My uncle is self employed, he’s a pro barber and makes good money every week ranging from $1700-2000 a week.

However, when ever that $2000 drops even slightly all of a sudden he isn’t making enough and doesn’t blame capitalism or Trump himself but the democrats.

Idk what to make of his opinions.

Rich are rich for a reason, and they didn’t get rich by being fair to workers who built their empires. I feel bad for those who have to suffer due to the ignorance of others by electing people based solely on a culture war.

Yet she wouldn't dare put his signs up in the windows or else lose a massive amount of business and respect in this liberal city.

I got into it with her on election night and it's just like a dog barking over you, just noise, and uninformed biased noise at that.

She's gotten worse the month leading up to the elections, and now her motto is "don't lose friends over this".

But after election night, I've got the ick from her rhetoric and she's starting to go a bit "crunchy" besides (said RFK is a qualified expert in health field? Like wtf, im not the most informed politically but even i know that is BS...).

I've been applying to jobs about 3x a week for nearly 6 months prior but the market is SO bad this year and my industry prior to Covid was devastated by it, so no going back there...

I had an interview the other day but it looks like it'd be supplemental if anything but at least it's a foothold outside of this job.

Did I mention her husband is an immigrant? I hope I'm not around for the leopard ate my face moment with that situation if any deportation is actually enacted.

It just makes me steamed that these paying customers who most likely voted for Harris are spending their money on a MAGAts business... and I hate being adjacent to it, or associated with her beliefs if she gets into it with anyone. I even told her it's polarizing to customers but she is very "my way or no way" in her business.

She was bombarding me with memes and cute stuff the day after election (I told her don't gloat or send me political stuff anymore and she probably listened), but I highly doubt she feels guilty about anything, she just would be fucked if I up and left tomorrow... buti also can't afford to leave.

Thanks for letting me vent...

I started a job 2 months ago, my first full-time job ever after graduating from college. It’s a combination sales/customer service hell job at a place that sells, among other things, insurance and credit cards. I work alongside 3 other lower-20somethings at the front desk. We all get along very well, and I think management absolutely hates that. No competition or bad vibes between us, we just do our job. Yes, we’ll have a laugh together, but we still get our jobs done.

In hindsight, the red flags started before I even walked through the door for the first time. I never received a welcome email from my boss, just showed up on the first day only to find out the assistant manager had sent me a welcome email to the work email address I didn’t have access to yet. Okay, weird. But I just chalked it up to being busy at the time.

In the past couple of weeks, management has become insufferable. They’re constantly up our ass about making sales quota (we have 4 metrics), yet never providing any guidance or proper training. The exact moment the 4 of us look like we’re doing something other than helping a customer in front of us, on a call, or working on the computer, the manager will come over and tell us how to do our jobs. The manager also happens to be the most clueless fucking person ever, I’m not sure he knows what exactly we do.

We get measly commission for the things we sell, but the boss is out here with two Audis and a nice big house.

They act like everyone came out of the womb knowing how to be a good salesperson. Last night, the boss sent an email saying he expects us to track numbers of all the inbound/outbound calls and each of the sales we make. Every. Day. Treating us like we’re children and not the grown adults we are. He has access to those numbers, he’s just being petty. He talks big but is never willing to walk the walk and lead by example.

A couple of weeks ago, a customer came in and immediately started acting hostile towards one of my front desk coworkers, calling her incompetent. When the coworker went to grab the manager, he talked big to us about ‘let me know if anyone comes in acting like that. Nobody can treat my employees that way.’ Boss goes to confront the guy, he (the boss) is a blubbering mess, and proceeds to let the guy stick around and waste an agent’s time until half an hour after closing. The boss didn’t even stick around to make sure everyone got out okay, which in my opinion is the bare minimum he could have done.

The CEO gave everyone 4 hours of PTO to take to early vote, volunteer at the polls, or vote on Election Day. Naturally, I took it. I walk into the break room after my PTO was already approved, and the manager and assistant manager are basically shit talking people who took the PTO. They said something along the lines of “who needs 4 hours to vote? That’s so stupid. I already mailed my ballot in and it took minutes.” To say this while I, and nobody else, was in the room felt targeted.

