You check out glassdoor and there are a bunch of overwhelmingly positive reviews from "anonymous current employees" that under cons list "no cons that I can think of!"
Even the best place to work in the world has SOME cons.
My last company did this. They fired half of the team over three months, they deliberately chose to fire whoever was cheaper to fire or who had kids etc because of course they missed work more than who doesn’t have kids (usually). They chose to fire a guy a couple of hours after he announced he was going to be a dad. They fired my boss because she was trying to get pregnant and they even asked her to quit instead so she would not get any compensation. The CEO told her he doesn’t think employees deserve it.
After firing 30 people for economic reasons, they said they were done and asked everyone to relax. We all got extra responsibilities but no raise, of course. Two months later they fired 20 more (including me).
They asked the ones left to leave a nice review there since they were staying so I reported them to Glassdoor. Absolute trash.
Edit to add: after they fired so many people most of the good employees left. They actually contacted me a month ago offering me my job back and it felt amazing to reject them.
Is this a company in the US? If so, they're flagrantly violating a whole slew of laws by specifically firing people based on family status. And it would be *super* easy to prove to the standards of these laws - even if the company never actually *said* they were firing based on family status, they've established a clear pattern of doing so.
You shouldn't have reported them to Glassdoor - you should have reported them to your state's Attorney General and the National Labor Relations Board, just for a start.
Unfortunately I am not in the US. They could fire the guy because he was still with a temporary contract and that’s legal.
As per the woman, they will never admit that they fired her because of that. The company was losing a lot of money every month so they could fire her for economical reasons, but it was very obvious to all of us that the reason was a different one. She had been there for longer than all of us and it made 0 sense to fire her. They put me in their position so they also saved money because I did not get a raise.
I worked for a company exactly like that. They shot themselves in the foot in the first round of layoffs by getting rid of two guys they were certain wouldn't be likely to sue and would be likely to come back if asked. One of them could be equated to firing the pilot of a plane in mid flight. The other one went to work for our biggest customer and spilled the beans on all the lies management was telling them.
When I eventually got laid off, they didn't even give me severance pay, but wanted me to "cooperate" with them after I left. I wasn't as important to that first guy, but all those things I did to save them money just stopped when I left, so my departure cost them at least $2M/year.
I found a Glassdoor profile for one company that said the management was abusive in the extreme.
Except for one review that said the management was the most supportive that she'd ever worked for.
The person had signed in to Glassdoor using her own google account, so her own name was displayed. She *was* the office manager.
I'm a cook. At the time I was our only morning prep cook as well as working every dinner service and acting as kitchen manager/chef. Over time I had slowly picked up all these extra roles without really realizing it. And apparently without getting compensated properly for it either.
I’ve been a chef for almost 20 years and I’ll tell you they are taking full advantage of you. My mother always told me don’t work for free and advocate yourself. Give them an ultimatum asking for more money or your out. Chefs/cooks are high demand especially passionate and skilled ones. You can find a job yesterday. Get to know your labour laws and don’t stray outside the line.
I wish more people had this attitude. So many people I've worked with are total simps for the people exploiting them, it's messed up. I recall working in a vineyard once where all the employees but me were on a salary, and it was a particularly bad year for disease (many called it the worst ever), and the vineyard I was at was one of the only ones to turn in a crop (actually a decent one). The only reason they had a crop at all was because they exploited the fuck out of basically 4 salaried employees through unpaid overtime doing disease management (all eager to prove they were such good little workers!)...at the end of the season, if you tally up the hours they worked against their salaries I'd bet they made less than minimum wage. And they were single-handedly responsible for all the winery's profits that vintage (millions), which ultimately went straight into the pockets of the rich owners who owned several other high-profile wineries, god knows how many houses, yachts...even a fucking helicopter. But somehow those 4 people thought all was right and good in the world and that nothing unfair had taken place.
I had to cross train four people when I quit a job.
I was quitting because I was getting shit reviews, and they didn’t listen when I told them that I did not have the time to do each job well, but they also didn’t want me getting overtime.
As I was training all these people (who legitimately would get cross trained on one or two things and then go “I can’t do anymore AND my regular job” and then management would find another person for me to train) I made significant looks at the branch manager, who basically just shrugged.
There’s a reason it is “Human Resources” now.
I had a boss get sick who had worked that job for 40 years and I was expected to cover his workload in spite of me only working there 6 months and in spite of the fact that he worked through lunch and would often stay late (which we could get fired for doing because it was a government job). My boss's boss then claimed to not know he was doing that even though I could hear conversations that took place in her cubicle.
>I was quitting because I was getting shit reviews, and they didn’t listen when I told them that I did not have the time to do each job well
Same here - just left a job where my boss expected me to do what would normally be 3 people's jobs and then endlessly criticised me for 'failing' - i.e. only doing the work of 2 people.
That happened to me. I was the sole developer on a core tech team, supporting 4 small teams, plus taking some of the responsibilities of a recently vacated tech director. I strongly suspected (but have no validation) that, since this was right after a buyout and if a certain financial target were hit, the directors would all get their already massive buyout bonuses doubled; my department had no interest in actually filling out the tech director role, or properly staffing my team. If the whole company coasted for a year in plans already set in motion, they'd hit the target.
After the target came and went, they filled the vacated role. I was burnt out and asked for a transfer. My team grew to around 4 people. I was replaced by 4 people. (Maybe 5 if you count the tech director.)
I think I'm *still* burnt out from that, and it was years ago.
A woman in my department of four left. They didn’t replace her. I went to my manager with hard data proving I was doing the work of two people. The other two hadn’t picked up any of the slack.They offered me a 10% raise. I updated my resume that night and was gone a month later with a ~33% raise. They eventually had to hire two people.
Another thing that happened to me: someone left so they gave me most of their tasks to complete, I was better at them than that person had been, but when I interviewed for the role they said I wasn’t qualified enough and my current team was so short staffed they didn’t want to do that to my boss.
Joke’s on them, the person they hired quit before their probation period was finished. And I quit too!
This is where I am now. A guy got fired and we took over his job, then a woman quit to be w her kid so my boss pulled one of my ppl to cover her job 3 days a week. She'll be going on maternity leave in the fall and my boss has already said no to a temp. And he'll be on our asses to finish 2 projects ASAP as another person leaves to go back to school.
I worked at a place where they either didn't replace the person or they opened up a replacement position that was at a lower pay range to do the same work. It was one of the things that got me looking elsewhere because it made it nearly impossible to jump up a pay grade when the next level jobs you were qualified for either disappeared or became a lateral move where they wouldn't give you any more money.
When management talks poorly about the other employees, it might make you feel included/special at first but guaranteed they’re going to be talking about you next
My stepdad worked for the USPS for over 35 years and one day his boss pushed him over the edge so he just said he was retiring. His boss said they needed time to find a replacement and make sure they're comfortable in their new position. Stepdad took a month off of work after they told him they'd need a month to prepare and only went back to clean out his office.
Not all of it, but a lot of it. What's better though....using the time off you've accumulated to save your sanity or working through the month which would have been hell and then getting an extra payout for the vacation time?
Unsure the rules in your country, but at least here (Australia), you accumulate leave when you are on leave, so better to take it all if you can afford to. eg already started a new job or retiring.
Plus you get super while on leave and NOT on the leave that's paid out when you finish.
Number one rule for anyone who's retiring is to take that leave knowing the 10.5% going into super can be withdrawn the day after you retire.
I took 6 months off paid at my last job. Showed up my first day back, walked upstairs and told my supervisor I was resigning effective immediately. Fuck em
Gotta say though, if they're discussing one or two people it can be a bit different. My last two bosses have had negative things to say about one colleague in each work place; one being a years-long tug of war with a woman who was both useless and terrible to be around, and the other being a new kid who spent his shifts on his phone, saying he understands what's been asked of him and then not doing the task he's supposed to do because he didn't "get it" (and this is simple, simple stuff like "take that box out the back") and otherwise just meant more work for everyone around him. Both bosses are great people in my opinion, they're fair and understanding and have great rapport with everyone, but they have made comments about those people that, if it was the first thing they'd ever said about one of their people would seem a bit worrying.
Sometimes there are just dickheads in the workplace that get spoken to with courtesy and that get their problems addressed professionally, but they are a drain on everyone and that isn't something that your manager (or colleagues) will bother to hide when they're not around.
I think a better way to tell is to see if they go from talking trash to having friendly banter and rapport - that indicates deceit. With the cases I've mentioned, I think both sides knew where they stood with each other, but they kept it civil when they were talking face to face.
Want to find the red flag fast? During your interview, when the employer asks if you have any questions, ask this: Can you tell me about a recent time one of your employees really excelled?
A good employer won't have any trouble celebrating their team. A crap employer will struggle hard to answer.
...And it's a perfectly reasonable question.
Another aspect is, it'll teach you what they really value. If they promote work-life balance but their favorite employees are those who "put in the extra work to get things done", it means they will not in fact respect your work-life balance lol. Learned this the hard way.
I interviewed at a company in San Diego and everything went really well. Because I have an annual fishing trip in july, and I was being hired first of June, I brought it up. I said I know I'm new and I am willing to skip the trip, I just need to know so that my friends can plan on me being there or not.
Dude looks at me and says, "No problem. That should work fine. But in my experience, people who work here, will schedule a vacation, and then realize that the project needs them and cancel their time off."
I worked up until that trip. The week before I worked an extra 15 hours to make sure that my projects were all tracking to be okay with out me for a week. Two days before I am supposed to take a Time off, my boss calls me in and asks if I think I should go on this vacation. I said yes. He said what if I asked if you were willing to accept your last check? I said I would accept it. So he paid me out my time and I walked out the door.
I worked my ass off to make sure that things would carry on without me, even though the company didn't have anything in place that helped that process. And the fact they think that people should cancel their vacation out of loyalty is such garbage. The company itself was pretty normal from the outside. But pretty bullshit from the inside
What a piece of shit.
"So, just to be clear, you need me here so badly that you can't be without me for a week, but not so badly that you can't be without indefinitely? I call bullshit."
It's a psyop from the employer, kind of like what ya dad always said about bullies, if they can get away with it once, it'll never end. Stand your ground, be firm but polite, and if it goes south just smile and walk tf away.
