workplace-stories

Teen coffee shop barista quits to go travel after being talked down to and over-supervised for months by an older coworker who suddenly praises and pursues her as a friend: ‘Suddenly she's asking me about my plans, telling me how brave I am…’

Etai Eshet

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Management demands 24/7 availability without extra pay for routine work that could wait until Monday, and pulls employee into meetings, criticizing his lack of responsiveness: ‘There’s no emergency, and no contract that says I owe them my free time’

Etai Eshet

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Automotive product planning employee gets promoted and boss fired by booking wheels and tires as checked luggage when boss tries to blame him for a misdelivered shipment of wheels for a photoshoot: 'He had no one else to blame'

Brad Dickson

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Restaurant site supervisor misconceives a manager's effective method of keeping their food service seamless, manager has them removed by the owner: ‘Game on’

Lana DeGaetano

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15+ Secret Santa gifts that left people befuddled: 'I brought 2 Xbox games... the gift I got was bubble wrap'

Remy Millisky

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‘I usually work less than 1 hour a day’: Employee gets promoted for playing video games during work hours after convincing management he’s a top performer only by looking busy on office days

Etai Eshet

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Boss asks employee to pick up her keys at another office off the clock, refuses to admit it's wage theft: 'No, I am not her personal assistant'

JR Atkinson

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Boss waits to tell employee that they must change their entire revenue plan overnight because the company is $350k short: ‘I’m expected to magically fix everything’

Lana DeGaetano

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22-year-old worker goes home sick, and her 58-year-old supervisor shows up unannounced at her house asking for her and her mom: ‘[He] just showed up at our doorstep, asking for me by name’

Etai Eshet

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Employee double-checks a grant detail to prove his right, accidentally uncovers widespread legal noncompliance that everyone in the organization ignored for years: ‘This entire situation happened because I wasn’t about to let someone tell me I’m wrong’

Etai Eshet

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Service worker laid off in July gets a message from their boss asking them to return to their old job: 'Thanksgiving week was a disaster because they didn't have enough people on to handle the crowds'

Brad Dickson

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HR tries to discipline employee for missing a meeting they weren't invited to, double down when their mistake is revealed: 'What do they want me to do? Telepathically sense meetings?'

JR Atkinson

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Finnish worker finishes working and quits restaurant job after being overworked during university exam week, then shuts down the boss’s guilt-tripping attempts: ‘I told boss it's my right to resign effective immediately’

Etai Eshet

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STEM PhD graduate fired via email just two months in for asking to be paid on time after repeated salary delays, and refusing to be blamed for everything: ‘He was the boss, HR, everything, I couldn't do much’

Etai Eshet

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Boss tells employee they "lack passion" for not responding to messages at 10 pm, despite them having not received a raise for 3 years: 'I make $19/hr'

Brad Dickson

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‘[She’s] constantly trying to throw me under the bus’: Finance employee struggles with coworker who screenshots mistakes, excludes them from meetings, and reports them to management while hiding her own errors to look competent

Etai Eshet

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