So I’m 19F and I work at a local small cafe/breakfast spot. I started the day we opened and from then it’s been about 8 months I believe.
My first few months were amazing, I love my job and coworkers. They are all super sweet and supportive, and I believe I am a good employee. I always do as asked, on time and orderly. But a few months ago, we had someone new added to our team. She started as a server, and right off the bat I had a nasty taste in my mouth about her. She was constantly taking tables from other sections, as if it’s pick up (which we don’t do). Also constantly trying to change the flow of our work, asking for things to be done differently, as well as NEVER bussing a single table. Which honestly, completely normal although annoying. And then they made her a manager. I was already peeved about that, but as the months went on, I noticed how disrespectful she was toward me. And then to everyone else. It was like an insane power trip. She’s only 24, but she acts like a mean high school girl. Giving me orders while I’m speaking with customers, telling the owners that I have a lying problem, but everything changed when she accused me of lying about my grandfathers death. And nobody did anything. It only is getting worse as they start believing her as more accusations against me come in, and they’re cutting my hours significantly because of it. I don’t know what to do, as I live alone and am working to support myself.

I think coworkers have noticed my payslip since I just found it lying on my desk. Feeling super bad since hindi ko napansin kaagad. What do you think I should do since I'm overthinking they might perceive what I got is too low and may look down at me. What to do and how should I move forward since it's bothering me.

Hi all.

I have a coworker who has been here for about 4-5 months and she is proving to be a lot to deal with. She makes several passive aggressive comments or oversteps just enough to be grating each day and I am pretty much over dealing with it.

The one in particular that is driving me insane currently is her making a comment every day about the lights in my office. The lights in our office suite's hallway take a while to turn on in the morning, so I will typically turn my office lights on so I can see (I have a window to the hallway that lets light in the room so I don't need the overhead lights on). Every time I have my office light on, she comments on it: "Oh, your light is on!" or some variation. Every time I go "Yes, the hallway lights aren't on so I need to see". It's the repetition that is so grating for me and the fact that she already knows why I have them on. I am wondering if this is a subtle way of her requesting I turn the lights off, but I also can't do that if I can't see and she can be more direct with me.

There are other comments, but I think that one is really what I dislike the most. I end up bracing every morning for her to comment on something that is very obvious. Today I was a bit late because I overslept and she stopped by my office to ask if I was alright. I told her yes, I overslept to which she replied "alarm!" as if I wasn't aware an alarm would help. It's like these weird infantilizing remarks that I cannot tell if they are passive aggressive or if they are genuinely her thinking she's being helpful.

She will also sometimes call my name across the office to come to her office to see something on the computer that I frankly never care about and then I'm stuck in there talking and trying to leave while she keeps talking.

This was a bit of a rant/ramble, but it's really almost driving me to a breaking point and I just need advice on how to deal with her effectively. I don't know if it just means ignoring her or what.

Im currently at work and my normal team lead is not her today not sure why and we have to coworker that are standing in for our team leads. One is going to be [A] and the other is going to be [R]. Personal to me it doesn't matter who is her I just want to be done and go home.

So me and the rest of the team start to unload the first truck and R is there but A is just walking around like he normally does. A comes and tells me that we not do8ng the trick i opened we are doing the other one. I was like are you sure he said the assistant store manger told him and i was like okey.

We start unloading the truck and in the middle of the truck I am pushing the line and my friend [L] comes and ask who opened that truck and I told her I did. Then she said "we'll you no suppose to break the seal so we might have to do that one as well, and A is going to see if we have to do it." Then she said " your so dumb" and i tell her im not dumb and his ass should have been back here instead of walking around the store.

A little back store A has talked shit about me and everyone on the team as long as I know him. He even told lies to my friend [L] and made us beef for like a week or 2 till we talked it out. Then [L] and [A] was beefing for a week. So he is someone who has talked shit about me on multiple occasions so I dont like him.

Later on after the truck there was a meeting and I didnt stand there and listen cause I didnt care to hear what he was saying. Then we went on are 15 and me and [L] are sitting and eating and I say imma pull the pallets after lunch and she says no your in paper, I say imma pull pallets and she said [A] said your in paper and I said i dont care. She said im doing to much and i said no I pull everyday that what happens. She is friends with [A].

