Category: World Culture

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12+ People Reveal the Best Advice They Ever Received

A good piece of advice can completely change the trajectory of your life. We often find ourselves at crossroads, unsure of what to do or where to go next. But when someone steps in, whether they’re a trusted friend, family member, or stranger, and offers us words of wisdom, we can’t wait to share them with others. Just like these folks did on AskReddit.

#15. Short and simple will do.

“One of my favourite teachers in Highschool told us:” If you need five pages to talk about 20 lines of poetry, you are obviously bullshitting me. State three well constructed arguments for your point of view and I’ll be happy to reward you for that. Claim. Reason. Proof. Nothing more.” He repeated that before every exam and it really helped me to boil my rather confused teenager thoughts into clear statements. I still think of him today while writing reports for work.

TLDR: Keep it short and simple.”

#14. Check your shoes.

“Probably “If it smells like shit everywhere you go, check your shoes.”

I’m much less of a miserable asshole these days.”

#13. Your younger self.

“Be the person you needed when you were young.”

#12. You’re not supposed to be sure.

“This was specifically when looking to transition to a significantly higher responsibility role, but I have found to be applicable to any time I’m facing a new challenge. “Don’t be worried if you’re not sure you can do it. You’re not supposed to be sure. If you were already sure you could do the job, you’d be bored within a month.”

#11. Change.

“Life doesn’t change, unless you change it.

You can’t sedate your way out of a crappy life, you have to get up and make changes.”

#10. With friends or family.

“Years of love have been forgotten in the hatred of a minute”

Really helps whenever I get into an argument with my friends or family.”

#9. Uncomfortable conversations.

“Your success will be largely dependent on the number of uncomfortable conversations you are willing to have – Reddit”

#8. Make it worth something.

“There will come a time in your life where you’ll have nothing to offer someone but your word. Make it worth something.”

Edit: Oh shit my first gold?! Thank you kind stranger! I really do feel like I’m internet famous.”

#7. Money well spent.

“If you lend someone some money and never see them again, it was probably money well spent.

Got told this after I lent a friend $100 and the fucker dropped off the face of the planet.”

#6. A great boss.

“My first great boss told me “never make yourself indispensable or you’ll never get promoted”.

It’s worked for me.”

#5. Get off the fence.

“Sometimes the worst decision is no decision. Sometimes you just have to make a decision, any decision, then make that be the right one.”

#4. Pay now.

“You can pay now, or you can pay later, but it’s almost always cheaper to pay now.”

It seems like a lot of people think this is only referring to money, it’s not.”

#3. Priorities and options.

“Don’t make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option”.

#2. Morning and night.

“Do something that makes you want to get up in the morning. Find someone that makes you want to go home in the evening.”

#1. Respect yourself.

“Respect yourself enough to walk away anything that no longer serves you, grows you or makes you happy.”

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12+ Entrepreneurs Reveal the Mistake That Cost Them Their Business

Have you ever dreamed of starting your own business? While some people find success, it’s often a lot harder than it looks. One wrong move could end up costing you everything you’ve invested in. But you just might have a leg up if you read through these 15 honest confessions about the mistakes that were made by others who have gone before you.

#15. In hindsight.

“Entered an over saturated market with zero business, marketing or sales experience.

In hindsight, my chosen niche wasn’t specific enough. I’ve had a follow up idea from the experience I had, but I have zero intention of actually executing it.”

#14. Friends.

“Hired friends.

Didn’t do that this time around. Worked out.”

#13. Lessons.

“In the startup community + have watched many a start up fly and fail (mine is still breathing). Here’s what I’ve learned:

Pick your co-founders like you pick a marriage partner — with the expectation that they may very well screw you over anyway.
Don’t invent a product for a problem that doesn’t exist. If you do, you will have to spend a lot of time inventing the problem as well.
Take your experience and apply it to what you want to do. Don’t jump in to app building b/c all the cool kids are doing it.
Don’t get in it for the money. You will likely be working for AT LEAST two years without adequate (or any) pay.
Don’t try to be a BFF to your employees/boss. It seldom ends well.

