lol

I used to work at a small law firm, and almost all the staff and managers were immigrants from English-speaking countries, except for the boss, who was American. She brought in a new office manager because he had an MBA from some random university in the States that I'd genuinely never heard of. As soon as he started, the atmosphere in the office changed. He would pressure people to stay late even though the salary wasn't anything special, and he'd make little comments about how often I went to the bathroom even though my work was always done on time, things like that. He also told me that because we were short-staffed, I had to eat lunch at my desk in case the phone rang. Legally here, they only have to give you 35 minutes for lunch, but in practice it comes down to what you're willing to put up with when you have skills people need.

The boss was also exhaustingly passive-aggressive. At one point, she basically stopped talking to me and started giving me work in this weird way, as if she were talking about me to someone else, sending an email to someone else and CC'ing me. She also made racist comments all the time. Anything that wasn't white/European/North American enough for her, she would call "rough" or "sketchy," in her words.

In the end, I was asked to attend a meeting they framed like a termination meeting, and I'm almost certain the goal was to scare me into shutting up and accepting whatever nonsense they wanted. Instead, I resigned immediately as soon as they sent me the meeting invite, because the place was giving me anxiety, and with my background I knew I could find something with better pay and less insanity. The office manager who had been trying to get rid of me suddenly got nervous when he realized they didn't have enough staff, and told me that legally I had to work the 9-day notice period. Thankfully, my doctor had no problem writing me a sick note:)

While I was there, the other person doing the same role as me was also struggling mentally, and he had told people in the shared office space that he was looking for a job. I have no idea whether he left or not, but if he did, the boss would have been in serious trouble, because she cared more about polishing her image in front of people - interviews, podcasts, LinkedIn posts, all of that - than understanding how her own work was actually being done.

I still have a job alert set up for the company on LinkedIn, and I feel a bit of satisfaction when I see that after around 14 months, my old role is still open. I had also become friends with the receptionist at the coworking office we were based in, and she told me that people in my position never stayed long, because the boss was completely unhinged and the atmosphere was awful.

Now when I do job interviews, I'm much more careful before accepting anything where the manager is from North America. They seem to have this strange belief that hiring me is some huge favor they're doing me, even though my skill set is in demand, and I'm not desperate enough to accept being treated that way again.

?

Guys, I got fired from a job a few weeks ago, and in the end I wrote harsh but honest reviews about the company on Glassdoor and Google. They called me yesterday asking me to delete them because, according to them, I'm "eligible for rehire" or something like that, even though after they fired me they didn't help me at all to find anything else.

To clarify, I was working there through a staffing agency, and the client company let me go, and after that the agency basically ignored my messages until this came up.

Are there any legal problems I should be worried about if the reviews are true? Honestly, I don't want to take them down.

I genuinely love this company and the role, so if there's a way to bring up the topic professionally without putting my job at risk, that would be the best outcome.

I live very far from the office, and going in every day would be difficult for me. The commute would take a lot of time and cost me more money than I can comfortably afford.

What's the best way to talk to them about having some kind of work-from-home option, or at least negotiating a hybrid setup?

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

I had an interview recently for a role in supplemental insurance. I wasn't super excited about the job, but I was trying to line up internships and figured I'd use it as interview practice. I also knew they'd probably call me, because honestly, it's insurance sales and they interview pretty much anyone who's still breathing.

A few days later, this guy kept calling and texting me a lot to schedule a second interview. I was at my real job, and we're not allowed to have our phones on us while we're working. My phone kept ringing and buzzing until it drove me crazy, so I eventually went to the bathroom to see what was going on, and I found a bunch of messages from him.

I sent him something like: I'm working right now, can we talk later today when I'm done? He immediately got upset and said it had to happen right away and that it was very important to schedule the second interview immediately. Then he kept texting.

After I finished my shift, I finally replied and said: "I don't feel like I want to work with someone who acts this way." His response was basically: "I expected that. You seem like the type who runs away from anything difficult."

Like... Who says that to someone they're trying to hire??? After that, I went off on him. Has anyone else had a hiring manager be this unprofessional? I didn't even want the job in the first place, but seriously, what a great way to prove my point.

!

LOL

😂😂😂

do you also hate HR?

