I work in a small office with about fifteen other people. It’s usually pretty quiet aside from the occasional phone call or the marketing team getting chatty.

My boss likes to make sure there is always a box of chips for anyone to grab when they want a snack. It’s very nice of her but holy hell, I am starting to go crazy. Dead silent office for most of the nine hours I work and there is ALWAYS someone eating a bag of chips. It almost feels like they do it in an intentional rotation. (I know I’m being dramatic but it is constant)

I will never complain because I know I’m the one being ridiculous. I just can’t imagine wanting a bag of Doritos at 8am.

A real nonissue, just needed somewhere to complain.

Hey everyone! I've been told time and time again that I should increase my visibility in the office.what are some ways that I could do this other than staying longer in the office?

I posted last week about my manager not fully accepting my notice.. Anyway, my replacement starts MONDAY.. And the MD won't tell me anything about her, if she needs a laptop setting up, what her hours of work will be, if she's replacing me from the second she gets here, who the staff will now report to.. When i asked all of these questions he said 'I'll ask her and give you feedback' So now i have to come in Monday with not a clue of what is going on.. Oh well not really my problem :)

I know atleast some of us or may be most of us are handling corporate bs, drama, mockery, mickey mousery, hiding figures, chugging under the rug, taking blames for someone else’s mistakes, corporate gang ba\*ging.
How are y’all coping ?
I use the punching bag at the gym. What do you pals use?

I’ll admit it, I used to complain about my old cubicle. The beige fabric, the slight flicker of the fluorescent light, the isolation.

Fast forward: I started a new job at a company with a beautiful open floor plan. Standing desks. Fancy coffee machines. But I’m starting to miss my cubicle. I think it’s the illusion on privacy I miss the most

Open office is awesome!

You get a standing desk, at headset & dance thru customer complaints! Bonus points for wireless headset, disco moves & flushing!

i just started my first office job, it’s been a week and one day. everyone’s super lovely and kind, i can’t complain about the people at all. i’ve not had one bad experience with anyone so far.

however, im really struggling to fit in. i normally have quite a bubbly personality but i feel like ive become such a weirdo with zero personality since working here.

everyone’s incredibly extroverted, and they’re all very close to each other. i find it hard to join in or engage in the conversations because they’re either talking about something i don’t know about or there’s no pause in the conversation so i can’t get a word in. i’m also quite soft spoken compared to them, so a lot of the times when i do speak they struggle to even hear me.

i do much better in one to one conversations but i still find it difficult to keep the conversation going, i just don’t know what to say. i’m not normally like this, i usually have lots to say and don’t usually struggle this much to talk to people so idk what’s going on with me or why im being so weird.

i’m just struggling in general with the social side of things :( again, everyone’s super nice so it must be a me thing, but idk why im being like this? i just don’t feel like me. i tell myself every morning today im just going to be me and its going to be a good day and ill be perfectly fine all the way until i step into the office, then its like somethings possessed me and all personality has exited the building.

Who is using automated appointment reminders for their patients? Is it time to ask my boss to upgrade.

Our office uses Weave for patient communication. Text, calls, emails. However, our front desk girl is still doing appointment reminders by hand. Copy paste, copy paste... sometimes the information doesn't get changed to the correct day, time or office location.

Should I ask my boss to start using the scheduling app on Weave? That way we can set up automated appointment reminders? #Weaveoffice

Source: https://archive.ph/20260717044312/https://www.ft.com/content/0daddbdf-775c-4f93-bf94-1b99aba0d5a0

Hello Folks,

I'm in my 30s and have been working really hard in my current role and my manager agrees that it's impactful work. It's a small team with a manager. I'm taking up more responsibilities than outlined in the job and it's been like this for 8-10 months now and been here for over 3 years. The manager promised promotion for 2 quarters and nothing really moved and I also have VISA constraints which don't allow me to change jobs for a while however my salary is nowhere close to market standards which I've communicated and my manager agrees. They're suggesting we've done our bit and it's with HR again this time but I'm fed up of asking and also waiting but have no other go and there's no transparency which I've pointed out as well.

