This tenant had the unfortunate experience of living above a fully grown lady who still acted like she was at the height of her sorority days.

For a while there, it seemed like the author had found the perfect place to live. In his area, it was well known that his apartment was located in a quiet neighborhood. The building had plenty of rules about quiet hours as well. Everyone obeyed these rules happily. Neighbors were kind to one another but kept a respectable distance as well. It sounded like you never felt as if you were living on top of anyone or vice versa.

At the time, this was exactly the kind of living situation that the author wanted. He was thriving… that is, until the new neighbor moved into the apartment directly below him. She had a private balcony and would invite her "girlies" over constantly to gossip about work, their love lives, and just about everything under the sun. Noise would travel pretty easily to the author's personal space. 

At first, he wasn't too frustrated by this. In fact, it was kind of a positive change of pace to have some background noise for once. However, it did not take long for these gatherings to get more and more frequent, more and more crowded, and more and more noisy.

Never delete a work-related email, you never know when it might come in handy.

If you go into my work email inbox right now, you will find it filled to the brim with different emails. I have thousands, if not tens of thousands, of emails on there, dating back to my very first day on the job. On slow work days, I might try to sort them out into different folders and categories, but I never, and I mean never, delete an email, no matter how unimportant it may seem.

The thing about work is that a lot of your reputation depends on evidence. You constantly have to prove your worth and prove that you are genuinely doing a good job by providing evidence of your work. You show your boss stats that you are making an impact, you create reports that show your work has value, and you have meeting after meeting, ensuring everyone knows what you do and why it is important.

That is where emails may also come in handy. Emails are where most of your conversation in the workplace takes place, which means we all have countless pieces of correspondence all about different tasks and instructions from different people in the company, and those can be great evidence in a time of need.

Take the employee in the story below as a perfect example of how important it is to keep your emails in your inbox. This IT consultant was hired as an outsourced employee to provide tech support to a company. They were told by the head of IT, in an email, that they are to communicate with the head of IT alone and never to provide support directly to anyone at the company. The consultant complied with the odd demand, but that meant that no one ever saw them working. All they could do was email the head of IT directly and hope he follows their advice. 

Soon enough, someone in the company noticed that the consultant was not, well, consulting anyone, which led to a huge, public confrontation. Luckily, the consultant came prepared and showed everyone the email evidence that they operated exactly how the head of IT demanded. All the proof was right there, in clear writing. This led the company to uncover more of the head of IT's alarming actions, which inevitably led to him being let go. Keep scrolling to read how that happened.

This birthday boy was left with a queasy stomach after eating his GF's birthday cake 2 days too late! 

Everyone dates for different reasons — maybe you love your partner for their brains, their beauty, their kindness, or their personality. Not everyone is the whole package, but that doesn't mean you can't have a wonderful relationship regardless. No one is perfect, and the deeper you fall in love with someone, the more charming you find their idiosyncrasies. 

However, this person may be dating a himbo, assuming he's handsome, because he seems to not have much common sense or brains. I mean, who am I to judge, but… I'd be a bit worried about anyone who gets to adulthood without learning about basic food safety things. Like, if you buy a container of yogurt from the store, where does it go? Not the pantry, not the counter, but the fridge. Why? Because otherwise it'll go bad, and it won't be edible in a few hours. As an adult, you obviously don't know if every food needs to be refrigerated. Luckily, you'll either buy your food in the cold section, so you know that's where it must stay. Or, as is often the case, the food label will instruct you to refrigerate the item after opening. Easy peasy. 

This BF didn't refrigerate his cheesecake, which is a real shame. There's a lot going on here, though. First of all, who waits 2 days to eat a birthday cake? Brother, eat that on your birthday! And if possible, eat it with the lovely lady who gifted it to you! Second of all, if this was me, I would've took this secret to the grave. But this guy took the opposite path of not only telling his GF, but actually blaming her for the mistake he made. She's already a mom to a few kids… she doesn't need a manchild in her life to add to her stress. 

