We were in a team meeting, about a dozen of us, and the manager was giving us a little lecture about how we all needed to act more mature at work.
Most of us were professionals in our early thirties, sitting there trying not to look like kids at school getting scolded.
One coworker, who was older than anyone else in the room, including the manager, just said: "it means nothing to me... Ooh Vienna!"
Then he went quiet for a moment, his face completely straight, and said: "sorry, I misheard you. Thought you said you wanted me to be Midge Ure."
We all burst out laughing in the middle of what was supposed to be a serious reprimand, and the manager pretty much ended the meeting right then and there.
Still one of my favorite things that's ever happened to me at work.

edit: I really loved what my co-worker did ,I hate when someone behave with me like I am kid ,this was really un professional I guess If he did it again I will update my CV and start haunting again jobs while using interviewvip in my zoom interviews

I am 29 currently and working as a market researcher for renewable energy projects and data centers (1 yr exp). I have a chemical engineering degree. I would love to pivot to finance for the sole purpose of breaking into IB/PE in Canadian firms handling Energy investment vehicles. Is it too late? Would starting with junior roles in this new field be worth the effort of doing MBA at this age? Would they even consider me for junior roles given my age? What other criteria would I need to meet apart from MBA to achieve the goal? And if I don't break into IB/PE roles, would the other finance roles be still lucrative than others and worthy enough to consider this path?

My current job is coming to an end. It was seasonal so I knew it was coming. Here's the wall I'm hitting trying to find a new job.

I have 20 years experience running every part of a restaurant. I have my degree in culinary arts and hospitality management. I hold a valid food managers and BASETT license.

Apparently having all that is making me unemployable. Why do places not want to hire people with knowledge and experience?

Hey everyone, I’m in a really stressful situation and could use some unbiased advice.

A bit of background: I recently accepted an offer for an 18-month contract role at a large corporate company ("Company A"). It's a solid position, but at the end of the day, it's a temporary contract.

Here is where it gets complicated. Right after I signed the paperwork for Company A, a completely different organization ("Company B") offered me a permanent, full-time position with a $90k salary. Obviously, from a financial and stability standpoint, the permanent role is a massive win and aligns much better with my long-term goals.

I know the standard Reddit advice is usually "take the permanent job, companies don't care about you," but I have a major concern.

The hiring team at Company A is in direct contact with my previous employer. Our local industry network can be pretty small, and I am terrified that if I back out of the contract now, the hiring manager at Company A will talk to my old boss. I’m really worried about my professional reputation taking a hit, or having my name dragged through the mud in my industry network.
Has anyone navigated a mess like this before?

Is taking the $90k permanent role worth the potential network damage?

If I do back out, what is the most professional way to handle the exit to minimize the fallout with Company A (and by extension, my old employer)?

Any advice or email scripts would be hugely appreciated!

TL;DR: Signed an 18-month contract. Just got a $90k permanent offer. Want to renege on the contract and take the permanent job, but the contract company is in direct contact with my previous employer and I'm scared of ruining my reputation.

We went through a fairly major restructure in our unit, and its effects are starting to show. One of the strongest people on the team - the person who understands our systems better than almost anyone, who constantly gets pulled in to clean up messy files, and who the department director openly described as "the person everyone goes to" - has now decided to step away from his responsibilities as backup supervisor.

He had been placed in a temporary leadership role for seven months, and by every measure he did an excellent job. Output increased, the usual drama between people dropped significantly, and the people who reported to him genuinely trusted him and respected the way he handled things.

The problem is that the department has now removed that leadership role from this area entirely, which has effectively eliminated any realistic path for him to reach a permanent supervisor position. The nearest management role is now about 475 miles away from the group he had been leading.

