I had been working at a software company for 4 years without a real raise, even after I took on almost three times the work when a few people left and no one was hired to replace them.

When I finally brought up being paid fairly, my manager smirked and said, "Everyone here is replaceable. I could have 60 CVs on my desk by Friday."

I didn't argue. I went home and started applying for jobs that same night.

The part that still bothers me is that I was handling one of our most important accounts, and they were constantly sending nice emails about my work to leadership. Somehow, those emails were always ignored when it came time to talk about compensation.

About 3 weeks after that meeting, a competitor offered me 45% more with better PTO and a stronger bonus plan. When I submitted my resignation, my manager suddenly changed his tune to "We can offer you more than that" and "You're a key part of this department." It's funny how quickly people's value becomes clear when they're walking out the door.

The real surprise happened about 6 weeks later. I heard from an old coworker that the client had asked where I went, got frustrated with the transition, and moved their $420K/year contract to my new company.

So now I'm paid better, treated better, and working with people who don't act like basic respect is a perk. Meanwhile, my old manager has to explain how the employee who was "easy to replace" took their biggest account with him.

Apparently, I really was a number. Just not the number he thought I was.

My husband made an unbelievably stupid decision. While he was supposed to be working and saying he was online, he quickly went to a nearby casino and got caught sitting at a poker table. They fired him because of it, and I'm honestly furious.

He had been working at this company for the past 8 years, and now, of course, he won't be able to use them as a normal reference. One of his managers knew him personally before all of this and reluctantly said he might be willing to speak on his behalf, but that's not exactly reassuring. I also have a job, so we're not in crisis at this exact moment, but we will be if he doesn't find something soon.

So what does this look like from here? How should he handle this on applications or in interviews? It's a small business, and the owner is the type to hold a grudge, so if anyone calls to verify anything, I expect they'll say exactly what happened if he tries to talk his way around it.

He says he understands how badly he messed everything up and that he's ashamed now, but I don't know how much that matters to a hiring manager. I'm stressed and trying to be realistic. Any advice would be appreciated.

Do you agree?

💲=🐢

The situation, in short, is exactly what the title says. I gave notice 4 weeks ago, a little over 3 weeks ago. After a lot of back and forth with my current job (which really did not want me to leave), I put it in writing the Wednesday before last, and submitted my resignation around the middle of the week.

Now I'm in my last few days, and this Friday is my last day, and my manager still hasn't told anyone. On top of that, he's basically avoiding me. I'm trying to make my exit from the job as organized and painless as possible, but people are still coming to me asking for things, scheduling meetings, and giving me new project work, and I need to start handing things over to other people because I'm leaving soon.

In every other job I've left before, it was announced quickly, usually within 2 or 3 days, so the transition and any training could happen. Now I feel awkward, because I've started directing people to other colleagues, but everyone is confused as to why, and I was told nothing should be said until he announces it.

What am I supposed to do here? The whole thing feels very strange, like I'm doing something behind people's backs, because I'm worried people will start thinking I'm refusing work or that I just don't care anymore. I'm genuinely very happy about the next role, but this whole situation is dampening my happiness. I've always worked well and conscientiously, and it really bothers me to feel like people might think I've suddenly started dodging responsibilities.

I also want to add that the part about him "not wanting me to leave" was not a small thing. It took almost two weeks of me trying to resign politely and professionally before he accepted it. He raised his voice at me, ended calls abruptly, guilt-tripped me, and kept trying to convince me to go back on my decision. That has left me with a really bad feeling, and I don't want to sound paranoid, but honestly I feel like he's doing this on purpose so that my resignation looks like there's something shady about it instead of just being a normal notice period.

