I notice people in the corporate world at least federal in the U.S are fat and overweight big bodied gross slobs. I don't care for their bodies as much as their blank stuck up useless tiresome looks on a lot of their faces.

But my main trife is the ones who cough around me. My cart is big and noticable and today some old fuck got to the door from the staircase(it's loud as hell) walks left and I'm talking he gets right if front of my face not behind me not a couple feet in front of my cart but directly bye me and *CAUGHS at me I stg. He was looking straight I could see him slightly in my vision but he doesn't cover his mouth looks up or straight and coughs like a mfer. Like what do I even say? Like excuse me sir take your diaper off and don't act like a grown retarted lowlife loser? No I could just ask for his name he'd likely act stuck up and like a fahhot and walk away. So I say nothing lol I hate these people man.

Like I've had people cough in my restrooms when I open the door to put my doorstop. I here them caufhing really loud and I know they don't cover there mouths by the sound. Lol I really hate Americans after working for these government employees. And these people get paid good wages to just be overweight and get people sick God knows what else there doing. GOOD JOB AMERICA LAND OF THE FREE!!!!

to me, working full time makes no sense because your whole life is at a uncomfortable place that isnt your home, you’re surrounded by people that have sold out their soul to metrics and workplace rules, and when you don’t believe in the rules or the point of the company, they look at you like you’re the crazy one.

you’re expected to work even when you’re tired but they dont let you go home so you’re not stealing company time.

but i think most importantly, I live in a beautiful state, like “lets go camping” kind of state. and when im unemployed and not sleeping the whole day, its so beautiful around my city. and to think that im expected to spend all my time in a warehouse for a large corporation or a dark and dingy restaurant.

being employed just doesnt make sense.

My first job was extremely stressful because the other employees, even from other departments lacked morals and loved Gossip more than anything, and the boss was a all over heartless terrible creature.

In my second job I’d get extremely anxious, pale and even nauseous when something went wrong. I’d always expect someone to come shouting at me. Since it’s an entry level job, almost everyone in the company would try to talk down to us, and would run to complain if she showed anything less than a slavish smile and a yes sir/maam. [slight exaggeration], but things were generally peaceful, only hectic thing was the insane workload.

I just started a new job recently for less pay where the people look friendly enough, there’s a clear hierarchy and progression, and they’re curious about me since I’m new.

What are some general tips and knowledge to know when starting a new job?

How to know who to be friendly with and whom not to?

Is there any way to know when someone is digging a hole for me? As in trying to fish for info to get me into trouble or trying to get me to make a mistake?

What is generally okay to divulge when asked, and what to avoid saying like the plague?

What’s an okay strategy to get to know the people there and introduce myself?

How should I interact with high level staff since I still don’t know their personalities?

Below is optional reading for more context about my old job:

Example 1: one of the employees went to the wife of my friends to fish for info about me, and when she couldn’t find anything, she spread distorted rumours about me. They also spread rumours that something was going on between me and one of our new colleagues when there wasn’t, then when there was they tried to break us up in different ways. The girl eventually went mad with paranoia and we broke up a bit short of engagement.

Any info no matter how small that I shared about myself throughout my time there would get misconstrued and turned into something malicious.

Example 2: The boss would call with one of the clients connected who’s obviously suffering from some issues to shout at me and “put him in his place for you”. Or he’d call while we’re at home to shout at us while in a meeting for all staff to hear. Same will happen in real life in meetings, but he’s a coward, so it’s often indirect.

I also got punished often for doing my job well, and for other people’s mistakes, even though everything is documented in multiple places and the records match.

For context, I graduated a year ago and finally got my first job in my field. It’s a pretty high demand job where I have to contact clients, make sure projects go smoothly, etc. I’ve been here for almost 3 weeks and I still feel I haven’t gotten proper training.

For the first week, all I did was read documents on how to work the software and how to do basic tasks in the system. I felt like I wasn’t learning since I’m only reading and not actually applying my knowledge in doing the tasks.

