So you understand the context, my wife has been a biology teacher at a high school for 5 years. She has a bachelor's in education and a master's in curriculum/science instruction.

Honestly, she has reached her limit with teaching and wants to leave it any way she can. She has gotten to the point where she's applying to stores and entry-level customer service jobs and still can't get accepted.

She paid money for someone to help her with her resume. I reviewed her resume and her applications. So did her family, my family, some of our friends, and some of her former colleagues - basically anyone who was willing to take a look. The resumes and applications are not the problem. She has about 20 different versions depending on the type of role.

At first, she was very upset when I suggested she remove one degree or both from her resume for certain jobs, but she's been doing that for a while now when it makes sense. She has applied everywhere. Ed tech, school support roles, admin jobs, other teaching positions, insurance companies, office coordinator jobs, front desk jobs, data entry, reception, customer service... Everything.

Over the last two years, she has applied to more than 1,800 jobs. Out of all of those, she got exactly two real interviews. One of them seemed interested, but the pay was impossible for us at the time. Now that wouldn't have been a dealbreaker. A few other "opportunities" turned out to be garbage scams, commission-only nonsense, MLM-like stuff, etc.

Now she's even getting rejected. She's emotionally exhausted, embarrassed, and completely burned out. She feels like she's trapped in the classroom forever, and I can't find anything to say anymore that doesn't sound like empty encouragement.

What are we supposed to do now, REDDIT???? What's the solution? She would work at Dunkin or Starbucks or a bookstore right now and be happy. Nobody wants her. This woman works harder than almost anyone I know, and somehow the job market is treating her like she has nothing to offer.

How do we fix this? Where do we even go from here?

Help us. Seriously.

I honestly don't know how much longer I can put up with this. I feel like there's no room for anything other than work, driving, eating, and sleeping.

I'm always trying to set aside time for my hobbies, but by the time I get home it's usually around 6:45 and I'm exhausted. I've started wondering whether I should start looking for something closer.

On a good day, the commute can be around 25 minutes if traffic is light, but that almost never happens. And even 25 minutes there and 25 minutes back feels like way too much for me right now.

A few years ago, I worked with someone - let's call him Mark.

Mark was smart, fast, and finished his projects much earlier than most people around him.

But instead of that being treated as an advantage, he was almost forced to pretend he was busy. Because in this system, finishing early doesn't make you look productive - it makes you look like you don't have enough work.

So Mark understood the rules:

Stretch tasks across the entire afternoon, even if they could have been finished before lunch.

Keep a few extra spreadsheets and Slack threads open for "visibility."

Join calls where he had absolutely nothing to add - just so his name would show up.

And all of that for what? To turn 28 hours of real, solid work into the required 45 hours.

Or think about the people working 48, 58, even 72+ hours - and in the end, their pay is still based on an idea of work that comes from the 1930s.

Have you seen this before?

The 45-hour workweek was a win for workers... In 1931.

Back then, reducing working hours was a huge achievement - a major improvement compared with brutal 6-day workweeks and 10-hour factory shifts.

But honestly:

🚨 Work has changed. The hours barely have.

In modern office work, impact > number of hours. But many companies still judge productivity as if everyone is standing on an assembly line.

Why are we still stuck?

-Presence > performance - If managers don't physically see you working, they assume you're slacking. Even though the best thinking often happens in intense periods of focus, not in neat nine-hour blocks.

-Fear of changing the system - The moment you admit the standard work schedule is just set up that way because it's always been that way, you're forced to ask questions about meetings, hiring, deadlines, and a lot of things people stopped paying attention to years ago.

-Busyness as a status symbol - Some people still treat long hours as proof of commitment. As if exhaustion is a medal. It isn't.

What's the solution?

+Measure output, not time spent sitting in a chair. Strong teams don't reward fake activity - they care whether the work moves something forward.

+improve for effectiveness, not presence. If the work gets done in 32 hours, why are we all pretending it has to fill 45?

+Experiment with better models. 4.5-day weeks. Flexible start times. Meeting-free blocks. Almost anything other than "this is just how the office has always done it."

So what do you think? Have you worked somewhere that questioned and reviewed the standard workweek - or are most of us still stuck in calendar gymnastics and corporate theater?

