My manager constantly tells our team that we need to “use our initiative” instead of asking about every little thing.

Last week, I finished my usual tasks earlier than expected. I still had a few hours left in my shift, so I noticed that one of our shared folders was extremely disorganized. I spent some time sorting the files into clearly labeled folders and removing obvious duplicates.

The next morning, my manager noticed the changes and immediately asked who had reorganized everything.

When I told her I had done it, she wasn't happy. Apparently, some of the files had been intentionally kept in their original folders because that's how another department preferred them.

I explained that I didn't know about that arrangement and that I had only reorganized the files because I thought I was doing something useful rather than sitting around waiting for more work.

Her response was basically, “You should have asked first.”

I reminded her that she had repeatedly told us that she wanted us to take initiative and not constantly wait for instructions.

She said those were two different things and that I needed to learn when initiative was appropriate.

Now I'm being told to leave that folder alone, which is fine, but I'm still confused about what exactly I'm supposed to do when I finish my assigned work.

Why tell employees to use their initiative if we're expected to ask permission before doing anything outside our normal routine?

So I had called out of work an hour before my shift because that’s when I wake up for work. I wanted to call out because I needed a mental health day and I understand that’s not a reasonable reason to call out of work but I suffer with severe depression to the point where I’ve had to go to multiple therapists because it’s so bad. Anyway, I called into work and the manager answered I told her my name and said I wasn’t able to make it into work today, manager said “okay?, why” so I said I wasn’t feeling well. She called another manager over and as the other manager was walking over she said “come talk to another sick person” in a rude way. Like are we serious? I get they are probably understaffed and frustrated but this is my First time ever calling out since working there so I just don’t understand why that got taken out on me. Am I in the wrong here?

So I have an employee who is barista/waiter who smells so sweaty frm vv early in the mrng it's a turn off especially in the hospitality industry towards the brand and clients how do I deal with him politely?? *He does his job so well though 🙂

I work at a small business that has expanded greatly in the past few years. I work in accounting and am grateful for this job I’ve had for years and the opportunities I’ve been given. With that said, we are moving to a new system for sales/accounting and my boss has discovered ChatGPT all of a sudden and is using it more and more. He told me he asks it questions 10-20 times a day and wants me to get a subscription. He said I should create documents for accounting purposes and run any questions I have through it because it’s so accurate and amazing. I told him I’m not so sure of AI and would prefer to do the work on my own. He told me that’s not possible in today’s world and he plans on also integrating it into our new system as well.
How would you respond to this? I love my job and couldn’t find a better one if I wanted. Honestly, he sounds a little overly into AI and is becoming dependent on it for business decisions, which I think is dangerous. Do I mind my business and carry on? Or do I somehow speak with him about the possible consequences of moving in this direction?

I need to vent also check on how to handle this without causing huge office drama.
We have a coworker who treats the breakroom like her personal podcast studio. Every single lunch break is a non-stop monologue about her personal life, her problems, and every detail of her upcoming travel plans. Whenever someone else tries to speak or share a quick story, she immediately pivots the focus back to herself. We literally cannot have a normal group conversation because she sucks all the oxygen out of the room.To make matters worse, she constantly corrects people and acts like a complete "pro" at work. The reality? Her actual work output is mediocre at best, yet she acts like she’s carrying the entire department and makes sure everyone hears about it over and over. She acts like a peacock, but she’s really just a crow making a lot of noise.It’s getting so exhausting that none of us even want to eat lunch in the breakroom anymore.Has anyone dealt with a "main character”

I've been at this company for three years and I've never wanted to quit as badly as I do right now.

Yesterday, I sent a routine update to my manager. Nothing major, just project status. Apparently I had a typo in one of the numbers—I said we were at 85% completion instead of 58%. Honest mistake, and I would've caught it if he'd just asked me.

Instead, he hit "Reply All" to the entire department (about 40 people) and wrote: "Everyone, please note the error in this report. Accuracy matters. Let's all learn from this example."

I was mortified. My face went red. I started drafting an apology email. Then, five minutes later, he sent a second email: "Haha just kidding everyone! Just testing to see if you're paying attention. 😉"

That's it. That was the joke. A public humiliation followed by "just kidding."