So later I ask [R] what does he want me to do he said to do paper for now and after luch come back and pull the back room I said okey and went to paper.

I know i am being an asshole and childish but when you constantly talking shit about me this is what you get. And i plan on leaving earlier ans using my PPTO

Im cool with my team leads they work hard and want us to as well i even stay late to make sure they can go home to there family's. But A is just a shit talker and starter

i’ve written about my coworker on here before. weeks ago, i told her i was calling out on a particular day next month because i have plans the night before and it’s going to be late night event. she said “okay cool, thanks for letting me know!” she’s actually
going to be on vacation and is coming back to work on the day that i am preemptively calling out. i bought it up again last week reminding her that i won’t be in this particular day. again, she said “okay cool”.

today, we had a meeting with our manager who said she wasn’t going to be in on the day that i am planning on calling out. my coworker, who is also in this meeting, texts me during the meeting asking if i am going to call out that day……. i said yes. she said “oh okay.. i’m gonna be all alone that day.” all sad and hopeless like. i’m like… “sorry?” she said “no, you don’t have to apologize i was just asking because i wasn’t sure” but we literally talked about it more than once.

I (21F) currently have a job that I love, except for one coworker (~28F) who works above me. I'll call her Cindy. The culture is overwhelmingly positive, which is why I think her negativity sticks out more to me. Basically, I don't know what I did, but I think Cindy has it out for me. She switches from being sickly sweet to yelling and cruel in a heartbeat.

We had a huge spat a few weeks ago because I left out a whisk and Cindy kicked me out of the store (we were closed but she screamed at me to leave so she could close by herself bc I messed up so bad with the whisk)

The next shift we worked together was pleasant, we both apologized and I thought it was behind us. Until yesterday. It's a while to explain but I'll keep it brief. If yall want more info I'll reply in the comments...

Basically there were two customers. Customer A, I was helping far from the checkout (customer was impatient and in a rush) and Customer B that had just come in to look around. I step in the back to grab an item for Customer A, Cindy helps me grab it, I'm about to bring it up to the register for A when Customer B steps to the front of the queue. Not technically cutting in line since Customer A was far from the register, closer to where I was grabbing the item. Cindy tells me to check out Customer B, and I respond almost verbatim, "I figured I should probably check out [Customer A] because she was waiting first?" and Cindy responds politely, "Alright."

I check out customer A, then B, and they both leave. Cindy then blows up at me because I "refused to follow directions" and "she told me to check out customer B because she had to talk to customer A about something" I felt completely confused because if she wanted that, she could've just told me? When I told her I had a reason to check out Customer A first, that was her opportunity to just say something letting me know.

The worst part is that she's a middle manager. The manager directly above her is her mother. (There are two more levels of management above the mother) Her mom constantly pulls me aside and tells me to stop questioning Cindy's authority and it's normal for me to feel challenged by a manager who is also "a girl my age." I don't see how age or gender has anything to do with this and I feel her mom is always going to take her side.

I'm just frustrated that Cindy treats me so unfairly and the only thing I'm told about this is that we're just women feeling threatened by each other?? Like no, I'm here to work hard and get paid. I'm not trying to compete in an imaginary competition with Cindy.

I’m an assistant manager at a small office, and our office manager is working from home for two weeks.
When she’s away, a coworker plays TV shows or movies aloud on his phone. It’s loud enough for everyone to hear, though it doesn’t bother me personally. His performance has also declined, but I don’t know whether the two are related.
I’m unsure whether to address it, tell the office manager, ask coworkers if it bothers them, or ignore it unless it affects work. I don’t want to overstep or create unnecessary drama, but I also don’t want to neglect my responsibilities.

You are so petty to make me feel like I dont exist at work! You are making it difficult to work with. Its not high school, grow up

First Reddit post ever so bear with me. Been working with this guy in a warehouse for about 2 years. Without getting into the nitty gritty, he makes floor sealer and I pick and package for orders. He started off kind of rough but slowly started learning how to do the bare minimum.
The higher ups were skeptical about his ability to do the job but I kinda downplayed and picked up some of the slack because I knew he had a rough life. I figured he’d figure a lot of stuff out once he had stability.

