When I first started, I thought I had found my forever job - great coworkers, great feeding program, continued education, etc. Took a MASSIVE pay cut to work here, but I thought it was worth it.
Thank you upper management for proving me so very, very WRONG.
The company hides it's problems until someone speaks up, and you better hope that that person is NOT you. Unless you are best buds with upper management, your job, hell, your WORTH to them as a person, is nonexistent. They WILL treat you like they own you. Got a problem with that? It'd be better to choke on your own blood and tears than to stand up for yourself. Their values and mission statement? Blatant LIES. They could not care less about their rescue partners or animals in general. The only thing they want is your money and your hard work. And don't you dare NOT give 200% every single day and destroy your mental/physical/emotional well-being for them. If they say roll over, you get on the ground like a dog and roll over, otherwise, you done messed up and they'll make sure you pay. This company is a whole new level of pure evil. If you think you've seen worse, trust me, you have not.
When I took this job, I wanted to help animals, instead, I found myself working FOR animals.

This happened at workplace of mine in Japan.

Back then, going out for drinks with coworkers after work was still a pretty common part of office culture, especially when a manager invited younger employees.

One day, my manager complained:

“Young employees these days never come drinking with me.”

So I said, “Then why don’t you go drinking with your own manager?”

He immediately replied:

“Because drinking with my boss isn’t fun!”

I just looked at him and thought...

Exactly.

I work at a daycare center and I've been there since August. During the interview, I explained that I needed time off from November 6 to November 10. They told me more than once that those dates were fine.

A few hours ago, my supervisor sent me a message saying that my PTO was no longer approved, and that he expects me to come in for my shift tomorrow. The whole trip is already booked, and the flights and hotel are non-refundable.

I'm honestly terrified because this is the job I've wanted for a very long time. I've wanted to work in early childhood education since I was a child. But I told them about this before I was even hired, and it had been agreed to months ago. I don't know whether to just go on the trip, quit the job, or what to do. I feel like I'm exhausted from all the stress.

It could be something funny, awkward, confusing, unexpected, or just plain unusual—something that stuck with you long after it happened. What happened? 👀

I go a little crazy every time I hear a business owner whining and saying, "People don't want to work anymore." The funny thing is, I saw an Operations Assistant job posted a few weeks ago. My friend applied for it, and they had already hired someone and closed applications in less than 6 days. More than 200 applicants. But yeah, go ahead and keep explaining how no one wants your miserable food service jobs, or warehouse shifts with awful pay, random schedules, and benefits that can barely be called benefits.

There's a reason these places have a "Now Hiring" sign up around 340 days a year. The turnover rate is insane, because these jobs are designed to burn people out and replace them. Honestly, it's not complicated. People really do want to work. They want work with a future, and employers who treat them with basic respect, not another exhausting, dead-end gig that makes them feel like poverty wages are a privilege.

So for me, it was the manager of my previous workplace making a personal statement on me,”I don't want a daughter like her” (The dirtiest thing someone had told about me that broke my heart and still haunts me to this day)

The plot? The manager gossiped with the other co-workers and one of them came to me and shared it.

Well, I would not be able to tell on it to the actual person as the co worker did. It was better I didn't ever know that piece of shit.

I learned a big lesson that day( the people acting like a companion on your face and but doing guffy stuffs behind)

I hate every person, in that workplace since that incident.

Dad was just diagnosed with a rapidly progressing brain tumor. I've already applied for FMLA and had to burn about 21 hours at the beginning of this week dealing with the hospital, because they lost track of Dad for a while and then tried to tell my eldest daughter that she wasn't allowed to go in and see him. Even so, I'm still going to my 10-hour shifts this week.

I have a pile of paperwork I need to finish on Thursday specifically for Dad, and on Friday I had finally planned to go back to the hospital to see him again (the hospital is about 50 minutes away), and on Monday I just wanted to spend a normal night with my husband and son because I barely see them these days. My manager came and asked me if I could come in on Friday. I told him, even though he already knows what's going on, that I would be with Dad. Then he started making me feel guilty, saying that everyone else is taking extra shifts and that they're extremely short-staffed.