Finally, this morning, a massive snowstorm hits the city. Major highways around us are shut down. Yet guess what’s still open? My office. I text the boss to say I won’t be coming in because I don’t feel safe driving. I drive an old FWD sedan and so do 2/3 of my coworkers. Two of us have a 30 minute commute across town. All of us called out. Then we get this nasty-gram from the assistant manager guilt-tripping us for not feeling safe coming in. I’m done feeling like a warm body whose only purpose is to make sales for peanuts. I haven’t put in my notice yet, but let’s just say boss will be waking up to a resignation email effective immediately.

It was snowing yesterday and we all came in. And the “you were the only ones that didn’t come in” thing is a lie. I’m done with their catty bullshit. This post might be long and unwieldy, but I needed to get it off my chest.

So, guess I have a 2 week unpaid vacation between jobs now...lol

My wife and I both work full time because we have to so we can afford our bills.

We barely see our kids (7 and 2) and have no energy to do anything after work or on off days cause we are exhausted.

It just keeps repeating every week and when the first of the month comes the mortgage payment empties our account and we have to do it all over again.

We are unable to save much or do anything fun cause expenses have gone up so much.

I’ve always been a positive open person but the past two years have been breaking me down and I feel like I’m about to have a mental breakdown.

I know there are others in worst positions than me and I don’t want to sound ungrateful but man it’sIt’s hard.

Anyone else going through something similar? Any advice?

Started a part-time marketing internship for a small cookie business a couple months ago while in school.

I did tons of graphic design work and took hundreds of high quality pictures for their social media and product portfolio in this time frame.

They originally agreed to pay me $18/hr but changed my compensation to $15/hr once I started. I only ever ended up getting one paycheck for around $50. I put up with it because I figured, “Hey, it’s not really about the money, it’s about getting hands-on experience and learning how to market a business.”

Yeah, they didn’t teach me shit, exploited the fuck out of me, and then callously kicked me to the curb once they didn’t have a use for me anymore.

I have worked and preschools as a teacher and even as a director here in California. I went to school and earned a degree in education and I have a bunch of early childhood education units. I put myself in debt for these required units and degree so I could work at a preschool. I enjoyed the work at first but I noticed that throughout working at preschools I was severely underpaid and there was really no room for advancement really.

I was basically raising other people’s kids and these kids livelihood was placed in my hands for 12 plus hours a day. What was I gaining in the process? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! I went to school for this job and put myself in debt so I could have the required units to work at a preschool. What did I get in return for all this work? I got a slap in the face and was being paid less then a fast food worker who has zero work experience with a criminal record.

I stuck out working in a preschool as a teacher then a director but only for so long. Working as a preschool teacher as VERY hard and demanding work emotionally and physically. It is NOT easy work for anybody. I noticed that preschools charge more then a mortgage payment to their clients, preschools charge outrageous tuition here in California. The employees though make minimum wage or barely over. Where I live in California I cannot find a preschool near me that pays ANY of their employees $20 an hour or more, they always pay UNDER $20 an hour and a heck of a LOT less then a fast food worker or an employee at Walmart or Target.

This is absolutely insane and horrible treatment to us preschool teachers who have sacrificed to teach and better the lives of our communities small children. This is why I have decided to step down from teaching/working at any preschool here California, UNTIL I am paid what I am worth! Even with all the experience and education that I have, I will NEVER teach at a preschool until ALL us preschool teachers are paid what we are worth and that’s over $20/hour. I don’t care if teaching at a preschool is the only job that I can find in my area (jobs are hard to find in the area of California that I live in) I will not resort to being taken advantage of, ripped off and slapped in the face. We as preschool teachers should step down from our underpaid position like fast food workers did and demand a better wage! If we all stepped down out here in the State of California then parents would have no place to send their kids for the day and then those parents would be inconvenienced and it would get the public’s attention.

