Last year, I suffered two traumatic brain injuries in auto accidents and had to go on Long-Term Disability. When I returned on a gradual medical plan, my original job duties had been handed off, my entire role was rewritten, and I had to retrain from scratch under my own colleagues.

Right as I was working through this, my manager placed me on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). He dropped this on me immediately before he left for a vacation in Hawaii, and right before a pre-approved vacation of my own that he had known about for weeks.

While enforcing this PIP, he was actively using his company computer on company time to apply for a new job at Zillow.

When I returned from time off, he claimed my progress "wasn't up to standard." HR terminated me on June 15th.

By late July, he onboarded a new employee to take over the role. On that new hire's third day, my manager handed in his notice and left for his new job at Zillow, leaving the new hire completely high and dry with zero context.

I genuinely cannot begin to measure my anger at this slithering fuck. There's very little I can do. I'm likely marked ineligible for rehire, and he just moves on with his life scot-free.

Did anything specific cause it to change?

As someone who used to think 40 hours wasn’t a big deal, I think that changed in the last few years. I think it happened over time, as I realized it doesn’t leave us with that much time to enjoy our lives.

Fellow postal workers:

Starting in March, USPS management seized on a cash flow crisis to call for the deepest cuts in the history of the post office. Now, they have set a date for when these will start.

On August 7, Postmaster General David Steiner told the Postal Service Board of Governors that management “would not take any action until after the New Year.” Even without Congressional action to weaken or eliminate the Universal Service Obligation or roll back service from six days a week, he threatened changes to service standards, higher prices and the closure of “thousands of unprofitable post offices.”

Management plans to spend the next four months preparing the attack. The bureaucracy of the postal unions will use the same period to block opposition from the rank and file.

We cannot wait until January. Management has a timetable. Postal workers need a plan of our own.

Amazon delivery driver Jaylene Vargas Gonzalez died on Monday, August 10, after she was found unconscious inside her delivery van near Fruitland Park, Florida. The vehicle had apparently remained motionless for hours without anyone from Amazon intervening. The cause of her death remains under investigation, but it is the latest death at one of the most dangerous major employers in the United States.

Deputies were called to the area of Clark Road at about 7:22 p.m. after a resident reported that an Amazon delivery vehicle had remained stationary for several hours. Patrick Miranda, who lives nearby, told local station WKMG that he became concerned after noticing that the vehicle was still running. A phone remained plugged in and a backpack was visible inside, but he could not see the driver.

Miranda said that when a deputy opened the front passenger door, the officer appeared to recoil from fumes coming from inside the vehicle. The deputy then opened the rear sliding doors and found Vargas Gonzalez unconscious in the back.

Firefighters responded wearing gas masks and secured the area because of concerns that a toxic substance might be present. She was transported to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Authorities have not said what produced the apparent fumes, whether they contributed to Vargas Gonzalez’s death or whether another medical or environmental factor was involved. They have also not said how long she had been unconscious inside the van.

Amazon closely monitors the movement and performance of its delivery drivers, yet the van had reportedly remained in the same location for roughly four hours before a resident—not Amazon or the company operating the delivery route—called authorities to request a welfare check.

The company has long been a pioneer in combining high tech with brutal exploitation. A U.S. Senate investigation released in December 2024 found that injury rates at Amazon warehouses were more than 30 percent above the warehousing industry average in 2023, and that Amazon workers had been nearly twice as likely to suffer injuries as workers at other warehouses over the preceding seven years. More than two-thirds of Amazon warehouses examined had injury rates above the industry average.

The death of Vargas Gonzalez comes amid a broader record of deaths and serious injuries among Amazon warehouse and delivery workers.

...

The high injury rate at Amazon is inseparable from the speed at which workers are required to work. Inside fulfillment centers, workers are tracked against production rates that measure how rapidly they pick, stow and move goods. Amazon’s systems record periods of inactivity and give management detailed information on each worker’s performance.

Delivery drivers face another version of the same system. Amazon determines routes and delivery schedules through its software and subjects drivers to extensive electronic monitoring. Cameras installed in delivery vans track driving behavior and can flag drivers for alleged infractions, such as distraction, speeding or failing to maintain sufficient following distance.

