I asked if I could leave work for about 45 minutes to attend my daughter's first school play, but my boss hinted that it's not be possible.

I was already stressed about the possibility of missing it, so I responded more rudely and aggressively than I should have. It was clear that he didn't take my reaction well, and now I'm worried he might be thinking about firing me. Did I mess up really badly?

I had an interview recently, and in the end, the manager moved it to another day because it was clear that I wasn't prepared enough. At first, they said it would be somewhat casual, so I relaxed more than I should have, and that was definitely my mistake.

They told me I hadn't come well-prepared, but they tried to say it in a nice way. After that, they said they would prefer to reschedule the interview and have me come back when I was more ready. They also told me what information I should look at so I could answer the questions better next time.

Honestly, the whole thing threw me off. For a large part of the conversation, they were guiding me and giving me tips, as if they were walking me step by step through what I was supposed to have done. I appreciated that, but at the same time it made me feel bad because I already know that interviews aren't my strongest point.

Has this happened to anyone else? Is it normal for a manager to stop an interview and reschedule it like that?

My manager was presenting something in a meeting and quickly opened the wrong file before closing it. It was visible on the screen for only a moment, but the call was recorded, and when I went back and watched it, I discovered that it was showing our department's budget for 2026, including each employee's compensation.

I found out that I'm almost at the bottom of the pay range, even though I've been here longer than most of the team and have a lot of experience. A recent hire who started a few weeks ago is making almost twice what I make, even though they don't have any background with the company or our products.

Does it make sense to bring this up directly with my manager? Should I talk to coworkers first? Or is this more of a conversation with HR?

Make fun of me if you want, but I've been in tech for 12 years and honestly have no idea how other industries work.

I'm trying to step away a bit from being glued to a laptop 9 hours a day and do something in the "real world" for a while. I know that probably means taking a big pay cut, and I'm fine with that. I'm not chasing more money. I have a good house, a mortgage I can manage, and I don't need much else. Around $115,000 a year with benefits would be more than enough for me.

I realize $115,000 isn't a small amount. It just feels modest compared to what people in tech get used to.

Do jobs like this exist? Ideally, something that doesn't need me to go back to school for years, but where experience in project management, working with clients, and sales would be valuable?

I'm thinking of telling them that we're expecting a baby, mostly because I'll probably need to be present for the birth, and I don't want to risk running into problems at a new job because I took time off right at the start. I'd rather know early on if they don't have a problem with that. If they do have a problem, I'll probably stay at my current job.

This position would pay me about $17,000-$21,000 more than what I make now, so yeah, I really want it - especially since our first child is coming soon.

Do you think I should bring it up near the end of the interview, or wait until there's an offer?

A few days ago, the manager called me into his office. It turned out someone had seen me doing food delivery and told him. He launched into a long conversation about "loyalty" and how me working a second job means I'm "not invested in the company." Like, dude, you're paying me $75k a year in a city where the average studio is $2500 a month. What did you think was going to happen?

He seriously told me that I should be spending my evenings "looking for ways to add more value to the team" instead of making money somewhere else. His sense of entitlement is incredibly weird. I told him my agreement is 38 hours, Monday to Friday, and what I do outside of that time is none of his business. He did not like that response at all.

Now he's acting weird about every little thing. He makes comments about my "focus being divided" and asks me on calls whether I'm "fully engaged" or not. It's very obvious he's trying to create a paper trail so he can discipline me or something like that.

My manager sent me a message earlier this week and said: "(my name), I wanted to say thank you for always making me laugh. You genuinely make the workday better."
I work remotely, so almost all of my communication with the company and the team happens on Slack. Honestly, remote work has helped me in my job far more than I expected.

Apparently my manager noticed that. I had no idea people liked the random things I say. I always assumed they were just politely putting up with me, or thought I was weird. And that's usually the feeling I get about the way people see me in general.

For some reason, I'm much more confident when I'm not sitting in a room with people looking at me. That small bit of distance makes it easier for me to be helpful, joke around, and try to make someone's day less boring.

Autism has a lot of difficult sides. The world doesn't always understand me the way I wish it would. So when I hear something like that from my manager, honestly, it meant a lot to me.

Social things have never felt natural to me. But when I work from home, I don't have to monitor myself all the time in the same way I do when I'm around people. And that is enormously relieving.

I was waiting in the reception area at my dentist's office and overheard part of a conversation at the front desk. There was someone, probably a manager or senior staff member, upset and saying: "We can't find anyone to come work for less than $24 an hour, can you believe it??"

Yeah, I can believe it. The entry-level person in a dental office is usually a dental assistant, and even that can need around 10 months of training or school. What do they expect people to do?

Anyway, I was in an interview today and it was going very well, until the hiring manager suddenly asked me, "Tell me three reasons why we shouldn't hire you."

I got flustered on the spot and the question completely threw me off. I blurted out some stupid answers and I'm sure it cost me my chance at this job.

When it was my turn to ask questions, I decided to ask him, "Okay, if I were to receive multiple offers, what would be the main reason for me not to choose to work here?"

Man, his expression did a complete 180. It was obvious he got very annoyed and said something like, "Look, our company isn't for just anyone." Then he quickly wrapped things up and said, "That's a bit of an aggressive question. Anyway, thank you for your time, we'll be in touch."

This whole process is a joke. And I don't even want to work in a place that has such double standards. Just for context, this wasn't an entry-level position. I'm currently a lead and have over 11 years of experience.

Anyways, I started to email some companies that are looking for employees, and one of them replied today, saying the interview will be tomorrow morning in office. any tips about how to pas this time??

update: luckily, I came across this post about how to be calm and less stressful during the interview, will apply each tip and will update you.

Hi!

I (23M) work at a very small bank in a city in upstate NY. There are only 5 of us: our CEO (I'll call him B2), a manager, and 3 tellers, one full-time, one floating part-time, and me part-time. Recently I saw a post about how to get a job quickly and I started looking for another job through cold emails, and wow it got me a part time job in just 3 days!

I applied to a new job because my hours at the bank aren't enough to cover rent and normal bills.

Right now my schedule at the bank is Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, so I told the new job (an after-school program) that I can work Mondays and Wednesdays during the day. I let B2 know that I wouldn't be able to come in during those hours if someone was out, and he told me I'm not allowed to work another job at that time because I need to be available to cover, based on the hiring paperwork I signed. Apparently there have to be 3 people in the bank at all times, so if for any reason 3 out of 4 people end up being unavailable, I'm expected to come in no matter what.

I understand why he wants coverage, so I went back to the after-school program and told them I wouldn't be able to commit to the original availability I gave them. They told me that B2 can't need me to keep those days free for free, and that if I'm expected to be available like that, I probably should be getting on-call pay under NYS labor laws.

I'm going to ask B2 for a copy of my employment contract the next time I go in, and I'm also trying to reach NYS labor (their phone line is useless, of course 🙃). I wanted to ask here if anyone knows what the next step I should take is, whether on-call pay applies in this kind of situation, or if there's something specific I need to ask for in writing. Thanks!