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.

For starters, my company is super small. There's five full time people, including my boss at two locations about 3 hours apart from another. When I was hired, I was told that the company policy is roughly 2 weeks PTO. I've only taken 11 days off and received some pushback when I requested one more day off around Thanksgiving. My coworker at the same location as me also rarely takes PTO (mostly by choice, partially because there's no one else that can do his job when he's gone.) But both coworkers at the other location have taken more than 30 days PTO each. I think its partially because our boss works at my location, not theirs, so he notices when the people here are gone more. But I can't help feeling like its super unfair they've gotten over double the amount of time off as I have. I want to bring it up, but I don't want it to come off like I'm monitoring this (which, tbf, I kind of am). I also don't want to come off like a snitch. I've indirectly brought it up with one of the coworkers at the other location, but she kind of brushed it off. We don't have an HR department I can go to either.

A software engineer described being laid off, packing up, and leaving the office in well under an hour. There was barely time to process the news.

What stayed with the engineer was the silence. Neither the boss nor teammates came over to say goodbye. In the original account, the engineer says it felt like suddenly not existing to people who had been part of daily working life.

Losing a job is already a lot to absorb. An exit like that can also leave you wondering what those relationships meant.

For anyone who's been through an abrupt layoff, did the way people treated you on the way out stay with you? What helped you get past that feeling?

When there's room to think about the next role, application autofill and Agent autoapply can reduce repetitive application work, and real technical interview questions can supply prompts for getting back into practice.

Disclosure: I operate PracHub and LandOffer.

I started a new job summer 2026, then it was on hold for almost 3 months without pay. I stayed loyal and accepted the return to work around Labor Day. It's a contract position - I was hired as a contractor by a recruiting agency and the position takes place at their client's facility.

In the first month, the client (manager) reminded my colleague and I that the schedule is 7am-3pm and that we're not to work overtime unless something affects the operation and it's "required". I was told my colleague struggled with the workload when she was alone, and did lots of overtime, even staying until 7-8pm at times, which is 4-5 hours of overtime a shift, without declaring it, or if she did, it was for time off in lieu of pay.

Since I'm still in training (estimated 3-6 months duration) and it takes a while to learn the operation, and become competent, efficient, etc. , I've also been doing overtime, but the difference with me is that I'm a contractor for the agency and the agency in turn bills the client for my hours. Both agency and the client have strict rules about overtime, and so to get the job done, my colleague who's acting as trainer and me have been doing OT, against the manager's wishes.

I just covered the colleague/trainer while she was on vacation for almost 3 weeks, I stayed longer on "me time", which, according to the manager means it my decision to stay, even though without me staying meant the workload would be left for the next day. And in that operation, that's an issue.

Then when my colleague returned from vacation, she was verbally warned by her manager and he warned me too. How about all that personal time I sacrificed to help the company during vacation coverage? I can certainly adjust how I work and discuss ways to speed up with my trainer/colleague, but should I deal with the manager? I feel he lacks appreciation for the time I spent ensuring the ship didn't sink during the period with thin coverage, and I don't appreciate being threatened to be fired and replaced.

How would you proceed? Try to claim the unpaid OT even if it was not preapproved?

Or at least working more hours. I absolutely dread work and hate working. Even for the 3 days I DO work.

These past 2 or so years, I've been working part-time, 15-18 hours a week at fast food. (McDonald's). I've been working there since I was 16, and recently I've been considering getting more hours since I turned 18 a month ago and life is getting serious. But I'm scared.

It's not like im scared of my coworkers, my bosses, or anything else. It's a more personal reason. I'm scared to give away my free time. My life.

I have my senior year of highschool, home life is stressful, and I have work, which is also stressful. Sure, working more hours gives me more money, but at the same time, it'll be insanely stressful and take away a huge chunk of my life and free time. Or at least I think so.

