I work in customer support for a software company. For the past couple months we've been helping build an AI chatbot by organizing our best responses, fixing outdated help articles and documenting how we handle common issues.

We were told it would reduce our workload.

This week our manager presented a dashboard comparing our average ticket resolution times to the bot's. The bot was obviously much faster, and now management wants us to improve our numbers before performance reviews.

Here's the part that pisses me off. The bot handles basic questions and sends anything complicated straight to us. Refund disputes, angry customers, broken accounts, all of it.

So we're being measured against software that gets the easiest work, using information we spent weeks putting together.

And somehow this was presented as evidence that we're not efficient enough.

I had ONE shift one Saturday (I get it’s Halloween) it was early in the morning. Gave it up to someone who asked for it. It got approved no problem didn’t think much of it. I look at my schedule again, now there’s another shift that’s been added. Not once has this ever happened. Like I did everything right got my shift covered, it wasn’t last minute etc. What do I do? I have screen shots of everything. Proof I didn’t trade, the person asking for the shift, the shift being added. Not to mention I literally work every single day Monday-Sun every week. I give up my shifts so I don’t have to work every single day of the week.

I work at a small cafe and our owner just introduced a new system where employees mentioned by name in 5 star Google reviews get priority when requesting days off.

Now everyone at the register is awkwardly asking customers to mention their name in reviews. Meanwhile the kitchen staff are getting screwed because customers don't even know who cooks their food.

One of the cooks brought this up and our owner said reviews are supposed to reflect the whole team.

Cool, so the whole team gets credit until it's time to give someone a Saturday off. We're literally competing for our own free time now.

I just got finished interviewing for a full-time salary position with a series B tech startup. During the interview the hiring manager informed me that they require in-office Mon-Fri with at least 60hrs a week minimum including some weekends. Apparently most people are in office at least 8-9am until 8-10pm. During our conversation I mentioned my family so he added that they "have some flexibility" that would allow me to leave early around 5-6pm a couple days a week to spend time with my family but I would "be expected to log on after my time with them to be sure I get my hours in". At least they informed me upfront? This is for a mid-level, full-time salary job, NOT hourly. All this for a mediocre role, at an uninspiring company I'm overqualified for, with very little if any equity.

The job market is absolute garbage and from the interviews I've had, it appears companies are aware and are actively taking advantage. Crazy requests, insane interview process with case studies, panel interviews etc. for mid-level roles.

The sad thing is, while this sounds like an absolute nightmare of a work environment, considering the job market and the fact that I've been looking for 6 months, I would probably take the role. If I do get an offer my goal is to do the absolute minimum and collect a paycheck until I find something else. This is not a sustainable way to live.

I know the subreddit is antiwork but I need a job I don't know what to look up for those remote work from home jobs I just need some help or else I'm quite literally fucked

Work used to be harder. But before the Industrial Revolution humans could take a break whenever they wanted.

Worked for 2 hours - 30 Minute break. Worked another hour - 10 Minute break. After another hour of work again a 20 minute break. After 12 hours of work, people had amassed 2-3 hours of breaks in between.

Working 4 hours nonstop - then a 30 minute break - and again 4 or 5 hours of nonstop work and not allowed any extra rest? Thats unnatural and makes us sick.

So I have this hypothesis that the recent trend of over-burdening teachers and professors may not be a side effect of general policy errors.

I think it's a well thought-out plan to systematically break our backs, make us so caught up in papers and conferences and corporate collaborations etc., that we give up thinking about progress.

I think it also serves the dual purpose of curbing social mobility via giving us less time with and access to students who may need extra support due to unstable financial situations.

This whole publication rat race just makes us more career focused and less student focussed. I wonder how it is in the non Uncle SAm influenced nations, do they follow the same burn out culture that the we all follow?...

I use to work for uber and I rented through an app and paid $580 a week. I had to work all 7 days from sunup to sundown to pay the 83 daily car note and then my 70 a night hotel stay and gas and food. I was tired. I was sick. If I was one hour late the threats would be immediate. There was zero grace on the car payment. I paid daily.

