Friendly reminder that you can create a meeting without adding anyone else to it. When you enter that meeting, your status on Teams will switch to "In a call", but you can switch it back to "Available". If you get pulled into an actual meeting with other people, don't worry about closing the fake one; Teams will give you a "Resume" button on the fake one after your real meeting ends.

Your status will never switch to "Away" as long as you have that fake meeting up and running. You can also toggle to "Busy", "Do not disturb", or even "Away" if you actually want to appear away.

I've been doing this every day for the last year; even when I have a lot of work to do, I use the timer in my fake meeting to gauge how long I've been at my computer. It beats jiggling my mouse every few minutes.

EDIT: I didn't realize I'd have to say this, but apparently I do. This is not a post telling people not to do their jobs, nor is it a post telling people to set themselves up in a meeting and then leave their desk for hours on end. It's a workaround to having to jiggle your mouse repeatedly. That's all it is. Jesus fucking Christ.

My job recently moved to a new (open) office and we all sit ridiculously close to each other. When we moved, one of the new office guidelines included leadership encouraging us not to eat at our desks so as not to disturb those around us.

I agree with that and I don’t actually like eating at my desk, but if I’m also trying to spend only 8 hours at the office, lunch is a half hour (or an hour) I can’t bill for. So then I’d have to stay another half hour to bill 8 hours for the day. See what I’m saying? They make things so inconvenient and eat up all your time and we act like it’s normal to be at the office for 10 hours. It’s not.

I work in Finance. Some back office bullshit. Today I just woke up feeling wrong.. I was staring at my screen like a zombie just clicking away when it hit me that I do not give a single fuck, and that I am quite literally wasting my life away. I walked into my boss’s office and quit and fuck it felt so good to walk out of that office knowing I won’t be here tomorrow. I would rather be poor, homeless, than do something that doesn’t matter, that makes me miserable, day in, day out. I might decide to just drive my car around the country until I run out of money, then cross that bridge.

Wish me luck and fuck corporate slavery.

I was demoted 6 months ago. It was not for performance. Two levels above me simply didn’t like me.

Also, the assumption was that I would go back to my old job and work extra hard/produce like I used to produce, working extra hours for free like I used to, etc. None of that has happened.

For me to be made while, I calculated that I would work 170 hours less this year.

It has been great. I play dumb like I don’t know how to do things I used to do, but I do just enough above the average amount of work (and a step above my coworkers) so that they can’t say anything.

If anyone is wondering why I would do more than my coworkers, it’s because it’s a game: I used to be a workhorse and outperformed everyone by a mile. Now I do just enough to not be obvious. The best part? I’m good and efficient at my job. So I can get it done in 25 hours/week (max). I used to work 50 hours.

FYI min wage is $17.73/hr here starting in Jan. They want you to have extensive knowledge, experience, & specifically say this is "not a beginner position".... sure does look like beginner pay to me.

I recently started at this new job, while of course I understand the importance of being on time and some bs corporate stuff, I respect it and do it because well I have bills to pay.

I was sick as a dog yesterday, my manager went on a rant this morning about how when being sick if you are still able to log in from your computer from home that you should do it and that it will count as a sick day but to put on comments that you were sick and working. Apparently this a widely known expectation at this workplace and that wfh is a privilege.

Just the fact she said that made me zone out the rest of her ranting because f*** that nonsense

Capital owners have spent the last 80 years capturing an increasingly massive chunk of productivity gains while suppressing worker pay. Now, corporate leadership wants to leverage generative AI to automate away labor entirely, ensuring that 100% of the newly generated economic value goes directly to executive boards and shareholders rather than the people actually doing the work. We are heading toward a tipping point where productivity sky-rockets, yet workers get absolutely nothing to show for it. Are we witnessing the final death of the American worker?

Source: IB Times

I put in a PTO request for ONE DAY that’s still freaking 3 months away from now. And it’s not even a weekend or holiday day. I put it in to go see my parents who live across the country (the reason I only had to ask for one day to do this is because I’m usually off the days surrounding this day and it’s an island shift - although the schedule hasn’t even been created yet for this pay period). This would be my first time seeing my parents in 5 months. Well the freaking request got denied today. On top of that, I happened to look at my holiday schedule, and the week of Christmas through New Years they have me working 4 12 hour shifts. I have always worked 3 12 hour shifts a week at this job for 36 hours per week. This will put me at 48 hours and into overtime. I thought it might be a mistake so I reached out. Nope, it’s legal and mandatory and there’s nothing I can do about it. I am just honestly so sick of the bullshit right now.

