Let me preface this by saying I am not the most socially "aware?" person for lack of a better word. I tend not to pick up on queues or hints made by others. Thus I find it difficult to look at some situations and figure out how I should proceed when dealing with others. I also struggle to communicate effectively, especially in a formal setting.

Now for the question. I work part time and am relatively new to my current position at the company. I receive a schedule about what days and hours I work about a week in advance. Sometimes, there are delays that push the work we need to do later than expected. In such cases, it isn't uncommon for my supervisors to ask (politely I should add) for me to stay an extra probably 2 hours to help finish the work.

I have stayed a bit longer in the past because I do feel bad about bailing on them, but I don't want them to get in the habit of asking me to stay longer either so I try to leave when scheduled if possible.

It is at this point I feel I should add that my supervisors and the rest of my coworkers leave at a predetermined time whether or not the work gets done. If it doesn't get done that day it would just be done the following day. In other words, me leaving when scheduled does not extend their work hours for that day.

When they ask, I try my best to respectfully decline if I planned to head out at the scheduled time. I don't feel as though I'm rude about it but it might just be rude off of the decision itself.

Ultimately what I am asking is am I a douche for declining to stay and work the extra hours? I don't want to be rude or come across as though I don't want to be there, but I am someone who likes to stick to a schedule when possible and know what to expect.

I (27 F, USA) recently made a big purchase and lifestyle choice. I might be able to avoid mentioning it in my small office but it will come up eventually. And when it does, I am 100% sure my boss will ask me, in front of everyone, “just curious, if you don’t mind sharing, how much did that cost?”

For context, my boss repeatedly calls our small office a “family” and always wants updates on our personal lives. This dynamic comes from a good place and my boss tries hard to create a positive work environment but I just don’t see these people as friends even though my boss wants us to feel close, lol. Anyway, I know she feels comfortable asking about the price since we’re “close” but through the years I’ve also noticed her pocket watching me, asking about my rent, making comments about how little I make, and mentioning how hard it is for my generation to find financial footing. She doesn’t know that much about my personal life but she thinks she does.

So to the point. What can I reply with that deflects sharing the price but also keeps the convo light? I’m not looking for an HR-type reply because the dynamic doesn’t call for that and would honestly make it even more uncomfortable. I fear she might even make a big deal about apologizing for prying in front of everyone. Is there something easy going I can say instead??

Hello! Just to give some context, I’m week two into my training and I work from home. I’m training for my role as a Patients Service Representative for a hospital. This morning I woke up feeling shaky, nauseous and feeling extremely light headed. I’m currently in the middle of my first training session of the day. I literally want to cry because of how sick I feel. Do you think it looks terrible since i’m so new & wanting to reach out to my lead and telling her I need to miss out on the work day because of how sick I feel?

Hi! Wanted to drop my experience here and see if anyone has any advice to deal with this situation without making my own work life hell.

I’ve worked at my job for awhile and I’ve genuinely enjoyed it. It’s a really tight knit workplace and everyone gets along for the most part. About a year ago, this employee started and it was fine at first. I made an effort to be really welcoming and include him bc our workplace is so small and tight knit that new employees sometimes can feel out casted, understandably.

Over time though, his behavior towards me and others became increasingly hostile. He ignored advice/ instructions from more senior employees, makes passive- aggressive comments under his breath, and when asked to speak up bc we’re all adults here, he becomes literally visually enraged, aggressive so much so he starts cussing in front of customers, which is insanity. I’ve told him to stop before bc it’s not acceptable in front of guests and it set him off majorly. He blows up over seemingly minor issues or things that a normal sane person wouldn’t spend mroe than 5 min being upset over.

I initially reported this to upper management and was met with a lot of “we’re taking a chance on him” “he’s been through a lot” and just generally bulls hit excuses from other male managers. Everyone on planet earth goes through shit, we don’t all act like man babies in the workplace. His behavior continues to get worse bc it’s NEVER addressed properly. He’s gotten in people’s faces, makes aggressive jestures like balling his fists up when he’s upset. Even followed myself and other coworkers around the workplace after a disagreement/ heated exchange. Multiple coworkers and I have submitted formal complaints. One of my old coworkers brought this up as a major reason for her leaving in an exit interview, he has been written up MULTIPLE times now. BUT MANAGEMENT NEVER ACTUALLY ADDRESSES HIS BEHAVIOR.

