It used to be common for people to stay in the same company for a long time. I'm an older millennial and I remember early in my career when job-hopping as seen as a bad thing - it was associated with someone being unstable, unable to keep a job.

But now, 2 years in, you ask for a raise and only get 5%? Start looking for another job. New boss is a jerk? Leave. Got passed up for a promotion? The only way to get that promotion is by updating your resume and going to your employer's fiercest competitor.

Asshole bosses have always existed. Office politics have always been challenging. People pulling the rug from under your feet has always been a thing. So, what changed? Did people try harder to get along in the past? Or take more shit in order to keep a job?

Hi all,

I’m a bit stressed out right now.

I called out of work this morning due to food poisoning and went to message my line manager. She didn’t respond to my text, so i called and didnt hear back, then i also emailed her.

We are quite a small team - my other colleague works 3 days a week (tues, weds, thurs) because she has a child and I am the only full timer at our centre, along with my line manager who also manages another site. She usually comes to our site once or twice a week.

I was going to be alone today at the centre so I was a bit panicked. I emailed HR just to make them aware that I am unwell and im concerned about coverage.

My boss phoned me and screamed at me asking why I contacted HR, said that we will talk when she’s back, and fuming that her boss called her and asked if there was anyone at our centre.

Im really shaken up right now - things have been rocky with my manager beforehand and she says that I ‘just do’ things without thinking. I only contacted HR to make sure I wouldn’t get in trouble as i hadn’t heard from my manager when i tried to contact her 3 times this morning, and I said to my manager I didn’t mean to get her in any stick for it.

Am i in the wrong for contacting HR?

This is a second hand account but years ago, I worked with an engineering firm and our office had about 50 people assigned to it. My project manager represented our team and would sit in on major meetings. He quit about a year after I started and told me as he was leaving to “keep your options open.”

I was also let go about two years after that but always kept in contact with my old project manager. He later told me about a meeting he sat in that really made him want to quit. In the meeting, they were discussing who they may lay off to save some money. Some decisions made sense.

“We should let Ben go since his only job is a drafter and everyone else above him knows how to draft.”

“I think we should let Michael go because his projects are all over budget.”

These were just some of the discussions being held. But some were more brutal.

“We should let Alissa go. She’s missed a lot of work this year because her kid was dealing with an injury.” A manager said.

“But she’s also using her PTO. She’s a single mom and life’s tough for her.” My project manager said in her defense.

“Well it’s about to get more tougher. She’s out.” The manager responded.

I know business can be brutal but just hearing how heartless some of these decisions can be made is honestly eye opening. Now I see why he told me to keep my options open.

I later also found out that yearly bonuses were not going to be issued but that this was a cover story as everyone in the executive level would still collect a bonus but was told to tell everyone else that no one would get one.

Anyone else have experiences where they were let go suddenly or found out that it was “cold and brutal.”

27F I work in a small startup where the ceo is my direct superior. Now to give you some context, one of clients visited on Sunday and we had to work on that day. This boss always expects us to stay beyond our working hours on Saturdays (I work Monday - Saturday). Now that being said today my vehicle broke down and I was forced to get it fix even though its nearly the end of month and I don't have any money left. As i have worked for 10 days straight I thought of calling out sick or take a leave. I decided against it and decided to come to work since i had an important meeting later in the day. When I entered the office, the ceo is already angry and screaming at other people and when he sees me coming in, humiliates me even though i told him the reason for me being late. And then he loudly, in front of everybody asked me to take leave and go. This isn't the first time something of this sort has happened and I am seriously thinking of quitting. This is definitely the straw that broke the camel's back but the best friend advises against it. Idk how i should do.

One of the person I report to is a micromanager, and it’s starting to affect me mentally and emotionally. She gives me instructions, but when I follow them, she sometimes questions my actions as if she never told me to do them in the first place. When misunderstandings happen, I often feel like I’m the one being blamed, even when her instructions are inconsistent.

I’ve tried explaining myself, but I feel like she doesn’t listen, leaving me confused about what she actually expects. It’s gotten to the point where I replay our conversations in my head every night and even in the morning. I keep telling myself not to take things personally, but I’m struggling to manage my emotions.

Honestly, I don’t have any plans on quitting my job because this job is a blessing to me. I’m willing to learn and take accountability for my mistakes, but I don’t want to keep working in an environment where I constantly feel blamed, second-guessed, and anxious. How do you manage this kind of person?

I’m genuinely struggling right now, and I could really use some perspectives from people who have been in a similar situation.

I’ve worked in a corporate environment for years. I used to genuinely care about my job, take pride in my work, and believe that doing the right thing mattered.

Over time, my experiences have completely changed how I view my employer.

I’ve lost almost all respect for the organization and its leadership. There are reasons behind that which I’m not comfortable discussing publicly, but they’ve fundamentally changed how I feel about showing up to work every day.

And honestly? I’m exhausted.

I’ve reached a point where I struggle to find any meaning or satisfaction in my work. I still fulfill my responsibilities, but the motivation and enthusiasm I once had are gone.
It’s affecting my life outside of work, too. I struggle to sleep, I constantly think about work, and I find myself getting angry or upset over things that I can’t realistically change.

I’ve experienced serious burnout before, and I’m terrified of ending up in that position again.

But here’s the part that’s really eating away at me.
I feel like continuing to work for this company makes me morally complicit in things I fundamentally disagree with.

I know that probably sounds dramatic, but that’s genuinely how I feel.

Part of my professional responsibility involves representing my employer positively, and I find myself struggling with the disconnect between what I’m expected to communicate professionally and how I personally feel about the organization.

I don’t want to be associated with a company I no longer respect.

At the same time, I have bills to pay, financial responsibilities, and a life outside of work. I’ve been actively searching for another job, but I can barely get an interview.

Quitting without something lined up would be financially irresponsible, and I know that.

So I feel trapped.

I can’t bring myself to care about the company anymore, but I also can’t afford to stop working for it.

And somehow, I feel guilty about both…

I feel guilty for staying, guilty for losing my motivation, and guilty for letting a job have this much control over my emotional well-being.

I’m not looking for people to tell me to just quit. Believe me, if it were that simple, I would have done it already.
What I’m hoping for is some perspective from people who have experienced this kind of moral conflict with their employer.

How did you continue doing your job when you had completely lost faith in the organization? How did you stop carrying that anger and frustration into your personal life? Did you eventually find a way to emotionally detach, or did you have to leave before things got better?
I know every workplace has problems, and I don’t expect any employer to be perfect.

But I never thought I’d reach a point where receiving a paycheck would make me question my own integrity.
I’m exhausted, frustrated, and genuinely don’t know how to reconcile needing this job with how much I hate being associated with the company.