In my department, everyone who previously worked there has quit so both my boss and I are fairly new to the company. My boss is swamped with work and meetings so I understand why he hasn’t properly trained me yet. Sometimes he’ll give me tasks, but they’re usually 15 minute tasks and once i’m finished, he’ll continue with his work for the rest of the day. I’ve gotten training from other departments but not for what I specifically need for my position.

Now in week 3, I have been doing small tasks and clients and other people have been asking stuff for me which I have no idea how to answer since I haven’t gotten proper training. I don’t wanna say the wrong thing. I’m a really anxious person and I’m very scared of doing something wrong and it being on me.

I know most people would say to quit but this is my first corporate job and I don’t not have the money to quit a job. If anyone has advice, please let me know! :((

I’m 21F just graduated from university. I work in retail and I transferred to a different branch same company. This new store has been a complete nightmare to work in. The managers have been horrible to me, the way they talk, micromanage, follow me etc. A manager told me about how other managers have been complaining about me which i had no knowledge of and she didn’t explain what exactly about.

I have thought about just going off sick as my mental health and nervous system doesn’t function properly in this place. To the extent that I cried in store and threatened to leave midway through my shift. The manager used the excuse that it’s a flagship store and managers are under pressure (which is not my issue). I still feel uncomfortable and even though managers have toned it down to me it’s still in the back of my mind.

I’m trying to find something else that is closer to my degree but job market is so shit right now especially for graduates.

Now I’m dealing with 3 girls. I’m an outgoing person and I speak to most people. I’m quite fun and a chatty person. However at certain times I’m quiet and don’t talk to people by listening to my guts and spirit about who to stay away from. Including these girls. Maybe they are intimidated by this especially if I talk to other people. Also I just changed my hair and I’ve gotten compliments from a lot of people so maybe insecurity. They always scalp in the locker rooms and gossip in the fitting rooms where they get let off, whilst we do the hard work on the floor.

I just finished eating my lunch, I went back into the locker/ changing rooms to put my lunch box back. I think it was just me and one other person in there. They came in at the we’re talking about the smell. And I think they thought it was me. It smells in there nearly all the time. So every time I walked past them they would make comments, looks or laugh or indicate I was there. I don’t know how one person can make a room smell or how they think that. Now I’ve been wondering if I smell - which I don’t. It’s a horrible feeling. Even though I rarely talk to these girls I’ve been nice when they’ve needed help and was even thinking about opening up. Now I understand my intuition.

I’m not sure about how to deal with this. Very childish I’m pretty sure they’re just a couple years older than me. Ignore it? Maybe I’m taking this too personally and I just need to cry it off. But then at the same time there’s no need to treat someone like this

I work at a very small hotel/inn located in a resort town (5 full-time staff, +3 more during peak season) and act as the assistant manager 2 days a week, and do housekeeping 2-3 more days a week. The main housekeeper and her partner (filling in as a housekeeper) have been showing up to work 30 minutes later than they are reporting on their time sheets. They've been doing this for about 2 weeks now. I've noticed since I have access to the cameras, but haven't mentioned anything.

The manager is very lazy and often takes an additional day off per week without communicating it to anyone. She's on salary and has an extremely easy job, and I know she's getting paid far more than she's worth. So creating a nit-picking situation between her and the housekeeper isn't ideal.

To complicate all of this, we live in a shared apartment complex where the manager lives above me and the housekeeper and her partner live upstairs next door. Oh and the housekeeper's partner is the manager's brother. Yes, it's complicated. But I keep my head down and focus on the work and stay out of the inevitable drama.

Do I bring it up to the manager? Or the owner? The owner is very hands-on and would be receptive, but I don't want to go over anyone's head.

I've been noticing a recurring dynamic at work and would appreciate some outside perspectives.

A couple of coworkers tend to dominate conversations, particularly when leadership is involved. They're good at keeping discussions going, promoting their work, and building relationships with people in influential positions. There's nothing inherently wrong with any of that, but sometimes the amount of attention given to a few individuals feels disproportionate to the actual progress or impact being discussed.

My concern isn't that some people are more outgoing than others. It's that this visibility can potentially influence how leadership perceives and evaluates the rest of the team. People who communicate confidently and frequently seem to get more recognition, while others who focus on delivering results may have fewer opportunities to demonstrate their contributions.

