I technically work on "commission" because my boss doesn't want to pay the benefits of a salaried employee even though I've come in every day for the past 3 years. I usually get a check at the end of every month. When I came into the office this morning, I saw my commission check on my desk already signed. I deposited during my lunch break. Later in the afternoon, my boss came into the office (she just came back from a 2 month vacation, so this was my first time seeing her since then) and told me not to deposit the check yet because she doesn't have enough money in her bank account. She got so angry at me. She told me she wrote a note on the check to not deposit it, but I looked around my desk with her and we couldn't find the note. She told me how I was going to cause her to get overdrafted and was very upset with me. Now I feel bad and my mood is ruined even though I feel like I did nothing wrong.

So last week I was fired without any warning. I had been told I was doing a great job as team lead. I was involved with reviews that morning, then at the end of the day I was told my team was falling behind. They said I would take too long to fully train even though I hadn’t been trained for even an hour. I’m so confused...the clinic director cried and the manager offered me a letter of recommendation. What did I do wrong??? I’d feel better if I screwed up and they fired me, but out of the blue is driving me crazy.

I’m so over working my ass off for it not to matter. Even the girl who constantly gets complaints about being rude/ named in 1star Google reviews is still there. I was there when she at least got to have a conversation with them. They constantly complain about nobody wanting to work and that they can’t find anyone yet fire me for no reason.

I’m so tired and depressed from trying and failing for people who don’t care.

IL is a third state to become state to have mandatory PTO, and of course, who will think about poor employers? /s

I put in my request months in advance. I took a picture of the request form, and verified with my supervisor a few days later that the request had been approved. I had only requested off for Saturday (the day of the wedding). The week of the wedding rolled around and I was listed on the schedule for Saturday. I told my supervisor that I was supposed to have that day off, but she claimed I had never requested any time off. I showed her the picture and date of the form on my phone, but she still claimed that there was no paperwork for it. I explained that, as a bridesmaid, there were specific responsibilities I had agreed to take on in order for the wedding to go smoothly, so it would be illogical for me to have not put in a request form. She still wouldn't budge. She obviously just didn't want to admit her mistake and fix it. So I called out sick Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and had a fantastic weekend celebrating with all of my friends. My workplace completely fell apart and lost a ton of revenue on those days because there's only 2 people in the company who could do my job, and the other person refused to come in on their days off. My supervisor also didn't come in, so my job just didn't get done for 3 days. When I came back my supervisor and the head boss tried to get me to admit that I hadn't been sick, but I didn't budge at all. I rage quit 2 months later, and this incident was one of the many reasons why.

Two years ago my company announced with much excitement that we would be starting a very lucrative partnership with Saudi Arabia. However, we’re a fairly progressive company, so this did not go over well with a good portion of the staff. As you would expect, the executives and senior management - with dollar signs in their eyes - rolled out the usual excuses such as “If we show them our culture it might improve theirs”. The project started despite these misgivings, and a team was set up within our software engineering department to carry out the work.

After the first year, it became apparent that the work was much harder than anticipated. Not only that, but rumours started circulating that people working on the project were having a miserable time. To compensate, more and more staff were pulled off their existing work and thrown into this project - some very much against their will. I know multiple people who resigned rather than be forced into this Saudi project. The cracks were starting to form.

At this time, my entire team except for me was taken to work on the Saudi project, including my team lead. I was left alone, weeks before a major release of development work my team had been writing for the past 8 months. Fortunately, I worked my ass off and managed to deliver more or less everything that was needed. I then became the team lead and over the last year managed to reform the team with new joiners - going way above what I ever thought I would be expected to do at this point in my career.

Around October of last year it came to light that - despite a year and a half of work - the contracts for this Saudi project had never been signed. At that point, myself and a few others started commenting that we fully expected Saudi Arabia to just take what we’d taught them and developed so far and run for the hills. I’m not a senior manager or executive. I never have been. But it seemed obvious to me that we were being taken for a ride.

In January, the inevitable happened. Our company asked for the contracts to be signed, and the Saudi team turned around and basically said “thanks for the two years free work”.

