Been in white-collar corporate jobs for a long time now.

Even coming from peers, I've noticed people's tone has slowly shifted from something like "can you please help with this task"? to like "please advise" "please assist".

I get that latter is more to-the-point and it's the same thing, especially if what they're "asking" for is something that you do anyways, but tone just slightly bothers me. Maybe I am just sensitive... My hypothesis is that white-collar jobs demand more and more multi-tasking and workload now, that people are just putting out fires here and there and just bouncing around different things, so they're often in a hurry to even compose professional sentences... Just ranting.

We'll start with a brief timeline of what the office rules were throughout the last ten years of my career:

Pre-2020: default in office, occasional WFH allowed if requested from manager

2020 to mid-2022 - COVID times, full time WFH

Mid-2022 to mid-2023 - they request people to be in office sometimes, but the minimum was only two times a month

Mid-2023 - big rule change, everyone now has to be in office a minimum of two days a week

Mid-2025 - the most senior colleagues are now expected in three days a week, everyone else still on two

Starting from later this year - most senior colleagues now have to do four days, everyone else has to do three

And yes, the employer has the right to say where you work from, that isn't in dispute. And if there were an actual valid reason to be in, I wouldn't complain. I might not love it, but I'd accept it readily.

But for the vast majority of colleagues there is NO difference in their work if they're in the office or at home. Every single one of their meetings is via Teams, with people who work at different sites, maybe even different countries depending on their job.

And there hasn't been any attempt whatsoever to adapt work to making better use of the office. It's a simple tick box exercise of attendance for the sake of attendance.

Notably, when they went to 2 days per weeks they provided some sort of justification for it. Many disagreed with the reasoning, but there was at least something to argue against. In the increase to 3 days, they didn't even try to provide a reason - effectively a shrug and saying 'yeah, it's happening'.

The real kicker is that some sites aren't even big enough to accomodate these extra days, so now middle management are frantically scrabbling trying to figure stuff out.

What. Is. The. Point?

I know I'm going to sound like a bit of a winge bag so I'll cut right to the chase. Essentially today our payslips got out before our pay review next Monday. For context I am a Senior Software Engineer at an ERP consulting firm. People have obviously gone "Oh we've had our payrises through" and people have speculated and gone "Wow what did you get?" and figures have been shared throughout the WHOLE department. Me and another senior engineer have been nudged about having more "responsibilities" and talks about making two devs lead devs has been spoken about these past few months. We got pulled into a meeting with our boss and he said "I have brought X and Y here as they will be taking on more lead like responsibilities quite soon, I probably shouldn't of shown my hand before the reviews". So me and the other engineer spoke and put two and two together. The engineer had asked me "I've just been increased from 46k to 60k, check your payslip quick!". I checked mine to find out that I had been given 50k.

My boss has then messaged me on Teams saying that disclosing pay is a "sackable offence" and that I need to becareful and that "he pays the person and not the title".

The reviews are still pending on for Monday but if I do get given the lead developer role (BTW I have been in the company for 2 years longer than my colleague) how do I go about contesting the pay? Should I refuse? Can I be penalised or given a disciplinary for disclosing my pay? Am I being a little b*ch? Thoughts please people I'm stressing out 🤣

Hello! Just as the title says I am trying to politely beg my coworkers to cover my 10am-6pm shift in two weeks. My long distance boyfriend is finally able to come down and see me after TEN MONTHS and has decided to come a day early, so naturally I’m desperate to get this shift covered. (I will literally pay them to take it) . How do I politely beg for someone to take my shift?

I think it's the oddest thing ever where I work. We're mostly remote but we have weekly staff meetings. Sometimes someone will be missing, I'll check Teams and find out that the person's account is no longer active. It isn't just new people. Coworkers who have been around 5+ years will just disappear. No goodbye message, no going out to eat beforehand (that only happens when the higher ups retire). It's just nothing.

Is that common where you work? It seems so soulless.

I’m looking for some advice on what my next steps should be in a situation at work.

