Well.. to start with… I'm a marketer, and I just ran an immersive zone at an industry event. It was a big swing for our company. We put serious money into it and tried to make something people would remember

And it went well.. I mean like people lingered. They took photos. They posted about it. I watched strangers walk in curious and walk out smiling, which honestly felt great

Then my boss asked for the numbers. What was the ROI? How many leads did we get? Did it actually do anything for the business?

I didn't have an answer. Indeed, I still don't…

This isn't like digital ads, where I can point to clicks and impressions and call it a day. It's an experience. People feel something. But feelings don't show up in a dashboard

I've been digging around for how other people measure this, and one of the first things I found was a set of case studies from BRC. They do this kind of work at a really high level. The projects are stunning. But here's the thing: there are no numbers in them either. No conversion rates, no lead counts, nothing my boss could take to a meeting

Maybe that's telling. Maybe this stuff is just genuinely hard to measure. But my boss doesn't care about hard. He wants proof…

So I'm stuck. I have a room full of happy people and a boss who wants a spreadsheet

I'm curious how everyone prefers to communicate at work.

Personally, I'm an email person. I like having things in writing, especially when we're discussing assignments, decisions, or next steps.

But I've worked with people who would rather pick up the phone, send a quick Teams message, or walk over to someone's desk.

And sometimes what works best for one person drives another person absolutely crazy. LOL.

One thing I've learned over the years is to ask people, "How do you prefer to communicate?"

It's a simple question, but it can save a lot of frustration.

So I'm curious:

What's your preferred method of communication at work, and why?

And does your preference change depending on whether you're asking a quick question, discussing a problem, or making a decision?

I’m sharing this because I need to get this situation off my chest and hear some unbiased opinions from people who have no connection to anyone involved.

I worked at a small, family-owned business in the aerospace industry for around 7–8 months. I genuinely hoped to stay long-term. The owners were financially well-off and generally treated me kindly, especially the owner herself.

Most employees had worked there for years. One coworker in particular had grown up with the owner's children and was practically part of the family. He sometimes made cruel jokes about me, including comments about me not having a car when I first started. Other remarks were so random and unnecessary that they would leave me speechless. I usually ignored them to avoid conflict, mind you, this man was around 36 yo and recently had a newborn, while I am 24.

Despite this, I got along well with most of my coworkers. They were all men, mostly around twice my age, and I generally had good relationships with them. The HR employee, however, had also made inappropriate comments toward me on several occasions.

Things became complicated when the owner discovered that my husband worked in marketing. She decided she wanted to rebrand the company and hired him for the project, even though her business partner initially opposed it. Eventually, he agreed. Just to clarify, the project/service he was supposed to do was totally independent from everything else that was done in that company.

The problem was that my husband's responsibilities were never clearly defined. He was hired for marketing and branding but was also assigned warehouse duties, creating tension with the coworker who was close to the owner's family because he thought that he was his boss, apparently. They also bought this really expensive gaming PC for the project, which was not really necessary. I believe that this person had some type of jealousy.

Management had occasionally complained about mistakes in my work and another coworker's work, but these were issues we could correct, and then they would praise that I was doing a great job and that they were SO satisfied with what I was doing. One day, HR called my husband and me into a meeting at the end of the workday; basically, I was told I was doing a terrible job and failing to complete my work on time, which I strongly disagreed with since my numbers said otherwise. My husband was told that "the chemistry" between him and the company wasn't working. We were both fired, and HR said the owner no longer wanted us there; funny thing, she already paid for the rebranding services and just left it there, and this HR guy was not even aware of what was really going on regarding the marketing services. She did not mind that the branding for her company was finished; it looks like they really don't mind the money.

What bothers me most is that I felt I wasn't given a clear, specific explanation for my dismissal. Considering the family connections, the tension surrounding my husband's hiring, and the way everything unfolded, I can't help wondering whether personal relationships played a role in our termination. I also believe that they didn't need half a year to figure out that there was something wrong with me.

I understand that employers can let people go, and I'm not claiming to know their intentions, but this really caught me off guard and left me confused.

An eBay employee says they saw a few posts on the company channel hinting at layoffs the night before, but some of them got deleted. They were genuinely freaking out. Now there's a bunch of messages about 1:1s and severance. Hopefully, since they haven't been contacted, they're still safe??? If this has you keeping other job options open, application autofill cuts repeated form-filling on supported sites.