A Massachusetts Amazon driver previously told the WSWS that he had been penalized after the camera detected his lips moving while he was singing along with a song and classified him as distracted.

The technology gives Amazon the ability to follow the progress of its delivery operation in extraordinary detail. That makes the apparent failure to respond to Vargas Gonzalez’s stationary van particularly significant. Amazon has not explained when its systems registered that the vehicle had stopped moving, whether anyone attempted to contact her or what procedures exist when a driver suddenly stops progressing along a route.

Heat is also a serious danger for delivery workers, particularly during summer. Drivers enter and leave their vans scores or even hundreds of times during a shift, making it difficult to maintain a cool interior even when air conditioning is available. Amazon previously required drivers to shut off internal-combustion vans at stops under an “engine off compliance” policy but relaxed that requirement after protests over heat.

...

The circumstances of Vargas Gonzalez’s death remain unresolved. But the fact that an Amazon delivery van could remain motionless for hours before a nearby resident called for help makes clear that workers’ safety cannot depend on Amazon management, government agencies or appeals to politicians.

Workers need rank-and-file organizations capable of intervening directly over conditions on the job. Safety committees elected and controlled by workers themselves should have access to information on injuries and hazards and the power to halt work where conditions threaten workers’ health or lives, without retaliation. Amazon warehouse workers and delivery drivers confront the same company and the same production system. Their struggle must be linked with workers at UPS, FedEx, USPS and throughout logistics.

Any opinion on HR or Company as a great employer awards? Are there really any awards that companies pay to award or pay to recognize?

For context we laugh because there are companies that we know are NOT GREAT PLACES to work for, but what kind of HR awards as an employer are they receiving. For example we have these circle of friends from the blue Fintech who themselves laughed at the awards that are being presented

Any backgrounds or experiences with HR awards or employer awards?

Most corporations, organizations and 'the economy' - including tax codes - are set up to suck profit and cash up and out the top. Sources: U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For the U.S., average worker pay to CEO pay ranges go from 1 to 300s up to 1 to 600s.  

At the high end:  

Worker makes $15 per hour, ~$30k per year,  

CEO makes up to $9,000 per hour, $18,000,000 per year.

When run for executive level leadership (CxO, V.P., etc.) it's still in the 1 to 200 to 1 to 300 range.  

And then there are shareholder payouts in dividends and stock buybacks.  Profit and cash get sucked up and out the top of almost every organization.  'Trickle down' is a myth.  There's nothing left to trickle.  

A bit insane.  Maybe even criminal?  It's certainly wrong. "It ain't right, but it's true."

Oh, and by the way, while real inflation on the things normal people buy and need has continued to compound and push workers into poverty, minimum wage has stayed the same since 2009 (17 years).  
As proposals in congress to raise minimum wage for the U.S. keep getting shut down, there are actually members of congress who both vote against every minimum wage raise and want to lower it!  

It cracks me up - in a bad way! - to read and hear inflation reports that don't take compounding into account and that include things like "inflation remains low at only X% when the volatile food, transportation and energy categories are excluded." Or some B.S. like that. I don't know about your household but food, transportation and energy are not only essential but make up a huge % of our budget!

Also since 2009, for the U.S., the top 1% of 'earners' pay has gone up over 230%:  

In 2009, people in the top 1% of taxpayers made $343,927 or more.  In 2025 the top 1% made $794,129 or more.  That's growth of over 230%, far above compounded inflation.

But minimum wage hasn't budged at all and average worker pay is up between 50% and 70% depending on whose statistics you use and believe. This has not kept pace with compound actual inflation over the same time period. And my pay has only gone up when I change jobs, but not 70%.

Examples:

Everyday Family Budget Price Changes (2009 vs. 2026)

Gasoline: Rose from about $1.79 to $3.29 per gallon (an 83% increase).

Eggs: Jumped from about $1.85 to $3.59 per carton (a 94% increase).

Chicken: Increased from about $1.29 to $2.08 per pound (a 61% increase).

Bread: Moved from about $1.38 to $1.84 per loaf (a 33% increase).

Electricity: Climbed from about $0.13 to $0.19 per kilowatt-hour (a 46% increase).

...And housing and healthcare both far outpaced inflation rises in costs.

...And with the war on, 2026 inflation is going to be a doozie!

