What would you do in this case?

​What would you do if you asked for time off in early June and got approved? But when the time comes, you realize you are scheduled to work during some days of your holiday week. At least some kind of frustration would be felt. Especially when you decide to tell your boss, thinking maybe it was a mistake, only to realize that management is just pretending they never approved the time off in the first place. And to just make it worse, after you complained, your boss decided to schedule for the other days that you were also going to be out. This is not only illegal but also proof of the awful environment this Reddit user works in. To deny approval for time off is not allowed, but every time she starts looking for a way to save her holiday, she gets hit with more obstacles.

She tried to contact the union representative, but it almost seemed like a joke. The union rep is on vacation, so they can't solve her issue directly. She now has to go through a bigger entity only to check if they are even able to help her. The start of her time off is just around the corner. She has the reservations for her holiday, and it's all being put on hold because of a bad boss.

She received some advice to just quit. Or at least go on the trip anyway and see if she's able to save her job after. This is also influenced by the fact that this employee is also getting overworked normally. Since one worker quit, all the staff have been working 6 days a week and more hours than they should (she's actually part-time).

In my opinion, she should be getting out of that job ASAP. First, enjoy the vacation, and when she comes back, start looking for something else. This kind of environment is unacceptable, and she deserves a better place to work. Also, if she can place some kind of demand with the union to avoid this happening to somebody else, that would be the right thing to do.

Set menu, no changes allowed

I don't know about you guys, but I consider picky eating a very serious issue. To me, it's unthinkable to be more than 7 years of age and still unable to eat anything with garlic. Having a broad palate is a very important skill for life and for sharing with people from your own and other cultures, aside from the pleasurable experience in itself of enjoying multiple flavours. Imagine you are a picky eater, and you get invited to eat pasta at your friend's house; the sauce will probably involve garlic. You are suddenly excluded from more than half of reunions because EVERYTHING INVOLVES GARLIC in Western and Eastern cooking. You are allowed not to like something, of course, but I always thought picky eating was about something else, especially if you are like this boyfriend who makes his taste everyone else's problem.

Realistic hopecore

Reading stories like this reignites my faith in humanity. Probably all the hearts he broke are mended by now, but he can at least stop himself from breaking more in the future. I thought my cold exes could never be self-aware, but this story makes me think they might be, one day, when they turn 34.

I've been on both sides of the situation, and I know how an unannounced call from your partner to talk through some drama can feel like a burden if you are the slightest bit avoidant, or were minding your own business that day. But I also know how you feel when you are trying to tell your partner something important to you, and you get one- or two-word, dry responses. Is it always a matter of codependency?

Affectionate teasing

Sometimes the best way to show love is not being extremely sweet. Psychologists called this 'cute aggression', or at least that's what I read on some random Instagram infographic. It can be because sometimes big emotions seek a physical outlet, or because saying something corny can leave us feeling too vulnerable. Straightforward compliments can feel a lot heavier than some healthy, affectionate teasing, and that's what happened to the neighbour in this story, except that at first, the woman doing the teasing thought her neighbour couldn't understand what she was saying.

Nothing builds character quite like watching a promotion vanish the exact moment someone's childhood best friend strolls through the door. It's the corporate equivalent of a magic trick, except instead of pulling a rabbit out of a hat, your manager pulls a broken promise out of his you-know-where and calls it "seat availability"

Here's the thing about "seats" at most companies: they're basically Bigfoot. Everyone insists they exist, there's always a blurry account of someone who's seen one, but the second you go looking for actual proof, it disappears into the woods. Funny how there's never a shortage of seats when the person walking in shares a golf course with the guy making the decision.

Companies love to dress nepotism up in professional language, like "cultural fit" or "he already knows the systems," when really what they mean is "we went to the same fraternity, and he still owes me twenty bucks from 2003."

When this customer support worker followed management's order to close unresolved support tickets, they exposed how a focus on appearance over problem-solving created duplicate work and frustrated customers.

Have you ever caught your neighbor doing something they shouldn't be doing with your personal belongings?