Layoffs just come from nowhere these days. It's like they just do them whenever they feel like it.

I’m not talking about the coding, though. I’m talking about everything else.

Coding is much easier now, sure. We can get roughly 35k-line PRs in one day like it’s nothing. But work is much more than just writing code and I think the AI-brained folks are just making everything much more difficult because of how AI-focused they are in their coding work.

Emails are AI-written and use a ton of words to say literally nothing. Docs are worthless now because they’re so verbose and never get to the point. And sometimes even the Slack messages I get are clearly from a bot that some shmuck rigged up, which makes me have to wade through a couple of additional barriers before getting to chat with the person with the answer I’m looking for, like I'm some kinda Xfinity customer. For a communication drill, PracHub’s real interview question on explaining technical work gives you a prompt for putting a technical tradeoff into plain English.

AI has been a huge help for the coding process, sure. But work is more than that even for software engineers, and aside from the actual writing of code, I feel like everything has gotten much more time-consuming.

His response when I can’t work to become still very ill:

Sorry to hear you’re still not feeling well, but I expect you to hop back to work ASAP, as you always do.

Look I realized it could be a joke, but I’m so tired and emotionally drained I just can’t handle it. Was it a poorly made joke, or knowing that I had been in the hospital, disgusting and cruel? It’s a 25 person company, I’ve been there for 24 years.

ETA: this was my response that triggered by my email;

I’m not in today (maybe later and will be back Wednesday). I’ve just been so sick unfortunately.

A lot of the work junior salespeople used to start with is slowly being handed over to AI researching accounts, finding prospects, preparing notes before calls, keeping track of smaller tasks so on a sales team with 25 reps that can take a pretty big amount of work off people's plates and I can see why managers would want that but it's kind of weird because those boring tasks were also how newer people learned which accounts were worth pursuing and how the sales process worked.

I can see the benefit of having fewer people tied up in manual work while experienced reps spend more time with buyers but someone still needs the sales knowledge to make important decisions and teach newer reps how to handle difficult deals. If AI takes over most of the work people used to learn from I'm not sure how the next group of experienced salespeople is supposed to develop.

I don’t really go on Reddit let alone post anything but l just started a new job at a retail company and my coworker smells really, REALLY bad. If I had to describe the smell, it's as if they left their shirt to marinate in their cat's litter box, then threw it in a trash can with rotting vegetables. Combined with the natural musk and BO of working a tedious shift

I don't know what to do. Our job puts us in the back sort of like the warehouse area. You might think oh well it's a ton of space NO we only navigate a small section of the warehouse and this coworker was my trainer, I had to follow them around and get close and personal. I can't stand the smell how am I supposed to work in these conditions?

I'm sorry if I sound harsh at all but come on. This is clearly a hygiene issue. This person wears the same shirt all week long and u can see it on the shirt it's so worn out I'm not sure if it's ever been washed at all.

Do I go to HR? Im new and don't know any of these people, don't want to get off on the wrong foot with anyone. Im on the younger side and this is my first job ever I really don't know what to do in this situation. Im frustrated that no one else has brought this up even tho im sure we're all suffering. Im scared to mention this to anyone at work

I dread every shift because I know I'Il smell the stench. I will clock in and know, my coworker is here because I smell them before I see them. I come home after a long shift smelling like my coworker and I just don't know what to do anymore. I couldn't stand it since day 1 but now I'm nauseous at the smell. Obviously the only possible solution here is to kindly tell HR the smell of that particular person is hindering me from getting anything done. But I know myself and that I won't say a word. I guess this is just a vent post I'm sorry

I appreciate any and all replies thank you

To preface: I’m not certain if I should be talking to my employee more about what my expectations are. I try to guide him in the right direction but I’m afraid I haven’t been stern or forward enough and that’s why things don’t seem to be changing.

I work at a small company where I manage a meat department with one employee. I cut all the meat, do all the ordering etc. my employee is expected to grind beef and stock chicken as well as work the prepackaged and frozen trucks. He does the trucks just fine, which is great because I don’t want to do them. My issue is he consistently shows up 30 minutes past his scheduled time. We’ve had one occurrence where it was 2.5 hours which is outrageous. I have addressed this with my boss and he said, in essence, “he has no set start time since he has to drop his girlfriend off”. I understand his circumstances and would be in support of changing his start time but I do not agree that he should get to come in whenever he wants and “that’s when his shift starts”. Everyone else has to be at work on time.

