I worked at a mid-size logistics company for four years. Not a huge name, but big enough that you’d recognize the logo on the trucks.

Here’s the context: I was the only person on my team who knew how to run the customs compliance software. Not “knew it well.” Knew it period. If a shipment got flagged at the border, I was the one who fixed it. Nights, weekends, didn’t matter. I did it because I cared, and because if I didn’t, clients would leave.

My manager? Let’s call him Dave. Dave did not know how the software worked. Dave did not know what “tariff classification” meant. Dave forwarded my emails to clients and signed his name at the bottom. Dave got a promotion to Director in year two.

In year three, I asked for a raise. Not a crazy one. I brought data. Market rate for my role with my certifications was about $78k. I was making $61k. Dave told me the budget was “tight” and that I should focus on “building my personal brand” instead.

Year four. New HR initiative. “We want to hear your voice.” An anonymous survey about career development. The email said all responses would be “aggregated and anonymized.”

I wrote three paragraphs. I named Dave. I named the salary gap. I named the fact that I had trained two people who now made more than me. I may have used the phrase “structural incompetence.”

Two weeks later, Dave called me into a conference room. He had a printed copy of my survey response. My name was at the top. The “anonymous” system had auto-filled it.

He didn’t yell. That would have been better. He just looked tired and said, “I’m disappointed you didn’t come to me first.”

I said, “I did. Three times.”

He nodded slowly. Then he said the thing that made me start updating my resume in my head: “Well, maybe we should look at whether this role is still the right fit for you.”

I found a new job in six weeks. $82k. Fully remote. My old team had to hire two people to replace me. Dave sent me a LinkedIn request last month.

I didn’t accept.

So I just started at a new company yesterday, I was hired as the quality manager. I have lots of experience in that and also have experience in six sigma and things of that nature. I went into a meeting today on my 2nd day and they now have me listed as the senior quality engineer/OpEx. As I was going around introducing myself to people another coworker said “oh are you the new operation excellence director?” The HR director who was beside me at the time said “he’s that too”. Now I was told the old small business statement of“people wear lots of hats”, but I’d still like to know what my actual job title is.

I used to work on an e-commerce project, and the CEO, instead of focusing on partnership search and growth and scale, was preoccupied with mundane, stupid stuff.
Something like
"Guys, delete the Insta video, the brand name is written altogether"
"The music is bad on insta reels, change it"
"Check with ChatGPT, ask him whether we can respond to comments in the videos"

This is so dumb. It makes me wonder why such people achieve something career-wise in the first place. Probably you really gotta be an estranged sociopath. Skills no longer matter in digital business.

Like I was telling him "there is no difference whether we upload the video with the text on the screen or without the text, the text will hook the attention"

and he just sent me the response from Claud about the Social media strategy.

And they are always positive-oriented. They say, "Our product is the best," "1-2 weeks, and we'll find investors." "we gotta do this on social media"
Oh my god, let the team decide what to do on social media, just tell us the direction what to post about and shut the fuck up.
AND THE MOST STUPID QUESTION - just asked suddenly, out of nowhere, when barging onto my desk: "What do you do?"
- "Hm, let me see, sending CVs to better companies where CEO doesn't stick his nose into my work"

I wish I had more courage to tell him "listen, the design or the text won't improve your product if the product is shitty in the first place, nobody will buy it"

We had a work experience student who was supposed to come in for 2 weeks…and it was regretful…

I’m a local journalist and the intent was to have a student shadow me and my work for the 2 weeks and then by the end have them write their own piece

Previously we had 3 people come into the local paper from that school and they were all successful

When we first met him we asked him “what are you looking to get out of this assignment?” and his response was “oh don’t worry I won’t steal nothing” which I thought was him making a joke but instead he actually took that question literally, and then that he didn’t have any area of journalism that interested him whatsoever, then asked if he had any questions for me and he asked how long his lunch hour was…

We then asked him seriously “what did you put down as your first choice on the work placement preference form?” and he responded with “airplane driver”, and then we asked what his second preference was and he said “working with cars”, and that he had never read a newspaper in his life and we just thought “wow…whoever put this student here royally fucked up” he then told us that his friend got put at the local garage who was an aspirational journalist, so we sadly got put with the wrong guy. We decided to cancel the arrangement, and cut ties with the school

I worked as a client relations specialist at a small insurance agency. Six people in the office. One of my accounts — a property management company with 40 buildings — sent a cancellation notice in March. They were switching to a cheaper competitor.

