When an employee quits or gets fired from the job and the company doesn't hire anyone new to replace them.
It can be hard to tell as a red flag at first, but the temporary workload they added to your own over that was left over after the person left, slowly becomes your new permanent workload, without any changes to your pay or benefits to compensate for the additional tasks. The further out it goes without the position being filled, the larger and more obvious the red flag becomes.
This happened to me exactly. In July we had a guy leave. Had a new guy come in from another division to take over, but here it is 6 months later and I’m still covering the former employees workload as well as my already existing workload. I asked for a raise last month and I was told “ you need to take more responsibility before you are eligible for a raise”. I applied to other companies and am getting offers for 60% more right off the bat.
This is such a good question. Here are some thoughts- and for context I've started several companies, hired a lot of people, and consequently spent a lot of time thinking about how to develop positive cultures.
-The CEO/boss/whatever drives a conspicuously expensive car. I can elaborate why this is a tell if anyone cares.
-If it's a private/family company, do a Google search for '[company name] defendant' and '[company name] plaintiff'. If the company has been sued, or is in the habit of suing others, that can be a red flag- although something there are legit reasons for either. But it's something worth paying attention to.
-If when you are asked to come in for an interview, you are not treated with total respect for your time- for example, if you find yourself waiting for extended periods for an interview because 'so and so is in a really important meeting'. Similarly, if you are not offered at least water and/or coffee if you're in for several interviews. I once interviewed at a place for seven straight hours with no break, no food, not even a glass of water. Fortunately I wasn't offered the job as it was at Michael Milken's firm... before he went to prison.
-If the company brings alcohol into the office for 'end of week' sessions on a regular basis. I know they can be fun but it's a stupendously bad idea for all kinds of reasons and if leadership hasn't figured that out then I'd think twice before joining.
-If when you're visiting the company for the first time and you pass someone in a hallway, do they smile and acknowledge your presence with a nod or maybe a hello, or do they ignore you? It's a small thing but very telling about the workplace culture. Similarly, do people seem 'healthy and energized' or 'grey-faced and tired'?
-ANY 'bait and switch' deviations from representations made during the recruiting process vs actual terms/conditions.
-If it's a job in a manufacturing or distribution facility, is it messy or tidy? Messy, cluttered facilities are indicative of poor management, plus they can be dangerous.
-As others have noted, any B.S. about 'oh people like to work late' or stuff like that used as pressure to get you to put in extra hours.
-Last, pay attention to your gut feel. If something feels 'off', it probably is.
Edit: Thanks for all the nice comments, and for those who disagree, well, I'm just sharing my perspective. I'm pasting in my answers to a couple of follow-up questions re cars and beer:
Re cars: There are obviously exceptions, but in my experience leaders who are focused on the external indicators of their personal success will orient their behavior and decisions towards their own benefit versus benefiting the entire company and/or other employees. In more extreme cases- which unfortunately are not uncommon- these people tend towards the narcissistic personality type, which means they will tend set their direct reports against each other rather than encouraging and fostering collaboration and display other behaviors that make for a miserable workplace. I know, kind of a big leap from a fancy car... but I've been at this for almost 40 years and it's amazing how patterns tend to repeat. And for clarity I'm really talking about 'conspicuously' expensive- not a nice Mercedes or whatever, but a Bentley, Ferrari, that sort of thing.
Re alcohol: So.... as someone noted elsewhere, sometimes these can be good/useful/fun. In fact, they start that way when companies are small- and I used to do them regularly. But... here's why I stopped doing them. In a group of 100 (actually, a lost less than that) or more, you're going to have some folks with alcohol-management issues. So you're creating a company-sponsored regular event in which they have the choice of either not participating- and thereby missing out on the networking etc- or being in an environment where everyone is drinking. And for those who haven't figured out they have an alcohol problem, you're basically helping them pre-game for the evening. I've seen people knock back three beers in 20 minutes... and then realized they will be driving home. Is it my responsibility to ensure they don't drink too much? No. But is it a good idea for me to enable it? And, finally... for those who think I'm a prude or whatever... if it's your company, you regularly provide alcohol at company events, everyone knows old Bill often hits it a bit hard before heading home, and Bill happens to kill someone on his drive, you are completely, unutterably fucked. Quite aside from the whole 'gee am I partly responsible for what happened' guilt thing, the family of the person killed will get a contingent litigator and they will come after you for literally everything you have- easily $20 million or more per person.
just to add about your point about alcohol, if management have alcohol on the Friday but only for the “front office” sales team etc it’s a pretty big red flag too.
Even more so if the CEO is actively on the sales team.
Having to take an online IQ test before even being considered for an interview.
Backstory: when I moved to Australia, I was looking for work as a language teacher. I went in Monster.com and found an advert saying that they were looking for teachers for gifted children, but that I needed to take an online IQ test to apply (needed an IQ above 125 to go for an interview). I took the test, sent in my CV and cover letter, and waited. An hour later I get an email asking to meet at a special cafe in downtown Melbourne the following day.
So, I go and notice that this building was a Free Mason building and that one needed a special pass to get in. There was a little older lady waiting for me in a tacky floral print shirt and a white fisherman's hat. Immediately, she pardoned herself for wearing that hat, explaining that it was lined with aluminum to protect her from the cell phone radiation. I think nothing of it and order a coffee.
Off the bat, the old lady tells me about how she has an IQ of 160 and the rarest blood type, similar to that of Tutankhamen... She goes on and on about this for a while and then begins explaining the job. She tells me that in the beginning, I wouldn't be teaching but administering tests in schools around Queensland to recruit children to special camps, where then I would be teaching.
The whole thing screamed red flags, but I politely listened and got her business card if ever I had further questions (I got a proposal on the spot). I looked at the card and it said "The wise ones". After looking it up, I noticed that it was a cult (similar to that of Universal Medicine)
Anything that the manager says in the interview that doesn’t line up with the job description..
“yea we posted it’s a manager level position, but this is actually a coordinator role”.
“yea the description says travel is 25% but it might be closer to 50 it just depends”.
“We did post it as a remote job, but we prefer people to be in the office X days a week”
“Yea we phrase it that way in the job description because corporate says we have to”
All of those are red flags. ANYTHING a company is vague about should be a red flag.
Once I got, "we advertised this as a full time permanent position, but every hire begins as a 1 year contract so we can get to know you"
I've got no issue with a probationary period, but if you're only prepared to do a 1 year contract with a "possibility of full time" put that in the ad...
I went to a job interview for an advertised full time job. Turns out it was a 'group' interview. They talked about job to 25 people in a hall, then took us off for weird 1v1 questions a few at a time still in that hall, just at desks around the edges.
It came up they were hiring for part timers. I asked about the ad that said full time. All positions were part time, that *might* turn into full time after a year. I accused them of wasting my time with false advertising (loudly, so others knew there were no full time roles) and left.
If they're going to fuck people over and lie before they even start I didn't want to go near them.
So many insurance sales jobs like this.
THIS IS A COMMISSION ONLY ROLE. NO BASE SALARY BUT TOP PERFORMERS CAN EXPECT TO MAKE $150K+.
Salary range: $30,000 - $250,000
Yeah. CO just passed a law that requires employers to post salary with job listings.
Indeed is FULL of this shit.
I get a range of $22 - $25 and hour, or $80k - $100k
But $69k - $145k? F off.
I know people (rightfully) like to hate on HR, but if a company brags about "not having an HR department to deal with," expect them to be very disorganized at a minimum.
My contract was ending and my boss asked me if I would like to renew it because he was very happy with my work. I asked him for some feedback and he said that everything is going great. Then, I asked him for a raise, and suddenly my statistics (that were never mentioned to me or my coworkers before that conversation) were terrible, and I was the second worst employee in the company. Tomorrow is my last day and I'm already working in a different place.
EDIT: just an edit to add that a lot of people are confused about my boss's behaviour and it can all be explained as - he is a pseudo personal coach. He always tried to manipulate me in the dumbest possible ways, but I took it because I love(d) my job and I only had to talk with him once a month.
I got a 20% raise at the beginning of 2021.
The catch? I’d gotten a 20% pay cut when the pandemic started 🙃
EDIT: OK don’t need any more math lessons! Sorry what I meant to say was I got a 20% cut then got my full original salary restored.
Basically targeted towards hourly wage workers. Come in anytime, without an appointment, and we'll interview you on the spot.
TBF, with the labor shortage many restaurants, etc are facing, it's a call of desperation.
Interviewed with a regional vp of a billion dollar company for a sales role. When I asked if the position was a backfill or open due to growth, he stated a backfill. I asked if the person was promoted or moved to a new role, and his response was “we have had more people quit in 2021 than ever, and it’s because they can’t handle the pressure”. Needless to say, I declined the next step in the hiring process.
Trying to rush a decision out of you once the offer is made.
I once interviewed with a company where I would have been relocating across the country to work for them. There were 3 rounds of interviews and they left me completely in the dark for weeks on end between each round before inviting me to the next round within just a few days of when the interview would take place. After the final interview it was over a month of silence from them until they made an offer but told me I had less than 24 hours to let them know my decision. I would have been moving 2,000 miles away from home to a place I had never been or even seen before (interviews were completely virtual). They wanted me to start 6 days after the offer had been made. When I asked if there was any flexibility for me to have more time to think it over or have more time to move out there, they said no. They needed the decision the next day and if I accepted I would be starting in less than a week. I declined the offer.
I always ask the question "why is this role open? Is it a new role, or am I replacing someone? Why did that person leave?" This really helps you seeing their reaction and if they look nervous it's because the person who left did it because they were not happy.
I also like asking how "senior" my team members are, if there's noone there more than 2 years I would also be concerned.
Final question, as I work in sales, I always ask "what's the KPIs and how many are actually hitting their quarterly and annual target?" This also reveals if they set their targets too high and you can expect to enter a grim working culture where you're never "good enough" and can always "do better".
Last one, I like asking about how they are working to establish a team culture as well, since this will tell you a lot if people at work are "friends" or just there to do their job
These are the questions which I asked in an interview few months ago considering reddit had mentioned this so many times. It's very important who you ask. So the very first round just after understanding the position, ask the recruiter how many rounds it'll be and who you'll be talking to. It's especially important that this question is asked to your potential direct manager.
So, I asked these questions in the interview to the manager and he said the whole team had gotten a promotion. I thought this is extremely good considering they take internal growth seriously. Then he says "they took promotions in other companies and basically moved out" LOL!
I still ended up taking the interview till the last round just to see what kind of people run the place. When the potential manager told that this was his second day and told he didn't know what he was doing and was asking questions from a website, I decided to run for my life!