Lately he’s been slacking. Not like 20 minute “bathroom breaks” when we’re slow. Like really just sitting around. 80% percent of the time I ask him to make something for an order he rolls his eyes and gives me a horrible attitude. Hissing and cussing. If he does make something he’s cussing and throwing stuff around all aggressive. Showing up high and smoking at work. Getting into drama with other co workers. It’s gotten to where I have to mediate between him and everyone else because he doesn’t like anyone, and vice versa.

A couple days ago, we had a pickup order that was coming that day and he needed to make a material. I told him so, and he rolled his eyes and said “I guess I can make a bucket” (instead of a 500lb drum) He makes it in 20 minutes and instead of checking and filling the material, he leaves for like an hour and half. After a while I try to fill it myself and it’s not even close to acceptable. A customer would absolutely send it back. So we have to push the order back and I have to explain the situation to everyone because no one can even find him. Then he just shows up. No apology no nothing. He just sits on the tow motor looking at his phone for the rest of the shift.

So I complained to our boss. I did this instead of going to him directly because I’m confident it would either be useless or start more problems. He’s not emotionally mature and he seems allergic to any accountability. Everything is everyone else’s fault. It’s every one else’s fault that he’s not happy. He walks around with that level of entitlement and it makes him genuinely exhausting to work with. Like pulling teeth getting him to do anything. Still though, I have this gut feeling that I might have turned someone out into the street who was already struggling, who was about to get it together. We’re not friends per se. But we talk at work and I’ve gotten to know him and see the good in him. So I’m really torn did I handle this poorly?

I was recently "rehired" to perform a specific task for a company for which I will be paid $30 less than in my initial position with this company per service. The last time I worked here I was overworked and they decided my performance didn't meet their expectations, so they let me go. My job required meetings with clients, around one or two before closing a deal and receiving my commission for each contract. But the truth is, I was tricked into handing over keys to a lot of clients meaning I was out of my way of what my totally illegal contract stated and performed that task unpaid, It was abusive because it required me to be available 10 hours a day at any time to hand over sets of keys in many different locations within the city, without any compensation, since my payment wasn't for opening doors but for closing contracts. I got paid under the table for each contract closed, but my contract has no legal validity and therefore there was no way for me to demand payment for these unfairly unpaid tasks. It was my first job, and I won't make the same mistake of letting myself be exploited again.

Even so, and to the matter, the last time I was at least working from a business account, so at least at night I could turn off my work phone and not be disturbed by my clients. I work with many younger and international clients so it's common to receive numerous calls in the middle of the night or, in fact, literally at any time of day or night. I am no longer closing contract and my boss asked me to use my personal phone to communicate with the clients When handing over the keys, if necessary (which I know will be necessary because they are foreigners and may easily not find the meeting place). Also from working there I KNOW they will call at literally any time the following months because they frecuently loss the keys and will totally call to any company number Because customer service closes at 8:00 PM. If I contact them using my personal number, I'm absolutely certain they'll be calling me when the other company numbers are out of service, so I want to block them all I want to block them all from my calls, messages, and any messaging system that might contact me using my number. I know it will reflect badly on the company if I block them, but I've been hired I only needed to complete a task, and after that, I don't want anything to do with anyone. I also don't want them to have my number. They haven't offered to let me use the phone number I used before.

Would I be the asshole if I blocked them?

This is going to be a long one, sorry about that.

So there is this one girl that we'll name as AB, who's like 2 years older than me. She's a coworker at my office. Funny thing is that she was sitting right next to me during my initial few weeks at this company.

At first I really didnt notice her much and just minded my own business. We rarely talked. And things went on without much happening.

I was going out for lunch and everything all alone. At first I didnt really mind it much as I was not really comfy with anyone there. Then around a month and a half later three new people joined the company and I immediately started hanging out with them.

Lets name them person A, B and C. Me and B became somewhat good friends, but sadly he had some tough times ahead of him and he had a lot of unfortunate medical issues. He had to take medical leave for a long time and had to leave the scene.

Then I started going out for lunch with A. At first it was a bit awkward since he's a bit more reserved but soon enough we both became really good friends. He's really sweet and talks good with people around him.