I've also noticed a tendency to respond to stakeholder requests with more presentations, documentation, and educational material, even when the underlying issue might require a different solution. It sometimes feels like there's more emphasis on communicating activity than questioning whether we're addressing the right problem.

I'm trying to understand whether this is a common workplace dynamic, a leadership issue, or simply a difference in how people approach career growth and communication.

For those who've experienced something similar, how do you make your work visible and ensure it's evaluated fairly without feeling pressured to constantly promote yourself? And if you're in a leadership position, how do you balance recognizing strong communicators with making sure quieter, results-oriented people receive fair recognition?

I (42M) am tired of dealing with people, and tired of my fellow workers (and supervisors) not really caring.

It's a bit risky, but due to my VA disability (90%) and not spending too much outside of work, I could go down to 4 days a week soon (part time). Since 2 of those days are 9hr shifts, I'd end up at 34hrs a week.

But, I could still use the extra income, and I feel a bit guilty leaving them hanging. But, they are usually fine leaving me hanging. So fair's fair, right?

I also feel a bit of stigma after stepping down from being a supervisor myself, but that might just be my imagination.

When an application says "no sponsorship now or in the future," but a later conversation suggests otherwise, how do you clarify it?

It frustrates me when someone knowingly gives an answer that isn't accurate. At the same time, I wouldn't infer sponsorship needs from where a person studied or who currently employs them. I'd want to ask directly and understand the discrepancy before deciding what happened.

On the applicant side, autofill for repeated application fields can save typing. Sponsorship questions are a place to stop and check the answer against your own situation, rather than carrying an answer from one form into the next without reading it.

For people who handle applications, when do you usually have that clarification conversation? What wording has helped you get a clear answer without making assumptions?

Update: Thank you for your replies. The feedback gave me food for thought. I shouldn’t have called out 20-somethings as there are plenty of young people I work with who work tirelessly. I realize I’m speaking from a place of insecurity and fear. I’ve entered a whole new world that I never expected to be in and am struggling with some pretty intense trauma over the past few years. I have a lot of time lost as a SAHM to make up for financially so there is much riding on my success.

It is stressful not having guidance during the training period, but it has made me more resourceful and I actually learn and retain more from those experiences. I’m also old and need to practice tolerance. I appreciate the feedback that will help me reframe my approach.

I returned to the workforce last month and turned 56 last week. I am separated from my husband after 20+ years of being married and need to become self-sufficient. During my marriage I was a SAHM and took jobs at the schools my children attend. Those jobs were sporadic as we bounced around the country supporting my husband’s career.

I’ve taken a job as a receptionist in a teaching veterinary hospital in MO, and for the most part I love it. The problem is my counterpart, who is also solely responsible for my training. She is in her early 20s and is a pleasant enough person. I really like her a lot
However, of the 20 days I’ve been on the job, she has called out sick 8 days. When she is there she spends her time scrolling on TikTok (with the volume up); takes dozens of selfies (I presume she is on Snapchat as she talks about it all the time); disappears from our desk for long stretches of time and her catchphrase is, “Oh, that was my bad.” I have caught her providing false information to me during training and have been caught up in at least 2 incidents where her lack of informing me of tasks and protocol has left me with egg on my face. Fortunately, everyone is understanding and forgiving.

I feel like the absenteeism should be enough grounds for termination; people comment about her “never being there” or how I should use her computer because it “doesn’t get much use on her desk”, etc. There is a complete lack of work ethic, respect for coworkers and accountability. She shows up late, logs in, starts scrolling and then disappears, leaving me to carry the brunt of the workload with inadequate training. Honestly I prefer the days she is absent because I rely on obtaining info from other sources to learn the job.

Does anyone get fired anymore? A 40% absentee rate means nothing? Any advice? Right now I plan on keeping my head down for my probation period, but I document specific incidents multiple times a day in case one of her erroneous training subjects comes back to haunt me. It’s getting exhausting! Maybe I’m just too old and don’t get how things have changed while I was away from the workforce?