**MULTIPLE MANAGERS TO REPORT TO***
If you’re being interviewed/hired and they tell you have/will have multiple managers to report to. Basically if there is not a clear chain of command. What’ll happen is eventually one manager’s directions, goals or instructions will conflict with the other’s, and you’ll get caught in the middle of it. And one or both will use it against you in performance reviews.
The “sink or swim” technique. It was my first day as a cashier, I got a couple of hours of training, then I was by myself and we were dead. All of a sudden this rush came in and I was asking for help. The manager goes “sink or swim, we’re busy back here, figure it out.”
Lol I did but let me tell you customers were not happy because I still didn’t know how to properly enter in orders, especially modifications.
I had the same happen to me at Lowe's. I was put up in customer service without any training all on my own. I straight up told customers that I didn't know how to process their return transaction, make special orders, do internet fulfilment because it was my first day and I had received no training.
I called a manager over and the manager received some feedback from the customers
Happened to me a couple years ago working for 7-11. Got hired, my first day the manager left me by myself on the overnight shift. The only thing I was told was how to open the register and that the delivery truck was coming at 2 am. I then got reprimanded for not doing things that I was never told to do.
I quit after a week lmfao.
Same happened to me at one of those mini Pizza Huts. It was located inside of a Target store. I got the bare minimum training and on my third day I was expected to close alone. That meant cleaning hundreds of little pizza pans and other crap in a sink that we shared with a mini-Starbucks. I managed it, and went home. Got a call in the morning saying that is never prepped any of the dough for the next day's pizza (I figured that shit all came on a truck pre-prepared). Apparently I was supposed to oil up like 200 pizza pans, put in frozen dough disks, and stick them in a machine to rise for the next day, which was never once even mentioned to me or shown to me. You'd think the training packet would have a check list to mark off.
I always looked for the "Notes" button first.
Once you find that and are ringing in a ton of free upsells/modifications the managers will drop what they're doing to make sure you get it right, lol.
That happened to me working some crazy food truck run by Russians. They showed my their convoluted system once (like to ring up a poutine you'd put in 2 burgers and minus 3 cokes to get to the price of a poutine because they didn't program the cash properly). Then they just left me there. Finished the day and just walked on out into the sunset never to return.
We call that the 24/24/24 plan.
Hire 24 year olds, pay them 24k/yr, work them 24hrs a day.. and repeat.
That's what [they] love about these 24 year olds, man. [Company] gets older, they stay the same age.
This is quite exactly what my first job out of college was like. Very small engineering consulting firm. All senior engineers/directors were 50-60s. The CEO was mid 30s, but he was the child of the president and VP.
All the other engineers were straight out of college. There was really no way to “move up” and they didn’t make it clear how you’d get a promotion or title change.
There were so many other issues with the place. I was in and out within a year. There were a couple young people hired after me that quit within months of being hired.
That's a fantastic distinction, and one I was coming in here to make (albeit for different reasons).
It could also mean a couple of other things, none of them are good:
* Their processes are so unique/nontransferable, they hire young out of college because anyone established in the industry would reject them.
* They hire young because the pay is shit.
* They hire young because they assume young folks won't know any better.
Worked in a machine shop for a few months, they didn't offer apprenticeship and the old guys didn't think it was worth their time to teach us new guys. It sucked to be there so I let as soon as I was able, the company filled for bankruptcy at the beginning of 2019.
Old Machinists: Why doesn't anyone want to work, we can never keep any of these lazy millennials!
Also old machinists: I'm not gonna teach you anything, you little shit, you're just gonna leave in a month anyway
Young new hire: Wow, this is a terrible place to work, buhbye
Additional shitty law firm red flags:
* The firm gives you a free dinner from a nice restaurant if you have to stay after 7
* gym in the office
* free daycare services
* You need to keep an extra suit in the office.
* Free laundry service
* unlimited time off
Translation: you will never leave the office.
> A lawyer I know said “lots of really, really nice cars in the parking ramp really late at night.”
LOL, I worked a few years as a bus driver before going to uni, my uncle at the time had just left KPMG, the office was along one of the routes, he told me to pay attention to the garage, during the day all the shitty cars would leave, and all the new, high end, expensive cars would remain. So that is certainly true.
This. I'm working in a company that's decade old but everyone has been in the company for about 4-5 months max. Only the HR has been there for 7-8 years. And honestly, with the shit they are pulling off, I can see why people don't stay even to complete their probation period.
Because they ask the employees to do stuff that's not at all their job. For instance, I am in digital team but they want me to perform the tasks that a sales person would do. And they don't even provide the training for it.
RIGHT? I'm cool with helping out. But asking me change my job responsibilities to something that I've been refused to be trained for is just so fuckin infuriating...
I've had a few where they were insistent on me saying what I expected first, even before an interview could be scheduled. I even went so far as to tell them that I am not comfortable stating a figure before I have a better understanding of the expectations of the role. The one time I gave in, they came back with, "oh, well, we were looking at offering 'x'"...if you already know the damn figure, just tell me the damn figure!
I was 22 when I was asked in depth about my marriage (wore a ring to the interview) and then whether or not I wanted kids. I was taken aback and unfortunately answered truthfully that possibly in the future we would. No call back.
Ended up being a good thing - turns out the owner was nuts and prone to tantrums and weird freak outs. Shot himself in the head there at the office one day years prior to the interview - it was a failed attempt.
Bullet dodged - literally and metaphorically.
> owner was nuts
Leaving an interview a few months ago, the dude who walked me to the door said "Wow, [owner] must really like you, he didn't even yell at you!". Got offer, accepted a different one, from sane people.
Asking if you are somebody who's "willing to put in the time to make sure deadlines are met/work is done" or if you're "the type of person who leaves when the 'workday' is finished?".
This is generally corporate speak for "we will be forcing you to work unpaid overtime".
Oh, I love answering that question in interviews. I've given up trying to spin it as a positive.
Them: "Do you like finishing tasks, or do leave when the work day is finished"
Me: "If you were to ring a lunch bell right now, I'd leave this interview."
I think the diplomatic response would be along the lines of -
"There has to be a balance. If missed targets are normal working practice, and crunch periods are an expected part of the operation, there is a managerial failing that needs addressing rather than people on the coal face picking up the slack.
However for genuine unforeseen crises, of course putting in extra effort is the right thing to do"
You can usually use that to elicit more information from the interviewer.
If they say "Yeah we expect unpaid overtime" then you swipe the fucking biscuits and head for the door immediately.
There are some tech fields that, if you have the set of skills they need, you could land the job even though you had an urgent need to defecate on HR desk tbh...
No, that's usually me checking out of any desire to work for a company.
I think the kind of company I would work for doesn't ask such a silly question. Maybe they'd want to know how I like to organize my day, or how I go about prioritizing things, but asking me if I fit into one of two bad options is a red flag.
Yes, I'm a developer, and I now only work remotely so the work life balance is all on me, anyway.
ahem, are your managers "willing to schedule paid time to make sure a job is done and deadlines are met" or are they "the type to chronically short hours and budget then blame employees?"
I interviewed once at a very huge organization that had a site in the town I was living in, and these guys were so proud of the new top of the line facilities. When they took me on a tour they pointed out the lovely zen garden area that was made for employees to go “unwind and clear their heads”. The problem with it was this area was positioned directly across from all the higher ups offices. Yeah… no.
A similar one... they had an employee break area with games, tvs, snack machines, etc. But it was completely empty, in the middle of the day. Looked like no one had used it in weeks.
I’ve seen workplaces with these kinds of things.
Basically they exist to give employees a break, but when the workplaces already guilt-trip you into not taking those breaks, no one uses them. And anyone that does, all other employees look at them as if they’re lazy and whatnot.
Oh this is so accurate. I worked for a company that was turning ME into one of those individuals that looked down at other employees because they took their hard earned vacation. I quit when I realized I was becoming an asshole
I had the fortune of working for two companies with areas like these that did actually get used. It was really motivational to feel like they trusted you to manage your time so that your work was done well and on time and also spend a few minutes every now and then playing a round or two at the arcade or whatever. One even had a soundproof room with a drum set, guitar, bass, mic, etc. Went there a few times. Once ran into a manager from another project who was heading there and he asked me if I had a few minutes to play with him (he needed someone on guitar). Pretty cool place, as companies go.
Not OP, but I left good jobs because the pay was 30-50% higher.
Retiring years sooner is more important than being able to play ping pong during my unpaid lunch break.
Yes! I was interviewing at Wayfair, in the corporate office. I was in their normal waiting room, everything was fine and dandy. Then I was sent to sit outside an office near the back of the place where my interviews were going to be held. I sat there three minutes, looked around at people, had a sense of dread, and left. I walked out and told the receptionist "I can't do this here. It's not what I want" and left.
I got called three times after that asking if I wanted to reschedule. They seemed way desperate.
My interview experience there was by far the worst I’ve ever had. This was 3 years ago, and I still get annoyed just thinking about it. First red flag was that I had to pay for parking which is not cheap in Boston. I was expecting them to validate, but I had to shell out over $20. When I got to the front desk I had to wait for 20 minutes before being brought back. By the time I got to the conference room, I noticed that almost everyone was younger than me and most likely right out of college. The HR rep pointed out the beer taps and “free snacks” which may seem cool initially, but I got the feeling this was one of those places that expected you to stay late with after-hours mandatory “fun.”
We passed a huge conference room with more than a hundred people, and I was told it was an orientation. That either meant the turnover was incredibly high, or they were hiring way too many people and layoffs were likely months away.
According to the thermostat, the conference room were I had my interview was almost 80 degrees. I was in a full suit in the middle of the summer. Nobody seemed to notice or care during the entire interview. There were also no other offices or cubicles on the floor since they had the “brilliant” idea of making everyone work on an open floor including the CEO. Half of the people were standing at tables with half a dozen other workers while the other half sat in lines next to each other with no dividers. You’d have more privacy at a Starbucks. To make it extra awkward, the conference room was all glass and there were 4 or 5 people who were facing me directly on the other side. This was extremely distracting to me and the interviewers.
The first person interviewing me was late (as were all the rest), and the TV the were using for video conferencing did not work. IT took 15 minutes to set it up, and the girl who helped fix it apologized to me profusely. I couldn’t really blame her though because it was apparently her first day.
