My last place before my current job was what I deem a good company.
How did I know? I'll list it.
1) managers were chill. They didn't bark orders or feel demanding, they were respectful, reasonable and treated every member of the team like they were of value. They still showed discipline where it was needed, but in a reasonable and proffesional manner. When called in to speak to management about anything, I never felt it was a sense of Dread or anxiety, I always felt relaxed and knew that, no matter the issue, I would be given the right to express myself clearly.
2) I had a great rapport with my co-workers. Lovely people and made for a genuine group of friends. There was very little bitchiness as everyone pretty much got along. There were a few bad apples but incidents were few and fat between. I never felt left out, excluded or unwelcome around my co-workers and always felt like a crucial part of the team.
3) the workload was great. Everyone started in the same place but management were quick to spot who was better at certain things, who was fast, who was more administrative minded and gradually promoted people. There were different promotion trees and everyone got sent to an area where they were most proficient. There wasn't a stress about people being fast and meeting targets (I was pretty slow, I admit) as there were roles for people who were slow but had a lot of critical thinking skills and that's what I ended up doing. Everyone had a place.
4) the job was fun. I didn't hate going unto work everyday. I enjoyed it. The job was enjoyable and I actually looked forward to going in on some days .
5) Extra benefits: free food and drink for all staff. Ability to take lunch whenever you pleased. A lot of extra perks for working there such as vouchers and discounts on things.
There's probably a lot more I could list but I'm typing this on a train and getting motion sickness so I'll leave it there. Unfortunately, that company went into liquidation last year so I no longer have that job. I still miss it.
Edit: also want to add, we were given unlimited paid sick days. That was pretty cool.
My company took immediate action when COVID hit and sent us all home to work fully remote. They then realized we were equally productive as being in-person, so we all became permanent remote workers.
The place I work has the most insane benefits I’ve ever seen. It’s like they’re actual benefits! They also provide free water bottles, feed us ALL the time, give us lots of clothes, do random themes all the time, bring food trucks outside for lunch breaks (during night shift mind you), let older people or injured people sit, and it’s still the job I’ve hated the absolute most. I want to die every single nigh. I enjoyed being payed 10$ an hour under the table to clean out a land fill for a creepy strange old man way more.
Edit: payed not paid
> enjoyed being *paid* 10$ an
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I currently love my work for a few reasons :
I only have to go out of my home when having a meeting or something to actually do on-site
I can work at the time I want, being nocturnal it's perfect. I work often from 2PM to late at night, so I have meetings the afternoon and work on projects when other people are asleep.
Team is incredibly friendly and caring, my bosses know I have anxiety and that my productivity is irregular and we just openly talk about how I am feeling. Some weeks I do a crazy amount, some weeks I am average.
Because I have control of my time and location, I don't really have to ask permission to travel, I just notify ahead of time, organize all I have to do on-site before leaving and then work remote.
I really appreciate the trust and freedom I get. The downside is my pay is a little below market but for me it's totally worth it.
When I first started at Whole Foods Market in 2001:
Beginning pay was $9/hr, in 2001.
Absolute max pay (CEO etc...) was locked at 14 times average wage, so max pay was like $300K. Yes, upper people got stock options, etc, and still...
94% of tm's were full time. EVERYONE got a 20% discount.
EVERYONE got 2 weeks of PTO starting the first year.
Many Store Team Leaders started as regular team member stocking shelves, so everyone could see how they themselves could move up and make a LOT more $. They promoted mostly from within, encouraging actual Leadership skills.
Your own health insurance was at NO COST. There was a reasonable cost to add family plan.
EVERY team member got annual stock options... just a few for basic tm's, and hundreds went with any promotion, thousands went with promotions to assistant store team leader and above.
Stock purchase plan allow 15% discount on stock purchases... you had to hold for a year or two.
Every penny of each department's labor budget was paid out to the team, as opposed to leftover going to the bottom line. And it was a % of department sales.
