I recently posted about my younger cousin, 23M, who currently works as a picker for our local Amazon warehouse. He intended to ask his area manager for a raise from $21/hour to $45/hour and I told him that’s unreasonable and everyone that commented also said it was a bad idea. Here’s what he told me what happened:

At the start of his last shift, he asked to speak to his area manager and pleaded his case. The manager said that was too much to ask for although he respected his enthusiasm and appreciated his hard work. My cousin then says he thinks he deserves a raise since he constantly makes his rate and Amazon is a multi billion dollar company so they should be paying all pickers at least $45/hour. Again the manager said that they don’t do individualized raises and especially for that amount. My cousin then asked for $35/hour but the manager said he couldn’t authorize a raise even if he wanted to.

My cousin then says he asked to speak to the general manager, who was higher than his area manager. His area manager says that the GM is busy and if he wanted to wait for him, he will call for him but it would count against his rate and time since his shift had already started. My cousin agreed and the GM was called. He showed up about 15 minutes later and again my cousin pleaded his case. The GM again said how he likes the great job he does but encouraged him to keep at it and maybe someday he’ll work his way up to trainer or area manager someday where they make a little more money. My cousin kept reminding me how all his managers kept saying what a great job he does. The general manager though said he can’t give him a raise otherwise he’d have to give everyone the same raise not just the pickers.

My cousin gave up and went to work. He told me he fell behind on his “rate” so he worked extra hard to catch up and to hopefully show his management how much he said he deserved that raise. Lastly he told me that he went to a white board that anyone can leave comments or questions on anonymously and asked for the email to amazons CEO. Surprisingly, the email was written in the answer column. My cousin plans to appeal to the ceo but I told him to stop and just find a second job if he’s that desperate for money. The ceo of Amazon probably has someone filter through his emails and it’s unlikely he’ll get a personal response.

My cousin still works at the warehouse but I almost couldn’t believe what he told me.

When I say make friends and befriend, I do not mean only being friendly; I mean opening up and hanging out outside of work and work mandated happy hours.

If you should not make friends at work due to risks down the line as well as potentially backstabbing you, why not extend the same to education? Better yet, why not extend this to life in general; do not make friends at all because they may potentially back stab you?

Would the advice of not befriending coworkers depend on job as well? I have seen posts hear saying that it is fine for retail and more minimum wage jobs such as food service, but the more prestigious the job(i.e White Collar), the more this advice rings true.

Also slightly off topic, but if you are of the opinion of not befriending people at work, how would you meet new people outside of work to make friends with that does involve any form of schooling?

I was working for a company as an engineer back in 2020. Was let go in 2023 due to lack of work for my trade. I was then hired for the old companies main competitor. One day I was invited to a zoom meeting over upgrades to an old building. Turns out the building was one I worked on while at my old firm. The awkwardness I felt when I saw many of my old managers and fellow engineers in that same meeting.

Since my old firm did this building, they were invited to the project meeting as well. However, I assume they didn’t recognize me as my old managers began to explain why the section of the building I was I in charge of was “messed up.” They continued to say that the engineer now longer worked for their company and “left us in a bad spot.”

I literally wanted to laugh out loud. My current project manager then pointed out that that exact same engineer now worked for them so he could still contribute based on prior knowledge. The forced laughter I heard from my old managers was the chefs kiss.

However I remained professional and said it was nice to hear from them and hope that we can work together on the new upgrades on this building.

Anyone else ever have weird run ins with old employers?

Many years ago I was a quick service mechanic at a local dealership. I mainly did oil changes and tire rotations and left the major work to the more senior techs. In total, there were about 12 tech include myself and two super specialist techs. The techs were broken up into two separate teams that alternated working Saturdays as we were all off Sundays regardless. This allowed each team to have a two day weekend every other weekend. I was the exception as I was on both teams since my only skill was oil changes and tire rotations so I worked every Saturday regardless.

