Just How BAD Was Pat's Last Day Job? 

I worked at Home Depot for 4 years. 3 different forklift licenses, could run 3 departments and supervised the Tool Rental department. My hard work was always rewarded with more work, never money. My breaking point was when my son was born at 25 week old and was on life support in the NICU for almost 4 months. 3 weeks after he was born, I was called into the office to discuss how my “work has slipped and I’m too distracted”. I was very upset but kept my cool and reminded them what I had going on and his reply was, “I understand, but when you clock in an are on company time you need to leave my baggage at the door.” I must have levitated from my chair because I blacked out about 10 seconds after and just remember standing a screaming fuck you! I was escorted out of the building. I applied for a new job and miraculously had a job the following Monday. Can’t believe I stayed so long.

Yeah, I've found the bigger the company the less you should be working your ass off because there will no reward for doing so. They don't see it as "Look at this guy going above and beyond for us, let's give him a raise!" but instead "Look at this guy going above and beyond for us, thanks for the free labor and here's even more work" or even worse "look at this guy going above and beyond for us, let's fire someone else and let him do the work of two people so we only have to pay one salary". Corporations are profits before people, never forget it.

This reminds me of a sign we had in the Navy. It said, "Doing a good job here is like pissing yourself while wearing black pants. You get a warm feeling, but no one notices."

My very first boss gave me the best advice. He said never perform at a pace that you arent comfortable keeping up with for the rest of your life because those above you will expect it.

Ian is a true friend man 30 minutes of humoring Pat over his work gripes from a job he doesn’t even have any more 🤣

I fucking love hearing people complain about their jobs

HR is to protect the company, go to a lawyer first.

My last day job was soul-crushing. No breaks were permitted (even though that went against labor standards), and they would task the receptionist with timing employee washroom breaks. If we were longer than 3 minutes, she would report it to the manager, and we would be called in for a one on one meeting to explain why we were in there so long. One day I brought in a small cactus plant to put on my desk. The next day it was thrown in the garbage by the second in command... she said it was unprofessional. I just got up and left... I went on stress leave, and I can transition to EI if need be. That was a month ago, and I'm never going back.

God, Pat talking about having to deal with people at work is like he's describing MY current job. Feels like my soul is running dry from the squeeze.

"Works the same way at Chippendales" well actually I think those guys will show me their feet when I offer to pay...

I'm in the middle of changing my profession. I have three kids so it's really tough to make 14 bucks n hour when that what literally everything in my area is paying. Hell, even people with college degrees are making 16-18 buck n hour now. Barely a livable wage. Hopefully my Twitch takes off. I don't have much time to do it because of the job but I continue to grow which is progress.

Years ago I left an extremely stressful job and I remember saying during the in between time that I “found myself” again. If your job essentially turns you into a different person and you forget who you are at your core, you need to leave.

This was like a Festivus Airing of Grievances

One thing I've learned as someone similar in age from my own career, including jobs at two universities going through budget issues where, while not getting fired myself, I kept getting more responsibility offloaded to me at no pay increase/"think of the students!": We all only live once, you can't get that time back, and (sadly/unfortunately) in the majority of jobs nobody will ever care about or take into account that extra effort/115-150% as much as it should be. In those jobs, either do only what you absolutely have to do in order to not work extra/unpaid/unrewarded hours, or if the expectations are truly unrealistic...leave. I'm lucky enough to be in a job that respects work/life balance and regularly rewards above and beyond effort. While I wish I found it a decade ago I am glad I have my perspective where I can value it a lot more as well as know that many other people do not have this situation for empathy purposes.

I worked at a restaurant for nine years, and my managers and coworkers were awful. They expected so much out of me for bad pay, and the manager was a woman who hated men, so she was aggressive and would threaten to fire me if I didn’t want to come in on my day off. It was a terrible experience, and I think it was the cause of my anxiety issues. I stayed way longer than I should’ve, and I’m still not used to my calm and respectful work environment I’m in now. Smart move to get out, Pat.

Pat, I went through something similar with Microsoft. Not my own boss but I got out for something different. I'm glad you shared your story. These things are hard to talk about but should be more. Perhaps it would make people more aware of stuff they see but then don't speak up. At any rate I'm glad you are doing well and I found you and your channel.

