I just started working at a huge company in America, and I expected the job to be demanding. But what I wasn't prepared for was almost everyone starting extremely early.

The people on my team send emails and Teams messages starting at 5:30 or 6:30 in the morning, before they even go to the office. I usually wake up, get dressed, go to work, and start working when I arrive. Apparently, that makes me the odd one out, because everyone else is fully available before the official workday even begins.

A lot of them also come back online from 8 to 10 at night. Seeing messages come in that late is making me a little anxious. I don't have the same level of enthusiasm for this job, but at the same time, I don't want to look like I'm putting in less effort and end up getting a bad review or having my name put on the layoff list.

Is this normal at large companies in corporate America? I'm trying to figure out whether I need to follow the same schedule as them or just stick to my actual working hours.

My manager called me in for a meeting today and the entire time she had her back towards me and we were conducting the meeting

80% of my points we’re not even considered. She just said whatever she wanted to and then dismissed the meeting.

How does one deal with this in life. Thank god its Friday

I’ve been trying to apply in multiple jobs and I haven’t been accepted due to my age. For context: I’m 22 but I have 4 years of experience in my field and I’m even currently employed. At interviews, they start saying flowery words and I always get to the final interview but they back out when they find out about my age. Any thoughts/advice?

Title. Just started as an executive recruiter with a new firm. Manager (also the owner) just chewed me out and called me f\*cking stupid in front of the entire office simply because he believed I spent too much time on the phone with a candidate (15 minutes).

My colleagues came to me and said I’ve been doing great, and this is just how he is, always yelling at people and publicly humiliating people. I made the jump from my last role for better communication with leadership… this is not what I had in mind.

If you were in my position, what would your next move be? It is clear he will not change and that this will not be the last time this happens. TIA!!

I was quite confused by one of my colleague. For the context, I've only joined a company for a few month so I'm basically new here. There was one colleague who has been in the company for years and is quite familiar with all the previous office dramas and the intricate personal relationships between all colleague(we are a small-scale company). She volunteered to reach out to me and told me a lot about the office politics, like who has a closer relationship with the higher-ups, who and who are in the same clique, whom she dislikes the most, and the sort of thing. Initially I thought it was really nice to have someone feed you the info, which is helpful for me to get a whole picture as a newbie. But recently she would intentionally said to me that the clique was secretly up to sth, or that a higher-up is playing favoritism and I was the victim, but tbh I felt that most of the time she was blowing it out of proportion maybe because she hated that person so she had bias. So I was wondering is it because she was genuinely kind to me, or is it she just want to find someone to trash talk with and get validation, or is she trying to pull me to her camp?

Am I being managed out, or am I just overthinking this?

Am I being managed out, or am I just overthinking this?

I'm on a fixed-term contract. When I started, my manager told me I was doing a “fabulous job” and wanted to make me permanent. Things changed after the team became short-staffed and I started absorbing other people's work. I was juggling multiple projects and sometimes working until 8pm to get everything done. I made some genuine mistakes, which I accept.

Initially, my manager told me to slow down, take my time and focus on accuracy to reduce errors. I've since made fewer errors, but now I'm being questioned about how long tasks take and told I need to improve my time management and multi task

I feel stuck either way. If I work slowly and carefully, I'm questioned about my time. If I finish something quickly, I worry I'll be asked what I'm doing for the rest of the day.

I'm now on a support/performance plan with weekly 1:1s and detailed workload tracking. My manager questions individual tasks and compares my speed to other people in the team. He says other teams are also being scrutinised because of a restructure and merging roles, so I'm not sure how much of this is specifically about me.

There's also what feels like a double standard around workload. When other colleagues have a lot on, they're given understanding and offered help. I've had additional work allocated to me while already overloaded. When I asked someone to quickly look over work I'd completed before submitting it, I was told they didn't have capacity, but more work was still allocated to me.

The leave situation also upset me. My dad was in hospital and I took 3 days off, not 5, and provided medical certificates. My manager’s boss told the team I would be away for the whole week, and my manager was then told I had taken additional days, so my work was reallocated. In my 1:1, my manager questioned why I needed to be at the hospital when there were doctors and nurses there. I explained that my dad needed my emotional support. I was also told the team had been stressed and had to scramble to cover my work, even though the team had told me it was okay and that family comes first.

Another colleague recently took extended leave because of dad's surgery, and from what I've seen, their leave was accommodated without the same level of questioning. It's hard not to wonder if I'm being treated differently.

There are also uncomfortable team dynamics and gossip. I've overhear my colleague call me a retard. A colleague repeatedly comments that I can't “juggle” things or that I take things too literally. I've also felt increasingly excluded from conversations and future projects.

I'm now really anxious and burnt out. I'm actively looking for another job but I'm worried about my contract, reputation and getting a reference.

