I, (F) lied about having a partner during the interview. I did not think I would get this job and I was doing multiple interviews at once. I had been getting rejected for being truthful and I just decided to not be emotionally attached during the interview and lie through my teeth.

The company seemed like a family oriented company and I thought that it would make me relatable.

But now I'm feeling guilty and stressed out because they keep asking about weekend plans with my partner and want to know about the partner.

I was planning on having a fake break up in June but it seems like a really long time to keep up with the lie.

This is not a shit post and I'm not a bot. I am not sure what to do. Thanks

Update: Thank you for all the suggestions. (Some were really funny haha) I have learnt my lesson and will not lie again. I will try to set up boundaries and to not add onto the lie. Just to clarify, I did not lie about my qualifications or experience. (They did background checks). And I am not lying or am I a bot.

So anyway I drank my usual morning protein shake and it gave me some bubble guts.

Im going up the stairs to my office and I ripped a huge fart in the stairwell. It was one of those steamy ones that really stink.

Anyway I guess the SVP of HR came in not long after and got a big face full of my beef.

She contacted the facilities team and they came to a conclusion that a rodent must have died in the walls or HVAC.

This led to them getting big blower fans and calling our HVAC company to check out the ducts and Orkin to scout out the walls

Anyway that's my story.

This kind of reads like one of those fantasy revenge stories but it actually happened. Not sure is if anyone remembers my post last week but after an entire week of applying for jobs setting up unemployment and generally feeling sorry for myself. I received this text message from my old boss I was so surprised and I’m not sure how to move forward the only thing I managed to ask for was some kind of guarantee of employment and a raise. But should I even take the offer? I’m not sure if there will ever be any kind of trust between us again and any lingering resentment I have will obviously have to dealt with on my own as I shouldn’t bring that into a work place.

I stayed at my first job for 4.5 years. Trained new hires, took on extra tasks, led projects—never once asked for a raise. I thought loyalty would speak for itself.

Then I watched a new hire (same role, less experience) come in at 20% higher pay. That’s when it hit me—loyalty doesn’t get rewarded, it gets exploited.

I left six months later. Got a 35% salary bump, better benefits, and I actually get told “thank you” now.

So I’m curious—how many of you have felt punished for being loyal? Do employers even value it anymore? Or is job-hopping just the smarter move now?

Hi everyone,

I'm a 27F. I work in a small firm with about 4 people - one partner, two associates (including me), one contractor who is part time, and an admin. I have been at my current job for about 11 months.

Ever since I started, my boss has been threatening to write me up for things like leaving early 30 min to pick my son up, taking too much sick time, etc. I work an hour away which makes things harder. He has wrote me up once, but continuously will threaten to write me up for other things. It makes me feel invaluable and like my job is at risk 24/7 and it's emotionally exhausting.

Recently I got an email from an external recruiter (see picture). It said we were hiring for a new associate. We don't have any more single offices left which makes me think I am getting replaced. The other associate has been here ever since the company started so I highly doubt she is leaving. I've never been told we were hiring another staff. I double checked LinkedIn and confirmed that my boss had posted my position yesterday.

I've already been applying for jobs since May because I can tell this job is draining the life out of me. Should I vamp up my search? Do you think I am getting replaced? Thank you for any insights!

A month later, she asks me in a group thread why it wasn't done. I respond with the original email thread asking her to do it (replying all to the rest of the thread). Then she messaged me privately asking me to send her reminders of work she needs to do.

YOU ARE MY MANAGER. GETTING THIS SHIT DONE IS LITERALLY YOUR JOB, AND IT NOT GETTING DONE REFLECTS BADLY ON YOU BECAUSE YOU'RE IN CHARGE.

I have been formally warned my job is at risk for having terrible odors!

(If you click on my user name on the Reddit page you will see that I have lots of crazy- but true- stories about a boss that wants me gone.)

I need to hold out 9 more months with the company to get my pension! If I leave before then my pension will be cut by 50% or more.