Specificity and focus are your friends. You can’t be or do everything for everyone.
Your first customers are your employees. If they don’t see value in you or what you’re selling, you’re in trouble.
Working for smart, kind people is totally okay. There are hundreds of ways to do cool things, without entering the startup world.
Take care of yourself first. Throwing everything you have into a biz is no good if you destroy your health in the process.”

#12. Be prepared.

“Lots of things:

I sold clothing wholesale:

Had sales experience, but came from a different industry. It took a little bit to learn the law of the land and how things worked.
Made home base where I did (and also currently) live instead of moving to a more regional hub. This caused extra travel time and expenses when I could have been closer to my accounts. There’s a reason why reps work out of those hubs.
I was not prepared for the amount of stores who wouldn’t pay. If an account gives you trouble about placing a deposit or prepaying then you’re probably not getting paid.
Some of the lines we represented were off trend. We were newbies in the market so we kind of went with what we could get, but there are reasons that longer established and larger firms were repping certain lines and not repping other lines.
I didn’t watch my business partner close enough and took him at his word. He was a lying piece of shit who was out for himself and he no problems screwing me over and running off with some of the money we did have.
I learned a lot though, and while I don’t own a business currently, I certainly will be more prepared for when I try again.”

#11. Self-confidence.

“Lack of self-confidence.

This was about 23 years ago, when the Web was really taking off. I knew it was going to be huge, and I knew that businesses really needed to be online, but my lack of self-confidence kept me from convincing others. It really held me back, and after a year and a half I had to find a full-time job.

But I don’t regret the time I spent trying; in 2001 the web development firm I was working for (and we had done some really high-profile projects) burst in the dot-com bubble and the resulting recession kept me from finding another full-time position. But everything I had learned from them, plus what NOT to do the first time, meant that I was able to freelance for the next 8 years.

So I always tell people to go for it. It may or may not work out, but you learn so much and it takes you where you need to be. It sucked but I wouldn’t have traded that experience for anything.

Edited because time flies.”

#10. Legalities.

“Years ago I tried freelancing hooking up electronics. I made a decent amount of mistakes but nothing totally crazy. I also most definitely didn’t know as much as I should have before starting something like that. But my biggest mistake was not getting bonded in any way. I had a really close call where a customer threatened to send me to court for breaking some electronics I didn’t even touch. I doubt he would’ve won but who knows what I do know is I would’ve have been able to afford to find out. I shut it all down after that.”

#9. No art collectives.

“I started an independent engineering consultant firm that was made up of only me. Turns out I spent so much time trying to get old customers to pay me, that I didn’t spend enough time looking for new customers. Side note: I will never ever sign a contract with an “Art Collective” ever again. They agreed to pay me a flat rate ($5000) to automate a project they were building that involved some motors spinning some disks or something. The job took me maybe 4 hours not counting the travel (but hey they agreed to a flat rate). They never sold the piece and never paid me, even though my contract had no language tying my compensation to project success. Anyway they dissolved the “Collective” and reopened it under a new name… and I never got my money. Repeat that story about 4 more times and I went back to working for someone else.”

#8. Too naive.

“I was too naive. As an engineer, I just wanted to build a product for the customer and then hope that it would sell itself and I would be on my Merry way. So I built dispatching software for a local truck company. After I finish building it out, I do some research and there are at least 10 other competitors with better fetaures and have been around longer.

Then I try cold calling other truck companies in the hopes of selling my software to them. Lo and behold, they were already using a competitor’s software to power their operations. I also had to price myself lower in order to try to be a compelling offering. So now, here I am with 1 customer getting paid $150 a month.

In essence, I fucked up in not doing enough research, not coming up with a more unique product, trying to be 5% better that competitors, not being able to get help on the sales end, and much more. The only thing I did well was to build good software.

Now, I wake up everyday depressed, not knowing what the right next step is, running out of money and time. The hardest part is the loneliness of it all. I miss having a team.”

#7. Follow the money.

“When it came to marketing channels, I didn’t follow what the numbers said was working.

I had my heart set on building a blog to promote my products. But all my sales success came from influencer marketing. If I had to do it over, I would have dropped the blog and put everything I could into the marketing channels that worked.”

#6. Pick a lane.

