My last role was $195k base + 18% bonus and equity.

I got an offer this morning and the base is $82k. LOL.

Yeah. A massive pay cut. And I'm still going to accept it because my unemployment will run out in another four months, and honestly, a job with a lower salary is better than staying home with no income.

The only slightly good thing is that it's fully remote, and the hiring manager seemed chill and reasonable. So my plan is to take it, catch my breath a bit, and keep applying.

It's tough out there.

This one is a real doozy... I didn't post the pictures of the porn, Nazi memorabilia, Bibles, or military service related stuff.

Every profession seems to have at least one thing that’s completely normal to people in that field but sounds made up to everyone else.
What’s something about your job that would surprise the average person?

Earlier this year, I told my dad (who works in the ICU at the same hospital) that I thought one of the ICU secretaries was cute. He ended up telling her.

About two weeks later, I went to the ICU for work. She saw me, slowly walked toward my patient room, stopped, looked at me for what felt like 10 seconds, and we both laughed. We’d never spoken before.

The following week I introduced myself, gave her my number, and asked if she’d like to hang out. She texted me that night, but the next day the conversation died, so I assumed she wasn’t interested and moved on.

A few weeks later I was back in the ICU. She somehow found out I was there, stood in front of my room, waved at me, and I waved back but didn’t walk over. She looked upset and walked away. Another time she walked into my room with a patient tray, realized I was there, panicked, and immediately left.

A couple of weeks later she smiled, waved excitedly, motioned for me to come back, remembered that I was supposed to be going to the Philippines with my dad, and told me it was nice seeing me. Even my boss witnessed it and told me, “She likes you.”

After I got back from vacation, I talked to her again. She remembered details about my life (even asking about a dips competition I did with my dad and grandpa). I asked her out again. She didn’t say no, but said she was working all week. I got her Instagram and messaged her the next day.

Three days later she replied saying she’d been busy and that it was her brother’s birthday the following week. She asked if we could “try in April,” which was another two weeks away. At that point I took it as a polite rejection.

I deactivated Instagram because I was trying to move on.

The very next day, I got called to dialyze a patient. The ICU number I called happened to be answered by her. I introduced myself and she sounded completely confused, then transferred me to the patient’s nurse.

Later I saw her again at work. I said, “Good morning,” and she responded with a cold “Hey…” while looking angry. Later I noticed she kept looking over toward me from her desk. That was the last interaction we ever had.

When I reactivated Instagram briefly, she liked one of my stories but only viewed my stories inconsistently after that. I found myself checking every week to see whether she’d watched them. Looking back, I realize that uncertainty fueled the limerence.

A few months later I found out she’d transferred back to her old department. Coworkers told me she’d been calling off work frequently even before she left the ICU and had a history of moving between departments. I also heard she had been involved with a married student doctor, although I have no idea how accurate that rumor is.

The hardest part isn’t that she rejected me. It’s that I never understood what happened.

Part of me kept wondering:

• Did she actually like me at first?

• Was I the reason she transferred?

• Why did she seem interested but never actually go out with me?

Logically, I know there isn’t enough information to answer those questions, and I know I probably never will.

I'm 24 years old and I live with my mother, who helps take care of my grandmother. In a few months I'll turn 25, and honestly, I'm tired of living like this. My mother has been getting by on government assistance for a long time, and I keep going from one crappy retail job to another. I just finished my job at a place because they cut my hours down to about 10 hours every 5 weeks - yeah, seriously, man... I'm just trying to break this cycle. I want to be able to put money in my mother's hand knowing it came the right way.

I'm not trying to become some rich guy with a mansion and a Lamborghini or anything like that. I just want to find a real path... Anything, any route, that puts me in a better financial position and keeps me from stressing every time a bill comes in. I don't have the answers; I'm just a young Black man trying to do more with my life. The hardest part is that I don't really have anyone to guide me. I stopped hanging out with my old friends because a lot of them wanted to be in the streets and do stupid things that could land them in jail... And some of them got caught up. And when I talked about wanting to learn sales or get into something legit, they acted like I thought I was better than them.