Uber was also paying less and less. Airport rides that use to pay decent suddenly paid nothing. Uber suddenly reversed the way rides were being dispatched to push more dead miles onto drivers and cover areas that lacked drivers. Such as the far out suburbs. I was in dallas tx. I use to get trip requests thst were near me. Suddenly all the trip requests were 8, 9, 10 or more miles out to pick up passengers. And often take then 8 to 10 miles further out.

All for just 8 or 9 bucks. All the miles out to the person uber wasn't compensating for. Just the milage when the person was in the car.

So you could end up driving 20 miles out for just 8 dollars. And you would need to drive 20 miles back to your original destination .. all for a total of $8 bucks. Thats 40 miles for $8 bucks.

I was also flooded with many $3.46 trips. Uber's take rate was about $5 from those. So uber was still taking over 50% of the fare.

And the airport rides that previously paid well dropped in pay. To pick up business passengers drom love field airport the rides were paying $3.46 to $5.00 very often. The riders would tell me they paid Uber $20+.

Uber started to grab obscene amounts of the fare. If no onw accepted the airport ride for that rate (and there were uber drivers right there waiting) instead of raise the fare uber would send the trip out farther to a driver miles away... at the same low price. Forcing the airport riders to wait instead of paying 1 or 2 dollars more.

So I was working all day... and barely making anything. And many times my elderly mother had to send me money from her social security to make it.

Ztrip is just making an obcene amount from renting cars. Its just a car rental company desperate to get gig drivers hooked into it's predatory rates.

Damn Capitalism. Its a grind now to the average worker. I just saw a report that said less money is flowing to workers than ever before. Regardless od how much the company makes. The workers are seeing less and less.

And that's true. I've witnessed it. Damn Capitalism.

Was recently offered a sales job worth $80-150k a year, in a "family" company that sounded too good to be true. Came to find out that's because it was, shocker I know. The ad said it was a typical sales job going after already established leads and building relationships with clients. It sounded like you'd either be going to people already interested, or at worst working events. Got a phone interview and the second I heard the guy's voice I knew what it was.

You know those people who don't even sound real, and are very clearly using a fake persona to sound positive? Yup, that's him. Immediately acting like we're friends and saying how excited he was to get my application (this despite my background having no sales experience) and talk to me like I was some celebrity in the field. He goes on to list the pay, benefits, and how great of a "family culture" they've built. But don't worry, it's not nepotism, just good 'ol family values. He says it's a call job that does some events, but mostly it's just calling clients who show interest online and closing the deal. He then wants to do an interview and we set one up, I'm just curious at this point so end up going.

At the interview he barely asks about my job history or qualifications, only focusing on telling me his life story and asking me weirdly personal questions. Stuff about growing up, my family, and what I do for fun. The only time my work experience got mentioned was when I slid it into my answers to unrelated questions hoping it'd get him on track. It did not.

Finally we moved onto the job itself, and who would of thought, it's not what they said. He tells me it's actually a door to door position, but don't worry we're not one of "those" companies. He tells me they only talk to interested clients who really need work done, not just knocking on random houses and coming up with something. He also says they don't use any aggressive or disrespectful sales tactics, that we're just supposed to have a genuine conversation with interested households. He also goes into detail on a pay package that seems sketchy, and shows some very clearly edited recent paychecks for current employees to prove the earning potential. At the end they offered the job and purely out of curiosity I took it. I really had no interest but wanted to see just how bad it would really be, and holy shit am I impressed with the incompetence and poor behavior.

I've now since quit after three of the weirdest workdays I've ever had, and can honestly say it's insane what some companies are allowed to get away with. If anyone is interested I'll go into more detail in the comments, but wanted to make this post so everyone can know those jobs that are too good to be true on indeed are just that.

I was PIP’d somewhere where the management was just toxic and awful. I ended up leaving before the PIP ended.

About a week later, some co-workers and management wanted to follow me on my socials like FB and IG. They’re the same people who made my life hell for two years.

I will always think that’s so weird how some people do that. Like, oh, NOW you want to be friends after treating me like shit and kicking me out? I did not accept their “friend” requests. They can go F themselves.

After criticizing my work online I became upset felt bullied honestly. Was asked to leave the Teams meeting. Came across a recording of the two males shit talking me after. Is this considered a toxic work environment?

