Category: work

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People Explain How Much Damage They’ve Ever Done With A Single Typo

We all know it’s worth the extra few seconds to scan that email draft or go through an essay before submitting it.

And yet, we’re often so excited it’s done we just hit send without a second thought.

Then, in a bizarre example of masochism, we read through the whole thing after it’s too late to change anything.

Of course, it’s during that powerless read-through that we see it—the most embarrassingly timed and placed typo ever.

Redditor DoesntUnderstands was apparently in the mood to have people relive all that cringing.

He asked:

“What is the most damage you’ve ever done with a typo?”

These Redditors made the same mistake.

“g and t are very close on the keyboard and for this reason ‘regards’ is not my favorite email closing.” — AdeptAdaptor

“I mistyped ‘regards’ on an angrily worded email. I was told by my manager that, no matter how annoyed I was, I shouldn’t call people that. It’s hard to explain that it was an accident given the tone of the email.”

“Always take a second and proof read any angry email. And then don’t send it. It isn’t worth it.” — the_hair_of_aenarion

This kind of mistake came up a lot.

“My father in law had just died. I text my other half saying, ‘how’s your dad going?’ Instead of ‘how’s your day going? He was not impressed.” — pooches4life

“Asked a co-worker in a group IM if he’d mind me using his d*ck as mine didn’t seem to be working properly.”

“I meant dock, for my laptop.”

“It wasn’t something I got in trouble for but it’s one of those typo’s that will probably come up in conversation for the next several years.” — phormix

“I used to work for a museum booking group visits and educational programs for tour companies and schools.”

“Was working on a reservation and they had only told me how many students were in the group, but I also needed the number of adults. So, I sent an email to the teacher:

” ‘Hello *teachername*, we’ll also need to know approximately how many sluts will be visiting from your school.’ “

“Luckily, they had a sense of humor:

” ‘Not sure how many of us are sluts, but if you meant “adults” it’s going to be around 8 or 10.’ ” — smokehidesstars

One mistake almost reached a large audience.

“I worked in the architecture industry for many years. One of the aspects of the job, when we were designing a new building in a community, was to present our plans to the public in a place like a community centre or a school gym, and they would be able to voice their concerns.”

“The presentation materials would usually take the form of panels printed on foamcore board and placed around the space; these presentations are called public consultations.”

In one instance, we had printed about 30 boards with the title ‘X Project Public Consultation’ at the top, only the ‘l’ had been forgotten in the word ‘public.’ Hilarity ensued.”

“Luckily the mistake was caught before they placed all the boards, and they were quickly reprinted, which cost a lot of money. If it had been ANY other letter we would have let it slide.” — ToothbrushGames

This one came before they even had the job.

“Submitting forms for a job, got a real awkward call back – ‘Did you mean to check this box saying that yes, you’ve been been involved with illegal distribution of controlled substances? Because you checked no on all the other questions about criminal behavior…’ “

“Nice of the guy to give me a chance to correct it, at least.” — BitterFuture

One Redditor’s screw-up could have been costly, literally. 

“My first finance job had to do with managing corporate cash. I was moving funds from one account to another and accidentally hit an extra zero. I ended up moving $30MM instead of $3MM.”

“Luckily it was between internal accounts, so it was easily reversible, but I didn’t know that at the time. I shat my pants and my boss let me panic for 30 seconds before fixing it.” — Fandorin

Another person was lucky enough to catch people before the holidays. 

” ‘Sorry for the incontinence.’ “

“I meant inconvenience, of course. It went out to a group of managers who reported to my boss.”

“We were going to have really limited office coverage for the holidays, so one of their usual processes was going to be delayed, and I was asked to send the official email about how we were going to do business during the couple of days after Christmas.”

“Fortunately, they were great people and we all laughed.” — liniyedf

This typo had the look of some blunt, harsh truth-telling.

“Typing up minutes to a meeting, ‘(company name) was sh** for 10 days over Christmas period and only responded to emergency jobs.’ “

“Not shut, sh**. To be fair all the folks representing that company agreed that their response times were shit due to the fact that they were shut.” — SparkieMark1977

And there is the old double typo.

“Several years ago, I asked my mom if we could go to ‘butt shows’ that weekend. I meant ‘buy shoes.’ “

“No joke, it changed BOTH words to form the most unfortunate sentence ever. I hate my fat thumbs, lol.” — survivetothrive01

Not all cringey mistakes, though, involve a keyboard.

“I wouldn’t say damage to other people but more my self. Was in a mod interview via text for something and the owner just flat out asked me ‘Will you abuse your powers?’ and I meant to say ‘I absolutely will not.’ But I forgot the ‘Not.’ “

“I cringed at my self so I just backed out of the mod interview. Haha.” — TheThirteenthNeef

For a second, this one was tragic.

“A couple years ago my grandpa had surgery for pancreatic cancer. What my mom MEANT to text me is ‘the surgeons will give an update soon’ which instead somehow came out as ‘the surgeons will give up soon’ ” — Tokidoki99

But as far as “damage” goes, this one might take the cake. 

“Years ago I took down the entire web infrastructure of a large (millions of daily users) company with a single additional . in a line of PHP code.”

“Does that count?” — recaffeinated

It’s a list that ought to convince us all to double check the things we type before we send them.

But let’s face it, we’ll never do that.

And we’ll just keep cringing along.

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People Describe The Most Corrupt Thing They’ve Ever Seen Their Employer Do

Workplaces can be a bit rough around the edges and, especially if you’re new to the workforce, it can sometimes be hard to determine if everything that’s going on is above board.

Sometimes, though, employers do things that are so obviously corrupt it can be hard to believe they get away with it.

Redditor Chillay_ asked:

“What’s the most corrupt thing you’ve witnessed your employer do?”

No Overtime, Even If You Work Over Time

“Worked in a restaurant that didn’t allow employees to work over 40 hours as they did not want to pay any overtime. Instead of you wanted to work extra or if they asked you to work extra they would delete hours off of your time card to keep it under 40. They always asked you when they did that in a kind of hush hushed way so it wasn’t exactly without permission but I think it was bullshit all the same.” -cloudstrife1191

“Permission or not they’re breaking the law. It’s not suddenly legal because you agreed to it” -Hugebluestr*pon

“My class action lawsuit alarm bells are going off right now. If your employer does this, I would recommend filing a complaint with the US Department of Labor and also contacting an attorney who deals with wage/hour violations who can review the case. These are serious violations that should be stopped.” -UKnowDaxoAndDancer

You Just Can’t Cancel

“Had a job out of college selling yellow pages advertising. A big part of the job was just renewing the old ads in the book and we had to call each business to have them renew their ad. But as the yellow pages book became more and more obsolete more customers would cancel their ads. So the company changed the policy of having us call each business and instead put in a policy that any customer who didn’t specifically call to cancel would be auto renewed.”

“Then they would purposefully send out the renewal notices late enough that the customers couldn’t cancel in time to avoid the following years charges. If one of us did actually get a call from a customer looking to cancel and with time to legitimately do so and we actually cancelled them….fired.” -totspur1982

“Literally Fraud. A lawyer could tear this yellowpage company to pieces.” -Redditor

“And I believe a lawyer did for this and a multitude of other reasons. We also go charge backs on our check for cancellations, even if it wasn’t your original account. A few employees filed a class action lawsuit against the company and won. I got a nice check out of that.” -totspur1982

“I worked for a company like that, the “Customer Service Reps” (people who would field the customer calls asking for returns) were graded and given bonuses for how many sales they ‘saved.’ ‘Saved’ meaning how many people who called to return our products they tricked into holding on to it past the full refund window.” -HamsterIV

Check Your Pay Stubs!

