I work at a small to mid sized hardware store, privately owned. Most of the team including me have decent handyman skills and experience, so when customers have questions like is no. 1 or no. 2 wood safe and more cost effective for a project, or what power tool brands offer the best mix between quality and cost, we usually got an answer.

In my opinion, the least knowledgeable person in the store is the owner himself. The previous owner sold it to him, the previous owner was a good guy, but was having family issues, a son in rehab and a wife with cancer, and not enough cash to pay for it all, so decided to sell the business. The current owner, he's good at counting the money (he counts it obsessively, probably thinks one of us is willing to go to jail over swiping $20 from the register). He's mediocre at running a business, good enough that we don't go bankrupt, but he's not great at it. But honest to God, he don't know Sh!t about anything he sells.

That's fine though, if he were a nice guy, we could forgive him not knowing sh!t about the products he sells. But he is not a nice guy. Many of us have been working here for years, we like most of the team, we loved the previous owner, we like our customers, and we like working around power tools, lumber, and all that good stuff.

Most of us are just here as a side gig also, but its still kinda ticks us off that after several years we haven't gotten a raise, the previous owner used to give us generous yearly raises and a Christmas bonus. The current guy, no raises after 3 years, and no bonuses.

We confronted him about it, and he snaps at us saying "I don't know why you people are talking about raises and bonuses, your pay is already too high for a no skill job, I'd pay you guys less than minimum wage if I could" This coming from a dude who has no apparent skills other than counting money. The customers don't like him either, which is why he often stays away from the sales floor.

We all have good memories at the store, but this current owner, he's cancer, he takes up space and has nothing positive to offer. We all have a hard time letting go of this place and the good memories we had there, but It may be time to go.

I work part-time at a small design studio. Last Friday evening, I was packing up to leave right on time. My boss rushed over and said a potential big client wanted to stop by in 20 minutes.

He told me to stay and pretend we normally open this late. I said we close at 6 PM, and the client could book a meeting for Monday. He pressured me, saying this client could bring us tons of work, and a little lie wouldn’t hurt.

I told him I wasn’t comfortable lying to customers. If we wanted to take the visit, he should honestly tell the client we were staying late specially for them. He got annoyed, but he texted the client the truth.

The client respected our honesty and scheduled a Monday meeting anyway. Later my boss admitted he was wrong to push me to lie.

I know turning down his request might have risked trouble, but I hate building business on dishonesty.

TL;DR: Boss asked me to lie about our hours to impress a client. I refused to lie, we told the truth, and the client still booked a meeting.

At my last job many years ago, I basically used it as a glorified study room and only would work about 30 minutes a day until I graduated and found a new job.

For context, when I first started, the girl who trained me showed me how to do the job slowly so it would be the only thing they would give me to work on. It was a logistics company and they hired drivers to deliver goods to warehouses around the West Coast and Southern CA. This task was simple because I just had to document how long a truck was at the port of LA/LB between showing up, waiting to get in, getting loaded/unloaded, and then leaving to wherever they had to deliver.

The thing is that there was an online report that was generated by our system that populated most of the information automatically but some information on when they entered or left was missing which is what I had to fill in. Depending on how many trucks worked the day before, this could take 30 minutes to up to 2 hours. The girl before me showed me how to stretch the work so it would take up the entire 8 hour shift so that is what I ended up doing.

After a while, I realized I could finish the work early and put in random times that were between 30 minutes - 3 hours of the driver having arrived to the ports and leaving because no one was verifying the information on the report anyway. I don't know who it was going to or what they ever used it for but they just never verified or check anything, I just completed it weekly and sent it over Monday mornings. So after I saw no one was checking it I started finishing my work early and just fucking off in my cubicle for the rest of the shift.