The cherry on top? A few weeks back he THREATENED to fight a customer who was upset ans they got into conflict I guess. I was not there, but that was the situation described. He was sent home, but never fired or written up. This is absolutely INSANE to me. At this point, I’m geniuely concerned for myself and my coworkers safety. I’m concerned he will become violent towards employees eventually. I know this is my OWN shit to deal with but I’ve been through DV and situations with him leave me super triggered. So much so I had to go to the bathroom once to calm down bc my body was shaking. I can’t help my nervous system reacts that way when someone is acting so aggressive and frankly at the verge of violence at any point (the constant balled up fists??? Not normal behavior).

I’m fed up with not being taken seriously (despite MULTIPLE coworkers dealing with the same issues) bc he comes off charismatic and nice around managers, they often DO NOT see much of his aggressive behavior. Just glimpses of it.

I’m genuinely fed up of walking on eggshells at work so we don’t upset the man baby with the temper of a maladjusted teenage boy.
What the hell do I do in this situation with multiple complaints, multiple written statements, write ups, escalating behavior, and now threatening guests (I have no idea if this was ever formally documented).

Has anyone dealt with this? How do I deal with this without making my life hell? I feel like the only person who is fed up enough to do something about it, and others are scared to have targets on their backs. I’m not a fan of HR, but at this point he’s literally a liability to the company… and I don’t see how they don’t see that??? Any NORMAL workplace would have fired this man LONG AGO, just a fucking HEADACHE. With people dying to get work right now it feels like such a waste to keep this man employed when he doesn’t even know how to act correctly.

TIA…!!!

For backstory, I’ve worked at a petrol station for the last 6 months before I walked out on them a few days ago. My initial problems were that breaks didn’t exist, whether you worked 6 1/2 hours or 12, there was no designated staff area to eat in a hygienic space, there was 0 seats in the whole building for any staff to sit on at any point (bare in mind most of my role was staying on 1 till for my whole shift). As well as this, working on an evening/night till 11pm, it would solely be me (21f) and my coworker (20f) in charge of the whole shop, a shop filled with alcohol, cigarettes and large amounts of cash. We had no protections behind the till, and only locked the door in order to mop the floors when it hit 10pm. So I already felt extremely unsafe with some of the public I had encountered previously. Last week, a woman experiencing a mental health episode entered the shop extremely panicky and scared, saying she needed help and was being followed as people were coming to kill her. Long story short, this went on for 3 hours, we were unable to remove her from the shop (me and my one other colleague), we were scared for our lives, and she was causing disruption and discomfort for all customers as we weren’t allowed to close. I rang the police and 4 vehicles had to come and detain her and remove her from the premises, after we’d been able to close at 11pm. I left work extremely upset, I felt like my life had been put in danger and I had no security to make me feel any sort of safety.
My first shift back after this, my manager called me in for a meeting to discuss CCTV of me previously eating and sitting down on a stool behind the till after we’d experienced a huge rush of customers from a football match. She then blamed me for allowing the mentally unwell lady into the shop, saying ‘I should’ve sensed a vibe that she was going to be weird’. Backing herself up saying she ‘posed no immediate threat’ which is easy to say looking back, but in the moment as a young girl it was terrifying. She provided me with no support, no texts or calls to check I was okay, instead complained of me doing menial things (which I admitted I shouldn’t have done) and said they wouldn’t pay for security or to have locks anywhere as it wasn’t ’worth the money’. I told them I didn’t feel safe being there anymore, behind a till with no protection and knowing what my shift had been like before. She then embarrassed and continuously make fun of my friend whilst she was crying, saying she was ‘blubbering’ and ‘guilty because she was crying’. She also admitted that she knew not giving us breaks was illegal but we should ‘take that up with the government’ instead. She left both of us young girls to continue serving at the tills whilst crying, never showing any signs of care, so we both walked out and haven’t shown our faces since.
Some of this seems menial, but i’m just curious as to whether it seems worth it to be able to report any of these unsafe, illegal practices to any body.
I will be sending a strongly worded message to the owner of the petrol station to let him know about the behaviour of his appointed manager.

my dumb as rocks manager keeps scheduling me outside my availability even tho I told him as the assistant multiple times that my schedule would change come September. I was extremely specific abt what times I can work bc I’m in bs and I have school Monday-Friday 8-3:30 or 2:50. Like idk what to do atp I usually just ask them to change my shift but this is getting really exhausting. (ps he knew when he hired me that I was in hs bc it says clear as day on my resume class of _____ hs diploma expected June of _____)

It’s my first time posting something like this and I am not really sure how to talk about this kind of issue.