“Growing up my father always told me to save my pay stubs and time receipts. I ended up working a job in my early 20 ‘s at an airport moving cars. I get my paycheck one day and i realize that it’s not right. So i do a little digging, and a lot of math, and i figure out that the company was taking hours from me.”

“I ask around and it turns out that they were taking hours from literally everyone at the job site. After doing more math we figured out that over the six months we all worked together, the company had stolen a combined 400 hours from eight people.” -42spuuns

“Wage theft is more money than all other forms of theft.”

“Robbery, fraud, burglary, etc – none of it accounts for more value/dollars than companies stealing money from their employees through under or non payment of wages.” -inthrees

“Would you like to know why?”

“It’s because if you steal from your boss, you go to prison. If your boss steals from you, it usually doesn’t get reported. If it does get reported there’s no jail time, but you have the option to sue. Suing takes years and the judgment doesn’t usually amount to all that was stolen, and your lawyer takes their cut out of the judgment. The ruling class made theft profitable when they do it, and unprofitable when we do it, and that is why they’re the country’s biggest thieves.” -reverendsteveii

“Also suing an employer will black list you from an industry so f*cking fast. ETA: and whether or not it was fully justified doesn’t matter.” -Kai_Emery

Tip Theft Is Rampant

“I was working at a small brewery / bar, and caught the owner dipping into the tip jar at the end of big nights.”

“It was a new place that just opened and was kind of struggling during the off season. We literally had a staff of two bartenders and the owners (husband and wife), so the bar staff would pool and split that days tips.”

“Come to find out that he was taking a cut of the tips because “he worked there too”. When I confronted him, I explained that its actually a violation of the FLSA. In fact it’s even an exact example listed as illegal things to do with tips. He argued that it was his right as owner and fired me, so I reported him to Dept. of Labor.” -Rustee_nail

“My girlfriend used to work at a deli where the owner was taking half the tips. She’s never worked food, so she suspected it was wrong, but didn’t know for sure. She asked me like “hey is this normal?” as I was a chef for a couple years, and I explained how taking tips as the owner is probably the most frowned upon thing you can do in the food service industry.” -Mirraco323

Why Bother With A Warranty?

“I was a mechanic that found out that the company was not letting me fix customers cars that had oil leaks when the customers had paid for a 200k mile warranty. The manager would tell the service writer to say that the warranty company declined it and eventually started making me take a photo to him so that he could tell me that the leak wasn’t bad enough to fix.”

“The customer paid for a warranty and the company wasn’t holding up their end of the deal because it was costing them money. They are one of the most profitable car dealerships in my town and now have 3 dealerships and are expanding.” -Idontgetitbrah

So Many Kinds Of Tip Theft

“When I used to housekeep at a hotel, our head housekeeper would go into all of our checkouts and steal our tips before we could get to them. I remember a few times seeing tips in my rooms and foolishly not thinking to pick them up before they disappeared. A few of my other coworkers witnessed similar instances.”

“At one point, a guest came up to me and said she’d leave a big tip in her room for me bc it was a mess. I found out later that the head housekeeper cleaned the room herself.”

“She walked out like a year later bc our GM demoted her to regular housekeeper bc everyone had complaints about her. She was a very awful person in general.” -Redditor

“When I was a housekeeper you’d get your room list at the beginning of the shift, so if we couldn’t finish that day the girls would go in all their rooms and take the tips, that way if they were off the next day or the room was someone else’s, they’d get nothing. The head housekeeper though worked salary so wasn’t allowed to keep tips even if they were handed to her.” -Tinycatgirl

“When She Felt We Deserved Them”

“A few years ago I was working/living at a McDonald’s in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The area manager decided to “save” the store so she became very… involved… in its day to day micromanagement. One payday morning she made an announcement that, because everyone kept coming in asking for their checks and bothering her, she would be giving them to us when she felt we deserved them.”

“I called the local Department of Labor, who referred me to the state, who referred me back to local, who then told me they just didn’t care and weren’t looking into it. It eventually resolved itself anyway when she handed checks out the next day.” -twistedlemon732

“See there’s your mistake. You should’ve called McDonalds corporate threatening to call the DoL. Much more effective!” -zvug

“Actually, just call McDonalds corporate. Don’t even need to threaten to call. McDonalds doesn’t screw around when it comes to paying workers anymore. That kind of stuff has led to several million in lawsuit settlements in just the past ten years.” -betterthanamaster

We’ve Known Asbestos Was Dangerous For Decades

“I work underground in the mines. One place started having, what the workers found out later, was asbestos type rock in the ore. The company took samples of it and then said it’s kind of like asbestos, but it’s not old enough to harm you. Later after a bit of more concern from the workers, it was found out that the sample they took came back as inconclusive due to something else. They lied and allowed their workforce exposure to asbestos. I quit after that and found work elsewhere.” -Chillay_90

That’s Not How Overtime Works

“One time when I was a chef in college, I worked 14 days straight, with half of those days being 12 hour days. This all fell in one pay period too. It was rough but it was summer and I was gushing over the amount over overtime I was about to get. It came out to like over 70 hours overtime. I was supposed get almost an additional $1000 dollars on my paycheck. I calculated the math with tax and everything and couldn’t wait to pick up my paycheck the next week for that pay period.”

“I pick it up, and the paycheck is quite larger than I’m used to given I normally only worked 25 hours a week, but there is ZERO overtime on it. It was short almost a a thousand bucks. I got to the HR office the next day (it was located at a different casino) and ask, and they go ‘yeah so in Nevada, you only qualify for overtime if you average 40 hours a week normally.’”

“That sounded like bullshit to me, but I asked my mom who used to run finances for our family business, and she says that IS in fact 100% bullshit. She pulled up the statute online and it clearly said if you exceed 8 hours in a day, you get overtime. It said nothing about a weekly average.”

“So printed that bitch out and drove right back down to the HR office, and showed it to them. The lady at the desk who just told me that lie calls out the head of HR. She would frequent the different locations to check in with people and was always nice, but you could always tell she was shady as fuck. They both seem to get very nervous and in a stuttering voice ‘okay we will reevaluate’”

“I never heard anything or got any apology, but when the next paycheck came, the exact amount of overtime I calculated was put on that paycheck down to the penny.”

“I tell some of the other guys in the kitchen what happened, and apparently the family who owned the casino our restaurant was located in was known for pulling shit like this. Making ‘accounting errors’ knowing a lot of people who do direct deposit don’t even look at their paystubs. Funny how these accounting ‘errors’ always ended up in saving the company money, and never gave the employee extra cash lol. A server no more than a few months later had the same exact shit happen to him. Rat b*stards.” -Mirraco323

Gaming The System

“At the first company I worked at the general manager had all his personal expenses paid by the company. His wife also had a company credit card and was paid a salary but she didn’t work. The company paid for things like their groceries, house mortgage, car payments and family vacations. The kicker is he wasn’t the owner of the company.”

“He had a creative accountant that hid these expenses but the owners became suspicious and they hired an auditor. It took them about 4 years to figure it out. He was fired and his family fled the country so I am not sure what happened to him.” -optoph

If your employer is doing something that seems shady, there’s a way for you to report it if it’s safe for you to do so.

You’re probably not the only one who is affected, and people doing shady things don’t usually stop unless they’re made to.