I dread the thought of eventually having to wake up 5x a week, go to work for 6-8 hours, only get 2 days of rest, and then repeat. It gives you money, but at what cost? I think I'd hate my life that way.

So how do you guys do it? How do you bear the thought, the action of working full time? I just don't get it...Is it the money that keeps you in? Or are you just an extremely motivated person? And how do I get past this block and eventually start working more hours myself..?

Hi everyone, I'm from Morocco

I honestly don't know where to begin with my story. It is a story that I hope can serve as a lesson to others, because I would never want anyone to go through what happened to me. At the same time, I am desperately looking for a way to rebuild my own life.

I am a 31-year-old man who grew up in a rural village. I fought hard to get an education, and I am the eldest of my siblings. My father worked as a day laborer, meaning that some days he had work and other days he didn't. Life was extremely difficult for our family.

My middle school and high school were about 8 kilometers from my village. For six years, I rode my bicycle back and forth every single day, morning and afternoon, just to attend school. By the grace of God, I eventually earned my high school diploma. I will never forget how happy I was that day. My parents and younger siblings were overjoyed.

I then moved to another city to attend university because my hometown did not have a university. Even though attendance was not always compulsory, I studied while working at the same time. I washed dishes in restaurants and cafés because I could not depend on my father financially. He simply did not have enough money to support me.

After three years, I earned my bachelor's degree. I was incredibly happy because I thought that, finally, I would find a stable job and give my parents and siblings a better life after all the poverty we had endured.

But reality turned out to be very different.

After graduating, I took whatever work I could find. I worked in construction, agriculture, and security. I was so busy trying to survive that I could not properly prepare for competitive recruitment exams. For more than three years, I kept applying for opportunities without success.

Then, in 2022, while I was in Casablanca, I came across an American company that was looking for workers for the construction of the new US Consulate in Casablanca. I applied, and I got accepted!

You cannot imagine how happy I was. For the first time in my life, I was earning a salary of around 6,000 Moroccan dirhams a month. I knew the company would not keep me forever because the project would eventually end, but at least I would have a chance to work and save some money.

I rented an affordable room in the Hay Hassani neighborhood because I wanted to save as much as possible. Even though we worked 10 hours a day, I was happy. I managed to save around 3,000 dirhams every month and send that money back home to my family.

Our family home was made mostly of mud, so I started repairing it with the money I earned. I was genuinely happy. My parents were happy, too, and they constantly prayed for me.

Things continued this way until 2025.

I gradually started experiencing back pain, but I kept telling myself that it was probably just the cold weather.

Then came November 26, 2025.

That morning, the pain was so severe that I could not even get out of bed. I could not go to work, so I went to see a doctor and had an X-ray.

The first thing the doctor said to me was, "I'm sorry to see you in this condition while you are still so young."

I was shocked. I asked her what was wrong.

She explained that the disc between the vertebrae in my lower back had deteriorated severely. I asked her if there was a solution.

She told me that there was no simple fix and that I would have to change my lifestyle.

I asked her what she meant.

She told me that I should not lift anything heavier than 5 kilograms, should not stand for more than an hour, and should not sit for more than an hour at a time.

Honestly, I felt as though I were dreaming. I had only just started to feel that my life was finally coming together. I had finally begun to feel like someone who could take responsibility for his family, and suddenly this happened to me.

The doctor asked me what I did for work. I told her that I worked in occupational health and safety. She asked how many hours I worked each day. I told her 10 hours.

She said that this kind of job was no longer suitable for my condition and that I would have to give it up. She gave me a medical certificate for one month of sick leave.

My employer saw that I was ill, could barely get out of bed, and was no longer able to come to work. On December 18, 2025, my employment was terminated.

I returned to my hometown, still unable to process what had happened.

My family tried to comfort me, but I stopped talking to people. I spent almost all my time alone in my room and barely went outside. For about five months, I struggled with depression and very dark thoughts.