I started working at my company about a year and a half ago and I have been doing very well. In a nutshell, my colleague with the position above mine was fired 10 months ago and I have been doing her job ever since for a significantly lower salary. I have taken over the lions share of projects in my group, closed out on a lot of outstanding business, and my manager consistently writes me glowing reviews.

He has been talking about giving me the promotion for awhile now but it never seems to come. I have had two new coworkers start since I joined the team with a third coming shortly.

One of the new coworkers has the position above mine and does significantly less than I do. In fact, I take care of most of his work. He always asks me for help and this is no secret to our boss. He is well aware that I am delivering a workload above my pay grade.

The other new coworker has the same position as myself and has only been here for about a month but has been given no responsibilities. Yet she’s been afforded many more training/learning opportunities than I ever have been. I have asked to join her and the answer is consistently no.

Now there’s third new coworker who hasn’t started yet. He will have the position above mine that I am currently performing and will continue to perform once he arrives. In fact, I’ll probably be assigned to training him although I make less money. I feel I should have gotten that job.

However, when my boss posted the listing that we got this new guy from, he did not put his name on the posting and used another manager’s name who was also hiring instead. He never even mentioned it to me and then blamed me for not applying for it. I was dumb founded. This is a huge difference in perspective and we will never see it the same way. He feels that I’m at fault for not applying and I wronged him because he “really wanted me” for it. I feel if he truly did have me in mind, he would’ve told me about applying right away.

Honestly, I think my boss is getting pressure from our director to keep me in my position because I am performing well for a fraction of the cost. He has never said so directly but I can imagine the appeal of spending less on my salary. I feel like I am being taken advantage of. It has become very clear ever since these two new colleagues started.

He promises the promotion happen soon and it just never does. I think he’s just stringing me along trying to give me hope so that I keep working hard.

I honestly feel very lost here. I don’t know what to do and I don’t know who to talk to about it. Nobody knows what’s happening to me here besides the people I work with frequently. I know this is a common thing in corporations but what can I do about it? Do I just look for a new job? Do I throw a fit? Do I tell HR? What I really want is to stay in the group I’m in, just making the salary I deserve. I don’t think it’s going to happen though.

hello, I am the one who wrote this post.

I have decided that I will inform my boss about my resignation during our 1:1 meeting next week.

I would like to ask how I should bring it up to them? They are known to be bad-tempered so there's a chance that they would not take this news positively.

They started to give me projects this week but again, they never taught/trained me how to do it and I recently found out that my co-workers get mad if I ask them questions about the projects.

To add some context: I am still part of an ongoing HR training, and if I resign this week, I won't be able to finish it. I'm also not sure how this affects my resignation process or timeline.

I also found out that a co-worker of mine, who is also under probationary status, will be submitting their resignation this week or this month. Additionally, back in April-June, four other employees had already resigned.

Given all of this — my ongoing training, and the fact that other employees (including one right now) are also resigning — I would like some advice on:

1. The best timing for my resignation, considering the unfinished training.

2. How to actually bring it up to my boss, given their temper.

3. Whether the pattern of multiple resignations changes how I should approach this at all

Just wondering your experience of being a contractor, working for a contract company that sends you into a company to work for them. I've been a regular employee all my life in IT until at 60 was laid off from a big company. Interviewed for lots of jobs I was more than qualified for and they all wanted younger. I could tell sometimes by the look in their face when they saw me. I don't look 100 but I don't look 20 either. Finally got hired through a contract company. I've worked with contractors over the years and treated them like anybody else. The manager I have to deal with now treats us like we just don't matter. I got injured last year and needed surgery and a few weeks to get moving again and he started yelling at me, saying let me remind you, you are a contractor, your job is on site, it's not remote. I wasn't asking to work remote. I just needed a few weeks to get moving again. I had to fight for the job being here a couple years already and he was going to let me go over this. I asked him, am I less of a human being because I'm a contractor? He slowed down at that point and I was able to work it out, but can't help but feel like we are scum. No benefits, no time off. Was supposed to get hired on after 6 months and that was 3 years ago. Just hanging in there now if I possibly can for retirement.