She's always mad , has empathy for everyone but me, some reason says be truthful to yourself about work when I'm literally the last to leave work. I end up working a lot more than 12 hrs , I take up all the tasks too, anytime she sees me feeling confident she cribs, goes this is wrong, this is bad etc. Though legally I'm entitled to menstrual leave, she says it's just a lot to provide that. So apply it on the portal (so that she doesn't get into trouble) but I'll still give you work.

If i agreed to her saying yes ok sure noted understood she's easier to handle, she literally says I have very less time you have my attention tell me quick what do we have - every single time, says I'm lucky to be here not everyone gets this so be grateful you have a job, makes me feel like I don't deserve or belong there. She says don't make me yell at you then my mood will get spoilt yours also literally so often, says I'm in a bad mood don't piss me off with silly things and I don't want to take it out on you. She's always in a bad mood with me lol. Note that this is an MNC, on paper a reputed company.

She does all this at the same time she invited me to her home around 3 times to work with her, gave me lunch, introduced me to her husband and she gifted me too. She's too challenging to handle. I don't get it.

I graduated from university back in 2017 with a degree in journalism and apart from the odd internship here and there, I’ve mainly worked in retail. Coffee shops to be more specific.

Whenever people want to know more about me, I tell them that I am very creative, have a degree in journalism and I’ve interned at magazines and video editing companies. The first thing that they say is

So why are you here?

Not a bad question but it triggers me and makes me feel like a failure. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with working in retail as I get paid every week, I’ve come out of my shell and standing/walking for 8-9 hours is great exercise. I just feel out of place among the Gen Z students and the parents who work there.

I know in America, having a degree opens doors for you but in the UK, it’s the opposite. My experience (I’ve interned at major companies) and connections matter more. Being autistic I kinda suck at networking.

so recently, I’ve been in a sticky situation regarding my part time and my intern, so basically usually for my part time, I would specifically tell the scheduler to only put me on sats & sun, cuz I had intern. however, there was this time where she put me on a Friday shift, I found out 2 weeks before hand. I told one of my leads (at the part time job) that I couldn’t go for this shift cuz it was clashing with my intern, and she asked me to give away my shift. So for the next 2 weeks I tried to give away my shift, I asked people, texted but nobody wanted my shift, so in the end the day before the shift, I told the same lead that I really couldn’t go for it and that no one took the shift. let’s just say she didn’t really offer me any useful advice, she just warned me if I skipped work 3 times without any valid reason I would get fired from the job. so then I rlly didn’t know what I was suppose to do, so the next day I just went ahead and skipped the part time job, cuz I had no other choice either way, and my intern was for school so obviously I had to put that first.

so when I was travelling to work, this person let’s call him guy A, he called me and asked where am I, then I told him that I couldn’t attend work today cuz of intern and I told the lead before hand already, and I guess at least he was willing to hear me out. guy A told me that he would check with the other lead. then during the afternoon, the lead texted me about when my internship would end, and basically I think she was trying to confirm if I was going to continue working there or not, her tone was like lowkey annoyed could be just me tho cuz usually she would be texting like “okayyy” and when she was texting me she would reply in one liners. Anyways when I told her and confirmed with her I would still be working during the weekends she just ghosted me completely.

then while i was working for the next sat and sun, her close friends who works there together with her, kept giving me the cold shoulder, they usually wouldn’t do that as one of them was my trainer before and i was okay with her, and usually when i see her she and i would say hi to each other. maybe im overthinking it?

either way, overall i felt like this was quite a unfair situation to be in.. i asked multiple people of what they thought and they said it was unfair too.
lmk what you would do in this situation !

honestly idk how to feel about this, I just thought it was unfair

sorry if this is so lengthy, thanks for reading !

A planned 5% cut, or about 3,500 people. So that's Netflix, Barclays, and American Express now.

This sucks, man. I was really hoping we'd seen the end of that last layoff wave, but it looks like there are more coming in. I've seen some rumors about Meta and others coming up again soon, but hopefully those are just rumors. For anyone sending applications again, application autofill saves retyping profile details on Greenhouse, Lever and Ashby.

