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Sent out of town to do physical job. I’ve got mobility issues, and my normal job is sitting at a desk. What do I do?
My company sent me and a few others out of town for the week to help out at another location. My normal gig is very much a desk job, with the odd low-effort physical task (lifting a box here and there type of physical tasks).
I’m definitely overweight and out of shape, but regardless of that, I also have lifelong mobility issues that make walking and standing incredibly painful if I do either for extended periods of time. My work doesn’t fully know about that, aside from the odd conversation I’ve had with coworkers, simply because my normal job doesn’t require me to be overly physical.
Well, last week we got a last minute request to help out at this new location in another city. Aside from other issues I have had with the whole experience (little Information was given, our accommodations are lacking - no soap, toilet paper, etc - no meals provided so I had to scramble to find some food to bring with me for the week, etc), the actual job we’re doing for this week involves standing and walking all day. I am in so much pain.
Everything was so rushed and last minute, we really didn’t get a full idea of what we’d be doing for the week until we got here. They called to ask me to do this one day before I had an interview for an internal promotion, so I honestly felt like I had to say yes (even though I wasn’t actually pressured to say yes, the timing was poor).
Is this a “me-problem” because I’m the one with the mobility issues? Should I try and tough it out for the rest of the week?
Jobadvisor
- Notify your manager or team lead immediately. You do not need to over-explain or reveal your full medical history right away, but you must be clear about your physical limitations.
- What to say: "Due to a lifelong medical condition affecting my mobility, standing and walking for extended periods causes severe pain. Because this assignment's duties were not clear beforehand, I wasn't able to request necessary adjustments. I need to pivot to seated tasks for the rest of this trip."
- Ask for task modification on-site. Most physical sites (warehouses, facilities, temporary locations) have seated or low-impact roles—such as inventory intake, auditing data, label scanning, or managing documentation. Request a stool, chair, or a reassignment to these tasks immediately.
- Escalate accommodation needs to HR if necessary. If your supervisor is unsupportive or unable to modify your duties, contact HR immediately to inform them that you require a reasonable accommodation under relevant disability protections due to a mobility impairment.
- Separating the interview from this assignment: Saying "no" or asking for physical accommodations on a last-minute travel assignment will not inherently ruin your internal promotion prospects. In fact, professional self-advocacy and managing physical safety responsibly reflects maturity.
- Document the travel conditions: Missing basic hotel necessities (toilet paper, soap) and unmanaged meal arrangements are unacceptable corporate travel standards. Save receipts, document the conditions, and submit an expense report alongside a polite note to HR or office management outlining the travel deficiencies once you return.
HR made a public leaderboard showing how much PTO everyone donated to a coworker
One of my coworkers is going to be out for a while after surgery and apparently she doesn't have enough PTO to cover all of it.
Instead of the company just giving her the time, HR sent everyone an email asking us to donate our own PTO hours to her. Fine, whatever, people can choose if they want to.
Then yesterday they posted a spreadsheet in our Teams channel with everyone's name and how many hours they donated. People who donated 0 had their number highlighted in red.
Our manager followed it up by saying participation was completely voluntary but that it was nice to see who was willing to support the team when it mattered.
So basically voluntary except everyone gets publicly shamed if they don't do it.
A company with millions in revenue making employees pay for another employee's medical leave is insane enough. Making a leaderboard out of it is another level.
Jobadvisor
Why This Is Severely Problematic
- Coercion disguised as "volunteering": Under many employment standards, forced donation of earned compensation (PTO is an earned benefit) invalidates the concept of "voluntary." Using public shame to compel financial/benefit contributions creates a hostile work environment.
- Privilege and privacy violations: PTO is part of your total compensation. Displaying who gives (and who doesn't) forces employees to expose their personal financial or health situations. Someone might have 0 hours to spare because of their own chronic illness, family emergency, or simply because it is their earned time.
- Managerial retaliation risk: Your manager’s comment framing non-donors as "not supporting the team" establishes an immediate basis for potential retaliation in performance reviews, bonus distributions, or promotions.
Recommended Action Plan
- The original HR email asking for donations.
- The Microsoft Teams post featuring the red-highlighted spreadsheet.
- Your manager’s follow-up comment about team support.
- Save these files to a personal (non-work) device or print them.
"The public posting of individual PTO donations in Teams—specifically highlighting non-donors in red—alongside management comments assessing team loyalty based on donations, creates an environment of public shaming and implied coercion. PTO is earned compensation. I am requesting that this spreadsheet be removed immediately and that clarification be sent to the team confirming that PTO retention will not impact performance evaluations or standing."