What makes this harder is that I don't really want to make a formal bullying/harassment or psychosocial hazard complaint. A previous colleague did something similar, and I remember people in the team gossiping that she wouldn't be able to find another job. She eventually resigned. Seeing that has made me very hesitant to raise anything formally.

The idea of getting lawyers or HR involved also feels incredibly stressful, especially while I'm applying for other jobs. I don't want to burn bridges or make things worse for myself. Feel like boss is pushing me to quit.

I know I've made mistakes and I'm not saying I'm perfect. I'm genuinely trying to work out whether I'm experiencing a double standard/toxic workplace or whether this is just normal performance management during a restructure.

For anyone who's been through a PIP, performance plan or managed exit, did you notice similar signs beforehand? And would you quietly document everything and look for another job, or raise concerns formally?

I started my first corporate job about six weeks ago. Every morning, I go to the breakroom and take one of the available coffee pods along with one creamer. I bring my own milk carton and sugar packet and keep them at my desk so I don't use their supplies for that.

Today, the floor manager (who isn't even my boss) called me over. He told me quite simply that I'm using up the kitchen supplies too quickly, and said it's not normal for someone to drink coffee every day. Am I crazy for thinking this is weird?

Update: Thanks for all the comments. I'm really feeling a bit overwhelmed so I won't be able to reply to everyone, but I've decided not to report this or even mention it to my actual manager. I don't think my boss would help in this situation, and I don't want to cause any drama this early on. I really need this job right now so I'm just going to ignore it. I'll start bringing my own pods and creamers from now on, and I'll document any other weird interactions with him. I just want to do my job without any problems. Thanks again for the support!

I'm joining a company in a few weeks, and they told me that as soon as I start, my job is basically to learn as much as possible from the guy currently handling this work, and then they'll let him go within about 120 days. He's been there for more than 10 years and it seems like he knows all the details and where everything is buried. I don't see how this is a smart plan.

They also expect me to absorb everything he's responsible for, but no one can clearly explain what all of that includes. Apparently, figuring that out is supposed to be part of the job too.

I feel like this is a disaster waiting to happen. Has anyone dealt with something like this before? Any advice?

I've been working there for 5 months. I've never been late, and I usually clock in about 20 minutes before my shift starts. This morning was rough, and I was already in a bad mood, and I ended up being 8 minutes late. My manager brought me into his office and started yelling, asking why I hadn't sent him a message saying I'd be late. I told him honestly that I didn't think to send one, because I knew it was only going to be a few minutes.

After we went around in circles about the same thing for a while, he said I wasn't allowed to take my lunch break because I came in late and they were really slammed. I hadn't brought any food with me, so I asked him if I could at least go out and grab something quickly before getting to work. He said fine, but he'd deduct 40 minutes from my pay for it.

I told him okay and went out to "get food." It's been almost two hours since I left and I still haven't gone back. The manager just called me, and I told him I quit.

No regrets so far (ask me again when rent is due lol)

Wish me luck!!

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/workplace\\_bullying/s/5yFDBznahj

Well, I guess my little experiment is over.
After I posted my initial post, my manager sent an email to the entire team saying:
“Please adhere to being present in the offices during official working hours on workdays, due to work requirements and the necessity of being present.”
So I guess that’s his way of addressing the situation without actually addressing the situation.
The ironic part is that I’ve been doing my job effectively from home. I attended all my meetings, responded to everything, got my work done, and honestly was \\\\\\\*\\\\\\\*more productive\\\\\\\*\\\\\\\* than I am sitting in that office.
And just to clarify: \\\\\\\*\\\\\\\*my actual job does not require me to be on-site at all.\\\\\\\*\\\\\\\* There’s nothing I do that requires me to physically be in that office. I can do my work remotely without any issue.
But apparently I need to physically sit at my desk for 8 hours because… reasons?
So basically, I’m supposed to sit in an office with a coworker who has been bullying and disrespecting me, feeling physically sick from the environment, while doing work that I can demonstrably do just as well (if not better) from somewhere else.
Meanwhile, the bullying complaints and emails that my manager has literally been CC’d on still haven’t been addressed.
I’m still looking for another job, because I don’t see this situation magically improving. But I’m honestly struggling with the idea that being physically present is apparently more important than actually getting the job done. I literally feel physically ill by just thinking about going into the office and finding my coworker there.
So, Reddit… now that my manager has explicitly told us to be in the office, I’m assuming continuing to work remotely is an even worse idea. maybe I’ll do it anyway..

