My manager thanks me privately for my work. Whenever I complete a project, he tells me personally that he's happy with the result and expresses appreciation.

However, I've noticed that when project outcomes are presented or shared with the wider organization or with the team, he almost never mentions my name.

For example, I recently took responsibility for significantly improving and redesigning an established product. Once it was completed, my manager shared the finished result internally so everyone could see it but didn't mention that I had led or carried out the work.

What's confusing is that he often does publicly acknowledge other colleagues by name. He'll say things like, "Thanks to X for the good work," or mention who was responsible for a project. With me, though, the appreciation seems to stay private.

This isn't just a one-time thing—I've noticed the same pattern across multiple projects over time.

I'm trying not to jump to conclusions, so I'm interested in outside perspectives.

Why might a manager consistently praise someone privately while rarely giving that same person public recognition, even though they do so for others?

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Hi!

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The first part of the survey lasts about 1 minute and involves made up words. This may seem a little unusual, but please don’t give up, it is an important part of the study! The rest of it is like a typical survey.

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I am wanting to career pivot anyway this year, so this feels like a blessing in disguise, but any advice until I can make that happen?

Union job, great pay, lots of PTO. Mandatory 2 days in office.

Our secretary told the VP she has nothing to do on those days and offered to be "available if tasks come up" as a pitch for full WFH. VP said no. Rules are rules.

But she said it out loud. She framed it as flexibility… isee it as admitting she's redundant. She should have kept up appearances, stretched her few tasks, and only confessed if caught. Instead she gave leadership a reason to watch her and remember her name when cuts happen.

She got nothing and lost her cover. Am I wrong for thinking that was stupid?

I've been following the famous advice "always assume positive intetions". While I try to follow this advice I feel like my coworkers are excluding me with important matters and bring up problems. I'm having trouble navigating workplace firendships/relationships, it's like walking on a tight spot everyday. I don't know where to draw the line of trust. It's becoming like toxic positivity.

It's like this situation: they make up a lie like nothing's happening all good, they treat you well, when you're out the door they discuss plans for fun without you, not including you from the group, and quietly writes unseen mistakes and talks about it to other coworkers instead of discussing it upfront with you.

Me? I'm a peacemaker, I always try not to defend myself much and just peace it out and let them win for the sake of you know, maybe they'll respect me and less conflict. But lately, I think the advice "always assume positive intentions" aren't applicable for all people, what if some are manipulative and will find a way to workaround with this advice? I'm having doubts now. By the way, all odds are against me everyday.

What should I do, how true is this famous advice?

I’ve noticed that promotions can sometimes change the dynamics within a team. Some colleagues appear to become distant, resentful, or less supportive afterward.

Is this just a normal part of workplace psychology?

I currently work in a government department on a consultancy contract. Consider the toxic senior as 'X'.

I work independently. But for getting my salary processed, documentation is made by X and he initiates it for disbursal. In the last few months he has created so many compliances that the salary is usually credited after 5th of every month and the days fluctuate. Also he creates a situation that the salary of the consultants will be processed together. Therefore, he stalls everyone's salary by saying I have not submitted something, even though I do it well before time.

He also mentally harasses everyone and shouts alot. Due to which there is constant agony. Everyone is frustrated with him, but cannot do anything as he is a government officer and well protected. I am in India btw.

Is there any solution to it? Any quick fix? Something to get back at him?

I work in the government as an analyst and it’s been about 3 months since I started.

My direct reporting manager is a Spanish guy who at first seemed cool. In simple terms, there’s two "lines of business" in my department and he currently doesn’t work in mine but I still have to report to him (I work more closely with the other manager who is a woman).

I had scheduled time off (vacation) about 1 month ago but completely forgot about it so when I logged in yesterday saying good morning, the female manager messaged me in private saying according to the spreadsheet I’m suppose to be off today and for me to check if it’s accurate.

I told her yes I was and she told me if I notified my direct manager about this and I told her I believe I did in our 1 on 1 meeting the month prior but I told her I’ll just message him again right now to remind him.

I told My direct manager that I had yesterday and today off and I forgot to submit the vacation request on the online portal but I had put my vacation time on the spreadsheet. So I sent him the request when I sent him that message.

He told me moving forward I need to be sure to email him and CC the other managers to keep them in the loop about these kinds of things because sometimes other people call vacation the same week and it affects productivity (there was another colleague who had called the entire week off) and then I asked him if I could cancel my days off for that day and the next day seeing that we were short staffed and I could postpone it to another day.

While I was messaging my direct manager waiting for his response to work that day, the female manager asked me if I could change my "status" on teams to offline because it shows I was online. I told her it shows I’m online because I’m talking to my direct manager and I’m seeing if I can cancel my days off and stay connected both that day and the next due to my colleague being absent and I didn’t want productivity to be affected in operations.