How to Handle Direct Pressure
"I keep my personal compensation, leave balances, and charitable decisions private, but I wish [Coworker] a smooth recovery."
My boss hates that I leave work at 5pn
I finish at 5pm.
I don't leave before 5om. But 5pm I turn off the computer and I'm off. For some reason she's mad about this.
Today, at 5pm, I went to wash a cup from my desk and she said I was leaving early. She said my watch must be fast, because hers wasn't 5pm. Bearing in mind, she can go any time she likes.
It's just breaking my spirit
Jobadvisor
Why Bosses Act This Way (And Why It’s Not About You)
- Power & Control: For some managers, seeing people leave right at 5:00 PM feels like a lack of "dedication," even if all your work is done.
- Misaligned Expectations: She likely measures commitment by "hours logged sitting at a desk" rather than results delivered.
- Procrustean Norms: If she works late (or feels under pressure from her upper management), she may project that resentment onto employees who set healthy boundaries.
Strategic Ways to Protect Yourself
- Keep a log of your completed tasks/projects.
- Ensure you aren't leaving urgent, time-sensitive fires burning at 4:59 PM without a quick handoff note.
- If she says your watch is fast: "My computer clock says 5:00 PM, and all my daily tasks are wrapped up! Have a great evening, see you tomorrow."
- If she implies you're rushing out: "Everything scheduled for today is complete and filed. I'm all set to hit the ground running at [start time] tomorrow morning."
"I've noticed a few comments about me leaving at 5:00 PM. I want to make sure we're aligned—is there an issue with the quality or timeliness of my work? My core hours are [Start Time] to 5:00 PM, and I make sure all my responsibilities are completed before I log off."
Protecting Your Mental Energy
25, struggling to get out of retail and getting a start in my career
I’m honestly at the point where I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to do anymore.
I’m 25, in South Carolina, and have two associate degrees in Business Administration/Management and Programming. I’ve also been working retail for 4 years, basically doing the same shit.
I tried moving into management at my current job multiple times and got denied over and over, despite consistently outperforming people and taking on more administrative/responsibility-heavy work. The most they gave me was basically a fake managerial title with no actual promotion or extra pay.
For the past 2½ years, I’ve been trying to get into an actual career and I’m getting nowhere.
I know the job market is terrible, but it’s depressing seeing people younger than me get into their careers with a certificate or barely any experience while I have two degrees and four years of work experience and still can’t get out of retail.
And I’ve tried EVERYTHING people tell you to do:
- Tailor your resume
- Use ATS keywords
- Network/contact recruiters
- Follow up after applying
- Apply to dozens of jobs
- Get your resume reviewed
Same shit every time. Instant rejection, delayed rejection, getting ghosted after being told I’m being moved to the hiring manager, or occasionally getting an interview just to get rejected/ghosted afterward.
The part that really pisses me off is that I can’t even get basic entry-level jobs. I’ve been rejected from help desk jobs. Rejected from receptionist jobs asking for the bare minimum. Rejected from administrative, inventory, operations, and other jobs where I can clearly connect my experience to what they’re asking for.
I’ve asked for advice, tried networking, and tried getting connected with recruiters, but nobody has really been able to connect me with the right people. Most of the time I just get the same motivational advice I’ve already heard a million times.
Where I live makes it even worse. If it isn’t healthcare, warehouse/logistics, or one of the few major industries around here, it feels like finding an opportunity is an uphill battle.
At this point, I’m seriously questioning whether I should even continue pursuing business/IT or just completely pivot into something else.
I’ve been trying to figure this shit out for 2½ years, and I genuinely don’t know what my next move should be.
Jobadvisor
1. Stop Applying for Generic "Entry-Level" Roles Online
- State & Local Government Jobs: South Carolina state agencies, county offices, school districts, and municipal utilities are notorious for slow hiring processes, which scares off casual applicants. However, they strictly enforce minimum qualification checklists. Your associate degrees automatically clear the civil service educational hurdles for roles like Administrative Specialist, IT Support Technician I, or Permit Technician. Check
careers.sc.govdirectly. - Higher Education / Tech Colleges: Look at local community colleges or universities for staff roles (admissions assistant, IT helpdesk staff, registrar assistant). Higher ed offers solid benefits, tuition assistance if you ever want a bachelor's, and heavily favors applicants with business administrative degrees.
2. Monetize the Local South Carolina Market Reality
- Logistics & Supply Chain Operations: Warehouses and distribution hubs rely heavily on Inventory Control Specialists, Production Schedulers, Logistics Coordinators, and WMS (Warehouse Management System) Analysts. Your programming degree proves logic/data skills, and your business degree handles the operational side.