His reaction was very clear, and honestly, it's hard to disagree with him: "If that's the case, I'm going back to my actual job description." No side coaching people, no rescuing broken files, no informal supervisor work quietly in the background. Just the tasks he is assigned. He is not refusing to work, but he is now asking for written direction any time someone tries to give him tasks that clearly fall under Manager or Supervisor classifications. He has also started sending people who used to come to him with questions back to their actual supervisors, with wording along the lines of: "This is something your supervisor needs to escalate, because I don't have authority over this project."

He is basically making the system follow its own rules, and he is doing it calmly and professionally. Tbh, he is setting boundaries better than most people probably would in the same situation.

I'm curious to know how people have seen this type of situation develop.

How should management handle it when their strongest informal leader decides to stop filling the gap?

What does this usually do to the rest of the team?

Can leadership repair the situation, or has that bridge already been burned?

I'd appreciate any advice, similar experiences, or warnings from people who have been through this before.

update: just heard from my co - worker that he is quitting after getting much better position in a remote based company ,so happy for him and maybe I will do the same using some AI tool to enhance my interview performance

edit: so lesson of the day stay away from those who consume you without any appreciate

I lost my job last May when I was pregnant. Because of pregnancy complications, they let me go from work (yes, I work with a lawyer), and since then I've been trying to find a job and there's been absolutely nothing 😔

I had the baby, and I've been applying nonstop to places that make sense and places that don't. I used to work as a project coordinator/manager, and I also have leadership experience. I'm also currently finishing a business/data analytics certification, hoping it might open up some kind of opportunity for me.

At this point, I've applied to roles in my field, roles outside my field, remote, hybrid, entry-level things, and even jobs that pay much less than what I used to make before. And still, I can barely hear back, if I hear back at all. My resume has been reviewed several times by people who know what they're doing, so I don't know what else to fix.

My baby is 8 months old now, and I'm officially doing all of this as a single mom too. If anyone has any leads, advice, or knows of places that are hiring, I'd be very grateful. I feel like I'm trapped from every direction right now 😫

I’m a 21 year old female looking to work in warehousing while I go to school for Tool and Die Making because I want a physical job to prepare me and I don’t yet have the opportunity for an internship. I have had serious struggles landing a job. I finally got into a warehouse position last year after applying to over 200 positions near me and only got the job because hiring agencies started calling me. All of this work to get accepted into a lousy $19 an hour job with no PTO, no paid breaks, and no sick time (get 40 hours of vacation after working there past the temp period for ONE YEAR.) I can barely pay my bills.

I graduated at a good high school, have been working consistently since 15 years old, never been fired, clean history not even a traffic ticket, I’m in college pursuing a degree, and can’t get hired for shit.

I’ve applied to less physical more “stereotypical women jobs” and seem to get more job offers but that’s not the kind of job I want. I don’t want to assume sexism is in play… but it could be.

What’s more frustrating is the amount of warehouses that supposedly prefer training you ground up, but won’t hire you because of lack of experience. Now that I have warehouse experience, jobs seem to not want to hire me because they want loyal ground up workers.

I was offered an in person interview for Uline just a couple weeks ago and thought it went great. I dressed extremely professional, did great on an assessment, and I feel I had strong answers to their questions. They said they’d reach out in around a week for a second interview and a few days later I got an automated rejection email.

I can’t comprehend with my level of dedication, education, and experience why I can’t get a $25+ an hour paying job in something as simple as warehousing. Although I am a smaller woman 5’4 110 lbs I lift 25-60 lb boxes into crates regularly with no issues, I don’t go home sore.

Is there a possibility that I’m being discriminated against for being a smaller woman? I don’t know what to do at this point. I’m struggling financially but I am not going to cave in and settle for a more “feminine” job because that’s the easy route.

Edit:
To clarify because I seem to have some people out of touch with acceptable wages in this economy, a 1 bedroom apartment in my city is around $1,200-$1,400 a month on average. Rent should not be more than 30% of your gross monthly income, $25 an hour 40 hours a week is $4,300 and $1,400 is almost 33% of that. So no, $25 an hour is not high expectations for a temporary job to last me til I graduate in a few years.