You cannot complain that you lack a movement if you do not even show up for community events.

Title. There are a lot of us bitching online, but if you cannot take the 2 hours necessary to go to your local organizing event, teach-in, union education drive, fundraiser, or rally, then your complaints mean less than nothing.

Sometimes going to an organizing event won't be fun. You won't see your friends; you may even see people you dislike, like an ex-boyfriend or the guy who can't pick up on social cues. But they are your comrades regardless, and you must show up for one another. Because the state and the corporations sure as hell are showing up for each other. Your boss and his lackies are showing up for one another.

This is what I mean by shoulder to shoulder: if one shoulder breaks, we all break. Showing up is ESSENTIAL.

Sometimes organizing will feel like washing your dishes. News flash: dishes still need to get washed. Same goes with going to the 5-person organizing committee.

It's easy to show up when there is energy; the mark of a true organizer is showing up even when there isn't any. Show up. Don't leave your fellow organizers hanging.

This post is made for the Americans. God bless the serbs, albanians, french, and Brazillians whooping ass right now.

I hate it here.

I work on a management team for a group of service providers with my expertise being on bookings. On Friday, a client failed to show for their appointment which resulted in a no-call no-show charge at full price.

Client calls and leaves a voicemail, I call back: straight to voicemail. I play phone tag a bit, and at one point the client mentions in a voicemail that they called to cancel the appointment but no one picked up. I reviewed my call log and nope: they did not call once prior to the appointment, nor did they leave a cancellation voicemail.

I finally get on the line with the client and they request the charge be waived. I inform that that sadly I cannot do that as the policy is clear and the provider needs to be paid for the time the reserved for the client. The client then admits that they forgot to cancel, directly contradicting their voicemail and proving they’re a liar, but still has the gall to demand the charge be waived: I again say no. I do, however, work out a number of different options with the client to reduce the charge. The best I could do was HALF OFF, which is not insignificant! Client ultimately accepts that but starts getting pretty nasty to me before hanging up on me.

I just checked our Google reviews and what do you know, the client left a completely false review with my name in it! They called me rude, disrespectful, arrogant, condescending, the list goes on. They even claim that I hung up on them which is HILARIOUS because they hang up on me! So to be clear: you run afoul of the extremely lenient cancel policy, you demand the policy be waived, and you defame the person who tried to help you.

I. Hate. It. Here.

I moved to another country hoping to build a new life and improve my career, on a work visa.

I left family, friends behind, which was very hard.

I started the job and quickly realised how toxic the environment was. My mental health quickly started deteriorating, and lots of things happened that didn't make it better. My manager was not supportive and wouldn't hesitate to dump more work on you when your were already overloaded. We were understaffed at some point and me and another person were doing the work of at least 8 people. Manager also made a joke about rape in the office. No consequences followed. He has made a racist comment to me by telling me he's going to ''send me back to the 'jungle''.

HR isn't any better. They have breached my privacy but I guess I should blame myself for that, as were friends outside of work, and I sent a message to the HR person as a friend, when I felt my lowest and was suicidal due to the pressure I was feeling and ongoing toxicity. They then showed that message to our boss without my consent.

The boss is used to making little jokes, that can sometimes be considered inappropriate. But this was just accepted as his personality. But the worst is when he has, to supposedly congratulate me for my good work, generated with AI very degrading images of me, portraying me laying on top of a car, unconscious after having too many drinks (I don't even drink, and he's pushed me many times to drink during company outings), with puke coming out of my mouth. This was shown during a meeting and everyone was laughing.

And when I mentioned this was insulting to me, he was dismissive and has since been stonewalling me and excluding me from opportunities to participate in certain projects.

I quit as I couldn't go on and was on the verge of panic attacks everytime I had to work. I was feeling physically sick, dizzy, and weak.

I feel humiliated, angry, lost and worried about what will come next. The only reason I stayed for so long was so I can stay with my partner I met along the way. Now I'm at risk of being separated from him because I left my job.

I'm sorry if this doesn't belong here. I just know that I'm so over this and over the toxicity in the corporate world, and how unfair the system can be.

You finished HS with good grades? No one cares.

Masters Degree in the humanities? Lol you deserve to starve to death.

