I've been at my current job for about a month. I'm working with a staffing agency and the first placement I got started at 5:30am. It was extremely boring. It's work that needs to be done, but it can be done by other people and they'd be happier lol I was gonna stick it out until I got a more involved position, but I have a medical issue that started flaring up really bad. It might be a severe reaction to stress, but I don't know. I've been struggling with some form of it for at least half of my life. Can't seem to get a diagnosis. I got a different placement, this one, and was told the start time was 7am. I can manage my issues with that. Come to find out after my orientation, the start time for production is 5am. I was still having issues all month, but it was being kind to me and still allowing me to go to work.

Then this week happened. I had to come in at 8 or later Wednesday and yesterday. Wednesday, I got fully trained and yesterday, my manager asked if I was ready to start later! He knew the whole time I had problems and the early start time wasn't gonna work, but without being fully trained, it was impossible for me to start later and have a full 8 hour shift. Now I can manage my shit and work pretty much alone for 4 hours! This job has been great. Everyone's so nice and understanding and genuinely gives a shit about each other and the products. I really hope they hire me on permanently with this schedule. The hourly rate could be better, but if I get hired on permanently, I'll get a lot of bonuses. One of my coworkers put a down payment on a house with one annual bonus. I still wanna join the military, but this is an excellent backup plan

My boss just messaged me to ask me to start at 7am. It was 2am when this was sent to me. My work has been consistently contacting me on days off to come in asap. I normally take overtime when I get offered it at work but them giving it to me on a day off always irritates me because it puts me on edge whenever my phone goes off. I should state that I am a general assistant in retail and in the past when available I took overtime for about 40 hours a week. I also work in the UK and have been working with the company for 5+ years now and really don't feel like I can plan anything outside of work because of my hours constantly changing. Am I being unreasonable for feeling like messaging at 2am and waking me up andgiving you less than an hour to come in for overtime is a bit ridiculous?

So, I've been with my company for over 20 years. Joined as an intern in university and came back after I graduated and currently hold a senior role in the department (not a manager but more of a technical expert role). I've seen the company leadership change several times over my career and have never had any doubts or concerns about the leadership until now. Late last year our president made changes to our department (Engineering) which involved moving current leadership into other roles and bringing in a new VP from another department.

Skip ahead 6 months and I'm seeing some red flags and am genuinely concerned about the direction and changes that he's making. For as long as I've been with the company, the goal for our department has always been to get projects done faster. However, I've heard him say several times that what is more important to him is to do it once and do it right, even if it takes longer. I'm not saying either is right or wrong, but the messaging isn't consistent.

What's even more concerning is that I'm worried we may lose good people due to his leadership style. There was a large exodus in his previous department and the rumor at the time was that it was related to his leadership/management style (but can't be 100% sure, obviously).

Some of the concerns I'm seeing include:

• within the first few weeks of taking over, he fired my direct manager for not "upholding the company values", but we all know it was because my manager was direct and not afraid to challenge or call him out.
• telling another manager to tell employees they will be fired if they don't align with his vision
• asking the same manager to provide negative feedback to employees instead of doing it directly
• assigning tasks to employees without telling them or asking
• using condescending language when addressing an issue or problem (such as: "it's not that hard" or "it's obvious" or "you should understand this").
• making widespread changes to departmental processes without fully understanding the current processes
• making incorrect, inconsistent, or generalized exaggerated statements as justification when challenged about his ideas/changes
• seeing an gap or problem in one project and assuming it is widespread throughout the department

Today I had a conversation with a younger engineer who I mentored in a previous project and am still close with. He seems to the VP's current target and he expressed frustration and shared that he was really discouraged and worried about being fired. I could see and feel his emotions, so I tried to encourage him and he got overwhelmed (almost cried) and needed a moment to gather his emotions. This really angered me.....if a 30 yr old guy breaks down in front of me because of how he's being treated by the VP then there is something really wrong.

I'm looking for advice on 2 fronts:

1. How do I handle the VP situation?
2. How do I support my coworker?

Sorry for the long post and thanks to all who read the whole thing. Once I got started I found it therapeutic to keep writing.