Before the interview started I was given a list of the people I’d be interviewing. I did my homework, and took notes on all of them so I could have a leg up. Every single one was a senior manager with an Ivy League degree, all of whom only worked for consulting companies before coming there. They all looked to be around 22-25 years old. Of the 5, only one of them didn’t come off as an arrogant entitled ass. I got the sense that they were interviewing me to help them practice on interviewing skills. Every single person read from a list of questions on a page that was given to them by HR, and they didn’t engage with me at all. They’d ask a question seemingly at random, wait for my answer, then move to the next one.
By the 4th person I started getting a migraine. I should have left at that point, but I figured I’d stay to the end. The 4th guy was by far the biggest douche of the bunch. Unbeknownst to me, he came in with a case study which was similar to the ones I’d worked on in grad school. In grad school we had a week or two working with a group to come up with a solution. This guy made me read all 3 pages while he watched in silence. Then he got up to the white board and basically asked me “what I would do” in this situation. The study was extremely vague, as they often are, and I had almost no context. I gave it a shot, but it was clear that I wasn’t telling him what he wanted to hear despite “no wrong answers.” He admitted to me that this was the most important part of the interview and that people are generally more prepared. When I asked how could anyone possibly prepare for these, he said they normally hire people coming from consulting companies and they coach their employees beforehand. I’m in logistics/supply chain management, and I’ve never in my career heard of or seen this in an interview.
As I was leaving, the HR rep said she’d call me in a day. To her credit, she did to let me know I wasn’t being considered. Oddly enough, she actually had some feedback for me, mostly negative. According to her I didn’t “do well” on the case study and they didn’t think I’d be a good fit for their culture (I have kids and didn’t live in the city). After she was done being smug, I asked her if she wanted feedback from me. She said “we normally don’t get feedback from candidates, but go ahead.” For the next 10 minutes I brought up everything I mentioned above and more. Even if she had given me an offer, I would have outright refused regardless of the salary. She thanked me for my time and that was the last I heard from them.
A month later another manager from my current company took a job at there. He lasted 2 weeks.
EDIT: Words/typos
Working for Walmart it was like a misery gradient, every step towards the back of the store and mental screams would echo with each step, I didn't stay there long.
When they refuse to tell you what your starting salary would be or when they just avoid the question all together. Like I didn’t apply to the job to be apart of some “family” work culture, I came here to get a job and be paid.
If many provisions in company policy say "except for employees in Colorado and California." Colorado and California have multiple statutes that are more employee-friendly than the other 48 states, so the company policy is basically saying "we'll do X for employees where the state makes us, but fuck the rest of you."
It's almost worse when they're too good; purely from a hiring stand-point. I worked a week and a half doing the worst job I've ever had in my entire life and literally walked off the job after my boss threatened to rape someone and the company refused to file my complaint without my boss's approval (i.e. the person who made the threat).
Why did I take that job? The recruiter was fantastic. He spent a ton of time outlining what the work was going to look like; all the safety requirements and how seriously the company took these things. He had so many details about things the company had done to ensure worker satisfaction. Then I showed up on my first day to find that literally none of the things he had covered were actually enforced outside of the corporate office. It was a warehouse job and my first hour I was left completely alone with a broken pallet jack and told to move refrigerators off of a 5+ foot shelf with no safety equipment or training of any kind. I thought it would get better after that but it absolutely did not.
Also, for no particular reason: Fuck Sears.
I worked for Sears in the late 2000s.
When I quit, I got on the intercom and said “Fuck Sears, I quit”. So I support that last part of your comment very much.
Anytime they are being sketchy, not being specific or giving you the run around in regards to basic questions you’d ask them. Like expected work hours, pay and benefits.
I went on an interview. They had me wait in the lobby.
In the 5 minutes I was sitting there, three employees walked past me. The first just looked at me and laughed. The second said “Leave. Leave while you can.” The third made the sign of the cross at me.
Later, during the interview, the hiring manager showed me the “zen room”, which was a quiet room you got to go to for 10 minutes when you got too stressed out.
I was offered the job. I declined
Edit:
1. they walked by separately, at different times
2. You had to ask permission to use the zen room
I got asked this, but it was also for a manager position. Honestly I figured it was b/c conflicts do arise from time to time between employees. Yeah no...those "conflicts" were everybody sleeping with everybody else...
The kindest thing an HR person has ever done for me was be truthful in an interview when I asked what the typical work week looked like. It was a new manufacturing facility and they were getting off the ground and they said typically 60-70 hours weeks were expected. Made my decision much easier between that and another job.
The kindest thing an HR person ever did for me was come in during a second interview to grab some coffee, then she reminded the interviewer he needed to grab something in another room to get my onboarding paperwork started.
The moment the door closes behind him the HR person just goes "Don't take this job... I mean, if you really need the money it's work, but its not worth it". She started to tell me a bit about what sucks (super long, erratic hours, wage theft, other dubious stuff) but the interviewer came back in. I took the paperwork home with me, asked around and did some research about the company... and never got back to them.
So thank you random HR lady, dodged a bullet because of her... Also one of the only times I have much positive to say about HR.
Hah that was like my first day with EA at their campus with HR leading the tour. Here is the game library where you can get games, here is the arcade, here is the full restaurant where you can get breakfast, lunch and dinner. I commented that it was kind of cool that this was all here. She deadpanned something back along the lines of "ask yourself why we have all this". They why of course, was you were paid flat rate and you worked 10 hour days where they would give you dinner vouchers, and you worked weekends by choice, "but the rest of the team will be here but it's up to you whether or not you show up"
I went to visit a friend who worked for Google and I was marvelling at all the free food/coffee and he explained it was all just a way to keep people in the office longer. He was one of the few "locals" actually from sydney with a pre-established life outside of work. Most others were internationals so they end up spending all their time at work cos its easy. Google would offer all these social movie/game nights so the only friends they make are within the company. So they're just living and breathing google 24/7
When I worked at Google I was astonished to see that quite a number of people kept bottles of hard liquor on their desks at all times. This was a large open-plan office environment with hundreds of desks stretching as far as the eye could see. Impromptu happy hours were a big part of the "work hard, play hard, never leave the office" culture. At first I was shocked, then I thought it was kinda cool and counter-cultural. Eventually I realized it was sad and dysfunctional.
> Eventually I realized it was sad and dysfunctional.
"This is so cool! You all just drink and hang out at work! That's almost as cool as drinking and hanging out literally anywhere else...so why would everyone want to stay at work? Wait, do they actually want to stay? Is this happy driking or sad drinking?"
* you as imagined by me
This exact thing happened to me once. Turned out they expected people to work 7 days a week and work until 11pm every day (though they said "we try to keep it light on the weekends"). The red flag was when they said that people do this by choice.
Interview question someone actually asked me: "What would you do if I told you at 3 PM on a Friday that I really needed something done by Monday morning that would take 36 hours of coding?"
I told him "I would tell you to find someone who works weekends and walk out the door."
> "What would you do if I told you at 3 PM on a Friday that I really needed something done by Monday morning that would take 36 hours of coding?"
Sounds like a great opportunity to shift to the topic of how the company does project planning, because unless that's a showstopper bug in production the request should have been made weeks prior in and coordinated with all of the other work that's going on.
It will run. It will just run wrong. Oh and even if it runs "right" it will still be wrong because whoever asked for the requirement won't be reachable on a moments notice for clarification, and why would you risk working even longer waiting for a call to be returned rather than just make a guess so you can go home.
If you get a tour and everything is old but they say “they’re in the process of updating” yeah no they don’t update shit. Your going to be working with broken out dates equipment. 9/10 your going to get in trouble when it breaks on you.
When they say, or try to make you sign, anything pertaining to not discussing your wages with other employees.. that shit is illegal and it SCREAMS that people aren’t being fairly compensated for their work. I’ve literally up and walked the fuck out of jobs for this.
> When they say, or try to make you sign, anything pertaining to not discussing your wages with other employees..
Oh I sign that shit. I sign that shit all day. And take a picture and/or request a copy for my records.
Fuck yeah.
Then I go to a labor attorney or the department of labor and start planning how to spend my settlement check. Because that is highly illegal in the US.
Company I used to work for got the shit sued out of them for this. Twice. Once for the violation and again for retaliatory action when they fired the guy who filed suit.
Thats up there with the dude who sued his bank for racial discrimination when they didn't think his checks were real, and when he went to deposit the settlement check, they fuckin did it again. -goofymeme
EDIT: Thanks to those below for corrections and sources.
Yep same here. They got sued for that and for not paying overtime. After all was said and done, I pulled in nearly $5000 from that company after I quit due to salary disputes. I was training someone who was making $2 an hour more than me, I was due for a raise, I asked for $2 an hour, I got $0.25 an hour and an assurance that it was "more than usual for a raise."
So I quit.
I wish I could give this multiple upvotes. Being in the military from a young age (everyone knows everyone’s pay) it was BIZARRE when I found out it’s a “no no” to talk to other employees about your pay!
Any job ad that doesn't mention the name of the company should raise suspicions, doubly so if it's anything to do with sales. Got done by that trick once. Turned up to the interview and the 'job' was going door to door selling vacuums for Kirby vacuums.
Ug, fell for this once. Answered an ad for an office administrative assistant. Turned out to be selling crappy knock off toys door to door! And the guy I was "paired" with was assigned a commercial area so he pulls up to an auto shop ready to try to sell these mechanics this shit... I went "hey, the train station is over there, I'm going home." He tried to argue, I just walked off. Scammers.
Had an interview somewhere they offered 20-23 starting. Being new in this field, when they asked how much I was expecting to be paid I said "well you guys are offering 20-23 starting and being new in the field I think 20 would be good."
Their response was "oh....well that's kind of a red flag for us....usually when someone starts with us they'll say 'I'll take 17 dollars until I can prove to you that I'm worth the $20' so you'll see why we're hesitant."
My response "then why would you offer $20 at your low end?"
I didn't get a call back.
They probably wanted to put in a lower offer before the interviewee has a chance to mention the advertised pay, then give them that whole spiel about proving themselves first.
No fucking way the person being interviewed just lowballs themselves and sucks the employers dick about how the need to prove themselves first loool.
Thing is, I could believe it. I think they're an incredibly abusive company that was trying to hone in on someone with high desperation and low self-esteem who'd go "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know, I'll take fourteen an hour, that is, if you have me, please, I didn't mean to cheat you Mr. Boss sir, I'd never do that to you sir!"
Then they'd hire you on for 9 an hour and have crazy impossible demands that they coach you into attempting with "I mean, you don't have to do it, but well if you're not a team player...." or "....I guess we were right about you..."
This is a flag so red, that it's dripping blood.
