r/auscorp

Please do not just lock this post and arbitrarily classify it as mental health issues - I have sought counselling before, I will do so again if my situation deteriorates and I am largely functioning and looking after myself. I just need to vent a little online, locking my post does not help.

I was made redundant one year ago, not mass redundancies, just me.

Before being made redundant I was also consistently picked on and criticised.

Throughout this year I have tried my best to be active, to job-search, to volunteer, to socialise, and I have been largely able to do that. If anything, I can manage to be confident and presentable in social settings.

However, I can not let it go.

Nightmares

Despite knowing being made redundant was not my 'fault' and there was a lot of office politics, I continue to have nightmares from time to time - of my previous employer talking to me, looking at me critically.

Or sometimes they would praise me and smile at me - the kind of recognition I yearned so much, but have not been able to get from them despite being extremely loyal and hardworking.

Feeling unfair

The colleague who 'backstabbed' me drove me out, got my job and seems to be thriving.

(Again I'm only listing a fact and have not included any personal details here, so please do NOT lock my post).

It's a small circle and from time to time I continue to see him with my ex-employer in industry networking events, every time I'm actually hit very hard despite acting normal.

At the end of the day, I accept that quiet achievers can be invisible and may not be rewarded.

But people who are vicious and backstab seem to be more and more successful - I can not accept it and it gets me. It is just so unfair.

By the way - Prior to this I have not been made redundant but had other employment troubles. I didn't care about that job and simply moved on. This redundancy hit me hard because I genuinely saw it as my dream job and devoted a lot of blood, sweat and tears to it - and was made redundant.

I’ve been at CBA for a while and wanted to share a side of the culture that doesn’t really come through during recruitment. Just my 2c based on my own time here, but hopefully useful for anyone considering an offer, especially if you come from a different cultural background or don’t naturally fit the dominant mould.

CBA says all the right things about diversity and inclusion. But on the ground in several areas I’ve worked with, the reality is pretty different.

A lot of teams end up completely siloed. You generally see two extremes: teams dominated by one tight-knit cultural group where informal networks and closed-door conversations dictate everything, or traditional old-school boys’ clubs. In either case, if you’re outside that core demographic, you feel it very quickly.

The hiring dynamic was probably the biggest frustration.

In multiple areas, there's a strong trend of managers funneling people from specific backgrounds, former companies, or personal circles straight into open roles. One hire brings another, and before long, an insular circle is established. It’s subtle enough that each individual hire can easily be justified on paper, but the broader pattern is impossible to ignore.

Naturally, the in-group backs each other in meetings, distributes the high-visibility projects internally, and pushes each other for promotions. If you’re outside that circle, getting visibility or moving up is an uphill battle, regardless of performance.

Office politics and social alignment also carry way more weight than actual output. And raising concerns about workload, exclusion, or unfair dynamics rarely leads anywhere positive—more often, you just get labelled difficult or "not a culture fit."

I know CBA is massive and there are definitely great managers and inclusive pockets around. But looking back, I really wish someone had told me to dig much deeper into team composition before signing.

If you’re currently interviewing, ask direct questions about team turnover, where recent hires came from, and how long the manager has worked with their direct reports. The answers, and how comfortable they seem answering them will tell you everything you need to know.

For anyone who’s worked across different BUs at CBA, was your experience similar, or is this heavily team-dependent?

KPMG is culling 50 partners and 450 staff as its audit scandal strips it of clients and revenue but there’s a twist – audit and tax divisions will be spared in this round of redundancies.

2min read
August 19, 2026 - 3:57PM

From left, KPMG deputy chair Carmel Mortell, chair Michael Ebeid and CEO John Sams. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman.

KPMG has begun its brutal cull of partners and staff in the wake of its audit scandal

Not sure who Nick an Aina are, but apparently you need to make a better role description for the NZ structural engineers...

Regards, guy in front of me on the train this morning at Central station in Brisbane

Only takes one to impact your day. Any highly effective ways to keep these people out of your way when you have to work with them closely?