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s been through something similar.

I've worked in restaurants for most of my adult life. Every restaurant has it's pros and cons but I swear I've never quite worked in such a toxic place before.

I work at a busy sports bar and it's a pool house. We don't have any sections and we rarely take traditional orders. Most people order off QR codes (I know, I know.) so we're essentially glorified support staff. I've worked there for about a year. Although there has always been SOME form of tension from people not pulling their weight, for the last four months it's gotten really bad. Half of the staff is watching everyone like a hawk and talking shit about people who don't give 100% effort 100% of the time, and the other half completely takes advantage of the fact that it's a pool house and doesn't put in nearly as much effort. Any time anybody goes to management, nothing gets done. It's gotten to the point that some of my co-workers would rather see people suffer and take a magnifying glass to their mistakes than to be supportive in any way. I've been wanting to get a new job for a while but the job market is brutal so I'm stuck here. I don't know if I should be mad at my co-workers for not being able to put their petty bs aside, or if I should be pissed at my manager for doing absolutely nothing to help the effed up toxic work environment that has been building for months, and says that she's "tired of people whining" when we come to her with concerns.

Hey everyone,

A data analyst, around 24, has roughly a year of experience at an early-stage startup and is looking for similar roles elsewhere.

The market is tough, sure, but some people keep saying networking is key, while others say it's a numbers game—mass apply.

This might sound like a dumb question, but does anyone with experience have advice on how to apply? The analyst has never been more confused. At this point, it kind of just seems like luck for entry-level candidates.

They keep up with LeetCode questions, read up on new developments in data science, and aim for around 45 applications a week.

Still not hearing back.

Any advice is appreciated.

Also, if you're in the same boat and just want to rant, I'm so down lol.

Me (29F) - here to vent about my crappy job.
I get it why don’t you work a more career-driven job? Is what most people are gonna ask me.
But also bc I don’t know what career path I want for my life and I don’t have money for college as I live alone and barely afford rent as it is.
I’ve been working my current job for almost 4 years now . Shift lead position. I’ve been asked multiple times if I’d want to become one of their assistant managers, I’ve said no the first 2 times then I said yes the 3rd time bc I believe I learned a lot more in my current position and the raise is well needed. He told me I’d have to work 2- 11 hr days when he’s off if I took that position, which I said would be fine bc a raise would be apart of that new position..
I also become serve safe certified and was given a 50 cent raise. Not making the minimum in my state for someone who is certified. It’s been a few weeks since he asked and I brought it up again and he said he’s not sure if he’s looking right now for another assistant. Ok that’s fine, but I’m here when you’re ready to give me that opportunity.
Turns out he gave the assistant management position back to his old assistant.

Fast forward: the establishment failed inspection 2xs and was on the verge of closing down if we were to fail another inspection.
It so happens that the next inspection was on my shift, that I was running since the morning. And we passed as I did the walk-through. That took us out of the window for closing the store down, but we’d be getting another surprise visit in a 45 day period, and it so happened again that it was on my shift, I did the walk through and we passed completely taking us out of the red.
I was excited about it bc that proves that I’m good at my job, and I’m a valuable asset to the team.

So only managers are aloud to view company emails and since I open 2xs out of the week while the GM is off I have to check emails. I typed in to see if my pto has been sent in. And seen that all shift lead positions and managers got a bonus each time for passing inspections shift leads around $50 assistant managers $200- $125 so that made me feel a certain way.
I also told the GM that I work 11 hrs on my opening days, but I haven’t gotten a raise and or the assistant managers position he did take me off the 11 hr days for about a month and I’m back on them now.

This was my first somewhat fast food place I’ve worked and I’ve worked a lot of mom and pop shops.
And I don’t ever want to work fast food again. Due to the annoying customers, and the crappy pay we get.

Ok so here’s my ranking and my threshold is 3.5, anything below and I won’t join.

4.4-5.0: absolutely top tier and a great company, will join no questions asked.

3.8-4.3: a pretty good company but haven’t do some research beforehand

3.5-3.7: 3.5 is my cutoff, anything lower and it’s a red flag, I’d do intense research on these companies

3.0-3.5: a bad company with bad management but they still have some morals.

2.0-3.0: a horrible company, avoid at all costs unless you’re going broke

1.0-2.0: borderline satantic, avoid even if you’re about to go broke, it’s not worth it.

I finally found a job after being unemployed. It's entry level tech support for a company that sells their own software. Week 1 was good, but now I'm in week 2 and it's a lot harder. The concepts are hard for me to grasp, and it's a relational database and I've never worked in one of those before.

I worked hard to get this job, and I feel like I'll be fired in a week or two. They are pretty rigorous when it comes to testing your knowledge and with each day I seem to be doing worse and worse as the concepts get more difficult.

They said not to worry and it will be ok but I do notice that some of it just is not clicking to me, and I'm afraid to tell them that since they said in 2-3 weeks they determine if we are going to be a good fit or not and then they fire us if not.

Today was really hard and it's just a lot of stuff like exporting, mail merging, etc, and it's confusing and it feels a bit rushed. I've always done well at jobs but tech support is new to me. They know I'm new to it and seem pretty helpful bit it's like fast paced and I'm sinking. I feel like I'm going to have a breakdown soon.

Edit: Ik this is long if you don’t care to read it then don’t

Days ago, I posted a rant in multiple subreddits. I was furious when I wrote it, and it was written during rush hour traffic using text to speech. I believe that many people went out of their way to tone police rather than engaging with what was actually said. I also had many questions and was venting my overall frustrations, which is common in these unsubs. Like I mentioned previously, that post was LONG, so I think it is very ridiculous and are fighting tooth and nail to stick to a false narrative based off of ONE sentence in that entire post. I have calmed down and I am going to try to explain my perspective more eloquently. 

