u/LazaroRohan1

There is absolutely no problem with someone being out of work for 4 months. Stop pressuring people to share personal details that have nothing to do with the job, or forcing them to come up with an explanation that sounds acceptable just because they were outside the corporate system for a short period.

Compared to a normal 45-year career, a few months or even 18 months is a very small portion of time. People have children, get sick, take care of their families, reach burnout, move, grieve the loss of someone, reorganize their lives, or simply need a break.

What do you think about gaps in resumes? Stay-at-home parents, how do you usually explain that period when applying for a job?

I'm doing an internship as a receptionist and I started about three weeks ago. This morning, my manager took me aside and told me that a client said I smelled really bad. It's clear the client felt guilty about saying something, and my manager was also kind while telling me, which somehow makes me feel worse.

I'm extremely embarrassed. I've had problems before with personal hygiene, but honestly, I thought I had it under control recently. Now I can't stop thinking that everyone I work with could smell me and was pretending they didn't notice. It's getting into my head in a really awful way.

Of course I'll fix my hygiene routine immediately. I'll pay more attention when I shower, change the products I use, keep extra clothes and deodorant with me, and all that. But I don't know how I'm supposed to look anyone in the eye now when I'm convinced they see me as "the intern who smells bad."

I keep replaying every small interaction in my head since I started. Every weird pause, every time someone moved away from me, every awkward look. If I didn't have about 10 months left on the contract, I probably would have left right then.

The worst part is that I was enjoying the job. The pay and benefits are good, and my coworkers seemed nice before I got myself into this spiral. I just don't know how to go in tomorrow and act normal without feeling like everyone is judging me.

So the situation is very normal and annoying... I didn't get a clear answer about the salary before I got the job offer. And when the offer finally came, we both acknowledged that it was a bit low, but we agreed that at the 120-day mark there would be an increase in compensation/salary. Of course, assuming my evaluations and everything were good.

After the 45/75-day check-ins and 4/4 evaluations with strong feedback, I was honestly waiting for the 120 days to come so I could bring up the raise. Even if it was fifty cents, for example... But no.

Instead, it turned into a spiral of emails and nonsense like "someone said this, and someone said that," and in the end they decided they weren't going to give me the raise.

They brought me into a meeting at the beginning of this week to make sure we were all on the same page... And I told them they probably need to be clearer when they hire the person after me, and say upfront honestly that they don't do raises after 120 days.

I told them that a 4/4 evaluation doesn't pay my rent, and that although I appreciate them telling me I'm doing good work, the part that makes a difference is seeing that reflected in my salary.

Now they've scheduled another meeting with me on Wednesday.

Don't be afraid to speak up and demand your rights in this greedy world we live in.

I work at one of the big hardware stores that you've definitely seen ads for, and there's a guy I met there about 12 weeks ago who still refuses to pick up his checks. Let's call him Leonard. Leonard has a small stack of envelopes on the counter in the break room with his name on them, and as far as I can tell, he hasn't opened a single one. Everyone at work has been whispering about it for a while.

Leonard seems like a good person. Quiet, keeps to himself, maybe a little odd or stiff in the way he deals with people sometimes, but he's not rude. A few days ago, while he was organizing stock in one of the aisles, I asked him why he leaves his checks and walks away. He said it was "for religious reasons." I gave a small laugh and said okay, but when you got hired you signed paperwork saying how you wanted to be paid.

He apparently told the manager the same thing, and at first they more or less thought he was joking or making some weird joke. Now I'm hearing from the talk going around that the higher-ups are very upset about it and might try to take legal action if he leaves another check lying there after the next pay period.

I asked him if there was another way they could pay him besides cash/check/direct deposit or whatever, and he said no, that wouldn't work. Then he said "that's not the point," and went back to work like nothing had happened.

The strange thing is that he's full-time and honestly works very conscientiously. He's not lazy, he doesn't cause problems, and he gets a lot of work done while he's there. I know they could fire him if this keeps up, but honestly he's one of the best people we have at work.

Has anyone seen anything like this before? What is the company even supposed to do if someone completely refuses to accept being paid?

When our second child was born, my husband and I sat down to run the numbers and see whether daycare even made sense, or whether one of us should stay home for a while. After adding everything up, we found that if we put our daughter in daycare, my husband's salary, after transportation, lunch, work clothes, and the rest of the random work-related expenses, would leave us with only about $6,200. So we decided it made more sense for him to leave his job and stay home for a few years.

He packed up most of his things from his desk and wrote a resignation letter giving them three weeks' notice, and had it ready. The next morning, he already had a meeting on the calendar with his manager, and his plan was to hand him the letter then.

Before he could say anything about resigning, his manager told him they were letting him go and wouldn't be needing him anymore.

They gave him seven weeks of severance and covered our health insurance for several months. He came home laughing his head off because he had literally gotten paid to do the thing he had been planning to do for free.

In the end, he stayed home for a little over four years, and for the first 16 months he was able to collect unemployment. When he went back to work, he started part-time and then moved to full-time. After that, he worked with a man who was getting ready to retire, and that man sold us his business.

By the time we bought it, my husband was making about four times what he had made at the job that fired him. And we still laugh about the whole thing to this day.

Without fail, every time I get back from my break, he has to make a snide comment like, "Lucky you, taking your full 45 minutes, huh?". It's like, dude, yes, of course? That's the whole point of a break.

He also loves to guilt-trip me. He'll sigh loudly and say something like, "This customer has been waiting for a while, but don't you worry, we'll handle it for you." All while I'm just trying to eat my sandwich.

I work in retail and we're always short-staffed, but that's a management problem, not something I'm supposed to solve by skipping my legally entitled break. The audacity is truly unreal.

I'm so sick of this lazy, self-important man. I swear I'm barely holding myself back from telling him off.

Guys, I'm in a bit of a bind. I was completely fed up with my old job after they promoted someone I had just trained over me. So I started looking for a job and got an offer from another company in pretty much the same field. I informed the new company that I had resigned from my current job and needed two weeks, and a few days later, I received an email saying that the job offer was no longer valid.

When I first informed my current company that I was leaving, my excuse was that they didn't give specific training requirements for a certification I was pursuing, unless I entered their structured development path, which I wasn't keen on. I'm wondering if I can go back and say I changed my mind about that development path? Or simply say I want to stay in my current position? Nothing was put in writing at all; it was just a friendly chat with my manager.

Honestly, I'm lost. I really don't like my current company and want to leave by any means, but I live paycheck to paycheck and absolutely cannot afford to be without a job.