I’m stressed guys. I started at a new company this month. I finally attended a few important and private meetings this week. Everyone was communicating in a very frustrating style. They spoke in monologues of pure corporate/technical jargon without ever actually saying anything substantive. Very robotic. No walking through or explaining things like a human. It was almost like a status report in the military.

Is this normal? My brain naturally does not think or glide like this. I don’t think I’ll ever fit in with this communication style. I think it’s so important when working together to use human communication.

Near the end of one of the meetings, they asked if I had questions… and I had nothing to say because I didn’t understand anything!!!!!

Here’s an example “As we continue to navigate the evolving healthcare funding landscape, it's critical that we prioritize strategic alignment across organizational stakeholders to support the optimization of value-based reimbursement pathways, enhance fiscal sustainability through diversified resource allocation, and foster a collaborative ecosystem that promotes operational efficiencies, financial stewardship, and long-term institutional resilience within the broader continuum of care.”

Like …I’m aware that this paragraph does address something. However, hearing this in the moment is very disconnected and ridiculous. It doesn’t actually mean anything or plan anything tangible. What would you ask as a follow up to this?

I used to work at a health center as a switchboard operator in a populated area in the city where a lot of the patients were financially struggling or had mental health issues. I had worked there for two and a half years by the time the layoffs rolled around at my company. I had struggled a bit at this job for a while, and always tried my best to help patients and keep up with my co-workers, as well as the demands of our managers. They wanted us to get numbers in the 80 to 100+ range when it came to the number of patient calls we would get. I often struggled to get those numbers and only would be able to get higher numbers in the 80s to 90s range on some really good days. On some rare occasions I got to the 100s.

A lot of times, though I would be struggling to get calls because of the fact that calls would not be coming to my lines as much and I would have multiple times throughout the day with minutes would go by and there would be no calls on my line for me to take. Other times, I would get a call where a patient needed aid and instead of helping right away when I explained the situation to them, the triage nurses would make me ask more questions to the patients to see if the patients qualify for a triage, or if she was not present, I would have to call a nurse in one of the pods at the health center to see if they could help me.

Some of them would either not pick up the phone (Something that they were caught doing at times and notorious for) or make up some excuse for why they couldn't take the phone call right now to help the patient even if they weren't busy. I tried to explain the situation to my managers, one of which left at the beginning of October of 2023, but I was always met with public shouting and scolding (She would do this in front of all of my co-workers) or a condescending remark from the manager who took over after she left, stating "It's not fair" for me to have low numbers while other co-workers are getting higher call numbers, as if I was slacking and getting low numbers on purpose, even though that was not the case at all. I would be met with eyerolls and had a documented warning from each manager in two separate years.

Around September of 2024, I had gotten a mammogram because I was having on-and-off breast pain that year that got more bothersome at the end of the summer and wanted to see my new doctor about it. I got referred to a hospital to get it done later that month, and by October 2024, I got results that said I had stage 0 breast cancer. I ended up having to deal with a stressful back and forth trying to find the best place to get my breast surgery done because that hospital proved to not have a good oncology department I could go to and they kept trying to push the idea of hormones on me really early.

I ended up having my surgery in late February of 2025, but was told I would have to have radiation therapy a couple of months afterwards. By the way, a couple of weeks before the surgery I told my manager about what I had been going through and that's when he decided to lessen up on me and hear me out, but he had already submitted the written warning about me with all of his accusations by then. He had also made me switch seats with another co-worker so I could be in view of the assistant manager up front by then, too. It was so humiliating.

On the afternoon of April 15th, our switchboard department had gotten briefed by our manager that there would be layoffs starting the next day. While he was talking to everyone in the room, I noticed him periodically shifting his eyes to me, and I assumed at the time, it was because I was sitting on his left and he wanted to make sure he looked like he was talking to everyone. I also thought that since I had requested a medical leave that day, which was sent to him and the head of our department through e-mail and through our private health center messaging system. I believe there were some papers signed as part of the request, too. he came back to me, stating that she had approved my request for medical leave where I would be off for the following week until early May for my radiation therapy.

