Sometimes the perks of a job are just another way they're deceiving you. They make it sound appealing in the application and the interview, but then you get there and you realize mandated company bowling outings are more of a nuisance than they are a perk. This is true of a few things workplaces offer to make themselves seem more appealing. It's part of the bait-and-switch culture of the corporate world. They lure you in with ping pong in the break room and then you're slowly driven crazy by th…

Being an assistant is a tricky job. You have to work incredibly closely with your boss and act on their behalf. And if you're a personal assistant, you probably have to help with aspects of their life that aren't work-related. You might have to schedule appointments, pick up their dry cleaning, run personal errands, and deal with their family. This can lead to a blurring of the professional and the personal world. You're in their lives, and they're in yours. But it's still a job. You can't lean…

Time for work

It's always a little bit awkward to leave a job. You have your reasons for leaving, but you might not be on the best of terms with everyone there. You might be leaving because of a toxic environment or a toxic boss. You want to leave behind a place that made you feel bad about yourself or didn't value your contributions. If that's the case, then you might want to leave as quietly as possible, out like a lamb, because ruffling any feathers might make you feel worse. But you still need an outlet…

Nothing hits quite like a good construction meme during those pre-dawn breaks

Unpaid internships are one of the biggest scams of our current work culture. We all agree that internships are valuable to young people who want to get a taste of a certain field, gain some practical experience, and start collecting references for their resumes. Moreover, interns are valuable to companies to train prospective hires, gain some new insight, and build their programs. But where, in all of that, does it say that it doesn't need to pay? You're doing real work, after all, and work sho…

He's not the sharpest knife in the drawer

Clocking in

Carpooling can be a wonderful thing . If you alternate, it saves you money on gas, it helps the environment, and it gives you a way to bond with your coworkers. Many work relationships are formed on the way to and from work. Commuting is something you have to do anyway, and it gives you a chance to chat about the goings-on of your workplace. But if the carpooling arrangement gets to be too one-sided, things can go wrong. Going to work can be a sacred time to gather yourself and your thoughts be…

I've CC'd your manager for vis

Anyone who's looking for a job right now could tell you that it's rough out there. Finding a job can be a difficult, arduous task, especially if you're just starting. You quickly find out that you'll have to do some pretty major compromising. You might have to work for less money than expected, you might have to do something a little outside of your interests, and you might have to commute farther than ideal. It's part and parcel of figuring out a new work situation. But you find out which comp…

Back to work

Everyone needs rest, it's a non-negotiable . You need time to sleep, absolutely. That's a given. But you also need time to rest your mind from work. You need days where nobody outside of your family asks anything of you, and you can just spend time doing things you enjoy doing. Perhaps you're into needlepoint, or perhaps you're in a flag football league. Whatever it is, you need unstructured time to feed those parts of yourself. And work isn't allowed to swoop in and take that away from you. Th…

Back to work

Interviewing for a job is one of the most nerve-racking experiences we all must go through. Having to sell yourself to a stranger on the spot is not something that most of us are comfortable with. You come with your talking points, ready to run through your work history and share your skills, and you hope that nerves don't overtake you when you get there. Unless you're a psycho, the commute to the interview is most likely an unpleasant experience, full of anticipation and anxiety. So when you f…

Common sense is not that common in this company