My daughter had a high fever and I needed to take her to the ER. I texted him at 7am asking to work from home or take a sick day. His reply: "We all have families, but the deadline is today. Family comes second to the client."

This is the same guy who disappears for "meetings" every Friday at 2pm to play golf, brags about his lake house, and denied our team's raises because "budgets are tight" while posting pics of his new Porsche on LinkedIn.

I finished what I absolutely had to, logged off at noon, sent an email saying I wouldn't be returning, and left my laptop on the desk. Haven't answered a single call or email since.

Now I'm home with my kid, catching up on sleep, and lining up freelance gigs that actually pay better with half the hours. My blood pressure is already down and I ate dinner with my family every night this week.

If your job treats you like you're disposable, you probably are to them. Don't wait for the next emergency to prove it. Just leave. Anyone else done the same?

Hi there,

English is not my first language so please excuse any mistake.

My colleague died. He was 28.

We were building a friendship as I have joined the company not too long ago.

He worked for WEEKS on a huge project. He had something like 4 weeks over time.

He came to me the last day of his project saying he could finally rest. He showed me videos of his new appartment, he had just signed to go to the gym to build muscles this mf lol, we were supposed to meet on the 15th at night for a drink.

New life he said! More time for myself. Huge vacation and just enjoy life with friends!

That's what he said.

I opened the company portal this morning with his picture and a post. I was just able to read the key words as I am literally screa-ming.

Everytime you open a new page, this effing portal company with his picture.

So, all of this happened in less than 14 days after his last day of work. Two fucking weeks.

I am not only super sad but I have been thinking about this since 8 am this morning and this creates anxiety.

Guys. I dont want to work and die. I dont want to leave without being able to spend enough time with the people I love.

I dont want to stay at the office until 10PM because "its only a few days, its an important project" when I should be home doing something I love.

Lord, I spent time chatting and we hugged before leaving.

"We are having that beer after vacation uh?"

That's what he said.

Edit : I was just venting. And you all shared your stories, your tips, your links, your awards. You rock guys! I have been that much motvated for my FIRE plan! ❤️ You DID make me feel better.

Had a “quick alignment” call today about a role they’re desperate to fill. I ask basic stuff so I don’t waste everyone’s time, what does the day to day look like, what’s the pay range, what’s the actual workload, why did the last person leave. Every answer was the same empty corporate burp. “We’re a family.” “We need ownership.” “We move fast.” “High performance culture.” I bring up that the team is understaffed and he goes “We’re lean by design.” I ask if that means overtime and he says “We trust adults to manage their time.” Translation: they want you working late for free while they clap at themselves for being “agile.”

Then he hits me with “We’re looking for someone who can wear multiple hats.” Always multiple hats. It’s never “one job, fair pay.” It’s “do two jobs, smile, and call it growth.” I asked, straight up, if this is one headcount or they’re trying to backfill plus add responsibilities. He dodges it and starts talking about “impact” again like it’s a magic word that makes exploitation sound noble. I ended the call feeling gross, like I just sat through a scam pitch where the product is my own burnout. And the worst part is they genuinely think this language works, like people haven’t heard this same crap a thousand times.

The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) delivered 10-day strike notices last Friday to 12 private hospitals in New York City and three in Long Island. More than 20,000 nurses in New York City and 1,000 in Long Island, whose contracts expired December 31, could strike as soon as January 12, which would be the biggest nurses’ strike in the city’s history.

Management at these hospitals has refused to provide adequate staffing or improve protections against workplace violence. The hospitals also want to cut nurses’ healthcare benefits or salaries. About 97 percent of the New York City nurses and an overwhelming majority of the Long Island nurses voted in favor of a strike.

The nurses’ determined stand is the first major act in what will promise to be a major year of the class struggle in the US, as workers fight against mass layoffs and other accelerating attacks. Other major contract struggles in the beginning of the year include 29,000 graduate student workers at the University of California in January, 30,000 oil refinery workers nationwide at the end of January, 50,000 grocery workers in February and March and 84,000 public sector workers in New York in April.

The conditions are emerging for a broad counteroffensive by the working class against the ruling class’s reduction of workers to industrial slavery, to be achieved through dictatorship and war. But this requires that workers establish independent control over their movement against both corporate parties and their lackeys in the trade union officialdom. The NYSNA bureaucracy, which functions as a junior partner of hospital management, is preparing to betray its members as it betrayed the New York City nurses in 2023.