I saw the approved message on my e-mail, too. The next day, right before lunch time, I was laid off, and when I tell you how I noticed one of the department heads who is friends with my aunt, by the way, looked like she was smirking while the main head of our departments was giving me the bad news and my layoff letter, I was stunned. When I was expressing sadness to a co-worker in another department. I noticed in the corner of my eye my switchboard manager down the hallway looking in my direction while he was talking to a work buddy and he seemed to be laughing about *something*. This is the same guy who I hugged goodbye and said was a "good manager" when I was sadly bidding all of my other co-workers in that room goodbye before leaving.

These days, I regret saying those words because, in all honesty, he really wasn't. He always actively accused me of slacking with my patient calls when I was trying my best to help the patients just because my numbers were not as high as the other co-workers. Any time I explained what was going on and what I observed, he would dismiss it and fall back on the same tired phrase meanwhile he gave his work bestie special treatment as soon as he became manager. He often let her work from home, even though she literally did not need to and everyone knew she had no familial and medical reasons at home to justify working from home because a lot of those women regularly shared their business and gossiped while in that office and she, herself, would sometimes brag about getting to work from home.

Not to mention, sometimes he would come in and gossip with her about random stuff happening at work and he let her get away with re-decorating her desk at work and adding wall paper to her company-owned desk. He also let her getting away with arguing with another co-worker for an hour during one of our earliest department meetings with him as the new manager, letting her and this other co-worker take up so much of the meeting time being petty and only chiming in near the end of their argument. He had no control of the room or the situation at that time. Meanwhile, I tried my best at that office to keep up with everyone and make sure I have the correct information to help patients, AND I submitted my request for a medical leave to him and the head department manager and I still got laid off when I likely should not have.

I came here because I wanted to know if I should ask lawyer if I have a case against the health center who laid me off the day after accepting my medical leave request despite my job history. I have been told by some family members that what they did was fishy and might be a legitimate case worthy of suing them for, but since it has now been a year since that layoff, I don't know if I should. I still have not been able to find a job and I was also told by another co-worker who works in management that I should qualify for benefits that I should have received by now since I had worked there for two and a half years, but earlier this year when I was told this, and was told to speak to the financial manager at the health center about this, she denied that being the case and immediately after I got off the phone with her, the Paycom account that I still had access to suddenly wasn't accepting the username and password that was working a day ago. I genuinely think that that finance manager locked me out of the Paycom account once she was made aware that I still had access to it and was asking to have access to my company benefits.

Also, any time I spoke to HR about some questions I had about the health center and who I should talk to before this happened, they conveniently forgot who I was, even though the person I was speaking to literally greeted me by name out of the blue when I was at lunch during my first week as a switchboard operator. She knows who I am. Pretending she doesn't after I get laid off is not gonna work on me.

I would like some genuine advice from a lawyer on what I should do going forward and how I should handle this issue. Can anyone tell me if I should consider suing the health center or if it's too late to do so since it's been a year. Do I have a legitimate case against them that I should move forward with? Thank you in advance for your legal advice.

I’ve applied to so many fast food/retail places and have done multiple interviews. Most places tell me to leave my name and number, then never call back. I’m tired of wasting money on ubers. I really need a job and extra money, and honestly I’m just frustrated. Does anyone have any advice on what I can do?

I want to hear what other people think about this, especially those who work in trades.

I work as a car mechanic, and honestly, I find it frustrating how little skilled workers can earn compared to what the business owner makes from our work.

For example, I earn around 150$ per working day, while the owner can make around 3k$ from the jobs I do. I'm the one actually fixing the cars, taking responsibility for the work, and handling everything from start to finish from A to Z. Meanwhile, the owner can spend very little time doing the actual mechanical work but still makes significantly more money from it.