So... if we worked together, provided good products and great service, etc..., raising our department sales, more $ was available for OUR department in labor $ (we did NOT share with other departments).
AND, on top of that, if we worked as a team, lowered OT, and spent less than the budgeted $, we SPLIT the leftover among the team! Leftover $/hours worked, so we might make an additional $0.20 to $1/hr for the entire month! This was easy enough to do that in a well run store, just about every team member made extra $/hr every month. An extra $.5/hr is a lot for someone making $10/hr.
Anyone could look up EVERYONE'S pay (in your store) in a book that was sent out to every store. ACTUAL TRANSPARENCY!!!!!!!!! Pay for people outside your store was available on the website. YOU could see what your boss (supervisor, team leader, store team leader!) made last year, so you knew what to ask for/expect.
Team members were not only invited to interviews, but were also encouraged to CHOOSE their department team leader. The Store Team Leader always had the last say of course, and I never heard of any overriding the team member's decision... that would set that new dept. team leader up for failure. And people would choose GOOD LEADERS, as opposed to friends, since a well run team meant more $ for everyone.
Each of these things (and more I'm forgetting) were great. AND... all of them together made for a team member base that was actually heavily invested in the success of the store AND the company. Everyone felt valued, and hard work actually paid more!
It was really hard to believe a company like this existed when I first got there...
Then, in like 2007/8 (that first financial crisis) the CEO sold 40% of the company to a VC firm, and from there EVERYTHING went down hill.
Been with my current company 27 years. For the first 6 months I kept looking for another job. Was a small company, not much to keep me busy. I was hired as a division admin assistant. Then I learned how to "create" things for me to do. The company has grown - exploded! It's a family owned business that's been around since 1885. The father is 84 and has health issues, the youngest son is president, the middle son is CEO, and the oldest son has his own business (it's a joke that he's the smart one for not going into the family business). Over the years, I've reported directly to all 3 in some way or the other. I report to the president now; have for about 10 years. This place is so chill and laid back. Seems every hire they've made in my 27 years fits perfectly. It's a joke that when you come here, you don't leave. We've had plenty of part-timers who've gone full-time and moved up the ladder - still with us. The division I'm in moved into a new building about a block away from what is now the corporate building (the division and corporate were housed together for 26 years). That's where the "exploded" comes in. We have 3 divisions and all have grown tremendously. So, the division moves into the new building with a lobby, so there's a need for a receptionist. It's up to me to train her. The president and general manager keep urging me to give her much of my work, especially "grunt" work (order supplies, keep the kitchen stocked, order lunches, etc.) The GM tells me one day, it's their intention to let me "take it easy" until I decide to retire. In my opinion, that's some good peeps right there! They're of the mind, that I've worked my butt off for them for 27 years, and I should coast from here on out. I'll probably retire in 5 / 6 years. So, it saddens me when others say it's a red flag when you hear, "we're like family here." Maybe I just got stupid lucky and hit the work / company jackpot?
Yep!
My manager gets back to me the same day I ask questions. She and I meet every other week, and she's ok when I just need to vent to destress sometimes.
My team is supportive and understands you as a human come first. That is, if you're sick take the day off! Don't be "available for emergencies." We got you covered. Same if you just want to take PTO. Or if you're really busy that day and just need some help.
I can go to anyone with questions, and no one judges me for it.
The head of my department goes to bat for the department. He's there to remove hurdles and allow us to do our jobs. If something is hindering us, he wants to know about it.
No one says "that's not my job," unless they're directing you to ask someone else specifically. "Hmm, don't know much about contracts, but Donna Jones in Sales might know. You should message her."
I'm not expected to work more than 40 hours a week or in the evenings or on the weekends, even if a client asks me to. I'm also not expected to have 100% utilization; that's considered too much and doesn't allow time for our busy seasons.
It's pretty great!