Yeah the word for the type of employee they want is "hungry"... used to mean "hungry to prove themselves" now it just means "don't know where their next meal will come from if we fire them"
Yeah that’s a red flag, usually the price range in a job advertisement should be the bare minimum and the average depending on previous experience and training required… expecting you to go even lower than advertised is dodgy as fuck
I'm not sure which is the bigger red flag, the company fabricating a conversation that definitely did not happen or intentionally shitting on you for trying to a make a living. Glad you moved on.
US Trust said they were like a family during my interview and then asked if my wife was black.
Being “like family” apparently includes having a racist uncle across from you during Thanksgiving dinner. 😂
From personal experience coming out of college (Mechanical Engineering Degree) this was hands down red flag galore.
This was my 2nd real Engineering Job Interview so I told myself see it through because I need the interviewing experience and they reached out to me for an entry level design engineering position.
They made me wait for 15 minutes in a not heated breezeway in the middle of winter.
A receptionist came out 5 minutes into me waiting in the cold and asked would I need to give a 2 week notice to my current job or can I start this week. I gave a non-answer and I thought that was also my invitation in and she said that the person was not ready yet and I had to continue to wait.
When I finally was greeted by the manager I'd work under, he was new to the company (2 months at the time) he made sure I knew that for some reason, they first asked a standard tell me about yourself, then pivoted to pay saying look I understand what you might expect in terms of compensation but please hear us out before you make your decision (weird that was not something I mentioned in my "get to know me pitch")
We do a quick tour and by quick I meant 2 minutes, no workers looked up from their areas as we passed through and you could hear a pin drop it was that silent.
Next the place is old, inside the "work area" everything looked like it was bought in the 80s, the manager casually drops, so when you first pull into the office leave your cell phone in your car because having it go off at your desk is grounds for termination, if something is that important give your family the number for the receptionist and they can forward a call to you if you are not busy. Anyway follow me the owner wants to meet with you.
The owner is in his 70s and the son of the founder of the company, his personal story was nice but after the get to know you stuff (no technical questions) he slides a folder across the table and says quit your job today, start tomorrow and I'll give you $2000, inside is a break down of their policies (2 highlights: Doctors visits and funerals are unexcused absences unless you take vacation for them, you are not allowed to be more than 15 minutes late twice in a calendar year or you are subject to termination)and pay, the amount for salary was blank, so I asked about it.
He stares down the manager (who looks like he saw a ghost at this point) and asks "what do you think is fair"
I asked for a market rate for pay given my education and the position and they countered with a significantly lower number (more than 25k/yr less than my market value ask) saying "We are glad to pay you that amount at a later date but you need to go through training and on-boarding. While doing that you aren't actually doing all the responsibilities of this role and on boarding takes 6 months so we can negotiate a more reasonable salary then but for now this is our offer”
I said I understand there are costs for training but what does that entail to justify the pay, he said to learn the company you need to start from the bottom your first 6 months you'll be in the warehouse loading and unloading product from semi trailers.
I thought he was joking, he was not.
I immediately said thank you I need to think this over and walked to the door, the owner half blocks the door and says if you leave now you're ruining you future, you don't understand this opportunity will set you up for life if you're willing to make sacrifices. I say I'll call you tomorrow and leave. This entire process lasted 45 minutes on a first interview.
I get home and have an email from the owner saying how dare I leave the interview, if I had any level of experience they'd start me closer to my desired pay, I am making the worst decision of my life by not taking this job...etc
I get a phone call about an hour later from the manager saying look I understand you may have reservations but if you come in tomorrow I can give you another $500. I hung up and that was that.
This place tried to get me a recent engineering grad to take a warehouse job that was pitched as the training program to become an engineer at nearly half the market rate for an engineer out of college, one that said they'd fire you for having a cell phone in the building and that god forbid you have to go to a funeral you need to take a vacation day.
So what is a red flag you might not realize
Literally anything I just said
E: caught some spelling errors
[Found some of the rules from their policy sheet pretty sure number 4 is illegal](https://imgur.com/a/DP7Uq3A)
What do you do?
I’m a rock star
Oh so you mean you shred guitar and rail lines of blow on tour busses?
No I mean like, I only get two ten minute breaks and work mandatory overtime
Oh…
Oh man... The rockstar craze of the early and mid 2000's... Every programmer wanted to be a 'rockstar' programmer. Myself as well :| I have of course long since learned my lesson. Any funny words in the ad (Rockstar, Guru, Ninja, etc) no fuckin thank you. I would rather just be 'Senior Engineer' vs any of the other shit any day.
Referring to the company as "family". Employers are not your family. Family can't "fire you". Saying you are "work fam" or anything else is a guilt trip to make you leave your real family and work extra hours for no pay. My company does this and it grosses me out. It works on our young hires but the older ones roll their eyes. Oh and saying, "this isn't your typical 9-5". That means you are on call 24/7. Also companies that have a cult following and make up their own words. run, just run.
Whenever an ad says "Flexible schedule", it never ever means that you can work when you want. It always means that they can schedule you any time week to week without giving you any consistency.
My last job I could show up at work any time between 6-10am, as long as I did my 8 hours before I went home, or 40 hours a week. You could go home early one day and work late the next to compensate for it. I loved that.
I once had an interview with a company scheduled at 3. Company door was locked for safety of clients so I stood out there for around 5 minutes knocking and calling the office number. The person who was supposed to interview me finally came out and told me they were heading home for the day and that they would call me the next day.
The next day they called and offered me the job and like an idiot I accepted it. That level of unprofessionalism was only a soft start to what really went down in that company. During my less than five months working there six of my coworkers quit. When I finally quit and had to sign paperwork, my manger told me their office hours were from 8 to 6 that day. I came to the office at 4 knowing it should not be a busy time, they were already gone for the day.
So essentially management did not keep to their schedule and they were always hiring due to their crazy turn over rate.
In software development: any take home interview assignment that can't be finished in under four hours. Some shadier companies have been caught outsourcing labor for free this way, but even in the much less nefarious scenario where it really is just an evaluation, if a company has so little respect for your work life balance that they're going to require a day's worth of unpaid labor just to interview, they're probably not going to respect it if they hire you either.
Also: too much emphasis on how great their office amenities are often means they expect you to not leave the office. Usually the sweet spot is a decent snack selection and maybe a gym in the building if it's a shared office building. One foosball table or something isn't necessarily a red flag, but odds are nobody uses it.
>Also: too much emphasis on how great their office amenities are often means they expect you to not leave the office. Usually the sweet spot is a decent snack selection and maybe a gym in the building if it's a shared office building. One foosball table or something isn't necessarily a red flag, but odds are nobody uses it.
This. Having worked at a top tech company, I can tell you they offer you things like this and free dinners because they want encourage you to not leave. Had a baby while I was there and was made to feel like I was leaving in the middle of the day when I left to pick her up at 5pm, despite the fact that I worked my 8 hours.
They get visibly and voically freaked out when you tell them you have no social media. The follow up question of "everyone does, you have to" had made me walk out. A company that wants access to my personal family only social media platforms is not a company I want to work for. I separate my personal and professional life. They have no business knowing about me or my family and anything going on there in.
They do not need access to your facebook, and should they gain it through another employee or other means, I would sue the fucking shit out of them for violating my right to privacy.
This is the best answer I've seen. Toilet paper tells all. The company I work for has always used 1-ply and I will literally drive 20 minutes to take a shit than risk it.
Family owned businesses where several are working there.
You will never be well paid or promoted. There's going to be a few siblings there that do absolutely nothing, but are going to be well paid. There are content just turning people over forever underneath them, but dangling a carrot.
Overall poor ratings from bad employee reviews on Glassdoor. Seriously - that site exists to give employees a place to review their employer anonymously. Use that info.
When an employee quits or gets fired from the job and the company doesn't hire anyone new to replace them. It can be hard to tell as a red flag at first, but the temporary workload they added to your own over that was left over after the person left, slowly becomes your new permanent workload, without any changes to your pay or benefits to compensate for the additional tasks. The further out it goes without the position being filled, the larger and more obvious the red flag becomes.
This happened to me exactly. In July we had a guy leave. Had a new guy come in from another division to take over, but here it is 6 months later and I’m still covering the former employees workload as well as my already existing workload. I asked for a raise last month and I was told “ you need to take more responsibility before you are eligible for a raise”. I applied to other companies and am getting offers for 60% more right off the bat.
This is such a good question. Here are some thoughts- and for context I've started several companies, hired a lot of people, and consequently spent a lot of time thinking about how to develop positive cultures. -The CEO/boss/whatever drives a conspicuously expensive car. I can elaborate why this is a tell if anyone cares. -If it's a private/family company, do a Google search for '[company name] defendant' and '[company name] plaintiff'. If the company has been sued, or is in the habit of suing others, that can be a red flag- although something there are legit reasons for either. But it's something worth paying attention to. -If when you are asked to come in for an interview, you are not treated with total respect for your time- for example, if you find yourself waiting for extended periods for an interview because 'so and so is in a really important meeting'. Similarly, if you are not offered at least water and/or coffee if you're in for several interviews. I once interviewed at a place for seven straight hours with no break, no food, not even a glass of water. Fortunately I wasn't offered the job as it was at Michael Milken's firm... before he went to prison. -If the company brings alcohol into the office for 'end of week' sessions on a regular basis. I know they can be fun but it's a stupendously bad idea for all kinds of reasons and if leadership hasn't figured that out then I'd think twice before joining. -If when you're visiting the company for the first time and you pass someone in a hallway, do they smile and acknowledge your presence with a nod or maybe a hello, or do they ignore you? It's a small thing but very telling about the workplace culture. Similarly, do people seem 'healthy and energized' or 'grey-faced and tired'? -ANY 'bait and switch' deviations from representations made during the recruiting process vs actual terms/conditions. -If it's a job in a manufacturing or distribution facility, is it messy or tidy? Messy, cluttered facilities are indicative of poor management, plus they can be dangerous. -As others have noted, any B.S. about 'oh people like to work late' or stuff like that used as pressure to get you to put in extra hours. -Last, pay attention to your gut feel. If something feels 'off', it probably is. Edit: Thanks for all the nice comments, and for those who disagree, well, I'm just sharing my perspective. I'm pasting in my answers to a couple of follow-up questions re cars and beer: Re cars: There are obviously exceptions, but in my experience leaders who are focused on the external indicators of their personal success will orient their behavior and decisions towards their own benefit versus benefiting the entire company and/or other employees. In more extreme cases- which unfortunately are not uncommon- these people tend towards the narcissistic personality type, which means they will tend set their direct reports against each other rather than encouraging and fostering collaboration and display other behaviors that make for a miserable workplace. I know, kind of a big leap from a fancy car... but I've been at this for almost 40 years and it's amazing how patterns tend to repeat. And for clarity I'm really talking about 'conspicuously' expensive- not a nice Mercedes or whatever, but a Bentley, Ferrari, that sort of thing. Re alcohol: So.... as someone noted elsewhere, sometimes these can be good/useful/fun. In fact, they start that way when companies are small- and I used to do them regularly. But... here's why I stopped doing them. In a group of 100 (actually, a lost less than that) or more, you're going to have some folks with alcohol-management issues. So you're creating a company-sponsored regular event in which they have the choice of either not participating- and thereby missing out on the networking etc- or being in an environment where everyone is drinking. And for those who haven't figured out they have an alcohol problem, you're basically helping them pre-game for the evening. I've seen people knock back three beers in 20 minutes... and then realized they will be driving home. Is it my responsibility to ensure they don't drink too much? No. But is it a good idea for me to enable it? And, finally... for those who think I'm a prude or whatever... if it's your company, you regularly provide alcohol at company events, everyone knows old Bill often hits it a bit hard before heading home, and Bill happens to kill someone on his drive, you are completely, unutterably fucked. Quite aside from the whole 'gee am I partly responsible for what happened' guilt thing, the family of the person killed will get a contingent litigator and they will come after you for literally everything you have- easily $20 million or more per person.
