Derek wasn't accustomed to experiencing any kind of fallout after mismanaging his team, but when a clever employee started keeping a diligent (and meticulous) paper trail regarding his orders, consequences came falling from the sky like a cartoon grand piano.  

This call center employee was tired of taking the fall in company meetings when he was just following his manager's orders. So, like any witty and slightly petty worker would do, they started keeping an email thread paper trail covering all of their team meetings. All verbal instructions and opinionated pivots were cataloged in these emails: timestamped, sent out, and kept in this employee's pocket in the event of an emergency. 

Well, an emergency finally came when the big bosses came to town to shakedown the department. 

Without the manager to back up the workforce, they came down hard on all of the employees, stating that they weren't following protocol, they were neglecting company rules, and slacking on their tasks. But, in actuality, they were just following orders… Derek's orders to be precise. Conjuring a paper trail like an HR-approved magician, this employee pulled up a 14-email thread of all of the verbal instructions that led to their department's "downfall," leading to the inevitable and justified end of Derek's career as their manager. 

Leadership is a funny thing. Just because you're given authority over others doesn't mean you're better than them, smarter than them, or more capable, it simply means that you have a gold Sheriff's badge and a kiss on the forehead from the C-level bosses. In reality, it's the leaders who get down in the trenches with their employees, fighting side-by-side with them, falling on their swords, and screaming motivational speeches from the front line. Pardon the Braveheart reference, but William Wallace said it best when he claimed, "Men don't follow titles. They follow courage!"

So to all of the employees out there with yellow-bellied, cowardly managers at the helm of their department, don't be afraid to start keeping a record of their wrongs, because you never know when it'll come in handy to cover you (and your coworkers) from incoming onslaught from above.

Imagine saving for 20 years to buy a home, only to be unable to enjoy your backyard because of inconsiderate neighbors. And what's even worse, imagine starting things off by giving them Christmas cards and cookies, only to end up needing legal advice.

A yard is a special place in a house. It's where you relax, have friends over, maybe do some gardening, and feel at home. It's nice to have your green space nice and clean. So it's understandable that, after so much effort, this new homeowner is just trying to enjoy her backyard as she deserves.  

Some managerial orders make no sense, and the only way to prove that is by showing, not telling.

This new manager, the aptly named Kevin, thought he could swoop in and enforce a slew of new processes and regulations that, in his eyes, were more efficient and productive. However, the folks on his team, who had been working in technician repairs far longer than their new boss had been in the industry, knew immediately that these new "ideas" would prove to be ineffective at best and outright disastrous at worst.

Guess who was right in the end?

How do you treat your hired dog sitter?

This is the person taking care of your fur babies, your soul dogs, your family! So you shouldn't skimp on anything here. For instance, this person hired a vet to make sure her dogs had a medically-informed petsitter for when she had to travel for a couple of weeks at a time. Unfortunately, this dog owner was more unruly than the clearly untrained dogs. After two years and constant skirting of the consequences of her actions, the sitter quit. But not just quit, she made sure that all the local veterinarians and pet sitters knew about the behavior of this dog mom and emphasized avoiding working for her. Don't mess with your petsitter! 

What would you do if you discovered that your boss was keeping tips that you were promised as part of your pay?

Tipping as a culture has gotten out of control. There's a reason why that whole "turn the iPad around" meme was so popular a couple of years back; it seems now that, for every little service, you're expected to turn over an additional 20% of the purchase price.

It makes sense in states where the minimum wage is so low that simply the wage alone isn't enough to make the job even worth the time spent working, let alone being an amount of money that you could live off of. But, as a customer, you sometimes can't help but wonder whether or not your tip is actually going to the staff who gave you such great service. You almost feel, sometimes, like you can see the screaming behind their eyes telling you not to tip. 

This is, of course, probably just in our imaginations and is just a glazed-over look from an overworked and overtired service worker who is looking forward to the end of their shift.

 

This Uncle is showing up for his 14-year-old niece in a way that really matters. Too bad his own brother is upset about the special treatment she's now getting! 

Your teen years can be tough enough without your parents being super strict about what you eat. 

After all, as adults, when we're hungry, we go get a snack. So why do we deny our teenage kids the same agency? 

I mean, there have to be limits, because teens do love to eat. But allowing them to grab healthy snacks, or cook healthy meals, when they're starving is a great way to prepare them for adulthood. 

Some jobs don't require an office to do them, which makes you wonder why some companies still insist on spending so much money on an office if they don't technically need it.

Plenty of people have jobs they can do from anywhere they like. With the help of their loyal laptop and some good ol' WiFi, they can be doing their job from the comfort of their beds, from the beach, or from the middle of the jungle. 