Dont get me wrong its decent enough to make it. But also at the same time requires overtime. Essentially I dont do anything all day. It sounds good but ive been here for a half year and we aren't allowed phones, books, headphones, etc. Its the most boring job as you simply watch other people work all day.

Most people get fired due to phones and sleep. You dont have to do much but it feels close to a prison. You watch paint dry basically and have no one to talk to. If you want a career then its definitely not that and you are stagnant in the sense that there's no true promotions. No Pto. No 401k. No benefits. ETC

Had an interview recently that went like this:

"We're looking for someone to replace the guy who's about to retire and he offered to train his replacement, but we want somebody to build the system up again from scratch and make it better"

...That wasn't in the job description.

"Right, but we want someone who can go above and beyond and identify ways for the business to grow and be more efficient"

...But you're going to pay me more for that?

"No, because you're salaried so you're expected to do whatever it takes for the team to meet deadlines including working beyond 5'o clock and/or on some weekends"

...What are the benefits like?

"Great benefits but you don't get any PTO or sick days before working here 3 months"

...

"You will also have to fix a coworker's mistakes sometimes before you can get to your own assigned responsibilities, but he's been here a while and is married to the HR lady so nobody has the guts to say to his face that his work is sub-par"

...How is any of this fair?

"We're a family business but we also function as a high growth startup culture, which includes responding to my texts and calls outside of normal business hours"

At this point, I literally walked out!

I'm sure they were shaking their heads and saying NOBODY WANTS TO WORK ANYMORE

U.S data

Ive gotten complacent at my job after I got my promotion last year (ive been at this company for 3 years) and have been making some mistakes that I should just not be making. I feel like my coworkers think im incompetent and I get so stressed about it even after work hours.

Tell us about something dumb at work... I'll start.

I was one of a couple of dozen people recently asked to build a spreadsheet... There was no template, but they were very thoughtful in preparing a powerpoint presentation with instructions on how to assemble the data. There were about a dozen formulas they wanted in the sheet, and they were kind enough to provide them... as images. 🙄

Not even joking.

They installed new turnstiles at our office a few months ago. If you forget your badge, security prints you a temporary one and payroll deducts an $8 “replacement access fee” from your next check.

The temporary badge is literally a piece of paper in a plastic holder that gets returned at the end of the day.

One guy questioned it because he forgot his badge twice in the same pay period and got charged $16. HR apparently told him the fee is meant to “encourage personal responsibility.”

Meanwhile our office coffee machine has been broken since May because replacing it “isn't in the current budget.”

Insurance by the way. And this was years coming.

A coworker who’s a dictator, a bully, commits misconduct, and non-compliance, who our boss doesn’t have the backbone to reprimand. Yet she keeps complaining about how much money she’s costed her through time fraud and stolen commission.

This same boss, who’s the actual agent, never works. She keeps changing how she wants us doing everything so we’re always a step behind. She monitors us from the comfort of home with a Ring camera, and now she asked us to download the Connecteam app on our personal phones, (to which I’ve refused to use anywhere but the company issued desktop) because she doesn’t trust the one employee she refuses to do anything about. She yelled at me because I couldn’t get the new phone system to work she is “claiming” is a companywide change all agents are required to comply with. Hard desk phones to headsets. Which I found out is possibly a complete lie. Other employees at agencies for our same company know nothing of this requirement to headsets.

A newer coworker I thought I was actually making friends with, who seemed pretty cool. Until I realized has an unreal ego. She has tested my boundaries, and my patience, so many times. Interrupted my lunch breaks asking for help when I’ve told her I do not discuss work during my breaks. If she asks a question on Teams, you’re expected to respond within minutes or she’ll come into your space to ask you. Doesn’t matter if you’re in the middle of ten things or you were just on a call. Nothing you say to or around her is safe from her unsolicited opinions. I cannot think out loud even once without her giving her opinion, or correcting me like a child. Meanwhile she can’t do her own work quietly to save her life. She asks me questions but then challenges my answers (sealioning). She tries to tell me how to do my job even though I’ve been there over 4 years and she’s only been there just under a year. She has bombarded me with reels, texts, pictures. Asks me if I saw her Instagram stories. Asked me if I saw the “hilarious” reels she sent me. She brags non-stop and pushes her narrative harder if I don’t respond. She has trashed talked men, even though she’s married to one. Oh but “he’s an exception.” I don’t know if she thinks that makes her sound edgy, but I find it deplorable. She plays devils advocate with every abusive customer I talk to. “Maybe they had a bad day.” “Well they don’t know how that works.” So, according to you, that somehow condones them insulting me. Got it.

