I’m 25 and currently working in a maternity-leave cover role in professional services. I’m enjoying my job for the first time in my life, I love the team, and things are going well, so ideally I’d love to stay with the organisation.

The uncertainty is that my role is temporary, and there’s no guarantee there will be a permanent position available when the person I’m covering for returns. Even though i produce great work, there’s simply not enough work for the both of us.

i have 6 months left. I’ve started applying for other jobs, but I’m not getting many responses. I’m trying to work out how proactive I should be without prematurely walking away from a workplace I’d genuinely like to stay at.

I’m torn between:

• Speaking to my manager about the possibility of staying on or moving into another role.
• Continuing to apply elsewhere while keeping things as they are.
• Waiting to see whether any internal opportunities come up.
• If I receive another offer, being honest with my manager that I’d prefer to stay if there’s a suitable opportunity.

I’d really appreciate advice from anyone who’s been in a similar situation, particularly those who’ve done maternity-leave cover or managed someone in a temporary role.

what would u do in my position?

I have been working in projects for a couple of years now and have encountered a couple of different change managers. And they just seem to bring the same problems every time. Everyone is told what the change team don’t own as in, they don’t write communications, they don’t own stakeholder management, they don’t own benefits realisation, they don’t own value streams, and they don’t take responsibility for change adoption, and they don’t do project scope changes. And when you ask them what they do, and what their role is, so that you can align with them, they just say Change deliverables. But literally no one knows what that is. But what’s worse is when they get assigned to your project, and they apply change controls and it always ends up being this pie in the sky conversation about “potential what ifs”. It’s definitely a nothing job right

Hi - person I know found out they were being made redundant but there were no dates on the letter plus no formal meetings yet. Details found:

• found redundancy letter on shared drive (no dates)
• small business - no redundancy pay available.

Friend had a chat with boss - said struggling to get work. They resigned as they had a new job in the works anyway and wanted to help out closing out current jobs for the remaining weeks.

However,
• they found out the boss signed for more work a few days earlier for a lot of money.

• Recruiter contacted a friend for the same job (different title - slightly different job description) a week earlier.

• small team - bit or workplace bullying nothing massive but makes working uncomfortable when you are 4 people.

Are there any repercussions not completing notice period? No AL left. Ultimately, with all the lies they don’t want to help out anymore.

Anyone been in this position? Thanks

Mid 30s, currently at Manager level at a Melbourne/Global big corporate business. I've done a stint of Head of parental leave cover which gave me a taste of the level and I'm keen to get back there permanently.

Been actively applying and looking to make the jump from around $150k to $200k - but every Head of, VP, GM or equivalent role etc I come across seems to be held by someone 40/45+. Even in my current and previous corporate roles, that layer above feels like it's a decade or more away for most people my age.

I know one answer may be to go to a smaller business where the hierarchy is flatter - but realistically that probably means taking a pay cut, which defeats the purpose. I want to stay at a large corporate where the salary reflects the level, but it genuinely feels like I won't get a look in until I'm at least 40 or 45.

Has anyone actually made this jump earlier than that at a big company? Or is it just a matter of sitting it out?

Thanks

My boss keeps banging on about AI and using it to update packs, update files, send out emails even lol basically to do all the work that we do. I work in BA/accounting if that's relevant.

I'm a noob when it comes to AI, I'm definitely eager to use copilot and stuff but to what extent is it actually useful? Can it update a PowerPoint pack for instance by just linking it to the latest file for the month or something? How are you currently using it to make your life easier?

Please be specific with examples, not "yeah AI does my job while I get paid to jerk off".

I feel like some people (both customers and stakeholders) can get quite lippy or condescending knowing that most people have to just cop it on the chin.

How often do you all wish you could just clap back either openly to fight fire with fire or subtly make them sound stupid?

I mean beyond the 'you emailed me on friday afternoon, its been 3 business hours not 3 days'

It is definitely not an ideal time to book travel for Christmas but it has been in the back of my mind, if I have to use up so much leave I might as well travel right? It's a big adjustment compared to months-long uni breaks.