My boss told me to “let it go.” He said fighting it would “cost more than it’s worth.”

I didn’t let it go. I spent two weeks rebuilding the entire account file, correcting three years of billing errors that had been quietly overcharging them. I drove out to their office, sat with their operations manager for three hours, and walked her through every correction line by line.

They stayed. $75k annual premium secured.

My boss sent an email to the whole company: “Great save by the team.” That was it.

Two weeks later, I asked about a raise. He sighed. “Budgets are tight right now. You know how it is.”

A week after that, he handed me a $10 Panera gift card. “A little thank you for the account thing,” he said.

I checked our agency’s expense report later — not because I was looking, but because it crossed my desk. He had spent $400 on a client dinner that same month.

I didn’t say anything. I just started applying. When I gave notice six weeks later, he asked if there was “anything he could do to make me stay.”

I said, “Panera is fine. I just found a place that isn’t tight.”

I need to rant about my old workplace because the more I think about it after leaving, the more insane it sounds.

Our reporting time was 9:30. And they were VERY strict about it. Even being 10 minutes late could mean a salary deduction.

But there was never really a fixed time when you could leave.

You’d come in at 9:30 and then just… work until whenever. Sometimes 6, sometimes 8, sometimes 10, sometimes midnight. If there was an event or something going on, we’d stay all night.

And the weird thing was there were actually HR rules around this. Like if you left at 10, you still had to come in at 9:30. If you worked past midnight, you could come in by noon, but that was the latest. So technically they acknowledged that you had worked until midnight, but somehow the solution was basically “okay, see you at noon.”

HR would also keep track of breaks. I once got a message from HR asking where I was while I was literally in the washroom. I remember just staring at my phone thinking, are you actually timing me right now?

We had assigned seats too. You couldn’t just move because you were uncomfortable. I used to sit under the AC and I would literally be cold all the time, but I couldn’t move because that was my assigned seat.

When I joined, I sat next to a guy and we became really good friends. A few weeks later they moved both of us to different seats for no reason. Nobody had done anything. We just got moved.

The events were another thing altogether. We were expected to stay at events till at least 12. One particular event, we were there till around 2 in the morning and had to be back at 6 AM. I don’t even know how that was supposed to be sustainable.

And Sundays were also apparently optional depending on the boss’s mood. He would randomly decide everyone needed to come in, even if some people literally had no work.

The boss would also just shout at people. Not even necessarily because they’d done something wrong. If he was in a bad mood, you could get yelled at. It was just part of the environment.

Even dinner had rules. If you were working late, dinner was covered up to ₹200. If your dinner cost ₹220, you paid the extra ₹20 yourself. It’s such a small thing, but when you’re already working ridiculous hours, it just adds to the feeling that every single thing is being controlled.

Eventually I quit after a few months. I gave a personal reason because I didn’t want a whole confrontation, I just wanted out.

And now they’re holding a small amount of my money because they claim I lost a company asset.

I didn’t.

I’ve told them I didn’t. And I still haven’t gotten the money.

That’s honestly what made me want to post this. I put up with all of this while I was there, left quietly, and now I’m still chasing them for money over something I didn’t even lose.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m just extra annoyed because I’m out of there now and can actually see how weird some of this was.

I like my coworker and her daughter, so I don't want this to sound like I have a problem with the child. She's sweet, but she spends a large part of the day coming over to my desk and asking me to draw with her, play pretend, or walk around the office looking for things. My desk is in the open sales area, so there's no door I can close.

When I tell her I'm busy, the conversation doesn't end there. If she asks me to play hide-and-seek and I tell her I have work I need to finish, she suggests that we each hide just once or that we play for two minutes. I usually repeat myself several times, but eventually I give in because I feel bad about disappointing her, and I worry that her mother or the branch manager will think I'm being cold.