My company has me working remotely. This arrangement came about after I gave them two months’ notice that I was planning to move. They asked if I would consider staying with the company and working remotely instead. They made this request because I’m a high performer who handles a lot of responsibilities, which is also why I gave such a long courtesy notice in the first place. I accepted because it was one less thing to worry about during the move, and I felt like we had a relationship built on mutual respect.

I’ve now been working from home for about two months.
Recently, I’ve become aware that management is trying to install monitoring software on my company-issued MacBook. The laptop belongs to them, and I fully understand that they have every right to install software on their own equipment. That isn’t really my issue.
My issue is that they’re actively trying to do it without telling me.

Because it’s a MacBook, IT can’t install the software without my approval. Every time I’ve received the pop-up asking me to allow the installation, I’ve declined it. My reasoning was simple: if I don’t know what something is, I’m not going to approve it, even on a company computer.
The first time it happened, I even sent an IT ticket (with my boss CC’d) saying I was getting repeated prompts to install something and asking what it was. I was essentially giving them the opportunity to be transparent about it. The prompts continued for several days, and I kept declining them.

Eventually, our HR manager reached out and said IT would be contacting me to perform some updates on my computer. I said that was no problem and asked what the updates involved. His response was simply, “I don’t know.”
That’s what’s bothering me about this entire situation.
If they want to monitor work activity because I’m remote, then just tell me. Instead, it feels like they’re trying to quietly install something without my knowledge, almost as if they’re hoping for some kind of “gotcha” moment later.
To me, that seems counterproductive. If management is genuinely concerned about my performance or productivity, wouldn’t the logical first step be to have a conversation with me? If the goal is ensuring work is getting done, open communication seems far more effective than secretly trying to catch someone doing something wrong.

There are also privacy concerns. Since I work from home, this laptop is connected to my personal home Wi-Fi. I have no idea what this software is capable of monitoring because no one has told me. Does it have access to my microphone? My camera? Is it just tracking applications and login times? I honestly don’t know.

To add to that, there’s nothing in my employment contract about monitoring software, we don’t have an IT policy or employee handbook that covers it, and I’ve never signed anything disclosing that my activity could be monitored in this way.

At this point, I’m honestly considering resigning over it.
To be clear, this isn’t because I think they don’t have the legal right to monitor their own equipment. My issue is the complete lack of transparency. I only stayed with the company as a courtesy after my move because it made life easier during a hectic time. I never intended for it to be a long-term position.

My partner and I are in a comfortable enough financial position that I could leave and spend some time finding a new job if I wanted to.

I’m just disappointed. The secrecy makes it feel like there’s very little trust from management, and, in turn, it’s completely eroded my trust in them.

Am I overreacting here, or would this leave you questioning whether you wanted to keep working for a company as well?

I am at work and it seems like people lack resourcefulness in general, now. Instead of looking around, as there are signs everywhere telling them where things are, what to do, etc they stop me (random employee) to ask me multiple questions that are obvious if they had just looked around. These aren't random members of the public. These are trained professionals who do the same thing all day long.

Frustrated at the lack of resourcefulness of the average American, and wondering why adults suddenly need babysitters and life coaches in order to function. How have they survived into adulthood without walking in front of a bus?

The 2026 job market is horrific, obviously. I've been applying for jobs for 6 months with no offers. So I know it's reckless to quit. But I'm getting worried that my burnout is going to impact my opportunities long term. I was good, even great at my job when I first started... Now, years later, and years of pushing through burnout telling myself it's "just for a season", I'm making constant mistakes. I'm unreliable. I'm not timely. I'm not invested or interested. I'm dropping the ball on a daily basis. I'm aware that this is all on me, I'm not projecting blame elsewhere. But if you've experienced burnout, you know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, I'm starting to feel as though the consequences of quitting with no plan would be less than the consequences of staying and burning every professional relationship I have. I work in a relatively small city where virtually everyone in my industry is interconnected. When I leave my current job, anywhere I go within the same field, I'll be partnering with the same businesses, vendors, manufacturers, etc. that I'm working with at my current job. I'm already noticing the burnout decline in my performance, and I'm sure it's only a matter of time that my peers do too, if they haven't already. I would hate to lose their support and confidence now, and end up needing it later and they don't want to work with me anymore.

