Office Confessions: What Really Goes On at Work

What is your job really like?

Whether you’re hitting happy hour with your boss or bawling your eyes out in the stairwell, time at the office isn’t always the marathon of productivity and engaging meetings we might expect.

According to a nationwide survey conducted by LearnVest and Chase Blueprint, 68% of women have cried on the job, and 10% say they hate their bosses, although a reassuring third actually consider their supervisors to be friends …

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We asked real women* who have been in these very situations to go beyond the statistics and give us a glimpse into their actual experiences. Here’s what they spilled–can you relate?

Feel free to share your own experiences in the comments!

Ashley, 34

I admit it: I’ve cried at pretty much every single job I’ve had after college–usually out of disappointment in myself. I cried when my editor gave me back a manuscript practically bleeding with red ink, when I wasn’t prepared enough for meetings and when I came too close to missing deadlines. At my last job, my boss’s response to anything I’d give him would be, “What more could you have done?” It was so discouraging, that I didn’t know any other way out but to quit. The waterworks started when I gave my resignation.

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Casey, 26

At my very first job out of college, I worked on an advertising team where one of our main client contacts was in his fifties and had a stream of 20something girlfriends. When he invited me to lunch one day, I naively agreed. Any chance to get to know the client better, right? During lunch, I asked him about his family and business, but he kept bringing it back to his dating life and his former job working for a luxury car company. I knew the jig was up when he insisted we share a dessert. I ordered a cappuccino, let him pay (he was the client after all) high-tailed it back to the office, and left the job less than a week later. Did I mention I didn’t like that job anyway?

Heather, 36

I’ve lost track of the number of times my boss has asked for the status of a project I’ve never even heard of before. I would stall as I frantically searched through my email for any mention of Project X, then realize that my boss emailed everyone else in the department about said project except me, even though I’m supposed to be doing it. She never apologizes–just stares me down and asks, “So when will it be done?” As if I can produce Project X out of thin air. As if it is somehow still my fault that I didn’t know I was supposed to be CCed on an email two months ago. I don’t take it personally anymore when she huffs back to her office after giving me a stern ‘talking to’ about being more organized. It’s just a job, after all.