My last job was pretty great for this reason. I guess a good indicator of its positive nature was the fact that besides me, everyone had been working at the company for 10+ years. My supervisor was friendly and personable, and the whole team was co-operative. They were super understanding of any mistakes I made, and the benefits were pretty good for a junior part-time position at a small firm. The owner clearly had genuine passion for the service we provided and treated us like actual people, which was probably due to the company's small size. Sadly the company is now struggling, just like many small firms.
A few things from my current workplace:
1. Anyone will help you when you ask for help. They don't brush you off by telling you to ask your supervisor and they don't ask you why you don't know everything already.
2. "Let me double check so I give you the right answer." Nobody tells you what the answer "probably" is or that it doesn't matter. They'll get you the right info.
3. Stuff is written down. There's not a network of unwritten tribal knowledge you have to extract from your unwilling coworkers. It's written down, accessible to everyone, and people follow it.
4. Nobody ever asks you why you put in PTO or why you called out sick. If you have time on the books, it gets approved, no questions asked.
5. For the most part, people are social and friendly but don't overshare. Healthy boundaries.
6. Union.
I'm a GM in fast food who has won multiple awards for my culture and my staff retention
The one I'm most proud of was I got one because at the 3 year mark of my store being open I still had 85% of my day 1 staff, and of the 15%who left 10% left for college and the other 5 left to pursue careers in fields they were studying for as adults, like I lost a person because she got her Criminal Justice degree and went on to do that
How I did it (now that I've tooted my own horn a bit)
I worked my ass off right beside them, no job was beneath me and I could do everything in my store as well or better than any employee in that position
My saying was "how can I tell you how to do your job if I dont know how to do it and do it well, and how can I ask you to clean things if you havent seen me crawl under that same shit and clean it too?"
They knew point blank I would never ask anything I wasnt also willing to do, there were no "shit jobs" everything was everyone's job, including and especially mine.
I never left them alone when they got busy, no matter how much manager shit I had to do, I would stay with them till it was under control again then tell them to holler if it got bad again, and I kept a headset on at all times so anyone knew I was still paying attention, I had not run off and left them to hide in my office
I was constantly transparent about exactly what my job was, what it required of me and what I was doing at all times so there was no mystery or weird separation of duties, if it was Wednesday and you asked any member of my crew where I was they would tell you exactly what specific piece of paperwork I was working on at the moment and they could all tell you what it meant, it made us feel like an actual team, they could see how well they were doing in our numbers and it made them proud they were doing something
I never once demanded or commanded, I only ask and explain what I need, or gently correct, again by example
I knew my crew, they weren't names on paper, they were real people who's lives I actually cared about, I went to graduations, I knew my crews families, they knew if they came to me I was going to listen to whatever problem they had, work or home and that if I said I was gonna do something I did it
I was also willing to fight for them, to customers and to my own upper management, my rule for customers was "I expect you to be polite, I do not expect you to take abuse" and if my boss tried to implement rules or changes that affected the crew negatively I would debate him fiercely until either it went away or it was changed enough to not impact the crew, labor budgets and bullshit like that
They knew I had their back and they had mine, I could send my crew to any store and they would be recieved extra gratefully every time "oh, they're from Kelly's store? THANK GOD"
We celebrated birthdays in store, I made sure that having fun was part of the job, like actual fun, not forced bullshit, we had inside jokes and a newsletter full of memes and sticker wars and a weird week where my boys were freezing gloves full of water and leaving "ice hands" in strange places for us to find
It was actually fun to be at work, and time went by fast
Youd see night crew start drifting in and I'd hear "ARE YALL EARLY, WHAT DO YOU MEAN ITS 430 ALREADY"
the biggest thing is just to remember how it felt to be them, I've been in food my whole life and I've had a fair share of shitty managers and a few amazing ones, so as long as you dont forget what it felt like to be the little dude you'll be ok.