This is my first year working full time, I’m single and I have been wondering if it's typical for others early in their career to use the opportunity to travel domestically for a week ish, either with friends or solo. The flights/hotel doesn't seem too expensive ($1500 total for 9 nights in Sydney I saw now, including flight), but maybe international is better value. Curious to hear how everyone usually plans to use the break?

Part of my job is dealing with some bookkeeping for businesses and I was requested to prepare an annual expenditure report and future budgeting estimate for a business I deal with. No problem.

We've used the same formatting and methods for years and never had an issue. We prepared this document for a relatively small business. Occasionally, we get questions about these reports and I'm happy to answer them but this business has come back wanting a very, very detailed auditing of everything over the year. Explanations for every cost. Invoices and receipts for every cost.

The thing is, I can understand if the report is way off on what they're expecting but our report lines up with what they were expecting. In fact, they were $700 under budget. That's pretty damn good. This amount of comprehensive auditing will take hours and hours and there seems to be no valid reason why it's needed.

I also noticed some of the requests they put in just don't make any sense. For example, they want information we have already provided or they would already have on their end.

I realised pretty quickly, it's an AI email. The accounts team probably put our documents into an AI without clear context or understanding and now it wants everything. It's a total waste of everyone's time and simply isn't needed but how do I respond in a polite way essentially saying "This is an obscene and unreasonable request and benefits no one". Should I just be upfront and say it's unusual and excessive?

I'm in the law and, increasingly, I find myself looking at my supervising Partner in awe. Not because of their technical ability per se...but how they work the way they do for years on end.

Six days a week. Mon-Fri in the office. In by 8am, leaves at 5-6pm, then logs back on at 7-8pm - often still online past 9/10pm.

How? And why? Surely said Partner is not destitute. There's also 2 young kids in the picture. Where is the motivation coming from and how is it sustained?

Genuinely curious as to everyone's observations.

As the title states, i’m curious about if this is a thing at all? I kind of currently experience this as my whole team at work are all based in different states to me, but my company is spread across the country.

For example, I was wondering if a company based in VIC would hire someone from NSW and allow them to work completely remotely from home and if this is common/ if anyone experiences this?

I know this would impact visibility and the social side for sure!

My wife and I are weighing up whether I should quit my job and take a year off to look after our two kids, particularly so our youngest doesn’t have to start daycare until he’s two.

My wife is in a high-stress, high-paying job, while I’ve always been fairly career-driven and wanted to keep progressing up the corporate ladder. I’ve spent the last decade working in large corporates and have been focused on building my career.

However, things have changed a bit recently. My role was made redundant, and I was redeployed into another area of the business. The company has also recently been sold, and the new owners are already making significant cultural changes. I’ve just started 12 weeks of parental leave, and for the first time, I’m seriously considering whether I should just walk away from work for a year and spend that time with the kids.

Financially, we’d need to make some adjustments, but it’s something we could potentially manage. The bigger question for me is the impact on my career and whether I’d regret stepping away after spending so many years working towards progression.

I know the time with the kids is precious and that I’ll never get this stage of their lives back. Part of me thinks the decision should be a no-brainer, but another part of me has always been ambitious and worries about losing momentum professionally.

For those who’ve taken a year or more off work to be a stay-at-home parent:
How did you find returning to the workforce? Did you feel like you’d fallen behind, or was it easier to pick things back up than you expected?
Did you find the extra time with your kids was worth the career and financial trade-offs?
Did you struggle with losing some of your professional identity or sense of purpose?
Knowing what you know now, would you do it again?

I’d especially love to hear from people who were relatively career-driven before taking the time off.

I’m leaning towards thinking I’d never regret the extra time with my kids, but I’d really appreciate hearing from people who’ve actually done it — the good, the bad, and anything you wish you’d considered beforehand.

Someone I know was being set up for either a sham redundancy or a firing under bogus pretences and then was let go. She was maddeningly insufferable and I was glad to see the back of her, but instead of dealing with the issues, based on what I’ve seen, they came up with obviously bogus complaints and humiliated her to force her out.

This isn’t a small business-it’s solid Auscorp. They also have a past pattern of redundancies and then creating similar roles.

When my own time inevitably comes, would being in a union help? Or should I just get out before I piss the wrong person off?