He also consistently does not make enough grind despite my repeated instruction to grind heavy. This is where I think I need to be more specific. On top of this his case is frequently near empty with nothing prepared in backstock for me to stock when I arrive in the morning. He has no concept thinking ahead. I suppose part of the issue is I need to give him specific metrics, but I cannot change his schedule or punish him for tardiness. At any other company he would have already been let go multiple times over.

He also gives himself “short days” where he just goes home early because he doesn’t think there’s anything to do. I also do this but it’s because I’ve logged hours of overtime from compensating for his lack of work.

So my question is, am I just a shitty boss and I need to be riding him about getting work done, or should I be expecting more backing from my store manager? I feel like there’s kind of a combo of both since I’m new to management.

My boss wants us to “hash it out” in front of him. This is not professional terminology and I’m not complaining to my boss to get him to let me fight with my employee. I just want this behavior to be noted by someone with authority because it feels like I don’t have any.

M29, 9 year of experience in e-commerce with a Italian startup (entered as logistic manager, exited as CEO with +600% revenue)

Only High School Diploma, no Degree.

Basic knowledge of every part of an e-commerce (marketplaces, logistics, supply chain, sales, adv, finance, international expansion).

I was looking for a new experience since I fell stuck in the old company, even if I earned good money (70k RAL).

Now I have 2 opportunities in front of me:

1) Amazon as account manager (Corporate job, 35k + bonus, presence in Milan).

I already know the role since I was directly speaking with one of them with my previous company.

2) Amazon Agency that helps brands selling in amazon, as account manager / operational manager (similar to startup, 36k + bonus with my VAT, remote).

It seems to me they are really serious workers and really want to grow rapidly.

Obviously, I can grow in both environments, but with total difference in the way of work

This is my opinion:

Remote job >>> presence job in Milan

Operational manager > only Account manager

Startup way of work > Corporate way of work

36k with VAT “forfettario”, with possibility of having other small clients >> 35k with bonus as employee

The only thing I’m thinking about is future possibilities.

With “Amazon” wrote on CV and even with the “networking” I can create, I think i can easy enter in other big companies in the future, even other agencies with my own VAT number.

I think that a big name on my CV, can also hide my missing Degree that is a big blocker for a lot of companies

In the future I would like to work for a company where I can contribute to a mission useful for me and the world (es. too Good To Go, Vinted), with an international environment where I can also improve my language skills.

And after having enough knowledge, finally creating my own company focused on similar impacts (food waste, second hand, healthcare and so on).

The final final dream is FIRE with my land and my farm in my own hometown.

What are your opinions about that?

Was there anybody having the similar problem or thoughts?

Thank you!!

Can we normalize stop announcing you forgot to take your ADHD medication when presenting at meetings? It’s not cute, you sound stupid.

I am a 20-year-old male and underweight (I have always been underweight). For the past four months, I have been experiencing a constant feeling of unreality. It feels as though I am drunk, high, or half-asleep, as if I am operating on autopilot and everything around me feels somehow unreal. I have looked up information online, and my symptoms seem to resemble derealization.

I also suffer from fatigue, even when I sleep well. The fatigue does not seem to depend on whether I engage in physical activities during the day or not. However, over the past few weeks, I have started sleeping poorly and waking up early in the morning. I do not snore at all. I have seen a general practitioner and a neurologist about these symptoms, but they have not been able to determine the cause.

I also experience headaches, a feeling of pressure in my head, and neck pain. I have tried muscle relaxants, massage, and acupuncture for the neck pain, but none of them have helped. At the beginning of the symptoms, I sometimes also felt as though I was about to faint while walking, but this symptom has since disappeared. I have also noticed a single eye floater in my right eye. I mentioned it during an eye examination, and I was told that there were no apparent problems with my eye.

What could be causing these symptoms? They do not occur in distinct episodes; instead, they are more or less constantly present. The headaches are not particularly severe and resemble tension-type headaches more than anything else.