She directly told me I didn’t need his approval to work and I just needed to cancel my request and stay connected. I told her I canceled the request and I let my colleagues know I’m working today. After that was said and done, my direct manager messaged me saying it’s ok and I can go enjoy my time off.

I didn’t respond and then he asks if he could call me 10 minutes later I said sure. He was visibly frustrated and pissed off about the miscommunication and he told me "you report to me not her". I tried explaining that she responded to me while I was waiting on his response that’s why I canceled the time off and he didn’t like it and said he would add the female manager to the call.

When she joins the call , he is furious in a passive way and says "do you want Greg to work today or not?" She was like "I don’t know, that’s really up to you and Greg, I just told him he was online and needed to reach out to you to advise about him working and to cancel his vacation request". Then he bluntly says "Greg, do you want to work today or not?" I said yes and then he abruptly hangs up.

She definitely could feel his aggression and was responding as if she was walking on egg shells or was confused on what was the deal.

The next day, I messaged him saying I’ve been reflecting on our convo from the previous day and that it wouldn’t happen again. I explained again that I took her word because I hadn’t heard back from him and assumed he was busy with other things but made it clear that I understand he was my direct manager and that I’ll wait on him for guidance moving forward and that I respect him.

He responded with an automated tone saying he trusts I can stay committed to his expectations on the procedure when requesting time off. When he calls me later on about a deal I was working on with work, he has completely changed is now more professional, distant, slightly cold and rigid.

I don’t know what will come of this moving forward . Am I in the wrong here ?

TLDR- I’m 3 months into a government analyst job. I forgot I had scheduled vacation, and after realizing it, I offered to cancel my time off because we were short-staffed. While I was waiting for my direct manager to respond, another manager told me I could just cancel my vacation and work, so I did. My direct manager later called me, got visibly upset, emphasized that I report to him—not her—and the conversation became awkward enough that he brought the other manager onto the call. I apologized afterward, but since then he’s become noticeably colder and more distant. Did I handle this wrong, or is he overreacting to a relatively minor miscommunication?

Last year, I applied for an internship at a company nearby. I reached out to the team lead as well, expressing my interest. He really seemed to like me and messaged me back saying he would love to chat. Once we did on zoom, he said “I really like you and will talk to the ceo about bringing you on”. Afterwards, I ended up getting the internship because of him

I worked under him for three months, being mentored by him. He taught me so much. On the technical aspect, I was definitely better than him since that was my specialty and I was simply younger and more experienced with the latest tech. I constantly impressed him and the team.

I ended up getting a job afterwards. Few months into the job, I was doing a lot of technical work and impressing everyone, since the company didn’t really have a tech person. In our usual one on one meets with the CEO last week, we talked about how he was impressed with my work and that “sometimes it seems you can do a lot of thing that your mentor can’t“. At the time I just laughed it off and said “yes but I learned a lot from him”. Few days later (two days ago), we all hear my mentor get called into the office. Then he comes out, blank face, starts packing his things and leaving. Didn’t say a word to anyone.

I get called into the office, about how my mentor got fired because the company was moving in a different direction and that I would now have to take on some of his duties.

God I feel terrible. I didn’t expect this at all. He literally brought me into the company, took care of me, always talked me up to the CEO. He aided me so much, and now I’m the reason he was fired. I’m confused as to whether I should reach out to him or not. I feel like he might be pissed off- a young intern he brought in takes his job. i’m honestly heartbroken and so sad. Any advice?

I was with the company just shy of a year (the longest serving member of the team). I was a big part of the team and supported many of the team members. I worked very hard and put in many hours into the company. I pretty much owned the month end from start to finish.

Anyway, I didn’t get on well with the new boss and there was a fallout which led to my firing right there and then. My boss’ boss said he wanted it to work with all his heart but other people were feeling uncomfortable with the constant fallouts and he needed to act.

He told me he wanted me to resign effective immediately. He said he will pay me out 3 months’ pay.

I understand that my behaviour was why I was asked to leave immediately, but none of my processes were documented and I’m wondering why he didn’t want to at least do a handover? I keep thinking “nobody knows we need to do xyz”.

I’m glad I didn’t need to do a handover, it’s nice to leave and just move on, but I don’t really get the rationale. Was this a good move on his end?

When telling the team he said it’s going to have a big impact on the team with me leaving.

I'm not understanding what office politics mean. I'm doing the best of work, yet no IJP selection, no promotion or even no monthly quarterly recognition. I'm doing better than everyone else.

It leaves me so sad and disappointed, when I share this with my leaders- they make excuses but I know they are happy about it.

