r/WorkAdvice

I always arrive 10 minutes before my shift and leave right on time. My colleagues, on the other hand, show up late and leave early every single day, leaving the rest of us to cover the workload.
One coworker told me I could just leave early too, but he’s already overwhelmed with work because of them. I decided I had enough and emailed our supervisor. HR is now investigating, and my coworkers are scrambling to find out who reported them.
AITA?

Industry: Healthcare administration.

So at my job, I work on a contracted project team with another guy. We are a team of two that handles a certain set of tasks, reporting up to a greater team and then program. Factually speaking, we are equals in position or rank, if you want to put it that way. We are supposed to be a collaborative team.

He is a bit older than I and very experienced. But I think I have valuable experience and knowledge where he lacks it, and vice versa.

Our team of two works very independent of our managers, which can be great. However, this colleague just…doesn’t have the experience with independent work to be proactive. He will take this independence we have and abuse it, in my opinion.
That means I am left to do work without him, which is fine. But it means I’m doing the work and management sees it as “us” doing the work, when in reality, it’s me.

As well, he can be an extreme swellhead. He talks much more than he listens; he can be extremely didactic; he wants to be as the experienced expert. Coupled with his lack of work, it can create this dynamic where it feels like he comes in when a project has already been worked on (by me), and now he is offering his (uninformed) thoughts. It can feel like he is “grading” me. In short, it creates a dynamic where it makes me feel like he sees himself as a the senior one of us, if you will, and I run stuff through him. When it’s supposed to be collaborative and equal between us.

I think it’s because he has recently retired from the military where he was a medium level staff officer. I say this as a veteran myself. So he was used to having his own staff who did work for him. We are now individual contributors, and he’s not used to doing this work on his own.

I feel like going to management would make me seem weak and needy, or a snitch. I already discussed this with them probably 7 months ago, they saw where I was coming from, but nothing got done. So really nothing has changed.

Just looking for advice on how to handle this dynamic.

Every time I have a trip somewhere decent, I want to stay a couple extra days on my own dime, but I never know how to actually word the ask to my manager, or whether it's even worth the hassle. Anyone found a good way to approach this, or a template that worked for you?

Hello everyone I am looking for advice here’s my situation I work construction and recently left the company I spent 4 1/2 years with to work for my fathers plumbing company I took a $3 pay cut from $32 down to $29 an hour to come join the family business but now my old employer is offering me $38 an hour to go back I like working for my dad but a $9 raise does sound nice I guess my question is will working for my dad pay off in the end ? It’s still a small business with hopefully plenty of room to grow but he is my dad and does still treat me like a child I’m 30 and have 12 years of plumbing background but some how I still started as just an apprentice (from the bottom)

I recently started a new job through an employment agency. I had only been there for a short time when I was suddenly told that my assignment was ending and that I should not return.

I was surprised because I had been putting a lot of effort into the job and hadn’t been told that there were any problems with my performance.

There had been one minor issue involving a workplace appearance policy. My supervisor had mentioned it to me a few times, and I explained my situation and apologized. I was trying to follow the policy while also dealing with the circumstances around the issue.

Then, shortly after it was brought up again, my assignment was unexpectedly cancelled. I asked the agency if they knew why, but they said they weren’t given a specific reason.

I’m not necessarily interested in getting the job back. I’m mostly curious about whether I should contact someone higher up at the company and politely ask if there was a specific reason for the decision.

Would you ask for an explanation or would you just move on? Is it normal for an agency assignment to end suddenly without the worker being given a reason?