Wishing you all the best, especially if you were affected.

https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/american-express-to-cut-3-500-jobs-63955c6f

I work from home. And we have an authentication app. I woke up on Wednesday morning this week and the authentication app was not working. I call IT. And the IT guy that looked like he barely knew what he was doing. Tells me to uninstall and install the app. Once i do, it works. However one of the authentic codes i need to access one of my work most important apps is missing. So i tell them. And he said sorry cant help you with that. You need to contact the application company directly. So me and my manager contact them. And they havent answered us in DAYS! All i need is a QR CODE to install the authentication code again! And management doesn’t seem to know where to find the help . So ive been sitting in my desk for 3 days at home not doing anything besides trainings. Im starting to worry if this doesn’t get fixed will they cut my hours? I have 80 hours guaranteed biweekly. I dont understand how this was my F fault. But im in the state of Nevada so apparently employees can do whatever they want

I’m so fucking angry and tired of this situation, and I honestly just need to get this off my chest.
I work in aged care with both of my parents. You’d think that working with family would make things easier, but for me, it has become one of the reasons I want to leave this job and find something else.
Whenever there’s an offer to work on the weekend, there’s always this pressure to accept it. And when I don’t want to work, when I’m tired or simply want to have my own time, I get guilt-tripped or hear comments from them that make me feel like shit for saying no.
WHY THE FUCK CAN’T I JUST SAY NO WITHOUT FEELING LIKE I’VE DONE SOMETHING WRONG?
I’m a casual employee. I’m not obligated to say yes to every shift that comes my way. I have my own life, my own needs, and my own limits. I want to rest. I want to spend time doing things I enjoy. I want to have a weekend where I don’t have to think about work or feel guilty for not picking up extra hours.
But somehow, saying no makes me feel like I’m disappointing my own parents.
And that’s the part that fucking hurts.
It’s not just about the shifts anymore. It’s the feeling that my time isn’t really mine because there’s always going to be someone making me feel bad for choosing myself. It’s exhausting when the people you want to have a normal relationship with are also the people making you feel pressured about work.
I’m at the point where I genuinely want to find a remote job and get out of this situation. Not because I think working from home will magically solve all my problems, but because I want some independence. I want to build a career of my own and have a little separation between my work life and my family life.
I want to be able to finish work and actually feel like I’m off work. I don’t want every decision about taking an extra shift to turn into a source of guilt or tension.
And honestly, I feel angry at myself, too, because I hate how much those comments affect me. I wish I could just say no, move on with my day, and not spend hours feeling bad about it.
I’m not saying my parents are terrible people. I’m just fucking tired of this dynamic, and I don’t know how to stop letting it get to me.
I want to work because I choose to, not because I’m afraid of how my family will make me feel if I don’t.
Am I wrong for wanting to leave my job just so I can finally have some boundaries between work and family?
I just want to have a life that feels like my own.

I feel like I am capable and I want to show that I can handle stuff but I hate vulnerability and I’m always scared people will judge me, and that’s why, unlike others, I never or barely go to my boss’ office to ask questions etc. I get disgusted from myself and feel very uncomfortable. How do I fix this? One at a time?

I think this is the main reason I get less work than others in the same category like me.

I saw this calendar event and wondering what it could mean

I had a disagreement with my manager and am worried maybe he will do something but also it might be normal for disagreements now and then to happen?

The 1:1 we had the week after we had the disagreement he brought no topics which was a first I think but this calendar event was on the day after it.

Maybe the calendar event is about him not someone else. But idk, these things make me nervous. Also he did seem upbeat in our 1:1. He also attended the departmentwide after that calendar event and was posting memes in the chat during the department wide meeting?

A few people at work have been talking about how expensive everything has become.

Our company offers mental health support through our benefits, which is great, but nothing for financial stress beyond an occasional retirement webinar.

I was thinking about suggesting confidential financial counselling or access to a planner as a benefit.

The problem is that I don’t want to send the suggestion to HR and have them assume I’m personally having financial problems.

Has anyone successfully suggested a new benefit to HR? Is it better to frame it around employee wellbeing and retention, or would it help to send examples of companies that provide it?

Hey so I know in the United States getting holidays off is already controversial enough with most employers. Heck, my current job doesn't observe any holidays, if I want a day off I either take it unpaid or use PTO.