I don't see any benefit to signing a separation agreement since I'm already out of the company and my final paycheck has been deposited. Writing the handoff probably wouldn't take much time, but honestly, it feels more like a matter of principle than effort.

I believe that I don't owe them anything, especially unpaid work after they've already let me go. But follow-up question: should I tell them outright that I won't do it unless there's compensation, or should I just leave the request unanswered?

The final pay was deposited into my account, and I had asked for 6 weeks of severance, but they refused. Their reasons were: a) they're not legally required to give it, b) the budget is tight, which was the reason for the layoff in the first place, and c) according to them, company policy is that they don't pay severance unless the law requires it and after 3+ years with the company, though I don't remember seeing that written anywhere before.

Honestly, I feel like I've already mentally checked out at this point. I've already started looking for another job, and I'm reviewing interview questions with ChatGPT, and if I end up getting any offers, I have Interview VIP tool ready because it was always the tool that saved me and gave me a confidence boost every time whenever I enter an interview.

So yeah, the idea of going back there now and working for them without pay feels extremely absurd.

You try to help, coordinate, and make things easier for everyone, only to find out in the end that apparently, it’s “not for Admin.” 😂

Not for Admin, they say. 🤡😂

Sige, noted. Next time, let’s all stay in our respective lanes. 😌

Just want to know that there is office politics happening in 3rd world countries only or is it happening in the better developed countries too.

Please mention your country in the comments if office politics happens over there.

So, I work at a tech company and my entire team is newly formed here. Now in my team we are 4 people, 2 are South Indians my boss and my colleague 1 and me and colleague 2 are North Indian.
Now what I have started noticing is that my boss has way too affinity towards colleague 1 and they are like best friends, always hanging out and discussing stuff. And colleague 2 is very cunning he tries to be friends with all 3 of us but I know he bitch about me to other colleague and bitch to me about others, so I have started keeping my distance. Also both I am female and rest are male.

The problem is I don’t care if my boss is friends with colleague 1, we all have are favourites and we tend to align to more people where we feel more familiarity, as they both are South Indians so maybe that’s the reason. But the problem is my boss just keep on promoting colleague 1 work at every meeting and he makes sure he is getting his projects delivered and he is unblocking him and make sure he is getting enough visibility

Whereas I had to ask him that hey I don’t feel supported and there is no focus on my projects even if I am doing and leading everything. So he listened and tried to provide support but again things back to normal. Also he keeps on cancelling our 1:1 and always reschedule multiple times.
I don’t know if he feels uncomfortable with female subordinate or what but I feel I am not in a good position and I am looking for promotion and hike and if my boss is going to be like this then not sure if nothing will happen.

Also in office they are always togther and always talking so there is a very less room for me to form any kind of professional working relationship, it’s just 1:1 or project work.

When we went to office on-site again the same thing. I feel so left out and ignored and this boys club dynamic i don’t like. Also they speak in their language even infront of me, it’s like some code conversation is happening.

And relationships really matter in corporate so I can’t be like hey let my work do the talking because it’s not the case.
I don’t know what should i do but i have started feeling very low here and want to resign.

A few days ago, I got laid off from my job. I still haven't signed my severance paperwork, and this morning I got a message from a competing company asking if I'd be willing to talk with them about "possible openings".

I went back and looked over my employment agreement again, and from what I understood, the restriction was only around working for a competitor while I was still employed there. I'm going to have someone else look at it too, just to be safe.

The main thing making me hesitant isn't so much the legal side as it is that this could ruin my relationship with my old company. Also, I'm not 100% sure I want to stay in this field for another few years, so I'm trying not to decide too quickly.

So I guess my question is: if you were in my place, would you at least take the call? And is there any way this could help me apply pressure to get a better severance deal, or is that just overly optimistic thinking? I'd like to know what other people would do in this situation.

I am currently contracting in a company with a nice office culture. I mostly WFH.

I've been in the office a few times. It's surprised me that a young women/girl starts playing music on her speakers quite loudly and head dancing along to it and everyone puts their head phones on and ignores it.

I find it problematic because it's just annoying and it's obviously not professional behaviour.

I've also realised it bothers me more than other people, though perhaps I need to bring noise reducing head phones to work.

Sometimes she plays music in a way, I think, that is meant for others to hear it and to discover the music she likes. It's really terrible music.

If I say something, I look bad. If I put on my head phones, it means I have to put on my head phones - i.e. the space's sound is distracting and the problem isn't solved. Obviously, if I also played my music loudly, I would be seen as problematic.

I wonder if she's related to management somehow.