I know the feeling. My last job was at the zoo. Was suppose to be groundskeeper/janitor. Too many times over worked, was told i work what he said. Was almost forced to do things that was unsafe. Like trying to have me stand on tip top of ladder. Was verbally degraded. Called not a man by some 65 year old fuck

I've worked blue collar jobs all my life and honestly what you just described sounds like a dream job compared to what I've experienced and seen. This is just scratching the surface but here are some highlights from my life. - Working in a wearhouse in the Summer with not only all the windows shut but boarded up to better trap in the heat with no air conditioning or fans. It had thermometers in it however. I remember one 100 degree, super humid day about an hour into work seeing that it said 122 degrees before passing the fuck out from heat stroke. Never went back to that place again. Wasn't there for long over all. Maybe a month (way too long) as I got it from a temp job. Oh, and we had quotas to meet so you weren't given any allowances for slowing down because it was hotter than under Satan's ballsack in there. - Did a janitorial gig where I had this super O.C.D. way above and beyond supervisor who would do shit that was ridiculous considering the pay. Like getting on his back and physically shoving himself under a toilet (the kind attached to walls so they hover a foot or so above the ground) like it was a car. I did the job right for years no problems. This one day he gets under and sees a tiny dot. I actually had to put my phone under it and take a picture and enlarge it to see what he was talking about. But I located it and try to remove it. It's not coming off. I quickly realized that it wasn't a stain but that from OVER cleaning the paint had chipped off. I tell him that. He tells me I'm wrong. Do it again. So I humor him. I'm like I'll go fucking ham on this as he's watching me do it and when he looks and sees it's still there he'll have to admit I'm right about it. He made me do this FIVE times over 45 minutes. By the end he was full on shouting "FIVE FUCKING TIMES!!! I TOLD YOU WHAT TO DO FIVE FUCKING TIMES!!! AND YOU STILL CAN'T DO IT?! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Mind you the place we were at was STILL OPEN and had employees and customers there. Who were eyeballing me like "Should we call the cops?" To which I just shook my head no. He finally goes to do it himself, sees it wont come off because I'm right. Blames ME for doing it wrong and that is why it wont come out and then we move on to the rest of our day. Did he ever get reprimanded for it? No. Did I? Absolutely! - And the one that takes the cake. I'm working in this huge factory. There was one manager there who was a really good person named Ray. Ray was in his late 50s. Super positive, down to Earth, let's get it done type attitude. This was around Christmas so everyone is working overtime. 12 hour days. 13 possibly 14 for the management. So Ray just drops to the floor one day out of nowhere. Heart attack. Someone calls 911. He lived. Next day he's back! Looking like a Zombie from Michael Jackson's Thriller. I just walk right up to Ray and say "What the fuck are you doing here?!" He tells me that the higher up's told him if he didn't show up they'd FIRE him. Lose all his benefits and so on. His reasoning was if he gets fired his wife gets nothing. If he drops dead at work his wife gets something. I got HUNDREDS of these. I worked for one job that had one of those signs that said how many injuries there were in a certain period. It was like 200 in 100 days and those were just the ones bad enough that Corporate was like "yeah they can't come in like that." That didn't count those who should have been counted but were told to get their ass back to work and stop crying like a baby.

I can relate Pat. I hate my current job, been stuck here for 5 years underemployed in customer service, call centre bullshit and totally miserable but have no prospects of anything better even with a University STEM degree. Props to you for telling them to fuck off and getting out of there.

Jeez Louis... This is incredibly vulnerable and honest. This is very much a story than many of us have lived. Thanks for sharing.

I’ve found that one of the best things about working for the Government is that expectations aren’t just known, they are mandated. This is your job, this is your pay, and asking someone to exceed that is highly scrutinized to make sure management is not stepping out of bounds. I wish labor laws in the US were strong enough for that kind of thing to be extended to private industry. Fat chance.

I thoroughly enjoyed this...good for you man for standing up for yourself and maximizing your potential doing your own thing.

