r/work

So weird I was taken to HR for the first time after a nearly 20 year career (mix of roles).

HR asks if I have ever said anything inappropriate?

I responded with nothing that I can think of (lots of things can get misconstrued, but honestly, I’ve never said anything in my mind that’s offensive)

They then follow up with have I ever threatened to fire someone?

I thought hard and said no, but I have mentioned to an outside sales rep that if his sales did not improve that it could lead to a pip and termination and I did not want to do that.

HR said they would get back to me and that was the end of the conversation.

Am I in trouble? Like I said this is my first time to HR.

I was let go two days into starting an opportunity with this cnc company I’d heard about. Show up early and do everything on time, fast forward to today I’m told I’m being let go by my agency and they told my representative that apparently I was “struggling with training” even though I asked my trainer if I was doing good on the job and if I needed anything else to be mindful of and he said I was doing good. Another reason was apparently a comment that I made about me “confusing the company with another one of a similar name”. Someone I knew was working at that company (The companies sound very similar) and I thought I was originally thinking of going there but since positions filled up I could not. I mentioned this to my recruiter at my new job and she seemed to not really be faced by it? I brought up the company because I thought the 2 were related (turns out they weren’t” and said I was originally thinking of going to the other company (since a family member works there) . Anyway I don’t really understand what happened? I did as I was told I learned from some mistakes that I made and even met the exact same quota that my trainer was given before he started training me my second day! Honestly I’m just really confused. Thoughts on this?

I never liked that talking with co workers is usually surface level bullshit conversations. But today I was reminded why it's usually that way. I told my co worker that giving trainings was one of my least favorite things to do, and I don't really like to do it. But I do it anyway because it's work for and it keeps me busy, and it's usually more money for me since we travel out for our jobs. Same goes for the people on my team.

Well my boss reaches out to me, basically saying that co worker will now be doing more of the trainings, and even taking some of the trainings I was scheduled for. It's no coincidence that I told this to my co worker yesterday, and my boss tells me this today. Also no one on my team likes to give trainings, but it's part of the job so we do it.

But fuck my co worker who is a rat! From when he started I didn't really like him, but now he can absolutely get fucked!

I work for a small private family-owned company, and next week my bosses are going out of town for a conference for about a week. While they’re gone, I’ll be the only one at the office handling things like phone calls, deliveries, etc.

Today they told me they’d cover my lunch while they’re away just keep the receipt, which was nice of them. Normally though, I just drive home for lunch since I only live about 15 minutes away and usually make my own food.

I don’t want to take advantage of the offer or order something crazy expensive, but I also don’t know what’s considered a normal/reasonable amount to spend in this situation. For context, they told me I still need to stay at the office during lunch in case anything comes up so I would have to have it delivered to the office

What would you personally consider a fair price range for lunch in this situation?

I’ve been dealing with pretty intense work anxiety lately and it feels like it’s affecting my ability to think clearly. I work in a director-level role, and even a simple 1:1 next week is giving me anxiety days beforehand. I used to feel sharp and confident in conversations, but now I constantly feel mentally foggy, slow, and afraid I’ll sound stupid. Even small things like adding and introducing a direct report on a weekly call feel overwhelming for no logical reason. It honestly feels like my brain is stuck in fight-or-flight mode all the time and I can’t relax anymore. Has anyone gone through something similar from burnout, stress, or anxiety and actually recovered?

Is it frowned upon to take 2 unpaid days off a little over 3 months into starting a job? They aren’t consecutive and they coincide with my days that I already have off. I also do not need to find coverage. I’d be taking a Friday and a Monday. I don’t get PTO until I’ve been there a year. I’m an hourly-paid receptionist and there would be someone to cover my shift who is already usually in the building doing filing in accounting on the days I’m trying to take off.

Basically where I work theres a front and a back and shes considered one of the back managers. originally thought she parked like that due to the snow and like salt blurring the lines, after winter maybe due to a disability (that barely makes sense cause theres a closer side parking lot next to a ramp she could use) but I had found out it was cause she doesnt like to park on the drain gate?? would i be wrong to complain?? like i know its dumb but I dont mind parking on the grate but you block it?? like i parked too close at my old job once and got a talking to but this bitch takes up 2-4 of the closest employee parking spaces, also the only ones that have a tree next to them for shade. this place is a lot more casual than my old workplace so I doubt they would do anything if I complained but if u were a manager and someone was doing tha would u be like stop please?

