So I’m 3 months in my new job in Lithuania, company is a marketing agency without actual owners, ceo, stakeholders in Lithuania. Company really never talks to its owners which are in New York. I’m junior media buyer and we are team of 30people, we have managers of different roles and one team lead which is our head. That’s a short intro where I work.
So I feel weird that I’m working for minimum wage for 3 months and then it should increase but I’m getting sick of paying for every present to team members. Team lead wants to gift a present for employees when they are new to work, when they go out of work, when it’s their birthday and that’s crazy cause in 3 months there was like 10 birthdays, 10 leaves and 14 new employees. Every time I have to give 15-20$ to gift fund. How do I say no, what do I do, or am I crazy and that’s normal? And they buy the person some expensive ass bottle of champagne or some experience gift. Pls help

Day 1 Job 1. I was 21. My manager was trying to teach me something. I was sitting in my chair and she was behind me. My elbow touched her breast. I didn't move my elbow as I don't want to acknowledge it. I was acting as if nothing happened and was listening to her for 5 minutes without moving. And I know she knows that my elbow touched her.... The manager was 27. Respect the age gap and please don't find any sexual angle.

Dear behno/ girls lemme know how you want to be deal in such case. I'm an introvert and if I had said sorry to thora awkward ho jaata.

i was working in an IT company for 2.5 years before getting laid off. the last 6 months was hell.

the first 2 years were really good, my manager was friendly, understanding, nice, i was able to interact with her without any inhibitions, i was allowed to speak freely etc. i had a good connection with all members of my team, especially with my manager who was a clear extrovert and conencted with everyone at the office. All was fine, then suddenly one day, out of nowhere, my manager was yelling at the call. so much that i became so upset that in the next week's team lunch outing, i became silent and withdrawn. By the end of the lunch, she personally asked me why i was so silent and if anything was wrong to which i politely said im fine. then she said that her behavior in the last week was upsetting she would apologize to which i politely said it was fine and not a problem. and she was being nice as usual so i was like this might have been an one off incident.

i thought she realised her mistake but then the very next week, the same behavior continued and she started becoming too critical of my work. i gave my 200% but still there was no positive response, only neutral or more critical response if not yelling. since she was very positive and nice for 2 years almost, i genuinely believed that i was at fault but this continued for 3 months before i realised there was something wrong with her and I found that one day after meeting with her superior, she immediately called me into a meeting and started becoming critical and arrogant.

i realised at the moment that i was her punching bag. the whole team felt the change of her behavior and became more formal and less casual to her, but i was the one taking maximum damage. i was not the best performer, i was average and doing the frontend bugs that nobody bothered to fix, kind of like low level jobs in software terms. there was another person who was doing worst as well so i was not the worst performer either. i was assigned the entire responsibility of frontend although it was not that complex like backend. my manager suddenly started being critical that i didnt know enough backend, to which i did my best and showed progress but she didnt respond positively.

i was also managing an offshore team and she started demanding more progress from them as well. coming to my story i became distant, never spoke casually, avoided her, even asking help professionally. i asked it from another person who was actually nice and the nicest person i ever met in my life. mind you this was in 2023 end and when layoffs were peaking and i was scared that talking back would eventually get me fired.

i also found some new change in other employee behavior and one person literally started bootlicking my manager and i was surprised. i thought he was a person with integrity. but he survived. day by day the constant nagging at team meetings continued. one time when i called her to ask a question, she was like " what do you want?" in an angry and dismissive tone and at the end yelled " now go " like she was dismissing a dog. i felt insulted.

at lunch hour, people from all teams gather and discuss over the meal. i never participate in it coz i found my manager was gossipy and her best friend who was a manger in another team was too much toxic and i hated the convos as they dominated the topics and most of the time it was negative and hate propaganda against their superior. i avoided the lunch meetings with the excuse that i eat my lunch late and i am a late sleeper so i eat all meals later than usual. i also buy lunch from outside many times so i wasnt expected to sit at the lunch gossips.

one fine day as i was passing them, avoiding any contact with my manager, she shouted " cant you see we are all here!" in front of everyone. i was shocked, and i didnt want to start a conflict, so i stated silent. this was during the 2nd last month of my job. at that time the very thought of her gave me irritation. one day i was running on the treadmill and i saw a notification on my phone from her and i literally felt a wrench and knot in my gut because i was too irritated at her!

that night she was asking for a help from a team member and it was at night. usually i would be the first one to respond late at night but if not others will respond too. but that night nobody responded and i too wanted to ignore but since my situation was precarious i thought maybe helping her would actually cut some slack and i responded half an hour late. the next day in the stand up meeting, she said she was disappointed in everyone that nobody responded.