As someone who has both been taken advantage of AND someone who had to manage work loads, I can tell you there's a reason most companies are like this: because all employees make the same mistakes: NEVER WORK AT A PACE YOU'RE NOT CAPABLE OR WILLING TO KEEP UP. Most companies will make the same assumptions: - people are not working at their maximum capacity - people can handle extra work loads during peak times - people will slack off if you don't actively give them work to do If you work your ass off, the company will see this pace as the "average work pace" and will do two things: they'll raise their expectations of your co-workers so that now this speed becomes a company accepted speed AND they'll also believe you can maintain this speed indefinitely at best, at worst they'll increase your work load since you prove to be more productive than your colleagues. Seriously, think about it. If you have ten workers that each work at a different pace. You have one fast worker who works 30% faster than average and seemingly can do it consistently. If you want to give out more work, do you give it to the slow worker who works below average, or do you give it to the fast worker who, because of his extra speed, can deal with it faster. I mean to the fast worker it's only a 10% extra load while to the slow worker it's a 20% extra load. It's pure logic that dictates why fast workers end up overworked, burnt out while receiving no extra pay. The problem is that people don't speak up and ask for a pay rise. You won't get a 30% pay rise for working 30% faster but you may get a 15% one ...

The last company I worked for did one of those mass firings through a series of conference calls. The calls were either being fired, being moved to an outsourcing company but still technically working for the company, or staying with the company. I cannot tell you how stressed I was when people around me were storming out of the building or crying because they found out they just got fired. I ended up being one of the guys being transferred.

This is why governments need to support small businesses. Because they can’t afford to let good people go.

“In my mind, the war is still going on” - Pat

Everyone needs an Ian in their life! What a good friend listening to Pats story

Bruh, after hearing Pat’s story and knowing how much work and dedication he put into his books and the podcast alone……respect homie. Why you don’t have 10M subs is beyond me, but great work!

i'm in the process of looking for a another job. I never through i would hear this from you because this sound like me and what I am going threw now at my job. this is giving me motivation to move on and find a another job to make me happy again.

I realized very early that not a single person in any company is immune to being fired or no longer a part of that company. Everyone is expendable labor and it doesn't matter if I bust my butt putting my all into a job and making a lot of money or whatever. The company doesn't care. I'd rather be doing something like I'm doing now...I'm a live in caregiver for my best friends parents, I don't get paid for my work but I have food and shelter in exchange, I'm getting a little income from my VA Disability Benefits and living happily within my means and what I need in life. The point is I enjoy what I'm doing and I'm very happy where I'm at. That's what you should strive for out of a job...find what makes you happy and is most rewarding to you! :)

If you have the chance to be self-employed, anything is better than working for someone. Whether it be installing AC, teaching, transport etc.. Do it! My business took 4 years to take off and now I have no boss, I make my own hours and my income is proportional to how much I work. My salary ranges from 5-20k depending on customers, demand, my willingness to work etc.. I will never be able to work for someone ever again!

I once had to write a job description explaining how to do my job from start to finish for my manager so I could actually take a day off because the senior employee was inept. Fun stuff.

Thanks for sharing, Pat. I kind of did a similar thing several years ago. My version was a bit different and less successful (I started a comic book-themed film festival that we were unable to sustain), but I can really relate to the desire to be doing something creative. I started a RU-vid channel for that reason, I just had a daughter and needed some outlet to do something. I was so overwhelmed by my then-day job and a newborn that I started posting videos. I haven't had much success, but I didn't really do it for that reason (I mean, I still want people to watch, but that wasn't the reason I started). Ironically I'd quit that job to be home with my daughter another year later. All of this is my long story to say, all of that got in the way of me doing the one thing I wanted to do, write. I love telling stories, and it seems like you do as well. Hopefully, you can find time to do that. It's been an immeasurable challenge for me. The later great S.L. Stebel, (one of my mentors and the writer who Ray Bradbury called "the best writing teacher that ever was"), challenged me to write 20 minutes every day focused on telling a story. I really haven't lived up to his challenge with consistency, but I wrote a draft of a novel. All of this is really to say, I'd love to see what that version of creative Pat comes up with.

The pleading, supplicating nature of corporate work that's always predicated on recognition in order to climb the ladder melted my brain. I left to start my own thing - I make a little less money on average, and have to pay my own healthcare, but my god, I actually like waking up in the morning again. Never going back.

Unpaid sick days, 15 days annual leave? Jesus, that's terrible.

Getting employment lawyer adds with this video, lol

I really can relate to that "working more than your job description when young" statement. When I first got into the working world, I thought that if I really worked hard and put in extra effort and time that the upper management would recognize that and compensate me well. False. They sure did see what I was doing, and suddenly started expecting that from me and even updated the job descriptions to account for some extra work. I found myself working twice as many hours on a salaried position, but getting 1/3rd the pay I was expecting. I never would take vacation time. I would never use my sick days. I would just work even harder waiting for that compensation. The only thing I got from them was a layoff notice after 6 years on the job working 2x the workload for 1/3rd the pay.