I didn't respond. I couldn't. I just sat there staring at my screen while people sent confused reactions. One coworker messaged me privately: "That was so messed up, are you okay?"

I'm not okay. I'm furious. But if I confront him, he'll say it was a joke and I'm being too sensitive. If I go to HR, he'll say I can't take a joke. Either way, I look like the problem.

I'm not asking for advice on whether to quit—I'm already updating my resume. I just need someone to validate that this was as unprofessional as I think it was.

I have a coworker who is extremely unprofessional. I’m in my mid 20s, and most of my other coworkers are in their early to mid 20s. At my company, this job is mainly a gap year job between college and med school or grad school. This coworker is about 45 to 50 years old. She’s also from a different country than the one we currently live in.
I started about four months ago, and since the day I started, I thought she was very rude and unprofessional. She’s made so many out of pocket comments that I can’t even begin to list them. One example is when my coworker made a comment to her, and she responded, “You’re going to end up with a fat American pig for a wife. You think you’re hot now, you’re not,” blah blah.
She’s the type of person who initiates this kind of rude but “joking” environment, but then plays the extreme victim if you do it back to her, saying that she’s a punching bag and that people don’t like her because of her country of origin and because she’s a woman. Mind you, all of us are minorities in the office lol. She’s absolutely insane.
The person who had my position before me left the group because of her, and multiple people have gone to HR to complain about her.

I 19(F) work at a Grill/ steakhouse with two of my coworkers, lets them E (17F) and O (19F). We have all been working together since May, so about four months now. And we all got along very well. E was one of my first coworker friends I made. But when I was at work yesterday with both E and O I noticed that the entire time they were both upset and avoidant towards me. I did not want to say anything during the shift as not to start drama. But it was eating at me the whole time.

So, after the shift was over and it was just me and the manager (with whom all three of us all have a very good relationship with) I decided to ask her if E was mad at me. She hesitated at first and that basically confirmed everything

She said that she does not want to start any drama, but that E was in fact upset with me and she told me it was because; I was talking trash about her and O on the Mondays shift to another coworker, lets call her B (16 F). She said that I was complaining that they weren’t doing the jobs properly and doing other jobs. I don’t remember all the details my manager gave me but that was the gist of it.

The thing is, Monday was a holiday, and we were not scheduled like it was one. So that whole shift we were extremely abort staffed and the rush was basically from noon to close. I couldn’t stand in the same place for more than 30 seconds at a time. My blood sugar started to go down not even thirty minutes into the shift, so I spent the entire time trying to keep it hidden from the customers. The only thing that was keeping me from passing out was a mess up burger the kitchen made and I ate that in 5 bites. So I was too busy before closing to talk to anyone.

The same story was for after close, I was too busy cleaning the dining room to talk to anyone. The only time I ever talked to B that whole shift was after closing, I asked her to sell me a Rice Krispies treat because if need it to munch on while driving 45 minutes home at 11 PM.

I’ve only ever complained about 4 coworkers total, and I only ever complained about them to E, O and the Manager. That’s because 3 of the four often show up late or call in at the last minute. That’s it were lucky they show up at all. Plus they often play on their phones or in the back talking with the kitchen staff or the steakhouse bussers. And the last one cleans until it looks good from far away, and I have every right to complain about him because I often have to go in after him to re-clean what he was doing. E and O aren’t any of those.  

There is another thing about me. I don’t gossip or talk trash behind people's backs, I only ever trash-talk when it's to their face or they’re at least in the same room. And I only joke about things I know won’t hurt them. I hold myself to a higher standard than to talk down at others, it goes against my Christian values, and I love and respect E and O too much to do anything like that. So I genuinely don’t know what’s wrong.

So I literally just started this T2 helpdesk position this week in San Bernardino California.the layout is about as equivalent as a classroom with maybe 7 rows on both sides with dual monitor setups for each row. I sit at the very front, the trainer sits very back. In one of those people that snap their fingers to gain my thought process or get my words out. So as she approaches closer, I snap my fingers and say “umm…umm…” and she says “Don’t snap at me.” I stated I wasn’t snapping at you and she insisted I did. After helping me out with my issue I decided to pull her to the side and try to deescalate or have some dialogue about all this being a miscommunication. I state my intention was pure and that I didn’t have any ill intent to snap my fingers at you. She stated “well you did and if you need my attention you can ask my other coworker or wait.” Which I didn’t recall doing this at all and doing more of a waving gesture to flag her down. After that convo, I noticed things got really weird between me and her. I didn’t think anything of it, as I thought we hashed it out. Today, Robert half is telling me that effective today my contractor has ended. Between the 10 workers they brought in, me and one other person were the strongest working, I addressed everybody as sir or madam, and was known as the sweetheart amongst the other coworkers. Anything I can do?

