I'm an Account Manager and I work with major enterprise accounts. About a month ago, I was told we'd be going to a client's office for a business review. No one explained how the flight or hotel would be handled, and no one asked me about travel plans, so I assumed the company would book it or pay directly. Most people I know who travel for work either have a corporate card or the company handles the booking.

A couple of days ago, my manager sent me the hotel details. When I asked what the booking process was, they told me to contact finance. I emailed them on Wednesday, followed up the next morning, and then today they told me I need to create a Concur account, pay for the flight and hotel on my own credit card, and then submit everything for reimbursement.

I'm still trying to get back on my feet financially after a period of job instability and debt, and honestly, I don't have enough room on my card/the cash flow to cover this without missing other bills. Because of the timing, I don't know what to do without either putting myself in a bad financial position or coming across at work as difficult or unprepared. Has anyone dealt with a situation like this in a professional way?

My manager also didn't follow up with me on anything related to travel logistics until this week, and no one had told me before that I would be responsible for booking everything myself. Maybe this is normal and I'm just new to this setup, but it feels a bit disorganized. If I had known earlier, I could have tried to move money around or planned better, but finding out right before booking is hard:\

TLDR; My company wants me to pay for work travel expenses upfront and then get reimbursed, but I can't cover the amount temporarily. Is this standard, and do I have any options other than falling behind on bills?

update: will talk to the manager tomorrow, but I'm very very stressed and afraid I can't speak confidently in front of him. This post inspired me with some tips to be calm during the meeting, will try to apply all of them. wish me luck.

About 14 months ago, my manager pulled some unnecessary petty power-play moves, and after that I made a few changes: I removed Slack/work email from my phone and stopped doing anything beyond my normal working hours. No more free bonus labor from me. If there's a call for a panel submission and she didn't mention it in the staff meeting, I'm not going to mention it either. And if she has a "wouldn't it be nice if..." kind of idea about something she wants to magically appear, I simply... Leave it as it is.

My manager's manager knows my manager is difficult to deal with, and after I told a colleague I was seriously thinking about leaving, it ended with me getting a pay bump.

Now we're nearing the end of the fiscal year, and I've just finished compiling the quarterly numbers. I used the prior annual report as a reference, and honestly, wow. We're still hitting the actual metrics, but a lot of the random "above and beyond" projects quietly disappeared.

My annual review and goal-setting for next year are coming up, and I'm trying to figure out how to talk about this. I'm imagining that nothing good will come from saying, "I stopped doing extra because you made me miserable," but at the same time I feel like it's going to be very noticeable. Has anyone dealt with something like this in a way that didn't backfire on them?

For context, we're a team of four, and we had to replace one of the team members last year. The new person lasted about seven weeks before it became clear they weren't a fit, so I'm wondering whether I can reasonably present part of the drop-off as due to the time spent on training/onboarding. I want to stay in this role for at least another 6 years because of certain benefits, and also because I'm hoping my manager, who is getting close to retirement, will finally leave within the next three years. I'd appreciate any advice.

I asked my manager for a raise, and he told me I'm already getting paid way too much. So I updated my job description and showed him how I'm carrying the work of 4 roles while still being paid based on the one role I was originally hired for.

He told me he doesn't care, that my salary is already very high, and that if I don't like it, I can go somewhere else.

What should I do in this situation? Finding another job at the same salary level probably won't be easy. But I'm doing the work of 4 jobs for one salary, and honestly, it feels completely unfair.

I'm a 41-year-old man, working as a plant maintenance mechanic and making about $112k a year. I've been with my wife for almost 14 years, and we have three kids. We bought our first house about 18 months ago, and both of our cars are relatively new.

I work a lot of hours, usually between 50 and 58 hours a week, and honestly I feel like I'm doing all of this just to stay in the same place. No one really warns you that owning a home turns into endless repairs, random projects, and money disappearing every time you turn around.

I feel like my life has become work, bills, fixing things, and then waking up to do the same thing all over again. On paper, it probably looks like we did everything "right," but I don't feel like I'm living any of it.

All I'm doing is working to keep up with this dream that was sold to us when we were kids. Does anyone else feel like the "American dream" is more exhausting than it's worth?

I just turned 26 and I've been at my first real career job for six weeks. I'm not trying to complain, because I understand many people would kill to be in my position. A stable job is a blessing and not something to be taken lightly. The benefits are good and the pay is fine. For months, I was dying for a good job and I finally found one. So please don't think I'm ungrateful or unappreciative.

But all that aside, after this short period of clicking through emails and adjusting spreadsheets from morning till night, I can't possibly see myself doing this until I retire. Honestly, I'd rather be working with landscapers in the scorching heat like I did during college summers. At least then I felt alive. I'm starting to think that humans are supposed to be outside and using their hands, at least some of the time... I didn't know I was getting into being a professional spreadsheet adjuster. My brain feels like it's going to explode and my eyes feel like sandpaper by 5:30 every day. The only thing I look forward to is going for a run after work to release all this pent-up energy.

I know I can get promoted in the company, and that I won't be in this same role forever, but I really can't make a whole career out of sitting in a cold, dark building staring at screens from 9 to 5:30. I look in the mirror every morning and see dark circles under my eyes that weren't there before. This can't be it, right?

I've reached my limit with my current job. The stress and burnout have gotten to the point where my partner and family are genuinely worried about me. My stomach churns every morning before work, and I can no longer focus on anything.

The work environment itself is extremely toxic. The turnover is unnaturally high. My manager loves to belittle people in front of everyone or throw passive-aggressive comments to demoralize them. I've seen at least two of my colleagues crying in the bathroom. I'm constantly tense, on edge, and can't concentrate on my work.

The problem is, I've only been here for about 4 months, and this is my first real job after college. I'm terrified that with my limited experience and the resulting gap on my CV, my chances of finding another job will be next to none. I try to convince myself to stick it out until I find something else, but coming home completely drained of energy every day is not a sustainable situation.

I've been saving well, so financially I can cover my expenses for a few months without a job. But how would I even explain a gap like this on my CV to any future interviewer? Should I leave the job for my mental health, or do I have to endure it for longer? Is this considered career suicide?

For context: I work in Marketing at a mid-sized startup in Chicago. My manager is the department head, but he's also the owner's favorite, so he does whatever he wants with no accountability. The owner himself is hardly ever present and rarely comes in. People who tried to speak up in the past had things get even worse for them until they finally quit. Almost everyone at the company has been here for less than 8 months, except for maybe two people. All my colleagues feel the same way, but most of us are recent grads without much experience.