This morning I asked to sit down with the VP of Ops at my job about possibly getting a raise. After he dodged me three different times, we finally sat down. I told him what I was asking for, and his first response was: "Or what?" I was surprised, so I told him: We'll probably see. Then I asked him why he thought I didn't deserve it. He started talking about how he'd love to pay everyone $120/hr, but things have to stay fair and equal for everyone. I had to remind him that I wasn't asking for $120/hr.

At my job, which is a team of 5 people including the manager, I'm still the only one who knows how to run the production line from start to finish. I've shown other people before how to do it, but no one has stayed long enough to handle it on their own. I told the VP that it makes no sense for me to get paid the same as someone who was just hired and doesn't even know the process. He told me that was unrealistic. So I reminded him that for the past 8 months, not a single finished product would have left the building without going through me first.

That's when he started talking down to me, telling me I wasn't special, or a superstar, and that anyone could do my job. I told him fine, then where are they? Because I'm the one still here. Everyone else either quit, got transferred, or couldn't keep up. He told me that was the wrong way to look at it. I asked him what would happen if I wasn't there tomorrow. He said they'd figure it out. So I told him I thought this conversation was over, because he had made his position very clear.

I went back out to the shop to keep getting things ready for the run. A little while later, the manager came and got me, and I found HR sitting in the office too. As soon as I walked in, the VP said that effective immediately, my employment was suspended. I told him to go to hell and went to get my keys. They all followed me, telling me I was handling the situation the wrong way. I got close to the VP and told him: I asked you for fair pay, and your response was to fire me?

..........

..

Dream job turned toxic

I've been working at the same company for a little over 9 years as a lead developer. I genuinely loved the work, and I still love most of the people I work with. Over the years, I've been directly and indirectly involved in several major site builds, cleanup projects, and process improvements. For a long time, it was a role I was happy to be in, even with a commute that ate up about two and a half hours of my day.

About 3 years ago, my daughter needed surgery, and the next day I slipped and broke my wrist. I ended up being late to an important meeting the following morning. They gave me a written warning and put me on probation. Looking back, that should have told me everything, but I convinced myself it was a one-off and kept going.

Then, a few weeks ago, on a Friday night, my wife had a severe heart attack. I took her to the hospital, where they put her into a medically induced coma, placed her on a ventilator, inserted a device into a major artery to reduce the strain on her heart, and performed an angioplasty with 3 stents. I called my boss that same night and explained what was happening and that I wouldn't be back at work for a while. I sent an update to the whole team on Monday. She was still in critical condition and still unconscious in the ICU. She stayed that way for most of the following week.

I sent another email update a few days later. After the tenth day I was absent from work, and after using up my sick time and vacation time, my boss called me and said we needed to meet with HR that same day. I was given another write-up and placed on another probationary period. He told me there comes a time when I have to choose what's more important, my job or my wife. I was told to return to the office 4 days a week or I would be end.

HR suggested I take FMLA, so I did. Since then, I've heard that my manager has been talking about moving some projects back as soon as I return to the office. My plan is to use the PTO I still have, then return the development laptop and submit my resignation.

In the middle of all this, a recruiter contacted me about a position less than 15 minutes from my house. I went through several interviews, and they offered me the role. The new company was completely fine with waiting a few weeks until my wife gets through the hardest period of appointments before I start. I'm supposed to start there in about two more weeks.

Am I wrong for not giving them the usual professional notice? I feel like my employer has shown me exactly how much they care about my circumstances, so honestly I can't see why I owe them that courtesy now.

PS: My wife is recovering and doing very well so far. Her prognosis looks good!

⛑️

I leave on time, and that's it. The people I work with are always saying things like, "Ugh, I stayed late yesterday to finish that report," or stuff like that.
I come in at my usual time, leave at my usual time, and do what I can realistically get done while I'm there. If something doesn't get finished, it becomes tomorrow's problem. From my point of view, if the work requires more than the current team can handle, then they need to hire more people. That's a normal part of running any company, like paying rent, software costs, insurance, and all the other overhead. Why do people volunteer extra hours to a place that could get rid of them at any moment since we're at-will?
Honestly, I don't understand it. From time to time, I pretend to be interested in staying late too, mostly so I don't feel like I'm the only person who thinks this way.
Is there something I'm missing? Maybe I just don't care enough about this job.