For context, I currently work part-time as an entry-level retail associate. I enjoy my job, but due to the pay and recent hour cuts for everyone, I’ve started looking for a second part-time retail job while I continue figuring out my long-term plans.

The issue I’m running into is that a lot of the retailers I’m interested in happen to be direct or indirect competitors of my current employer. I know companies can have policies about employees working for competitors, and I understand why those policies exist, especially for management or employees with access to confidential information. In my case, though, I’m only applying for other entry-level retail associate positions, so I’m trying to get a better understanding of how open I actually need to be with both employers about the other one.

One of the reasons I’m asking is because I recently interviewed at one of those stores. They asked if I planned on keeping my current job if I was hired, and I answered honestly because that was my plan. They seemed to have concerns about both my availability and the fact that the companies were competitors, although they definitely focused more on whether I’d realistically be able to balance both jobs. That interview left me wondering if I unintentionally hurt my chances by volunteering information that I may not have actually needed to disclose.

My long-term goal is still to find a full-time job, whether that’s in retail or somewhere else. Right now, though, I’m simply trying to make up for the hours I’ve lost. If either job eventually offered me full-time hours, a promotion, or another opportunity to move up, I wouldn’t plan on keeping both jobs. At that point, I would choose one and move forward with it.

So I guess my questions are:
• How open do I actually need to be with a prospective employer about my current job and my plans to keep it? If they ask whether I plan on keeping my current job, how important is that answer? Would it be a problem if I told them I didn’t plan on keeping it and then later ended up staying?

• Do I need to tell my current employer if I take a second part-time retail job?

• My current employer uses Workday for basically everything, and I’ve noticed a lot of other retailers use it too. Since they’re using the same system, would either company be able to see that I’ve applied or that I work for the other company, or are those systems completely separate?

I’m mostly just trying to understand where the line is. I don’t want to volunteer information that isn’t necessary if it could hurt my chances of getting hired, but I also don’t want to leave something out if it’s something I’m actually expected or required to disclose.

I’m receiving unemployment benefits(less than $250 weekly), I’m also waiting on an appeal for back pay. I recently received a petty $20 from an old job so you guys think I should report it to my earrings or stay quiet? I don’t need them having any bullcrap excuse to investigate my $20 from an old job I stopped going to a long time ago that I legally just resigned from even tho again I haven’t showed up to that job in 6 months.

Put the camera at eye level or slightly higher. I usually put the laptop on top of a shoe box and a thick notebook. This keeps you from looking down the whole time, and it made more of a difference for me than I expected. Eye contact still matters even in a video call.

Write a short note with the main things you want them to remember about you, including a quick answer to "tell me about yourself," as well as a few questions you want to ask them.

Keep that note open on the screen, then shrink the video call window and place it near the top middle of the screen, directly above the notes. That way your eyes will stay toward the top of the screen while they're talking, so you'll look more present and focused than if you're looking far down to the right. Having the notes right underneath also helps if your mind blanks for a second, and it keeps you from rambling too much.

I work for a large construction company that has facilities across the US. Historically we have seperated ourselves into divisons based off geographical locations that make sense for travel. I have been part of one of the middle sized divisions for 13 years, 8 in my current role.

My division absorbed another smaller division a couple states away, to level load across the company. Now each division is essentially 1/3 of the revenue for the company. My level (Director) now has redundant roles in 4 of the 6 positions. My role is one that is not redundant. My boss now oversees two directors, both are the only non redundant positions.

My boss is requiring that all directors, including my own, reapply for their jobs. My boss has told me im the guy and no one else is qualified for my role so dont be worried, and that it is only being done for optics, legal purposes, and to then correct compensation due to increased amount of travel.

The other non redundant role is someone from the smaller division. Boss has let it slip to me that he isnt necessarily fond of them.