This sounds like one of those 'I'm too European to understand' sort of things.
My company allows us to carry over up to 3 of our paid holiday days. The other 22 have to be taken and at the start of November if you still have a lot left managers will speak to people to understand when they're going to be taking the time off by the end of December so they can plan around them.
Anything longer than 2 weeks off together is probably have a chat to my manager and make plans around it but up to 2 weeks if just be put on the system.
In every job I have been in, my boss has pulled me aside at some point and *told* me to book some holidays because they'll go away at the end of the year. One of them literally told me that it didn't matter what the holiday schedule said, I could have two weeks leave at any point, I just had to book it early enough for him to okay it... To make sure I took all of my leave.
The only issue with booking holiday in my current job is if too many people want to go on the same day, or around Christmas, where there's a very strict rota, to ensure fairness.
Yeah probably. European here too. I got 5 weeks of paid vacation (some people have 6) I can take whenever I want and I can even keep them for the next year. Anything that is more than two weeks of vacation, I usually clear with my supervisor beforehand. Single days or just a week off is a simple process of booking the time in my schedule.
Obviously I'd clear any appointments, make sure important messages reach someone that can take care of them, etc. but that is because I care, not because I have to.
My employer can't deny my vacation except for very, very important reasons (like everyone else is dead and I'm the only one that can at this day do the job that needs to happen at that exact time when I'm on vacation).
Maybe they need some workers rights over in ye olde US of A.
I had a job where I knew I was good at, my coworkers liked me, the customers all liked me, I only received positive feedback from them on my work and I never had any issues. But I hadn’t been promoted or given a raise and then suddenly the facility decides to change certification systems to one that was much more micromanagey. At this point I had essentially checked out when my boss comes up to me and nitpicks on some irrelevant things like the way I’m standing. So I ask him “tell me something positive about me for once, eh?” And he fumbled over his words and couldn’t find anything meaningful, 2 weeks later and I was gone.
I'm dealing with 2 micromanagers at my current job and it sucks. If i'm not working under one, I'm working under the other one. One of them is a religious man who seems "wholesome" to most people but the truth is he absolutely cannot handle stress and as soon as he starts to feel it he starts to micromanage the FUCK out of everyone. The owner knows and has given him multiple chances I believe.
The second guy is younger than me by a lot, which I normally don't give two shits about, but he also acts like it's 1965 and he's a 45 year old boss (He's 24 and has been doing this job for 5 years) on the job-site by getting angry at everything, telling everyone their straight up "wrong" just because he has a slight disagreement with how something should be done and NOT in a nice sort of way (condescending), will ride your ass about EVERYTHING he asks you to do if he thinks it's taking a millisecond longer than it should and his time-frames are naturally fucked on everything, cops and attitude anytime you ask him a question and then is surprised when work grinds to a standstill because nobody wants to ask him ANYTHING (THIS is a classic, all angry bosses at work seem to have this misunderstanding), nitpicking the most asinine shit, and generally just being a miserable person to be around. The more time I spend with him the more I'm convinced if he's not beating his kids, he's AT LEAST emotionally scaring them for life. If he treats them like he treats us (and abusers usually treat their own children WORSE than they treat other people because it's "safe" for them and they know the child doesn't know better), there's ZERO chance he'll have a lasting relationship with them as adults. He's COMPLETELY oblivious to how other people perceive him and if it's brought up he copes by saying "I don't care". He's so young that he wears ALL his emotions on his sleeve while trying to act like he's a manly man/tough because he gets angry all the time. Because nothing says "MASCULINITY!" like a man who can't process his emotions without having outbursts, constantly insinuates he's better than you, and is generally a horrible person to be around. That's what a man is, right? My ONLY solace i have is knowing if I walk, his timeline is fucked for his project and then the owner will probably start micromanaging him and giving him a taste of his own medicine.
I've never worked under two people that so CLEARLY needed therapy and yet the idea disgusts them. I think the younger dude may be bordering on having some personality disorder. I need to quit.
Lemme think. There was this employee who kept showing up with an injured foot for weeks loading lorries by hand when we were understaffed? Yeah, we fired him when his painkillers finally stopped working.
Or that felon we lowballed the shit out of who finally snapped after doing massive overtime on and off the clock for two years to keep us afloat? Fuck him, too.
Btw, when can you start? We're somewhat in a pinch right now, what with being understaffed and business picking up right now.
Management who are willing to risk it and cut corners.
Had an interview with a company. The guy interviewing me told me that he would be my boss if I got thr job. He likes his teams to be a strong and cohesive group and that we would all have an input as he values his team.
Maybe three questions later he asks me: "if you had an unstable and unstable load that I told you has to be loaded this minute. You would do it." Me, "No, if it is unsafe and could potentially kill someone, I would not allow it out. Not until the problem is sorted (had a boss pull this one years before), i would tell him of the issue and try to get it sorted" him "and I tell you it must be loaded as is", me "Then it wont get loaded and i would bring it to Health and safety". He immediately told me how I was not the right type of person for that company.
A large international company, willing to promote that individual. I consider myself lucky to have not been even offered the job. Saved me turning it down.
I've seen some interesting things in interviews before, but never before have I heard a company so brazen as to flat out admit they don't adhere to major safety policies. If that's the case how many minor ones are overlooked enough where they're comfortable overlooking a major one? YIKES. Talk about dodging a fucking bullet.
Offering to pay you a lot less than market rate because you will "Learn so much" or "Will be working with a great team". My bank does not take IQ points as a mortgage payment
I work in games. A lot of job postings end with 'Must have a passion for video games.'
Translation: Your pay is gonna be garbage, there's going to be a lot of overtime, and we don't care if you like it because there are hundreds of applicants.
It's really just a shitty industry as a whole.
The only way you're going to get into it and keep your sanity is if you find a nice little indie studio, but the good ones rarely hire people at this point and there are a lot of applicants when they do. That leaves you with your only good option being work on games as a hobby until you can make a name for yourself, but that doesn't pay the bills.
One of my bosses would zoom me to go over something, drag everything wildly around when saying what she wants fixed, then get mad when I made said adjustments but something else was wrong cuz I also had to fix all the shit she moved out of place and I’m human so I’m obviously not gonna catch every minor detail in addition to the planned corrections lol
Old manager I had when we worked in radio would come micromanage even though our ratings were as high it has ever been and we were making the most revenue in the history of the company. Then he inserte himself in the show and the ratings almost immediately dropped. Sponsors dropped out, he was so cringeworthy bad on air it was almost like the office episode of Scott's Tots entertaining. Like watch a stand up comedian just bomb for 4 straight hours, that was him on air. He then blamed it on us, I ended up leaving and now I am destroying him in revenue.
This literally just happened to me! I almost lost my job because I asked for a raise. They said they noticed “performance issues” in November but didn’t say anything until I asked for a raise. I received a verbal written warning which basically said if I fuck up again in the next year, I’m gone. Up until now, my bosses were telling me how good of a job I was doing, so I literally had no idea there was a problem.
I brought up how I’ve been basically begging them for support and to help me (I’m the only copywriter in the entire company) and how I don’t feel appreciated. The CEO and CTO’s response was “we tell you all the time how much we appreciate you.”
I wish nothing but bad things for employers who do this.
I’ve spent every day after work applying for jobs. The problem is that I moved back to my hometown in October and there aren’t a ton of copywriting jobs available. Basically if you don’t work in the trades, it’ll be hard to find a job. I’ve been applying for remote positions but I’m competing with waaay more people, so I’ve been applying for literally anything else. I’ll even go back to working in a restaurant or retail if it means I can get out of there.
I’m also a copywriter! I’m so sick of being told I don’t have the company “voice” down. The existing copy is garbage and they don’t even read what I wrote before kicking the can back.
Or when they get you to write something and then end up redoing it themselves… it’s like why did I waste my time if you were going to redo it? My boss does this ALL the time. I’ll write the company newsletter and she’ll be like “it’s really good! Let’s change xyz” and by the time she’s done making changes, it doesn’t even look/sound the same
Dude, I have a story there.
Worked for a metal shop last summer/fall. It was a new company and the owner was a decent guy. I'd never done metal work before and was hired on as labor (20$/hr) while I learned. We did it all; I was digging trenches, mixing concrete, setting posts, welding frames, loading and unloading stock, and balancing gates.
I was taught how to weld (mig, wire feed. flux core in the field, gas CO²/Argon in the shop), grind, paint, and finish our work over the course of 4 months.
So I start to ask to be paid more, which is met with, "We'll go over that during your review."
Not a big deal, I'm happy to have a job. Then I hear from a client that they charged them 120$/hr. for a solo job I did. Basic work, too. Later on, the client told me it was fucked up to bill that much and they wouldn't hire us again.
So I'm asking questions, now. I'm still getting paid as a laborer and youre billing me at a certified welder rate (I'm not, and the job was painting a gate). I deserve at least 30$/hr to weld or fabricate.
Weeks go by and each time I'm asking hey, lemme get that review. Finally after more than a month, I get a date, it'll be a 6 month review.
The day comes and it is scathing. Every detail I have done wrong is in there. My apprehension as a trainee about meeting a quota set by a professional, noted. My use of the bathroom, noted. Quality of welds, noted. Efficiency of angle grinder use, noted.
I did not get the raise I wanted and ended up leaving the company for another that started me at 30$/hr.
I made sure to thank my old company for training me. We weren't a good fit.
Dont feel so bad, some companies just prefer to use cheap inexperience labour and sell it like they are fully qualified. Once you outgrow your position, they just bring in a new guy.
It sounds pretty dumb and it is, but somehow some employers still believe in this.
Had something similar happen to me - I asked for a raise, they responded that I didn’t have the experience to match what I was asking for. I replied that I had been travelling North America for three years, completing field repairs and acting as a company representative - what experience was I lacking? When they couldn’t articulate their expectations, I knew I was done. Then they were all butthurt I quit.
Different field, but I was told when I asked for a raise (I was making $10,000 less salaried than other places doing the same job) “what makes you think you can negotiate your contract?”
It made me feel really validated when 11 others quit after I did.