CONTEXT:

I (25,F, African American) and I have a master’s in accounting and my experience with the job market, particularly in the past two years, has been ***ROUGH***. I was never really passionate about it to begin with (most of my talents, skills, and interests are oriented around the humanities), but my parents (mainly my dad) pressured me to do it so that I would  have a “safe” career to fall back on. I decided to listen to him. My first corporate job was an entry-level role at a large Fortune 500 company, and I quickly realized **1. I hate public accounting and the day to day of most public accounting roles 2. I hate the demand to perform in most corporate spaces. Obviously you have to know how to interact and work with others but we all know that certain personalities are favored in those spaces and some employers are definitely letting office politics supersede competency because they are aware of the leverage they have in the market.**
After this, I decided to resign and spent several months looking for different accounting roles like fraud examiner, bookkeeper, and junior auditor. I still looked at and accepted different accounting roles in the meantime. I redid my resume dozens of times, I’ve attended multiple career fairs, collected several business cards and LinkedIns, and tried to network through tiktok and instagram comment sections (this is why I said that I did want the generic, recycled, cookie-cutter LinkedIn ass advice like just network, the job market has been rough for millions of people and employers have been pretty brazen about their hostility towards the domestic, fully human worker). I wasn’t able to find anything. I think that the experience/credential inflation is severe and it is exacerbating the problem with entry-level hiring and, subsequently, part of the reason why myself and others may be struggling.
Anyways, my mom suggested that I go back to school so that I could be productive while I look for other jobs; both of my parents have multiple degrees and love higher education, so I decided to take her advice because I felt like it would give me something to focus on. At the time, I felt that at least I would be more educated and would be earning an additional credential. When I was looking at graduate programs, I was really intrigued by international business since I loved learning about things like logistics, business management, trade, and Hofstede’s dimensions. A lot of people around me (even people I was interviewing with) discouraged me and suggested that I do the M.acc/CPA track; I knew that I more than likely would never take the CPA exam but I figured that the M.acc was still an advanced, specialized degree that could still potentially be useful. In addition, many controllers/accountants I worked for and with were very successful without their CPA. I am really not passionate about working in industries outside of the humanities, but those careers also aren’t taken seriously and the barrier to entry is even higher because of this competitive market. Unfortunately I live in a major city in the US, and we live in a capitalistic society. As a result, I feel forced to look for something I can tolerate so I can have income while I pursue things I actually care about. 

WHAT HAPPENED (WITH EXTRA DETAILS):
I have been working with temp agencies to piece together income while searching for a job. I recently accepted an accounts payable position through a temp agency. The assignment was at a medium-sized, black owned, logistics firm and had two other temp employees.  I have worked with this temp agency before and I was excited because I thought my job search had finally concluded. The hiring manager at the firm and one the managers at the temp agency really liked me and I got hired basically on the spot. Keep in mind that the reason this position was open to begin with is because the previous person was let go after only one day, at the suggestion of the trainer (who was the accounting manager’s daughter AND the only other person with whom the responsibilities of this role are shared).
I was so excited for the role that I was an hour early on my first day (also because I wanted to beat traffic). I was intentional about being pleasant. I made sure to introduce myself and greet as many people as I could.
.I felt like me and the trainer were getting along very well. Outside of laughing about things like how much it hurts to stub an acrylic toenail or basic small talk, most of the conversation was me shadowing her, asking questions, or asking her to repeat things I would need to know about the role (I even took 3 pages of notes). Overall I felt like I was learning quickly, being receptive, and getting along with the trainer very well. During the second half of the day, after spending around 15 minutes in her mom’s office (the hiring manager was there too), she came back out and told me that we needed to switch seats so she could use the computer. I asked her if she was showing me a new responsibility for the role, and she said no and began working on the computer. She started working on a different task and didn't speak to me for the rest of my shift until it was time to leave and we said goodbye and that we would see each other tomorrow. I spent close to an hour just scrolling my phone until then because she hadn’t given me any new instructions.
Around 20 minutes before I was scheduled to leave, the hiring manager (the one that really liked me) called me for a meeting and asked how I felt about the way things are going. She also asked how I felt about the trainer and brought up the idea of having me train with a different person tomorrow. I told her that I felt like me and the trainer were getting along well and that she was doing a good job of explaining the material. I also told her I felt like I had a solid command of the role. On my way home, my temp agent told me to call her. She explained that the trainer told the hiring manager (who liked me) and the accounting manager (her mother) that she felt like we were clashing and suggested that I be let go that day. According to my temp agent, the hiring manager did try to reason with them and suggested that I be allowed to stay at least for a couple of extra days to see if they could troubleshoot any potential issues before making a decision, but the trainer insisted that they end my assignment that day.
I was floored and furious because I went out of my way to be as agreeable as possible and only really spoke to ask questions or to ask her to clarify something, so I honestly felt like that was a miserable and fake thing for her to do. My temp agent asked if I could think of any reason as to why she might be saying this. The only thing that came to mind was a couple of instances where I would use the term “reference number” and she would interject with “PO” (I actually don’t remember exactly which term was used to interrupt because this was a week ago and that itself isn’t relevant, but you will see why I am bringing up this up in the next section). I found it weird and contradictory because she originally said that the terms could be used interchangeably and confirmed that they could a second time when I asked to make sure. There were other things that were discussed; at one point I even asked my temp agent (I have been working with her for months)  if there was something that she noticed about my personality that I wasn’t aware of because I genuinely did not want to be one of these people that’s running around doing something that’s rude with no self-awareness. She didn’t really tell me anything other than the generic “sometimes people don’t like people who appear to be confident/sometimes people can be selective/ not like things about your personality/sometimes it’s just not the vibe” speech. She also mentioned the other temp agency manager involved and the hiring manager already had suspicions that this trainer was being too selective and that they were growing concerned because the previous person in the role was also let go after only one day. Apparently her feedback about that person was similar to the comments I received. The temp agent said she would relay my feedback back to the hiring manager and the other temp manager. The call ended with her saying that we would be in touch soon. 

KEEP IN MIND BEFORE I CONTINUE: 

1. The trainer herself was the one that initially said that the terms “reference number” and “po number” could be used interchangeably and confirmed it a second time when I asked again shortly thereafter.
2. On the invoice, [reference/po number] was in the top right corner of most of the invoices we processed, which to me reinforced what she said about them being interchangeable. On the window we were using in QuickBooks, there were fields for the date, total, invoice number, and memo; she told me that the memo box was for the reference/po number, and to enter that number into that memo box regardless of whether it said reference number, po number, or both, since the terms were interchangeable
3. I DID NOT express any of my thoughts or disagreement out loud. I only catalogued her interrupting when I would use one term with the other (when SHE was the one that said they were interchangeable to begin with) as weird TO MYSELF, and I also did not indicate that I argued with this girl or refused to follow directions anywhere in my original post. 
4. I did NOT say in my original post that this was the reason why I was let go, there was other feedback discussed, I ONLY brought up the whole “reference/po number” thing in my original post because it was the only thing that came to mind when I heard the feedback about us “clashing.” Remember, I had cataloged it as weird in my head earlier that day. 