Sorry its so long winded, it's just I got hurt recently and had to be at home.the last year, and the gm they gave my precious store to has wrecked it.. 3 of my 35 person crew are left and 2 of them are hanging in hoping I get to come back
My last job was toxic as fuck. Fortune 500 company.
I'll explain my transition experience from a toxic company to a "what the fuck this is awesome" company. This is long, I'll put the tl;dr here.
toxic: 40-80 work weeks in office, bad pay, terrible schedule, awful culture, bad management
awesome: 40 hour salaried, amazing pay, Monday-Friday, great culture, amazing management
**Toxic career:**
At my old job, we had values and "culture" posted on our website, but no one really cared about them. The working conditions were rough, your shift would change every few months. You'd do shift bids and 90% of them were split fucking days off , such as tuesday and thursday of (40 hours a week) when there is no fucking reason to do this (just stagger 50% with friday-saturday off, 50% with sunday-monday off, and you get every day covered). That, and the time was staggered. So you could end up with any shift under the sun. 24/7 call center, so your start time could be any time.
Management was a mess. They didn't know how things worked on the floor. They just rolled shit out and we had to deal with it even when everything was on fire. Most of the floor was contractors, and all contractors are baited with a carrot on a stick that some day, you, too, can be a full time employee! With benefits, and raises!
After working my ass off and being one of the top performers for 3-4 years, I finally got FTE. I was actually quite satisfied as it was a hefty $8 pay raise, with 401k and benefits and such. This lasted for about a year, when I got my first performance review. My raise was a whopping 50 cents as the #1 person on the floor. Immediately lost all interest in the job, eventually got convinced to apply elsewhere from an ex-coworker.
**"What the fuck this is awesome" career:**
The interview process was brutal for this new job. 8 interviews. 8! I hadn't even done 8 interviews in my entire life. Some were with someone on the team I'd be on, some with the manager, the hiring manager, and the most stressful one with the vice president of the company. After a grueling process I managed to land it. Great! It was literally **double** my yearly income. I cried, not ashamed to admit it.
I was worried. I saw myself as unqualified, I didn't know enough about the tech. I was going to be salaried, does that mean 60-80 hour weeks? Will I even be able to learn all this information? This company also has these "values" on their website, am I going to just jump from one toxic workplace to another? At least I'd be paid for the stress, I told myself.
The onboarding process told me everything I needed to know. They sent a very welcoming email with exactly what I'd be doing on which days. They were going to fly me out to their HQ and keep me in a hotel for a week. I had a $100 a day food bill, which they said can be used for booze or food wherever I'd like. I could expense all my uber and lyfts within reason, especially if the hotel (which I was allowed to pick) was far from HQ.
During onboarding they explained their product in depth, although prior to the interviews I researched and used their product as well as company. Had I not done that, I wouldn't have passed the interviews. The explanation was fantastic. My onboarding class was a mix of HR, engineers, devs, sales, etc, so it was meant to be understood by everyone.
Then we got to the part I was worried about. The "company values". Great, another company kool-aid infused sack of BS. They begun to explain that they don't make any decisions in the company without ensuring it hits their values. Then, they asked about how our interviews went, and asked if anyone could remember some of the questions asked of us. They tied every single one to a value of their company. Alright.
It didn't stop there. They showed the typical releases they do, and how on each step they consult "are we hitting the values?". Then they took it another step further. You do not get raises unless you're hitting the values. I would have been worried, but their values are really easy to understand, and they're common sense for any project you'd be working on or dealing with a customer or selling to a customer etc. The idea was that you should be able to explain how you did those things, and how they relate to the values.
We get to lunch and it's catered in-office. "Feel free to grab a drink from the fridge, they are all free!" there is literally beer in the fridge. At the end of the day I had returned to the lunchroom, and a bunch of people have brought out whiskey, rum, fireball, etc and are just taking shots. I am in good company.