“I’ve launched multiple pen names for smut, and a fair few of them have just died in the water. (At least, I hope that’s water…)

The biggest failing was assuming that I could try and use one name for all the fetishes I wrote about, assuming that people who bought in one niche would buy in others. Not so. People like what they like, and they like to know they can buy more of it consistently.

Pick a lane and stick with it. It’s a lot easier to build a reputation for quality in one niche than all niches simultaneously.”

#5. Year one projections.

“I didn’t have enough money to operate the first year at a loss. Seriously, it is so important to have that. I mean technically my business could have survived, but I’d have starved. When factoring in year one projections: don’t forget your salary!”

#4. Market research.

“I never started a business but I work in accounting and have seen a lot of businesses succeed/fail. I think the most simple thing that goes wrong is just people often don’t really do market research and start a business that they are passionate about but it’s for a product or service that the people in that area don’t want or need. Also I think some people have good idea but don’t have any or enough experience in owning or running a business and underestimate the work it takes.”

#3. More than drive.

“Didn’t have enough starting capital. So we shifted our business plan to bring in some small capital to save up for our major plans. During that process, I realized my business partners were not what I was looking for. They just didn’t have the right mentality for what we were doing. The drive was there, but drive isn’t all we needed.

So I bailed out of it before I lost anymore of my money.”

#2. The wrong investor.

“I got the wrong investor….my dad.

My dad was the kind of parent who couldn’t trust me, and unfortunately still thinks he’s a fellow kid who totally understands today’s tech scene when he’s…….well. Let’s just say his idea of a great app is to load everything with ads, create 50 unnecessary additional steps to force everyone to see what our app can do, and oh…the 80s silver, blue & yellow gradient effect everywhere.”

#1. Get it in writing.

“I trusted my banker without getting anything in writing.

I had been thinking for a while about leaving the law firm I was with to start my own practice. I spoke with my banker who said it would be no problem for me to get a loan or line-of-credit if I needed it. I had some savings, but I relied pretty heavily on her representations. We had a great history and she had never let me down before. Big mistake.

So I started my own practice, did okay for a few months, then hit some slow months. I went to talk to her and she said there was no way she could do anything to help me until I had shown two years of profit. I got angry and asked her what about our previous conversation when she said that she had multiple ways she could help me. She claimed she never said anything of the sort. I remember standing up and leaning over her desk and saying “You told me you could get me a $15,000 line of credit within 24 hours based on my customer history with the bank. And now you’re telling me I dreamed this conversation?” She basically said she would never had made such a specific promise, and I clearly was trying to bully her. I left her office and immediately went to another branch to close all my accounts.

Every time I think of that conversation, I get furious. I had sent her God knows how many customers over the years, had a long history of banking at her branch, had been to lunch with her numerous times, yet she called me a liar when I had to ask her for a help for the first time in the history of our relationship.

In hindsight, I was stupid and a little arrogant. I knew it would take a couple of years to truly establish my practice, but I thought I had enough in savings and current clients that I could make it. When she told me about the financial options I would qualify for, I knew I had enough of a safety net. I made it 14 months before I had to close up shop and find a job (happy ending though: LOVE my current job).

Still, it’s a little frustrating to be on the verge of making it on your own and have the rug pulled out from under you by someone you considered a reliable ally.”

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Homeless People Share What They Mean By “Anything Helps”

Seeing homeless people on the street is hard. They have different signs-some are funny, others are sad, but it’s hard to know what to give when you see that very common sign: anything helps.

So here’s some advice from people who have been there.

#15. When you have nothing.

“Anything to help get clean when showering is not available, like cleansing wipes and deodorant especially. Chapstick, especially in the winter. Women usually need pads or tampons, they are so expensive when you have nothing.”

#14. My last handout.

“Deodorant, water, healthy snacks, razor/shaving cream, couple bucks for food/gift card to taco Bell… I was once given a gift card to the Dollar store that I felt changed my life. They had given me $20 and I was able to buy toiletries, laundry detergent and food. It was my last handout before I got my life together.”

#13. A few impractical things.

