After watching his father lose his job despite correctly predicting staffing problems caused by outsourcing, this customer found one small but satisfying way to make the bank spend money every month.

It has been said that "The only things certain in life are death and taxes," an adage commonly attributed to Benjamin Franklin. However, I think ol' Ben, or whoever actually first said this, had never worked for a corporation before. If they had, there would surely be a third item in that list about the pursuit of profit or something along those lines.

Help! My boss is a teenager

Personally, if I were put in this situation, I wouldn't know what to do. What this employee did was far from perfect, but it was an honest mistake. Not everyone can plot the most perfect act of malicious compliance every time they're wronged, although I wish things worked that way.

We all know that teenagers have a hard time controlling their emotions in a healthy, civilized way; that's why I don't think getting yelled at by one of them is weird at all. The worst part is that the employee trained him for that, or well, not specifically for that, but for the job, lol.

There are two ways for someone to leave their job: either they resign, or they get fired. 

At least officially. Anyone who has ever held a job knows that a workplace situation is not all black and white. And there are a lot of factors playing into an employee's decision to quit, or an employer's decision to fire.

Take a company that is under financial strain, for example. Their decision to fire an employee might have nothing to do with them or their performance, but the general position of the company itself. If an employee loses their job because the company went under, can they really say that they were fired, or does that situation introduce a third option?

Similarly, some employees end up quitting their jobs not because they didn't like the work, or their paycheck wasn't enough, but because of one specific person who made the workplace environment unbearable. If someone resigns because they were basically forced out of the company, can they really say that they quit, or is there now a fourth option as well?

To say that the employee in the story below resigned is technically true, but as we established, the situation is so complicated that resigning seems like an understatement. The only reason they decided to leave their job was that they were forced out by a new manager. Someone who, for some reason, decided to make the office as inhospitable to this one employee as possible. They were left out of meetings, given unreasonable deadlines, and micromanaged every step of the way. They were basically left with no choice but to quit, to the point that you may as well call it getting fired…

Is there anything to do in situations like these? Can they be avoided or fixed? Keep scrolling to read the full story and share your opinions in the comments below.

Since when can a landlord charge extra for an AC unit bought by the tenant?

A New Yorker reached out to the community in r/Renters because he's dealing with a very strange situation with his landlord. Since the apartment he's renting doesn't have an air conditioning system, he bought a unit and installed it in his bedroom. After a new management company realized he had that, they told him he should start paying a monthly fee of $35 because it is a "seasonal appliance," and it increases the building's power bill.

This is totally insane. I also live in a city that gets very hot during the summer, and luckily, I have an AC in every room of my apartment. My wonderful landlord told me, when my roommate and I moved in, that for some reason, in this part of town, power bills don't get up too much during the hot days due to the AC. But, in case we notice any abrupt increase, we should let him know right away so he can find a solution together.

My personal situation works as a great example of what this landlord should be doing. If we all live in the same city that gets crazy hot during summer, we can expect the tenant to have an AC in the apartment so he can sleep at night. And the funniest thing is that the power bill is under his name, so he's taking full responsibility if the monthly tax gets really high. I don't really understand how they can start charging that invented fee for something he's super mindful and responsible about.

I found in the comments that very helpful information can give this renter a hand. According to some Redditors, the final answer should be in the lease. If there's no mention of an AC unit whatsoever, he's totally entitled to have that unit and not be charged for it. We all know that the new management company wants to charge him extra just for the kick of it, although it could be against the rules. Scroll down and find out what happened to this New Yorker!

This employee shared the demands that were being placed on them by their boss in order to take leave, bringing the conversation on the topic to the forefront in a viral social media post.

PTO is an important part of working arguable as important as the work we do itself. But try telling that to your boss.

Can you tell when someone's "generous" offer comes from a selfish place?

We're not saying that everyone has a secret motive when they offer to help someone, but it's still a possibility. People, as it turns out, are quite self-centered, and many will not help other people unless it helps them in some way or form.

Some people go as far as to decide to do something for others without even being asked, just because they seek the benefit for themselves.

We can't really understand what the neighbor in the story below benefited from her actions, but she definitely wasn't doing anything because she genuinely wanted to help. She has set her mind on something, and no one was going to stop her from achieving it. At least, that is what she believed…

A resident shared how they were frustrated by their neighbor, who kept crossing the boundary between their properties and taking actions she had no business taking. It started when she mowed the residents' grass while they were at work. Then, her work on her own lawn caused the resident's fence to be ruined. The last straw was when she left broken shelves on the resident's front lawn and refused to move them. Every time something like this happened, there was a conversation that led to an actual confrontation, and every time, she found a new way to make matters worse. While she claimed she was trying to help, she refused to accept that her "help" was not welcome. 