While I can say that not all corporate jobs are this bad, I've been through this sort of thing too, and worse (game industry). My heart goes out to you and I'm soooo glad you got out and found something that genuinely has made you happy. I can tell from watching these awesome podcast clips on RU-vid that you're in a much better place.

Loved this rant. Need more of them.

Wow I am so glad you got out Pat. The sad thing is it’s scary leaving corporate because so many fail. You found your passion and were able to make a career out of it. I think you are such a hard worker and talented that you made your own career.

The one job I worked at, I started doing the job of two people after someone walked off the job for weeks. So the one manager came to me and asked why isn't this getting done, I told him you do know that some quit and I have been his job for weeks. The manager just said OH.

I'm starting to notice a correlation between not only my life but pats also. Is that women in manager positions do not respect men in the workplace. This is a very common.

I think we need a compilation of all the times Pat has said “Ian said I looked grey.”

This video really illustrate why I have been a fan for so long.

I had an job at a lawn service and sprained my thumb, probably should have taken a week off for it to heal, but I gutted it out and kept working just limiting how much I did. Got accused of milking it by a guy, who not soon after took an entire week off because his back was sore, I just thought I’ve worked through sore backs and wanted to chew him out when he came back, but reminded myself, “He didn’t know how sore my thumb was and I don’t know how sore his back actually is”, so I kept quiet

I worked for a corporation that did everything to push me to my breaking point. Anyone who wants to hear about my nightmare experience, please feel free to read on. I got a degree and found a position in my field, right out of college, at a place 20 minutes away from where I lived. I was there for a year and a half and loved it, but then they closed my branch, giving me the option to take a miniscule severance package, or choose between a branch that had a 40 minute commute and another that had a 60 minute commute. I was being heavily pursued by the branch that was further away, but much to their displeasure, I chose the closer branch because it saved me 40 minutes a day, and was in a much better city. After all that, and with only one week at the new branch, they restructured the entire company, forcing anyone with my job title to work out of the branch that was further away. This time, I wasn't offered severance, so I was forced to move again. After a couple months at the new branch, they took my role and split it into 2 separate positions - one with more responsibility and one with less. I was immediately demoted into the job with less responsibility. They hired 25 new employees with zero experience/schooling into the exact same position, and gave us a team lead who was an absolute, two-faced POS. I was repeatedly told they couldn't promote me to the role with more experience, but I was given the harder work load anyways and forced to train all the clueless, new people because I had experience. Absolutely fed up, I decided to apply for a better job in a different department, and got it. On my way out of my old department, my team lead, with a grin on her face, told me she had secured the original promotion I'd wanted, but it was too late since I'd already decided to leave. What a colossal bitch! So I get to my new department, and the corporation changes everything again. We get a completely new computer system, where everything is all about the numbers generated by completing work and not about the actual quality of said work. My new team lead (another complete POS) started regularly reprimanding me for having low numbers, but they never actually cared if the people with higher numbers were doing a good job (which they weren't). Since I was in a new position and didn't want to fail, I asked my team lead to review my work or let me shadow whoever they thought was doing the best job so I could find out what I was doing wrong. I was completely ignored. One day, I was called in to a meeting with my team lead and I ended up quitting on the spot. I didn't even know I was going to do it when I entered the room, but after being reprimanded for the same nonsense, I'd just reached my limit and couldn't take the BS any more. It was a good decision, but I truly wish I had just taken the severance when I was originally offered it.

Yup corporations and even schools are ran in horrible ways. We need more empathy and logic in daily life. SORRY WORKING YOUR LIFE AWAY FOR 30/40YRS ONLY TO ATTEMPT TO ENJOY LIFE IN OLD AGE IS NOT HOW HUMANS ARE MEANT TO LIVE!!

I have worked for the same company for nine years. I use to have a near perfect boss for nine years until this April. The guy would listen to his employees respected us, and genuinely cared if we were ok each day. He would give employees advice and never forced us to do a task we weren't comfortable doing. His advice to me was. "Do the best you can on the job and anything you do and never give up when things get rough." "Don't let worry get in the way of your sucess." Bosses that want to bring up and employee are kinda rare these days. I'm close to getting a promotion at work and Ian is right. If management sees that you can handle many tasks they will just expect more out of you as time goes on. It's like squeeze as much work out of people as possible and watch the amount of money coming in and out. I am fortunate to work at a place where they care about work and life balance. I have been nearly burned out at a job working forty hours plus weekend for nearly a year. I am loyal to the people I work around. I respect management, but not to the point to kissing butt.

