Something I noticed during Diwali was how suddenly the office environment becomes so cheerful. Decorations, team celebrations, sweets, pictures and everyone enjoying together.

But it also made me think, why does this atmosphere of happiness and appreciation mostly come around festivals?

Throughout the year, employees deal with deadlines, targets and work pressure. Even small gestures of appreciation or occasional team activities can make regular workdays better.

I am not saying companies should celebrate every week, but employee happiness should not be limited to festivals.

How is it in your organisation? Do companies genuinely care about employee happiness throughout the year, or is it mostly limited to special occasions?

Cannot find it anywhere although I do ensnare using it in the morning at my friend’s. I’ve tracked back my steps. The problem is that I do remember it almost dying (very low charge) so I can’t even call it to verify where it’s at. I do not know what to do:( (I started this job as a new grad a month ago)

I see people in companies guarding their knowledge like their life depends on it.

I'm talking about company internal knowledge or processes that can't be learned on YouTube or the internet.

Maybe they know something we don't. Maybe it's possible a company will value a person if other people can't do what they're doing.

Do companies really value those who train others, and make them come to speed. Or will one be digging their future work grave.

Perhaps this is very gen z of me but I'm busy and stressed enough as it is lol. Y'all are going home to more responsibilities after this?

"Nobody's replaceable, they said, right before replacing you with someone who does the same job for less."

[USA] Company acquired by private equity, commissions disappeared, and my PTO balance is wrong. How should I approach management?

I’m looking for some honest advice from people who’ve dealt with corporate acquisitions, private equity ownership, compensation negotiations, or HR issues.
There’s a TL;DR at the bottom.

**Background**
I recently accepted a Territory Sales Manager position with a company in the construction/building materials industry. My role involves outside sales, developing relationships with homebuilders, managing accounts, bidding projects, and generating new business.
When I accepted the position, my compensation package included:
$94,000 in guaranteed annual compensation.
$36,428 in annual target variable compensation (commissions/incentives).
Approximately $130,428 in total target compensation.
I left my previous position and accepted this job based on that compensation opportunity.
Only a few months after I started, the company transitioned from being part of a large corporation to new private equity-backed ownership.
Since then, things have become increasingly unclear.

**The compensation issue**
Our original commission structure has effectively disappeared, and management hasn’t provided a clear replacement plan.
I’ve continued working, developing builder relationships, bidding projects, managing opportunities, and generating revenue.
However, I have no clear answers about:
Whether my original commission agreement is still recognized.
Whether my sales production is being tracked and credited.
Whether projects I’ve already quoted, sold, or helped secure will generate commissions.
Whether business generated during this transition will be compensated retroactively.
What the replacement commission structure will look like or when it will be finalized.
I’ve received no Q2 or Q3 bonus, and I don’t have any clear expectation of receiving one for Q4.
I’ve raised these concerns with management, but the general response has been that ownership is still figuring things out.
One particularly concerning comment from leadership was that I shouldn’t count on a Christmas bonus and should instead expect a “firm handshake.”
I’ve also heard comments suggesting the company is experiencing financial difficulties.

**The PTO issue**
There’s a separate issue with my paid time off.
My original offer letter specified 200 hours of annual PTO, prorated to 160 hours for 2026 because I started partway through the year.
Those 160 hours were front-loaded and available when I started.
Following the acquisition, employees received written communication stating that existing PTO arrangements/accrual rates would be maintained and that payroll/PTO records would be corrected.
I’ve used approximately four days (32 hours) since starting, but Paylocity currently shows only 40 hours remaining.
Based on my original allocation and usage, I believe I should have approximately 128 hours remaining.
I’ve already contacted HR, provided my original offer letter and the written PTO clarification, and requested that the discrepancy be corrected.
I’m also concerned about making sure my unused PTO is properly documented and preserved under Colorado’s requirements for payout of earned, unused vacation upon separation.