“When I was homeless food was the least of my problems. ANyone can afford a couple Mcdick Mcdoubles to keep themselves alive. You know what woulda helped? Loonies for laundry and detergant to keep my clothes from smelling like piss, Batteries for my cd walkman so i could listen to Watch out by Alexisonfire (some of the tracks helped me turn sadness into anger, which helped motivate me to get my shit together), A bible (if your not religious i get it, but motivational reading material for lonely nights is what im getting at here), a monthly bus pass, day passes to the YMCA so i can take a shower and maybe use their plus rooms for a good steam room sesh, Let me put your phone number on my resume (I didnt have a home or a phone so when i applied places i had nothing for them to get ahold of me so i had to tell them i could be found on the waterfront by the picnic tables). Maybe none of this is practical, but i needed a few impractical things to get my foot in the door….which i did…and im fine now.”

#12. That personal touch.

“I used to work with homeless people. For women, you can do up little hygiene packs with pads, tampons, feminine wipes and a little roll-on deodorant. Pads are expensive as fuck and pretty much all women need them.

For a more generic approach, little care packs are doable too. A bottle of water, a snack, a pair of clean socks, bars of soap, a toothbrush and a little toothpaste will go a long way. Grocery gift cards are better than money too. A handwritten note slipped inside the pack too can give it that personal touch.”

#11. Quite cold.

“Not homeless, but a great idea I thought worth sharing: A young kid and his parent in my area recently started a charity drive that’s become quite popular. Donors and volunteers wrap warm winter coats around trees with “Take me, I’m free!” signs. It gets quite cold here and it’s a way to get coats to homeless people on their own terms. It’s been pretty successful from what I’ve heard.”

#10. My wife and kids.

“Homeless guy approached my uncle 15 years back asking for food outside a hotel. Uncle offered to pay his bill.

He said “Can I pack it and take it home, my wife and kids are hungry too?”

Uncle asked the cashier to pack 4 plates of Biryani (costly food with meat), the homeless guy said, “buy me rice and curry for the same amount we’ll get more food for the same price”

He was genuinely homeless.

And also, the amount of money my uncle spent for buying him food was like almost half the price, he and his friends had spent there before the homeless guy came.

We eat junk food and drink coffees throughout the day without giving it a thought. When in the same amount of money these homeless guys can spend almost a week with food.

#9. During the cold nights.

“I’ve never been homeless nor personally known anyone who was homeless. But one time I passed blankets around downtown Chicago and the most common requests were gloves and hand warmers, ESPECIALLY hand warmers. They may be temporary, but they really help out during the cold nights.”

#8. When you’re still stuck in it.

“Being talked to like a normal person is really, really awesome.

Money is good. But it only goes so far. And some people are scammers or after drugs. And even if not money just buys you some food and supplies you need.

What you really need is an address. And clean clothes. And a way to put together a resume and clean clothes to wear to interviews. And work to do in the meantime.

If there are good services in your area helping someone to them can help them. Resistance doesn’t mean they are one of the bad ones either. It could also mean they have been burned enough that they don’t really trust people anymore.

In the end I say support housing first policies and then point homeless people to where they can get involved in it. If you want to spend money then donate to organizations that help homeless people get in to a home and then help them get back in to the workforce. Or a meal. There are homeless that will take the meal. Food and things like tampons help when you’re still stuck in it.”

#7. Much-needed.

“For a female homeless person, I suggest tampons or pads, and feminine wipes. Having her period, living on the streets with no means to take care of herself or keep clean, is difficult and humiliating. It’s a basic human requirement, and those items are kind of expensive, but very much-needed.”

#6. Clean off.

“I was homeless for about 2 years. The most helpful is food. Next is clean clothing of any kind. When you’re homeless you don’t get to wash clothes or have clean ones to put on. Shoes! I’d walk the soles clean off in several months.”

#5. A genuine smile and…

“A genuine smile and food. If you have the time take them to a McDonald’s and talk to them. It was about 6 years ago someone did that for me and it helped me out so much more than I can express.”

#4. Hygiene.

“Probably a small hygiene pack, water and a snack.”

#3. The basics.