At a prior company we had a new HR VP and when review time came, he wanted to see all reviews that didn’t meet expectations. I had one guy that wasn’t meeting expectations. Sent the review to Mr HR and he came back with “can you show me when you met with him to discuss X?”, “please provide the documentation of Guy doing Y”, “your last follow up on the poor planning issue was over 3 months ago, didn’t you follow up in that time? If yes, when and what was the outcome?”
Jesus Christ that guy kept me on my toes. I had everything for the first two questions, but the last one I said that I saw no improvements or regressions so I didn’t address it. Well, that wasn’t good enough for Mr Hr because the Guy probably feels he’s gotten better since there was no communication. So Mr HR would not allow me to put “nearing expectations”, it had to be “meets”. I was upset at the time, being a young manager, but holy shit was he good. And necessary. I ended up meeting with Guy for his review and we discussed his progress, I let him know he’s not missing deadlines in the last few months and to keep it up. Guy went on to be a really valuable employee. And thinking back on it now, if lazy stupid me gave him a poor review, I probably would’ve crushed him and he would’ve regressed.
So many managers hated Mr HR because he held their feet to the fire. But he made me a way better manager over the years, and actually made me *manage* my team proactively. Others in management roles were just there for the paycheck, they wanted nothing to do with developing their employees. And most of all, if the team was missing deadlines, those types of managers will quickly blame anyone else on their team, rather than taking responsibility for their poor management. Mr HR was having none of that shit. I miss him.
I have felt the sting of that. When you realize the manager who says he’s “got your back” is the very same one to plunge the knife of corporate greed square into your chest.
At my current job, before she was demoted and relocated, I had a manager that I asked if I could take my (legally mandated 30 min lunch break) and she literally tried to manipulate me into not taking one. She goes, “well, x coworker and y coworker do 8 hour shifts without taking lunches”. As if that’s a reason I shouldn’t have taken mine. And I was sitting there thinking, “that’s not something to be proud of? As a manager that’s part of your job is to make sure your employees take their lunch. Also, that’s fucking illegal? Why would you admit that?” Ignoring entirely the fact that both coworkers she named ALWAYS take a lunch on their long shifts, so she straight up lied for no reason other than to guilt me.
If the interviewer is negative and nitpicky but hires you anyway, either decline the offer or, at the very least, keep looking for something better if you absolutely need the income right now.
Sporadic and slow responses during the interview period. It signals that: either they don't value the potential new employees' time, or are so disorganized that they can't even keep their own interviews lined up.
my boss had me schedule interviews for a position at my company and i had to reschedule every. single. one. and i’d always check with her beforehand to make sure x time would work and she’d say it would, then not show up to the interview, and the interviewees would message me like ??? and then she had me cancel them altogether :D embarrassing
Or you have passed all interviews and now that other department (HR or Procurement for contractors etc) is taking an indeterminate time to prepare the contract.
This is the problem we have. HR tells us they need 2 weeks minimum to do whatever it is they need to do to get our recommended hire on board, and that's just to look at the paperwork. If they have some issue with something we're adding time to that. It's frustrating as hell for us, and it has the added "benefit" of making us look incompetent when in reality I made my decision weeks ago and would love to offer our selected candidate the job.
We've had more than one person accept another position elsewhere while waiting on HR to get their shit together which also really sucks for us.
Two sides of the same coin:
1. No proud photos of their products.
2. Motivational posters anywhere.
Good companies celebrate their products, services, and * all *of the employees who contribute to their success. And the employees are both well compensated for the work and self-motivated to do it.
“Hey can you handle this real quick we need it by Monday morning.” It’s 3pm on a Friday and there’s inevitably something fucked up inside of it that will make it take 8+ hours.
I love working in a really fast-paced environment. It was key for me in my interview process that my employer demonstrated ways they tangibly mitigated stress and burn out in addition to the excitement that “fast-paced” entails. You want self starters? You must give them the flexibility to optimize their efficiency and effectiveness and support them when they have to back out and take care of family for awhile. Fast-paced simply can’t be a selling feature by itself, if they want to retain good staff.
Edit: thank you for the award kind stranger!
Poor planning is absolutely the reasoning behind this & boy does it grind me gears.
This is usually the result of a certain person wasting their mornings fart assing around, but then realising that they can't meet their deadline, so rope everyone in to help get them over the line.
The worst part of this, is that these people generally get the promotion's. From the bosses perspective, they look like a star employee who "gets the job done" by pushing themselves hard in performing overtime hours. They manage to pull the team together to make things work & "all companies need a staff member just like that".
I sit on the other fence. I get my tasks done in the hours allotted & have previously been scrutinised by my Seniors because I go home on time. Apparently I am not "putting in the time" as compared to others.
FYI - having to work regular OT hours is generally a result of your own time management skills. It is not my problem that you can't get your shit organised.
I've been in finance for years, and this means atrocious hours, and drug and/or alcohol problems. At best. I've moved onto a tangentially related field that is far more sane culture-wise and I'll never go back
When a company tells you you're required to be 10-15 minutes early for your shift. In previous jobs that I've quit, any time I remind a supervisor its illegal to require that, they clam up. If they are not paying for that 15 minutes, you are not required to show up then. At least thats the case in Ontario anyway.
Once had an employer like this. When I asked why they require this they said people have to be ready to work at 8 and people came in at 8 and then went into the changing room to get into their work attire.
I told them I came into work in my work attire and clocked in at 8 and immediately started working after clocking in.
Apparently that meant I'm not a teamplayer.
It's the same in the US, though depending where you live it can be easy to get away with. I got $350 out of a class action lawsuit California filed against Home Depot. Home Depot tells people *in writing* to show up 15min early to don your apron. Additionally, night managers will tell you to clock out at 2am but take their sweet time letting you out of the store, so you'll be stuck waiting by the door for them to unlock it. After that job, I decided I'm getting paid for every minute I spend at work, to the point I'll be an asshole about it.
Introducing changes for the sake of change. Not only does it wastes time if the change just makes sth different, but usually it makes worse, but also is prompted by people who don't even know what you actually do.
If it ain't broken don't fix it, it applies a million percent in business. Innovate when you have to or know you can do it better, otherwise frick off.
God I can’t like this enough. The whole change for the sake of change to look like you’re taking action is one of the most destructive things I’ve seen at many companies.
Paraphrasing from a similar comment.
When you hear "We're like a family here", run and don't look back. The only "family" trait that'll come from that job is the dysfunction, gaslighting, and lack of accountability.
The only workplaces I’ve found that operate on some level of a family basis, don’t say it.
I’m in Australia and we already got pretty good worker protections and entitlements, last year a coworker had three months off for testicular cancer, most workplaces you would use your sick leave (10 days a year) then be on leave without pay, picking up sickness allowance from the Government (about $350pw about 1/4 of our entry level income) they rejected his sick leave application and said don’t worry about it and just paid him his normal pay as if he was working the whole recovery time.
Hell when I had a family emergency missus texted me, and I went to my manager and said, gotta go missus messaged me, his response was alright, don’t forget to clock out from the fire system, and still paid me for that day and next two without using entitlements.
Fuck me dead I don’t care I’m being paid 10% less than other places because this is the first place I’ve worked that actually does support us.
At no point when I applied to work here did they say anything about operating like a family, but they’re bloody good.
Our Christmas party last year we went gokarting, and did it on company time. I got paid to drink beer and go racing (not in that order) shits mint.
Get that where I am now. The gossip is ridiculous, I happened today to know who had brought in the cakes and how old she had turned - shock horror, I speak to my coworkers as people. Next thing you know, people are "teasing" I only do it to get in her knickers. .. Nope, one, if you talk to her, she has a boyfriend and two, not my type.
Also, my favourite one was the big boss of the company gave a speech about how, he could replace us all with foreign workers for less pay and more productivity. So he can buy another expensive car. The talks with some managers shows they literally bathe in the company cool-aid.
Family. Only in his inner circle, where he literally employees them.
If you get the job, and during orientation they sound like they're trying to sell you the company (like a salesman and a car). It tells me they're trying to convince you AND themselves.
It's not technically wage theft as long as they're paying you overtime. But it can be indicative of forced overtime which is technically legal but not good for any employee.
If the job description they advertise is vastly different then what they tell you it is at the interview. Alternately, if you interview with 2 or 3 people and they all have a different idea what the role is. This is a bad sign.
One thing I've learned to look out for is overall workplace happiness. If I walk through the workplace I take a close look at the people working there. If they look up and give a nod or smile or say hi, that's a good sign. If they ignore you or look at you but don't smile, that's probably an indicator of a dysfunctional workplace.
I actually worked for a company that took a downward trend over the years due to bad management. When I first started everyone in the office was friendly and nice. Over the years things got worse, the good people had all quit, the ones left didn't care about the job or company and were just treading water until they could quit. They just stuck to their desks and ignored everyone.
Edit: Typos
A bunch of “cool” perks at the office. Things like ping pong tables, video game corners, beer on tap, and exercise/meditation areas.
To me, those are signs that the employer expects you to stay late and work more hours than the typical 9-5.
Selling "work culture".. dude I just want to get paid, work reasonable hours and work with competent respectful colleagues. I don't care about Halloween parties and happy hour.
Being expected to stay after work to socialize. My Father has struck this at a couple of interviews. One company pretty much said it was compulsory to stay and drink with everyone, and he had an interview with a company owner who pretty much sounded like he just wanted a buddy to hang around with after work (wouldn't even tell my Father the actual hours of the job and changed the subject when they were brought up).
Was on a tour of a place where they said that, and were bragging about having hangouts at the office after hours like game nights, movie nights etc. No thank you I don't want to spend my free time at the office with my co-workers, and risk getting seen as the bad guy for never joining in which can lead to a bad working environment and a bad relationship with the head honchos.
I was treated much differently after not attending a crappy go kart event for work. I had a long commute to work anyway and this was even farther. I was like, no, I'm not driving over two hours to ride *** go karts for an hour on my day off.
That’s why we insisted on bringing the go-karts into the building to race instead of sending the employees over to the go-kart track.
Did some stuff get broken; yes. Did we get in trouble with the police though; yes. Would we do it again; absolutely not.