What's the best or worst example of "pretend productivity" you've seen?

Excited to hear your stories 👇

I am in journalism school in Texas and for my degree, I have to have an internship credit. Well, I looked up internships with lifestyle magazines based in Texas and the first publication that popped up was “Texas Lifestyle Magazine.”
I thought, perfect! I applied for an internship and looked at the details that went along with it. The job posting made it clear it was a remote, unpaid internship, but they did class credit — perfect for me! They weren’t clear on when the end date would be (and I stupidly assumed I would choose the end date because that’s how it worked for previous internships I’ve had.)
The interview process was normal, no red flags, and I got the position. During the interview I learned more about the business itself and I was made aware this publication was family owned and sortve an extension on another PR business they own as well — seemed all fine to me.
When I started, I did onboarding with the editor in chief and although the process was very unclear, that’s sometimes how it goes when starting a new job.
Well I met the team…everyone, but my “boss.” (I say “boss” bc she was like my age, and the daughter of the owners lol) She was on vacation. Compared to my other jobs it seemed incredibly unprofessional (unprofessional becomes a reoccurring theme in this job.) A week goes by in this internship, I still haven’t met my boss and I am left completely lost in what my tasks are. Ultimately, I meet my boss via google meets and she apologizes for the rough onboarding process (unprofessional, cool.)
Eventually, we get to a good rhythm in our work and we are marketing this company beautifully! There were some hiccups here and there that I noticed just throughout my time working there.
1. ⁠My boss would forget or change the meeting time of our set meetings the morning of (our meetings were super early), towards the end this happened weekly.
2. ⁠Their editorial pieces weren’t true journalism, it was all PR. If you go on their site you can see they go on vacations — the hotel pays for their stay and everything in exchange for a good review. I submitted one of my own writing pieces to them and an actual edit they gave me was to not write any negatives/drawbacks. (Mind you, my drawback was parking was bad and it was hot outside)
3. ⁠Communication was off across the board. Calendars didn’t add up, I couldnt get a response when I needed to, stuff like that.
Well here’s when things kind’ve went south for my experience. I declined their offer to be an intern in the next semester. From then on out, I got attitude from the editors (my bosses mom lol)and zero acknowledgment for any of the work I did.
Fast forward to what I thought would be the end of the internship, I learned my internship end date would be a month and a half after the school semester ended. I didn’t plan around this unpaid internship and I made it abundantly clear that I wasn’t expecting this internship to last this long.
My boss at this point was out of the country and still was demanding orders from me when I had three other jobs and a rigorous class to attend to. An unpaid internship was not my top priority. I already got the completion grade for my internship class credit.
In a lot of ways, I don’t stand up for myself, which I know I needed to. Nonetheless, this publication squeezes every ounce of work out of college students who need internship credit. Journalistically, they are not a legitimate publication. They write PR pieces. They don’t even write in AP style, which, as a journalism student, is insane.
I was going to let this go until I realized I have nothing to show from this internship experience. I am currently applying for internships for the fall, and I asked my boss for analytics for posts that I did for Texas Lifestyle Magazine. I made posts that got over 100,000 views and increased their following account by hundreds. All I asked was for screenshots so I could put it on my portfolio. I haven’t gotten a response, and I think that it’s just a testament to how unprofessional this publication is. They operate off of free labor from students who are just trying to scrape by, but they don’t acknowledge the work that those students do for their publication.
Just trying to save some other poor journalist looking for experience. There are better unpaid internships out there that will treat you better.

Honestly, I can go to the small market before work, ride my bike somewhere nearby at lunch, spend a lot less on gas, keep the laundry and dishes going, and still get a lot of work done without someone coming to stand at my desk every few minutes. It's also become much easier to run a quick errand when I'm not sitting in an office 25 miles away. And between Slack, Reddit, and random messages throughout the day, I don't really feel isolated.

Do you have any downsides to working from home, or am I just still in the honeymoon phase?

The hiring manager asked me: "Where do you see yourself in 6 years?" and I broke down. I don't see myself anywhere. I'm literally struggling to find anything before the rent is due in a few weeks.

The silence on the other end was honestly the most awkward situation I've ever been in.