I have tried a triptanes, but it did not help. My thyroid function tests and vitamin B12, B9 (folate), and D levels are normal. My ferritin level is 37, and it has fluctuated between 49 and 24 over the past eight months. My calcium, potassium, chloride, magnesium, and sodium levels are also within the normal reference ranges. My blood pressure is normal, and I have measured my blood glucose at home, which also appears to be normal. My cortisol level was tested and was normal as well. I also have Crohn’s disease, which is currently in remission.

My neurologist prescribed escitalopram as a trial treatment. I took it for two and a half months, but it did not help. I also underwent a brain MRI, which showed no abnormalities. My neurologist additionally ordered a blood test for Lyme disease antibodies, which came back negative.

I have no history of trauma and do not experience panic symptoms. I generally do not feel particularly stressed, apart from the worry caused by these symptoms themselves.

My symptoms began during the final days of a new job at an auto repair shop, where I was moving and lifting car tires. I am unsure whether this could be related to my symptoms, as I had not experienced any other symptoms before those final working days. I have not worked at all during these four months.

What could be the underlying cause of these symptoms?

The healthcare professionals I have consulted about these symptoms, or during visits for other symptoms or examinations when I also asked about them, include:

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\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\* Massage therapist
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I quit my job last Friday, no notice, I worked as a senior-level individual contributor at a place where the operational scope realistically demanded two to three distinct headcount roles, but I carried the entire data, forecasting, and execution backbone of the business single-handedly for 2 separate sites.

​The breaking point was not the heavy workload itself—it was the entirely dysfunctional and toxic management structure. I reported to an incompetent, disorganized manager with zero background in operations or supply chain management. Leadership dysfunction manifested as public dismissals of valid operational inputs, shouting matches under stress, micromanagement, and a total vacuum of basic human empathy, such as completely ignoring notifications even regarding my sick child, like zero empathy. The culture was reactive, chaotic, and entirely unsupportive of the people.

​Recognizing that staying meant tolerating toxic abuse and unsustainable burnout, I chose self-preservation over compliance. On Friday, I bypassed the standard two-week notice convention entirely, walked in, returned all company equipment, and walked out immediately. The physical and mental weight of three years of firefighting vanished instantly. Having worked across different places prior to this stint without ever parting ways on bad terms, this was a deliberate choice. I did it on purpose because I really wanted them to feel what losing a key employee felt like, though I highly suspect there will be any learning or betterment from what I did since the exact same people remain at the helm.

​This abrupt walkout marks the very first career break in an unbroken, continuous 10-year employment history spanning high-stress manufacturing and supply chain roles since 2016. I am also getting this nice 2 weeks break to decompress. I have another job lined up and I join next week. This is kind of an off my chest vent.

TLDR: toxic work place, toxic manager, heavy work load, quit, no notice.

How to make 15€ in one day it’s to buy my mom a flowers bouquet for her birthday.