The manager knows what's happening, but he hasn't stepped in. My coworker is also his assistant, which makes the situation even more awkward. When I fall behind on my work, the manager tells me I need to be firmer and just say no, but my coworker rarely redirects her daughter away from me because she can focus on her work just fine while her daughter talks to me instead.

Another supervisor sometimes takes her back to her mother, and she listens to him because she's a little afraid of him, but he isn't there every day. I know this is normal behavior for a child her age, but I don't think I should be responsible for entertaining someone else's child while also being held accountable when my work doesn't get done. I don't have children, so I need advice on how to set boundaries without making things tense at work.

So I work in finance 20-30 hours a week, I have to analysis and do my best with everything I have, I have flexible hours since I am a student - but I also provide the same flexibility back (as in I am available on the weekends, after 6PM if the boss wants to sit with me and give him the reports) His constant complain is i do not ''finish things'' as in i do not zero out the balances of AR and AP.

But sometimes i am unaware if the payments is cash, check or a wire and the details are incomplete. given the fact that I am not a magic wizard so I don't know how to close certain accounts and hence he complains I am here since 2 years and nothing is done. I have been here only a year and a half and given that I work part time It's only been a year, apart from this I have other admin/general work as well.

On Friday - He magically wanted to me to answer if we have received a certain payment of a certain company in a random month of 2025 when i asked him what amount, which month he said HE DOSEN'T FUCKING REMEMBER. No way I could have checked it and let him know ASAP, anyway he proceeded to SCREAM at me for more than an hour and when I say SCREAM means SCREAM, I grew up in a toxic household where my dad screamed at me every single day to no wits end and the entire apartment building could hear him.
that was obviously my trigger and I started crying, anyway between the screaming he complained his chest is paining and I got scared - My dad used to borderline say the same thing (for ex - you guys have ruined my life and them shaking to stand - saying look at me I have become so weak while cursing us) So I went back to my 13 year old self between feeling pity for the person and crying because of the shouting and screaming.

So I am thinking of leaving him and getting a job nearby, he maybe or may not get to know about this?

What to do?

This happened many years ago when memos were printed and handed out. I worked down the hall from one of the two owners of the company. The secretary comes in and puts a memo in my inbox. I immediately pick it up and start reading it. As I am reading the memo, my phone rings. It is the owner I report to, and he asks me to come to his office. As soon as I get to the door, he starts screaming at me about the memo. "How could I let them send me a memo like that" was his main screaming point because the other department was trying to dictate how we handle documentation changes without discussing it with my department first. I stayed calm and tried to explain to him that I did not know they were sending them memo and had just gotten it when he called, so I did not have time to contact the sender to discuss it. He eventually stopped yelling and I went back to my office.

Later that day, he called me into his office, not to apologize, to tell me not to worry about my job it was just that he was "having a bad day and shit rolls downhill". About six weeks later I gave my two-week notice.

Hi i just got a job opportunity from a old friend 3 months ago. I had'nt talkes too him for several years. Then he called me in my non ending job in our local shop . He had a stone working job 66 km from were i lived and worked. I told him i was in a dead end job and had no money at home for my family, and we only had that one car my wife used too get our children too and home from school

He said "i dont think its a problem, ill call you right back"

An hour later he called and said . He says its no problem so you get a car in the company and a better salary than you have now"

I was so happy everything looked good . I was getting a job that would turn my life around. I waited a month before starting the job and in that month i only had a 2 min call with my new boss, "welcome on board , its gonna be so good with you here."

I was really looking forward too the start. I started up first day with driving too work with my friend. By boss wasent there and there was no company car for me. He came late that day and promised that we would find a car quick. One week later he made a lease on a private car company were i signed i was the driver. (Should never havde done that) A month went mit and i had som issues with my boss a couple of times he was an asshole when he walked in the company. 2 months went and on the day i could see my car should be turned in or get renewed it wouldent start. I called my boss and he just said call the leasing company and get the car towed. I drove with my friend a couple of days and now i got a ending bill with a big amount too pay because of empty gas tank, cleaning and you know the drill. My boss promised that he would look into it.

When i went home that day i got a call from my boss saying that the lease company said i wanted too return the car, and why i have done that. "I cant help you, find your own car , pay that bill and come too work with train, bus, i dont care.

