Arduinna

You may think that your workplace runs like clockwork because you're the only person who gives 110% every day, but to your boss, that might not matter in the least. 

When you spend 40+ hours each week at your job, it's hard not to care a lot about it. Some workers start to care too much, though. It's not their fault — I think it's good to care about things, generally — but if management couldn't give a hoot about it, you shouldn't either. That's why we say to "act your wage." If your boss, who makes 6 or 7 figures a year, doesn't care if the store if messy or if clients are furious, you really shouldn't take on that emotional burden for yourself while making 5 figures. No matter how much you, as an employee, care about that space, if the bosses don't care, things will simply not change. And in that case, you can quit your job if you so choose, finding a better environment to spend your one precious life in. 

These folks have a lot in common: although they're from many different industries, almost everyone who shared their story expressed happiness that they fled their job. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who quits a job then pines for it after the fact! It's a good reminder that you never have to just sit at a desk and be miserable for 40 hours a week if you don't want to. Change is out there, go find it!

A $25M company wouldn't give its new employees even a lowly Christmas pizza party to celebrate the end of the year. Instead, they made workers wait until they had five years of seniority to rummage through the company's merchandise bucket. Thaaaanks…

Company loyalty is a rare thing these days. Because of that, when business do have loyal workers, they should be rewarding those tried-and-true hard workers with a little something to sweeten their employment deal, right? In an age where pensions, extended PTO benefits, and even a gold star from your boss is a rarity, the Christmas bonus is a fabled tradition of yore. So when this prospective employee first started working for a big company and noticed they still did bonuses, they were psyched! 18 months in, and after they were snubbed of their gift the first year, they didn't realize until now that the bonuses were only for employees working with the company for over 5 years. 

Apparently, 5 years of loyalty was all that earned you a Merry Christmas in this office, so the worker initiated a tongue-in-cheek protest, refusing to wish management a happy holiday until after at least 5 years of work.

Well, this is certainly a unique (and slightly dangerous) take on malicious compliance, but here goes: This father lives in a small village that focuses on growing organic food. They have everything from juicy fruits to jaw-dropping veggies…However, there does seem to be one special product they just can't locate: 100% natural honey. But this awesome dad, being the man he is, managed to find one generous beekeeping friend who has offered to provide him with enough jars for him and his daughter living abroad. 

I don't know about you guys, but my dad sometimes moans about passing me the remote, so when this dad puts so much effort into boxing and shipping her honey, she is beyond excited by the sweet gesture…That being said, the second her father passed the parcel on to the post office, things took a sour turn! After weeks of receiving thin air, this father went down to the post office to see what was going on…mortified to discover not only had the parcel been lost, but when they finally found it, the box and all its contents were completely destroyed! 

There is a time and a place to celebrate with one's employees. This was not one of those times.

It's no secret that many businesses are struggling right now, which inevitably means that tough decisions have to be made. This author shared the story about how unfortunately he was one of the casualties during a massive round of layoffs at his now former company. This revelation caught him off guard, but he acknowledged that he was lucky enough to have saved enough money over the years so that he could take a moment before desperately running into a potentially worse employment situation. Several of his fellow coworkers, however, were not quite as prviileged.

Still, if that challenging dynamic wasn't uncomfortable enough to navigate, what happened next on social media platforms such as LinkedIn brought a whole new meaning to discomfort. The author had been looking at various job postings on LinkedIn and doing that thing that all folks do during this transition period: applying to countless jobs en masse. Any available opening in sight, he was filling applications for.

But then, the author came across something he was not expecting. He saw several photos posted by his former boss showing just how extravagant the office Christmas party was, despite the fact that so many people at the company were recently let go. Not exactly the best look, sir!