And on top of that, the owner still wants to act like the boss and tell me what to do, even though I'm the one doing the hands-on work that brings the money in.

I understand that running a business comes with expenses and risks. I'm not saying the owner should earn nothing. But I think there's a big difference between earning a fair profit for running a business and making a huge amount of money from other people's skills while those people doing the actual work receive a relatively small share.

What makes it even more frustrating is when you look at the equipment and facilities. At least in my experience, some workshop expenses are not as high as people make them out to be, and I even have better tools at home than we have at the workshop.

I'm really done with this shit. I'm going back to school and becoming something big.

When I was 20, I thought mathematics and physics were the hardest things in the world. But after going out into the real world and experiencing life, I realized that they were nothing compared to the challenges life throws at me.

I'm done wasting my potential. It's time to invest in myself, get an education, and build a future where my knowledge, skills, and hard work are truly valued.

It's time to level up.

I work at a very small hotel/inn located in a resort town (5 full-time staff, +3 more during peak season) and act as the assistant manager 2 days a week, and do housekeeping 2-3 more days a week. The main housekeeper and her partner (filling in as a housekeeper) have been showing up to work 30 minutes later than they are reporting on their time sheets. They've been doing this for about 2 weeks now. I've noticed since I have access to the cameras, but haven't mentioned anything.

The manager is very lazy and often takes an additional day off per week without communicating it to anyone. She's on salary and has an extremely easy job, and I know she's getting paid far more than she's worth. So creating a nit-picking situation between her and the housekeeper isn't ideal.

To complicate all of this, we live in a shared apartment complex where the manager lives above me and the housekeeper and her partner live upstairs next door. Oh and the housekeeper's partner is the manager's brother. Yes, it's complicated. But I keep my head down and focus on the work and stay out of the inevitable drama.

Do I bring it up to the manager? Or the owner? The owner is very hands-on and would be receptive, but I don't want to go over anyone's head.

I made it to the final round, and they mentioned there were only 2 person left, and I did not get picked. I am soo depressed, and feel like my life is over...

I have ADHD and autism and work a 9-5. I won't assume that everyone else with these things is the same way, but I have a tendency to shoot off obvious questions before thinking about it. It's plagued me at a number of jobs. Recently I came to the realization that almost everything I would need to ask can be found out without asking by Googling it (not sensitive info obvi) or just forcing myself to take extra time to look, so I've been doing that and it's been great.

Today it was 6:20 PM, I was desperate to stop work and go shower before dinner (I work remote) and I suddenly remembered someone higher up emailed me after hours yesterday and I'd forgotten to respond. It turned out I had used a calculator given to me by a member of our management to calculate something - this is something we always do, the member of management makes updates to the calculators regularly so labor rates and product specs and such are current, and he distributes them to us - and the calculator had an error in its formulas, so the cost was wrong. The higher-up provided screenshots of an updated version of the calculator we hadn't received that was generating the correct numbers.

Not too big a deal, my company is relatively forgiving of mistakes (literally all of us make mistakes, management tells us they expect it) and I just needed to change the numbers. We talk to higher-ups all the time, and it's par the course for either management or people in different departments to email employees about these sorts of things, so this wasn't a major event or a massive issue or anything. But you still really want to look good and competent in your correspondence, for obvious reasons lol.

I confirmed the error with the old calculator, updated the numbers in the system, and included the person in our management in my response to ask him to send the updated calculator. The higher-up who originally emailed me then immediately emailed me the calculator 😣 obviously she'd had it since she sent screenshots.

Has anyone had this issue persistently and found a way to prevent it?? I'm so tired of being embarrassed.

Ours does… and we choose how much… it’s called unlimited overtime.

The more we work, the more “extra” money is added to our checks. 👍

This is a very repetitive office job in a bank subsidiary, with a bunch of weird rules. I've spent most of my career in chill creative jobs but for now this is what I've got, so I'm just wondering if it's common in that industry.