THE MISUNDERSTANDING, THE TWISTED NARRATIVE, AND THE DOGPILE

As I previously mentioned, my original post was written in rush hour traffic using text-to-speech on an iPhone 13 while I was livid, causing it to be littered with typographical and grammatical errors. It also, obviously, was not well written and I did a poor job of describing my experience and observations. It should be even more obvious that the post has an angry and emotional tone to it because I was indeed angry and emotional about what happened.
Most people that use Reddit have more than likely had an experience where they have tried to vent or be vulnerable and they were met with condescending remarks disguised as advice and were dogpiled and bullied for no reason. The issue I am having is that many users that commented on my previous post were being willfully obtuse as if there isn’t an obvious difference between trying to offer a new perspective and being mean just because you have a hivemind and see other people participating in the usual reddit snark. This app has a strong reputation for being filled with people that respond to people that are asking genuine questions/being sincere with an unrelenting superiority complex, condescension, derision, and patronizing attitudes, often unprovoked.
This was also how I would categorize my experience with my previous post and the responses. The tone WAS harsh. It WAS littered with elementary level spelling and grammar errors. I would have thought that the average person on a website that’s nothing more than a cesspool of yap would have been used to such things, but evidently I was wrong. Not all of the comments were negative, and I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who took the time to offer genuine insight, advice, or just communicate their thoughts and perspectives. However, many of the comments were unnecessary, rude, condescending, racist, or demeaning. Now yes, this is the Internet. It’s mainly bots meant to cause conflict and influence the way people think and other slop. There’s officially more bots than real people generating internet traffic. It’s never been a safe, wonderful, utopia, and I certainly did not expect REDDIT to live up to any of those expectations, not even a little bit. I was well aware before I posted that this was Reddit and I was liable to get comments from people on Reddit who act how people on Reddit are historically known to act.
As I previously mentioned, many of the hate comments received an equal and meaner reaction. I then realized that many of the hate comments were coming at me based on a misunderstanding. The original post got a variety of comments, so I know at least some people got the substance of what I was saying underneath the typos and spelling errors, but I noticed the hate comments were following a similar pattern of accusing me of being unable to take accountability or admit my own faults. I then realized that while my diction did have connotations that could frame it that way, an alarming amount of adults have intellectual egos that are way too high for people with the reading comprehension of a zebra ovary. Either way, I will highlight why I THINK some people might have had a genuine reason to misinterpret what I said: 

• In my original post, when I was discussing the “reference/po” piece, I said “she insisted,” that I use one term. I explained in my post and in comments why I genuinely thought (based on her initial and subsequent confirmation) that they were interchangeable. I also explained that I believed that it did not make a difference because 1. Most of the invoices said “reference/po #:” 2. I was instructed to put whichever number was on the invoice whenever either number was not present (which would mean that they were, indeed, again, INTERCHANGEABLE imo, but hey)
• Even though what actually happened was that sometime after we discussed the terms being interchangeable, she would interject with one term when I used the other (which, again, I mentally catalogued as weird, but not verbalize or use non-verbal language to disagree), I quickly realized that the aforementioned Zebra Ovary Zealots had somehow created an entirely different retelling of what was actually said. 

Because this is Reddit, it was not long before the people who would wrestle an alligator while nude in front of their entire bloodline if it meant that they got to feel intellectually superior to someone for even 9 milliseconds arrived and this simple misunderstanding somehow metastasized into a wildly stupid story. Somehow, the story became that I ignored verbal instructions for a process that was super important to the company, argued with the trainer about why I shouldn’t have to follow directions, and that I refused to take accountability because I have personality disorder and lack self-awareness. I do refuse to acknowledge it- because it is NOWHERE CLOSE to what I said happened. All I effectively said was that she “insisted,” I use one term, which was an exaggeration at best; nowhere in my original post did I even IMPLY that said anything back to her. However, once a couple of people with poor reading comprehension decided that their version of events was now canon, so did every other miserable person with an ego to feed and an inability to read for themselves. 

RACE, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN HIRING, AND WHY I BROUGHT IT UP IN MY ORIGINAL POST

One prominent reason behind the racist abuse, hate comments, or general critiques arose because I mentioned race (famously butchering a sentence where I described myself as “WON” on the 700,000 black women, a typo which, according to some people, is also proof enough that everything was actually my fault and I was actually a horrible person who couldn’t take accountability). NOW: The ONLY thing I mentioned as far as race was that I was African-American and the butchered sentence about being “won” of the 700,000 black women. I did NOT say that every single negative problem I have ever had in recorded history was a direct result of my race. I know that this may shock some racists, but ***acknowledging a racial attribute by bringing it up in a conversation and directly attributing negative events that occur in my life to racism are NOT THE SAME THING*** (no matter how much you would like them to be so that you can have an excuse to dismiss my concerns).However, because a very real, documented occurrence (that I did not even examine in depth in my first post) was met with so much ignorance and hatred, and because I love making racists angry (and discussing real issues), I am delighted to announce that right here, right now, I am going to ACTUALLY make it about race🥳!
I am still going not to be discussing this in depth, because this is the Internet and I think that the average adult (especially people that have an intellectual God complex) should know how to search for credible sources and peer reviewed articles and journals, BUT what I will say that I would not have brought race up during a discussion about employment if it was not relevant, we would not have had events such as Jim Crow, The Great Migration, Title VII laws, agencies like the EEOC, or a very public class lawsuit in which Workday is being sued for disparate impacts due to applicants being automatically rejected by ATS because of their race. It’s relevant regardless of whether or not you choose to acknowledge it as such.
Just because I bring up race and the fact that hiring discrimination is **1.** Real **2.** Still an ongoing issue that affects people in the present day **3**. Something that has gotten worse as a direct result of our current administration DOES NOT mean that I am saying that race is the reason I can’t get a job. Moreover, just because I bring up anti-blackness in hiring DOES NOT mean that I am saying that black people are the only group having a tough time in this market. My original point, which I maintain, is that while the job market is tough for every race, gender, and age group, certain groups are being disproportionately affected; those groups are currently women, minorities, and Gen Z.

Fun fact: Everyone involved in the story about the trainer was black like myself, for all the bigots that accused me of playing the race card.. She was also close to my age for my age mates that tried to gaslight too😊

