r/hatemyjob

For me, it wouldn't be so bad if "full time" were only 15-20 hours per week. Or if I was able to design my own schedule around my life. But under the 40 hour system it feels like my entire life revolves around work.

Thoughts?

I wouldn’t mind my job as much if my employer wasn’t forcing us to do mandatory overtime. I work at a factory and the busy season is coming up. Every year around this time we do mandatory overtime each week.

My normal schedule is four 10’s. I work Monday-Thursday 2:30PM-1:00AM. With the OT, I also work Friday’s. It’s thankfully only 8 hours. So, including lunch and the time I’m there to not be late clocking in, I’m at work at least 50 hours every week.

I know there are people who do more hours weekly and I know the company needs work done. However, I have never understood why they don’t try for voluntary OT, but rather they start with mandatory OT. They’ve done voluntary before, but they normally never offer it. 95% of the time, that’s not offered first. And the thing is, when they have offered voluntary in the past, I’ve never seen them have an issue. There are always enough people wanting to work. They have never had to resort to mandatory when they offer voluntary.

I work in a factory. It’s mainly a packaging factory but most areas require repetitive heavy lifting. I’m just so tired of the OT. I don’t mind the four 10’s - it’s the OT that kills me inside. I’m burnt out. So tired. I have a 2 year old that gets up at 7:30 every morning and I get to be right around 2AM. 3 days of the week she goes to daycare and I can go back home and sleep another 3-4 hours but many weeks I have errands and don’t get that opportunity. There are days I throw up at work from being so sleep deprived.

And the shittiest thing of all - mandatory OT doesn’t have a cap. Employers can force you to work as many hours as they want without any repercussions.

I just read a Business Insider article about companies quietly slashing benefits — parental leave, PTO, random “perks” and benefits — all under the guise of “cost optimization” or whatever buzzword they’re using this quarter.

I’m even hearing chatter about some companies pulling back or eliminating 401(k) matching too… which feels less like a “perk” and more like baseline compensation at this point.

Honestly… how much more miserable can they possibly make the corporate world? Curious if anyone else is seeing this in real life?

At my company, we used to get a $100/month wireless reimbursement for remote work (meant to cover internet or cell). Pretty reasonable considering I have to use my personal phone for work — emails, calls, being reachable 24/7, all that fun stuff. They just cut it to $75/month.

And yeah… on paper it sounds minor. “It’s only $25.”

But that’s $300 a year. For something that directly supports their ability to reach me whenever they want.

It’s also the principle of it. They pitch these things as “benefits” or “perks,” but over time they just slowly claw them back while expectations stay the same (or increase).

Like cool — I’m still expected to be fully connected all the time… just now subsidizing it more myself.

Anyone else dealing with stuff like this? Cuts to PTO, reimbursements, bonuses, 401(k) match, or other perks or benefits that seem like basic compensation for the job?

I hate my job.

I currently work as an export manager in a Lithuanian company and have been here for over a year. Before this, I worked in a U.S. logistics company as an Accounts Payable specialist, and I genuinely loved that job.

I decided to move back to my hometown in Lithuania and found a position in a large company here. The problem is, it’s a small town and job opportunities are very limited. Remote jobs are also hard to find in Lithuania, especially in Accounts Payable. That’s why I feel kind of stuck.

As I said, I really hate this job. My confidence has dropped a lot since I started working here. The work environment is stressful, other departments are disorganized, people are constantly blaming each other, and it feels like someone is always looking for a reason to shout.

I also received almost no proper training. I had just one day with the previous employee, and after that I was left to figure everything out on my own, piece by piece.

All I want is to leave and never look back, but right now I can’t do that financially.

I’m looking for advice from people who have been in a similar situation. How did you deal with it without completely burning out?

Moved to New Zealand from US. I’m really fortunate to be honest…. Just need to vent.

Before leaving I ran my own photo studio and cleared 100k yearly shooting commercial and wedding images

Moved to NZ.

Impossible to get traction as an outsider, eventually take a job as a real estate photographer. Salaried position.

It’s not all that bad… decent autonomy etc.

work real hard for a year , step up when needed, companies been emailing us every month about record sales.

Reviews come up-

I got about .5% over cost of living increase.

What a fucking slap in the face.

These fuck-wits have zero value for creatives. We’re a burden they will replace with AI as soon as possible.

Pretty fucking irritated

Might quit this shit.

Sigh.

Am I an asshat for expecting more…

Nah, fuck these motherfuckers.

Maybe just a little rant, I've already begun the search and its a matter of finding the right job. I'm on of dem dere "Fancy AI doods" and I built a team over the last 5 years that started from "me" and we're at 5 data scientists, total team of 10. Boy for the first few years it was a dream. Boss leaves me alone, IT ignores me, so I have full reign on my servers and I am just killin it.

