FAIL Blog

Out-of-work employee gets rejected after 5 rounds of interviews through a phone call that lasted 12 minutes with the VP of operations, who was in his car: 'Why do companies make candidates jump through endless hoops?'

María Cetra — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 07:30:00 -0700

Why go through all that for nothing?

What is it with companies and recruiters that love to do a hundred and one rounds of interviews, all to just hire a candidate internally? What is in it for them? They are losing a lot of time having to review resumes (if they even do that), then having to schedule interviews with each candidate, which can take a lot depending on how many rounds they do. All to just disreagard all that work they did at the last moment just to not hire anybody, or just fill the position initially as they were intending since the first moment. I'm not even going to start discussing the amount of time they are making candidates waste. But focusing just on the company. Why would they do that whole arduous process if they weren't going to hire any candidate? Or why would they take a candidate to 5 rounds of interviews before disregarding his application? Like, in this story, why didn't they just reject him in the first or second round? If everything was okay with him during the first four rounds, why do a fifth? What changed in that last round? Let me guess… absolutely nothing.

My theory is that most companies want to make it look as if they were growing and hiring more people to work there, when in reality they aren't. They do this by doing a certain number of interviews a month, or every quarter, but end up not hiring anybody. This makes it look like growth while actually not doing anything, just wasting people's time. This may be too far-fetched, but there is something weird about all this. There is no reason to think that this is normal, because it's not. Why would you hire a candidate 5 times? Why would you make them work for free to prove their value? And after all that. Why would you not hire them? I feel for this person. He deserved the job, and having a VP reject you over a 10-minute phone call while he's in his car and not listening to you is awful and unforgettable. That person should not be in that high position if he's going to behave that way.

Remote worker brings his camping chair to coffee shop after one regular customer keeps "reserving" half the seats for friends who never show up: 'Is your friend currently in this building?'

Celeste Mello — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 06:45:00 -0700

Coffee shops are public places, not private office reservations with espresso in the background. Everyone knows the rules. You buy coffee, find a seat, and act respectfully toward the rest of the customers.

A Reddit user under the name Broccolibigboi commented on a coffee shop situation where being respectful wasn't exactly one of the rules. He has been going to the same small coffee shop near his apartment for a while as part of his routine. The problem was that one regular customer seemed to arrive earlier than him and take up more space than he actually needed. Every single day, he claimed half the seating for friends who may or may not appear sometime before closing time. His way of occupying empty seats for his friends was not the ordinary kind. He used backpacks, jackets, water bottles, an AirPod case, and one time, a banana.

The original poster soon realized his friends were never showing up, and that the seats remained empty. At some point, he began to feel frustrated and confronted the compulsive seat-saver. He started by asking nicely if anyone was sitting there, where the friend was, and when they were arriving. That sounds like an interrogation, but the man had lots of questions at that point. The seat-saver acted annoyed and didn't say much.

The only solution was for the remote worker to show up at the coffee shop the next day with a foldable camping chair. The matter escalated to the manager, and the seat-saver complained that he was making fun of him. It's funny how easily one can teach a lesson without arguing, but by making the other person feel ridiculous.

Woman is rejected from a job, but manager adds an extra line to the basic template that changed everything: ‘He replied in two days with two names. one of them went nowhere. the other one was a hiring manager at a company that had not posted anything yet’

Olivia Arocena — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 05:00:00 -0700

We should cultivate the art of accepting and integrating criticism

Some forms of criticism arrive at the perfect moment, with the perfect combination of words, and they finally click; something within us changes.

We finally understand something we've been unknowingly struggling with for so long, and we can (finally) let it go.

It's a mix of the messenger's sensitivity and tact in saying something like that, and our own willingness to listen at that given moment. When those stars align, we are ready to make a change.

They say rejection is God's protection; to me, it isn't necessary to be that idealistic. We can definitely take rejection as a way to learn something new and improve ourselves as people, and that attitude might actually lead us somewhere.

There are things about our personalities that we don't notice until somebody else points them out. We tend to think everything we do is normal, but it might be useful to hear that we might have a tendency to be too inflexible, or that we succumb under stress.

What I'm trying to say is that we can't improve those things if we never know about them, and that in corporate it's very difficult to receive earnest feedback that can actually boost our careers, so when it's there, we should appreciate it.

That is not to say we should accept everything anybody throws our way; some perceptions aren't true, of course. But we have to be really honest with ourselves and leave our egos aside to listen to the criticism we need to hear.

Looking back, a lot of good things started happening in my life when I took every rejection and every criticism and started working on the aspects everybody kept pointing out. And thanks to that, I'm much better now! So I hope this story motivates anyone who's going through something like this.

20 shows cancelled by Netflix that definitely deserved at least one more season

Giuliana Tiscioni — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 04:15:00 -0700

Even though Uncle Netflix has provided us with many hours of endless entertainment, he has also given us tremendous disappointments.

When one of our favourite shows gets cancelled, we suddenly feel like our soul drops to our feet. We are stunned. We are shocked. We can't believe that a show that had left us on a cliffhanger, or with a tremendous plot twist, suddenly won't be coming back. This has happened to many of us an absurd number of times, and it's not funny anymore. Uncle Netflix, consider this our official plea for you to stop cancelling shows with a lot of potential.

These things don't always make sense to me. What does it mean that you cancelled a show because there was no budget, but you still managed to give us THREE Kissing Booth movies, like 3 hours long, and that even the actors hated filming? Where does the budget go? Why don't you stop making bad, trashy movies and invest in quality productions with interesting plots and scripts that make sense?

On that note, one of the cancellations that hurt me the most was Shadow and Bone. That show was even better written than the books; the actors were amazing, and the visuals were beautiful. They were even talking about a spin-off when they chose to cancel it. It was ridiculous. Another big one was Anne with an E. We're still waiting for that last season that never came. The show was popular, good quality, had a strong fanbase, and it was praised everywhere. Whatever made them think that it was better to have it cancelled?

Like always, Uncle Netflix conducts himself with criteria that we hardly understand. Let's just hope that this stops happening, and that everyone in the production team stops breaking our hearts. While we expect that to come true, take a look at this list of shows. They were cancelled, yes, but they are still worth the watch.

Employee gets called out by coworker who believes he only shows up on her floor to give her dirty looks: ‘Me and my partners in crime decided we are going to press this issue to the point of disruption’

Olivia Arocena — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 15:00:00 -0700

So the entire office should organise itself around Maureen's paranoia?

According to this story, that's the case. Some people are so lost in their own delusion that they will attribute any action to some secret agenda. Of course, I don't think we should all walk on eggshells because of people like this, but in this case, I think it's fair.

Maybe after this, Maureen will realize she isolated herself. Did she really think this was the best way to feel invited to a group? I think it is one of those strange cases of negative self-importance. The person feels relevant, like everyone is paying attention to them, but in a negative way, like thinking everyone is thinking about them. The truth is, most people don't even notice us, and that goes for most people. It's bittersweet to know we're not that important, but it's nonetheless freeing.

This act of malicious compliance, or how I like to call it, 'petty decency', might push Maureen to the brink of her own delusion, but I think it is for a good cause. Everyone at the office, and hopefully even she, will realize how ridiculous it is to organise breaks like that.

The other, more mature option would be to directly address this issue with Maureen. Maybe all she needs is to feel seen and to realize she is making a fuss over imagined scenarios, but her coworkers chose a funnier path; let's see where it gets them.

I believe paranoid folks like this deeply wish to be included, but it would take a bunch of positive leadership qualities to actually achieve that, and I assume her coworkers just want to have fun and keep not caring about her.

Do you think this problem will get bigger and bigger, or will Maureen finally come to terms with the truth that nobody cares that much?

‘You’re doing the best you can mom and dad!': A family gathering of parenting laughs for witty mothers and fathers (September 19, 2026)

Melissa Knudson — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 14:15:00 -0700

Do your kids have a 6th sense for snacks?

As a non-official superpower, kids can smell snacks from miles away, while also refusing to eat any regular food. Also, when they do get snacks, they like to save just one bite for MONTHS until it looks like it has come to life, just to offer it to you as a little gift later. If you refuse, they will scream). These are some of the unexpected wonders of parenthood nobody ever tells you about. Moments of parenting you could never have prepared for, and that gets you wondering: did I ever do this when I was a kid? The answer is yes, you absolutely did. We all did.