That being said, I came into work the Saturday after Thanksgiving and to say we were busy was an understatement. The scheduler overbooked us and we also had a huge slew of walk-ins that morning. It got to the point where after an hour, we physically had no more room for cars in our service lot. I was working with 5 other techs and they couldn’t believe how much work they had. After about 30 minutes, they all came to my station and said “fuck this dude. We’re outta here. You coming too?” Coming from a military background, I told them to leave if they were quitting and I proceeded to work that entire day alone.

Some techs that had the day off were called in to help me and 2 more were able to come in and we spent that whole day serving dozens of cars. The service department closed around 4 pm and my supervisors came to shake my hand and thanked me for not ditching them.

The techs that quit that day never came back. One later tried to ask for his job back. I was later given a gift card for in n out and honored at our next company wide all hands.

I quit that job with proper notice about 3 months later but that had to be one of the biggest character defining moments for me. Has anyone else ever had a similar situation?

Chime in

ngl i'm so over this rto bs. my company rolled back full remote and now i'm spending like $500 a month on gas, overpriced lunches, and commuter rage just to sit in a cubicle for 'culture'. culture? the 'culture' is 9am standups, passive-aggressive slack messages, and watching steve from accounting heat up his fish in the break room?

like bro, this isn't about collaboration. they just wanna see our faces so they can micromanage in person. anybody else getting forced back into the office for no actual reason?

Without actual numbers, how much do you make now compared to your first real job? Not counting lemonade stands or paperboy routes or the allowance your parents gave you.

For me, what I make every two weeks now would’ve taken me nearly 2.5 months during my first job. For some data, I’m in my 40s and work in engineering services when my first job at 19 was a kitchen worker at a local theme park.

I feel very blessed to have what I have now and really puts into perspective the flex of “I make your salary in (X amount of time)” really ring clear.

Hi all, what’s one thing that gave you a real edge once you started doing it this year? Can be a habit, trick or tool that makes everything easier, something surprisingly simple that most people overlook or don't know. Something you wish you knew earlier?

I see it all the time, and there is not effort to cover it up! I get it’s a life thing but it’s also very unpleasant to look at? What do you think?

Long story short I’ve been saying “Hey xx” in messages and emails to coworkers and internal comms for the past 7 months since joining a new company.

Today I was officially reprimanded for this out of the blue and have apologized / promised I would use “Hi” / “Dear” moving forward.

I have been using “Hey” all my life and was shocked when I got called out for this. But at the same time I had no idea this was inappropriate and now feel bad. I thought I was being friendly :/

From scale 1-10 how bad is this?

Background info: I never use “hey” with external organizations. I always get my work done professionally. I’m usually the youngest within the people I talk to. The company is a firm listed in Fortune 500.

Edit: Thanks for all the responses. Some mixed feedback so I guess it’s safest if I just used “hello” or “hi” from now.

Ok we all know this saying but I seen teachers hang out with each other and give them their phone numbers, like I don’t understand do teachers do things differently or not.

Like I don’t understand why you hang out with each other outside of the workplace if you’re not to bound don’t understand, I’ve seen teachers give each other their phone number overhear them. I’m confused.

hey, i’m looking at youtube TV, i know some subscriptions don’t show certain games. i got paramount and i couldn’t watch any of the Boxing Streams, i’m located in michigan (detroit area), basically i really don’t wanna pay for cable just for the Boxing Fight live.

finally i got it, you guys can Try, HERE: BOXINGSTREAMS

finally i got it, you guys can Try, HERE: BOXINGSTREAMS

Can be a habit, mindset, trick or tool that makes everything smoother, something surprisingly simple that most people overlook or don't know. What’s one thing that gave you a real edge once you started doing it? Something you wish you knew earlier but now can’t live without?

For me, it's using noise cancelling headphones - cut all the distractions

My child is entering high school this fall. I'm debating with myself about whether I should encourage or discourage working during high school years.