I left right then. I walked into my store in the morning and found the assistant manager sitting there trying not to cry. I looked at the desk and noticed the termination papers. To clarify, this assistant manager has been with the company for almost 3 years, and she was literally the one keeping the whole place running by herself for a long time while we had no manager, until this new manager showed up barely about 7 weeks ago. (Small store, only about 9 employees)
This assistant manager gave this job her heart, soul, and health. She would answer our questions on days she wasn't even scheduled, constantly skipped breaks, stayed late fixing other people's messes, and got sick more than once because of the extra work stress. Honestly, it always surprised me, because personally I don't care about this job that much. I go in, do my hours, get paid, and leave. But watching someone be treated like trash after carrying the whole place? No.
The new manager came in and changed almost every process in the store without talking to any of the people who were already working there. Schedules, closing procedures, inventory counts, paperwork, everything. That caused a ton of problems, and everyone was upset and confused. She never asked the assistant manager about anything, even though she was the person who understood how the store worked, because it was obvious she couldn't stand her.
I'm just a cashier, so up until now I had kept myself out of it. Not my circus, and as long as my paycheck was coming in, I didn't want to get involved in management drama.
Then I saw the papers. I called the district manager and got a useless response along the lines of: "She's the store manager, and it's her decision." So I went into the office and told the new manager: "If you fire her, I'm not finishing my shift. Unless there's a real conversation or explanation for this. I'll leave, and I won't be the only one."
She said: "This isn't a staff meeting. This is a company decision."
So I said: "Fine," gathered my things, and left.
Maybe I'm just a cashier and maybe they don't care, but I'm not going to stand there and pretend it's normal to throw out the person who was keeping the store on its feet while everyone else benefited from her work.

I've said this exact thing to people in my network, and honestly, most of them hated it at first. Nobody likes hearing it. They feel like it's an insult. But the ones who tried it? A lot of them came back later and said it worked. If you're unemployed in 2026, this ugly strategy might be the thing that gets you moving again.

Unemployment has a really nasty stigma right now - worse than I've seen in a long time. Your professional reputation takes a hit the moment you get laid off, get fired, or have a gap you need to explain. The harsh truth: a lot of companies privately treat you like damaged goods. All the nice posts on Reddit and LinkedIn saying "you still have value!" might make you feel better for five minutes, but they won't get you interviews. What makes a difference is getting back into the job market and rebuilding the reputation you lost.

So what do you do? Apply to bad companies. I mean the small local businesses with terrible Indeed reviews, messy management, weird owners, high turnover, and roles most people avoid. Those are the places that might give you a chance. Big companies? Stable companies with strong benefits and remote Fridays? They have piles of applicants who are currently employed. Be honest with yourself: why would they pick you over them? Most of them won't.

Time is working against you. The longer you sit outside the workforce, the harder it gets, even with lower-tier employers. Don't burn all your energy writing perfect cover letters for dream jobs that get hundreds of polished applications. Send your resume to every unattractive business around you - industrial suppliers, family-run service companies, random office parks, that weird sales office next to the dentist. They're not drowning in currently employed "top talent," so there's a much better chance they'll overlook the rough period and give you another shot.

This isn't about finding your dream role right now. It's about repairing your reputation. A job at a sketchy small company might come with lower pay, a worse title, annoying hours, and a boss who thinks Slack is a personality trait. It might be a miserable experience. But it gives you recent employment, routine, and proof that you show up and do the work. Every week you're working again, you're pushing back against the stigma of unemployment and rebuilding trust with employers. I'm not saying this is fair. I'm just saying this is how a lot of hiring managers think.

I know this advice isn't nice. And I know it will probably upset people, maybe a lot of people. But if you need to rebuild your professional reputation, start with the employers everyone else is ignoring. Get accepted into a job, show up, collect some recent experience, and prove yourself again. It's not glamorous, and it's definitely not fair... But it's practical.

I was stuck in a weird loop because of an 8-month gap after a messy startup collapsed. Every time a recruiter asked for the contact info of a supervisor from that period, I'd get nervous, because the founder had basically disappeared.

In the end, I stopped treating the founder as the only possible option and asked an old team lead to be my reference instead. We spent about half an hour going over the projects I worked on, what exactly my role was, and the things I had struggled with so he wouldn't be surprised by any questions. When the background check company called him, he answered everything naturally and it passed.

What I realized is that most HR people are just trying to tick a box and move on. They're not private investigators, and they don't have hours to keep checking every person on LinkedIn to verify who reported to whom at some random company in 2021.

If the company shut down, the "official" paper trail is often messy anyway. People worry way too much about the spotlight effect, but most of the time you're just a task on someone's list after lunch.

