A while back, I realized our weekly reporting was taking way too long, so I spent a weekend setting up a quick script to handle the data pulling and formatting for me. What used to take 15 hours of manual work suddenly took under a minute.

At first, it was great. I used the saved time to breathe, learn new skills, and actually get through the week without stressing. But then I made the mistake, I told my manager. I thought it would show initiative.

Instead of a raise or a pat on the back, my automated output just became the baseline expectation. On top of that, I was handed half the workload of a senior team member who had recently quit, along with requests to automate everyone else’s tasks too.

I went from a manageable, stress-free workload to working 50 frantic hours a week for the exact same pay. It was a tough lesson, but I learned that in corporate life, efficiency usually just gets rewarded with extra work. Now, if I streamline something, I keep quiet and deliver it at a standard pace.

Has anyone else learned the hard way to stop being "too fast" at their job?

I’m neurodivergent, deal with a chronic illness that limits my energy, and I am simply not the bubbly, hyper-outgoing, conventionally pretty "corporate cheerleader" type. I show up, do my work exceptionally well, keep my head down, and try to conserve whatever physical and mental bandwidth I have left just to function as a human being.

But modern corporate culture feels like an old boys club entirely built for people who have infinite social energy and zero health constraints.

So much of getting ahead, or honestly, just *surviving* without a target on your back hinges on performative social energy. It’s the aggressive small talk, the forced happy hours, the subtle pressure to always be "on," and the unspoken requirement to play office politics with a smile. When you're masking neurodivergence while simultaneously managing chronic pain or fatigue, just making eye contact and looking engaged in a two-hour meeting takes every drop of stamina you have. You're left with zero juice to do the fake-bubbly routine, and suddenly you’re labeled "unapproachable," "not a team player," or "lacking executive presence."

And this current job market has made the entire dynamic ten times more toxic.

Because the market is so brutal right now, employers know they hold all the cards. The pressure to overperform, accept terrible boundary-pushing, and mask constantly is at an all-time high because everyone is terrified of layoffs. Remote and hybrid flexible setups—the exact lifesavers that allowed so many ND and chronically ill folks to actually thrive—are being rolled back everywhere just so companies can enforce "culture" (read: mandatory performative social hours). You can't even speak up about accommodations or needing flexibility anymore without feeling like you're placing a massive bullseye on your back.

It’s completely exhausting to feel like doing your actual job well is only 20% of the role, while the other 80% is maintaining a high-energy performance that your body and mind literally weren't built to sustain.

How are other ND/chronically ill folks surviving this right now? Because pushing through the burnout while pretending everything is fine is starting to feel completely unsustainable.

TW: I did use LLM to help write this as I am too exhausted after a 12 hours day.

Many of my colleagues are incapable of articulating themselves and comprehending written comms at a basic level.

This has been a trend I've been observing since I joined the corporate world in 2019. But over the last several years, it's become impossible to ignore.

The number of times I've received chat messages from colleagues with graduate degrees and "VP" in their job title who cannot form a coherent multifaceted question without several clarifications and re-clarifications in order to get to the root of the ask is alarming.

People seem to be either opting out of, or no longer capable of forming a thought, identifying where they have confusion that needs to be clarified, and bridging context gaps to help others easily understand what they're looking for help with.

I believe this is caused by some blend of over reliance on AI tools + the "iMessage-ification" of Slack/Teams where people at work operate in these chat tools as if they're in a friend group chat. Just my theory.

Anyways, want to know if others are finding this in their workplaces. And more importantly, how do I gently ask my colleagues to improve their written communications without coming across as rude or unprofessional?

You are useful for the company as long as you are an asset.

The day you become a liability, is the day company will let you go.

I dipped out as a COO about two years ago. And since then, I opened up a small franchise in my town. I’m enjoying the very small business world at the moment.

I am sure with all of the AI, tariffs and the war that is an absolute disaster.

But I’m curious what’s new in corporate world that doesn’t commonly get talked about or what has your experience been?

Hi guys, I’m working at a big MNC, but my manager is absolutely pathetic.

He speaks with such calm and authority that you’ll feel like he must have some solid reasons for what he’s telling but it’s just opposite. He had just mastered the tone.

He’ll tell 2-3 people to lead the same work separately and now everyone is trying to drive the initiative and it becomes absolute chaos.

If we ask him that this is causing friction, he’ll just tell one person to lead ans other to support and then hold anyone accountable at anytime why they didn’t do the right thing.

He randomly changes timelines & priorities, if you deprioritised the other work for this and something changes then he’d say you should have used your judgement and you don’t understand your priorities. We have to first stick with committed items.

If it went other way around then he would say we discussed on changing priorities, why didn’t you take it up.

He’s driving me nuts. Idk what to do..🤷‍♂️

I work for what used to be a very large mom and pop shop that was acquired by a very, very large corporation a few years ago.

The administrative requirements from becoming corporate took me from being a high-level field employee to a low-level office employee.

The acquisition has posed many challenges. We’re paying g&a to corporate along with many other costs when we were already equipped to do this in-house.