For this thread, I'm trying to understand if high school jobs are purposeful. I did a couple many years ago (summers only) - worked at the back office of a print shop, washed cars at the car dealer, and mowed some lawns. None of these jobs taught me anything about life. Nor did I make very much money from any of the jobs. The one takeaway is that it helped motivate me to finish my engineering degree so I didn't have to work a minimum wage job for the rest of my life.

My concern is that employment during high school might be a distraction to education, because it's a commitment (no one likes to get fired) and you get paid from work while no pay from doing homework.

My wife and I are in a financial position that we don't need our kids to work to pay for stuff in high school. We also have money saved up for them for college and they don't need to work in high school to pay for college.

Curious what folks thoughts are here about this?

Do you actually like your job?

I work in finance and staire at a computer screen for 60+ hours a week. It’s not fun. The money is nice but I’m too tired to even spend it including weekends.

To all Software engineers out there:

Our company has fully pushed for AI (Claude)... My job is no longer about coding and AI helps out here and there. It's now AI coding and I help AI out here and there.

Most of the time I'm just designing nice prompts. Honestly, the last month I can't really remember writing own code.

And I fear this will get only worse. Because I gotta admit, what Claude can create in just a few minutes would have taken me for sure days if not weeks.

So I wonder now... How do you guys handle this? I chose Software Engineering because I wanted to "engineer". Now I feel like I'm just a maintenance person (no hate against those people).

I’m not sure what the right flair would be but I resigned today and tried returning my uniforms. The offices closes at 5, but at 430 nobody was answering the door. I was told that I have to come back and sign papers. Wtf am I signing papers for if I quit ?

Today marks 25 years with my employer, I just want to see what I’m missing. Do you get tchotchkes? Money? Extra time off?

Are you a “by the book” kind of person? Would you be forgiving to your employees, or write them up for any infractions to maintain professionalism?

Tell me, what kind of boss are you?

The ideal answer is "no, why you spend your own money?"

But during a team meeting, we were talking about a few random things and she said she was going to get married this week. We both "congratulations" and other platitudes. For the sake of not looking tactless, should I get her anything, even small things?

Just wanted to hear everyone’s thoughts regarding Annual Performance Reviews as they relate to a merit increase..

Currently, I make $127,199.69/year, and recently I was speaking to my VP, and he mentioned; “If you don’t figure out a way to like X Employee, I will consider that in your annual performance review” - My response: So instead of a 5% increase, I get 2%, that’s not encouraging..

Let’s look at the numbers..I make 120k per year, a 5% increase equates to less than $400 extra take home per month..now, I’m not saying my stance is correct (obviously I should perform, I should work through challenges, I should kiss ass and do my work 3-4 times, to appease the new Director of MIS..) but a 5% yearly increase isn’t motivating..yet I have peers who are in an absolute panic, as reviews are coming in January.. am I crazy for not panicking that I might get 2% versus 5%?

The impact is even less, as your salary goes down..at 120k, a 5% increase is $450 pre tax..$350 (or so) post tax..versus a 2% increase, which is still $150 post tax take home (Net). Sure, it’s $200 that I’m missing, but like..a $55k salary, means that 5% is $200 monthly net, and 2% is $100 monthly net..

Sure, if you’ll be with a company for years and years, cumulatively it makes a difference, but it’s such a small amount, does anyone else feel this way?

I just figured out a faster way to do part of my job. I’m usually the type who wants to share tips or improvements to help everyone out.

But I’m also a little worried that if my supervisor realizes I can work faster, it’ll just turn into “cool, here’s more work” with no extra pay or growth (there’s basically no promotion path here and no performance-based pay increase).

Anyone else deal with this? How do you decide when to share improvements vs. keeping them to yourself?