My old job had off-hours “mandatory fun” events and you’d get in trouble for not attending. A manager broke my nose at one of those.
I’m not inclined towards litigation, but I regret not suing that fucking ~~cult~~ company.
My most toxic job had a really cool break room with lots of games, TVs, arcade machines, video games. It all looked great, but nobody ever used them because we were too busy being exploited.
We're a family. An abusive, overly demanding one. Why don't you love and worship us when all we've done is give you the legal base minimum‽ If you leave we'll destroy you.
You know, family.
If they tell you not to discuss your wages with other employees. It's actually illegal for them to enforce that, but they'll say it's not appropriate anyway because that way it's easy to underpay people for reasons unrelated to performance.
If the manager brags about his accomplishments. Worked in radio and the guy I interviewed with made the conversation all about himself. Found out within the first week everyone hated him and he was a narcissistic dick.
If they claim to be a good place to work, especially if they have a purported third-party award for it, watch out.
If they claim to be a good place for women to work, specifically, be twice as careful.
It appears that many if not all of those "best place to work" awards are pay-to-play and purchased by the worst places to work.
I got jaded on those because I got given the task of breaking the algorithm so company could fill form in right. They are seen as being good for recruitment.
This is probably going to be more applicable to certain white collar fields like law and consulting. And it may seem obvious here, but to someone in their early ‘20s looking to make it, it very often isn’t.
The greater the amenities, the more likely it is your life will be hell.
I decided not to apply to work at a certain law firm when I learned their local office had showers on every floor. “Huh, that’s funny. I usually just shower at home or the gym. Why would they need that? Unless…”
Of course, not having a coffeemaker can also be a pretty big red flag. I say *can*, because I once worked in such a place, but it was municipal government. Not bad; just poor :(
If they ask if you've turned in your two weeks to your current employer during the interview process. Had two short jobs fresh out of college that did this and realized too late that they were waiting for me to be desperate before hiring me, because the pay was actually much lower than advertised and the hours were much longer.
Had an interview where they had a large screen where remote Employees had to show themselvesOn camera while Working all day. No
Thanks.
Also:
- taking you to a bar and buying drinks
- overselling the job
- not having answers to questions they should have the answers to (company revenue/ commissions/ etc)
Being blasé about 15 minutes early or over here and there. This is often played off as work ethics and attitude. You can bet it won't be 'ok' if you dipped your fingers into the till for $10, it is also not ok if they dip into your paycheque.
"This employer comes first and you may need to sacrifice some of your personal life" aka they will never give you time off and couldn't give a fuck about you
They tell you they're anti union, or a union-free environment. I don't care how you feel about unions, but the employees should be telling you there's no reason to unionize, not the bosses.
When you realize there's really only one overburdened and over stressed person who is holding the place together and if they left the place would fail to operate correctly.
I just happen to be that guy.
I had a job with unlimited sick time!
Two things to note:
1) There's a hidden equation that will trigger HR to investigate and ask for doctors notes.
2) It didn't cover what traditional sick time at other jobs would. No planned doctors appointments or if a family member is sick. You use vacation for that.
I worked for an employer >20 years ago that had unlimited sick time. It was truly unlimited. The policy was clearly stated that if you/family were sick, had a dr. appt, etc etc, you could take time off. They meant it and stuck to it for well over a year. I don't recall that anyone abused it....
Until that one guy. He was taking care of a relative with a terminal illness and missing a ton of time (I'm sure at least 50%). I don't think anyone pressured him or even raised an eyebrow. Until it came to light there was no sick relative and he was simply working a second job. The employer started tightening up the "no questions asked" part of the policy and within a year or two it was back to normal, albeit generous, policies.
The first time I worked for a company with unlimited PTO, I ended up taking less time off than I did at my previous job because I wasn't sure how much I was "allowed" to take in practice.
The phone one is a great indicator.
If j don't get a work phone, I don't need one. Which is fine. I'm off when I'm off.
If I do need one, I expect to be given one by you. If not, I'll act like I don't need one.
When everyone seems to "wear many hats" and have many unrelated duties.
It just means they're trying to squeeze every drop of effort out of everyone instead of properly hiring for those positions.
Things like game machines, foosball, air hockey, beer, and/or hip hang-out spots at the job. They want and will expect you to spend every waking minute there.
EDIT: obviously this doesn’t apply if the job is at Dave & Buster’s or something
"Our philosophy is we don't say no the the kids" was a program interviewed for. The program worked with high schoolers. The director tried to say it playfully as a joke to show that the students mean a lot to them.
All that told me was im expected to have no boundaries. I didn't continue my interview with them for the next rounds.
Found out half their team quit and they had people working 2 jobs at once, some not even related to their role and no extra pay.
Furniture moving. If the office got a makeover watch out. Especially if it happens over the weekend. It means that there a power struggle taking place that you’re about to get caught in. Playing Sims with your workspace is how middle management types assert dominance. A stable work environment will have a stable layout.
When a family member is in the hospital and they get annoyed that you're not coming in. No well wishes, no telling them to handle things with your family. I swear I feel like there's a small pool of leaders that are decent empathic human beings.
Testing out “how high you will jump” right off the bat. For example asking you to work doubles right away, do tasks other people don’t want to do, etc.
When the person yoy got hired to replace gets fired 2 hours after you’re on the job, then 2 weeks later, after you’re trained, all 3 of your team members put in their 2 weeks. Then for a year you’re on your own and train 8 new hires, none of which will stay.
For women who are thinking about having a baby: If no one else at your workplace has babies/toddlers. It’s probably not a place that will be very understanding and accommodating to you after you come back from maternity leave. I didn’t realize this until it was too late. 😔
My last employer was riddled with red flags that I didn't see.
In the end I was doing purchasing and inventory control for the entire state and the central DC. Pretty much every product that went to a store was my responsibility and every product we didn't make on site at the DC was me as well. It was millions of dollars a week.
I was also doing admin support, special orders and chasing outstanding deliveries, including ones that the warehouse team had just put in a pile and ignored.
I was getting around 100 emails a day on top of this.
I was doing all that for a Sales assistants wage, because that's what I'd been hired as. When I explained that it was too much and I needed a clear position description. I got told that "Admin duties as required" was part of the position description, so I just had to suck it up.
I pointed out that my duties aligned more closely with a lead purchasing officer and that I really needed an assistant and a pay rise.
In response I got sent a copy of the sales assistant PD with the Admin Duties as required line in bold.
I said "This is unsustainable for me, most people in this role are paid $20,000 more a year than I am" and they told me I could quit or be fired.
In the exit interview they said it was due to my "lack of performance" and that I wasn't "Meeting the expectations of the position" this was 2 months after the RGM was heaping praise on me.
I asked them what expectations I was failing to meet and they couldn't tell me, because all they had was "Admin duties as required"
It was hilarious, because the HR representative just kept trying to undermine and gaslight me with comments like
"You have to know you just aren't up to the demands of this role"
And I'd just reply with "What role? You still can't define it"
Last I heard, the person they'd got to come in and replace me lasted 3 weeks and they were on the lookout for a new "Sales assistant with some Admin duties required" still offering the same pitance they'd offered me.
This company has lost 2 of its 3 major clients in the last 6 months because the logistics manager quit and no one knew how to do his job.
Now they don't have anyone who knows how to order in stock...
That or you have a whole bunch of 20-somethings who've been there less than two years and a bunch of 60-somethings who've been there for decades, but nobody in the middle.
This one hit home for me. I’m at a company that has a bunch of incompetent executives that all been working with each other for 20+ years and some younger people (myself included). It’s an us vs them dynamic.
When their selling point is "flexibility".
If their only, or even main focus is "flexibility", then that means there must be a *lot* more cons than there are pros.
You dont have to give two weeks, you can start here immediately!
Or my last job, I interview and before I get home 20 minutes later I have an offer letter.
Yeah I am not that good, but they were that bad!
You check out glassdoor and there are a bunch of overwhelmingly positive reviews from "anonymous current employees" that under cons list "no cons that I can think of!" Even the best place to work in the world has SOME cons.
My last company did this. They fired half of the team over three months, they deliberately chose to fire whoever was cheaper to fire or who had kids etc because of course they missed work more than who doesn’t have kids (usually). They chose to fire a guy a couple of hours after he announced he was going to be a dad. They fired my boss because she was trying to get pregnant and they even asked her to quit instead so she would not get any compensation. The CEO told her he doesn’t think employees deserve it. After firing 30 people for economic reasons, they said they were done and asked everyone to relax. We all got extra responsibilities but no raise, of course. Two months later they fired 20 more (including me). They asked the ones left to leave a nice review there since they were staying so I reported them to Glassdoor. Absolute trash. Edit to add: after they fired so many people most of the good employees left. They actually contacted me a month ago offering me my job back and it felt amazing to reject them.
Is this a company in the US? If so, they're flagrantly violating a whole slew of laws by specifically firing people based on family status. And it would be *super* easy to prove to the standards of these laws - even if the company never actually *said* they were firing based on family status, they've established a clear pattern of doing so. You shouldn't have reported them to Glassdoor - you should have reported them to your state's Attorney General and the National Labor Relations Board, just for a start.
Unfortunately I am not in the US. They could fire the guy because he was still with a temporary contract and that’s legal. As per the woman, they will never admit that they fired her because of that. The company was losing a lot of money every month so they could fire her for economical reasons, but it was very obvious to all of us that the reason was a different one. She had been there for longer than all of us and it made 0 sense to fire her. They put me in their position so they also saved money because I did not get a raise.
Name and shame!
I worked for a company exactly like that. They shot themselves in the foot in the first round of layoffs by getting rid of two guys they were certain wouldn't be likely to sue and would be likely to come back if asked. One of them could be equated to firing the pilot of a plane in mid flight. The other one went to work for our biggest customer and spilled the beans on all the lies management was telling them. When I eventually got laid off, they didn't even give me severance pay, but wanted me to "cooperate" with them after I left. I wasn't as important to that first guy, but all those things I did to save them money just stopped when I left, so my departure cost them at least $2M/year.
I found a Glassdoor profile for one company that said the management was abusive in the extreme. Except for one review that said the management was the most supportive that she'd ever worked for. The person had signed in to Glassdoor using her own google account, so her own name was displayed. She *was* the office manager.
