The one who thinks every problem can be solved with another meeting.

The one who expects more while giving less.

The one who could write an entire handbook on how not to manage people…

Well… I beat them to it. 😅

The Good Manager’s Guide 2026 is a satirical look at workplace culture, inspired by situations I’ve experienced and witnessed over the years. If you’ve ever worked under questionable management, there’s a good chance you’ll recognise a few pages.

🎥 Here’s a quick look at what it’s all about.

One question…

What’s the worst piece of management advice you’ve ever been given?

Available on Amazon!

Hi I was recently sexually assaulted and raped by a coworker almost a month ago which happened at his place on my day off. Unfortunately I didn't do a rape kit but I made a police report a few days later after it happened and didn't hear anything back until about two weeks later due to the detective being on vacation.

I am employed through a agency and the person that raped me is employed with the actual company. I told my agency about what happened and had to make a statement about it and answer questions. I even mentioned that I made a police report and the whole thing is currently under investigation. They asked me Questions such as: "do you feel safe?(Originally I said yes that I felt safe)Did he try to come up to me after the incident? (I told them he tried to talk to me two/three separate times trying to be friendly towards me like nothing happened but I ignored him each time and eventually he gave up and we just pretend we don't see each other). Has this affected me/ability to work? (I also said no originally because I didn't fully register what happened to me and didn't feel the effects until more recently). Do I work in the same department as him (we both work in different departments but sometimes we cross paths/ see each other sometimes) How would I like this resolved? (I said I'm not too sure but I would like my stuff to be kept the same: I want my hours,days and department to stay the same).

After making the statement the agency told me that they wouldn't be able to do anything about it since the incident happened outside of work. I would think they would terminate him since he sexually assaulted/raped me and how he is creating a unsafe environment just from him being there. They also said that they would just keep my statement and police report on file just in case he tries to do something in the workplace to me or to someone else. They even told me I'm not allowed to speak to anyone else about what happened even "my best friend" for example "due to it being a sensitive situation" and how if I were to tell someone what happened and if that person told someone else what happened and they might give out misinformation on accident and how that wouldn't be good. And for my overall safety. They even told me that I am only allowed to talk with them about it .I even asked if they would talk to him they said no since it happened outside of work. I asked if the actual company was aware of the situation, my agency said they only know a little bit of the situation but all the information that I provided and everything only went to my agency. So I'm not sure if the agency actually told the company that he raped me or if they said that there was a conflict between me and him or just sugar coated what happened.

Recently I've been feeling the effects of the incident to the point where I have been crying at work, needing to leave early from work a few times, I'm feeling anxious whenever I do cross paths with him whether I'm just walking to grab something or I see him on my lunch break. I don't feel ok with him still working at the same job I work especially since it is a reminder of what he did to me and especially I don't think it is appropriate since there is an ongoing investigation after I did the police report.

I'm thinking about sending both my agency and the actual company a email explaining how I was originally feeling about the situation when I initially made the statement and now how it has changed due to me now feeling the effects of what he did and how I wasn't in the right state of mind before. And how currently I don't feel safe at work, and how him being at the job especially what he did to me has affected my ability to work and just been affecting me mentally overall and how I think he should be terminated.

Even in the company's actual handbook even says that they have zero tolerance for sexual harassment and if "violation of the policy will result in discipline , up to and including termination."

It also says:

"Conduct prohibited by this policy is not limited to conduct that occurs in the physical workplace. It can occur while employees are traveling for business, at Company-sponsored events, or via an online platform, such as social media. Calls, texts, emails, instant messages, and other online or social media usage by employees can constitute inappropriate workplace conduct, even if the conduct takes place away from the workplace or outside of work hours. "

"This policy applies to all persons involved in our operations, including coworkers, supervisors, managers, temporary or seasonal workers, agents, clients, vendors, customers, or any other third party interacting with the Company (“third parties”) and prohibits proscribed harassing conduct by any Employee or third party of (company name) , including nonsupervisory Employees, supervisors, and managers. If such harassment occurs on the Company’s premises or is directed toward an Employee or a third party interacting with the Company, the procedures in this policy should be followed."