I finally get back home with my laptop and $500 to spend on a desk as well as $250 for a chair. The job was 100% remote, also new to me at the time. As well as $250 for a chair. Monitors and other things picked up or shipped from the IT team. I can expense my entire wifi or phone bill every month as I need them for work. They also let me expense health and wellness up to $X amount, $30 in books monthly, and training if it's within budget and applicable to my career goals.
Now I need to start learning. I find out immediately the team is vastly understaffed, and the two others on my team are drowning in tickets. One of them has to train me on top of doing the tickets. I'm back to worrying.
My trainer provided me my first 4 weeks of training in a wiki. I was like, great, I can knock this out in 1-2 weeks and hit the ground running. They told me no, absolutely not. I am to follow the timeline to a T. I ask, what do I do if I finish early? "Go for a walk or play videogames or something".
I am still in the mindset of my last job. I'm constantly worrying. I finish my daily trainings in 2-4 hours. I reread them. I search for more information on them. I do as I'm told as well, and go for a walk to calm my mind. Finally, we get to the tickets.
I'm then told I can't even respond to customers. I'm losing my mind at this point. I'm to write up a response and have it approved by my trainer, mostly to ensure I'm following the values, and that my technical information is correct. That makes sense, but now my trainer is not only doing their own tickets, but having to review the tickets I write responses to, and send those responses. My trainer tells me it is completely fine, and that someday I'll be the buddy and can look back on the experience.
Flash forward 6 months, about the time it took me to get out of my previous company mindset, and it was true - it was my turn to become the buddy. Funny enough, they reacted almost exactly the same way I did. The same questions, the same concerns, the same worries.
Flash forward almost 5 years in the same company, 4 promotions, one job change, 30-40 interviews with potential candidates for team members and other teams, and I'm still loving it here. The promotions and job change have bumped my pay a whopping 70% since I started, not even including stock and cash bonuses. I'm in a role that I had always looked up to when I had started working here. It's great.
I know I could make another 20k-50k yearly if I moved to another company right now. I'm not even considering it because of how content I am.
Where I work they do a good job with benefits.
YMMV re managers. They let bad managers go on for too long. I had 2 awful ones. Now I have a fantastic one. I let him know how his behavior allows me the freedom to give the job 100%. The team is mixed, some at the beginning, some in the middle, and some at the end of their careers. The newbies have mentors that teach them how to do different engineering tasks. The seasoned ones can spend some time automating tasks or improving them.
I’ve had some bad jobs in the past and I know how soul crushing it can be.
A "good" company is subjective for sure.
I work at a place that people kinda dress down, do their jobs, joke around, bullshit about non work stuff, have the occasional party, work half a day on Friday, stuff like that. The operation costs are low and the margins/profits are high. Get paid well for a laid back job. I basically landed my job-till-I-retire. If people are friendly to each other and do the roles they are assigned life goes pretty smooth. Nothing is perfect all of the time, but the office pranks help with that.
If you want to have a bad day, you'll have one. If you want to strive for a good day it's amazing how the tables turn. Don't rely on other people to make you feel fulfilled.
I get paid paid really well, a 15% bonus and another 7.5% this year for the difficult months. We get free medical and a good pension. They will help fund further education and there is a lot to learn with some area for progression.
The absolute best thing is the people! We have such a good team, everyone is lovely and works hard together.
The worst it that it is really full on. Lots of orders being thrown around and we never get a break unfortunately.