Check out the text exchange below, and then read what the bemused audience of commenters had to say to this person! I don't blame her for not accepting any blame in this situation. If anything, she went above and beyond, while her BF here has his head in the clouds. 

Going out of your way to do favors for people is the right thing to do; it feels good and fulfills the social contract, that unspoken agreement that we will look out for one another because some day we may need to rely on that same act of grace. But there's something that happens when you do something for enough people or for long enough: it stops being a "favor" and simply becomes an expectation, and at that point, things can't keep going the way that they were.

When you're volunteering or otherwise going the extra mile to do something for your community, as with anything you do in life, you're bound to run into those who are eager to take advantage of a good thing. They see generosity as something to be taken advantage of, not as something to be revered and respected. It's almost as if they are determined to ruin something that is being done simply for the good of the people, out of the kindness of someone's heart.

And everywhere you turn in life, you see this: people looking to close the gap and exploit any opportunity for a profit. It is, after all, what we've been trained to do: chase that hustle, adopt that grindset. (You just have to "lock in.") The reality is that, unless you're born into it, money doesn't grow on trees, and there are way more limitations built into the system than you might be led to believe, and you will need to scrape and scrimp your way to the top of the heap of masses that are looking to do the same. And it's a shame because instead of lifting each other up, we are pushing each other down, aiming to stand on the heads of others if it gets us just that little bit further up the heaving pile. 

We've literally reached the point where every gap gets closed, monetized, optimized. It's like that anecdote you see everywhere about how in the 2010s, taco trucks used to be somewhere you could go to get the best taco of your life for $3. Now, 10-15 years later, they're all being run by business students who are selling average-at-best tacos for $10.50 a pop. And even things like shoes, card games, electronics, and anything that has any sort of limited appeal associated with it that can be bought and sold for a profit, are.

Altruism for the sake of community and the social contract almost feels out of place in a life where we are increasingly incentivized to exploit one another, and as we feel better about doing so, we are simultaneously isolated from both each other and the world immediately around us. But, we simply can't let the detractors and bad actors distract and discourage us from what is such a vital part of our social experience. 

Wild weather brings out something of the same in us. It's almost Shakespearean in a sense where it seems to be a reflection (or cause?) of moral and emotional disturbances in the world around us.

When you're able and have the means to do so, it's always nice to go out of your way on a blustery winter's day and help excavate your elderly neighbors' cars and property to ensure that they aren't completely snowed in. But, any time you're out doing something for the community, you need to be wary of the community busybodies who want to know exactly what you're doing, who authorized you to do it, and whether or not you're going to be doing it for free for them also. Navigating these engagements with these people takes tact and poise that a lot of us didn't sign up for. Which is exactly how it was when this homeowner was confronted by a busybody entitled neighbor who so desperately wanted him to shovel her walkway for her, and pronto!

Team dynamics are easy to pretend you understand until someone cries over a desk like it is a hostile takeover.  

In a small office of three women all in the same niche the furniture and seatinhg arrangements can quickly turn into a power move. The person who handles the bulk of customer-facing work ends up drowning in calls and lobby chaos while the other quietly avoids the front and the spotlight, using anxiety as a full‑time job description. The manager nods along, the boss's boss nods along, and everyone quietly agrees that one person is doing the real workload while the other treats the office like a bunker for avoiding responsibility. Then the office finally hires someone new and the natural move is to shuffle the setup so the new person sits near the manager and the established worker gets the remaining front desk spot.

This employee is weighing his options between making the most out of his company before quitting or doing the so-called "polite" thing.

Here's the deal when it comes to paid time off. When you sign a contractual agreement that entitles you to however many vacation days are offered, you should be expected to use those days regardless of any external societal pressure. At the end of the day, you are more likely to regret not using all of those days than using them. 