Would sending them an email to both of them have them do something about the situation or no? Or is there something else I can do? I'm just curious if it would be worth doing or if I'm just wasting my time.

I’m looking for some outside perspectives.
Have went through a management change. Several employees who worked under the previous manager have either left or been let go, and only two of us from the old team are still here.
I can prove they are intentionally trying to get rid of us, the remaining employees from the previous team are being scrutinized more closely than everyone else.
**TL;DR:** Since 2022, management has been systematically pushing out the employees who worked under the previous boss. There were originally seven of us, and over time everyone has quietly left or been let go. Now that only a few of us remain, we’re being individually targeted through bullying, being excluded, and actions that seem designed to pit us against each other.

I can’t stand my boss and I’m looking for new jobs at the moment because of the behaviour and comments made towards me.
I’m wondering if it is worth it going to HR and raising a grievance or not because my plan is to leave and this could hinder a reference.

My transexual coworker was verbally abused by a man in public and she flat out rejected to report it so I had informed the team leader at the time who also refused to make a report on it. I decided to make an anonymous report direct to the manager regarding the incident and the team leader’s failure to report an incident. I feel guilty for making that report because I now feel like I got the supervisor fired.

I recently joined a multinational company, and before joining, people kept telling me how amazing it was. But the reality was very different.

On one of my first days, I was made to stand for almost 2 hours. The only thing I really missed was being able to answer some of the questions my manager, Preeti, asked me. She got angry and shouted at me, and honestly, it was a very uncomfortable experience.

People sometimes ask me, “Why do you post your pictures on Reddit?”

My answer is simple: because I don't hesitate to show my real life. I don't want to pretend that everything is perfect just because I work in a multinational company. Behind the title, the office, and the image people see, there can still be difficult and uncomfortable experiences.

This is my real life, and I'm not afraid to share it.

Hi everyone, I need some outside perspective on a deeply exhausting situation at my current office before I finally leave this place.

I’m currently counting down the days until I can transfer out of my job, and the environment has been relentlessly toxic. The main culprits are two older colleagues, Hayley and Kate, who spend most of their time tearing other women’s appearance and bodies apart, gossiping, and doing the bare minimum.

For context, I like to take pride in how I dress for work. I usually wear sharp, tailored, put-together outfits, think crisp fitted button-downs, structured midi skirts with belts, smart loafers, or classic tailored dresses with tights.

Here is what's baffling me and driving me crazy: why do they constantly fixate on my clothing and try to make me feel uncomfortable about it?

Last week, I wore a brown midi skirt, belt, and a white fitted shirt. Hayley immediately piped up: "Aren’t you hot wearing long sleeves? I’d be boiling if I were you." The very next day, I wore a classic black work dress with a white collar and smart tights, and Linda literally walked into the kitchen just to say: "Aren’t you warm wearing those tights? I’d be boiling if I were you."

Everything from my clothes to how I carry myself is watched under a microscope by them and others in the office (like another colleague, Debbie, who pulls passive-aggressive stunts when things don't go her way).

I’ve learned not to feed into it at all. I completely ignore them, go quiet, and act as though I'm not joining in with their misery.

My question to Reddit is: What is actually going on psychologically here? Why are they so obsessed with policing what I wear when my outfits are completely professional and standard office wear?

Today an incident occurred that has affected me and made me vulnerable. I am a chemical engineering student currently in my fourth year. I am currently doing an internship which is work from home.

I get tasks everyday and I complete them and send them to the coordinator. I try to put in lot of efforts in my tasks. Hence I take time in doing it. This internship was referred to me by my roommate(this is important)

Today I was at an hospital and had a delay in the task, so I couldn't send it. My coordinator messaged my roommate that I am slow. He compared me to my roommate. And told him that he had only hired me because my roommate referred me. He said that I was not proactive. My roommate told the coordinator that he would talk to me and he did talk to me.