After a while it got boring and I was attending a CSU at the same time so I started using this time to work on my English essays and Finance homework at work instead of at school or at home. I spent an ungodly amount of time sitting at my desk and typing away or working out math problems on my notebook. I had to get a silent keyboard because nothing about the job required that much typing and I had a feeling people would get suspicious. I would have had to spend countless hours at home studying or the library and away from my 1-3 year old son at the time. Instead, I was able to finish all I had to do at work and go home and hang out with him or take him and his mom out for the evening.

During the times that I didn't have homework, I eventually started bringing my Switch because I was playing Breath of the Wild for the first time and I was completely hooked. I took the Joy-Cons off the console and put the screen on one of those desk cell phone holders, without the joycons the Switch is just a screen that to most people if they aren't paying attention will assume is just a phone lol. Then I just hid the joycons under my sweater sleeves and rested one hand on my mouse and another one the keyboard while I played away!

I eventually graduated with my Bachelors in Finance and I found a better opportunity right out of college. I sometimes think about whether I was taking advantage of the company (which I obviously was) or if they were just poorly managed and had no idea what their staff actually did all day.

Either way, I got paid to do homework, play video games and finish my degree.

I work retail at a local home goods shop. Our policy is clear: no returns on clearance items, it’s marked on every shelf tag and receipt.

An older regular came in last week with a clearance lamp he bought three weeks prior. He said it stopped working and demanded a full refund. I politely explained the clearance no-return rule. He sighed and told me how long he’d been shopping here, that I should “do him a favor”.

I wanted to help, but I knew making an exception would get me written up. I offered to let him buy a new lamp at our current employee discount instead. He refused, raised his voice, and said I was being cold and unkind.

I called my supervisor over. She heard everything, backed up the policy, and repeated what I’d told him. He huffed, said he’d never shop here again, and left empty-handed.

He came back two days later to buy a rug. People forget their anger fast when they still like the store.

It turns out that my suit was the main topic of the meeting where we were supposed to discuss the details of my contract. One of the company owners immediately came up to me and said in a low, sharp voice, "Weren't you wearing exactly the same clothes the last time you came in?"

It was a specialized marketing agency that employed about 70 people. I had already talked to both owners of the company several times, and the conversations went well, about how I would join them in a management position and oversee the execution of work and internal procedures. It was clear that we had passed the interview stage, and we still had to agree on the terms of the contract.

I told him it was a different suit. He insisted he remembered it, told me I was wrong, and walked away. I don't know what he expected from me and what's the problem with me wearing the same suit again.

The other company owner wasn't there because he was outside trying to calm an account manager who was upset that they were going to hire me. She did not participate in any of our conversations about this position, but it is clear that the news upset her to the point that he had to go with her for a walk around the neighborhood to calm her.

As a result, the job did not happen. There were several promising meetings and suddenly I found myself defending my clothes while at the same time someone with whom I had little contact was objecting to my participation. In a strange way, I know how decisions are made.

We had a very bad manager at work. Over the past six years, complaints were made to HR. HR glossed things over, always sided with the manager and told everyone to just deal with it. As a result, everyone gave up going to HR and there has been a lot of employee turnover during this time.

Recently, things came to a head and the manager resigned in lieu of being fired for financial mismanagement. During an all-hands meeting, HR (who is under pressure by higher-ups) says, "This could have been prevented if you had come to us."

One person pointed out that when HR was approached in the past, nothing happened. SMH.

I work front desk at a local gym. Our rule is simple: no one under 14 can use the weight floor without a parent or certified trainer.

A dad showed up with his 11-year-old son and wanted to send him alone to lift weights. I explained the policy gently and told him the kid could use the family workout area instead. He instantly got mad, raised his voice, and said I was ruining his evening. He demanded to speak to my manager, threatening to cancel his membership.

My manager came over, and I thought I’d get chewed out for upsetting a paying member. Instead, she listened to the dad, then turned to me and said I followed the rules correctly. She told the man the rule exists to prevent serious injury, and she wouldn’t make an exception.