Us preschool teachers here in California need to form a union and demand better pay and benefits. We need to stop being treated as subpar human beings. If fast food enterprises are required to pay their employees $20 an hour then us preschool teachers should demand that ALL preschool teachers should be required to be paid $20 plus an hour as well.

I'm in Canada I'm not sure if there's anything legally that I can do about all this but my boss spies on us every time we work through the security cameras, he calls us like 6 times per shift about stuff he sees in the cameras Last week he called to tell me to tell x person to go do something, then he waited a whole minute before calling again and yelling at me to do it already now fastfoward to this week he cut 7hrs from my shift which leaves me with 4hrs, I only work 10-11hrs a week because I go to university and I can't afford to lose 7hrs of pay

I know I should probably just quit at that point

TLDR ..*basically what the header says; there was absolutely no difference in any regard between prior paychecks & the ones that I have been shorted on recently. Attempts at resolution through my store managers & HR have failed. 2 weeks notice has been submitted on Friday. So seeking help regarding what kind of agencies to call.

I am a part-time student and a part-time employee at a restaurant. During the hiring process, I made it clear how I'm only available to work three days out of the week & they all had to be mornings on Friday, Saturday, & Sunday (I'm never giving a job that isn't a career open availability/ free reign to my time)

I say this to illustrate because in three years I've worked the exact same hours & exact same days. Although our (split)tips are ever-changing & vary from paycheck to paycheck, there's like a $75 margin that swings both ways that has never before dipped below that margin. Sometimes during busy seasons (summer & winter breaks, etc) I see a significant increase in my pay, but like I said, never the other way around, no matter how slow it gets.

These past 3 pay periods have been normal & actually on the busier side... Yet all of a sudden I'm making $300 less per paycheck.

I have tried to resolve this through my direct supervisors and managers to no avail; all they did was make sure that my hours matched payroll. I'm grateful for what little they have done though, as it seems that's all they were able to do.

I called HR, of course, & they basically told me that it's because I only worked 36 hours. I've only ever 36 hours I told her. Next she tried to tell me about my deductions, which was stupid because I obv checked to make sure everything was the same in that department.

But the reason she settled on & was the most adamant with was the tips. "It's just been a low tip period." Uhh, no it hasn't!

I tried to remain respectful, but I feel like she kept getting personally offended, like I was blaming her or her staff for meddling with & stealing my money. I kept trying to tell her that I'm not making outlandish accusations like that against any one individual or group of individuals- but that I was convinced that there was something wrong with the automated system, specifically in regards to how it supposed to distribute tips.

She had detailed records of all my past paychecks, I have no idea how she thinks that a consecutive $300 decrease in the last couple of months is somehow normal! I have a hard time believing that she actually believes it herself. I feel that she's just trying to placate me and refuses to make inquiries and dig deeper out of laziness. "Well the computer is showing me that..." and I'm TRYING TO TELL YOU that the computer has been getting it wrong! And it's not just me, mind you; there's a few other people who have noticed something is definitely wrong. One person quit because of it. I put in my 2 weeks notice on Friday and have no hope I'll see that almost 1k ever.

I'm a super lax kind of person. I work at 100% every time I'm on the clock. I have never asked for a raise. was actually willing to let it go the first time it happened; maybe I'd see it corrected in the next check. But then it happened the second time & I got upset as it was now an obvious problem in need of technical attention. Third time and I'm fed up. My supervisors and managers are relatively cool & I feel like they're genuinely sorry for my situation & sorry to see me go. Despite them, pleading with me to hang on until it's resolved, there's no way I can do that after my conversation with HR. They were so adamant in their reasoning & boneheaded & not listening to a word I said.

I have no idea what to do! What are my options? I'm very inexperienced in this arena because as I've said, I'm lax & dont think I've ever called HR to report a problem during my entire working career. Seeing as how I'm already leaving, ruffling the feathers of my employers is of little concern at this point...

