How many times, on average, do employees get blamed for their manager's mistakes?

What does it take for a manager to be asked about a mistake, and for them to say, "It's actually [this employee]'s fault," even though it was clearly the manager's mistake?

Honestly, we imagine it doesn't take much. It seems like managers see their employees as the perfect tool to use whenever they need to pin the blame on someone. They never want to own up to their mistakes, and they know most employees won't argue against their own manager's claims, even if they are completely wrong.

Luckily, some employees refuse to back down when something like this happens. They won't let their managers get away with their own incompetence, and they are willing to fight to prove that the fault for an issue is not their own. They have to do it carefully, and in a manner that won't get them in trouble, but those who do it cleverly can achieve something that most employees only dream of: Retrebuition.

The manager in the story shared below on Reddit's r/revengestories thought he could get away with blaming late reports on his employee, but he didn't know who he was messing with. While this employee was in charge of submitting the reports, they couldn't do that without the entire team's own information, which the manager repeatedly sent in late. Sometimes he would even send it after the deadline, which forced the employee to send the report later than every other team.

After many failed attempts to get the manager to send the information in time, the employee decided to build a tracker that would provide solid information about when each employee sends in their data, and when every single action regarding the report is taken. With the help of this tracker, the employee could prove at any time that the delays were caused by the manager and that they themselves did everything right, every step of the way.

It was long before the employee used this exact tracker in a meeting that finally put the manager in his place…

Having a horrible boss can be reason enough to hate your job.

Bosses sometimes are great leaders who walk you through your career path and teach you how to move forward, and sometimes they just teach you how to deal with awful people by being awful. Managers are a big part of every job, even if they aren't controlling every move you make. They are still the person you report to and your direct line to higher-ups. If you don't only have a job but also want to build a career out of it, it's really important to have a good professional relationship with them. If that is not your case, you need that kind of relationship anyway to avoid getting fired.

In this Reddit story, we are presented with not only a horrible boss who gets changed into a worse one, but also with someone who is misogynistic and a stone in this employee's foot. He is not only not helpful and present, but also he is not sharing important information with this user, leaving him out of the loop and making his career path unable to proceed as it's supposed to. Because that is the thing about bosses: it does not matter if they are good or bad at their job. You still have to obey them and put up with them. The only way out is renouncing, and well, that is not always an option.

But what is it with all these bosses who are really bad at their job? Is this on purpose? Did they get the position because they knew someone and not because of qualifications? Is there a point in your career where you can just give up because you are a manager? Are these people really good at pretending that they are performing well even though this is not true? Maybe all these companies are missing some kind of survey where employees could explain what they think about their managers anonymously, so the people in human resources can be on top of bad bosses. But well, that is only a suggestion. In the meantime, most people still have to put up with useless bosses. 

A worker loses their position during a company restructuring, only to discover nearly identical vacancies advertised shortly afterwards. It became clear to them that their "eliminated" position was simply being renamed so they could try to hire someone for cheaper.

Times of economic hardship and tough job markets bring uncertainty, where the only thing that is certain is that whatever you were told in the exit interview wasn't the full picture. The reality is, however, that whatever the reason, the work isn't simply going to go away, and the business thinks they can get the work done elsewhere for cheaper.

Of course, with the way these types of things go, the managers making the decision don't usually understand the work itself and vastly underestimate the skills and knowledge required, but while the company struggles, they get bonuses and then a golden parachute while they sail off to greener shores to do the same again.

Strict parents raise rebellious children.

Do you remember the girl in your class who was overcontrolled by her parents and couldn't attend sleepovers or birthday parties, so she started to feel left out because they stopped inviting her. In her teens, she started sneaking out and doing things that were almost too much, but her parents still saw her as the controlled kid she used to be. Till someday you realize that what she's doing and the activities she engages with are far more than what normal teens who didn't have controlling parents in the first place are doing. So you start to think that being controlled was actually useful, as she is far worse than you because she learned how to sneak around. You were just going to parties while she was leaving the state. Was it worth it? And you meet back as adults, and you hear that she doesn't talk to her parents at all anymore. Was it worth it? Well, I don't think so.

In this Reddit story, the user pretended to be a rebel teenager who entered some heavy business while actually being a normal teenager. She pretended just to show how her mother was searching her stuff without permission and getting involved in her business to show how awful and problematic a teenager she was being. The thing is, she wasn't. It was an act she created to prove the lack of privacy that there was in her house. Even if it wasn't her intention, she really proved the phrase "strict parents raise sneaky children". She started being sneaky because she wasn't allowed to do anything, even though she wasn't actually sneaking anything. But all that pretending made her able to hide her real life from her conservative mother.