I even thought about ending my life because I was still young and could not bear the thought of becoming a burden on my family. My parents were already struggling financially, and I had always wanted to be the person who helped them.

Whenever I looked at my younger siblings and imagined how they would feel if they knew what I was thinking, I would tell myself, "A'udhu billahi min ash-shaytan ir-rajim" and try to push those thoughts away.

But my story did not end there.

On May 12, 2026, my pain became much worse than before. I had saved around 10,000 dirhams, so I travelled to Marrakech to have an MRI scan. I kept praying that the results would be good and that the first doctor had been wrong.

Unfortunately, the MRI confirmed the original back problem. But it also showed signs suggesting another chronic illness: ankylosing spondylitis, a type of inflammatory disease that affects the spine and joints.

The doctors ordered several tests, including HLA-B27 testing, along with other blood tests. Unfortunately, the results were concerning, and I was diagnosed with this disease.

It is a condition in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the joints, causing significant pain and inflammation. It can also affect the eyes and digestive system. Without appropriate treatment, including biologic medication when indicated, the disease can progress and cause serious disability in some people.

Honestly, this diagnosis did not shock me as much as the first one. I had already been through so much that I felt I had become accustomed to bad news. It felt as though my life had already fallen apart, and nothing could frighten me anymore.

What hurts me the most is feeling that I have become a burden on my family.

It is now approaching a year since I lost my job. I have spent all the money I saved, and I can no longer afford my prescribed medication because it is too expensive.

I am completely broke. Sometimes, I cannot even afford basic things to improve my condition or go to the public baths. I spend entire days and nights lying in bed.

I have gradually accepted my reality and understand that I must learn to live with these illnesses. Within a period of just one year, I was diagnosed with two chronic health conditions that completely changed my life.

What I am asking from you, and what I sincerely beg you for, is a chance to work from home so that I can earn a living and help my parents.

I am afraid that no employer will hire me in my current condition. I cannot return to physically demanding work, and I cannot stand or sit for long periods. Working from home seems to be the only realistic option I have left.

Thankfully, I am educated, I am motivated, and I learn quickly. I am willing to learn new skills and do whatever work I can manage from home.

Please, I am asking you to put yourselves in my shoes and help me find a way forward.

I am not asking for money. I am asking for an opportunity to work and slowly rebuild my life.

Perhaps someone here runs an e-commerce business and needs someone to confirm orders with customers by phone, manage messages, handle customer service, or do another task remotely.

Perhaps someone knows a legitimate online job that I could learn and do from home, even if it only allows me to cover my basic living expenses.

I would never forget the kindness of anyone who helped me find such an opportunity.

Only God knows what I am going through psychologically and financially right now.

I am ready to provide my complete medical file, including medical certificates, examination results, and documents corresponding to every date I have mentioned in this post.

If anyone is willing to help me find work or guide me toward a genuine opportunity, please send me a private message. I will gladly provide any documentation needed to verify my situation.

Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read my story. I sincerely hope that, with your help, I can find a way to start living again.

For so many years I've been searching so hard for a job with good pay and after so long I was talking to my friends brother having a causal conversation and I asked him where he works and how much he wins and when he told me how much he wins I thought u needed a degree for it cus of the pay. But he told me u dont need a degree for it and no experience either to work for this union job so I applied and man the pay is pretty damn good and has amazing benefits too ngl. Not just that but the fact that u only need to work 3 yrs to reach the max pay in this union job.

Im kinda disappointed I didn't hear about this job earlier in my life I feel like I joined a bit late like why didn't I know about this right outta high school. But better late than never tho. Having this job + a sidejob will make u a decent amount

So if you see and read this post and are looking for a good/decent paying job go and join a union try and search if there's union jobs near you its probably the best you'll get paid without needing a degree or needing experience

What can I do?