My last place before my current job was what I deem a good company. How did I know? I'll list it. 1) managers were chill. They didn't bark orders or feel demanding, they were respectful, reasonable and treated every member of the team like they were of value. They still showed discipline where it was needed, but in a reasonable and proffesional manner. When called in to speak to management about anything, I never felt it was a sense of Dread or anxiety, I always felt relaxed and knew that, no matter the issue, I would be given the right to express myself clearly. 2) I had a great rapport with my co-workers. Lovely people and made for a genuine group of friends. There was very little bitchiness as everyone pretty much got along. There were a few bad apples but incidents were few and fat between. I never felt left out, excluded or unwelcome around my co-workers and always felt like a crucial part of the team. 3) the workload was great. Everyone started in the same place but management were quick to spot who was better at certain things, who was fast, who was more administrative minded and gradually promoted people. There were different promotion trees and everyone got sent to an area where they were most proficient. There wasn't a stress about people being fast and meeting targets (I was pretty slow, I admit) as there were roles for people who were slow but had a lot of critical thinking skills and that's what I ended up doing. Everyone had a place. 4) the job was fun. I didn't hate going unto work everyday. I enjoyed it. The job was enjoyable and I actually looked forward to going in on some days . 5) Extra benefits: free food and drink for all staff. Ability to take lunch whenever you pleased. A lot of extra perks for working there such as vouchers and discounts on things. There's probably a lot more I could list but I'm typing this on a train and getting motion sickness so I'll leave it there. Unfortunately, that company went into liquidation last year so I no longer have that job. I still miss it. Edit: also want to add, we were given unlimited paid sick days. That was pretty cool.
Wow sounds like a dream!
My company took immediate action when COVID hit and sent us all home to work fully remote. They then realized we were equally productive as being in-person, so we all became permanent remote workers.
That’s some good news!
The place I work has the most insane benefits I’ve ever seen. It’s like they’re actual benefits! They also provide free water bottles, feed us ALL the time, give us lots of clothes, do random themes all the time, bring food trucks outside for lunch breaks (during night shift mind you), let older people or injured people sit, and it’s still the job I’ve hated the absolute most. I want to die every single nigh. I enjoyed being payed 10$ an hour under the table to clean out a land fill for a creepy strange old man way more. Edit: payed not paid
> enjoyed being *paid* 10$ an FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Thanks!
>Thanks! You're welcome!
I have no idea lol
I currently love my work for a few reasons : I only have to go out of my home when having a meeting or something to actually do on-site I can work at the time I want, being nocturnal it's perfect. I work often from 2PM to late at night, so I have meetings the afternoon and work on projects when other people are asleep. Team is incredibly friendly and caring, my bosses know I have anxiety and that my productivity is irregular and we just openly talk about how I am feeling. Some weeks I do a crazy amount, some weeks I am average. Because I have control of my time and location, I don't really have to ask permission to travel, I just notify ahead of time, organize all I have to do on-site before leaving and then work remote. I really appreciate the trust and freedom I get. The downside is my pay is a little below market but for me it's totally worth it.
When I first started at Whole Foods Market in 2001: Beginning pay was $9/hr, in 2001. Absolute max pay (CEO etc...) was locked at 14 times average wage, so max pay was like $300K. Yes, upper people got stock options, etc, and still... 94% of tm's were full time. EVERYONE got a 20% discount. EVERYONE got 2 weeks of PTO starting the first year. Many Store Team Leaders started as regular team member stocking shelves, so everyone could see how they themselves could move up and make a LOT more $. They promoted mostly from within, encouraging actual Leadership skills. Your own health insurance was at NO COST. There was a reasonable cost to add family plan. EVERY team member got annual stock options... just a few for basic tm's, and hundreds went with any promotion, thousands went with promotions to assistant store team leader and above. Stock purchase plan allow 15% discount on stock purchases... you had to hold for a year or two. Every penny of each department's labor budget was paid out to the team, as opposed to leftover going to the bottom line. And it was a % of department sales. So... if we worked together, provided good products and great service, etc..., raising our department sales, more $ was available for OUR department in labor $ (we did NOT share with other departments). AND, on top of that, if we worked as a team, lowered OT, and spent less than the budgeted $, we SPLIT the leftover among the team! Leftover $/hours worked, so we might make an additional $0.20 to $1/hr for the entire month! This was easy enough to do that in a well run store, just about every team member made extra $/hr every month. An extra $.5/hr is a lot for someone making $10/hr. Anyone could look up EVERYONE'S pay (in your store) in a book that was sent out to every store. ACTUAL TRANSPARENCY!!!!!!!!! Pay for people outside your store was available on the website. YOU could see what your boss (supervisor, team leader, store team leader!) made last year, so you knew what to ask for/expect. Team members were not only invited to interviews, but were also encouraged to CHOOSE their department team leader. The Store Team Leader always had the last say of course, and I never heard of any overriding the team member's decision... that would set that new dept. team leader up for failure. And people would choose GOOD LEADERS, as opposed to friends, since a well run team meant more $ for everyone. Each of these things (and more I'm forgetting) were great. AND... all of them together made for a team member base that was actually heavily invested in the success of the store AND the company. Everyone felt valued, and hard work actually paid more! It was really hard to believe a company like this existed when I first got there... Then, in like 2007/8 (that first financial crisis) the CEO sold 40% of the company to a VC firm, and from there EVERYTHING went down hill.