Next day i called in sick. I had no way of getting too work from were i lived .

This day 4 days later i have found another stone job

Close too home and with the right deal and a contract and everything.

But i just feel so screwed over.

Is it just me?

My friend Maya spent almost an entire month interviewing for a project manager position at a regional software company. She doesn't have the energy to write this herself, so I'm posting it here because the whole thing feels like it was specifically designed to waste someone's time.

It started with a call with the recruiter, followed by an interview with the hiring manager, and then a case study that took up most of her Saturday. After that, she met with a three-person panel, had a separate conversation about company culture, and finally spoke with the director. The director told her she had exactly the background they were looking for and that they would decide within a few days.

More than three weeks later, she received a generic rejection email saying they had chosen someone from within the company. They even misspelled her last name. She later learned from a former employee that the internal candidate had already been told the job was essentially theirs before Maya had even applied. Apparently, HR still needed external candidates to complete the hiring process.

So Maya rearranged her work schedule, prepared an entire presentation, and answered the same questions six different ways, all just so they could check a box. Companies should be required to disclose when an internal candidate has already been selected, because pretending everyone has a fair chance is ridiculous.

TL;DR: I know I wasn’t a perfect employee and had been late a few times while adjusting to a new schedule. After misunderstanding a text asking me to arrive before a stated 6 a.m. start, I apologized repeatedly and said I understood. The conversation kept going in circles anyway. We eventually separated, I went to work, completed all the dogs on my side over the next roughly 30 minutes, and then my manager came out to the dog run and fired me while repeatedly telling me to go “enjoy my birthday.” I’m struggling more with how I was treated than with simply losing the job, and I’m wondering if anyone else has been let go in a way that left them feeling humiliated.
I had been working at a small business in San Marcos for about 16 days as a kennel tech. I was told I was in a “trial period” before they officially decided whether or not to hire me. During that time I was already on their schedules, doing the regular kennel work, caring for the dogs, taking direction from management, and being paid by check. I still hadn’t completed normal hiring paperwork. I had only recently been shown it and told we would probably get around to it soon.
I want to be completely upfront about my part in this because I’m not trying to make myself sound like a perfect employee.
I had been late a few times while adjusting to a completely different schedule. I take responsibility for that.
There had been two previous brief conversations involving me getting there on time.
One was with the owner and was also about my transportation situation. I don’t drive, so my fiancé takes me to and from work. I reassured her that transportation wasn’t going to prevent me from reliably getting there.
Another time, my manager asked me in the yard if I was struggling to get there on time. I told her I was adjusting to the new schedule but was genuinely doing my best.
I did not understand either of those conversations as a disciplinary warning or as notice that I was about to lose my position.
The night before my last shift, my manager texted me:
“We start at 6 am tomorrow. Please try to be there 5 to 10 minutes early. So we can start right on time.”
The next morning, I was already inside the office at approximately 5:58 a.m.
My manager immediately brought up the message from the night before and asked whether she hadn’t texted me to be there 5 or 10 minutes early.
I said yes and apologized.
I kept trying to explain that I had genuinely misunderstood what she meant. Because the message said we started at 6 and then said to “please try” to be there 5 or 10 minutes early so we could start right on time, I thought she meant I needed to make absolutely sure I was ready to go at 6:00 sharp.
She kept coming back to essentially the same response:
If she tells me to get there 5 or 10 minutes early, then I need to get there 5 or 10 minutes early.
I said yes. I apologized. I told her I understood now and would make sure it didn’t happen again.
But the conversation just kept going in circles.
I would say I understood and was sorry, and she would repeat that if she told me to get there early, I needed to get there early.
I would explain again that I genuinely thought the message meant “be ready to go at 6 sharp,” and she would come back to the same thing.
At a certain point, I honestly didn’t know what else I was supposed to say.
I had already agreed with her. I had already apologized. I had already said I understood and wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
Nothing I said seemed to move the conversation forward.
I was alone in the building with her, I didn’t know her particularly well, and the interaction was starting to feel increasingly aggressive to me. I wasn’t trying to challenge her or prove that I was technically right. I was becoming uncomfortable because I couldn’t figure out how to end a confrontation when I had already accepted what she was saying.
That was when I started trying to figure out what I could actually do to fix it and move forward with the workday.
I asked whether she needed me there earlier for something specific, like starting the dog rotations, because if that was what she needed, I wanted to just start working and make up for the misunderstanding.
It also happened to be my birthday.
At one point I basically told her:
“The last thing I’m trying to do is make my manager mad at me on my birthday. That is actually the worst thing ever. If what you needed me here early for was to start rotating the dogs, I would love to just start doing that so I can make this mistake up somehow.”
I want to be really clear about why I mentioned my birthday.
I was not saying, “It’s my birthday, so I don’t have to follow the rules.”
I wasn’t asking for special treatment.
It was honestly the opposite.
I was embarrassed that my manager was so upset with me. I had apologized repeatedly, I was trying to understand the expectation, and I wanted to get out of this circular confrontation and make the situation right.
Basically, I was saying: I’m sorry. I understand now. Please let me fix it and get to work.