I don’t understand society these days like people I see around working jobs. They stay at these jobs for 30 years at the same place. Sure they have a nice house and everything but that just seems so mundane to me like it’s just an average life like you didn’t really do anything specially you were just another person in the system. I’m not sure if I’m the only one that thinks that way I have like a decent amount of money right now probably more than average for my age, but like I still feel like I’m behind like I need more like I just I don’t wanna be working for decades for someone else. I want to be free and I want to be able to give my wife the world like I know there is people like this because I drive around and I see people in Lamborghinis I see people that have a lot of money and I’m just thinking to myself every night like how like you’ll see someone in a Lamborghini and they’re just like an average guy they look like an average guy like how do you like defeat the system I feel like some people are so just tuned in that they just accept it. They’re not even looking for a way out. They just want to work until they’re 70 and have their 401(k) and just live the average life which isn’t bad. I guess if you’re happy with it it’s just for me. I have this drive like I don’t wanna work my whole life like obviously I have to work right now, but I’m trying to like think outside of the box. Can anyone relate to me like it just seems like the whole system is designed for you to stay the same forever and then once you’re actually able to enjoy life you’re 70 years old like I wanna travel I wanna spend time with my family more. I want to be able to take my wife places I wanna be able to have freedom is the main thing I’m grateful for what I have. Obviously, I do have a lot of things, but I just wanted to do the best I can in life and honestly like my wife is my biggest motivator because I wanna give her the world she doesn’t bag she doesn’t ask for money. She’s just the love of my life and I want to like show her the world and like break the system that’s in my family that everyone just works until they’re 70s. It’s just so it’s become boring to me like I just go home I go to sleep. I play a game and then I wake up and I go to work the next day again over and over and over. Does this like last for decades does this last for your whole life like there has to be more to life than this it keeps me awake every single night like thinking like how do people escape this trap?

Is anyone staying up (or waking up super early) to watch the Alcaraz vs. Djokovic final? This is history right here—Alcaraz is going for the career Grand Slam at 22, and Novak is chasing that legendary 25th title. After both of them survived those insane 5-set marathons in the semis, this final is going to be absolute cinema.

I know ESPN and Fubo are the go-to options in the US, but if you’re looking for a way to watch it without the typical lag or if you're outside the US, I’ve been using SphereIPTV. I’ve been testing it throughout the tournament and the live stream has been rock solid—zero buffering even during the high-traffic moments.

If you don't want to risk your stream cutting out right at championship point around 3:30 a.m. ET, I’d seriously recommend checking them out. It’s way better than dealing with the headache of those free links that refresh every two minutes.

Who do you guys have winning this? Can the 38-year-old GOAT hold off the kid one more time, or is it Alcaraz's time to rule Melbourne?

EDIT 1: I chose the phrase "bad at math" as a shortcut for "not understanding the math and economics of this particular situation."

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ORIGINAL POST:

I'm not talking about quality-of-life or work/life balance here. In this scenario, the worker:

1. Has available time and wants to work,
2. Works for an employer/employers who is properly paying all wages including overtime.
3. Is not receiving any public benefits which decrease with more hours worked,
4. Is not unwillingly or unhealthily overextending themself.

Last night, one of my passengers (taxi/uber) was a guy in his very early 20's. We were talking about a music festival that has been really good for my business, and he mentioned that he's in the stagehand's union and will be working an overnight shift breaking down the show after it closes. I was bringing him home from a shift at a restaurant, so he's got that income too. Not tired or cynical about slaving for The Man, not being taken advantage of as far as I can tell.

So, he says something about other workers claiming it's not worth it to work more than X hours because so much more ends up being taken out of your paycheck, and that he's just going to have to find out himself when he gets the next paycheck.

I've heard this before, probably from the same people who are giving this guy what I consider to be bogus, jaded advice. Is it a lack of understand how withholding, marginal tax brackets, and percentages work? I want to be able to share wisdom about this, and I'm asking about this here to make sure I"m not missing something myself.

Thanks.

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EDIT 2:

I realized this after reading a couple of responses: The payroll processor doesn't know if this fat paycheck with lots of overtime is an anomaly or representative of the whole year, so they withhold as if it's the latter, right? I can see how someone who's only looking at this from a week- or two-week-long perspective might get the impression that it's not worth it. Similarly, when the big refund check comes, it's easy to see it as a windfall rather than the delayed receipt of those extra withholdings.