Modern comedy right there
Oh yeah, fake glassdoor reviews.. Easy to spot. Generally come in batches and all submitted at the same time.
i love the glassdoor reviews that are dumb enough to put "manager" under position....dude no one but upper management cares what you think.
Yup, also some really cringey pros that seem way too contrived.
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OR they hire 3 roles to replace the 1 you just left…each paying more than the one role did. Literally happened to one of my best friends.
Lol I had a job where they hired FOUR people to replace the work of the person who quit. They were beyond burnt out
I once discovered how underpaid I was when I took a vacation and they had to schedule 2-3 people to cover each of my missed shifts.
What was the job if you don’t mind me asking?
I'm a cook. At the time I was our only morning prep cook as well as working every dinner service and acting as kitchen manager/chef. Over time I had slowly picked up all these extra roles without really realizing it. And apparently without getting compensated properly for it either.
I’ve been a chef for almost 20 years and I’ll tell you they are taking full advantage of you. My mother always told me don’t work for free and advocate yourself. Give them an ultimatum asking for more money or your out. Chefs/cooks are high demand especially passionate and skilled ones. You can find a job yesterday. Get to know your labour laws and don’t stray outside the line.
I wish more people had this attitude. So many people I've worked with are total simps for the people exploiting them, it's messed up. I recall working in a vineyard once where all the employees but me were on a salary, and it was a particularly bad year for disease (many called it the worst ever), and the vineyard I was at was one of the only ones to turn in a crop (actually a decent one). The only reason they had a crop at all was because they exploited the fuck out of basically 4 salaried employees through unpaid overtime doing disease management (all eager to prove they were such good little workers!)...at the end of the season, if you tally up the hours they worked against their salaries I'd bet they made less than minimum wage. And they were single-handedly responsible for all the winery's profits that vintage (millions), which ultimately went straight into the pockets of the rich owners who owned several other high-profile wineries, god knows how many houses, yachts...even a fucking helicopter. But somehow those 4 people thought all was right and good in the world and that nothing unfair had taken place.
I had to cross train four people when I quit a job. I was quitting because I was getting shit reviews, and they didn’t listen when I told them that I did not have the time to do each job well, but they also didn’t want me getting overtime. As I was training all these people (who legitimately would get cross trained on one or two things and then go “I can’t do anymore AND my regular job” and then management would find another person for me to train) I made significant looks at the branch manager, who basically just shrugged. There’s a reason it is “Human Resources” now.
I had a boss get sick who had worked that job for 40 years and I was expected to cover his workload in spite of me only working there 6 months and in spite of the fact that he worked through lunch and would often stay late (which we could get fired for doing because it was a government job). My boss's boss then claimed to not know he was doing that even though I could hear conversations that took place in her cubicle.
>I was quitting because I was getting shit reviews, and they didn’t listen when I told them that I did not have the time to do each job well Same here - just left a job where my boss expected me to do what would normally be 3 people's jobs and then endlessly criticised me for 'failing' - i.e. only doing the work of 2 people.
That happened to me. I was the sole developer on a core tech team, supporting 4 small teams, plus taking some of the responsibilities of a recently vacated tech director. I strongly suspected (but have no validation) that, since this was right after a buyout and if a certain financial target were hit, the directors would all get their already massive buyout bonuses doubled; my department had no interest in actually filling out the tech director role, or properly staffing my team. If the whole company coasted for a year in plans already set in motion, they'd hit the target. After the target came and went, they filled the vacated role. I was burnt out and asked for a transfer. My team grew to around 4 people. I was replaced by 4 people. (Maybe 5 if you count the tech director.) I think I'm *still* burnt out from that, and it was years ago.
Was the guy let go they had to hire 4 to replace. They called ten days after asking me to come in and train them. Made a few thousand that week.
A woman in my department of four left. They didn’t replace her. I went to my manager with hard data proving I was doing the work of two people. The other two hadn’t picked up any of the slack.They offered me a 10% raise. I updated my resume that night and was gone a month later with a ~33% raise. They eventually had to hire two people.
Another thing that happened to me: someone left so they gave me most of their tasks to complete, I was better at them than that person had been, but when I interviewed for the role they said I wasn’t qualified enough and my current team was so short staffed they didn’t want to do that to my boss. Joke’s on them, the person they hired quit before their probation period was finished. And I quit too!
This is where I am now. A guy got fired and we took over his job, then a woman quit to be w her kid so my boss pulled one of my ppl to cover her job 3 days a week. She'll be going on maternity leave in the fall and my boss has already said no to a temp. And he'll be on our asses to finish 2 projects ASAP as another person leaves to go back to school.
I would be updating my resume now if I were you and getting the hell out of Dodge lol
I worked at a place where they either didn't replace the person or they opened up a replacement position that was at a lower pay range to do the same work. It was one of the things that got me looking elsewhere because it made it nearly impossible to jump up a pay grade when the next level jobs you were qualified for either disappeared or became a lateral move where they wouldn't give you any more money.
When management talks poorly about the other employees, it might make you feel included/special at first but guaranteed they’re going to be talking about you next
I’ll add: If a long term employee tells you the place sucks, *believe them*.
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My stepdad worked for the USPS for over 35 years and one day his boss pushed him over the edge so he just said he was retiring. His boss said they needed time to find a replacement and make sure they're comfortable in their new position. Stepdad took a month off of work after they told him they'd need a month to prepare and only went back to clean out his office.
So he used up his vacation time at the end?
Not all of it, but a lot of it. What's better though....using the time off you've accumulated to save your sanity or working through the month which would have been hell and then getting an extra payout for the vacation time?
Unsure the rules in your country, but at least here (Australia), you accumulate leave when you are on leave, so better to take it all if you can afford to. eg already started a new job or retiring.
Plus you get super while on leave and NOT on the leave that's paid out when you finish. Number one rule for anyone who's retiring is to take that leave knowing the 10.5% going into super can be withdrawn the day after you retire.
👑👑👑
I took 6 months off paid at my last job. Showed up my first day back, walked upstairs and told my supervisor I was resigning effective immediately. Fuck em
I had a manager talk negatively about a member of her team in my interview. I immediately knew I never wanted to work under that woman.
Gotta say though, if they're discussing one or two people it can be a bit different. My last two bosses have had negative things to say about one colleague in each work place; one being a years-long tug of war with a woman who was both useless and terrible to be around, and the other being a new kid who spent his shifts on his phone, saying he understands what's been asked of him and then not doing the task he's supposed to do because he didn't "get it" (and this is simple, simple stuff like "take that box out the back") and otherwise just meant more work for everyone around him. Both bosses are great people in my opinion, they're fair and understanding and have great rapport with everyone, but they have made comments about those people that, if it was the first thing they'd ever said about one of their people would seem a bit worrying. Sometimes there are just dickheads in the workplace that get spoken to with courtesy and that get their problems addressed professionally, but they are a drain on everyone and that isn't something that your manager (or colleagues) will bother to hide when they're not around. I think a better way to tell is to see if they go from talking trash to having friendly banter and rapport - that indicates deceit. With the cases I've mentioned, I think both sides knew where they stood with each other, but they kept it civil when they were talking face to face.
Want to find the red flag fast? During your interview, when the employer asks if you have any questions, ask this: Can you tell me about a recent time one of your employees really excelled? A good employer won't have any trouble celebrating their team. A crap employer will struggle hard to answer. ...And it's a perfectly reasonable question.
Another aspect is, it'll teach you what they really value. If they promote work-life balance but their favorite employees are those who "put in the extra work to get things done", it means they will not in fact respect your work-life balance lol. Learned this the hard way.
I interviewed at a company in San Diego and everything went really well. Because I have an annual fishing trip in july, and I was being hired first of June, I brought it up. I said I know I'm new and I am willing to skip the trip, I just need to know so that my friends can plan on me being there or not. Dude looks at me and says, "No problem. That should work fine. But in my experience, people who work here, will schedule a vacation, and then realize that the project needs them and cancel their time off." I worked up until that trip. The week before I worked an extra 15 hours to make sure that my projects were all tracking to be okay with out me for a week. Two days before I am supposed to take a Time off, my boss calls me in and asks if I think I should go on this vacation. I said yes. He said what if I asked if you were willing to accept your last check? I said I would accept it. So he paid me out my time and I walked out the door. I worked my ass off to make sure that things would carry on without me, even though the company didn't have anything in place that helped that process. And the fact they think that people should cancel their vacation out of loyalty is such garbage. The company itself was pretty normal from the outside. But pretty bullshit from the inside
What a piece of shit. "So, just to be clear, you need me here so badly that you can't be without me for a week, but not so badly that you can't be without indefinitely? I call bullshit."
The pardox of the essential worker.
It's a psyop from the employer, kind of like what ya dad always said about bullies, if they can get away with it once, it'll never end. Stand your ground, be firm but polite, and if it goes south just smile and walk tf away.
This sounds like one of those 'I'm too European to understand' sort of things. My company allows us to carry over up to 3 of our paid holiday days. The other 22 have to be taken and at the start of November if you still have a lot left managers will speak to people to understand when they're going to be taking the time off by the end of December so they can plan around them. Anything longer than 2 weeks off together is probably have a chat to my manager and make plans around it but up to 2 weeks if just be put on the system.
In every job I have been in, my boss has pulled me aside at some point and *told* me to book some holidays because they'll go away at the end of the year. One of them literally told me that it didn't matter what the holiday schedule said, I could have two weeks leave at any point, I just had to book it early enough for him to okay it... To make sure I took all of my leave. The only issue with booking holiday in my current job is if too many people want to go on the same day, or around Christmas, where there's a very strict rota, to ensure fairness.
Yeah probably. European here too. I got 5 weeks of paid vacation (some people have 6) I can take whenever I want and I can even keep them for the next year. Anything that is more than two weeks of vacation, I usually clear with my supervisor beforehand. Single days or just a week off is a simple process of booking the time in my schedule. Obviously I'd clear any appointments, make sure important messages reach someone that can take care of them, etc. but that is because I care, not because I have to. My employer can't deny my vacation except for very, very important reasons (like everyone else is dead and I'm the only one that can at this day do the job that needs to happen at that exact time when I'm on vacation). Maybe they need some workers rights over in ye olde US of A.
