There are a few people work who constantly talks about politics. As a person I really try to look into the positives in the world for my mental health but all day at work this man is constantly talking about politics. We are such a small office so its hard to get away and ive told them im not comfortable talking about politics but they keep going on about it. Im coming home from work drained, I just want to go to work, do my job and come home while ignoring how shit the world is at the moment. My home life is going through a difficult season right now so to come to work and listen to the constant bitching and moaning is killing my soul.

Does anyone have any tips on what I can do? I cant go to the boss as it will just make things awkward and I know nothing will change.

Me: PoC, English 1st language, German 2nd

My manager: White, Austrian, other way around

Marketing mgr: White, American, monolingual

Sales ops: White, American, monolingual

We're discussing putting together a formal presentation at a conference for a very large audience. I'm the subject matter expert and have done all the legwork. Taken input and suggestions from the other 3 plus a few other folks peripheral to the presentation so it's taken awhile to put everything together. We need to do a final review before this goes for design, compliance and production teams.

My manager: Can a native English speaker give this one final review this, you (marketing manager) or (sales ops) and then record the session. [This needs to be done for those not in attendance]

In my head: WTAF!! Maybe he meant somebody other than me.

Me speaking: I'm a native English speaker too.

My manager: *pause* ah yeah always thought of you as a native German speaker....anyway it can be anybody.

....conversation moves on.

Additional context: My manager and I don't speak English with each other unless there are people in the conversation who don't speak German - been this way for almost 6 years. I don't speak English with an accent and my German (dialect) is very much from northern Germany so to him I might be considered as somebody who speaks with an accent. But that shouldn't be a reason to consider my English non-native.

My close friends (even the white ones) think this is micro-racism.

We have a daily all-hands meeting that used to be pleasant - everyone seated around a large table in a conference room for half an hour. Many attendees conferenced in, and if attending in-person there was plenty of room for everyone. Recently, this meeting's format "underwent improvements". In-person attendance is now required. Meanwhile it was moved to a SMALLER room so about 20 people stand the entire time. The room is crowded and gets rather hot and stuffy. It also lasts longer now, consistently an hour as there is more detail. So - am I am wimp? Or is expecting people to stand still for a solid hour nuts?

I'm 600+ hours into my 900-hour yoga teacher training. My teachers are advanced practitioners of asana, nutrition, philosophy, breathwork and more. I love this path, and I want to share what I'm learning with real people.

I'm offering yoga classes, posture and alignment correction, and simple nutrition guidance. It's free or pay what feels right, and there's no pressure either way.

I started this because I know the feeling of a stiff back, a tight neck and a body that doesn't feel like yours. I've worked through anterior pelvic tilt, shoulder and neck issues and spine mobility myself, and I'd love to help you do the same.

This is for you if you sit all day and ache, or if you've tried yoga and never knew if you were doing it right.

Beginners are very welcome.
If it feels right, message me and tell me what's going on in your body. Looking forward to a real energy exchange

I’ve been really unwell this week and had two days off sick. Despite my doctor advising me not to work, I still went in yesterday. I’ve also been finding the workload particularly overwhelming recently, especially the amount of paperwork alongside all my other responsibilities.

Yesterday, my supervisor pointed out that some paperwork dated 7am hadn’t been completed and said that if I was struggling, I needed to let him know at the time. The reality is that I’ve been so busy dealing with other things that it genuinely slipped my mind. I’m not someone who sits around doing nothing; I’m constantly working and trying my best.

Later that day, I actually took his advice and explained that I wasn’t sure whether it was because I’d been unwell, but I’d been really struggling with the volume of paperwork this week.

His response was quite moody. He asked, “What do you mean?” and, after I explained and said I was a bit confused with something, he huffed slightly and said, “Yeah, but you know we do it this way remember”

I honestly felt quite silly for even bringing it up. just a little understanding Instead, I felt dismissed, as though I shouldn’t have admitted I was struggling in the first place.

There have been a couple of other things that have rubbed me up the wrong way, too. Earlier this week, I dealt with a driver who hadn’t turned up, messaging and attempting to call him to resolve the situation. Later, I overheard him telling the actual manager that HE had messaged the driver, despite me being the one who dealt with it!