After all, it's highly unlikely that you will receive special treatment for never taking off work. In some backward circles, you might think this will make you look like a loyal employee, willing to put your social life on hold for a company that probably underpays you. However, if you work at a decent company, that vacation time should be more than just tolerated. It should be encouraged!

We all know that burnout is real, and if you don't take advantage of PTO, you are likely to experience it. A decent boss would understand that fact, and deep down, you probably know that to be true as well. But what if you're an employee who has managed to accrue a ton of vacation days because you had that twisted sense of loyalty for a long time? 

This author only recently woke up to the reality that there was nothing serving him at his current company. He knew he needed to leave, but he wanted to make the most of his final days there. When he learned that he still had 37 days of unused vacation time, his wheels started to turn. Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions from several members of this online community.

With all due respect to keeping the community "up to HOA standards", there are some lines that should not be crossed, even in an HOA neighborhood.

Like going through your neighbors' trash bins to ensure they are recycling correctly… That is definitely crossing privacy boundaries. 

When the neighbor in the story below started leaving notes for one of the residents, complaining about non-recyclable items in their bins, we admit that our mouths fell open a little bit. What do you mean, some people think it's acceptable to go through someone else's trash bins, and then correct them about how they throw away their trash?

Not only that, but this neighbor also informed the HOA about the "improper sorting." So not only was this resident finding notes and receiving texts from her neighbor complaining about their trash, but the HOA was also sending them emails about not meeting the neighborhood standards. Now, we know that those who choose to live in an HOA neighborhood basically sign themselves up to these annoying and often unreasonable standards, but even those should have some boundaries.

If an HOA representative wants to go through a resident's trash to check if everything there meets the guidelines, that can be excusable. But a complete stranger, who is definitely not a member of the HOA council? What is she doing, going through someone else's bins and basically spying on neighbors in the name of the HOA?

After being confronted a few times by this entitled neighbor, this resident started to feel the pressure of always feeling like they were being watched. It even got to the point of them feeling nervous about taking out their garbage. They just want to live their life and feel the privacy they are owed in their own home. 

The question is, how can this neighbor be stopped? The resident can try ignoring her, but that doesn't seem to help. They can confront her face-to-face, but that definitely is a risk in an HOA neighborhood. Which leaves the only feasible solution, and that is actually going to the HOA management to complain about her behavior…

Employees shared their personal experiences with burning bridges, both their own and those of others, sparking discussion.

Restraint in the face of temptation and provocation is an important skill. And especially when it comes to professionalism, moderation, and restraint are extremely valuable.

The fantasy of quitting in dramatic fashion feels so good when you imagine it in the shower, with warm water, shampoo, and satisfying thoughts of getting even streaming down the drain. But, although it might seem tempting thought and in the moment to go out in a blaze of glory, you will almost always live to regret it. Whether it is that hindsight and perspective make you realize that it wasn't worth burning that bridge, or even realizing that you weren't quite as squarely in the "right" of it all as you thought you were.

Networking plays such an important role in skill progression. Connections are, quite literally, everything, and if they're not connections that are helping you, they're hurting you instead. There's being remembered for all the right reasons, and then there's being remembered for the wrong ones. You have no idea when someone with whom you worked previously might be asked about what you were like to work with, and a single detracting, or even neutral comment, will be enough to edge you out of the hiring race through someone deciding that it's simply not worth hiring you in favor of a candidate with no known detractors. 

The very act of "burning bridges" or going "full scorched earth" derives from military strategies in which important infrastructure and resources are destroyed to ensure tactical advantage. But the modern workplace is not a battle, though it might sometimes feel like one when your central nervous system triggers a fight-or-flight response upon seeing a notification from your boss. And, there is, as such, no tactical advantage to "scoreced earth" policies, seldom is remaining on good or neutral terms with an ex-employer going to reflect poorly on you, if they are known to be difficult to work with it will simply make you appear to be "easy going", a "team player," and skilled at "conflict resolution."