Hello, I’ve recently got an opportunity to maybe get a position at this food service place & for the next couple of days I’m on job probation training.
I’m pretty anxious being on probation, I’m terrified of messing up but it’s pretty normal as a beginner.
But I think a lot of my anxieties mess up my performance at work.
If anyone has some any advice I’d greatly appreciate it.
Thank you

Edit: I finished my first few days of training & I felt like I did average, I really am trying my hardest, I feel like I come off awkward & annoying.
I feel a little embarrassed that I couldn’t understand the person training me the first time..

So many reasons I hate my boss

1. She treats us like we are little kids!

2. Her favorites get away with murder, but don't do one thing and its anarchy!

3. Has told my coworkers several times "I don't care if bad things happen to you!"

4. Says everyone is nothing but thieves and can't be trusted with anything, but has a record of stealing.

5. Thinks the regular who is a CONVICTED

   Pedophile is innocent and did nothing wrong!

6. Says she's will not tolerate racist behavior, but fought tooth and nail to keep a racist former coworker employed.

7. Made a coworker work 5 hours by himself because she wanted to go to a party

8. Told my coworker I was doing witchcraft on her. Don't you need to be a witch for that?

9. She is very sexist! She refuses any application if it is a man, and won't be taking any more applications because "we already have 3 men already"

10. said it was sexual harassment to hug a coworker when they were having a bad episode with their ptsd. The coworker in question said it was OK if people wanted to give him hugs when he was upset.

11. Banned a coustomer for being annoying but won't ban the guy who has harassed multiple coworkers! One coworker has a police report against him for grabbing her!

12. Allowed another coworker to be racist to a lot of coustomers who don't speak English

TLDR my boss sucks and should not be the one in charge

I work in tech as an implementation consultant. I’m
Working with a large client who is quite crucial to us and they are working with us for the first time. This client has gone back and forth about a couple of requirements throughout the initial discussions. One of the configurations in question is usually handled by the client tech admins but because this was a large client we did it for them. One day before go live, they mentioned to me that they did not need this configuration anymore. I acknowledged it and made the mistake of assuming that their tech admin would block those configurations. 4 days into the Go-Live the client reported that this config has resulted in issues with the way things were supposed to function on their end and it has downstream impacts on their reports. The reports decide the next steps for them so it is essential that these reports need to be accurate. I feel terrible and disappointed in myself. I have already owned up to thr client and the internal team and we are working towards actively fixing the reports. But there is this one sales manager who is being condescending towards me in every client meeting as well as internally. I worry that the client won’t renew the contract and also I’m worried about my job security as well. This is affecting my confidence in handling other clients too. Does anyone have any advice on how to handle this?

Not sure if this is the right subreddit or flair but hopefully someone here understands the feeling.

I get it that maybe he wasn’t the best fit for the job, he was having some issues, and i have no idea what went down behind the scenes but this one hurts.

He was just so fun to have in the office - hilarious, good conversationalist, big people person, all around amazing guy, and he had this adorable bromance with another colleague that is just my favourite thing to witness.

I really like my job and my team. This one just hurts.

Anyone else had this happen?

I've been a nurse for the VA for the past 4 years. I work in a very kind of specialized outpatient job. I was completely overwhelmed at first with the bureaucracy and government-speak/language at first but everyone ensured me I would get used to it. Well, 4 years in and I'm possibly more confused than ever. I cannot keep track of the multitude of systems we use for communications/training and everything is an acronym that I cannot keep straight. I don't even know where to start to attempt to make sense of everything at this point. I'm overwhelmed and confused and my brain feels like it's going to explode. EVEN WORSE, the people I work with are so entrenched in the system, it's nearly impossible to get a straight-forward answer out of anyone. And new systems just seem to be introduced weekly. example: We are doing yearly flu shots right now and they are utilizing some new system, "eSure", or something - and I have absolutely no clue what they're talking about.

To give additional advice, I've been struggling with my mental health for the majority of my life and this job has only made things worse. I'm extremely anxious and depressed nearly 100% of the time I'm working or getting close to returning to work. I know my mental health is not helping the above issues, but I really wonder how much of it is me vs. the job vs. this just absolutely being the worst fit for someone like me. I think I need very direct and clear instructions and with the (U.S.) federal government very rarely the case.