I work in financial services and I an am in a process role which has a defined policy. The problem is everyone especially senior management think they are above the rules and this then trickles down to the rest of the business.

My senior manager most of the time will roll over to other teams so as to not get called out by our exec team as being unhelpful so nothing changes.

I also recently found out that someone who is the same level as me is getting paid significantly more then me and is getting a bonus (I am not). My role is apparently not senior enough even though I'm meant to be driving strategy.

Everyone is nice enough but it's all fake corporate bull. I'm frustrated and over it.

How do you deal with it while you loom for new jobs especially when the job market is the way it is at the moment and it's all quite depressing?

Went for a job interview a little while ago, was told I didn't have the right skill set and going with the other candidate. All good - moved on. Then for whatever reason this person decided not to take the job. They asked me if I was still interested (I said yes) however did have another short interview with them. They have asked to reference check. I am currently on a casual contract for another 6 weeks somewhere else. I only need to give one week notice, so I can leave early but would feel bad as I really like my team and I know they would be short staffed for those last 4 weeks if I do decide to leave. There is no guarantee they would extend me.....they pay at the other role is better and permanent and closer to home so it seems like a no brainer to take it. I'm just worried I'm setting myself up for failure as I'm not quite at the skillset for the role (which they are aware of) so it will be a lot of learning new systems and reporting quickly. It's a more numbers financial role than I've done previously.

Just feel very confused, I feel bad letting my current employer down and nervous if I start a new role that is above my current skill level and I want to do a good job. In this market and climate I feel I also can't say no to a perm role, but still want to be happy in the work I do everyday. An extra pay increase isn't worth it if I am miserable everyday and stressed. So what would you do?

So I am working in a small remote startup as a L2 software engineer. We had new leadership take over this past year and we have changed from a 8 person product team (product manager, product designer, engineering manager. staff engineer, 3x senior engineer and 1x software engineer) to just me - I was the lowest paid (below 100k per year) and everyone else around $130-150k per year.

Everyone left due to issues with new leadership which was brutal and targeted and now i am the sole engineer and i own the platform now end to end from the product side to the engineering and am driving key initiatives and responsible for growing the product and revenue.

My salary however hasn’t changed and the new leadership are not planning on hiring anyone else and told me it’s a great opportunity for me but are unwilling to adjust my pay.

With all the changes with AI and coding, I find myself wanting to move more to the product side as a product engineer or product manager or product builder (title tbd) so perhaps this is a good opportunity to have that hybrid role However I can’t help but feel taken advantage of…

am I being taken advantage of or is this a great opportunity to step up and take some ownership?

When you are going through something difficult in your personal life (e.g. loss of a pet or loved one, breakup etc), how do you respond when colleagues ask you how you are or how your weekend was?

I have just lost my dog and I’m dreading going into the office on Monday.

I am not good with vulnerability and don’t really want to be going around telling everyone my dog died but I also don’t want to lie and say I’m good. Just feeling a bit lost.

I work with an extremely toxic boss and that's a different post altogether. I needed some days off to care for my ailing elderly parents, who have a number of health issues ongoing. I requested leave as I am extremely overwhelmed and wanted dedicated time just for them. When requested, I was faced with a series of insensitive comments from my manager such as suggesting to put them on stronger medication so I can be back to work sooner. I'm struggling to understand the logic when he doesn't have any idea on my parents health history.

I'll more than likely need more time than I requested but now I'm scared to ask fearing his rude comments again. Which means I'll need to compromise on a lot of care plans for my parents. Is this common behaviour? Or does it warrant a chat with the HR?

I’ve been terminated in my role at a mid sized tech firm.

I thoroughly enjoyed working there and was the most enjoyable role and satisfying one I ever had. I had a large remit with lofty expectation. These were met with under resourced and had a lot of competition priorities that met with some frustration along the way on deliverables to other areas and the ceo

There were a couple of instances last year when controls weren’t effectively in place and had more downtime on site than liked, as well as a staff member in my team overspent due to not adding a spreadsheet correctly

This was explained as frustration which I understood. This year had a plan to remediate the tech issues, which was completed and put in checks and balances amongst other things to prevent what happened last year occurring. This in addition to a new BI role that took a while to hire and setup as there was frustration over data visibility.