- Manufacturing Facilities: Industrial plants in SC need Document Control Specialists, Data Entry Technicians, and Junior ERP Administrators. These roles sit in an office inside the plant and pay significantly better than retail management.
3. Re-Frame Your Retail Experience (Kill the "Store" Language)
- Re-label your accomplishments:
- Instead of "Handled register and assisted store manager," write: "Managed daily cash reconciliation, audited POS system logs, and assisted with shift inventory reporting."
- Instead of "Helped customers and stocked shelves," write: "Maintained inventory accuracy across [X] SKUs and resolved complex client operational inquiries under high-volume constraints."
- Highlight your Programming Degree as Data Skills: Most business roles don't care if you can code C++ from scratch, but they care immensely if you know SQL, Excel (VLOOKUPs, Pivot Tables), or basic automation. Frame your programming degree around data analysis, process logic, and systems troubleshooting.
4. Target Local IT Staffing Agencies (Not Direct Apply)
- Look up regional staffing and recruiting agencies in your nearest SC metro area (e.g., Columbia, Greenville, Charleston, or Charlotte metro area depending on where you are located) that specialize in Contract-to-Hire IT or Administrative Staffing (e.g., Robert Half, Teksystems, Apex Systems).
- Don't just submit a resume—call their local office, ask to speak to a recruiter handling entry-level IT or admin placements, and tell them directly: "I have an Associate in Programming and Business, 4 years of client-facing experience, and I am available to start an on-site contract role immediately." Recruiters love candidates with customer service skills for Tier 1 helpdesk because tech can be taught, but soft skills usually can't.
5. Evaluate an Immediate Pivot (If You Want Out Fast)
| Path | Why Your Background Fits | Next Step |
| Field Service Technician | Combines hands-on work with basic IT/programming logic (servicing ATMs, point-of-sale systems, telecom, security hardware). | Search for "Field Tech" or "POS Installer" roles; high demand in SC. |
| Medical Billing & Coding | Uses your business background, high attention to detail, and computer literacy. | Look for entry-level billing assistant roles at local clinics or hospital systems. |
| Quality Control (QC) Inspector | Common in SC manufacturing; relies on system rules, precision, and documentation over physical labor. | Target local manufacturing plants for entry-level QC roles. |
New Job. My second week. Everyone is ignoring me. No one showed me anything and no one told me what do do
Onboarding Started last week at new office job. The Manager did the "Onboarding". Like 30 Minutes. Then I got an IT "Onboarding" again around 30 Minutes. Then I was supposed to do the "Company University Training". That was like 2 days watching Videos and doing tests about the "company values".
Then I searched through the Company drives and read like 50 Procedure Manuals, anything I could get my hands on to understand my tasks and job. This was mostly through my own initiative. When I asked for work or guidence they told me that its my first week and I should at first "settle in".
Manager showed me one single procedure/program in like 5 Minutes. That was my first week. I also had IT problems in my first week (this has supposedly never happened to any employee before) and spent like 2 days solving them on my own by communicating with IT. The last two days, I got one mini task that took like 2 hours - sorting some old files. My senior colleague (who is supposed to do my training/onboarding? I dont know) is always busy and has shown me one small program in about 10 Minutes.
Imagine a procedure are 10 steps and they have shown me step 1 + half of step 5 lol. I am at a loss here. Im not even sure I want to work at this company anymore. It looked so much better from the outside.
Today Boss called me into his office and told me to "work more". I told him that I didnt get any proper training. No one has shown me the proper procedures. He insist to just "learn by doing". I have no idea how to even work. And even if I did, all the paper work would be bad because I dont know how to do it properly.
I want to leave already.
Jobadvisor
Why This Is Happening (It’s Not You)
- Dysfunctional Culture: Teams that don't prepare for a new hire are usually drowning in disorganization. They hired you because they needed help, but they are "too busy" to invest the time to train you.
- Cover-Your-Ass Management: Your boss likely realized your onboarding was falling apart. Rather than fixing the team's training process, he is shifting the blame onto you so he can claim you "lack initiative."
- Systemic Neglect: Spending two days fixing IT issues on your own proves you have initiative. The company just failed to integrate you properly.
What to Do Immediately
- Send a follow-up email to your manager today:"Hi [Boss Name], thanks for speaking with me earlier. Following up on your feedback about getting more actively involved: I have completed all required videos, reviewed company manuals, and resolved my initial IT issues. To ensure I am focusing on the right priorities, could you assign 2–3 specific processes or projects you would like me to tackle this week? Once assigned, I will shadow [Senior Colleague] or work through them directly."