As your respect for your parents grows every time your toddler takes on a new activity, or when your teenage child feels the urge to correct every grammar mistake, you start to wonder how you'll survive parenting. You already have a busy weekend of soccer mornings and birthday party afternoons. It feels impossible! I am no expert in childhood nor in time management, so you're on your own for that. However, if there is something I know, it's memes. I might not be able to fix your once-white-but-now-very-colourful couch, but we can help with the aftermath by making you chuckle at these images. It's just a couple of decades more before your kids have kids of their own, and you can go ahead and tell them: "I told you so…" (Exactly how your parents did to you, so let's keep the traditions going.) Maybe start saving some of these memes for your future grandparent self.

Don't feel guilty, we know you love your kids, and you would literally make friends with the most annoying parents in the class so they could get a play date with their friends. Nonetheless, when they stand at your bedroom door staring like stalkers at 4 am on a Sunday, it's okay to laugh with some relatable pieces of comedy. You can scroll through these while you wait for your kids to pick up their toys, which we all know means you will wait for what feels like forever. However, forever doesn't feel like such a long time when you have good memes.

Company finds a way to stop rewarding the loudest voice in the room and start rewarding efficiency: ‘It moved the bias from who is quickest in a room to who can describe what they did, and the second one at least correlates with having done something’

Olivia Arocena — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 13:00:00 -0700

Are written updates an advantage or only a different kind of bias?

We have to accept that verbal meetings give more influence to those who feel comfortable raising their voice, speaking, and making themselves noticed. Those meetings primarily benefit the socially dominant. Written updates, on the other hand, are more objective, and if everyone writes them, there is no social bias.

It happens a lot; in verbal meetings, we favour people who are more confident speaking, even if they objectively did less work, so opting for a written update regime changes the focus to what really matters.

Some people say not everyone feels comfortable writing, so we'd be exchanging one bias for another, but I'm not so sure about it. Lists are easy; they don't need special social skills or even writing skills. They are mandatory for everyone, and they just require having something to add to them.

If you can't write what you did on a simple list, maybe you haven't done that much. If some employees have a hard time writing, management should do something about that, but I definitely think writing is way easier than speaking in public.

Maybe some people don't like updates like this because they were succeeding using only their social skills, and now they have to get to work. It's normal; it takes time. We live in a society that consistently rewards that. I even get tired of reading internet posts about how upper management always rewards those who look stressed over those actually working.

At any rate, this is just my opinion, and I'm open to debate if anyone thinks this is not the best route to take; I just want to hear consistent arguments as to why that is.

Fired employees confess the biggest lies HR told them during their termination meetings: 'It isn't personal'

Cata Holmes — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 12:15:00 -0700

Nothing says "you're fired" like one last corporate lie…

Getting fired is no fun. Even if it was something you expected or not, walking into a normal workday and realizing it might be your last can be really nerve-racking. However, there's one thing that can actually make it better: comparing it with other internet users' biggest lies they've been told the day they were terminated. Because we all know it, sometimes companies need to shorten the staff, but they don't know how to actually do it. And we don't blame them: HR are people as well, and they get nervous when facing this situation. But… some of these reasons are not even believable.

We should all get past the awkwardness that comes when someone is getting fired. I mean, if you want to fire me, be honest and tell me the truth to my face… because this is very uncomfortable as it is, but if you're nervous and don't really know how to cope with it and you tell lies about what's going on, it's only going to make the situation ten times worse. Nonetheless, and like I said before, the positive side to all of this is that we get to laugh years later when comparing all the lies together! And this is why we're here for, folks!

Some of these lies are so funny that they look like a cameo taken out of a TV show. People are straight lying to your face and pushing you to sign documents that don't really make sense with what they are telling you to your face, and you know that is going to affect you in the future. Also, how is firing someone not personal? I think it is the most personal thing that can happen at work! Unless there was a huge mistake or a big mess-up, if the company is letting yoy go is a 100% personal thing. That's what I mean by honestly: don't lie to me, don't make me feel worse.

Anyways, prepare yourself for the amount of dumb excuses HR ever said when terminating people's contracts… they are too funny to even be true.

New management tells employees that if they aren't at their desk, it means they aren't working, so employees comply, and it doesn't go as expected: 'Alert fired at 5:06. Nobody was at their desk, that meant nobody was working. So nobody looked'

María Cetra — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 11:30:00 -0700

If you encourage new rules, don't be surprised when your employers follow through with them.

Some bosses love setting up new rules without thinking about whether they will work or if they are even right for the work that is done at that particular office. And to me, that is simply and directly bad management. Not every rule will work in any office. You have to take into account the employees, the systems, the product, the clients, and so much more before applying a new rule. So, blatantly placing it as an obligatory curse can cause major disasters at the company. That's why not everyone is born to be a boss. A good one would have taken all that and more into account before making it a direct order. And then, a bad boss has even the nerve to act surprised when things do not work out, and they don't know where to hide. They want to blame somebody for the rule not working, but it's just their fault, due to their lack of abilities toa ctually be a boss.

In this story, we get to see the reality of when you fix something that isn't broken --I love that phrase. This person, the boss, decided to change something that was working fine. I assume he had two reasons to do so: one, to avoid paying extra time to the employee, which is illegal. And two, because it was his way of making people understand that he is the new boss and he can do as he pleases. Well, he got exactly what he deserved. A new problem was born from trying to fix something that was working perfectly fine. He could have just accepted that he had no place to change anything, and everything would have been fine. But no, he needed to put his head in something that didn´t require anything from him. Sometimes, some bosses need to understand that not everything needs their opinion or supervision. You can just remain quiet. If anything needs to be changed, you will notice that there is a problem, like the one this boss created after changing things up.

'Noises include various buzzer noises instead of yes or no': Office employee expresses bafflement at 'funny noises' made by Gen Z coworkers

Ally Perry — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 11:00:00 -0700

The generation divide often seems greatest at work.

The workplace is one of those environments where people who would never usually cross paths get thrown together to interact for eight hours a day, whether they like it or not. While this state of affairs is notorious for causing some friction, it is also a great way to expand your anthropological knowledge if you look at it the right way. Here are a bunch of individuals from walks of life that you may not be exposed to by choice, but they could teach you a thing or two about where they're coming from. It can be as interesting as it is annoying.

One of the most intriguing differences in the average workplace is age. Plenty of offices right now have employees who range from boomers to Gen Z, and it is fair to say that these generations don't always see to eye to eye. However, with the right attitude, a workplace like this can be a good place for people to try and understand those age groups that are older or younger than them. There is no need to be divided and bitter all of the time, not least when there is an opportunity to build bridges.

Company mandates return to office with 2 weeks notice, half the team looks for new jobs: 'I have a 90-minute commute each way. That's 3 hours a day. 12 hours a week'

JR Atkinson — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 10:45:00 -0700

Sometimes returning to the office means that they're hoping that you quit…

Returning to the office is a big point of contention in a lot of workplaces. It seems to be happening at a pretty fast pace now that life is a little more normal than it once was and we're getting back to how things used to be. But so much has changed, and it's important to take the right lessons from that. Working from home allows employees so much flexibility that they don't always get in their day-to-day lives. And if you have a long commute, you were probably grateful for the time saved in your day. Commuting is not a fun thing to do. It can feel like it's eating into your free time in a way that your company doesn't recognize.

Wife realized that her mother-in-law insisted that they buy a specific house so that her brother-in-law, Kyle, would live with them forever and not with her: ‘Kyle has been given formal notice to move out. [Mother-in-law] is furious

María Cetra — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 10:00:00 -0700

The mother-in-law being a witch is supposed to just be a storytale.

What would you do if you were pressured into buying a house all to find out to be a storyline created by your mother-in-law so that you are now responsible for caring for your adult brother-in-law? Well, that is the story here, unfortunately for the people involved. It is sad how a mother decided to carry out a malicious plan that benefited herself and caused problems in his son's life and marriage. Is also sad that the only two people being involved in the whole situation are the women of the family: the mother-in-law and the person suffering this whole outcome. But what makes everything worse is thinking that a family that you marry into will do a well-thought-out plan just so they can delete themselves from the situation and the responsibility and put it on somebody else's shoulders.