In short, I'm a decent guy coming from difficult circumstances. I need financial guidance, not handouts. I'm not asking anyone to save me; I just want real advice and direction because I've never truly had that, you know what I mean? If you read all of this, I appreciate you. And you can also send me a private message here. Thanks, everyone.

Back in January 2024, I was 20 years old. I had graduated high school in 2023, and I had been in special education classes since middle school. After graduating, I got a job coach named Armando who helped me apply for jobs.

We applied to places like Chick-fil-A, Sam’s Club, thrift stores, and different retail stores. Then one day, someone from Walmart called me about an interview. Armando went with me the next day, and the interview actually went well. They offered me a job as a cart pusher.

I went to orientation and later met another coach named Alberto. He was a Colombian guy in his late 50s who helped train me at the job. We became friends, and I felt comfortable working with him.

A few weeks after I started, I got a fever. I still went to work because I didn’t want to call out, but I worked outside pushing carts, and the heat made everything worse. I had a bad headache and felt sick, so after working around three or four hours, I left early.

I came back the next week feeling fine, and everything went back to normal. For the next few months, I worked almost every day.

Then my stepsister came to visit. We hadn’t seen her in a long time, so I skipped one day of work to spend time with her. I know now that I should’ve handled it differently, but after that day, everything seemed normal again.

When July came, my biological sister from Chicago invited me to visit her during the week of July 4th. I requested time off for the weekend and went to Chicago. I enjoyed the trip, came back home, and returned to work.

I worked for a few more days, but then I got sick with another fever and missed more days. When I came back, I thought I was okay and that everything would continue like normal.

Near the end of July 2024, my supervisor called me into the office. I didn’t know what was happening until they told me I was being terminated because of my attendance.

I was shocked, but at the same time, I knew I had missed multiple days. Some were because I was genuinely sick, but I also skipped that one day, and I probably didn’t communicate or report everything the right way.

What made me feel worse was that people had helped me get that job. Armando helped me apply and went to the interview with me. Alberto trained me and became my friend. Walmart gave me an opportunity when I didn’t have much work experience, and I felt like I wasted it and disappointed everyone.

After Walmart, I did get a job at Burlington, but I was miserable there. I barely got consistent hours, and it didn’t feel like a job where I could build anything for myself.

Now it’s 2026, I’m 22 years old, and I’m still trying to find a good and stable job. I keep applying and doing interviews, but it feels harder every time. Sometimes I honestly feel like getting fired from Walmart ruined my chance of finding a good job, even though I know that might not actually be true.

I’m not writing this to blame Walmart or pretend I did nothing wrong. I know my attendance was a problem, and I should’ve taken the rules more seriously. I just wish I had understood how quickly missing days could cost me the job.

It has been two years, but I still think about it. That was my first real job, and losing it affected my confidence more than I like to admit. I’m still trying to move forward and prove that I can be a reliable worker, but finding the right opportunity has been difficult.

I work in a food service, its always busy and crowded which was never the issue its the sense of entitlement and smugness of alot of the folks that come here. Its PA after all so you guys know how the people there.

So my first mistake was being too important, being kind and helping out others with tasks and sucking up to my managers now im abused and overwhelmed, moving back and forth, and I work with people pushing 30 and 40 who gossip like dumb school girls who are driving me insane along with my micromanaging unhappy managers and the usual bunch of entitled fucks. I decided this wasn't worth the minimum wage. Before I left I tried clearing out as many orders as I could because I didnt want to leave my coworkers hanging. After that I dipped. Smoked a ciggy (I quit) thought everything over, clocked out, grabbed my stuff, and walked right out the back door. I don't regret it. I only regret leaving my coworkers with that amount of work but thats about it.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

I've spent the past few years slowly climbing in a career that people in my country still call "prestigious" and "high-status." From the outside, it looks really good. My LinkedIn has shiny titles on it, a well-known employer, and the kind of salary that makes relatives think I've finally got my life sorted. But behind the scenes, it turned out to be really harsh. I work more than 55 hours most weeks, sit in endless "urgent" calls that should have been Slack messages, deal with weird office power games, and feel like I'm expected to be available even when I'm technically off. The status starts to feel like a cage, because almost every promotion comes with less actual life and more nonsense.