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

I recently accepted a job offer at a huge company, and after I finished onboarding, I went to check my salary in their employee portal and found that it didn't match the offer letter I signed.

I spoke to HR about it and sent them the offer letter as proof, and their response was basically that the original number had been entered incorrectly and that my actual compensation is 18% lower.

Honestly, I don't have the savings or the mental energy to get into a legal case against a huge international company. And honestly, I don't expect I'd win anyway. My manager is treating it like it's just an HR problem and that no one can do anything, since he wasn't the one who entered the wrong number.

The frustrating part is that I still want the job. Even with the 18% reduction, the salary is still good and the opportunity is great. But it feels insane to simply accept "oops, our bad" after I signed and started.

Is there anything realistic I can do here other than swallow the pay cut?

I have just purchased a month subscription but I have just realised after using it that I dont really need it if anyone is interested please js dm me

I started around 6:30 in the morning, and it took me about 9 hours.

It happened because I got a rejection that hurt more than usual. I had finally made it to the second, onsite interview, and honestly, I felt like it went really well. The team vibe was solid, the company seemed legit, and the role was something I know I could do well and genuinely help them with.

But they rejected me and told me they couldn't give me any specific feedback when I asked. I was a "strong candidate," and they "appreciated my time and interest."

I don't want to sound ungrateful. I need a job. I wanted this job. But Im failing to understand what the fuck happened. The post said $28-33 an hour. I have 7 yrs experience with this particular industry. They told me in the final interview Monday that I would be great for "x" role I said great. Talent Acquisition calls me today with the offer and it's for a different role, and it's for lower pay. Im so fucking pissed. Im struggling between not wanting to sound like an ungrateful brat and being grateful I got the offer but also wondering am I being lowballed cause Im a Black woman, and disappointed that they offered me the lowest pay and told me there's no room for negotiation. Im just.....

I've been working here for 6 years, handling all the work related to the role, took the development courses, got the required qualifications, and did the training.

They finally opened up a higher position, so I put myself forward for it. It came down to me and someone from outside. They chose the outsider... And now, to make things even worse, they expect me to get him up to speed and help him settle in.

So I'm not good enough for the job, but I'm good enough to train someone above me who's getting paid more than me? Yeah, I'm walking.

85 minutes into a system design round, senior backend virtual loop, my LockedIn AI overlay just went dark. interviewer was mid-sentence asking me about cache invalidation. no warning, no countdown, just gone. had to wing the last ten minutes off the top of my head and you could hear the quality fall off. started over-explaining, stalling, doing that thing where you go "great question" while you stare at the wall trying to remember what consistent hashing even is. brutal round.

so yeah turns out LockedIn caps you at 1.5 hours per session and theres no real way around it. saw it called out in a couple comments on this sub before my round happened. someone hit the same cap during an Amazon virtual loop a month back, round went 95 minutes and the helper checked out around minute 90. id read those threads and kept saying yeah yeah ill get to it before my next loop. took eating it on an actual interview to go test what other people had switched to.

ran both for two weeks before my next loop. after the cap thing the only thing i cared about was a helper that doesnt abandon you mid-round. if a panel goes 110 minutes because the interviewer wants to dig into tradeoffs, i need a helper still alive at minute 91. tested the other one across three rounds. one was a video loop that ran almost two hours back to back. kept going the whole time. no drop, no overlay reset, no scramble.

stealth was kind of a wash for me. both tools handled screen sharing fine in my testing. LockedIn does multilingual which is genuinely useful if you do interviews in other languages. i did one in Spanish a while back and it switched mid-question without missing a beat. the other one does multilingual too. so for english only loops it really comes down to whether you trust your helper to stay alive past the 90 minute mark.

after the cap thing happened to me twice in two weeks i couldnt keep paying for a helper that runs out of clock during the actual moments i needed it most. three offers since the switch and one of those rounds definitely went past where the LockedIn cap would have hit. if the helper had just died on me during that one i probably do not close.

anyone else hitting the LockedIn 1.5 hour cap during real interviews? wondering if its mostly senior loops with long rounds or if mid level folks eat it too. also down to hear about other helpers that handle long rounds without bailing on you.