“Not homeless but as someone who has made kits the last 4 years to hand out (I keep a stack of totes in my car at all times) I give these things:

Each package has:

BPA free reusable water bottle

Peanut butter crackers

Cheese crackers
Lemon cookies
Dried fruit (Bananas, blueberries, cranberries)
Gum

Almonds and Cashews
Wet wipes

Sport Deodorant
Comb

SPF 30 sport sunscreen
Razor

Toothbrush & holder
Toothpaste
Pack of tissues

Sewing kit
First Aid kit

Lip balm

Tylenol
LED light w/batteries (120 hour tealight)
Ink pen
Stamped envelope
Blank card

Personal note from my family

Winter gets socks, hand warmers, gloves, hats, and those little silver space blankets

I never know everyone’s circumstances so I try to cover the basics and figure they can hopefully trade if they don’t need something.”

#2. Ibuprofen.

“a pass to a $10 gym so they have access to a hot shower everyday, socks, a bottle of ibuprofen…”

#1. Socks.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Socks. SOCKS SOCKS SOCKS. I didn’t care if they were too big, at least they were on and protecting my feet. Women, give hygiene products. Those never get donated unless it’s small bursts during awareness things.

If you want to take it a step further, make little packs with underwear/boxers (again, best to be too big than too small), socks, toothbrushes and paste (my teeth are permanently damaged and I’m looking at implants/dentures at 24), small snacks, a reusable water bottle, and little Mio water squirts, just because sometimes I liked being able to slap a few drops in my water and “treat myself”.

If you live in a bus-laden city, bus passes are good, too! Bus passes were always a pain! If a shelter had them, they metered them and only gave you one use only tickets.. once got stranded on the edge of town that way.”

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This Texas Church Offered “Free Mom Hugs” at Pride Parade for Anyone Who Needed One

We all know how satisfying and powerful a good mom hug can be, and this Austin church made it their mission to give one out to anyone who needed one at a recent Pride Parade.

Jen Hatmaker, a mom and blogger who helped give out hugs, shared the heartfelt images from the parade on her Instagram account. She explained how the church showed up ready to offer everything from “Free Mom Hugs, Free Dad Hugs, Free Grana Hugs, and Free Pastor Hugs like it was our paying job.”

Photo Credit: Jen Hatmaker

Jen and other members of the Austin New Church were inspired by the Free Mom Hugs movement created by Sara Cunningham. Church members showed up ready to spread the love with their warm embrace. “And when I say hugs,” Jen explained, “I mean THE KIND A MAMA GIVES HER BELOVED KID.”

Photo Credit: Jen Hatmaker

“Our arms were never empty,” she wrote. “We ‘happy hugged’ a ton of folks, but dozens of times, I’d spot someone in the parade look our way, squint at our shirts and posters, and RACE into our arms.” Apparently, there were a lot of folks in attendance who really, REALLY needed a good mom hug.

Photo Credit: Jen Hatmaker

Among the comments that she and other members received were things like, “‘I miss this,’ ‘My mom doesn’t love me anymore,’ and ‘Please just one more hug.’”

If that doesn’t give you the warm fuzzies inside (while also breaking your heart a little), I don’t know what will. As someone who hasn’t been able to go back home and give my mom a good hug in a few years, I can definitely relate to how strong the craving for a good mom hug – the kind that gives off pure, unconditional love – can be.

Photo Credit: Jen Hatmaker

Strained relationships with unaccepting parents are sadly all too common within the LGBTQ community. Jen and her fellow church members made sure to let every single person they hugged know that they were “impossibly loved and needed and precious.” It’s the kind of simple, free act of kindness that can make all the difference in someone’s day.

Photo Credit: Jen Hatmaker

“We hugged until our arms fell off. This is what we are doing here, what we are here for,” she wrote. “The last pic is what you look like at the end of Pride covered in glitter, sweat, and more than a few tears.”

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What Causes Red Tide – And How Do We Stop It?

If you’ve been paying any attention to the news lately, you know that red tide has been particularly bad this year. The problem has been increasing in severity over the past several years, but this year it has led to the death of 267 tons of marine life along the Gulf Coast, according to The Guardian.

Photo Credit: melvil, CC BY-SA 4.0

But what is it that turns the ocean the color of blood and decimates marine populations in its path?