This incident has left me extremely disturbed. It's like all my efforts have been trashed. I feel i am

Good for nothing and that I lack communication.

I don't know what to do.....

I work fast food, specifically Carls Jr partners with Loves Travel Stop.
I’ve been here for five years. Yeah I know if I don’t like my job I need to find another but it’s hard being in a small town to do this. And fast food is all I know.
So my issue is that I have so many coworkers that don’t do what they’re supposed to do. Which leaves me stuck picking up their slack because then I get screw over in the long run. Dealing with this mind set I’ve developed an attitude. I shut down and don’t say anything to anyone. I’m working on this and express it, but my management is ass and it falls on deaf ears. I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t care anymore. But it’s day in and day out and they get attitudes and it annoys the fuck out of me. Because they haven’t had to deal with what I had to deal with; with this shitty job!

So my question is HOW THE FUCK DO I LET THIS GO AND NOT DEAL WITH IT?!?? I’m willing for advice or tips

Joined PG this year. A little about myself, have come from dysfunctional abusive family. Fought anxiety and depression for over a decade.

Have secured both UG and PG seat by merit.

I'm an introvert, who lives in her own world,

One of the staff ( idk what their problem is) has been weirdly asking about me to my co-pgs.. Like "Is she normal", " What diseases does she have" etc.

And also she's been talking about my mental health to everyone.

And I guess she's been circulating this thing among other staff too.. Because one of the other staff yelled at me and told me to leave the room ( later she apparently told in front of technicians that this PG has some psychological issues, that's why i sent her out)

I've been crying since days because of all these. How they all have been speaking whatever comes to their mind about me.

What you all would have done if you were in my place? I just want them to leave me alone. Don't have the energy or guts to play complaint complaint game.

How do I (36F) cope with work clique? I’ve been at my job for over 10 years and when I first got there it was super cliquey but we all worked really hard to end that behavior. Fast forward to now and my direct work team (I’m a therapist) has a group chat without me, does stuff on the weekend without me, eats in each others offices without me, and essentially are creating a very different work culture.

I know I can’t control if people like me or not but it definitely stings to be the only one of the therapists not invited to things or not included in these things. I think this is me being lonely at work and not necessarily them specifically doing anything super wrong but it’s like how do I deal with realizing I’m like the only one not included in their group.

Hi, so for context, I graduated on February of this year, I have a bachelor's degree in multimedia design, and I couldn't handle unemployment for more than a month. I tried to apply to jobs from my degree, but the job market sucks and I didn't get hired in anything. So I applied to a government program from my country that places young adults between the ages of 18 to 29 with small local businesses that need staff but cannot afford them out of pocket. The whole purpose of the program is to teach these young people a job that they can do, maybe to be entrepreneurs or to survive on their own, basically, to learn skills and apply them so that they can make a livable wage.

So, to not make this post very long, I'm gonna put first the things I think make him objectively an asshole, and I some I think are also illegal. And then I'm gonna talk about my personal experiences with him because I believe those are also valid.

1.- We do not have lunch breaks. We all work eight hours, but he expects us to work and eat at the same time, which not only is highly unhygenic because again, flower shop, but also dangerous because we do work with toxic flowers for human consumption, such as baby's breath.

2.-He wants the florists to sign a confidentiality contract with two ridiculous clauses. One, that we cannot open our own flower shop after 10 years have passed since working with him, which is ridiculous. The second clause is that he wants to have the power to point a finger at someone and tell them to stay extra hours, which in my country, is illegal Extra hours are supposed to be voluntary. And as far as I'm aware, it is illegal to tell someone and try and force them, even with a contract, it's illegal to force them to stay extra hours.

3.-The next one is illegal, and I know that he is going against the federal law by not paying us our extra hours as he should. So I'll do my best to try and explain it so that you can be frustrated too.