Hello everybody. So I work in a customer service job, and I'm pretty good at it. I've been told by numerous supervisors and managers how they appreciate my work. But I'm just too quiet, and when I get easily flustered sometimes and trip over my words. I feel like I can be the best worker that I can be If I'm able to speak with more confidence and clarity. How do you get the point across when in stressful situations? Or avoid blushing, because I blush a lot when I'm being questioned. It's a skill I need to have, and I would like any advice I can take. Thank you <3

Hello, something has been done at my work and I'm upset, I wanted to hear other peoples takes since i'm not that familiar with how promotions really work, or office politics

I've been working at my job for 3 and a half years now and for the past almost two years haven't had a promotion, now I had a bad period where I wasn't in a good place but the last two reviews have been good (bosses word not mine), both my bosses basically told me multiple times I would most likely get my promotion *next review* (my office only does promotions in review periods that are done twice a year).
BUT turns out today just a few weeks from our next review, news come down that the review periods are being changed so we wont have it twice a year just at the end of the year, this means my review and promotion will get delayed even more.

After some chat with my boss he told me I could try to get a special review if I requested but he highly recommended I did not do this, unless I was in a position to put "my job at risk". Is this normal or am I being gaslighted ? should I just wait? it's quite frustrating because I'm the lowest rank at my office, all my coworkers have higher ranks and it's not even a meaningful promotion I would still be a junior.
IDK i'm quite upset and frustrated with this

I used to work under this woman, a few years ago (equaling about 1.5 years under her), been in a different unit after that and she just took over this one. She has a a reputation for power tripping, and making people quit like crazy, but I’m drawing a blank here.

She came into the unit (small room with my coworker and I). She sat down in front of me and asked what my name was (I’ve worked under her before, she stated my name plainly just months ago without prompting and I was wearing my name badge). I told her my name, seriously confused, and she introduced herself and held out her hand to shake. I shook her hand, told her my name again and told her it was nice to finally meet her.

Again; beyond confused. She then told me to put my headphones on so she could talk to coworker, stating, “I know you guys tell each other everything, and there’s probably no secrets, but I want there to at least be an illusion of privacy.” I did as she asked, trying not to think too hard on her words.

After she left, my coworker and I couldn’t figure out what happened. She knew me. And her words about “no secrets” was super weird. Did she think we just sit and gossip all day? I knew it was some kinda game for her, but I’m scratching my head on what it was. Some kind of power trip? So confused. The atmosphere was completely predatory as well. Like a shark circling bloody water. Very uncomfortable.

I have Autism and get disability benefits, but I get so bored when not working. I thought about getting a second job, but those are hard to come by as far as part time. I don't know what to do. I just started this job as well, and I am so upset. I can work part time and be fine, but cutting that one day away from me is killing me. I don't want to lose my SSDI, but I am so depressed and miss my kids at work when not around them. I don't know what to do. I think 3 or four days a week is better, not as much sensory overload, but the depression really hits hard when not around as much. What do I do?

Hi friends, I am quiet at work for the most part and I feel my coworkers see that as me being sassy, rude or me being mad. For starters I love my coworkers, we give each other gifts on each other’s birthday, played basketball together, worked out with a few of them, gone out to eat, hiking, etc. I used to be quite friendly with them and we joked a lot. However recently life events have made me a bit less happy in life. My current leg injury was kinda the icing on the cake for me as my leg hurts a lot and I kinda feel like a burden at times at work. It is only a temporary issue but my leg does hurt a lot. Besides my leg stuff I have also had a few life issues I am dealing with. Mind you I separate my problems from work and no one knows about my problems(except my leg injury as I have a doctor’s note and pending mri results). I still get my work done, show up on time, don’t give anyone an attitude, I’m just quiet now. I just don’t feel like talking much in this point of my life. When people at work approach me to socialize I legit don’t have a good way to continue casual conversation.I do think others at work perceive it as rude but I just don’t have much to say right now. I also don’t have anything to say as socializing is not a main priority for me right now. I do wish others can see that I kinda just want to be left alone but we can still work together at work as needed. Am I in the wrong? Thanks friends.

I was recently promoted to this position from copywriter. But my management is quite distance from the day to day activities of me and my team. I know I must've done something to stand out to be promoted. But I have a bit of the imposter syndrome feeling creeping in. Without giving more specifics, I'd like to know what you would define the role and responsibilities of a marketing manager as?

