I don’t know what changed then, and maybe it’s just the particular jobs/companies I’ve worked for since then, but I feel like everyone has completely lost their whimsy and joie de vivre at work since like 2024 or so. I’m not saying you have to be super happy and chipper at work, but it’s like no one wants to joke around or have any fun any more. Like, you’re stuck at this job for 8 hours a day you might as well at least goof around every now and then? But lately it seems everyone is just miserable and/or emotionless. If you try to make things a little fun, people look at you like you’re crazy and just go on about their days. It’s fucking awful. Has anyone else noticed this? Is this just the general state of everything? The economy? The constant looming threat that is the bottomless dark void of potential unemployment? What’s going on??

I just got fired for the first time in my life. I'm scared because the economy is in a horrible place right now. I was on that "gifted" child to mental illness pipeline. I was diagnosed late for ADHD. I have major depression and generalized anxiety. I might be autistic though we haven't found someone to test me as an adult. There was a time I had these things under control but that's just collapsed over the last few years.

I worked at my current workplace for 8 years and there was a period of time that I definitely felt my best. I covered my branch and was asked to join a centralized department that ended up a disaster. I was beyond burnt out, I was fried. Unfortunately, it felt like I never recovered from that no matter what I did. I gained 30 pounds. My physical health got worse. Things that used to be easy, I struggled with. My manager has been reasonably patient. I mean, who the fuck takes 3 years to get their shit back together? I've just been hating myself more and more.

A friend I've had since childhood asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. I flew out of state to do that for her. The week before that, my anxiety was riding so high I emptied my entire bottle of propranolol (10mg PRN for heart palpitations related to anxiety). While I was out, my manager saw a few notes I was behind on and decided she's had enough. If I hadn't gone to that wedding, I'd at least still have my job but I couldn't NOT go. It was for her.

There was a point in time when I was so good at my job that every branch in our region knew I was the person to reach out to for insurance, authorization, and eligibility issues (I started in intake coordination and became an authorization coordinator because I was just the best I dealing with insurances). Now, I've been fired for being bad at my job after a year of having more write-ups than the entire rest of my working life.

I'm struggling to cope. I feel worthless. I'm scared this will just be an ongoing cycle for the rest of my life. I'm trying so hard. It just happened an hour ago and I'm trying to update my resume and apply but my confidence just isn't here. I wish I had more valuable skills. After all this time working I still feel like I'm the same level of expendable as a new hire just getting into the working world. I don't even know what I'm here to ask for. Comfort? Advice? Some logic that tells me I'm not worthless?

And yeah, I know productivity and all that isn't the sole measure of a person but it is the measure that pays your rent and puts food on your table.

I’m 35 and have been working since I was 18. I’ve never gone without a job longer than a few months. My last role was eliminated September 1st. I’ve had a few interviews since then. Attended a few job conferences. Taking a few classes at my community college to skill up.

Why does the job market feel so stale right now? I feel like I’m connecting with people, but there’s not traction you know what I mean? Like people would like to give me a job but can’t?

I’ve been thinking maybe it’s the economy. That is has every company holding their pennies for a rainy day. I’ve never experienced such a flat job market before.

EDIT: I work in SoCal, Entertainment and IT industries. Both have been difficult to find work in.

Today my boss set up a meeting with me and said he wants me to be c-suite IT Specialist. The job isnt hard; it is basically being the white glove on call IT person to handle the day to day issues of the lawyers and CEOs so they don't call the IT help line and bully the service desk. His reason for wanting me to do it is because I have been with the company long enough that I have built a rapport with them.

I will admit the c-suite doesnt scare or intimidate me at all anymore. All of them are in their late 60 to 80 and are just old people dealing with technology. Yes it is frustrating but I cant blame them, most of them were doing everything with pen and paper back in the day.

