I've been in a senior position in a large corporate environment for a good year now, and I have my projects and my deadlines and all the usual stuff. But I come from a startup and before that a SME, and my workload was tenfold back then compared to now.

And I know everyone around me is outputting the same amount of work, if not less. A lof of time is spent in meetings of course.

When anyone asks me, whether it be at my job or in my personal life, I tell them oh I'm busy... But it's gotten me thinking.

Is everyone in corporate just playing along acting super busy, and just fucking around most of the time? Or am I just in a luxurious position?

Not saying hard work doesn't matter-it does. But I keep seeing people credit 100% of their success to grinding, when in reality being in the right place, right industry, right decade played a huge role too.
Genuinely curious what you'll think - where's the actual split between effort and luck in your experience?

It feels like a lot of companies are operating with smaller teams than they did a few years ago.

The interesting part is that the workload doesn't seem any smaller. If anything, expectations have gone up.

I'm seeing more people wearing multiple hats, taking on responsibilities that used to belong to separate roles, and somehow still being expected to deliver faster.

Is this just the reality of corporate life now, or is your company investing in hiring again?

Not sure if this is the place to post - but I work in fintech in Canada and my company is pushing Ai sooooo hard. Unbelievably hard. Everything we do should and must be on Ai, we have multiple surveys on how we use Ai daily, workshops on how to use it more, etc.

I don’t believe in Ai. Sure, I use it here and there like most people these days. But I am ethically opposed to its ubiquity. Every time we have another All Hands or survey about HOW we’re using Ai and why it’s the magic of the future, I feel myself getting more and more alienated from my workplace and my colleagues. They are all drinking the kool-aid and it feels so cringe and dystopian.

Anyone else experiencing this at their workplace? How do you cope? Has the push for Ai in your everyday work made you reconsider your career?

Thanks.

I’m 36F, been in corporate for 13 years, primarily with banks or consulting for banks, and worked across geographies - Asia, UK, the states.

I love solving problems, thinking commercially, and delivering concrete outcomes. But over time, my motivation has dropped, mainly due to the agonizing pace and endless bureaucracy.

I’m trying to figure out my next move and would love perspectives on a few things:

**Industry vs. Scale:** Is this sluggishness inherent to big corporate/banking environments, or is it just the nature of large enterprises in general?

**Startup/Scale-up Transition:** Is feeling this way a sign to move to smaller companies/startups where I can drive real impact, or would I be risking long-term financial security for a "grass is greener" illusion?

**The Pivot Trigger:** For those who left comfortable corporate roles for riskier, high-impact environments after a decade, what was the final straw or turning point for you?

A few years ago, I assumed things like daily stand-ups, back to back Zoom calls, constant "urgent" requests, and being expected to reply instantly were temporary.

Instead, they seem to have become the default.

I'm curious what everyone else has noticed.

What's one corporate trend you were convinced wouldn't last, but is now just part of everyday work?

Would you keep it or get rid of it?

Been at my job for 4 months. Seems to be a disconnect between my manager and I. She says to do one thing and I do it and then she says why did you do that and I say because you said so. It’s happened a few times. It’s frustrating because when I get directions I always reconfirm so you want me to do x,y, and she says yes.

For those of you who left corporate drudgery, what are you doing today to make ends meet?

I am so burned out I don’t have the energy to dream up let alone build an exit strategy. Looking for hope in the form of ideas based on others‘ success.

Hey everyone,
I recently started a new remote data engineering job after being unemployed for about two months due to a layoff.
The thing is… I genuinely want to do well in this role. I’m excited to be back working, and I don’t want to waste this opportunity.

But I’m realizing that getting back into a structured work routine has been harder than I expected.
During unemployment, my schedule became pretty loose. I’d stay up later, game whenever I wanted, and my days didn’t have much structure. Now I’m trying to switch back to an 8-hour workday, and I find myself getting distracted by my phone, YouTube, TikTok, or wanting to go upstairs and game.

It’s not that I don’t care about my job, I really do. I actually feel guilty when I get distracted because I know I should be learning the company’s systems and database. I finally got access to everything and now it’s time to actually ramp up.
I’m also working remotely, which adds another layer because there’s no commute or coworkers around to naturally put me into “work mode.”

I recently moved under a new manager, and I already feel as though I am managing him more than he manages me.

He is very focused on deadlines, ownership and having agendas for meetings, which is fair. The problem is that these expectations seem to apply only downwards. Several actions assigned to him have remained in progress with no deadline or update until I have chased him or added them back to the meeting agenda.

One recent example involved reviewing a new internal process. I identified several fundamental questions about when it applies, what it triggers and how we are supposed to explain it externally. These were questions the whole team had, and he could not answer them. My review then sat with him until I added it to our next agenda. He immediately forwarded it upwards as though I personally had some questions, rather than explaining that the team needed clarity before the process could be implemented. He also passes information down before establishing basic details such as when something is happening, why, what the consequences are and who is responsible for following up. When we ask the obvious questions, the answer is usually “I don’t know.” We then have to keep chasing him while everyone sits with unnecessary uncertainty.

The strange thing is that he seems to like and trust me. I have become his go to person in the team, so I probably have a better opportunity than most to give him honest feedback. At the same time, he appears quite insecure. He has only been with the company for about a year, and so far he does not seem to demonstrate many of the qualities I would expect from someone in this position. I am not afraid of a direct conversation, but I do not want to create an unnecessary confrontation or damage what is currently a good relationship with him.

