Sometimes getting fired is the best thing that could happen to you.

We always think of unemployment as something inherently bad. And it is! Losing your job, having to leave your position because of somebody else's decision. It is getting fired, having no choice but to leave. But sometimes, it also means getting free. It means leaving that toxic workplace you were stressing about for years. It means stopping being mistreated by a horrible boss, is to stop working for a company that doesn't see your value.

Getting fired in the first week seems like the worst situation. You just started, and you are already fired. You didn't even have enough time to show the company who you are and what you bring to the table. In this Reddit story, the personal assistant got one conversation with her new boss before she got shut down and finally fired. One conversation, as it was with that little, her manager was able to notice if she was a fit or not.

Even though what happened to this user is sad and undeserved, it also prevented her from being stuck in an awful job with a horrible boss. If the first interaction you have with someone involves them screaming and mistreating you, then why would you continue to work there? There is no reason to stay or to allow that. There is going to be a better job out there where the boss isn't a maniac who can express himself without screaming at their assistant. What happened to her is unfair, of course, but it could also be a blessing. She got free before it was too late to leave. 

So be free, don't cry about it, and move on. There are millions of jobs out there, and you are just wasting your time in one that is only going to cause you trouble. You don't need to put up with this, because, in the end, it's better to take some time to find the correct job than to be stuck in an awful one forever. 

I'll happily take a stand, arguing that "The customer is always right" isn't accurate at all. While people will quickly jump in and tell you online that the full saying is actually "The customer is always right in matters of taste," or something along those lines, there is little evidence that this is true, and it hasn't been able to be proven despite how much people on social media insist it is true. Further, the phrase itself isn't simply attributable to one source, and so the entire thing is really just a "Folk Etymology" anyway. 

To stand up for yourself can get you really far

This Reddit story got me thinking about our worth. Our value, what we do, and how much it matters. We make a difference, we are capable of something, and we do it. That has real value. Sometimes we feel as if companies only saw us as numbers or robots. Something that is there and doesn't matter outside of the workload that they do. We are far more than that. We have our own thing that differentiates us from everyone else. That matters. If it weren't for that thing, what is really saving us from getting replaced by robots or AI? 

That value matters, but not everybody is going to admit it. When a job isn't valuing you, that doesn't mean that you don't have value. It just means that they don't see it or need it, but someone or somewhere else is going to matter. And the only way to discover how important you are to others is to stand up for yourself, because if you can't see your own value, why would somebody else notice it? 

Standing up for yourself means knowing your worth and fighting for it. Is not letting anybody step on you or use you. Is knowing what is mistreatment and defending yourself. Is actually caring about you and your individuality. To get what you deserve. What this person did could have gone wrong, but he did it anyway, because he knew his worth was underestimated, that he was mistreated, that standing up for himself had value. So be more like that. Make sure people know that you know your value, and defend it even when it seems hard. After all, we only really have ourselves, and if we don't take care of us, nobody ever will. 
 

What business did you use to go to with your mom as a kid that you don't think you saw in the last 10 years?

Try as we might to avoid it, the world is changing. It is not just AI that is taking people's jobs; there are simply businesses that become less and less needed due to the changes in the world. 

For example, fast fashion became a huge thing, which resulted in the ability for people to find clothes and shoes for much cheaper than before. Sure, they might not last as long as the clothes in high fashion stores, but that only means that people would much rather buy a new item of clothing than get an old one fixed. 

That is why people like my grandfather, who had a shoe repair store in town, saw the business need slowly disappear. Who wants to pay someone to fix their one-year-old shoe when they can buy a similar one for almost the same price?

Some businesses are declining due to other reasons, not just the introduction of cheaper models. A month ago, my parents booked a vacation with their travel agent, which made me wonder how much work a travel agent actually has these days. The internet now has everything someone might need to book a vacation, including a bot that acts as your travel agent and answers all of your questions. But still, people from my parents' generation would prefer having another person book their flights and their hotels, even if they end up paying more for the service. Younger generations might not see the appeal, which means it is only a matter of time before travel agencies go out of business. 

Unfortunately, many businesses experience struggles for different reasons, until all that will be left are posts like the one below, wondering where they all went to…

Peculiar friendship boundaries

This is by far the weirdest fight I've ever heard in a roommate situation, so much so that I started creating theories in my mind to determine why I don't think this friend is being truthful about her motives to keep her friend outside her workplace. Even if we give her the benefit of the doubt, all the problems she presents are solvable, so why not try that? I don't think she is in a position to discuss much, but let's see.