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People Confess The Real Reason Why They Quit Their Job This Year

This year, an incredible amount of people quit their jobs. So many people left that media have started calling it The Great Resignation.

In August, 4.3 million workers voluntarily quit their jobs according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some believe that people are quitting in droves because of government supplements available during the pandemic are being taken advantage of, but that may not be the whole story.

While many are calling this a labor shortage, others are pointing to low wages for customer service work like restaurant workers, retailors, and hospitality workers, who are at hire risk for contracting COVID.

With so many people quitting, we wanted to know what was the final straw for the 4.3 million people who walked away.

Redditor daraand asked:

“Why did you quit your job this year?”

Here’s what The Great Resignation is really all about.

Too much stress.

“72 hour weeks, was stressed out constantly. Kept getting passed over for promotions.” – basic-fatale

“…this, plus the a**holes who made everyday miserable for me.” – sirlongbottom441

“Bloody hell. This makes me appreciate some of the employment laws we have in place. Anything above 48 hours is illegal, regardless if it’s on your contract or not. Your employer can ask but you’re in no obligation to accept.”

“This is in the UK.” – steelcity91

Goodbye retail.

“Found one that is Monday to Friday, same hours as my wife so we can carpool, and paid more for the starting wage than my last job did after working there for 2 years and getting a promotion. Win win win. Plus the actual work is more personally fulfilling. Goodbye retail!” – Ghiraheem

“What a huge relief. Good for you.” – LaserTurboShark69

“Because working retail is crap and working retail during a pandemic is just life-draining.” – anarchos1288

“I got out of retail in 19. Couldn’t imagine being in during Covid.” – ogier_79

Low Wages.

“Might do it soon. Wage has not kept up with inflation at all.” – Opie67

“I’m looking forward to my annual 1-2% best we can do right now raise, and giving my notice shortly after. Though I wouldn’t mind being wrong for once.” – tris_majestis

This has been predicted. Year end bonuses will be here and before you know it and January will bring the next wave of walk outs.

Time to switch careers.

“I was so tired of the politics, racism, and anger there. I just finished my second master’s degree and have decided after 20 years I’m switching careers and could not be more excited!!!” – Redditor

“Congratulations! That’s awesome! May your new job bring you a sense of peace and fulfillment.” – Ghiraheem

Left after seven years.

“Got taken off a team I started and was on for 4.5 years and moved to a newly created team with 0 notice. New team is under a different director and also had other people pulled onto it. ‘This team was put together to work on a project that’s very close to the CEO’ we kept getting told.”

“My experience is in a completely different tech stack. No idea why I was moved to this new team. Spent a month doing courses and trainings to learn this new tech stack at the behest of my manager and our lead engineer. Business kept changing their mind on what we were doing, so I had to keep changing what I was learning. (Flutter, Android, iOS, Kotlin, Spring) I was learning all of those from the ground up mostly. Nothing I was experienced in was useful on this new team.”

“Lead engineer submitted his 2 weeks. Was tired of dealing with our management chain.”

“After that, director pulls me into meeting. Says I’m not performing at the expected level. Why don’t I have as many tickets done. etc. I explain that I’ve been doing courses and pair programming with our lead to learn the new code base. That I’m from a completely different tech stack. He doesn’t believe me, says I should be learning outside of work hours. wtf.”

“That’s not how our company culture is at all. Lead engineer hears about this, pulls director into a meeting and yells at him for accusing me of not performing and lays out all the reasons as to why I am. Director pulls me into a meeting the next day to say ‘I guess I didn’t have the full story,’ doesn’t even really apologize. Like bro, I f*cking told you the full story…”

“I had a couple break downs during that whole week, so after that I took 2 weeks of vacation to think about shit and to de-stress. Came back, finished a small project in 2 days and submitted my 2 weeks.”

“And that is how I came to quit a company I had worked at for nearly 7 years that I really enjoyed working at. And how a tool of a director lost a Senior & Staff engineer from his 5 person team in the span of a couple weeks. I hope it reflects poorly on him.” – Shane75776

Your mental health should come first.

“I was in middle management, desperately trying to keep my small team together with no help or support from the higher ups who were content on playing golf and smoking their cigars. My team was overworked, stressed, yelled at constantly by internal and external clients, and were given tools from 1998 to fix 2021 issues.”

“Luckily a former co-worker asked how things were going, I might have an opportunity for you…he’s now my co-worker again, and I’m making 40% more than I was, no longer managing people, and back doing what I like doing: Learning new things and helping people.”

“Two things I learned:”

“Be nice to people because you never know what can happen down the road. They might call on you or you might need to call on them.”

“Mental health first. I had a mental breakdown and my former company said, ‘Are you quitting?’ as their opening statement when I opened up to them. If you’re not getting the support you need, go find it. I promise you, everything else will work out.” – jkra0512

They’re actually wanted as a worker.

“Worked so many hours, took so much on, and then was told I ‘wasn’t engaged’ so I found a job where they are thrilled to have me for 40 grand more a year. I feel like I’ve been de-programmed from a cult. I even have the energy to join a gym.”

“Took a few people to tell me I deserved my success before I started to believe it myself.” – teenabeans

No room for growth.

“I didn’t have any opportunity for personal career development because the business refused to hire another developer for 2 years to help share the load.”

“I was constantly needed to help support legacy systems that were ‘going to be replaced soon’ rather than allowed to work on anything new or things that would’ve helped me to improve.”

“After I gave my 2 weeks, they begged me to stay because they didn’t have anyone left at the company who had looked at the legacy code base within the last 2+ years.” – VonKoob

Hospitality nightmare.

“Constant eight day stretches. Sometimes up to twelve. Often made worse because schedules started on Sunday, but often weren’t posted until Friday, so I never had a chance to plan. Zero oversight from management, zero help or extra training while trying to keep a hotel’s breakfast area running through COVID, BUT others kept getting me in trouble for pointless things. (I was sometimes leaving stuff undone at end of day, and then doing it when I came in, but apparently that’s illegal.)”

“I stayed late often to help out other departments, but was looked at as not wanting to work if I went home an hour early once or twice during my eight day stretches. And then, they hired someone whose sole job was to do MY job, which wound up cutting my hours in half. Couldn’t take it anymore, so I left.” – Balsamwood

Done with CEOs.

“CEOs and journals like the Wall Street Journal keep telling me that it’s because I’m lazy or that unemployment benefits prevent me from going back to work.”

“The one thing that the NEVER mention statistics like the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimates that CEO compensation has grown 1,322% since 1978, while typical worker compensation has risen just 18%. In 2020, CEOs of the top 350 firms in the U.S. made $24.2 million, on average — 351 times more than a typical worker.”

“In 1980, CEOs at large companies made about 40 times what the average worker made. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, was paid $265 million in 2020. F*ck you, Tim Cook. Chad Richison of Paycom made $211.13 million in 2020. F*ck you, Chad Richison. Amir Dan Rubin CEO of 1Life Healthcare – $199.05 million. F*ck you, Amir Dan Rubin. John Legere CEO of T-Mobile – $137.2 million. F*ck you, John Legere.”

“And f*ck you, business journals who put the blame on the workers rather than the CEOs and executive suite.”

“Occasionally, there are actual righteous business owners, like CEO Dan Price. He raised the salary of everyone at his Seattle-based credit card processing company Gravity Payments to at least $70,000 a year. Price slashed his own salary by $1 million down to the same $70,000.”