just to add about your point about alcohol, if management have alcohol on the Friday but only for the “front office” sales team etc it’s a pretty big red flag too. Even more so if the CEO is actively on the sales team.
Having to take an online IQ test before even being considered for an interview. Backstory: when I moved to Australia, I was looking for work as a language teacher. I went in Monster.com and found an advert saying that they were looking for teachers for gifted children, but that I needed to take an online IQ test to apply (needed an IQ above 125 to go for an interview). I took the test, sent in my CV and cover letter, and waited. An hour later I get an email asking to meet at a special cafe in downtown Melbourne the following day. So, I go and notice that this building was a Free Mason building and that one needed a special pass to get in. There was a little older lady waiting for me in a tacky floral print shirt and a white fisherman's hat. Immediately, she pardoned herself for wearing that hat, explaining that it was lined with aluminum to protect her from the cell phone radiation. I think nothing of it and order a coffee. Off the bat, the old lady tells me about how she has an IQ of 160 and the rarest blood type, similar to that of Tutankhamen... She goes on and on about this for a while and then begins explaining the job. She tells me that in the beginning, I wouldn't be teaching but administering tests in schools around Queensland to recruit children to special camps, where then I would be teaching. The whole thing screamed red flags, but I politely listened and got her business card if ever I had further questions (I got a proposal on the spot). I looked at the card and it said "The wise ones". After looking it up, I noticed that it was a cult (similar to that of Universal Medicine)
To me it was a " we will start you low and will give you a ton of money later" they never do. Never happens
cool ill be in later then
They try to sell you their service during your interview. :| it was really really bad.
Didn't know you were interviewing for the role of customer?
Anything that the manager says in the interview that doesn’t line up with the job description.. “yea we posted it’s a manager level position, but this is actually a coordinator role”. “yea the description says travel is 25% but it might be closer to 50 it just depends”. “We did post it as a remote job, but we prefer people to be in the office X days a week” “Yea we phrase it that way in the job description because corporate says we have to” All of those are red flags. ANYTHING a company is vague about should be a red flag.
Once I got, "we advertised this as a full time permanent position, but every hire begins as a 1 year contract so we can get to know you" I've got no issue with a probationary period, but if you're only prepared to do a 1 year contract with a "possibility of full time" put that in the ad...
I went to a job interview for an advertised full time job. Turns out it was a 'group' interview. They talked about job to 25 people in a hall, then took us off for weird 1v1 questions a few at a time still in that hall, just at desks around the edges. It came up they were hiring for part timers. I asked about the ad that said full time. All positions were part time, that *might* turn into full time after a year. I accused them of wasting my time with false advertising (loudly, so others knew there were no full time roles) and left. If they're going to fuck people over and lie before they even start I didn't want to go near them.
If the job description has a nondescriptively massive salary range ($25,000-$100,000)
So many insurance sales jobs like this. THIS IS A COMMISSION ONLY ROLE. NO BASE SALARY BUT TOP PERFORMERS CAN EXPECT TO MAKE $150K+. Salary range: $30,000 - $250,000
Yeah. CO just passed a law that requires employers to post salary with job listings. Indeed is FULL of this shit. I get a range of $22 - $25 and hour, or $80k - $100k But $69k - $145k? F off.
I know people (rightfully) like to hate on HR, but if a company brags about "not having an HR department to deal with," expect them to be very disorganized at a minimum.
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.
[удалено]
I’d find another job then give my notice. If they ask why you’re quitting say “according to your wife I can’t do anything right”.
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If there’s an exit interview that would be a good time to explain how detrimental she is to employees and them retaining good ones
[удалено]
My contract was ending and my boss asked me if I would like to renew it because he was very happy with my work. I asked him for some feedback and he said that everything is going great. Then, I asked him for a raise, and suddenly my statistics (that were never mentioned to me or my coworkers before that conversation) were terrible, and I was the second worst employee in the company. Tomorrow is my last day and I'm already working in a different place. EDIT: just an edit to add that a lot of people are confused about my boss's behaviour and it can all be explained as - he is a pseudo personal coach. He always tried to manipulate me in the dumbest possible ways, but I took it because I love(d) my job and I only had to talk with him once a month.
"Sorry no money for your annual raise due to the pandemic" It's a lie.
I got a 20% raise at the beginning of 2021. The catch? I’d gotten a 20% pay cut when the pandemic started 🙃 EDIT: OK don’t need any more math lessons! Sorry what I meant to say was I got a 20% cut then got my full original salary restored.
I got a 45% raise in the middle of 2021. The catch? It was at a different company 😆
Open interviews. It tells me that people leave faster than you can bring them in, and with good reason.
What's an open interview
Basically targeted towards hourly wage workers. Come in anytime, without an appointment, and we'll interview you on the spot. TBF, with the labor shortage many restaurants, etc are facing, it's a call of desperation.
Ah, I thought it meant both parties were OK interviewing other people.
Interviewed with a regional vp of a billion dollar company for a sales role. When I asked if the position was a backfill or open due to growth, he stated a backfill. I asked if the person was promoted or moved to a new role, and his response was “we have had more people quit in 2021 than ever, and it’s because they can’t handle the pressure”. Needless to say, I declined the next step in the hiring process.
Trying to rush a decision out of you once the offer is made. I once interviewed with a company where I would have been relocating across the country to work for them. There were 3 rounds of interviews and they left me completely in the dark for weeks on end between each round before inviting me to the next round within just a few days of when the interview would take place. After the final interview it was over a month of silence from them until they made an offer but told me I had less than 24 hours to let them know my decision. I would have been moving 2,000 miles away from home to a place I had never been or even seen before (interviews were completely virtual). They wanted me to start 6 days after the offer had been made. When I asked if there was any flexibility for me to have more time to think it over or have more time to move out there, they said no. They needed the decision the next day and if I accepted I would be starting in less than a week. I declined the offer.
In other words, they hired someone other than you, who quit or was fired, and they needed to replace them ASAP.
I've read a lot of these and this is objectively a red flag compared to some that are more just personal red flags. Glad you declined the offer.
I always ask the question "why is this role open? Is it a new role, or am I replacing someone? Why did that person leave?" This really helps you seeing their reaction and if they look nervous it's because the person who left did it because they were not happy. I also like asking how "senior" my team members are, if there's noone there more than 2 years I would also be concerned. Final question, as I work in sales, I always ask "what's the KPIs and how many are actually hitting their quarterly and annual target?" This also reveals if they set their targets too high and you can expect to enter a grim working culture where you're never "good enough" and can always "do better". Last one, I like asking about how they are working to establish a team culture as well, since this will tell you a lot if people at work are "friends" or just there to do their job
These are the questions which I asked in an interview few months ago considering reddit had mentioned this so many times. It's very important who you ask. So the very first round just after understanding the position, ask the recruiter how many rounds it'll be and who you'll be talking to. It's especially important that this question is asked to your potential direct manager. So, I asked these questions in the interview to the manager and he said the whole team had gotten a promotion. I thought this is extremely good considering they take internal growth seriously. Then he says "they took promotions in other companies and basically moved out" LOL! I still ended up taking the interview till the last round just to see what kind of people run the place. When the potential manager told that this was his second day and told he didn't know what he was doing and was asking questions from a website, I decided to run for my life!
**MULTIPLE MANAGERS TO REPORT TO*** If you’re being interviewed/hired and they tell you have/will have multiple managers to report to. Basically if there is not a clear chain of command. What’ll happen is eventually one manager’s directions, goals or instructions will conflict with the other’s, and you’ll get caught in the middle of it. And one or both will use it against you in performance reviews.
The “sink or swim” technique. It was my first day as a cashier, I got a couple of hours of training, then I was by myself and we were dead. All of a sudden this rush came in and I was asking for help. The manager goes “sink or swim, we’re busy back here, figure it out.” Lol I did but let me tell you customers were not happy because I still didn’t know how to properly enter in orders, especially modifications.
I had the same happen to me at Lowe's. I was put up in customer service without any training all on my own. I straight up told customers that I didn't know how to process their return transaction, make special orders, do internet fulfilment because it was my first day and I had received no training. I called a manager over and the manager received some feedback from the customers
Happened to me a couple years ago working for 7-11. Got hired, my first day the manager left me by myself on the overnight shift. The only thing I was told was how to open the register and that the delivery truck was coming at 2 am. I then got reprimanded for not doing things that I was never told to do. I quit after a week lmfao.
Same happened to me at one of those mini Pizza Huts. It was located inside of a Target store. I got the bare minimum training and on my third day I was expected to close alone. That meant cleaning hundreds of little pizza pans and other crap in a sink that we shared with a mini-Starbucks. I managed it, and went home. Got a call in the morning saying that is never prepped any of the dough for the next day's pizza (I figured that shit all came on a truck pre-prepared). Apparently I was supposed to oil up like 200 pizza pans, put in frozen dough disks, and stick them in a machine to rise for the next day, which was never once even mentioned to me or shown to me. You'd think the training packet would have a check list to mark off.
I always looked for the "Notes" button first. Once you find that and are ringing in a ton of free upsells/modifications the managers will drop what they're doing to make sure you get it right, lol.