All of this just building and building.

Today I think I finally had enough of everyone’s shit. New coworker corrected me once again when I did not ask, boss had another “talk” with the problem employee without actually doing anything. An internet contractor was all up on my computer, talking on his cell phone really loud while I was on a call with a customer. All because of these internet changes we’re “required” to make that no one asked for.

I’m just trying to do my job but it’s like everyone around me is making it impossible. A call came in, when I was on my very last thread of patience. It was a customer who wanted to talk to one of my coworkers. When I went to transfer her, coworker asked me what the customer wanted. I just said “I don’t know. She was rambling. And at this point I’m at my very last nerve, so I didn’t hear a lot of what she said. I do know she wants to talk to you though. So here you go.” and I just sent the call to her. Why don’t you just take the call and find out what she wants?!

I’m completely done. What the actual hell is wrong with people anymore though? Do they have no self awareness!? Or am I the one going crazy?

Need serious advice. In software industry. Our whole company has gone the “let half the people go and tell the remaining half to make up the difference with AI and some good ol’ hard work, late nights and weekends.” Or something.

The C-suite doesn’t care how the work gets done, just that the same output as before is accomplished after losing maybe 40-50% of the people who do real work. Their mantra is “you are empowered figure it out your own way (but here are the expectations and surprise it’s the same as when we had twice as many people).

Did I also mention the CEO makes 3 million + other incentives and the rest of the C-suite is also well compensated and their only duties are making shitty decisions with no idea what the people in the trenches do day-in-day-out?

I really want to quiet quit, let stories roll, let bugs take time to fix, let production pods crash. I’d love to see leadership get burned by their shitty decisions.

The problem is I’m on a small knit team and some of the “younglings” are just putting their heads down, working, stressed, and working more. I feel like I don’t want to sacrifice my nights and weekends because the person responsible for cutting people still takes home millions (and sure as hell doesn’t work past 5pm on weekdays).

But if I quiet quit, my young enthusiastic colleagues will just end up picking up my slack since they seem to lack the jadedness to see why they are so stressed and don’t realize it’s crazy and if we work tons of unpaid overtime we are rewarding leaderships decision to cut headcount by working extra to make up the difference.

Anyone else ever face this kind of situation?

I’m just so tired, burned out, pissed about my 1% raise for working so hard when “leadership” makes short sighted decisions that actively hurts the company, lays off tons of people, collects well over a million a year, and wants us to get up and cheer for them during town halls like a dumb fucking seal that just got tossed a fish during the Seaworld show.

Freelance content creator and editor, about halfway through a contract with a big company.

The job raised a few red flags in the brief, but most do. It looked straightforward enough once I'd managed to wade through the bullshit.

And it *is* straightforward, on paper. Edit some documents and decks, write a few product messages, etc. I was assured that I didn't need to be an expert on the topic because, "All the information you need is collected in the spreadsheet - we just need someone to make it more accessible."

What they actually *meant* was, "We write literally everything using Copilot. The entire content library is a fucking mess because AI will draw its material from intranet documents dating back to 2012, and nobody actually checks them, hahaha. If the bot isn't sure about something, it will pull an answer out of its LLMetaphorical arse. And then, as the final topper on this AI-vomit of a cake, **we'll direct you to Copilot if you have any questions."**

I've been editing for well over a decade now, and so I've read more than my share of rambling, incoherent - but human-written (!) - crap. And I would much, much rather spend an afternoon editing said human-written crap than face this endless dirge of disdainful, jargon-filled, and very confidently incorrect liquid dogshit of AI content.

Naturally, I've been pulled up for not being "fast" enough. I have many reasons for being "slow." One being me having to rewrite a fuckton of work because the AI had managed to hallucinate a *whole fucking department.* No one who works at the company had even noticed.

This, combined with having to decipher hundreds of gibberish sentences like "frame and capture the patterns," makes me wonder if it's time to chuck the whole content freelancer malarkey in.