However, the c-suites live all the way up in Kalispell Montana. Now I have visited Montana enough to know that Kalispell is where the filthy rich and famous buy homes (or second or third homes to be honest) so everything and I mean EVERYTHING is stupidly expensive. When i asked if this would be a remote job, my boss said no I would have to be on site in full business attire every day from 5 am to 10 pm Monday through Sunday. (C-suite is basically known for taking no days off and expects its personal help to be avaliable at all hours)

Now I am hourly making $26 an hour which is already on the low side but working remote has helped balance it out. The problem is that the average house is about $700,000 to about $5 million. At my current pay i am not getting anywhere near affording that. When I asked if my pay would be adjusted for the cost of living in Kalispell and the on call avaliable my boss said no but that I basically would have unlimited overtime approved in order to keep the c-suite happy. Even with that and the 19 hours days I would still not be able to afford to live there. (I calculated it out that basically if i worked every day as described i would only be getting $115,000 before taxes and deductions).

I asked my boss to let me think about it but the more I am thinking about it the more of a bad deal it is. The only way I can reasonable take the job is if my boss literally doubles my hourly rate. So I guess my biggest questions are;

1. Should I even take the position with how much it is asking for?
2. How do I tell my boss nicely that I would need a massive pay raise in order to work with c-suite since my current pay would not allow me to live where the c-suites are located?

I have an offer on the table that pays base 60k salary plus commission.

I've been at my current job for almost 8 years and haven't made past 42k and the health benefits are awful.

I know it's a better pay and nice hours... I'll just really miss what I do here and a handful of my best coworkers.

My husband said to use it as leverage at my current job so I can stay... but I've seen 2 out of the 3 managers(partial owners) have fired people on the spot before for doing the same thing.

Im autistic, a large part of the issue probably was i was hungry. My feet hurt and i was overwhelmed. How do i make sure to lessen the stress on myself. Im thinking of buying insoles to help.

This is my first fast food job and Im not used to or like this job i feel frazzled having to feel like i cant slow down or rest for even a second.

I work as a software engineer and I strongly believe many people in jobs like mine only add very marginal value to society throughout the course of their careers. I count myself very lucky though that I have a job and it's reasonably paid.

What I struggle with these days is that this viewpoint I've come to acquire is at odds with many people I encounter both in my work and life in general. I sometimes feel a bit like I'm walking around knowing 'the matrix' is real and everyone is blissfully unaware, hooked on the lies the capitalist system has sold them.

I enjoy my life outside of work and try to find ways of making the working day go by but to be perfectly honest it wears me down. I've worked for all kinds of employers: public, private, tech startup, publishing, finance etc. and I've seen a lot in my time. I don't think much could convince me that a lot of what we do is not utterly pointless.

Does anyone else feel this way?

If so, how do you deal with interactions with people who 'don't get it'?

And if not what work do you do and / or what keeps you believing you do important / useful work?

I slept less than two hours today and where I work is going to be one of the busiest days of the year for us. Called our because I'm simply exhausted.

I tossed and turned in pain all night because somehow in those less than two hours I managed to sleep wrong on just about every part of my body.

Feeling bad, but so goes life

I'm 52 and recently started a new job after years of salaried positions. I'm now hourly and understand timekeeping matters, but I'm struggling with my manager's inconsistent expectations.

I'm consistently on time, at my desk, and rarely take breaks. My manager recently questioned my 30 minute lunch periods but couldn't provide a specific example when I asked for one/some. She said she wasn't watching my time or concerned when I was away from my desk. The only recent time my lunch ran over was by 15 minutes for a virtual health appointment, and I made up the time.

I also asked whether my lack of breaks factored into the discussion, and she said even if I took breaks, they wouldn't count toward making up time.

Meanwhile, a coworker regularly comes in late, leaves early, and doesn't always follow instructions, yet my manager seems focused on my timekeeping. I understand I may not know what is addressed privately, but the difference is frustrating.

There have also been repeated changes regarding my birthday off and Friday work from home arrangements. I was initially told I could take my birthday off and work from home Fridays, but both decisions changed. I was then told I had to be onsite until my 90 day mark or use PTO because my manager or trainer needed to be available for in person training. Yet there have been two Fridays when neither was in the office and I was there alone.

I like the company and want to succeed, but the shifting expectations and scrutiny are making it difficult to focus on learning my job.

• How would you handle this?
• Should I document everything and email my manager to clarify expectations in writing, or could that backfire while I'm still new?
• How can I protect myself professionally without escalating things unnecessarily?