Is there anything that I could do to make sure I either get it or at least take up less responsibilities till I get the promised promotion in a decent way without being aggressive in the approach? Any help is appreciated.

Thanks for reading this fully.

TLDR; Promised promotion for 2 quarters nothing has changed and I've taken up more responsibilities without pay change. Any suggestions?

I think we all have days where we definitely can work but would just rather work from home. Usually I want to work from home because I don’t actually have that much work on a certain day and don’t want to be stuck doing nothing in an office.

My usual excuse to work from home is that I’m just not feeling that well and would prefer to work from home. What are some other believable excuses to work from home? Currently in the office and have nothing to do so help me get out of here!

Thanks!

I'm a General Manager and I find this ridiculous. I sat in front of him and said we need a plan for my departure. He completely dismissed it and said he needed a week to gather his thoughts rather than being irrational.

How unprofessional and what's the worst he was going to do in anger? Sack me which is illegal anyway?

Anyway, it's a week ago today and we have a meeting this morning that I arranged to discuss it further. Honestly never known anything like it.

UPDATE My manager said he'd sat on it for a while and decided he was still upset and disappointed but he had my replacement ready and she's starting on Monday AND as a COO which is higher paid than my position. I'm SO glad I handed in my notice. The next 7 weeks teaching her everything I know is going to be very tedious but jokes on them now 👋 👋 👋

I made a huge blunder on an excel file. In my defense it was a new process. When one of the coworkers spotted it, the three of us had no idea who did that and even I didn't know. Eventually they found out via file history. I apologized and corrected everything and sent the updated file. I am already very embarrassed and on top of the coworkers with whom I had good relationship suddenly stopped talking to me and their tone became very professional. I admitted my mistake multiple times and even told them that I will tell the boss that I made the mistake even though no damage was done but I will admit it and confess about the inconvenience it has caused the next coworker working on the file.

Still their tone is very curt and maybe I'm too embarrassed. I noticed that the other 2 coworkers were yapping about it in separate chat. I felt hurt because if they had joked about it or roasted me upfront I would been okay, I thought we had that relationship because they usually share a lot of personal problems with me. It was sad to see that even people who appear so close to you have no forgiveness and when I said I will tell manager the blunder myself nobody said that it's okay because I corrected the file anyways and no damage happened.

I was gonna tell my manager anyways because I didn't want any more favors from them but idk why I expected this commaradship from them.

I felt hurt by the coworkers' gossiping about me and lack of forgiveness, especially since they always said that we had a close relationship we are like friends and we are so lucky to have each other.

I already feel bad about what I did and idk why I didn't pay attention but I didn't do it on purpose.

I hate corporate culture, it's full of vultures.

TLDR; I made a mistake at work, I apologised multiple times and fixed it and I will come clean about it with my manager even though no damage was done. However, my friendly and cordial coworkers have gone quiet and I feel judged and hurt because expected support.

We're a team where most of the employees are men, and there are only two women, including me. Almost every day, the conversations revolve around women. Sometimes it's harmless, but a lot of the time the comments become sexual or objectifying.

The other woman on our team and I find it really uncomfortable. We've gotten into the habit of wearing headphones every day just so we don't have to listen to those conversations. It feels exhausting that we have to do that just to get through the workday.

I'm wondering if this is considered normal in an office environment. Is this just how some workplaces are, or have I ended up in an unhealthy one? I've been freelancing for so long that I'm having a hard time adjusting to corporate life, so I'm not sure if my expectations are unrealistic.

I've also thought about bringing it up with my manager or the owner, but the problem is that they sometimes join in on these conversations as well. That makes me feel unsure about whether speaking up would actually help.

Honestly think I need to moan because I know nothing's going to change, but I'm also interested in how much noise is normal to have to put up with in the office.

I'm a designer for a construction firm, and our office can get very noisy with the sound of woodworking machines as it's right next to the yard. My director and everyone who works on the tools (I used to be one of them) also have no indoor voices. Our office also has at least 6 dogs at any one time (5 belong to the director and one is mine after adopting from him).