Hello and thanks in advance for the advice on this. It's something that's been bugging me for a little while and I can't quite figure out how to respond to it...

My boss will sit me down before a meeting and tell me what he's going to say. It could be about any number of topics - most recently, we all filled some ideas for OKRs in a sheet and were going to meet to discuss, refine, etc. This is the crummy part - next, he tells me how I am going to respond. For example, that he needs my buy-in in front of others on his stance and another example, he instructs me not to be "defensive" about what he says.

From experience with him, his idea of defensive is disagreeing with him in any way, having a competing priority, or pitching in a new idea.

Yesterday, he pulled me in for this same line of what he calls "coaching" and I'm super annoyed. What's the point of me contributing to an operations meeting if I'm just being told what to say?

I have made a few open comments about micro-managing and control, as well as how I feel like I'm being policed when I'm asked how things are going. But, that falls on deaf ears.

For the record, I am looking for new work there just isn't an abundance of openings right now in what I do so, it might be a little while. I cannot stand being a doormat in the meantime though.

Any takes on what is going on here and advice on how to respond?

My management and new coworkers are now great people but I don’t fit into their vision anymore. I might just be bitter but I feel like a fraud working with them and pretending like I’m still good at my job

So i got pants from work when I try them on theyre too long so i went to the cleaners to get it hemmed. Is it bad to ask them to pay me back for the cleaner’s bill?

I am starting a new job. I get weekends off.

It’s a Monday to Friday job.

3 days have to go in person to offfice 1 day work from home 1 day I get off

They are asking me which day (Tues, wed,Thurs) would I want as my day off.

Wednesday sounds nice, it’s like a break in the middle of the week. Thursday is nice too, if I take Friday off or a holiday comes on Friday then I get like a 4 day weekend.

Which day should I take off ?

Hey guys I got the stomach bug Wednesday and called out. I was throwing up, having a fever, and diarrhea. After 48 hours the vomiting stopped but I still have upset stomach, on and off fever, and diarrhea. I had off Thursday and Friday so didn’t have to call out. Saturday I’d be back and today I’m still not feeling well and still have diarrhea. I was wondering if it’d be a bad idea to call out for Saturday? I’ve worked there for 3 years and am on good terms with my boss I just feel so guilty not going in to work.

So our company integrated a Teams bot group to try to connect remote workers and other employees to chat occasionally about off work topics. I tried to connect with one coworker and didn’t get a response and nobody else seemed to be contributing so I left. At the end of the day today an HR person added me back into the group. Is this bot some sort of way to keep track of whether I’m on teams all day or have my computer on or some other such nonsense?

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Right so I work in retail and a fellow colleague of mine has most definitley got anerexia, I won’t go into detail for obvious reasons, however I am really concerned about them and their health. I don’t actually work with this girl directly and it could be seen as inappropriate for me to question it to a manager but I am genuinely concerned for the girl and I want her to get help but I can’t really do much. Where would a manager or other member of staff do cause I’m sure her manager is very aware to. Surely they can’t just wait to speak to her till she gets seriously ill. Overall I’m really concerned and worried about her I don’t want anything bad to happen but I obviously can’t do anything.

I (f22) have recently run into some issues at work with an apparent disability that I did not know was a disability when I applied for the job. It's ADHD along with other mental health disorders.

 I am scheduled to work 6am-2:30pm with a 30-minute break, (standard full-time 40-hour work week). Because of my adhd I  struggle with time management, which means I don't show up to work consistently. 

Authoritative staff have informed me in the past that I can just clock back the time to match my schedule, and there have been no issues until my recent shift and supervision change.

 The crux of the issue is the fact that we don't have an actual time clock to clock in on. We use an app on our phones. This doesn't work with my object impermanence. 
 Getting into arguments with current supervision, I found myself asking them, 
 "Do you want me to clock in for my scheduled hours or the ones I worked?"
  I was never given a clear answer.

 After more confusion with my attendance and time clock, I find myself in an HR meeting. They relayed to me that what they want is for me to consistently show up and clock in for my scheduled time as agreed upon during my hire.
 I never agreed to schedule consistency, I made sure they were aware that I have an attendance issue, and they said it wouldn't be too much trouble to compensate me for it. As I've said, there were no problems until this year with this new supervision (new to me).