It might be time to start looking for a new role but given my age, etc. I feel like I'm stuck and don't know what to do.

Thanks in advance!

PS She’s been there for 4 years. Team of 4. One person left to move to another department cause of her. Two others quit cause of her and one was fired cause of her. Again, in FOUR years.

She’s a problem. My coworker said he thinks she's bipolar and I wholeheartedly agree.

I’m over 800 applications deep and I still haven’t gotten any offers :/

Whether the business is doing well and the demand is high or they’re struggling and can’t offer anything new because there isn’t enough staff to generate ‘product’.

They hire more sales reps. Not more workers to generate product to meet demand. Not more workers to alleviate the strain on the existing staff. What’s the logic?

I was hired five months ago for a newly created role focused on AI adoption and digital transformation for our clients. Since I arrived, I have been waiting more than building. Early initiatives did not get off the ground, and when I asked to join ongoing projects where I thought I could add value, I was not included. Looking back, part of the problem was the lack of a clear vision from the start. The rest comes down to timing and external factors that nobody controls. I am worried that the mandate I was hired for will not move forward before 2027.

The role has since been redefined. I was asked for my input on a technical support mandate, but I felt I had little choice. The updated mandate document now states that, in the longer term, about 60% of my time will go to support for our CRM platform, which has little to do with what I was hired for. Meanwhile, the work I was actually hired to do takes almost none of my time right now, which is a ridiculously low level.

The support work is also high-level, not entry-level. I am expected to become an expert on the platform within a few months, while most of my time goes to preparing to cover a colleague’s upcoming maternity leave, which, as far as I know, will last about a year. Several other team members are already on maternity leave, so the team is stretched thin. That is the heart of my concern: I increasingly suspect the support work is going to stay my real mandate, whatever the original job description said. Without it, I would have very little to do.

The handover itself is not easy either. I am paired with a colleague who takes his work extremely seriously. He can be blunt when he wants to, tends to be alarmist, and sees most situations in the worst possible light. He tries to make everything work under every conceivable scenario, and he expects the people around him to operate the same way. That makes the knowledge transfer harder than it should be.

I’m not against the company, but I’m questioning whether this role will ever look like what I was hired for. I’m tracking my actual time for a few weeks so I have facts for a conversation with my manager. If you have been in a similar situation, I would like to hear how it played out.

I went through 2 rounds of interview for a company and then made it to the offer stage and was offered a salary and started talking start date. Sent a few follows to which recruiter said “waiting to go through process”. A couple days later the recruiter says due to a new HR process the offer is now $25k lower, and asked if this is still worth it for me to me otherwise he didnt want to waste anyone elses time. I negotiated again and a week goes by and he asked whether the start date still works(all the start dates had already passed at this point) so I asked for a new one about 3.5 weeks out. Still havent heard anything back and now we are cutting into the 2 weeks notice period to start date would have to be pushed AGAIN.

Is this company going to completely flake? Why have they spent 3 months working through interviews etc. if they were going to flake. What do I do next?

The recruiter is not great at keeping me updated in the inbetween

Hi everyone. I want to hear your pov and advice regarding this. I'm 19f and a college freshman at my local university. I commute and live at home. It's been 2-3 weeks working as an olive garden server (first official job). So far the money is a little slow.

I have two conflicting mindsets about my job. On one hand, I want to keep working for financial independence and gain experience as a server in case I ever wanted to work at higher end restaurants in the future. Working has also taught me the importance of time management and learning to stay disciplined. On the other, due to me being in a sorority and other clubs, there are events and trips that are planned for the weekends. Some are back to back, like November 7 is a sisterhood retreat, and then the following weekend is a trip to UT Austin. This would conflict with my work schedule as I am required to work weekends, and it's very tempting for me to want to quit to go to these events. My pov is that I only live once, and this college life only happens once. Money will always be there, but memories and experiences will not. But I also know making this a habit is not a good idea for my future professional career, which I know would have way less flexibility.