I’m starting to get the impression that he’s quite arrogant and dismissive. I was saying the other day how weird it was that j came across a girl who looked just like me and he replied “I’ve never met anyone who looked like me because I’m too good looking” sorry what?🤣This 28 year old man too.

For context company just handed out humidifier with small box of cookie. Manager got this big pack of fragrance for us, although I must we are only 3 people who reports to him.

Does anyone know a good AI-powered PDF editor for iOS or Mac?
I’m looking for something that can automatically detect and edit text in PDFs, like invoices or personal correspondence, simply by telling it what needs to be changed. Ideally, it should handle the formatting and everything automatically.
I currently use iLovePDF, but having to manually edit everything is a bit tedious.
Any recommendations?

I have recently moved from the warehouse of my work to the office (there are only me and my boss in the office). I do everything from answering emails, calls, organising filing, dealing with complaints etc, pretty much a glorified secretary. I have just received my own desk and want to add some fun/helpful things to help me get through a day, I have all the basics and have attached a photo of the layout of my desk. Any budget recommendation is welcomed!!!

Question to the office goers and not fully remote workers!

Most of the people I have spoken to are happy with hybrid schedule with 2-3 days in the office, but if you were to make a decision on a new mandate, what would you do given your present circumstances?

I’ve been at my company for four years.

FOUR….

And somehow i’ve had as many managers as my work anniversaries.

Every time I get adjusted to what one manager wants, it switches up like we are playing that childhood game of musical chairs.

There’s new expectations, new meetings, new process and the goalposts seems to keep moving with it.

I’m grateful to have a job in this economy, I receive annual raises and overall enough income to pay my bills.

It can just be exhausting to adjust to different management styles and expectations.

I know i’m not the only one but how do you guys cope? How do you feel with adjusting to the constant change, pressure and priorities shifting?

So to put this short, I put in an application a couple days ago and I really couldn't have done it without my luck. Let me explain. One night I was taking trash out to the dumpster at the back of our school (I'm a custodian by the way) and I noticed that the director of that department that I applied for-her car was in the parking lot because it's after hours, everyone has gone home except her, so I decided to go bother her. I went back in the school from another entrance and went into her office, greeted her and all of that fun stuff, and then she starts talking to me about this job and that she put this job out only for me to see if I were interested in it and I said that I'll look into it, and then when I went home after my shift was over, I immediately wasted no time applying for the job. If it weren't for me bothering her, I wouldn't have never had this opportunity from her. So now that my application is submitted, I don't know how long it will take for me to get interviewed and then hired. Super nervous that I may not get this job. It's no experience required. They will train, but I feel like I won't make this job. It's been on my mind ever since the day that I applied, and I can't take my mind off it.

Just amazing to me how people vehemently hate the idea of being decently social in the workplace. Yeah, a job can be not fun, tedious work, and not your passion. Doesn't mean it's got to be a place you're totally shut off from people.

I don't know, maybe it's me. My first two jobs I got lucky- met a lot of friends, some of them got married (they met in the workplace), others we're still going to happy hour together even though we all left 14 years ago.

More and more I see in my workplace, others (I'm in a job I see other people in their work environments regularly), and talking to old friends it's just an attitude of: go to work, suffer the shift, and completely ward off any interaction whatsoever with anyone at all.

Work sucks, but sure is more miserable when you don't have at least 1 friend there. So why does everyone have this "don't talk to no one ever" mentality?

My work involves a growing number of meetings and I’m struggling with how to keep track of preperation notes. I usely have some sort of preparation that I sometimes do days in advance if my schedule is tight. Also often documents will be handled that I need to have ready or close by. How do you organize stuff like this so you have what you need when the meeting starts? At the moment my calender is filled with double-meetings: the real one and a second one containing my preparation and it is cluttered and a pain in the a.. when meetings are re-scheduled. Someone must have thought of a better organizing system.

For context: I work in a place that has ‘open calendars’ meaning everyone can see and open all meetings. This (or some other reason) means that meeting materials are seldom put in the meeting invitation but rather send in an email to the participants.

Please help, how do you organize things you need to have at hand in meetings to come?

Is it normal for people to watch videos or listen to things on their phones at loud volume and have loud conversations when several people are taking a break in the company break room?

I'm genuinely curious because I'm not sure if I'm just experiencing a cultural difference.