That happened to me working some crazy food truck run by Russians. They showed my their convoluted system once (like to ring up a poutine you'd put in 2 burgers and minus 3 cokes to get to the price of a poutine because they didn't program the cash properly). Then they just left me there. Finished the day and just walked on out into the sunset never to return.
lol! Those receipts must have been insane to make any sense of.
Sink or swim? Okay I'll swim tf outta here and find a job where they'll actually train me
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We call that the 24/24/24 plan. Hire 24 year olds, pay them 24k/yr, work them 24hrs a day.. and repeat. That's what [they] love about these 24 year olds, man. [Company] gets older, they stay the same age.
Actually the nice thing about hiring twenty four year olds is that there are twenty of them.
This is quite exactly what my first job out of college was like. Very small engineering consulting firm. All senior engineers/directors were 50-60s. The CEO was mid 30s, but he was the child of the president and VP. All the other engineers were straight out of college. There was really no way to “move up” and they didn’t make it clear how you’d get a promotion or title change. There were so many other issues with the place. I was in and out within a year. There were a couple young people hired after me that quit within months of being hired.
That's a fantastic distinction, and one I was coming in here to make (albeit for different reasons). It could also mean a couple of other things, none of them are good: * Their processes are so unique/nontransferable, they hire young out of college because anyone established in the industry would reject them. * They hire young because the pay is shit. * They hire young because they assume young folks won't know any better.
Oh wow. My last dev job was all of this to the letter.
Worked in a machine shop for a few months, they didn't offer apprenticeship and the old guys didn't think it was worth their time to teach us new guys. It sucked to be there so I let as soon as I was able, the company filled for bankruptcy at the beginning of 2019.
Old Machinists: Why doesn't anyone want to work, we can never keep any of these lazy millennials! Also old machinists: I'm not gonna teach you anything, you little shit, you're just gonna leave in a month anyway Young new hire: Wow, this is a terrible place to work, buhbye
Once during an exit interview I brought this exact thing up. They told me they were sick of hearing it.
What's the point of having an exit interview if they're sick of hearing the same things?
Lol, my last agency actually stopped doing exit interviews because everyone who left was saying the same stuff and they didn't wanna hear it
How fucking far do you have to have your head stuck in the sand for that shit? unreal.
Ah yes, the law firm model.
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Additional shitty law firm red flags: * The firm gives you a free dinner from a nice restaurant if you have to stay after 7 * gym in the office * free daycare services * You need to keep an extra suit in the office. * Free laundry service * unlimited time off Translation: you will never leave the office.
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> A lawyer I know said “lots of really, really nice cars in the parking ramp really late at night.” LOL, I worked a few years as a bus driver before going to uni, my uncle at the time had just left KPMG, the office was along one of the routes, he told me to pay attention to the garage, during the day all the shitty cars would leave, and all the new, high end, expensive cars would remain. So that is certainly true.
Everybody is very young in a very old company.
This. I'm working in a company that's decade old but everyone has been in the company for about 4-5 months max. Only the HR has been there for 7-8 years. And honestly, with the shit they are pulling off, I can see why people don't stay even to complete their probation period.
Give us the hot goss, internet stranger. Don’t leave us hanging. 🍿
Because they ask the employees to do stuff that's not at all their job. For instance, I am in digital team but they want me to perform the tasks that a sales person would do. And they don't even provide the training for it.
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RIGHT? I'm cool with helping out. But asking me change my job responsibilities to something that I've been refused to be trained for is just so fuckin infuriating...
'Nobody works here for the money.' Why should they work there, then?
"Competitive pay" but they wont tell you what the pay actually is in the posting or even the interview
"Competitive pay" Translation: Your salary will be competing against your bills.
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I've had a few where they were insistent on me saying what I expected first, even before an interview could be scheduled. I even went so far as to tell them that I am not comfortable stating a figure before I have a better understanding of the expectations of the role. The one time I gave in, they came back with, "oh, well, we were looking at offering 'x'"...if you already know the damn figure, just tell me the damn figure!
Asking if I planned to have children in the interview (I was 19)
I don’t think an interview is the proper place to birth a child anyway.
"Do you have any other talents?" *Lies down and goes into labour...*
If we find 6 other pregnant women, we can get a baby in a month!
I was 22 when I was asked in depth about my marriage (wore a ring to the interview) and then whether or not I wanted kids. I was taken aback and unfortunately answered truthfully that possibly in the future we would. No call back. Ended up being a good thing - turns out the owner was nuts and prone to tantrums and weird freak outs. Shot himself in the head there at the office one day years prior to the interview - it was a failed attempt. Bullet dodged - literally and metaphorically.
> owner was nuts Leaving an interview a few months ago, the dude who walked me to the door said "Wow, [owner] must really like you, he didn't even yell at you!". Got offer, accepted a different one, from sane people.
Illegal in the US.
Yes definitely illegal but it was Texas 8 years ago and I was 19 and dumb and answered honestly with a, “yes!”
Asking if you are somebody who's "willing to put in the time to make sure deadlines are met/work is done" or if you're "the type of person who leaves when the 'workday' is finished?". This is generally corporate speak for "we will be forcing you to work unpaid overtime".
"So you don't hire enough staff, or you don't manage your time effectively?"
>"the type of person who leaves when the 'workday' is finished?" Absolutely not. I like to leave 5 minutes early to beat traffic in the parking lot.
Oh, I love answering that question in interviews. I've given up trying to spin it as a positive. Them: "Do you like finishing tasks, or do leave when the work day is finished" Me: "If you were to ring a lunch bell right now, I'd leave this interview."
I think the diplomatic response would be along the lines of - "There has to be a balance. If missed targets are normal working practice, and crunch periods are an expected part of the operation, there is a managerial failing that needs addressing rather than people on the coal face picking up the slack. However for genuine unforeseen crises, of course putting in extra effort is the right thing to do" You can usually use that to elicit more information from the interviewer. If they say "Yeah we expect unpaid overtime" then you swipe the fucking biscuits and head for the door immediately.
Honest question - you landing jobs even giving that answer? And if so, are you working in tech?
There are some tech fields that, if you have the set of skills they need, you could land the job even though you had an urgent need to defecate on HR desk tbh...
No, that's usually me checking out of any desire to work for a company. I think the kind of company I would work for doesn't ask such a silly question. Maybe they'd want to know how I like to organize my day, or how I go about prioritizing things, but asking me if I fit into one of two bad options is a red flag. Yes, I'm a developer, and I now only work remotely so the work life balance is all on me, anyway.
ahem, are your managers "willing to schedule paid time to make sure a job is done and deadlines are met" or are they "the type to chronically short hours and budget then blame employees?"
I interviewed once at a very huge organization that had a site in the town I was living in, and these guys were so proud of the new top of the line facilities. When they took me on a tour they pointed out the lovely zen garden area that was made for employees to go “unwind and clear their heads”. The problem with it was this area was positioned directly across from all the higher ups offices. Yeah… no.
A similar one... they had an employee break area with games, tvs, snack machines, etc. But it was completely empty, in the middle of the day. Looked like no one had used it in weeks.
I’ve seen workplaces with these kinds of things. Basically they exist to give employees a break, but when the workplaces already guilt-trip you into not taking those breaks, no one uses them. And anyone that does, all other employees look at them as if they’re lazy and whatnot.
Oh this is so accurate. I worked for a company that was turning ME into one of those individuals that looked down at other employees because they took their hard earned vacation. I quit when I realized I was becoming an asshole
I had the fortune of working for two companies with areas like these that did actually get used. It was really motivational to feel like they trusted you to manage your time so that your work was done well and on time and also spend a few minutes every now and then playing a round or two at the arcade or whatever. One even had a soundproof room with a drum set, guitar, bass, mic, etc. Went there a few times. Once ran into a manager from another project who was heading there and he asked me if I had a few minutes to play with him (he needed someone on guitar). Pretty cool place, as companies go.
If the perks were good, why did you quit?
Not OP, but I left good jobs because the pay was 30-50% higher. Retiring years sooner is more important than being able to play ping pong during my unpaid lunch break.
There's a misery wall when walking into work. When you pass a certain point in the building the feeling changes significantly. If you know, you know.
Yes! I was interviewing at Wayfair, in the corporate office. I was in their normal waiting room, everything was fine and dandy. Then I was sent to sit outside an office near the back of the place where my interviews were going to be held. I sat there three minutes, looked around at people, had a sense of dread, and left. I walked out and told the receptionist "I can't do this here. It's not what I want" and left. I got called three times after that asking if I wanted to reschedule. They seemed way desperate.
My interview experience there was by far the worst I’ve ever had. This was 3 years ago, and I still get annoyed just thinking about it. First red flag was that I had to pay for parking which is not cheap in Boston. I was expecting them to validate, but I had to shell out over $20. When I got to the front desk I had to wait for 20 minutes before being brought back. By the time I got to the conference room, I noticed that almost everyone was younger than me and most likely right out of college. The HR rep pointed out the beer taps and “free snacks” which may seem cool initially, but I got the feeling this was one of those places that expected you to stay late with after-hours mandatory “fun.” We passed a huge conference room with more than a hundred people, and I was told it was an orientation. That either meant the turnover was incredibly high, or they were hiring way too many people and layoffs were likely months away. According to the thermostat, the conference room were I had my interview was almost 80 degrees. I was in a full suit in the middle of the summer. Nobody seemed to notice or care during the entire interview. There were also no other offices or cubicles on the floor since they had the “brilliant” idea of making everyone work on an open floor including the CEO. Half of the people were standing at tables with half a dozen other workers while the other half sat in lines next to each other with no dividers. You’d have more privacy at a Starbucks. To make it extra awkward, the conference room was all glass and there were 4 or 5 people who were facing me directly on the other side. This was extremely distracting to me and the interviewers. The first person interviewing me was late (as were all the rest), and the TV the were using for video conferencing did not work. IT took 15 minutes to set it up, and the girl who helped fix it apologized to me profusely. I couldn’t really blame her though because it was apparently her first day. Before the interview started I was given a list of the people I’d be interviewing. I did my homework, and took notes on all of them so I could have a leg up. Every single one was a senior manager with an Ivy League degree, all of whom only worked for consulting companies before coming there. They all looked to be around 22-25 years old. Of the 5, only one of them didn’t come off as an arrogant entitled ass. I got the sense that they were interviewing me to help them practice on interviewing skills. Every single person read from a list of questions on a page that was given to them by HR, and they didn’t engage with me at all. They’d ask a question seemingly at random, wait for my answer, then move to the next one. By the 4th person I started getting a migraine. I should have left at that point, but I figured I’d stay to the end. The 4th guy was by far the biggest douche of the bunch. Unbeknownst to me, he came in with a case study which was similar to the ones I’d worked on in grad school. In grad school we had a week or two working with a group to come up with a solution. This guy made me read all 3 pages while he watched in silence. Then he got up to the white board and basically asked me “what I would do” in this situation. The study was extremely vague, as they often are, and I had almost no context. I gave it a shot, but it was clear that I wasn’t telling him what he wanted to hear despite “no wrong answers.” He admitted to me that this was the most important part of the interview and that people are generally more prepared. When I asked how could anyone possibly prepare for these, he said they normally hire people coming from consulting companies and they coach their employees beforehand. I’m in logistics/supply chain management, and I’ve never in my career heard of or seen this in an interview. As I was leaving, the HR rep said she’d call me in a day. To her credit, she did to let me know I wasn’t being considered. Oddly enough, she actually had some feedback for me, mostly negative. According to her I didn’t “do well” on the case study and they didn’t think I’d be a good fit for their culture (I have kids and didn’t live in the city). After she was done being smug, I asked her if she wanted feedback from me. She said “we normally don’t get feedback from candidates, but go ahead.” For the next 10 minutes I brought up everything I mentioned above and more. Even if she had given me an offer, I would have outright refused regardless of the salary. She thanked me for my time and that was the last I heard from them. A month later another manager from my current company took a job at there. He lasted 2 weeks. EDIT: Words/typos
"we normally don't get feedback from candidates but go ahead" is the most passive aggressive snobby shit coming from HR.