After criticizing my work online I became upset felt bullied honestly. Was asked to leave the Teams meeting. Came across a recording of the two males shit talking me after. Is this considered a toxic work environment?

When reporting misconduct becomes the very reason your career is targeted, the timing and context of every single complaint matter.

In my federal case against FedEx Office, one sentence from my manager captured the core tension of the entire dispute:

“In order for me to approve you for any promotions, the HR stuff, that has to stop.”

Read that statement again.

That is not a casual remark.

It is a direct condition: a manager explicitly tying my career advancement to the complete cessation of internal EEO reporting.

I was utilizing the company’s own anti-harassment and EEO compliance framework—using the precise terminology provided in HR policies to report targeted harassment, hostile behavior, and aggressive conduct.

Yet, when the dispute reached court, the Fifth Circuit drew a highly technical line between my earlier complaints using company HR terms and later complaints that explicitly contained the words "race" or "racial."

In other federal circuits, courts apply a totality-of-circumstances approach, recognizing that a continuous series of reports through company EEO channels constitutes protected activity. But under a hyper-restrictive technical reading, an employee’s reliance on the employer's own policy language can be completely disregarded.

The fundamental legal question isn't whether a workplace was simply "unpleasant." It is whether an employee who follows company reporting procedures in good faith is protected from having their career held hostage by management…which is exactly happened to me.

We need to pay far more attention to how corporate policies and judicial interpretations intersect—because no worker should have to choose between their career and their statutory right to report pervasive harm.

When courts allow employers to insulate themselves behind technical phrasing requirements—even when a supervisor blatantly states that HR complaints must stop for promotions to occur—the reporting process itself becomes a trap...A Corporate Language Trap.

The relationship between HR policy promises, supervisor accountability, and legal protections deserves far greater scrutiny than it currently receives.

As employees we should have consistent application of federal employee rights despite the circuit, despite the court.

​

I'm finding this really difficult to talk about, but I want to understand why I am like this.

At work, I'm constantly nervous. I'm scared of making mistakes, doing something wrong, or getting yelled at for not doing things correctly. It makes me feel so small.

Sometimes, I catch myself saying things like, “I know there might be mistakes, so please let me know what needs to be changed.” I'm practically anticipating criticism before anyone has even said anything.

And the thing is, I know this isn't right. I shouldn't have to undermine myself or draw attention to the possibility of mistakes just to protect myself from someone's reaction.

What's strange is that outside work, I'm a completely different person. I'm sassy, confident, and have no problem calling someone out when they treat me badly.

But at work, when my income depends on someone else and they have authority over me, it's like that version of me disappears. I become overly cautious, anxious, and afraid of displeasing people.

I hate that I feel this way, and it's hard to admit because I know I'm not this person in other areas of my life.

Why does having my livelihood depend on someone else's approval make me feel so powerless? Has anyone else experienced this, and how did you stop feeling this way?

I've been struggling to find a nursing job since figuring out the damage to my back that I got in nursing school. Finally scored an interview and went in today. I was kept waiting for nearly 30 plus minutes and then was interviewed by someone who wasn't a nurse or nursing supervisor. I was told that the position required experience.

Sadly this isn't the first that this has happened. I've started going on interviews where it's obvious no one is reading my resume before calling me in. I don't know why I'm being called into begin with since there's no nursing experience on my resume. Every time, the manager or HR or whoever is interviewing me is shocked as if they weren't the ones that contacted me.

I'm beginning to give up hope and looking at another career option but the job market is so bad that it seems like a waste of money. This degree is a paperweight at this point and the people in HR are just atrocious.

This story is a few years old but still makes my blood boil.

So to preface this I need to tell you about my former job. It was a 5 man operation. A small MSP that serviced the needs of a few local businesses. There was always cash flow issues, late/partial salary payments but somehow the owner always had a new car every year because "you need to look successful to land the new clients". While he was out looking for new clients (shagging local escorts) his wife was suffering from cancer. So you can see that this guy is as slimy as a greased politician with the morals of a serial killer.

