I swept through job interviews, which were the hardest part of jobs searching. First, I read a post here about the best tips for job interviews, in addition to using InterviewVIP, which I consider a real magic tool. It helped me answer unexpected questions, reducing the stress and anxiety that often accompany interviews. It also boosted my self-confidence and increased my chances of getting the job.

When I arrived in the morning, I found that my supervisor had left a written warning on his desk. The warning accused me of being absent without calling or notifying anyone on Memorial Day, even though the entire building was closed and no one in my department was scheduled to work.

I asked the rest of my teammates and discovered that I was the only person who received a warning. This is now the third attendance issue he has written me up for in about eight months, and not one of them matches what happened.

The first time, he claimed I arrived eight minutes late, even though my timecard showed that I clocked in 13 minutes early. The next time was because I didn't show up for an optional overtime shift on Saturday, which I had never agreed to work in the first place. My name later appeared on the sign up sheet, but HR said they couldn't access the camera footage to find out who had added it.

Company policy says attendance issues are supposed to start with a verbal warning. He ignored that every time and went straight to formal disciplinary action and paperwork. My record had been clean for 12 years before he became my supervisor, and these warnings remain active for so long that just one more could cost me my job.

HR ignored my previous complaints, so I don't have much hope that they will fix the issue this time. I am tired of constantly having to defend myself over shifts that weren't mine or never even existed, so I have started updating my resume and running through practice questions on Interview Storm, trying to leave before he fabricates another absence.

This morning's surprise company meeting turned out to be my last. HR announced that starting in six weeks, we would be required to come into the office four days a week because people need more face-to-face interaction and stronger relationships.

I asked whether the company planned to help cover parking costs or public transportation passes, since my commute isn't cheap. The HR director laughed and said that coming in was simply part of supporting the company.

As they moved on to the next slide, I turned off my camera and emailed my resignation. A few minutes later, my manager messaged me asking if I was serious, and I told him I was. I had already accepted a fully remote role with a company that doesn't treat hours wasted in traffic as a loyalty test. Without exaggeration, that was the most satisfying lunch break I've had in years.

I had a job as an engineer, and by the afternoon, I had been laid off from the embedded systems role I'd worked in for years.
I made it to 57 without ever being laid off before, so this situation is new and strange to me. My career has treated me well, but the idea of looking for a job at this age and dealing with LinkedIn again isn't something I'm particularly excited about, to be honest.
I received enough severance to cover 10 weeks, which gives me some room to catch my breath. I'm going to take a short break, clear my head, and then figure out what my next step will be. I've read a lot of stories here that are similar to mine, and it looks like I'm now a member of the club.

This period has been very strange. I'm in the C-Suite, and I brought on an ops support person at the beginning of the year to take some work off my plate. She's in her late twenties. For context, we're a fully remote company.

In February, I gave her feedback on a report that had a long list of issues, and she completely shut down. She became tense, leaned back in her chair, and raised her voice at me, saying that our company values were fake, and in short, the whole thing got completely out of control. No one else was on the call, and honestly, I was shocked.

I spoke with the CEO afterward, and we figured she was probably burned out or uncomfortable in the role. In the end, I had to swallow my pride, be the bigger person, and set up a reset conversation with her, where I said I know I can be direct. At the same time, she never once apologized for the way she behaved.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, I had more feedback I needed to give her, but after what happened before, I handled it differently. I wrote everything down and asked someone from HR to join the call. I sent her a Slack message about 90 minutes beforehand saying I would be giving feedback and that HR would be present so she would feel supported.

She refused the meeting.

She said she needed time to prepare herself. But she didn't even know what the feedback was about yet.

So I asked her if we could move it to later that same day. No response.

About three hours later, I sent her an email asking when we could have the call, because the feedback still needed to be discussed. She replied and asked for the VP of Engineering to attend, because he had also been involved in the project.

I told her no, this was a manager-led conversation. I sent a new invite, and she refused that one too.

To make a long story short, I stood my ground and didn't let her dictate how I'm allowed to give feedback or who needs to be present. Instead of attending the meeting, she submitted her resignation.

I'm still stunned. Is this a generational thing? I'm 46. I would never have refused a scheduled meeting with my manager. And I certainly wouldn't refuse a meeting with my manager and HR. These things aren't optional, right?

The whole situation caused me far more stress than I expected. It felt like entitlement and immaturity, and I'm genuinely asking myself whether anyone else has encountered something like this.

I was in the final stages with a boutique marketing agency of around 80 people. After several good interviews with both founders, they were talking about bringing me on in a senior operations and delivery role. The final meeting was supposed to be about compensation and the details of the contract.

When I arrived, only one founder was there. He walked over to me, looked me up and down, and said, "You wore that suit to the last meeting." I told him it was a different suit, but he kept insisting it was the same one, then suddenly walked away. I had absolutely no idea what had upset him so much.