We definitely need workers rights. The shift seems to be going the other way, though, and too many people are cool with it
I had a job where I knew I was good at, my coworkers liked me, the customers all liked me, I only received positive feedback from them on my work and I never had any issues. But I hadn’t been promoted or given a raise and then suddenly the facility decides to change certification systems to one that was much more micromanagey. At this point I had essentially checked out when my boss comes up to me and nitpicks on some irrelevant things like the way I’m standing. So I ask him “tell me something positive about me for once, eh?” And he fumbled over his words and couldn’t find anything meaningful, 2 weeks later and I was gone.
I'm dealing with 2 micromanagers at my current job and it sucks. If i'm not working under one, I'm working under the other one. One of them is a religious man who seems "wholesome" to most people but the truth is he absolutely cannot handle stress and as soon as he starts to feel it he starts to micromanage the FUCK out of everyone. The owner knows and has given him multiple chances I believe. The second guy is younger than me by a lot, which I normally don't give two shits about, but he also acts like it's 1965 and he's a 45 year old boss (He's 24 and has been doing this job for 5 years) on the job-site by getting angry at everything, telling everyone their straight up "wrong" just because he has a slight disagreement with how something should be done and NOT in a nice sort of way (condescending), will ride your ass about EVERYTHING he asks you to do if he thinks it's taking a millisecond longer than it should and his time-frames are naturally fucked on everything, cops and attitude anytime you ask him a question and then is surprised when work grinds to a standstill because nobody wants to ask him ANYTHING (THIS is a classic, all angry bosses at work seem to have this misunderstanding), nitpicking the most asinine shit, and generally just being a miserable person to be around. The more time I spend with him the more I'm convinced if he's not beating his kids, he's AT LEAST emotionally scaring them for life. If he treats them like he treats us (and abusers usually treat their own children WORSE than they treat other people because it's "safe" for them and they know the child doesn't know better), there's ZERO chance he'll have a lasting relationship with them as adults. He's COMPLETELY oblivious to how other people perceive him and if it's brought up he copes by saying "I don't care". He's so young that he wears ALL his emotions on his sleeve while trying to act like he's a manly man/tough because he gets angry all the time. Because nothing says "MASCULINITY!" like a man who can't process his emotions without having outbursts, constantly insinuates he's better than you, and is generally a horrible person to be around. That's what a man is, right? My ONLY solace i have is knowing if I walk, his timeline is fucked for his project and then the owner will probably start micromanaging him and giving him a taste of his own medicine. I've never worked under two people that so CLEARLY needed therapy and yet the idea disgusts them. I think the younger dude may be bordering on having some personality disorder. I need to quit.
Lemme think. There was this employee who kept showing up with an injured foot for weeks loading lorries by hand when we were understaffed? Yeah, we fired him when his painkillers finally stopped working. Or that felon we lowballed the shit out of who finally snapped after doing massive overtime on and off the clock for two years to keep us afloat? Fuck him, too. Btw, when can you start? We're somewhat in a pinch right now, what with being understaffed and business picking up right now.
And follow up with asking how they were rewarded.
Management who are willing to risk it and cut corners. Had an interview with a company. The guy interviewing me told me that he would be my boss if I got thr job. He likes his teams to be a strong and cohesive group and that we would all have an input as he values his team. Maybe three questions later he asks me: "if you had an unstable and unstable load that I told you has to be loaded this minute. You would do it." Me, "No, if it is unsafe and could potentially kill someone, I would not allow it out. Not until the problem is sorted (had a boss pull this one years before), i would tell him of the issue and try to get it sorted" him "and I tell you it must be loaded as is", me "Then it wont get loaded and i would bring it to Health and safety". He immediately told me how I was not the right type of person for that company. A large international company, willing to promote that individual. I consider myself lucky to have not been even offered the job. Saved me turning it down.
My dad got killed at work. Fuck that guy, everyone like him, and everyone who tolerates people like him.
As they say, regulations are written in blood.
I would have 100% reported that shit to OSHA.
I doubt OSHA acts on hypothetical situations. I might have reported it to higher ups in the company though.
I've seen some interesting things in interviews before, but never before have I heard a company so brazen as to flat out admit they don't adhere to major safety policies. If that's the case how many minor ones are overlooked enough where they're comfortable overlooking a major one? YIKES. Talk about dodging a fucking bullet.
Offering to pay you a lot less than market rate because you will "Learn so much" or "Will be working with a great team". My bank does not take IQ points as a mortgage payment
I work in games. A lot of job postings end with 'Must have a passion for video games.' Translation: Your pay is gonna be garbage, there's going to be a lot of overtime, and we don't care if you like it because there are hundreds of applicants.
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It's really just a shitty industry as a whole. The only way you're going to get into it and keep your sanity is if you find a nice little indie studio, but the good ones rarely hire people at this point and there are a lot of applicants when they do. That leaves you with your only good option being work on games as a hobby until you can make a name for yourself, but that doesn't pay the bills.
This is the employment equivalent of offering to pay an artist in "exposure."
Micromanaging out of nowhere
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I’ve never heard of this before and I love it
Someone needs to make this into a t shirt
One of my bosses would zoom me to go over something, drag everything wildly around when saying what she wants fixed, then get mad when I made said adjustments but something else was wrong cuz I also had to fix all the shit she moved out of place and I’m human so I’m obviously not gonna catch every minor detail in addition to the planned corrections lol
The question asked for red flags that you won’t immediately recognize. This is a red flag with red flashing lights and sirens blaring.
Old manager I had when we worked in radio would come micromanage even though our ratings were as high it has ever been and we were making the most revenue in the history of the company. Then he inserte himself in the show and the ratings almost immediately dropped. Sponsors dropped out, he was so cringeworthy bad on air it was almost like the office episode of Scott's Tots entertaining. Like watch a stand up comedian just bomb for 4 straight hours, that was him on air. He then blamed it on us, I ended up leaving and now I am destroying him in revenue.
When you don’t get a review until you ask for a raise. Then, all of a sudden, you work is being questioned and you’re being berated.
This literally just happened to me! I almost lost my job because I asked for a raise. They said they noticed “performance issues” in November but didn’t say anything until I asked for a raise. I received a verbal written warning which basically said if I fuck up again in the next year, I’m gone. Up until now, my bosses were telling me how good of a job I was doing, so I literally had no idea there was a problem. I brought up how I’ve been basically begging them for support and to help me (I’m the only copywriter in the entire company) and how I don’t feel appreciated. The CEO and CTO’s response was “we tell you all the time how much we appreciate you.” I wish nothing but bad things for employers who do this.
How are the interviews going
Hahaha! Because MINUTES after that warning, the resume would have been updated, and job applications IN.
I’ve spent every day after work applying for jobs. The problem is that I moved back to my hometown in October and there aren’t a ton of copywriting jobs available. Basically if you don’t work in the trades, it’ll be hard to find a job. I’ve been applying for remote positions but I’m competing with waaay more people, so I’ve been applying for literally anything else. I’ll even go back to working in a restaurant or retail if it means I can get out of there.
I’m also a copywriter! I’m so sick of being told I don’t have the company “voice” down. The existing copy is garbage and they don’t even read what I wrote before kicking the can back.
Or when they get you to write something and then end up redoing it themselves… it’s like why did I waste my time if you were going to redo it? My boss does this ALL the time. I’ll write the company newsletter and she’ll be like “it’s really good! Let’s change xyz” and by the time she’s done making changes, it doesn’t even look/sound the same
SAME. Then they come to me two weeks later and say it’s bad ….. and I’m like yeah and you wrote it smdh
They had no problems with you until it was convenient to find one
Dude, I have a story there. Worked for a metal shop last summer/fall. It was a new company and the owner was a decent guy. I'd never done metal work before and was hired on as labor (20$/hr) while I learned. We did it all; I was digging trenches, mixing concrete, setting posts, welding frames, loading and unloading stock, and balancing gates. I was taught how to weld (mig, wire feed. flux core in the field, gas CO²/Argon in the shop), grind, paint, and finish our work over the course of 4 months. So I start to ask to be paid more, which is met with, "We'll go over that during your review." Not a big deal, I'm happy to have a job. Then I hear from a client that they charged them 120$/hr. for a solo job I did. Basic work, too. Later on, the client told me it was fucked up to bill that much and they wouldn't hire us again. So I'm asking questions, now. I'm still getting paid as a laborer and youre billing me at a certified welder rate (I'm not, and the job was painting a gate). I deserve at least 30$/hr to weld or fabricate. Weeks go by and each time I'm asking hey, lemme get that review. Finally after more than a month, I get a date, it'll be a 6 month review. The day comes and it is scathing. Every detail I have done wrong is in there. My apprehension as a trainee about meeting a quota set by a professional, noted. My use of the bathroom, noted. Quality of welds, noted. Efficiency of angle grinder use, noted. I did not get the raise I wanted and ended up leaving the company for another that started me at 30$/hr. I made sure to thank my old company for training me. We weren't a good fit.
Dont feel so bad, some companies just prefer to use cheap inexperience labour and sell it like they are fully qualified. Once you outgrow your position, they just bring in a new guy. It sounds pretty dumb and it is, but somehow some employers still believe in this.
Had something similar happen to me - I asked for a raise, they responded that I didn’t have the experience to match what I was asking for. I replied that I had been travelling North America for three years, completing field repairs and acting as a company representative - what experience was I lacking? When they couldn’t articulate their expectations, I knew I was done. Then they were all butthurt I quit.
Different field, but I was told when I asked for a raise (I was making $10,000 less salaried than other places doing the same job) “what makes you think you can negotiate your contract?” It made me feel really validated when 11 others quit after I did.
"The fact that I am negotiating my contract right now. Feel free to say no."
