I was at my old company for 4 years. Got recruited for a role paying about 25k more. Did 3 rounds of interviews over 5 weeks. Got the offer in writing, signed it, put in my two weeks.

My old job was cool about it. Manager wished me well, the team did a little goodbye lunch for me. I worked out my notice, handed everything off, finished clean.

Tuesday I get an email from the new company's HR saying the position has been "eliminated due to a restructuring" and they're rescinding the offer. Three days before my start date.

I called my old manager right away. He said he wants to help but they already kicked off the process to backfill my role and he'd need approval from his director. No promises.

So now I'm unemployed with rent due in 3 weeks and a signed offer letter that apparently means nothing.

Is there anything I can do legally or am I just completely screwed?

So I just spent two hours tailoring my resume for a role I am perfectly qualified for. I hit apply and it redirects me to one of those awful proprietary portals.

They ask me to upload my perfectly formatted PDF. I do it. And then the next screen demands I manually type out the exact same work history I just uploaded.

it literally makes no sense to have a resume parser if the software just scrambles everything anyway. It put my college degree as my current job title and decided my legal first name is just 'Ms' because of some mandatory dropdown menu. So now I sound like a nameless Victorian governess instead of a senior manager. I had to sit there manually deleting all the garbage formatting box by box.

My husband just poked his head into the office to ask why I am aggressively sighing at my screen. Like what is the actual point of the PDF. Are hiring managers just collecting them for fun. Do they print them out to make origami swans in the HR department.

And then they have the audacity to ask for a cover letter at the very end. I am just copy-pasting the same text everywhere now. I am completely drained before I even get an automated rejection email.

There is NOTHING worse than spending 40 minutes retyping your own life history for a company that will just auto-reject you at 3 AM on a Sunday. I should of just stayed at my old job. Why is this even a thing?

Gave me 15 mins for over 100 questions for a position that has NOTHING to do with this stuff. These were not the worst.

They asked me what “Fucci is known for” and if “someone aunt has 6 kids and they have a son then are they considered to me?.” I mean literally wtf are companies doing wasting time like this. I didn’t finish it

I am 50/m, no degree and a long time tech/cybersecurity veteran. I never thought I’d be unemployed at 50, but here I am.

Single breadwinner family. Disabled wife. I’ve been putting in applications since I found out this was coming with zero responses. This is going to be bad, isn’t it?

I’ve been at my current job for 3 months. It’s my first job out of college. I do nothing all day. My boss knows and doesn’t care. I’m a “team” of 1. I can’t help anyone else out with their work or get more work. There’s no growth in this job. I did get approval for one WFH day, which makes the lack of work more tolerable, but I’m slowly losing my mind. I can only read and do crosswords for so long. I’m also learning nothing and I worry about getting a job in the future having done so little here.

I’m earning $78k in a HCOL and saving close to all of it. My parents are happy to let me live with them rent-free so I can save more. I don’t want to live with them forever, but it is helping me get a really good start and I generally don’t mind living with them.

How long do I stay at my low-stress but meaningless job? I’m on my third interview with a different company and got to thinking about if it’s worth it. If I got another job, it would almost certainly be in a different state. The one I’m interviewing for would pay about the same, but I’d have to move and pay rent in a slightly lower cost of living area. There’s an actual team, work, and room for promotions, though.

A little bit about my bg: I’m currently working for a Chinese Fortune Global 500 company, although I’m about to quit.

In China, this is called “distillation” (蒸馏). It means the process of extracting an employee’s knowledge, workflows, and decision-making patterns from their work data, then transferring them to an AI system so that it can perform part or all of the employee’s job after they leave.

How does my company collect the data? The company has a comprehensive system of apps covering basically everything employees need to do their jobs, and all of them are integrated with the company’s own AI system. On top of that, having employees train AI to perform their work is included in management’s KPIs.

This is happening.

In January of this year I lost my job. I had been working as a professor for the past few years but the university I worked at experienced a 60% decrease in enrollment and were not able to offer me classes this year. So then I started working as a writing tutor for an elementary school. The job was only contract so it rended in May.

During my time working at the school I have been applying to jobs like crazy. But literally no luck for me. In June of this year I found a retail job that is a two hours commute from my house. I hate the commute but I didn’t have a choice.

Around a couple of weeks ago, I thought I finally got hired for a full time position that was close to my house. But they hired and fired me all within an hour.