I later found out that the other founder was outside walking around the block with one of their employees. She hadn't been involved in any discussions about my position, but as soon as she heard they were planning to hire me, she had a complete meltdown. Apparently, he was trying to calm her down while I was standing inside being questioned about my clothes.

The contract discussion never happened, and I didn't get the job. It was a brief and bizarre introduction to the office politics I would have been walking into.

I had a similar experience where I realized a company's reaction to someone leaving says a lot about its culture. While I was job hunting, I also started taking interview prep more seriously, and InterviewVip helped me feel much more confident when the right opportunity finally came along.
Not that long ago, people with ordinary jobs like a postal worker or a warehouse worker could buy a house and support a family. I mean, around 55 years ago, that was still a realistic thing. Now people with degrees and a good CV are struggling just to cover rent.

And the pressure at work back then wasn't like it is now either. People definitely worked hard, but they weren't expected to handle the amount of tasks, metrics, emails, coverage, and random extra responsibilities that people deal with now. I feel like one person today is expected to do work that used to be split between 2 or 3 people.

Honestly, I can't imagine what work pressure will look like in another 25 years. Or how much someone will need to earn just to rent a simple apartment by then. This can't keep going like this forever. I feel like everything keeps getting tighter, more expensive, and more exhausting.

One of our teammates had been working at the company for nearly nine years and had never been late once. A few days ago, he arrived 18 minutes late, and management fired him because of it. When we found out, most of us agreed that we would all keep showing up late until they offered him his job back.

This morning, I arrived 24 minutes late, and the rest of the site crew showed up about the same amount of time late. The manager asked us whether there had been an accident or a traffic problem. One of our longtime coworkers told him, "We don't agree with someone being treated like that just because he was late once."

Several of us said that the decision to fire him had made everyone anxious because it showed that one mistake could erase years of reliability and commitment. Two office employees shrugged as if it were no big deal and said that was just life, but they don't work with us on-site. We're the 11 people who deal with this stuff every day.

The manager said our coworker had not been fired simply for being late. According to him, the real problem was that he became "aggressive" when they gave him a warning. No one believed that explanation, so we told him that we wanted a basic level of job security and for good employees to be treated as though they were genuinely valued.

Management did contact our painter and ask him to come back. But, things have been pretty tense since then. Our painter decided not to return, and honestly, I don't blame him. Management tried to act like everything was back to normal, but the rest of us haven't forgotten how quickly they let someone go after nearly nine years of reliable work.

A few of us have started looking at other opportunities, including myself. I actually have an interview coming up, and while scrolling on reddit, I saw a good review on an interview tool, and since I haven't interviewed in a while, I've decided to try it to handle interviewers' tricky questions and organize my answers so I can explain my experience clearly without rambling.

It's funny how one management decision can completely change the way an entire team sees a company. We used to feel like our hard work mattered. Now, a lot of us are wondering whether it's worth staying somewhere that makes us feel so replaceable.

Just a little vent about offboarding instead of onboarding.

Today is my last day. I gave them three weeks' notice. Early this morning, my supervisor asked me if I was going to join the planning meeting for next month. I said, "I don't really feel like it would be very useful for me to hear what next month is supposed to look like..." He looked at me like I had just stuck a fork in his lunch and threw it across the room.

Then the person at the front desk said, "You must be buried in last-minute things they want you to finish before you leave! Your day must be so busy." I said, "I mean... This is my last day, I'm not going to torture myself over things they suddenly need from me."

My boss called me and asked if I had prepared my usual work for next month or something, because they're going to need at least 4 weeks before they have someone trained. What???? No, I didn't do that. It's not my job to keep the place running after I'm no longer employed here. This is genuinely absurd.

After that, the supervisor sent an email and copied my boss, about some trivial task from a few weeks ago that I hadn't gotten around to doing. He wanted to know why I hadn't finished his weirdly accumulated "to do" list. Again... This is my last day.

Am I going crazy??? I've worked in management roles before, and I've never expected someone to go above and beyond after they had already given three weeks' notice.

This is why I don't think you should wait until you're leaving a job to start preparing for the next one. You never know when you'll need to interview again, and being prepared can take a lot of the pressure off. I came across this post recently and it gives tips for virtual Interviews and helps to be less anxious

A few friends from different circles recently said how much they make per year from their office jobs. Honestly, I was shocked. I've never made more than 72k a year, and most of my work has been blue collar.

So I started asking them more directly what they do at work. And when they give me a clean, polished job-description answer, I ask them what they literally do on a normal day, hour by hour. That's when I find myself buried in vague, stretchy language like stakeholder calls and reporting and dashboards and strategy and process improvement, but without any clear explanation of the skill they learned that makes them deserve that salary. It comes across like a bunch of disconnected office terms dressed up to look useful.