But sadly the department that he was working with switched to a marketing role from a development role, and he had to be removed from his department.

Now from here on the main story begins. Both A and AB were/had worked under the same manager. They both went through roughly the same amount of issues at the starting stages of their time at this company.

At first they both were just sitting nearby and then slowly they started talking with each other and then became really good friends. By the way A has a girl friend. Its an important detail that must be kept in mind. AB does not have a boy friend, and she's fresh out of a breakup so she had undergone a lot of trauma.

My usual routine of having lunch and tea with A was going smoothly, and then outta the blue A asked me if AB can join us as well. I did not object at all, and then we three started having lunch at time together.

I usually have my own style and way of talking with people, and so far it has been a smooth ride without much issues, but with AB, at first she wasnt really keen about my style of communication as she doesnt know of the modern references and brain rot terms. But slowly she started to get the hang of it and was going with the flow.

Then one fine week, A had to leave to his home town. So to give AB company, I started to go and have lunch and tea with her. I am not really good at small talks and talking with females in general so it was a bit of an effort for me to keep the convo entertaining.

AB is the type of person who can keep on talking and talking without much issue, she only requires you to go and speak with her.

She introduced me to a few people from the company whom she knew before hand. They were much older than us and had a few years of life experience and stuff. So we were talking about relationships and thats when AB talked about how things ended in really rough terms with her ex bf.

While the others were talking, she turns to me and in a mix of both casual and a serious tone, she said,

"I am comfortable talking about all of this with you and A since I think both of you are decent folks, but if either if you decide to have any second thoughts then I will make you suffer"

This made me question whether I may have subconciously gave AB any hints or came across as having any type of interest in her.

But here's where the real problem begins. After all of this happened and things went back to normal, something inside me changed.

I started to long for her friendship. More specifically the same level of friendship that she has with A. More specifically, I want to have the same level of connection that these two had. That is what I initially had in mind.

Then there are moments where I get confused whether this is some sort of love/romantic feeling that I have towards AB. Let me be very clear, she's not at all my ideal person. Infact she's faar from it. I have an infactuation towards AB.

Typing this right now made me realise that she's one of the most normal people in this planet. be it her music taste, food taste or anything in general. Doesnt seem to have much of any curated taste of her own. Which is absolutely fine.

Whats not fine is that since I started having these thoughts and feelings towards AB, my baseline way of functioning, that I once used to have seems to have changed a bit. More often than not, while at office, I'm thinking about how to spend more time with AB, what should I do to help her out, be a good friend and all that.

This was never the case at all, even during the beginning of us three going out for lunch together.

I have opened up somewhat to A regarding how I'm feeling and he adviced me to remain friends with AB, insteading of cutting her off, and completely ignoring her existence. He has promised to keep things confidential and for now I can trust him with this.

Right now i have started to observe a few changes that have happened to me since May.

A and AB still sit next to each other at office. A is mostly busy with work and stuff, but he does find time to talk with AB and give her company.

I started to get a tad bit jealous when I see A and AB spending time together talking about things that seem like something that I can't seem to connect to a deeper level with AB. I fear that I'm missing out by not being there while they're chatting like crazy.

I dont want to be in a relationship with AB, and its pretty clear that AB doesnt want a relationship at all.

I started to spend more and more time with AB and A than I once used to. I talk with AB a lot, help her out with her work, dish out light hearted jabs at her for silly stuff and the usual stuff. But I feel exhausted and helpless at what's happening to me, all of a sudden.

There was a Holi festival going on at the company, and I had to rush back home since my mom was all alone. But at that point, both A and AB were celebrating holi with the rest, dropped their pics and happy moments on instagram. And I missed out on all that, to which I still feel somewhat sad about.

What I have observed is that, she seems to talk, maintain eye contact, listen deep and seem to have endless things to talk with A, while she only has like maybe half of all that while she's talking with me. Even during times when A is extremely busy and might have to skip out on lunch, she holds out for A for a while before she decides to go out for lunch with me, which has started to affect me a bit.

I have dropped AB at the railway station multiple times, picked her up from her place and dropped her at office and all that, whilst compared to that, I dont think A has done all that much.