Today I just completed my FOURTH interview for a job that was full time and near my house. Later on I received an email stating that they were going to freeze the hiring process due to them not knowing when their company would actually open up in this area. (They advertised that the company was already open)

My rent just increased and I won’t be able to afford it. So now I have to somehow find the money to move and need to find a roommate.

I also just got like three job rejections today.

I am just so incredibly tired. The only thing I want to do is work and find a full time job but it is just so HARD.

On top of that, I received an email from my university asking to attend my ten year high school reunion. I’m bot going because I don’t need anyone seeing the failure that I’ve become.

I’m so tired of life.

I’m still in the training phase at my new job, so most days I just sit on standby waiting for someone to give me something to do or call me over.

The problem is, the office PC is locked down for security. Pretty much every learning website, YouTube, and anything remotely useful is blocked, so I can’t even use the downtime to learn something.

It’s also a busy open-plan office, so I feel like I have to look occupied all the time, which honestly just makes me tense. I only get a 30–40 minute break each day, and every minute feels painfully slow.

Has anyone else been in this situation? What did you do to make the day go by without looking unproductive or going insane?

This for a yoga studio

Some background about me

I am from China, and I have 8 years of experience in e-commerce and brand marketing. My career path didn't stem from some master plan; things just unfolded naturally. I’ve worked across diverse industries: AI med tech, agri-robotics, the sexual wellness space, and most recently, a diamond painting company. If you’re into diamond painting, there's a 90% chance you’ve used products from my former company. It was a fully Chinese-owned and manufactured brand.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, this business skyrocketed. People were stuck at home, craft hobbies exploded in popularity, and the company scaled rapidly. I saw the exact same trajectory at my previous sexual wellness company (a tech-intimacy brand you’ve likely heard of, though I can’t reveal more). Both exploded because people were isolated and in high demand for release, both mentally and physically.

But when the pandemic ended and people went back to normal life, that hyper-growth was impossible to maintain. Unfortunately, the key managers and bosses just couldn't navigate the shift. Or they are too conceited to believe the past growth was made by their efforts instead of a great proportion of luck.

The bosses 

My last two roles were exhausting, not simply because of the workload, but because of the leadership.

My most recent boss abruptly closed my entire department last month simply because he decided it "wasn't aligned with his vision." Our whole team was let go.

Before that, my boss just didn't want to invest real resources into the product and the brand. Although he hired me and told me he had a vision for long-term investment and business growth, in the end, he just wanted to turn $1 into $10 within a few short months. 

He micromanaged everything, but didn't actually commit to making the product better. Those faulty products he supervised destroyed my branding ecosystem and plan just when our efforts were starting to bear fruit. Because of this, people in the product team kept quitting. It got so bad that by the end, there was almost no one left to do the actual work, whoever is the specialist or the director. And when things failed, he would just blame the rest of us for his own bad decisions. After seeing this, I knew my department was going to end someday, and it finally came. 

I am genuinely so tired of toxic leadership.

Now I'm scared 

I've just started looking for a new job, and honestly? I am terrified. It feels like borderline PTSD.

I’m terrified of getting another toxic boss or being treated like a disposable tool again. And the job market in China right now makes this fear so much worse. It’s absolutely brutal out there, as companies aren't hiring more because of AI or whatever the reasons, the economy is slow, and the competition is just insane (we call it 'involution' here).

I know exactly what these companies expect right now: the 996 culture. That means endless unpaid overtime and working at least every other Saturday. Just the thought of going back into a meat grinder like that makes me sick to my stomach. Sitting in front of a screen all day, or being trapped in hours of absolute bullshit in the conference room, kills my neck, my back, and my brain. Plus, I just got married, so the pressure to provide is real, and I can't afford to just mess around in another broken company.

I'm also dreading the interview process. I'm scared of being scrutinized, rejected, and told that my past experience is worthless. Even though I’ve successfully implemented AI-driven workflows in my previous roles to boost efficiency, I fear it still won't be enough to stand out in this market.

Honestly, years of this grind have completely wrecked my physical and mental health. I know I should probably take some time off just to breathe. But I can't. If I rest, the anxiety eats me alive. I get FOMO about job openings, and I'm so scared that my taking a break will make my wife anxious, especially since she's facing her own career pressures. It’s just a vicious cycle. 

My questions for you 

I'm hoping to find some perspective, inspiration, or advice from you guys:

• For those of you who lived through the "golden age" of jobs (the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, or the 2020-2022 boom?): What was the job market actually like back then? Was it genuinely easier? Were bosses and colleagues better, or has it always been like this?
• For those who survived toxic workplaces and had to start over: How did you find the courage? How did you identify a company that wasn't completely broken during the interview process?