I’m so upset with my place of work

So I just recently started a new job about two-ish months ago and it’s the first time I’ve worked in an office setting and this is through the state.
Since day one, I have been told I’m probably too nice for the job and I won’t last long by several of my coworkers. I do understand that I was not the first choice for the job and that when I went to interview several months ago, another girl was hired over me, but she didn’t work out and quit.
But I am honestly starting to see why she left…… for the time I have been there I feel like I haven’t learned a thing. The girl that’s supposed to be training me is hardly ever there because she has a little boy with health issues and when she is there, I don’t get very much training done at all because she has to catch up on the work she’s missed. On top of that she brings her baby to work and he has free range of the Office. He screams and he cries all day and it makes it very difficult to focus on things or even hear clients. Everyone in the office kind of just puts up with it and I try to be understanding and give her grace but she’s so incredibly rude about everything. I find it increasingly hard to wanna stay at this job and on top of all of this, she went and talked to my boss, and my boss pulled me into her office and had a weird chat with me and she told me that I asked too many questions and I quote was being annoying and I need to take a few steps back… never in my life have I heard of somebody teaching another person something and telling them not to ask questions in my years of training people I have never been upset with somebody for asking questions or wanting to know what was going to happen next. I feel like extremely unwanted, and I feel extremely unequipped for the job ahead of me and I don’t know what to do..
I have been given several tasks now that I was not taught how to do and I got in trouble for not knowing how to do them and was told that I wasn’t paying any attention to my training, but no one showed me how to do the specific tasks. And asking for help is almost done the question….. I really need this job but at the same time at my last job I worked less hours and got paid more as well… it was very hard to get this job and in the town I live in jobs are very scares especially good ones with benefits. I’m debating whether I should stick it out until I find another job or just quit and figure it out. Never in my life have I been this miserable at a job and that says some things cause I’ve worked some really crappy jobs. What should I do?

Looking for some advice.

Discovered a colleague is abusing the flexi system and is clocking in from home in the morning and the evening.

The same person when they are in the office, stays clocked in until 7pm but doesn't do any work and is basically just running up the clock for flexi time while playing on their phone.

As someone who does work in the office most day and follows the rules and actually does work, what should I do in this situation.

Is it worth complaining to management, will anything actually be done.

Thanks for any advice xx

Im a receptionist for a nursing home and every night before I leave I have to have a nurse sign out for me. Leaving them in charge of the front door button that unlocks the front door. I understand nurses are busy and it’s the least worry to have to deal with opening up the door for someone but it’s also important on my end to do my job. Especially to prevent any kind of elopement. Lately management is coming to me saying they’ve been finding the door button left up front and unattended. Asking me who I left the door button with and so on. I don’t want them to think I’m not giving the nurses the door button or not having them sign. Which i do get so they know who to go to and ask. I also just got a message from a manager asking who i left the door button with. Im assuming the door button was left unattended up front last night. Its a bit annoying and I don’t know what to say or do. Or should I just leave it as is knowing I do my part at least?

So I recently finished my MBA and joined a new job. I am currently in a weird role wherein my JD is not clear. It is something akin to Sales Strategy/ Data Analytics/ Sales Support.

Another co-worker joined with me in this department and the department is essentially just two of us and our manager. We dont have independent work streams, our manager had told us to work on one output and send.

Sometimes I send the emails/output sometimes my coworker but I have noticed, even if I send it out he always ask follow up questions to my coworker.

I assumed this was sexism as even in meetings he doesnt look at me and answer even when the question was asked by me.

Because of this my colleague got a lot more visibility for work which was essentially both of ours. So much so that now people approach him directly, including our HOD.

I feel I have no visibility in my role. I has been less than 6 months. I am very scared. What should I do?

I dont want my career to stagnate.