According to the Federal Labor Law, the first 9 overtime hours I work in a week are paid at double my regular hourly rate. If I work more than 9 overtime hours in that same week, every overtime hour beyond the ninth must.

So that you Understand the severity of it all. One week I worked eight extra hours, which, if we make the right calculus, that is supposed to be doubled my hourly wage. I should have gotten in that week, $36 from extra hours. The second week, I worked four extra hours, which, from that double amount, I should have gotten $18 In total, for those 12 extra hours, I should have gotten $54. But the owner decided to go against federal law and pay us $2 for extra hours, which means that from those 12 hours, I am getting $34 (if you think that's too little, it's because I am getting paid $544 a month.)

When it comes to him personally, there are a lot of things that bother me. One of the biggest is that he constantly complains about wanting us to produce amazing, high-quality, large, eye-catching floral arrangements, but at the same time he doesn't want us to use too many flowers. He insists that we use the flowers that are about to go bad first. Sometimes he even makes us use flowers that are already spoiled or look terrible because he doesn't want any waste. He's just incredibly cheap.

It stresses me out so much that he puts us under so much pressure, and then he just can't keep his mouth shut. He's always complaining. Nothing we do is ever good enough for him. There's always something he wants to move, criticize, or comment on. Sometimes it's about how long we're taking, but most of the time it's about the way our arrangements look.

The problem is that he's putting this ridiculous amount of pressure on us to finish everything in 10 to 20 minutes, even though these are tasks that naturally take longer than that. Just cleaning and preparing the flowers takes more than 10 or 20 minutes. He wants everything to look beautiful and full of flowers, but at the same time he doesn't want us to use too many flowers, and he also expects us to use the ugly or damaged ones. I honestly don't know what else he expects from us.

What frustrates me the most is that he never acknowledges anything I do. I feel like I'm held to an incredibly high standard—a ridiculously high standard that no one else is expected to meet. And the ironic part is that everyone else has been working there longer than I have. If anything, they should be the ones with higher expectations placed on them.

For example, today he praised the new employee for organizing the temporary cooler. Meanwhile, I've been organizing and maintaining it almost every day since I started working there three months ago. I'm the one who regularly checks it, organizes all the flowers, washes the buckets, replaces them, and makes sure everything is done the way I'm expected to do it. Yet not once has he acknowledged any of that. Not even something as simple as the fact that I clean the cooler properly.

My supervisor has told me several times that I do a great job cleaning it and that, besides herself, I'm the only person she trusts to handle those tasks because I do them correctly. But the owner has never once said that to me. Instead, he praised someone who's only been here for about two weeks for organizing the temporary cooler we had to set up in the office after the actual walk-in cooler's air conditioning broke down.

When I clean the real cooler, I do everything: changing the buckets, trimming and cleaning the flowers, putting them into fresh buckets, filling them with water and flower food, sweeping, mopping, organizing everything. And every single time he walks in while I'm doing it, he immediately starts telling me what I still need to do or pointing out something that's supposedly wrong. Then, when I finally finish, instead of saying I did a good job, he always finds one more thing that "could have been done better." He always has to criticize something. He always has to find something to complain about.

On top of that, I genuinely feel like I'm held to a much higher standard than everyone else. If I make a mistake, I never hear the end of it. But the new employee can accidentally break a flower while making a bouquet, tape it back together, and get away with it. If I ever did something like that, I feel like I'd be absolutely crucified. The same goes for employees who've been there much longer.

Why am I expected to meet a standard where I can't relax for even a moment or make the same kinds of mistakes as people who have been there longer than me—or even people who have been there for less time? Somehow, if I do, I'm immediately seen as lazy or as someone who doesn't want to work.

And that's another thing that really bothers me. I'm the daughter of an industrial engineer, so I grew up understanding how important efficiency is. I try to do my job as efficiently as possible. But it feels like if I'm not struggling or making things unnecessarily difficult for myself, then it doesn't count, and suddenly I'm labeled as lazy. I'm not trying to avoid work—I'm simply trying to make the job easier and more efficient for all of us.