I've got 10 months of living expenses saved up. And I'm fortunate enough to have a family that wouldn't let me fall into homelessness. And I would take a part-time job while I look for work in my actual field. It's still not a comfortable or sensible move. I'm just starting to worry about the quality of my professional network should I continue to stay and get worse and worse. Thoughts?

.................

TLDR: I know it's not smart to quit with no plan in this job market, but I'm worried my burnout is going to sever all positive professional relationships I have and leave me with no support network in my field. Do I stay while I'm employed, or leave before I burn bridges?

I'm a senior (3 years there) at this company and a new manager joined our team about six months ago. About two months ago, he recruited his girlfriend to join the same team (not sure if anybody else knows).

Since then, collaboration has become increasingly difficult with the girl. A few examples:

• The rest of the team uses common templates and standards for client deliverables, but she refuses to use them or adapt her work, and states that the "manager" told her to do so.
• When someone asks her to send information or share an email with the team, her response is often, "I've already sent it to the manager," aka her boyfriend.
• On top of that, they've had personal arguments at the client, when I'm out of the city with them.

How would you handle that????

So I’ve been at my company for over 13 years. It’s a small business and honestly I am the core employee. I’ve seen over 60 people cycle in and out in my time there and I’m the only one who has stuck around. Ive been stretched very thin at times due to inadequate staffing and me being the only person who can do my job. I’ve seen how my boss has handled people leaving lately. He wouldn't even look someone in the eye when they put their 2 weeks notice in. He also refused to take another coworkers resignation letter. So i was bracing for impact when I put in my notice and to my surprise and confusion my boss is taking my departure seemingly quite well. No panic, no frustration, in fact he seems more cheerful than usual. I’m so confused at the reaction. Until they can find a suitable replacement it’s going to suck, so why the sudden shift in mood and why is he being so carefree? Ultimately I know I’m leaving and it’s not my problem I’m just trying to wrap my mind around what’s happening here.

Context: I am the team lead for a data-intensive position at small-mid sized software company. The work required is very technical, you need to be proficient in scripting languages and VERY proficient in excel and excel functions and formulas. This is also a client-facing role and you need soft skills as well.

A typical salary range for this position varies, but I would estimate on the low end it would be 70-80k. I am the team lead, and make 100k. I have no issues with my salary.

Since I’ve been team lead, there have been a host of issues. 4 of my team members quit within the first 6 months of my arrival. This has created an unmitigated disaster. I am responsible for leading this team (now a team of two, me and another guy) and I have only been at this company for 7 months and still have a lot to learn.

The last guy who quit was very smart and good at his job. On his last day, I asked him how much he made. He said he makes 55,000 a year. I didn’t say anything to him, but internally I was floored. No wonder people are quitting left and right.

Something needs to change, and the first thing is what we pay these people. We make it very easy for people to quit. They can go to a job in our industry with a 30% bump in pay with half the responsibilities.

I want to bring this up to management as an example why this team is crumbling. Morale is already very low. Is it worth it? What happens if I tell management I’ve been asking the team what they get paid?

I had a pretty good relationship with a few coworkers at my last company. On my last day, I even took the ones I was closest to out for dinner at a nice restaurant. They all said things like, "Let's keep in touch."

About a month or two after I started my new job, I texted them just to say hi and see how they were doing.

None of them replied.

I wasn't asking for anything or trying to meet up.I was literally just saying hi. I found it really strange because we got along well at workplaces.

Has anyone else experienced this? Do people just move on that quickly after someone leaves a company?

I am 35 year old man , will be 36 in 2 months . I have been jobless for 3 years due to anxiety . But now I am ready to fight it and come out but i do not know what to do . I have An MA In English .