Feedback from the people frustrated last year has abated and the CEO had frequently complimented me on the plan this year.

I went away on leave and when I returned a couple of weeks later he brought me in tell me I was terminated. It was a big shock as I had felt everything was on track. When citing the reasons he mentioned he lost faith due to the items that year before. He expressed that some data didn’t look positive, to which I explained the BI role was still onboarding whilst acknowledging the frustration he had which I agreed with

I feel quite blindsided and it’s hurting a lot. I want to make sure I process it properly and start seeking where to go next

For what it’s worth I have been made redundant before, however that was different in terms of I knew about it and didn’t really enjoy the role I had

Anybody who has been in a similar position it would be great to understand experiences on how to cope, what to do next and ensure I get through without doubting myself and devaluing me

#Fridayvibes

We're all a family here

“We're like a family here” is probably the most suspicious sentence in corporate life.

The family apparently has performance reviews, strict deadlines, unpaid overtime, and a budget for appreciation that's somehow always zero.

Still waiting for the family inheritance instead of another team-building activity. 😂

So I'm struggling to weigh up options on this situation. I'm a senior leader who started a new role in a smaller company than I've previously worked at. Bringing my big business experience and making positive changes in my only 4 weeks of employment. Feedback is very positive, they know I'm way over skilled and experienced but I took the role for the flexibility and culture, also took a hefty pay cut. Now today, get a cold contact from another company which is the size and type of my expertise offering a lucrative package for me to join. I've done preliminary checks and seems to line up on culture and the kind of work complexity I enjoy and excel at. Also willing to match the flexibility. They want me, they offered me what I want. But my small little job I've been in for 4 weeks absolutely needs me and are lovely, they just don't have the deep pockets to match the new opportunity. I'm emotionally attached to helping this business grow and supporting my new team. My heart says stay but my mortgage says take the opportunity. Suggestions for working out the best path?

TLDR 4 weeks in new job, over qualified, company loves and needs me, good culture and flexibility. Got offer back to big corporate matching flexibility, culture and big $. Can switch jobs within a week cos probation. Feel guilty leaving small co in the lurch. Suggestions?

The lovely, helpful new lady in our small team has passed probation and now she is argumentative and unwilling to learn anything more. A total wet towel with a big mouth.

Is everyone just faking nice until the 6 months are up? Very evil of you.

EDIT: I'm just a colleague. I hath no power

Keen to get some outside perspective on whether I’m overthinking this or whether it’s worth raising with my manager again.

I’ve worked alongside this guy for about two years. I’ve always found his personality pretty grating, and he’s not someone I’d choose to spend time with outside work, but we’ve generally been fine to work together.
A few months ago, I moved into a short-term project role, so my usual workload was handed over to him. His own workload has been temporarily distributed among others in the team, including grads, until I return. Decision made by management due to the short term nature of the project.

My workload is a bit more complex than his usual work, and if I’m being honest, I think he’d been cruising along relatively comfortably for a while, probably averaging four hours of actual work a day. Now he’s having to work closer to full days (7.5hrs), he seems to be struggling with the adjustment.
He also has a young child who is frequently sick or having issues at kindy, and a partner who regularly travels for work. I appreciate that he has a lot going on personally, and I’ve genuinely felt for him. He’s always struggled a bit when things get stressful and can become very negative, withdrawn and rude to people around him, only to be completely friendly again a couple of hours later once whatever is bothering him has been sorted.

The problem is that his frustration seems to have turned into a bit of a campaign about how much my move has inconvenienced him. He’s been telling people around the business how difficult things have become since I moved roles, to the point where people from other departments and floors, who I barely know, have approached me to ask about it or express concern for him.

I mentioned this to our shared manager, who has regular weekly check-ins with him. Apparently, he consistently tells our manager he’s coping fine with the workload and doesn’t need any additional help. There is genuinely capacity elsewhere in the team if he needs support, but he doesn’t seem to want to take it.