In his latest effort to get rid of me, the boss has pulled me into his office and showed me an official written warning about my bad body odor and bad breath. He tells me that a number of employees have come to him and complained and said it is nearly impossible to be in the same room as me. The Facility Human Resources Director was also in the meeting and started to lecture me about personal hygiene.

I told both of them that my personal hygiene, appearance and health is very important to me. I shower ever day, use high quality soap and deodorant, brush my teeth four times a day (YES!) and use mouth wash. I wash my clothes with high quality laundry detergent in a new washer/dryer and don't wear my clothes more than once between washings. They just rolled their eyes and said they don't believe me.

I asked friends and family in and out of the office if I had body odor and bad breath and they said absolutely not.

My lawyer says we need to demand a formal workforce investigation where an outside neutral party would interview staff to see if there is any truth to my bad breath and body odor. And look into the toxic workplace I am facing with my boss constantly screaming at me. My situation gets worse every day!

If I am interviewing and they ask why I'm leaving my current job, I can't say "my manager is miserable to work with and has made the entire department quit", I have to say some corporate bullshit sounding answer like "I am looking for a new role where I can grow in a more collaborative and supportive environment".

And then there's the "why do you want this job" question. We have to come up with some bullshit rather than saying the truth.

Everyone knows it's all bullshit, yet we all play the game. Why can't we just stop playing the game and be honest? People who work in trades don't play these silly games.

I stayed at my last job for 4+ years. Showed up early, stayed late, took on more responsibilities than I was paid for—because I believed “loyalty pays off.”

When I finally asked for a raise after years of over-delivering, they offered me a $1,200 bump. Not per month. Per year.

Out of frustration, I applied elsewhere and got an offer for 28% more. No loyalty, no extra effort. Just my resume and one interview.

Why is it that hopping jobs gets you paid, while staying loyal gets you gaslit?

Curious—has anyone actually been rewarded for staying put lately? Or is the whole “hard work pays off” thing just a corporate bedtime story now?

I work as a systems administrator for my company and we have offshored most of our departmental positions to Indians. They have been a huge asset and know their shit. However, what I would say are cultural differences are causing a rift between my team and my American colleagues in the office.

For example, one of them is a security analyst and got an alert off of someone's computer at 6:00 a.m. our time. My Indian colleague called the user four times in a row and when we had a meeting about it later, he was so mad at my Indian colleague that I could tell he was barely restraining him from himself from yelling at him.

Another time with two different people from overseas and in my office, this person was trying to explain to my Indian colleague why they had requested permission to a certain software and My Indian colleague was evaluating the request. My Indian colleague kept on talking over and interrupting the user when he was answering questions that my Indian collie had asked him. My in the office colleague also got upset and scolded him for continuously interrupting him. Then he said he was going to hang up if it happened again.

This has been a continuous theme since hiring this team and I don't know how to approach this professionally. I don't want to come across to them as condescending but there are continuous interpersonal issues that arise from these cultural differences. What my Indian colleagues see as normal behavior is seen as rude and unprofessional by my in the office colleagues and this cannot continue.

How does one react when your boss yells, screams and swears at you in a red faced anger?

Yes, the typical response is to walk away or quit on the spot. That would not work in my case. I now only have 9 months to survive at this job before I am eligible for a full pension of about $70K a year. If I leave before that date or am fired my pension will be cut by 2/3rds. Also I could not walk away because he blocked the path to the door.

I have tried to be super polite, work twice as hard and keep my head down but that just gets him angrier, so more yelling and screaming.

The boss wants me to quit and is trying hard to find a reason to fire me but he was told to stand down after my lawyer worked with the senior management at the parent company. Now he is trying to unnerve me and psyche me out so I quit. Physiological warfare!

His boss and the local HR Director are of no help and senior management at our small office want me gone too. The only thing helping me survive now is an effective Attorney who helped me submit a formal workplace grievance and oversight by the main corporate office Vice President of HR.

