I worked a retail management job where they wanted me to have loads of apps on my own phone. Showed them my £20 Nokia 105 (still going strong 5 years later) and they didn't know what to do. Turns out I could still do the job very well without all that pointless garbage.

Corporate scam: providing zero information or criteria for reviews and bonuses and just randomly receiving a very small bonus without any math behind it.

Doctor's notes and late notes are ingrained into our education system. The train story reminded me of a childhood story: I was on a public transit bus on the way to school, that broke down. Seven students were on that bus and the driver took seven paper transfers and wrote little notes for all the kids explaining why they'd be late to class. We all caught the next bus and went straight to the Principal, who immediately slung accusations and threatening detention. The office secretary had to talk him down, he was ready to start issuing suspensions on the spot. Micromanagement isn't management. It's the pursuit of control.

The last line of your job description stating “ and any other duties deemed necessary by management” its routine in my field (healthcare). They own you.

My son worked at a company that saw he was a hard worker and great leader. Put him in charge of the warehouse and promised a promotion. A few months later, he was moved to a different warehouse. Then they tried to do it again but my son said, ✋️put your money where your mouth is. They accused him of not being a team player. Then a short time later they laid him off. Yep, scam.

The thing I hate about those team building events is how they often seem to involve drinking of some sort (at least in my experience). I don't drink. I can sit around, enjoying the apps, chatting with coworkers, but inevitably someone asks why I don't drink. I end up giving some non-committal answer but what I really want to do is tell them to mind their own business. Why I don't drink is personal.

When a company says “we’re family and have your back,” I immediately know they’re full of crap. I lost my son years ago, while working for a major US retailer. Shortly after, my marriage fell apart and I needed support and encouragement from my employer. My direct manager 2 weeks after the death of my son told me, “you need to get over your problems and focus on work. It’s negatively impacting the store.” Mind you, my son was hospitalized from birth until his death and I worked the entirety of it whilst being cheated on by his mother as she processed her stress and grief as well. No company actually gives a damn. I’ve just accepted that I’ll work until my heart finally gives out.

The "family" thing is a huge red flag. I worked for a small company that called themselves a family. Then the owner sold the company to a large corporation, which proceeded to lay off 12 people. Yeah...family.

Retired Labor Attorney - horrified by the concept of business on a personal phone. Discovery nightmare. We had policies on off-duty calls. Employees were compensated & came out of budgets.

Here's one for the list: being praised and love bombed in private by your manager for being efficient in your work so you end up with more responsibilities on your plate YET your results, accomplishments and role in major projects are downplayed and not always recognised in team/staff meetings or public settings. Manipulation on a whole level...

8 hour work days… there is a natural tendency of companies to try to do more with less. I’m in a position where I have more work than I have hours in the work day, so I have to decide what isn’t important enough to work on today. The standard work day length helps me to figure out when it’s just time to say enough is enough.

Im a trucker and i can't tell u how mad they get when u explain to them, "when im on call, im on the clock, u can't have me on call for 4hrs then expect me to come in and work 10-12hrs"

You nailed it. On overtime, companies think people want to work overtime. I will not ever so I've gone into interviews and asked the overtime policy. If it's mandatory, I don't even finish the interview. No amount of money is worth wasting my time at a job.

I worked a retail management job, and I had given them my phone number. Biggest mistake of my life. I ended up blocking many of my superiors due to the level of harassment I would receive

not being able to work remotely when I can prove that I would be more productive if allowed to that, even hybrid remote, doesn't make any logical sense to me.

I also don't drink. Attending a work dinner where everyone is 2-3 drinks in and I'm sober is torture. I decided at some point just not to attend anymore.

Having a mandatory meeting that last 20 minutes in the middle of the day when it's your day off.

I hate corporate culture as a whole.

This really makes me happy for my tiny office. No contact out of work hours, do what you can in the time you can and always feel open to ask for help from a team member or to offer your help if you’re free for time, never referred to as a “family” but always as a “team” or a “collective”, salary and promotion progression discussions annually one on one, CEO will run to the coffee shop with an apprentice and share ideas and experiences over a drink at each others desks, always out of office trips on work hours WITH EVERYTHING PAID ON A CORPORATE TAB! Overtime taken back in longer breaks or early finish/late start on salary basis. Love my wonderful office, such an environment to learn and flourish in ❤️

The family workplace dynamic probably started with the Mafia...😂😂😂

I have never understood people who base their whole personality on their job. It’s what you do, not who you are. I know there are those who will berate me for this but if your job is who you are, especially if you don’t own the company, who are you when you get let go?