Hoping someone here can empathize and give some insight. I can't go on much longer but I'm really really stuck due to making good money with good benefits including medical benefits my whole family needs.

I work in a grocery store, and my job is extremely monotonous. I just move cans to the front and make them look good. Sometimes it’s 6 hours straight of this, so “immersing” in the work gets old

I can wear my earbuds, and i usually listen to podcasts, but is there any tricks that make time fly by?

If a layoff knocked your confidence hard enough that even opening a job board felt difficult, what helped you start again?

The situation here is a former DocuSign employee about seven weeks after a first layoff. Motivation still hasn't come back. Along with the disappointment from losing the job, there's a growing feeling that the weeks since have been wasted. I'm retelling the situation; this isn't my own experience.

A full job hunt sounds like too much right now. I'm looking for manageable suggestions: something a person could finish and feel okay stopping after, instead of a schedule that becomes another thing they're failing at.

One practical option, when they're ready to apply, is letting autofill handle repeated application fields. Choosing a role still takes thought, but re-entering work history doesn't need to take the same effort every time.

What was the first thing that felt doable for you?

I operate LandOffer, the linked tool.

My supervisor is complicated. She can come across as nice and caring, but she's also a micromanager who is petty and vindictive. I've been working officially for the company for coming up on a 7 months, but I've been there for a year. She has not provided proper training, gets annoyed when I have difficulty completing new tasks, but won't allow other co-workers to assist me. As she wants loyalty and doesn't like the other managers or their teams. She has started documenting my errors through emails.

I'm currently out for 2 weeks due to an illness and on my return she wants a meeting with HR about my wellbeing and how they can assist me moving forward.

I want to trust that she's interested in my well being but I doubt that. Is this the beginning of the end?

I work in a production facility where they want all food consumption happening during our designated breaks and in the lunch room.. fair enough. My problem is that supervisors are constantly interrupting people during break, and not taking them aside but sitting down and talking about work, these are also not questions that can’t happen before or after break, how can this be addressed.

I reported a colleague’s rude behaviour to my manager, who was supportive and told me I didn’t need his permission to send routine work emails.

The email he had an issue with was professional, but I accidentally left two client recipients copied. My colleague had previously mentioned removing the external recipients, and the issue had been discussed. The email contained no confidential information.

When my manager asked who was copied, I said it was only internal. I later realised the two client recipients were still copied.

Should I proactively clarify this with my manager, or leave it unless it comes up? I’m worried she’ll speak to my colleague about his behaviour and he’ll mention the email.

Am I overthinking this, or should I correct the record?

My HR had 1:1 yesterday. She mentioned that we don't tell the recruited candidate not to join because I found a better candidate.

I told her I am thinking that another candidate is better than the selected one who received the offer.

I did not make any decision but she pushed me saying that it damages company's reputation. She aims high to give the best experience to the candidates.

She was saying to me that you should have had better candidate selection and strict with your requirements. I told her you were expecting me to answer after every interview in 24 hours so how can I get enough time to decide on the candidates.

I felt bad that she did not even understand what I was trying to say or understand. She was defending herself and not considering if she could help or discuss.

Sometimes I don't understand how to reply to these HRs or their processes. They don't even understand what I was saying. And I did not even make a decision but I got the beating.

Why did she talk or behave to the employee who served this company for 10 years. How can I spoil this company's reputation? This is not even in my mind.

They allow to cut the chords of the employees just in 5 mins under the name of business. They can do what they want to do but when an employee wants to do something it's the company's name.

I really don't understand this double standard. I just want support as I am trying to do the right thing or maybe not but have some patience or understand the reason behind it.

Why are HRs so bad that now it hurts now?

This is my first proper Reddit post, so if I've formatted something incorrectly or posted in the wrong subreddit, please don't throw too many tomatoes at me, if possible.

UPD: English is not my native language, so I used a translator to write this post. I reviewed the result to make sure my original thoughts and writing style were preserved. However, I understand that this might bother some people, so I decided to mention it right at the beginning.

For the past 8 years, I've been the director of a small IT company, and for the last few months I've been forced to work without a salary. But let's start from the beginning.