Eventually, the resident felt like they had no choice but to involve the town and report this neighbor and her behavior. But would that be enough to stop her?

Some family road trips end with everyone singing along to the radio. This one ended with a dented car door, a stranded sister on the side of the highway, and a twelve-hour silent drive home with nothing but gas station coffee and simmering resentment for companyTurns out you can rearrange your entire vacation, sacrifice your legroom, and hand over your last phone charger, and still somehow end up cast as the bad guy for wanting your own feet out of your face.

Being the accommodating one in a family only works until someone decides your patience is a permanent resource instead of a limited one. This is what happens when a person spends days rearranging travel plans, sacrificing legroom, and swallowing every passive-aggressive jab, only to get treated like the villain the second they stop absorbing damage silently.

I'm Not In Love - 10cc

This story is the final proof that no absolute narrative exists; two people can have two opposing interpretations of what happened, and most of the time there is no use in trying to convince one of them otherwise. The most frustrating part is when part of that narrative is made up of assumptions about what we feel and think that could easily be refuted if the other person talked to us, but in life, you very often have to learn to let go of many, many things that stay unresolved. What would you do given this situation?

How is your heart feeling this summer?

Are you dating someone who is starting to feel distant? Are you, yourself, feeling distant? What is going on? Are you questioning their love for you? Are you questioning your love for them? What happened to that summer love feeling you two used to share? Why are you even in a relationship right now? We have all had these questions, and sometimes we even get answers, but usually, it ends up just being confusing. It's easy to turn to the besties for advice, but if you're anything like me, then your besties already know you a little too well. Now, whenever you start to have boy problems, they are experiencing the same triggers you are because they were with you during your entire last heartbreak. So what advice do they have for you now? 

DUMP HIM. 

But this is only his first offense, and you're a forgiving person, right? We're in the same boat, queen. And, you know what, don't let those f boys from your past, present, and probably future steal you of your forgiving nature. It's beautiful. You're beautiful. However, don't let them take advantage of it either. Give them a first and second chance, AND THAT IS IT. I cannot stress enough how two chances are ALL they are allowed. (Unless it was infidelity, in that case, kick them to the curb ASAP.)

Do you know how embarrassing it is to think back about when I listed all of my ex's offenses to my therapist, and I had to count them on both hands. BOTH HANDS?! I'm cringing right now just thinking about it. You know what always makes me feel better? Memes!

Give your besties a break from the summer love drama and give these memes a chance. You might just fall in love! 

Did you try to pretend that you were following the World Cup without actually watching any matches? Here is a quick guide for people who don't really know about football.

The FIFA World Cup is divided into different phases. First, we have the group stage, then the round of 32. Then the round of 16, quarter-finals, semifinals, third-place play-off, and lastly, the final. We are currently ending the round of 32 and about to start the round of 16. So here is everything that happened before the round of 32 and how it works.

During the group stage, there were 48 teams playing, divided into 12 groups with 4 teams each. Each country had to play the three other teams in their group and start getting points whether the match ended with a win, a loss, or a tie. That metric defines the position of each country in their group. Only the 1st and 2nd place teams went on to play the round of 32. 4th place gets automatically eliminated, and the 8 best 3rd places get to play something called "The best thirds", which is basically all the third-place teams with the highest score also go on to play in the round of 32. If your country won a match, they scored 3 points. If they tied, only 1 point, and with a loss, 0 points.

To bring out the soft cutesy side you have.

In all the stories we read online, we see all the drama that can surround a couple. People are always posting about fights and discussions they have about a lot of different things. It can go from not replenishing the toilet paper when it runs out to being unfaithful or disrespectful. That may seem as if relationships are always complicated, but they aren't. In healthy relationships, most of the time everything is fine, calm, and loving. The idea of being in a couple is not to be fighting all the time, is to have someone you really love and respect by your side, showing you support and love during good AND bad times. Is someone you trust and like spending your time with. Is someone you want to have a future with. Is someone that makes you happy.

All that does not mean that in a healthy relationship everything is always perfect, because it is not. Discussions are normal between people, especially when you spend a lot of time together. What matters is how you resolve them. Screaming and talking badly to each other is a HUGE red flag, but communicating assertively and listening to each other is actually helpful for the relationship to evolve and to avoid the same topic of discussion being a problem again. You can have disagreements, but not all the time. In a healthy relationship, you have to want to be with the other person.

This thread of cute animal memes is a way to show you love one and that you love them and think of them. A form of love that showcases that relationships aren't problematic or full of disagreement. They are actually just two people loving and caring for each other, being and supporting each other. Relationships are the human way to show love to someone, to make them know you want to spend your life together. 
 