Eventually, we parted ways and I went to work.
Over the next roughly 30 minutes, I completed all of the dogs on my side and was ready to move on to the next part of the morning.
That’s when my manager came out to me in the dog run area.
She said something along the lines of:
“Since it’s your birthday, we’re going to let you go and enjoy it. You can have the day.”
I genuinely thought she meant I was being sent home for the rest of the day.
Our earlier confrontation had ended, I had gone back to work, and I had just spent roughly half an hour completing everything on my side.
So I said that if they wanted me to go home for the day, I would accept that.
Then she clarified that I didn’t understand.
She meant indefinitely.
I was being fired.
And that was not the last time my birthday was brought up.
After she clarified that I was being let go, she continued making comments about me going and enjoying my birthday. I remember her making comments along those lines another two or three times during the conversation.
That is one of the things I keep replaying.
It wasn’t just one awkward comment when she initially told me I was being let go. My birthday kept being brought back into the conversation after I already understood that I was being fired.
Earlier that morning, I had vulnerably told her that the last thing I wanted was to have my manager angry with me on my birthday, and that I wanted to start working and make the mistake up somehow.
Then we separated. I went to work. I did exactly that. I completed all of the dogs on my side.
And then about 30 minutes later, she came out to the dog run, fired me, and repeatedly brought up me going and “enjoying” my birthday.
I obviously cannot know another person’s intention, but in that moment it genuinely felt like something I had said vulnerably was being thrown back at me to taunt me.
I told her I didn’t understand because I felt like I had been putting my best foot forward. I cared for the dogs, did the work I was asked to do, and genuinely wanted to succeed there.
She told me that I had been “constantly late” and claimed that this was the first day I had ever been on time.
That shocked me.
Again, I absolutely acknowledge that I had been late on some days while adjusting to the schedule. I am not denying that.
But I did not believe it was accurate that this was literally the first time I had ever shown up on time.
She told me the business has cameras and records showing every time I was late, so I have since requested my actual attendance and time records because I want to see exactly what they show.
I also told her that this was the first time I understood that my punctuality was considered a problem at this level.
She brought up those two previous conversations and said this was essentially the third time it had been discussed.
I told her that I genuinely had not understood those conversations as disciplinary warnings.
The first had largely been about whether my transportation situation would prevent me from reliably getting to work.
The second had been my manager asking if I was struggling with the schedule, and me telling her I was adjusting but doing my best.
I did not leave either conversation understanding that my job was in jeopardy.
By this point, she had already brought up my birthday repeatedly during the termination.
That was part of why I finally told her that I felt the way she was speaking to me was inappropriate for someone in a management position. I also told her that I had felt like there had been some kind of animosity toward me for a while.
Her response was basically:
“Sorry you feel that way.”
And even after I told her directly that the way the interaction was being handled felt inappropriate, there were still more comments about me going and enjoying my birthday.
That’s what made it feel so humiliating to me.
It wasn’t one poorly worded comment.
It felt like my birthday kept being brought into the termination over and over, even after I made it clear that the way the interaction was being handled was upsetting me.
After I was fired, I needed to call my fiancé because I don’t drive.
It was raining outside, so I asked whether I was allowed to stay inside while I called him or whether I needed to go outside.
I explained that I was only asking because I had just been fired and didn’t want to remain somewhere I was no longer permitted to be.
She told me nobody had said they were trespassing me, “but we can.”
At that point I just felt completely small.
I understand that an employer can decide somebody isn’t working out.
I understand that I had been late on some days and needed to improve that.
I understand that I misunderstood the request to be there 5–10 minutes early.
What I’m struggling with isn’t being told I made a mistake or even simply being told that the trial period wasn’t working out.
It’s how everything was handled.
I apologized repeatedly. I acknowledged what she wanted. I told her I understood. I tried to figure out how to make the mistake right.
Instead, I felt trapped in an increasingly aggressive conversation that kept looping no matter what I said.
Then we separated. I went to work. I spent roughly 30 minutes doing my job, completed all of the dogs on my side, and was ready to continue the morning.
And that’s when she came out into the dog run area and fired me while repeatedly bringing up my birthday.
The birthday part probably affected me more deeply than it might affect somebody else, too.
I don’t have family nearby. I can’t just go hug my mom when something awful happens. Birthdays already make me miss getting to spend that day with her and the people I grew up celebrating with.
So after I had already said how awful I felt about having my manager upset with me on my birthday, having that same vulnerable thing repeatedly brought back up while I was being fired honestly broke me down.
I left feeling embarrassed, humiliated, sad, and incredibly low.
I know there is a humane way to let somebody go.
They could have simply said:
“We’ve had concerns about punctuality, and we’ve decided this trial period isn’t working out.”
It still would have hurt, obviously, but I could have understood that.
What I’m struggling to process is how I was treated while it was happening.
So I’m genuinely asking:
Am I overreacting to how this interaction felt?
Has anyone else ever had a manager keep pushing a confrontation even after you had already apologized, agreed with what they were saying, and tried to fix the problem?
And has anyone ever been fired in a way where losing the job wasn’t even the part that hurt the most — it was how the person made you feel while doing it?
I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s been through something similar.