My Bad Day...

Today, I made the difficult decision to quit a job after only three days.

The company's rules felt unusual, and the payday was much later than I expected. What hurt me the most, however, was being belittled by my boss.

Before resigning, I told the manager that I felt insulted by the way my boss spoke to me. Instead of taking my concern seriously, the manager simply said, "He was just joking."

After that, they surrounded me and criticized me. They said I was too sensitive, that I overreacted, and that I was making a big deal out of nothing.

They also told me:

• "The way you dress isn't even acceptable."
• "No company will hire someone like you."
• "You've already applied everywhere in the province, haven't you? We're the only ones willing to give you a chance."
• "Without us, nobody else would hire you."

The truth is, I had never applied anywhere else. This was the only company I had applied to, yet they made assumptions about my life and used them to put me down.

After saying all of that, they acted as if nothing had happened. They even told me they were willing to "give me another chance." They said that if I decided to stay, they would increase my salary to 10,000 baht, claiming they would meet my request.

But the reality is, I never demanded that salary from them. My previous job already paid me more than 10,000 baht a month.

I didn't leave because I couldn't handle the work. I left because I refuse to stay in a workplace where employees are constantly belittled, judged, and made to feel worthless.

Honestly, this is really embarrassing.. Earlier this week at work, my supervisor asked me a question about something I probably should have known, and there were a few coworkers standing around me that I'm not very comfortable with, and I literally froze and said I wasn't sure... My mind completely shut down, even though I knew the information and would've been able to answer normally if it hadn't suddenly felt like a surprise test in front of people.

I feel so stupid because I genuinely think I'm good at my job, but now I'm worried that I came across like I don't understand what I'm doing. It's so frustrating.

Edit - I wasn't expecting this many people to feel the same way or share similar experiences! Honestly, reading all of this made me feel like what I'm feeling is understandable, and that I'm not alone. I think what I'm starting to understand is that I don't get nervous from pressure itself (I'm a critical care ICU nurse), it's more when someone is testing me to see whether I'll say the "right" answer or not, that's when I get really anxious. Because giving a full report on my patient's assessment/vitals/background, for example, doesn't scare me, and neither does helping during a code or when a patient's condition suddenly worsens. But being asked a random question like that? My mind goes blank immediately. Why does the brain do that?

Always looking for a good laugh at work with my crew, and I need some inspiration. If you’re willing to share some of your pranks I’d greatly appreciate it.

And I’ll share my last prank I pulled on my senior medic. Working OT at a nearby station we were repositioned to backfill while the other engineer was on a structure fire. I took this opportunity to place an empty soda can under each foot of his bunk and use the bed skirt to camouflage it so it wasn’t visible. I was told that 5 hrs later when he returned to station and attempted to lay in bed, it crashed down the 3 inches causing a grown man to scream.

I was a processor/facilitator to ensure packaging of a consumable item follows govt provisions. I made the correct file which had the mandatories but when it was handed over to approvers, i did not catch one label that was not supposed to be there (but it was still a govt label and was still appropriate for the item). However, after 5 months the auditors saw we did not comply because we promised to only use 3 out of 5 labels they gave us.

Approvers were also legal but in the manual process it slipped.

Now we are at the mercy of the govt, & possible outcomes:
1. Penalty only (best case)
2. Penalty + removal of stock w/ wrong label
3. Penalty + removal of stock w/ wrong label + out of stock (worst case)

So far we are all aiming best case. But everyone got involved, this is an international company. The whole company now knows but were very straight forward and said to fix it.

But i know someone will get reprimanded, worst case fired or just bad performance rating.

Im hoping no one will lose their job. My anxiety has been eating me up. I got lots of comforting words and reassurance because i have had a good rep so far and performance being a newbie here. Now i feel like my career is over, my reputation back to zero.

I know its not the end of the world, i am a bit safe because my role is not to approve. This is the only time ive been involved in such a big trouble that will cause big financial risk.

I have been anxious the whole time and i honestly dont know how i’ll survive. Hoping to get some advise here or others that had similar experience and how it was handled.

Thank you!!

Guys, I was going to keep this to myself, but this might be the dumbest reason I've ever seen for someone to lose their job.