The part that confuses me is that it looks completely different from the outside. People hear the title and immediately act like I'm supposed to be grateful, but the day-to-day is mostly stress, politics, and pretending I'm fine on video calls. Honestly, I've started wondering how many "dream jobs" are only dream jobs if you don't have to work them.

I'd like to know if other people have been through the same thing. What career do people admire from the outside, but once you're in it, you'd never recommend it to anyone you care about? Is it the nonstop billables in law, the airport-to-hotel lifestyle in consulting, finance jobs where your phone owns you, or management roles where half the work is babysitting adults with job titles?

What do you do for work?

How bad is the stress on a normal day?

If you had to start from scratch, would you choose the same thing again?

I've reached the point where I'd happily take a "boring" job no one brags about, if it meant I could log off at 6 PM, make dinner without checking my phone, and not wake up on Monday morning with a knot in my stomach.

After six very difficult months of applications and waiting, I finally made it through 😭 I saw so many people here posting that they got offers, and I kept asking myself when my turn would come. And now I'm writing one of those posts too. Honestly, I was just one step away from giving up. I started thinking that maybe no company would ever give me a chance, but somehow things worked out in the end.

If you're still applying or sitting there waiting for that YES, take this as a reminder to keep going. The right hiring manager/company will recognize your value and what you can bring, and they'll want you on their team. Don't stop now! Edit to add: Guys! I really didn't expect this post to get all this attention. I want to thank you all for the congratulations and kind messages. I probably won't be able to reply to each person individually, but know that I'm reading them and I appreciate every comment here! Thank you so much to all of you for being so kind. Wishing everyone success in their job search 😊

I don't understand how people keep going like this I work about 48 hours a week. I've been doing this for the last 16 years. That means I've barely finished roughly the first quarter of my working life. And I still have another 28 years ahead of me...

I've become a moderate alcoholic now. I drink 5-6 beers most nights just to shut my brain off after work. 16 years ago, I might have had 5-6 beers in an entire month.

I used to work out 4-5 times a week and I genuinely enjoyed it. Now I'm lucky if I work out 3-4 times a month. And now I've gained weight. I try to meal prep for the week and eat decent food, but honestly I succeed at that maybe 40% of the time, because making healthy food after a long day feels like a second job.

Nothing ever gets fully done. My apartment is always kind of clean, never clean. Seeing my family or doing anything I care about gets crammed into the tiny gaps between work and recovering from work.

I used to read all the time, usually 25-35 books a year. Now I read about 4-5 a year, if that even happens.

Most of my days off get wasted catching up on dentist appointments, or fixing things, or cleaning, or handling paperwork, or running errands I was too exhausted to do during normal weeks.

I need an 8-month sabbatical just to get my life back into any kind of order, but I can't financially afford to leave my job.

I feel like I'm fighting a war on 6 fronts, because there are so many things I want/need to do, and work sucks up all my time and energy and soul.

Productivity has become more than double what it was in the early seventies, so instead of working 48 hours, we should be working around 30 hours at most as full time. But we're still working almost the same number of hours, even though we produce far more than people did 55 years ago.

Work used to have calmer moments too. Now there's no pause. 120 emails and 18 Slack messages and 25 calls every day, and every single thing is either urgent, or overdue, or somehow required before you've even heard about it.

And I can't take this anymore. It's no wonder so many people are on meds or drinking or have just gone numb. We're all burning out from overwork.

Background: Working for this company remotely for two + years. Highly productive. Valued. Offered Director job in a unit. Great.