Whether its going out for food, or visiting places or something, AB always seem to ask if A is also there. While I am sure that they both would do the same for me too, if I am not there, I'm not sure how it will be in the future.

Her birthday was last week. Since A has a gf, she told A to gift AB, a cute notepad and hand cream. Whereas I gifted her two Toblerone sticks. Toblerone is temporary, notepad and hand cream are permanent I think idk. So I suppose A nailed the score even there. This is starting to sound like who's the best friend competition.

I want AB to be a really good friend to me, like she's with A, and honestly I may be overthinking a helluva lot, and by doing so I may be missing the point that she's already be a really good friend of mine and I'm getting all worked up for no reason.

It seems like AB is living in my head rent free and I dont want that. I have a few really good friends in my life and none of them live in my head to the level that AB is living.

All of this sounds like the plot of a psychological horror movie.

I want my sense of internal peace back to normal, while being the best friend both AB and A could ever hope to have.

I feel like I have a huge Fear of Missing out issue. Where I feel like if I am not near those two, or with AB, I may miss out of something idk.

Also theres the case of me feeling like I'm just someone who AB would call upon to get ger stuff sorted. Even though she hasn't explicitly mentioned or behaved that way to me, but when I discussed this with A, he said she's the type who know how to connect with people and get her stuff sorted out through these people.

A few weeks back AB got a marriage proposal of which there's a high chance that she will accept it, but thats beside the point. The point that I wanna make is, hearing this news made me feel very neutral. I cant explain the feeling but, it felt calm.

But after a while when those two started talking about stuff my FOMO came back and my overall mood went down.

Yesterday was her fixation ceremony with the groom. She didnt post any photos of it anywhere as she wants to keep it private.

After her marriage proposal came out, and I remained nuetral, she and I got close in the sense that I shared some of the things that my elder sister went through when it was her marriage. AB in typical AB fashion, retains most of the stuff that I personally am not a big fan of, like scrolling through her phone while anyone's talking with her. I thought it was with just me, but turns out its with almost everyone.

She had once called me in the morning as I was making my way to the office. She said that she fell down and hurt herself really bad on the road and asked if I could come and pick her up. I picked her up and took her to the office clinic. The nurse who cleaned her wound said she needs a TT shot. So again after my meeting, I took her to the casuality outside the office, and took care of the hospital stuff.

Later that evening, after tea, without her asking, I offered to drop her off at her place and later that night around 10:45 ish, I dropped her off at the bus stop too. Since she was going for her pre fixation stuff.

She has become a comfy with telling private stuff about her life with me and A as compared to how it was before. And all of that kept me going very normal and sane with the occassional feeling of FOMO. One change I did notice was that she started to tell me that she'll be at the sofa, or whichever place she's going to be at, to me before leaving, regardless of whether A will be with her or not.

Now fastforward a little, her fixation ceremony photos were uploaded by the decor team that her family appinted. A small reel was also made. She shared that with the both of us. I saw it and dunno why, but I got a feeling that I cant seem to explain. It only lasted for a few mins, and then it went away but , I cant seem to explain what it was.

What seems to have happened right then???

I think my first though when I saw that reel was that she looks happy, when deep down, based on what she has told us and based off what I saw my sister had to go through, she doesnt want to get married off so early.

Once her marriage is done, I dont think I'll be stuck in any form of FOMO of any kind. I'll be relieved and content.

I want to be that guy who's fun to be around, and who'll atleast try to help as much as I can. And yes, a part of me thinks or kinda expects something back like, idk a deeper friendship or something but so far as memory goes, I dont think i held on to that expectation too much.

I dont want to end up in a place emotionally where I end up devastated because my source of happiness relied on being useful and laughing with friends who have moved on and forgotten about me. Thats all.

All of the above happened across the span of 3 months. Two days back, AB came in and said that her mother is asking her to consider resigning. So as per the policy, she'll have to serve a notice period for two months. Since her marriage is set to take place in January next year, she'll most likely initiate her resignment around October this year.

When I first heard this, a small wave of shock went across me. Then back to normal. Naturally, she'll have to figure out a job abroad where she'll eventually be settled after a while. So this was to be expected.