I could use some advice or maybe just a place to vent. I, 31F, have been working for my employer for 9 years. We actually worked together prior to that but both needed to leave our employer and she wanted to go off and create her own business and brought me along. So we essentially built the business from the ground up. We are a small bookkeeping company that helps various businesses with their bookkeeping. I've really enjoyed my job and have got myself into a "Senior Management" position currently making 62K/year (I started at 48K/year). We have two other individuals that work part time doing the data entry and then I do financial review of that as well as I have a few of my own clients I strictly work on doing various things. In the beginning of the business she was pretty lenient on the vacation policy just because we didn't really start out with any clients and it was just me working for her so if I didn't have any work and left for the day early she wouldn't dock my PTO for it. She actually started me accruing 3 weeks of vacation then when we started hiring 5 years in she was working on their vacation policy and noticed she didn't want that happening for everyone and it was in my employment agreement that it was supposed be 2 weeks so she talked to me about it and changed it to accrue 80 hours and took away 20 hours from my balance with my Okay. (I know I know, I should've said no cause it was her fuck up). Anyway at that time I wasn't really using PTO so I had a pretty hefty balance. Fast forward to now. I moved about 2 hours away two years ago and I'm appreciative she's been able to make it work to let me do this. She also pays rent for a little office space I have here so I can get out of the house and work. I've been taking more vacations since meeting my boyfriend 4 years ago and I feel like just enjoying my life more. He has some flexibility with his work so sometimes he'll have last minute leave town to do something and asks if I want to come and I unfortunately say I can't. Even though I probably can make it work. My issue is that over the last couple years my boss has gotten pretty strict on the 40 hours a week deal. If I don't log 40 hours then she docs the remaining to my PTO which is fair but my workload is slim sometimes that I don't need to be clocked in 40 hours. I'm struggling with the fact that I can get my work done in say 4 hours sometimes compared to a full 8 hours. We bill our time to clients so we use a time tracking software and if we aren't working on something billable we put it to "Admin" which I hate doing. I'm currently -10 hours PTO and only accrue 3.33 every paycheck plus whatever hours I work overtime in the payperiod weeks. I don't feel like I'm ever going to get out of PTO Debt because of the low workload and I'm just at a point where I don't care anymore about working for this company.

I've been really toying around with the idea of going off and starting my own business for years because I just haven't enjoyed working for this company. I know I'll have to put in time and money into it but I want the flexibility and not feeling like I have to meet the 40 hour work week requirement and being punished for it. Am I right for feeling this way?

I work in a medical office. I came in early to do prep work for the afternoon as I had not gotten to it the day before but our server was down so no access to computers and it didn't get done. The morning went smoothly but the afternoon was hectic. I got behind, other staff members helped me out immensely which I was very greatfull for. Honestly, I felt like I was over scheduled to begin with and I'm not sure how much the prep would have changed anything but I agree, I should have had it done and didn't.

Anyway, we finished on time and as soon as I walked my last patient out, the manager said I want you to personally thank the assistants for picking up your slack. Ok, I agree and said Starbucks tomorrow. I told the staff and they said it's ok, don't worry about it. I still wanted to so sent a message to our group chat that evening for everyone's order. No one responded.

Next morning, we were still having IT issues and everyone came in with coffees. I wanted to say something but we were busy and I felt awkward about it so I didn't say anything.

Day progressed fine. I was leaving early so I did all my prep, did some extra chores I saw in need like trash, stocking, cleaning the bathroom, asked if there was anything else I could help with, was told no so I left.

Later that night, Boss texted and asked what my intention was with the coffee. To thank the staff but no one responded so I didn't get anything because what am I to get?

He said to ask them in person for another day as it will be more genuine. I said sure thing, Im not one to make drama at work, I'm not looking for friends at work, I just want to get along.

Background info: This is a newer practice. It's been open 4 years, I've been there 3.5 as the longest staff member. I have 20 years experience. I'm old enough to be everyone's mother including the owner doctor. We have had a lot of turn over as his expectations are very high. Currently all the other staff are college age kids that look like models. I do not. He wants to make the practice a high end boutique practice.

I appreciate his vision but every week he changes something and there is some new tech thing. I am NOT a techy and have requested training. I have received none. Everyone else has an iPad to work with. I have post it notes.

He's been there for me a lot but I've also supported him a lot, coming in last minute, schedule changes last minute, spending time at home reading studies and researching office things. His wife showed up to my house on my day off asking me to come in and I did.

Are they pushing me out? What did he mean about my intentions? I was being appreciative.

