There's nothing worse than that sinking feeling in your stomach when you get caught doing something you're not supposed to be doing. It makes you feel like a scolded child hiding late-night comic books under the covers after bedtime. Most of us learn pretty quickly how to hide our secretly debaucherous activities to avoid feeling this way, but the guy in our next story totally failed to follow the fail-safes of secrecy in the workplace, causing him to nearly lose a promotion.

We all know that you're not 'supposed to' be on your phone at work, but who isn't? Everyone scrolls memes, texts their friends, and enjoys the perks of having a pocket-sized computer with them at all times (in fact, you're probably scrolling on your phone right now!). But when the CEO is around, it's time for all the hooligans to whip into shape and pretend they don't even have a phone. Suddenly everyone's a model citizen–except for the dingus playing Pokemon Go under the table when the CEO surveys his desk. Scroll for the entire cringe-worthy story of how a guy risked everything at work just to catch a wild Caterpie. 

Who's right in the situation? This neighbor thinks that because their neighbor has poisonous flowers, it's her fault that their dog got sick. Before we go any further, just know that the doggo is okay. He just has a habit of digging under his owner's fence and escaping. His owners claim he's just exploring. However, the Original Poster (OP) has been weary from the start. She even tried to offer multiple solutions to her neighbors to prevent their dog from escaping, but they wouldn't get on board. So, you guessed it, the inevitable happened. The dog escaped into the neighbor's yard, as he had done many times before, but this time, the poor guy ate all of her flowers, including chrysanthemums, which are poisonous to dogs. It's not fatal, thankfully, but it's still not a cheap visit to the vet. But the entitled neighbors think that the OP is responsible for half of the bill since they were her flowers. The OP can afford the bill, but she thinks it's ridiculous that she should even pay, so she is refusing to. She did warm them.

Typically, when your boss tells you to do something, you do it. Even if they say not to come to work, you'll (gladly) not come to work. That's exactly what happened when this entitled boss told her employee not to come to work the next day. She was reading off everyone's schedules in person at work the day prior and then told the Original Poster (OP) not to come in, so the OP obliged, as anyone in that situation would. That is, until the next day rolled around, and her entitled boss started blowing up her phone, asking where she was and if she was on her way. The OP respectfully replied, although much later in the day, that she was told she was off, so she didn't come in. Well, now the entitled boss is trying to backtrack and say that she was just joking; she, in fact, was not off and had to come to work. First, it started off with a few threats about being finished at the company for not showing, and then it turned into the boss asking the employee to come in again the next day. We think the boss needs to make up her mind - we're on your side, OP. 

When your upper management keeps ignoring you, what do you do? That's when you ask for forgiveness, not permission…

What can you buy these days with $14? You can get a drink with a friend at happy hour, you can see a matinee at the movie theatre, or you could maybe–just maybe–order a pizza. These days, 14 dollars isn't going very far, but for the intern at a law firm in our next story, her deluded boss seemed to think that $14 was just enough for an hour's labor. 

Most workplaces are phasing out the whole 'unpaid intern' schtick, largely because it's akin to indentured servitude. Either way, interns these days don't have pots of gold lying around for them and they're surviving on wages that barely pay the rent. This particular pre-law intern was struggling to afford basic necessities when her deluded boss approached her with the most audacious suggestion. In an attempt to clear out her own closet, the intern's boss, a big-wig lawyer woman, tried to sell off her designer clothes to her lowly lackey, unaware that a $4,000+ purse might be out of budget for an employee making $14 an hour. 

Keep on scrolling for this entire story of deluded riches where a lofty lawyer gets reminded of the cost of life for regular people. 

If you talk the talk, you better walk the walk. If you can't, you're in for embarrassment… and possibly even worse outcomes than that. 

This assembly line worker had an interesting story to tell about what happened to them and his coworker. This coworker, Richard, kept stealing the credit for his work, which is a surefire way to lower that employee's morale. It can be so dispiriting to work for ages on something, only to realize that no one knows you actually did it. When you see the big bosses thanking someone else for that work, you want to shout at them that you did it, not them. But since that's frowned upon in polite society, you usually just grin and bear it. 