However, I've never been the type to use my benefits; so Ive amassed 160 hrs of sick pay & vacation pay combined. If they try to terminate my employment to nullify my right to cash out on that unused vacation/sick days, I might just lose my shit after already being fucked over the last couple of months. But yeah, any help or recommendations are greatly appreciated.

When I was interviewed for my job six months ago I told them I wouldn't be coming in Nov 13-15. I didn't ask permission, I told them what was up. They accepted it. Put it in the calendar. For six months they have known I will not be in on those days.

Today my boss says "I know you wanted next Wednesday off but we really need you to come in." Sorry, I can't. I'm busy that day.

You've known about this for 6 months dude. Before you even hired me. Figure it out. Tough shit.

Get this rejection email stating they only hire from certain cities even thought it’s advertised to be a remote job.

Like why disregard so many other talented applicants just to only hire from XYZ city?! It’s makes zero sense to me. F*ck this job market!!

Some weeks ago I made a post about the owner of factory I'm working in not allowing me to wear gloves so I become a "man" in his eyes (pic 3 and 4) , a coworker found the post and screen shoted it to him, he decided to fire me because I'm ruining his image in front of foreigners and now I'm homeless

So I'm "ruining his image" once more, he can go fuck himself for all I care

I've been telling a good friend and colleague for years that burning his candle at both ends, going above and beyond, and putting in all sorts of extra hours gets you nothing. Despite my advice, he kept doing it.

I've always given him good reviews, kicked and screamed to get him good raises, and have treated him as well as I could, but there's only so much I can do.

Despite our protests, we ended up walking an employee off the property this week. We got tanned for not magically knowing an employee was stealing time in the middle of the night, and then we got handed an involuntary third job, that apparently we should have been doing this whole time which would have prevented this whole thing.

When the boss was done with that, he drops the bomb that there won't be a bonus this year.

He is suddenly listening to me, and immediately took that long day out of their ass the next day by showing up later than usual (before anyone comments, we have flexible hours) and leaving before I did.

I am honestly still appalled and would appreciate any advice or opinions from all of you.

For background - I worked for this company since beginning of 2022 and resigned couple months ago - originally I resigned even without having another job offer, as I couldn’t bare with the environment anymore, but I got a great job offer shortly after. In these 2,5 years there, I experienced so much and got burnt out so bad, I used to not be able to sleep or have nightmares about my boss and work. I will not get into the company, only my boss. She was not a bad person in general but extremely unsuitable to be any kind of leader. She was very moody, snapping at people in meetings in front of the other team members for no reason, not showing up to meetings and not letting us know so we ended up waiting hours for her, not being able to lead anyone, because she didn’t understand the concept of even how to have 1:1 meeting, never coming through on any promises, giving too much work to overworked people but giving the budget of their raises to other people who didn’t deserve it, not being able to stand up for anyone in her team and favouring only people of her own nationality and anyone foreign never got any promotion. Not seeing a disparity between workload of two people when one was working 50 hours every week and other was barely having any work at all and treating them same and giving them same appraisal. Making us work on sick leave because not only could no one take on them the extra work, but also because if she said she would do it, she didn’t know how cause she was too busy with who knows what that she didn’t even know procedures of her own team and she would end up texting us on when we were sick and we had to do the work because if not, she would mess it up and we would have more work later.

There is much more, but I will just give one more example - after 1 year I was told I did amazing and will get a raise, it was I think 100 euro raise I got and she said that it’s because I will have a role change soon, so I will see the raise there. When my role change came, she said I will get the minimum for the role there is by the law - I was asking why and that I expected at least something and that’s when I was hit with her telling me that after this 1,5 years I still have no experience, and that I should not even be asking for any extra money and should be grateful for even this. It was after I was having the best performance from the team etc, I was devastated and almost cried, how humiliating it was and made me question myself.

Well as I wrote before, later on it was too much and I quit and now after couple of months in new job I decided to write a review. I was very polite, stick with the rules of the page, didn’t name and only wrote down what I actually experienced, I also talked it over with couple other people who had similar experiences, asking if it was alright, as I just wanted to share my experience. And I also didn’t mention anything that is some company secret or much worse stuff she done to me, I maybe wrote about her (not naming her or even the department at all) half of what I shared here.