 Now they are telling me I need to apply for a disability identification or I have 30 days to "improve" or "disciplinary action" will be taken. 

 I don't need typical accommodations, I've gotten pretty good at self-managing my ADHD and such, but there are things I am just not successful with no matter what I try like consistency. I have no problems doing the work it takes me 2 hours to finish all my work in a day but that also makes them mad because I spend the rest of the time in my office. After all, I live in the next town over so I don't have anywhere to be till I can clock out and leave.

 What I want is a flex schedule. I want 4 10s, Wednesdays off, and/or Abel to leave when I have no work to do and "work from home" until the end of my shift. These are the only accommodations I need as attendance and time tracking are the disadvantages of my disability. 

 Keep in mind they have told me things like "You're the only one that has this problem, everyone else clocks in at their scheduled time just fine why can't you? It's not fair to give you special treatment because you're the only one that has this problem. " 

 Quite personally I don't think it's fair that my disability gives me a disadvantage to things everyone else can do so everyone else can go to hell for all I care I'm doing me, myself, and I, not everyone else. 
 2 people show up 2 and a half hours late to the same shift I work nearly every day to take care of their kids, and someone who is getting paid a pm shift deferential but is working the same am shift hours as me due to reasons they will not disclose. 

I know they provide flex schedules to those who would benefit. It's a union job, after all. I am currently trying to schedule an appointment with a PCP to discuss what work accommodations that are reasonable for my disadvantages.

The thing is, these people would rather go to hell than provide these accommodations if they don't pass as reasonable. Would you all be able to help me figure out what to write on my accommodations request form? I know if I try to write it the way I write they're not going to accept it and I'm not sure if my doctor can force them to. 

 I'm well aware that work accommodations are up to the employer to decide but these are the accommodations I am requesting based on the difficulties I have.  Will be running this all by my doctor when I see one. 

(If you don't have anything constructive or helpful to say, I will be deleting your comment)

I work for a company that is based in the US, but i am based outside of US. Rest of my team works near or at HQ. Our hours differ enough for me to only be able to give 1.5 hours of my late evening to work (i cannot work beyond 10:30pm my time).

I feel increasingly distant/isolated and a sense of missing out as i see them bonding at events but because i cannot be physically (no budget to fly me down there) or virtually (not more than a couple hours) there. I also feel slightly disadvantaged as I think opportunities to grow are going to folks in that region who can collaborate better with teams in their own region.

Do you folks think i should do something about it? Is it me overthinking/bringing my emotions to work, or do you think my growth is truly stunted? Thanks!

I've worked such a variety of jobs from labor to management to consulting. Early in my career I was bored of manual labor, but struggled to find a good fit anywhere else. I felt dumb. Outside of work people would notice I'm smart, quick with trivia, quick with math. At work though I couldn't do anything right.

Something wasn't working. Now, many years later I have landed in a technical role, not hands on, and decent pay.

What I'm realizing is a lot of mid management, low level technical, and low level sales roles are set up to fail. I'd get these jobs to better my career, then seem to fail over and over. Looking back, people in these roles are blamed when anything goes wrong. We had to tell customers bad news, and were not given the authority to fix problems. The company would make drastic changes to pricing or policy or work schedules, then disappear and leave it to us to break the news.

I remember watching a customer bring back a product for a 2 minute fix. I couldn't do it though because my minutes were tracked, and it'd take 30 minutes to intake the part and go through the work order process. Or watch a customer try to come up with 50 cents to complete payment. No one cares about 50 cents, but I can't close the sale unless it's exact, and I have no authority to just discount 50 cents for a huge customer. (They just wanted to pay cash for this one small part)

As of right now I'm out of that bs. If I loose this job I'll go back to manual labor.