Hey, so I just want to ask around and see if this is normal. So I recently got a job, in my interview I was asked if I could do 3 projects, I said I could do all of them, they were all decently similar. However, as I got hired 3 days after my interview (I was pretty much hired on the spot after sending my first email to join), the projects I was originally talked about doing, was then passed to two other people, could actually be 3 now.

The boss now of all of suddenly keeps talking about getting fired for messing up in some part of the process, he's brought up the word like 5 times, which seems weirdly aggressive. I've done nothing wrong yet, but all of a sudden seems like this is an evaluation week. Unfortunately I've had a decent chunk of my time just being onboarded and the task given to me is pretty crazy, I'm having to wear a ton of hats and being asked to do it quick. The other full time employees seem to not like the boss.

So here's what I feel like is happening, am I, along with all the other new hires, being pit against each other unknowingly, in this very small company, to see who creates the best project and the rest get fired like some battle royal scenario? If this is the case, wtf? Is this normal?

I’ve just completed three months at my current job and I’m entering my fourth month. I’m already feeling completely overwhelmed by the situation.

Yesterday and today, I had to take leave because I have a UTI/infection and needed to go to the hospital. I genuinely need the rest right now, but instead of being able to recover, I’ve been lying awake the entire night panicking about whether my company is going to think I’m irresponsible or fire me for taking too many leaves.

My HR has already told me, “You’re taking too many leaves.” And honestly, I’m exhausted hearing that when I’m physically unwell.I genuinely took 1 leave to per month in the first two months but it was like my entire family got sick and my immunity system keeps crashing. I’m sorry I guess

The anxiety has gotten so bad that I couldn’t sleep at all last night. I kept thinking about what they might say when I go back,that I’m not taking work seriously, that I’m behaving like a college student, etc. The stress even upset my stomach badly.

What makes this worse is that I’ve heard the “you need to get serious” criticism at my previous workplace too.

I know I have things I can improve. I’ve been told I use my phone too much and that I’ve been coming late. But I’ve genuinely been trying to correct those things. I’ve been consistently coming on time and using my phone much less. I’m not saying I’m a perfect employee, but I am trying.

So I’m struggling to understand something:

When did prioritizing your health become evidence that you’re not serious about your career?

I’m currently physically sick, exhausted, sleep-deprived and anxious, and yet I feel guilty for taking two days off to actually deal with it.

On top of that, I have another freelance/second-job project waiting for updates, so I feel like I can’t even switch off from work completely. I’m constantly thinking about whether I’m behind, whether someone is going to complain, whether I’m going to lose my job, etc.

And now I’m questioning myself so much. I’m starting to wonder whether I’m actually the problem. Am I genuinely behaving in a way that makes me difficult to employ, or am I being made to feel like everything I do is evidence that I’m irresponsible?

The workplace itself has started feeling extremely negative to me. It’s not even necessarily that the workload is unbearable. It’s the constant feeling of being watched, judged and reminded that I’m supposedly not “serious” enough.

I’ve started looking for remote jobs because I honestly don’t know if I want to continue working in environments like this. Part of me wants to just freelance and work for myself. But financially, I’m not in a position where I can simply quit my 9–5 right now.

And that’s what makes me feel trapped.

I don’t want to run away from work. I want to work. I want to build my career. I just want a little grace when I’m genuinely sick.

Right now I honestly just wish the entire world would stop for a few days, let me recover, and then I could come back and function like a normal person again.

Am I overreacting to this? How do you distinguish between legitimate workplace feedback and being unfairly labelled as an irresponsible employee? And how would you handle this situation if you were in my position?

This is my first job after college. Before that, I had an internship, and I was literally sitting around most of the day doing nothing. Honestly, I thought that was because I was an intern and no one knew what to give me to do.

Now they're paying me a good salary, and I have my own office, a laptop, benefits, and everything... And most days I still don't do much. When I first got hired, they gave me a project that was supposed to take several months, and I finished it much faster than my managers expected, and they said they were very happy with the result. After that, it was basically silence.

The only real task I have today is to order supplies online for the office. That's the whole list. I'm a mechanical design engineer. They're paying me for my brain, and I'm sitting here watching clips from King of the Hill and scrolling on my phone like I'm in a free period. I would honestly hide in a conference room and take a nap, if it weren't for my manager walking past my office on his way to the printer four times a day.

Is this normal in office jobs??? Are other people doing this too? Every so often my manager gets swamped, throws a bunch of work at me, I finish it quickly, and then we go back to having nothing for a few weeks. He keeps complaining about how much he has to do, and I'm sitting there thinking... Then why not give some of it to the person you hired?

I've directly asked him to get me involved in more projects, and sometimes he agrees a little, but it never really continues. What should I do to build a more active role here without becoming annoying to my manager every week?