“All the business journals claimed, at the time, that CEO Dan Price was a communist, and that his business would go down the tubes. These are supposedly the ‘free market’ people who should be on the side of Dan Price to do whatever he decided to do with his own company. Anyways, as it turns out, their business exploded. The workers appreciate him so much, they all chipped in to buy him a new car, because he couldn’t afford one on his new $70,000 salary. Now, that’s a real man.” – AutodidacticTactic

There’s no shortage of reasons to quit a job: low wages, terrible treatment, poor management, and being forced to keep going through a global pandemic are all valid reasons.

If there’s anything we can learn from this is that laborers have a lot of power, and that power is through their choice to work at companies that actually care about their wellbeing.

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People Explain What Makes Them Nervous No Matter How Many Times They Do It

The world is a dangerous place sometimes.

According to a study by the CDC in 2018, nearly 24.8 million doctor’s visits were the cause of some sort of accident. While the odds are still in your favor of nothing happening to you when you step outside the door, the chances of it happening at all are enough to make people a little panicked whenever they do anything.

Driving behind a service truck with a lot of dangling equipment? Walking through a grassy field filled with sprinklers which haven’t been turned on all day? Going for that big meeting with your boss?

A lot can happen.

And you never really know, do you?

Reddit user, WinstonChurchillin, wanted to know what never gets easier.

They asked:

“What makes you nervous no matter how many times you do it?”

They’re Going To Disappear Into The Land Of Elves

“Walking over a storm drain with my keys in my hand” ~ Groovy_Chainsaw

Even When It’s Your Job

“Using my table saw. Even though I am a Carpenter.” ~ jakobrivers

“Handling an angle grinder makes me nervous. I have to use it frequently because of my job, but it never gets easier.” ~ CatCatRatRat

“For a couple months I had a job in a college machine shop. I was always healthily scared of those machines. You’d get trained up hearing the story of the lathe-hair girl and worse bloodcurdling tales.”

“Always follow procedure, always double-check, always know the emergency stops, and if possible always have someone within shouting distance.” ~ dishonourableaccount

It Could Mean Lots Of Things

“When my boss goes ‘can we just have a quick chat?’” ~ zagreus9

“Or “Come into my office when you get a chance. There’s something I’d like to discuss with you.” ~ DareWright

Teacher? Don’t Be This Teacher.

“Let’s break ourselves into small groups and…” ~ mayoroftheed

“And also, “Before we start, let’s go around the room and say a little bit about ourselves…” ~ ylssa26

“At meetings when they say, ‘Ok, everyone, let’s go around the room and introduce yourself’. Even worse when they require stupid things like, ‘Include your favorite food and why you like it’ or ‘Tell us why you’re here’. Uhhh…because it’s mandatory?” ~ DareWright

“The problem I have with this is I suddenly forget everything about myself.”

“Favorite food? ‘Oh god what have I eaten ever?’ Favorite movie? ‘I watch movies?’ Hobbies? ‘Is sleep a hobby, did I even sleep last night?’ Typically how it goes in my head.” ~ shermanerma

Nerves, Yes, But Perhaps A Little More Justified

“Driving in between two semi trucks on the freeway. Bonus points if one or both is carrying a bunch of logs…”

“…For the record, I am very aware that this is something one should not do unless you have to. The only times this happens to me is if I am in one of the middle lanes on a 4 or 5 lane highway and semis come up on either side.”

“In those cases, I speed up as quick as I can to pass one or the other. Always drive defensively!” ~ princess_mediocrity

“Driving behind a truck with an overhanging load too. I’m always terrified my depth perception will fail me and I’ll ram it with my windshield” ~ SxeySteve

“My fear is driving behind a car with even a mattress attached to roof….my former boss died after a mattress came off the car in front of him….I sure miss him as he taught me to drive a stick, which was cool, though the truck was older, 1992 type truck. :)” ~ shana104

Are They Clocking My Speed Or What?

“Drive in front of a police officer when I have no reason to be nervous.” ~ DapperCam

“sit next to one at traffic lights. Do I look at them? If I don’t does it look suspicious? do I pretend like I’m bored? WHAT DO I DO” ~ Jcit878

Wasting Everyone’s Time

“Walking out of a store without buying anything!” ~ KillerJupe

“I’m always paranoid that I’ll trigger the security alarm for no reason” ~ Violet_Hill

Anyone Ever Seen Children Of The Corn?

“Using a mandoline slicer.”

“Even using the safety guard I get a little queasy when I have to use it.” ~ yourtemporaryBFF

“I sliced my thumb open once because I thought I was too good for the guard. I never ever use it without the guard now and still get too nervous to cut that far down with it.” ~ TeamToaster2014

Your Entire Wobbler In Your Joinster Is Shot

“Anything that has to do with my car. I have been scammed even over a simple oil change.”

“even if I try to be confident, it’s very clear once I start talking that I have no clue about cars. Literally had someone quote $400 to change an air filter.”

“I said no because I could not afford it…. found out later how insane that quote was. Sadly that just fueled my fear.” ~ sebastianrileyt2

“I love it when they pull out my air filter to show me how dirty it is so they can charge me $100 to change it, and I’m like oh wow yeah I’ll have to change that. Now go put it back.” ~ SirWigglesVonWoogly

Concert Performers Everywhere Know What’s Up

“Tuning my violin.” ~ TheLettre7

“Ugh, when that E string snaps and whips you in the face…” ~ dailysunshineKO

“The E string is the worst, had one time it snapped while tuning before a concert. I was able to get a backup, but still it’s nerve racking.” ~ TheLettre7

How Do You…Use…Speak…Things?

“Calling someone on the phone. I’m a fairly outgoing person and I love talking to people, but I rely a lot on seeing a person’s face and observing their body language, which isn’t possible on the phone.”

“Voicemails are less terrible, but I still panic a little because if I mess up while leaving a message, the other person has a freaking recording of me being really awkward. I’m so thankful texting exists.” ~ smugmisswoodhouse

Double Check, Triple Check, Unplug It

“Sticking my hand inside the disposal when I drop a fork In it.”

“I’ve seen people telling me to unplug the disposal, how does one do that?” ~ The_Point-Man

Most of this is in your head.

Still, it never hurts to be a little extra cautious out there and make sure the disposal is unplugged.

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Housekeepers Divulge The Biggest Secrets They’ve Learned About Their Employer

Being a domestic servant is a difficult job, no matter what position you’re filling.

People who work personally and privately for others in their homes always seem to have a mountian of tasks.

These jobs can also be tedious and humdrum. But they can also be intriguing.

One of the perks of these types of jobs can be the secrets and information you become privy to.

Honey, there are just some lives you learn about that could rival storylines on “Dynasty.”

After all, truth is stranger than fiction.

Everyone on Reddit wanted to drink up the hot, hot tea delivered by Redditor Hunterofshadows when they asked:

“Housekeepers of reddit, what do you know about the owners of the houses that they don’t know you know?”

Now this ought to be scolding darling…

What a Stinker!

“Not a house keeper but a nanny. A family once took me on vacation with them so I could watch their kids while they‘d go out and explore the area.”

“That week, my bed was the couch in the living room. It’s late at night, the kids are sleeping, I’m laying on the couch and the parents get back.”

“The dad says, “is she sleeping” referring to me? I didn’t say anything so apparently he assumed yes.”

“He then started farting very loudly.”  ~ sisof2

One Day at a Time…

“Dog walker, here. I was dog sitting for an older work friend once and saw her “days sober” calendar.”  