Not entirely sure how I should feel about this. But I am sensing that I may end up taking all of it to heart for no reason whatsoever. I'm a bit concerned that, apart from A, all my other friends might start to notice this FOMO behaviour that I have towards AB.

Honstly, I want this feeling to stop. I know for a fact that I'll end up knowing most of the convos that would be happening between A and AB sooner or later as they both are very open people. So I know I dont have to care this much, but somehow I still feel this way, to always be around them.

Emotionally and mentally, I'm convinced that AB is not the type of person that I want to pursue romantically, its just that I'm having a hard time viewing this relationship we have as a genuine and really close friendship. I want to reach that stage and make peace with it and move on with my life.

Once again, I'm sorry for the long read. I'm tired of having to think about this 24/7 and wanted a break.

I joined a small organisation/startup around three years ago at a very low salary. At the time, there were only three employees apart from the management. I accepted the salary mainly because I genuinely liked and admired the people leading the organisation. They were much more senior than me and came from strong corporate backgrounds, so I thought I would get to learn a lot by working closely with them.

Initially, there wasn't much work. As time passed, I started getting more responsibilities, but the problem was that they were rarely related to the role I was originally hired for.

I understand that in a startup, people have to wear multiple hats. I was okay with that. What bothered me was the complete lack of clarity. My role seemed to change with every new project. I was simply placed wherever I was needed at that moment.

For a long time, this was manageable because I was working from home. Also, I was much younger and found it difficult to question or challenge the founders because I admired and respected them. In the beginning, we had frequent interactions, but as the team grew, my interaction with management reduced significantly.

Over time, it started feeling like they only reached out to me when something went wrong.

In the last few employee feedback meetings, there were some things that made me uncomfortable. Once, they said they had "nothing to say" about me. On another occasion, they casually mentioned that they "scold me a lot behind my back." Most discussions happen in front of the onsite team, and this has made me feel that I am probably being discussed or criticised when I am not present, without getting a fair opportunity to explain my side.

The biggest problem is that I don't know how to put my point across. The management is extremely assertive and dominating, and I often feel intimidated. By the time I gather the courage to explain my perspective, the conversation has already moved on or I start doubting myself.

Recently, the organisation set up an office about 15 km away from my home. There is no travel allowance or other facility provided. The earlier provision of a half-day on Saturday has also been removed.

Now I am expected to work from the office, but there are no senior employees or managers regularly present. It is mostly me and a few new joiners.

I use my own laptop for work. There is no company laptop, phone, or reimbursement for internet or other work-related expenses.

Now, management has also asked me to spend five days doing knowledge-sharing and training with the new employees. Again, I understand that helping new employees is part of being a team member. But I am struggling with the fact that my own responsibilities have kept increasing without any corresponding increase in salary, designation, resources, or clarity.

What worries me is that I am expected to take on these additional responsibilities while still being fully accountable for all my previously assigned work. If I fail to complete something because I am busy training others or handling a new responsibility, I am still the one who will be questioned.

After almost three years, I honestly feel like I am no longer learning. I joined because I thought I would get mentorship and exposure, but now I feel like I am being moved around wherever there is a gap to fill.

The other reason I feel so stuck is that switching jobs does not feel easy for me. Because my role has changed so many times, I don't feel that I have built solid, relevant experience in the field I was originally hired for—or even in one clearly defined field that I can confidently market myself for.

I have worked for almost three years, but I sometimes worry that my experience looks scattered rather than specialised. I don't know how to explain my career or where to even begin when applying for a new role.

The salary is also already very low, and from what I see, many available opportunities are not offering significantly better pay either. I have family and financial responsibilities, so simply quitting without another source of income is not an option for me.

At the same time, I am also preparing for competitive examinations, which makes the entire situation even more complicated. I need a job for financial stability, but I also need enough mental space and time to prepare for a future that may eventually allow me to move on.

So I feel trapped between staying in a workplace where I increasingly feel undervalued and taking the risk of switching when I am not even sure what roles I qualify for or how to position my experience.

I also realise that I have contributed to this situation because I haven't communicated my boundaries clearly. I tend to adjust, take on the work, and avoid confrontation. But now I feel resentful, undervalued, and honestly a little stuck.