Just screaming into the void here…

They send phishing tests that have our email sigs, logos, and everything on them. Way more complex and detailed than any actual phishing scam email.

Then when I go to book support I get a bare bones no email sig no logo email that links to an external booking system that’s non-standard for the company.

Actually wild and undermines all the annoying phishing scam email tests.

Has anyone here actually been pursued by a former employer for allegedly breaching a non-compete, non-solicitation, or restraint-of-trade clause in their employment contract?

I’m interested in hearing about people’s experiences, particularly:

- What state you were in.

- What the restriction covered and how long it lasted.

- Whether your former employer sent a warning, threatened legal action, or actually filed a claim.

- Whether the clause was enforced, negotiated, or ultimately ignored.

- How much legal advice and costs were involved.

I’m mainly trying to understand how commonly these clauses are actively enforced in practice.

TIA

I'm currently working a job that I'd consider "good enough for now", but it's not the kind of place I want to be at forever. The pay is good and the work is interesting, but there's no WFH/flexible working arrangements, and the office is just that bit too far from home.

That being said, there's an older bloke who sits behind me, and he's an absolute menace to be around, to the point where he'd easily be the #1 factor to why I'd want to leave. While he's a nice guy and I try my hardest not to hate him, he's the poster child of pissweak office etiquette, where sitting next to him is like sitting next to a white noise machine, that specifically makes the most annoying and disgusting noises known to man.

Bangs and crashes for at least 20 min each morning as he sets himself up for the day. Holds an excessive amount of teams meetings to look busy, where he's the only one talking 90% of the meeting. Constantly eats the loudest foods possible at his desk, and chews with his mouth open and his headphones on. Leans and puts weight on his standing desk so it's always creaking. Will play his music through his speakers if he forgets to charge his headphones. Sucks and slurps on his thumb like a 2 year old. He's an older obese guy, with the stereotypical laboured mouth breathing to match, and has these weird daily sleep apnea induced "yawning fits", where he'll yawn over and over for up to 30 min at a time.

The first 12 months I was here, I was constantly pulling him up on most of this shit. But after working out that he's just not all there mentally, between the way he forgets and starts up old habits a week or two later, or just other frustratingly dumb shit he does on a daily basis, I've just given up on the guy. Cutting holes in the beanie to slot my noise cancelling headphones through to make a proper seal has become my saving grace. I've asked to move desks within the office, but no dice - The office is overstaffed as it is. Good reason to bring in hybrid work modes if you ask me.

If it weren't for an upcoming project where I'll be spending 2 years out in a site office, I would have quit over Christmas, with this turd accounting for 90% of the reason why. But the start date keeps getting pushed back, and I'm starting to lose my patience at this point again. If the site office doesn't go ahead soon, I'll probably be quitting this Christmas instead...

Anyone here have similar stories to make me feel better about myself?

I recently started a marketing role as i was on the burn out at my old org so did a side move, and to be honest didnt spend too long looking. But I’m finding a lot of my day-to-day work is coordination/admin — so feeling overqualified, given i have experience. Im still new, what would you do? Ask for more ownership, say nothing and just chill or?

My workplace already has generous 16 week parental policy, but i intend to use this after wife goes back to work to avoid daycare for as long as possible.

Is it a bit too cheeky to also try to also use Carer's leave after the birth? She is getting c section so will legitimately need support, but i guess technically I could be using my parental leave for this. I have lots of Carer's leave built up over years of service, as I don't take much leave. Should I milk this as much as possible? Anyone done similar?

So I work in an area where half is warehousing/ a manual labor team and the other half is admin, finance etc (I’m in the latter).

Recently a newish coworker from the manual labor side has been coming in during their lunch break (The office area is close to the break area) and standing right behind me over my shoulder and staring at my screen silently with a dour look on his face as I work.

I’ll generally attempt to break the tension with a “what’s for lunch today?”, “how’s the day going?” Or jokingly “see something you like?” Kind of comment. Over the time he’s been here he has randomly made some exasperated comments like “what do you even do?!”.