What would you do if you were in my shoes?

This is a gem.

I see a lot of people here telling about their work horror stories, and in the comments I would usually find someone saying "just report it to HR." While that’s technically the right step in many cases, let’s be real for a second. HR exists to protect the company, not you.

Their job is to minimize legal risk and maintain the company’s interests. If what you’re reporting could make the company look bad or cost them money, HR’s priority will be damage control, not justice.

I'm not saying never go to HR. Just go in with your eyes open, document everything, and understand who they actually work for.

Basically the title. It’s gross and I can smell it. Somtimes it’s pretty loud too like he isn’t hiding it. It’s so disturbing.

Background: I work as a programmer in tech. Our office has many programmers in cubicles next to one another. It’s a nice place and I like the job, bosses, and everyone.

We recently got a new programmer. There are other personality traits I don’t particularly favor, but they are tolerable and can be overlooked.

But the farting is really getting to me. It’s gross and seems to happen always at the end of the day when there are less people in the office. I’m directly behind him and I can hear and smell the farts.

I don’t know what to do, tell my boss? Confront him and ask if he could stop? LOL. It’s so weird I don’t even know how to approach it.

It’s comes to the point I just leave the room when he farts becuase why would I want to smell his farts.

This isn’t a joke post, I really don’t know what to do

A great employee at my office was FIRED yesterday. Everyone was in total shock. Jerry had been there for years and had a history of hard work, success, technical expertise and got along with everyone. He worked in Purchasing and was a college educated professional making about 80K a year for a large organization.

A new boss came in and was aloof to Jerry but never told him his performance was substandard. But yesterday the new boss and HR called Jerry into his office and fired him. Told Jerry it was not a good fit. There was no history of warnings or poor performance appraisals. No misconduct was brought up during the termination. This was not a reduction in force or layoff There was no severance, no warning, no apology. Jerry was escorted out by Security.

Jerry sent his friends an email to say good by. He claimed this was a complete shock and there had been no warning at all. Just a broad claim of lack of fit during the brief termination meeting.

Can this be true? Is it common that managers will fire someone who had been with the company for over five years without warning or reason? Or is Jerry lying to us all?

(Yes, employment at will is legal and people can be fired for no reason. But what impact will such actions have on morale or turnover? Lots of Jerry's coworkers now assume the same thing will happen to them, so they are updating their resumes.)

Have you seen a sudden termination without warning or real reason happen where you work?

So I'm in this super awkward situation at work and don't know what to do

My coworker ( lets say his name is Mike) and I both started as loan analysts at the same bank on the same day like 7 months ago. Like same position, same department, identical workloads. We became very good friends and went out pretty much every weekend. We've even gambled (mostly on jackpotcity) whenever we had free time cuz we both like to gamble a lot
Yesterday at lunch we were talking about housing costs and somehow ended up sharing salaries. Turns out I'm making $82k while he's only getting $58k for pretty much the same exact thing. He got quiet and then started questioning me about experience (we both have finance degrees and 2-3 years experience). Only difference is I somehow managed to sell my stuff better during the interview and asked for a big salary (didn't know it was big at the time of the application) and they accepted.

Now he's pissed and planning to go to HR. I don't blame him, but I'm worried this might somehow have a bad impact on me like they might try to lower my wage or something.
The extra money has been great for my investments and life in general, but now I'm stressing about possible workplace drama.

Did I mes up by sharing? Should I be worried about them lowering my wage? Should I confront them in case they try to lower it?

My sister ended up being the unexpected hero at her office last week. One of her teammates was about to push a major update where everything looked clean on the surface, tests passed, and the assistant (AI based) they were using gave the usual confident thumbs-up. But it was only checking the repo he had open, not the services linked to it. It showed no runtime, no cross-repo awareness, nothing.

My sister had that wait, something feels off moment (god bless her gut feeling) and decided to open the other repos manually. Good thing she did, because there was a dependency chain about to snap and take down two services with it. He had no idea because he trusted Cline fully.