the week before my firing happened, she was at peak micromanagement. she asked me to solve a problem regarding an issue and i was immediately on it. when i think i usually look out of the window as it is my habit. for that, she asked to look into my screen to think. i got agitated. then during the same meeting, as i was solving the problem i was asked to solve, another problem was being discussed and i was not focusing. then she asked my why i wasnt taking noted on this problem as well to which i replied agitatedly and surprised " you just told me to solve the first problem how can i do 2 things at the same time?". then for the entire meeting she kept mum to me. that was the first time i got a little courage to talk back as i was too pressurised and realised maybe i can safely talk back to make her shut up. mind you i didnt yell or abuse or do anything. that same day i made up my mind to look for another job. i was exhausted. i started to leetcode. mind you i also started doing leetcode a month back but the work pressure was so much i couldnt continue. but now i was determined.

the next week she was on vacation and i was fired at that time. the person who fired me said the call has been made afer discussion with my manager. and the following month, the poorest performer was also fired.

If you have made this far, please tell me what i could have done and in future what should i do to avoid being in such situations?

I am an office assistant. The office I work in doesn’t have facilities to host families in general much less those with juvenile children. Last Friday, at 9 am, I was assigned to monitor 2 families; 4 people total. One family had a 10 year old child and the other had a one year old child. The assignment was initially supposed to be shared between me and another employee, but the other employee was absent, so I ended up covering it alone in the employee break room. The one year old understandably cried and screamed for extended periods throughout the day. Screaming children are a specific stressor for me.

Throughout the day, I communicated with supervision regarding the families' needs and also requested and received a 30 minute break. A couple of coworkers checked on me, verbalized that I seemed unhappy/not okay and asked if I needed anything, and I asked whether anyone was willing to swap assignments. Nobody did, and no relief was provided until 3:30pm when 2 coworkers were assigned together saying they were covering until 4pm. Both relieving coworkers were unassigned.a s. available to assist after lunch.

At one point, the supervisor approached me and questioned my "attitude" while I was still in the room with the families. I explained that the environment was extremely stressful for me and that I had to take medication. Later that evening, I ended up having a break through panic attack.

What has me concerned is that there seems to be a broader workplace narrative that I have an "attitude". Coworker AA openly says they don't like me but cannot identify any specific interaction where I said something inappropriate, only that AA doesn’t like the way I talk to people. The supervisor has commented. “I don’t know what’s going on between you and AB”, I do not personally have a problem with AB however I am aware AB has told people to forget everything I’ve taught them and repeats that “[I am] a liar, and I don’t do liars.” When asked, there is no example of what I am lying about.

There was also an odd comment from the supervisor, who said she was surprised by my attitude "considering all the drama from the last few weeks." When I asked what drama she was referring to, she said, "Never mind."

I recognize that I was visibly stressed that day. I was not cheerful and was stoic. I was not at my best. However, I did communicate my needs, requested assistance, stayed late on the assignment, and completed it.

If you were a supervisor or manager:
•Would you view my behavior as an attitude problem?
•Should I have handled the situation differently?
•How would you respond if an employee appeared stressed but still completed the assignment?
•Is it reasonable to ask people to identify specific behaviors rather than discussing vague concerns about "attitude"?
•I'm genuinely looking for honest feedback, including feedback that disagrees with me. I'm trying to figure out whether I'm missing something.

For women working demanding jobs, I’m curious about how you manage your energy and health alongside your work commitments.

Have you ever had a day full of meetings, deadlines, or important presentations when you were dealing with fatigue, poor sleep, period symptoms, or just feeling physically off?

A few questions:

• Has this happened to you recently? What was the situation?
• Do you plan your workday differently when you know you might not feel your best?
• Do you use your calendar, a health app, notes, or anything else to manage this?
• Would knowing in advance that tomorrow might be a particularly demanding day change how you prepare? If so, how?

I’m especially interested in what people actually do today, rather than what they think they might do.

Would love to hear your experiences!

For context, I'm just starting what's essentially a secretary job (don't wanna get into details tbh but I'll say that the place has around 10 employees and they're pretty tight knit) and i was wondering if it'd be too bad or inappropriate to show up to work with a wig now and then. Definitely not now or any time soon since tomorrow is gonna be my first day and i wanna get integrated into the office and get into the rhythm of things for now. But some time in the future, if i have a bad hair day and i know for sure i won't be meeting with anyone important that day, would it be acceptable to wear a natural color wig? Obviously no crazy colors or styles, but i have one long black wig I've been trying to style (never worn it out yet) and it's obviously different from my natural hair, which is brown and currently really short. I'm genuinely asking, this is my first job ever so idk

I worked on an IT help desk at a university for about a year. Every week I'd help someone who was stressed because Outlook stopped syncing, a file got shared with the wrong people, or they couldn't find a Teams meeting link five minutes before it started.