RACE PT. II
The main reason I chose to re-visit and add depth to the racial aspect of this discussion is because I could not help but notice the difference in responses between my post and other disgruntled job seekers. As other black redditors noted in the replies of my previous post, the only thing that was fundamentally different from complaints in these career-oriented subreddits is that I explicitly brought up my race.
Now that those distinctions have been made, I have no choice but to draw attention to how many people (who I assume were not black given the racially charged remarks and microaggressions) rushed to frame a story that categorically matches the broader discussions around things like ghost jobs, credential inflation, experience inflation, layoffs, offshoring, corporate hierarchy, and employer’s ridiculous demands and expectations was overwhelmingly framed as a character flaw, a behavior issue, or a personal failure, when the only thing that materially separates my complaints about the job market from theirs was the mention of race. The contrast was so stark that multiple people commented that I should have either left my race out or posted in an afro-centric subreddit (note: when I commented responding to black job-seekers looking for subreddits that would be safe for black redditors, a racist took upon themselves to tell me to check my local prison, but let the trolls tell it, I’M the problem for not reacting to that blatant racism kindly and my negative reaction to literal RACIST ABUSE is automatic proof that I was the problem in my original story all along).
The difference in responses got me thinking about the bigger picture. On one hand, it’s the Internet, where regardless of what you or say or how much sincerity with which it is said, there is always a non-zero chance of getting flamed by hundreds of people, sometimes for unfair reasons. On the other hand, I could not help but pay attention to the obvious difference in the volume of hate comments on my post versus others in these career subreddits. It is no secret that a considerable about of people that voted (many with the intention of making life harder for groups of people they don’t like) for this administration are now the same ones loudly expressing their disdain towards being negatively affected by the ongoing going degradation of our societal safety nets, resources, global influence, and economy. A large number of people have responded to this outcry with reminders that many of these people dismissed, mocked, or exacerbated the issues whenever they were raised by various members of marginalized communities.
There is a continuous history labor and employment being used as a tool of discrimination and oppression, with notable groups and events including: 

• The Irish and Italians 
• Child labor 
• Slavery 
• Jim Crow/Great Migration 
• The Suffrage Movement/Women’s Rights
• Company towns/ company scripsGiven that we have this well documented history, hiring data, and the arrogance of modern day employers on full display, the unrelenting gaslighting was jarring. The feeling left me reminiscent of the black truckers who came out a couple weeks ago and gladly boasted that they not would be striking with the (mostly white) truckers who lamented the negative impacts of the oil crisis on the prices of diesel; their boastful response was also accompanied with reminders that many of the white truckers raced to vote for the very circumstances that they were currently criticizing. The sentiments are also the undertone of the new saying “you can own your farm or you can own the libs, but you cannot own both.” This saying emerged from TikTok and is a concise response to the farmers who, again, were complaining about circumstances that they themselves played an active role in creating. I feel like both of these recent events provide a perfect reference to my own growing indifference; I cannot help but become increasingly unsympathetic as a direct result of witnessing how so many people unabashedly let their racial bias decide that my experience, which was similar to many others in these subreddits, was a personal failure for me alone and economic downturn for everyone else.

THE QUESTION IN MY OP  ABOUT GEN Z 

**DISCLAIMER: I know that young people aren’t the only age group negatively affected by the job market. I don’t care😊, I am talking about Gen Z since the unemployment crisis is negatively affecting us, recent graduates, and early-career professionals at disproportionate rates. Employers themselves were boasting about not hiring Gen Z. Please be serious. The gaslighting from other people my age and millenials is some BS served hot and fresh, too. You should know better, seriously. Most of you have been through some of these same difficulties so the switch-up is crazy. That irritated me more than boomers and gen-x gaslighting tbh.**

In my original post, I outlined three specific questions about the future of Generation Z (my own generation, obviously), the future of the job market with AI, and the future over all. Once again, despite multiple sources of hiring data reflecting that there is a distinct, **GLOBAL,** youth unemployment crisis affecting Gen Z, I was met with denials of this documented reality. I do not think I need to spend too much time belaboring this point, especially since we are now seeing civil unrest and protests headlined by young people in response to the affordability crisis and lack of economic opportunities.
In my original post, I wanted to start a dialogue about the prolonged dismissal of these concerns could trickle upward, with some examples including:

• Exacerbating the decline in birth rates (not that this is a bad thing): The main people complaining about this are often the same people who vote for policies that take economic opportunities away from young people, causing them to delay having children (because they did tell us to stop having kids we couldn’t afford)
• Causing people to delay retirement: Many Gen X’ers are starting to have to reckon with the fact that they will possibly have to support their adult children for longer than they intended, which could potentially delay their plans for retirement. In addition many of them are behind in their careers because of the volume of boomers that won’t retire. However, many boomers now can’t retire and are now coming out of retirement because of the affordability crisis. These trends, combined with employers themselves admitting that they are avoiding hiring recent graduates and young people further aggravate the unique impact this is having on our age group, which is putting us even more behind economically. The gaslighting attempts from my own age mates reminded me of the iced coffee debate that took place weeks ago. As I’m sure you could anticipate, what stood out to me was the amount of people being willfully obtuse as to why people were calling out the recruiter, and the amount of millennials and Gen Z that came out to bootlick in her favor. To my age mates and millennials: bootlicking is no longer enough to substantially put you further ahead of your contemporaries the way you think it will.
• I also wanted to know what companies plan to do in the next 3-5 when the consequences of eliminating entry level roles arrive. By 2030 many companies are likely to discover that none of their employees have institutional knowledge, or that there is a shortage of middle managers. If this crisis continues, their applicant pool is very well likely to be people in their mid twenties and thirties with no real entry-level experience. How do you prepare those people for middle management positions that need to be filled urgently? The answer is training, but apparently that’s a curse word for employers in 2026, so moving on. 

THE QUESTION IN MY OP ABOUT AI’S ROLE IN THIS

I posed this question in my previous post, and a lot of people answered honestly and there were some good conversations. Some trolls chose to focus on the fact that I messed up and wrote “chat-bought” instead of chat bot. Either way, here are my questions about AI and the job market. I am posting them again here for anyone else who wants to discuss. I am very skeptical about the idea that AI is going to replace a large part of the workforce. I think that the capabilities of artificial intelligence are being grossly overstated in order to appease shareholders.
What would employers realistically do when they have to interact with the workforce again? They have been haphazard and open with their contempt for human workers, so much so that they would rather have an AI scan resumes if it means that it will reduce the amount of humans they are forced to interact with. Many companies that have attempted to reduce headcount with AI have had to rehire the humans they tried to replace. Many hiring managers and recruiters have been frustrated at the lack of qualified applicants only to discover that a trivial feature in their AI powered ATS system was screening out excellent candidates.
I think that if AI was as capable as the tech bros want everyone to believe, they would not need to integrate it into everything in order to force us to use it. Most businesses that have adopted this technology have reported that it either didn’t impact their productivity or made their operations more difficult. The tech bros can’t even figure out a way to make their technology profitable other than circular financing and subscriptions (which aren’t generating enough earnings btw) and these companies are constantly losing revenue. They can’t justify their ridiculous IPO targets either. Even if the technology reaches the ability to replace the workforce, most consumers express negative attitudes towards interacting with AI agents instead of humans. AI media and content is often disparaged as slop and the backlash against data centers has been rampant.
AI cannot buy products or pay taxes. Some of you might be inclined to imagine a world in which the wealthy sustain society by themselves while ignoring the existence of working class people entirely. A lot of people have also not considered the idea that wealthy people are not going to buy every single product, good, or service available just because they have the income to do so. Even billionaires don’t want to pay $7.99 for a bag of Doritos, and even if they do have so much money that inflation is a negligible concern, they probably won’t buy billions of bags of Doritos. In many cases, artificial intelligence is just the EXCUSE for layoffs, not the reason. Most of the positions are just offshored or reassigned amongst the smaller team. Conclusively, I think that this talk about AI replacing most of the workforce is malarky. Tomfoolery. BS. Bologna. A hoax. A scam. A figment of your imagination, even.