The reality is, good or bad, you want to maintain all and any connections that you have created. If it's not just through word of mouth, then the direct references that you are able to provide will have a strong determining element in your hiring, both in showing that the skillset you claim to possess is accurate and that you are, indeed, easy to work with.

For all of these reasons, it's best not to burn bridges. The topic became a hot topic in this employment community, where employees shared their experiences with one another and discussed the costs of getting even.

Trying to be reasonable in a snowstorm is easy and basically means staying warm, inside, and not to demand stranger's expensive new snow blower to be community property.  

The setup is simple: a woman in her mid‑forties lives alone in a snowy climate, has already weathered a divorce, and spent over a year saving up for a premium two‑stage battery‑powered snow blower that cost nearly two thousand dollars. She did not buy it for status. She bought it because hiring people was unreliable, shoveling was physically exhausting, and getting to work in heavy snow meant she needed a real machine, not favors.

Another snowstorm, another neighborhood Karen demanding you shovel the snow off of her property for free. This one neighbor was not having it, though. 

What do you do when the local Karen approaches you and demands free services that you have no business giving her? It happens more often than anyone would like. This tends to happen even more often in the wintertime, because the snow creates another job that an entitled Karen does not want to handle. In fact, they think they are above dealing with the snow and thus are entitled to have someone else do it for them. As if they were the kings and queens of society, and everyone else just their loyal servants. Well, this Karen had to get a dose of reality. 

It all started when she confused a neighbor with an HOA worker sent to shovel the snow. This neighbor went to shovel out his car parked on another street, and while he was there, he did the good deed of shoveling out his friends' cars too, and the walkway of a couple of elderly neighbors who would not be able to do it themselves. 

Unfortunately for him, the local Karen saw him shoveling snow and decided she was entitled to his free labor as well. 

She painstakingly built a new operating system for a dated office, but when ungrateful coworkers berated her at every turn, she packed her bags and took everything with her… And I mean, everything, including the new interface she had built.

It's hard not to take pride in your work, no matter what. Good workers pour their heart and soul into their job regardless of how much they hate their boss, loathe their coworkers, and dread every single weekday alarm. It doesn't matter if you despise the workplace; giving anything less than 100% of your best effort feels wrong somehow and drags the workday mood even lower than you ever imagined possible. That's why we keep doing it, giving our work every ounce of skill we have to offer, because if we stopped trying at our jobs, they would become more meaningless than ever. 

Then again, this is how a lot of unprecedented changes come about in the workplace. To every CEO's delight, employees who work hard will inevitably create value, making improvised improvements to company workflow, creating interfaces that make daily jobs easier, and contributing in ways never thought possible by the boss-coded brains at the top. No wonder they start looking at their employees like they're "family." Despite ourselves, we keep giving our best effort at the office, regardless of work conditions, underpayment, and under-appreciation from our managers and coworkers, just like a family would.

Likewise, when I started my last job, an office employee for an event rental company, I came into the workplace with bright eyes, a bushy tail, and an itch to make things better than when I'd arrived. New hires have that sparkle to them sometimes, entering the workforce with uncompromised positivity and an air of naivety that makes the jaded tenures pop a vessel in their foreheads. But it's these types of employees, the savagely optimistic, who come in and shake up the status quo a bit, making updates that never occurred to anyone else and streamlining the entire company machine. At least, when I was at my last job, that's what I managed to do. I brought in new clients, I updated our interior communication systems, and I found myself craving the praise for each improvement. Would I have continued to give it my all without the praise? Sure, but it certainly felt good to put a gold star on my chest and hold a thumbs up to the big boss. 

Alas, the more you give, the more companies take; that's simple economics. 

Giving every ounce of your effort and soul to a job takes its toll, especially when it goes unnoticed or unrewarded. At a certain point, workers need a standing ovation or a bonus to reflect their hard work, lest they become jaded like the other lackadasicals in the office. Yet, I hope I never become like the tired, insecure employees of the world who have given up on their best. I hope to pour my best into every day at work, regardless of the outcome, because if I don't try, then there's no point to it all, right? 