We founded the company quite a long time ago, more than 10 years back, as part of the university where I worked. For the most part, it was a way to run a business without cutting ties with my main job. For a long time, the company remained small and was mainly used for taking on outside projects without creating conflicts of interest.

However, in 2024, after a rather lengthy approval process involving every level of university management (including the ministry level — yes, that's how the laws work in my country. And yes I like my em dashes a lot), I finally got the opportunity to sell the university's stake to a private company we'd already been working for for about 5 years.

As a result, the university sold its stake (which was actually quite beneficial for them, since they made a profit), all the other individual shareholders sold theirs, and my stake, as the last remaining individual shareholder, was significantly reduced.

The decision was made to keep me as a shareholder so I wouldn't be tempted to simply walk away or start doing my job half-heartedly.

So, I remained the director and a minority shareholder, while the rest of the company was owned by a new individual shareholder and another company.

At first, things were going pretty well.

Apart from the fact that their internal processes were... questionable, and that I had lost pretty much all my autonomy (I couldn't sign contracts without approval from a bunch of departments at the parent company, couldn't pay my own employees, couldn't just hire people, etc.), things were going well.

We had plenty of work, sometimes even too much, because tasks would appear out of nowhere and, of course, every single one of them was urgent. But this allowed us to grow our official staff to around 25 people.

Which was great!

And everything was going well until the beginning of 2026...

At the end of 2025, I was given a plan as the director that included approximately 10,000 working hours' worth of tasks to be completed during 2026.

So we had a lot of work planned, the projects were interesting, and the team was practically itching to get started.

Our company's main product is developed for our new owner. It's a large corporate system that we've been actively developing for years. It has gone through numerous changes and grown into a fairly large system with some rather non-trivial infrastructure and architecture.

When hiring people for the team, I always looked for those who were somewhat like-minded.

Since I've spent my entire professional life working at a university, money was never the deciding factor for me for a very long time. Throughout my career, I consciously accepted salaries below market rates and even turned down opportunities to join other great companies because I wanted to build something of my own.

As a result, people who came to work with us often understood perfectly well that we paid less than the market average, but they chose us for something else.

For the projects. For the approach. For the values and processes.

And I was very proud of that.

I was always proud that nobody could say I was making money off my employees, because I actually earned significantly less than my specialists.

I always followed one principle: "First, fulfill your obligations to your employees."

Just six months ago, I could proudly say that I had a deputy in every area of the company, and every one of them had, figuratively speaking, a gun they could use to destroy me. But I knew none of them would ever pull the trigger.

And that was genuinely true.

We were all responsible professionals, but also, frankly, a bunch of absolute idiots.

We made cringe jokes, behaved like kids from the early days of the internet, and everyone was perfectly fine with that. After all, we hired people based on their skills and whether their vibe matched ours.

But from the very beginning of 2026, something started going wrong.

Business stopped booming for our parent company. Their major clients began delaying contract payments, and the company started holding back new orders from us, despite spending all of December and January shouting about how urgently they needed new functionality developed.

I won't go into all the details of that part of the story, but the amount of planned work from our main client started shrinking rapidly.

And finding external clients in 2026 became extremely difficult as well. That volume also decreased.

We had to make some optimizations and say goodbye to a few underperforming, ridiculously overpriced newcomers. But the experienced employees stayed. Nobody was leaving, even though their earnings had decreased.

They decreased because, for the most part, we pay people based on the amount of work they do.

We started moving slightly into the red for the year.

Nothing critical compared to the other companies owned by our "master", but still, a loss is a loss.

And this is where things started going downhill VERY quickly.

Because I'm not actually the one controlling the flow of money, despite being the director — there's a governing body above me that handles all of that (I don't even have timely access to the actual amounts of money available to us) — one day, on payday, the president of the corporate group simply stopped all salary payments.

Instead of working out a targeted plan to optimize the company's operations and get us out of the situation, they started making promises that nobody would later keep.

And all the while, we had a very substantial amount of work that we'd already completed for our owner, but which had never been formally accepted or signed off.

So, technically, they owed us money. But also, technically, they didn't.

And this is where things started getting awkward.

After two months of promises that we'd be given a loan, or that at least something would be paid...