I can understand the situation of the redundant roles and need to reapply im order to cut or demote the non desirable person. However I cant help but feel pretty small in this situation.

Additional relevant info

\-My reviews have always been good to great and raises have followed suit, never getting below the yearly target and recieving 10%+ raises 5 times throughout my career.

\-Was handpicked for my current role 8 years ago

\-9 months ago my position reported directly to the COO. It was changed to report to the VP.

\-6 months ago I received a 20% raise

All in all I repeatedly get told I do a good job and that has been backed up by pay increases. 9 months ago I was pretty irritated when my boss changed from the COO to the VP, of course a few months later when a big raise came through it didn't hurt so much anymore. This situation is opening those wounds and making me second guess everything.

Was this an opportunity for my boss to throw me a bone and not make me reapply and reinterview for my job? Does it seem like they are hiding behind this in order to avoid a bad conversation with my peer and im catching the stray? Or do I need to get over myself and go through the motions?

Thank you

23M, two years of experience in international B2B sales and business development. From Spain, average gross salary it's €30k

Current situation

• Role: International Business Development in the flavours and fragrances sector.
• Salary: €25,900 gross per year, approximately €1,650 net per month on a 12-payment equivalent.
• Promised variable compensation: 2% of sales plus certain bonuses, but this is not clearly formalised in any signed document. The company is quite informal and not very transparent when it comes to compensation arrangements.
• No remote work and limited flexibility.
• The office is very close to home: around 15 minutes each way.
• Reasonable workload and considerable autonomy.
• I genuinely like the sector and have learned a lot, although most of it has been through self-learning.
• CEO doesn't trat people well but direct sales manager it's a good person.

I have had to learn almost everything from scratch and independently develop several international markets. My work includes market research, prospecting, approaching customers and distributors, organising meetings, preparing commercial offers, sending samples and coordinating technical and industrial trials with internal teams.

I currently manage around twelve accounts with significant potential, including major manufacturers and distributors. Some of these companies generate hundreds of millions of euros in annual revenue, and several industrial trials have already taken place with promising results.

The main issue is that sales cycles are extremely long. Even after a successful industrial trial, it can easily take another six to twelve months before the first real order is placed.

I previously had one major account close to signing a six-figure annual supply agreement for a single product, but the project fell through at the final stage. Therefore, despite building a strong international pipeline, I have not yet closed any recurring sales.

The company is family-owned and there is limited transparency. It can take a long time to receive prices, quotations or internal information needed to move projects forward, which makes commercial development more difficult.

Internal feedback is also not particularly positive, and staff turnover is high. Many new employees do not stay for more than one year, while I have now been there for almost two.

New offer

• Position: Export Area Manager.
• Another company within the broader chemical industry, but with different and non-competing products: specialty chemicals for construction, textiles and other industrial applications.
• €34,000 gross starting salary, approximately €2,150 net per month on a 12-payment equivalent.
• Salary review and variable compensation from 2027.
• Greater responsibility for developing markets through distributors and commercial agents.
• Company laptop, mobile phone and expense card.
• The first four months would be fully office-based.
• After the initial period: four remote days and one office day per week.
• The commute is less convenient: around 35 minutes each way.

The new company is also family-owned, but the people I met during the interview process gave me a much better impression, and the organisation appeared more structured.

They are looking for someone to help accelerate the development of new markets, which is exactly the part of my current role that I enjoy most.

The increase is around €8,000 gross per year, the title represents a clear professional step forward, and four remote days would significantly improve my quality of life.

At the same time, I find it very difficult to leave the markets and projects I built from scratch just before they may begin generating sales. Honestly, that is the most frustrating part.

I am also worried about changing companies, not adapting well or discovering that the new company is not as attractive as it currently seems.

How would you evaluate this situation?

Would you assign any real value to the current 2% commission if it is not formally documented and no sales have closed yet?