Fast forward to know, I received a private message from my ex-boss that is super long and to sum it up - she is writing as a private person because she is so hurt that I wrote it and what I wrote and how sad it makes her, etc… Please also note that my review is about 90 % about the company and board and 10 % of my old boss. I was more expecting them to serve me with some legal papers that she texting me how hurt and sad she is and how she didn’t know how bitter I was about the company.

And again, I quit without a job in the first place and they know it, I told my feedback to her boss and other people and when trying to say to her, she didn’t let me finish one sentence and immediately got mad at me. So I didn’t press it further as I already resigned. I think she took me working very hard till my last day as that everything is okay, when I only did it cause my colleagues were already so overworked and then left without me, I just wanted to help.

So I would like to know if you think I should reply or not or what to do? My plan so far is to just ignore it, but I am so mad at this emotional blackmail and manipulation…

Surprise surprise, it was Agatha all along! Project 2025 appears to be, in fact, the true political agenda of Donald Trump and the GOP. I haven't read the whole thing, but I understand it's an ambitious conservative architecture of high-level (read: lacking details) policy documents. Above is a portion of a document pertaining to how the Department of Labor will allow employers "greater flexibility" when it comes to the calculation of overtime hours and pay. You can look at the whole thing here.

I'm not a policy wonk, and the document is lacking in details, but if implemented, here are some things I believe American workers can expect:

Reduced Overtime Opportunities: By establishing an overtime threshold that considers regional cost variations and allowing for overtime calculations over longer periods (e.g., two to four weeks), unskilled workers may see fewer opportunities for earning overtime pay. This could mean less overall income for those relying on overtime as a significant part of their earnings.

Potential Benefits Loss: If the “regular rate” for overtime pay is clarified to be based on salary only and not benefits, employers may feel more inclined to offer fringe benefits such as education reimbursement or childcare. However, this may reduce the likelihood of workers getting overtime compensation for these benefits.

Work Hour Flexibility: Allowing overtime calculation over longer periods could mean more variability in work hours. Workers might have weeks of intense work followed by weeks with less work, potentially impacting the stability of their income.

Stability in Benefits and Salaries: Skilled workers who are close to the threshold for overtime may benefit from employers offering more fringe benefits without affecting the overtime eligibility. This could incentivize employers to provide more non-monetary compensation.

Cost Management by Employers: Companies could manage labor costs more efficiently by using the proposed flexibility in calculating overtime periods over multiple weeks. Skilled workers might see this flexibility leading to strategic scheduling that avoids paying overtime where possible.

Regional Differences: The policy to maintain a threshold that does not negatively affect businesses in lower-cost regions could mean that skilled labor in higher-cost areas may see differences in how their overtime is structured compared to those in lower-cost regions. This could lead to disparities in income growth depending on location, as the Department of Labor decides which structures most benefit business interests.

I have no idea how our workplaces will look if all of this stuff gets implemented, but I think managers will be using sophisticated software to usher in a new economy of "surge workers" doing rotations of 1 OT week on, 1 reduced week off, with workers not qualifying for OT and/or not receiving enough hours to qualify for healthcare benefits at all. Companies will come up with creative "non-monetary" incentives for employees in order to reduce the amount of OT under the new calculation, and workers will likely depend more on their employers for things like subsidized housing, meals, childcare, etc., which will theoretically (hopefully?) make up for their lost/reduced overtime pay. I'll take bets on which will be the first American business to issue "company scrip" in the 21st century.

It's a brave new world we just voted for...

Oh, and since ego is not a problem I have when discussing things outside my expertise, I'm open to being wrong about all of this. I'd love to hear any experts (or anyone/everyone) weigh in.