The simple answer is that it’s a particular kind of algae that multiplies and thrives in such large quantities it becomes visible to the naked eye. It’s color is because of the depth at which the algae lives and the fact that green and blue frequencies are absorbed while red is reflected.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

Karenia brevis, which is the type of algae in red tide found on the Gulf Coast, produces toxic chemicals that cause symptoms in humans ranging from sneezing and eye irritation all the way to vomiting and difficulty breathing. For fish, shellfish, turtles, and other wildlife, coming into contact with too much of the toxin often results in death.

The worst red tide on record happened in 1946 and resulted in the deaths of more than 50 million fish, along with hundreds of dolphins and sea turtles. In bad years, tourism is also impacted, since people generally enjoy their strolls on the beach sans mass corpses, and the local fishing industries can also take a big hit – to the tune of an estimated $1 billion.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Scientists are still working to determine what’s caused the latest bloom of red algae to explode and linger along the Gulf Coat, with leading culprits thought to be heavy rainfall, rising ocean temperatures and fertilizer runoff, all combined with wind patterns that are helping it stay put.

Florida is also dealing with a rise in a different type of blue-green algae that smells like raw sewage and has at times been bad enough to warrant the governor declaring a state of emergency. For this type of algae, scientists again blame warmer waters and fertilizer runoff from local farming communities.

So, while the red tide is “just” algae, it is still deadly – not only for the marine life directly affected, but for the people who live and work in the tourism and fishing industries that support many families on the coast.

And yes, there may be something we can do about it in the future…if we’re not too late to reverse the conditions that allow it to thrive in the first place.

h/t: Mental_Floss

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A Man Found an Amazing Collection of LGBTQ Artifacts Stashed Away in a Loft

When Gavin McGregor discovered two bags stashed away in his London loft, he didn’t think much about it until he took a much closer look. When he finally searched through the bags, he found that he’d stumbled upon a treasure trove of LGBTQ artifacts from the 1980s.

Photo Credit: Twitter

McGregor quickly realized that he had a significant time capsule of the LGBTQ scene.

Photo Credit: Twitter

And the second bag contained even more impressive finds.

Photo Credit: Twitter

McGregor also found the manuscript of a novel and tried to get in touch with the writer.

Photo Credit: Twitter

Bill Albert replied that he had submitted his novel to a short-lived publishing company that was run by two people: one now lived in South Africa and the other was Paud Hegarty, who had died from AIDS nearly 20 years ago. McGregor thought that the deceased Paud Hegarty might have been the man behind the artifact collection.

Photo Credit: Twitter

Photo Credit: Twitter

Photo Credit: Twitter

McGregor decided to donate the collection to Gay’s The Word to honor Hegarty’s legacy.

Photo Credit: Twitter

McGregor said, “I’ve received fascinating, moving, personal memories and stories from a range of people already, telling stories and sharing memories.” What a great story.

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9 Cool Facts About Art

I love to paint, but I’m really, really bad at it. Still, it gives me a break from life once in a while, and that’s a good escape.

Enjoy these facts about painting, art, etc. while I try to improve my skills.

1. Very cool

Photo Credit: did you know?

2. Bob was the man

Photo Credit: did you know?

3. They should bring this back

Photo Credit: did you know?

4. Completely by hand

Photo Credit: did you know?

5. Stolen

Photo Credit: did you know?

6. Hahaha

Photo Credit: did you know?

7. Gay Street

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8. Bob again

Photo Credit: did you know?

9. Tiny portrait

Photo Credit: did you know?

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15 Employees Reveal Why Corporate Culture Made Them Leave Their Jobs

Corporate work environments can be their own little world. There’s a different language and attitude that just isn’t the right fit for some people.

These people shared their personal stories about when they decided to quit a job because the corporate culture became too much for them to deal with.