THE QUESTION IN MY OP ABOUT THE OVERALL FUTURE OF THE EMPLOYER/EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP

This question in my original post was originally meant to open up a discussion about what the future of the employee/employer relationships will look like. Hiring practices have become cruel, humiliating, abusive, and inconsiderate. They have gone out of their way to display their indifference and disgust towards the workforce. However, because I am an optimist, and I 100% believe that the pendulum will swing back, I wonder how employers plan to respond now that they have completely destroyed “the social contract.” Some propose that most job seekers will be so desperate that they will rush back to these salary reset jobs and things will continue to deteriorate. Some (like myself) believe that you cannot hollow out the workforce and continue to have successful business operations forever. You can’t continually siphon money from the working class if they don’t have any money for you to steal. Some of you may believe that this has been the plan all along and they want us to lose everything so we can go to prison (because homelessness is criminalized and they are cracking down on student loan debt) so that we can be forced to produce goods and services for free. I just feel like this fake labor shortage employers are crying about is going to soon turn into a real labor shortage as a result of their recklessness. But who knows? Let’s talk about it!

NEURODIVERSITY AND JOB SEARCHING

DISCLAIMER: I talk about neurodiversity, race, and gender. Yes, I know that they are not mutually exclusive. Yes, I know how intersectionality works, and anyone who claims they do should understand where I am coming from.

This section serves to address multiple comments and alerts I received regarding mental health from specific groups of commenters. I have never been diagnosed as neurodivergent, although I have discussed possibilities with people close to me, and the possibility has been brought to my attention before. It is general knowledge that mental health is heavily stigmatized by society, and most communities of color and black communities are even more fervent about ignoring all discussions around mental health, neglecting the mental health of their family members, and ostracizing the mentally ill. During my formative years, this was my experience. 

To the people who think neurodiversity might have played a role: 

I have not completely ruled out the possibility that I might be neurodivergent, I just had not gotten around to seeing a qualified professional. I asked some of the commenters why they felt like this might be a factor in my experience, and found many of the responses to be unsatisfactory. Most of the answers were vague, and, with the exception of one explanation from someone claiming to be a psychologist, amounted to little more than “you described a misunderstanding and neurodivergent people tend to miss social cues that neurotypical people might understand.” When I tried to ask for more clarification beyond communication differences or feelings of receiving disdain for unknown reasons, my hesitation was (you guessed it) used against me. My reluctance to accept this diagnosis from strangers online based off of one post became evidence that I was angry, uncombative, and unreceptive.
Like I said, I have discussed this possibility with a friend, who is also a black woman. During that conversation, I posed the possibility that perhaps we weren’t neurodivergent, but resonated with their experiences due to sitting at the intersection of misogyny and racism. Because (as demonstrated in the responses to my previous post) these issues are not taken seriously, black women who try to bring attention to how misogynoir affects the way people interact with us are frequently dismissed. I have resonated with having my words and actions intentionally mischaracterized, being suddenly ostracised for issues that weren’t previously communicated, and feeling like people automatically don’t like me and try to sabotage me for reasons they won’t articulate, are all experiences to which marginalized people can relate. Neurotypical people relate to these experiences. In addition, chronic ptsd and other mental health conditions can resemble neurodiversity.
I was particularly furious when my concern was twisted into another reason to mock my mental health and mischaracterize me. My aversion to these labels was actually out of respect for the community, not a rejection of them. I have noticed that the way people discuss neurodiversity online can sometimes resemble that of pop psychologists or the random “specialists” who can’t produce proof of completion of any sort of clinical training. I understand that some of you have real concerns, and I would like to thank you for your patience and willingness to talk to me about it. However, I want the way the topic is discussed to be handled seriously in order to prevent a misdiagnosis or make people think that general knowledge about a condition gives them the expertise to diagnose people.
I have seen various neurodivergent people discussing how they have to navigate life. I see the discussions about whether job interviews and personality assessments are meant to weed out neurodivergent people. I understand that neurodiversity impacts their experiences with the job market, in some cases so much so that certain fields are recommended for them over others just so their lives can be easier. By the time you are reading this, I will have already reached out to a professional (because I need to get answers before my insurance runs out, not because I am letting strangers diagnose me). 

RISING DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THE UNEMPLOYED AND POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS: 

This section is going to be the shortest because it just popped in my head as I’m finishing this novel, and truthfully most of what I am referencing in this part is based on discourse I have seen online. Now, discrimination against unemployed people is not new. Employers have been shaking, moaning, and crying about gaps in resumes since the beginning of time. People even lament how they’ve noticed a change in how their friends, loved ones, and others interact with them after learning that they are unemployed. There is a stigma around unemployment
I’ve seen recruiters discuss how seeing the “open to work” icon on a LinkedIn profile can be deemed as a red flag. I’ve also seen people discussing job descriptions (keep in mind it could have been fake, these are just things I saw while doomscrolling) that candidly discourage unemployed applicants from applying. My next question is obvious: more and more people are becoming long-term unemployed. The true unemployment rate is around 24%. What does this mean for the applicant pools of recruiters that prefer employed applicants? That pool is growing smaller by the day. Also, why is their preferred applicant pool the people who have the least flexibility and time to go to the interview and hiring process smoothly?