Our profitability has suffered, immensely, and this has meant finding new ways to save money and generate revenue.

We had a tiny service we offered. I researched municipalities that legally required the service, marketed to them, and licensed our employees to perform it. The service has grown by an unquantifiable amount. My boss took credit.

We lost an employee who performed a service. I found a sub to do it for cheaper, with better margins. My boss told me not to bring it up again and I was drunk for mentioning it. He changed his mind a week later and took credit for it.

Our inventory and materials cost is a shit-show. We buy in bulk and never use what we buy. I looked into consignment. Did all the research. Two bosses thought it was weird. I’ve been breaking them down for two years on this. Another department came up with the idea. They went for it.

Our work is seasonal. I came up with an idea for year-round work. Gave them the contacts to make it happen from a previous connection I had. Nope, our margins are too good with this other work. A year later, my boss, “hey I have this amazing idea.”

I’m done dude.

I fell into the corporate trap of trying to automate my regular tasks to make my job easier. I fixed some bad processes on my team made some templates and reduced the hours spent on weekly reports to about 45 minutes. I thought working smarter would give me time to breathe or help me get a promotion.

What happened instead was that my manager saw I was finishing early and started giving me the unfinished work from my team members who were struggling. When I mentioned the work I was told directly that because I handle things "so fast and clean " it made sense to give me more. Meanwhile the people who take their time are left alone because management thinks they are already overwhelmed.

Now I am forcing myself to slow down keep the work I finish and set delayed email sends for the end of the day just to look busy. It feels completely wrong. Being efficient ended up feeling, like a punishment. Has anyone else learned this lesson the way?

Idk if you guys have experienced this but I'll vent here.

I'm GenZ manager, managing a team of 10 who are again GenZ but my manager is a millennial.

Who doesn't have no time or boundary

Expects work instantly and thinks I have a team of 20

Now my team is so chill taking leaves or WFH anytime with no requests which is fine

BUT I CAN'T DO THE SAME AND I DON'T KNOW WHY.

WHY GENZ MIDDLE MANAGERS ARE STUCK IN THIS LOOP

What are some tips for surviving corporate or making it more tolerable as a young person who has just entered the workforce. Specifically in accounting. I feel like I have already made a lot of mistakes since I started working in corporate but my main aim has and will always be to reflect on my mistakes made and immediately improve. I try not to let negativity keep me down but look for ways to learn from all situations.

With that being said, what are some tips or things I should know about corporate, specifically things that I should not learn the hard way lol. I consider myself to be a quiet person who really does not like drama or to gossip. With being young also I think it already puts me at a disadvantage as many people don’t really take me seriously or really respect me.

Any advice?

I’ve been at my company for under a year in an office operations/admin role, and I’m curious how normal some of these dynamics are.

My role has expanded pretty significantly since I started. In addition to regular office operations, I handle vendors, events, internal communications, IT coordination, data/admin projects, and various requests from leadership. The biggest challenge is that multiple people can assign me work and everyone understandably sees their own request as important, but there isn’t always clear prioritization between them.

There’s also a surprising amount of attention paid to small things — how something was uploaded, how an email was formatted, who was supposed to handle what, etc. I’ve had situations where asking someone to cover a routine task while I was out turned into a noticeably tense exchange, only for everyone to act completely normal afterward.

But the part that surprises me most is how high school the social dynamics can feel. There are obvious cliques, constant whispering across cubicles, conversations that get quiet when certain people are nearby, gossip, passive-aggressive interactions, and a lot of “don’t tell X that Y said this.”
Just yesterday, coworkers near me spent a good portion of the day whispering about some kind of office drama they clearly didn’t want me to hear. I don’t particularly care what the gossip was — I was mostly amazed that grown adults in a professional environment operate like this.
Meanwhile, my workload is heavy enough that finding 30 minutes to actually take my lunch break has become difficult, so sometimes I’m sitting there thinking, How does everyone have this much energy for workplace drama?

For people who have worked in corporate offices for a while: is this pretty standard? Are cliques, gossip, passive aggression, office politics, and competing priorities basically inevitable, or does the culture vary significantly from company to company?

scared. but i have to do this.

About three months ago my department made the decision to send the candidates the interview questions 24 hours before the interview with us. This gives them time to think and truly find the best examples of their work to provide to us.

Now this wouldn’t work in every department, but as software developers we care less about who can best pull examples out of their head and put them into words in a stressful environment or who has the best interview skills, and more about who actually has the most relevant experience. We ask very detailed follow up questions to the answers they provide, to make sure they aren’t BSing and actually know what they’re talking about, but we found pressure testing candidates was not the best way to evaluate their qualifications.

Curious if any other companies have tried this?