People believe many things, and turns out some people believe property lines are more of a "suggestion" than an actual legal concept, the same way a buffet sign says "one plate per person" and somehow that translates to "bring a duffel bag"

Give a neighbor an inch of gravel and they'll park a Honda Civic on it, then a port-o-potty, then eventually their entire personality.

What should employees do when their manager insists upon a doctor's note for a single day of missed work?

Summary: 

A service industry worker who was made to get a doctor's note for a single day off work got 4 days off instead, to the dismay of their boss, who had insisted upon it. 

In this story shared with the popular Reddit r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit, a service industry worker shared how they handled their boss's demands for a doctor's note.

Have you ever gotten a haircut so bad you consider going bald?

Well, these people sure have; some haircuts are so bad that the idea of going bald doesn't seem as insane as it used to. 

Like too many other things in our world, nothing gets a maintenance ticket resolved faster than the word "attorney," a lesson every property management company apparently has to learn the hard way, one apartment at a time

But also, just the ability to say I found the CEO of the company that owns my apartment when they refused to reply to my email, is one big badge of honor, I think.

This woman should be walking around with a road sign reading "Caution - guts ahead"

When waiting for food takes the worst out of you

I totally understand that hunger can be nerve-wracking, especially when you're seeing everybody else eat except you, but manners exist for a reason, and that reason is belonging. When a restaurant delays your order long enough, you start to feel that if you leave, you'd wasted all the time you already spent waiting, but at the same time, you've gotten so hungry through all that waiting that hanging on for ten more minutes feels impossible. The presence of the fiancés' family adds another layer of problems to the story, but let's be fair, he had been waiting for 40 minutes by the time he left. I'm not sure if it was the delivery or what, but something else must have failed to cause such disgust between him and the family.

Can one roommate stop everyone else from replacing a departing housemate?

What should have been a routine roommate replacement has turned into a stressful standoff after one Portland tenant refused to approve anyone to fill an empty bedroom. Instead, she insists the remaining roommates split the additional rent, despite knowing they cannot afford it. With property management refusing to mediate, the couple worries they'll be forced to pay more because of one roommate's refusal to cooperate. Now they're documenting everything and wondering whether she can legally block a replacement tenant or be held financially responsible for the extra costs.

This story is right up my alley since I'm a renter, sharing my apartment with only one roommate. Although we are only two girls and this situation could never happen to us, I have a lot of friends who live with multiple people and have faced this type of selfish behavior before. It's totally understandable to want fewer people in the house, since having a crowded and loud space may not be ideal. However, this woman is crossing a line when it comes to the spare room.

Since other tenants have claimed they cannot afford to have the rent increased, there are two possible scenarios to fix this issue. For instance, the roommate who wants the room to be empty could pay that part of the rent and keep it for herself, or decide to settle and let another person move in. I know that none of them are ideal, but when it comes to living with a roommate, there's a lot of compromise that needs to happen to have a peaceful coexistence. If living with other people feels too much and the roommate wants more silence and more peace, then she should consider renting a place of her own.

Why are cooking fails so much more relatable than perfect recipes?

I have a confession to make before we go any further. I am absolutely not the person you should ask for cooking advice. If a recipe says it takes 20 minutes, it'll probably take me an hour. If there are three pans involved, I'm somehow going to use six. And if something can accidentally burn while I'm looking away for five seconds, trust me, it will. So when it comes to cooking fails, I feel strangely qualified to talk about them because I've probably made half of them myself.

That's also why I feel like I've earned the right to curate collections like this one. I know exactly what makes a cooking disaster funny because I've been on both sides. I've laughed at other people's kitchen mishaps, then turned around and made an even bigger mess in my own kitchen a few days later. It's a very humbling cycle.

The funny thing is that every optimistic home chef starts with the exact same attitude. You buy fresh ingredients, find a recipe with thousands of five-star reviews, and convince yourself that this is finally the meal that's going to make you look like you know what you're doing. Suddenly you're questioning what "fold gently" means, trying to remember if you already added the salt, and wondering why your sauce has the consistency of wallpaper paste. 

I honestly think cooking is one of the few hobbies where failure is almost guaranteed, especially at the beginning. Nobody wakes up knowing how to bake bread or make a perfect omelet. You learn by making mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes are so spectacular that all you can do is laugh, order takeout, and promise yourself you'll try again another day.