“I was simultaneously sad, because I had no idea she was struggling, and happy for her because she had almost a full month marked off.”  ~ cleanandclaire

“I will hit 3 weeks on Sunday. This is the longest I have gone without alcohol in 10 years.”

“The only times it was longer before that were the 3 times I was deployed overseas and no alcohol available.”  ~ RSchnars

Not so loud next time…

“I’m a nanny. The last family worked for I overheard the Dad calling his insurance asking if a certain Rehab was covered.”

“He talks LOUD naturally. I heard what he was going for and everything.”

“Nobody knew not family not friends. Just me and them. They never knew I knew.”  ~ Thesugarsky

Some special announcements…

“Our maid service found our positive pregnancy test in the bathroom trash, after presumably finding negative pregnancy tests in the bathroom trash for the previous 12 months.”

“Left us a nice little congratulations note on my wife’s nightstand.”  ~ fizzleguy

“Mine found the “Best new daddy” mug I gave my husband.”

“Bless them, they hadn’t said a word about what had been in the trash.”

“Unfortunately, I had to follow that up with the miscarriage news a month or so later.” ~ ttcanuck

A Passage to Nowhere…

“House I used to work at had a secret passage from the master bed to the attic, also a secret passage from a cabinet in the great room leading to the exterior of the garage.” ~ madiet6uwu

“I grew up in a house with a trap door in the pantry floor that led to a bricked in “cell” in the basement.”

“The house was built in the early middle 19th century in an area that became known for Underground Railroad traffic and then as a Prohibition smuggling route.”

“So I’m sure that little room had some history to it.”

“Edit: Unless you guys know more about my house than the people from the university that came and checked out the house, please stop telling me it’s a cellar or root storage. It isn’t.”  ~Capt_Hawkeye_Pierce

“I just worked in a house a few months ago that had this!”

“10 million dollar mansion built in the late 1800’s.”

“They started in the kitchen/servants quaters and ran behind the walls coming out in each room with staircases that went up to the second floor and down to the basement.”

“Some of them were sealed off but the ones in the living room, master bed and basement still had their functioning pocket doors.”

“It was really awesome and made me feel like a kid again exploring them.”  ~ iHateMonkeysSObad

A Whole New World!

“A bit of an innocent one but while I was cleaning I saw this cabinet that was very large.”

“Like someone could fit a body in there. So, being curious, I opened it and saw A WHOLE ROOM.”

“It was crazy! Inside there was a bed and lights attached to these tall wood pieces.”

“Then a mini bookshelf with some books and a desk and computer. It was absolutely amazing.”  ~ LemmeHear

Well that’s a surprise!!

“Where she keeps her sex toys. It’s not obvious.” 

“One day I noticed that whenever I used the toilet the water was barely enough to send away my “deposit” so I opened the water tank to adjust it and I found not only one but several.”

“Well they are waterproof I thought.”  ~ yaarty

“I’m not a housekeeper but my late aunt used to be. One of her clients, who was fairly well-to-do, had a whole closet full of genital themed toys.”

“And when I say “toys,” I’m not using a euphemism for “sex enhancement items” or anything like that. Literal genital toys.”

“Windup penises with googly eyes on them, PEZ dispensers shaped like the most browsed pages of a skin mag (I suspect these weren’t official PEZ brand).”

“Rather risque variants on “pin the tail on the donkey”, a Nerf-like gun that fired foam phalluses.”  ~Times_Hunger

“My aunt is currently a house keeper.”

“The had this one client who would throw used feminine hygiene products under the bed; pads specifically.”

“No matter how I think about this I just can’t imagine how someone can get to that level of grossness.”

“If you’ve ever had a heavy menstrual cycle and wore a pad, you know sometimes not everything is absorbed into the pad.”

“You need to immediately sit down in the toilet or it can quite literally go everywhere.” ~ aamirazeal

She’s a Whole Hot Mess!!

“That she got a DUI. Typical religious white collar family; husband, wife, and 4 teen kids.”

“She had one of those at home breathalyzer tests from the court sitting in the master bathroom, it takes your picture as you blow into it and it sends it to your probation officer.”

“I only know because I was on probation a few years ago and had one too.”

“Curiosity got the best of me and I looked at her public record… yup.”

“DUI and she messed up on probation too, had another court date. After that I started noticing 12 step books and such.”  ~ LunaTheFerret

The way people live

“Working in hotels is similar to cleaning someone’s house, because those comfortable will lay it out for you.”

“You can tell if someone is messy or tidy at home, how well they take care their things, what they eat, how much they drink, what medical problems they may have.”

“And if you get the chance to meet them you can piece together why they live the way they do by telling their stories.”

“I never made fun of our guests or judged them. That would be so unfair and intrusive.”  ~ silly-noodle

I See You!

“My cleaning guy caught me leaving the house once.”

“Said he knew I smoked pot because he’d find stuff for it a lot and asked if he could find me some for a camping trip with his wife.”

“I freaked a little after he just said “I know you do marijuana”. I was like am I catching a lecture.”

“We moved like a month later so I never really saw him face to face again. Hope he enjoyed it.”

“They were good people and appreciated us more than they ever had to.”  ~ 420Minions

See, if you have people in your house—personal or staff—assume you’re always being watched.

I’ve always wanted to be able to afford cleaning help, and if I ever can, I’m going to make sure to be on alert.

The walls really do have ears.

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People Who’ve Done Top Secret Work Finally Divulge What They Were Working On

Most of us will work a fairly wide variety of jobs over the course of our lives, and some of us walk away with some pretty interesting stories while trying to pay the bills.

The most fascinating jobs, though, have to be the ones that we’re not supposed to talk about.

Redditor Charcoals7 asked: 

“People who did super-secret work, what is something you can share now that you couldn’t before?”

Some had worked with dermatologists and plastic surgeons.

“Interned for a plastic surgeon who is very well known and does work on celebs. They sold their skincare line for hundreds of dollars and touted it as having highly advanced ingredients of the highest quality.”

“They bought most of it from a wholesale retailer who stuck their name on the bottle. The website looked sketchy tbh (to be honest).”

“They also had ’24k gold face masks’ that were purchased in bundles off of Amazon for cheap.”

“These fancy skincare lines are such a scam, don’t waste your money.” – monkeylioness

“Dermatologists do this too.”

‘A lot, if not all, don’t really formulate their own products. They buy it in bulk at a discounted price from pharma sales reps, repackage, and mark up by a ridiculous percentage.” – streakfolmlore

Others had experience with security.

“Friend had to get heaps of security clearance at one of his first jobs. Inventory reporting that fed into customs databases.”

“I had to speak to an FBI agent as part of his background check and the job really just amounts to tallying information almost like tick sheets.” – tdasnowman

“Worked at an engineering department at a university that had an aviation engine testing shop. We got military surplus stuff all the time through industry agreements.”

“Some stuff that got dropped off were cruise missile engines with pretty advanced thrust vectoring and some stealthy design features.”

“All the aviation geeks were like, ‘We didn’t know that those missiles had that on them.’”

“Then some serious-looking men came to the department and took them back, and kindly reminded us not to talk about whatever it was we thought we saw but actually didn’t see because it had never happened.”

“I saw some of it published a few years ago in the open so I figure I’m good.” – gunmedic15

“My grandpa worked for the NSA. Had to say he answered phones his entire life.”

“Went to the DC Spy Museum and they had his career on display. Wild. He cried a lot.” – EepEekim

A few challenged the history books. 