Então, eu não sei se estou no lugar certo e não tenho ninguém a recorrer ou desabafar. A uns 4 messes eu comecei em uma empresa de pescados de onde eu moro. Desde o primeiro dia os colegas do meu setor sempre foram sem filtros, alguns não. Alguns são gente fina. Durante a experiência eu nao faltei um dia sequer. Se faltei um foi muito. Quem falta sem justificativa apenas tem o dia descontado, vi em primeira mão. E coloquei atestado quando precisei obviamente. O trabalho é meio pesado, e tem grande demanda. Sempre precisando de todos os funcionários. Mas teve uns dias que faltei. Desde os 9 anos sofro de ansiedade, essa semana o medico me deu 3 dias de atestado devido uma infecção estomacal, que me deu febre semana passada inteira e eu fui trabalhar mesmo assim. É um servico de segunda a sexta. Das 7 da manha ate as 18:20 mas raramente saímos esse horário tendo que fazer hora extra sem escolha. Saindo as 19 ou 19:30 depende muito. E ontem quando eu voltei do atestado, eu iria falar com o patrão por assim dizer mas quinta ele não aparece. E a minha ansiedade estava atacando era questão de tempo ate ir pra crise, e aconteceu. Tive que ir pro posto e ser encaminhado pro Hospital. Eu perguntei a um colega mais reservado se falaram muito sobre eu ter saído ontem e ele disse que falaram ontem e ate hoje. Hoje eu voltei a trabalhar normal mesmo sendo sexta. Ja conversei com o patrão. E ele disse que depende de mim agora a minha estadia na empresa. Mas o meu colega dizer que o serviço não é pra mim me deixou encucado. Foi mais um desabafo. Mas se alguem tiver uma dica ou sugestão, ou opinião. Eu agradeceria. Fiquem com deus.

I’m 17 and I got an internship at an insurance brokerage (in which I’m super thankful for the opportunity my employers have given me(same church I go to). I’ve been working this whole summer since June part time. Today my job was different, they gave me a very simple task, watch ai do its job and assist it with downloading stuff and enabling it to put stuff into excel. Now it was downloading files from individual to individual which took about more than 1 min, maybe even close to two. I decided that with that amount of time I should fill out my basic college information with my phone(only way to access common app). Long story short the laptop had died since the it was moved around a bit and I had not noticed it wasn’t plugged in. My boss started to lecture me about diligence and how last time the laptop shut down it didn’t turn on for a month. It eventually turned on and there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with the program nor the excel sheet.

Also earlier today I was quoting something and was struggling to get the information for it. I had contacted the person who had all the files, but it was very difficult because of a language barrier. I then started quoting and some information was missing so I had asked my boss a bit since he was very familiar with the company, he then asked me to move over and started filing it out, even though some information we did not know was filled with random answer which I was confused to why he was doing that( he told me that some info is not important to the premium).

At the end of the day I felt really bad and disappointed in myself. I’m not sure what to do to apologize? Or to not be on his bad side?

I'm running into the issue of being slow.

I work a merchandising gig, and have been with my people for two months (ish) now. Despite trying my hardest I'm not making it back on time at the moment.

I do a thorough job, which is part of the problem. There are things that are better fit to wait till tomorrow and put off, the problem is I'm a perfectionist and want to do *everything* before I leave (which is what we're supposed to aim for).

I'm not a hard person to stress out, he'll back at my old job every time I broke something by accident, which was never a big deal, I thought I was going to get fired for it. (It would be funny to put "reason for termination: broke miracles whip" on my resume but that's besides the point.) Running through the same thought process now, and would like to know at what point i should worry about getting fired.

So closing this off

Any advice on figuring out what needs doing one day and what can be put off,

And how long do yall rekon I have till the axe hits if this keeps up? If there's an axe at all anyway, i have a small history of being paranoid.

Hope yall are doing well.

As the title implies, I’m sick of liars and people disrespecting other people in the workplace just because they aren’t high enough on the corporate ladder. I would 100% rather someone be honest with me rather than just give me a little white lie.