Among other rules:

- No phone and no bag at your desk, you need to put them in a locker away from the desks
- No food at your desk
- No drinks unless in a closed container (= in a bottle, not in a mug)
- No headphones at all, no music whatsoever (it's a repetitive job so it's actually very hard to stay focused and awake without music)
- Zero URL allowed outside of the already made shortcuts (outlook, internal docs)
- Talking to coworkers is heavily discouraged, room goes silent when managers are in the room
- You need to announce to your manager when you're going on a break or to the bathroom
- Never more than 2 people on a break at the same time
- Every task is timed, you've got 4 to 9 seconds depending on the task. Management won't show you your stats unless you've been fucking up for weeks. So you might be doing well, you might not, there's no way to know
- People just vanish from the office one day and are replaced the next, no communication about it from management whatsoever
- You should not be looking away from your screen for more than a few seconds. Stretching is discouraged (I got told off for that)
- Temp workers get weekly contracts yet are asked to commit to staying for the next 12-18 months (still on weekly contracts)
- You need to pay for your own coffee lol

I might be forgetting some.

As we've all signed an NDA... none of this feels necessary at all?

They have a salary range posted at the very top, but then there’s a “max compensation” amount they will not exceed… so why even have the range listed? I waste a minute reading through to find that the range isn’t really what I expected. This is a government listing but I have also seen it with other private companies as well. What are your thoughts?

So basically 2-3 weeks before, one of my dad's students offered him her email so that me and my brother could apply to her company/organization because he tells them we have trouble finding jobs in our field. And today I got an email back about an opening and asking for my availability for a meeting, but they did not tell me what the opening was.

Now thats on me as well, as I didn't ask either, but I did email the original referrer too, so I hope to hear back from her.

The company is The Core Tech, and I looked around and found that it is a generic name for a lot of companies, but through linkedin and using my og referrals name, I believe its CoreTech Global Inc. (the blue one) As the names and people match.

My confusion is my school background is psych and mental health, so I don't know what an IT company would need me, I did have some microsoft experience on my resume, but that was mainly from school assignments, I just don't think I'd be a fit for IT or Data Analysis. And they didn't say what the job opening was. The email both people used had @ thecoretech.com, and my referral matched someone on Linkedin.

IDK I heard some people said the company isn't good or it has a toxic environment for employees, but because the name is generic I can't tell if its the same company their talking about. I haven't even told my dad about the email yet.

Their office is in Toronto and since I'm in Milton, I have no plan to do an interview in Toronto (if its in-person) nor go to work down there.

So do you guys have advice, I don't think I'm a fit for IT or Data.

So, I’m sixteen years old and was on the hunt for my first job. Went to one interview and didn’t get it and applied for a couple of others that went no where or took a while to get back to me. Eventually, I got an interview at a fast food place close to my house and nailed the interview. I got hired Im pretty sure as she told my pay and everything but she said she’ll send something to my email so I can fill some documents. Cool. I had the interview on Saturday and didn’t get anything like at all. I was confused and called up there on Tuesday as my mom recommended and no one answered LMAO. I called there again Wednesday and it went better and I spoke to the guy and we were both confused as I should’ve gotten something in my email. He said my email might not have been on there and I agreed but It was weird as I’m pretty sure I put it on there but the website I applied through was harri.com and when I tried to look at the application I filled out it wouldn’t let me but I told him my email just incase and my name. Because of that whole thing I did some research about harri and i’m kinda concerned because I got mixed reviews about that hiring site but that’s the only site that would pop up for the place I was applying to. It’s now Thursday and I haven’t gotten anything and he said to call back later incase but I’m not sure if it just takes a while for the email to be sent by now or my brain is thinking “What if they never got an application because of the site” for some reason. Does anyone know where I go from here or do I just wing it and hope for the best? I never really go on reddit for help so I don’t know what to expect.