As we predicted in the first paragraph, she ended up separating herself from her mother. She did not talk much to her in her adult life, especially after the wedding and the falling apart. But she felt so overcontrolled, having even a therapist who talked to her mother about what they talked about, that when she had the age to stop contact, she did. Her conversation became superficial to avoid the judgment of her mother.

Maybe if the mother had been more comprehensive and trustworthy, the daughter wouldn't have had to lie to her at all. She could have told her everything and been a normal teen who does some bad things, but still nothing dangerous, because they respect their parents and themselves. Better than being an overprotective parent is to be an understanding one.

 

A retail employer paying $16 an hour recently determined that this generous compensation package should also include the privilege of installing an app on workers' personal phones

An app that (I hope your'e sitting down for this) tracks their precise location around the clock, monitors nearby bluetooth devices, transmits data in the background, and continues sending information even when closed, which, to be fair, is a pretty comprehensive surveillance setup for a job that takes place entirely inside one building, never involves driving anywhere, and ends the moment an employee walks out the door to go live their private life that the company now apparently needs constant updates about.

Imagine how packed the parking lot would be for a movie premiere as popular as Toy Story 5. It sounds like the perfect family plan for the weekend, and most people may have arrived early, hoping to grab a good spot. But what nobody would expect is to find a family treating the drive-in premiere like a private campsite for their kids.

Everyone knows that opening night attracts a lot of people, and nobody wants to spend the evening circling the lot to find somewhere to park, or worse, to end up without a parking spot. Well, a man arrived at the crowded drive-in with his wife and kids and began looking for an open space. When they thought they had found one, they noticed a table, chairs, food, speakers, and various belongings. There was basically a family picnic set in the parking spot. They seemed to be preparing for a camping trip instead of a movie night. And then, the dad's explanation made the situation even more absurd: the space wasn't meant for a vehicle, it was for the kids to play… At a packed drive-in… On opening night. 

Apparently, this family felt entitled to claim an additional parking space so their kids would have more room to run around. And not to mention the absurdity of the idea of kids playing between cars in the first place. A playground with moving cars doesn't sound safe to me.

After all, Toy Story 5 may be a family movie, but a parking lot is still not a private backyard. Parking spaces are meant for cars, not for picnic tables. And by the way, you might be forgetting the reason everyone came in, which is to watch the movie. 

Most of us, when we see or hear the phrase "you are in my seat" without hesitation, think of a Karen. Well, today is not the case.

If you were to buy a train or plane ticket that shows the assigned seat in which you have to sit, but when you get there, you see it's been occupied. What would you do? Would you kindly ask the person sitting there to move? Would you start a scene by saying that a disrespectful person sat where they shouldn't? Would start nicely, but as soon as the situation escalated, you would call a cabin crew? Would you fight? What would you do?

In this Reddit story, the user chose the calmest and put-together choice. Ask nicely. If you don't want to seem like a Karen, I would highly suggest this one. Not only did she talk to the person in her seat with amability, but also that person complied without hesitation. No argument, no scene, no cabin crew needed to get involved. It was peaceful and decent –as it should be. But without any real cause, her husband started to confront her out of nowhere for supposedly being disrespectful –as if!

She then confronted back saying that if he was sitting in a seat that wasn't his assigned one and somebody came and said he was in their seat, he would move without hesitation as well, and never take it as an attack or remotely disrespectful. This just shows the double standard her husband has and the no second thought on criticizing her, even though he wouldn't if anybody else did as she does.

These relationship issues sometimes seem dumb because they are started by something unimportant, but, on the inside, they end up showing a character trait from one of the members of the couple that isn't nice. In this case, the discussion is not really about the seat but about how the husband judges her and has a double standard when it comes to her. 
 

When a delivery company's driver decided that a $30,000 shipment of specialized audio equipment needed to be greeted with a kick into a steel gate, he probably did not expect to end up on the news, but then again, neither did the company's complaint department, which reviewed the surveillance footage, opened a case, closed it within days without a word, and apparently considered the matter fully resolved until a WAFB9 crew showed up and asked why a business owner was still waiting for someone to care.

The World Cup has been noticeably viral since it started, but one key thing that is not talked about enough is the power it has to create thousands of memes with each match.