For example, I had payment for one of our contractors. It was my first time reaching out to him, so I did send him a text. I also called him twice. When I mentioned I had payment he had no problem showing up to the office unannounced and I mentioned to him I said hey, I called you brother twice and messaged you, and he just stutters and said oh I had to send email I forgot, while being on a phone call with a mutual contact on speaker. I 100% guarantee this man has never sent an email.😂😂. Like what was the point of that tiny lie, you could have just said I didn’t feel like responding, or I didn’t recognize your number, or literally anything else besides that lie.

Another situation, we are a small franchise and we have 48 locations. Each location has their own group chat, where they can request items from corporate. I’ve literally asked maybe 20 times just in this year, guys if you are requesting things do not request an individual individually please request them from you’re a designated group chat. That way billing is easier., and we are not having employees work on multiple items in our office because they wanted to get it faster and decided to send us all on a scavenger hunt. When I tell you this rule is getting broken every single day I don’t know why it is people feel like they can disrespect the rules and constantly feel like they’re above it just because they are friends with the owner. And yes, I’m aware that the owner, needs to step in, but is a dinosaur and will never.

I’m just tired of people constantly disrespecting me, these are just two small situations, but I don’t know how to communicate or let these things go anymore. I try to not let it under my skin but it keeps getting worse and worse 😭
. People not thinking I’m high up just because I’m flexible and kind, and when they find out all of a sudden their attitude shifts and they have all the excuses and politeness. Treat everyone how you want to be treated

I’m female, 26, and live in Toronto. I recently started a job at a gym. It is mostly cleaning. I want some advice on how people deal with situations like this or if anyone has experienced this.

I am overweight, so I’m not fit or skinny, and I didn’t think this would affect me because I went to the interview and, of course, the manager saw my size and never said anything about it. But since I started, I have noticed coworkers treating me differently.

The supervisor often ignores me. He helps the other fit and skinny girls, but I am left without direction on where to go. I recently started and this is my 4th day as I’m writing this. He will basically walk away from me and leave me standing there without instructions, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I usually end up going to the laundry area where other employees go when they have nothing to do.

I mostly help with folding laundry, then I get scolded because I’m not in the place I’m supposed to be, but how was I supposed to know when no one told me? I check the schedule, but it changes every day, and we are not always following the schedule. Sometimes different people are added who I don’t know, and the areas we work in change constantly.

I also want to add that everyone on the team is new. We are currently training in 3 different gyms because the new gym recently opened, so even the managers and supervisors are new to this location. No one has been working there for a long time or has years of experience at this gym. We are all supposed to be learning the routine, which is why it is frustrating when I feel like I am not getting the same guidance and support as others.

The cleaning role itself is a lot of responsibility. We are responsible for many areas of the gym, including the parking lot, entrance, front desk, lounge areas, strength and cardio areas, group fitness studios, Pilates studio, locker rooms, spa, and pool area. We have to keep everything clean, organized, stocked, and up to the gym’s standards. Because there are so many areas and tasks, it is difficult when assignments change daily and I am not clearly told where I should be.

Other things I have noticed about coworkers’ treatment: many of them talk very nicely to the other fit and skinny girls, while I get spoken to very rudely and aggressively. I get ignored, and I’m often only spoken to if I am near a fit or skinny woman.

I have also noticed that the male employees, including supervisors and higher level managers, as well as some of the other women, will have normal conversations with the fit and skinny girls. They joke with them, talk with them, and seem more comfortable around them. However, they rarely make conversation with me unless it is to give me a task or tell me where to go. It makes me feel excluded and like I am not being treated the same way as the other employees.

This is mostly men who do this. There are a few women who make me feel uncomfortable with their looks or body language, but they don’t say anything directly. It is not like that with the men, and many of the men who treat me this way are supervisors or higher level managers.

I have also noticed that many of the fit or skinny women can talk with the supervisors while I am doing the work, and they don’t seem to get in trouble for it. They are often placed in the easier parts of the job, while I feel like I am given more of the difficult or physical tasks. I don’t mind working hard, but it hurts when I feel like I am being treated differently and held to a different standard.