But I missed the clues in the meantime--new program manager came in--very aggressive and maneuvered her way in to replace my boss when they were promoted. Now we "co-lead" but officially I report to them. Strike one. Not huge, but ok, that's not the reward I was looking for.
Clue #2: My (old) boss is/was too busy to meet with me. Because I am doing all the AI/development, she runs around says "Build me X" I got do it, but I never get insight into what we need next for business. I never learn their job or what it takes to get to their level. Lots of flowing reviews. Big raises, but now I basically have the same skills I had 5 years ago and no mentor.

Clue #3: IT suddenly discovered we have money. We ordered a big fat GPU/Deep Learning Machine and IT "helped" us install it by hijacking it, putting it in a cluster they manage and they restrict access too which breaks most of our (money generating) workflows. I'd been doing this solo for 4 years before they came along but they still treat me like a chump including stating things like "Well this isn't just a desktop computer you order" as if the previous machines were purchased from office depot or best buy

Clue #4: This computer install has totally blown up. VPs are fighting blah blah blah. I try and work a solution. "I'll got test X,Y, and Z" Rather than accusing everyone, we'll have data that anyone can duplicate. Boss says "They'll just accuse you of sabotaging the tests"

Clue #5 My therapist offered to put me on short term disability due to stress and said GET A NEW JOB ALREADY YOU FOOL! You're underpaid, a freakin unicorn and these guys treat you like dirt!

Clue#6: Three big shots all had great presentations at a recent conference on "their" work. Its actually my work. Boss would come to me and say "We need an AI model that can measure X" and 4 weeks later a deployed software package with a fancy trained AI model shows up courtesy of me. I didn't even get a thank you in the presentation. I had a couple of very cool research ideas I did, pitched them, researched them, developed the models and boss took first author.

SOB I am an idiot.

Apologies for mild rule violation--I do sing to my cats during the day, so there is that...

I have an ok job, of course there are things I dislike but otherwise it's fine...

But despite that, I just hate it so much, just the thought of pointlessly wasting my life being somewhere I don't want to be, that is draining my energy instead of doing things I like is making me angry and miserable

For the last month I've been having anxiety attacks after work and nights before work, I cry and scream and have knot in my stomach and also can't fall asleep because I know when I wake up I will have to work again...

I always have this dread of going back in the back of my mind and a I just feel drained of life, only time when I feel good is Friday evening and Saturday

I am just wondering if anyone else relates...

I am a 59yo man who has been in the work force since age 17. That said, I feel completely played out at this juncture in my career and dealing with coworkers has sucked the life out of me. What really grinds my gears are the frequent shitty comments other employees make. I’m left thinking, “did you really have to add in that extra bit of sarcasm or snark? “Could you have said what you said in such a way that wasn’t aggressive or insulting? “Why are you choosing to come across as an asshole? I’m not expecting sugary sweet interactions all of the time but this is a constant theme and I think how you say something is just as important as the actual message. Add to that, the daily slights, micro aggressions and subdued hostility and I’m at the end of my rope. I tell you people suck and like the bumper sticker, “The more people I meet, the more I like my dog”

My job tries to put me in group chats and text me off the clock. If it’s not an emergency, (which so far its never been) I simply don’t respond. Work communication happens on the clock or close to it. That’s it.

Some people are wrapped up in their jobs 24/7 and expect everyone else to mirror that level of availability. You don’t have to. Just because someone else wants to be reachable all day doesn’t mean you have to be.

If your shift is over, it’s okay to clock out and go home. Boundaries are professional.

Thanks everyone who shares their story, we all gone get through this 💯🔥

I just need to vent I guess. I started being dog groomer two years ago and at the beggining I really enjoyed it! I loved dogs, working with them, bathing and trimming them brought me so much satisfaction! I worked part time for one and half year and then opened my own place. Over time my satisfaction from grooming dogs faded and dogs really started to get on my nerves. All those whining, barking, biting, wriggling around. It's pissing me off so much and I can't stand it anymore. Even though at the beginning of this job all those things wasn't a problem. But now it became so frustrating. I mean I've never expected that I'll always be all excited and happy about working. I knew that there's gonna be difficult dogs but I didn't expect it'll be this bad and so fast. I mean two years in this job and being already so sick of it? WTF. I don't know what's wrong with me. If I knew it'll be like this I would never get into this.
I want to quit but I don't really know what else I could do in my life. I'll be talking to my therapist about it. Maybe we'll find a solution or at least she'll help me deal with this frustration. I mean she already did help me providing healthy ways for my really huge frustration and it works but only for a moment because then I have to go back to those annoing dogs behaving like crazy and all my frustration is back. I also don't really understand why those dog's behavior started to make me so frustrated. I really don't understand and I don't know what to do. I also can't take break from this job because I need money. It all just sucks so much.