The only thing that is a favorable outcome from this whole thing is that if they set a boundary now, then I will set a boundary into the future. Is important that they stand their limits si that they are not involved in a situation like this ever again.

‘Um, no. You decided to be petty, so I’ll be gone in 2 days’: Boss backtracks and begs employee to work through his two weeks’ notice after telling him to leave in 2 days

Etai Eshet — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 09:30:00 -0700

This guy's workplace treats resignations like a breakup where one person refuses to accept that it is over. He hands in a notice, offers a clean handoff, and is met with a reaction that basically says: "We would rather set a cardboard box on fire than watch you walk out with your box of stuff"

Notice periods were invented by businesses in the first place because they make transitions less painful for BUSINESSES. But this story proves they only work when both sides of the 'employee leaving' coin can act like adults.

And here it fell apart because Boss decided the fastest route to closure is to usher the person out before their badge even stops working. A bold move that might have made him feel powerful in the moment, like slamming a door before the other person can say one last thing. But imust've felt much less powerful when the work that person was supposed to finish stays floating mid-air with nowhere to land.

Job cancels PTO that employee of 15 years scheduled in order to go on his honeymoon: 'Should I quit?'

Emmy Pratt — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 08:15:00 -0700

What a great way to say "thanks" for all the hard work he has done over the past 15 years.

In an ideal world, all of your requested PTO will be approved every time. After all, you earned your PTO by working for the company, so you should be able to use it whenever you see fit. Unfortunately, that's not always the case in every company. Some companies do have "busy seasons" that aren't the best times to take off, but if you work at one of those companies, you usually learn pretty quickly when the "busy season" takes place and can plan accordingly. If it only spans six weeks in the summer and six weeks in the winter, then it's pretty manageable. If the busy season is 10 months out of the year, you can't even really call it a season, can you?

Some jobs inflate their importance. They act as if it is impossible for you to miss a week of work and still keep the business afloat, even though everybody knows that is not true. They cancel your PTO requests at the last minute because things are "just so busy," even though they were just as busy the week before, the week before that, and the week before that. They just want to control their employees because they think it will get more work out of them, even though it will do the opposite. An employee who is well-rested after a vacation will do better work than an employee who hasn't had a real week off in years.

The employee in this story just wants to go on his honeymoon with his wife, but his job canceled his PTO request at the last second. He doesn't know whether to quit now or let his job fire him.

Two brothers demand to know what happened to the missing $700,000 from their grandmother's estate when their uncle contacts them on social media and offers them $10,000 instead of $100,000

Brad Dickson — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 07:30:00 -0700

Two brothers questioned why they were offered a fraction of their apparent inheritance while their uncle contacted them through social media, requesting they sign a dubious legal document and resisting providing any formal accounting

Whenever a key member of an extended family passes on, it can literally tear a family apart. Not only is the glue that was holding all the cracks together now gone, but the advantage-seeking members of the family are all scrambling to pick up all the proverbial candy that is scattered on the ground like a big piñata.

Entitled woman suggest friend makes 10 hour roundtrip journey for a 30 minute coffee, doesn't understand why friend refuses

JR Atkinson — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 06:45:00 -0700

Would you drive 5 hours just to get coffee with someone?

Friendship is worth everything, but is it worth a 5-hour drive? Sometimes friendships change as you get older, and there is nothing wrong with that. The people you used to be around all the time may take a backseat, while others get pushed to the fore. Things might get in the way of you being friends, like distance, children, or marital status. We all go through different seasons of life, and our friends are there to help us through them. I like the phrase "A reason, a season, or a lifetime" for this reason. Not all relationships have the same effect on us. Some are only temporary. This can be hard to face, though, when it's happening. You want to hold onto the things that may have served you in the past but might not serve you in the future. It can be hard to grow apart from a friend. You feel it happening, and you wish you could hold onto it with all you have, but you can't. This is okay. Not everything is made to last forever. The woman in this story was learning that the hard way with a friend who refused to make compromises for her. It's not easy to maintain a friendship into adulthood. You have to carve out time and energy for it. If both of you aren't willing to do this, it will suffer.

Man lands a higher-paying job and quickly realizes he needs way more skills to keep it: ‘Turns out I somehow got myself into a role with much more senior expectations than I realized...What is "higher level" and where does one gain this ability?’

Olivia Arocena — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 05:00:00 -0700

Sometimes all you need for a higher position is confidence

It's not that you lack the skills or that you don't know your field; you just have to get used to your new role and realize you won't have to wait for approval anymore. Instead, you will be the one giving direction.

When companies hire someone to be in charge of a project, they want to feel at ease knowing things are being taken care of, and if you show the tiniest bit of insecurity or lack of proactivity, you will not give them that confidence.

For me, this story is about the 'fake it till you make it' technique. It's not that the employee who got a higher position should pretend to have knowledge they don't have, because I don't really believe that can last. But I do think he needs to get the memo and start giving what the company wants from him, which is basically more confidence, so they can chill and do their jobs without having to worry about whether the marketing team will be all right.

The employee from this story and I agree on one thing, though: marketing is full of buzzwords, and a lot of people in the industry don't really know what they're doing or use outdated tactics; but those things can be used to our advantage if we play our cards right.

If I were him, I would do my best in my higher position and show so much confidence that they trust me. If it doesn't work, at least you gain experience, and if it does, you earn a more senior role! It's a win-win situation.

I've seen people change their managers' opinions of them, so I hope this junior-turned-senior employee succeeds. Do you think he has what it takes?

Neighbor ignores homeowners trying to discuss replacing their shared fence, but later complains about the posts after they pay 90% of the cost: ‘It was our decision to replace it’

Cata Holmes — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 04:15:00 -0700

Apparently, a free and new fence wasn't good enough for these entitled neighbors…

Neighbors… what a complicated subject. They could be the best people you could ever meet and trust them with everything you have… or they could be the worst and actually make the experience you have in a neighborhood or at home very complicated. In my personal experience, I've never had issues with the people who lived next door, and that is taking into account that I moved a lot growing up. So, when I encounter stories like this, they really surprise me by how mean and entitled people can be.

Something that sparks dilemmas with neighbors is a shared fence. We know that it is an object that belongs to both families, although one takes care of it more than the other. In the story we have below, the homeowners wanted to change the fence because it was falling apart. It was moldy, unpleasant to look at, and not safe at all. Of course, they went up to their neighbors and discussed the problem. They weren't as worried about the situation, so in the end, the homeowners paid for almost the whole replacement, about 90% of it.

And they made a good replacement: now it had a metal post, so it was going to last far longer than a wooden one. It's safe to say that it was a good investment.

There was a little change, though. The husband preferred not to see the posts, so they were installed outside of their property line, facing the neighbor's home. Before doing this, they checked with the HOA, and they had a city permit to do this, so it's not like they made a decision that broke the law. It's all very legal, and they have fences with other neighbors, and some of those are located inside others' properties, so they didn't think much of it.

The neighbors showed up at their place and were angry that the posts weren't located on the property line. Their response was that they could pay for them to be removed and positioned on the property line, but of course that didn't happen.

‘WFH Has Made Some Very Weird Habits Feel Completely Normal’: People Share What Strange Habits They Developed While Working Remote Jobs

Olivia Arocena — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 15:00:00 -0700

Working from home is a blessing and a curse at the same time

You're on your own; no one is there to police what you're wearing or whether you've taken off your pajamas in the last three weeks. You promised it wouldn't happen to you, but your schedule got messed up, and sometimes you work until one in the morning because you lost the entire afternoon to showering, cleaning the house, and a trip to the grocery store.

Every Monday you tell yourself you will start working at normal hours, but temptation knocks on your door, and the next thing you know you're doing laundry when you should be writing a report, and writing a report when you should be eating dinner and relaxing.

It's terrible, but it's beautiful to be free. You get to know yourself and your relationship with time, whether you're organized or whether you leave everything to the last minute. It's wonderful! But hey, at least you're allowed, and if any day you feel like it, you can sleep in; you don't have to get in traffic; you don't have to go out on days when it's raining.

We can complain about lots of stuff, like all the time we spend in front of a screen, but those of us who have had the experience of working jobs where we had to show up very early, or had to use our bodies a lot, or maybe customer service jobs, aren't we a lot more privileged now? Choosing when to go to the office or walking our dogs during lunch break?