- Go to your senior colleague and say: "I know you're busy, so I'm just going to pull up a chair and watch over your shoulder while you work through [Task X] for 30 minutes. I'll take notes so you don't have to stop to teach me."
- Tasks completed (even mini-tasks like file sorting).
- Every attempt you make to ask for work or training (dates, times, and who you asked).
- Manuals and procedures you read.
- This protects you if your boss tries to claim you are idle during performance reviews.
Should You Quit?
- Do not quit immediately without a plan unless your mental health is severely impacted or you can afford to be unemployed.
- Treat this job as a paid job-search period: Since they aren't monitoring your workload properly, complete whatever small tasks you are given, keep your head down, do not stress over their poor training, and spend your evenings aggressively applying elsewhere.
- On your resume: Because it has only been two weeks, simply leave this job off your resume entirely. Treat it as if you are still looking for your next role.
Want to lose Your Faith in Humanity? Work Retail.
Working retail has a ton of issues, but I feel like personally my biggest issue is the fact that I feel like I'm constantly hand holding adults that are literally incapable of thinking for themselves.
People are so untrusting, or so braindead that they literally do not comprehend what they are doing in conversations.
I'm tired of people not listening to a single word I'm saying and needing to repeat myself a half dozen times in a simple conversation. I'm tired of having to read for people, and explain things that should be common sense. I'm tired of being expected to have common courtesy 24/7 while simultaneously taking constant verbal abuse and contempt from people (doesn't matter the age, teens to seniors are all alike in this behavior).
I'm tired of grown men and women completely losing their minds when the tap on their card doesn't work (typically because they didn't tap properly), and making some snarky ass statement about how "your store has gotta get better terminals".
You really can't help people. I oscillate between feeling like I'm the only adult in the room with a bunch of toddlers, and feeling defeated that I'm surrounded by so much incompetence.
It is very rare that I am engaged with by a customer as an equal, or even as a human being. I am expected to be a subservient robot in most of my interactions and I think I'm just done with it.
I think things are just getting to me and I need a place to vent - and look, I understand that people have their own lives going on, shopping isn't supposed to be a stressful activity, and some people just want to quickly buy their stuff and get out, I don't mind that. I'm talking blatant disrespect in conversations and interactions.
At what point did retail become customers expecting to be treated like royalty, while expecting the staff to take all manner of abuse?
I personally have been applying for jobs in an attempt to get out of retail but no luck. Seriously feel like I'm losing my will to go through the motions each day.
Jobadvisor
Why Customer Behavior Feels So Absurd
- Cognitive Offloading: The moment people walk into a store, their brains switch into low-energy mode. They delegate all basic problem-solving, reading comprehension, and spatial awareness to the employees. To you, it looks like incompetence; to their lazy brains, you are an organic GPS and instruction manual.
- The "NPC" Effect: Decades of corporate "customer is always right" policies have conditioned the public to view retail workers not as human beings with feelings, but as non-player characters (NPCs) or automated interfaces. When an automated interface glitches (like a card terminal failing), people throw a micro-tantrum because their expectation was frictionless service.
- Displaced Stress: Customers walk in carrying personal anxiety, financial stress, or hurry, and the retail associate becomes the safest target to dump that frustration onto without social consequences.
How to Emotionally Survive the Floor While You Apply
- Adopt "Zoo Keeper" Mentality: Stop expecting customers to act like reasonable, thoughtful adults. Expect them to act like confused tourists who don't know the rules of the environment. When someone fails to use the tap-to-pay correctly, don't take it as a personal insult—view it as an predictable, automated event.
- Lower Your Personal Investment: You do not need to care more about their transaction than they do. Give clear, polite, but completely neutral answers. If you have to repeat yourself, repeat it verbatim in a flat, calm tone. Save your actual emotional energy for your real life.
- Micro-Boundaries: You do not have to absorb verbal abuse. A calm, standard line like, "I am happy to help you, but I need us to keep this conversation respectful," places the boundary firmly on them without breaking protocol.
Transitioning Out of Retail
- Reframe customer service as Account Management: Resolving complaints, handling transactions, and managing high-volume client flow translates directly into Client Support, Operations, and B2B Account Coordination.
- Look at B2B (Business-to-Business) Roles: Consider applying for roles at commercial supply houses, wholesale distributors, or B2B vendors. The "customers" in B2B are professionals buying on behalf of their company during work hours, which drastically reduces the entitlement and toddler behavior seen in consumer retail.