1. Okay….

“Lush, when we couldn’t say “bathroom” on the shop floor and instead had to ask a manager for “serenity.” “

2. Wall of crazy

“Had a “wall of crazy” where the CEO wanted to spend 20k on cool and edgy stuff for the office. Staff could make suggestions (Slides, beanbags, napping pods, etc)

Project was scrapped when the top suggestions ended up being:

Desks
Chairs
Working Heating
Working WiFi
Health Insurance”

3. Time to leave

“I’m in management and we just got the message that bonuses for the last financial year were severely cut across the business, probably going to receive 30% of our usual – at best. Then I attended our financial end of year results meeting the next day to be told that net profits were 18% up (nearly 1 billion total) and the best performance in years, all thanks to us.

So even though our profits were way up, the bonuses were cut? Employees who were not upper management would never have that information. Planning on leaving now.”

4. Then why are they there?

“Not my company but a company from a neighboring building. They had an entire area devoted to foosball, pinball, billiards, console gaming, and videoke booths on the ground floor and it was clearly visible because of the glass windows on street level. Oddly enough, nobody ever used them, and the place was almost always empty save for a few people who use the internet kiosks.

When I learned a friend worked there, I asked why nobody would want to take the opportunity to use the awesome-looking recreational facility, he told me that people who do use the facility often found it used against them during performance evaluations, even when their use wasn’t excessive at all. After a while word got around and they started avoiding the place altogether.

The irony is that their recruitment ads always touts a culture of “work hard play hard”.”

5. Like a criminal

“A co-worker was forced to work while her mother was dying in hospice. Mom dies, she quits, they escort her off the premises like a criminal.”

6. Cultish

“When I went to firm drinks in a public bar and the firm’s “fun committee” handed out song sheets and a choir of employees lead by a bad guitarist sang a song about how great the firm was to the tune of ‘Cause I’m Happy. We were expected to sing along. It was at that moment I realized I was in a cult.”

7. MONEY

“We (management team) spent months working with a business coach trying to collectively come up with meaningful core values. We devoted a ton of time to it and really tried to decide which direction we wanted to take the company culture. Everybody agreed on teamwork, reliability, a couple others that I can’t remember now, and then one day the owner came in and called a meeting.

He sat us down in the boardroom and told us he spent all weekend brainstorming and had decided on the core values. They were:

Meaningful Ownership Neighbourhood Engagement You

Does anybody see what that spells? He literally wanted it to be money and just came up with words that sort of worked the way you do in elementary school writing your name poem.

He rebranded the entire company from t shirts with giant first letters and smaller letters for the rest of the word straight down the arms, to plagues, wraps on the cars, everyfuckinthing.

And that’s when we all knew it was going to get bad.

Money is great, but it was mortifying walking/driving around with that plastered everywhere.”

8. That’s a little fishy

“They changed the title of the receptionist to “Director of First Impressions.””

9. Not an upgrade

“When I took a 40% pay cut (with no change in workload) by being moved to salary.”

10. Tears

“I worked for Apple back in their heyday and it was always constant and terrible. But one guy who was an assistant manager (or something like that) took time out during a store meeting to evangelize to us (his words) about how Apple was going to change each of our lives so drastically that we wouldn’t recognize ourselves any more. About five minutes in to his proselytizing, the tears began to flow and he openly sobbed about how Apple was the greatest thing on the planet.

He was ultimately let go for being late too many times and had to be escorted from the store out the back door because he was crying and refused to leave his “home.” “

11. The blame game

“We had a problem with the client and the boss dumped all of the blame on a 24 year old woman who was basically his most loyal employee. He made her cry in front of the client, as if that would somehow help save the relationship.”

12. Time to cheer!

“When I went to my first corporate managers rally, I thought this will be cool, free catered lunch and it counted as a work day. Then they started the rally with the company cheer. I’m like wtf, we’re adults, why are we cheering? Looked around and way too many people were into this cheer. I realized that job wasn’t going to be for me. EDIT: for all those asking I was working as a GM for Dominos pizza at the time. I believe they have a few videos on youtube of the cheer but I’m on mobile and can’t every get links to work.”

13. Priorities

“Not me, but my husband worked for two weeks for a “family owned and operated” business that touted how important “family” was and that they were all one happy “family.” My husband was on his way to drop our at the time 2 year old son off at daycare before work when son threw up all over himself. Husband called his employer to tell them what happened and that he needed to take son home and clean him up but he’d be in asap.