Getting your first job is a big deal. It's a step toward independence and responsibility. No one would expect that a family's first reaction would be an immediate suggestion that their daughter's new paycheck should be shared with a younger sibling who didn't earn it. 

The situation is very unfair. Why should part of that paycheck become her sister's allowance? The parents' suggestion is confusing because the younger sister already has access to money through them and earns something through chores. So this isn't a situation where a younger sibling needs help with her necessities. It sounds more like the parents want the older daughter to share just because she is now working as a cashier and earning money. But that's a decision that the older daughter herself must make. It's her money.

Besides, earning money doesn't mean losing the right to decide what to do with it, even if it's your first job. The cashier explains she had been trying to get a job for a while, and now that she finally got one, she wants to save it for college. Incredibly responsible goals for a young woman. I would have spent it all on food. But she's already thinking about retirement early, college, and maybe eventually helping her family's finances.

Helping family can be a really nice gesture when it is voluntary. Buying your sibling a treat, helping with college, or contributing to family needs when you can do it can feel very satisfying. But that's really different from being told that your paycheck belongs partly to someone else. 

So the cashier isn't wrong for saying no. Her sister is not entitled to a cut of every paycheck she earns just because she got hired. She is setting a reasonable boundary around the money she'll earn with her own time and labor. And that's an important part that her parents are ignoring. 

Why should a childhood promise determine your wedding day?

This writer asked for advice in the Reddit community for the difficult situation she's involved with her mother. Apparently, when she was a kid, she promised her mom to wear her wedding dress if she ever got married. She did this because she had a complicated relationship with her and only wanted to please her. Fast forward, now she's a bride-to-be and doesn't want to wear that dress.

I'm sure this is a tough situation to be involved in. And especially if you had a complicated bond with your mother growing up. As kids, we would do whatever it took to gain our parents' recognition and approval, and promising your mother you'd use her gown if you ever got married sounds like it.

But it's totally understandable that, decades later, your taste changes and that you may want to have your own wedding dress for that special day. Any normal parent would agree that seeing your kid happy while planning their wedding is what they would want. Well… not for this mother.

When the bride told her she wouldn't use her dress and would like both of them to go dress shopping, the mom broke down in tears and felt totally betrayed. She even mentioned how her deceased dad would've loved to see her in that dress…

I'll let you dive into this complication by yourself, and let us know in the comments your opinion on this topic. Is it okay to break a promise you made as a kid?

One thing is giving away something because you want to, and another is being told that something you bought suddenly belongs to a family member who wants it. That difference matters when it comes to a $1000 laptop you paid for yourself. 

This 18-year-old bought the laptop using her savings when she was around thirteen. She didn't receive it as a gift. She worked out a way to pay for it herself, then took care of it for years. Now that she is starting college, she's getting a new computer as a graduation gift. Suddenly, her parents are seeing her old laptop with new eyes. They want to give the laptop to her 7-year-old half-sister. 

Getting a new laptop doesn't erase the fact that the old computer still belongs to her. The parents think of this as basic math: we are buying the new college laptop, so that should count as payment for the old one. But those are separate things. A graduation gift is a graduation gift. An old laptop is an object that this teenager bought herself in the past. And as long as I'm concerned, a graduation gift is not the same as buying someone's used property from them. 

Besides, a 7-year-old is not exactly ready for the responsibility that comes with owning a laptop. And she already has an iPad, which has already brought problems. So, handing over another expensive device might be a bad idea. 

The most important thing is that being related doesn't allow you to claim someone's belongings for free. If the parents want the younger child to have a laptop, that's fine; they can buy one. But they shouldn't pressure the older daughter into absorbing the cost because she happens to own something useful. 

Teaching someone to use a laser cutter is supposed to produce a competent employee, not a tiny tyrant convinced he's been handed a management degree

Eighteen years old, and somehow already certain that the problem with forty badly cut plastic units wasn't his hands, it was everyone else's math. It's the workplace equivalent of teaching a kid to ride a bike and having him immediately demand a redesign of the road.

Some people mistake confidence for competence, and nothing exposes that faster than a teenager deciding he's now a plastics expert.

Two wrongs don't make it right

Two wrongs don't make it right, but at least we're even. Sometimes, in relationships characterized by disappointment, and even more so when disappointment always comes from one end, we have to revert to something more than words to set a boundary. I mean, when we are already tired of talking, and it falls on deaf ears. We can always, of course, leave our partners over something like this, but when we are in love, things are not that simple. Sometimes, it's time to level the playing field and then get a chance to breathe and plan our next action. It seems that this girlfriend is getting ready to do that, and we are here for it. What else would you advise her to do?

How does "on time" also mean "late?"