Oh, you are so right with the titles. And it's not just management to looks his titles is important it's the employees also. I don't understand it. You're also right about promotions. It's like telling the kid that maybe they're going to get a bike for Christmas. And then they don't get it. That's sort of disappointment hits adults also!

One job I worked at made us have emails, but no one used them. And when I asked for an email address of my boss to tell him I am sick I can't come into work. He told me no you can't get my email address, just call into the shop and tell me. You know how long I had to wait to get a hold of him, 1 freaken hour. Customers call, and other employees call to say the same thing or to ask when they next work. Like they have the system to put schedule online why not use it. We have emails lets use them, lets be professional and use them.

All I can say is I am so glad to be retired: No Bully bosses, No long commutes, No short paychecks! And if an employer had ever told me I had to be available 24/7 or whatever, anything on my own time, I'd have told them to find another fool.

Bring your own device is definitely a red flag. I'm a tester and need my phone to take pictures of any bugs and collect timestamps, I'm trying to convince my bosses to provide work phones to either keep on site or give to employees. The case I'm using is that we are permitted to have pictures of unreleased products on personal devices which can risk early leaks. A work phone to take home is fine I feel, just switch it off outside the office. Use it for business during working hours only.

The promotion scam is really messed up. But I wonder why we don't have better mechanics to combat it

My old workplace had a yearly charitable donation period. One year they made the mistake of having a bunch of us in the room with the donation organizer (someone external to the company). Someone asked about overhead costs and was given an answer. Later, someone asked about what the donations go to support and was given an answer that the donations are pooled and divvied up among multiple charities Then comes the question if we can choose the charity that our money would go to, and the answer is yes. So why would we donate through you as a middleman and have you take overhead off the top? The final charity will get more if we donate directly. The representative was caught so off guard and stammered out some sort of answer that seeing other people’s donations encourages others to donate as well. But everyone kept pressing them about being a middleman and taking overhead off the top, and this presentation quickly ended. The company kept doing the donation thing each year, but didn’t make us go and listen to the sales pitch again.

One of the best things I learned from a prior boss was that your employees aren't family. It's a team. You can't fire your sister Sally as easily as you can fire that quarterback who isn't performing.

Thank you ❤ It feels validating to have you outline those scams employers pass off as policies by gaslighting their employees. In both your videos, I recognized tactics and phrases at my own workplace.

Germany here, I had an interview for a job as internal auditor for a big company with many branches all over the country and had to travel a lot for auditing on location. While travel expenses of course were paid by the company, my working time should start only on arrival at location and also end there, which means I had to travel for the company in my personal time. When asking why that is they told me like "well, we're offering you the jetset lifestyle for free - our employees usually appreciate that a lot" 🙄🙄 I didn't take that job.

I work for a company that some of the executives were allegedly let go from a previous employer for allegedly spying on multiple people at that job. This included a well-known executive. It also included people outside of the office. I won't install ANY software from this company on my personal equipment. Period. Full stop. They keep trying to make it a requirement, and I (and several others) push back and remind the company if they force us to install their software on our equipment that they have to pay us for it. They magically find ways to do things without our equipment.

Anyone who uses public transportation to get to work is forced to abide by the transit schedule. This is important to realize because not all public transit schedules match an 8 or 9 hour work day. What this means is that the employee might be able to arrive on time in the morning, but may be forced to leave up to an hour early to catch the evening train or bus. It they stay late due to a morning delay, they might be forced to wait several hours to catch the next one. What this means is the person may be unable to stay late due to the transit schedule. Companies need to understand the pitfalls of hiring staff who must utilize public transportation.

Fuck the carrot of forever promotions. Had one of those where finally I called them on it and they stared me in the eyes and said "Oh that's not coming and you'll never get it" even though, by then they'd offloaded all the responsabilities on me by then

Funny - I have a team building event coming up and it’s outside of work hours and most definitely NOT paid. The attitude is we are taking you bowling….