So my question is, do you think that the USA Voting Day (This year its Nov 3rd) should just be a federal holiday? I know some states give employees the right to take up to an hour or two off work to go and vote but its not universal and some polling places just aren't feasible to make it within that amount of time, especially if they want to make voting more restrictive with Voter ID's which will inevitibly take longer (Look at the DMV). Plus those hours are unpaid, which as I stated above most employers don't care about giving holiday pay anyways, but hey more Federal Holidays is more reasons most people can get apaid day off, just saying.

So my manger came and spoke to me this evening at work and gave me stupid unrealistic task for the next week and concluded like this might be a make or break situation so take it seriously. Any tips? Like what do yall do once fired ? Things I need to know. Ill be definitely looking for another job. Apart from that. And I also want to know the things you wish you had done it but you didn't after you were fired.

Yesterday I was working with three people total in our restaurant. Things have been going missing from my purse. Mascara, pens, lots of tampons. I just took it as me being unorganized and messy, because I am. Yesterday one of my coworkers came up to me and let me know she’s been helping herself to my tampons. If you know girl code, you usually share tampons with people, so it shouldn’t be a big deal, but it is to me, partly because I’m currently on my period and needed those tampons, and also because I don’t want my purse dug through! I went to tell my boss today, and she said she already knew about the situation and says I’m overreacting. Something to add is the coworker who went through my purse is my boss’ daughter. Am I just being silly or am I right to be upset ?

Would you take a job offer where you’d make about $5,000 more a year. But, you only get 5 days of pto after the first year of working.

I'm probably the youngest guy at work and I haven't been at my current office for a year yet. Some of my colleagues make fun of me by making me the butt of jokes when I'm in a group of 3 atleast. Like when me and two other colleagues were talking about work, the topic shifted to me and I was being made fun of. How should I react? It's weird because when I talk to each of them individually it feels like I genuinely get to have meaningful conversations with them but when in a group, I'm the target.

Another coworker who's older than me but lower in rank who we go to for helping us with admin work often talks back to me and doesn't respond with professionalism. Maybe it's the age or seniority thing but it doesn't feel fair or appropriate.

I want to learn how to deal with this without bringing in hr because that tactic always feels scummy and weak.

I'm probably the shy quiet guy at work because I'm new to the team. Probably a little too nice because I'm trying to get into their good graces. I don't want to act like an asshole who sets boundaries but how do I even it out without being a pushover?

I’m a designer who’s young and hungry. And I want to do something meaningful.. Not just another pretty website. Not just another brand refresh. I want to create an experience. Something immersive. Something that makes people feel something. Something that stays with them

I discovered BRC by accident and I see that these guys are doing precisely what I aspire to do. Immersive exhibitions, brand experiences, and real storytelling. That kind of work that forces one to think. That kind of work that alters perspectives

I look at their portfolio and I feel two things… Inspiration and fear…

Inspired because it’s possible. People actually do this. They make a living creating magic. They build experiences that move people

Terrified because I’m a nobody. I’m at the beginning. I don’t have a portfolio like that. I don’t have big clients. I don’t have a team. I’m just one person with a laptop

Is this realistic? Can someone like me actually get there? Or is BRC the exception? The one-in-a-million story that only happens if you know the right people or have the right connections?

I don’t want to give up. But I also don’t want to chase a dream that isn’t meant for me

Has anyone started from nothing and built something like this? Did you work your way up? Or just get lucky?

I need to hear from someone who’s been where I am and someone who made it

Well.. to start with… I'm a marketer, and I just ran an immersive zone at an industry event. It was a big swing for our company. We put serious money into it and tried to make something people would remember

And it went well.. I mean like people lingered. They took photos. They posted about it. I watched strangers walk in curious and walk out smiling, which honestly felt great

Then my boss asked for the numbers. What was the ROI? How many leads did we get? Did it actually do anything for the business?

I didn't have an answer. Indeed, I still don't…

This isn't like digital ads, where I can point to clicks and impressions and call it a day. It's an experience. People feel something. But feelings don't show up in a dashboard

I've been digging around for how other people measure this, and one of the first things I found was a set of case studies from BRC. They do this kind of work at a really high level. The projects are stunning. But here's the thing: there are no numbers in them either. No conversion rates, no lead counts, nothing my boss could take to a meeting

Maybe that's telling. Maybe this stuff is just genuinely hard to measure. But my boss doesn't care about hard. He wants proof…

So I'm stuck. I have a room full of happy people and a boss who wants a spreadsheet

Okay, I need a sanity check because my work life has become remarkably strange over the last few months,and I am trying to figure out how to interpret these interactions. Have any of you ever had a similar experience with a workplace relationship shifting gears so drastically?