Hey all,

Basically, I just want to get an idea of what others think about this: quitting after one week starting a new job due to a long commute.

I got hired for an office job that pays around $30 per hour, 5 days a week, 40 hours weekly. The people I met were nice and helpful, but the commute in the morning was horrendous. It was close to 2 hours one way and then about 1.5 coming back home. I quickly realized that driving in heavy traffic isn't something I want to be doing long-term.

I feel bad that I quit because they seemed to like me and were banking on me staying there.
I didn't realize I wouldn't be able to commit to this distance. Remote wasn't a possibility and I don't have the means to move closer to that workplace.. When I spoke to the manager, she seemed to be understanding but not very happy about it.

I'm just curious to know if anyone ever had a similar experience?

This happens to me a lot at night. It is an ungodly noise. I am very embarrassed.

In my defense, I was up all night with my five month old son. I get in to work early and after it happened I got up to check who else was in and could possibly have heard. I’m positive at least 2 people heard, maybe 3. When my next door neighbor got in to work I told him I almost lost a bunch of data and had the conversation really loud so other people could hear and I could cover my tracks, but I doubt they’re buying it. Or maybe they are and they just think I’m a freak. Not sure what’s worse honestly.

I recently started a new job and I feel like my manager isn’t giving me that much work yet. Is this normal when you first start? I always ask if they need help with anything, but part of me wonders if I should be asking for more work or just give it time.

Hey guys. I just want to vent a bit. I legitimately suck at my job and its not impostor syndrome. I'm always late, screw up on emails and reports amd sometimes don't even answer the damm phone properly. I just botched another report and I want to give up. Its been three years why dont I get it already? My boss says I'm not quick on my feet amd my writing is bad. The only thing I specialize in (compiling data in excel) is just one part of the job (and honestly I'm not even the best at that).

Outside of that I always seem to run into one stupid mistake or the other especially when writing the reports! I take my time write some notes reallly study the subject matter, but there is always sime slip up or mistake that makes my boss angry, A spelling mistake, a wrong figure, didn't get my facts straight, not enough information, too much information e.t.c. I also get told I don't answer emails enough, don't resolve enough cases and such.

I'm tired I tried improving but at this point it seems more reasonable to accept that I'm just incompetent. My self esteem is really taking a beating here these days. Can't quit suddenly though because I want to avoid poverty. I am going to apply for other jobs so if/when I do get one I hope I won't suck there as well. For now I guess I can only continue to do what I can here.

I was working on the ambulance with my partner for the day. The best way I can describe her is that she treated work like high school and only wanted to work with the ‘popular people.’ We didn’t get along, and more than once I had to put her in her place.

We were assigned to work together, but she refused to work with me and just went home, putting us in a bind since we were already down a unit. I stayed and worked my shift anyway. However, the supervisor, who happened to be her best friend, tried to write me up because she abandoned her job that day.

I argued it, and when the owner saw the write-up, he asked the supervisor, ‘So you think it’s fair to write him up because he stayed, but she refused to work and abandoned her shift, and that’s perfectly okay?’

The supervisor immediately said yes.

The owner ripped up the write-up and told me to leave because he was going to have a talk with the supervisor. About 30 minutes later, the supervisor walked out with his head down and was no longer the supervisor.

Hi! Thanks in advance. I have been in the work force for 10 years now and I was wondering how much you like the people you work with? No one really is my best friend at work, but they are nice and respectable. I am not sure if I am taking this for granted or if I should switch jobs. I guess my questions for those wiser than me are:
- How big of a difference does work culture make?
- How much do you value working with people you like?
- Is this rare? Or do most people find themselves with people they like.

Thanks os much!!!