That's the only type of manager the one that doesn't know shit from shinola. You've been doing your job for years and some noob fresh out of college knows how you can be even more productive. That's every job ever.

Totally enjoyed watching this because I'm still in SoCal not only working 3 part time jobs, but at least one of them I'll be working a gig during SDCC 2022 coming up. Looking forward to working at IDW booth as Sonic the hedgehog handler. Also part of me still wonders when I've should start retiring my RU-vid Hobby as I'm 30 and need to start taking life seriously. Especially since I use to have a dad who worked hard as an electrician to negotiating company contracts that passed away when I turned 21. Overall this was good to watch since I'm killing time before I head out to SDCC soon.

i know your pain since i worked at a restaurant for years and it felt corporate when we had suits or exec's coming operating up top and i only liked a few and it was a demanding job of not getting enough rest and dealing customers in the frontlines.

This is perhaps one of the most poignant episodes of the C.U.P. Now that we know the turmoil that Pat was in, it puts into a different perspective the early Punk episodes. I think we all have experienced some or all of what you went through. We're all very proud to see the rewards that came from the risk you took from quitting. Thanks for sharing your story!

Bad managers can kill employee drive to work at a place had a manager that was so bad it drove me and several other people to quit.

Pat is absolutely right about every job I've ever had. This is the norm in every corporate job.

Thanks for sharing, Pat. Very interesting stuff. I've worked for a small, local company for the last 21 years, and it's probably the opposite of what you've experienced. We have a level-headed boss (which is also the owner) and on more than one occasion he has come to me and said I looked stressed, or that he could see I was not OK. Then he offered to offload work to other co-workers and himself and also told me to slow down. He said he didn't want to lose me because of burnout. So, 21 years and no plans to quit! I do put a lot of stress on myself, but my boss and co-workers have my back. At least most of the time 😊

"When you work at most jobs and you are efficient and good at your job you are rewarded with more work. (NOT more money, NOT a better position) They throw more wor at you to see what your breaking point is." -Pat True. Luckily I was able to break free of corporate work myself back in 2018.

Not liking or being close to most people is not unique to an office workplace. Most people don't want to have anything to do with most people they know. It's nothing unusual to only form a friendship with a small percentage of people you know. And when you get older, that percentage gets smaller because you stopping giving a shit about what other people think about you.

Not sure but I got bad gas today

Pat story time, i'm always game.

@12:04 Sage Advice that everyone should take to heart. Especially if you are about to, or recently have entered the job market. I made this same mistake of doing my job too well often pulling all nighters to meet some deadline, and just kicking a$$ in general. Gratitude for my extra effort quickly became expected behavior and I would only get feedback on my performance, and negative feedback at that, when I dipped and wasn't maintaining the established expectation of output the business had become accustomed to. I wish I had learned how to avoid this trap WAY earlier in my career than I did. Same with the making sure to take your vacation. Most companies these days will not roll over vacation days or pay you for unused vacation if you don't use them in a calendar year so use those days!

Not my main gig, and I've noticed it all over, but yes this is all correct. Specifically I work many summer gigs, some of which for well over a decade. Each year I seem to get "promoted", which in turn means I still do everything I did before, and now take on more that other people had done before me on top of it. In doing so I have at times seen a pay decrease, due to the fact that I'm pulling the weight of multiple people, but still only looked upon at a basic level.

Ah Pat the FEELs! I was a twenty year market research veteran (former senior project director and data analyst) it nearly killed me. I left it behind about six years ago to follow my dreams. I am so fucking glad you did toooo!

really appreciate the hard numbers when speaking from experience toxic environments are teh worst

Sounds very similar my current job , it's so depressing . I do two people's jobs because they're understaffed and they've loaded each of the two jobs with several extra hours worth of work daily that we have to magically get done , it normally means no breaks or lunch if we want to leave at a reasonable hour . We get paid a salary so any extra hours are not compensated . I put in at least an hour per day overtime for free not to mention the hour of breaks per day that I work through and don't get paid for . They would thank us for doing the extra job for about the first two weeks , now a year later because we've all gotten everything done by the skin of our teeth it's just expected and they give me more extras about twice a week without batting an eye . If I take a day off , I have to make up the lost work when I come back , I am basically in a deficit , it does not get done in my absence . I'm never going to get promoted because they need me right where I'm at getting all of their shit done and making them look good . We've been on 3% cost of living raises every year for the last 4 years and this last year they voted to not give us any raise at all . My boss is actually a good dude , unfortunately he's never there . You initially put up with it thinking that the higher ups are going to notice your work ethic and reward you . They see it aright , and take advantage of it . They also know that we all need our jobs .