Since you generally don't get to decide who it is you are going to end up living next to, you are expected to put a lot of trust in a complete stranger. Even though you aren't going to be living with these people in the same house, there is still a certain connection that forms when two people live right next to each other.

Even if your house is fenced and fortified, your neighbors can still be privy to a lot of inside activity around your house, and even collect information about you as a person. It only takes a few months of living with each other before they know what time you usually leave for work and when you return. They will find out all about the occupants of the house, and which food you enjoy DoorDashing the most. If they really want to, they can even guess your income based on the house you live in and the furniture they can see through the window.

Want it or not, your neighbors become insiders to information you might not even share with your own family.

Another thing a neighbor can get a glimpse of that you have no control over is your mail. As long as you have an outdoor mailbox, that little metal box can be a way in for your neighbor to get a lot of information about you, and even take items they shouldn't get their hands on. As long as they're there, they can get away with pretty much anything, so you have to keep your eyes peeled in order to stop that from happening.

That is what the homeowner in the story below is trying to do after finding out their neighbor regularly looks inside their mailbox. They keep catching them in the act through their ring camera, but they still can't make their neighbor stop. The only other option they have left is to formally report the crime…

Buying secondhand appliances apparently comes with an unspoken rule. unspoken in the sense it's inside one entitled woman's head, and she didn't say out loud, that rule is: if you break it yourself after purchase, that's somehow still the seller's fault.How it usually goes is, someone sells an item in perfectly good condition, lets the buyer test it themselves, and even tries to help load it up like an overly generous furniture mover. Everything checks out, everyone's happy, sale complete. Then chaos happens.

At what point should trust give way to written documentation, even when dealing with someone you've known for years?

A landowner's carefully written rental agreement becomes the deciding factor after a tenant ignores payment deadlines and destroys property improvements. He then tries to claim no contract ever existed. 

It can feel really good to trust someone and be able to take them at their word. That what they say will get done will, and there will be no behind-the-back, backdooring dealing. This trust is a valuable thing. But sometimes the written word needs to exist. It becomes a matter of responsibility to get things in writing regardless of how things seem when first setting out in the business relationship. 

Written agreements and contracts signed with the ol' John Hancock became a thing for good reason. There have been plenty of famous situations where verbal handshake agreements eventually came to haunt one side of the equation or the other. As they say… the devil is in the details. And ensuring that there are some ground rules set ensures that everyone will have something to refer back to no matter how you trust the person. 

On being chronically late

This character flaw is rather hard to live with if a friend has it. You do your best; you tell them reunions start an hour before they actually start, so if they arrive one hour late, they are actually early. You tell yourself they are not doing it on purpose; you accept that everyone has different time management skills and different time perception, but still, when it's the twentieth time you need them for something and they show up 40 minutes late, it's very hard to sustain the friendship.

This Redditor wonders what she should do about her chronically late friend. If there's anything she can do to save the friendship, or if this trait can outweigh everything else good there is to it.

Office pranks aren't the only thing that needs some regulation. Annoying coworkers too!

I think that if a 50-year-old employee is always doing pranks on the younger coworkers, and he went as far as messing with their food, I don't think that a manager should take that as funny or unproblematic. It's actually weird and uncomfortable. Office pranks are a problematic topic, especially because what one finds funny can be traumatizing to somebody else. And there are also the limits that aren't super clear. They are like a gray area that is almost invisible. But I do think that messing with food is a very clear way to go over the limits.

What is worse about the whole situation in this Reddit story is the fact that the managers see the mess and just laugh. A boss not caring about the employees' well-being and considering attacking somebody's food a simple joke shows that this manager is probably not good at his job. Not realizing how much this could escalate and damage the company is not thinking through. The employee that wrote this story is visibly uncomfortable, and now she is receiving internet advice to go to human resources and file a complaint. And if she did, it would be perfectly acceptable. The real issue is having a boss that doesn't think, that doesn't realize how much damage a "simple prank" can do to somebody.

Office pranks in general should be banned, except the silly ones like writing jokes on a post-it. But if the prank can cause disturbance, then it should not be done and shouldn't be allowed. As a manager, you have to take care of your employees and of the company. Letting situations like these occur is a liability. The best way to manage them is to forbid them and to place punishment on the people who do them.