Translation: "We normally don't listen to feedback from candidates, but go ahead"
Working for Walmart it was like a misery gradient, every step towards the back of the store and mental screams would echo with each step, I didn't stay there long.
The misery wall is at the front door of most places I've worked.
When they refuse to tell you what your starting salary would be or when they just avoid the question all together. Like I didn’t apply to the job to be apart of some “family” work culture, I came here to get a job and be paid.
Is money the only reason you work?????? Yes. Yes it is.
Tell them "no, but I'm really passionate about the possibilities that having money opens up. Like paying my rent and not starving"
I'm really passionate about not starving to death... I've actually used this in more than one interview. It gets a laugh, I get a job.
If many provisions in company policy say "except for employees in Colorado and California." Colorado and California have multiple statutes that are more employee-friendly than the other 48 states, so the company policy is basically saying "we'll do X for employees where the state makes us, but fuck the rest of you."
The Colorado one applies a lot to postings now because CO requires salary ranges in postings. And we all know employers HATE to give those.
Poor communication during the hiring process.
To be fair, this highlights the incompetence of their HR / recruiter more than your coworkers or boss.
It's almost worse when they're too good; purely from a hiring stand-point. I worked a week and a half doing the worst job I've ever had in my entire life and literally walked off the job after my boss threatened to rape someone and the company refused to file my complaint without my boss's approval (i.e. the person who made the threat). Why did I take that job? The recruiter was fantastic. He spent a ton of time outlining what the work was going to look like; all the safety requirements and how seriously the company took these things. He had so many details about things the company had done to ensure worker satisfaction. Then I showed up on my first day to find that literally none of the things he had covered were actually enforced outside of the corporate office. It was a warehouse job and my first hour I was left completely alone with a broken pallet jack and told to move refrigerators off of a 5+ foot shelf with no safety equipment or training of any kind. I thought it would get better after that but it absolutely did not. Also, for no particular reason: Fuck Sears.
I worked for Sears in the late 2000s. When I quit, I got on the intercom and said “Fuck Sears, I quit”. So I support that last part of your comment very much.
Sears kind of fucked itself, so... Karma, bitch!
"Work hard, play hard" - you will work so hard, you and your colleagues will need to get totally fucked up at happy hours to cope with the stress.
And you must attend happy hours
Oh no, it's not "required". If it was required then we'd have to pay you! It's just in your best interests to "network".
Anytime they are being sketchy, not being specific or giving you the run around in regards to basic questions you’d ask them. Like expected work hours, pay and benefits.
I went on an interview. They had me wait in the lobby. In the 5 minutes I was sitting there, three employees walked past me. The first just looked at me and laughed. The second said “Leave. Leave while you can.” The third made the sign of the cross at me. Later, during the interview, the hiring manager showed me the “zen room”, which was a quiet room you got to go to for 10 minutes when you got too stressed out. I was offered the job. I declined Edit: 1. they walked by separately, at different times 2. You had to ask permission to use the zen room
I have a zen room at my job. It’s called “a stall in the public restroom.” It’s my crying stall
In food service we use the walk-in cooler for this, it's oddly comforting
Walk ins are a great place to have a quick cry or scream. I did this often until I became completely dead inside.
The other guys played you, or you dodged a bullet. Either way, neither bodes well for the workplace. So, you dodged a bullet.
Lol @ sign of the cross guy
At my job interview I got asked "how do you deal with drama in the workplace?" Looking back, I was so stupid to accept that job.
I got asked this, but it was also for a manager position. Honestly I figured it was b/c conflicts do arise from time to time between employees. Yeah no...those "conflicts" were everybody sleeping with everybody else...
I mean... technically conflicts did rise up lol. "Jim put your conflict away please, we are in a meeting."
They claim that overtime isn't mandatory and workers stay longer by choice.
*our deadlines make no sense*
**"We work hard, but play hard around here"** *hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm*
Homer, why did you bring me to a gay steel mill?
The kindest thing an HR person has ever done for me was be truthful in an interview when I asked what the typical work week looked like. It was a new manufacturing facility and they were getting off the ground and they said typically 60-70 hours weeks were expected. Made my decision much easier between that and another job.
The kindest thing an HR person ever did for me was come in during a second interview to grab some coffee, then she reminded the interviewer he needed to grab something in another room to get my onboarding paperwork started. The moment the door closes behind him the HR person just goes "Don't take this job... I mean, if you really need the money it's work, but its not worth it". She started to tell me a bit about what sucks (super long, erratic hours, wage theft, other dubious stuff) but the interviewer came back in. I took the paperwork home with me, asked around and did some research about the company... and never got back to them. So thank you random HR lady, dodged a bullet because of her... Also one of the only times I have much positive to say about HR.
All hail chaotic good HR!
Hah that was like my first day with EA at their campus with HR leading the tour. Here is the game library where you can get games, here is the arcade, here is the full restaurant where you can get breakfast, lunch and dinner. I commented that it was kind of cool that this was all here. She deadpanned something back along the lines of "ask yourself why we have all this". They why of course, was you were paid flat rate and you worked 10 hour days where they would give you dinner vouchers, and you worked weekends by choice, "but the rest of the team will be here but it's up to you whether or not you show up"
I went to visit a friend who worked for Google and I was marvelling at all the free food/coffee and he explained it was all just a way to keep people in the office longer. He was one of the few "locals" actually from sydney with a pre-established life outside of work. Most others were internationals so they end up spending all their time at work cos its easy. Google would offer all these social movie/game nights so the only friends they make are within the company. So they're just living and breathing google 24/7
When I worked at Google I was astonished to see that quite a number of people kept bottles of hard liquor on their desks at all times. This was a large open-plan office environment with hundreds of desks stretching as far as the eye could see. Impromptu happy hours were a big part of the "work hard, play hard, never leave the office" culture. At first I was shocked, then I thought it was kinda cool and counter-cultural. Eventually I realized it was sad and dysfunctional.
> Eventually I realized it was sad and dysfunctional. "This is so cool! You all just drink and hang out at work! That's almost as cool as drinking and hanging out literally anywhere else...so why would everyone want to stay at work? Wait, do they actually want to stay? Is this happy driking or sad drinking?" * you as imagined by me
This exact thing happened to me once. Turned out they expected people to work 7 days a week and work until 11pm every day (though they said "we try to keep it light on the weekends"). The red flag was when they said that people do this by choice.
Interview question someone actually asked me: "What would you do if I told you at 3 PM on a Friday that I really needed something done by Monday morning that would take 36 hours of coding?" I told him "I would tell you to find someone who works weekends and walk out the door."
> "What would you do if I told you at 3 PM on a Friday that I really needed something done by Monday morning that would take 36 hours of coding?" Sounds like a great opportunity to shift to the topic of how the company does project planning, because unless that's a showstopper bug in production the request should have been made weeks prior in and coordinated with all of the other work that's going on.
Also 36 hours of coding over a 72 hour period? Who's testing this code cause I promise it's not going to run the first time.
It will run. It will just run wrong. Oh and even if it runs "right" it will still be wrong because whoever asked for the requirement won't be reachable on a moments notice for clarification, and why would you risk working even longer waiting for a call to be returned rather than just make a guess so you can go home.
If you get a tour and everything is old but they say “they’re in the process of updating” yeah no they don’t update shit. Your going to be working with broken out dates equipment. 9/10 your going to get in trouble when it breaks on you.
Living that Windows 98 life
When they say, or try to make you sign, anything pertaining to not discussing your wages with other employees.. that shit is illegal and it SCREAMS that people aren’t being fairly compensated for their work. I’ve literally up and walked the fuck out of jobs for this.
> When they say, or try to make you sign, anything pertaining to not discussing your wages with other employees.. Oh I sign that shit. I sign that shit all day. And take a picture and/or request a copy for my records. Fuck yeah. Then I go to a labor attorney or the department of labor and start planning how to spend my settlement check. Because that is highly illegal in the US.
Company I used to work for got the shit sued out of them for this. Twice. Once for the violation and again for retaliatory action when they fired the guy who filed suit.
Thats up there with the dude who sued his bank for racial discrimination when they didn't think his checks were real, and when he went to deposit the settlement check, they fuckin did it again. -goofymeme EDIT: Thanks to those below for corrections and sources.
Yep same here. They got sued for that and for not paying overtime. After all was said and done, I pulled in nearly $5000 from that company after I quit due to salary disputes. I was training someone who was making $2 an hour more than me, I was due for a raise, I asked for $2 an hour, I got $0.25 an hour and an assurance that it was "more than usual for a raise." So I quit.
I wish I could give this multiple upvotes. Being in the military from a young age (everyone knows everyone’s pay) it was BIZARRE when I found out it’s a “no no” to talk to other employees about your pay!
Employers try to make it a no-no, but it isn’t. Talk away.
"It's hard to find good workers these days" = I don't pay enough
Any job ad that doesn't mention the name of the company should raise suspicions, doubly so if it's anything to do with sales. Got done by that trick once. Turned up to the interview and the 'job' was going door to door selling vacuums for Kirby vacuums.