“Dad (died 2016) was in the Navy and on one of the ships in the blockade that was part of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The official story is that no American ship fired any shots.”

“A few months before he died, Dad said his ship was one of several that fired shots.” – xkulp8

“During the 1982 Falklands conflict, it was spread on the news that several British submarines were in the area, and this is likely what deterred the Argentine carrier Vientecinco de mayo from engaging the British fleet.”

“My father was a submariner at the time (didn’t go down there). When he was in the bar on base back home, it was announced on the radio that a certain British submarine was in the area. 

“The guy next to him said, ‘I hope not, I just walked off it an hour ago.’”

“Basically pulled the same trick the Royal Navy used against the Graf Spee in 1939.” – EmperorOfNipples

There were gamers in the mix. 

“I was a QA tester on Half Life 2. At the time it operated under multiple code names outside of the main testing room: the two I remember was Red Rooster and Dirty Butler.”

“Security was INSANE. They had us in a small corner office with PCs and draped-out windows. Our lead kept the office locked at all times, and when we got into work each day we had to hand over all bags, cell phones, and any storage media we had.”

“If I recall, screenshots were only allowed with permission, and had to be sent in an email to the lead, then scrubbed from the computer.”

‘This was also during the time Vivendi Universal Games (where I worked) was having tensions with Valve over the whole Steam thing, so for a while, it didn’t seem like we’d get credited either: we eventually did, but only on Gamasutra.”

“The entire team got printed shirts that read, ‘I survived Red Rooster,’ and I’ve still got mine kicking around. It’s itchy, thick, and uncomfortable to wear, but I refuse to get rid of it, since it’s a memento I’m fairly proud of.” – PatienceHero

“I worked at a printing company that made Magic The Gathering cards. It was insane.”

“There’s nothing quite like seeing uncut sheets of foil mythic rares stacked in a block 4 feet high 8 months before release.”

“I wasn’t allowed to play in tournaments during my tenure there and I had to sign an NDA.” – feverishdodo

“I worked similarly at Hasbro, the parent company for Wizards of the Coast which owns Magic and I was given a free uncut press sheet of Japanese Rise of Eldrazi foil mythic rares. They also gave me a full set of the employee-only holiday cards and a bunch of other stuff.”

“Basically one of the higher-ups found out that I loved Magic and made a call to get a huge package of free stuff sent to me. I barely knew the guy but it was such an incredible thing to do that my whole department came out to watch me open the stuff.”

‘It’s one of my most cherished memories honestly.”

‘It makes sense though that a company made up largely of adults who love toys and games would retain that childlike spark of just wanting to give your friend a gift to make them happy, no strings attached.”

“If anyone here reads this and gets the chance to work for Hasbro, I can’t recommend it enough, TAKE THAT JOB!”

“I wish I still had the press sheet, but life gets in the way sometimes and I had to sell it along with all the other rare cards I had to make sure my wife and I could survive. I miss them, but making sure my wife felt a little more secure that month about money was easily worth all of my cards.” – Itsfitzgames

There were wholesome secrets, too.

“Still secret: Sometimes I warn my dad about certain things and tell him how to react/ what to do (dad has autism so he can’t keep the truth from his expression) for my mom’s sake.”

“For example, my mom is older and got a shorter haircut and talked about how worried she was to show my dad because she knows he doesn’t like shorter hair on women.”

“I texted him to warn him and tell him to just smile and say it’s nice, DONT tell her you like it longer.”

“The next day, my mom couldn’t stop looking in the mirror because my dad said he really liked her haircut.”

“She doesn’t know it’s because I warn him about things and she will never know.”

“I love my dad but he is horrible at lying with his facial expressions. Same as instructing him to order flowers and a gift for my mom to send to grandma’s house for Valentine’s Day because she was visiting her mom and would be away.” – CorruptManatee

Some secrets are less interesting than the fact they were made to be kept secret at one point, but every once in a while, a person finds a gem.

The ones that make us question something basic about our lives, or that remind us to be thankful?

Those are the best kinds of secrets.

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People Explain Which Things They Think They’re Doing Wrong But Are Too Afraid To Ask

Parents and teachers mean well when they attempt to instruct us on the ways of the world.

But it doesn’t mean they’ll teach us everything we need to know, does it? Most of what they teach us is the basics: bathroom etiquette, tying our shoes, reading, writing and the like.

However, what about the more irregular stuff? The things you wish you knew about before entering adulthood?

Reddit user, Wijting, asked:

“What do you think you are doing wrong, but are too scared to ask somebody?”

Ride The Lunch Train Straight To Hell

“I have no idea if my lunch break is an hour or 30 minutes.”

“Where my office is located in my building, my boss and co-workers can’t see me leave for lunch. When I started, I just began taking hour lunches like I did at my last job.”

“Recently I heard a co-worker mention taking her 30 minute lunch.”

“I’ve been taking hour long lunches for 6 years and it’s way past the point of asking….” ~ spydervenom

Feel The Fury

“How to handle anger? I’m too embarrassed to ask” ~ Ok-Plastic-62

“Theres an excersise that i use sometimes when i get too angry:”

“First take deep, slow breaths. This evens out your breathing and calms you down (sometimes youll unconsiously start brething at a quicker pace when angry).”

“Make sure your in a comfortable position, one that you can be in for a minite of two, and imagine that your body is slowly being filled up with ‘liquid sunshine’ from the bottom up, like an hourglass.”

“Sounds odd, but give it a try! It has helped me out more than once.” ~ TroospooK

You Just Pucker Up

“Kissing. I’ve had no complaints but it’s not really something your parents taught you to do properly (unless you’re into that)” ~ BenignFrustration

“You and your SO will learn from one another what they like/you like and what they don’t like/you don’t like.” ~ Gianca16

It’s The Hardest, Simplest Decision You Can Make

“My finances – no idea how to properly manage my money.” ~ FinnbarMcBride

“Figure out exactly how much money you bring in during an average month.”

“Take your last x months of expenses (I did 3 but if you had a full year of normal expenses that’d be best)and break it down into categories of what you spent money on [i.e. loans, food, gas, fun stuff]”

“If you have more expenses than income take a honest look at your expenses and make some cuts, id mostly focus on stuff like gaming, going out, drinking.”

“Try to put as much money as you can into your 401k, usually 10-15% of your monthly income is advised (but also doesn’t have to happen if that would put you into the res)”

“If you have cc debt pay that off first, then car loans then long term loans like student loans and mortgages” ~ pspspsprjrjejdjdjdj

Tongue-Tied Argument

“I feel like I’m really articulate when I’m going about my day especially over text, but as soon as I get into a verbal disagreement it’s like my f’king brain shuts off and I forget how to think. Like a deer in the headlights.”

“I don’t remember it always being this way but it’s like I’ve got this huge amount of social anxiety in those situations now and I struggle to accurately express myself.” ~ The_Splenda_Man

“That’s totally normal. You don’t have the same amount of time to think about your response in person.”

“I think that it is really more important to listen to what the person is saying rather than trying to come up with a response. Remember, it is always valid to say ‘I need more time to think about this’.” ~ kitskill

Are They Still Breathing? Probably A Good Start.

“Babysitting. I babysat a few times when I was 13 or 14 and I wasn’t sure if I was just supposed to check in on the kid or play with them or just like, make sure they don’t die.”