CONCLUSION

As previously stated, in order to navigate everything going on, I have decided to go back
to go back to school for a short healthcare program (I was actually a nursing major before I switched to accounting, but I’m not doing nursing this time). I have been thinking about this for close to a year now. Like I said, almost all of my talents and interests revolve around the humanities, and at this point I am just trying to change careers as quickly and effectively as possible; an associates in an in-demand field just seems like the most logical thing to do while I have the time, money, and ability. I was dumbfounded that some people took issue with this and used it as a reason to tear me down. I don’t like the politics, performance, strange hidden hierarchies, and fake urgency of corporate. I’m done participating in it.
I don’t think that sitting in an ergonomic chair is a privilege so divine that my entire livelihood should depend on it. Obviously I still have to deal with other people. Obviously there’s no career that’s guaranteed to be sunshine and rainbows all of the time. However, I have been so miserable trying to even enter the field and I’ve had so many bad experiences that I am fed up with accounting and other corporate fields. There is no reason basic white collar jobs should be gatekept to this extent. I am 25. Soon I won’t have healthcare. I feel like my window of time to get my life together and change careers without it being devastating or financially impossible is shrinking rapidly. People change careers all the time at different ages.
I know that many of the people who reacted negatively to my previous post have made up their mind, and no amount of reasoning, sincerity, or clarifying details will move them. This post is for people that have the patience to read my little dissertation. Once again, to everyone who was actually trying to offer advice, reassurance, and encouraging words, thank you. Like I said, I did not write this simply to lament that people were being mean and racist to me on the Internet. Now that I have had time to calm down and some of my emotions have subsided, I wanted to clarify some details and articulate myself more eloquently. I understand that the job market has been difficult for everyone regardless of race, age, or background. I want to have a discussion about the long list of potential factors at play and most likely outcome for the future. Thank you again to those that took the time to read my dossier. Let me know if you think I should post the original draft somewhere else. 

I share a team with someone who regularly asks for my help with tasks that are fully his responsibility. At first I said yes a few times to be nice. But this started happening every week, and it eats into my own deadlines. I finally told him last week I can’t keep helping with his regular workload. Since then, I’ve heard he’s mentioned to other teammates that I’m uncooperative and hard to work with. I still help when there is a real emergency or our team needs to cover for someone. I just won’t take over his ongoing work for free. It feels unfair. I don’t want conflict, but I also can’t sacrifice my own work to cover him. How would you handle this if you were in my position?

I’m not just talking bringing your toothbrush or skincare routine to the office. What do yall bring to work to minimize other routines outside of work to conserve energy?

I got hired last summer as an on call Rehab Counselor in an acute psychiatric unit. What they didn’t tell me until I started on the job was that they hired me specifically to cover my supervisor, who is a Rehab Therapist, while she goes on maternity leave. Her duties are pretty similar to mine, we are a small department and alot of the duties overlap, but her position is a supervisory position so obviously she manages staff and scheduling and that kind of stuff, as well as a bit more documentation focused. Our department is small we only have like 4 employees but it is my first time in this specific kind of setting. I do have supervisory experience from my previous job in a group home setting. I was trained for her position throughout this month and I thought they’d bring up a position and pay change but they never did?

She told me when I was onboarding that her expected leave date was October 28th, however I guess her water broke so it basically ended up being today I took over. Which was fine I know the role well enough.

My question is - I understand the position is kind of temporary until she comes back, and then I’ll go back to on call rehab counselor. But is it fair to ask about a pay raise while I’m covering? They even said that I will be the rehab staff’s main direct supervisor until she’s back. And how do I even have that conversation? And again, the department is small so I am managing at most 2 employees and a lot of the duties overlap with the rehab counselor position however I am still technically doing more?

And I was given permission to use her desk while she’s out. I found my interview papers in her desk, and I saw even back in June they had listed me as interviewing for “on call rehab therapist” when I applied for “on call rehab counselor”. So that sort of verifies me that it is technically a different/higher position I’m in now.

I think I messed up at work last week and I'm not sure how worried I should be. For obvious reasons, the names in this story are fake.

For context, there's a more senior guy at work (let's call him Bob) who I've found pretty frustrating to work with. He's genuinely a nice person, but on calls he has a tendency to dominate conversations, go on long tangents, and make claims about how our system works that aren't always accurate. Even when someone tries to correct him, he'll often keep talking until he's finished making his point. It's especially frustrating when we're in a 30-minute meeting to resolve something important and he spends 20 minutes talking about something unrelated or inaccurate, leaving little time for the actual questions I need answered to do my work.

Anyway, I have a weekly call with my two project managers, Lisa and Steve, for a project that has been going on for almost a year and is in its final stages. Lisa is going on maternity leave soon, and we were discussing a document I still need to create for a process we've been working on. She's been heavily involved in developing the process with me, so she knows all the details and would be the ideal person to review it. She mentioned that if I don't get it done before she leaves, another option would be to have Bob review it instead. The problem is that while Bob has been involved in the overall project at a high level, he hasn't really been involved in this particular process, so I genuinely don't think he'd be able to provide much useful feedback, and he would also be very difficult to work with.

When Lisa suggested that, truthfully I started smiling and shaking my head (camera was on), and said "that's not a good option." She asked me to repeat myself, and for some stupid reason I doubled down and said "that's not a good option" again. She then said something like "uhh, elaborate... don't say that, this call is recorded." All three of us (Lisa, Steve, and me) laughed and moved on, and I just told her that I will complete the documentation before she leaves so she can review it.

For some additional context, Lisa is probably the person I work closest with, and we have a really good relationship. She actually used to report to Bob and has seen us butt heads on calls before. She's generally been understanding of my frustrations with him and isn't afraid to push back on him herself, although she always keeps things professional. I think that's partly why I felt comfortable making the comment, but I regretted it almost immediately. Regardless of whether I had legitimate reasons for not wanting him to review the document, I could've just explained those reasons instead of reacting the way I did, the way I reacted was pretty rude tbh lol.

Here's the problem. This week, Bob got added to our recurring call, meaning he now has access to last week's recording. Our company also recently rolled out Microsoft Copilot premium, which makes it really easy to find parts of meetings where your name was mentioned, it literally points it out to you as a mention (I hate this feature tbh). So there's a very good chance he came across that exact exchange when he was added to the meeting/group chat since the prior meeting was the last item in the chat and it literally highlights how many times your name was mentioned even if you don't click into the meeting.

And to make things even more awkward, Bob actually wrote a really nice recognition post about me on our company's employee recognition platform this week (after the meeting where I made a comment, but before he was added to the call), thanking me for my work on the project so far. So now I feel like even more of an asshole. He's never been mean to me personally, and despite my frustrations with how he conducts himself in meetings, he's always been a nice guy outside of that.

Part of why I'm stressing about this so much is that I genuinely like this job and don't want to mess things up. I'm in my late 20s, but this is actually my first time staying at a company for over a year. I spent a good chunk of my 20s getting two degrees, and then bounced between a couple of jobs because I was struggling to find something relevant to my computer science degree. This is the first role I've had that really aligns with what I studied, and I've been doing extremely well here. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback, built really good relationships with my coworkers, and somehow ended up becoming the go-to technical person on this project despite being relatively inexperienced.

I also think my relatively limited experience in corporate environments is part of why this has been such a learning experience for me. To be clear, I don't think what I actually said was that terrible since I wasn't insulting him as a person. My reaction came from genuine concerns about working with him on something he wasn't familiar with, and I still think those concerns were valid. But you never really know who might hear what you say, and more importantly, it's not the kind of reputation I want to build.