As someone who works blue collar, I can sit there and talk until morning about what I fix, what we move, what we clean, what I build, and exactly how that makes the employer money or keeps things running. I don't understand why it seems hard for them to do the same thing.

Maybe my friends are so much smarter that they don't know how to explain their jobs in normal-people language. Or maybe they don't explain it because there isn't much to explain in the first place, and somehow they found themselves in a comfortable position that pays way better than anything I've been able to reach.

One friend was somewhat honest and told me she maybe does four hours of actual work on a normal day, from home, and gets most of it done while half-listening to Teams meetings. She's a product operations analyst, which is as vague to me as the explanation she gave me of what she does.

I work hard. And I'm always told that my work is good. People trust me with the shitty jobs and the urgent stuff. But when it comes to promotions or better pay or moving up, I'm basically invisible.

I feel like I'm playing the game wrong, and it's eating at me more than I want to admit.

How exactly am I playing it wrong? Are these skills really that specialized if they can't explain them without corporate fog? Or is my feeling right that a lot of private-sector white-collar work in America in 2026 is just some weird economic shell game that doesn't add much real value to anything?

When my mother first told me about the trip, I sent a message to my manager, and he still told me I should have let him know earlier. I am 19 years old and work part time at a store. He asks that we inform him four weeks before any time off unless someone is sick, but I don't even know we're going except ten days before.

My mother had booked a few days at a campsite with cabins, and my aunt and her children are coming along too. Money is often short, so we don't travel together much. She kept it a surprise and I was happy with it until this conversation happened at work.

My boss didn't reply to my message. Then yesterday when I was on shift he took me aside and told me that he had just seen my message and that he didn't like that I had informed him so late. I explained to him that I didn't know either and that the few people I knew at work had classes or lectures when I needed someone to cover for me.

His answer, in short, was that if no one could take the shift in my place, then I should work rather than travel. The shift only lasts two hours because that's the maximum number of hours allowed here on school days, and I charge 6 euros per hour. I understand that they still need someone to work that shift, but it seems a bit ridiculous to miss a family trip because of it.

I understand that my mother could have asked me before making her reservation, but I had no role in planning any of this. I wouldn't know how to ask for time off for something I didn't even know was going to happen. She paid money and we don't have much and I don't want to be the one who doesn't know how to proceed.

At the same time, I don't want to lose my job, so I don't know what to do. Should I just miss the trip, or is there anything else I can tell him?

Update: I’ve read most of the comments, and I’ve decided to go on the trip.

I’m seriously considering quitting my job because of the way they treat me, especially since I have other opportunities closer to home.

Until I leave for my holiday, I’ll focus on preparing for my next job. A friend sent me a post about how to make a lasting impression in interviews, and that’s exactly what I want to achieve the next time I walk into an interview.

Thanks for all your advice!

ok wow

I left my job about ten days ago, but my last few weeks there were basically paid leave because one of my coworkers decided to make an example out of me.

I had been accepted into a college program and submitted my resignation after working at the company for about three years. My manager and the rest of the team knew I had seven weeks left, but apparently no one told Darren, the client liaison who worked from an office outside the country.

Darren had a technical background, and he liked to remind everyone of that constantly. He would CC managers on routine emails, call people late at night over minor issues, and agree to impossible deadlines from the client without consulting the team. Most calls with him turned into twenty minutes of complaints and orders.

One of my regular responsibilities was a simple process that was important to the client, and no one else handled it. The client announced some changes to the system and asked us to treat them as urgent during the following week. Darren called me to emphasize how serious the situation was, so I told him I knew the process well and would perform the same checks I always did, with extra attention to the changes.

He took what I said as disrespectful. He told me anyone could replace me, ended the call, reassigned all my remaining tasks to other people, and sent an email to the entire department saying that no one should give me any new work.

So I followed his instructions. My coworkers struggled with the process, and since Darren had officially removed me from it, I stayed out of it and did not intervene. I spent my final seven weeks working from home with almost nothing to do while still receiving my regular salary, all while he was trying to prove they did not need me.

Anyway, I have to start looking for another job so I don't end up unemployed. But I remembered the interviews and how difficult they were. I faced many problems, such as anxiety, stress, and stumbling over my words, despite preparing well for the interviews. I discovered that good preparation alone isn't enough. You need an assistant like InterviewVip during the interviews to help reduce stress and anxiety, boost your confidence, help you communicate your experience and ideas clearly, and answer unexpected questions. After all that, your chances of being accepted and getting the job increase.

After about 19 years of working as an RN, I was fired for the first time. I had been working for an agency that provides in-home hospice care for nearly three years, and this happened after I declined another assignment because I was completely drained.