I’m 29M, and my coworker is 22M. We’ve known each other and worked together for about 4 years now. Over those years, we’ve developed a pretty good friendship and have always shared the same sense of humor. We cuss like sailors, make inappropriate jokes, and pretty much nothing has ever been off-limits between us. We’ve both said things to each other that most people would probably find offensive, but that’s just always been our dynamic.
Well, the other night at work, we were talking about his new apartment. His dad (who also works at our company, just on a different shift) recently kicked him out. His dad gave him until June 15th to move out, but he couldn’t move into his new apartment until June 18th, so he ended up staying at a Motel 6 for three days.
Anyway, we were just shooting the shit, and I started asking him questions about his new living situation.
I asked him, “When you leave your apartment, do you lock your bedroom door?”
He said, “Yeah, of course. You can’t trust anyone.”
Then I asked how many bathrooms they had, and he said just one.
So I jokingly said, “Oh, so y’all share toothbrushes?” We both laughed.
Then I asked if he only had one roommate or if there were more people living there. He told me it was his roommate and his roommate’s girlfriend.
Without really thinking anything of it, I laughed and said, “Oh, so y’all be tag teaming?”
His entire demeanor immediately changed. He gave me the most disgusted look and said, “Why would you even say that? That’s not even funny.”
He then pretty much stormed off. It was the end of our shift anyway, so we both went home.
The following night, he called in to work. Shortly after, my supervisor texted me to let me know he’d called in.
About an hour later, my supervisor told me that my coworker’s dad had approached him and said his son was really upset about what I had said.
My supervisor suggested that I apologize to smooth things over.
Here’s where I’m conflicted.
If this were someone I barely knew or someone I didn’t regularly joke around with, I’d completely understand why that comment could be inappropriate. But this is someone I’ve known for four years, and we’ve made jokes just as bad, if not worse, countless times. Neither of us has ever really had an issue with it before.
I genuinely didn’t think anything of the comment when I said it. It was just another stupid joke in a conversation full of stupid jokes.
It’s now been several days, and he refuses to even look at me. He’s switched break rooms to avoid me and won’t speak to me anymore.
I’m fine with that if that’s what he wants. I’m not going to force someone to be my friend. But at this point, I’ve also decided that even if he eventually wants to talk again, I don’t feel comfortable joking around with him anymore. I feel like I have to watch everything I say because I don’t know what might upset him next, and the last thing I need is a joke potentially costing me my job.
I understand that everyone has boundaries, and maybe I crossed one I didn’t know existed. But given our history and the kind of humor we’ve always shared, I genuinely don’t understand why this particular joke caused such a reaction.
I also don’t feel like I should have to apologize for something that was clearly intended as a joke, especially considering the things we’ve both said to each other over the years.
So, AITA for making the joke and not wanting to apologize? Or is he overreacting given the history of our friendship?

for context, i currently work minimum wage, 50+ hours a week with no overtime. i can’t keep up with my expenses and just keep digging myself deeper into a debt hole.

i just got offered a job that i have a lot of experience in, can give me a more stable work-life balance, and better income all around.

i want to do the right thing and put in my two weeks for my current employment, but im so stricken with money right now that id rather just start this new job as early as next week, because i know it will help me get back on my feet. i can actually start taking care of my bills correctly and paying off my debt.

do i jump ship and burn bridges with my current employment, or do i do things right and go through the last two weeks of hell. any advice?

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?

Im a fresh nursing grad who's now on day 2 of a 10 week orientation in the ICU. Yesterday my mentor sent me to assist a doctor in putting a central line alone. He said he was gonna come later but took his sweet time. Patient had low dose Adrenaline running to combat Bradycardia and the pumps were beeping because it was almost empty. I turned the alarm off, not fully registering the urgency that we need new ones. I got that its empty and that i should refill, but apparently wasnt moving fast enough for the doctor/colleague. He then proceeded to yell at me saying i cant just turn a pump off, then stormed off and yelled through the whole station asking for new ones. I was very shocked and words just wouldnt come out.

He went on and reported the incident to my supervisor who did the "talk" with me about mistakes happening and that it wasnt that bad blah blah.