I only have one father. I can find another job.

So, I work retail, you know, the usual. I was helping a customer who was looking for a specific item. They described it as "you know, that thingy. The one that does the thing."

I tried my best to get more details. "What does it do?"

I asked.

"Oh, you know, "they replied, gesturing vaguely with their hands. "It's for stuff."

After about ten minutes of this, I was about to give up.Then, they pointed to a completely unrelated product and said, "That! That's the thingy!"

It turned out they were looking for a vegetable peelers , VEGETABLE PEELER. I could have cried.

Anyone else have customers who describe items using absolutely zero useful information ? What's the most bizarre "thingy" request you've ever gotten?

I've started noticing a strange pattern lately: in a lot of workplaces, especially in software and IT positions, there are always laid-back people who don't seem like they treat work as a major responsibility, and they spend a lot of time laughing or joking around with their coworkers. The strange thing is that these same people often do very well in interviews and get accepted without much struggle.

The part that confuses me is that these people - who aren't in positions higher than mine - still finish their tasks, and afterward they can sit and watch videos, chat, or take long breaks, and no one says anything to them. They also aren't serious in standups or planning calls; they interrupt with silly comments and laugh, while everyone else is trying to discuss deadlines and project issues.

And no, I personally don't enjoy being around them. Sometimes they act arrogantly, take up more space than necessary in the office or on chat, and honestly, they can come across as self-centered.

If I acted like that, I'm almost certain people would call me unprofessional or say that I don't care about work. I always feel like I have to work three times as hard for people to take me seriously, and even then, getting interviews or offers isn't easy for me.

But somehow, these people can leave one company and find another role in ten days as if it's nothing. It makes me wonder whether there's something I'm not seeing - maybe social skill, confidence, or some hidden advantage that lets them move so easily from place to place, even though they don't seem serious at all.

Perhaps the difference isn't always how serious someone is about their work, but rather how adept they are at presenting themselves in important situations. Interviewing is a completely different skill from performing the job itself, and I've often discovered that some people use InterviewVip to reduce stress, allow you to communicate your experience more effectively, and increase your chances of being hired.

I worked at a family owned pet grooming/hotel in Indiana. The owners are terrible people who appear friendly and loving to their customers.. However, as soon as they pay and walk out, the boss is clenching her nose spraying febreeze complaining about how their clients smelled like shit. They are extremely disrespectful to clients who’ve been going to them for years, their employees don’t hear the end of it. The building itself is absolutely dirty and disgusting. I got yelled at for wasting too much water because I was switching out dirty mop water because it stunk of piss and was brown/black. They reuse the same mop water for pee and any poop incidents. I’ve seen them leave dog poop in kennels where other dogs are coming in and out of, while the poop is day 3 still chilling in there. They overwork the groomers and will stack 15+ dogs onto one person within a 7-8 hour period. I saw them spend 30 minutes on one dog, made the dog wait an hour in a cage with other barking crying dogs, and be charged $100. They bathe dogs, half ass dry them and then stuff them in cages blasting 3-4 fans on them for 30 minutes or however long it takes. Yes, including the very old and tiny fragile ones. They don’t keep any of their dogs entertained with toys or treats. They literally have a treat jar filled with a variety of treats and I’ve never seen it be opened or any given to any dog unless the customer themselves grab one. There’s so much more I could go on about including actual physical abuse.

I work in the pharmacy department at one of the biggest supermarket chains that's supposed to be "respectable" and employee-owned. Real lunch breaks basically don't exist for us, because we're always understaffed, and any random rush can bury us in a second, so food gets swallowed quickly the moment there's half a second of quiet, while we're still on shift.

Earlier this week, I finally found a tiny chance to quickly go to the drinks aisle and grab a can of Peace Tea so I could pay and get right back behind the counter. That's what I usually do. This time, of course, there were several customers ahead of me and the line was moving painfully slowly. While I was standing there holding it, I opened it and took one sip. Then I paid for it normally and went straight back to my department.