I work out of a building that houses 2 companies and we have a group chat where we regularly ask/remind each other to work on certain items. I sent a message earlier this week asking them to get to an item, but they ignored it so I sent another one a few days later to remind them. One of their employees responded to me with several paragraphs explaining why they couldn’t get to it, that I don’t understand how this industry works, and telling me to google key terms from our job. Mind you, his team immediately got the task done with no issue despite all the “reasons” he said they couldn’t. Now, every time their team needs something from ours, he will @me even on my days off. Most of the time he makes his requests in this overly sweet, mocking manner and i’m starting to feel rather uncomfortable. My boss is just ignoring this whole situation despite my coworkers agreeing that he is out of line. I think my boss is ignoring it because this guy is from the other company and she would have to hash it out with his boss, who also sucks. Either way, I don’t feel confident going to her given how she has responded so far, and I don’t know if what he’s doing is enough for any action to be taken against him. I’m not sure if my work has an anti-bullying policy but I plan on looking into that. Is there anything else I can do? The environment has gotten increasingly hostile this past year and I am looking at other jobs, but I’d like to give this one my best shot.

Hello I am in the UK so I I had a baby in August 2025, my maternity leave ended on the 29th July 2026. I hadn’t taken any holidays from the previous year(our holidays renew every April unsure if it’s relevant or not). I told my work I will be using my holidays from last year until I return on the 26th August which was allowed. When I went in for return to work I decided I would reduce my contract hours from 24 down to 10 hours. No issue. However our payslips have just come out. I am being payed in holiday hours of 10 hours and not the 24 hours that I used to do. Is this right? Someone help me out everyone around me is saying it definitely doesn’t sound right but I don’t want to make an issue out of nothing with my work because everything is crazy enough already!

I was unemployed since three months and recently got a job.Today was my fourth day but the catch is one 2 yrs experienced emp is leaving in one month so I am her replacement she literally build an entire feature alone and company uses it to handle users and my manager excepts me to take KT from her and understand entire codebase workflow architecture and domain knowledge. I accepted the offer since I was every desperate for the job and I am probation training period

I don't know i will regert taking up this job. I am very stressed of handling that responsibility never in my life has that much pressure.

Does this happen with anyone ? And how to cope up with this any solution???any suggestions??

Shift work so we eat lunch together. Nonsensical to leave for lunch as it’s 45 minutes. Was told not to eat garlic products before a shift and that they weren’t allowed in break room.

I don’t want to be a dick but literally everything has garlic in it. My normal meals all have some amount of garlic. I meal prep and now everything I had planned is a no go. I did not realize this would be an issue until orientation. Literally went to grocery store and finding garlic free foods is VERY limiting.

I won’t show up with like Italian food but GD this really is a pain in the ass.

Edit: thanks to the like 4 people who gave me helpful advice.

Yes, the allergy is real and severe. No, I don’t want to fucking kill this woman. I am not gonna be a dick just to prove a point but these diet restrictions feel very intensive and restrictive.

Hello to all. I need some perspective. I am a woman of color in a relatively male dominated organization. I am in management and have consistently been told that I am easy to talk to. I am the lead on an important priority and have received compliments on how I have managed to kept the project on track this far. The project involves stakeholders from multiple functional areas. With a recent departure I am
now the only woman on this project. I speak EN as a second language. All is well but there is an important stakeholder who refuses to take my name no matter what. He acknowledges everyone else by their names both in writing and when in meetings. I have consistently noticed this and have always told myself to not overthink it but yesterday I was raising a question at the meeting as I needed to provide clear drafting instructions and they said to me ‘they will use their brain when drafting the documents’. They also behave as if my questions are not important - I am fairly confident most are. Please share perspectives. Would you say anything? Would you ignore? My natural inclination is to try and ignore, but love to hear from you. Thank you!

So I work with a little know-it-all and there are several reasons why we clash and I can’t stand them, but one thing they do is always talk over the top/talk for other people. What I mean is, we have a weekly meeting catching everyone in the team up on what’s going on and she will frequently jump in and start talking over the top of other people about what they’re already saying!! And other times I’ll ask someone a question and she jumps in and answers it! I find it so rude. But no one says or does anything. So, what I want to know is what do I say to her the next time she does it to me? Do I just blatantly say “I wasn’t asking you/stop talking over me” or is there a more amusing way to handle this?