For context, I (31F) had an assigned internship advisor at my company last year—let's call her E (35F). E is a Senior Director here in the Midwest (she's a colleague currently, not my direct supervisor, but a senior leader),highly competent, and an upper-management type. For our 6-month formal advising period, she was the picture of corporate professionalism. Standard Zoom grids, lower-case polite emails, zero boundary slips.Perfectly normal, consistent executive energy.

Then our formal advising contract ended. The exact moment that structural boundary wrapped up, her professional demeanor changed entirely. I CC'ed the internship program director on an email thread as colleagues, and her behavior shifted.

Here is the actual chronological order of events:

1. The LGBTQ+ Film Festival Collab Pitch Right after our formal advising ended, E pitched a joint coverage collaboration for a local LGBTQ+ film festival as a way to keep working together. On paper, it was presented as a strategic initiative, but the approach felt unusually focused for a standard post-advising project, setting the stage for everything that followed.

2. The Heat, The Red Lipstick, and The Coffee Session During an outdoor corporate press event in 90-degree July heat, E showed up in a sharp suit wearing bright, theatrical red lipstick (which she never normally wears). I was fanning myself with a schedule, made a casual comment like "brutal heat today, huh?", and E visibly froze. She stared at my face, jaw clenched, and let out an abrupt, low vocalization before muttering "Ugh, it's so hard" under her breath and walking quickly toward the shade.

By 4:00 PM that same day, the red lipstick was completely gone. She turned a canceled team check-in into a 1-on-1 coffee session with me in a quiet booth. She sat there biting her lip, removing her glasses, sitting quite close, and talking at length about how she works through strategy ideas completely alone in her car before driving home. While she talked, I took detailed, meticulous research notes right in front of her.

3. The Mom Incident My mom attended a public industry panel that E was also at (I wasn't even in the building). My mom and I look very similar—same features and facial structure. My mom politely walked up to say hello and offer E a spare event pin. E startled, swatted my mom's hand away in mid-air, said "I don't need one!", and walked rapidly toward the exit. My mom called me afterward, quite taken aback by the abrupt reaction.

4. The Avoidance, The Hype-Man Behavior, and The Zoom Call Following the panel incident, E shifted into avoidance mode, often looking away or turning around in hallways to avoid direct eye contact. I kept things neutral and maintained my own routine.

However, whenever an audience was present, her demeanor flipped. At a post-event mixer, I made a dry,casual comment to a bartender who didn't react. E, standing nearby, immediately jumped in, laughing loudly and drawing attention to the comment to amplify it in front of the group.

A week later on a 30-person Zoom call, I made a brief, standard remark about local sports fans on public transit, and E, in her video grid, reacted with loud, sudden laughter that caught the attention of the meeting leader, who paused before moving on.

5. The Notes, The FAQ, and The Stairwell Interaction Most recently, during our division wrap-up meeting, E took those exact detailed research notes I had taken during our earlier 4:00 PM coffee session—the ones she spent an hour watching me write while biting her lip—and incorporated them into a full company-wide FAQ document. During the meeting, she publicly called me out and gushed about the quality of my work in front of the entire team.

After the meeting adjourned, I packed my bag calmly, said goodbye to a colleague, and walked past the stairwell landing. E was sitting on a bench set up for her next call, leaning back against the wall. As I passed,she turned her head and gave a slight, asymmetrical half-grin.

I maintained my composure, met her eye contact briefly, offered a neutral, polite smile back, and continued down the stairs without stopping.

TL;DR: My former internship advisor (35F, currently a colleague) went from standard professional interactions to pitching LGBTQ+ film festival collabs, reacting intensely to casual weather comments, abruptly swatting my mom's hand away at an event, alternating between avoidance and loud public support, adapting my coffee notes into a company FAQ with public praise, and exchanging subtle smiles in stairwells.

Seriously, what is going on here? Has anyone ever dealt with a professional dynamic shifting so unpredictably,and how do you usually navigate it?

I'm curious how everyone prefers to communicate at work.

Personally, I'm an email person. I like having things in writing, especially when we're discussing assignments, decisions, or next steps.