I've been employed at my current job for 5 1/2 years now and I really like the job. I love learning things that I never knew existed and I also have access to historical documents that are just fascinating to see. I've seen official documents signed by James K. Polk. I also have this opportunity to access public information about people so the gossip in me is able to scratch that itch sometimes but not often. I'm also making the yearly income that, while not high but less than $60k, I never thought I'd be able to make. Most importantly, my health insurance is free and with it, I am able to get and continue to see a therapist. Even with all of these positives, I'm still feeling burned out.

I don't know why I'm still feeling burned out. This job is not my previous job but yet, the people, the environment, and the office politics are the friggin same. As of this date, someone would have to pry this job out of my cold and dead hands even though I don't feel like I belong here. I came to the conclusion that I don't think its the job. I think I'm just tired of HAVING to work 40 hrs a week and no matter what I do, legally, it will never be enough.

I don't hate my job. I hate being forced to work.

Sidenote: So **no** singing cats at all? Does this include kittens or dwarf kittens? And why lol 😆

Full disclosure, this all went down today which happened to be my day off, but my manager and assistant manager both called me to fill me in, so I think I have most of the details right.

I work at a crappy hardware store in a crappy, small midwestern town. I have, well had a coworker who suffers from serious anger issues in addition to being bipolar and having a massive chip on his shoulder. Every other day something sets him off which leads to him creating drama for everybody else there to suffer with. This week he had issues with another coworker who stood around and did nothing all day, which is funny because that’s exactly what he does when he’s not screaming about all the injustices in his life. He’s also pissed that he can’t get a dollar an hour raise that he’s continually asked for. And again, he’d probably get the raise if he actually did any work there to justify it. So two days ago it all came to a head which led to him walking off the job and saying he wasn’t coming back and moving out of state. The end of our never ending nightmare, right? Wrong!

Today, the other problem coworker who does nothing was fired. She then proceeded to message the psycho to tell him that my boss was talking shit about him, which he most definitely was not. My boss is nice to a fault. I’ve never heard him say a bad word about anyone. This set the psycho off. He called the assistant manager and made a bunch of vague threats about killing my boss and his family. So the cops were called and they eventually spoke to him. The rest is kind of murky. I know he’s been trespassed from the place. My boss put out a protective order against him. The psycho’s girlfriend also works at the store, and it sounds like he dumped her and he either kicked her out of their place or she left on her own out of her own safety.

He messaged me earlier today before everything went down and he seemed calm so everything must have all fallen apart in a matter of hours. I was one of the few people there who got along with him, but his constant bitching and ranting and mood swings were getting old and I was happy when he walked out two days ago. I just didn’t think things would escalate like this.

I just started a new job this week, and my IT Director cool. However, my IT Director stated his IT manager has a temper and will push me to get stuff done right away. They have no knowledge bases, horrible ticketing system, not budget, and directions. She on vacation and will be back on monday. I just got out of a job of 4 years that is toxic. I only took this job because of the great reviews online, but I am realizing that they may of been bought. The total amount employees is 260. There 3 total in IT department one IT Director, IT manager, and IT support specialist which is me. Also, they change the job description. Another, reason why I took this job is because of being able to learn more. Need some advice should I run. I have always worked in big corporations, so I may be overacting. I have about 11 years IT experience, so I have pretty good Ideal of environments but I may just join a dumpster fire.

Hey everyone. I’m feeling pretty down. I’ve been feeling really awful since starting this job 4 months ago. I don’t have a great track record with jobs honestly. I have worked long term at some jobs, but I’m young and I’ve been in college since 2017 on and off. I leave when I feel completely burnt out and unappreciated. I have a hard time fitting in with others. Either I’m too young or I’m too old. I’m only 27. I don’t drink at all, I’m married, I have no kids, and I have a great life that I have set up for myself by myself. I finally graduated high school. I got my first salary, real deal job. I’m a supervisor to several people much older than me. I absolutely hate it. There’s a MASSIVE list of things that I hate about this job. A list I have been writing out. I don’t hate the work. I have an intense passion for the work. I love my work. I hate the job. I’ve worked so many places and always felt justified leaving, whether it was for better pay, for school, or because it just wasn’t working out anymore. How do I really know it’s time to go? This current job is currently eating me alive and killing my spark. My family is worried about me. I really, truly love what I do. I’m trying my best to not let it show, but the 9 hours I spend there everyday feels like mental torture. I’m physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted. I have to make it a little longer for several reasons and then I can find something else. Here is what this job offers me:

Very short commute

Higher pay than most places in my industry

PTO/benefits

Health insurance

Salary

And stable hours

I have adjusted a little since I started, but here I am during my own free time venting to Reddit about it. Idk guys. I wish I could just deal with it but it’s hurting me. Thanks for listening.