I worked as a Walmart cart pusher for 3 months before stupidly getting myself fired thanks to pushing my luck for "stealing time" (clocking in 9 minutes early, which was allowed, but waiting in the break room until my scheduled start time when things were slow) and "safety concerns" (climbing a pole to spot and help coworkers and riding the cart mule).

I was honest about why I did these things. I had clean attendance, and this was my first job.

I'm planning to apply for unarmed security jobs and other entry-level positions.

How much will this realistically hurt my chances of getting hired, especially in security versus other fields? Which jobs are most likely to care about these reasons for termination? How likely are employers to discover I was fired if I leave Walmart off my resume, and is it better to disclose the experience or omit it? How likely are they to find out if/why i got fired if i list my experience?

Is this just a temporary setback, or could it affect me for years?

I have a few skills, all artistic, no degree from health issues, but 29 now doing murals and social media but I can't ever make enough to move out or not rely on anyone, even when I add bartending in. It's crazy wth do I do?

I am currently job searching from my first main corporate job out of college. I've been with them for 5 years and I started as an associate and now basically doing manager work with an associate pay...

I get headaches almost everyday, I feel myself getting slower and slower, and I just don't care anymore because I am so stressed right now but I cant really say anything since EVERYONE else also just as stressed or more so. I can't really take time off because our team is basically like 4 people doing everything the company wants.

I'm so done and I am currently job searching but I'm scared to get into a new job and it feeling the same. If that makes sense? How can I know that a job won't be this stressful? Or is this normal? Is it selfish to want a job and not have headaches or be so stressed my teeth keep grinding???

Thanks

Tonight I was looking through my bank statements, and I realized my paychecks haven’t been depositing into my bank account since February 13th of this year. I’ve been receiving emails with my pay stubs like normal, so I never thought anything of it. I genuinely have no idea how I missed this for this long. 

I have already reached out to my bank to see if they can see anything on their end. My banking information hasn’t changed, so I haven’t filled out a new direct deposit form since my place of work opened 3.5 years ago. Earlier this year I updated my W-4. Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly when that happened, but I wondering if it was February and something got messed up when the accountant was updating that information. The W-4 doesn’t ask for you bank account information, so it‘s not like I wrote the wrong number down.

I’m going to reach out to my boss and ask for the accountant’s contact information first thing. What other steps should I take???

While I doubt the error is something I did, I do own up to the fact that I haven't paid close enough to notice for 8 months. Where if I paid attention, this issue would have been solved in March.

(Before someone asks, I’m a young adult who still lives at home. I never spend any money beside paying for my car insuranc, gas, etc. I had Leftover scholarship money from college. I have a very nice savings and just opened a money market account. I didn’t miss the money because I haven’t needed it. And yes I know I’m very fortunate to be in a position where I can say that.)

I am not happy where I am working at right now. I am underpaid and behaved badly by my current employer. I don't know how I ended up here. I want to leave but after all the interviews they want to contact my current employer as reference check. my boss is a really bad guy I know he will not fire me but also will not let me to go somewhere else. what should I do at this reference check stage?

Share your answers

I’m currently unemployed for the past 8 months I had a job landscaping for a 1 year and a half but got fired as all of the blokes turned against me as well as the boss. And was just getting bullied non stop and it just put a dent in my confidence even more

I don’t know what to do with my life I feel like I’m being called to be a chaplain but I don’t really like church dogma but love Jesus and have had a few mystical type experiences in prayer

but there is a lot of study with that and I’m a bit of a lazy person when it comes to study.

I don’t want to do landscaping anymore cause everyone who does it just smokes all day and it’s just not a good environment to be around. I honestly don’t know what to do with my life.

I struggle a lot with social Anxiety and I feel like that gets it the way with my conversations with people and I don’t know how to get past it it just feels like a burden that I have been carrying with me for years and I don’t know how to get rid of it.