Did another Masters Degree in IT? Well "learn to code" thats so 2022. No job for you because of AI.

Working 2 jobs to stay afloat? MOAR!

Now matter how much you educate yourself, its always your fault. No matter how much you do, its never enough. No matter what you do, its always wrong.

Meanwhile Boomers got jobs with just HS or even without HS. Despite having a fraction of our education, they became Managers and Bosses.

The system is broken. But its always the average Joe that gets blamed for staying poor.

Especially toxic are the people who deny that they had any luck or favorable circumstances and claim its all down exclusively to how smart and hard working they were.

Finest survivorship bias and victim blaming you can come across.

"You were born to a poor abusive family in the middle of nowhere? Only bad influences and trying to survive all the time and no help at all? Yep. Your fault and not the systems. You are just making up excuses. Because like 1 out of 1000 who had the same situation managed to escape poverty."

"Laid of with 200 or 2000 other people because the company crashed or budget cuts? Yep. Your fault".

"Cant get a job because 50-100 people compete with you for the position every time? Yep. Your fault."

This is mostly said by people who had it easy in life and think they had it hard and who would be homeles or dead if they had a really hard childhood/really unfavorable circumstances.

But Its always the individual, never the system thats to blame.

Used to work at a Kroger that had a gas station and one day there was a girl working out there who had a mental disability and something went wrong with the pump and she thought she accidentally charged a woman double for her gas and this messed her up so bad it sent her into a full scale panic attack and her boyfriend had to come get her and take her home because she ended up on the ground in the fetal position.

I watched all this happen and when I went back in the store management was standing by one of the registers making fun of her for what happened and making cruel jokes.

I was fired a week later after screaming at management in the middle of the store begging for help because they complained that we didn’t have enough carts even though we had 30 people waiting for carts and I was the only one out there bringing in carts and I could bring in 8 maximum at a time so I’d bring in those 8 they’d get taken immediately and then even more people would come in and complain there were no carts. They finally sent some more people out there to help me manage the load.

We have this monthly safety incentive at the warehouse where everyone gets a $50 gift card if there are no reported injuries.

Last week a coworker cut his hand pretty badly on a damaged pallet. Our supervisor's first reaction wasn't asking if he was okay. He asked whether it really needed to go in the incident report because everyone would lose their bonus.

Coworkers are actually annoyed with the guy for reporting it. That pallet had been reported as damaged before and nobody did anything about it.

They've somehow managed to make workers blame each other for workplace injuries instead of fixing the actual problems.

I’m 29. “Your 20s is supposed to be your foundation” is a lie. I worked two jobs to pay off my debt(should’ve filed bankruptcy). I graduated college last year with a degree in computer engineering and I can’t find a job. I spent 5 years in school for this. I worked overnights at a warehouse and worked as a server to cater around my school schedule. I have nothing to show for it.

I have very little dating experience because most people socialize on the weekends and I was working. I missed out on a lot of social events. Now I work a job that doesn’t even require a degree. I have the same job prospects as an 18 year old with a H.S diploma.

I had an interview to work as a network engineer. Got into the final round(4 rounds of interviews), they chose another candidate. I don’t know I’m just speechless at this point. Unfortunately I see why younger GenZ would rather not try at all or they can just become streamers and try to generate some sort of income.

• zoom meetings every morning right as you come in. we came in at 8:00 AM, and you had to clock in at 7:50-7:55 AM because "early is on time, on time is late and late is unacceptable"
• every first thursday of the month was a required "legacy lunch". we had to turn off our phones and sit inside the meeting room with our bosses and have lunch with them for an hour (they paid for ofc)
• everyday at the end of the day you had to email the ceo's wife (the operations manager) a list of all the tasks you completed that day for the first 90 days on the job 
• every 30 days we had a performance meeting where the CEO and his wife would go over your performace. if it's passed your 90 days they'll either a.) let you go if there's no improvements, b.) extend your 90 days to 120, so no benefits like PTO or c.) release you into your role and you get PTO and other benefits 
• every month there was a mandatory dinner/event for clients that we had to attend. since we were salary, there wasn't any overtime. 
• it was required to send clients happy birthday emails, with the video of the CEO and his wife 
•  every monday morning meeting, it was required to tell them your professional highlights of last week and what you did over the weekend
• if you did something wrong or didn't complete a task, the ceo's wife would send an email demanding an explanation as to why the task wasn't completed at a time that wasn't communicated
• every day we had to have a team huddle meeting from 15-30 minuets and a team huddle 5 mins before the end of our shift

I work in a small office. Its me and my boss in our department on the second floor. The rest of the team works in a different department on the first floor. The fact that we work on the second floor is important. Now my boss is above me, but everyone on the team reports to the big boss who is our supervisor. The supervisor is in charge of everyone.