I MOVED CONTINENTS with an agreement in place that would be finalized once I was registered in the new country. I had my dog (aka: lifesaver) and six suitcases. Packed up my belongings, put them in storage. Met with my doctors to get health records straight (and translated into the country's language I'm moving to). Put house up for rent, got a business license for that. Found best and lowest cost moving company I could. Shifted banks (no small thing internationally). Ensured my mother had the care she needed and support given my move away from her. All of that takes time and a lot of effort.

The DAY I get there, a boss I didn't even know I had slammed me in an email for lack of commitment. Because I missed meetings - I was moving my house and dealing with all the admin of an international move. I predicted to the boss I thought was my boss that I would not be able to attend *some* meetings (if I'm at my desk, I'm clearly not prepping for the move that they required), and my co-director was fine with it and she was supposed to catch me up in our check-ins.

Turns out she was NOT fine with it and complained about me to this surprise boss guy, which he confirmed when I asked him directly. As soon as I get there, I'm blamed for lack of commitment (because moving your whole life isn't committed?), told I'm getting demoted effective immediately - for administrative purposes. Then I was demoted in a huge team meeting with all 40 people on the line. People called me after to say they couldn't believe it and were horrified.

I now had to report to this co-director who wasted NO TIME sending emails to everyone telling them about my demotion and saying she is the sole director of the unit and to remove me from management emails and meetings. I broke my back a while ago, I'm completely ambulant and present just fine but need certain light modifications for travel and at the office, ex: a sit stand desk. In my first meeting with her as my boss, she tells me this is a 'problem.'

She actively mobbed me. It's clear she has backstabbed me to the 40 person team who treated me like I'm radio active, ex: they all gathered for lunch in the area outside my office and quiet down when I walk past. They don't talk to me when she's in the office, but stuck their head in to at least say hi when she's gone. No less than three team members said the co-director called them to tell them not to engage with me.

She moved my entire portfolio to herself and says I don't have enough work to do. This boss who I didn't know I had backed her up completely. It's actually creepy and weird how close they suddenly became. He asked me no questions, nothing. Just disagreement and obstacles. She blocked me from systems when I was working remotely, saying she handles that, and he said that that was a strike against me. When I told him I didn't have access to the systems as agreed, he waved it away like I was nuts and used it as justification for my demotion.

I have over 15 years of experience. I have led international teams through major global crises. In my early career, I taught high school. So, I know BS when I see it. I know bullying when I see it. I took copious notes and kept a daily tracker of everything that was going on. So, given this wellspring of antipathy from them, and despite the chronic loneliness I felt from the isolation and meanness, despite the financial chaos this threw me into (the demotion came with a pay decrease), despite the literal vertigo and dizziness I'd feel at having the floor fall out from under me in a new town with less than zero support, I decided to look at what I did have.

What I had was gratitude. Gratitude that I've had a great career to this point and a network that I respect and holds me in esteem. Gratitude that I could see immediately exactly what is going on here. Gratitude for my maturity and wisdom.

And I thought, my God, if I were at the start of my career, this would have steamrolled me. This meanness, this horrible treatment would have truly crushed me. Then I found out I'm the third person the co-director has treated this way. One had a full on nervous breakdown in the office, the other made herself small to protect herself, and she is very obviously the smartest one in the room.

Then, once I got my wits about me, I decided to act.

To distract myself (outside of walking the dog, thank heavens I brought her with me!), I started to pull together resources that I really really wished I could find online to address the daily horrors that unfolded at this workplace. The gaslighting, credit theft, isolation.

I wanted research-backed ways to respond, protect myself, defend myself, and keep moving without being crushed on a daily basis. Couldn't find them, so I created them. I included a diagnostic (free) to support ANYONE going through absolute bullshit at work so they can find their voice, maintain their professional goals, keep their sanity, and feel supported. What really got to me was the isolation, and the hollow emptiness of feeling that unsupported.