Whilst I get the possible annoyance from those in manual labor or entry level roles being somewhat salty over the office staff not doing the same activities, I don’t understand the point of this behaviour. He was hired for the role he’s performing and knows that coming into it. Both teams interact and they have been given somewhat of a broad overview of our function.

Anyone experience this/ what does everyone make of it? Someone to watch out for?

I‘m a graduate accountant in Sydney and have been at my current place of employment for almost a year now.

Every time I speak to my friends about my current workplace they tell me that it’s toxic and that I should leave. However, both I and my friends have very little corporate experience so we have no idea what is considered normal and not normal.

Can some more experienced people help me out and figure out if I should consider leaving?

These are some of the things I’ve experienced,

• Managers and long term employees openly gossiping and criticising previous employees
• Being trained by the newest employee and then getting blamed for making mistakes (even though that new employee and I were not trained properly)
• Indirect insults from manager
• Being viewed as rude and disrespectful for being reserved and introverted (everyone is over a decade older than me and that’s a big jump to get used to straight out of uni)
• High turnover (half the time the new employees are given contracts rather than permanent positions though due to visa situitions)

My manager is veryyyyy disorganised and does everything last minute.

They never look at our planning board and just ask for updates via teams.

They send me meeting requests which have been in the calendar for months day of and ask me to reschedule everything to accommodate and to come prepared.

They ignore anything that’s in my calendar and book over it with “high priority” meetings.

It’s chaotic and drives me crazy.

How do I push back on this without ending up on a PIP.

Hi everyone

So I‘ve been working for this company for nearly 8 years now in Melbourne, then two months ago they decided to relocate the business to Brisbane, they given me a redeployment offer in Brisbane but now I don’t think I’m going take their offer. Will this count a genuine redundancy if I’m not going to take their offer?

AI platform that applies to jobs for you. Has anyone tried this? It's supposed to find high job matches according to your profile, writes tailored applications and employers will not know it's AI.

I'm tempted as I'm currently in search of a new role. By the time I finish my working day my brain is fried and the last thing I want to do is stay online and review job ads and spend another 10-20 minutes per application, multiplied by X applications. It gets exhausting.

Started a new job for almost 2 months. The company seems to be reactive with lots of things. There’s a lot of new people who recently joined the company in the last 6 months. We are all trying to figure things out.

I haven’t been getting any direction from my manager at all. I’m basically driving my own ship at this point. My manager doesn’t communicate much in terms of direction, etc.

I have days where I feel completely clueless on what senior management expects and I have days I feel really sure. This also stems from the fact that senior management seems to sometime flip last minute depending on external pressures ect

I guess I’m just wondering - what are some of the signs that you’re doing well in this type of environment? Given that probation is 6 months.

Any advice?

Fuck man. What a slog. I genuinely like my job and the people I work with, but god damn it I cannot be fucked going into the office.

The commute. The distractions. The additional costs. The temperature. The manky hot desking and grubby ass keyboards. The stinking toilets. The fridge that is breeding the next Nobel prize. The uncomfortable pants and shoes and that one random person who looks at you for just a little too long.

It ain’t for me. It ain’t for fucking me. And I certainly ain’t for fucking it.

Hi all,

I recently finished my Bachelor of Business in HR and Marketing and am really struggling to land a job, let alone an interview. I am 31 years of age, from VIC, and come from a retail background in Visual Merchandising, with my most recent role being in a senior position. I took the plunge 4 years ago as I wanted to change my career direction and enrolled myself into a Bachelor of Business, and I really enjoyed the experience at a mature age. I am doing lots of networking, following up and applying, and I just cannot seem to gain much traction. I know the job market is tough at the moment, but I have found myself at a dead end road and I'm not really sure how to move forward.

What’s a process, task, or annoying problem you deal with that makes you think:

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Could be anything, big or small. Just curious what other people deal with.