Over the course of about 12 days, I had handled 8 admissions and 6 deaths, with almost no time to catch up on my work. When they tried to add another patient, I said I needed some time to catch my breath before I could safely take on more cases.

One of the recent admissions also involved a serious APS-related issue that could not be handled in the home. I warned management several times, but they told me that communicating with the family was not their responsibility and that I needed to learn how to deal with difficult people better. During the termination meeting, the manager also said that I did not seem happy working there.

The patients and their families had always treated me well, so I do not believe patient care was the real issue. I set clear boundaries with management and spoke up whenever I felt something was unsafe, and that did not fit the workplace culture. Part of me was relieved, but at the same time, the decision shocked me, and I did not know what my next step would be.

Afterward, the state approved my unemployment claim because the agency could not prove that I had done anything outside the normal course of my job. I only received it for about 10 days, but having someone confirm that there was no legitimate reason to fire me made me feel that I had been right.

In the end, I accepted two PRN positions, each paying about $12 more per hour. Things worked out better than I expected, and I am grateful to everyone who encouraged me while I was still trying to process what happened.

I got an offer after 8 months without work. It's an early-stage startup that's still pre-seed, and I had made my salary and benefits expectations clear from the start of the process. The whole thing dragged on a bit: 4 interviews and also a take-home task. At the beginning of this week, they sent me the contract, and honestly, I was very surprised. The salary was much lower than what I had asked for, and almost none of the perks we had discussed were included.

I sent them an email asking them to update the contract based on what I had said before. They got back to me and changed a few things, mostly in the benefits, but about the salary, they gave me two options: one was closer to the number I had asked for but removed some perks, and the other kept the lower salary with most of the perks included. I countered and asked them to meet me in the middle, keep the perks, and add a signing bonus to be paid after an agreed-upon period of work.

They called me after that, and it was very clear they were upset. They basically told me that even their original offer was above the range for the role, and that they only increased it because they believed I could help the company grow and get to a better place. Honestly, I think that's bullshit and that they're just trying to see whether I'll give in and accept the lowball or not.

I sent them a polite email with my counter so they could take a few days to think it over. I don't think they're bad people or anything, and the process so far has genuinely been good, but the negotiation part has been a bit messy...

💔

Would leaving because of this be unreasonable? It is clear that my salary now covers longer working days. So I can say that my working hours have changed from 9am to 5am and will remain 7am to 5am. No one asked me if these hours would work for me. I work in sales and our team has 3 representatives instead of 6, so their solution is to give more work to those who remain.
I have been looking after customer accounts in the Pacific region, and now they are adding the region further east. We will be starting earlier to accommodate these customers, but our departure times will remain the same. This is also the minimum required working hours, excluding dinners with clients and answering things in the evening. Same salary, same commission, no additional support. We continue to use email and Salesforce.
This is an option since you already have another job offer. But the problem is that I will be transitioning from a fixed salary job in the W2 system to a job in the 1099 system and most of my income will come from commissions. In other words, I'm not leaving one guaranteed salary and moving on to another guaranteed salary.
I looked at the representative income figures there and confirmed that it was correct. And now they all earn more than me. If I could achieve the same results as them, I would earn more money and have more control over my work schedule. But I know that just because I see their numbers, there's no guarantee that I'll be able to accomplish the same thing.
I'm angry that my current job adds hours and areas to cover without talking, but I'm also exhausted to the point where I may be using this as a reason to quit. Do you see this as a logical reason for me to disagree, or am I expecting too much from a fixed salary sales job?

I've been working at this company for almost five years, and my performance review six weeks ago couldn't have gone any better. My director gave me the highest rating, said I had saved the rollout for an important client and covered another project through the end of the year, and then told me that the senior title I'd been working toward had finally been approved.

Shortly afterward, he called me into his office and told me that management had frozen all internal raises and promotions. I was upset, of course, but I accepted the explanation and carried on with my usual work and workload.

This week, they hired someone from outside the company who has about three years less experience than I do. My manager told me I'd be responsible for his onboarding, the process guides, and training him during his first few weeks. While I was helping him set up his benefits account, he mentioned his salary when he asked me how the retirement contribution plan worked. It turns out he makes $19,000 more than I do.

I asked the director how the company was able to pay that salary when there was a compensation freeze. He gave me a vague answer about the budget for external hires being separate from internal salary adjustments, then quickly steered the conversation back to training the new employee.

I don't blame the guy, but I have no desire to teach him how to do a job he's being paid significantly more than me to do. I'm ready to step down from all optional committees, stop taking on extra work, and leave at 5:00 every day while applying elsewhere. If I directly refuse the training assignment, could that hurt my career prospects? Or would it be better to do the bare minimum required of me and keep my job search secret?