Very true about the sales people, takes a toll working with them or adjacent to them...

The problems with jobs today is, the more competent you are, the more companies tend to overwork you. It's not enough that you're a good worker. Oh noo. They have to capitalize on it. "Hey! Pat can do this. Let's have him write the training manual for the whole department. 😡" The management is the other problem. Bunch of jackasses walking around in suits acting like big shots. I remember my mom was passing away, and my manager/director called and asked "when do you think she'll be dead so we can get an idea when you'll be back?"😡 Also going to HR is a mixed bag. Especially if you're complaining about a manager. In general I would say HR is not trustworthy. HR is not there to look out for you. HR is there to look out for the company. I've worked in and with HR. And what generally happens is someone goes up to make a complaint. You evaluate if it's even worth writing down. And then afterwards you call the manager to let him know that there was a complaint made up against him. So yes. HR can create a retaliatory situation. HR is not your friend. I would say the only time you should go to HR is if you have a potential lawsuit situation going on. Or to protect yourself so that you get your unemployment. So I would say never go to HR. If there's problems in the company, those problems will always be there. Basically the job sucks. So You just have to deal with it. The company was like that before and it will be long after you leave. Going to HR will not make the place a better place. And as soon as someone new comes in, they take the other person's place, and eventually does the same s***. What's going on is the company culture. You can't change it no matter how many times you go to HR. So if you're in a situation that things are bad, it's best just to quit. As soon as you get hired you should already be looking for your next job anyway. Also quick tip... You can quit your job and still get unemployment. If you can prove the job was so toxic that it's making you sick, you can get unemployment if YOU quit.

Ok. I have had similar experiences, but even more of them and for a longer time. It seems like your bosses tone was harsh. Mine was pleasent and behind my back. So I have had backstabbing experiences. Also, at different place they tried to block me from Unemployment benefits during COVID when there was no available work. I tried contacting them, but they hung up on me and wouldn't accept my calls. Contacting the Department of labor to explain my situation was horrible and they are the slowest system ever. About a year and a half later, I got my unemployment benefits at once. Overall, I have learned from it and improved my situation. I have had a boss ask me what do I do with my time on weekends. They said I should be preparing for the job. I was young and didn't know what to say back then because I didn't want to get fired or ruin my career. They did more things, but I don't want to be here all day. Worst person I have ever met in my entire life. So I have been under a lot to stress for a long time. I have bounced from job to job in my field for about 12 years. So not only am I employed at a better blace now, I have a side business that I create stuff.

7:59 LMAO IAN, me and my brother would say Terry like that, it was my ex mother in laws name. my brothre called my ex Terry Jr. woo she got heated. my face hurts from laughing, good one

lol, but Pat is Italian in New Jersey. The fact that he's not toxic masculine 20 year old guy...... yeah, everyone would ask.

i am loyal to companies that pay me more than what i am worth. I figure a standard salary earns them the work, any extra earns them loyalty.

glad you got out cause that is nuts and no one should work like that

17:41 What a great story! lol

I work in the hospitality biz and we no longer have HR and sales literally oversells and the customers get made at us not them, its bullshit

It's a normal distribution, a pareto distribution, that 10% of the employees do 50% of the work and the other 90% of employees do the other 50%. There are high achievers, medicore ones and slackers, whos only purpose in company is, to make the thing complete. A good managment knows this and holds onto the high achievers. Unfortunally, good managment are just as rare as high achievers because the 10 to 90 pareto distribution also counts for them.

I work in a big child care center, and it can be like that. I am a lead school age teacher and I run an after school program class of 27 3 and 4th graders. Then we work all day in a Pre-K room as assistants for like 6 hours then do 3 hours in after school. We have not much time to plan our activities in after school since we're working all day with the little ones. Also our supervisor expects us to do project base learning lesson plans, reading/writing comprehension tests, conference paperwork, extra activities and lessons she got us roped into in a 2 and 1/2 hour span. Also homework help has to be wedged in. They love adding more workload than taking anything away. It's a shame because the kids are the best part of the job, shame all the useless busy work is mostly to make their board happy. I work 9 hours a day, but I'm having a kid soon so I already told them that can't happen. 9-6 is way too much.