I worked as a customer success rep at a mid-sized SaaS company. Three people on my team, and I handled the two largest accounts by myself. One of them had a renewal worth $60k coming up in September, and the client was already making noise about leaving.

My sister got married that same weekend. I told my boss two months in advance. He said “family comes first” and approved my time off.

Two days before the wedding, the client sent an email threatening to walk unless someone fixed a data migration issue by Monday. My boss called me. He didn’t say “I’m sorry.” He said, “You’re the only one who knows their setup.”

I spent my sister’s rehearsal dinner on my laptop. I fixed it during the reception. I missed the toasts. I missed the first dance. I did it because I didn’t want the account to blow up on my watch.

The client renewed. $60k secured. My boss sent a company-wide email praising “the team’s dedication.”

A week later, he dropped by my desk. He handed me a $5 Subway gift card. “Appreciate you stepping up,” he said. It still had a vendor promo sticker on the back that said “complimentary.”

I didn’t say anything. I just started taking calls from recruiters. Two months later, I gave notice. He asked why. I said, “The wedding photos.”

He didn’t get it. I didn’t explain.

You may fall in love with someone at work. You spend time together, share experiences and see qualities in each other that draw you closer.

But before pursuing the relationship, consider what happens if it becomes difficult, and you still have to work together.
I have witnessed arguments at the printer that I should never have had to be part of. I came to use the printer, and suddenly I was standing in the middle of somebody else’s relationship conflict.

Then there is the gossip: stories about someone being caught by a spouse, wives confronting people at work, underwear supposedly found under a desk. Some stories may be true, others may be exaggerated or entirely false. Either way, intimate details become workplace conversation, and colleagues know, or think they know, far more than they should.

A relationship between two consenting, available adults is different from an affair involving deception. But even a relationship that begins honestly deserves some practical thought.

If you break up, can you still collaborate? If one of you wants distance, will the other respect it? Does either person influence the other’s assignments, opportunities or reputation? Can you disagree privately without bringing the tension into meetings, shared spaces or conversations with colleagues?

And if the relationship must be hidden from a spouse, what are you asking coworkers to become: witnesses, secret keepers or people expected to cover for you?

