If anyone in my team books time off and I want to take the same weeks off, my request will be rejected. As someone with a child, I can only take holidays outside of school terms, so I plan quite far in advance and book the weeks of early. I've never been asked to switch dates nor have I asked anyone to swap

Yup, and stop being offended when I say I'm here for the money, "family" doesn't pay the bills

Got Covid at my workplace. TWICE! Stay the F home!!!

does not work well with introverts ... at all

If you are ever tempted to think gender inequality is a thing of the past, remember this fact. Even in my 'female friendly' firstworld country (Netherlands) the average hourly wage for women is 13% less than for men, eventhough the women are better educated than the men.

If it's not paid it can't be mandatory.

In the USA it is a violation of federal law for employers to tell their employees to not discuss their salary.

In general? Yes agree without doubt! But... in case your manager for example is an incompetent arshole who stabs you in the back at any minimal chance and shows the team accomplishments off as their own... then I find it more than legetime to exactly let the incompetent, uneducated arsehole with their social intelligence of a potato look like the one he is in front of his bosses 😈

If you care about your workers mental health then just pay hire a therapist they can go to

Secret Santa is actually fun if done right. Create a budget limit and a wishlist based around it, draw lots to see who gets who and absolutely make sure to stick to the wishlist and not get too creative.

100% I do not and will not participate in those things. I work for money. That's the only reason. Not for friends or culture or any other reason. I want a paycheck. I will work hard for that paycheck but I will not participate in these stupid things.

Implying my job paid me enough to spend on things other the luxuries of life like potatoes and bread.

In my current workplace, the secret santa gifts are paid for by the company. You only have to get them and get the costs refunded. Then the gifts are given to our receptionist who wraps them, making sure that the gifts are appropriate. Even the remote teams participate. You choose something for your secret Santa from any online shop, send it to the company, the receptionist wraps it and sends it to the secret Santa to unpack during our holiday meeting. Everyone who wants to participate has to put a short introduction letter into the raffle so people know what you like if they draw your name. All longtimers talk fondly of the Christmas parties and zhe secret Santa. Even our receptionist who always gets plenty of gifts fom many people. She's our secret angel, the glue of the company. It's my first year, so I'll participating for the first time. I'm actually looking forward to it.

Secret Santa always impacts someone negativity regardless of the intent. Keep it at home.

I'm introverted but ours is a small team and there is a small limit and the aim is fun not humiliation. I wouldn't do it with a team I didn't know. I've had some great gifts.

I prefer White Elephant

Engineer it so that your boss/team leader gets a giant butt plug, I guarantee you won't be doing it again next year.

this should be much higher, ive just been ropped into this years, on a new team where i dont know anyone. grrreeeat

One year I didn't get a present at my department's Secret Santa. They had laid him off the previous week.

Secret Santa is super fun, or can be. But it should absolutely be optional with no pressure to participate.

My dept is doing secret Santa this year. The person I need to buy for is easy. He loves Lego so £10 of Lego it is.

I think this one is only toxic if it is compulsory. I've had several workplaces who do it as optional and the people who don't join were never pressured or made to feel left out. It was fun for those involved, but not over the top. We also always set a fairly low budget, so no one was strapped for the money and the gifts were more fun than anything to stress over.

Hate Hate hate

I don't celebrate Christmas.

No way! is soo funny, best memories when I used to work for a company

While a large portion of my work would be remote-capable, I prefer coming to the office for multiple reasons. My home office gear is actually better than the company's, but I prefer the short communication distances, the personal contact, and having archieves, sample collections and merchandise in reach. Also it helps with the separation of work and leisure - when I have left the office, only a major emergency will prompt me to answer my phone or use my laptop for work purposes.

I considered my immediate bosses' job was to find answers when I needed them, and keep me supplied with what I needed to do my job. Otherwise, just let me do my job.

And then praising and proudly "sharing" the donors' "generosity" with the whole world instead of shaming the employers for their feudal policies.

This what I dislike the most in people

I think this is an American workplace thing. Never saw that mentality anywhere I've lived or visited in Europe.

Yeah, don't do this. If you want to help, just donate straight to the charity. Want to know why they push so hard for 100%participation? Because when you donate through the corporation, all that money is considered to come ~from the corporation~ and guess who gets the tax write off for that donation? Why, the corporation,of course...same thing happens with donations made at check-out. If you want to donate, it should go from your pocket to the charity...no middle-person.

Agree, no need to make someone spill their guts about how they like to sleep naked on a thick layer of sauerkraut

Ask my anti-social a$$ to do this & watch what happens 🤣🤣🤣

If you're sick, you're sick and entitled to your PTO.

Here's what I learned works everywhere: you are valued based on what you're paid. Sell yourself off as the bargain basement special, don't be surprised if you're taken for granted. The trick is to not put any attitude into the not putting in extra hours; don't say "I'm not getting paid to do this". Just don't do it, and if there's no other way (for instance you're left holding the bag last teacher in and a parent is late, you can't dump the child off in the street) make sure you file for overtime.

This is a really good one. They don't do our job, they don't know how long things take. They usually are clueless as to what skills we possess that are greatly beneficial to the role we are in. Yet we are not consulted when it comes to processes or hiring new employees.

This is particularly twisted.

Don't yell, period. If someone does anything wrong there are other more civil and effective ways to let them know why a mistake needs to be fixed and avoided. Yelling doesn't solve anything (EDIT typo)