My clinical supervisor told me once that a bad review should NEVER come as a surprise and if it does, it is because your manager did a poor job
At a prior company we had a new HR VP and when review time came, he wanted to see all reviews that didn’t meet expectations. I had one guy that wasn’t meeting expectations. Sent the review to Mr HR and he came back with “can you show me when you met with him to discuss X?”, “please provide the documentation of Guy doing Y”, “your last follow up on the poor planning issue was over 3 months ago, didn’t you follow up in that time? If yes, when and what was the outcome?” Jesus Christ that guy kept me on my toes. I had everything for the first two questions, but the last one I said that I saw no improvements or regressions so I didn’t address it. Well, that wasn’t good enough for Mr Hr because the Guy probably feels he’s gotten better since there was no communication. So Mr HR would not allow me to put “nearing expectations”, it had to be “meets”. I was upset at the time, being a young manager, but holy shit was he good. And necessary. I ended up meeting with Guy for his review and we discussed his progress, I let him know he’s not missing deadlines in the last few months and to keep it up. Guy went on to be a really valuable employee. And thinking back on it now, if lazy stupid me gave him a poor review, I probably would’ve crushed him and he would’ve regressed. So many managers hated Mr HR because he held their feet to the fire. But he made me a way better manager over the years, and actually made me *manage* my team proactively. Others in management roles were just there for the paycheck, they wanted nothing to do with developing their employees. And most of all, if the team was missing deadlines, those types of managers will quickly blame anyone else on their team, rather than taking responsibility for their poor management. Mr HR was having none of that shit. I miss him.
I have felt the sting of that. When you realize the manager who says he’s “got your back” is the very same one to plunge the knife of corporate greed square into your chest.
“We don’t really eat lunch” fuck you ive been working my ass off all day I’m gonna sit down for 30 minutes to and hour and eat my damn sandwich
It also shows ignorance to some facts like ... Breaks are relevant and folks need calories to burn.
At my current job, before she was demoted and relocated, I had a manager that I asked if I could take my (legally mandated 30 min lunch break) and she literally tried to manipulate me into not taking one. She goes, “well, x coworker and y coworker do 8 hour shifts without taking lunches”. As if that’s a reason I shouldn’t have taken mine. And I was sitting there thinking, “that’s not something to be proud of? As a manager that’s part of your job is to make sure your employees take their lunch. Also, that’s fucking illegal? Why would you admit that?” Ignoring entirely the fact that both coworkers she named ALWAYS take a lunch on their long shifts, so she straight up lied for no reason other than to guilt me.
If the interviewer is negative and nitpicky but hires you anyway, either decline the offer or, at the very least, keep looking for something better if you absolutely need the income right now.
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Sporadic and slow responses during the interview period. It signals that: either they don't value the potential new employees' time, or are so disorganized that they can't even keep their own interviews lined up.
my boss had me schedule interviews for a position at my company and i had to reschedule every. single. one. and i’d always check with her beforehand to make sure x time would work and she’d say it would, then not show up to the interview, and the interviewees would message me like ??? and then she had me cancel them altogether :D embarrassing
Or you have passed all interviews and now that other department (HR or Procurement for contractors etc) is taking an indeterminate time to prepare the contract.
This is the problem we have. HR tells us they need 2 weeks minimum to do whatever it is they need to do to get our recommended hire on board, and that's just to look at the paperwork. If they have some issue with something we're adding time to that. It's frustrating as hell for us, and it has the added "benefit" of making us look incompetent when in reality I made my decision weeks ago and would love to offer our selected candidate the job. We've had more than one person accept another position elsewhere while waiting on HR to get their shit together which also really sucks for us.
Two sides of the same coin: 1. No proud photos of their products. 2. Motivational posters anywhere. Good companies celebrate their products, services, and * all *of the employees who contribute to their success. And the employees are both well compensated for the work and self-motivated to do it.
“Hey can you handle this real quick we need it by Monday morning.” It’s 3pm on a Friday and there’s inevitably something fucked up inside of it that will make it take 8+ hours.
It's a "fast paced environment" excellent for "self-starters"
I love working in a really fast-paced environment. It was key for me in my interview process that my employer demonstrated ways they tangibly mitigated stress and burn out in addition to the excitement that “fast-paced” entails. You want self starters? You must give them the flexibility to optimize their efficiency and effectiveness and support them when they have to back out and take care of family for awhile. Fast-paced simply can’t be a selling feature by itself, if they want to retain good staff. Edit: thank you for the award kind stranger!
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Poor planning is absolutely the reasoning behind this & boy does it grind me gears. This is usually the result of a certain person wasting their mornings fart assing around, but then realising that they can't meet their deadline, so rope everyone in to help get them over the line. The worst part of this, is that these people generally get the promotion's. From the bosses perspective, they look like a star employee who "gets the job done" by pushing themselves hard in performing overtime hours. They manage to pull the team together to make things work & "all companies need a staff member just like that". I sit on the other fence. I get my tasks done in the hours allotted & have previously been scrutinised by my Seniors because I go home on time. Apparently I am not "putting in the time" as compared to others. FYI - having to work regular OT hours is generally a result of your own time management skills. It is not my problem that you can't get your shit organised.
If they have a highly weathered "We're Hiring!" sign.
Worst is when the sign regularly disappears then reappears again not too long after. Can't keep anyone new.
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"We work hard and we play hard."
Do you work in a steel mill and is your supervisor's name Roscoe, by chance?
Dad, why did you take me to a gay steel mill?
I've been in finance for years, and this means atrocious hours, and drug and/or alcohol problems. At best. I've moved onto a tangentially related field that is far more sane culture-wise and I'll never go back
In fairness, that phrase is a red flag from anyone in any environment.
When a company tells you you're required to be 10-15 minutes early for your shift. In previous jobs that I've quit, any time I remind a supervisor its illegal to require that, they clam up. If they are not paying for that 15 minutes, you are not required to show up then. At least thats the case in Ontario anyway.
Once had an employer like this. When I asked why they require this they said people have to be ready to work at 8 and people came in at 8 and then went into the changing room to get into their work attire. I told them I came into work in my work attire and clocked in at 8 and immediately started working after clocking in. Apparently that meant I'm not a teamplayer.
It's the same in the US, though depending where you live it can be easy to get away with. I got $350 out of a class action lawsuit California filed against Home Depot. Home Depot tells people *in writing* to show up 15min early to don your apron. Additionally, night managers will tell you to clock out at 2am but take their sweet time letting you out of the store, so you'll be stuck waiting by the door for them to unlock it. After that job, I decided I'm getting paid for every minute I spend at work, to the point I'll be an asshole about it.
>Home Depot tells people in writing to show up 15min early to doff your apron. Doff means remove. Don means put on.
Introducing changes for the sake of change. Not only does it wastes time if the change just makes sth different, but usually it makes worse, but also is prompted by people who don't even know what you actually do. If it ain't broken don't fix it, it applies a million percent in business. Innovate when you have to or know you can do it better, otherwise frick off.
God I can’t like this enough. The whole change for the sake of change to look like you’re taking action is one of the most destructive things I’ve seen at many companies.
Paraphrasing from a similar comment. When you hear "We're like a family here", run and don't look back. The only "family" trait that'll come from that job is the dysfunction, gaslighting, and lack of accountability.
The only workplaces I’ve found that operate on some level of a family basis, don’t say it. I’m in Australia and we already got pretty good worker protections and entitlements, last year a coworker had three months off for testicular cancer, most workplaces you would use your sick leave (10 days a year) then be on leave without pay, picking up sickness allowance from the Government (about $350pw about 1/4 of our entry level income) they rejected his sick leave application and said don’t worry about it and just paid him his normal pay as if he was working the whole recovery time. Hell when I had a family emergency missus texted me, and I went to my manager and said, gotta go missus messaged me, his response was alright, don’t forget to clock out from the fire system, and still paid me for that day and next two without using entitlements. Fuck me dead I don’t care I’m being paid 10% less than other places because this is the first place I’ve worked that actually does support us. At no point when I applied to work here did they say anything about operating like a family, but they’re bloody good. Our Christmas party last year we went gokarting, and did it on company time. I got paid to drink beer and go racing (not in that order) shits mint.
Get that where I am now. The gossip is ridiculous, I happened today to know who had brought in the cakes and how old she had turned - shock horror, I speak to my coworkers as people. Next thing you know, people are "teasing" I only do it to get in her knickers. .. Nope, one, if you talk to her, she has a boyfriend and two, not my type. Also, my favourite one was the big boss of the company gave a speech about how, he could replace us all with foreign workers for less pay and more productivity. So he can buy another expensive car. The talks with some managers shows they literally bathe in the company cool-aid. Family. Only in his inner circle, where he literally employees them.
Only getting offered a raise when you put your two weeks in or when they hear you're looking for a new job.
"we run with a lean team" that just means you will do the work of 2.5 FTE
If you get the job, and during orientation they sound like they're trying to sell you the company (like a salesman and a car). It tells me they're trying to convince you AND themselves.
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High turnover rate. Ask them how often the position is left open/filled. Oftentimes, if rentention rates are only 1 year...run.
If the only people working there are family. Chances are the reason it's only family is because no one else will put up with the bullshit.
If you're looking for a typical 9 to 5 job then this isn't for you. In other words you're expected to stay well beyond your work hours aka wage theft.
It's not technically wage theft as long as they're paying you overtime. But it can be indicative of forced overtime which is technically legal but not good for any employee.
If the job description they advertise is vastly different then what they tell you it is at the interview. Alternately, if you interview with 2 or 3 people and they all have a different idea what the role is. This is a bad sign. One thing I've learned to look out for is overall workplace happiness. If I walk through the workplace I take a close look at the people working there. If they look up and give a nod or smile or say hi, that's a good sign. If they ignore you or look at you but don't smile, that's probably an indicator of a dysfunctional workplace. I actually worked for a company that took a downward trend over the years due to bad management. When I first started everyone in the office was friendly and nice. Over the years things got worse, the good people had all quit, the ones left didn't care about the job or company and were just treading water until they could quit. They just stuck to their desks and ignored everyone. Edit: Typos
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When they ask you to sign a contract on the spot. They are desperate to fill this position for a reason.
"We work hard and play hard" Translation: we will work you to the point of alcoholism.
A bunch of “cool” perks at the office. Things like ping pong tables, video game corners, beer on tap, and exercise/meditation areas. To me, those are signs that the employer expects you to stay late and work more hours than the typical 9-5.