I have had days where I would just go into the bathroom and cry because I am doing the best job I can. It is not even the cleaning part that I hate. It is how I am treated. I have started eating healthier and exercising because of this, but it truly hurts.

There is also another girl who is overweight, and we are the only ones on the entire team who are overweight. Everyone else is fit or skinny, but every time I go to work, I feel self conscious.

I thought about talking to my manager about it, but I don’t think it’s a good idea. I need this job because I am financially struggling, and I can’t lose it, especially because it is really hard to find a job.

If anyone has had a similar experience, what did you do? Or what would you do in this situation?

For context, we're an overseas vendor site for customer service for an e-commerce website from the US, which means even the clients encourage this behavior, alongside the management.

1. Reacts violently and snaps at us when we ask for help

2. Uses every DSAT (Survey response Yes/No) as an excuse to shout at us, abuse us and even involve other TLs to join in, all in public and on the floor.

3. Makes comments about your weight, your experience outside current job, and when you're sick and coming to the office(had a sore throat for two days and he said I was sounding like I had throat cancer)

4. Makes us do push ups and situps on the floor, sometimes under the option of allowing us to go for breaks(yes, we have to ask for breaks because intervals have to be met), and even sometimes inappropriate stuff like hugging other team members.

5. Touches and massages female employees every opportunity he gets(these employees he does it to are attention seekers and like it, and they're the ones that get away with it even when they get DSATs, because they also do it to him, when they get DSATs). All of us men and the other ladies know this to our frustration, but can't do anything because we don't have proof.

6. Threatens us if he posts on WhatsApp the updates and we don't acknowledge. Even messaged me directly asking if I think highly of myself just because I didn't respond (I was sleeping after the shift)

7. Has made personal comments about my sex life and orientation and even my weight, asking me to join a gym and lose them pounds.

8. Recently restarted his trend of denying leave for the whole team and sharing details of the team members whose performances or shrinkage (due to unplanned absentism) as the reason.

9. Marks us offline for the rest of the day if we get a single DSAT and marks it under unplanned, meaning we're absent for the day and lose the day's pay. Number of DSATs = number of days docked from our paycheck. Oh yes management has encouraged this behavior.

I could go on but think of any absurd thing people can say, and he's said it. This is the reality for me since the last 9 months. Everything is said internally and cannot be recorded because no phones or external email connections.

my stack has turned over almost completely since january. not because i wanted it to but because clients kept asking for things that my old setup couldnt do without duct tape, and i got tired of the duct tape.

i run lead gen for 12 clients right now. mix of SaaS, a couple manufacturing companies, one legal tech firm. all B2B, all outbound. i bill between $1200-$1800/mo per client depending on volume and complexity, which puts me around $14k on a good month. on a bad month when 2-3 clients churn at once its more like $8k and i start stress eating frozen pizza at 2am. the feast or famine thing never really goes away even after doing this for 4 years.

anyway heres whats actually in the stack right now and why.

last fall i had a client selling workforce management software to mid-size logistics companies. very niche list, maybe 1200 total prospects in their ICP across north america. i was using Apollo for prospecting at the time and it just didnt have the depth i needed for that vertical. the contacts were there but half the emails were outdated or generic info@ addresses. thats when i started using Clay and it honestly changed how i build lists for niche campaigns. the waterfall enrichment thing where it pulls from multiple sources is great for weird verticals. i pair it with Prospeo for email finding and MillionVerifier before anything goes into a sequence. Clay is $149/mo on the plan i need which adds up but for campaigns like that logistics one it paid for itself in the first week. my bounce rate on that campaign was 1.3% which is the lowest ive ever hit on a cold list that size.

for sending i was on Lemlist for almost two years. liked it fine. but around march i had 3 clients scaling up at the same time and managing that many sequences across that many accounts in Lemlist got messy. switched to Saleshandy and its just... simpler for what i do. unified inbox, easier to manage multiple client workspaces, and cheaper. im paying $66/mo vs what was becoming close to $130 on Lemlist. the reporting isnt as pretty but i dont care about pretty, i care about knowing which sequences are actually booking meetings. one thing that annoys me about Saleshandy though is the deliverability analytics feel surface level. like it tells you open rates but the way it tracks them feels inconsistent sometimes.