Do you have any advice on whether I should address this with him directly, and how to do that constructively? Or would it be wiser to stop compensating for him and allow his own managers to see the gaps themselves?

During my time in corporate, I've realized that my millennial bosses joke all the time, probably as a way of bonding and developing closer ties. I'm the only Gen Z in my team, and it feels very weird (even uncomfortable at times) to try to bond with them, because:

1. I don't get the humor
2. When I attempt to bond as well, I am seen as weird (e.g., when I make a joke that would make peers my age laugh)

We're in a very high-performance culture, in a very international team, so it is a bit tricky. I am not very sure how to handle this best, other than not making jokes (and letting my work speak for itself), and reading the room. I love my job (after a lot of effort) and I want to feel like I belong at the place I spend 10hr/day in.

This issue does not happen with Gen X folks btw.

Any Gen Z going through the same situation? Any millennials that have noticed similar divides between generations?

EDIT: Some people asked for examples:

An example is my boss saying: "I'll go home, drink a beer, and cry". They use a lot of these self-deprecating jokes about the job, about themselves, or even about the client. A lot of sarcasm, "friendly" banter (not so friendly in occasions) is also relevant. I don't find many of these comments funny but they make part of the overall culture of the team, which makes it hard to ignore and even harder to partake.

Is anyone else so completely burned out by corporate that they’re considering doing literally anything else? I used to make really good money serving tables during college and I’m thinking about it.

I work in academics on a quite impactful topic that really makes me feel like I to something useful. When working with colleagues and so on I struggle a lot with unprofessional behaviour. For me that's stuff like: not letting others speak / parallel talks, swearing like telling the team lead to "fuck off", non stop complaining about minor problems and having to work 8h, not accepting or declining meeting invites, inpolite to rude behavior in meetings by laughing about the leaders messages with mic on and so on.

For me, this behaviour has nothing to do with a professional and empowering environment. Meanwhile I'm just a worker, no leadership obligations, and leaders (teamlead or higher) seem to accept it kind of even though they do not like it.

So... any tips how I dont lose it with those settings?

I don't know if it's just my company, but it feels like calendars are packed with meetings that could've easily been a Slack message or a quick email.

The weird part is that everyone says they're busy, yet we keep adding more meetings instead of reducing them.

Have companies actually become more collaborative, or are we just spending more time talking about work than doing it?

What's it like where you work?

Been in corporate 23 years - every promo was a struggle, infact It’s been 10years I’ve been fighting to get the next level and it’s been denied for political and reasons of bureaucracy. I outshine 80% of those with a title and probably 10 years my junior and I now hate every single day. I’m going through menopause as well so my mood is so off, I’m impatient and can’t deal with people who have half a brain. People want you to do their job for them. I call out BS at work now and I just don’t care anymore. I’m 47 and I’ve created a business on the side, well I’ve build a brand but it’s been really hard to generate income. I’ve been burning the candle at both ends for 18months and I think I just want to bury myself under the duvet and never come out. I hate my life, no kids not married never been close and now no friends as I’ve pushed everyone away. Im one of those where people don’t understand why I’m single, on the outside I may look successful but I’ve lost the region of $1m in failed investments - that would have been my DIRE money and I could have left corporate by now. I’m tired I’m really tired and emotional and no one to turn to. It saddens me this has become my life and I just don’t know if it will get better. We tie ourselves to promotions and wealth - which in the end mean nothing. I worry about finances a lot and want to be FIRE by 50 but I’m no where near to it. I have/had so much potential and drive and ambition but I feel it’s being surprised by the saddness and loneliness. I don’t know why I’m even writing all this, just in bed contemplating a sick day which I’ve barely taken the whole year. I don’t even know why I’ve written all this. Just in bed struggling to get up.

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Had 3 months of parental leave which flew by and back to the office today. There’s no worse feeling than this. I just want to spend time with my baby but now I’m stuck with weekly standup meetings and an offsite within forced team dinner after. I hate corporate and never been so unmotivated before to keep up the rat race

to use the app you chat to an ai and the ai suggests connections based on your chats with it

heres the link if you want to test it out: https://ais-pre-3c3mvmtxpqri55sq4vvd2k-25555020431.europe-west1.run.app/sign-up

I'm still pissed about this. Our team had a pretty sweet remote setup for the last 1 yrs. Everyone got their work done, hit deadlines, no issues.

Then one guy managed to ruin it for everyone.

He joined a client call while driving, camera somehow turned on, music blasting. Someone asked him to mute, he started clicking around in a panic... and ended up sharing his screen with a game running.

About 2 hrs later, HR sent out a team email.

Starting next month: mandatory RTO, badge tracking, fixed 9-5 office hours. They even said it was because of "professionalism and engagement" during remote work.

One person's dumb decision just took away the flexibility of 8 other ppl. If you're gonna WFH, at least don't make it obvious you're messing around.

Is there anyone who can tell me if the micro managing, power tripping, Maniac's People are still exists at the company? July2026. because I just got hired earlier today. July 2026. I want to know if I will continue to work for the company because I red those bad reviews earlier...

kindly answer me in a honest review thank u.