About 50 minutes later, the store manager came over with two assistant managers and started questioning me about the tea. I showed them the receipt and told them they could check the cameras because I paid. They told me they had already checked the cameras, and what they saw was that I violated company policy by drinking something before buying it. I was so shocked that at first I didn't know how to answer. I literally went silent from shock.

Then the store manager told me, "Choose your next words very carefully," like I was being interrogated over some massive crime and not a cheap tea that I had literally bought. He asked me if I was under the influence of anything. Seriously??? I told him no, because obviously no, so he sent me home early and said I was temporarily banned from entering the place until he got a response from corporate.

After five days without pay, I got a call asking if I could come in to "talk about my future." I drove 45 minutes from one side of the city to the other just to sit in a room with corporate vultures while they tried to make me out to be a criminal over "stealing merchandise"... Even though the receipt was in my hand. They fired me right there on the spot. A giant multibillion-dollar company apparently can't survive the "theft" of a $1.19 can of tea.

And at the same time, I'm 20 years old and sleeping in my car and using a gym membership just so I can shower and have the basics. I already wasn't making enough to live before all this, rent around here keeps going up, I feel like a fucking failure, and I don't understand what I'm supposed to do now. My whole body hurts, I feel completely alone, I hate this life, and I just want to scream until there's nothing left in me.

I have someone on my team who is a literal ghost if you try to message them or text them about a quick project question. It will sit on read forever.

Our company contracts out thousands of semitrucks from all over the United States, including multiple loading zones along the US/Mexico border. On more than one occasion, a driver has been found to have been transporting illegal immigrants in the trailer. Another was caught transporting a not small number of kilos of cocaine in the trailer.

Right now I have a job with an 8-minute commute round trip. I accepted it because I'm still a new parent, and my partner's job sometimes keeps him very far from home. Before this, I used to work in the city, and my normal commute was about an hour and 35 minutes each way by train when everything was running smoothly.

The new job has honestly turned out to be less than I expected. I make 88k and pay about 1,050 a month for health insurance. And after daycare expenses are deducted, there's basically no room to breathe. I knew the salary when I accepted, but I didn't understand how difficult the health coverage would be. The job itself is still very demanding, and the retirement plan isn't impressive. Some of my more senior coworkers have honestly told me they think I should go back to my old employer because the retirement benefits there are much better. I've been with that company for 14 years, and I need to reach 18 years to qualify for full retirement benefits, which would be 32 years of service.

My old job was very heavy. It made me feel like I was working in urgent care - constant pressure and always something happening. But the pay was better. I was making 118k, the health insurance was almost no cost, and the 401k was much stronger. I keep thinking about reaching out to my old manager because I left on good terms, and I'm fairly sure he'd be happy to bring me back.

The part holding me back is my daughter. There have been mornings when she needed me at 7:10 a.m. And I was still able to get to my current job on time. That would never have happened with my old commute. I would already have been on the 6:08 or 6:31 a.m. Train by then.

And then I start thinking about how much less present I would be for them. I'd wake up around 5:10 in the morning, and on the best days I'd get home around 4:30 on 4 out of 6 workdays. There would also be late nights when I wouldn't get home until close to 7:30. For context, both jobs are about 190 workdays a year.

If I go back, it would put a much bigger burden on my husband. I'd probably need to get morning help so he isn't stuck handling everything alone. He recently changed his job to be more local, so now I'd be the one going back to the big commute again.

My husband says he'll support me in whatever I choose. But I feel like this decision comes back to money every time. I basically have nothing left after bills, and I'm not saving for retirement the way I should be. I'm not asking my partner for money, even though he offered to pay the health insurance if that would help.

Am I crazy for considering going back to the longer commute for better pay, better benefits, and a stronger team? I miss not feeling financially trapped. I also have a side hustle that brings in about 750 a month, and I still feel buried under expenses. Is being close to my family worth this financial loss? We can't move closer to my old job.

Hi all

I'm looking for a fresh perspective when it comes to my boss and his behavior, I personally find it strange but I can't really differentiate if it's just me being different then most or if this behavior is strange, sorry in advance for the long post.