I'm wondering how I should approach this. I'm not planning to bring it up out of nowhere, but I'm sure Bob has already seen it or could eventually stumble across it. We have had one meeting after this incident where Bob was on it, and I didn't even bother turning my camera on this time out of embarrassment, but luckily he didn't bring it up. With Lisa going on Maternity leave, Bob is going to be on alot of the calls for this project going forward, which will be quite awkward, and something I did not originally realize.

Am I overthinking how bad this was? Would you just act normal and move on?

I’ve been having a series of awkward interactions with coworkers, particularly people on another team, and I’m struggling to figure out how to handle them.

There are a couple of coworkers on that team with whom I’ve had particularly awkward interactions. When I see them, I sometimes freeze and find myself staring without intending to. One interaction, in particular, has been ongoing with a male coworker. When we see each other, I sometimes freeze and stare, and he appears to freeze or react awkwardly as well. These interactions have happened repeatedly, and I’m concerned that he may have interpreted my behavior as a sign that I’m interested in him, when that’s not the case. I believe my social awkwardness and difficulty responding quickly in the moment contribute to these situations.

Unfortunately, I’ve experienced something similar with another male coworker. On one occasion, I was looking toward another woman’s desk while smiling. When I turned my attention toward him, I was still smiling because I hadn’t processed the change in my surroundings quickly enough to adjust my expression. I’m worried that he may have misinterpreted my behavior, even though I wasn’t trying to get his attention or communicate any romantic interest.

Today, I had another awkward interaction with that same coworker. I was standing in the hallway talking to a couple of colleagues, and we were partially blocking the walkway. I was smiling and engaged in the conversation when he approached. When I noticed him, I didn’t immediately process who he was or react quickly enough to move out of the way. He seemed to pause and look toward me, and I continued smiling because I was still processing what was happening and was caught up in the conversation.

I was confused about why he was walking toward us rather than going around us, so I didn’t immediately understand what was happening or recognize that I needed to move. Eventually, we moved out of the way, but the interaction felt awkward because I hadn’t responded naturally or quickly enough.

Now, I’m worried that I’ve created another awkward situation with him, especially because I’ve already had a previous interaction that made me self-conscious around him.

I’ve also experienced awkward interactions with women on the same team. Sometimes, when I see them, I freeze because I feel uncomfortable and don’t know how to act naturally around them anymore.

I think part of my problem is that I struggle to recognize social cues in the moment and don’t always know when to redirect my gaze, change my facial expression, or move out of someone’s way. My reactions sometimes feel delayed, and by the time I realize what’s happening, the interaction has already become awkward.

What makes this particularly difficult is that these experiences have built up over time. I’m worried that people have formed a negative impression of me or that my behavior has been misinterpreted. The more self-conscious I become, the more anxious I feel around these coworkers, which makes it even harder to act naturally.

I don’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable around me, and I’m not intentionally staring at people or trying to give anyone the impression that I’m interested in them. I just seem to struggle with processing social situations quickly, particularly when I’m already anxious or feel self-conscious around someone.

I’m feeling overwhelmed because I don’t know how to break this pattern. I want to learn how to respond more naturally, recognize social cues, and stop freezing or staring when I encounter these coworkers. I also want to stop worrying so much about how they perceive me and feel comfortable at work again.

I have the doctors note. I wanted to go today, but my nose is still very runny, and am leaking a lot of mucus from my nose, and my throat hurts. I’m off tomorrow so I have another day to rest thankfully. I just hope I won’t get in too much trouble at work

Gusto ko lang maglabas ng rant. Minsan nakakainis kase to the point na hahnapan kami ng field ng company namin. Tapos wala naman pondo!

Napakainit sa labas, pagod! Uhaw inaabot namin tpos budget 20 pesos para sa tubig.

Abono na kami sa paglabas pamasahe at pagkain at tubig.. magkano lang naman sahod namin.

Pinahirapan kami sa petty cash.. kawawa pati mga promoter namin.. ang tagal bago mabalik ang d

Fund namin

Ang hirap magtrabaho sa Appliance store. No. 1 pero pinahihirapan kame sa fund.

I (22) work part time at a grocery store, and our “rule” for requesting time off is that you can only put in a week in advance and you’ll find out on the Friday if you got it or not. There’s usually no issue with it. But on Halloween day I put in for time off as I wouldn’t be in town for a couple of reasons, some pertaining to Halloween and some pertaining to family duties. They did not give me this time off. I was just wondering how you would handle this? I’ve sunk a decent amount of money into one of the reasons I’ve booked time off and I can’t rlly cancel it now. I don’t want to call in sick because A, that looks terrible and B, I can potentially get in trouble. But I DID need that day off and they don’t rlly give you the opportunity to talk about it. They didn’t schedule me at all last weekend for no reason but they deny the one day off I’ve requested in three months?

Edit: by deny I mean just ignore it and schedule me anyway. I never got a specific verbal confirmation that it was denied. Not that it makes a huge difference

Was taking a training at work on detecting fake emails, and the example they showed was an email that said Elon Musk was killed in an industrial accident. Regardless of what you think of Musk, I thought this was totally inappropriate and in very bad taste. I contacted the company that did the training and they refused to deal with me. They said I am not their contact and they only would deal with the person at my company that coordinates the trainings. He was on PTO so I contacted my manager. He said he had not yet done the training, so hadn't seen it. Then I contacted HR and they said the same thing. When the training coordinator came back I contacted him, and he said he didn't think it was that big a deal and he got mad at me for directly contacting the training company. What are folks opinion of this?

I’ve been dealing with someone at work who seems to have a habit of making up stories, and honestly, it’s getting frustrating.

The thing that bothers me the most is how convincing she can be. She apparently told people that she had already submitted her resignation, and some of us actually believed her. Imagine finding out that something you thought was true might not even be true in the first place.

What makes it worse is that she’s a manager, so naturally, people tend to believe what she says. It’s not just about one story anymore. It makes you question how much of what she has shared is actually true.
She also has a tendency to take credit for things other people have done, which makes the whole situation even more frustrating.

I genuinely wonder what makes someone comfortable with constantly making up stories, especially when other people trust them. Do they not realize how much it affects their credibility when people eventually start connecting the dots?

Has anyone else dealt with someone like this at work? How did you handle it?

Okay so to start out, I just got hired at a new job and they require a physical social security card, I don’t have one, so unfortunately due to circumstances I was only able to get an appointment in today a few hours before going in for paperwork for my new job, my boss keeps saying there is some sort of temporary card i can get but I don’t believe that exists, unless she’s talking about something Im not aware of, she said i can get a paper with my ssn on it, but it CANT be the receipt , does anyone know what this is? I am quite confused