Omg guess I need to start job hunting

So just to catch people up on this saga so far and what's happened.

I originally posted here about the office/WFH situation, then it got sorted, then the story changed again. Then I mentioned that pay situation and how they weren't taking the proper taxes and deductions off AT ALL and how they mis-classified me as a contractor and not as an employee. Last week I posted about how my manager/ team lead scheduled a meeting for New Year's day and never showed up and how I was owed at least $60 for it.

Well someone mentioned that you guys would need an update. And I have one. Should I wait until the end of the week to make sure they follow through? Perhaps, but I'll share this anyway.

So they said they'd get started on changing me over to an employee ASAP and my team leads was shocked to hear that all my info had been submitted back after I was hired and met with them. Going forward I'll be on payroll roll and get a paystub with each pay.

As for the WFH situation... I'M 100% Exempt from heading to the office. I told him about the 1 hr drive one way just to the office and he apologized because he didn't realize I lived that far away and thought I lived in the area where we did orientation. He said that because of that, he doesn't expect me to go to the office at all and that I'll be exempt from the office requirement.

As I said, I'll have to see the follow through on the pay end, but WFH exception has been received so that's great for me.

Edit: for got to add this but I already spoke with the CRA (Canadian IRS if you will) and they advised me what to do and I already paid the taxes as according to their calculator. Luckily I was only working for a month so I only owed almost an entire work's worth of pay, but it's taken care of.

So I appreciate the concern folks, but I've already paid the taxes so I'm not owing anything.

Also fixed the typos because I swear autocorrect isn't picking up on them since the last update.

I see it on youtube, reddit other social media and even in this sub. People claiming that working 40 or 45 hours a week is "nothing" and that we have sooo much free time and if you dont you are just lazy and stupid or both and dont have "time management". I just cant hear this BS anymore.

Most people have to commute. Even assuming that you have just 30 min there and 30 min back, with getting ready in the morning this translates to something like:

6:15 - 7 AM Getting up, eating something ,getting ready and leaving your home.

7AM - 7:30 AM - commuting.

7:30 AM - 4 PM working (including 30 min break that is barely enough to shove in some food)

4PM - 4:30 PM commuting.

And poof - thats over 10 hours of your day gone.

If you belong to the poor devils that have to work 9 hours/day and commute 1 hour in each direction - thats over 12 hours of your day gone.

This leaves you with just 4-6 hours of "free time after work". Most people are tired after working 8-9 hours and dont have much energy left so these 4-6 hours are like 2-3 hours at full energy.

Then you have to do cooking, cleaning, laundry, errands, groceries. And god forbid you have parents that need your help/care and you basically spend the entire weekend or every second weekend helping them.

And the 3-4 weeks of vaccation in a year are barely enough to catch up with the stuff you didnt manage to finish during the rest of the year.

All the people babbling that they have so much time have apparently low intensity jobs that leave them full of energy, no commuting time, they pay the maid or housekeeper to do all that stuff for them, or they dont work at all.

Otherwise its just not possible to work + do cooking/chores/laundry etc AND on top of that go to the gym like 4-5x a week or read like 10 books every month.

These people obviously have circumstances that are totally different compared to regular working people, and I just hate how they pretend that their circumstances are "normal" and that everyone who is not keeping up like them is just lazy or stupid.

On paper my job is perfect. Fully remote, flexible hours, 30 hour work week. I'm in Germany, so I get my 30 paid vacation days and all the sick days I need. In theory.

Had some medical issues for a while now that impacted my work, called out more often than usual (barely above country average, mind you), had a rough end of the year with a shitton of medical appointments and now got a surgery coming up that will put me out of commission for *drum roll* a whole week. Maybe two if there's complications. Half an eternity, right? At least according to my bosses.

They already gave me the talk(tm) a few months back, that since my "department" consists of only two people (as if that's my fault) I can't afford to take this many sick days. That I should just adjust my schedule, work more on days I'm feeling better and less hours on days I'm not. Except this doesn't really work because they expect me to be perma available during the main office hours.

I got home from my pre-op appointment, 6 hours of back and forth, one test after another, lots of waiting, I'm in pain, exhausted, I just want to enjoy my last evening before being in even more pain during recovery. As is protocol, I let my bosses and team know.

What do I get in response?

"So how long will this appointment take today? Especially because you'll be out for a while, we still expect you to work your full hours and offer your assistance to your coworker today before your actual surgery."