Like way way way too many people and Orgs, HOAs love to start small and reasonable, then slowly turn into something nobody signed up for. That's basically what happened here.

It started with the usual stuff: no visible sheds, keep the yard tidy. Reasonable enough. Then things escalated fast. Mature trees got removed for "aesthetic reasons," and now the whole street bakes in direct sunlight for half the year, because apparently shade wasn't part of the vision.

From there, it spiraled into full micromanagement mode.

Not sure who the bride is at this wedding

I have no idea why this is so common; I've heard and watched so many related stories. Mothers-in-law are, not for nothing, represented in so many folk tales like this. They act very jealous with their sons; they sabotage relationships; they always present themselves as 'the one who knows best', and every time a husband is on their side, you are sure to lose. The real bride from this story, fortunately, has a partner who is on her side, but the mother-in-law thing is nonetheless a struggle. Would you give up your dream of being the only one who wears white at your wedding? Or how would you manage this situation? Is there any way to get a mother-in-law like this to do what you need?

It's not really about the collectibles, but about the lack of limits parents put on their children nowadays.

Blaming other people for their child's lack of manners is so common among parents. As if it were so hard to admit when they are wrong. Especially when they still have time to correct their errors as parents and teach their kids how to behave. But no, it's better to be an annoying adult who makes excuses and blames everyone else. Children should have limits. They have to be educated. As parents and responsible adults, you have the irrenounceable task of guiding and forming them into functioning adults. That can't be accomplished if you only say yes and comply with whatever your child asks for, like a genie granting wishes. Parents HAVE to control their children, not only to teach them but also to protect them. An uncontrollable child that doesn't have the tools to think before acting is a child in danger.

In this Reddit story, what is happening is not some adult being overprotective about plastic figurines. Is the direct consequence of parents not taking their job seriously enough. Is having a child not only be uncontrollable, destructive, and unapologetic, but also not even able to speak out for himself. Kids make mistakes, but there is no reason for an 11-year-old boy to be destructive towards somebody else's belongings. He should already know that he has to be careful. And also, he should be able to express himself, so when he encounters something that he seems is unfair (like her aunt locking her bedroom door to avoid him entering), he should have the capacity to say something, defend himself. He is 11, not 6. He has to act a certain way. And the fact that he is not complying just because his parents aren't mature enough to admit the role they have and control their child is just outrageous. This situation was not going to get solved with a phone call blaming the child's aunt to justify the parents' mistake. This needs to be treated as an alarm to start getting involved in the child's development and education. If we only excuse this, it's going to get worse and end with an infantilized adult. 

Few things are more frustrating for a front desk clerk than dealing with a booking mistake at the end of their shift. And it's even worse when the person who made the mistake is blaming the front desk worker for not magically knowing what she meant to do.  

In today's story, a hotel guest arrived to check in when the front desk worker's shift was almost over. So just picture the situation: dealing with a last-minute workplace drama. The front desk worker asked a completely normal question, and that's when the confusion began. 'Do you want to use the same credit card for both rooms?'

The guest insisted that she had only booked one room for herself and her husband, but after double-checking the reservations, the worker explained that the system clearly showed two separate reservations. Most likely, the guest clicked twice or made a double reservation by mistake. The worker had no reason to suspect that this was a mistake. Why would she know a guest's plans? And it's not reasonable to call to double-check a completely normal reservation. 

So that's what the guest didn't understand. She felt the hotel had to call her to ask whether she really needed two rooms. But that's not how this works… People often book multiple rooms under one name for family, friends, or group travel, so there was no reason for the hotel to assume the second reservation was a mistake. And honestly, expecting the front desk to read her mind and call her is just another level of entitlement. It's just ridiculous. The front desk worker's job is not to check whether what she booked online was right. The person who makes an online reservation is responsible for checking that. 

Are we responsible for our friend's mistakes?