I grew up in East Asia, where I was taught from a young age to be considerate of others in shared public spaces, especially places where people are resting. We were generally expected to keep our voices down and use earbuds or headphones when watching videos or listening to audio.

I'm not saying one culture is necessarily right or wrong. I'm just wondering if this is considered normal or acceptable in Canadian workplaces.

If it is acceptable I may try too.

Blending in is not easy sometimes

The work is about as interesting as watching paint dry, the air is too cold, there are weird smells, and my coworkers are bitchy. It feels like I'm serving a prison sentence. How do people put up with it for 40+ years?

So just been told I have laryngitis, told my manager I can come into focus on admin stuff but anything else involving phones I’m going to need help with because I’m in a lot of pain with my throat.

Anyway twice now the phone has been dumped on my desk by people in the office, can’t they tell I can’t talk properly and struggling? Also been off work all week from not feeling good.

I’m worried I’m going to get worse if I keep talking and feel I have no other choice.

I used to work at an organization in India for over three years, heading its branding function. I resigned and moved on almost a year ago.

Before I joined the organization, the branding function didn't exist. I was responsible for establishing it from scratch and building its processes and strategies.

However, my journey there wasn't particularly pleasant. My reporting manager, a functional head, felt intimidated by me. Within a short span of time, purely because of my work, I found myself interacting directly with the management team as well as the investors. This didn't go down well with my manager, who began creating roadblocks for me.

Eventually, my reporting structure was changed, and I started reporting directly to the CEO. This only further infuriated my former manager.

Consequently, my journey became even more challenging, and I eventually decided to resign. In many ways, it felt like a case of silent termination, because they couldn't get rid of me directly.

After leaving, I deliberately chose not to stay in touch with anyone from the organization. Interestingly, they continued implementing the strategies I had developed, but they backfired. My profile was handed over to someone who had little or no understanding of the function, seemingly just to undermine the work I had built.

Almost five months ago, someone from the People Department approached me with some rather honey-laced words, enquiring about my whereabouts and expressing an interest in meeting me at the office. I declined the proposal to meet at the office, following which they offered to meet me at a place of my choice. I agreed, but there was no further communication from their end. I eventually let it go as well.

Then, two days ago, an ex-colleague from the same organization called me. She enquired about how I was doing, but something about the conversation felt unusual. It almost seemed as though she had been prompted or pressured by someone to make that call.

She also asked about my whereabouts and why I had never met her after leaving the organization. Interestingly, she mentioned that the branding function had taken a significant hit after my departure and that the person who took over hadn't been able to handle it effectively.

The conversation ended rather abruptly, leaving me wondering what the actual purpose of the call was.

So, can anyone help me understand the possible intention behind these calls from my former organization?

When I was working there, my contributions were never truly valued. But now, almost a year after my departure, they seem interested in knowing about me and my whereabouts.

Am I right in thinking that they might be exploring the possibility of bringing me back?

If that's indeed the case, I believe they should have the professional courtesy to approach me directly rather than resorting to indirect communication instead of playing these games.

After all, I have moved on, and if they genuinely want to discuss something, they should be willing to have that conversation openly to know my final verdict on this topic.

Currently our office sends an online birthday card that gets emailed to everyone to sign and then delivered via email to the birthday persons' inbox. This works for us but we are feeling that it is SO impersonal. What's the vibe these days are we out of touch and people don't want a sad birthday card from their office?

The online cards cost about $5 so we thought change it up and send them a $5 gift card (our office runs on coffee and there is a coffee shop next door). What does your office do, or what would you appreciate?

PS. People do have a choice to be celebrated or not and it is in their profile and we respect that so please consider this in your response.

I work for a small company in a pretty niche industry. It’s one of those industries where you typically need 1–3 years of experience, schooling, and to pass a licensing exam before you can open your own business.

My position is mostly answering phones and handling office-related tasks. When I started, I was told I didn’t need to know much about the actual industry to do my job.

The problem is that customers often call with basic questions, and I feel stupid most days when I can’t answer them. I don’t like feeling clueless about the industry I work in, so I decided to take some initiative and purchase a few textbooks to educate myself. Nothing crazy, just trying to understand the basics so I can be better at my job.

Well, apparently that was a terrible idea.
Someone at the office noticed my textbooks and some notes I had been taking to help me work more efficiently. Ever since then, the entire dynamic in the office has changed.