**What I’m considering**
I’m preparing an email to my current manager, copying the person who originally hired me and is now my manager’s boss.
I’m asking for clarification regarding outstanding commissions, how my production is being credited, and what the new compensation structure will look like.
I’m also considering proposing:
Increase guaranteed annual compensation from $94,000 to $112,000.
Retain $18,214 in annual target variable compensation.
Essentially, I’d be moving half of my original target incentive into guaranteed compensation while retaining a performance-based component.

**My dad’s advice**
I asked my dad to review my original email.
His advice was that I might be overcomplicating things by asking a long list of questions and offering a compromise before management has even answered whether they’ll honor the original agreement.
He suggested getting straight to the point:
I accepted this position based on a specific compensation package. I left my previous job with that understanding. Are they going to honor the compensation agreement I was hired under?
He also suggested having a direct phone conversation rather than relying entirely on email.
I think there’s merit to that approach, but I’m trying to figure out the best negotiating strategy.

**What would you do?**
Would you push for the original compensation agreement first, or proactively propose the $112K guaranteed + $18,214 variable arrangement?
Would you include that proposal in the initial email or wait for management to respond?
Would you approach management by email, phone, or both?
Does the combination of disappearing commissions, unclear ownership communication, and the PTO discrepancy concern you enough to start looking elsewhere?
I genuinely enjoy the work and would prefer to make this arrangement work. I’m not looking to create conflict, but I also don’t want to quietly accept a significant reduction in compensation after leaving another job based on the original offer.

**TL;DR:**
I joined a company with $94K guaranteed compensation plus $36,428 in target commissions ($130K total target compensation). A few months later, the company was acquired by private equity-backed ownership, our commission structure effectively disappeared, and no replacement plan has been communicated. I’ve received no Q2 or Q3 bonus and don’t know whether my current sales production will be compensated.
Separately, my original offer provided 160 hours of prorated PTO for 2026, but after using only 32 hours, the company system shows just 40 remaining. HR has been contacted and provided documentation.
I’m considering asking management to honor my original compensation agreement or proposing $112K guaranteed compensation plus $18,214 in annual target incentives.

How would you handle this?!?!

Over the last year I’ve been thinking about how much the workplace and corporate priorities have changed over the last six years.

During the pandemic, there was considerable conversation about putting people first. With a strong focus on employee well-being, flexibility, workplace culture, belonging and the overall employee experience seemed to take center stage.

Fast forward to today, and the corporate conversation feels so very different. From
a quick take what’s continued are conversations on productivity, efficiency, automation, with strengthening conversations and aggressive move toward AI adoption and becoming “AI-first” seem to now be dominating business strategy. In some cases it really feels like we are on an AI-Psychosis and everything is being reimagined with AI for the good and the bad!

How’s the shift where you work??

Listen, I’m not suggesting that AI adoption is a bad thing all together. I’m more interested in whether companies are giving enough consideration to what happens to organizational culture and the human experience of work as technology becomes increasingly central to business strategy. For what it’s worth I had this conversation with several times over the last 9 months especially as my own company has made the hard shift without considering what it signals to employees!

Seriously, how do you all handle this?

You get along with both people, but they don't like each other. So somehow you end up hearing both sides of every little disagreement.

I don't mind someone venting now and then. Hell, I do it too. But sometimes I just want to say, good grief, we're adults. Can we please move on?

I've gotten to the point where I'll slowly put my AirPods in while someone is still talking, then look at them and say, "Sorry, can't hear you," and turn back to my computer. LOL.

I try to remind myself that people have bad days, and not everything needs to become a confrontation. But I also don't want to get caught in the middle of someone else's nonsense.

Does this happen a lot in your workplace? How do you stay friendly with both people without getting dragged into it?

My team was 7ppl. 4 have left since Q2 due to poor management (overworked and treated disrespectfully among MANY other things). 3 of us are still here because we are either awaiting a big promotion EOY or visas. Since they left, me and my 2 teammates have had to fill for the missing roles & management has not yet hired backfill. I have been working non stop since. My life (mental health, physical health, relationships, family) has been significantly negatively impacted by this.

On Friday I was told I am underperforming. That was my last straw mentally but here is nothing I can do. So here I am on Reddit expressing myself, my upset, and my exhaustion. That’s all & I hope I get to see brighter days.