Still, if you claim that you can do the work of two people, you should hope that your bosses don't hear. Most companies are trying to stretch their dollars as far as they can go, so if you go around volunteering to do that… well, the consequences are all on you.

After you check out this person's story of professional-level revenge, read up on these workplace red flags, like when the hiring manager says, "Oh, people like to work late." (They certainly do not!)

If there's one thing everyone knows about the internet at this point, it's that people can be absolutely unhinged online. Regardless of whether or not they choose to remain anonymous, people seem to love to share their ridiculous opinions and "hot takes" on the world wide web for everyone else to pick apart, agree with, disagree with, retweet, repurpose, and even mock. It makes you wonder why we post anything at all anymore yet people will only keep posting.

As we mentioned, these absolutely insane comments range from platform to platform. We're talking about everything from niche Facebook groups to the comments section on YouTube videos. What connects all of these comments, however, is usually a big "swing and a miss" regarding some alleged universal human experience and another party's sharp and savage response. The back-and-forth between these two extremes may make the Internet feel like the ultimate home of cringe, but it also makes it more and more like an accident from which you simply cannot look away.

Keep scrolling below for these comments and more. When you're done, here are some instant dating red flags.

Don't accept that job until you've vetted the company well. I know it's hard not to accept the first gig that offers you a contract, but it's worth your time to spot red flags before signing on. 

One person mentioned another great one, which is having a lot of very young people who are running an older company. Young people are great, of course, but it signifies that the company can't retain their older workers, who probably left to find better wages. And it implies that they're hiring youngsters who don't know any better. When you're 20 and starting your first job in the real world, you often don't know how to negotiate your salary or stand up to your boss. If managers take advantage of that, it's a sign that they don't respect any of their workers, young or old. 

As another commenter mentioned, some workplaces love to tout how fun they are. That was a very cool moment in the early 2010s, when companies started buying foosball tables and nap pods and making game rooms for the workers. It's an odd catch-22, though. If you're spotted playing pool in the middle of the afternoon instead of working, your bosses might give you the side-eye. It's hard to have actual fun if you know there are negative ramifications for doing so. Why not just have a normal workplace that lets you clock out at 5 PM and have fun with your friends and family instead? No one wants to spend all of their time at the office, no matter how fun it purportedly is. 

Up next, this manager changed up their employee's schedule just for funsies, and came to regret it almost immediately. 

Bad bosses will come up with any excuse imaginable to justify their poor management skills. 

This manager messaged his employees and used the rainy weather to justify delaying payment to his employees. The Redditor's coworker was smart enough to ask why he was forced to work under these weather conditions and yet he couldn't get paid on time. Employment should always be a two-way street, people, and that applies to every aspect of the professional relationship. 

This sounds like a grown-up version of a second grader claiming that his dog ate his homework. This manager also apparently refuses to compensate his employees via direct deposit (red flag alert, especially in this day and age!). Clearly, he was never going to pay his employees on time, and he simply thought he was slick enough to get away with it using the rain as justification… as if precipitation makes it impossible for someone to write a check. 

Keep scrolling below for the full stories and for the best reactions in the comments section. For more, check out this post about a boss who tried to reject a job candidate solely because she was a fan of Star Trek.

Quiet quitting is a phenomenon that is shaking today's workforce like a punch to the jaw. While nepo-baby executives quiver in their leather chairs up in their ivory towers, quiet quitting provides a refuge for employees that many have never felt before. Minimum effort for minimum pay offers solace and peace to employees, especially when our alternative reality sets in. 

Nobody wants to work extra hard for no reward, so why not just quiet quit like the Gen X employee in our next story? 

For u/UncreditedChoir, a Gen X guy working for a major electronics company, entering the workforce and working for a big company meant you were probably going to see some major benefits by the end of your tenure. However, with the shifting work climate and with childish corporate management stepping into higher roles, he was discouraged at his ability to climb the ladder. But for an older guy in the workforce who's willing to see the light at the end of the tunnel, when he learned what quiet quitting was, he was actually relieved. 

Scroll for the entire story–it might just inspire you the slack off a bit in the workplace to find your own employment peace of mind. 