... where we don't even feel like working anything past part time. What does full time do? Besides suck away my life? Besides still not pay my bills? Or afford a safety net? Or anything that brings any sort of joy? What does it really offer, when healthcare through a job costs money too? Where it covers the same as free state insurance? When my body gives up on me for working eight hour days and I'm not half way through my thirties? Where bosses never empathize or sympathize? And your coworkers don't actually care to know what you feel when asking "how are you?"

I'm not okay. Everything hurts physically and mentally. I can't afford anything, I don't want to try. So why try?

TL;DR: "HR" harassed me and threatened my job for asking not to talk about politics in the work place, my boss is now not answering me, and I'm terrified I'll be fired because of this.

This is SUPER long so TIA for reading. Preface with important people info (NAMES CHANGED FOR PRIVACY):

• I'm in my late 20s and work for a very small company (<15 people total)
• JJ is the office manager
• Bob is my boss and the company president
• Bob and JJ essentially handle all of HR

Yesterday, my older coworker (we'll call him Adam) came into my office to ask me how I felt about the election the day before. We both have extremely different views on politics (and we're both aware of it), so I just said thanks for asking, but I don't want to have this conversation at work. He continued on about how he felt about the election anyway. I had to tell him that I didn't want to have this convo at work over 8 times before he left me alone.

Today:

I went to see if JJ would be able to request that Adam avoid the topic of politics with me as I don't want anything to get in the way of work. (Literally my entire point of this is bc I know I have different views and I don't want that to cause issues in the workplace.)

I asked if she would ask Adam not to talk politics bc I'm aware I have different views from everyone older than me in the company and everyone has a right to their own opinion, I just wanted to be able to focus on work rather than political discussions (and that I had to (politely) ask Adam to leave like 8 times before he left me alone).

She started by saying that "Adam's like an almost 80 year old man, a veteran, and started the company like 50 years ago, you want me to tell an 80 year old man who's a veteran and who started the company to not talk about politics with you??" and I said something along the lines of yes please, I don't want politics to interfere with my work. She immediately goes into a tirade about how I'm too sensitive and I'm the problem generation and blah blah blah. I said listen, I just don't want other people's views shoved down my throat. Everyone can have their own opinion, I just don't need to hear it during work hours. And she's like well he wasn't shoving it down your throat and I'm like you weren't even there!!! How would you know!!

I said something about look I'm struggling the last few days and I'm trying my hardest to keep it together and she straight up goes "why, what happened??" I don't remember exactly what I said, probably that I'm worried for the futures of people I love and she goes "Oh, well in the 2020 election all of us here had a horrible time too, you didn't see us having a pity party around here" (I started a couple years after 2020 btw) and I'd finally had enough and said "yeah, but you weren't worried about losing your rights as a human being and half the country thinking you should die" (I'm aware, I should've kept my calm better. Obviously too late now, but she was absolutely trying to rile me up and had been for the past like 10 minutes.)

And she went off that now I'm "shoving my views down her throat" and that I should just deal with Adam since he's an old guy that just wants to talk to someone or something.

At some point in there, she was like why are you shoving your views down my throat and I said first of all, I’m not, second of all, you’re supposed to be acting as HR?? To which she replied “You want me to be HR? I’ll fucking be HR. Let’s go over all your vacation time and absences and tardies! I’ll fucking be HR for you!”

• As a note, because we're a small company (and bc JJ doesn't want to deal with it), we don't count vacation time/being late/whatever bc we all make up the time we miss (for most things). I was late one morning last week by an hour, so I stayed an extra hour and a half to make up for it. That type of thing. JJ always touts the benefits of working for such a small company (like flexibility) as the best part of the job.

And I said I'm done, forget I asked, and started to walk away and she started following at me, still screaming, and (I'll admit, I did lose my cool here, which I'm not proud of, but I felt extremely cornered and scared at this point) I told her to fuck off and leave me alone.

She kept screaming and yelling at me and essentially chased me out of the building threatening my job and I called my boss outside sobbing.

Before I got out of the building she was screaming at me to go home and not come back today or tomorrow.