What would you say to me in my predicament I’m 23 years old and everyone that I know is having kids and is starting businesses

I was offered a new job today - better pay, better opportunities, better progression in the company, aligns closer with my career plans. It's everything I've been working towards and I am happy about the role.

I just feel so sad about leaving my current job - yes it's grueling and often way too much work. I get lumped with work so often that i never get anything done. But I love working there truthfully and my coworkers are the greatest people to work with, they are so lovely and just thinking about leaving makes me cry. They've given me so many opportunities to grow and they are really down to earth people. The job itself is low paid and has very little progression so it's not like I could have stayed there for years realistically. I think I will really miss this role and the people though - I feel like I made a real impact on people's lives and having such a meaningful job is wonderful.

I've already accepted the offer and it's not logical to turn it down, but why do I feel so upset about leaving when this offer is what I've been working towards?

Hey everybody. Not sure if this is the right subreddit for this but here goes:

I’ve been at this one engineering company since I graduated earlier this year. I was an intern for a couple of months and then was made an official employee. So I’ve been here for about 5 months now. When I was made an official employee and I had negotiations with my foreman about this, my salary was also raised. He also mentioned about another raise later this fall ”after we get to know each other more”, which already happened. So a lot has happened in a short amount of time. The company I work for is pretty big with dozens of offices and they’re doing good!

So it’s been going nicely. However, there are some days when there is really nothing to do. We have weekly meetings where we go through everyone’s workload and I usually say that if there’s something I could help with, you can hit me up. Some days are more fruitful with work and I have something to do that actually serves a purpose.

The culture is very relaxed, no one’s really breathing down on me, I also have a mentor who can help me if my foreman is busy. So it sounds nice, and it is, but the days when there is no work to do feel a bit painful. I usually listen to podcasts or read news on these days, or scroll through my past works to see if there’s anything I could improve on.

Part of the issue is that sometimes my mentor’s workload is so big that he can’t assist or check after my work constantly, so there is off-time there. My foreman is also unavailable most of the times, except on fridays, which is when we keep team meetings and go through everyone’s workflow on the team.

Another factor that adds to this is that because I’m essentially a junior, I don’t know everything, so I can’t really contribute to some tasks that require more knowledge. Most of the times it’s just doing the more rudimentary tasks out of the way for my mentor.

My understanding is that my team is aware that I may not have work to do 247, but still, I can’t shake off the feeling that my position might be in danger because of the days when i don’t have much to work with. It feels absurd, when you consider that I’m also on a monthly fixed payroll, sometimes I feel like I get paid for going to the toilet, reading news or listening to podcasts! It makes me question what I’m getting paid for and if my employment here was a mistake for the company.

So it’s a little bit unnerving like this. On the other hand, my foreman has specifically said that they want long-term contracts and I have received praise for my efforts. Regardless of this, I still get massive imposter syndrome, like I’m not doing enough or that I’m just idling without bringing too much value.

The company also has the possibility of doing remote, but I have gone to the office everyday regardless, because I only have a 15 minute travel time to work.

I know this might sound vague, but what could I do to alleviate these kinds of feelings when there are more quiet days at the office?

I’ve been at a company for over two years and have my performance review next week. I checked in with my boss recently about a role that isn’t filled in our department currently and asked about the opportunity to advance. Her response was that she wants to wait until we implement a new AI software because it may “change our needs” and also said higher up approval for promotions and structure changes are going to take much longer because of leadership changes. Is this just a way of saying “you’re not getting promoted”? Any tips on what to say in my performance review?

My reply

It should be illegal to request a Social Security number on a job application. Why would you do a so-called background check on any candidates that you’re not ready to hire anyway? It’s a massive privacy violation and everyone knows it’s a one-way ticket to opening yourself up for identity theft. But some applications still shamelessly have a box labeled Social Security number on the application. There need to be federal laws against that.