Chapter 1: What are some work dilemmas discussed in this episode?
Am I the asshole for telling a coworker that she doesn't get special treatment just because she's sad? This title makes me sound like a jerk for sure, but hear me out. She called me a C-word. How to politely tell someone to F off. Should I quit my job over a vacation? Ooh, I might have a really unpopular opinion here. The game is set in a certain way. lean into the game.
My crazy MAGA coworker flips out when I talk to her 10-year-old daughter about Mulan. You're listening to Clocking Off of Clouds, your cozy corner of the internet where we talk careers, personal growth, and real life. Hello there, and welcome back to another episode of Clocking Off of Cloud.
This is a podcast for you if you enjoy cozy chats about careers, money, personal development, growth, life, relationships, anything. If you need a big sister in your life, I'm here for you. This is a podcast for all of your dilemmas, concerns, and just overall life advice. And today we have a pretty entertaining episode.
Chapter 2: How should I handle a co-worker who isn't pulling their weight?
We're going to do a bit of a lighthearted one. I'm going to react to the internet's work stories and the internet's work dilemmas.
i did a previous episode very similar to this with my best friend carmen around dating stories that was a valentine's episode and a valentine special and a lot of you guys loved that episode i actually want to do another one that's similar related to dating and maybe some friendship stories but today let's do a work version and react to some corporate work stories on reddit and ones that you guys have sent through as well so let's read through these react to them give some of my unwarranted unwanted unprompted opinions
But it will be a little bit like a gossip sesh between you and me today. It's a little chinwag as the British people say. Am I using that word in the right context? I see them use that word on Love Island all the time. But yeah, we're going to have a little gossip sesh, a little tea sesh. Let's see what people online are saying about their jobs and whether or not I feel like they're moving mad.
or if they're valid or if they're the asshole or if not let's see let's see i i love these kinds of episodes this is a great episode to put on if you just want to unwind and feel like you're catching up with a bestie feel free to put it on your tv or something if you're cooking or just put in the background while you're doing the dishes or when you're commuting
whatever i am here for some tea time with you before i get into these crazy juicy stories just a reminder that i upload episodes every monday at 5 pm gmt don't forget to turn on your notifications and follow me so you don't miss any future episodes and if you guys enjoy the podcast it would really really really help me out a lot if you follow if you subscribe to the youtube channel if you follow on spotify apple podcast and if you comment and like i actually recently found out that on youtube
50% of the people or about like 47% of the people that listen to the podcast aren't subscribed to the channel so if you're listening to the podcast if you're watching the videos on youtube then please subscribe it would help me a ton it would honestly really really motivate me to keep on going and make these episodes so the first story is from reddit's infamous mid asshole thread which is a very very entertaining thread for a lot of stories
And the title is, Am I the asshole for telling a coworker that she doesn't get special treatment just because she's sad? This title makes me sound like a jerk for sure, but hear me out. I work in a small office building for an estate company.
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Chapter 3: What should I do if my boss questions my email tone?
I've been working there for six months now. In November, a coworker of ours, I'll call her Lena to make it easier, came out as bi to us while we were grabbing dinner after work on a Friday. She told us she's known for a month now and has been sitting on it to come to terms with it and that she was planning on telling her boyfriend that night, but she wanted our opinions first.
I understood it because most people on the table were her besties and we were all civil together and we were all girls so maybe she wanted a girl's opinion? Anyhow, the weekend goes by and she returns to work absolutely wrecked. I'm talking eyes puffy, hair a mess and wearing the same clothes from Friday. I heard through the grapevine that the boyfriend didn't take it well and dumped her.
They've been together for 4 years apparently so she's obviously distressed. For the whole week, her performance was absolutely horrendous, no work done, no meetings attended, Absolutely nothing. Our team leader was good friends of Lina so she divided Lina's work with the rest of us just for the week she said. But this continued on until now and we're in February.
Yesterday the team leader decided to give me one of Lina's projects because this would have been her fifth anniversary with her boyfriend. I said no. I already had my own work.
Chapter 4: How can I effectively communicate with an overly eager colleague?
Why would I do someone's work for her and she gets paid for absolutely nothing while I'm still struggling for my salary and now double the work. I think she meant while she gets paid for absolutely nothing for doing extra work. The team leader threatened to write me up.
So I went to HR and told her everything that has been happening, showed her the emails where the team leader gave us Lina's work and told us to be patient. On lunch break, Lina tried to corner me, telling me she's going through a rough time and that I should be supportive. I told her I was supportive, but now she's just milking it.
She comes and goes as she pleases because the team leader covers for her. She doesn't work because her work gets handed to us and it's not fair. I told her that just because she's sad and she got dumped, that doesn't mean we all need to pick up her slack. We all live our lives in problems, but we don't make it each other's problems. She called me a c-word.
And I just walked back to HR and told her what happened. They were both called in for a meeting and she's now facing possible termination, according to some grapevines. I don't think I was in the wrong for going to HR. I'm not going to work for someone else and they get to hand it in and take all the credit.
Chapter 5: What should I consider before quitting a job for a vacation?