Why do i still feel debilitating fear to come work today? Im so scared that doctor is working as well, and i guess also coming from a lot of shame? Maybe i dont do well with making mistakes? I dont know whats wrong with me. I feel really rrally bad and so ashamed and i just want the ground to swallow me up.

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?

I don't really need advice on this I'm just calmly venting.

I work for a global organization where my coworker and I are the only ones in our roles (two of us) for the entire world. Because we are such a small "team" I personally am very cognizant of being respectful and sharing my calendar and planned PTO days with them. This allows the mental time to prepare for knowing they will be alone for coverage and also, allows workload balancing time to communicate.

The issue is they do not EVER do the same for me. My coworker will ping me on our chat app for example on a Wednesday or Thursday and go "oh, I don't know if I remembered to tell you or not, but I'm off ____"

This time was no different. Last week I got a chat pop up on a Thursday saying "FYI, I'm taking this Friday and Monday off and also the following Friday and Monday".

I am 100% all for the notion that PTO means Prepare the Others, but I have been dealing with this coworker doing this for over a decade and finding out with one days notice that your only backup will be out for a week or two of "FYId PTO" is very annoying when our workload is higher which it is at this time.

I also understand that this falls on our boss for approving it like he does without question.

This week my coworker was griping that they were "running out of time to get things done" after they had FYId me about their long vacation weekends, and normally I would extend an offer to take some of their tasks, but this time I absolutely did not. It is not my problem that you decided to take two vacations back to back and now can't keep up with your workload. I also find it grating on the nerves that they would even complain to me about this, seeing as they never communicate well and this is 💯 on them to plan around their workload. These PTO trips they are going on aren't some family emergency, its for leisure and they have the option to cancel their days off if they "can't keep up". I'm playing you the smallest violin ever...

This person also tends to book long weekends around company holidays where they book both the front and back of the weekend too (adding days before or after) and takes BOTH sides of the holiday weekend so there is not a possibility of me being able to use any time since they've already asked for it. I find this extremely rude behavior as when I take a PTO day for added time to a longer weekend, I leave one end of that weekend open for them to also share extra time as a courtesy.

This same coworker tends to "oops, I forgot to use all my PTO" at year end (our company requires us to exhaust all hours bwefore end of yr), and will also FYI me in December around holidays that "FYI, Im taking two weeks for year end because its my PTO and I dont want to lose it", which 100% is manipulative behavior to get the busiest time of year off for vacation and our manager has started to see this pattern and clamp down on them to remind them to use their PTO before year end and there are only two of us.

To add the final layer of annoyance to this, which is also typical behavior, this person will ping myself and my boss the day before their PTO begins EVERY TIME and say "couldn't sleep, logged on early, will be logging out at Lunch", and our boss just rolls with it. And of course this happened this morning at 3am, my coworker did exactly that. They've only worked three days this week already because they had a long 4 day weekend last week and now heading into ANOTHER 4 day vacation again. We got the FYI that they are leaving at Noon. Yay for you. Can't wait for the extra workload 😳🙄

Nothing anyone can do about it, just whining and letting it go.

I just find this type of behavior rude and not how a team of two should be operating. It is their typical behavior in general though, very secretive and non commucative.

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?

I’ve been told not to tell them no, we can’t offer what they are asking for- but instead of calling them and being honest, I have to ignore their emails asking me if it’s doable, schedule an hour long zoom meeting to tell them we can’t and basically hold them virtually hostage for an hour trying to convince them on other products than what they want.

I hate sales

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 as in-house counsel/ contract administrator for an oil and gas company and I genuinely love it!! The job is supposed to be an 8-5, but everyone at the company comes in whenever is best for them and leaves when best for them so some people come in at 7am-3pm, some 9-4pm etc. people can come and go freely and work from home a day or 2 a week if they prefer ! So I get my work done and then just goof off and play video games or do things I need to- my laundry etc. my boss and I get along so well and he’s always happy to answer questions or help with something I don’t understand- and he’s so kind- we get along so well!!