Perhaps the office coordinator in this next story felt as if her best efforts weren't being appreciated, which is entirely fair because Linda in accounting never missed an opportunity to make her feel small. But even after years of improving the company workflow and improving their operating system line-by-line and code-by-code, arrogant Linda was still stuck in her ways and unable to adapt. Well, when the all-star employee reached her breaking point, she decided to grant Linda's every wish, reverting their office system back to the heinously outdated protocol that Linda so desperately loved, walking out on her last day with chaos in her wake and a smile on her face. Maybe her next job will appreciate her efforts a little more. 

This guy made a coworker his scapegoat, and he's surely regretting it now. 

As that song by the New Radicals goes, "You only get what you give." This is very good life advice! What you put into your life — your projects, your work life, your friendships and dates — is often exactly what you get in return. It's not always a 1 to 1, literal translation of the phrase, but it's basically a good reminder to treat people how you want to be treated.  

In the workplace, this might work on certain people, though of course, anyone with a cranky boss knows that just because you're super bubbly and nice to them, doesn't mean they'll treat you the same way. With coworkers, it's a little different. If you cover for one person when their kid is sick, they will remember that and value it. Sticking up for people when they need help is going above and beyond, and they will probably return the favor to you at some point. And even if they don't, everyone around you, possibly including some bigwigs, will recognize you as a team player and a good human being. 

This person had the perfect response of that nature, all thanks to a coworker who tossed them under the bus! This person did the CYA thing – he did send an email for final approval, plus a follow-up, but his coworker Chris either ignored it or just totally missed it. Welp. What else can you do if you've already followed up? Your part of the work is done now. 

That didn't stop Chris from using this guy, Mark, as his scapegoat mid-meeting. Mark even pulled up their emails on the spot, which must've left Chris humiliated. And, as you can read below, Chris then expected Mark to do him a favor. Read the room, pal! You just tried to dodge blame at someone else's expense, and now you're expecting a favor? You're going to have to actually apologize and make it up to him first, perhaps a nice lunch outing could smooth things over. But people don't just always forget and forgive — Mark is still going to remember that for next time. It's quite the interesting tale, and Mark is definitely not in the wrong here. If anything, he's being way more professional than Chris is. 

Sometimes, it's the little things that can end up becoming the biggest acts of petty payback.

This retail employee was working at an electronics store when an entitled customer waltzed right in and decided to make an already difficult day all the more frustrating. This grumpy man wanted a specific brand of speaker that was no longer in stock. The retail employee knew that for a fact, since they had just sold out of the product not long before the customer arrived. 

Still, the customer refused to believe the employee. However, if you don't fully take someone's word for something, there are far more polite ways of getting them to prove it. The customer could have politely requested that the employee double-check to make sure he's correct. Kindness and polite manners can go a long way when you're interfacing with retail employees.

However, this dude just could not muster a kind thought in his brain. Instead, he immediately lashed out at the employee, insulted his intelligence, and demanded that he check the stock room. That's certainly one strategy to get what you want in life, but it's unlikely to be the path to success. It certainly wasn't for this customer. In fact, his unnecessary, nonsensical behavior became the catalyst for the employee's subsequent revenge plot.

Unpaid physical labor for a HUGE corporation at one of the biggest global monreymaking events is exactly what comes to mind when I think of volunteering. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I'd prefer donating my time to puppies or, say, people in need and not a giant company.

Or like one guy said in a comment that summarizes the whole thing: "This is like being asked to volunteer at an investment bank."

Watching a reckless driver get pulled over is such a sweet victory for everyone else on the road. 

We let teens start driving at the age of 16, and parents love to joke to everyone else that they should "get off the road!" Some of these kids are very responsible drivers who grip that steering wheel at 10 and 2, always check their rearview mirrors, and obey every traffic law to a T. Others aren't very good drivers at all! And some are intentionally reckless. They're the ones whipping donuts in mall parking lots at 3 AM, driving 110 in a 45 MPH zone, or constantly "forgetting" to buckle their seatbelts. 