We have to learn to manage our time better, and also, we should learn to be thankful for what we've got, right?

Has any of you developed a really weird habit since working from home?

IT employee takes management role for better pay and career growth, realizes he hates managing people and wants his old position back: ‘Dealing with egos, pointless arguments’

Cata Holmes — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 14:15:00 -0700

Nobody said that becoming a manager was going to be all fun and giggles…

Proving yourself at work and actually being a good employee can lead to a promotion. In our heads, being promoted is the end goal in the corporate world: you finally reach the position where you get to manage people, maybe your own office, and then, and there, you can relax. Now, many of the managers that I've met love their job and dealing with people. If you think about it, they have to be on top of their game all day just to keep things going and on track. However, there're a few cases in which becoming a boss doesn't really line up with some people's preferences.

This IT employee was offered a management position, and he took it with no hesitation. He used to be a Solutions Architect and actually improved the workflow at the company a lot by fixing some mistakes, so he became very valuable to the team. On paper, the position looked great: better salary and a huge opportunity to grow his career. But the downside is that he realized that he hates the part that comes with having people in charge. And yes, this may be the hardest, but for others it is the most rewarding.

The employee only has to manage two people, but they have "big egos," so every day there's a different conflict that needs to be addressed, and he finds this to be totally tiring. They have a lot of arguments with different developers and other coworkers, so he's always having to intervene and fix these problems in order to proceed with projects. Secretly, he confesses that if he were offered his old position back, he'd take it, no doubt. But we know that going backwards in your career is not possible and not well seen.

In the comments section, most readers seemed to understand his frustration and shared some personal stories that made him feel better. He hopes that in a year, he can learn to enjoy the role and to cope with it. But for the time being, he's doing his best.

Man dismisses his wife’s feelings as social-media influence: ‘If I ever try to bring up something to him that might be bothering me, he will often question whether I actually feel that way or if I found it on TikTok’

Olivia Arocena — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 12:15:00 -0700

Are we policing what people do with their free time now? Should extremely tired moms make even their free time productive?

I'm going to preface this piece by saying I don't agree with either the husband or the commentators in this post. I thought my point of view would be the most obvious, but apparently, it isn't. I can understand why exhausted moms feel so lonely these days. Modern life not only isolates them, and all of us, for that matter- but it also punishes them for looking for a somewhat escapist way to spend their (very little) free time.

The usual problem is that much of the housework moms do is invisible. Only their kids know it. A normal job is public; it's backed by a contract, has a schedule, a workweek, and most importantly, it's paid accordingly! A mom's job is viewed only as the natural thing for her to do.

This sort of story always amazes me because fathers know very well how tiring it is to care for kids all day.

This issue about how people use their free time goes deeper than this, though. People not only judge mothers for how they use it. In my opinion, if we're not finding ways to let go of the mind and truly relax, free time is pointless.

Of course, we should find places to relate socially and not be in our heads or with screens all the time, but come on, are we going to be that hypocritical and judge a mother of two toddlers for escaping to TikTok sometime?

Maybe I'm exaggerating, but the husband's reaction to what his wife is commenting on is a little bit tendentious, and frankly, it's openly dismissive. If I were her, I would take it very seriously. It's very easy to come home when kids are tired and pretend you are doing all the work.

‘He said, “You feel different today,” and asked me to go for a walk. I said I had work, but he literally shut my laptop and made me come’: Woman wonders how to stop her ‘overly friendly’ coworker’s advances

Olivia Arocena — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 11:30:00 -0700

Some people need clearer boundaries to understand rejection

It's ok; not all of us understand things so quickly. Some of us need very clear words and actions to get the message.

Of course, I'm being sarcastic here; many people desperately need some very basic social skills, and it's unbelievable that at a certain age we still have to face this type of encounter.

We've all been there at some point; we probably didn't behave like that, but it's normal to like someone and interpret their ambiguity as them liking us back. That shouldn't mean we're completely certain about the other person's feelings. We should always keep a safe margin of doubt, at least until there is explicit confirmation. Until then, our advances should be subtle, and we should always wait for a voluntary response from the other.

But what happens when somebody never understood this very basic rule of human behaviour? Is it our job to teach them?

I frankly think we don't have to; instead, we should protect ourselves, and every time we see someone like this, activate the toughest boundaries protocol ever. When implementing something like this, it's important to remember we're not doing it to teach the other person anything; we're doing it for ourselves and ourselves only.

We know rejection stings, but those who were rejected should face the truth: our empathy shouldn't exceed our self-love. We should always protect ourselves first, even if that means being unkind, because (clearly) our kindness is misinterpreted as openness to being close to someone we don't want to be close to.

Has anyone else had an experience like this with a coworker who couldn't read the room? What did you do to neutralize it? Do you think involving HR is important in cases like this?

Lab company eliminates holiday pay, gets annoyed when only 3 employees cover the holiday: 'They eliminated the only reason people were willing to sacrifice their holidays'

Ally Perry — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 11:00:00 -0700

If you want people to work through the holidays, you have to give them the right motivation for it.

Everybody needs a break from their job sometimes, and this is never more important than when a big holiday comes around. Employed or not, most believe this is a time to relax a little and enjoy spending some time with their loved ones. It is hard for any work project to compete with that.

Nonetheless, some roles have to be performed every day of the year, no matter what. Some companies also simply prefer to be open year-round, and that is something that employees have to accept. This isn't always easy, but more often than not, employers are willing to understand that. They will give some financial incentive for working when almost everybody else with a job is on vacation.

Money will always be the best motivator for the majority of employees, so it is usually fairly effective in ensuring that at least some people will be working the holidays. Take that away, though, and it will be a lot more doubtful whether enough workers will be willing to commit. Why give up that precious time just to be at work like normal?

‘What's the Smallest Decision You've Ever Made That Ended Up Changing Your Life?’: People Share Minor Choices that Significantly Altered Their Life Paths

Olivia Arocena — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 10:45:00 -0700

Many important life events are just coincidences that happen because you were in the right place at the right time

I often think about it; maybe your mom and dad met at a concert that one of them wasn't going to, and their friends made them go. Maybe you stop a random girl in the street to ask for the time, and she ends up being the love of your life. I mean, what are the odds? But it happens.

If you think about it hard enough, everything that happens is a string of really weird coincidences, so it wouldn't be weird if, on any random day, something that completely changes the course of your life happens by chance.

We don't need to attribute it to fate; it's not necessary to think it was preestablished. It could be that a lot of minor things piled up to cause major things, and coincidences are only a reflection of that.

What we can do to stimulate fate or life, whatever you call it, to put us in experiences is simply to go out and look for them. It doesn't matter how big or small they are, because according to this post's commentators, a lot of random and small things took them to surprising destinations.

So I would just say, get out there, meet people, be out and about, and good things are going to happen to you. Life will move, and you will have love and experience; that is the best thing to have in this very brief experience we call life. What are we doing if we're not looking to see what's out there? We have to let life show us.

Do you think you do anything in your day that connects you to the possibility of something important happening to you?

Crazy weekend at the hotel makes front desk employee question if people are okay or if something is going on due to the attitude they all have: 'Some people really shouldn't be out in public unescorted'

María Cetra — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 10:00:00 -0700

Are people crazy, or is it just normal customer service?

When you have worked in customer service, you know that people are crazy, entitled, mean, and disgusting. Some act so horribly that you seriously doubt if that is even normal. You start thinking that maybe some kind of crazy new disease has been spread around to customers and that's why they are all behaving so entitled. But soon you realize that it is not like that. People are just like that. Entitled, mean. They will act in the most awful ways, and you will just have to deal with it, because that is your job, unfortunately.

When you have been working for a while, you grow a thicker skin that is able to put up with almost anything. They could be spitting fire at you, and you wouldn't feel anything, and not a single scratch would be left on your skin. You become a witch that can tolerate everything, or almost anything. But one day, out of nowhere, some crazy people are going to get you out of your seat. They will start to behave so weirdly that you will have to stop for a second and check if the world has changed or people just got dumber over time. Whatever it is, it's actually so weird that you will feel uneasy. But there will not be much to do either. Just have to take it.