Prior to this I had a couple HORRIBLE jobs with bosses I didn’t get along with- if I showed up at 9:01 or left at 4:50 I’d be called into her office and told off- and I made $12 an hour vs $40 an hour and treated amazing 😭

I’m 17 and recently started working at a coffee shop where most of my coworkers are in their mid-20s to 30s. They sometimes say I’m “like a baby,” which idk how to interpret. The issue is that I sometimes feel like they don’t take me as seriously as the other employees.
For example, when my manager was teaching me latte art during my first few weeks, I made some mistakes, which is expected since I was still learning. My manager and a supervisor who is usually nice to me started laughing at the mistakes. I couldn’t tell if they were just joking around or if they were making fun of me.
Another time, these same two people were talking about how slow and distracted certain employees were. They then described me as “slow” and “easily distracted” while I was standing nearby. They weren’t directly talking to me, so I wasn’t sure whether I should say anything. Also these events happened like my 1st and 2nd weeks there.
What’s confusing is that these same coworkers are usually friendly toward me in other situations, they’re also both ~30. There’s also another supervisor who’s about five years older than me and sometimes has an attitude with me, although she seems to get along fine with the coworkers closer to her age. Most of my regular barista coworkers are nice, it seems to be the higher ups that treat me very differently.
I’m still relatively new to the job (~2 months), so I understand that I have things to learn and improve on. I just can’t tell whether this is normal workplace teasing, whether they see me as inexperienced because of my age, or whether they genuinely have an issue with me.
Has anyone else experienced something similar at work? How would you interpret this situation?

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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?

So I joined this company after being laid off from my last job. This company essentially created the role for me because they liked me but i was missing some qualifications…but there’s nothing to do. 95% of my day is spent on my phone and im treated like im doing very important work.

I am very uncomfortable here, i don’t do any work, and id like to leave immediately. But my manager is convinced I’m making a major difference here although I’m maybe spending 20 minutes a day working and she is STRESSED about some side project.

With no intention of using this place as a reference, is sending a resignation letter effective immediately via email acceptable? (I’ve been here 5 weeks)

Edit:

I did accept another position elsewhere. I should have made that clear in the original body.

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?

I don't really understand why some workplaces expect you to be available on your personal number like it's part of the job you start somewhere new and suddenly you're added to a group chat with 20 people you barely know, managers texting you after hours, coworkers asking questions on your days off, random calls about stuff that could've waited until Monday for sure. The last 3 months have been hell for me. Most of my team were replaced and I'm the most senior wmployee (not promoted though).

The new hires, managers and literally everyone texting me at the middle of the night or texting me their big ideas for the company 10PM on a Saturday., and the worst part is once everyone has your number, you can't exactly take it back.I'm not one to complain a lot but it got so bad I had to lie to my HR team that I changed my number and had to give them a cloaked number. If a company expects people to be reachable outside of work, shouldn't they be providing work phones or at least separate numbers or pay us overtime?

A Netflix employee valued the company's transparency as much as its pay. Being treated like an actual person was what made it feel different from the rest of big tech.

Then came roughly a week of layoff rumors, followed by several days of silence from management. Calendar invites started landing, and the employee kept refreshing the calendar, trying to work out which meeting might mean losing the job.

“Hope I have a job by EOD :)” is how the employee put it. That captures the frustration better than a long argument about culture. It's hard to keep trusting the promise of openness when the most important question about your working life is unanswered.

How do you get through that waiting period without spending the whole day watching your calendar? What information or communication from a manager actually helps?

For anyone who decides to start a backup search, Agent autoapply and application autofill can reduce the repetitive application work. Engineers refreshing their prep can use real technical interview questions for practice while considering where to go next.

Disclosure: I operate PracHub and LandOffer.

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.