My coworker thinks I might lose my job because of the way I stopped a client's questions a few days ago this week. I did not ask him to go and did not refuse to help him. I simply told him that my personal information was none of his business.

I'm 23 years old and female and I work at the front desk. This man, who was probably in his late fifties, began asking me if I was old enough to work there, when my shift was over, if I was in a relationship, and if I lived alone or not. I was uncomfortable and didn't feel like politely explaining to him why I wasn't answering.

After he left, my colleague, who is in her forties, pulled me aside. She overheard the conversation and told me that my approach was offensive. Based on what she said, I should have told him that these questions were bothering me and asked him to stop asking them instead.

I told her that at that moment I was not trying to be polite to him. She told me that I should be more professional if I wanted to stay employed there. There was no supervisor on site to intervene, so I had to deal with him myself.

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.

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.

I’m a junior analyst at a small office. Last month, I spent three weekends building data notes and a rough outline for our team presentation. I shared the draft in our shared drive so my supervisor could check my progress.

A few days later, my coworker pulled my supervisor aside. He said he finished the whole analysis and wanted to lead the presentation. When my boss asked to see his file, he uploaded an exact copy of my notes, just renamed with his file name.

My supervisor pulled both of us into a quick meeting. She checked the file edit history and saw I created the document weeks earlier. She told the coworker plagiarism like this wasn’t acceptable, and the presentation would be led by me.

He didn’t apologize. He just mumbled that I “shouldn’t leave files open for anyone to take.” I didn’t fight with him. I just kept saving new versions with clear edit logs from then on.

It sucks to have your work stolen, but I was glad the boss checked the history instead of taking his word for it.

TL;DR: Coworker copied my project notes and tried to pass them off as his work. My boss checked edit history and gave me the presentation spot.

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.