There's a fine line between helping someone and enabling them. I've been in situations myself where friends of mine acted stingy with their stuff. In those cases, helping out wouldn't have been a way to enable me, but I understand everybody draws the line in a different place. This woman seems puzzled about the way she acted towards a friend of hers. Was this genuinely a friend needing her help at a very specific moment, or was it more like an ongoing dependence pattern displayed with multiple people in her life? Was she right to say no?

What would you do if your old job came to haunt you? 

When you decide to start looking for a new job, stuff from your past that you might have preferred to forget tends to come back up. Whether it is how badly you performed at your last job, or your relationship with that one manager, these topics of conversation are very likely to come up at an interview for a new job, and you should prepare yourself for any question that would come up in the process.

After you've done a few interviews, you learn to polish the truth in a way that benefits you the most or puts you in a better light. You can say that your old job "wasn't a good fit" instead of explaining that your manager kept overworking you, or you can say that you're looking to "expand your skills" instead of saying that your current job got boring. There are plenty of professional ways to describe a situation that will make you seem like a good person to hire. All you need to do is learn how to best describe even the trickiest situations.

The only way a hiring manager or interviewer can call your bluff is if they have any way of contacting your other places of work and hearing the perspective of someone else, which is the case in the story below. This job candidate discovered during her interview that the person interviewing her is a good friend of her old boss, the same guy who fired her many years ago. So, while she can go on and on about how that job wasn't a good fit, nothing is stopping the interviewer from calling up his good friend and hearing his side of the story. A side that can cost the job candidate the job that she really wants.

Is there any way for her to avoid this fate? The rest of the story below might shed some more light…

If you can't explain it to a Victorian child, it doesn't count

I'm amazed by the quantity of stories that exist today that fifteen years ago would've been unthinkable, or at least absolutely dystopian. I remember watching the movie Her, and while I was crying, I was like, c'mon, this can't happen to anyone. Mind you, this is coming from somebody who's deeply dependent on ChatGPT. What I don't understand is how people actually humanize it. In this case, I'm not sure if a relationship with an LLM counts as a relationship, as the groom says. But to each his own, right?

It's never too late to start

Oftentimes, we normalize the way we naturally act around friendship and never stop to think: Am I being a good enough friend? This is precisely what this Redditor started to do after she noticed most of her friends cancelled on her at the last minute. My take on the topic is that her friends doing that doesn't necessarily mean she is a bad friend; it might even mean she has bad friends lol.

At what point is it okay for a parent to totally dismiss their children's requests?

Having divorced parents can take its toll on any child, even after years and lots of therapy bills. The conflicts between the parents can directly affect their kid's mental health, even unintentionally. Even more so when one or both parents get back into the dating game again and bring strangers they are dating into their lives who now have to be a part of the children's lives. 

Redditor u/ohshesplastic had an uncomfortable experience with her dad and his entitled girlfriend. The bride was planning to sign the paperwork to elope with her fiancé legally, and invited both parents to witness the signing of the documents. She specifically told her dad not to bring his girlfriend of one year, whom she's met only three times. It was going to be a small ceremony with just three or four close family members. The dad completely ignored her and brought the girlfriend anyway. When the daughter approached the girlfriend to try to be welcoming, the girlfriend was cold and dismissive of her. The dad's excuse? He didn't like conflict or having to tell his girlfriend she wasn't invited. Of course, the daughter felt unloved and abandoned. 

These are the kinds of actions that make children estranged from their parents. After a few years, the dad could break up with his girlfriend and then start complaining to his friends, saying, "I don't get why my daughter doesn't visit me anymore." You want to know why? It was because you didn't respect her boundaries and prioritized someone else's wishes over your own daughter's, that's why, Harold. 

Every parent is entitled to move on after a divorce or a breakup, we're not discussing that. The problem is, just because the parent moves on, doesn't mean their children did. They already have a family, and you can't impose your wishes on them. You have a right to have a girlfriend; she has a right to choose who goes to her wedding, especially if she's only met this so-called girlfriend three times. 

So, if there's one good thing that we can all learn from this, for all that's good and proper, please, respect people's boundaries and don't question wedding invitations. We will all live better and with less distress if we do it. And most importantly, we'll keep our relationship with our families intact.