My mom also owns a nail salon, so in the back of my mind that's a job I can always fall back on and learn the skills of to earn money. I am very fortunate to have this backup plan and I'm also very fortunate with the things my mom has provided me with. I'm also planning to apply to my nursing program next semester, so if I get in, I most likely won't work while being in nursing school starting in Spring 2028 (so I'll have a little over a year of working before then). I also plan on working as a CNA soon once I complete my state exams next month, so there is a good chance I may prioritize that job.

There's a possibility that I am wanting to go to both trips mentioned earlier, which are back to back. I know quitting to go on those trips is dumb and impulsive, but this is also all I've ever wanted in my college experience (which I didn't get in my small high school): making new friends, going on random fun trips, making fun memories.

I want to hear advice about this thinking and possible decision in the future. Give me constructive criticism, tough love, advice, anything on topic please. Thanks!

I have a 30-minute recruiter screening for an SDR role at a software company that sells to spas and med spas.
I’m coming from almost 10 years in esthetics, including sales, client relationships, and management experience. I’m comfortable selling treatments/products and meeting goals, but cold outreach and software sales would be very new to me.

Would love some honest insight:
What should I expect during the recruiter screening?
What does a typical day look like? How much cold calling versus emails and meetings?
How stressful are the quotas and pressure?
What questions should I ask to spot red flags?
What do you wish you’d known before becoming an SDR?
It’s fully remote, base plus commission. I’m interested in the growth potential but want a realistic picture before changing careers.

Keep it real—what makes someone thrive versus burn out?

I last spoke to my new employer at the beginning of the month with accepting the role and then signing contracts. I put in my required few weeks notice at my current employer, and have been anticipating starting. I start mid next week because he thought a few days off and a shorter first week would be good.

Tomorrow is my last day at my current job and I haven’t heard from my new boss again. I didn’t expect to, there’s nothing else to work out until I begin. But of course the anxiety is coming in of what if I don’t hear from him. Should I expect to hear from by end of week, or should I wait until Monday when it’s a few days out from starting? Thanks.

Hey, I’ve loved giving you advice and now is my turn to ask for it.

I recently started a contractor role. I really enjoy it and like the people I work with. I definitely think there is potential to be converted to full time down the line. It is for six months and then potential conversion after. Possible extension of contractor status and of course possible rejection.

There’s a work trip where employees are flying in from all over the country and the whole team across multiple offices will be there.

I am about five hours away. People in my location are either flying or taking a train in. There is a website that you use to get a corporate card and/or book expenses. As a contractor I am ineligible to get either.

This is actually not that bad a drive for me, the only issue is my terrible car. I usually try to max out at two and half hours each way, and staying the night at the destination.

All employees are supposed to go to this and I have a feeling my direct boss and team manager will say it is fine I can’t go. But this is a missed opportunity to see them in person as they are not in my office and also friends and colleagues from other offices.

It is also a missed opportunity to get face time with leadership. I can tell it will be noticeable if I am not there.

Would like any perspective here. Should I spend probably a couple hundred on a rental car, gas and hotel room? Probably can’t even afford the one they are staying at. Or should I just sit out.

This is right before the holidays and I know a good impression can go a long way here toward getting full time conversion. Of course, there’s also the potential of me coming off as desperate for paying out of my own pocket to be there which would be the ultimate killer.

Hi guys, I’m in desperate need of a decent paying, full time job and phlebotomy has been on my radar. I want to be an x ray tech and apply to an x ray tech program in the next year or two.

I’m thinking that the phlebotomy experience would make me more competitive to get into an x ray tech program, as all of them in SoCal r super tough to get into.

How’s the job market looking for phlebotomists now? Will I be able to get a job right after I graduate from a phlebotomy program? Is it worth the $2k-3k to take the program? I live in the SoCal/Orange county area if that helps

Any help would be appreciated!!

Hello everyone,

I lost my job in August and have been looking since then. I'm looking into medical office jobs currently.

Can some kind souls refer me to some of these jobs?

I don't even want to have 'losing my apartment' on my mind.

This market is one of the worst I've dealt with.

DM me, of course.

Thanks.

i'm a junior project assistant at an agency and track deadlines and approvals. i used to think i should already know how to handle everything, but i'm trying to understand what people at this level are expected to decide themselves and what they should bring to their manager. how did you work that out?