Like in this story, when this employee saw a bunch of people acting insane. It was just a normal day being a front desk employee. But it was so weird that she actually had to stop for a moment and think if anything else was happening. But that's just how working in customer service is. Sometimes a nightmare, sometimes a magic, insane world where everything seems to be upside down like Alice in Wonderland, and sometimes, rarely, a normal day where everyone acts nice and respects the people who are working to make their life easier. But that is not the common situation. That is the real fantasy world.

Boss increases salaried employees hours from 9-5 to 7-5 after team goes from 5 employees to 2 employees: 'Is that a red flag?'

Emmy Pratt — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 09:30:00 -0700

What would you do if your job did this?

You don't realize how much time you have until you no longer have it. I am grateful every day that my workday doesn't start until 10 AM, because it gives me so much more flexibility in the morning and in the evening. I can stay up late on work nights, and I can wake up early for doctor's appointments if I need to. I don't always use my extra time well, as shown by mornings I've spent lying in bed for 2 hours watching TikToks after waking up at 7 AM. I probably would get a lot more done around the house and read a lot more if I didn't waste my extra time with endless scrolling. At the end of the day, my free time is mine to waste. If I want to waste it by scrolling, that's my prerogative! If I had to work from 10 AM to 10 PM, I would feel a lot differently about how I used my time outside of work. I would have to use every waking hour for something essential, like cooking, washing, and cleaning. I wouldn't have any time for leisure during the week, and I'd have to adjust my schedule accordingly.

Losing two hours of free time can drastically change your daily schedule. The employee in this story was miffed when he found out his boss was adding two extra hours to his workday and more work on top of that. He doesn't want to act like an entitled young person who doesn't want to work, but he's understandably alarmed by new expectations thrust on him without more pay or even a conversation about whether he could handle it. His boss just expected him to go along with it, and he's probably not going to do that. He has other options.

Job seeker shocked when employer offers $30,000 below advertized rate 3-month interview process, then rescinds the job offer after following their simple organizational question: 'The second I asked a basic professional question, they panicked'

Brad Dickson — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 07:30:00 -0700

A company withdrew a job offer after a lengthy interview process, leaving the candidate in a vulnerable position. First, lowballing the originally discussed compensation by $30,000. Then withdrawing it entirely when the candidate had the audacity to ask a common professional question.

Long interviews have a tendency to be an absolute drain on resources. On the company and the candidates both. While it's understandable to want to find the right candidate with the right experience and the right fit, you have to imagine that there is a point that is reached where things are just entirely overcooked. And this long process makes things exceptionally hard on candidates who are between jobs and desperate to escape the uncertainty.

New work rule doubles employee's commute time home, refuses to let them leave 15 minutes early to avoid this: 'Are we being unreasonable?'

JR Atkinson — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 06:45:00 -0700

If your commute was double what it normally is, would you still do it?

Commuting is not a fun part of our day to day lives. It can feel like it takes the joy out our days, even when it goes fast. You're not being compensated for the time spent, so you feel like you want it to be as quick as possible. When it takes any longer than it usually does, your stress levels start to rise. You don't want to spend any more time on it than you have to. And when your boss does something about it, this can be a huge issue. You like to work with reasonable people, and when people aren't reasonable you start to get a little anxious. You would much rather have to make some sacrifices than to do something that you don't want to. That's what was starting to happen in this story and things go a little out of hand.

Boss demands employee attend an unpaid ‘mandatory fun day’ on Saturday despite knowing she has a second job, warns that missing shows lack of commitment: '[She said] it would be "noted in my file’

Cata Holmes — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 04:15:00 -0700

Nothing says "team bonding" like giving up a whole Saturday for a mandatory unpaid fun…

For a manager, I understand that team bonding and having everyone working together + having good relationships is a dream goal. What better way to succeed in your position than having employees that like each other? It's okay sometimes to create activities that are going to force them to talk and get to know each other… but that doesn't mean you need to take away one of their weekend days to do this.

In this case, an employee found herself in a very complicated spot. Since she's tight on money, she has two jobs. During the week, she works full-time in customer support, and during the weekends she helps at a local café. Both managers are aware of the other roles, so they do their best not to schedule her if she has the other commitment going on.

Well, it seems that the manager from the corporate job decided that, to improve "team cohesion", she organized a 'mandatory fun day' on a Saturday, and every employee is forced to attend. As you can tell, our employee cannot make it, but she tried to reschedule her shift at the café, because it was going to be easier to work double another day than to skip the work event. Her boss told her that it was impossible… so now she doesn't know what to do.

Her corporate manager was not helpful either: she said this is a mandatory one-time thing, and if she doesn't show up, her absence will be written down in her file and that it absolutely shows a lack of commitment. And we all know that this can have major consequences in the future…

Her frustration is clearly noticeable, since companies sometimes force fun as a benefit, when in reality they're making life more complicated for some of their employees. For this one, is having her look bad in both jobs, but what about the people who have kids and need to sacrifice a whole day to do extra work stuff?

Wealthy girl refuses to pay back her roommate after her parents cut her off, roommate takes revenge by stealing her mattress: 'She's been sleeping on the couch for the last two days'

Melissa Knudson — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 16:15:00 -0700

Can a stolen mattress fix this roommate's relationship?

Roommates can be a remarkable part of your life. They can become the best friends you never thought you needed, or the sibling you never had…in movies. In real life, they can be a challenge, to say the least. Especially when one of them owes you lots of money and seems less than eager to pay it back. In this story, college life meets Soprano-style revenge, but it revolves around a stolen mattress.

Three roommates start having trouble when roommate 1 gets cut off by her parents. Because of this, the three roommates went from dividing rent three ways to roommate 2 trying to help roommate 1 with a little extra money (by covering a portion of her expenses). They even went as far as buying a pricey mattress for her. However, when roommate 1 got a boyfriend, things between the roommates changed once again. She barely spent any time at the apartment, and past debts seemed to get frozen for the time being, which, needless to say, roommate 2 did not appreciate. Also, roommate 2 decided to move in with their girlfriend and needed an extra mattress for their new apartment. The opportunity just started to spell itself out.

Resident realizes that their small balcony can be profitable by turning it into a small garden where they plant vegetables and make $300 a month: 'Small-scale niche produce can sell really well locally if you build a community around it'

María Cetra — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 15:35:00 -0700

Sometimes a business can come out of the most unimaginable place.

Not every income has to be attached to an office job at a corporate office. Sometimes being original and doing something different can make you even more money than a normal office job would. Or at least it can give you a passive income that helps you out a bit, and it's also not hard to do, as you see it mostly as a hobby. Not every job has to be conventional. And having extra income, even if it's not a significant amount, can be not only extremely useful, but also can help you find new abilities that can come in handy someday.

Irresponsible girlfriend lets her reckless brother drive her boyfriend's car, he crashes it, and she gets upset when the boyfriend forbids her from ever taking his car again

Giuliana Tiscioni — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 14:15:00 -0700

If you break it, you buy it, or in this case, you pay for the damages.

A young man lent his car to his girlfriend so she could go pick up her brother from the airport, since her car seemed to be at the shop. The thing is, the girlfriend let her brother drive, and he tends to be a reckless driver. So much so that he crashed into the rear of another car. The boyfriend is furious about it, since now he has to pay to get it fixed. Even though the brother offered to pay for it, the guy is too young and irresponsible, and he has never been in debt to anyone. The boyfriend is mad at his girlfriend for giving him the car while knowing his terrible history with driving, and she is upset about him complaining and says he's exaggerating and being controlling.

In my personal opinion, when someone lends you something as valuable as their car, you make sure to take care of it. Meaning that you won't let other people use it, drive it, or do anything to it. After all, it belongs to someone else, and they are just doing you a favour by letting you use it. A person is entitled to want to have their stuff well taken care of, and is also entitled to complain about the complete lack of responsibility others show regarding their belongings. In this case, the girlfriend was just as irresponsible as her brother, and the boyfriend has the right to feel offended and disappointed because she didn't respect him or his property enough to take good care of it. If he chooses not to lend it to her again, he's in his right to do so. She very well could have offered to take care of the payments for the repairs instead of complaining and calling him controlling. Since she didn't, he has the right to decide who drives the car and to be protective of his property.

UPDATE on the employee who took credit for his coworker’s project: ‘Apparently my coworker had presented my involvement as occasional support, not me doing significant parts of the work’

Olivia Arocena — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 12:15:00 -0700

I was hooked on the first part, and I honestly never thought it would turn out this good for the objectively morally correct employee, but life seems to reward the good sometimes!