But can they actually do that? Well, most of the time the answer is a firm 'no'.

As much as it would have been perfect, even those who have a job that can be done from anywhere, and not just an office, are usually required to spend 8 hours a day in one. Employees get maybe one or two generous days of work from home, but the rest of their time have to spend in a boring, pointless office.

It can be quite disappointing to have a fully remote job, only to be forced to return to an office for no apparent reason. Someone higher up decided they want to know what their employees are doing every minute of every day, which leaves employees with no choice but to indulge their demands.

But what can they do?

You miss 100% of the shelves you don't build yourself.They say no pain, no gain. They say if you want something done right, do it yourself. They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and apparently that step sometimes involves power tools, zero prior experience, and a level of self-belief that borders on the delusional. Motivational culture has been telling us for decades that the only thing standing between us and greatness is action. Just do it. Believe in yourself. Manifest the outcomes you deserve.Nobody said the outcomes had to make structural sense.

Just because you don't have kids does not mean you don't have a life!

This woman needed to inform her entitled sister of that seemingly self-explanatory fact, but apparently some siblings out there need to be reminded that the world does not revolve exclusively around them. This woman, who works in IT with a stable salary and lifestyle, often volunteers to help take care of her nephew from time to time. However, it did not take long before her sister started taking advantage of the author's willingness to help.

The author shared her story about what happened after an unfortunate babysitting incident that her sister refused to apologize for. Not long after, the sister asked the author if she could come back to babysit her nephew yet again, but this time for an entire week while she would be on vacation. After all the ingratitude and disrespect, the author finally snapped.

What else do you do when your boss asks you to do something that you know is going to upset customers?

Easily the worst part of any customer service, or customer-facing, role is dealing with customer complaints, especially when they're about policies that your company is pushing that you know are ridiculous.

Aside from that, there will come a time in your employment life where you are asked to do something that you know isn't right, might be unethical, and maybe not even legal. You're lucky if that thing is being asked to charge customers for tap water. The thing is, it doesn't make it any easier to stand your ground against your boss or that higher power who is asking you to do this. 

Most friends would be thrilled to celebrate proposal plans.This one chose emotional sabotage instead.

After hearing his friend wanted to marry his girlfriend, one man responded with an unexpectedly bitter rant about why the relationship would eventually fail. If your friend tells you they're thinking about proposing to their girlfriend, there are a few expected reactions. Congratulate them. Ask to see the ring. Pretend to know something about diamonds for thirty seconds. Maybe joke about how expensive weddings are.

What you generally don't do is immediately start explaining why their future wife is probably going to abandon them someday. And yet, that's exactly where this conversation ended up.

The original poster was talking with a friend about future plans with his girlfriend when the topic of marriage came up. Pretty normal conversation. The kind people have every day without accidentally opening a portal to somebody else's unresolved relationship issues.

How do you travel when you are injured?

I would say that most of the time when I have any injury, I try to avoid traveling at all costs. Even if it's just around the corner to the grocery store. However, sometimes travel is unavoidable, and you do what you can to stay comfortable throughout it. In the case of this injured man, he had to use a stern and shaming voice. Why? Because some perfectly healthy woman decided that she deserved more room on the flight than the injured guy sitting next to her. Boy, did she go red in the face and learn a new valuable life lesson; one of empathy. 

We all owe our moms a big thank you for how much they have put up with when we were growing up.

We're not just talking about putting up with us, the kids, even though that is a big part of being a mother. No, there is much more to motherhood than only handling your own kids. Because other than taking care of her own kids, a mother often finds herself taking care of other children as well, and dealing with their mothers on top of it.

Every mother wants her kids to have plenty of friends. Other children who enjoy spending time with her kids and inviting them to playdates, birthday parties, and fun outings. But it's important to remember that any friend your kid makes will eventually find their way into your home, and you will find yourself taking care of them on top of your own children. Which, if the mother below is any indication, is no simple task.

When the Mom below agreed to a playdate for her 4-year-old son with their 7-year-old neighbor, she didn't think it would turn into an unpaid part-time job. Yet, after one playdate over the weekend, the 7-year-old started showing up at her house uninvited. Every weekend, he would ring the doorbell and invite himself in for hours on end. 

After a few conversations with his mother, the neighbor, Mom realized she was somehow cornered into becoming a free babysitter to this 7-year-old, and no matter what she did to keep him from coming to her house, he wouldn't stop. That was until she finally reached a breaking point and decided to do something about it.

While her 4-year-old won't remember how hard his Mom works to ensure he enjoys his time with his friends, we are sure this won't be the last time she does so, and hopefully, next time, he will be old enough to thank her for it. So, even though Mother's Day just passed, which we hope you all spent thanking and appreciating your mother, maybe don't wait until the next one to do it again. Maybe even call them up today and tell them just how much you appreciate them for everything they've done for you.