Some teens grow out of their childish ways and into responsible adult drivers, who look back on their teenage antics with embarrassment. But others, as you can read below, just never grow up. 

For some people, their car is the ultimate flex, and they spend a lot of time and money making it fast, sleek, and (as they believe) enviable to everyone around them. This kind of person thinks that everyone else wants their car, and is watching them zip down the road with their jaws on the floor. In reality, most people just don't really care, but that's never stopped a car bro from challenging another car at a red light to a race. The car bro starts revving louder and louder, trying to goad someone else into racing. 

I shouldn't have to tell you why racing on public streets is a bad idea! I had friends in high school who loved racing cars, and you know what they did? They went to a designated closed-course racing track where they could burn rubber to their hearts' content. There were waivers signed, safety restrictions, age limits, and so on. It was quite safe, and everyone went home happy. There's no need to endanger everyone around you so you can race some unwilling rando, when instead, you could find a community of car-lovers who will gleefully do that with you on a safe course. 

These drivers had their own "mess around and find out" moments! Their outrageous driving proclivities were quickly met with those red and blue flashing lights. Coppers are everywhere, and as some people shared, sometimes they even like to lurk around in their undercover vehicles, just waiting for moments like this. 

"Bring your child to work day" is many employees' worst nightmare.

Now, imagine that special day, but exponentially more stressful. How could that be? Well, when a narcissistic boss decides that their office environment is the perfect place for their little tots to run rampant, you might grow a gray hair or 10 in less than a few minutes.

This isn't an "anti-child" sentiment. Children are great. They turn into adults, just like you and me. Then, they have kids. The beautiful circle of life, my friends. The sentiment we're getting at is a bit more… understandable. Why would a boss bring his kids to the office if he knows that his little six and eight-year-old girls are looking for a playmate in his employees? Better yet, why would he allow his children to touch things on his employees' desks? A narcissist in the office is more likely than not a narcissist everywhere else, which means that his employees will be on babysitting duty as they try to hide all of their belongings in a locked file drawer until the end of the day. Scroll below to read about this exact scenario, except it's kind of way worse than this. 

This boss made it seem like the company didn't have the money to give his employee a well-deserved raise… that is, until the employee had more leverage.

This author knew that he was doing the work of multiple employees and was entitled to a fairer annual salary. This became all the more clear to him when he discovered that despite his weekly tasks and responsibilities, it turned out that he was lowest paid employee in his entire department. Perhaps his boss thought he could get away with this amoral arrangement because the author was straight out of college when he was first hired.

Once again, here is another tale of an employer who vastly underestimated the intelligence of younger, so-called "inexperienced" workers. It's as if these bosses don't realize that in the age of the internet, employees can easily do research to figure out whether or not they are being underpaid compared to what other salaries look for similar positions elsewhere. 

Naturally, this author did that research and ended up finding a far better opportunity. It would be the same amount of work, only this time, he would be earning at 20% raise. In his eyes, he was still willing to do the equivalent work of two people at this much higher rate. Your mileage may vary depending on your work preferences and financial situation. Regardless, the employee was ecstatic to take the job and couldn't wait to confront his manager about this new offer.

At the D&D table, the most engaging moments don't come from everything going exactly to plan, that perfect nat 20 from a blessed roll, topping off a flawless campaign where the party saw little to no hardships and had no close calls, and where the story seemingly went in a linear fashion with little unexpected twists or turns. 

No, it's much more engaging for players to face a less straightforward and more uncertain story, where low rolls create tense moments, and even the most basic storylines at the start of a campaign have a level of implied threat and weight that makes their outcomes feel like victories snatched from the jaws of defeat. Quite simply, success is never satisfying without some bumps along the road and challenges along the way.