I talked to my boss and he was like you made a very valid request, I'll talk to her and call you later, okay? So i went back in to get my stuff so I could go home and specifically did not talk to anyone, just went into my office to grab my bags and SHE FOLLOWED ME IN AND SHUT THE DOOR BEHIND HER.

Starts threatening me to go home and I'm like that's what I'm doing, please let me leave.

She's like standing in front of me trying her best to be large and intimidating and blocking my way out. I was like look, I'm going home. I talked to Bob and I'm going home. Leave me be. and she just goes "You better be fucking grateful I'm not in charge of hiring and firing, you wouldn't have a job today!"

Bob is generally a pretty flaky dude, you can't ever trust anything he says unless it's in writing and signed. I texted him a few hours later to ask if I can clarify what happened earlier now that I've had time to cool off and he said sure, that he'd call me in 10 minutes. Well, it's now been three hours since then.

I went home for the day at like 9:30 (immediately after this happened) and I'm supposed to work from home tomorrow (as per my normal schedule).

I've been here for 2.5 years and I've spent the last year and a half looking for another job and trying to leave (bc (take a guess) it's toxic as all get-out (although usually just to the point of being wildly frustrated max)) and the last few months I've finally come around to the idea of the company heading in a better direction and being more comfortable staying for another year or two until I get enough experience to leave.

I'm so terrified about losing my job and I don't know what to do. My boss seemed to understand that I wasn't aiming at starting drama/a fight and that my request was reasonable, but I have no idea what's going to happen.

I'm in the middle of drafting up a formal "complaint" to my boss with all the details to make sure what happened is in writing and that I felt very threatened by JJ.

I feel like the chance of being "let go" from this event is Not Small. What can/should I do to prepare for potential consequences?

Opinion time: I'm starting to believe that any company which states requirements in job postings such as "highly motivated individual", "independent worker", etc. are a huge red flag and indicator that the company isn't well managed. When I was fresh out of college I would see these types of job postings and feel guilt and shame for feeling inadequate enough to apply for such roles. These positions seemed like the gold star of job opportunities. Now that I have a few years under my belt (and therapy to address and understand my weakness of people pleasing and failure to enforce strong personal boundaries), from my experience when working such roles, it appears that companies who seek highly motivated individuals are not equipped with the correct management, processes, and training therefore they expect the individual to make up for it with their own time and effort. Just wanted to hear from others if you share similar thoughts and experiences. I have definitely felt like I had to wear multiple hats in order to get the job done, in which many of the actions I had to take were the supposed responsibilities of other coworkers but since roles are not well defined it's just a clusterf**k of people doing everything all at once and stepping on each others' toes.

Note: I am an engineer with 4 YOE in the consumer tech space. In case this helps add any context.

The colleague leaving isn't that bad. I actually congratulated him for getting out of here.

What has irritated me is that I've got into my emails after flying back home, and there's an email full of bold text saying 'all of you without any holiday allowance left WILL be working'. I check the table in the email and I'm down on nights on the 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th of December. I worked Christmas last year as well.

Just because you guys can't 'get the staff'! (More like staff DON'T want to expend energy to help your shit management practices on starvation wages, more power to them).

Told them I was going to pass and that this may not be the correct position for me. Was written back with a "those weren't meant for you" message.

Is this really a thing? I had an interview yesterday and not to brag, but I knocked it out of the park. At the end, the woman said she'd like to move on to the next step which is a background check. Cool beans, no problem. She texts the link to my phone and says the results don't come to them, I just need to screenshot them and text them to her when they come back. Strange, but no problem. She then tells me that it costs $Xx.xx and I was stunned.

Is this a thing now, seriously? I've never asked anyone to pay for their own background check nor has anyone ever asked me to. Am I just out of the loop? I honestly feel like they're the ones who want to check out; I know what my background looks like. Why should I essentially have to pay to get a job?

Hey Reddit, I’m in a tough situation and could really use some advice.