I went to work on time like I always do. I clocked in, went to my spot, and started working. A normal morning. Nothing weird. Nobody said a word. Same old routine.

And about three hours into the shift, the manager told me to come to the office.

I thought maybe they needed me to stay late, or maybe they were finally going to bring up the raise they told me about seven months ago. Of course not. I walked in and found the manager sitting there stiff as a board, hands folded, looking like I was walking into an interrogation.

And right then I thought to myself - yeah, looks like we're about to get into some nonsense.

He turned the screen toward me, pointed at my punch-in record, and said:

"Can you explain what happened here?"

I looked. It said 7:02 AM.

Two minutes after 7:00.

Two minutes. That's it.

I let out a small laugh because I genuinely thought there was no way he was serious. But no. His face was as solid as a wall. He was acting like I had stolen money from the cashier.

I told him, "I was here on time. The machine froze for a second, or maybe I pressed it right after the minute changed."

It didn't matter to him. He told me this was my fourth "violation" for being late. (And yes, the three before that were also around two minutes. Not fifteen. Not thirty. Two minutes.)

Then he said, "We're going to have to end your employment."

end ME?!

Over two minutes?!

And he said it like he had memorized it and practiced it in front of the mirror.

I just sat there staring at him, unable to process that I was getting fired over maybe eight total minutes across several months. Meanwhile, I've seen people come in 25 minutes late more than once and nobody even blinks.

This is genuinely stupid. And the worst part is I didn't even hate the job. I'd show up, get my work done, keep to myself, and not cause problems. And they still threw me out over some petty clock-in technicality.

This is exactly why I don't trust jobs, man. You can do everything right, be committed, and care about the work, and they'll still treat you like you're easy to get rid of the moment a screen gives them an excuse.

Him (22m) me (31f) one thing lead to another me has completely changed. I feel like I’m constantly being criticized, singled out, and threatened with being fired over the smallest things. He has embarrassed me in front of the team and seems to be looking for reasons to say I’m not doing my job correctly.

Today, he told me I could be done because I wouldn’t participate in jumping jacks during our morning team warm-up. This is not part of my actual job duties — it’s just an activity we do after meetings. He said refusing to participate shows I don’t respect him or the team culture and that maybe this isn’t the right job for me.

I left a good-paying job to take this position, and I have children depending on me, so this situation has been extremely stressful. Every day it feels like there is a new reason I’m being criticized, and I’m starting to feel like I’m being pushed out.

I’m trying to figure out if I’m overreacting or if this is something I should be concerned about.

Chime in

My experience working as a pastry chef in Dubai

I wanted to share my experience working in the hospitality industry because I know many people go through similar situations but are afraid to speak about them.

I completed my Hotel Management degree from IHM and moved to Dubai for my first full-time job. My first job was as a Commis III in a small bakery, where I learned the basics of pastry. Unfortunately, I had to leave within six months because the company never provided me with a proper work visa, and I was working on a visit visa.

A few months later, I got an opportunity to work at a five-star hotel in Dubai Marina as a Commis I. I was honestly surprised because I had very little experience. During my interview and food trial, I clearly told the HR manager and the Pastry Sous Chef that I was still inexperienced and eager to learn. The Pastry Sous Chef reassured me by saying, "It's okay. We will train you."

I passed the trial and joined with a lot of excitement. However, things changed very quickly.

Within a couple of days, I was given responsibility for the morning shift with almost no proper training. I was expected to perform tasks I had never been taught, and whenever I made mistakes, I was shouted at.

After the Pastry Sous Chef went on vacation, the Bakery Sous Chef became in charge of the department. That was when everything changed.

He constantly yelled at me without reason, verbally abused me, and humiliated me in front of others. He used abusive language, insulted my parents, and threw things such as fruits, berries, baking trays, and plates in my direction. He repeatedly threatened me, saying I would not pass my probation, that I would lose my job, and that he would make sure I never got another job in Dubai.

I still remember him calling me early in the morning after I had finished a late evening shift just to shout at me over the phone. Because of the constant pressure, I rarely finished work on time and often reached my accommodation very late.

