'They thought I was useless [but] within a week they were frantically trying to get me to help them': Overworked employee quits his job after being disregarded for months; company scrambles then retaliates with a baseless lawsuit

Unrequited love is the second-most devastating feeling in human existence. The absolute worst feeling in a person's life is unrequited hard work. Diligent employees with a strong work ethic often get the short end of the stick in their workplace, with countless late nights and at-home data analysis going unnoticed. In this case, OP had picked up the slack in his job, working extra hours and assuming tasks that would help fatten his bosses wallets, but that grind ultimately took a toll on his wellbeing.  After months of his hard work being overlooked, OP decided to start the job hunt, desperate for both a raise and a well-deserved pat-on-the-back. After finding a higher paying job with better company culture, OP gave his boss a one-month notice, giving them ample time to find a replacement and cover the bases of his former position.  When upper management ignored the soon-to-be-vacant position, OP was sidelined for the very last time, watching the company fall apart in his absence. For the full account of this work story that starts with a burnout, leads to a management vacuum, and ends in an audacious law suit attempt. Want more? Check out this story of a librarian who puts a Karen in her place. 

20 Irresponsible Financial Decisions Broke Folks Made

We all know what it's like to want nice things but to not have the means to purchase them responsibly. It could be as big as a certain pop star's highly in-demand concert tickets or as small as ordering from Grubhub. Regardless of the situation, we all know what the mental process is like when you want to buy something you really can't afford. And trust me, if there's one thing I'm qualified to talk about, it's living above my means,   First, you start to sweat in areas you didn't think you could. Your brain goes around in circles as your fingers check your credit card statement, your checking account, and sometimes even your savings account (if you have any, that is). You think about how unfair things are for you and just you. It's a very narcissistic and insular experience that you would never share in public because it definitely makes you look bad. Ultimately, you decide to be responsible and to start a budget plan so that one day you can afford to order in again. That, of course, changes in an hour when you scrap those plans because your fingers had a mind of their own and you did, in fact, purchase those concert tickets and order in takeout. Why budget today when you can budget tomorrow, right?   Keep scrolling below for this list of financially irresponsible decisions people on Reddit made. For more compilations like this, check out these top Karens of the week!

'We won our battle against a busybody Karen': Neighbor conspires to get HOA to enforce new rules Redditor wins out

The only thing worse than a conflict with a Karen or a conflict with an HOA is a conflict with both at once. This thread was posted to Reddit by u/MicroBadger_, a father who had recently lost a battle with his HOA over the placement of new play equipment he and his wife had purchased for their kids. The movement of this equipment required the movement of the play shed to be a bit closer to a certain Karen's home. When Karen heard this news, you can just imagine how she reacted. Luckily, however, the Redditor and his wife only needed four signatures for the HOA to approve the new location of their play shed, which was not a difficult number for them to achieve as their community was large.   On the day of the community meeting, Karen showed up and gave a ridiculously overdramatic speech about how this shed is the worst thing that could ever happen to her and her home. Although HOA didn't fully buy her story, they did help her out a bit so as to give her a little extra satisfaction. While they approved of the new shed location, the HOA required the Redditor and his wife to remove half of the play equipment they had ordered for their children. So the feud only continued for another cycle, ultimately landing in the Redditor's favor upon their appeal.    Keep scrolling below for the full account of what went down. For more, check out another story involving an HOA and a Karen.

'I get injured and [there's] no loyalty': Employee on disability leave gets fired after missing 3 weeks of work; the Internet calls out a broken system of hypocritical bosses

Companies today are always complaining about labor shortages and how the workforce is getting 'too lazy' to go back to work. Au contraire you silly nepo-CEO's, it's not that there aren't any employees willing to work anymore, it's just that they're not willing to go back to work with no benefits, meager salaries, and to work overtime lining the pockets of a hypocritical boss that sends one email a week for a $500k annual salary. In this case, one man really learned the value of his loyalty to a dastardly boss, trading his trust in the company for a pink slip.  After dislocating his shoulder, OP was unable to go to work, so he filed for disability (like every W2 employee is entitled to do) and let his boss know that his doctor recommended 4 weeks of leave to heal the injury. Lo-and-behold, 3 weeks later, the man reached out to his boss to let him know he was ready to get back to work soon, and the boss was kind enough to let him know that there was no need. He had been replaced and they were firing him.  Scroll for the full, potentially illegal, story of how one man got fired for getting injured, proving once again that it's not the employees that are breaking the system, it's the money-grubbing, hypocritical bosses shattering our loyalties. For more insane stories of toxic workplaces, check out this IT specialist who caused a mass resignation at his company after refusing to do the work of 6+ people. 

'I got 104 messages': Guy gets bombarded by Karens after posting a free barbecue on Marketplace one tries to steal it out of his garage

If there's one takeaway from this guy's experience, it's never give something away for free. Sure, you might be doing it out of the kindness of your heart and goodwill for mankind (plus a healthy dose of not being bothered moving it yourself), but all the word "free" does is dredge up the worst sorts of people. If you post something for free on an online marketplace, you're just going to be bombarded with entitled people looking to take advantage of your goodwill. Getting that single item that you've posted won't be enough for them, and it's incredibly likely that you'll be asked to deliver it or even pay them to take it off your hands.  While it's regrettable that these entitled individuals ruin it for the rest of us, it is almost a necessity to safeguard your listing to deter these opportunists. One method is to post the item with a small nominal fee, then when the right appreciative person comes to pick up the item you can refuse to take their money and send them happily on their way, resulting in a wholesome win-win for everyone. It's probably also not a good idea to give random strangers on the internet access to your location until you have properly vetted them… Read on for this Reddit user's nightmare experience of trying to give something away something for free to unappreciative and entitled people.  Next, see this entitled dude who took over a woman's armrest before becoming the armrest himself.

'Were being taken advantage of': Boss refuses to pay employee for requested vacation days but closes restaurant for his own vacation

The hypocritical relationship that bad bosses tend to have with PTO is increasingly infuriating. If your boss is entitled to take their paid vacation time whenever they want, employees should be entitled to that same freedom. There will always be loopholes and exceptions to this based on the line of work, but generally speaking, those exceptions must be expressly written and made clear in one's contract before an employee signs on to a job. Otherwise, it's just plain old shady.   This Redditor has unfortunately experienced that level of shadiness firsthand at the local restaurant where they work. Essentially, their boss has implemented a practice in the last couple of years where he will close the restaurant entirely for the vacation week of his choice and give all his employees their mandated PTO during that week. Now, he does not run this week by his employees in advance. There's no poll or discussion among everyone about what will be the most convenient. There's just the boss's decision, which of course,  prioritizes his best interests above everyone else's. The Redditor expressly asked their boss if their PTO could be applied to a different vacation week, but he kept dancing around the issue. Eventually, he just refused to do it. That kind of avoidant behavior is further proof that this dude is not just a selfish guy; he's just a straight-up awful employer.   Keep scrolling below for the original post and for the best reactions in the comments section. When you're finished, check out this post about an employee who was shamed for leaving early.