His manager told him he needed to get his priorities straight. He responded with “You know what? You’re right, I won’t be back in at all.” He was still working part time at his previous job where they had been sad that he was leaving, so he called them and told them to put him back on the schedule full-time. The “family” business is currently in the process of liquidating assets before going out of business and I cackle every time I drive past it.”

14. Just like family

“”We treat our employees like family!”

Ignores harassment claims, hires from outside the company, refuses to give out decent pay, will write you up for doing overtime, but the CEO just bought himself a new BMW.

I hate that place.”

15. Union busters

“When i was told that if i heard any talk about unionizing i was to report it immediately. <– G.E. “

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Handy Infographic Shows the Most Spoken Languages around the World

This neat infographic was created by Alberto Lucas Lopez for the South China Morning Post.

As you can see, it breaks down the world’s 23 most-common languages that are spoken by over 4 billion people across the planet. Take a look.

Photo Credit: Alberto Lucas Lopez

Click HERE to view the full-sized image.

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15 Traditionally Female Things That Men Would Love to Try Without Feeling Judged

Sexism is a two-way street. While it tends to primarily affect women, men still feel the sting of misogyny and sexism when they try to step outside of things that are traditionally masculine.

Like these 15 guys, who feel as if they can’t even try an activity or product they’d like to because someone would think it’s too girly.

Do what you want, I say.

#15. Leggings.

“Leggings. I really want to try leggings.”

#14. Got a lot of looks.

“Fruity drinks absolutely. Had an appletini once and got a lot of looks. Fuck you I want fabulous fruity flavor you fucking fuck.”

#13. My dad never let me.

“I really wanted to do ballet as a child,
my dad never let me.”

#12. Love it.

“It’s less that I don’t do it, but more that I don’t talk about it with most folk I know.

But I fucking LOVE to cook and bake. Main dishes, side dishes, desserts (I REALLY like making desserts,) breads, muffins- fuck, I’ve even made my own home-made donuts using an old-ass recipe that called for LARD. I love cooking and baking. Love it.”

#11. I do limit myself.

“I’m not sure if this considered stereotypically feminine, but id love to give people more hugs. I still do, but I do limit myself more than id like to cause I’m worried people will think I’m weird.”

#10. Someday.

“I want to knit a sweater or something someday.”

#9. I want to be a…

“I’m a straight guy. I wanna be a wedding planner.

Edit: Wow! So much support! The ironic thing is that I’ve never been married and if I were to, I’d probably ditch the ceremony and go straight to the honeymoon. But still…

Edit 2: Whoever gave me that gold, you da real MVP!”

#8. Like a guy.

“I cross my legs sometimes when I sit. It’s just more comfortable to me until I have to switch but it’s pretty rare if I ever see any other guy sit in the same position. Usually it’s the skinnier guys who are more likely to do it.

Sometimes I’ll sit properly with both feet on the ground or cross my legs like a guy when I get conscious of other people around me even though it’s less comfortable.”

#7. WAY better than any washcloth.

“Those fluffy shower loofa-things are WAY better than any washcloth! ALL THE SUDS.”

#6. Captain Jack.

“Wear mascara/eye liner. I wanna look like captain jack sparrow.”

#5. Because I care about them!

“If it would be okay for me to be more affectionate to people without them thinking that I’m either gay or into them, coz I say I love you a lot to my friends (because I care about them!) but some of them get uncomfortable so I don’t.”

#4. I’m just really interested.

“Reading books such as Gossip Girl. Idk why I’m just really interested in reading about high school teenage drama.”

#3. So floofy.

“When I was 15-16 and I had long hair I was messing around with the 30 different hair things my mom had

I did something right cus I looked like fucking Naruto for a week

So floofy

So ploofy

I’m pretty sure I looked like a paintbrush but the Combs couldn’t comb it down at all.”

#2. Fresh air!

“First thing that springs to mind is that in hot weather I’d love be be able to wear a skirt.

Y’know … fresh air!”

#1. Social anxiety.

“Mani-pedi. I could really use one, but I’d have to go with someone, preferably a woman, because I just cannot handle that particular brand of social anxiety alone.”

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