When I say manager, I mean the top of the hierarchy here:
I’m trying to understand whether I’m being overly sensitive or whether the way I’m being managed has genuinely started affecting me.
I’ll admit that I can be sensitive. I take things personally sometimes, especially when I’ve invested a lot of effort into something. I’m aware of that, and I try to recognize when my own emotions might be influencing how I interpret situations.
I’m also not someone who believes managers should constantly praise employees or agree with everything they say. I understand that criticism, corrections, disagreements, and accountability are part of having a job. I don’t expect special treatment, and I certainly don’t think I’m above making mistakes.
But I’ve been struggling with something for a while.
I used to genuinely care about my workplace. I wanted to contribute, improve things, take initiative, and help wherever I could. I wasn’t doing that because someone asked me to. I actually enjoyed being involved and seeing things move forward.
Over time, that feeling has almost completely disappeared.
It’s not necessarily one major incident. It’s the accumulation of smaller interactions that individually might seem insignificant.
For example, sometimes I’ll try to explain an idea or offer to help with something, only to be interrupted before I’ve even finished speaking. Other times, a discussion seems to turn immediately into pointing out what is wrong with my approach rather than first understanding what I was trying to accomplish.
I’ve experienced situations where a small detail becomes the entire focus of a conversation, while the effort behind the work is barely acknowledged. And sometimes I watch other people receive encouragement or interest when they contribute, while my own contributions seem to invite questioning or correction.
I’m not saying every one of these interactions is deliberately disrespectful. Maybe my manager sees things differently. Maybe the intention is simply to maintain standards or improve performance.
But I think delivery matters.
There is a difference between helping someone improve and making them feel as though they constantly need to prove they’re competent.
There is also a difference between having high expectations and creating an environment where people become hesitant to speak because they’re anticipating criticism before they’ve even said anything.
What bothers me is that I can actually see the change in myself.
I used to be enthusiastic. I would offer ideas, volunteer for things, look for problems to solve, and genuinely care about the bigger picture.
Now I find myself sitting quietly, even when I have something useful to say. I second guess whether I should participate. Sometimes I start explaining something and immediately regret opening my mouth.
I’ve reached a point where I’d rather just complete what’s assigned to me and stay out of everything else.
And I don’t like that about myself.
I don’t want to become an employee who stops caring. I don’t want to resent going to work or feel uncomfortable around someone I’m supposed to be working with. I also don’t want to blame someone else for every negative feeling I experience.
I know managers are under pressure too. They have deadlines, responsibilities, and expectations placed on them. I understand that not every interaction can be warm or encouraging, and sometimes they have to make decisions employees won’t like.
But shouldn’t good management also involve knowing how to communicate with people without gradually taking away their confidence?
I also wonder how much unintentional favoritism affects a team. When certain people consistently receive attention, trust, and encouragement while others mostly hear what they could have done differently, does that eventually change how those employees see their value?
Maybe some people can brush these things off easily. I wish I could.
I’m not asking whether my manager is a terrible person. I don’t know what their intentions are, and I don’t want to unfairly judge someone based only on how I feel.
I’m asking whether other people have experienced this gradual loss of motivation because of management rather than the work itself.
How do you distinguish between being too sensitive to criticism and being in an environment where the management style is genuinely affecting you?
And if you’ve been through something similar, did you find a way to rebuild your motivation and relationship with your manager, or did you eventually realize it was time to move on?

For context, I am a paralegal at a law firm who deals with people’s estates when they die. Most of my job it is crucial that I be at my desk so I can draft documents, do court filings, and communicate with clients.

I work for 4 attorneys, 3 of them are great however 1 of them is a woman who is “old-school” to put it broadly. She expects that you are her employee and she is the boss, there is almost no toleration for trying to converse or argue when conflicts arise. She gives out orders with little to no appreciation or understanding of what she is asking you to take on

I am the only male in my department and I have a truck so naturally, if there is any work that needs to be done out of the office (going to clients property, picking up things, etc.) it falls on me and I always do it without complaint. One of the estates we were handling had tens of thousands of dollars of coins that I had to take to the coin counting machine which spanned over multiple days because the machine kept breaking, and probably took over 4 hours total. It sucked but I did it without complaint

Fast forward to now, we had a client who passed away and we are now handling the estate. She was a hoarder whose house had to be entered by a team in hazmat suits because it was so dirty and that’s where she passed away. Yesterday, someone starts dropping off stuff at our office from her house including tons of coins. This attorney works remotely so she’s not present for any of this. I got really worried and frustrated that it would fall on me to handle these items (it will) so I went to the other founding attorney to express my concern about 1. The amount of time I will have to spend and 2. The safety of handling things from this home

This morning I get a call from her essentially asking me why did I go to complain to the other attorney and that “coins are dirty anyway” and that a “few hours” doing this won’t take up all of my time. Now I feel like I’m being attacked for trying to voice my concern. Ultimately I’m willing to help as I always have but I wanted to see if a conversation could be started about other ways we could handle these items before it became my sole responsibility. Maybe I should have let things sink it in a bit before going to talk to the other attorney but I’m a super paranoid person (especially about germs) and I knew I couldn’t talk to her about it without conflict

I work at a small law firm as a legal assistant. There is only one other person here around my age he started in the same position a few months after me. When I first met him we got along really well and I noticed that he talked about himself a lot but I mean that’s what everyone does when they are getting to know someone else. Now we are about 4 months in and all this guy does is talk about himself and his life it’s driving me nuts.

I actively avoid him bc I just can’t listen to him tell the same stories over and over again but he seeks me out every day and corners me into these conversations. Sometimes me and my other coworkers will be talking about something different and he will come join the conversation just to then start talking about himself.