I recently got approved for FMLA through my job, but I’m a little confused about the proper way to actually use it when I need to miss work. Just because it’s through a company named sunlife. Do I need to give details about why I’m out, or is it enough to just say it’s an FMLA-covered absence?

i work on a small program as a government contractor, paid hourly. my five person team recently got a new member, hannah. she has a two hour one way commute (hell), and we are now fully in office. we share an office with out other coworker stella.

stella and i are fresh out of college, and this is our first post-grad job, it’s an entry level position. hannah has ten years of professional experience and took a pay cut and title change to leave her previous work environment (which she has complained overloaded her with work, and made her work nights and weekends unpaid) so when hannah was asking other coworkers for more responsibilities one week in (before fully grasping the scope of the role she was hired for) i figured it was just because she’s more seasoned.

two weeks ago, she had car troubles and couldn’t make it to work. she messaged our chat with more senior team members and explained that she would work from home without pay because she is committed to the role, and she has informed our supervisors. the senior members said she does not need to do that, and she should take the day off. my supervisor walks in the room five minutes later, tells us not to assign hannah any work, and that working without pay is illegal. he spent the next half hour trying to contact her, and eventually she was offline.

last friday, coworkers came to us with a new task so i asked her what her bandwidth looked like. she then said to me and stella “off the record, but i worked until 11pm last night to finish a task for our coworker”. she said she wasn’t going to log it, and stella and i emphasized she should ask our supervisor if she could get overtime for it, or flex her hours (our supervisor is always very understanding when we need to stay late, we just need to let him know). hannah also said she sent us a message at 11pm but deleted it because she realized we would see the time stamp.

my supervisors really emphasize accurate billing under our contract, we have many trainings on it, and she’s been told before that that type of work is straight up illegal. stella and i decided we won’t tell our supervisor unless it becomes a pattern, especially because we share an office it’d be awkward to rock the boat too much. i just worry it could lead to more resentment than she already has for our work, especially considering her past employer. has anyone had a similar experience with a coworker?

Whenever our boss requests meetings with my team it’s always outside of our scheduled hours. They requested one today, and I told my lead, “sorry, but that is-
outside of my scheduled hours” she got really upset and sent the email our boss sent her and told me to take it go with her. They then proceeded to send us a meeting invite for Wednesday morning from 7:30-8:30am. I’m frustrated because first our scheduled hours are 8-4:30, so if 30min can run into our work time why can’t all of it? And secondly; I’ve been accommodating, this will be the 4th meeting outside of our scheduled hours and I want to set a boundary and protect my personal time. I’m also an hourly employee, so I don’t know if that helps or hurts my case. Anyways, I’m strongly considering telling them I will be there at 8:00am when our scheduled hours begin. I don’t care that it would be overtime, or that breakfast will be provided, and it hasn’t been said that it is mandatory. I just don’t know how much trouble I will get in by doing this.
Edit TL;DR
Before hours meeting, paid, but being asked to work outside my hours. I’d like to refuse, because I’ve accommodated previous, and continues to happen

I just need to vent because I am absolutely furious and heartbroken for my dad. For over 30 years, he worked at a major manufacturing plant in Goa. He was literally there when the foundation stone was laid. He is an engineer by trade and worked his way up from the plant floor to an executive position. He chose never to switch companies because he wanted to stay close to our hometown to look after my grandparents. Under leadership, the plant maintained healthly growth, maintained a top-notch reputation with vendors, and kept the highest level of legal and statutory compliance. Then, two years ago, a massive Indian conglomerate bought the company. The new owner (the group's Vice Chairman) started micro-managing daily operations, and everything went to hell.

Because my dad understands the actual technical grit it takes to run a complex, 24/7 continuous process plant, watching this owner ruin it was painful. Honestly i didnot expect a vice chairmen of grouo having almost 1 billion dollar in revenue would be like this.Here is a glimpse of what this guy did:

Abuse and Fraud :He harassed the original Head of Supply Chain so badly he threatened him physically, then fired him. He replaced the entire accounts and supply chain department with his own people to start pulling financial frauds.

Massive GST & Compliance Scams:He ignored the complex engineering of the plant and focused blindly on a 5x capacity expansion. He used low-quality work, bypassed environmental and fire department clearances, and pulled a massive GST fraud—luring small contractors with big promises, not paying GST on their bills, but claiming ₹150+ crores($20 million) in input tax credit.