My boss at work definitely abuses her power. She comes in late every day. She can get away with this because we are secluded on the second floor, and she comes in through a door that avoids the first floor. Our supervisor doesn’t know she’s coming in late. Today she came in over an hour late, which is about normal. She usually comes in about 1.5 hours late, but some days it’s more than 2 hours. A day a few weeks ago she came in 2.5 hours late

When she works remotely, she’s barely ever at her computer and gets hardly any work done. For example, she was working remotely two days last week and she didn’t answer a single email either day. She was away from her laptop hours at a time.

Also, she will leave during the day for appointments and stuff which is fine. But when I have to leave for an appt, she tells me I have to make up the time by working through my lunch or staying later. She never has to make up the time when she leaves for an appt or something. She gives herself all the is flexibility but it doesn’t extend to me. She can leave for a 3 hour hair appointment during the work day, but when I have an ENT appt for 1.5 hours, I have to make up the time. It’s frustrating because the team members who work on the first floor under the supervisor wouldn’t have to make up the time, but my boss makes me. She never has to make up the time though.

I have to make up an hour, but she can be out of the office for hours, never actually being on her laptop when “working remotely”, come in over an hour late every single day, but she never has to make up any time. The fuck??

It’s totally fine for her to be working remotely and never actually be fucking working. I would never be able to get away with that. Apparently, she did this crap before with the person who worked in my job before me. Said employee told the supervisor about it when she left, but my boss still does the same crap.

Also, she can take all these days off and be out of the office. But when I want to take time off, if she already plans to be out that day, she tells me no. One of us has to be in the office, and it always falls on me!! I get why it’s important for one of us to be here due to the nature of our work, but it’s frustrating that I can’t use my own time off when I want because my boss already took the day off. She’s told me no when I asked to go home because I was really sick, since she was already working from home that day and one of us had to be physically in the office.

All of her bullshit doesn’t affect my ability to do my job that much. I come in when I’m supposed to and get my work done. It does get annoying when she won’t answer emails for days, and there’s some things im simply not able to resolve. It’s also frustrating when she’s “working from home” and I ask her a question that she won’t reply to for hours because she’s not actually working.

I don’t know if I should bring this up to the supervisor. I don’t want to stir up shit and ruin my working relationship with my boss, but she can’t keep getting away with abusing her power like this. It makes me so angry and want to quit my job. I can’t believe she gets away with this.

If I tell the supervisor, they can’t fire her. She is the only one in the office that can do certain aspects of the job, and it would be a very bad move to fire her. She would definitely get a talking to, but me telling wouldn’t put her job in jeopardy

Edit: sorry for being vague in regards to what kind of work we do. It’s kind of niche and I don’t want to have any identifying information regarding our work. It is very true though that my boss is the only one who can do certain aspects of the job and they would not fire her

Context

Coworker 1: promoted to different team

Coworker 2: promoted to different team

Coworker 3: DIED

Coworker 4: promoted to team supervisor

Coworker 4: then promoted to different team

Me: left at the end of August

My prior team was working with a skeleton crew and the company expected full 24x7 coverage with 4 techs, 5 engineers, a supervisor, and a manager. One of the techs passed away from brain cancer back in 2024 and despite repeated pleas and submitting the use-case to upper management, my manager was never able to secure additional headcount.

In the middle of July, my immediate supervisor was promoted as a manger of a different internal team. My manager lamented about losing another person and needing to start the process to find a new supe. I was in the middle of onboarding for my new position but I kept my mouth shut in case things didn't work out.

Middle of August I heard back from my new employer with a start date and to give my employer 2 weeks if I so chose. I gave notice and while my manager (who had been great the entire time) was not happy as he was losing yet _another_ person, he understood why I was leaving.

Not that I should be surprised, but as of today (roughly 8 weeks since I left), neither my position, my supervisor's position, nor my passed away colleague's position has been posted. Not only that, my prior company had layoffs the week I started my new job.