This person drives me nuts for so many reasons and management won’t let me move further away or switch wfh days so I see them less so I really want a way to start taking matters into my own hands.

I recently interviewed for a position at a startup and made it through to an onsite with the HR director and CEO, who I’d be working closely with. The HR director was incredibly nice and supportive, but I honestly couldn’t get much of a read on the CEO.

The CEO is a young woman, probably around my age (~30), and her dad founded the company. The role is called “Partner to the CEO,” which I suspect may be a fancy way of saying Executive Assistant. 😂 But the compensation is $180K, which is honestly wild to me as a recent MBA grad. I have other options with fancier-sounding titles, but nowhere near that salary.

I also genuinely believe in the company’s technology, and this could potentially be one of my better opportunities to build meaningful equity upside.

Anyway, the actual point of this post: I have an onsite coming up, and I’m freaking myself out a little.

I’ve always been pretty smart and apparently likable, but the past year has been a major hit to my confidence. I’m worried I’ll come across as boring, awkward, or not impressive enough. At the same time, I don’t want to overcompensate and say something stupid trying to prove myself.

For people who have worked at startups, interviewed with founders/CEOs, or hired someone to work closely with them:

What should I know going into an onsite like this? What actually makes someone stand out in a good way?

I’m especially interested in tips for:

• Reading the CEO/founder dynamic
• Showing confidence without being obnoxious
• Making good conversation outside the formal interview
• Figuring out whether I actually want this job
• Avoiding common mistakes during an onsite

I’m a first-gen student, and most of my friends and I are basically figuring out our careers together, so I don’t have much mentorship in this area. I’d really appreciate any advice—even the “obvious” stuff that people with more professional mentorship might already know.

Got a new job starting in a week. Last week, I had PTO approved for Monday - Wednesday. On Thursday, I came into the office to give my notice effective immediately. When I checked our online timesheet after I quit, Monday through Wednesday were still marked Paid Time Off.
After Thursday, I can no longer log in to the timesheet.
Now this week, my final check has that time marked as Unexcused Time Off and thus I didn’t get paid for those days. I believed that is a retroactive denial of PTO after it was already taken.
What are my options?

Edit; To be clear, I took PTO from Aug 10-12 then quit on the 13th.

I work in the IT field for a warehouse, thev ust hired a new warehouse manager that i'l have to work with often. They were a teacher about 10 years ago and was involved with a student 13-17. Thev had a flurry of other charges but pleaded down. They are on the registry, and the company is aware. I get a sick feeling in my stomach every time they email. I have been here for many, many years and love my job .. but have lost that love, and feel like my emplover has embraced this by hiring them. I am mostly remote so that helps, but i cannot shake that ick feeling. Any advice is welcomed.

I (28yo) am the manager of a small business and just had someone quit on me. My coworker (26yo) quit by typing up a letter and having their mother bring it in to the store to give to me.

I’m stuck between feeling disappointed and concerned.

I’ve been told things about this person’s mother that lead me to believe she’s kinda toxic and controlling, and I’ve seen the mom do messed up stuff like leaving my coworker on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.

The letter said my coworker found a new job they were excited to move on to, so maybe everything is all good and I’m worried for nothing.

I don’t know how to appropriately express concern in this situation, or if I even should.

***UPDATE***

The employee really did decide to quit through their mother.

At first, I didn't mind. I wanted to be helpful, and I figured taking on extra work would show that I was reliable.

The problem is that now those extra tasks have basically become my responsibility.

Yesterday my manager thanked me in a meeting for being “the person everyone can count on to handle things nobody else wants to do.”

Everyone laughed, but I honestly didn't know how to react.

I don't mind helping occasionally, but I'm starting to worry that I've accidentally created a situation where doing more work without extra pay is now expected of me.

I want to set some boundaries without coming across as difficult or unhelpful.

How would you handle this situation?

Hey guys, I'm in a dillema of choosing between remaining in my office job (works as a customer care in Jack) or working remotely for a foreign company. I do love working alone so remote job sounds like a good opportunity I can jump into. For guys working remotely, are there any major problems I should be aware of before before shifting?