I've only been laid off twice in my 24 year career but have been part of numerous ones. Both times I was given a week warning so I could offload my responsibilities and I always found it funny how a lot of other workers treat you like your diseased, even the ones you were 'friends' (more acquaintances) with. I would then hear from them when the axe came from them complaining about the jobs. I learned early on not to take it personally and treat the laid off employees like nothing happened and not to involve myself with the politics. I'm even friends with the CEO of the 2nd company that laid me off. I got lucky though, neither company screwed me over, even if they did do things I didn't agree with.

I completely understand what you went through. I had an office job a while back that started with 10 employees and slowly went down to 2 of us. Underpaid was an understatement. I ended up taking the business too seriously and allowed myself to take on more projects than I needed, just to be thrown away at the end. Thankfully I now have a job with a similar position with almost twice the pay and less work. Plus I'm more appreciated.

The last 9-5 I worked my employer was pressuring me to commit credit card fraud on behalf of the CEO and his wife. I've worked for myself ever since as a direct consequence of my experience there.

I’m sad Joanne and Terri aren’t going to see this.

Corporate companies do not give two craps about anybody, and you are just another number to them. It all comes down to the bottom dollar, and how much money they can get in their grubby little pockets. End of story

Love the podcast - but as an HR Professional, I feel that something needs clarified. You can be empathetic and work in HR as long as you know that you only support decisions being made 100% for the right reasons - and managed in the right way (sensitively) for everyone involved. You can do it for years as long as your ethics are always on point. Fully understand that’s not everyone’s experience with HR or their perception though! Glad you were able to get outta that toxic environment - as Ian said, don’t wait to go to HR! 👍🤘

Love ❤️ the part where Pat says: "FUCK YOU TERRY" How everyone feels about bosses & FUCKED UP Customers.

Can we please get the Jersey shore topic before the summer goes on too long?

I've heard horror stories like this from my mom at several jobs over the years. Some people make a living out of making your life hell cause they can. Don't put up with stand-up for yourself. i know sometimes that's not easy. You dont wanna lose your job. People will blame shit on you, so it makes them look better. I hate to say but my mom has had about double the bad experiences with other females than males so take that for what you will. As someone who has started working in only the last 3 years, i see all the things she told me for years that will happen seemingly out of nowhere. I'm a person that gets a long with just about everyone for the most part but it only takes one shit head take make your life hell. Pats, right, take your sick days and take your vacation days..

Understandable. A year ago, I was sick for 2 weeks because of how stressful the job is. I have to take care of 4 different departments for 8 months. Usually 1 person take care of 1 departments. I can take care of 2 as max but 3-4 is just stressful. I told my supervisor that I need help and appreciate if someone to learn my position. Nope and never help. Until I called in for 2 weeks, by 8 months in, that they finally put in an order for that position. When I was off, some departments were out of components (that I usually give to keep running) that they have to clock out. So no production products were coming out. We were short for 2 years straight and saw how understaffed we were when I call in sick for 2 weeks. That's when, fuck, did they notice.

The harder you work the more they put on you. But you don't get anymore money. The work force is SAD these days. That's why there is so many now hiring signs out there.

Not wrong with the abusive sex thing, John Douglas cites that a lot in his books. Talks about FBI studies showing that castration doesn't even make those kinds of offenders safe

Back in the mid 90s I interned at a place and they were using Jazz drives (parallel port) to deploy their NT 4.0 images. I was able to put the image on a CD and the transfer went from 2 hours to 4 minutes. The oher department ha built those images scolded me and told me to stop using them. Seeing I had two moths left I continued to use them.

I think in general bosses seem to suck way more in the US than here in Sweden. We have a very different corporate climate here. Not to say that we have no shitty bosses here, psychopaths will be in any setting, but it's not normal here.

I worked a camp job last year, lots of different people from all over. Worked and got to know a nice Lady, she is in her 40's. As the year went on, she started working with a Man who to me came off as creepy. One day I took a lunch break with the Lady and a group of our friends, her co-worker was off away from us. He had taken a picture of the Lady with his cell phone. and sent it to her through social media and another worker. The co-worker came up to us, asking the Lady... did you get that sexy picture I took of you and sent to you? I reported him to my boss, HR and others. It was looked into, and basically brushed under the rug. Over time, the creepy picture taking Man left the company. In my opinion, he should have been fired on the spot.Most big money making companies just want you to do the job and go home.