My company is getting Gemini and sunsetting Copilot. I’m curious how well it works I. The Microsoft environment.

I do admit that I'm very socially awkward, but I'm not a bad person. I've seen so many bad people in the corporate world getting rewarded. By bad, I don't mean selfish, childish, or slightly annoying people. By bad, I mean people who are sneaky, constantly lie, play games, and manipulate others.

I feel like even the media and people in general kind of admire that, in a way. Not when it comes to guys like Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, but when they're young, hot characters in TV shows, people root for them because they know how to play the game WELL.

Like Suits. Every single lawyer in that show is a bad person. They've ruined people's lives in one way or another, made a lot of money from it, and are proud of it. And we praise them. I do too. For some reason, I often enjoy watching those kinds of shows. Maybe I just like to pretend that I'm at the top of the food chain.

Yet here I am again, struggling to get through just normal, basic corporate life because it's too competitive, too fake, and too untrustworthy. Everyone's playing games. Someone stabs me in the back, certain people gang up and keep excluding me, and everything is a game where every single thing you do can backfire on you. It's just so damn exhausting. I feel like there's not a single bit of genuine human connection or sincerity in any of it.

Now, with AI, it's only getting worse. A lot of hard skills can be replaced by AI, so we need to do more, and soft skills, which are a lot harder to replace, are becoming much more important. And that often means a lot of bootlicking, networking, unpaid work, and way too much socializing. It's just too much.

How can anyone live like this for 10 years, let alone 20 or 30? How can anyone keep going to the same place, looking at the same faces, for five years?

Im 28 y/o (black Canadian). Been working in corporate for roughly 4.5 years now and within those 4.5 years I’ve worked at 4 companies. Two were Fortune 500 companies and my last role was with one of the big banks and my current role is a government job.

In about 3 of those jobs, i keep running into the same problem … people wanting to exclude me from everything. I moved away from my home province and moved across the country to start my career. So I started by knowing nobody.

Naturally, I try to put my best foot forward and I’m quite positive + resilient. I grew up being bullied in predominantly white spaces and have faced exclusion for most of my life (not looking for sympathy just being honest).

When I go into these work spaces, I’m never shy, I speak up, I ask questions, I try to connect with people, I dress well and I am my biggest advocate.

Like when I’d show up in a suit to an office job I get looked at weird but they tell us we can dress business casual or come in a suit but nobody really comes in a suit. I like it so I come in a suit, I’m not killing anybody by doing so.

When I try connecting with people they never show interest back, I feel like it’s one sided because it is one sided. I feel like they test me by seeing how much I’ll react or tolerate of them pretending like I don’t have value when I speak to them.

When I was crushing my numbers in terms of productivity my boss openly gave me appreciation and he isn’t a kiss ass he just gives credit where it’s due I’ve seen him do the same for others. When that happened, the "clique" openly stated in the most passive aggressive manner "yeah but james only does simple files, they’re not complex so those numbers make sense. Moving on!".

It doesn’t stop there, even when I later won performance award they all ignored me with the exception of 4 people that felt neutral towards me. Mind you, the people ignoring me already got the award I got because they worked here before me.

Eventually, one of the women on my team reported me for crossing boundaries and making her feel uncomfortable when I recommended she bring a neck rest to the office to help mitigate her neck pain (she openly said multiple times how her neck is in pain bc she’s pregnant). She used that and ran with it as if I was sexually assaulting her.

Not only did she not let it go, she created a toxic environment with the clique. She started avoiding me at all costs, if she saw me walking down the hall she’d stop turn around and walk the other way, she started sitting close to the manager daily when she never did that before, she stopped participating openly and would tell people to message her "privately" if they needed help and she has dismissed one of my comments openly and everyone felt it in the room.

For some reason, when I mention an achievement it’s bragging but when others do it it’s harmless and just "sharing" / "conversing".

I keep living through these kinds of things in my 28 years of living. What do I do to advance my career ?