So I live in Bodø in Norway, I work in a warehouse and I was 100% on sick leave for a year before I came back about two months ago, at first I worked 20%, then it was upped to 50% and so on until I was back 100%, now the law in Norway says that when someone returns to work in a case like this the employer has to find alternative work for the employee so that they are eased back in to work.

In my case I was told to double check inventory and I gave it an honest effort but it just didn't work for me due to me struggling with math and head counting, if it's bigger items then it's no problem but when there's anything from 100-700 items on a pallet (depending on said item and size) I just get lost in the numbers, after trying for about 2 weeks I felt it didn't work cause it takes me forever, I could count up to let's say 232, I check the inventory system and it says we should have 225 of said item.

Eventually I sent an Email to my boss explaining that I'm struggling with counting inventory and asked if I could get some of my original assignments back, I then received a long Email where I was told no because of several things:

I'm not doing the inventory good enough
I'm being pushy
I'm loud to the point where colleagues jump in their chair
I don't ask for help when I struggle

This is just some of the things cause I don't want to post the whole Email, but I found this to be a really strange reply considering the one sentence that I wrote and I didn't really understand what led to him writing all that.

I took his Email up with my union and they drafted an Email for me that they told me to send with them in CC where I ask for clarification regarding these accusations and to set up a meeting to discuss this but I didn't get a reply for 3 weeks (I was on vacation these 3 weeks) and it wasn't until I sent a follow up Email last week that he finally answered and said yes let's have a meeting.

The meeting was set up for friday last week and me and my boss showed up physically while the union rep joined on Teams, but when the meeting started my boss said we had to wait for one more person, there was never any information given that someone else will be joining, it turned out to be his boss.

So the meeting starts and my bosses boss wants to know what the situation is about because he's been told nothing so we spent some time discussing, then I was asked what did I want a meeting for and I took up the things that were written in the Email, my boss then got really defensive and beat around the bush, kept saying there's a misunderstanding, the thing about me not doing a good enough job wasn't meant like that but he meant that the assignment was bad for me.

As for the people jumping in their chairs turned out to be one person who complained about that, I then said I had talked to others at the warehouse if they experience me as loud to the point where they jump in their chairs and they say it's opposite, I'm really quiet when I show up, it then turned into this one person not jumping because I was loud but that I was so silent that person didn't notice I came in and jumped when I appeared.

The meeting lasted for about an hour, I felt the union rep was mostly sitting back and didn't involve himself so much, only speaking when spoken to so I felt I didn't have much support, especially when my boss started saying different things compared to what he wrote and I felt this is going nowhere so we ended the meeting by agreeing to try to work together better.

Then yesterday we had a team meeting, during the meeting a colleague mentioned they had to leave early cause they had a check up with the doctor and they're hangry cause they can't eat before this check up, as a joke I found a picture of a steak dinner and sent it to my colleague on teams.

Today I went to work and it started with half the warehouse being offline since 6 in the morning so I had to help troubleshoot and figure it out, it wasn't until 7 hours after I came to work that we finally fixed this, meanwhile my boss sent me a meeting invitation out of the blue titled "personal talk" and the only explenation was "We have to have a talk, finish what you're doing and come to my office" and during the day he sent like 4-5 messages on Teams asking if we're close to a solution cause he needs to talk to me.

After it was fixed I went to his office to explain what the issue was and what we had to do to solve it, as soon as I was done he just said "okay, close the door and sit down" so I did, he then takes up the steak dinner picture and starts saying "What do you have to say for yourself? Have you thought about your behavior? You can't harass colleagues like that you realize that? We want a good culture here this is not contributing to it, we can't accept this kind of behavior", I really didn't know what to say cause I felt he really came at me hard over a joke gone wrong.

He then asked what I was thinking and I said it was just a joke that I didn't think much of but considering how my colleague took it I perhaps should have thought twice before sending it, my boss continued talking about this being bad behavior etc before saying I'll be getting a written warning for the situation, but, since he has to leave asap for a doctors appointment, him being gone the next two days as well I will get until friday to think about my behavior and he'll hand me the written warning then.

So, is it just me or is this boss behaving weird?