“I’m really good at kid sitting but babysitting (or for me watching a kid under 7 years old) is just hard.” ~ Teabeany

“If it’s new parents they’ll inundate you with instructions.”

“If it’s not new parents they’ll be happy as long as the kids are alive and the house hasn’t burnt down.” ~ IAmJohnny5ive

I Thought I Was Being Friendly?

“Flirting. Let’s face it.”

“I don’t even know what the heck that is, how it works and what the difference between talking and flirting is.”

“Funny enough apparently that leads to me being constantly flirty without wanting to be. At least I often get told that I flirt with almost every single person I met.” ~ OverlyShyEnby

We’re All Envious Of You

“Showering. I have very very long thick hair and I just kind of blast shampoo and conditioner at it.”

“People ask me what I do to keep my hair so nice and I have no idea what to say. People seem to have such complex hair rituals and I’m here just aping it up.” ~ SkylordZoey

Who’s Supposed To Teach You This? Honestly?

“I’m a girl. Not sure if I’m supposed to shave the thin blonde hairs in my thighs or not.”

“Sometimes they look darker, but sometimes they look blonde.”

“I shave the rest of my legs ( below the knee), but I’m in my 30s. Feels like I should know this already….” ~ busycleaning

“Out of all the women I’ve slept with, I genuinely can’t remember if there were hair on their thighs.”

“It never even occurred to me until I saw your comment, and I can’t imagine other people would care unless they were particularly squeamish about that specific thing.”

“But would that still matter to them in the heat of the moment? Idk. I don’t think so” ~ DandyBubbles

Not As Complicated As You Think

“Life.”

“Like what am I supposed to be doing? I have about 80 years total.”

“So far, I’ve learned stuff, got married, and got a good job. Am I just grinding out the rest of my years?” ~ OPmeansopeningposter

“Help others, improve the world.”

“You’ve listed a bunch of stuff you’ve gotten out of life. Now it’s time to think about what you can give.” ~ orange_avalanche

When in doubt?

Just ask.

Someone.

Anyone.

Or JFGI.

Better to know than not know, right?

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People Divulge The Absolute Best Questions To Ask In A Job Interview

The job interview process is almost always stressful, and that’s only after you’ve sent in enough resumés and applications to get someone to offer you an interview in the first place.

Knowing what to ask your interviewer when they ask you “Do you have any questions for us?” is often the most nerve-wracking part of the interview itself.

But below, you’ll find some great questions to ask your potential employer during your next interview.

Reddit user fmgame asked:

“What is THE best question to ask on a job interview?”

Ask About Your Predecessor

“One that has always gone over well for me: ‘What were some qualities that the previous employee in this role brought to the job that you would like to see carried forward?’”

“Another good thing to do is research the company you are interviewing with and you can ask things about what they may be involved in or you could drop that while reading about the company, you wondered this.” –uneasyandcheesy

Ask For Your Interviewer’s Expertise

“When you were interviewing here, what would you have liked to know before you joined?” –BeBackInASchmeck

“This worked for me. I asked my interviewer a question about how she had personally dealt with a company policy she had just explained.”

“She bragged about her stellar adherence to the policy. I nodded my approval. I got the job.” –slowbreaths

“This sounds like it allows too much room for them to promote themselves or the company. It’s not a bad question, I just think it will be hard to get an honest answer.” –Dukeronomy

“But are we looking for an honest answer, or just trying to get hired?” –DungeonsAndDragonsD*ldos

What Do They Want From You?

“Ask them what is the biggest problem you can solve for them in your first six months with the company. Similar to ‘don’t think of a purple hippo,’ this forces them to imagine you succeeding in the position.” –stack_cats

“I asked this question in the interview for my current job. The answer I got was great:”

“‘Nothing. Just settle in, find your feet, concentrate on doing the basics right. We’ll sort out some challenges for you next year’.”

“It meant that I felt really relaxed and at ease when I started, knowing that I didn’t have to make any grand statements early on in my career here.” –SamwiseTheOppressed

This One Can Help You Weed Out Places That Aren’t A Good Fit

“What do you like best about working here?” –SJExit4

“This question has helped a lot to get an accurate view on the employer” –HurricaneHugo

“‘Good work-life balance, open and transparent communication, and a healthy work environment,’ even if none of those things are true.” –reallydarnconfused

“In February I asked this question in a job interview and the immediate response of the guy interviewing me is to look down and laugh a bit.”

“He then told me the likes the ‘balance’ and the ‘comradeship’ and that it feels like ‘family’.”

“That didn’t satisfy me but they proceeded to hire me a week later and I accepted. That comradeship he was talking about was true.”

“It was a group of 15 people and they were all 45+ and older and we’re highly racist towards everyone not German enough.”

“I quit after 2 months after listening to daily right wing conspiracies and whining about foreigners.” –Shaawny

Are They A Good Manager?

“A question that landed me a job once was: ‘If I asked your direct reports about your management style, what do you think they’d tell me?’ Stumped a hiring manager and he emailed me personally to tell me about it, no one ever asked him that question but I got the job.”

“In my current interviews I’m asking ‘what did your company do for its employees during COVID to improve their day to day, work life balance, etc.’ and I ask ‘Is there anything your company adopted during COVID that they plan to keep post COVID?’”

“These questions give a lot of insight into whether a company treated their employees well.”

“Other questions that I’ve been complemented on are:”

“‘If we were currently sitting in my 1 year review, what would I have done in this year for you to say I excelled in my role?’”

“‘If I could snap my finger right now and change anything about your job or the company, what would it be and why?’” –Ophelia_AO

“When I’m interviewing, if it’s not offered proactively, I ask to meet some of the team I would be working with – and have a meeting where the hiring manager was not present.”

“When I’m talking with my potential coworkers I can them ask them about daily tasks/projects, any challenges, and what it’s like to work with the hiring manager. Not being able to meet with them separate from the hiring manager would be a red flag.”

“But then a couple of years ago I was interviewing and was offered a job where I would be the first employee at a company. The owner had previously done a lot of his business with contractors, and wanted to bring on an employee.”

“Obviously there were no coworkers for me to interview, since I would be the first one hired.”

“I did a couple of interviews with the owner, and he said he definitely wants to offer me the position, and he asked me to email him my references.”

“I said I would, and then I noted that normally I would want to speak with coworkers, but since that was not really possible I asked him for references of his own – specifically some who could speak to his management style.”

“He apparently loved that I did that. Said he had never been asked that before, and I could see he was surprised and hadn’t even thought about it.”

“But he agreed to send me an email later that night.”

“What I really appreciated was that he didn’t just give me people who were his direct reports in past jobs. He gave me a couple of levels of people to speak to.”

“One reference was someone who he directly managed previously. This one could speak about his long term experience with my prospective boss, and management style, and whether or not he was a micromanager (was not one, yay).”

“One reference was someone who was currently a managing partner at a pretty big Australian company. They had been VPs at the same time, managing different divisions at a previous company.”

“This one could speak to the leadership style, how my prospective boss approached business problems, and about his vision for the company. They had a long history, and it was really valuable to understand that my boss had a 5 year and 10 year plan for the business that was well thought out.”

“And I think the third reference was a current contractor at the company I was thinking about joining. This one was able to speak about current management style, and current projects I would work on.”

“Got valuable info from all of those references, and I accepted the job”

“Absolutely all of them were accurate about him as a manager.”

“A year or so later told me that me making the request for his references stood out – he took it as a sign that I was a good choice.”

“I don’t work for him anymore, but he’s still one of the best managers I have ever had.”