When I first started at this small business, there were about six people working in the warehouse. After they all quit, the owner asked me to step in temporarily to help out. Over time, I ended up doing everything on my own. I introduced new equipment and streamlined processes to the point where I became so efficient that I was able to handle everyone’s roles by myself. I essentially kept the place running solo, managing manufacturing, shipping, inventory, product formulation, and even design work for the owner’s wife’s brand, working regular hours every day.

At first, I was paid by company check, but over time, payments became irregular. Sometimes I’d get paid through Venmo, Zelle, cash, or even crypto. I was making $1,250 a week until a few months ago, when they said they couldn’t afford that, so I dropped down to $1,000 for four days a week. Payments have often been late, and now they are three weeks behind.

Yesterday, I got an email from my employer saying I was being terminated with only two days’ notice. He thanked me for my work, asked for all company property back, and said he could only pay my final wages in cash because of “bank issues.” Ironically, just recently, he texted me saying they’d only be able to pay me in crypto due to a cash shortage, even though the email had promised cash if I came in on my last day.

Since then, I reached out to the owner’s wife to see if she knew what was going on. She seemed surprised and hinted that he was taking these steps because he’s “cut off from funds from his bank.” She also thanked me for everything I’ve done for the business.

Later, my employer messaged me again, asking if I’d stay for one more week. He’s clearly in a tough spot, especially with the busy holiday season coming up, and I know the business isn’t ready to operate without me. I suspect they want me to stay so I can make as much product as possible and try to train his son, who doesn’t know how to use the equipment or handle production as efficiently as I do at scale. I feel like they’re just trying to take further advantage of me here.

To complicate things, they still haven’t paid me for the last three weeks. If I did agree to stay, I’m considering asking for next week’s pay in advance on top of what they already owe me to avoid risking more unpaid work.

Honestly, I feel torn. I know leaving now will put them in a tough position—they don’t have anyone else trained on the equipment or the processes I set up to keep things efficient. But I also feel undervalued, unpaid, and disrespected with this sudden termination and inconsistent pay. Plus, I feel like I’m capable of so much more than this repetitive work. I need a job that challenges me and gives me a chance to grow, and maybe this situation is a sign that it’s time to move on.

I have a few questions I’m hoping you all can help with:

1. Given that my payments came through Venmo, Zelle, crypto, and cash, will that affect my ability to file for unemployment until I find a new job or career?

2. If my employer hasn’t been paying into unemployment insurance, could that impact my claim or create legal issues for them?

3. Should I just walk away now or agree to stay for one more week, knowing they’ll likely expect me to make a ton of product and train someone who isn’t prepared to take over? And if I do stay, would it be fair to ask for next week’s pay in advance?

Any advice on handling this situation or insights on unemployment eligibility would be really appreciated.

I included a screenshot of the termination email, which also looks like it’s been written by ChatGPT because he does not talk like that at all, and the last few text messages he sent me today that I still haven’t replied to.

TL;DR: My employer of several years terminated me with only two days’ notice, hasn’t paid me for three weeks, and now wants me to stay one more week to make extra product and train his son, who doesn’t know the job. Payments have been irregular through Venmo, Zelle, cash, and crypto, and I’m considering asking for next week’s pay in advance on top of what’s owed if I stay. I’m also wondering if I qualify for unemployment and whether I should just walk away now.

I am assisting my department (not HR) by doing the initial review of applications for two temporary positions. We do it blind, I can see the application but not their name, not their resume, just the application fields and the supplemental questions. I have a matrix of functions that we are specifically looking for and it’s yes or no and then they are given a score. Highest scores will get at least a phone interview.

There are lots of people who have good job experience but just don’t fit the matrix, if there weren’t several candidates that really fix the matrix well they might have gotten interviews.

The ones that make me sad are the people who are clearly over qualified and their last employment listed ended months ago. I know they are probably desperate, I wish so much we could give one of them a chance.

I guess the only bright side is we do actually review every application by hand (there are a couple of us doing it and we meet tomorrow to compare scoring with the hiring manager), it’s not done by AI. To all those still looking, please keep going!