Why toxic Australian bosses should be terrified of this website

1 hour ago 2

Opinion

November 20, 2025 — 1.26pm

Here’s a simple question for you: who do you confide in when you’ve got problems at work? The most common answer is that you probably let off steam with other colleagues who intimately understand your workplace. They’ve got the shared history of rising tensions, and it’s natural to swap notes with familiar people.

There are also your close friends or family, who might get a running list of what irks you about your co-workers, and provide a sympathetic and objective ear in return. And if things get really problematic, you can always escalate it to senior management or HR.

Australia leads the world in Reddit usage.

However, there’s a new, and unexpected, place that’s increasingly gaining traction as the go-to where work frustrations are vented, and that’s the online forum Reddit.

The list of failed online meeting places is long. Myspace, Tumblr, Flickr, BeReal and Vine all come to mind, but Reddit has surprisingly transformed from a niche collection of small communities into a true powerhouse of the internet. In the past few years, its number of users has skyrocketed to more than 1 billion a month, an all-time high nearly two decades after it launched.

Australia leads the world in Reddit usage, with 33 per cent of all Australians over 16 visiting it at least once in the past month. Data from Meltwater’s Global Statshot Report, found that Australians read it more than user from any other country, way above the global average of about 12 per cent.

And one of the most popular and growing topics that people are turning to Reddit to discuss are workplace problems, with users posting intimate details of toxic management and annoying issues with their bosses to a broad audience for comments and advice.

There are scores of better ways to complain about work.

Take the “antiwork” subreddit as an example. In 2013, it began as “a quiet corner of the internet to discuss radical leftist ideas about ending work”, complete with a tongue-in-cheek slogan: “Unemployment for all, not just the rich!”

By 2019, it had attracted about 13,000 members, a motley crew of contributors who mainly griped about their work and shared tips on how to avoid doing it.

However, once the pandemic hit in 2020, the number of users in the forum ballooned to 2.9 million, an increase of more than 22,000 per cent. They go there primarily to complain about how they’re treated at work, and to connect with others who feel the same way.

Closer to home, the popular subreddit “auscorp” began 2½ years ago and now has 250,000 weekly visitors. This is an Australian-based forum that features regular comments and updates from workers with questions and complaints about where they work.

It recently received so many insider updates on all the changes occurring at ANZ under new chief executive Nuno Matos that it had to compile them into popular weekly threads. Every day, current and former employees add new details about the previously private inner workings of the business.

But all of this raises a knotty question: should you be sharing your company woes with the world on Reddit?

Of course, you can choose to release however you want, but please be aware that defamation and confidentiality laws still apply on internet forums, even if you’re hiding behind a pseudonym.

Although successful cases are still rare, you are liable for your actions if you defame someone online, and your identity can be traced if a digital warrant is applied for.

There are scores of better ways to complain about work. Go for a walk with a co-worker, rant to your partner, or report it up the line if something genuinely concerns you.

It’s understandable to want to vent about your workplace, but the best advice I ever received came from a former colleague that still rings true today: don’t ever put anything in writing that you wouldn’t want read out in court one day.

Tim Duggan is author of Work Backwards: The Revolutionary Method to Work Smarter and Live Better. He writes a regular newsletter at timduggan.substack.com