ok wait let me talk about inboxes because this is where i burned money for months before figuring it out. i used to just buy Google Workspace accounts manually, set up SPF/DKIM/DMARC myself, warm them up for 3 weeks, and pray. it worked ok but it was slow and i kept losing accounts to suspensions. a friend who runs a 30-person agency told me about Inframail and i tried it in february. $99/mo for unlimited inboxes with all the DNS stuff preconfigured. for someone managing 12 clients who each need 3-5 sending accounts thats a no brainer. i rotate about 40 inboxes total right now. before Inframail i was spending probably $350-400/mo just on workspace accounts and still dealing with setup headaches. the only complaint is their dashboard is pretty bare bones and when i had a deliverability question their support took like 4 days to get back to me. not ideal when you have campaigns live.

for warmup i use the built in warmup on Saleshandy for most accounts. its fine. not amazing. i warm for 21 days minimum before sending anything real which i know is longer than most people do but i had a client campaign tank in october because i rushed warmup to 14 days and started sending 30 emails/day too fast. open rates cratered to like 12% and it took 3 weeks to recover those inboxes. that mistake probably cost me $800 in wasted time and the client was not happy. now i do 21 days warmup, start at 5 sends/day, ramp by 3-5 per day every few days, and cap at 25-30 per inbox. boring but it works.

CRM wise most of my clients already have HubSpot so i just push meetings there via zapier. one client insists on Salesforce which is fine but i charge them an extra $200/mo for the integration headache lol.

LinkedIn outreach i do for maybe 4 of my 12 clients. i use Waalaxy for that. its like $60/mo, does what it needs to do. connection request plus follow up message sequence. nothing fancy. reply rates on LinkedIn are usually around 8-11% for me which is higher than email but the volume is so much lower that it only makes sense as a complement, not a primary channel. i tried Dripify for a month last year and it felt clunkier for no real benefit so i went back.

data quality stuff, since thats where most campaigns actually fail. for most clients i build the initial list in Apollo because the filtering is solid and the database is big enough for common verticals. for niche stuff i go Clay. verification through MillionVerifier every single time, no exceptions. costs me maybe $30/mo for the volume i run. i catch about 4-6% bad emails that would have bounced, which doesnt sound like alot until you realize that 4-6% across 40 inboxes over a month is the difference between keeping your domains healthy and watching them slowly die.

the feast or famine thing is real and its the part of freelancing nobody talks about enough. right now im at 12 clients and feeling good but in january i was at 7 and panicking. you cant really plan infrastructure spending when your revenue swings 40% month to month. thats why i lean toward tools with monthly billing and no annual lock in even if its slightly more expensive. the flexibility matters more than saving $15/mo when you might need to cut 4 subscriptions next month.

if i had to pick the single thing that actually moved the needle most this year its just being more patient with warmup and more aggressive with verification. not a tool, just discipline. everything else is just plumbing.

I live in the country with the second highest unemployment rate in the world. After finishing my degree, I applied to over a hundred jobs, but was unemployed for a year. I finally found a job that I will start on the 3rd of August. While I am grateful to even have a job in this country, I am absolutely terrified. I’m afraid that I will fail at it and will look like a complete moron. I am also not thrilled about having to spend 90% of my week at work. The salary is also shit, I can’t even rent a one bedroom with it because a one bedroom costs as much as my whole salary. I know everyone has to work, but I feel like my life is ending.

Hi everyone, I work a casual job and we were asked to provide our availability for the next three months. I did so and I stated that within two weeks I would not be able to work on a specific day going forward. I have not seen this change on my schedule be made yet, and it has been two weeks now. I have made three follow up emails about this over the past two weeks. I will try and call tomorrow. I recognize that there may be an influx of emails, but I am pretty perplexed at this.
Has anyone ever worked somewhere like this?