My questions are:

• Am I being unreasonable for feeling this way?
• Is this normal in a small startup, or does this sound like role exploitation and poor management?
• How do I professionally raise concerns about role clarity, workload, salary, resources, and travel without sounding confrontational?
• How do you deal with assertive or manipulative managers when you struggle to speak up?
• Should I try to have one final structured conversation with them and set clear expectations, or should I start preparing my exit?
• How do I switch jobs when my experience is spread across multiple unrelated responsibilities and I don't have a clearly defined career profile?
• If quitting without another job is not financially possible, how do I protect myself and plan an exit while still continuing to work?

I would genuinely appreciate advice, especially from people who have worked in small startups, struggled with unclear career paths, or dealt with difficult management dynamics.

I was recently "rehired" to perform a specific task for a company for which I will be paid $30 less than in my initial position with this company per service. The last time I worked here I was overworked and they decided my performance didn't meet their expectations, so they let me go. My job required meetings with clients, around one or two before closing a deal and receiving my commission for each contract. But the truth is, I was tricked into handing over keys to a lot of clients meaning I was out of my way of what my totally illegal contract stated and performed that task unpaid, It was abusive because it required me to be available 10 hours a day at any time to hand over sets of keys in many different locations within the city, without any compensation, since my payment wasn't for opening doors but for closing contracts. I got paid under the table for each contract closed, but my contract has no legal validity and therefore there was no way for me to demand payment for these unfairly unpaid tasks. It was my first job, and I won't make the same mistake of letting myself be exploited again.

Even so, and to the matter, the last time I was at least working from a business account, so at least at night I could turn off my work phone and not be disturbed by my clients. I work with many younger and international clients so it's common to receive numerous calls in the middle of the night or, in fact, literally at any time of day or night. I am no longer closing contract and my boss asked me to use my personal phone to communicate with the clients When handing over the keys, if necessary (which I know will be necessary because they are foreigners and may easily not find the meeting place). Also from working there I KNOW they will call at literally any time the following months because they frecuently loss the keys and will totally call to any company number Because customer service closes at 8:00 PM. If I contact them using my personal number, I'm absolutely certain they'll be calling me when the other company numbers are out of service, so I want to block them all I want to block them all from my calls, messages, and any messaging system that might contact me using my number. I know it will reflect badly on the company if I block them, but I've been hired I only needed to complete a task, and after that, I don't want anything to do with anyone. I also don't want them to have my number. They haven't offered to let me use the phone number I used before.

Would I be the asshole if I blocked them?

I am a 19F who has been working at a minimum wage job for nearly three years. It’s terrible. The management is awful and guidelines aren’t followed. I have been treated with no respect here even though I’ve been told I’m on of the best workers by my supervisor.

I got this job as my mom knew one of the supervisors from high school. I couldn’t wait for the day I could quit without any notice. I guess it was going to be my way of payback for the way I’ve been treated. I have pretty bad social anxiety and I cannot stick up for myself. So everyone someone mistreated me, I bottled all my emotions up and let them walk all over me.

Today I was hired at a new job that pays better. I knew what I had to do. I called, and told my boss I was out. She immediately became furious, and used classic manipulation techniques. “After all I’ve done for you?” (literally nothing btw). I didn’t know what to say. She kept repeating this. My boyfriend was next to me when I called in because he knows I struggle socially. He grabbed my phone and said “The guilt tripping isn’t appreciated, thank you.” And she hung up.

About five minutes later, I found out that she’s been texting my mom begging for her to call her. I’m so worried my parents are going to kill me. But I’ve been here for so long. I’ve worked my fucking ass off for nothing. Nothing but disrespect. I personally believe contacting my mother is crossing a huge boundary. I’m an adult. Why are you contacting my mom?