I am new in this organization, barely 4 months old but as early as one month, I can feel tension and efforts to bully me and really take me "out of the picture" by my officemate who is supposed to be my teammate because even if I am ahead of him in terms of position because I am the coordinator of my area, I should know the issues all the issues concerning my area. I already tried to talk to him about it, kind of pleading already. I think he has issues regarding "authority" figures. He said that I'm not his supervisor (our direct supervisor is the President of the company) so he doesn't have to tell me his affairs. But the fact that I am the overall coordinator of the area means that even if I do not supervise him, I still have the right to know all the matters in his kine of work. I just feel unwelcome and sad about this:(

Keep it as short as I can:

I was promoted. I'm in a new department altogether, but I still sit across form him. Coworker is taking over all AP clerk duties I did. He constantly asks me how to handle things that are very simple for a person who has been here for a year. Further, he shouldn't be asking me, as I'm not in his department anymore and have my own duties to deal with. His biggest issues:

• Very low attention to detail (misses details on invoices and emails, even after I tell him the answer to his question is on the invoice itself)
• Poor communication skills and lack of confidence (puts off answering emails and resolving issues because he lacks confidence in his ability to communicate, will continuously ask me for help when he should be calling his supervisor for assistance just because I've done it before)

As I'm sitting here just now this happened: Vendor asking about past due invoice. He looks into it and sees we already paid it by ACH. He asks me if he should tell the vendor we paid it already by ACH... Me: "If they're asking about it and we paid it, why wouldn't you tell them we paid it?"

I try to help him, but I fear these are skills that cannot be trained. At least that's how I'm feeling after trying for the last year.

Things I already do: I do not give him the answers to things outright. I ask questions and hope that he can use logic and my guidance to find the answer himself. I make sure to tell him he's doing a great job and that he has good instincts.

I tend to use awesome instead of great at work. That's awesome news. Those are awesome numbers. A coworker pointed out awesome was unprofessional and I should avoid using it. So is awesome unprofessional or are they full of it? Note, I'm in my 50's and have been in this career for 20+ years so not some young thing fresh out of school.

Storytime, I'm a car salesmen, I hate my hours, I hate my pay. I don't mind the job and working with customers but customers don't even come in. I feel like I am just wasting time here. I have a 2 year associates and never put much effort into school. I have always been a good writer if the topic peaked my interest. I see people saying this is a good job where you generally work your own hours and start out looking for work more than working. It sounds like something I would like working on my own time. Any advice? Is the money good for fulltime work?

I (20f) just started a new job in an office. This is my first ever office job and I was excited at first but it seems like it’s too much for me. I still have school and other responsibilities and it seems my boss expects me to be here everyday 10-4/5 even though I applied for a part time position of 20-25 hours. When i asked early on what my hours were like he didn’t really answer the question and instead said during training he wants me here as much as possible. I’m getting paid 17 an hour to fully be his assistant and after speaking to some friends and family they said that’s definitely not how much the work is worth and i’m being underpaid but my boss did say it would go up after training. When i found the ad they put out for the job it said 20-25 per hour for salary so they’re definitely underpaying me but also not giving me the hours I thought they would. I don’t have time at 20 years old with school to be here everyday M-F 10-5! My boss hired me saying to please not waste his time and he expects me to stay for at least a year because of how much training I’ll get. What should I do? Should i ask him for a day or two off, if he says no how do i leave? Thank you EDIT: I also want to mention how i’ve only been here for 3 days and have barely been trained and he’s been asking me to pick up phone calls and check emails. I’m new here and have no idea what half the things are and have never had a job that just threw me into stuff like that, considering this job is finances i felt that was so strange and irresponsible.

My son is 17. He just started an after school job. It's pretty good so far and he likes it but he printed out his paystub for me and on hours worked it says 1 and under rate it says 900 which is his pay before taxes. Clearly he worked more than 1 hour and is being paid $900 an hour but that's what his pay stub says. Everything else on it is right. He asked me what to do about it and I told him I'd have to think on it. I've never encountered something like this before.

Hi, so to keep it short I’ve been asked to do some processes at work. Basically I write up a proposal for a client of ours, then I send it to my two bosses to be approved. Once approved by one of them, I send it out to the client. This is part of my training in a new role, eventually I’ll be able to just send these out without their approval.

Keep in mind it was my bosses who implemented this procedure.

Every other day one of my bosses comes up to me and says “did you send xyz proposal to the client” and I tell them “no I never send anything to a client without your approval like you said, further more the subject line of my email says ‘Drafted Quote for XYZ Client’ so I’m not sure where you’re getting confused here”. Like he says this to me multiple times a week as if he’s forgotten the process he put into place.