The FIFA World Cup is a huge event that takes place every 4 years and, in this case, features 48 nations competing for a trophy that crowns your country as the best at football (also known as soccer in the US). This year, teams are playing 104 matches in Mexico, Canada, and the United States. This last country was not usually known for its football team, but since player Lionel Messi started playing for Inter Miami, the game has caught a lot of attention from locals. This has also made some people interested in the World Cup altogether. This became kind of a funny gig, as the first matches of the tournament are being played in the US, and a lot of the residents have never taken an interest in this game, and now they are surprise as how other nations are living these games.

In other countries, people wait 4 years to see their team win, and when the time comes, they are not relaxed. Countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, England, and France stop everything that is going on just to see their nation play. Nobody works for two hours, nobody gets out of the house, nobody talks during the game. These rules that may seem silly are just showing how important these games are for some people. They are almost sacred.

If you aren't the biggest football fan but want to get into the gist, I wouldn't recommend that you read the rules and try to learn everything. I would just tell you to turn on the TV and watch whichever match is taking place. And, if you have the chance, look for a commentator that speaks Spanish, even if you don't understand them, the emotion in their voices is going to tell you have to feel during the game.

But also, as a way to get you into the loop, or even if you are already watching every single match, here are some memes that have appeared since the Cup started. 
 

These blessed phones

Let's start by saying that going through phones is NOT okay. There is nothing we can do now because the protagonist of this story has already gone through one and found things she shouldn't have. The only thing we can do now is deal with the aftermath of what came to light.

I might have a controversial opinion on this topic. I feel one is allowed to have personal spaces with friends where one is allowed to talk badly about one's partner, and what one says there might not be the whole truth, and might even be something that one says in the heat of the moment. The problem is that text messages are eternalized, and any fleeting thought, emotion, or opinion stays there like it's set in stone for the one who comes and reads it next.

Working in a restaurant is stressful, but if your coworkers start playing games instead of working, it becomes worse.

With this malicious compliance trend, readers discovered a whole new genre full of awful bosses, micromanagement, and witty employees who win arguments by playing along. Is a fun way to show you are right without doing something wrong that could put your job on the line. They do exactly as told, knowing that the outcome will be horrible. They prove their point and do as told at the same time.

But here we are not going to talk about the funny, witty stories. Today, we have a great example of being just childish. In this Reddit story, we are presented with a server who was told by the chef not to enter the kitchen to grab things. If you have ever worked at a restaurant, you know it's a liability issue. Servers can't be in the kitchen. This server probably didn't know that. The next day, he started screaming what he needed, and the chef just looked at him uninterested. The server explained that they have to come back from the kitchen in less than 3 minutes, according to management, which led to the chef saying that it's fine for servers to go into the kitchen and grab what they need.  

I believe that this is not the best way to resolve the issue. This should have been taken up to management, as they are the ones who decided that awful 3-minute rule that doesn't work for the chef or the server. I believe that the chef should have stood his ground more severely. And lastly, I really think that the server could have explained this rule when he was told off the first time, not waited till the next day to show "how right he was" by screaming at a chef and causing an uncomfortable ambience. 
 
So maybe next time, stop with the games and the malicious compliance and simply explain the reason for your actions. You don't always have to prove you are right. You can simply compromise, you know? 

If attending a wedding feels like a burden, why agree to go at all?

Not because weddings are cheap or easy to attend, but because the couple in this story seemed determined to complain about absolutely everything. The bride and groom were covering the hotel, food, drinks, and even parking, yet the guests still managed to turn the invitation into a list of inconveniences. After a certain point, it's hard not to wonder whether they actually wanted to attend at all.

What caught my attention the most was that nobody was forcing them to go. If the drive felt too long, the dress code felt annoying, or the weekend sounded exhausting, they could have simply declined the invitation. That's completely normal. What feels odd is waiting until after the RSVP deadline and then sending a message explaining all the reasons why attending will be such a sacrifice.

I also think people sometimes forget how much money and planning go into hosting a wedding. The couple wasn't asking guests to spend hundreds on flights or hotels. They had already taken care of most of the major expenses. Receiving a message full of complaints after making that effort would probably make anyone question whether those guests were coming to celebrate or just to criticize the arrangements.

Honestly, if someone told me attending my wedding sounded like a burden, I would probably react the same way. Not out of anger, but because I wouldn't want anyone to feel obligated to be there. A wedding is supposed to be shared with people who are happy to celebrate with you. If someone is already counting down the minutes until they can hide in their hotel room, maybe staying home is the better option for everyone involved.

Why do cooking disasters always seem funnier later on?

I have to admit that I love cooking, but I also have a long history of convincing myself that a recipe will be much easier than it actually is. It usually starts with confidence. I look at the ingredients, read the instructions, and think, "How hard can it be?" Fast forward an hour, and I'm standing in the kitchen wondering where exactly things went wrong.