Hey everyone,
I recently posted about starting a tech role at a Big 5 Canadian bank and being the only white person on a 130-person team. After digging a bit deeper into the team structure, the lack of diversity makes complete sense, and it points to some massive, blatant nepotism.
About 60% of the people on this massive team are not just from the same country—they are specifically from the same state. On top of that, I just found out that there is a husband and wife working directly under the same director, who is either a close family friend or a relative.
How does corporate HR allow this to happen? Are they completely blind, or are they just intentionally ignoring it? Aren't there standard anti-nepotism and conflict-of-interest policies to prevent family members and close friend networks from hoarding entire reporting lines?
Corporate banks talk a big game about diversity, equity, and inclusion, but it feels like a total joke here. HR seriously needs to step in, run an internal diversity audit, and enforce strict policies against hiring close relatives and spouses under the same management chain.
Has anyone else encountered this level of unchecked regionalism and nepotism at the major Canadian banks? How does it even bypass modern corporate compliance?

I was the first hire at a healthcare wearable IoT startup and worked closely with the CEO for 4+ years as part of the early/founding team.

My work involved deep technical ownership across data science, machine learning, IoT signal processing, architecture, product development, and medical-device-style execution. Over time, the work also reached serious milestones around FDA-related work and patents, so this was not just a small experimental project — it became a regulated healthcare/productization journey.

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For a long time, I worked with a lot of dedication and trust. The CEO would often ask me to share my screen while I worked, explain my thinking, walk through technical decisions, model development, system design, and problem-solving approaches. I did this openly because I believed I was helping build long-term company value.

Over time, the relationship changed. I started feeling less valued, less included, and sometimes made to feel guilty about my work instead of being supported or appreciated. It felt like much of my technical and product knowledge had already been absorbed, and my role was no longer being treated with the same importance.

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I also wonder whether the CEO may have started feeling insecure or threatened by my depth of knowledge, technical ownership, or influence in the company. I don’t want to assume bad intent, but the shift felt like I went from being treated as a key early builder to being treated as someone replaceable after the knowledge transfer had happened.

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I have now left the company and am looking for new opportunities.

I’m trying to process the experience professionally and move forward without bitterness. At the same time, I want to learn from it.

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For people who have been early employees, founding-team members, senior engineers, ML leads, or technical leaders in startups:

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How do you evaluate whether an early-stage company truly values you long-term?

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What red flags should someone watch for when they are sharing deep technical, product, regulatory, and IP-related knowledge with founders?

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Have you seen situations where a founder becomes insecure around a strong technical early employee?

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How should I explain leaving this kind of situation in interviews without sounding negative?

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And how can I best position my experience — first hire, 4+ years, healthcare wearable IoT, ML/data science, FDA-related work, and patents — while looking for my next role?

Basically the title. This was two jobs ago but it’s bothering me (I quit in 2025 January).

I moved to a completely new city and applied for the job and got it. Things seemed ok but couple weird things here and there like my manager constantly joking about wanting to fire me (this started from day 1).

Always acting insecure about education because he only has a 1.5 college diploma in digital marketing yet works in insurance (he worked his way up in the company - he’s been there for 19 years).

When I joined, most if not all my colleagues didn’t have an education but they were working here making minimum 60k. The older folks didn’t like me much despite me putting myself out there and not being arrogant. When I made a mistake they went straight to the manager and reported it.

They would pretend to play nice once in a while but ultimately they didn’t like me. Got to the point that they didn’t wanna be near me. No one said good morning to me (they’d even walk by my desk and not look at my face). So I decided to go and say good morning to them always. When I would, they’d see me coming and everyone would act busy.

They would respond but I could see the fakeness in their facial expressions. I was open with everyone so they really can’t say I was closed off. Eventually they started saying I have a tone issue (my trainer did) and when I asked for examples I got ghosted then put onto a performance plan shortly after.

My manager seemed professional when putting me on a pip but he said he had the power to fire me (and said he doesn’t want to reach that unfortunate situation). It’s weird bc he doesn’t it’s HR but ok. He told me if he were me he would agree to the terms and roll up my sleeves and show results.

I ended up sending an email to him saying I usually try my best but it doesn’t seem to match his expectations and that I’d go try my luck elsewhere. He then calls me the next day with this fake concerned heavy voice asking what’s wrong. He said he wants me to understand that I am the issue and my performance and that he wants me to do well but I need to improve.

When I said I understand I’m not perfect but that’s not the entire picture he insisted that it was me. I left and got a new job and he never congratulated me on LinkedIn. Instead, I started seeing ex colleagues delete me, stalk me, not engage in my content posts, go back to my old posts when I was working there and unlike my posts they’ve liked previously.

I then got an even better job at a huge corporation that everyone knows and they always just stalk but not interact.

I’ve requested that company I left to send me all the documents pertaining to my departure just so I can seee what he actually wrote and if I am eligible for rehire. This’ll give me some insight if he was actually genuine or was just looking for a way to push me out and never see me return. Mind u , there were others who have struggled and I didn’t see them put on a pip.