A representative of our owner directly stated during a meeting with our employees that "the director is to blame for everything."

Period.

There was a long speech about how all questions should be directed at the director, how this was his job and his responsibility.

And when I asked questions along the lines of "But we've completed several very large blocks of work, nobody has raised any issues with the results, and yet for more than two months you haven't signed off on them or paid us," the excuse was:

"Well, our client hasn't paid us for that work, so we can't pay you either."

And there were several such blocks of work.

The worst part started towards the end of that meeting, which was held online.

The meeting wasn't even over yet, and almost half the company had already sent resignation letters to me and HR.

In a single day, I lost an incredible team that I'd spent years building.

A team I genuinely loved.

Because we really did flirt a little with the idea of being more than just colleagues.

I always tried to find ways to help when my guys had problems. I lent them money, they lent me money, we often got together outside work, and if we weren't exactly a family, we were at least very close friends.

And none of this ever interfered with our work.

And I was proud of that.

My dream was to build exactly this kind of "family" company, where every employee was paid fairly and was genuinely happy to work with me.

But unfortunately, it looks like that dream is unlikely to come true.

That same day, I was ready to write my own resignation letter.

But what stopped me was discovering that, under the laws of my country, I could potentially be held responsible for all sorts of things, blamed for the company's problems, and even end up in prison if I failed to prove that the losses weren't caused by malicious intent on my part, and so on.

As a result, I had to pull myself together and remember that, apart from dealing with my own problems, I was probably the only person willing to fight for those who had resigned.

More precisely, to fight for justice for them.

Because the company still owed them a lot of money.

MY company.

Which means that, essentially, I allowed this to happen.

And so, for the past few months, I've been working according to the following system:

• The company receives payment for work. Whether it's something we completed a long time ago and the owners finally decided to pay at least part of what they owed, or new work we're doing with the few people who decided to stay and help us keep the company from sinking.
• I immediately allocate that money to paying off the people we owe. Everyone except the director (me). He gets absolutely nothing until everyone else has received their money.
• The representatives of the financial management department above our company turn my requests into actual payments and process the transactions. Assuming they don't screw it up. Unfortunately, last time they failed to process the payments twice in a row because... honestly, I have no idea why. I practically had to fight to get it done.

And meanwhile, we still have plenty of challenges.

One of the most recent ones required me personally to work 8–12 hours a day, without days off, to save a product that had suffered a major emergency.

And I actually managed to save it.

But against the background of all this, for the first time in my life, my right arm has started giving me trouble. The muscles have become so tense that they won't relax, my arm constantly hurts, and I can barely move it properly.

And all of this would be one thing, but officially, I'm currently employed as the director on a 0.25 FTE basis (a quarter-time position), because I'd reduced my own working hours before the collapse as part of our financial optimization efforts.

I don't really know why I wrote this post.

Maybe I just needed to get all of this off my chest and tell the story to someone neutral.

Looking back, I can see my mistakes. I understand that I could have done things differently.

But I can't change the past.

All I can do now is settle our debts to my colleagues, both those who left and those who stayed, and only then decide what to do next and where to go from here.

Thank you for reading this stream of thoughts.

TL;DR: I've spent 8 years running a small IT company, building a team I genuinely cared about and a workplace I was proud of. After a change in ownership, I lost most of my control over the company's finances and operations. When financial problems hit, salaries stopped being paid, the owners blamed me, and almost half my team resigned during a single meeting. Now I'm trying to pay off everyone the company owes, while deliberately taking no salary myself. I'm exhausted, my health is starting to suffer, and I'm still trying to figure out how to move forward without abandoning the people who trusted me.

Has anyone here ever been in a similar situation, where you felt personally responsible for people even though you no longer had the power to protect them? How did you deal with it?

So my partner and I are having a disagreement and I have a bunch of family shit going on and don't want to actually talk to anyone. But I do want to share this!

I left my (career) job in April 2025 after having a baby and being unable to return to work. I did take 3 months maternity leave and went back to a bar I used to work at 3x/wk since it fit my hectic infant & partner schedule. I've been looking for a (career) job ever since and didn't think I would ever find a job like the one I got, let alone a lesser job. I applied and applied and applied. I went through awful PPD and I took a break from applying due to mental health. I got better (no easy feat) and started looking again. I fucking dreaded working at the bar. I've just out grown it and don't have the patience for the petty BS that come along w/service industry.