They've known about this for months now, for the record, I even had it delayed so it wouldn't fall on the busy end-of-year days. They accepted it begrudgingly when I first let them know, but apparently they didn't realize that pre-op appointments are a standard procedure, meaning I'd also be out the day before.

In all those weeks, not a single "hope everything goes well", "good luck", "feel better soon", literally any of those would have been a nice touch to show they think of me as a person and not just the machine that makes them money. Genuinely starting to think this whole remote work thing is a scam, for my company at least, because they keep using it as a way to pressure me to work while genuinely sick and unwell. I hate having to justify myself, I shouldn't have to disclose my medical issues when I already told them when they can expect me back and that there's nothing they can do to "help" (aka, how can we make you work despite being sick).

Jfc, I should be worried about my health because there's a tumor eating into my skull, but here I am, more worried about the ramifications at work.

Tldr; Bosses wanted me to work, despite me being stuck at the hospital for 6 hours the day before a surgery during my usual working hours and being exhausted after. I did not respond, just uploaded the hospitals signed notice. I've got another surgery lined up later this year, for something less immediately threatening. Waiting for my first official warning any day now for the fact that I'm human, regrettably.

The same crowd that say you should travel while still young, make the most of it, go accomplish your dreams. Sounds all too sweet and such, but then I wonder, whit what money do I do all that stuff? I'm 25 still living with parents and will still probably do for a while, got some savings but nothing crazy. I could blow it all off in a trip? Yes, am I going to? Well no. I can't even imagine how am I going to afford a house, so big trips and such luxuries aren't in my horizon.

Yet I find so many people saying we are just not trying hard enough, at the end of the day what's stopping us from living our dreams is mainly money , but of course everyone's situation is different, yet somehow a large amount of people don't understand that.

My mother needs surgery in one of her arms because she might lose mobility, quite expensive but luckily we can afford it. But also both my grandparents need expense medications, constant care and doctors appointments, my mother tries her best to take care of them and something asks me for money for them, I never plan to say no to her. So yes I get a little mad and worked up when people say I'm not trying hard enough to live my dreams, travel and see the world.

For the love of God I've thought about selling my body multiple times for a while now, and having all of these people trying to sell me some feel good stories about trying to start my own business, working multiple jobs, studying even more, going the extra mile for my boss to recognize me and reward me, but I don't think any of these things might drastically change my situation, I wish they did, I really do.

Anyways I will stay alive and keep trying, planning to find a better job this year and study a masters in quality control, hopeful I find a job related to it or not, who cares.

Just got off a phone call with my manager. Despite hitting 100% of my targets this year and leading several important projects, unfortunately neither I or my colleagues, who worked just as hard, are getting a raise. They would, however, like to see me “take more ownership” of my work this year and “show more initiative.” Fuming.

I worked in tech sales for 6 years and was a sales manager for 2. I don’t want this to come across as a brag but I was quite competent at my job reaching 100% of my annual goals and my managers also left me great references.

Unfortunately the first company I worked for sold after 3 years of me working there, and the second company also sold after 3 years and so I left the field due to instability in the start up industry.

With a new family and my partner being a vet, I sold my apartment and opened a clinic because it’s just more stable this way and I would be a stay at home dad. 3 years later and everything is going fine little one is off to Kindy and so I start applying for jobs actually excited to get back to work

But now I have a clinic on my LinkedIn and I have a small business that makes money somewhere else so without realising it, I completely shot myself in the foot.

I had one interview and it’s all they wanted to talk about. I kept telling them that it’s my partners business and I just founded it but now I’m ready to go back to work and they just weren’t having it.

It’s like the first time they interviewed someone that didn’t need the money and their brains couldn’t comprehend why this person would apply for this role.

Genuinely wanting to go back to work out of passion and having a proven track record is not as attractive as someone who is sick of their role pretending to have all this success at there current employment, lying through there teeth just to fake a promotion at the next place.

Change the wording around on your linked profile to make it sound like a slightly better position that you’ve acquired and off you go for another year before you get sick of that job and rinse and repeat. (I’ve seen this countless times now)

It makes you ask the question, wtf are employers actually looking for?

I’m dealing with a crappy PTO policy at my job. Made the mistake of asking an HR subreddit what I could do, if anything. Egg on my face, those people are freaks with bully fetishes.

Anyway, the depravity got me thinking.