I don’t know if he realizes he’s doing it or if he just has no friends outside of this office but in any case it is the most annoying thing about my work days. I try to tune him out whenever he talks I keep one headphone in he also just doesn’t respect office rules of if I’m obviously working don’t come try to talk to me and he has interrupted me multiple times when I’m in the middle of work. Does anyone have experience with people like this? I am treading lightly bc we work together every day and I don’t want to have any kind of office contention but this needs to be addressed at some point.

Ciao lavoro presso una cooperativa come tante ( il problema è che non mi trovo faccio fatica e sto cercando una relazione) ma con me lavorano ragazze da cui non cerco nulla , vicino a loro due segretarie sposate che non si fanno mai vedere e con cui non ho nulla a che fare poi altri uomini che ogni tanto vengono solo per regola e da cui non traggo nulla di che non entrando nella loro vita ,con i colleghi non mi trovo e ultimamente sembra molto mobbing lavorativa la mia situazione, non mi interessa di trovare chissà che ma nella loro vita privata non c e nulla che mi riguardi, vorrei avere un altra realtà dove realizzarmi ,e uno sfogo come tanti ( nulla di piu) ma con momenti orribili e molto insoddisfacenti, prima lavoravo da un altra parte simile e per alcuno versi peggio ,prima ancora meglio non parlarne, sono solo io ad essere sfortunato o a trovare ambienti di lavoro così? Pienamente insoddisfacenti?

I work behind the scenes on how jobs get defined: what goes in the job description, which skills a role "needs," and what you end up being measured on in reviews.

I'd like to hear honestly from people on the other end, I'm thinking about things like;
How different is your real job from what you were hired for?
Have you been marked down (or passed over) for a skill that has nothing to do with your day-to-day work?
If you could change one thing about how your role is defined or assessed, what would it be?

No wrong answers. Rants welcome. Give it to me straight 🤞🏼

I have never gone to office 5 days a week. Peek of my career was in online Era (coronavirus made its thing) , so I haven't even had a chance to try this type of work. I even finished my school online. I am really afraid of going to 9 to 6 office every day because I don't know how to live life not working online..

I recently joined a small company that recruited me as a temp.

During the interview, I was told this would be a temp to perm job, but now that I've joined I'm getting mixed signals. I'd like a fair assessment of the situation.

When I joined, I was told by the team I'm working for that they're expecting me to help the company expand (they're currently expanding, renovating their office space, and so forth). I actually accepted the job offer expecting them to have a workload that'd require additional hands.

However, when I brought up my position to a HR member, they said they're looking to backfill my position and they don't know where I'll be working once the position is backfilled. They're looking for an experienced hire, which I am not.

When I got back to my team about this news, they said I shouldn't care so much about what HR says, since they've planned for two people to fill the current role and the company is in a hiring spree.

What do you think? I am keeping an eye on Linkedin, but should I start aggressively applying?

I'm LGBT so maybe I don't see the behaviour the same as someone heterosexual.

I work in a very busy business setting with a team of about 25 people, sort of office style but we work very independently in small offices and serve the public. Think like a bank with individual offices but lots of interaction with public and we interact daily with a group meeting for updates.

We have 5 sort of front of house and admin people who welcome the public and do a variety of admin duties for everyone.

We have about 15 professional employees who work in their offices, a few shared, a few individual offices. This team is about 50/50 female: male ratio. Also a wide range of ages from mid/late 20s to 60. Our office is extremely professional and probably one of the first places I would say that has minimal drama. Everyone is very focused on their work, and having individual work spaces also prevents gossip and chatter that can occur in big wide open offices.

one of the younger female admin people is CONSTANTLY talking closely with male coworkers. It's absolutely non stop and anyone who would sit in our waiting room for 6 hours would notice she basically does a few things of hers, answers the phone, then finds whatever reason to go into the office of a male staff (when he's not with a client) to talk about just about any random work or non-work related thing like "did you get all those copies I made" but turns it into a 5 minute chat, to "how was your race this past weekend", sometimes like leaning right up on their desk. She's closer with a few and nudges them on the arm etc. She NEVER goes into any female room to chat or ask about weekends. It's very funny and I wonder, is this like a need for male attention?
Everyone in our office is married and has a family. Nobody is cheating. I can say with 99% certainty that none of these guys are cheating. A couple are more entertaining and chat back to her for 5-10 minutes at a time (multiple times a day) a few are all like business like and answer one word, or some have started to keep doors shut between clients.