Every responsible adult does their best to do their job right. They show up on time, they're polite, they don't fight with their bosses. All to be able to keep a job and make ends meet. No sane person goes around nonchalantly forgetting their assignments or showing up late on purpose. Still, sometimes it gets hard to keep the bosses happy when they simply state random unwritten rules that make no sense. 

Redditor u/Budget-Baseball3675 was surprised to find a new manager at work who had an interesting definition of what "on time" meant. The new manager came along to change everybody's shifts, including hers. Her schedule changed to start at 2:30 pm, so she showed up at 2:30 pm. That's when the manager went on a rant about how late she was, and how she was supposed to be there thirty minutes earlier. He even threatened to fire her!

This had me reconsidering the definition of "work ethic." In a customer service type of job, I understand getting there a few minutes early, especially if you have to change into a uniform or do the shift change with some other co-worker. But wouldn't 10 minutes be enough? Of course, this depends on the place's rules. Some ask you to be a few minutes early; others are fine with you showing up right at the time when your shift starts. It all depends on the restaurant or business you're tending to, and they will tell you what they expect. For instance, my boyfriend worked at a restaurant, and he was used to showing up thirty minutes earlier. Always the first one in and last one out. The boss never explicitly told him to do so, but never really thanked him either, there you have a loophole. But what can I say, he liked his job. His boss, on the other hand, not so much. 

Still, whether they show up an hour earlier or right on time, yelling at an employee for not following an arbitrary rule that no one informed them of is a stretch. If they wanted her to show up thirty minutes earlier, they should have said so. And she was absolutely entitled to answer "show me the money" in a Tom-Cruise-in-Jerry-Maguire style, because no one should work for free. In the meantime, just be nice to your co-workers, we all need it.

Bad bosses and their awful habit of expecting their employees to be available 24/7.

What is the problem with these bosses who want to contact their employees ALL THE TIME? It doesn't matter if it is 10 p.m. on a Friday, 7 a.m. on a Sunday, or even Christmas Eve. They want to control their employees all the time, no matter what their real shift is. They want their employees to be robots that don't stop and don't have a life to attend to, as if they were automated to only work and work all day, every day, for life. They cannot comprehend the idea of breaks, free time, or vacation time. They are so incredibly selfish that even if you take a sick day because you can't stop throwing up, they are going to call you and ask you to send them a document, and they are going to word it as if it's the most important thing when, actually, they could just have waited till the next day.

They always have this urgency in their voice that can be even put into emails. It makes employees feel like it's the most serious situation even if it's just a message saying "we need toilet paper". What matters is not really the situation, but the fact that they need it, and your main priority is to fulfill their needs. They act as if the act of doing something that they need is not only the most important thing in the world, but also the purpose of your life. Well, it's not.

Stories like the one in this Reddit post make me hopeless. There are millions of employees who go through this same situation. A boss who believes that has the power to contact you at any time and day, and they actually don't. There has to be a way to put a stop to this. A revolution of some kind that may make this desperation that bosses have towards their employees doing them favors disappear once and for all. 
 

Gifted baked goods

Sometimes gifts come with weird expectations attached. Well, they're not exactly 'weird', but one typically assumes that a gift is a gift and it doesn't have a receipt, but it does. In the majority of cases, it most certainly does. This is one of those stories in which, to me, both parties are equally in the wrong; therefore, they're also equally in the right, if you know what I mean, so I will dedicate my time to elaborating each sister's perspective (or at least my idea of it, of course). Still, I think one of them lost the cool battle by getting carried away by her emotions, although she had good reasons to do what she did. Which side are you on?

What happens when an employee finally checks what the market is actually paying?

An employee asked his managers for a well-deserved raise for three years, but always got the same answer: that he was already at the top of the band for his position in that industry. He believed them. For three years, he thought they were telling him the right thing, and didn't say a thing since he felt it was annoying. 

However, that third time clicked something for him: they could be wrong. How come during the past three years his salary was still at the top? No way. That same weekend, he did some research and found out the obvious: he was way at the bottom of the salary band. He gathered all his evidence, went to his boss, and ended up landing a 28% raise. Without a doubt, a wonderful success story.

For me, just a wonderful story to read this morning. It's just so great when a regular employee can stand his ground and demand something that he's entitled to: a raise that he deserved more than anyone. It really surprises me that his bosses were lying to him about his income: telling him he was way above the average, when in reality, it was all the way around.

I'm glad the employee was empowered and did the research that landed him his raise. Although in the end, he states he accepted the raise too fast, since he found the same position in another company that even had a higher salary, I think the overall message has to do with claiming what is right to you. It can apply to your job, but also to every other aspect of life: feeling confident and, with all due respect, asking for those things you want, especially if you think you deserve them.