This roommate taught their 'friend' a lesson about consequences that they'll likely never forget. After impulsively getting a betta fish in honor of the solar eclipse, the star of our next story was in for a roller coaster of emotions. They bonded with the fish, put them in a large bowl as a temporary home, and vowed that when they returned from work, they'd finish their tank and splurge at the pet store for some top-tier fish supplies. 

Well when they returned from work, the beloved betta was belly up in a random kitchen tupperware, slain by the reckless hands of a roommate who didn't care whether the fish lived or not. 

But when the fish-lover came home to their sad sack of scales, they went on a vengeance mission–a warpath, if you will–to get even with a disrespectful roommate. Scroll for the entire story of the implosion of a friendship, all because of the funeral of a beautiful beta fish.

Be very very careful with anonymous surveys… you never really know if they're actually anonymous or not! 

In some workplaces, HR will send around anonymous surveys every now and then. They can address mundane topics, like asking if people want more employee events, and trying to take the temperature on morale. Other times these surveys are directly asking how leadership is doing, and those feel risky to answer. Even if the results come through a third-party service, it can't be that hard to figure out who wrote what. 

This workplace seems pretty toxic, which is apparently a common trait at call centers. These employees do an important job, but it's not the kind of gig that most people want to take on. They have to talk to irate customers all day long. Turnover is high. And clearly at this place, morale is not great. These hard-working folks earn only about £4.00 above minimum wage, no wonder they're unhappy about it! Not to mention that any sane person would reply "yes" to the question, "Would you like a higher salary?". Not sure what this manager was thinking here, but it surely made an impression on her employees. 

Next up, this new employee was so excited to flex his newfound power that he ended up bossing around his own supervisor. 

Lawyers taking on landlords sounds like it's one of those franchise spinoff film in which two villains from different franchises take on each other to see who is the biggest and baddest baddie out there. You're not even really sure why they're feuding, but that's really beside the point of these types of films. You know, something along the lines of Alien vs. Predator, Freddy vs. Jason, or Godzilla vs. Kong, there's certainly a precedent for these kinds of crossovers and Landlord vs. Lawyer deserves a place amongst them.

Still, even though you're really not really supposed to be rooting for these antagonists in their original mediums, these types of films always have a way of making them seem less one-dimensional or totally evil, even encouraging you to be sympathetic to their plights. In this story, it's hard not to root for the wily lawyer who managed to outsmart this fat-cat commercial landlord by manipulating his obvious greed into his own poetic downfall. 

City halls are notorious for being stuck up, but this one really takes the cake.

This chess club had eagerly prepared for their opening night, rented a venue (their city hall), and arrived with everything they needed to play chess, which would be chess boards and pieces. Somehow the fact they brought their own things became a huge deal. Their excitement turned into dismay when they were unexpectedly approached by a dude working for city hall. He peeked in, noticed their things, and asked where they took them from. The chess players said they brought them from home, which apparently, wasn't allowed. Things escalated, and the director of city hall was called. She was furious, and they were left confused. It didn't end there, but hey, I won't spoil the ending… Scroll down and read the rest of the story along with all the juicy details and comments below.

Some people need to chill. It's only chess! Afterward, check out these amusing boss stories told by incredulous employees.

Imagine waking up to an email in your inbox from your manager enforcing a mandatory "deep clean" shift on your one day off. Any sensible human would likely groan and decline the offer. And yes, no matter what this manager says and no matter how he tries to frame it, this is an offer as the employee's contract makes no mention of this "deep clean" shift. 

Furthermore, this manager had absolutely no plans to adjust the coming week's schedule to accommodate the weekend day or to try to carve out time during the regular work week to take on this project. Instead, he tried to see how much mileage he could get out of his employees by making this request seem like a demand. Well, thankfully, this Redditor's girlfriend was not having it. Her partner shared the message online, and based on the reactions in the comments section below, it's quite clear that tons of people have had managers who have tried to pull this nonsense in the past.

Keep scrolling below for the full story. When you're done, check out this post about an employee who got a better job after his boss tried to get away with a 30% pay cut.