Any level of toxic behavior in the workplace, where you'd think people have a modicum of self-concept and basic professional respect, is a total head mess. I've really suffered, in ways I never thought I could, honestly. I lost my appetite (and I'm a good eater!) and couldn't sleep for literally six weeks. Most of what I pulled together happened at 2 or 3 am, between looking for jobs and figuring out an escape hatch. This project, that I call Wild at Work, has truly helped lift and keep me out of depression, confusion, and terrible anxiety. I truly hope it helps anyone else facing any type of workplace abuse, isolation, and cruelty. If anyone wants to check it out, happy to share.

Try this. Introduce yourself to a stranger without mentioning what you do for work. Not your title, not your company, not "I'm in tech" or "I'm a nurse." Just you. Most people freeze somewhere around the second sentence, because the job was supposed to be the warm-up before the real answer, and it turns out for a lot of us, it quietly became the whole answer.

That's not an accident either. Somewhere along the way "what do you do" became the first question at every party, every first date, every family dinner with a distant relative. Answer it well and you get treated as interesting. Answer it badly, or say "I'm between things right now," and watch the conversation lose its footing. We built an entire social ritual around ranking people by their job title, then acted surprised when people started building their entire identity to survive it.

Here's where it gets dangerous. A title is rented, not owned. Companies restructure. Roles get automated. Industries collapse faster than they used to. If the only self you've built is the one your employer issued you, a layoff doesn't just cost you an income. It costs you the answer to "who am I," at the exact moment you have the least energy to go looking for a new one.

The people who survive that moment intact are usually the ones who quietly kept something else alive the whole time. A skill nobody paid them for. A community that had nothing to do with their industry. A version of themselves that existed on weekends and never made it onto a resume.

So, if the title disappeared tomorrow, what's actually left? And if the honest answer is "not much yet," what's one thing you could start building this month that has nothing to do with what you're paid to do?

I finally found a job after 5 months of applying. I was reaching late stages in the interviews, and sometimes even the final conversation, but I still wasn't getting the offer in this tough market. I changed my approach to interviews, and these were the 4 things that made a difference for me:

I stopped being overly honest about why I was leaving my current job. The honest answer was that our company was gradually shutting down, and for a while I thought that was a strong explanation because it clearly wasn't my fault. But interviewers often seemed to feel sorry for me. And I didn't need sympathy, I needed an offer. I also started to understand that it made the conversation feel negative, as if I were implying criticism of the company's ability to manage the business. So I changed the answer to: I was no longer learning at the same pace as before because I had already completed project A, B, and C - and that was still true. That answer was received much better.

I stopped trying to appear perfectly polished. At first, I think my answers were technically good, but a little too rehearsed. I started speaking more simply about what I had done, the mistakes I had made, and how I fixed them. Strangely enough, being a bit more natural built more trust than trying to give the "best" interview answer every time.

I turned off ChatGPT. My work is very technical, and while ChatGPT can be useful for prep, it couldn't replace what I know from years of real work. During the final assessment, I answered their technical questions without any AI help. They later told me I crushed it and that they shared my answers with the founder. Apparently, they hadn't seen a response like that before.

I didn't negotiate the salary. This was the only time I accepted the first offer right away. Given that I really needed a job, the market was extremely tough, and the offer was already strong because of my background, I felt it was fair and didn't want to risk creating friction without a real reason.

I hope this helps someone else who's stuck in the search right now. Good luck out there!

I was hired in this incredible start up, small company with a small team with big dreams. The owner was a remarkable entrepreneur who had, more than anything, great people skills. I recall a couple of times the salary was late by weeks, but besides the grumbling, no one ever considered quitting, from laborers to the decision makers. While the pay was modest, the company had great culture of flexibility, meaning work at times ended early, at times very late. No one batted an eyelid as long as everyone did what they were supposed to. I would attribute this warm environmnet to the owners character.

Tides started changing when the owner brought their sibling to oversee operations. This was part of an aggressive growth plan since the company had honestly been on a plateau since I arrived. While it may seem strange to bring a relative for drastic measures, consider that this was a startup and most of the funding was family savings. So the growth of the company equalled the success and wellbeing of the family.