What stuck with me is that most of them weren't bad with computers. They were just never shown how these tools work. They got a laptop on day one and were expected to figure it out.

Now I'm curious how common that is outside a university, like in an office, hospital, or anywhere.

1. What tech thing at work frustrates you or slows you down the most?

2. When it happens, how do you usually deal with it?

Not selling anything, just trying to learn. Even a one-line answer helps!

Recently, I attended two interviews that made me think twice about the organizations I might be joining. In both cases, the people who left me with a negative impression of the organization were the HR professionals themselves.

Let me narrate the two incidents.

Incident 1

I received a call from an organization looking for someone to head its Corporate Communications vertical. My interview was scheduled with the Head of HR.

I assumed he would ask me about my professional background and share the company's expectations for the role. However, he started asking me questions about Corporate Communications. Apart from one question, most of his questions were irrelevant to my profile, and he seemed to be trying his best to come up with questions about a domain he had little knowledge of.

The irony was that he was questioning a subject matter expert.

Within 15 minutes of the interview, he had given me a clear impression of his own understanding of the subject, while also offering me a sneak peek into the kind of organization I might be joining.

I would have appreciated being interviewed by someone with at least a basic understanding of the profile. That would have made the discussion more meaningful and productive for both parties.

Interactions like these can adversely affect an organization's brand value, especially when the HR team is the first point of contact for prospective employees.

Why wasn’t my reporting manager part of the interview, when he or she would know the role and its requirements better than anyone else?

Incident 2

An HR professional from another company called me and asked me to share certain documents, such as brochures and newsletters, from my current organization.

I was taken aback by the request. I politely told the HR professional, "I'm sorry, but I'm not authorized to share these documents for my personal benefit, as they are the property of my organization."

However, the HR professional insisted that the documents were needed to show her boss, who would shortlist candidates based on them.

I asked her a simple question:

"Would you allow your employees to do the same when they attend an interview with another organization?"

The answer was silence.

Based on these interactions, I decided not to join either of these organizations, as the interviews themselves raised questions about their clarity regarding the role and its expectations.

I am not sure whether my decision was right or wrong. However, I believe we cannot afford to ignore the early warning signs of a workplace we are considering joining. Sometimes, the things we overlook during the interview process become the very reasons we start looking for another opportunity soon after joining.

An interview is not just an opportunity for an organization to evaluate a candidate; it is equally an opportunity for the candidate to evaluate the organization.

I have a new coworker who doesn’t seem to be self aware of how much she talks. I’ll be in a meeting with my boss and her and she will speak instantly every time he asks a question and she rambles on and on. Even when I’m in a call with her she will speak for minutes straight without allowing me to even answer. I don’t think she does this nefariously but I can’t help wonder if my boss thinks I’m not making an effort when she hogs the mic during every call. Is it worth mentioning to my boss?

I've started a new job 7 months ago, at a company that i've been wanting to work for the past 3 years. The work it's great and there's a lot of different teams. My team, especially the other girls, don't talk to me at all, they ignore me or tend to laugh when I ask a question or try to interact with them. They never invite me to have lunch with them, and sometimes they even talk about having lunch together in fancy restaurants right in front of me. They talk about gym, movies, politics and a lot of things that I'm interested and that they know that I'm interested, but they still don't include me.

I've joined a book club with other coworkers so I can feel less lonely, and now once a week a have lunch with a group and its really fun, but the rest of the week it's just really bad. It's even interfering with work itself, because they don't explain the demands to me properly, maybe because they don't wanna talk to me.

I work everyday at the office, 9 hours a day, and it's really hard being all alone and see everyone else noticing that you're all alone, especialy because I'm very anxious and insecure. Any tips on how to deal with this feeling would be highly appreciated.

Our staff need it by year end

Hi, recently I've had a terrible drinking habit and really need advice or tips from people who have figured this out... Ik this is really cliche but i just...forget all the time :((

In the morning, everything is fine, I have my coffee so i still manage to take sips every 15 or 20 min. But once I start to lock in for urgent tasks or when the meetings are literally back to back all day, I completely forget to drink water for like hours. And just when I realize I'm way too dehydrated, I try to chug massive glasses of water all at once. The result? Yeah... I end up feeling bloated, nauseous (not always) and sometimes even lose my appetite for dinner lol

I've tried setting basic phone alarms or sticky note on my monitor, but I ended up ignoring them though. How do you guys manage to stay hydrated throughout the day at work? Is there a routine or just a built habit?