They don't have to give a damn about my home life, but for a company that wanted to promote a healthy work/life balance they sucked at providing a balanced team

I pledge allegiance to the economy,
and to the markets for which I labor,
one nation, under capitalism,
indebted, with bills and taxes for all.

With liberty and justice
for those who can afford them.

I pledge to work until my body gives out,
to measure my worth in productivity,
to call exhaustion ambition,
and obedience discipline.

I shall earn my right to live,
compete for the privilege of security,
and call it freedom when I am allowed to choose
between the options I can afford.

I shall not question why survival has a price,
why the wealthy inherit freedom,
or why the rest of us must spend our lives
trying to buy what they already own.

I shall stand, hand over heart,
reciting words about freedom
while surrendering my time to survive,
mistaking the right to choose
for the freedom to refuse.

And I shall teach my children to do the same,
until they mistake rules for reality,
routine for destiny,
and the system for human nature.

I shall call this opportunity.
I shall call this responsibility.
I shall call this the American Dream.

May I one day earn enough freedom points
to afford the freedom
I was promised at birth.

Okay, so I'm disabled. Ambulatory wheelchair user, partially deaf, autistic, and (although I'm working on it) selectively mute due to PTSD from my parents selling me into trafficking. I'm also smart. Like HS valedictorian, currently testing out of college, outsmarted human traffickers, taken down corrupt organizations in a month, taught myself to read at four, read lawbooks for fun, and won national/international essay awards kind of smart. I'm also 23, a woman, and was have been described as "brunette marilyn monroe but with curves" on multiple occasions by multiple different people. More commonly, though, people just call me "tragically beautiful" (which is so backhanded. Ugh. I hate that line).

I am so tired of people acting like I'm incapable just because I'm in a wheelchair. Like oh, wow! Imagine someone actually has to problem solve and do things in unique ways! This highly adaptive problem solver must be inherently unhireable because she can't walk!

I apply to jobs and they. Baby. Talk. Me! "You see, sweetie, this is a full time job. It's very hard." Like bitch? I am a full grown woman trying to make a living! Cut the crap. "I mean, your portfolio is very impressive. I just... Are you sure you didn't have any assistance with this?" ???? Why would I put work I didn't do in m^ portfolio??? Then I just do the work again right in front of them and they go quiet for a moment before it's. "But still... don't you think this work will be a bit challenging for you, honey?" "We have some very heavy things you may have to xarry. What if you need to carry a box of paper to the copy machine? Could you lift it?" Then I say the obvious: Take the paper in trips. There and back. If I have my wheelchair, I'm a living cart. Just put it in my lap and roll. Not that hard. "But can you use a copy machine, honey?" Yes. "But you need to stand up to use the copy machine." I can stand up briefly and run the machine. Then I can sit and work while it prints. "But isn't that so complicated?" Just basic problem solving, really. I'm quite good at that.

And then there's the creeps who literally say they'll let me "hang around" if I "sit pretty" and "indulge them" every once in awhile. Often while trying to get handsy. Like! Fuck no! (I ruin their lives, of course, because I work in marketing/PR and I am very, very good at my job. Justice is nice, but it doesn't pay the bills most of the time. Although sometimes I get a nice check in exchange for signing an NDA)

I am not a s*x toy! I am not a lost child! I am not a liability! I am a full grown intelligent human being looking for a job! What is wrong with people?

Anyways... I'm testing out of most my college classes and considering switching careers. Any suggestions for fields that are mostly desk work and aren't as ableist? I'm currently working towards a Communications degree, but it's fairly easy to pivot at this point. Only tested out of gen-ed so far. Next 3 or 4 months I'll be doing self-paced online courses as fast as I can to knock out another 40 credits, so if I'm going to pivot then now's the time.

Our office introduced a new employee engagement system where managers track how much everyone contributes during meetings.

Apparently being quiet means you're not engaged enough, even if you have nothing relevant to add.

We had our weekly meeting today and it was ridiculous. People kept repeating what others had already said, asking questions they knew the answers to and adding random comments just to get noticed.

A meeting that normally takes 20 minutes lasted almost an hour.

My manager called it one of our most productive meetings yet. I genuinely don't know what these people are smoking.

​

I got laid off making $27an an hour 2 years ago. Since then I've been working through a staffing agency, I'm on my third assignment and have only been making $25 an hour for the last two years, I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water

.

I'm sick of making the same pay and only being offered short term jobs. What can I do to increase my income as a college dropout who can't return to school due to defaulted student loans?