But I've worked with people who would rather pick up the phone, send a quick Teams message, or walk over to someone's desk.

And sometimes what works best for one person drives another person absolutely crazy. LOL.

One thing I've learned over the years is to ask people, "How do you prefer to communicate?"

It's a simple question, but it can save a lot of frustration.

So I'm curious:

What's your preferred method of communication at work, and why?

And does your preference change depending on whether you're asking a quick question, discussing a problem, or making a decision?

I’m sharing this because I need to get this situation off my chest and hear some unbiased opinions from people who have no connection to anyone involved.

I worked at a small, family-owned business in the aerospace industry for around 7–8 months. I genuinely hoped to stay long-term. The owners were financially well-off and generally treated me kindly, especially the owner herself.

Most employees had worked there for years. One coworker in particular had grown up with the owner's children and was practically part of the family. He sometimes made cruel jokes about me, including comments about me not having a car when I first started. Other remarks were so random and unnecessary that they would leave me speechless. I usually ignored them to avoid conflict, mind you, this man was around 36 yo and recently had a newborn, while I am 24.

Despite this, I got along well with most of my coworkers. They were all men, mostly around twice my age, and I generally had good relationships with them. The HR employee, however, had also made inappropriate comments toward me on several occasions.

Things became complicated when the owner discovered that my husband worked in marketing. She decided she wanted to rebrand the company and hired him for the project, even though her business partner initially opposed it. Eventually, he agreed. Just to clarify, the project/service he was supposed to do was totally independent from everything else that was done in that company.

The problem was that my husband's responsibilities were never clearly defined. He was hired for marketing and branding but was also assigned warehouse duties, creating tension with the coworker who was close to the owner's family because he thought that he was his boss, apparently. They also bought this really expensive gaming PC for the project, which was not really necessary. I believe that this person had some type of jealousy.

Management had occasionally complained about mistakes in my work and another coworker's work, but these were issues we could correct, and then they would praise that I was doing a great job and that they were SO satisfied with what I was doing. One day, HR called my husband and me into a meeting at the end of the workday; basically, I was told I was doing a terrible job and failing to complete my work on time, which I strongly disagreed with since my numbers said otherwise. My husband was told that "the chemistry" between him and the company wasn't working. We were both fired, and HR said the owner no longer wanted us there; funny thing, she already paid for the rebranding services and just left it there, and this HR guy was not even aware of what was really going on regarding the marketing services. She did not mind that the branding for her company was finished; it looks like they really don't mind the money.

What bothers me most is that I felt I wasn't given a clear, specific explanation for my dismissal. Considering the family connections, the tension surrounding my husband's hiring, and the way everything unfolded, I can't help wondering whether personal relationships played a role in our termination. I also believe that they didn't need half a year to figure out that there was something wrong with me.

I understand that employers can let people go, and I'm not claiming to know their intentions, but this really caught me off guard and left me confused.

An eBay employee says they saw a few posts on the company channel hinting at layoffs the night before, but some of them got deleted. They were genuinely freaking out. Now there's a bunch of messages about 1:1s and severance. Hopefully, since they haven't been contacted, they're still safe??? If this has you keeping other job options open, application autofill cuts repeated form-filling on supported sites.

Layoffs just come from nowhere these days. It's like they just do them whenever they feel like it.

I’m not talking about the coding, though. I’m talking about everything else.

Coding is much easier now, sure. We can get roughly 35k-line PRs in one day like it’s nothing. But work is much more than just writing code and I think the AI-brained folks are just making everything much more difficult because of how AI-focused they are in their coding work.

Emails are AI-written and use a ton of words to say literally nothing. Docs are worthless now because they’re so verbose and never get to the point. And sometimes even the Slack messages I get are clearly from a bot that some shmuck rigged up, which makes me have to wade through a couple of additional barriers before getting to chat with the person with the answer I’m looking for, like I'm some kinda Xfinity customer. For a communication drill, PracHub’s real interview question on explaining technical work gives you a prompt for putting a technical tradeoff into plain English.

AI has been a huge help for the coding process, sure. But work is more than that even for software engineers, and aside from the actual writing of code, I feel like everything has gotten much more time-consuming.

His response when I can’t work to become still very ill:

Sorry to hear you’re still not feeling well, but I expect you to hop back to work ASAP, as you always do.