The funny thing about cooking fails is that they happen to everyone. It doesn't matter if you're making a complicated three-course meal or something as simple as cookies. Sometimes the dough refuses to cooperate, the timing is off, or the final result looks absolutely nothing like the picture. That's just part of the experience of learning your way around a kitchen.

My favorite part about cooking fails is that they humble everyone equally. One day, you're feeling like a celebrity chef because your pasta turned out perfectly, and the next, you're scraping a burnt mystery substance off the bottom of a pan while questioning every life choice that led you there. That's what makes these disasters so entertaining. Behind every cooking fail is a person who genuinely believed they were about to create something amazing, and honestly, I respect that level of confidence.

I'll also say that cooking is great for impatient people who want to work in their inner peace. Since cooking requires practice and a lot of patience, it can be a great exercise for all of us who are rushing all the time. Looking for the right recipe, trying it out, and waiting to see if we succeeded is phenomenal for the brain. Also, it can be relaxing, too. There's nothing better than getting home from work and preparing a quick but delicious dinner to settle down.

Although these memes are not about good cooking but more about failing at it, they're still hilarious and super relatable. I hope they encourage you to try cooking more often: you'll maybe find your next top hobby.

Have you ever gotten a job without any previous experience in that industry?

Job hunting is crazy these days with all the time it takes to send an application, all the AI interviews, and the changing job market. So when you get a job, you try to be the best employee you can to avoid having to go back to the wild world of unemployment. Some people have started to lie in their resumes to get an interview, others ask for very little money as payment to be preferred over other candidates, and some other people apply to jobs they are overqualified for. In this Reddit story, this user applied for a job for which she had no experience. The weird thing is that she was hired anyway.

The first couple of weeks of every job are weird and uncomfortable. You haven't gotten the hang of it, and you don't have enough trust in anybody to be asking every little question you have. So you end up juggling try to figure everything out. This is not only crazy but also super stressful. But it's normal, we've all been there, and we can all say that you either start getting it a couple of weeks into the job or you have to give up and continue looking.

Is kind of funny how we sometimes send our resume, thinking we are not going to get an interview for that job position, but we try just in case. It is crazier when they call you for an interview, even though you are not qualified enough. And the craziest thing is if they hire you even though there are a lot better candidates for the position. This can happen for many reasons, but the important thing is not to panic. Nobody is born knowing, and if you were hired for a position you didn't deserve, it isn't the end of the world. It may take time and more effort than expected, but you are able to ace this. You have to have trust and be mindful of how to proceed. Practice makes the expert, and nobody ever really knows what they are doing. 
 

Another story about a troublesome customer… are we surprised?

It's no news the fact that a Karen appeared and made a scene, it's almost everyday stuff at this point. Their method to completely ruin a customer service employee's day is almost always the same. Complain about something nobody can fix, get mad at the response, and make a scene, start demanding something in return for what she is "suffering", make the scene worse by not receiving what she wants. Is like they have a step-by-step guide to bother service workers, as if they didn't have to put up with too much already.

Working in customer service gives you some superpowers that can only be achieved by putting up with thousands of ungrateful customers. For example, spotting if a client is going to make a scene before they even open their mouths. This can be some kind of stereotype, but it's actually really useful to de-escalate a situation. When you spot someone difficult from afar, you prepare yourself mentally to deal with the situation and therefore prepare to bring "the big guns" to avoid starting a riot. For the ones that have never worked in customer service, the big guns are comp stuff and managers.

In this Reddit story, the user is so used to this kind of problematic customer that he treats the issue as "another Karen story". That is the best way to take work. If every single customer that screams at you makes you cry or feel sad, then you are not prepared to work in the service industry. You have to create an alternate personality that doesn't care about anything anyone says and just smiles through the pain. After all, if someone treats an employee badly just because they didn't get what they wanted, then they have the poorest manners ever. 
 

When the household chores won't do themselves

I can't say how many times my mother has tried this technique with me when I was a teenager, surprise: It never worked. I'm not saying I don't do my household chores now; in fact, I just put all my clothes in the washing machine, I'm saying it didn't work THEN. I had to learn this all by myself when I became independent, having countless issues with roomies. I even tried the technique on THEM, surprise: IT DIDN'T WORK! I hope we've learned what doesn't work from this paragraph. Of course, I don't think people should be excused for this behaviour, I'm simply saying that THE TECHNIQUE DOESN'T WORK, lol.

The question is: what could we do to solve it if we're not ready to pack our bags and leave?

Just print your CV out and go and hand it to them. How many times have we heard that?