*Starving the Plant:*This owner sits on purchase requests (PRs) for months. A heavy industrial plant was running out of basic utilities like welding rods just to do standard maintenance and repairs. My dad’s team was constantly emailing PRs and meeting in person just to beg for basic consumables so they could actually keep the plant running safely, but they were completely ignored.

Zero Operational Understanding: Because he didn't pay the contract workers for two months, they walked out. Production tanked. To fix his own mess, he ordered my dad to fire 200 people right after the walkout, even though the automation lines weren't even finished. His brilliant solution? “Make the engineers do the packing and manual moving stuff.” Imagine telling an engineering team and an executive who came up through I&E to just use his technical staff as manual laborers. And the worst part? The Goa State Government is completely in cahoots with him. The local MLA and the Chief Minister know exactly what is happening at this plant. They know about the lack of permissions, the environmental hazards, the unpaid workers, and the fraud. But they are completely blind to it, just sitting back and waiting while pocketing whatever benefits they are getting. There is zero political will to protect local Goan workers or enforce safety laws when a massive group is involved. For the 6 months, my dad was coming home at 8-9 PM every single night. All the project managers and engineers resigned after seeing the mess, leaving my dad to handle the project commissioning completely alone. No bonuses, no increments for the staff for two years, while the owner only rewarded his selected "yes-men." The breaking point for my dad: The final straw came during a confrontation with the owner. The owner, in all his arrogance, tried to tell my dad that because he has bought many plants like this before, he knows exactly how things work. My dad, who literally started on the plant floor, looked at him and replied: "I have been in this industry for 30 years, and I am still learning."

That exchange said it all. My dad realized that if he couldn't even get this man to respect the engineering process, and couldn't provide his own team with the basic utilities and tools they needed to do their jobs safely, there was no point in him holding an executive position anymore. He refused to just sit in a high-ranking chair, collect a paycheck, and watch his people get starved of resources while a clueless owner blamed them for the output.

Fed up with the complete lack of operational freedom, the absolute political rot, and the physical safety risks of running a starved plant, my dad finally resigned. The CEO tried to convince him to stay, but my dad's integrity was worth more than a compromised title.He Also, refused to release my dads royalty bonus. We’ve lived here for 35+ years. My dad is getting job offers because of his deep expertise, but they are all in places like away from here.Moving away from his hometown when he is so close to retirement was never the plan, and it sucks that he was forced into this position by a reckless owner and a corrupt state government. I am just so incredibly angry at this arrogant owner who came in with deep pockets, destroyed a 30-year legacy of hard work, treated brilliant engineers like disposable garbage, and ruined my dad's peaceful transition into retirement.I honestly hope that greedy bastard rots in hell.

Thanks for reading. I just needed to get this off my chest.

okay so basically i had a prior commitment to go with someone close to me up to another city for two weeks during his military training period and i honestly forgot until he asked about it today, the issue now is i start a new job tomorrow and im not entirely sure how to go about asking because i do really need this job but id also feel horrible if i flaked since he already made all the arrangements for me to go. what should i do? im worried they will fire me since its so soon ill be 13 days into my employment when the trip is supposed to happen and i feel like i should have brought this up during the onboarding but i honestly didnt even remember until he asked about it today and i feel like a bad person all around because i dont want to flake but i also dont want to seem unreliable to the company

Hey, last week I joined a company as a sales intern and honestly I might be too socially awkward to have a job, especially this kind. This company is like a start-up and the team is like 30-40 people so everyone almost knows each other. I hate that I can't make a proper connection with anyone here. This is my first internship and I have to do it as it is also my dissertation project in my final year of mba. Idk how to tackle this!? I've no experience in this at all. I'm trying my best but idk how I'll survive. Suggestion and guidance is welcome.

A sales manager at my dealership got let go today because a deal he was working on had too many 666's. He refused to work with on the deal after the third 666 was found. He is a recently converted "Born Again" Christian and is taking his newfound religion very seriously.

The first 666 was in VIN of the car. The second was the customer's credit score. The third was a personal check from the customer. This caused my manager to get very anxious. He called the customer demonic and that got the customer to get very upset.

The customer and his party immediately demand to speak to the GM. This resulted in his firing from the company.

Anyone else had a situation like this at their job?