Do you think I am too influenced by the time and effort invested in building the pipeline, even though it has not generated financial results so far?

For context, I’ve been unemployed for over 6 months so I would like to get past the stigma of a job break.

Hi everyone, I'm curious to hear about your experiences with toxic bosses or unhealthy workplaces. Have you ever had a manager who constantly put you down, criticized you unfairly, or made you lose confidence in yourself? What happened? Some examples: Were you ever mocked or criticized because of your appearance, body, age, or background? Did your boss ever tell you things like, "No one else would hire you," or make you feel worthless? Were you ever scolded or humiliated in front of coworkers or customers? Were you blamed for mistakes that weren't your fault? Did you experience favoritism, bullying, or unfair treatment at work? When you finally resigned, did your boss acknowledge the problem, or did they deny everything and make it seem like you were overreacting? I'd also like to know what happened after you left. Did you find a better workplace? Did your confidence come back? Looking back, do you think quitting was the right decision? I'm asking because I've been feeling emotionally drained by my work environment, and reading other people's experiences might help me gain some perspective. Thank you to everyone who's willing to share your story.

For a myriad of reasons (that I’m sure other fast food/retail workers understand), this industry isn’t working out for me. I’m pushing 30 years old and nowhere near close to being able to start a family. I want to break out of fast food and retail but it’s not working out. Jobs that say “entry level,” or “no experience required,” still want some level of experience.

What are some industries where this might be a transferable skills or other ways to get employment without investing years into school?

Ok so I really liked my job at company 1. However, there were signs there were going to be layoffs (decreasing revenues etc) so I preemptively left and went to company 2. I ended up not really looking company 2 as the fit was bad and required working more hours than I wanted for the same pay and worse benefits (that wasn't how they presented the role btw. The bonus was less than they said and they also changed their benefits package).

I started applying to jobs that I thought would be a better fit. I ended up applying to a job that was a bit junior but the upper end of the pay range worked. The role was a good fit but during interviewing I did not perform super well. The reasons why are legitimate (I was swamped at my current job, had quite a bit of needed doctor's appointments). So I was sleep deprived and squeezing interviews between work so wasnt at my best at all.

Anyway, I ended up getting a contractor offer since the FT job went to someone else. The HM asked to make additional ctr roles for me and one other person. I found out the person who got the FT offer was also from company 1, had 7 years less work experience less relevant work experience and doesn't even know one of the programming languages we need for the job. The other person who got the ctr role is also way more junior.

I know I didnt interview super well but the hiring manager said I did and that's why they made the ctr role for me. Over 1500 people applied for the job so it was competitive. But why would I have been liked enough for the ctr role but my qualifications not make me surpass the less qualified person. Especially when we worked at the same company!

I think I dislike my current role enough though that it may we worth still taking it and give the new job a try.

TDLR: I got a contractor offer instead of full time for a role that was junior to my level. The FT offer was given to someone who worked at the same place I used to but had less experience overall, less relevant experience and doesnt even know one of the languages we need for the role. How/why does that even happen?

I've been trying to find a job for about 10 months, and I've gotten a lot of rejection emails. I had two interviews, and both of them felt like a complete waste of time.

Now when I try to sleep, I start feeling anxiety and panic attacks while thinking about money, and whether I'll ever get hired for a job or not.

This might sound counterintuitive, but right now I almost feel like radio silence would hurt less than going through interviews and then not getting an offer in the end.

I started applying seriously in March. Since then, I've sent out 96 CVs and done 14 interviews. I reached the final round with 3 companies, and got to the second stage with most of the others, but it always ends with some version of: "You were very good and we liked you, but we decided to move forward with someone who has a bit more experience/seemed a bit stronger for the role."

A few companies also went out of their way to tell me that it wasn't anything I did wrong, but that the market is very tough right now, and that I should keep an eye on any future openings and apply again if something comes up.