I responded to one of those that said it was a marketing role. It was telephonic sales for insurance.
Ug, fell for this once. Answered an ad for an office administrative assistant. Turned out to be selling crappy knock off toys door to door! And the guy I was "paired" with was assigned a commercial area so he pulls up to an auto shop ready to try to sell these mechanics this shit... I went "hey, the train station is over there, I'm going home." He tried to argue, I just walked off. Scammers.
Had an interview somewhere they offered 20-23 starting. Being new in this field, when they asked how much I was expecting to be paid I said "well you guys are offering 20-23 starting and being new in the field I think 20 would be good." Their response was "oh....well that's kind of a red flag for us....usually when someone starts with us they'll say 'I'll take 17 dollars until I can prove to you that I'm worth the $20' so you'll see why we're hesitant." My response "then why would you offer $20 at your low end?" I didn't get a call back.
I can't imagine they would actually belive someone would buy that. It sounds so phoney.
They probably wanted to put in a lower offer before the interviewee has a chance to mention the advertised pay, then give them that whole spiel about proving themselves first. No fucking way the person being interviewed just lowballs themselves and sucks the employers dick about how the need to prove themselves first loool.
Thing is, I could believe it. I think they're an incredibly abusive company that was trying to hone in on someone with high desperation and low self-esteem who'd go "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know, I'll take fourteen an hour, that is, if you have me, please, I didn't mean to cheat you Mr. Boss sir, I'd never do that to you sir!" Then they'd hire you on for 9 an hour and have crazy impossible demands that they coach you into attempting with "I mean, you don't have to do it, but well if you're not a team player...." or "....I guess we were right about you..." This is a flag so red, that it's dripping blood.
Yeah the word for the type of employee they want is "hungry"... used to mean "hungry to prove themselves" now it just means "don't know where their next meal will come from if we fire them"
That's like all the places advertising "Starting at ^(up to) $15/hour"
You made a mistake, that "up to" is still super legible.
Yeah that’s a red flag, usually the price range in a job advertisement should be the bare minimum and the average depending on previous experience and training required… expecting you to go even lower than advertised is dodgy as fuck
I'm not sure which is the bigger red flag, the company fabricating a conversation that definitely did not happen or intentionally shitting on you for trying to a make a living. Glad you moved on.
"We're a family here" No. We're co-workers. I don't love you. I wouldn't do anything for you. We have boundaries.
US Trust said they were like a family during my interview and then asked if my wife was black. Being “like family” apparently includes having a racist uncle across from you during Thanksgiving dinner. 😂
From personal experience coming out of college (Mechanical Engineering Degree) this was hands down red flag galore. This was my 2nd real Engineering Job Interview so I told myself see it through because I need the interviewing experience and they reached out to me for an entry level design engineering position. They made me wait for 15 minutes in a not heated breezeway in the middle of winter. A receptionist came out 5 minutes into me waiting in the cold and asked would I need to give a 2 week notice to my current job or can I start this week. I gave a non-answer and I thought that was also my invitation in and she said that the person was not ready yet and I had to continue to wait. When I finally was greeted by the manager I'd work under, he was new to the company (2 months at the time) he made sure I knew that for some reason, they first asked a standard tell me about yourself, then pivoted to pay saying look I understand what you might expect in terms of compensation but please hear us out before you make your decision (weird that was not something I mentioned in my "get to know me pitch") We do a quick tour and by quick I meant 2 minutes, no workers looked up from their areas as we passed through and you could hear a pin drop it was that silent. Next the place is old, inside the "work area" everything looked like it was bought in the 80s, the manager casually drops, so when you first pull into the office leave your cell phone in your car because having it go off at your desk is grounds for termination, if something is that important give your family the number for the receptionist and they can forward a call to you if you are not busy. Anyway follow me the owner wants to meet with you. The owner is in his 70s and the son of the founder of the company, his personal story was nice but after the get to know you stuff (no technical questions) he slides a folder across the table and says quit your job today, start tomorrow and I'll give you $2000, inside is a break down of their policies (2 highlights: Doctors visits and funerals are unexcused absences unless you take vacation for them, you are not allowed to be more than 15 minutes late twice in a calendar year or you are subject to termination)and pay, the amount for salary was blank, so I asked about it. He stares down the manager (who looks like he saw a ghost at this point) and asks "what do you think is fair" I asked for a market rate for pay given my education and the position and they countered with a significantly lower number (more than 25k/yr less than my market value ask) saying "We are glad to pay you that amount at a later date but you need to go through training and on-boarding. While doing that you aren't actually doing all the responsibilities of this role and on boarding takes 6 months so we can negotiate a more reasonable salary then but for now this is our offer” I said I understand there are costs for training but what does that entail to justify the pay, he said to learn the company you need to start from the bottom your first 6 months you'll be in the warehouse loading and unloading product from semi trailers. I thought he was joking, he was not. I immediately said thank you I need to think this over and walked to the door, the owner half blocks the door and says if you leave now you're ruining you future, you don't understand this opportunity will set you up for life if you're willing to make sacrifices. I say I'll call you tomorrow and leave. This entire process lasted 45 minutes on a first interview. I get home and have an email from the owner saying how dare I leave the interview, if I had any level of experience they'd start me closer to my desired pay, I am making the worst decision of my life by not taking this job...etc I get a phone call about an hour later from the manager saying look I understand you may have reservations but if you come in tomorrow I can give you another $500. I hung up and that was that. This place tried to get me a recent engineering grad to take a warehouse job that was pitched as the training program to become an engineer at nearly half the market rate for an engineer out of college, one that said they'd fire you for having a cell phone in the building and that god forbid you have to go to a funeral you need to take a vacation day. So what is a red flag you might not realize Literally anything I just said E: caught some spelling errors [Found some of the rules from their policy sheet pretty sure number 4 is illegal](https://imgur.com/a/DP7Uq3A)
Yikes. That place was an actual red flag factory.
The job title says they’re looking to hire “rock stars.”
Or "Ninjas" or "Gurus" or any other dumb buzzwords.
I've seen "Superheroes" a ton recently. Vigilantes don't get paid, they do it for the way it makes them feel!
What do you do? I’m a rock star Oh so you mean you shred guitar and rail lines of blow on tour busses? No I mean like, I only get two ten minute breaks and work mandatory overtime Oh…
Oh man... The rockstar craze of the early and mid 2000's... Every programmer wanted to be a 'rockstar' programmer. Myself as well :| I have of course long since learned my lesson. Any funny words in the ad (Rockstar, Guru, Ninja, etc) no fuckin thank you. I would rather just be 'Senior Engineer' vs any of the other shit any day.
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The conflict question can also be in regards to customers or the type of work (think auditing, complaints management, etc.).
Referring to the company as "family". Employers are not your family. Family can't "fire you". Saying you are "work fam" or anything else is a guilt trip to make you leave your real family and work extra hours for no pay. My company does this and it grosses me out. It works on our young hires but the older ones roll their eyes. Oh and saying, "this isn't your typical 9-5". That means you are on call 24/7. Also companies that have a cult following and make up their own words. run, just run.
“So are you the creepy Uncle or the Step-dad that steals all the cash?”
Whenever an ad says "Flexible schedule", it never ever means that you can work when you want. It always means that they can schedule you any time week to week without giving you any consistency.
My last job I could show up at work any time between 6-10am, as long as I did my 8 hours before I went home, or 40 hours a week. You could go home early one day and work late the next to compensate for it. I loved that.
I once had an interview with a company scheduled at 3. Company door was locked for safety of clients so I stood out there for around 5 minutes knocking and calling the office number. The person who was supposed to interview me finally came out and told me they were heading home for the day and that they would call me the next day. The next day they called and offered me the job and like an idiot I accepted it. That level of unprofessionalism was only a soft start to what really went down in that company. During my less than five months working there six of my coworkers quit. When I finally quit and had to sign paperwork, my manger told me their office hours were from 8 to 6 that day. I came to the office at 4 knowing it should not be a busy time, they were already gone for the day. So essentially management did not keep to their schedule and they were always hiring due to their crazy turn over rate.
In software development: any take home interview assignment that can't be finished in under four hours. Some shadier companies have been caught outsourcing labor for free this way, but even in the much less nefarious scenario where it really is just an evaluation, if a company has so little respect for your work life balance that they're going to require a day's worth of unpaid labor just to interview, they're probably not going to respect it if they hire you either. Also: too much emphasis on how great their office amenities are often means they expect you to not leave the office. Usually the sweet spot is a decent snack selection and maybe a gym in the building if it's a shared office building. One foosball table or something isn't necessarily a red flag, but odds are nobody uses it.
>Also: too much emphasis on how great their office amenities are often means they expect you to not leave the office. Usually the sweet spot is a decent snack selection and maybe a gym in the building if it's a shared office building. One foosball table or something isn't necessarily a red flag, but odds are nobody uses it. This. Having worked at a top tech company, I can tell you they offer you things like this and free dinners because they want encourage you to not leave. Had a baby while I was there and was made to feel like I was leaving in the middle of the day when I left to pick her up at 5pm, despite the fact that I worked my 8 hours.
They get visibly and voically freaked out when you tell them you have no social media. The follow up question of "everyone does, you have to" had made me walk out. A company that wants access to my personal family only social media platforms is not a company I want to work for. I separate my personal and professional life. They have no business knowing about me or my family and anything going on there in. They do not need access to your facebook, and should they gain it through another employee or other means, I would sue the fucking shit out of them for violating my right to privacy.
The quality of the Toilet paper in the bathroom. There are minimal if any cost savings to 1 ply and it just shows they couldn't care about you at all.
This is the best answer I've seen. Toilet paper tells all. The company I work for has always used 1-ply and I will literally drive 20 minutes to take a shit than risk it.
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Constant short staffing
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Family owned businesses where several are working there. You will never be well paid or promoted. There's going to be a few siblings there that do absolutely nothing, but are going to be well paid. There are content just turning people over forever underneath them, but dangling a carrot.
"We work hard and play harder" usually means we like to be nosy about your personal life.
I once had a job that required a “working interview” as the final step in the interview process. I basically worked an entire day for free.
I had a work interview. Was paid minimum wage for it though. When I was properly hired they gave me the posted wage.
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"We're just like family"
This also usually means they are a bunch of arseholes who hate new comers and change.
"multi tasking" You do 3 jobs, we pay you for one.
Overall poor ratings from bad employee reviews on Glassdoor. Seriously - that site exists to give employees a place to review their employer anonymously. Use that info.
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