In this day and age, though, it's more like, "Submit your PDF to hundreds of job applications just so that they can be rejected by an algorithm that was trained by 15 years of Reddit comments."

This job seeker posted online in a story they shared with an online Reddit community about how they had been rejected by an automated AI job-apllication processing aplicaltion for, get this, not having experience in a program that they created.

Basically, these days, it's an automated program, or someone who couldn't get a technical degree and so decided to go and work a modern, rebranded HR role. Working in departments condoundedly labeled "People and Culture" and "Talent Strategy" and aspiring to one day become a "Chief People Officer", judging the qualifications of candidates for experience in degrees they failed out of, and in subjects that they, frankly, don't quite comprehend.

Whereas once competency and experience could be assessed and addressed with relative ease. Now everything is overcomplicated. If you're not rejected by an AI outright, or your CV isn't shoveled into the recycling by someone who didn't understand what they were reading, you just have to sit through multiple rounds of interviews with people who would rather not be there and will score you not based on experience, qualifications, or aptitude, but rather on how they happen to feel that morning. Whatever the reason, it's likely that whether or not they've had the chance to step out for their second coffee or had time for breakfast will likely have more bearing on whether or not you get hired than proven competency.

Hey, just remember the next time you sit through a 4-round interview process: You're keeping someone in HR employed. 

Lucky you. Should we all be so fortunate? 

What do you do when you're giving your best at work, but the opportunities never seem to follow?

Reading this story made me pause for a moment. I think most people who care about their careers have gone through a phase where they genuinely believed that hard work alone would be enough to get noticed. You put in the extra effort, volunteer for projects, help other teams, solve problems, and consistently deliver good results. Naturally, you start to assume that recognition and opportunities will follow. Unfortunately, that isn't always how workplaces operate.

What makes this situation especially frustrating is that the employee isn't imagining the positive feedback. According to the story, they've received good comments from executives, coworkers, and even their own manager. They're being trusted with important projects, creating presentations that reach senior leadership, and taking ownership of processes that impact multiple departments. From the outside, it sounds like someone who is doing everything right. That's why it's easy to understand why being excluded from key meetings and discussions feels so confusing.

That being said, I don't necessarily think this means the employee should start looking for another job immediately. Sometimes managers have blind spots. They genuinely believe they're protecting someone, helping them develop differently, or waiting until they feel they're fully prepared. Whether that reasoning is correct or not is another conversation entirely, but I think it's important not to jump straight to the conclusion that there's no future here.

I think the healthiest approach is to focus on what originally made the job enjoyable. If the work is meaningful, the team is generally supportive, and there are still opportunities to learn, it may be worth giving the situation one more chance before making any major decisions. After all, most people don't want more responsibility just for the title. They want it because they want to grow, contribute more, and become better at what they do.

When the relationship between a father and a daughter is a little strained, that tension can come to the surface during a family holiday like Father's Day. You can't expect everything to feel normal if the relationship has been rocky lately. At the same time, this special day comes with expectations. Every father wants to feel appreciated on Father's Day. 

But it is not reasonable to expect the same warmth and celebration if you know your relationship hasn't been in the best place lately. Still, despite this, his daughter showed up, drove an hour to see him, and spent time with her dad. Maybe she was not as warm as he hoped, and maybe she did seem more distant, and that can hurt. But considering their recent arguments about her career, it isn't shocking that she wasn't acting as if everything was fine. Sometimes, as a parent, you have to appreciate what your daughter can give you at the moment and understand what the relationship is going through. His daughter showing up when things had been complicated is really meaningful. She could have skipped the day, but she didn't. 

This also could have been a good opportunity for him to reflect on why things were different, see what had happened, and see what he could change to make things better between them. Instead of taking that approach, this father was so hurt by his daughter's attitude on Father's Day that he had no better idea than to complain to her. He ended up comparing her behavior to what she did for Mother's Day, which, by the way, was completely unrelated to their relationship. That was never going to lead to a productive conversation.

If the dad wants a closer relationship with his daughter, the better approach would be to stop keeping score and start listening. Comparing the celebrations only made the unresolved hurt in their relationship even worse. What parents forget is that, to feel appreciated on important days, they first have to make their children feel supported.

A typo turned a shift leader's raise into something that made her sprint to the bathroom and question everything she knows about money and the law

The regional manager accidentally doubled her pay instead of adding the raise on top of her base, and the employee signed the compensation change before catching it. Once she noticed, she did the responsible thing and flagged it immediately. The manager's response was essentially a shrug and "someone else will catch it." Not reassuring when your nervous system has already left the building.