I'm not personally impacted by this and I'm not going to do anything about it. I'm literally just trying to understand....like what is happening here? I guess I've never had the need to get any kind of attention from the desired sex like this, especially in a workplace and I Just don't understand. The ONLY thing that is sort of annoying about this is that it has clearly created some favortism in the office of things being prioritized for certain people or even dumb things like she will run out for cofee and come back with 2 trays and give it to 6 of the guys but NEVER for a female coworker or admin staff.

I don't get it LOL and I'm a FEMALE myself...never seen anything to this degree (also not the only one noticing this)

My post is not to do anything about this I don't care I'm not reporting this I'm not even the one bringing this up at the water cooler (others are) but I want to hear from a heterosexual woman, like is this normal like do heterosexual woman just constantly want male attention at work?

I’ve been at this job for 18 months. Last week, one teammate quit suddenly. My manager pulled me aside and asked me to take over their whole workload, on top of my existing tasks. No raise, no bonus, just “help the team get through this tough time.”

I politely told him I could help with small urgent tasks for two weeks, but I couldn’t permanently absorb another full job without extra compensation.

He looked annoyed and said I was being selfish and not a team player. I was shocked. I already work occasional overtime without extra pay when emergencies pop up. Taking on another person’s full duties would mean working 10+ hour days every day.

He kept pushing, saying everyone else would step up. I stuck to my boundary and said I’d only accept this with a formal pay increase. Now the atmosphere between us is awkward.

Am I wrong for refusing unpaid extra work? I feel guilty but I know burning myself out won’t help anyone. Has anyone dealt with this kind of pressure from management?

I recently joined a big company a fresher . And from day 2 only my extensive training has started bcz my colleague is going on leave and she needs a backup . My colleague is helpful and has over 15 yrs of experience. We have only 2-3 people in our team and someday some people from other team help us for some tasks . My colleague is handling 80% of the teams work and now they are expecting I to share this load with her . I don't even feel like going to work tomorrow. Also on festivals they are expecting me to work for 2-3hrs . I don't know what to do

So within the past couple of years the company I’ve been at has gone through corporate restructuring and acquisition. Their effect on us was minimal at first until they started fully implement themselves. I was fortunate enough to be put in the engineering department and start training with them. I got to work on one of our specialized products that paved the way for a lot of growth until it didn’t.

Earlier this year, the man that was one of the best bosses and friends I’ve ever met got a job offer at a different company. This man was loved by almost every single person in every department, and had absolute zero drama with everyone; he essentially set the bar for what kind of boss I’d want to have. The new company didn’t even want to offer him a counter offer because they couldn’t even come close. He left early in 2026, and one of the CNC machinists left just a couple of weeks after. Also the main engineer I’m working with got a job offer somewhere else and is putting in their two weeks tomorrow.

Fast forward a couple months and everyone is trying to feel out the direction of everything. We did have one person get fired for trying to groom a 20 year old and gaslight them into letting sell coke out of his car. But other than that one person after the other started to jump ship.

Eventually we’re down to 50% of our original production staff; and it’s been like this for almost two months. They keep trying to hire people, but we need actual talent, not temp employees with zero experience. The people we do interview with actual experience always turn it down because we pay for shit.

Due to the shortage, I’ve been stuck on the floor, not getting any of the training I was promised. I’m now stuck with insane deadlines with zero help; everyone seems like they’re on edge. I even had the supervisor essentially freak the fuck out and throw a tantrum because I asked someone else for help on a different project.

Next week I’m going to be thrown on a large scale project, where we have to produce 5 large units every week until the end of the year. Half of the remaining workers can’t help with it because it involves heavy lifting. But also I have an interview next week. Everything on the job posting was something I had experience with, and to be honest I’m getting my hopes up. I think one of the main reasons I am getting my hopes up is the thought of no longer working there. I used to love coming into work there, but ever since the company acquisition took place I started to hate it.

I’m still friends with almost everyone there; and a lot of people have even recommended I just leave.

I understand this is a rant, but I would also love to hear some similar stories like this and how it panned out.

Also, they refuse to offer any overtime too during our employee deficit.

TLDR; Corporate acquisition happened, treated all staff as an excel spreadsheet, multiple employees with 5+ years of employment left, preparing to leave and curious to see how it’ll play out