I had a similar situation with the promotion one where I requested remote work. It was "we need to hire and train someone first" because we were slightly understaffed anyways and my responsibilities would shift a little bit. Many months later, I eventually stopped bringing it up and am about to have a conversation about it with my boss letting them know if you wanna keep me, give me remote. If not, I'm moving either way so you're gonna have another spot to fill. We'll see how it goes.

Yeahhhh anytime an interviewer tells me "our employees are like family here" it immediately raises a red flag. Every job I've worked that says that has always expected me to stay after hours, off the clock, to help with some project or another. I'm good with all that. I actively avoid any companies who claim the "family" thing in their hiring ads.

The unpaid overtime thing is kinda funny for me. Work in IT. Nothing crazy for my position (I'm non management, non creative, don't make decisions, just fix things basically) and were required to be "on call" one day a week, sometimes more. Owner thinks on call isn't the same as overtime...however our SLA time for ticket response is 5 min or less, so essentially I have to be glued to a computer or get written up...which sounds like unpaid overtime with glitter added to it.

Frankly my work phone stays at work with the rest of my work devices. Only exception would be when working from home and even then if i’m done for the day the phone is off.

Loe, #1 is SO dead on. My old company had us do everything on our personal cell phones, and the number one sales guy (who would never be fired) did actually bring it up to the boss and said the company should be paying his phone bill. Needless to say, the owner did not respond. But the whole "connected to work 24/7" thing that comes with the work stuff on personal phones is something I am SO glad to be DONE WITH. Great scam!

Micromanaging bathroom use is an HR legal violation as it can cause a ADA violation.

Just started watching your short clips about a week ago...love your content! I worked in manufacturing management for almost 4 decades. Consolidation of industry lead to a less family culture, less focus on continuous improvement and a sole focus of cost avoidance. The things I heard senior "leaders" state about the employees of the company made me wonder if they actually knew who their competition really was...seemingly thinking they needed to beat everything out of their own employees for competitive advantage. No longer miss those annual "budget" review meetings...just do more with less!!! Reminds me of that scene in Caddyshack where Ted Knight's grandson is at the hamburger stand...I want, I want...to which Judge Smails responds "You'll have nothing and enjoy it!" Keep up the great work on your videos!

I left a major benefits management company because of constant abuse from leadership. My friend had to stay while she finished school. They flew her in from 1000 miles away to meet the team in person and essentially try to convince her not to quit. When her travel plans were finalized, she and I made dinner plans to finally meet each other in person, and she was so excited she told her coworkers in the office- so management made an after-hours "company dinner" for that same night, told everyone it was optional, but told HER it was a requirement for her to be there. When she reminded them she'd already made plans for after work they said "we didn't bring you up here for a vacation" and threatened to terminate her if she didn't go. So she essentially went from being an 8-4:30 employee to a 24/7 employee for a week because of a spiteful, power-tripping manager.

The company I work for provides a stipend for having work apps on my phone, and they allow me to disconnect after-hours so long as I'm not on-call. Also optionally they can provide a company-provided cell phone if you request one. I'm glad I work for the company I do because anything that could become a workplace scam has big red guardrails to prevent anyone from abusing the employee or contractor.

The biggest problem is over educated oxygen conversion specialists who go from their masters program directly into management. No real important job takes someone who just got out of school and puts them in leadership. You don't graduate from med school and run a team of doctors, you don't get your pilots license and start flying passengers all over, you don't get out of basic training and sit in a commanders seat. This country is woefully short on leadership, there are a abundance of managers, but very few leaders.

I had a boss that wanted to know what I was doing in 15 minute increments. She would try to get me to go check the bathroom on agents that were gone from the phone for 10 minutes. She hated that was a negative for me to do.

I work in retail management. My past company I was salaried with a work phone paid for by the company. I probably worked every single day like 60+ hours a weeks. I slept,ate and worked. My new job is hourly without a work phone. I have told my team that when I’m off they are expected to try and solve problems on their own or leave it for me to fix when I’m back at work. On the rare occasion that I have had to answer phone calls on my personal time I will note the length of the call and add it to my paid time for the week. Petty? Maybe. But I’m not going to devote all of my waking hours to a company ever again.