Comes round to our annual Christmas party, he's booked a table at one of his favourite restaurants. One of those places that looks like a hyperactive 5 year old picked all the decorations. We get drinks and orders and I order a mixed grill. I love my meat and I cannot stand vegetables and I have a process when eating. Veggies first then meat. It's my reward for suffering through veggies. So I'm halfway through my meal. All the veggies gone and I need the toilet. I do my business and come back to the table and see my plate gone. I ask the waiter where my food is. There was lots of meat left. He proceeds to tell me the man at the head of the table ate it. This absolute waste of life is sitting there with a massive shit eating grin on his face. I was so pissed off because the asshole didn't let me order another one and expected me to be happy he ate my food and was paying the bill to do it. To him it was a massively funny joke but needless to say all my loyalty died that day. I've since moved on to bigger and better jobs but that shit eating grin still pisses me off. I now never leave the table until all my food is eaten no matter how badly I need the toilet. F*ck you Peter you useless twat!?

Be me (I can’t be the only one who has ever gone through this)

Me 41M (autistic fully employed)

I want to work with my best friend again, in a heartbeat, but his job history is horrendous.

Met him at my first-ever job and worked with him, for 8 years.

Diligent, hard worker, funny, relevant, chronically online (same) can talk/joke about anything, always knows what’s going on etc. During our time someone always had to be in the mailroom, so I opted for that and he ran around the office, mail checks, pickups etc.

Being mailroom workers, we had three in our team for 5 years, then our boss got made redundant and then it was just us, for 3 years after that. I got made redundant in 2018, and got another job 2 weeks later (my current) he unfortunately got fired 3 weeks after I left. During that 3 years we never had roles change, improve or salaries get “boosted” no one was “boss” “manager” it was business as usual just with two instead of three.

His words to explain the firing (they accused me of stealing, I didn’t, the workplace after you left was so toxic, I needed to leave, I saw this as my out, I didn’t fight it, I fell on my sword) he didn’t get a redundancy even.

At my new job, current team is amazing, no vacancies there are 6 of us, we are full. Every time a job comes up it is never for our team, and thankfully it’s accountants or lawyers so never our kind of work.

I would work with him in a heartbeat, but…

In the years since he got let go, he has never held down a job, he bounces around everywhere he goes. Unlike me, I officially got a diagnosis in 2011 shortly before I started work, I believe he is the equivalent of Typhoid Mary, spread it but not actually have it, his two kids are on the spectrum, and his wife doesn’t work, so anytime there is anything wrong at home, and I mean anything, he drops everything and goes home to take care of it, his loyalties and priorities are not turned toward work, instead of work being the priority his mind it’s family, when it comes to work he is Vin Diesel, it’s all about family.

Now on anti-depression meds, and thinner than ever, I want to help him.

The number of times I was left alone because he had to go home is insurmountable.

Commendable? Yes, trustworthy? Yes, dependable? Yes but not for work if there is an emergency at home.

I just don’t know how, hypothetically, if ever a job/position came up, and I was asked to recommend someone in short notice, if I even would, because trying to explain, his track record and the very quick “bouncing around” from job to job doesn’t look good from a hiring standpoint.

I don’t want to lie to him, but I don’t know what I would do/say if ever confronted with that potential scenario.

I got written up for an error I did twice that nearly costed them a lot of money. I did the quality checks, but I did them incorrectly. The issue is that in the write up, my manager claimed that I told him I was in a hurry to get it done, so I did not do the quality checks or data comparisons. I never said that was my reasoning.

It said I can put comments, so I am wondering if it is fine to correct his reasoning for my mistake. I am wondering if it is worth to comment this without making things worse as I really need this job and the market is bad right so I can't just quickly find another job. I just don't want to risk commenting and it causes it to shorten my employment timeline there.

Share this around if you can. Anything helps!

A Boomer in the 70s with just HS or even no HS could get a Job - training on the Job - and promotions through experience.

Nowadays for the same positions they want a 5 year Masters degree. And additional qualifcations. And years of work experience.

You get no training on the Job, no promotions and the work load is 3x greater and more hectic than in the 70s.

Now with AI they hope to get rid of us pesky workers. But until a few years ago when it didnt exist, they needed workers, yet they still raised the requirements to preposterous levels and worsened the working conditions every year.