Or I’ll email a client a proposal after it’s been approved by one of my bosses, I include both of my bosses on these emails (they are BCC’d on these emails). My boss, who never reads anything, will hit ‘reply all’ on these emails and say “looks good send it out” without even reading WHO the email was sent to.

If you’re going to implement these processes and slow down my work flow, at least get your head out your ass and read the subject lines of emails. Like it’s embarrassing when you reply all on these emails and literally prove in writing you’re not on the same page as us.

Or at least communicate with your business partner so we’re all on the same page.

It’s so frustrating and if it happens again I’m going to straight up tell my boss, “did you read anything before asking me?”

I have been working for a community health center for four years. I received my interpretation certification through them before going on maternity leave, I was interpreting for providers all day plus doing CNA work. during maternity leave I saw there was a different position posted for outreach within the company I applied to the position and informed my manager about the possibility of getting the new position. I came in for the interview and one of the providers was in office with my new manager. he looked at me and stated oh I didn’t know you were applying for this position.. I stated to him yes I am applying for this position. it was very awkward I personally felt that he was being He was being too intrusive. I brushed it off The interview went well and I was offered the position and received the offer letter for full-time hybrid which means I will come in office but work mainly remote from home. two days later after I have already excepted the position and offer letter I received a Call from the same provider, letting me know that he spoke to corporate and said that he wants me in office to interpret plus doing my new position work load. After saying this, he stated to me, you would tell me if you weren’t OK with this right ? I let him know. Yes, I would tell you so I ended up telling him “ honestly the position was offered to me as hybrid to go in and out of office. I feel this position lines up really well with my current circumstances.” (I have two kids under two) He then replied to me that the position should’ve never been offered as hybrid. this all happened during my maternity leave. I will be going back in office in a week. I just don’t feel that all of this was taken into a professional way. My coworker got in contact with me last night and let me know that the provider still wants me to interpret even though I’m under a new management but working in the same location and doing a whole different job. At this point, I don’t feel that great going back to work I feel like I’m being taken advantage over.

I'm a fountain worker at Sonic. Lately it's been really hard to not snap at one of our car hops (takes orders to the cars) because she's flat out lazy. When business is slow she just stands around on her phone or doing anything besides taking out the only couple orders. Even when it's just a drink order she will wait 5 minutes. Then, when it starts getting packed, the drink trays are still filled with orders she was supposed to take out long before and THEN she gets frustrated that she has so many orders to deliver. And on top of that I don't have anywhere to put new drinks because the counter is still piled. But if you would just take the order out when I first finish it, you wouldn't have such a cluster fck?? And then she has the nerve to ask the manager to help her bring them all out. So now he has to stop what he's doing when she could have just done her job.

Like I get it it's just fastfood but she's not a teen at her summer job like she's older than me and it just pisses me off so bad. She also let's the tickets pile up and I have to pause from drinks to put them on the right tray/order, which I don't mind doing, but she doesn't do anything but stand there staring so why do I have to do all of it?

I’m a salaried employee working as a construction scheduler for a commercial GC. Over the past few months, I've invested a lot of my own time outside of work mastering my scheduling program, MS Project. I've learned all the shortcuts and macros, which save me at least 15 minutes every day.

On top of that, I skip lunch and don't take breaks, saving me another 30-45 minutes. So on a good day, I end up with an extra hour of free time. Typically, I could leave early since all my work is done, but my company is known for being a "clock watcher," meaning they expect you to stay at your desk and keep working.

Who's entitled to this extra time? Am I entitled to it since I've made the sacrifices and taken the initiative to learn my program better? Even if I have to sit and do nothing for an hour, I could at least enjoy that time I made for myself.

Or should this time go to the company? The problem is, I don't trust that my company would give me a task that’s just one hour long; it would likely be an entire project that extends well beyond my working hours. If the company claims it's their time, then there's no incentive for me to be efficient, and I might as well take my lunch and breaks.

I feel like there’s a bit of a game here where you don’t want your company to know how efficient you can be because they’ll just bury you in more work. The thing is, by being efficient, I benefit by generating more time for myself, and the company benefits by ensuring project schedules are more accurate, higher quality, and turned in early. Thoughts?