I can truly relate, but in a different industry, video game industry. Boy oh boy. Took me 17 years to finally gain full independence and work for myself, but yeah, all of the stuff you mentioned and some much worse things were a constant for such a big period of my life. I am sorry to hear that you went through those things, and I am very happy that you are now free and can depend on yourself. Congratulations on freedom :)

I just noticed That’s an awesome tron shirt that pats wearing

Thanks for sharing all this, Pat. I've been at my current IT job for 6 years. Last year almost broke me. Almost everything you described in this video happened to me. In 2020 we got pummeled by additional workload because of the pandemic and many of our clients had a workforce of boomers who had no idea how to work from home, use a VPN, or any of that. We were encouraged to just grit our teeth through this and that it would end. Did it end? Lol no. In 2021 the company re-signed with a former client that resulted in a massive additional spike in workload just when we had gotten through the pandemic spike with our existing clients. Company continues to sign more clients while staffing remains the same or decreases due to people quitting or getting fired, just like you said. This in turn results in the "productive" employees attempting to muscle the workload by themselves. New people get hired, but just like at Pat's company, no training documentation existed, so the process of getting new hires up to speed takes a long time. It can be 1-3 months before a new employee is even remotely useful. Meanwhile from the company, the message is "Just bear with us, this is temporary, we're taking action to make your life easier." But it is always only placation. We get new wallpaper or a new door on the house every once in a while, but the rotting foundation always remains completely unaddressed. The faster you sprint, the faster management thinks you SHOULD be able to sprint. The cherry on top for me last year was that coming out of the pandemic, and AFTER the new high-volume client was REHIRED (exponentially increasing workload), my department (Service Desk) was offloaded a shit ton of work by a project manager because we "had the free time to do it." So basically this idiot project manager bit off more than she could chew and was falling behind on deadlines. Instead of just eating the failure or, I don't know, hiring more people for her own department, she reached out to my new green-behind-the-ears manager and asked him if I and my team could "help her out" (read: do half of it) with the workload "when we're not busy." He said sure. So we crunched our way through the pandemic boomer apocalypse in hopes of relief; none given - new client signed. Productive employees attempt to handle the new workload. We (and I especially) end up with no free time, working almost nonstop for 8 hours a day. My reward? Oh hey, do this other department's work that you didn't even sign up to do. I almost quit on the spot. I definitely told the manager this was unacceptable and in hindsight he realized he fucked up, but it was too late and he was just saying yes to everyone who asked for help. At the end of the day, none of this bullshit matters as much as your physical and mental health. In the last 5-6 months, I have purposely taken my foot off the gas and I no longer gobble up new work like a hungry hungry hippo. If someone has a problem with it, I'm sure they'll say something to me. But it would be idiotic to fire me when I'm already doing 2x the work of the normal employee just because I refuse more work. But like Pat said, maybe the company will spite itself...we will see. I'm at a point now where I can't be fucked. If anyone from management comes at me with performance complaints, I'm just going to quit and go elsewhere.

this gives me ,tales from the game store kinda vibes

So let me get this, Pat is BI. Knew it!

22:59 Lol, Pat is on his villain arc.

a good video.

HR can either help you out or bury your complaints in a deep, dark hole. HR isn't there to help you. HR is there to keep the company looking fresh and clean. I know far too many people who have been paid off by a corporation to keep their mouth shut rather than having their sexual harasser disciplined or fired.

I haven't commented much on these podcasts but Pat you are dead on about everything with your experiences and perspectives on these corps. Quick story. I worked for a software company based out Canada our office was/is in Niagara Falls, NY. So already a rough start. I was doing the work of between 5 and 10 people making half of what I make now. Some great co-workers but super toxic people in much of management who were all rewarded very well by snapping the whip on the staff that did all the hard work. Woman that was hired later on at my time there was a real witch. always cackling in the top dog's office and laughing all the time, non stop about what the fuck who knows. Just kissing ass but she was smart in the worst ways possible. Big time manipulator and would walk around saying publicly who she liked and who she didn't. among many other terrible behaviors.

Going above and beyond in a corporate job can definitely pay off, but it really depends on the people you work with. Like my job I did extra work and got jack shit for it. Then I had a manager that got me a 7% raise and recognition with higher ups. Also, it's great for learning experience if you do something outside your box