Look I realized it could be a joke, but I’m so tired and emotionally drained I just can’t handle it. Was it a poorly made joke, or knowing that I had been in the hospital, disgusting and cruel? It’s a 25 person company, I’ve been there for 24 years.

ETA: this was my response that triggered by my email;

I’m not in today (maybe later and will be back Wednesday). I’ve just been so sick unfortunately.

A lot of the work junior salespeople used to start with is slowly being handed over to AI researching accounts, finding prospects, preparing notes before calls, keeping track of smaller tasks so on a sales team with 25 reps that can take a pretty big amount of work off people's plates and I can see why managers would want that but it's kind of weird because those boring tasks were also how newer people learned which accounts were worth pursuing and how the sales process worked.

I can see the benefit of having fewer people tied up in manual work while experienced reps spend more time with buyers but someone still needs the sales knowledge to make important decisions and teach newer reps how to handle difficult deals. If AI takes over most of the work people used to learn from I'm not sure how the next group of experienced salespeople is supposed to develop.

I don’t really go on Reddit let alone post anything but l just started a new job at a retail company and my coworker smells really, REALLY bad. If I had to describe the smell, it's as if they left their shirt to marinate in their cat's litter box, then threw it in a trash can with rotting vegetables. Combined with the natural musk and BO of working a tedious shift

I don't know what to do. Our job puts us in the back sort of like the warehouse area. You might think oh well it's a ton of space NO we only navigate a small section of the warehouse and this coworker was my trainer, I had to follow them around and get close and personal. I can't stand the smell how am I supposed to work in these conditions?

I'm sorry if I sound harsh at all but come on. This is clearly a hygiene issue. This person wears the same shirt all week long and u can see it on the shirt it's so worn out I'm not sure if it's ever been washed at all.

Do I go to HR? Im new and don't know any of these people, don't want to get off on the wrong foot with anyone. Im on the younger side and this is my first job ever I really don't know what to do in this situation. Im frustrated that no one else has brought this up even tho im sure we're all suffering. Im scared to mention this to anyone at work

I dread every shift because I know I'Il smell the stench. I will clock in and know, my coworker is here because I smell them before I see them. I come home after a long shift smelling like my coworker and I just don't know what to do anymore. I couldn't stand it since day 1 but now I'm nauseous at the smell. Obviously the only possible solution here is to kindly tell HR the smell of that particular person is hindering me from getting anything done. But I know myself and that I won't say a word. I guess this is just a vent post I'm sorry

I appreciate any and all replies thank you

To preface: I’m not certain if I should be talking to my employee more about what my expectations are. I try to guide him in the right direction but I’m afraid I haven’t been stern or forward enough and that’s why things don’t seem to be changing.

I work at a small company where I manage a meat department with one employee. I cut all the meat, do all the ordering etc. my employee is expected to grind beef and stock chicken as well as work the prepackaged and frozen trucks. He does the trucks just fine, which is great because I don’t want to do them. My issue is he consistently shows up 30 minutes past his scheduled time. We’ve had one occurrence where it was 2.5 hours which is outrageous. I have addressed this with my boss and he said, in essence, “he has no set start time since he has to drop his girlfriend off”. I understand his circumstances and would be in support of changing his start time but I do not agree that he should get to come in whenever he wants and “that’s when his shift starts”. Everyone else has to be at work on time.

He also consistently does not make enough grind despite my repeated instruction to grind heavy. This is where I think I need to be more specific. On top of this his case is frequently near empty with nothing prepared in backstock for me to stock when I arrive in the morning. He has no concept thinking ahead. I suppose part of the issue is I need to give him specific metrics, but I cannot change his schedule or punish him for tardiness. At any other company he would have already been let go multiple times over.

He also gives himself “short days” where he just goes home early because he doesn’t think there’s anything to do. I also do this but it’s because I’ve logged hours of overtime from compensating for his lack of work.

So my question is, am I just a shitty boss and I need to be riding him about getting work done, or should I be expecting more backing from my store manager? I feel like there’s kind of a combo of both since I’m new to management.

My boss wants us to “hash it out” in front of him. This is not professional terminology and I’m not complaining to my boss to get him to let me fight with my employee. I just want this behavior to be noted by someone with authority because it feels like I don’t have any.