“The only manager I ever had who when he was trying to hire more people, came to me and said that in trying to hire he had come to realize that he was underpaying me, and gave me a $10k raise on the spot.” –LadyCiani

This One’s Important

“Why is this position open?” –TXJOEMAMA

“The position was ALWAYS hiring (call centre) so I asked them what their turnover rate was… 20% per month.”

“I lasted a good while. I had the highest call ratings in the company, and several customers spoke to or sent letters to my manager about how much they appreciated my help.”

“But I also had the lowest amount of calls taken per shift. Because of that, they never gave me my monthly award in front of the other staff.”

“They didn’t want anyone else to think they could get away with it.”

“Quantity, not quality.” –blameitonmyouth

Not Everyone Wants To Move Up

“Perhaps not the best but very interesting. A candidate asked me if it is possible in our company to get a significant raise without climbing up the career ladder in our company.”

“This guy never wanted to be a manager, he wanted to do what he applied for but wanted to know it will be well paid.”

“We hired him. He’s introvert, working alone in his ‘basement’ but he’s great at what he does.” –Nathaniel66

Job interviews are often stressful, but hopefully these suggestions about what to ask your interviewer make at least part of the process easier.

Happy job hunting!

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Should You Have to Explain the Gaps in Employment During Job Interviews? Here’s What People Said.

It happens to the best of us…

Something unexpected happens in your life and you’re thrown for a loop and you don’t work for a while.

Maybe you needed a break, maybe you got laid off, maybe you had a baby, the possibilities are endless!

But sometimes these gaps are looked down upon in the professional world.

Do you think people should have to explain gaps in employment during job interviews?

People debated this question on AskReddit.

1. Not their business.

“Taking a year off to focus on yourself, take care of a loved one, or simply think about your future shouldn’t be the business of somebody interviewing you. There’s nothing wrong with wanting a break from work culture.

If you can afford to do so, and it’s what you want, I encourage it. Take a break, find yourself, sleep longer than you usually can, pick up a hobby, and enjoy your d**n life.”

2. You can try this.

“I put “relevant work history” in my CV and haven’t had any issues in the past.

If the interviewer wants to ask what other jobs you’ve held, you can answer without giving set dates, just how long you were at each place.”

3. Don’t care as much.

“I’ve taken time off 3 times in my career.

New employers don’t seem to care anymore like they used to. They only want to know that you left on good terms.

My previous employer just rehired me last month at a significantly higher salary after an 18 month sabbatical. I had given them 5 weeks notice before I left, documented everything, trained as many people as I could.

They were so appreciative and always kept the door open if I wanted to return. It’s all about maintaining good juju.”

4. Wow.

“I lost my job in march 2020 when I got covid and nearly d**d but I haven’t been able to find a job that pays remotely close to what I was making before.

And every single interview they’ve asked “oh wow, you haven’t worked since March of LAST YEAR?”

Then they ask “what happened” but in a way that shows that they really don’t care at all as to why, only that it makes me look like a s**tty potential employee.”

5. Shouldn’t be an issue.

“It’s usually never an issue if you have a good reference from your last employer.

They are more making sure the gap wasn’t because you got fired, then actually giving a s**t.”

6. It’ll be noticed.

“It’s not an issue at the interview, but it is noticed. Consistent employment with no long gaps is a good filter. Given two equally qualified candidates, employment history will be a tie breaker.

Employers want someone that will show up for their scheduled shifts. Not someone who works because they have nothing better to do.”

7. Might be other problems.

“People rarely give out jobs based on a resume, they tend to skim off as many of the best candidates as they can afford to interview and offer the position to the best candidates.

If you’re not regularly being selected for interviews there are likely multiple red flags in your resume.”

8. Does it work?

“I would usually take this time to tell them the heart wrenching lie about how I had to take care of elderly uncle/aunt and was a full time care person for them.”

9. Good advice.

“The best “lie” is usually one that reveals nothing, but implies weight behind it.

“I had to take time off to deal with a personal matter that has since been resolved. I gave [previous employer before the gap] notice, and we parted on good terms.”

The implication in that is “I did it on purpose, but do not ask me why”. Most interviewers and hiring managers know full well not to pry on such issues – it’s actually a potential liability for them to do so.

It’s far better than “I lost motivation to work and spent a year playing video games on my parents’ couch until they told me to get a job or they were going to kick me out.””

10. Explain it.

“As someone who has interviewed many people:

Taking a year off to travel before life gets in the way, spending a year to pursue professional gaming, or having difficulty finding a job in a down market have been answered people have given me where I have still offered them a position.

In almost every case explaining the gap is probably better than trying to hide it because deception will lead people to assume the worst.”

11. Frustrating.

“I was denied unemployment after being let go last spring due to bureaucratic BS and have yet to find a job despite dozens and dozens of applications. Most have just outright ghosted me, and I can’t help but wonder if they see a year of unemployment and toss my resume out.

What should matter is am I qualified, experienced, and willing to work; none of which can be determined based on an employment gap.”

12. Just don’t get fired.

“As long as your weren’t fired from your previous job it’s usually not an issue. Providing you have the experience to back it up when you jump back into the work force.

Lots of large gaps in a young persons resume make you seem unreliable. I’m not saying it’s right, but that’s the harsh reality in the eyes of most employers.”

Do you think people should have to explain employment gaps during job interviews?

Talk to us in the comments and let us know.

Thanks in advance!

The post Should You Have to Explain the Gaps in Employment During Job Interviews? Here’s What People Said. appeared first on UberFacts.

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These People Took Quitting a Job to the Next Level

We’ve all quit a job before. And most of the time, it’s fairly uneventful. A little notice, maybe some chats, a polite handshake and you’re out the door and onto something else.

But sometimes, you gotta do a little more than that. Sometimes, for better or for worse, you just gotta go out in style.

That’s what the people in these examples from Reddit did. A few were on good terms with their former employer, some were obviously very much not so, and some maybe just wanted to have a little fun and leave a memorable mark that their coworkers would remember them for.

Whatever the reason, it’s passionate, it’s genuine, and we’re here for it.

11. The TP resignation

(You may need to click the post to see the entire thing, it’s worth it.)

My husband’s letter of resignation from funny

10. This sincere consolation

You win some, you lose some. And by “some,” I mean me.

How my buddy Todd gave his notice at his job. His name is Todd by the way. This is classic Todd. from funny

9. This airing of grief

Farewell, Alex. We hardly knew ye.

I just quit my job the best way I know how. from funny

8. This unexpected error

Or maybe it wasn’t so unexpected, considering his treatment.

One of my co-workers quit today. We found this on his desktop. [PIC] from pics

7. This thoughtful letter

“I do not doubt for a second that you are the devil in disguise.” is just a wonderful punch of a line.

My friend’s resignation letter

6. This bottle of the hard stuff

That is wonderfully heartwarming, actually.

View post on imgur.com

5. This cake

But is it a lie?

View post on imgur.com

4. This “effective immediately” resignation

The job ain’t worth all the pain.

My wife just quit the job that made her cry nearly every day for two years. I couldn’t prouder!

3. This meal ticket

Um, order up, I guess.

2. This custom greeting card

That’s the only reason I’m here, after all.

1. This very detailed cake

Sticking a little plug in there at the end is a nice touch.

If you’re gonna quit, do it in style.

What’s the best quitting experience you’ve ever had?

Tell us in the comments.

The post These People Took Quitting a Job to the Next Level appeared first on UberFacts.