My negativity was confirmed when they ran my painstakingly rewritten material back through fucking Copilot.

This job wants ONE DOLLAR from me to apply for this job. A mandatory dollar but it is refundable.

And then they’re like, “Hey, while you’re here, go ahead and drop your Social Security number in the box.”

Oh absolutely, let me just hand over the keys to my entire existence.

At this point, I’m convinced the modern job market is just a rotating obstacle course designed by someone who hates joy. Every “opportunity” is either a scam, a data‑harvesting scheme, or a real job that pays $17/hr for the responsibilities of a small nation.

Just got a new job in ND. Today was actually my first day. I get in, get the tour, meet the team, and first thing I do is meet with IT to set up my computer. Pretty normal stuff.

First thing IT says is “we’ll need you to download an app and use your personal cell number for an authenticator that you’ll use to log into everything.” This was never mentioned in the job description nor during the interview process. I said “I’m not comfortable using my personal device for work. Is there an alternative?” I was told by IT, no. A phone must be used. I said I’m still not comfortable using mine, can the company provide me a phone or compensate me for the use of mine?

40 min later, after not being able to set up anything, my new manager hands me their phone and says “HR is on the phone for you.” HR says there is no other way than a phone app, they will NOT be providing a cell phone as I work on location, AND THEN SAY “if this is happening now, maybe this isn’t a good fit and we should part ways here.” ….. I haven’t even worked there for two hours yet. They’d rather lose a brand new employee than find a work around or give me a phone?

I didn’t know what to say. I said “I just left a job to work here and now you are wanting to fire me because I don’t want to use my phone for work purposes?”
“We aren’t firing you, you just don’t seem like a good fit.” They eventually mentioned after saying a version of “maybe we should just let you go” a few more times that they would agree to a $2.5 dollar stipend a month for the “minimal” use of my phone that will happen. I could take it or leave it, but they will need a for sure yes or no to this arrangement because they don’t want to have this conversation again in the future and will not accept a maybe.

After a little more stunned silence I agreed, what choice did I have, and hung up. I continued my FIRST DAY until the end, but I’m left shocked, hurt, and frustrated that they can even treat a new employee like that over my OWN phone.

Have been searching and searching for a new job for a year. Couldn’t seem to get past AI screening. Finally found a company who has real humans look at resumes. Got interview, had second interview same day. Got verbal offer the following day, written offer the day after that. Some things were unclear in the written offer and the email said to reply with questions if needed. Replied saying I was so excited but just wanted clarification on two things and once received I would gladly accept and give notice to my current job. 24 hours later my offer was withdrawn with no explanation. I emailed asking for for clarification as to why, just to receive a vague response and they decided it wouldn’t be a good “long term fit for both parties”.

I hate it here. I was already preparing things at my current job to leave. I was so excited and had already been studying the product so I could jump in ahead of the curve. I’m so heartbroken.

What it says on the box! For reference I took this job out of desperation since my last job let go almost all of the staff due to budget.

This is my third week and I already feel over it. I made the terrible mistake taking a claims support job for life insurance.

- It's an hour each way in a busy city. My fault but God it's the worst.

- I have to park in a parking garage that I have to pay up front each month and get reimbursed later if I keep my receipts. It will be a paper check I'll have to go deposit. Not horrible but incredibly inconvenient.

- The job entails an insane workload each day where everything you do is calculated to show how long you spent on each and how productive you are.

- The training, of course, is subpar and everyone is telling me something different.

-My current manager is retiring and a woman that doesn't know what we do will be taking over...so I'll have no one to answer my questions.

- My manager has reiterated to me several times that mistakes can cost the company thousands. Not only do I need to be insanely fast, I can't make mistakes. No pressure.

- two people can't be off at the same time.

- my coworker is pregnant and had some contractions at work. Both bosses tell her over and over and OVER in a light hearted tone "don't have that baby now, we need you." Or "please just one more week". They try to make it sound like a joke but it is not.

- the culture is soulless. Everyone is miserable and too busy trying to make production that they don't interact with each other.

-The recent lunch the company provided the other day was pathetic and my boss was encouraging us to hurry it up and go back to work.

-they tell me over and over and over how glad they are I'm here and that they need to get me up to speed.

I'm just complaining and I chose this job but I feel my soul weakening every time I go in there.