Ironically, many people in the company were happy to be coming back to their old projects, having been massively overworked for up to two years.

Given everything I’ve gone through, I’m expecting a very good performance review this year. Given everything people on the project went through, they should also expect very good performance reviews - it’s not their fault they got forced to work their butts off only for the rug to be pulled out from under them. Our performance review factors into our annual bonus scheme.

However, the pot of money available for bonuses is determined by a set of company wide targets. These are set by the executives, and despite their insistence that they’re controlled by how well we all work together, they’re really only achievable if the senior managers run the company effectively. Despite the team working on the Saudi project only being around 5% of our total staff, the executives pinned this project as one of the main company goals.

And that’s why, on the last days of the financial year, we’ve heard through rumours that the bonus has been cancelled. Every single staff member - from reception to HR to engineer - won’t get a bonus this year because the senior managers forgot to sign a contract.

The shortest job I've ever had lasted two days. I was interviewing for a role with a company when my wife was 9 months pregnant. I had made sure to mention multiple times to the hiring manager (future boss) that I will be taking one - two weeks off to care for her and our newborn. After the interview, I received a call he wanted to meet to discuss salary for the role. At the time, I was working as an on-call maintenance technician and he told me I had to come right away. I was pretty greasy, but whatever, I had a job that was okay with me leaving for a brief period so I went to his office.

When I arrived, he kind of scoffed and told me this was my "surprise second interview" and he did them like this to catch people off guard and then motioned to my appearance. I mentioned he never said anything of the sort in the phone call and it was unprofessional to do such a thing. However, as I was desperate for the money, I obliged. He told me he didn't believe I had the skills for the job I was interviewing for and questioned my integrity. I disagreed with him and three days later, got the job.

I started on a Monday as a Desktop Administrator. The day started with the Boss showing me the facility and telling everyone that I was "the new Jeremy." He pointed to a suite of closed, solid wood offices and said "that's the CEO and CFO." Then he brought me back to his office where he again questioned my abilities before sending me off to my cube across from the Systems Administrator.

Immediately the SysAdmin and Help Desk Admin told me of how awful the boss was, how the entire IT team had been recycled twice in six months and both were going to be quitting soon. The SysAdmin asked what tasks the Boss had assigned me - I showed him a push cart full of broken laptops (and I mean smashed to fucking pieces) that the Boss wanted me to fix up and put back into circulation, including ones that would cause electric shock. The SysAdmin, technically being my superior, told me instead to begin familiarzing myself with my duties and reading schematics on company infrastructure. The boss must have seen us talking and summoned me to his office. On Day One, he berated and screamed at me that "THE SYSADMIN ISNT YOUR BOSS, I'M YOUR BOSS, UNDERSTAND!" I nodded in quiet agreement. He then told me he wanted me to install some Spy Software on the SysAdmin's PC and the Help Desk Admin's PC because he believed they were "slacking off."

I threw that USB in the trash.

Day 2 was more of the same, but on the night of Day 2, my wife went into labor at 10pm. I called my boss' phone and left a voicemail and also left an email at 1 or 2am stating I would not be in for two weeks because my wife was in labor.

At 8:01am I received a phone call from my boss. As my daughter had been born at 3:15am, I was groggy but answered out of habit. "Where are you?" The voice on the other end asked. "I'm in the Hospital." "I need you to come in, NOW" said the voice. I told my wife I would be right back as the Office and Hospital were only a three minute drive from one another.

I walk into my bosses office and he is PISSED. He berates me at the top of his voice, insults me for the wearing casual clothing (t-shirt and shorts), and tells me I am late. I - being quite tired - respond with "We discussed this multiple times - my wife was pregnant and I would be taking time off when she gives birth."

He responds with, and I will never forget: You weren't the one in labor, why do you need to miss work?

I stood up, gave him the double deuce (two middle fingers), told him to go fuck himself, and walked out.

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That is my anti-work story. This was nearly ten years ago, and this guy is STILL the IT Director for that company. Everyone else quit within two months.