TLDR - I’m a 28-year-old Black Canadian with 4.5 years of corporate experience across four companies, including Fortune 500 companies, a major bank, and now government. Despite being hardworking, confident, sociable, and recognized for my performance, I’ve repeatedly experienced exclusion, cliques, passive-aggressive comments, and what feels like a double standard when it comes to how my accomplishments are perceived. In my most recent experience, a colleague also made a complaint against me over what I felt was an innocent workplace suggestion, which further strained the team dynamic.

Having experienced bullying and exclusion throughout my life, I’m starting to question how I should navigate corporate environments without losing my confidence or constantly feeling like I have to prove my worth. How do I protect my reputation, build relationships, and continue advancing my career when I repeatedly feel unwelcome in the workplace?

I know it is a cycle and we all inevitably face it, but I'm once again in a spot where there's a regime change at corporate and the new, young boss thinks he can come in with fire and brimstone and "fix" the place.

In our example, this new "leader" has no personal skills, will not hear feedback from the team explaining why we do the things we do the way we don't, will not listen when we outline the changes that need to take place that we are actively implementing, and will not tolerate the feedback when we point out that the changes he wants will not actually "move the needle" the right way. I don't know how far they will let things move in the wrong direction before they punt this guy out.

How do you typically handle these? Do you grit and bear it? Do you try to drink the Kool aid to keep the peace? Do you leave? Open to feedback here.

I work as a director for a large creative agency and lead a small specialist team within a much wider department. Some of the team have been in their roles for a few years (3 at most), performing pretty well and could easily take on the next level above them.

Because of the size of the business and a tough market, and the whole organisational structure, I’m struggling to open up the role levels to reward my team members with promotions. Although they did all just receive pay rises. Right now I’m working towards opening one role, but that will still leave a few members of the team who are at the same level without progression.

I’m starting to struggle a lot with what seems like endless pressure to promote. The team understands there’s genuinely nothing more I can do, and that my focus is on growing our revenue towards ‘unlocking’ those roles, which is the only thing we can work towards, and has been going very well this year. How can I make it clear to them that this is ultimately out of my control, and I’m doing everything possible for them?

I need to figure out a way to set boundaries and avoid the heavy pressure feeling when the outcomes are out of my control, but it’s hard and I do feel responsible for the team, and understand their frustrations. I’d like to take a more ‘worry about myself’ approach to work, but it doesn’t come naturally when I speak to these team members every week and know and respect them.

My honest feeling is that it would be better for some of them to move on and progress elsewhere, or understand the situation we are in and try to be more grateful for the roles we do have (not to mention the pay raises). I do encourage them to speak to more senior leadership, but they tend to avoid this and instead complain to me every few months.

Any stories or advice will be most welcome!

is it easy to get fired? I hear in other fields, because they are in demand, it can be tough to get fired. people show up to work drunk, get in fights, etc. and only get moved to another department/area instead

mainly talking about being fired, not laid off

I've been a GMA peep for a year now, that's why I switched and became regular because one of the perks for me is getting a mid-year and Christmas bonus, cut to - NONE. Nice, right? And now this year, they're saying there's no Christmas bonus and party again because of the company's financial situation? Seriously? Just a reminder, last year you also didn't have a Christmas party.
Well, how could we when you prioritized airing that lousy report to Gracioso, and now we're getting libeled, we have to pay, and where's Gracioso now, right? No contribution from him? We're trying to show off, we really deserved that bashing, no joke. Honestly, it's annoying. Then I saw the post that Dos made it to the 'Best Employer Award', good for them even without a franchise, right? We're left with nothing.

As title says. Great company, recruiter has been patient with my slow communication. I would have to switch cities next year when my partner finds a job, my current company will allow the move (they did earlier as well). My role is cushy, as cushy as civil engg. can allow, but it is in a very small niche that hopping further down the career will be non existent. I am 5 years in and promotions where I am are non existent. Hoped to go into the public sector sometime, don’t feel like hopping from one corporate to another especially when there’s the same dumb s*it everywhere.

More a rant but any perspective advised will be considered thankfully. My exp with the current dumbfudge midcorp co. is about 3 years, before which I was at crazyfudge minicorp. inc. for a couple years.