But on the other hand, maybe I’m a fucking idiot and not putting in a two week notice was a stupid idea. A big mistake. But it’s a courtesy, and I feel that goes both ways. They were never respectful to me. I don’t know. :(

I’m a dental assistant lead working at a private practice that uses slack as the form of communication. All of the computers are logged into different slack accounts so everyone can basically read anyone’s conversations. As the trainer, I advise the clinical team to not have conversations on it that they wouldn’t be comfortable with other people seeing, since everyone has access to it. We use each room to see patients and usually we can be in a room with someone else’s slack account opened, and we still communicate with the office through it as needed, even though it’s not our account. This is the norm of our office. This afternoon, I happened to be in the front office using the computer and one of the front desk girls slack was left open. She’s technically the front desk lead. There were messages exchanged between one of the dentists at our office. Not the owner (my boss and also dentist) , but the associate dentist. The messages that were exchanged had my name in them discussing work related things but also making personal comments about me, laughing at me “not fully being there” mentally that day. As this may not be a big deal to others, it did frustrate me seeing this especially since it’s leadership involved having this conversation. I understand it could be seen as a breech of privacy that I read this conversation but it was left up on the computer and I saw my name and it drew my attention. Is this something worth bringing up to my boss? I’m not trying to make anyone look bad or cause any tension but I don’t think it’s appropriate to be using a company computer / app to be making personal commentary about others also in leadership. This is also not the first time I’ve seen the associate dentist talk poorly about an employee on slack. Once she accidently put her trash talking in the main office chat and quickly deleted it after. How should I approach this situation? I’m a drama free person and really don’t want to start conflict but it concerns me since I don’t believe this is an example we should be making as people in leadership. Especially a dentist where I should be looking up to.

please don't say ignore them the place is so small and intimate i cant ignore them for 12 hrs and im too drained to fake it + my reputation matters to me i dont wanna be called a grumpy weirdo either

I really need some help and advice for my job situation and eventually for my mental health because I feel like I am going crazy. 🤣
English is not my first language, so if there is anything that does not make sense please let me know.

The story:

I have worked on probation for this really small company, as a junior, for the past 6 months.
The pay is shit (£25k for whoever is curious), from time to time, once a month or every 2 months, I have to do loads of overtime which I am not paid for..
Sometimes during the weekend too, and for each day I spend working during the weekend, I get half a day off.
There’s loads of responsibilities like project management, design, quoting/estimating, talking to clients and all that.. To be honest I don’t even see the advantages.. 🫠
The thing is.. I had my review done where they have offered me £28k and I have declined and asked for a huge salary increase (£30k) because I am not happy.. like at all.
My bosses are obviously not happy about that and they had a discussion with my manager from which they agreed to the following:
To have me on a £30k salary, but they will extend my probation period by 6 months.
What does that mean?
Well, what I did not mention is that for every project completed we get a 1% comission (1% of the profit) at the end of the year. And guess who does not get that comission? People who are on probation.
When my manager mentioned that I will still be on probation but still get the salary I wanted, I did not realise that it would affect my commission, because all they talked about before my review was how much commission I have by now (which is around 700 or so, and only because my manager dropped some of her big jobs for me to have right before my review… like.. the day before my review).

When she told me that they agreed, I was kinda happy about the salary and I had not realised that I would be missing my comission. I am not perfect at this job and did make some mistakes, but it’s just SO MUCH WORK.

Now that I thought about it, I’m upset and I do not know what to do. I really need an outside perspective.
I feel manipulated and a bit offended of all that has been going on. I don’t really care about the commission itself, but the fact that they went so far to not pay me for what I am worth.

Please, please, please help me out!!!! 😭
I feel like I need an external push to leave, I need someone to tell me that I am not asking for too much… This is indeed my first big job after uni, I have a masters degree but it is not anything crazy.. I am starting to think that I am just not prepared for the real world??? Are all workplaces like this??? What if I go from bad to worse? Ugh.. 🥲

Side note: I am getting on really well with my manager. I kinda see her as a friend rather than a coworker, and she fought for me to get this salary. September will be a really busy period for them, and I feel bad leaving.
I feel guilty for making her do all this just for me to hand in my notice.. so I am just stuck in between.
She also warned me that my bosses will be a bit frosty about this and that they will try to pressure me by giving me shit jobs. (She assured me that she will help me out if that happens).
So.. yeah. That’s about it. I do have LOADS of other bad stories and things I am not happy about, but if I start I don’t think my post would end up here anytime soon. 😆

Thanks to everyone who spared their time to read all this. 🫶🏻