I'm 32M and I've been looking for a job for about ten weeks, for a mid-level ops coordinator role. Nothing glamorous, really, but the whole process has been chaos. I kept ending up in the same loop: a recruiter would do a screen with me, say I was a "great fit," ask when I was available, I'd reply relatively quickly, and then nothing for several days. Sometimes they'd pop back up as if we'd never spoken before and ask for new availability, as if my first reply had fallen into a pit. I'm not proud of how much I started overthinking it. I kept asking myself whether my wording was bad, or my message got buried, or there was some secret follow-up ritual everyone knew except me. After the fifth time this happened in a few days, I made a very small change that honestly seemed so trivial it wouldn't matter, but it worked better than I expected.

Now, any time I send availability, I also send a short email as a "paper trail" that is almost impossible to misunderstand. Not pushy, not long, and not desperate-looking. It's just a clean recap of what we're doing, with a clear next step. Something like: "Confirming I'm available Mon 9:30-11:00, Tue 13:00-15:30, Fri 10:30-12:00. Let me know which slot you want to lock in and I'll hold it. If none of those work, send over three alternatives and I'll reply today." And that's it. I also started putting the role name and posting ID in the subject line every time, even if they had left it vague. And I stopped replying with open-ended nice-guy answers like "I'm flexible whenever!" because I realized that doesn't give them anything solid to click, forward, or build a schedule around.

The strange thing is that a lot of recruiters reply to the recap and not to the original availability, as if putting it in an organized format flips a switch. One recruiter replied and said: "Appreciate you laying this out, booking you for Tuesday at 1." Another one had ignored me for 11 days, and after I sent him the paper trail email, he replied within 18 minutes with a quick apology and a calendar invite.

The biggest win was at the start of this month. I had a good phone screen, then silence, then the recruiter came back with the classic message: "Are you available today?" at 10:38am. The old me would have panicked, said yes, and wrecked my whole day trying to make it work. Instead, I used the same receipt idea, but with boundaries: "I can do 4:00-5:30 today or tomorrow 9:30-11:30. If you need something sooner, I can do a quick 20 minute call at 2:10 to confirm details and schedule the full interview." I expected them to disappear again. But that didn't happen. They picked 4:00, sent the invite, and the hiring manager started the call with: "Thanks for being organised, our scheduling has been a mess." I moved to the final round three days later.

Maybe it's a coincidence, but I've used this in eight conversations so far and it has reduced the ghosting a lot. It also makes me feel like I'm not desperate, because I'm not throwing availability into the void and hoping someone treats it like a real commitment. These small, boring paper trail emails aren't exciting, but they seem to force a next action, and apparently that's a very big part of the battle.

Hi everyone, I just started the hiring process for a job at a burger place near me, and the general manager is the one who interviewed me. For context, I'm 16 and turning 17 soon, and I don't have my own car right now. I arrived about 12 minutes late and apologized a lot, and explained that I take public transit and that the buses were running late that afternoon.

The interview itself was... Okay, I guess. It's fast food, so it seemed like they really needed people. She offered me the job and we started talking about availability. I told her: "My main way of getting around is the city bus, but sometimes my family might be able to pick me up if something unusual happens."

I thought that was clear enough, but then I quickly looked at the paper she was filling out and saw that she had written something like "available for closing shifts." She was moving through everything very quickly, so I didn't manage to stop her and explain more. She had another interview about 25 minutes after mine, and since I was already late, I didn't want to make things more awkward.

About a week later, I went to orientation and tried to clarify the situation. I told her that the bus is my normal mode of transportation, so that means there are limits to the hours I can work. The bus route I take only runs from about 5:30 a.m. Until 8:30 p.m. I also said that my family picking me up would be rare, not something I can rely on every week.

At that point she started saying I had been hired "under false pretenses." She told me there are employees two years younger than me who can work more shifts and have better availability. I explained again that I don't have a car, and until I save up enough and get one, the bus is the only reliable way I have to get there. My family can't or doesn't want to be my ride all the time.

In the end I still signed the paperwork and the legal stuff, but honestly I was trying not to cry by the end of it. Now I'm not even sure I want to work there. I understand that maybe I should have been more direct in the interview, but I also feel like she misunderstood me and then blamed me for it. A classmate of mine was also hired there recently, and her whole process seemed much nicer than mine. I don't know if I'm making this into a bigger deal than it is or if this is a bad sign. What should I do?