Job interviews can be nerve-wracking since, especially when you don't know what kind of person will be interviewing you. After all the hard work of job searching, updating your application materials, and researching companies, you finally get an interview. While it can be a relief to get an interview, sadly, the hard part is just beginning. If you're lucky enough to know the names of the hiring team beforehand, you can research them to mentally prepare yourself for the interview. Maybe run a quick Google search of their name, or stalk them on LinkedIn. But sometimes you have to go in blind. The hiring manager could be the nicest person in the world, or someone like the one in this story. The interviewer in this story below initially praised the candidate for their previous work experience but then suddenly turned and ridiculed them, stating that they lacked career drive. The Original Poster (OP) shared this experience on the internet and found many people who had experienced similar situations. Some speculated that this was an interview tactic. But regardless if that's true, we wouldn't want to work at this company. 

Since the job market is the one place where it is perfectly acceptable to look out for your best interests, it can prove to be a horrible place for the faint of heart. Your family's health and welfare should come first. Because of this, you will be taken aback by the story that follows, as workplace loyalty is rare and hard to come by.

The Original Poster (OP) works as a mechanic. Having worked for the same company for a few years, he was largely satisfied. That all changed, though, when one of the most respected employees in the company was let go after arriving late a single time. The staff was startled to learn that he had been dismissed for a single infraction because, as OP states, he was renowned for his punctuality.

Nevertheless, this is not the end of the story; more so, it is a story of friendship and unity. OP and the other members of the team decided that it was necessary to take matters into their own hands. They started showing up late for work every morning until the management lost patience and decided to give the recently fired employee a second chance.

So, if you're curious as to what transpired and whether the employees were able to change the manager's mind about how important it is to be on time for work, be sure to read the story below! After you're done reading, don't forget to check out the story of the underappreciated worker who stood his ground when the employer pursued him for leaving to pursue greater chances elsewhere!

When you're a kid, and you are watching a Hallmark movie or just a show that displays the Perfect American Family, you end up assuming that your neighbors are going to become your best friends. In those movies, they always greet each other good morning, their kids end up becoming best friends (and then more often than not - end up getting married), and it always seems like having neighbors is the best experience ever.

Is it actually like that in real life? Absolutely not. You are lucky if your neighbors don't make you want to move on the spot, and if you constantly ignore each other – well, that is a massive win.

I'm sure that the person who wrote this Reddit story would agree with these statements, as their neighbor is currently driving them crazy, and all because of a silly fence – OP (original poster) wants to build one, and her neighbor unsurprisingly disagrees.

Scroll down to read the full story. After that, click here for a story of hotel guests who refused to accept that their reservation was canceled. 

There are a whole lotta people in this world and plenty of winding paths down which you can walk. While some choose the long and winding paths toward making the world a better place… or at least being a decent contributing member of society… a bunch of them are walking the short path of entitlement instead. At a certain point, you might expect that grifting would be more work than learning or earning an honest means of getting what you need, but that would defeat the purpose, which somewhere along the line became the grift itself.

These "choosing beggars" are those who have elected to take the short path in life, making obscene demands of those who have already offered them something for nothing in return. Other choosing beggars want everything for nothing, asking the unaware to provide services for free or for meager compensation. See this collection of bizarre entitlement from posts that were trending recently around the internet.

This manager had a great idea: why not switch around her employee's hours just to keep them on their feet? Just kidding, that's not a great idea, it's a terrible one, obviously. 

Doing shift work is all well and good if you work the same 3-11 or 7-3 shift. As long as you're always working mornings or nights, it's easy to plan your life around it. But when you find yourself working nights and mornings back to back, it becomes an issue. And if you're stuck working any time of day, not knowing when until the schedule comes out the week before, it becomes almost impossible to schedule anything. 

This person's manager was all too happy to change one employee's hours, and she doesn't seem to have a good reason for doing so. U/MisterBowTies states that this manager wanted to change their hours "just to shake things up." As if that wasn't bad enough, the original poster tried to explain to her that they weren't happy with the arrangement. It was like talking to a brick wall, because the manager told them they'd have to get used to it. 

After you read the tale below, check out a bonus story or two in the comments section. Then, check out these tourists with bad habits that the locals are sick an tired of.