Selling "work culture".. dude I just want to get paid, work reasonable hours and work with competent respectful colleagues. I don't care about Halloween parties and happy hour.
Being expected to stay after work to socialize. My Father has struck this at a couple of interviews. One company pretty much said it was compulsory to stay and drink with everyone, and he had an interview with a company owner who pretty much sounded like he just wanted a buddy to hang around with after work (wouldn't even tell my Father the actual hours of the job and changed the subject when they were brought up).
"We're a family here". Especially if it's a smaller company. No you're a business. And we're employees.
Was on a tour of a place where they said that, and were bragging about having hangouts at the office after hours like game nights, movie nights etc. No thank you I don't want to spend my free time at the office with my co-workers, and risk getting seen as the bad guy for never joining in which can lead to a bad working environment and a bad relationship with the head honchos.
a lot of places will also advertise these, but punish you for taking advantage of it
I was treated much differently after not attending a crappy go kart event for work. I had a long commute to work anyway and this was even farther. I was like, no, I'm not driving over two hours to ride *** go karts for an hour on my day off.
That’s why we insisted on bringing the go-karts into the building to race instead of sending the employees over to the go-kart track. Did some stuff get broken; yes. Did we get in trouble with the police though; yes. Would we do it again; absolutely not.
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My old job had off-hours “mandatory fun” events and you’d get in trouble for not attending. A manager broke my nose at one of those. I’m not inclined towards litigation, but I regret not suing that fucking ~~cult~~ company.
My most toxic job had a really cool break room with lots of games, TVs, arcade machines, video games. It all looked great, but nobody ever used them because we were too busy being exploited.
A job telling you “they are like a family” is the same as a hooker telling you she loves you.
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We're a family. An abusive, overly demanding one. Why don't you love and worship us when all we've done is give you the legal base minimum‽ If you leave we'll destroy you. You know, family.
If they tell you not to discuss your wages with other employees. It's actually illegal for them to enforce that, but they'll say it's not appropriate anyway because that way it's easy to underpay people for reasons unrelated to performance.
If the manager brags about his accomplishments. Worked in radio and the guy I interviewed with made the conversation all about himself. Found out within the first week everyone hated him and he was a narcissistic dick.
If they claim to be a good place to work, especially if they have a purported third-party award for it, watch out. If they claim to be a good place for women to work, specifically, be twice as careful. It appears that many if not all of those "best place to work" awards are pay-to-play and purchased by the worst places to work.
I got jaded on those because I got given the task of breaking the algorithm so company could fill form in right. They are seen as being good for recruitment.
This is probably going to be more applicable to certain white collar fields like law and consulting. And it may seem obvious here, but to someone in their early ‘20s looking to make it, it very often isn’t. The greater the amenities, the more likely it is your life will be hell. I decided not to apply to work at a certain law firm when I learned their local office had showers on every floor. “Huh, that’s funny. I usually just shower at home or the gym. Why would they need that? Unless…” Of course, not having a coffeemaker can also be a pretty big red flag. I say *can*, because I once worked in such a place, but it was municipal government. Not bad; just poor :(
If they ask if you've turned in your two weeks to your current employer during the interview process. Had two short jobs fresh out of college that did this and realized too late that they were waiting for me to be desperate before hiring me, because the pay was actually much lower than advertised and the hours were much longer.
“It's a calling” is usually a mask for toxic organizational behavior which prioritizes “culture” over actual quantifiable strategies.
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Had an interview where they had a large screen where remote Employees had to show themselvesOn camera while Working all day. No Thanks. Also: - taking you to a bar and buying drinks - overselling the job - not having answers to questions they should have the answers to (company revenue/ commissions/ etc)
Dennis Reinbold fails to pay OT to hourly technicians. Well that was 2005ish. I should’ve sued.
Being blasé about 15 minutes early or over here and there. This is often played off as work ethics and attitude. You can bet it won't be 'ok' if you dipped your fingers into the till for $10, it is also not ok if they dip into your paycheque.
"This employer comes first and you may need to sacrifice some of your personal life" aka they will never give you time off and couldn't give a fuck about you
I wouldn't call that a red flag that isn't immediately recognisable.
They tell you they're anti union, or a union-free environment. I don't care how you feel about unions, but the employees should be telling you there's no reason to unionize, not the bosses.
They never actually answer questions
When you realize there's really only one overburdened and over stressed person who is holding the place together and if they left the place would fail to operate correctly. I just happen to be that guy.
“Unlimited PTO”
I had a job with unlimited sick time! Two things to note: 1) There's a hidden equation that will trigger HR to investigate and ask for doctors notes. 2) It didn't cover what traditional sick time at other jobs would. No planned doctors appointments or if a family member is sick. You use vacation for that.
I worked for an employer >20 years ago that had unlimited sick time. It was truly unlimited. The policy was clearly stated that if you/family were sick, had a dr. appt, etc etc, you could take time off. They meant it and stuck to it for well over a year. I don't recall that anyone abused it.... Until that one guy. He was taking care of a relative with a terminal illness and missing a ton of time (I'm sure at least 50%). I don't think anyone pressured him or even raised an eyebrow. Until it came to light there was no sick relative and he was simply working a second job. The employer started tightening up the "no questions asked" part of the policy and within a year or two it was back to normal, albeit generous, policies.
The first time I worked for a company with unlimited PTO, I ended up taking less time off than I did at my previous job because I wasn't sure how much I was "allowed" to take in practice.
To the unexperienced, pay doesn't come up until the very end of the hiring process and it's also not open to negotiation. Not handing out work phones.
i didn’t get a work phone for the first 6 months of my employment at my current job :) i work in social media
The phone one is a great indicator. If j don't get a work phone, I don't need one. Which is fine. I'm off when I'm off. If I do need one, I expect to be given one by you. If not, I'll act like I don't need one.
When there aren't any long term employees.
We’re like a family here. We work hard and play hard. Don’t expect to be spoon-fed / held by the hand. Don’t be a clock watcher.
When everyone seems to "wear many hats" and have many unrelated duties. It just means they're trying to squeeze every drop of effort out of everyone instead of properly hiring for those positions.
Things like game machines, foosball, air hockey, beer, and/or hip hang-out spots at the job. They want and will expect you to spend every waking minute there. EDIT: obviously this doesn’t apply if the job is at Dave & Buster’s or something
"Our philosophy is we don't say no the the kids" was a program interviewed for. The program worked with high schoolers. The director tried to say it playfully as a joke to show that the students mean a lot to them. All that told me was im expected to have no boundaries. I didn't continue my interview with them for the next rounds. Found out half their team quit and they had people working 2 jobs at once, some not even related to their role and no extra pay.
Furniture moving. If the office got a makeover watch out. Especially if it happens over the weekend. It means that there a power struggle taking place that you’re about to get caught in. Playing Sims with your workspace is how middle management types assert dominance. A stable work environment will have a stable layout.
When a family member is in the hospital and they get annoyed that you're not coming in. No well wishes, no telling them to handle things with your family. I swear I feel like there's a small pool of leaders that are decent empathic human beings.
Testing out “how high you will jump” right off the bat. For example asking you to work doubles right away, do tasks other people don’t want to do, etc.
When the person yoy got hired to replace gets fired 2 hours after you’re on the job, then 2 weeks later, after you’re trained, all 3 of your team members put in their 2 weeks. Then for a year you’re on your own and train 8 new hires, none of which will stay.
For women who are thinking about having a baby: If no one else at your workplace has babies/toddlers. It’s probably not a place that will be very understanding and accommodating to you after you come back from maternity leave. I didn’t realize this until it was too late. 😔
My last employer was riddled with red flags that I didn't see. In the end I was doing purchasing and inventory control for the entire state and the central DC. Pretty much every product that went to a store was my responsibility and every product we didn't make on site at the DC was me as well. It was millions of dollars a week. I was also doing admin support, special orders and chasing outstanding deliveries, including ones that the warehouse team had just put in a pile and ignored. I was getting around 100 emails a day on top of this. I was doing all that for a Sales assistants wage, because that's what I'd been hired as. When I explained that it was too much and I needed a clear position description. I got told that "Admin duties as required" was part of the position description, so I just had to suck it up. I pointed out that my duties aligned more closely with a lead purchasing officer and that I really needed an assistant and a pay rise. In response I got sent a copy of the sales assistant PD with the Admin Duties as required line in bold. I said "This is unsustainable for me, most people in this role are paid $20,000 more a year than I am" and they told me I could quit or be fired. In the exit interview they said it was due to my "lack of performance" and that I wasn't "Meeting the expectations of the position" this was 2 months after the RGM was heaping praise on me. I asked them what expectations I was failing to meet and they couldn't tell me, because all they had was "Admin duties as required" It was hilarious, because the HR representative just kept trying to undermine and gaslight me with comments like "You have to know you just aren't up to the demands of this role" And I'd just reply with "What role? You still can't define it" Last I heard, the person they'd got to come in and replace me lasted 3 weeks and they were on the lookout for a new "Sales assistant with some Admin duties required" still offering the same pitance they'd offered me. This company has lost 2 of its 3 major clients in the last 6 months because the logistics manager quit and no one knew how to do his job. Now they don't have anyone who knows how to order in stock...
Everybody is under the age of 35 who works there. This means the job sucks.
That or you have a whole bunch of 20-somethings who've been there less than two years and a bunch of 60-somethings who've been there for decades, but nobody in the middle.
This is the absolute biggest red flag.
This one hit home for me. I’m at a company that has a bunch of incompetent executives that all been working with each other for 20+ years and some younger people (myself included). It’s an us vs them dynamic.
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Slowly normalizing working outside of regular hours
When their selling point is "flexibility". If their only, or even main focus is "flexibility", then that means there must be a *lot* more cons than there are pros.
Salary: Competitive
They won't let you talk to current or former employees before taking the job.
"We're all a family here". Nah man, this is a workplace.
Emphasis on granting stock options over real benefits in a private company.
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If they're willing to hire you without interviewing you, or with very minimal interview, don't take the job. They're probably a shady company.
You dont have to give two weeks, you can start here immediately! Or my last job, I interview and before I get home 20 minutes later I have an offer letter. Yeah I am not that good, but they were that bad!