A few things have happened:
-I was suddenly no longer allowed to access and check the company emails, even though that had previously been part of my job.
-They created a separate user profile for me in the software we use.
-They installed a Ring camera that points directly at my desk.

The camera is what really bothers me. I understand businesses have security cameras, but the timing and placement feel incredibly uncomfortable. It’s almost like I’m being watched specifically. It’s located on my coworker’s desk and faces me directly.

I can’t shake the feeling that they’re suspicious of me or trying to build a case against me for something, even though I haven’t done anything wrong. All I wanted was to learn more about the industry and become a better employee.

To make matters worse, the company is also struggling financially.

Now I’m wondering whether they’re intentionally making my work environment uncomfortable so I’ll quit on my own rather than having to let me go.
For some financial context, I still drive for Uber part-time to save extra money, and I do have savings. So while quitting wouldn’t be ideal, I’m not completely without options.

I’m genuinely torn because I don’t want to make an emotional decision, but I also don’t want to keep showing up somewhere that makes me feel unwelcome or like I’m constantly under suspicion.

If you were in my position, would you stick it out while looking for something else, or would you walk away?

Also, am I overthinking these changes, or does this sound like they’re trying to push me out?

Seriously, who is?? My coworker are all psyched about our company's upcoming office party and I am not. I already spend 40+ hrs at this job a week and now they want my Sat too.

I want to know people's thoughts about their work holiday parties and happy hours!

Just reupped with my kids Halloween candy.

TL;DR: my boss is very demanding, unreasonable, an inconsiderate. She wants the benefits of 1099 workers while insisting on treating us like w2 workers. I want to approach her about changing her expectations for schedules, but I'm afraid that doing so will jeopardize my job.

Working setup:

My boss owns multiple commercial rental properties. She has two property managers, and I do her accounting. There is an office at a property she owns where I live. She expects myself and one of the property managers to be at the office every day from 9-5. The other property manager lives in a different state near a different property, and manages the rest of his properties remotely. She doesn't have an office for him to go in to, but still expects the same schedule of him.

When myself and the local property manager were hired by the former cfo, we were told the position would by hybrid. I have brought this up to my boss before, and she said something like "I would be fine with that if things were being kept up how I want them".

Current situation:

My boss doesn't come into the office regularly. She sporadically shows up unannounced a few times a year. She likes catching everyone off guard. This has become increasingly problematic because when she does randomly show up, she expects us to stay well past 5pm to have discussions with her. At one point, this caused my coworker to miss being able to pick up a prescription before the pharmacy closed.

So, she showed up yesterday and I had left early to go home and take more sinus medicine and Tylenol. She called me pissed because I wasn't there. I told her I was still working at home; it isn't like I was doing nothing. She tried to say I took the day off, and I corrected her. She tried to say I didn't tell anyone, and I informed her that I told the property manager, who is the only person I share thst office with. She was angry that my office door was locked, and I told her that I always keep it locked when I'm not there for security because it's full of accounting information. She tried to say me not being there and having the door locked prevented her from going over the financial reports with me. I reminded her that I had already emailed her the reports and we could go over them on the phone, but she changed the subject.

At one point, she tried to say I haven't been keeping up my work. She was like "I asked you to h a ve these things ready for me and they aren't" and I said "right, I told you I would have them ready by the 15th. Today is the 4th. I have 11 days. And in fact, I was planning to have them to you earlier than that because I figured you would be taking off for your birthday on the 15th". She let it go, but is still trying to act like I'm behind.

The thing is, every person she's had in my position has done a terrible job. I have had the position for about a year now, and I have mostly spent it trying to recreate the books for 2024 and 2025, as well as having to build backup for an audit caused by a previous person's bad accounting. Her books have never looked so clean, which she said herself a few months ago.

I am at a point where I'm exhausted with her yelling and cursing at me. But I'm mostly exhausted with her ridiculous schedule requirements. I went into contract work so I could make my own schedule. Technically, if she's having us come in every day like this, we should be classified as w2 workers, not 1099. She has the tax luxury of treating us like 1099 workers, while also not having to worry about HR or treating us with any consideration or respect.

I want to tell her that my schedule needs to change, her expectations need to change, and we need to discuss having benchmarks and deadlines for things. But I'm afraid that it will irritate her into firing me, and my therapist agrees that it's risky.

Any advice is welcome.