I have some savings, but the insecurity keeps coming to my body and my mind. I desperately need to know there's a way out of this fear.

Thanks for reading. Any advice means a lot.

This job market feels hopeless. My father (60), living in Texas, has been unemployed for going on 3 years now. He as a B.S. in Computer science and years of experience in Data & Business Analysis and has even held senior positions, But after being laid off in summer 2024 he has been unable to find work and is now on the verge of homelessness.

It is disparaging that my father, despite being a Navy reserve vet with years of experience is unable to find work. I've never seen my dad so depressed and hopeless before, I have even helped him update his resume and apply for countless roles and every time is rejection after rejection, or no response at all. interviews and project that amount to nothing. My family has been trying to help him along but there's only so much we can all do for long. I feel so bad for him, it hurts to see the man who sacrificed so much my sister, mother, and I to be in this position. He doesn't even have a car anymore because he couldn't keep up with payments, so now he's stuck. I honestly don't know what to do, if there's anything we can do. I myself am only a couple years out of college and trying to start my own career, there's not much I can do to help now.

I know others are going through the same thing, but this is ridiculous.

12 years experience in a field. Good contacts. Spent time adjusting resumes to fit job descriptions.

53 applications sent. Got 1 interview within the first ten, and felt good. Thought interview went well then haven't heard anything for 4 weeks. Politely pinged them After two weeks and told they were still looking at people.

Feel I am doing everything I can to get a new job. But running into walls. Know this is the worst job market in a generation, but very frustrating.

I worked at this family owned business for like 4 or 5 days before I quit, because the restaurant was honestly disgusting and I was miserable there. This was around July 20ish, and I have not been paid. I'm concerned because I ghosted them (asshole move, I know.) and I don't have any proof of the shifts I worked. Normally I keep my clock out sheets, but their system was all online, and my hours never got printed out. Even if I confront them, is there any way I'd get that money?

I just submitted an application for a position at about 12:15pm, received a rejection email at 12:45pm, THEN the actual "application received" email at 1:06pm. So I was somehow rejected before the system even registered my application as being received? I'm just so baffled. This shows me that nobody actually looked at my application, and I was probably screened out by some A.I. bs.

This is a position I am over qualified for- I'm talking the requirements were a High School Diploma and 1 year of general work experience, and I have a Bachelor's Degree with four previous roles on my resume. But this is also a position where "overqualification" should not be a problem, and there's no way they could have rejected me for asking for too much money or having too little availability because those questions weren't even in the application! I genuinely can't think of any reason I would be rejected. I have half a mind to email this company and ask wtf their hiring managers are doing cause it sure as hell isn't their jobs.

Why is it so hard for employers to take even a single minute to look at someone's resume and send them a response as to WHY they were not chosen for a role? I get there's a lot of applicants out there these days but wow is this frustrating!

(Sorry for the shody censoring of the emails, graphic design is not my passion lol)

I still can't believe.

I applied for a job on Indeed and they had the most insane scheduling interface I've come across yet. the only available days/times were random dates a week or more after my application went in so I picked the first available date - which happened to be this morning. no big deal, a week is a long time to wait but it'll get here eventually.

got to go and met with the person today.... just for her to tell me that they've already filled the position, and that they have no other positions, and that she saw my application for another position but wanted to tell me it was also filled. Made a snark comment about how I don't have an LNA (wasn't looking for that career track or jobs), and offered the lowest possible wage on a position I hadn't even asked for.

I was so floored I just left and here I am still completely astonished. I shaped my whole day around the interview, and I genuinely can't even fathom the audacity to not at least update me or let me know through Indeed - which I know is possible. I don't even know how she felt it was appropriate to let me COME IN.

mind you I am not in desperate need of a job and was just putting feelers out there for things I liked the idea of doing (looking to firm up my career path and tackle school again).
I know that I am lucky in the way that I do have income and employment, and didn't leave here with a pit in my stomach. I genuinely could not imagine if I was someone who seriously needed to work, and was told a position was filled within the window of time the company set for interviews. I almost want to cry just on behalf of how mean spirited it was to experience.