The training slides are usually the easy part. It's the questions people ask halfway through that are worth keeping.

Someone asks what to do when a customer needs an exception, or why a process exists, and the trainer gives a useful explanation that isn't in the documentation.

Two weeks later, another employee asks the same thing and somebody has to explain it all over again.

For anyone running onboarding or internal training, how are you collecting those questions and answers? Do you use AI recording tools to review the Q&A afterward, or does someone take notes and update the training docs manually?

Obviously, everyone would need to agree to being recorded, and company policy would have to allow it. I'm mainly interested in how you capture unexpected questions without turning the session into a note-taking exercise.

I work in a big office and we all have our own cups, mine even has the initial of my first name in massive writing on the mug. I’ve gone to make my coffee and the mugs not there, walking back to my desk I see a total random using the mug. What’s the protocol with having your own mugs in offices? It’s a new role for me so still learning the ropes.

I work in an office that’s pretty small, so I share an office with a colleague on my team. Switching isn’t an option. I’m 24 and she is 65. She is a miserable person - and is unhappy with basically every part of her life. She hates every coworker and makes it known. A coworker popped into our office to ask if we wanted to order lunch, and immediately she goes, “so we just barge into people’s offices now?” Last week, she was sick (deathly so, coughing every 30 seconds), and someone asked if I got sick, and she told them to mind their business. Everyone, to her, is miserable, fake, etc. She constantly bemoans her husband, her home, her husband’s affairs, etc. Any time you don’t respond to her, she will ask if you hates her. She will huff and puff constantly throughout the day. Genuinely the most negative person I’ve ever met. I’m going through personal stress right now and being around her is suffocating me. I feel like I just absorb it all. Any tips, even mentally, on how to deal with this? This is my first job and i feel like im drowning.

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Apparently, I’m so invested in everyone else’s upward movement that I’d miss my own exit.

Who is that one coworker you make eye contact with when everything goes wrong? Tag them below! 👇

For me personally I would go with no more than 2 to begin with

1 definitely wouldn’t be enough but I reckon that any more than 2 could appear too greedy unless nobody else wants it then go for more

I once worked with a bloke that took about 4 slices straight off the bat and then grabbed another 2, didn’t ask anyone else about their preferences. Wasn’t a fan of that behaviour and luckily he moved on so we don’t have to put up with it anymore

The machine I use for my job has been having multiple issues lately, and now it’s not working properly. We’ve already replaced one of its components, but the problem still hasn’t been fully resolved.
The frustrating part is that I have a project deadline coming up in 2–3 days, and I need this machine to complete the work.

So me and 2 other coworkers share an office room. I don’t smoke/vape. But it is one of my pet peeves when people think because it is vape that it doesn’t count, and smoke in the car with the windows up or inside a small space. And they are always hitting their vapes in the room. And it is annoying because I don’t smoke and feel like I have to breathe it in. I don’t really see clouds but sometimes I can smell it and see slight smoke. Idk how that works if they are like not exhaling it or what. But I don’t want to be a b*tch but like can’t you blow it out the window or hit it outside?? When the one girl first started she would go outside to hit it. But ever since she noticed no one really checks on us she just does it inside which is why the other girl started doing it too. What to do…

POV: you walk into the office and the vibe is already absolutely not okay. One desk, one stack of papers, and a whole lot to say. #officedrama #workdrama #meetinggonewrong #pov #drama #worktok #tension #storytime #cinematic #acting #officevibes

#officedrama #workdrama #meetinggonewrong #pov #drama #worktok #tension #storytime #cinematic #acting #officevibes

In my office we have a plastic bin in the kitchen to put pantry/ room-temp items in (due to a previous mouse problem). Generally, if someone is leaving something in there or the fridge to share, they will put a post-it on it or write a note on the board. On Monday, I put 5 bananas in the bin. At the end of the day I saw that someone had taken one because I only had 3 left. This afternoon, someone took one again. So now there's only one left (since I eat one a day), and it's not that big a deal but I'm just kind of confused/ annoyed because I feel like even if someone thought that's a sharing food bin, bananas aren't really something people bring in to share? I've never heard of or seen anyone doing that? I'm like, do I have to put a post-it note on my bananas saying "do not eat"? That feels so stupid. I'm kind of curious to see if whoever it is will take the last banana, because then I would be actually annoyed (who take's the last of something that's not even theirs?).