We should take his story as an example or a to-do list for when we find ourselves trapped in a situation like this- when somebody else takes credit for something we did, especially in the workplace or university, for example.

This never happened to me at work, but it happened to me repeatedly in school. People get really weird when they have to work as a team. In teams, we discover very valuable things about other people's characters and egos. Some people work without saying anything and add value to the team without getting their egos enmeshed in everything.

To me, the worst kind of partner to work with is someone who'll think every good idea is their own, even if they weren't even present when it came up, and those who won't accept criticism, even in the slightest. Sadly, the world is full of those people, and part of the work is learning how to elude conflict with them and, hopefully, integrate them in a way that doesn't trigger their wounded egos.

This employee already had a conflict with a personality like this, and managed to de-escalate it. So we should take a really close look at what he did. Part of the reason he succeeded was that he stopped defending himself emotionally, as commentators on his previous post told him, and limited himself to bringing concrete receipts of his work.

Luckily, this is a real blemish on the thief's employment history, and will likely evoke further management evaluation. At the same time, the other employee showed he can create and fix a project for a higher position. A win is a win!

First-year teacher lands last-minute job as an NYC elementary school gym teacher one month before the new semester, instantly regrets it: ‘I'm responsible for 2 classes in the gym at once, including 2 special education classes together…’

Elna McHilderson — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 11:00:00 -0700

How many students are too many for a first-year teacher?

Teachers are heavily underpaid and underappreciated. We send all of our children to be with them for most of the day; they are responsible for keeping them alive and untraumatized, educating them, and keeping them healthy and happy. They have to plan how to teach each individual class and student, because everyone is different. They even sometimes have to get their own school supplies for the class with their own paycheck. When are they expected to have time for their own life, mental health, or happiness?

A first-year teacher is struggling with this exact dilemma, and the school year has only just begun!

Man tracks how much time his job actually takes, and it’s far less than expected: ‘I thought maybe this would finally start a conversation about shorter weeks or at least letting us work from home those days’

Olivia Arocena — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 10:45:00 -0700

Sometimes being honest works against us

I can't believe this employee wrote an entire post without realizing he is the one who's in the wrong. I can't believe that being morally correct isn't always the best. Being honest is absolutely a virtue, but one has to have enough malice to understand whether it works in our favour in a specific scenario.

Through experience, one understands that managers and bosses won't always reward us for finishing our job in less time; even more so, if they find out we do, they'll likely cut our wage as well because it is proven that it's not worth as much.

Maybe this employee still has to find out about this. Bosses are not that bound to their employees. They are most likely looking to earn more and spend less on them, and if they voluntarily say their work can be done in much less time than they thought, they will pay them less as well.

I guess if he doesn't care to earn less, he will have 2 free days more per week to find another job. Can you imagine getting paid the same as if you worked the entire week for only working three days? If that happens, this employee would be living my dream.

Could it be that he didn't understand that work doesn't work like that in a capitalist society? How did he manage to get through school without knowing this?

I think he is going to be really surprised by what his 'very thorough documentation' actually produces, unless he is looking forward to getting more tasks a day or less pay.

Amazed at how some minds work.

21 Cooking Fails and Bad Food for Optimistic Home Chefs Learning to Trust the Process (September 16, 2026)

Cata Holmes — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 10:00:00 -0700

Some recipes are better left to the professionals…

You know that I love talking about cooking fails and bad food because I think it could be used as a good metaphor for life. Yes, maybe I'm getting a bit far from the topic, but hear me out: when it comes to cooking and making food in general, there are certain people who have the skills, and others who just… do not. That being said, you don't have to feel discouraged if preparing a delicate recipe is not your game. Why would there be something wrong with that?

We all have different talents; we just have to find them. I think cooking is a bit different than others, though, because we need to eat to live, basically. And maybe, if we're not the best at cooking, we'd feel like we're going to spend our life eating the same thing. But let me tell you that I'm the worst cook ever, and I don't eat the same thing every day. It's really up to you and how much you can learn. You don't have to go to culinary school or learn to cook the most complicated dish ever… just learn to prepare some simple dishes you can vary throughout the week, and you'll be fine!

That being said… I find cooking fails and bad foods to be hilarious! I think it's because I feel so related to them. After all, all of that mess could have been mine! Actually, in many of the pictures you'll find below, there are some that look exactly how my kitchen ended up the day that I was trying to cook some spinach crepes… somehow every part of it looked like taken out of the Grinch! That was the last day I attempted to cook something new… and since it was a massive fail, I now rely on my basic and easy recipes that go through every week.

'Don't you get tired?', you may ask… No, I do not! And if I were, then I'd DoorDash or have my boyfriend cook that night. See how simple I fix that?

Job deducts $37 per month from an employee's paycheck for meals, even though the employee brings his lunch every day: 'I'm still at the point where $37 a month actually matters.'

Emmy Pratt — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 09:30:00 -0700

Do you check your paychecks for random deductions?

You might think you're financially responsible, but are you really crossing all your Ts and dotting all your Is? Do you pay off your whole credit card at the end of the month every single time you use it? Do you refrain from buying a Gatorade on your way home from work because you know that it's not in your budget? Do you max out your Roth IRA every year, even though you'd much rather use that money to go on vacation? If you do all these things, you still might not be as financially responsible as you think.

One essential step is to double-check that your paycheck is correct and that you're not having anything deducted that you don't want. It's normal to trust your employer to pay you properly, and if you're getting paid the same amount every month, you might not think there's any reason to double-check your paycheck. Still, you want to make sure that your company isn't ripping you off. I'm not saying you should sign up for the cheapest health insurance, because that might end up costing you more. But if your company is charging you for food you don't eat and parking you don't use, you need to get that sorted out with the payroll person.

Manager lets team stop work at 5:30, upper management lowers their bonuses because they don't work until 8: 'Another department was showing more passion'

Ally Perry — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 08:15:00 -0700

Why must the performance of productivity be more important than the actual results?

At whatever point in capitalism we exist in currently, most people have figured out that much of workplace culture is a sham. Who you know is more important than what you know; if you're too good at a job, you can count yourself out of being promoted out of it, and few people are as busy or productive as they like to make out. There are some who believe in the charade, of course, but plenty of employees are just going along with it to ensure that they get paid.

As the quiet quitting phenomenon has proved, companies that push too hard for their workers to put up this facade may not get the level of personal investment that they are hoping for. It is also a recipe for high turnover and being forced to invest much of those hard-earned profits into the difficulties of the hiring process.

Unfortunately, giving employees that work-life balance that so many covet can feel like a step too far for some employers. They worry about it not bringing them the results that they hope for, even if they get proved wrong. As a result, the performance of busyness can sometimes be prized over the actual results. They think that this is the important part, even though that could not be further from the truth.

26-year-old nanny and teacher considers whether or not to tell the family she has been working with for over 10 years why she is leaving, or whether to quietly distance herself from the problematic household: 'I couldn’t handle the way they acted anymore'

Brad Dickson — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 07:30:00 -0700

This young woman has worked for the same family since she was 17, developing a close relationship with the children and continuing to nanny during college breaks and summer vacations after becoming a teacher. But now she considers whether or not she should tell the family why she is leaving or, simply, quietly disappear.

Employee quits after 2 years of staying on Zoom call with manager 8 hours a day every day at work: 'Never accept a job under these conditions'

Ally Perry — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 06:45:00 -0700

Why did he feel the need to always be watching?

While few jobs are ever going to be totally supervision-free, one of the supposed benefits of working remotely is that an employee has a little more freedom with how they approach their workday. So long as they get done what they need to get done and look suitably productive to management, they can enjoy the peace and quiet of not having a nosy colleague breathing down their neck (and maybe put on a load of laundry between meetings, too).

This is also a big reason that many companies don't like to let their employees work from home. They want as much control as possible over what they are doing, and that is a lot more difficult when they aren't all coming into the office.

Still, in this modern world we're living in, more flexible working arrangements are the future. Even the more traditional parts of the corporate world have to make some concessions. However, these usually happen with specific terms and conditions attached. They don't want their workers to get too relaxed or forget that they should be switched on and contributing to their job at all possible times.