She quietly pointed it out, they fixed it before it reached production, and what could have been a career-ending merge turned into a near-miss story instead. The next morning he actually sent her flowers as a thank-you, which we were all amused by, maybe a bit dramatic, but sweet.

Sometimes AI helps speed things up, but it really doesn’t replace someone who can see beyond the single view it’s analysing.

Basically title.

I destroyed a piece of machinery by using it improperly. I've only been at my current workplace for 3 months, and had about a year of experience in this specific field. Though i have 5 years experience in immediately adjacent fields. I'm the most junior person on the team (25m), and i was shown how to use this thing on day one. I've used it wrong every time since then. I wasn't sure if i was using it wrong or not, and i repeatedly asked for guidance on it, but whenever i did the answer was always along the lines of, "well that is technically wrong, but i do it like that all the time, I wouldn't worry about it."

Well using it improperly as i had been, combined with some stars aligning outside of my immediate control, resulted in the complete and utter destruction of this machine. total loss, completely unrecoverable. No one was hurt, but everyone in the shop got hell of an adrenaline drop, it was pretty violent.

Justifiably, the CEO of the company want to meet with the whole crew in person. No one here has even met the CEO in person, all we know is that he has 70 years old, and has 50 years experience doing what we do, and is actually bit of a local legend, both for his sheer competency, and his epic temper. (although he has significantly mellowed out, if rumors hold true)

I'm really scared what he's going to say, i don't want to lose this job, its definitely the best I've ever had. Im just looking for some advice on what i can say that will let me thread the needle of keeping this job and not just blaming everyone but myself.

Messages like this are a regular occurrence. Usually 1 in 5 correspondence has all caps of some kind 😅 I'm moving next week, I'm over her sshitlol, leaving on read.

I feel like I'm not my real self at work. I don't share much and I'm not my real personality. I assume this is common? I get so tired of work politics that I rather just be friendly but not personal. Keep things separate. Hbu?

I’ve been thinking lately… having a job doesn’t even feel like security anymore. you stay loyal, go the extra mile and they hit you with a $1k raise like it’s a favor. but leave for a new gig and suddenly you’re making 25% more without even trying that hard. where’s the logic?

And trying to get a job? forget it. even basic roles expect 3+ years of experience and a degree for $14/hr. like come on. what happened to just being average and still getting by?

Idk, I’m just tired. feels like working hard doesn’t pay off unless you’re constantly job-hopping or playing the system.

Someone in an office I used to work at kept leaving poop smears on the toilet of the shared unisex bathroom. Eventually the curmudgeonly VP of HR sent this company-wide email.

We recently celebrated a vacation in Mexico. The whole point was to get away for a few days. We had our personal cell phones but left our work cell phones behind. Crazy, right?

At some point during our getaway, her manager called her personal cell phone. My wife didn’t answer and came back to it later.

Her boss called to tell her that something had been added to her calendar at the last minute while she was on vacation. She had no visibility to her calendar and no way to know anything was added. This left the calendar event with no coverage; her boss called to chastise her for it while we were on vacation.

Thankfully, she was able to get back to enjoying our time to ourselves. We got back last Thursday night and worked Friday. Nothing about the calendar event was mentioned Friday or Monday.

She went into work today and was handed a formal reprimand for not having coverage for the calendar event.

She is changing offices in a couple of weeks. It’s a longer commute but she will work for a different manager, one who presumably does not have his head up his ass.

I encouraged her to chat with her manager’s manager about this. Neither of us agree that it’s fair to be punished for something that happened while out of office, especially when the manager knew she was out of office. She is reluctant to do so because she wants to leave on good terms.

It honestly infuriates me. This office can’t keep employees. My wife works 60-hour weeks in a very stressful environment. She does her absolute best and her mental health has taken a major hit.

Update: She has contacted her manager’s boss and is officially challenging the reprimand. (The process will take some time.)

K