Let this story serve as another friendly reminder to any managers out there. Be careful with your directives!

This manager of a local fast food restaurant was in the heat of the moment during a busy time when she practically barked at her new hire to stay at the register. Of course, the employee was just trying to help with additional duties to speed up the process when there were no new customers to be served, but the manager simply could not be bothered to walk back her unnecessarily harsh demands.

So, the fast food employee complied with her orders, knowing that losing another set of hands would only make things more hectic and that having her chained to the register would backfire spectacularly. Guess what? She was right.

Landlords have always been creative when it comes to finding new ways to extract money from tenants, but charging a monthly subscription fee to use a fridge they replaced because the old one broke is a genuinely new level of innovation in that particular field.

At what point does "property maintenance" become just charging people more money while fixing absolutely nothing?

Rent increases are already frustrating enough, but they become especially insulting when landlords blame them on "rising maintenance costs" while tenants are actively living inside buildings held together by flickering lights and unanswered repair requests. According to this renter, management raised the monthly rent by another $150 despite ignoring years of complaints about leaking faucets, broken buzzers, cracked windows, and ventilation problems that never actually get repaired.

The situation became even more ridiculous once the tenant explained that maintenance requests are apparently being marked "resolved" without anyone fixing anything at all. Meanwhile, the building's common areas reportedly look like the setting of a low-budget horror movie, complete with flickering hallway lights and water stains that management can't even bother covering up. At this point, the renter says the company isn't maintaining the property so much as maintaining its own profit margins while the entire building slowly falls apart around everyone living there.

Helping elderly neighbors with their garden is one of those genuinely wholesome things people do, made slightly more wholesome by the fact that the tractor was a major part of the appeal from day one. Not purely selfless, not purely selfish. Just a nice arrangement where everyone got something out of it, and a two-acre meadow stayed under control.

These workers had brilliant plans to get even with the coworkers and bosses who were driving them crazy. 

Through no fault of their own, sometimes workers find themselves stuck in tough situations at their jobs. They look around one day and realize that over time, they've taken on the workloads of 5 people. Or they realize that they simply can't take even one more year with their demanding boss. Maybe they just dislike working so much, and take steps to take significant vacation time after saving up PTO for ages. 

Admit it, you've been here, too. 

Cornered in a group dinner setting, and the bill comes around, and that one unscrupulous friend says, "Hey, let's just split the bill evenly," even though all you ordered was a house salad and a water amongst a table full of wagyu steaks. 

Many people don't have the stones to dig in and rock the boat with their friends, but if a group is trying to get you to bankroll their excessive dinners, are they really your friends after all? Or are these big eaters just trying to use their frugal friend's predictably sensible ordering style to supplement their own overspending? This woman learned quickly that her friends weren't looking out for her best financial interests, or really paying much attention to her at all, when they tried to split the bill evenly on a table full of appetizers she never wanted, never ordered, and never touched. 

Sorry, but if a person doesn't take part in a shared plate, they're certainly not going to participate in the payment portion of the dining experience. 

It's a pet peeve of mine when groups of "friends" make unilateral decisions to the detriment of the one quiet person in the group. Knowing they won't stand up for themselves and that their contributions will benefit everyone else, it's always seemed predatory to me, making me distrustful of the most benign intentions. Back in college, I lived out the classic "broke student" trope, yet many of my "friends" at the time insisted on seemingly mandatory birthday dinners at sushi restaurants and social gatherings at expensive, trendy bars. As if I had much of a choice (socially) to skip the thing, but getting looped into group payments became a quick way I learned my lesson. Despite ordering water and a side of rice n' beans, tallying a hefty bill of maybe $8, I somehow always got roped into paying $50+ for every friend's birthday. 

It's safe to say that those people aren't my friends anymore, not just because they disregarded me as a person, but because their frivolous bill-splitting and mindless "equality" chatter really missed the mark on what it means to be a real friend. Good friends look out for one another and are mindful of each other's choices and feelings. They don't force them to pay for chicken wings and nachos when they said they weren't hungry…

Some battles are not worth fighting when it comes to reasoning with neighbors, but this lady crossed the line… the property line, so to speak.

After insisting that her new neighbor pay for the damage to her old, untidy fence that seemed destined to break, this elderly lady went so far as to order her 50-year-old son to inflict property damage of his own on the new guy's lawn. Talk about petty!

When conflict arises between neighbors to the point that the bitter feud feels nearly unsolvable, it can be hard to even recall how the tension got this bad. Unfortunately for this homeowner, he found himself totally blindsided by people he thought were kind, decent, and respectful. Clearly, he thought wrong!