Woman reports that her coworker showed up 30 minutes late, and management blames her for the fallout: ‘They figured the whole thing was my fault for disclosing that my coworker was late and was the person responsible for the 1 star review’

Olivia Arocena — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 05:00:00 -0700

Yeah, and the butterfly that flew in front of my nose this morning is why I failed math 15 minutes ago

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? This story's depiction of management reasoning is way beyond my comprehension. I get that you're mad because you got a 1-star review and you want to blame somebody, but why not blame the person who's directly responsible for showing up late instead of the person who worked their entire shift before them? The way some minds work amazes me.

Yeah, ideally, the worker who came before the woman who showed up 30 minutes late should have stayed until her coworker was up and about; but this is real life, and people have real-life commitments to arrive at after work that can't be delayed. Plus, leaving before the other worker came in isn't enough reason to blame her for her coworker's tardiness; she worked her entire shift! Sorry, it's that I still can't wrap my head around it.

This is definitely one of those workplace absurdities that sometimes happen, but I trust it can't last for long as a valuable form of reasoning.

What would you do in this employee's situation? Would you argue or make your boss pay you more for the extra hours?

Veterinary professor’s unduly harsh grading pushes 264 of a 273-student class to retake a year-long Animal Nutrition course, so students file a formal complaint that forces the university to correct the grades

Etai Eshet — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 04:15:00 -0700

Picture a course so important that failing it feels like tripping a wire that sets off alarms across your entire academic year. A curriculum heavyweight.

Now hand that course to someone who treats grading like an abstract art project, and you get, well, somewhat of an abstract art project.

I had a few of these during the years I've spent in academic institutions: a course that carries too much grading weight. Feels like a way-too-big kettlebell for me to carry that far, and stressfully intense because I'm in the hands of a professor who feels like one Prof. Snape, only Philosopher, not Wizard.

There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class, you hear me?

‘Excellent is just a trap’: Boss refuses to promote top-performing employee because they're too valuable in their current role, and gives the position to a coworker who barely hits quota

Cata Holmes — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 15:35:00 -0700

When being too good at your job becomes a career liability…

We were always told that we have to give 100% in everything we do if we want to "succeed". What is success, anyways? I don't want to get into the philosophical road just yet, but I think it is a question worth asking. Anyways… we grow up thinking that we have to be the best at everything we do and life will pay us back with the things we want and deserve, of course.

Well, this employee can totally disagree with us, because their experience at their job proves the exact opposite.

For starters, they were always the top-performing employee. They not only were the best at reaching their goals and targets, but also were the ones who would go beyond their job descriptions and really wanted to be good at what they did. They fixed broken workflows and also had the best relationship with everyone on the team. Obviously, they want to grow with the company and thought they really had a chance at doing this when a management position was opened a month ago.

Naturally, he was the first one who applied for the role and was really hoping to land it. But life has its tricks because the person who ends up getting the role was someone who barely knows their numbers and doesn't bring anything to the table. He went to his boss and asked about this… and the response was that he was 'too valuable' in his current role, and that they couldn't afford to lose him…

I'm sure the boss is aware, but they just lost the best employee he ever had.

For everyone who's currently working for a company, this story can be a good lesson. If we look at this person, they did it all, and they got nothing. Success was not in pursuing a higher role… maybe he needs to find another company that's willing to let him grow and to give him the space he deserves to be the best employee. For now, I'll leave you with the story…

Friend decides to tell best friend’s boyfriend that her 20-year-old girlfriend soft-cheated on him after she didn't tell him herself, now they are back together: 'Her boyfriend said she doesn’t trust me anymore, that’s fine'

María Cetra — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 14:15:00 -0700

This story seems to have come out of a soap opera.

I hate people that get involve in things that are, actually, none of their business. Why are you getting involve in your friend's relationship drama? I get trying to be supportive to her and trying to guide her in the right direction when you think she's committing a mistake. But to purposely get involve and talk to her boyfriend behind her back instead of letting her do all the talking is weird You may be right by pointing out that what your friend's doing is wrong. And calling her out IS the correct thing. But to call her boyfriend and tell him everything is just going too far. Girl, you have your won life. Stop getting involve in other people's personal lives, I mean it. And this tip goes out to whoever needs to hear it. Stay in your own path!

Mom of 2 offers to babysit her friend's kids full time, only to have her friend tell her she needs to cut down her paycheck to half: 'I would have never agreed to this'

Giuliana Tiscioni — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 13:00:00 -0700

Being a babysitter full-time is a full-time job like any other, and it should be paid accordingly. Childcare is already hard enough and dismissed enough. We don't need more people diminishing the amount of work it takes to be in charge of small children.

Two friends got into an awkward situation about this. One of them offered to take care of her friend's 2 children, similar in age to her own kids, all under 5 years old, while their mother worked. She got paid $100 per day, being the part-time job that it was. The friend switched jobs and needed her to take care of her children full-time, but instead of maintaining that rate, she wanted to cut it in half because she couldn't afford it. Double the work for half the salary. Under any other circumstances, that would be one heck of a lawsuit and something HR can't allow. But since this wasn't in a corporate environment, there's not much that could be done. The friend insisted that she couldn't pay her the usual rate, that she was getting back on her feet, and that she had bills to pay. Newsflash, your friend, who willingly babysits your two toddlers, also has two children of her own and bills to pay. The friend was trying to get her to accept less than minimum wage for a full-time job that is also extremely demanding.

The thing here is, anyone can get through a rough patch and needs help to get back on their feet. But there's a difference between needing help and taking advantage of your friends' time and resources. Just because her friend doesn't have an office job doesn't mean that she doesn't work. Childcare and motherhood are full-time occupations, and society looks down upon them as they are. She's basically telling her friend that her time and work are less valuable than hers, that her work is not worth being paid, and the worst part is that they're both mothers. Society will never change if the work of mothers keeps being diminished. She may have financial issues as we all do, but if she can't afford to pay her friend a respectable salary, she should consider other options.

Employee realizes that management values teams that look stressed over ones that deliver: ‘I spent two years building a healthy operational system, only to learn that executives reward visible panic over competence’

Olivia Arocena — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 12:15:00 -0700

If they wanted actors, then they should hire actors or pay for the acting lessons!

I've seen variations of this play out time and time again. Whether it's upper management asking their employees to track how many hours their work actually takes, with the secret intention of making them prove they don't need to be paid as much because their work takes way fewer hours than the original contract said; or bosses favouring employees who look overworked over those who actually perform well.

If I had to pick my battles, I would definitely pick this one, but I would approach it not with feelings or emotions, but with receipts. Maybe this employee could send a report of his team's productivity with a message explaining that they perform that well because they approach their work by trying to reduce stress. Stress is minimized by focusing on tasks instead of schedules and rewarding results, not performative panic. As I'm writing this, I realize it might be a lost cause, but we're all free to choose the hill we stop our journey on.

If they don't understand it this way, they might have to learn it the hard way and lose their most objectively valuable workers to keep the ones who only look valuable, but that's honestly a loss for everyone involved.

I honestly think there is a way to approach this issue so the executives understand what's happening, but it would definitely take excellent communication skills and dedication.

They are the only ones who know if they're that interested in the company to invest all that energy into it.

They have another option: to act as if they were incredibly stressed while doing the same thing they were doing before. Maybe that's the way management wants them to go.

Woman asks her landlord to fix a minor issue, and the landlord dares her to report her to the city: ‘Now I'm going to enjoy living in a unit that is entirely 100% up to code and maybe save some money in the process. Sounds good to me!’

Olivia Arocena — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 11:30:00 -0700

Most dares were never meant to be followed through

I guess that's what you get when you dare someone to do something serious, secretly expecting that they won't. Sometimes, I think, these people are so entitled they forget to question their actions, and they seriously think they've got nothing to hide or be ashamed of.

That's where the police come in to provide a little of an 'outside perspective,' to say the least. But a tenant has to do what it has to do.

There are only a few things more pleasurable than doing what's right, knowing you'll come out victorious. These are the advantages of knowing your rights. You can actually go to authorities, and they'll have your back.

This anecdote does more than prove the tenant was right all along; it also uncovers a lot of other things this landlord wasn't doing well or being fair about. And justice did its thing.

