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Strong, functional relationships between managers and employees are the cornerstone of successful businesses everywhere. When employees like their bosses and feel a sense of mutual respect, communication improves and money gets made. But if you aren’t running the company, you probably aren’t as interested in the corporate bottom line as you are in your own personal sense of accomplishment and your own mental health and peace of mind.

Job search pros hear all kinds of stories from both sides of the interview desk. And while some of these stories end happily, others leave us with nothing but valuable life lessons. Here are a few of the worst from our recent archives. Have these situations ever come up for you?

A few decades ago, the standard relationship between employer and employee looked a bit different than it does today. Back then, employers often trained workers and took them on for life, and even if business needs changed or the economy contracted, layoffs were a last resort and were generally considered an investment loss and a breach of mutual loyalty.

You're about to step into the restaurant business, and you're ready to give your next position everything you have. For you, this won't just be a placeholder while you look for something better — this next job will be a doorway into a host of new opportunities. You'll be taking your work and your employer's business seriously, and you'll do everything you can to make customers happy and secure a strong reputation as a valued employee in this workplace.

Impressing employers and landing a job in any field can be challenging, and in a competitive industry like hospitality, you may need a little extra flair to set yourself apart from a long line of qualified applicants. Especially if you’ll only be available during specific hours of the week and you’ll need to convince potential employers to accommodate your schedule.

Once your formal offer is in hand, the light at the end of your job-search tunnel officially starts coming into view. If you’ve done your research and you’ve been a careful observer throughout the application and interview process, you’ve had time to notice any red flags or deal breakers that might call this job into question.

The word “internship” is not very well defined in our culture, and while it may suggest a world of opportunity and a doorway into the corporate world for some, for others it means easy access to free labor and an opportunity to legally exploit those who aren’t in a position to protect themselves.

Asking for help doesn't come easily to most people. In a workplace environment, the difficulty compounds further for employees who are young, those who are trying to prove their value, or those who have been called out in the past for being "needy." For one reason or another, we seem to live in a culture that claims to value teamwork, but often values self-reliance more.