The customer stormed out, yelling that he’d never come back. We didn’t lose much — his membership was month-to-month. Later my manager bought me a soda and said she’s tired of people bullying front desk staff to skip safety rules.

It felt so nice to not be thrown under the bus for doing my job.

TL;DR: Angry customer wanted his young kid on the weight floor alone. Manager supported me instead of making me break safety rules.

I started a job at a high traffic shopping center cafe surrounded by high end luxury stores. On my trial shift they were severely understaffed and asked me to stay and if I can work for a few hours. My first proper shift they put me on the front end of the house and was taking orders alone all day without any training. I also had to serve all the cakes and pastries.

Saw some funny things like the head barista and manager yelling at eachother in Chinese, and my manager yelling with a customer, but here’s what really pissed me off….

My floor supervisor told me in the morning to leave the empty cake containers in the fridge to put them back at the end of the day because the lady who makes the cakes gets mad if they’re not dated. At the end of the shift I’m closing my area and minding my own business when she comes in out of nowhere and starts having a tantrum because the cake containers in the fridge were missing and starts bombarding me and yelling at me if I took them to wash, and that she specifically told me not to blah blah and I’m just standing there because I can’t remember either. Turns out the cake lady herself bought them to wash 😂😂and they have a quarral. my manager comes back and just goes “so it wasn’t you” like thanks for letting me know I was dying to find out. No apology or anything.

I was putting out feelers to see if most of my co-workers would be receptive to starting a union. Most would get scared and thought unions are illegal in our state.

Employers don't want you to know this, but guys, everyone needs to know this, it doesn't matter if you live in a "right to work" state, you have a right by federal law to unionize. No matter what state you're in, its illegal for your employer to fire you just for trying to start a union. Its not legal for your employer to obstruct unionization efforts in any way. And its VERY illegal if they try to retaliate over it in any way.

Also it doesn't matter if you're salary or hourly, you have the right to unionize. The only people who cannot legally unionize or join a union are supervisors and management, or if you're classified as an independent contractor.

Years ago, I worked in Marcom for a Fortune 500 company. Then they hired ‘Tom’. Right away, I knew he was a bs artist and he aligned himself with the VP. Early impressions included driving to lunch with him and he hawked a loogie as we passed a little old lady.

In December, it was the custom for vendors to send us team gifts. Another guy in our Department received a fancy Box of popular chocolates and we would all share these. Tom saw fit to take all of it home and I noticed the theft. Security had me review the tapes of this idiot walking out of the foyer with them.

He made up some story about not knowing they belonged to the team and brought back maybe 1/4 of the haul. They let him continue as if nothing had happened. Any other 3vil coworkers out there?

My boss talked to us today and it really got me down. I’m a graphic designer at a newspaper, and I accidentally printed the wrong poster. I also sent an article design to my manager for feedback, and she pointed out that there were extra spaces between the heading and paragraph that I needed to fix. It was a stressful day, so she brought it up the next day. I’m feeling pretty angry, sad, and frustrated because I’m giving my all, and I got reprimanded for those mistakes. I’m human, so I’m going to slip up sometimes. I got a bonus for my hard work just a month ago, and now I’m scared, especially since they just fired one of my coworkers.

There were many reasons to justify why the job I wanted wasn't the logical choice. The strange thing is that I've never asked myself a similarly convincing justification for why a job I can't stand is better. I'm 35 years old now, and I've spent most of my 20s dealing with other people's perceptions that the good life is still something to aspire to.

University was the obvious next step, so I enrolled. Then I needed a job, so I got a job that made sense on paper. I kept moving from place to place, never feeling like I was stable and wasting a lot of time imagining that a pay raise or a move to a field like consulting would eventually stabilize the world. I didn't ask myself if I wanted the same job. I asked if it would make me feel like I made the right choice.