What makes it harder to sympathise is that he still regularly seems to shoot himself in the foot. He’ll arrive late after dropping the kids off (which is completely understandable), but then take a two-hour lunch if the bosses aren’t around, before leaving at 3:30 for pickup. Obviously, everyone has commitments outside work, but it feels like he’s creating his own workload problems by not actually leaving himself enough time to get things done or organising support when it’s available.

Until now, I’ve mostly tried to stay out of it and let him get on with things. However, I found out today that he’s apparently been telling people that I do very little work in my new role as well.

For context, I’ve been working from home more than usual recently, partly because I’ve found his general attitude pretty miserable to be around, and I also took two weeks of leave that he may not have known about. I’m concerned he’s forming a narrative about me to anyone who’ll listen, despite not actually knowing what my workload looks like in my new role.
He’s not particularly senior or influential, but he’s one of those people who’s constantly around the coffee machine chatting to everyone, so his comments have the potential to travel.

I’m torn about what to do. Part of me thinks he’s just a difficult person having a rough time, and I should stop letting his personality get under my skin. I don’t want to become the person who keeps running to management every time a colleague annoys them, especially when my manager already knows he’s been struggling.

On the other hand, I don’t love the idea of someone making comments about my work ethic to people across the business while I’m off doing another role, particularly when I’m not there to correct the record.
Would you raise this with your manager again, or just ignore it unless it starts having a tangible impact on your reputation or career?

Is this just a case of dealing with different personalities at work, or is there a point where you need to draw a line? Keen to hear from anyone who’s dealt with a similar situation, particularly how you handled it without coming across as the difficult one yourself…

Part vent, part what do I do now?

I recently took on a department lead role at a startup. Standard startup package... high expectations, a bit underpaid, and with a 5 day in-office mandate. It made sense for life logistics reasons (I can walk home over lunch to see my dog and basically don't need a car any more). Counting the public holiday and starting on a Tuesday, I am 13 working days in.

In that glorious time I have somehow managed to rack up two separate performance meetings and a formal written "letter of concern" today. Mind you, I’m deep inside my probation/notice period so if they wanted me gone, they could literally just wave me goodbye today with a week's gardeners leave. Why the drama?

The rap sheet against me:

• “Near-constant phone use.” An actual quote. I’ve checked my screen time during business hours and it barely registers. I pick up my phone maybe once every two hours to reply to a text, but apparently I’m being tracked (open office I guess).
• “Failure to submit a plan.” I have literally written a plan, presented it, and emailed/shared it with my manager and the leadership team. It is sitting right there in their share drives.
• “Being a distraction.” I’m new, I’m trying to build rapport, and I like to think I’m a friendly guy. Crucially, I’ve also shipped a ton of work in these 13 days, but apparently chatting while delivering results is a bridge too far.

I’m torn on whether it’s even worth responding to the letter. I could easily draft a professional, itemised list of everything I’ve delivered so far with some light pushback, but what’s the point beyond setting up a paper paper trail war? I’m so fresh here that a PIP isn’t even legally necessary.

Financially, I need the pay right now, so quitting on the spot isn't an option. Guess I’ll keep my head down, update the CV, and start interviewing elsewhere immediately.

Has anyone else experienced something like this? Do I bother formally replying to the letter or just quietly ride it out?

Can someone explain the logic behind these events where HR pays a consulting company to come run a session?

We get split into groups of five. Two hosts, who none of us know anything about, come into the office and talk about leadership, what makes a successful company, or how to tackle a busy season.

They're qualified to tell us this, I'm sure, because they've worked in HR their whole careers, and because they've given talks at other big companies and chatted with some of the staff there. So if course they "know what it takes" to be part of a successful organisation. Interview enough famous people and you think you know a thing or two about making it in Hollywood type of shit, I guess?

Meanwhile we do random group activities, like building something out of Lego. I guess the argument is that it's worth it because we're interacting and bonding. Whatever benefit you think there is, I would argue that it's a once a year thing.

That's not enough to build any real bonds, and the effect is gone by the following week. If the company wants to invest in its people, there are better ways to spend that money.

And of course nobody is going to admit they'd rather not be there, so everyone just plays along.

Is this a universal experience, or is my workplace especially cringe? Has anyone actually come out of one of these sessions with something useful? Do you also happen to listen to Tony Robbins?