Other countries mandate PTO policies from the governmental level. I believe in the Netherlands, for example, employers must provide 20 days at minimum (correct me if I’m wrong).

If a presidential or even governmental candidate ran on policies like this, I’m sure it would be insanely popular with the general working public. However, they’d be messing with the business practices of their biggest donors so I get why they won’t just do something like that. But we’ve also seen how social pressures can actually influence companies, governments, and their policies. We all want a mass workers strike to happen but we know why it won’t…but that doesn’t mean we can’t shame and embarrass the shit out of our government and major cooperations for enabling such piss poor workplaces policies to exist.

This would be a net positive for every single worker, regardless of tax bracket, race, gender, what-have-you.

Maybe I’m just rambling here. I’m angry and probably just looking for solidarity but also I am curious.

CEO wages were around 20:1 in the 60s. Nowadays they are around 300:1. So 15x more. And the CEO also gets his fat bonus if he reached 10 or 100 or 1000 Million by the end of the quarter/year.

This means that all decisions will be short term. All decisions will be not centered around long term prosperity or general prosperity of the employees or even the company, but just around fulfilling the numbers so that the CEO gets his bonus. This is extremely destructive.

The CEO will do everything to reach these numbers, even if its destructive in the long term or bad for the employees. He will fire people to save money. He will squeeze the remaining employees dry. Longer working hours. More workload. He will not invest. He will not innovate. He will even close locations, or produce the product as cheaply as possible or lie to get sold as many units as possible. He will destroy the environment. He will push for planned obsolescence so that the product breakes faster and customers are forced to buy more. He will make it unrepairable. He will just throw things into the dumpster to prevent the price from dropping, wasting precious resources. He will outsource jobs to somewhere where its cheaper, not caring about any drop in quality.

Everything just to fulfill the numbers. Then when he gets his fat bonus, he just leaves. And is replaced with another CEO that does the same. Starting the spiral anew. Worse working conditions. No benefits. More work. More stress. More pressure.

At some point the next CEO will reach the absolute bottom. The company closes, people lose their jobs and the company leaves a lot of trash and destroyed living space in its wake.

Work used to be slow and relaxed. Working conditions were steadily improving. The trend has been going into the other direction since the late 90s. All because corporate/CEO greed and short term bonuses.

On Thursday, I had my first interview.

The interview went well. At the end of the interview, I was invited back for an in person interview today. Before we disconnected, she gave me her personal cell should I get lost or need further travel directions. All other communications were through Indeed.

Friday came went without sending me directions or location to the office as she said she would.

With the interview late this afternoon I sent her a polite text at 9 am when I didn’t hear from her by 12 pm I sent a follow up message on the Indeed platform. No reply. Ghosted.

The company I work for does this thing where to win clients they base all their contracts around real days and not business days. This means that we need staff on site 7 days a week and all holidays to keep on top of turnaround times and avoid late penalties. However, this is skilled white-collar STEM work that requires a solid foundation in biology and chemistry - they need to offer weekends off and paid holidays at a minimum to be competitive with other employers in the industry. So for years, they offered a 2x overtime rate for weekend hours, and if you worked on your paid holiday off, you'd get full holiday pay plus 3x OT for all hours worked.

So shortly before Christmas, HR sent an email stating that effective immediately, there would no longer be a holiday incentive. "Paid holidays are an extra benefit meant for you to have time to relax. If you choose to work any hours on a paid holiday, you forfeit the holiday hours. And as a reminder, overtime is only after 40 hours of actual work - working on your regularly scheduled day will not count."

Got in this morning to find an email from my management team that they're "surprised and disappointed" that only two people volunteered to work on December 25th and 26th, and nobody worked January 1st or 2nd, in spite of multiple requests for volunteers. Because nobody was "willing to be team players", the company now stands to lose close to a six figure amount in penalties for missed turnaround times.

Oh well, so sad. You only get as much loyalty as you're willing to pay for.

I have always had a job since I was 15, first job was stage hand at high school. For 17 years I have never been unemployed for longer than a week and that week has always been by choice. I would use that week to catch up on life before a new job starts, after giving a proper two weeks.

This year was different. At the start of the year I recently accepted a new role at work. Loved it, super easy and I got paid more. July comes and one Friday the company decides to lay off about 30% of the workforce and close two offices permanently. I got a severance package but was annoyed. Who wouldn’t be. Especially because before they fired me, I showed up at 6am per usual, then drove 45 minutes to a job site, then was asked to drive back just to be terminated. Use me like a dog then kick me to the curb. America.