Had several jobs now who will give me more responsibilities with wording like “you were the first one we thought of who would be perfect for this extra task” and “this could lead to new opportunities and potential raises” and “you would be a great asset at a leadership level” but then when you actually ask what your managers think of you promoting you get “well you used your PTO often…and while life happens management can’t just take the day off” and “you don’t have the experience or years at the company to promote yet” but you are doing the work of a supervisor for the pay of entry level staff.

I don't work for my family. So I don't want my family to be my work. I totally agree with you that you're a worker, you're not a family member. You can say you want everyone to be friendly but not family. That's like Target stores that call you guests instead of customers. Hey Target, if I'm a guest I expect food and drink.

I had a work cell phone but worked in home care. Made sense for that scenario but otherwise I'm not so sure! 8 hour work day drives me nuts. If your work is done and it's 15 till the end of your day, leave! There are plenty of days in my line of work where you may carry over a little into lunch or after work. I like to say "it all comes out in the wash".

Corporations that enforce different rules on a person to person basis. The law firm I work for has a rule in the employee handbook that states, effectively, if at some point during the day an employee leaves work without explanation and doesn't return, this is deemed Job Abandonment & is punishable by anything from disciplinary action to termination, depending on a number of factors such as frequency of occurrences, general employment status (ie: is the employee currently on any action plans), etc. Job Abandonment ALSO applies to "no call no shows". However, there are 2 individuals who REGULARLY leave during the day. We'll call them Linda & Stephanie (not their names). Linda uses other people as an excuse - if another employee says or does something she doesn't like, or asks a question she feels they have no right to ask, she becomes irrationally angry & logs out, leaves the building and doesn't return until the next shift (when she's at least 15 minutes late). Management's response to this is to assign the work Linda isn't completing to the coworker who ticked her off. Yesterday, her work became MY responsibility. She & I don’t even work in the same department. My offense to her? I asked if a particular coworker was planned out or called out (because if it was planned, earlier automated processes would have been planned off, and her being out doesn't add any additional stress to my workday. If she had called out, I'd have been in for a lot of duplicate work). Linda exclaimed something to the effect of "how DARE you ask that kind of question! What makes YOU think YOU deserve that kind of information!" She then shut down her system, left & didn't return. It was 3 hours into her 8 hour work day. Today? I get to work, and she's sitting there free and clear. Stephanie meanwhile, is supposed to work Monday to Friday, 4pm to midnight. She doesn't work Mondays. Doesn’t call out, just doesn't show up. Frequently, she doesn't show up to other shifts. Of the last 17 scheduled work appearances, she's been present for 3. And on 2 of those occasions was more than 3 hours late. And nobody bats an eye.

The biggest scam I've seen originated during pandemic with the disappearance of work/life separation. My employer implemented full time work from home that shifted to work from home two days a week in 2022. The expectation became salaried employees are ALWAYS available via email and Teams on their personal devices with the threat that WFH could be completely revoked. That has since extended to expecting people to travel for work on their personal time in order to extend working time while at a different site.

Absolutely love your channel. Good job thanks for your hard work and insight.

I sure appreciate your channel for putting a realistic view on work life

I’m British living in France When working back in U.K. Doctors certificate required after 5 days. HR requirement but included weekend non working days which was wrong in my mind as wasn’t part of my payed hours Seen living in Japan KZfaq channels. Train companies supposedly provide proof of delay certificates there as standard Toodles

Another item....Non Compete Agreements

the promotion part, they do this with contractors that are H1B too. "We're going to hire you, we're getting you your green card...." and nothing.

The corporate world is so out of control. I started when I was 16 and 48. I quit the corporate layoffs, the corporate micromanaging and underpaid scenario. Thankfully, unfortunately, with adverse background in sales to be able to jump into something on my own and you should too this is not the corporate America I put into. It’s all about top level, squeezing life out of you and getting every penny that should be going to you for work. don’t let these people fool you they’ve taken the Kool-Aid to the next level

One of the phrases I absolutely hate is "Oh they are just a _____." The first time I heard that, the person was talking about a garbage collector, its a job, its a job that needs to be done, it is honest work, what would happen if the garbage collector stopped collecting???