So yes, I may not be an expert in the kitchen, but I am an expert at recognizing a good cooking fail when I see one. These are the moments that remind us every great home cook probably has a long history of burnt dinners, collapsed cakes, and recipes that looked nothing like the picture. And honestly, that makes the whole experience feel a lot more approachable for the rest of us.

When is it okay not to meet family's expectations?

We should make an effort to help our family members whenever we can if we have a good relationship with them. At least I believe that. Family members have helped me in moments of need when they didn't have any reason to, and I learned a lot from them. I learned that a hand is a beautiful thing to give to someone else, and that you can fundamentally change a person's life without knowing it by doing that. I know I'm getting too romantic here, but I just wanted to state that, because I believe we should make sacrifices for other people; otherwise, helping would not be helping; it would all be a transactional matter. That said, I don't think that's what's happening here, lol. Sometimes, we do have to protect our peace and identify when we're being used or taken advantage of.

You don't have ownership over something that you gifted away.

When you decide to part ways with something you own, and you gift it or donate it, you lose the ownership of the thing, as ownership is tied to having it. This overly complicated sentence is my way of trying to make the story below less dumb. Because let's face it, it's bananas to expect someone to return something you gifted them just because, after 4 years, you want it back. I think that part of the story is quite obvious. You gifted it, is not yours anymore, easy to comprehend. But there's something under this story that I can't stop thinking about. The fact that the sister dared to ask something so dumb. 
Because of how this story is written, I have reason to believe that the previous owner of the chair usually gets her way about the things she wants. In every family, there's always one person who makes everyone else do as they say. But what's interesting about that is the fact that kind of power is not something they just claim, is something given by other family members.

When you were a kid, didn't you have a cousin or sibling who everyone said yes to just to avoid them throwing a tantrum? Well, have you ever thought what kind of adult someone who was raised like that would be? Not a functioning one, I tell you that. Most of the entitled people we encounter in our adult life are just children who didn't know the word NO. They always got their way and were never actually disciplined, which led to becoming an adult that still expects everyone to do as they say. 
 

The fact that the sister asked for her chair back is a problem, but not because of the chair, but because she expected to get it back just because she wanted it. That is entitlement and lack of discipline. So, if you are a parent who always favors your child with what they want just to avoid a bad situation, don't! Your child needs to learn. By giving up, you are just teaching them that they are the only people that matter, and that is completely untrue. 
 

Should you care about what happens to your home after you sell it?

If my parents ever decide to sell my childhood home and move, my only hope is that they would sell it to a nice, young family who can enjoy the house as much as we did. I hope they will get to play outside in the yard, spend countless movie nights in the TV den, and find the best hiding spots during hide-and-seek. I hope a sweet young girl will get my room, and she will find the scribble I made behind the closet where I thought no one could find it. 

Every house has memories to it, and it makes sense we want them to live forever, even inside these four walls.

Unfortunately for the family in the story below, they know the house they just sold will be torn down, but they got an offer on it that they simply couldn't refuse, and they decided to go for it. Surprisingly, they don't feel so sad about their memories being gone, and the ones who care more about the deconstruction of the house are actually the neighbors living around it.

To them, tearing down the house means a lot of noise, mess, and general headaches that they do not want to deal with. They don't care about the house itself being gone; they simply don't want to deal with everything that comes after that. And frankly, I can completely understand.

However, there's not much they can do to change the situation, and harassing the homeowners who decided to sell is definitely not the answer. Did that stop anyone from still trying, though? Not really…

Don't judge a person on how they treat you in private. Judge them on how they treat you when they want to impress somebody else.

When you start dating someone, you always try to show your best face. You dress nicer, have better manners, and try to seem as interesting as possible. There's nothing wrong with that, is normal to want to show the best version of yourself. Problems start when you are a completely different person from the first date to the tenth one. There is a saying that goes "Character is who you are when you're looking for an audience", and I couldn't agree more with it. Truth is, the real version of someone usually appears when other people are present. 

It isn't uncommon to realize that the person you are going out with is disrespectful by how they treat service employees. When they act demanding and mistreat them just because they think they are more important, that shows you exactly the kind of person your date is. A bad one. If they can't respect someone that is trying to do their job, why would you wanna be with them in the first place? Another way for the truth of someone to come out is with friends, like in this Reddit story. When they want to impress their friends and talk badly about you, that is a sign you shouldn't dismiss. That is their truth. How they actually act, how they are below the perfect image they have been projecting onto you. 