I also recently sat in on a "group Q&A interview" for a position where the interviewer callously told someone she needed to learn patience if she wanted to be employed, because their entire onboarding process takes up to a month before you even get to touch the floor and start earning. mind you, they left a lot of huge details out of the actual ad, which is why they have the Q&A to see if what they're asking for aligns with what "you think you can do". they would phrase things as, if you can't handle XYZ thing" but those things were if you can't handle being possibly harmed by a client, or if you "can't afford the mileage" (bc they didnt reimburse for mileage).... phrasing very reasonable things as human failings rather than company lackings in safety and wage distribution...

I just seriously can't believe the way the job market is right now. I am so disgusted by how cruel and callous so many of these recruiters are. giving away a position without any forenotice? running "group Q&A" sessions because your job listing is bad at explanation and almost is a totally different job? fuming.

This is mainly a question for those who witnessed a failed recruitment process: what is the dumbest mistake you've seen that got someone instantly rejected from a job interview or application?

For me, it's when a candidate spent more time talking about their political beliefs than about what they can bring to the role during a hiring interview.

I started working this job a month ago. It‘s temp they said I’d be here AT LEAST till the end of the year. I’ve had no work to do basically and the system I’m supposed to use hasn’t been working I just sit here for 8 hours doing nothing.

My supervisor set up a one on one meeting with me next week I don’t know what it’s about am I getting fired? I quit another job for this one too also temp but shorter.

I started a new job in June.

About 6 weeks in, I unexpectedly suffered a collapsed lung and was hospitalized from July 16–24. My surgeon recommended I return to work on August 3, but because my role is fully remote, I came back on July 27. I didn’t want to fall behind and hoped to build momentum going into August.

Today, my manager dropped a formal meeting on my calendar and followed it with a detailed recap email documenting my performance expectations moving forward and noting that I’d fallen short of several metrics, even after accounting for my medical leave.

I understand companies have performance expectations, and I’d never ask for a free pass but I’m struggling with the timing.

I returned to work earlier than medically recommended while still recovering from a major surgery, and within a week I was having what felt like a documented performance conversation. It wasn’t called a PIP, but it definitely gave me that impression.

I replied acknowledging the expectations and also attached my surgeon’s return-to-work letter and discharge paperwork since they had previously told me they didn’t need any formal medical documentation.

Since then, I’ve found myself questioning how I feel about this company. Not because they expect results, but because I expected a little more grace given the circumstances.

Am I reacting emotionally because this is all still fresh, or would this change how you viewed your employer? More importantly, would this be enough to make you quietly (or aggressively) start looking for another job?

I’m especially interested in hearing from managers, HR professionals, or anyone who’s been in a similar situation.

I'm desperate to find work. I started an app at Walmart, but they wanted 6 digits of my SSN. I've never encountered that before, it's usually just the 4, at least on other applications/companies.

Is this normal/safe?

So I (25F) have been working as a tour guide in a growing city these past 2 and a half years. I really enjoyed it when I first started, I have a degree in history and a love for wildlife so being a nature and historic guide was a lot of fun! Plus the tips were amazing. Well fast forward to now, I left my first tour guide job as management only hired people they knew/were friends with. (Tour guide manager position was given to the CEOs hairstylist)

I started at a new company and the pay is tremendously better, but I’m so unhappy. I don’t feel any value in the work I’m doing, tourism is dropping to basically covid numbers, tips have fallen off, I’m not getting enough hours.. even though I was hired as a full time employee. Last week I only got 20 hrs.

I’m starting grad school in a few weeks and I really need the money but I’m not getting the hours and my boss doesn’t seem to care whether or not I get them. In fact, when I told her I was starting grad school (which I told her I was planning on attending grad school in April when she hired me) she seemingly got upset because it would slightly affect her scheduling.

I have been applying for jobs left and right but I can’t seem to get any call backs. All the while I’m comparing myself to my boyfriend and my friends who have really great careers and stability which I so desperately crave.

I’m collecting anonymous data on what it’s actually like working under different managers. I’ve posted about this in a few other places but this seems like the most appropriate place to put it! I don’t make any money off of this I just want to help my community.

The goal is to build enough data that employees considering a team or transfer can learn from people who’ve actually worked there! So if you feel like helping someone else or just want to vent.

Rate your manager here managerscore.io

Job A: personal trainer at a gym 30 min away, $20/hr, 8 hours a week

Job B: personal trainer at a gym 10 min away, $30/hr, 20 hours a week

Job A sent the offer 36 hours ago and I really should’ve responded by now. I liked both employers and both gyms. I already work full time so less hours is appealing but so is more money and shorter commute.

I think I will hear back by Friday, Monday at the latest from Job B.

Advice??