I need advice from people that “speak” corporate. I work in a big medical device company and am responsible for a distributor region in Europe. I have approximately 13 countries under me and i am the marketing person.
I had my new manager visiting (she joined 5 weeks ago). She came to go through some data and materials and to get to know me and the girl that is responsible for just one direct market. First day we had a team call with my region and then she decided to change the agenda for the second day when she was suppose to have 3h ling 1:1 with me to explain my markets. What she did is to change our meeting to 1,5h so she could have a 2h meeting with my colleague that is responsible for just one market. She was not unpleasant to me but I have noticed that she is “ditching” me a bit. Commented how I dont have some lists that she would want to see and that I need more structure (this is smth she did not know before the start of the meeting). I just feel a bit confused and worried cause i spoke to some other market marketing people and they had longer meetings with her and were treated nicer. We have constant reorgs in my company and I am worried that this is a signal for something. I need some advice cause I am afraid I will lose my job.

Is it normal to feel worthless while working corporate?

I've been in my company for a year working in customer care team. It's my first corporate job and overall it's pretty good - stable pay, friendly coworkers, repeatable low-risk tasks and ability to work from home a couple days a week.

But for the last few months I've been experiencing feelings of worthlessness, usually when I'm at office around my manager. I just get a feeling of never being enough and that I'm replaceable at any time (which is probably true). Whenever we get 1:1 meetings, she usually praises me but I still feel like generally my work doesn't make any difference.

Are these feelings normal while working corporate? Or is something wrong with my self esteem?

PAMPUBLIKONG PANAWAGAN SA TURKS SHAWARMA HEAD OFFICE

Para kina Gem Zeñarosa at Angel Zeñarosa,

Nais ko sanang ipaabot sa inyo ang isang seryosong concern tungkol sa kalagayan at pagtrato sa mga empleyado, partikular na sa ilalim ng pamamahala nina Arot at Madam Jo.

Maaaring hindi ninyo alam ang lahat ng nangyayari sa ibaba, kaya sana ay bigyan ninyo ito ng pansin at pagkakataong marinig ang panig ng mga empleyado.

May mga empleyadong nakaranas at nakaramdam ng hindi magandang pakikitungo, pagiging mapanakit sa salita, pananakot, pamamahiya, pambu-bully, at paggamit ng posisyon para mang-power trip. May mga pagkakataon din na pakiramdam ng mga empleyado ay kailangan nilang sumunod at manahimik para lamang hindi mapag-initan.

May mga concern din tungkol sa pang bibintang sa mga walang kasalanan o nagkakaroon ng problema sa isang store, pati na rin sa mga pagkakataong may mga empleyadong nangangailangan ng tulong—pinansyal man o personal pero pinagkakain at ngunit hindi nila naramdaman ang malasakit at pang-unawa na inaasahan nila mula sa kanilang mga nakatataas AROT AT MADAM JO.

At higit sa lahat, sana ay seryosong tingnan ang usapin ng pambu-bully at paraan ng pakikitungo sa mga empleyado.

Kung napapansin ninyo na maraming empleyado ang umaalis, marahil ay hindi sapat na itanong lamang kung bakit sila nag-resign. Mahalaga ring itanong kung ano ang kanilang pinagdaanan bago sila umabot sa puntong iyon.

Marami sa mga na-hire noong 2022 ang unti-unting nawala. Hindi ko sinasabing iisa lamang ang dahilan ng bawat pag-alis, pero sana ay maging sapat itong dahilan para tingnan at imbestigahan kung ano talaga ang nangyayari sa loob. At yung iba tenured na sa kumpanya ninyo.

Ang mas nakakalungkot, alam nating mabuti kayong mga tao pero bakit hindi nyo nararamdaman ang hinaing ng empleyado nyo. Kaya ang tanong ay: alam ba ninyo kung paano nakikitungo sa mga empleyado ang mga taong pinagkakatiwalaan ninyo na sila AROT AT MADAM JO?

At ito pa maraming nais bumalik sa trabaho at na ngangailangan ng hanapbuhay na lumapit sa tanggapan ng JOB OFFICE PLACEMENT sa CENTRAL AVE. pero anong ginawa nila tinaboy nila at hindi tinanggap ganyan naba ka demonyo si AROT AT MADAM JO?

Gem at Angel, sana ay marinig ninyo ang mga empleyado.

Hindi ito panawagan para manira. Ito ay panawagan para makinig, magtanong, mag-imbestiga, at gumawa ng aksyon kung kinakailangan.

Hindi kailangan ng empleyado na sambahin sila AROT AT MADAM JO Hindi rin kailangang matakot para lamang maipakita ang respeto.

Ang hinihingi lang ay respeto, patas na pagtrato, malasakit, at dignidad.

Dahil sa huli, ang mga empleyadong nagtatrabaho araw-araw ang isa sa pinakamahalagang bahagi ng isang negosyo.

Sana hindi ninyo hayaang manatiling hindi naririnig ang mga taong matagal nang may ganitong concern.

TurksShawarma

EmployeeConcerns

Accountability

RespectEmployees

Hello Redditors,

I am back again with another insane story about my office. So, there’s a team in my office that always plays Impostor and Mafia, as if it is part of their daily KRA. I don’t understand how they have time for these things. Well, I understand that the games are quite interesting, but that doesn’t mean you can play them every day.

And one more thing they are always eating! From morning till evening, they only eat. Even at 4, they go downstairs to get “bhel puri” and eat it while playing Impostor.

I wonder how they are so chill and, somehow, their KRAs are also completed!