Maybe that's why when I play a game like Baldur's Gate, I never have quite that same level of satisfaction as I do in a real D&D session. The ability to "save scum" every roll just takes the wind out of the sails of that eventual satisfaction of beating a main boss or turning the tables on what previously seemed to be an impossible situation. A certain level of control needs to be taken out of your hands, too. Like, there needs to be literally no way for me to save the game. 

Knowing the scripted payouts for a successful roll in a video game also takes away from the experience and makes it all the more tempting to reset a bad roll or an unpredicted outcome. Knowing that there is a "better" ending or outcome of a story arc makes it all the more tempting to excessively optimize your experience, versus if you just didn't know there was a better option available in the first place, you feel like you have "missed out" on something. And, it's this way for all RPGs. I find that social media has dampened my enjoyment of playing these role-playing games that were meant to be enjoyed on the slow road and not optimized in a blisteringly speedy and perfect playthrough. 

Certainly, this is my own internalization of modern gaming trends, and the answer is for me to simply not consume media and social media that set these expectations on how I should be enjoying something. Maybe a lesson to be learned there about how our ability to enjoy something is dictated by the influences of others if we allow them to be. 

If admin wants their teachers to buy exclusively from the education catalog, they had better prepare for some price-gouged, district-approved supplies. 

Teachers are down in the trenches every day with their students, getting their hands dirty and cleaning up the messes of 25-40 unruly kids. This is most true for science teachers, who love the idea of a baking soda volcano until the day comes when their classroom smells like vinegar, kids are screaming, and there's food dye sludge all over the lab desks. Oh, the joys of teaching young minds!

Via u/DhanushkaSG

No matter how you slice up a science teacher's educational budget for the school year, you're going to come away with a lot of cleaning supply expenses. This seemed self-explanatory to the experienced science teacher in this next story, and after decades of teaching messy little kids how to make planet dioramas and colorful chemical reactions, they knew that a healthy supply of paper towels was a necessity. Being the frugal teacher that they were, they scoured the internet and local grocery stores for the lowest price, keeping costs down for the pencil-pushers over in admin, but when the bean-counters discovered that teachers were making purchases outside of their district-approved, corpo-coded catalog, they insisted that they place their orders according to code. 

Okay, a roll of paper towels costs $1 on Amazon, but through the catalog, it's $15. Of course, the price and the value of the item don't change the demand, so teachers continued to blow through their supply of clean-up materials. Before the semester was over, the admin's wallet was hurting so badly that it made them start considering that the teachers were actually right this time. 

Sometimes, abiding by the book can get you in a financial bind, especially when it disregards the frugal logic of buying from the cheapest seller… Even if that seller is technically out-of-bounds. 

Charities exist so that willing and able individuals can donate funds to those in need, not to start moral competitions between strangers.

That usually ends up happening anyway, though, right? The morality olympics is constant in a digital age where we're constantly trying to one-up each other, so to speak. We have to record every good deed we do for another person, and make sure we get our good sides while doing it. Now, I'm not speaking for everyone in the world, but one scroll through a TikTok feed will reveal just how competitive and eager people are regarding their moral compasses. What happened to doing good because we want to, not because we feel like we have to?

In this next story, the user who shares the tale has the same question. You're probably familiar with the scene. You walk into a store, grab all the necessities, and stroll up to the checkout counter where the cashier resides. They look at you begrudgingly, patiently waiting for you to put all your items on the counter. As they bag up your belongings, they look at you and ask if you'd like to donate to the charity they're sponsoring. You kindly decline, because you just spent your last $15 on the items you just bought. Instead of accepting your answer, they push you. Then, they push you again and shame you for your refusal to cough up some cash.

This is a nightmare scenario for a lot of us, especially those who aren't blessed in the fiscal department. As much as a lot of us want to donate to causes we feel strongly about, our circumstances may not allow it. The whole "don't judge a book by its cover" thing is pretty darn true. If you're getting secondhand anger on behalf of this customer, then keep scrolling. Let us know what you'd do if you were in this situation.