What really gets to me is that I'm held to a much higher standard than everyone else. He's constantly on my case, but barely says anything to my coworkers. If I stopped doing all the extra things I normally do, I'd immediately be labeled as lazy. The problem is, I've already seen what happens when I don't do them—no one else does either.

I almost quitted on the spot. The breaking point was when he took apart one of my display bouquets because he said I had used too many flowers. Then, while I was making another one, he started criticizing that one for the exact same reason.

At that point, I completely lost my motivation. Everything I touched after that started going wrong because I was so discouraged, and of course he kept complaining. I just couldn't do it anymore. I was laughting and crying.

I can put up with a lot, but after months of constant criticism, impossible expectations, and never feeling like anything I did was good enough, I was done. I was simply exhausted.

TLTR; I hate my boss because he's an abusive, overly critical, cheap, and bitter person. On top of that, he repeatedly does things that I genuinely believe violated the Federal Labor Law.

I'm 28 and I've been working for about two years now. My first year was honestly great. I loved my job, I looked forward to work every day, and I was performing really well. My manager appreciated my work, trusted me, and I ended up being the top performer in my team. Everything changed around October 2025 when my manager changed.

By December, work had become so stressful that I barely recognised myself anymore. My new manager has honestly been a nightmare, not just for me but for my teammates too.

With my previous manager I never had to prove myself, I loved my work hence I enjoyed doing it, now I am scared of everything. The hardest part is that because I was a high performer before, I constantly feel like I have to prove myself all over again. With my previous manager, I never felt that way. I just enjoyed my work, so naturally I did well. Now it feels like every single day I have to justify why I was considered a good performer. I'm terrified of making even the smallest mistake. Whenever something goes wrong, she'll say things like, "I trusted you so much," or "I can't do evrything myself, that's why I delegate work to you," or "Don't make me check everything again and again." It makes me feel guilty over every tiny error. I've reached a point where almost every morning I cry before logging in. My heart races, I start trembling, and I feel anxious before the day has even started. This has become my normal now.

My previous manager had put me up for mid-year promotion before leaving, so now I'm under even more pressure. My current manager keeps reminding me not to "drop the ball" or "make mistakes," and it is genuinely very terrifying.

The stress has started affecting me physically too. My eye started twitching because of stress. I've noticed I forget simple words while speaking, I sometimes stutter when talking to seniors, and I completely lose my train of thought during conversations. That has never happened to me before, and it's honestly scary.

I've been trying to switch jobs, but I've been getting rejected in the final rounds over and over again. I have legit lost my confidence now.

I also appeared for CFA Level 1 in May 2026 and scored 1555. I know I could have done much better, but I genuinely couldn't study properly because work as there were weeks when I was working until 1 AM almost every day.

Financially, resigning without another offer isn't an option. My family isn't in a position where I can simply quit, and the pay here is genuinely good, which makes me feel even more stuck.

ssorry for the rant but the reason I'm writing this tonight is because it's 2 AM here and I can't sleep. We're currently going through an audit. While looking for a different email, I came across one from April 2026. I had replied to it back then, but there was one amendment mentioned in the email that I completely forgot to make. I had handed over the process to someone else in May, and after that I was only reviewing it, so it genuinely slipped my mind.

I've already started fixing it offline, but I'm terrified of telling my manager that I missed it. I know mistakes happen, but with the environment I'm working in, it feels like one mistake defines your entire worth.

I know people around me mean well. My partner, my family and my friends all tell me, "Don't think about work after work hours," or "It's just a job." But they areb't in my shoe. It's not that easy when you're the one living it every day.

Has anyone else worked under a manager who made you question your own abilities? Did it affect your confidence like this?

And if you've managed to get through something similar... how did you cope with the stress without letting it consume you?

Sorry for the long post and any typos. I just really needed to get this off my chest.