Being in the military you are on call “24/7” so it is what it is. Used to always getting calls even when I’m not on call to deal with stuff. Sucks that leadership can’t stick to the schedule as it is as the work I do not is not in any aspect “emergency work”

When people give all of their work and responsibilities to their underlings (or to their same-level coworkers) but take all of the credit. This is a huge one, since it happens so very much, especially with middling management. This happened a lot to me in school and is why I HATE group projects. I got stuck with the work but they took all the credit, and when I complained that I was getting punished for "not doing my share," I got punished for "lying about my contributions," too. Teachers' favorites are awful, and it's no better as an adult with a job.

Paid time off.. vacation and sick time.. we're getting to the end of the fiscal year and our benefit time does not carry over, so use it or lose it... I have 4 sick days that i still have to use, other places I've worked at allowed me to schedule my unused sick time.. my micro manager is telling me i cant schedule it cause then it would be vacation.. really... Time to call hr to find out

Great video. Greetings from Poland. Couple of corporate scams here and there here in PL, mostly matching your observations. So refreshing to have an open discussion about i

Never go against the family.

I am an executive assistant and I am supporting two c-levels and I noticed that during my 1:1’s one of the c-levels will zone out while I am asking her questions and then later claim I didn’t tell her something so I get in trouble with my manager.

Love your work!

The bottom line is that you are brilliant and I love your content. No one is even questioning the scams, nonsense, and bizarre concepts within contemporary workplaces.

I think a work supplied device is properly left in the work desk drawer upon the end of the work day, just as you would leave other work devices (like computers).

last job dangled me my up in pay for 4 years. Finally called it quits after a bad burnout during covid (where of course I covered for 3 other workers while being sick). The boss' comment was: "So are we too late for a promotion?" Honey, even if you give me a promotion at this exact moment, I wouldn't trust you for the future.

Unfortunately, there are way too many people that will take advantage of just about any opportunity to be away from work.

The train giving reports as to why a person is late. I read years ago that the Japan it is quite common for the train company to offer notices as to why a worker was late

I have a VP called me out for not looking in the camera when I talked but looking at the screen (of their face). VP forced me to take on other people's job calling it what if that person is not available and you need to know how to operate their job. This is absolute scam to me and I immediately pushed back and left the company (never looked back)

Thank you very much. I'm learning a lot from your videos.

The paper slip in delayed trains is in Japan. As for doctors note… it is obligatory in Poland, but we get paid for sick days and it is not limited. So people can abuse it, get 20% pay decrease and go on holidays. That’s why it is required here. It is an issue with like “one day sickness”, do I have to go to doctors to explain that I had not fresh fish yesterday and I cannot come to work?

Oh man...I love your channel. I'm in healthcare and I can only dream of better conditions. But I love the actual work. So I alwsys look for the joys in my work.

I HATE off hour dinners, happy hour, team building all that stuff. I’m so socially awkward so when I’m around a large group I became a wall flower!

Much better spacing between statements! Yay!

Work apps sell your data and I'm also convinced they can see things in your phone you don't even know about.

Great list, nice video

The promotion Carrot was dangled infront of me for 4 years, I was already doing most of the work, and it actually did get made into a position, I wasn't allowed to apply for and they had the audacity to expect me to train the person as well.... I have never quit a job so quick. I told them I will get things lined up in my actual role, to Hand off, But I will not train that person before I leave.

On the chair issue, that might not be an issue of classicism, but maybe a tacit expectation and reassurance of having assigned seating; something that you know is yours. That need for structure is very important for people on the autism spectrum.

I totally agree with the 8-hour work day. Mind you I had a job that went by the work not the hours. Sometimes you were there for 10 hours or had to come back into work every so many hours. Medical research. So you had to go by what the research protocol you were working on needed and not your own needs lol lol. If something says it takes you to add something every 3 hours then you had to add it every 3 hours throughout the night. But you knew that going in. But if your stuff was done early, you could leave early because you had been leaving late at other times. But I worked for someone reasonable. The 8-hour work is probably to keep things even with everyone. There was resentment when someone wouldn't have enough to do and could leave early while others had to stay. Human nature is to resent that sort of thing. I believe that's why they have set hours for most jobs.

I recently left a job that my boss/owner of the business wanted me to use my personal days to be accessible to answer calls or texts. I shut that down since it was my own time and I don’t put work as first priority of my life. In addition, any work related conversations on my phone is then added to my timecards. On the last day when I gave my resignation letter, my bosses were head to head and yelling in a small house office, I couldn’t think at all. Just glad to have left that toxic work environment.