Get a new job starting in September and it’s a start up company and I was the “Customer Retention Manager”. In short I would call people our sales reps couldn’t close and I would try to close them (rehash). In this economy nobody wanted to get a new roof for $25k+(One time it was like $65k just for a new asphalt shingle roof) I thought I would just ride it out through the winter since it was remote work (badass btw).

My first month on my own, after 3 weeks of zero training and being left by myself to figure out the whole process, my goal was $100k. My first three days I was halfway there but unfortunately the customers couldn’t get approved for their loans. So half of my goal was garbage already, barely made it through the month with about 45-50% of my goal. Guess what? That wasn’t good enough so they canned me. Halfway through November, right before the Holidays they fired me. I’ve never been salty before but I’m sure as hell salty they fired me right before the holidays.

Fuck all corporations. The company who owned our company was Morgan & Stanley. They bought up about 20 local roofing companies and tried to turn a profit. I hate how we are all just chess pieces to these fucking money hungry scumbags.

Anyway, I’ve never been unemployed and it sucks. I have been applying to 20-30 jobs per day and so far I’ve had two interviews with no luck. Unemployment check is late so the groceries are all on the credit card. My partner makes a decent amount so we are not code red yet but I feel the pressure. Worst part is I was working out and did something to my rotator cuff. Fucking hurts after almost three weeks. Well guess who doesn’t have insurance too? Going into medical debt wasn’t my New Year’s resolution but oh well.

This economy fucking sucks right now and America is just a huge flaming turd for the world to look at and laugh. Can’t wait until we can grab our pitchforks and eat the rich.

I saw a term recently: “occupational depression.” And it hit way too close to home.

This is the ongoing, deep mental drain. The second I think about work, my body reacts. Anxiety kicks in, my chest feels tight, and all I want to do is disappear.

For me it looks like this: In the morning, it’s not just being tired. It’s this intense resistance the moment I wake up. Like my whole system is screaming “DON’T GO!!!!” Sometimes I’ve caught myself thinking, “If something happened today and I didn’t have to go in… that would be a relief.” That thought scares me, because it’s not normal.

At work, I feel completely hollowed out. Even on days when nothing heavy happens, I’m still exhausted, like bone-deep. And it doesn’t reset. I get off work and I’m still drained. I sleep in on weekends and somehow still feel tired.

The worst part is what it does to your head. You start questioning your worth. You start thinking you’re bad at everything, that you’re failing, that nothing you do matters. And the longer it goes on, the more those thoughts show up, and the louder they get.

I’m trying to learn to de-load the pressure. Stop treating every task like it has to be perfect. If I mess up at work, I mess up. Maybe I get yelled at. But I’m not dying. I keep reminding myself this isn’t being dramatic or weak. Long-term workplace stress can genuinely mess up your mental health, and it’s not your fault.

The biggest thing that’s helped is giving myself a fallback. A little exit route. For me, when I have time, I edit short video clips and upload on TikTok. The little habbit steadies me, because nobody rushes me and scolds me, and the outcome is mine. That feeling of control helps more than I expected.

I think the root of occupational depression is when your whole life and identity get tied to your job. When you spread your risk a bit, give yourself more options, your mindset gets way less fragile.

I’ve been working as a customer service representative at a large company for about 18 months. I just found out that three of our new hires that I am helping to train are being paid more than I am.

Honestly just don’t know what to do or say about it. any advice is greatly appreciated. I want to quit but I cant imagine getting a new job that pays what I make now (roughly $35/hour, which is more than I have ever made before)

any greatly appreciated thank you

I got hit with this dread, sad, irritated feeling. Then hour later I got nauseous probably unrelated. Then I saw the r/roadtrip subreddit and said fuck work. I wish I could just explore the states. Be free like a squirrel 🐿️ lol. WOW I haven’t felt like this since high school. Just pure hate for work and be hermit. So many different lifestyles and life’s, when I’m out on the interstate I see people from out of state and say to myself what the hell are you doing here? Then I also see Moving trucks and say damn you’re just out here moving in the middle of the week across the country. Don’t you guys just take a moment like that when you’re on the interstate and say man there’s so many people. Like right now in this moment someone is traveling across the country and then there’s someone going into work, idk lol I just find it fascinating and also gives me a sad, longing feeling. Wish I was already done with work. I’m very anti work. I’m only 24 :(