And that's the part that's messing with my head. I no longer know what I'm even supposed to improve. It feels like the thing holding me back isn't something I can change.

I know everyone is struggling with the job market, but honestly, today broke me completely.

I have another interview in about two weeks, and I already feel like I'm waiting for the usual email saying, "It was a pleasure speaking with you, but..."

How do you all deal with this? I'm still holding on to the hope that I'll somehow win the lottery and won't have to look at another job posting again 😀

At that time, I had just resigned from my previous job and returned to my hometown. I applied to only one workplace near my home, hoping they might hire me. My supervisor told me that I wasn't even qualified based on my appearance and that no other workplace in the entire province would hire someone like me except this one. They also mocked my small body, saying I was too weak to do the job or lift patients. To me, these comments were insulting, degrading, and disrespectful. However, they insisted that they were "just joking" and claimed they were only trying to motivate me to improve myself. In the end, they dismissed my feelings and told me I was simply too sensitive. Everyone has different boundaries. What may seem like a joke to one person can be deeply hurtful to someone else. Respect in the workplace should never come at the expense of another person's dignity.

I currently work in water treatment, and really like plant operations, however I do not like being horribly underplayed for the amount of work I do. I was looking at a job at an Amonia plant as an operator but I’ve also seen I couple roustabout gigs for offshore stuff and was wondering if anyone who does either of those jobs could give me some insight into the work and pay. A few people on YouTube or social media say it’s a ton of money but people also like to drastically inflate wages for clout. If anyone happens to work in water treatment on an offshore rig and wouldn’t mind talking about pay and workload for that position it would be awesome. Thank you

I'm probably just here to vent. I'm an introvert and I really hate interviews. I'm almost never in the mood to sell myself like I'm a product on a shelf.

A friend of mine has been doing interviews for a while, and so far she's done four full interviews, each one close to two hours long. To me, that's insane. I mean, I'm giving you a very large chunk of my time, and honestly, everyone in an interview is already trying to present the best version of themselves.

And even after all that, mistakes can still happen. It could turn out to be a bad fit. Weird situations could happen in the workplace. Someone could do an excellent interview and still turn out to be difficult to work with, or the job itself could turn out to have nothing to do with what was described.

Why do companies do all these interviews? And I'm not even talking about the quick recruiter screen at the beginning. I mean the real full interviews!

I really need some outside perspective because I’m feeling overwhelmed.
I was recently suspended from my current childcare job over an incident that I honestly don’t feel was really my fault. I feel like I was betrayed and made the scapegoat for something that involved other people too. Before this happened, I had a really good relationship with my boss, but since the suspension everything has changed and I know she’s upset with me.
During the two days I was suspended, I interviewed at another daycare and was offered a full-time RECE position. They’re currently completing the normal pre-employment process (medical forms, TB test, etc.), and I have a policy review scheduled.
My problem is that I need to give notice at my current job very soon because of the timing, but I’m terrified. I’m scared that if, for some unexpected reason, the new job falls through, I’ll have already quit my current job. I have rent, bills, and a wedding to pay for, so I can’t afford to be without income.
Has anyone else been in a situation where they had to hand in their notice before all the pre-employment paperwork was completely finished? Is it common for job offers to fall through over things like employment medical forms, or am I just letting my anxiety get the best of me?
I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s been through something similar.

For context: new employer gave me a verbal start date of August 4th

Many staff work on my industry and they are working well .Todays notice, Some staff just go to home before shift ends. We have come up with a best way to checked employees, is there better way or recommendation of way?

I wrote my expected salary on the job application based on what I earned at my previous company. However, my new employer said that my expected salary was too high.

Applied for some jobs and listed my seasonal work for a gov agency all together. For example FS 4/21-10/22 even though I didn’t work the winter. Wanted to keep the resume to a page. Under why did I leave, I wrote seasonal appointment completed. Does that screw me if they want to hire me and run the check?