In Ontario Canada the government has passed legislation the company's are forbidden to ask an employee for a Dr note. The reason is that this is taking up too much of the Dr day when they could be treating patients.

I can't imagine working in a place where you need permission to use the restroom, or need proof that you are sick or have a legitimate reason to be late to work.

Well, in Germany we have the 'Arbeitszeitgesetz' (a law regulating the max hours per work day), so if the shift is over. work obligations are over. Company phone goes offline, power switched off. Private phone time then.

I'm in IT and being oncall is part of the responsibilities. The thing is, you have to predict the amount if oncall after hours work before agreeing with the salary. A lot if people agree with it blindly and get burned out and unsatisfied. HR or recruiter,all of them do not understand the workload. They work 8 to 5 thats it. That's why mangers who understands this, and sees the work performed after hours,will agree to make it up by giving you uncounted paid time off.

I hate when companies say we are family.

Working at AT&T corporate, they’d demand that note from the train conductor. Absolutely one of the most toxic places to work.

You have to go to da loo.... TODALOO! 😂

Happy hour is the worst. I guess sometimes it depends how well treated you feel at workplace. Having fake empathy or feeling that guilt when making a good decision makes everything so toxic.

Oh story time related to team building: (you’re gonna love this!). So in my last job I was working for the state and there was a bunch of shady stuff going on but I kept calling it out and making them send up reviews to a higher level as my name was on these documents. Of course they would come back in my favor. I figured out that there was compensation for the amount that didn’t have to be done. Anyway. My team attempted to get retribution on me by writing me up for not reporting a second job. Of course they had known about it from the moment I took it 5 months prior. They decided to document the write up stating that they had to move around the team outing (not on company time, not mandatory and not paid) due to this. Not only that but they documented all the dates wrong. Now I keep very detailed notes of everything in a non computer log book and on my calendar. So when o responded back I would not be signing the write up as it was incorrect and gave all the correct details along with texts and dates to prove it they were unable to actually follow through with the write up. 😂 I might have also made my manager cry. Ironically I was putting in my notice that night anyway as I was moving back to my home state. But seriously. Always - Always document Everything!!!!!!

My work regularly drives me up the wall with some truly idiotic procedures, initiatives that produce nothing but more paperwork and nothing else, or complete cluelessness as to the habits & customs of the markets their operating in (working for a US company in Europe). Hearing all of this though makes me so glad for my employer. Management is down to Earth in person, we’re not expected to connect outside of work, and even though I do have my work email & Teams on my private phone, I’m not expected to check it and still get reimbursed like 80% of my monthly bill.

In all honestly I did see my coworkers as family. We used to be such a small group. We got to know each other well, we were there for each other in difficult times. We hung out outside of work. They became like my mom's, brothers, sisters. We spent a lot of time together so yes to me they were and still are family. Just like my friends that became sisters or brothers. I don't see anything wrong with that IF those in the group are comfortable and also see it that way. Of course if it makes anyone feel uncomfortable that is or would be respected.

Here is a one I just love. People who make decisions in their life all the time, but can't make simple decisions at work. 🙄

My company has at least quarterly mandatory meetings after hours. We compensate hourly time for our hourly staff but not for salary staff….we who are salary work 50+ hours a week without comp time or financially.

Totally agree with things done outside working hours. Nope. Especially when it's stupid things like going out into the woods and having to rely on the people when you're blindfolded and all that junk. I'm sorry I don't do that. I don't do that in my regular time and I'm sure is you know what that I'm not going to do it for work. In all my decades of working of yet to hear someone say Oh I now feel part of the team and I feel like we're a stronger team because we walked across a stream on a log.

Great work

i have worked retail before: biggest mistake of my life... all these resignated with me. corporate really needs to stop wth their bs for sure...

Another perspective on having work email and calendar on my phone - I use it for my convenience. It makes it significantly easier for me to flex my time (checking home and work calendars simultaneously when scheduling appointments, responding to an email quickly instead of returning to my desk). While it can be a red flag if they require it, it can also be a huge inconvenience if they forbid it, depending on your situation.

The train delay ticket is very common in Japan and train delays quite regularly there