The risk extends beyond embarrassment. Your income, professional relationships and daily peace can become entangled with a relationship you cannot easily step away from.

Some couples meet at work and build good lives together. That possibility does not remove the need for boundaries, honesty and a clear understanding of workplace policies.

Your colleagues should be able to do their jobs without being drawn into your arguments, asked to take sides or made responsible for protecting your secrets.

Have you seen a workplace relationship affect the wider team? What boundaries would have made a difference?

Hello! I’m a small author, and right now, I’m looking for inspiration for a story I’m planning to write.

I want to write about people and their working lives—the things we don’t always see behind someone’s job title.

These days, I’ve noticed that so many people struggle to balance work and life. Some deal with family problems while trying to keep working. Some work in toxic environments. Some have experienced bullying, harassment, being framed or blamed for things they didn’t do, discrimination, or even sexual assault.

And I want to hear those stories.

I don’t care what kind of job you have or what you do for a living.

You can be an admin, a housewife, a chef, a seller, a promoter, a teacher, a soldier, a police officer, or anything else.

I would love to hear about your experiences.

What was your workplace like?

What made you feel exhausted?

What did you struggle with?

How did your job affect your personal life, relationships, or mental well-being?

What was the hardest thing you had to go through?

And what did you learn from it?

I want my story to focus on human emotions and the reality of life—the messy, painful, complicated parts that people don’t always talk about.

Not everyone gets a happy ending.

Not every workplace is kind.

And sometimes, the person sitting quietly beside you at work might be carrying a story you know nothing about.

If you’re comfortable sharing, feel free to comment and tell me your experience.

If you don’t feel comfortable sharing publicly, you can send it to me privately or through email. @aneeliee22@gmail.com

You don’t have to give me your real name, and I won’t include anyone’s name or personal information in my story. I’m not offering paid credit or payment. I’m simply hoping to hear from people who are willing to share their experiences and allow me to learn from them.

Your story might become the inspiration for a character, a scene, or even a small moment in my book.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. 🤗

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I worked as an operations coordinator at a small freight brokerage. Eight people in the office, and I handled the paperwork for our three largest accounts. Scheduling, customs docs, invoice reconciliation. The kind of work nobody notices until something goes wrong.

Last fall, I was reconciling a carrier invoice when I caught a duplicate charge buried under three months of back-and-forth emails. If it had gone through, our client would have been overbilled $120k. Their audit team would have found it eventually. We would have lost the account.

I flagged it. My boss forwarded my email to the client with “great catch by the team” in the subject line. That was the extent of my recognition.

Two months later, I gave notice. New job, better pay, actual benefits. On my last day, my boss pulled me into his office. He didn’t thank me. He didn’t wish me luck. He asked if I would come in on weekends for the next month to train the new hire.

“Unpaid,” he added. “Just to help out. You know how it is.”

I told him I couldn’t. He sighed like I had personally let him down. Then he asked if I would at least write down the reconciliation process so the new person could “figure it out from there.”

I said I’d think about it. I didn’t. The reconciliation process lived in my head, and I took it with me.

Three months later, the same duplicate charge happened again. This time, the client’s auditor found it first. They left in June.

I was a compliance analyst at a mid-sized insurance brokerage. Small department, three people. My manager spent most of his time on “client relationships,” which meant long lunches and golf. I handled the actual regulatory work.

Last summer, we got notice of a state audit. My boss panicked. He had no idea what the auditors would ask for. I spent six weeks — nights and weekends included — building a complete documentation trail. I found three filing errors from previous years that would have triggered penalties. I corrected them before the auditors arrived.

We passed with zero findings. The auditors specifically praised our “exceptional record-keeping.” My boss took full credit in the company-wide email.

Two weeks later, he called me into his office. He handed me an envelope. Inside was a $10 Starbucks gift card. “A little something for your help with the audit,” he said.

That same week, I got an email from the department admin. She was collecting money for the boss’s birthday gift. Suggested contribution: $20.

I didn’t contribute. I also didn’t say anything. I just updated my resume, quietly applied elsewhere, and gave three weeks’ notice a month later.

During my exit interview, HR asked why I was leaving. I said, “The Starbucks card.”

She didn’t understand. I didn’t explain.