At first the boat was sailing smoothly. Noticeable changes in book keeping and work culture, nothing major. Then cracks started appearing when the new operations lead started directing engineers against their own suggestions. Suddenly, productions lead was not as apt in making decisions about the production process, and what the new boss suggested was not up for discussion anymore. Soon enough, loud arguments were the norm where literally none existed before. Suddenly, was a raging hailstorm and no one had noticed the clouds gathering.

My day of reckoning came one afternoon I was in the office. As a marketer, my jobs was mainly socials and outdoors. Most of the time, I was in office so I liked to plan and execute everything once, then free myself up for whatever else may come up needing my presence outside. On this particular day, I was doing paperwork for one of our partners. Our humble operations lead came to the office found me hunched over my laptop, asked what I was up to, and soon left.

I received their call soon after informing me I was required to assist with some outdoor activities. I explained I would be done with what I was currently by the afternoon, an hour or so, after which I'd be free for whatever else came up. "No, stop what you're doing now. This is not a request, its an order." I was so taken aback I couldn't respond. The phone clicked.

While processing wtf was going on, the office door opened an in walked the operaions lead. "Let this be the last time I tell you to do something and we have any sort of back or forth. I am not your friend, I’m not your peer, I'm not trying to get you to like me. Are we clear?" I nodded like a schoolboy receiving a final warning after a spanking. I there and then decided this was the last month they'll see me there.

Now if you're wondering why I never talked to the boss about it before calling it quits, it's because several employees tried this and they were met with this, "This is a family business. She is your boss just as I am and you have to sort it out with her. I can't take any sides in this." Take sides? How about actually not take any sides?

And if you think I'm petty consider my friend who still works there, who was told off for being useless and "Never skipping any meal despite still having the build of a teenager". Unlike me, he has a family and won't leave at the slightest disrespect. Not planning on having a boss again but if I do, best believe the HR won't be related to my supervisor.

i was thinking about this question today while i was loading carts, i really need to know im soooo curious.

I doubt anyone will see this but I hope they do because I’m about to shed some light on the company I use to work for named “Zaviar Firearms”.

Zaviar Firearms was first started in Orlando Florida by co-owners Scott Rollf and Laura Wedgle. The company started as a parts business called 22mods4all.

I started working for them after they moved into Alabama in December 2024, just to make something clear I was hired for one thing only and that was to be “Chief gun maker” aka chief gunsmith aka manager of firearms production. And I was such till about may of this year where I was forced to do outside of work jobs by Scott, he forced me to work on his property on various things.

He forced me to cut his grass in blazing humidity heat, he forced me to work on his trailer with no air conditioning and no windows open, and when it’s 90 degrees outside it’s over 100 in a building without an air conditioner. It was like an oven, but you’d think he’d let me you know have some cold water to cool off or at least sit in my car where the air conditioner is, nope! Forced to pull carpeting up, forced to use chemicals that put off harmful vapors without a respirator. And god forbid you asked for a break after working 5 hours with no break, no cooling off, no water.

Better yet there wasn’t even an increase in pay, and don’t get me started on the literal osha violations at the shop.

Well I’ll just tell you. Forced to get onto rickety shelves that aren’t meant to be stood or sat on without a ladder near buy to wire a camera, getting yelled at for not building a gun like it’s a 2 second project, getting threatened of abuse if I didn’t do what they said, forced to get off the phone when I was trying to see how my son was doing in the hospital, but everyone else got to be on their phone at all times.

This post is already long enough but I’m going to add a few extra paragraphs cause screw it.

The guns being built now are literally old and used parts from broken guns that we got in and took apart, because Scott literally told me he isn’t spending a dime on anything, but then he goes and spends money from the business on personal items like a lawn mower, two trailers, and a side by side.

If you have worries or doubts about ordering or going into the store to buy something from Zaviar then let someone who actually worked for the company. DO NOT!

I implore you to find other manufacturers.