Don't ignore the signs. Trust your instincts. When someone is all nice and perfect when you are alone but lacks manners and good values when they are with other people, distrust! You want a partner that is going to be nice to you at all times, not someone that prefers to mistreat you to look cooler to their friends –as if that was even cool. Don't settle for less. You are worthy of a good person. Don't leave your values behind for someone who can't even be nice to you in public. 
 

What makes a job harder? A complicated coworker or a handful of different bosses who don't communicate with one another? 

Both of these things can drive an employee mad. But dealing with the higher ranks not communicating with each other can lead to much more disaster than having to bear an irritating coworker. After all, coworkers don't usually start blowing up your phone when something is not working the way it should. That is the boss' job. 

An employee shared on r/MaliciousCompliance a time when both issues ended up being connected. He played a joke on a bad coworker, who always managed to annoy everybody, by accessing his computer with the password and changing the screen saver to mock him. Because of this prank, the employee was called to the HR office, where he was suspended for 3 days and told he could never use or share their coworker's passwords again. He did exactly as told and left the office immediately. A few hours later, his boss started calling him, asking him to come back or to give him his password so he could access the reports he needed. The employee said no to both demands, since HR had forbidden him to come back or to share a password. Too bad. 

The thing about bosses not communicating is that they can potentially cause a disaster for which they might end up blaming an innocent employee and make them lose their job. Thankfully, that didn't happen to this employee, but the possibility still exists for others. Bosses are not only responsible for their own work, but for the work of entire teams. And the HR department is the one specifically designed to communicate with all the other departments. Yes, they need to solve any issue that might arise between employees, but they are also responsible for notifying all the other areas of any arrangement regarding those employees, whether it be new hires, suspensions, resignations, or whatever. 

What do you think? Was it alright for him to follow instructions to the letter, or should he have gone the extra mile and notified everyone himself?

Spider-sense or nonsense?

Look, I'm not here to question a woman's intuition. Sometimes we know more than we think we know, and when we tell our friends or on Reddit our anecdotal evidence, it comes off as insufficient. To me, this situation could very well be an example of a girl's spider-sense and not an exaggeration, but even if that's the case, I think she went wrong in how she addressed her concerns, or unaddressed them, really. Maybe there's something else she isn't telling us, more clues that she felt all summed up to that moment. Either way, something definitely smells rotten within this relationship.

This is a one-person run shadow government nobody voted for, complete with imaginary bylaws, a self-issued badge, and authority over things she's never once been asked to oversee

It's like some people wake up every morning and appoint themselves Supreme Court of an office they don't run. No campaign, no votes, no actual jurisdiction, just vibes and a really confident tone of voice. It's the workplace equivalent of a guy at a bar loudly explaining the rules of a sport he's never played, except everyone has to nod along because he signs off on PTO requests.

How odd is it to combine entitlement with being cheap?

Sometimes the people who have the highest demands are the ones who expect to get everything for free. Expensive things and benefits need to be paid for, there's no way around it. 

A hotel employee shared on r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk that a member was after more than he was willing to pay for. He had met the owner by chance, and consistently name-dropped and asked for upgrades in his reservation: a suit, a jacuzzi, and an extra room at $30-$40 a night. So much so that he started doing it informally, simply calling and asking for his usual upgrades. After a few months, peak season began, and the usual rates, reservations, and lists of priorities changed. So Mr. VIP could no longer request an upgrade unless it was through the appropriate channels and with the fixed rates. He did not take it very well and showed up at the front desk to complain and threaten to get the employee fired unless he got him his suite. The employee politely explained that it couldn't be done, so he stormed off in anger. After explaining the situation to management, the employee came to find out that Mr. VIP had been demoted. 

Truth is, a hotel gives a service, and not an essential one. Staying at hotels is a luxury not every person has, so if you want it, you have to be willing to pay for those services. The chance of getting access to lower rates is a benefit that hotels give to faithful clients, not a right someone can demand. Name-dropping and threatening to fire people is not ethical nor something any client has the right to do. If someone wants something expensive, they have to know it's going to cost them. Being cheap does not mesh well with being entitled.

To get more details, scroll down and read it firsthand. Do you think it is okay to demand upgrades at a lower rate?