Divine justice like this doesn't happen every time, but when it does, we must enjoy every second it lasts. The only downside is that things can get more tense with the landlord from now on, but if everyone is mature enough, it will just be a subyacent feeling and not an outward fight or even discussion.

Do you think this landlord knew what she was doing and was hiding it? Or was she handling things poorly, and stuff like that flew under the radar?

One thing I'm sure about is that she never thought she would be reported to the city, but well, it doesn't happen until it happens, and surely not for a good reason.

Landlords are well known for stunts like this, but I had never heard a story where justice had come to the rescue. Give it up for the tenant and the city!

Man revokes his friend’s rooftop access: ‘[He] admitted he’d been bringing dates there because the rooftop had become his “secret weapon”’

Olivia Arocena — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 10:45:00 -0700

Sometimes we shouldn't even wonder if we're being mean; just move on with our lives

Some people will take advantage of what we give to them. To accept a gift once is one thing, but to continue using and abusing the same thing over and over without ever asking again is a whole other story.

There is no way to justify it; it's obvious that this friend didn't mention his rooftop use openly because he knew it was wrong. This attitude only worked against him because if he had asked again, his friend would've probably said yes.

This is simply a disgusting attitude, and my advice is to never act this way, because if you already have a generous friend, it makes no sense to take advantage of him by secretly using his stuff. I suppose this was motivated by shame, because he likely was pretending to have a lifestyle he didn't have, but what a waste of time.

He was also warned before being revoked accordingly, so his reaction doesn't make sense either. What irritated me most as a reader is that when things went down, he reacted angrily instead of being apologetic. That shows you a lot about someone's character and how entitled they think they are to someone else's property. It's insane if you think about it, but there are many people like this walking amongst us.

Either way, as I always say, the information OP gathered thanks to this incident is incredibly valuable to adjust the access some people have not only to his rooftop, but to his life, in my opinion, but you'll be the judge of that.

Do you think it would've been better if he talked to his friend more deeply before revoking access? Or did his attitude express everything he needed to know?

Renter argues with landlord due to the state of the apartment, landlord says to take it to the city, the renter complies, and they go in her favor: 'All I needed was the peeling paint fixed now I'm going to enjoy living in a unit that is up to code'

María Cetra — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 10:00:00 -0700

Being a renter can sometimes be horrible, but once in a while some good things happen.

Being a landlord or being a renter can both be horrible or great. It really depends on the land, the house or apartment that's being rented, and who the renter is if you are the landlord, or who the landlord is if you are the renter. So basically, it has to do with the person that you have the agreement with, as with almost everything in life. Life is really for the ones with great social abilities, or at least the ones that advocate for themselves when it's needed. Being able to express your mind can save you from a lot of trouble. It doesn't matter what the situation is or what it involves. If you are able to speak for yourself and defend what you think is true and fair, life will be smoother for you.

In the story below, we find a renter who was living in horrible conditions due to the landlord's lack of help. This person was really trying to get the landlord to fix everything for herself. She gave her 3 months to fix the roof, you read me right, 3 MONTHS! And what did the landlord do? Absolutely nothing –oh, sorry, she did one thing: blame the renter for not being able to schedule, when the renter explained a million times that they weren't receiving an answer from the contractors she had hired. I do not know what this person expected this renter to do. Just live in awful conditions because it was cheaper for her than having to fix it? That is not how being a landlord works. There are laws, and you have to respect them. Not providing fixes for an apartment that is not in the correct condition is against the law.

Luckily enough, this story had a pretty happy ending. This renter was smart enough to advocate for themself. They got the city involved, and an inspector came to the apartment to check it out. They discovered a lot more things that were wrong with the apartment, so now this person will get to live in a place that is 100% up to code, all while getting it fixed by the annoying landlord. She should have just fixed the roof. It would have cost a lot less money.

20 Pumpkin-Inspired Fall Decorations That Should Go Back Inside the Box

Melissa Knudson — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:30:00 -0700

Who doesn't want a rotting, half-carved, terrifying-looking pumpkin in their backyard this fall? (With glasses and cinnamon flavor).

If you're passionate about handmade projects and get inspired each season to try the most impossible crafts the internet can possibly offer you. If you also think that you can nail them no problem, even when you have never touched a pair of scissors in your life, this message is for you: please, watch the complete tutorial before letting your wild creativity kick in. We love your out-of-the-box ideas, but we also love to sleep soundly at night without getting hunted by unexpectedly terrifying creatures. We really just want to walk by your garden without ending up with residual nightmare fuel.

We know your intention wasn't to create a horrifying creature, perfect for Halloween night. We know that, deep down, you just wanted to be like that one influencer that pops up on your feed every single day, who can make wonderful and functional color lights out of some used paper, foil and hot glue. One day, perhaps, but for now, please stick to Spirit. Unless you're actually a DIY pro, in which case we deeply apologize for the disturbing images you're about to see.

Fall is almost here, and failing at overly-creative decorative projects will be the number one activity very soon. To get your ideas going, we are hoping that we can inspire you to create the next new pumpkin monster horror protagonist of the season. So, we have dived into a collection of peculiar-looking fall pumpkins that might not be the most masterful, but are certainly the ones that have earned a little (not so crafty) place in our hearts. At the end of the day, the best Halloween ambience often comes from the most unexpected trendy DIY fall decoration videos out there.

Boss demands employee show up 1 hour earlier unpaid, sends an AI-generated message to motivate them: 'You have the potential to do great things'

JR Atkinson — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 08:15:00 -0700

When your boss asks you to do something unpleasant, the least they can do is write it themselves.

The world is full of cop-outs these days. The widespread use of AI means that if you don't want to try so hard, you don't have to. This can mean that we're treating things with less respect than they might deserve. Especially in professional interactions. It makes sense that you'd want to save time, but business is really all about relationships. If you're not treating that relationship with respect, then you're not going to go far. This includes using AI to communicate with your employees for you. It's hard to feel like anyone cares about you when they're using a robot to talk to you. That's what was happening in this story, though.

Timeliness is important. Every job has different expectations about timing, and every job requires a different level of attentiveness in terms of timeline. Some jobs are fine with you strolling in past your start time and leisurely starting your day. Other jobs will ding you for every minute that you waste. It's your job to respond to the needs of your workplace and figure out your rhythm within it. The employee in this story was getting conflicting information from their employers regarding their start time. This is a pressing issue because lateness can have grave consequences in the workplace.

Recruiter accidentally leaves notes on job description, reveals secret applicant requirements: 'Traits to avoid—2 to 4 month resume gaps, 8+ years of experience'

Ally Perry — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 07:30:00 -0700

What do hiring managers even want from job applicants anymore?

A lot of advice about looking for a job comes down to knowing how to play the game. An applicant learns how to tweak their resume to every job description, making it engaging enough for a person but also simple enough to be processed by AI; they coach themselves on common interview questions and do their research into the company so they can make some engaging questions of their own. They sink hours of their time into applying and networking and trying to land a new role, but often, they find no luck. It's rough out there.

It is not uncommon for somebody seeking work to feel like they are doing everything right, but not seeing any results for it. There always seems to be a better applicant, a company changes its mind, or maybe the job they were hoping to get didn't even exist in the first place. It is almost inevitable that they start to wonder if they have a problem.

While it is true that everyone has their flaws and they can prevent them from being hired, it is fair to say that some employers have standards that are ridiculous. They seem to chase an ideal candidate who doesn't really exist, and leave behind those who may not conform 100% to their strict criteria, but who would be a worthwhile employee. When they get so many applications, though, they don't want to broaden those horizons. It is just too much work.

Texas tenant contacts property manager to dispute $3,200 security deposit deductions and is told they owe an additional amount totalling $10,000 for landscaping charges over brown grass: 'They’re taking my entire deposit and I owe $6,500 on top of that'

Brad Dickson — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 06:45:00 -0700

This tenant, eager to follow up on their security deposit with a property manager who had ghosted them, logged into the online property management portal and discovered $6,000 in "charges" they had never been notified about.

When they finally got a hold of the landlord and property manager, it was explained to them that these charges were in addition to the loss of their entire $3,200 security deposit.

The reason given? A grass had given up and turned totally brow. The landlord argued the tenant was responsible even though the lawn wasn't in good shape when they moved in 5 years ago. And the heat of summer and lack of maintenance were more responsible for the state of the lawn than anything the tenant felt they had done.