I know I am oversensitive about noise while I'm working; I have always managed ok but in the past couple of years, we've hired someone who sits opposite me, and my director's youngest child is about 4 / 5, and he's started to bring him to work rather than child care. I'm pulling my hair out with the noise and I just can't get the work done.

Noises I contend with -

1. machines
2. conversations at shouting volume
3. Screaming toddler
4. Blippie / bluey / whatever the screaming toddler wants to watch on the director's Mac while the director sits out the front of the office topless sunbathing
5. New hire likes to eat crunchy food at their desk. Crisps, celery, apples. All chewed with an open mouth. She also talks to herself and wants to talk to me about the weekend, etc.
6. Barking dogs, normally having balls thrown round the office by the toddler
7. Occasionally we have the director's wife or mum round for a family meeting
8. The director's other son (age 22) likes to come into the office for lunch and to watch TikTok on full volume for an hour.
9. The gym across the carpark blasts bassy music and my director insists on all our doors being open to 'let the fresh air in'
10. Guys from the yard walk through every half hour or so to use the office kitchen to make a tea or coffee

Is this too much, or am I just being too touchy about the noise? I think I just need to ask to work from home when it gets really loud in here, but I will be looking for a new job next year anyway as I'm moving to a different part of the country and I just want a bit of reassurance that it's out of the ordinary to be expected to deal with this shit

Work is changing fast. Much of what's familiar about it might be unrecognizable soon. I'm working on a creative project to document modern work and its presence in daily life.

One thing I'd love to collect and analyze as part of the project: photos of people's desks. Ideally showing the chair, some of the background, and the view. Plus any commentary you'd like to share, like: do you like it, what's in it. How often do you use it. etc. I would love pictures of desks inside offices. (feel free to blur any confidential parts, logos, etc)

I'll go first.

This is my desk: my home office, in NYC. I work in tech. I'm in my 30s. I love orange. My chair is uncomfortable. I love to read. The desk is small and sits in my living room.

The plants were a gift from my neighbor. On the wall: a mirror, postcards from Finland, and a piece of paper that says "Agency." The paper reminds me I always have control over my response, whatever the situation. I put it up when I used to work at a toxic job with condescending men and I keep it to remember I made it out.

I do probably 50% of my work in this desk. The rest of the time is in different places (sofa, cafes, libraries, other offices).

My whole setup probably cost me $250. I could probably spend more, but most of desks are big and bulky and ugly and it wouldn't go well with the rest of my apartment.

I have a coworker who is out on leave until January 2027. I have been tasked with a very time consuming and tedious, but not difficult portion of their job duties. Is it normal to ask for compensation for the additional work I’ll be including in my workload? Thanks.

Hi everyone,

Our company did some restructuring last year and basically everyone from the team I was in has gone. I was great friends with them all as well as coworkers and my new team frankly makes me hate going to work.

It’s become very cliquey, exclusionary and I’m struggling with it more than I would like to. People are doing my job for me, then when I try to do my job, they complain that I haven’t gone to them for approval.

I’m not even being consulted on anything half the time and it’s very frustrating. Making it worse is the fact that one person in particular just doesn’t seem to like me and I don’t think I’ve done anything to warrant it.

I’d say something about it to someone but I’m worried that this is just my lack of adapting to change and paranoia.

Accept, mark tentative, or ask what it is for.

I do not mind calendar invites in general, but the empty ones always slow me down. A title, a time, and no real details puts me in a weird spot where accepting feels too automatic and declining feels too rude.

Tentative should solve it, but even that feels like I am quietly saying I might not care. Asking for context is usually the best answer, except it makes a tiny scheduling thing into a small conversation.

I wish more invites came with one plain sentence about what decision or topic actually needs the time.

Hi! I graduated from college with a Bachelor's of Science with an Entertainment Industry Studies degree (I know, very useful). My last job was in the medical field, and I have been unemployed for the past two years. Most of my job experience comes from my college years, where I was a writing tutor for 2 years. I'm currently back in school trying to become a paralegal, but still applying for jobs at the same time. What am I doing wrong? I'm currently focusing on looking for office jobs, but maybe I'm not looking at the right places? I'm looking at the average job posting sites, but maybe there are other places I should be looking at that will help more? Any tips and advice are welcome!