So there are a lot of posts about work here, and I feel like I understand what they're saying. People ask if I'm finishing a field with a better future or if it's too late to start again. These can still be useful questions, but I was using them to escape from more difficult questions. "What am I interested in doing? Why do I push him away sometimes?" There was really a difference in direction with me. I excluded him because his looks weren't impressive enough, his money wasn't the best, and I was influenced by a lot of opinions about the type of person you choose. After that I complained that nothing would pull me away. The truth is, nothing in the list of options I agreed to appealed to me.

I wish I had focused more on the symptoms instead of waiting for the perfect answer. Whose work do I respect? What do people usually ask me for help with? What is a typical work day like that I can tolerate, even the boring parts? When I was younger, I heard many times that there was a job for me. Years later, people I worked with said the same thing. This isn't proof that there's one job written for me in the stars, but it was worth it for me to explore it instead of straying away from it again. The same goes for the values that are important to me. You don't have to feel like every shift counts, but during the week you spend most of your waking hours doing things that don't matter to you, and it can be exhausting.

I know a manager at work who is very passionate about cooking. She can talk for hours about food, and when she talks about her actual job, she's happy with the most enthusiasm I've ever seen. I once asked her, "Have you ever wanted to do a job related to food?" Her response was, "I feel very comfortable, but I have to give up my salary." Maybe making it a hobby is really the right decision for her. I'm not the one to judge this. But since I did the same thing for my own interest, I fully understood why she ruled out that possibility right away. I treated salary as the complete answer, even if it was only part of the decision.

I'm not saying you'll end up paying rent because you find something you like. A hobby does not necessarily lead to a good job. Find out what the job entails, talk to the people who work there, see how they spend their money, and try as much as you can. But there's a difference between making sure something works and making excuses so you don't have to try it in the first place. If you know you hate sitting at a desk, don't base all your plans around an office job just because your family won't like it. No problem if you really like office work. The idea is not to choose a job with a name that looks more appealing. The idea is to stop pretending that you want the job that everyone else wants.

What bothers me now is that I simply assumed that I would have time to think about my plans later. I grew up not closing all my doors, but changing direction takes time and obligations don't just go away on their own when you're ready. I could have used these years to experience things I wanted to eliminate. You don't have to quit your job tomorrow or find your life purpose this weekend. But don't keep saying "I'm not interested" for years when you've decided that your interests aren't acceptable. If I had done it earlier, this is the mistake I would have made.

They will look you straight in the eye and seriously tell you that even though hours are being cut by about 2 hours each day, they don't see any reason why the previous amount of work still can't be done.

Never mind the fact we were previously just barely getting the work done.

Like buddy, it ain't take a genius to understand that less work time means less work done. How did y'all qualify for management when you can't understand kindergarten level concepts?

Now they're threatening to write people up, over there not being enough time to finish the work because they cut the hours.

Most days I spend time in bed thinking about every bad decision I've made and every relationship I've had. I know I need to start moving forward, but I feel like any motivation I had is gone.

When I was young, I was the kid that everyone said was talented. In my early twenties I had some success as a musician and thought it could become a serious career, but anxiety and addiction gradually put paid to everything. I have about 10 months left now, and I should feel like this is progress, but I can't stop thinking about how much time I've wasted.

I haven't had a job for roughly 14 months because I entered rehab. Before that, I alternated between jobs in stores, temporary jobs in offices and simple administrative jobs. I'm applying again, even for jobs I don't want to do, and there are still very few responses.

Every decision becomes another reason to panic. Music doesn't feel realistic because I'm broke and convinced my chance is gone. Starting a new career is unattainable because I don't have a degree, I have debt and my career path is unstable. Going to college may put me in more debt for a degree I may regret.

People have suggested I learn a trade, but even that now feels like a mountain to climb. I miss being interested in things and I feel like my life is settling down. Instead, just getting up can take up most of the day.

If you were me, what would you do first? I know there are other people going through worse circumstances, but I had to say this right away because if I kept it hidden in my brain, my feeling of loss of hope became louder and louder.