Author: Olivia

I (22) am an auto body detailer at a small body shop. Recently we just lost one of our two body technicians and, because of the nature of the industry, most of the bodymen out there aren’t looking for new jobs and are very close to retirement age. My boss, who is a great guy that ensures his employees are compensated pretty well (buys everyone lunch every Friday, Christmas bonuses, very thankful, etc), is now struggling to keep the lights on considering we have a lot filled with 15+ jobs and one body technician who is expected to do all the work; which is impossible. As a detailer, I’m supposed to do quality control on cars as they are finished. Obviously, since cars aren’t getting finished, I don’t really have anything to do. Since our other body tech quit last week, the shop’s painter and I have been sweeping the…

When I got my job, I felt like I was pretty careful when it came to the drug policy of the company. They are adamant about no drug use on company property. There is nothing about having anything in my system. I was not given a drug test to get the job. Following a work injury, I was given a mouth swab for marijuana, 4 hours into my shift. Now I use marijuana heavily outside of work. The night before the incident, and actually around 2-3am before I started work at 6am. My tolerance is very high, and there is no way I’m high at 10am from smoking a bowl at 3am. I received notice that my drug test came back positive. I feel that I may be fired tomorrow when I go in. Does anyone have experience in this type of situation? While they did let me explain to…

I’ve been with this company almost 12 years. I started out in Operations, but transitioned into IT last year. A couple of years so, the company opened up an operations center in the Philippines. As they were doing this, they pledged that this was simply to handle some of the easier work and no one would be losing their jobs. Fast forward to October… 40 people were told that their positions were being moved to the Philippines, and they could pressure other jobs in the company or just leave. And now earlier this week, the Operations group were pulled into a meeting and told that because attrition in the US is lower than they expected, they are looking for “volunteers” to leave the company. These volunteers may receive severance, but it’s based on some unknown factors. No questions were answered, and the presenter finished this dumpster fire of a meeting…

I work a largely thankless job in the center of operations for a financial firm. I’m largely biding my time to save enough to either feel comfortable going into the sales side or start a business of my own. The financial advisor I work primarily for is always rush, rush, rush because she’s a big earner and feels entitled. Despite the fact I actually know what is going on well enough to take at least some of it over if they were thinking that way, the entire book of business is going to go to her son in a couple years. He’s mid-20s and has virtually no experience but mimics the same attitudes, which I understand is him just copying behavior – but isn’t exactly charming as the “subordinate.” I’m constantly fixing things he touches and being told I need to fix them faster. This month, a co-worker has been…

Recently introduced to the world of “offshoring”, primarily to the Philipines. I fully realize jobs have been shipped to foreign countries to capitalize on cheap labor for eons, but never realized how rampant it was in the marketing field. And I just lost a newly acquired job due to it. Some of these people are quite bright, well educated and suited for these jobs. They don't care about hours of work, overtime, health benefits, or health and safety. They would never ask for reimbursement for anything. I'm over two decades into my career and I'm coming up against people who will work for $6 an hour. Was considering freelancing until I realized it is saturated with these workers as well. The business owners I've met recently who opt for this set up speak about the people they hire in such clinical terms. Saying about how much they can get out…

My last job was able to wipe my personal phone on my last day. I lost a ton of personal information and data. I’m leaving my current job next week and want to avoid that. I have already removed all of my firm’s apps from my phone but as I don’t know how they did it the last time I’d like to take all steps necessary to avoid this happening again. A friend in IT told me it’s something he’s done many times for his company but I can’t recall how he said he gets access to the device to do it. I know this isn’t directly anti-work but it’s fuckery from an employer so I hope it’s okay. Any advice is appreciated.