I really don't like my new job lately. I'm making 15 a hour but it's stressful and exhausting. A lot of it is walking up and down floors. My coworker keeps yelling my name across the room and my manager seems to be critical. He gives me a hard time about things that weren't explained to me. He'll help me out if I need him but when I ask it seems to be an annoyance to him. A lot of customers seem pissed off over nothing and they expect you to carry their stuff to the register..this is at a department store so maybe they are just old school?

Anyway out of the blue an assistant manager reaches out to me asking if I'm interested in their key holder position. It pays 12 dollars a hour. We do a little phone call and she seems very excited and extremely happy explaining the job. She has a very big friendly personality. I do an in person interview with the regional manager and it seems to go well. I get a text from the assistant manager telling me now the district manager wants to interview me. She even texted me thats great, I'm proud of you!!

My problem is this is a key holder position and (due to some bad circumstances in my life) I don't have my license or car. It's no problem for me to get to any job though because I always live five minutes or less to my jobs.

Also the banks are in walking distance from this job. In the interview she mentioned me going to the bank and doing some travel to help other stores. She asked if I had reliable transportation and of course I said yes. I remember at a couple other jobs I have had the managers would car pool when they had to travel. I'm worried about how much of a problem it will be if I accept this job and don't have a car. I'm wondering if managers ever work around this or could I get fired for it? Maybe if it is a problem, they will just demote me to sales associate? Even with the pay cut, I want this job because the environment seems better and leadership experience might open more doors for me. My worries are making me on the fence though but I'm really not liking my new job..I want to leave so bad

Edit: How should I bring up that I don't have a car?

edit: she messaged me 2 or 3 times in a 10 month period on indeed asking me if I want to interview. I would think about it and not do it because I was already busy or just felt unsure about the job.

Edit: don't know if it makes a difference but this store is looking for a new manager and in the first interview she said they are trying to rebuild a team. she said they are being picky about who they are hiring and they can't keep having turnovers

I spent years watching the same thing happen.

Someone talented, hardworking, genuinely committed — passed over for someone less capable but better positioned. Good reviews. Positive feedback. Recognition that felt meaningful but never converted into anything structural.

I kept waiting for it to make sense. It finally did.

The problem isn’t performance. It’s position. And most people are optimizing the wrong variable.

Here’s what I eventually figured out:

Effort is the cost of entry, not the currency of advancement. When everyone around you is working hard, effort stops being a differentiator. It becomes the floor. What actually determines who advances is structural position — who controls access to what, who has genuine exit capacity, who owns things versus who is merely permitted to use them.

Rules are not applied equally. In every institution I observed, the people who enforce the rules experience them completely differently than the people who obey them. Who gets fired and who gets a quiet conversation is not random. It follows hierarchy, not policy.

Dependency is manufactured to look like opportunity. Every platform, every employer, every institution that offers you something you need is simultaneously building a dependency. The exchange feels mutual at first. By the time the terms change, leaving is expensive.

Legitimacy is borrowed, not earned. The person who got the promotion wasn’t necessarily better. They were more legible to the people who make promotions happen. Credibility is assembled, not discovered — and it can be revoked without warning.

Exit is the foundation of everything. The person who could leave without catastrophe negotiates differently than the person who can’t. The exit doesn’t have to happen. It has to be credible.

None of this requires becoming cynical or ruthless. It requires accuracy. The map most people were given describes how institutions claim to work, not how they actually do.

I wrote all of this down — the mechanisms, the real-world cases, what’s actually happening beneath the surface of every career and institution you’ve ever been part of. It’s called How Power Actually Works and it’s on Amazon under Daniel Cleetman.

Not here to sell anyone anything. Just sharing what finally made the pattern legible.

Just here to vent because I have no support at my job. New supervisor is avoidant and doesn’t have a clue. Her supervisor is a narcissist sociopath who, lies, loves power, and doesn’t know what she is doing. Covert narcissist coworker is here 1 year later after being reported to HR and still screwing up the team dynamic; nothing is being done because all of them are buddy-buddy, and I am tired.

I have gone to the supervisor and her lazy, sociopathic supervisor for over a YEAR saying what will help me aaaannnnd…NOTHING.

I look different. I went from being healthy and losing 30 pounds to gaining 16 back. I don’t walk anymore. I eat fast food, My skin looks different. I went from loving wine to drinking it to cope. Hair is brittle. I’ve been angry since January and my anger is increasing. All is see in the mirror is a shell of myself. I have nothing left.