However, I think I probably shouldn't have said what I said. Four years is a long time and she did look absolutely wrecked. But at this point it was getting a bit ridiculous to still expect such treatments. Oh my gosh, this is such a juicy one. Let's talk about whether or not I think she's the asshole. So as I was first reading through the post,
I was thinking, okay, obviously this other colleague, Lina, has gone through a very traumatic breakup. She came out to her boyfriend. Her boyfriend didn't take a while, decided to break up with her. That's a very traumatic way of ending a four-year relationship. So I would say if I was in that position, if I was one of their coworkers, for example, if I was Lina's coworker,
I would give her a bit of grace, especially because I have been in a situation where my personal life was just a shambles. And the last thing I can get myself to do is do a good job at work. I think people don't realize how much strength it takes to just compartmentalize things sometimes. And I'm typically quite professional.
Chapter 6: How do I deal with unrealistic work expectations?
So when I'm working, I'm working. I don't bring my personal problems. But it can be hard. It can be very, very difficult for someone who's going through something like a breakup or, God forbid...
like bereavement or death or something that they're grieving through and sometimes a breakup can feel like grief honestly like especially if it's a big breakup for that person to show up to work and just put on a mask and pretend everything's fine and do a hundred percent like they always do that is very very difficult so the first reaction that came to mind is i would extend empathy to someone if i can see that they're going through something in their personal life
And I would try my best to accommodate and to make sure that that person can process their emotions. Now, that is limited to a certain period of time. I actually can't really tell how long it's been, but this person... Okay, so she said that Lina was still not really doing any work in February and she posted this about a month and a half ago.
So in this situation, it sounds like Lina has not been picking up work for a few weeks now. So I would say in the situation where it's been a few weeks, this colleague clearly isn't recovering emotionally. It is 100% the team leader's responsibility to navigate this. The person who wrote the post should not have had to go to HR to raise this.
ideally in a situation the team leader would have handled it well and i don't think the team leader handled it well because what the team leader ended up doing is pushing more work to other people which then puts pressure on other colleagues which is not fair i completely agree with her sentiment with what the poster is saying like the fact that i now have to pick up more work i have to work more hours and i don't get any credit for it because it's technically all lena's work i well first of all first of all if i'm getting more work i better get credit for it right so
If I'm doing Lina's work, I should be able to get that credit. Why is Lina still getting the credit?
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Chapter 7: What is the best way to support a colleague going through a tough time?
Yeah, it doesn't matter if she's going through something. If she's not doing the work, she shouldn't get the credit for it. Like everyone should extend empathy towards her and everyone should understand that right now she can't do work, but it should be widely recognized that because she's not doing work, someone else's. So that's the first thing.
If you are picking up someone else's work, you should absolutely get credit for it. But secondly, the team leader, instead of pushing more work to other people to let Lina... grieve her relationship in peace, I think that the team leader should have just pushed back on some deadlines if needed. I just, sometimes when I'm working, and this is clearly a corporate job, right?
Behind the desk, I'm not saving any lives. I'm saving PDFs. So if something has happened in my personal life or my manager's personal life or in anyone's personal life, a good manager should be more than happy to push back some deadlines. That's a compromise that they should be more than willing to make. Because at the end of the day, a corporate job is just a corporate job. We're behind a desk.
It's a desk job.
Chapter 8: How can I navigate workplace conflicts with sensitivity?
We're not saving lives. Unless you actually are saving lives, but... You probably aren't, right? Unless you'd be in the ER if you were, or if you'd be a medic, but I don't know. Anyways, it sounds like the team leader wanted to give Lina some grace. And in that aspect, I completely agree. I do think that's a good thing to do.
However, I don't think that should come at the expense of other colleagues. If you want to give Lina some grace and let her grieve and let her process her emotions and let her recover, just, you know, from a personal standpoint, let her...
you know give her some space to just be a human push back her deadlines don't give it to other people because you don't want there to be a direct trade-off between lena's emotions and how other people are doing so honestly in this
story I think the team leader is a real asshole because I understand wanting to give a person some space and I think that's completely justified and honestly it's very humane and empathetic to be a team leader and see your colleagues or your direct reports as humans and wanting to give them space and giving them you know, breathing room when things happen in their lives.
I actually think that's great, but it should not come at the expense of other colleagues or other direct reports. If you want to give Lina some space to process her emotions, don't make it other people's problems. If anything, make it your own problem. If you want to be a good team leader or push back on your clients, just again, you're not saving lives. It's fine.
Yes, they might be a little bit annoyed, but push back on your clients, push back on deadlines. Things will still move on. Life goes on. It's fine. Okay, let's read another one. A mighty asshole for giving my husband an ultimatum about work travel. Posting with a throwaway. My husband and I are in our mid-thirties.
I work in tech and he works in an academia-adjacent role that requires work travel at least once per month, typically for at least a week at a time. This includes domestic and international trips, some spanning multiple weeks. I work full-time from home. We have a toddler and an amazing nanny who watches him for 40 hours per week. We also have family help for a few hours per week. Oh my gosh.
All the childcare responsibilities fall on me. Our nanny does a lot, and my husband likes to point this out when this conversation comes up, but I am still responsible for 100% of childcare before and after working hours. I am exhausted to my bones by the end of the night. The tricky thing is that I make dramatically more money than my husband.
I make between 500 and 600K per year, and he makes around 160K. Oh my god, they are ballin'. That is a very rich household. Wow. Neither of us have an interest in him quitting his job to provide childcare, so that's not relevant here. I don't want him to quit his job at all. I just want the work travel to stop or be dialed back in a meaningful way. I asked for no more than one week per quarter.
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