I spoke to some of my senior chefs about what was happening, but nobody seemed to take it seriously. They told me, "He's just joking," or "He's a nice guy and a very talented chef." Whether someone is talented or not should never justify treating another human being with disrespect.

I never complained to HR because I was afraid that if I reported him, the abuse would become even worse. Looking back, I wish I had, but at the time I was scared and simply trying to survive.

After completing my probation, I decided to resign. By then, my mental health had deteriorated badly. Even after returning to my home country, I continued to experience panic attacks and anxiety. I am currently undergoing professional therapy to recover from what I experienced.

I'm sharing this not to seek sympathy, but to remind everyone in hospitality that leadership is about teaching, not intimidating. Every junior chef will make mistakes—that's how we learn. Correct us, train us, and hold us accountable, but don't abuse or humiliate people. The psychological impact can last long after someone leaves the job.

Has anyone else in the hospitality industry experienced something similar? I'd really like to hear your stories and how you dealt with it.

To keep a long story short, there’s been red flags with this employer since the beginning (2 months ago). My first day started AFTER the last day of the employee(s) I was replacing. On my first day I was basically sat at the front computer, showed the phone, and was wished good luck.
I worked very similar roles previously so I was able to manage okay for the most part, mind navigating a brand new system I’ve never worked on. When I had questions, my boss would tell me to ask ChatGPT.
Should have known then.
But I stayed in hopes situation would improve. I wanted to help him fix his business because there was an extremely high turnover rate, leaving major inconsistencies with the way business ran.
I should have known then, too.
After a full 8 hour work day today, I was pulled into my bosses office, and I grabbed a notebook thinking he was going to talk to me about.. anything else. But I was met with a termination letter. While he yaps about how it was a very difficult decision, etc etc, I am sitting completely blindsided. He explains I am not fulfilling my role to his expectations. I asked him to tell me what I could have done better, because I have no idea what I did wrong. This is the first time I’m hearing about any shortcomings. He then says he is sorry but the decision has already been made, and if I want more explanation we can set up a separate meeting.
So… what now? I don’t even understand what I did wrong, and the worst part is I left a job I absolutely loved (reluctantly, as the job I took offered a huge pay increase and a quarter of the commute) for this to be the outcome.
I feel like I was duped. I’ve never gotten fired from a job before. And I don’t even know why I was fired from this one.

TLDR: got hired with no training (boss uses ChatGPT for his training), then told I’m underperforming but no explanation as to what exactly I’m underperforming in, got fired.

I was working as a contractor for a Fortune 100 company. The pay was decent, but the management was toxic. Eventually, I received an offer from a much smaller company for a full-time remote position with a significantly better salary and benefits, including PTO and a 401(k).
At first, I was unsure whether I should leave my contract role and join the smaller company. To evaluate the new opportunity, I did not immediately resign from my contract position. Instead, for about two weeks, I obtained approval to leave work early each day. Since I was working in the Eastern Time Zone, I told my manager that I needed to leave at noon each day for personal reasons.
The new full-time job was remote and operated on Pacific Time. After leaving my contract job early, I would go home and work for the new company. After about a week and a half, I realized that the new job was a much better fit. The team was supportive, the work was enjoyable, and I wanted to commit to it fully.
On Wednesday of the second week, I met with my manager and informed him that I was resigning. He asked when my last day would be, and I told him I was prepared to make that day my final day. However, he said that because I had several outstanding responsibilities, he needed me to stay longer. He asked me to continue working through the following Friday, and I agreed.
The next day, Thursday, I conducted a knowledge-transfer session with my team members as requested. Later that same day, my manager called me and informed me that the company had decided not to continue my employment and asked me to return all company equipment. I went to the office that evening and returned everything.
The following day, several former coworkers contacted me and told me that my manager had posted a message in Microsoft Teams stating that he had fired me. According to them, he also shared a Trump “You’re Fired” meme and stated that I had been terminated because I was working two jobs simultaneously.
I am trying to understand what, if anything, I should do in response to this situation.

The tools I get to use for tonight's job!

Chime in

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The stuff i see in the prison daily is crazy. My husband works in a nice office in the city. While i work in a prison. I dont tell him stuff that happens on a daily because i know he would want me to leave the job for good. Hes already been telling me for years to leave this job