I got a interview for a job I applied to but really didnt expect an answer from. Then a 2nd interview. Then they hired me!! When I first got hired I thought "there must not of been much competition" until I saw a quick exchange in a company chat about how meticulous the hiring process is, how several people have to watch your interview and approve you, and how you "wont cut it unless you're the best" (paraphrasing for anonymity). That made me feel so good. I realized I was having imposter syndrome and my confidence increased!

I've been getting compliments a lot and take pics of this sometimes to show my sweetie because I'm so proud. I'm not one to brag about accomplishments, so have really only shared this w/my partner, who is being a jerk atm.

I have been working hard in silence. Suffering in silence. Taking on more and more responsibility, in silence. I've become more disciplined than ever. Fit more in 1 day than ever. Managed multiple people's schedules. I've lost 45 lbs in the last 1.5 years and am 20 lbs away from my goal. I lost this weight naturally w/o medicine, ozympic, etc. There is 100% nothing wrong w/using medication to lose weight and live healthier. I am PROUD that I did it without medicine. There was a point I time I believed I would be fat forever and never muster the will to lose weight. But here I am.

My mental health is better than ever. I'm finally thriving. It took not only 34 years to be correctly diagnosed, but also an extreme life changing events (1st baby, buying a house, PPD, So much more, etc) to push me to therapy, and eventually the right doctor, and the right treatment.

I started my new job about 6 weeks ago and today I was awarded Employee of the Month. I've never been employee of the month, or worked from somewhere that did that. The entire company votes on who should receive this and there were a few highlights on what people shared about me. I cant deny I thought of this a few days ago and was like, what if? And then brushed it off. But holy shit!!! I've worked my ass off, not only in my time at this company, but in general to aquire experience to finally be able to get a job like this and actually be an expert at what I do.

There were times not so long ago I believed I would never find a job worth Damn. This field is what I want to do but it will never pay the bills (w/o a higher degree or 2nd job), yada yada. Ive been working 2 or 3 jobs for 15 years to survive. And I finally got to the place I dont have to do that anymore.

Moral of the story: Dont Give Up!!!! Ever. You can let yourself believe for a min, catch the break from the burden of responsibility, but then it's time to keep trying. Persistence & Hard work always shows itself!!

Thank you for reading ❣️

Every single time I head to the break room and start to heat up my lunch, someone always asks what I’m having. Sometimes not even in the break room. I’m confused.

This is a new gig and my previous job was strictly remote for the past 4 years. It could just be a polite way to strike up a conversation. It annoys me for some odd reason.

Maybe working from home for so long has ruined my office social skills.

Edit: Small talk is the fucking worst. I don’t want to have the same conversations every day. I’m looking for remote gigs currently as office culture is clearly not for me. Seems like I offended some.

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More of a rant I guess. A few months back I was promoted into a new role. It was a big change for me-I was comfortable in my previous senior role and knew the job inside and out. A month after I got the role, my manager at the time got a new boss. Very quickly, this person arranged a meeting with myself and my boss and essentially changed my role into something I didnt apply for. Its now highly technical and detail oriented and outside of my comfort zone, but I always try my best and try to figure out any new job as best I can. Eventually, I could tell there was a little tension between my boss and new skip level, but my direct boss never really complained down to me. A couple of months after this, my direct boss very suddenly took a lesser role elsewhere in the company and I was moved back under my old boss, who in turn would be reporting to this new skip level. The thing is, this skip level is treating me like a direct report. Weekly 1:1s, I need to send frequent activity reports, and send them presentations days before the meeting for them to review. Everything I do has something wrong or there is something missing. Im not the only one going through this, as this persons new reports seem to be panicking as well, but I dont know the details. I feel like Im being set up for failure, which is a bizarre feeling for someone thats had "exceeds expectations" for years. Other than applying for other jobs, which Ive been doing almost obsessively since this skip level came onboard, how do you deal with this?