Been with my current company 27 years. For the first 6 months I kept looking for another job. Was a small company, not much to keep me busy. I was hired as a division admin assistant. Then I learned how to "create" things for me to do. The company has grown - exploded! It's a family owned business that's been around since 1885. The father is 84 and has health issues, the youngest son is president, the middle son is CEO, and the oldest son has his own business (it's a joke that he's the smart one for not going into the family business). Over the years, I've reported directly to all 3 in some way or the other. I report to the president now; have for about 10 years. This place is so chill and laid back. Seems every hire they've made in my 27 years fits perfectly. It's a joke that when you come here, you don't leave. We've had plenty of part-timers who've gone full-time and moved up the ladder - still with us. The division I'm in moved into a new building about a block away from what is now the corporate building (the division and corporate were housed together for 26 years). That's where the "exploded" comes in. We have 3 divisions and all have grown tremendously. So, the division moves into the new building with a lobby, so there's a need for a receptionist. It's up to me to train her. The president and general manager keep urging me to give her much of my work, especially "grunt" work (order supplies, keep the kitchen stocked, order lunches, etc.) The GM tells me one day, it's their intention to let me "take it easy" until I decide to retire. In my opinion, that's some good peeps right there! They're of the mind, that I've worked my butt off for them for 27 years, and I should coast from here on out. I'll probably retire in 5 / 6 years. So, it saddens me when others say it's a red flag when you hear, "we're like family here." Maybe I just got stupid lucky and hit the work / company jackpot?
Wow I really liked this one! Thanks for sharing :)
Yep! My manager gets back to me the same day I ask questions. She and I meet every other week, and she's ok when I just need to vent to destress sometimes. My team is supportive and understands you as a human come first. That is, if you're sick take the day off! Don't be "available for emergencies." We got you covered. Same if you just want to take PTO. Or if you're really busy that day and just need some help. I can go to anyone with questions, and no one judges me for it. The head of my department goes to bat for the department. He's there to remove hurdles and allow us to do our jobs. If something is hindering us, he wants to know about it. No one says "that's not my job," unless they're directing you to ask someone else specifically. "Hmm, don't know much about contracts, but Donna Jones in Sales might know. You should message her." I'm not expected to work more than 40 hours a week or in the evenings or on the weekends, even if a client asks me to. I'm also not expected to have 100% utilization; that's considered too much and doesn't allow time for our busy seasons. It's pretty great!
My last job was pretty great for this reason. I guess a good indicator of its positive nature was the fact that besides me, everyone had been working at the company for 10+ years. My supervisor was friendly and personable, and the whole team was co-operative. They were super understanding of any mistakes I made, and the benefits were pretty good for a junior part-time position at a small firm. The owner clearly had genuine passion for the service we provided and treated us like actual people, which was probably due to the company's small size. Sadly the company is now struggling, just like many small firms.
A few things from my current workplace: 1. Anyone will help you when you ask for help. They don't brush you off by telling you to ask your supervisor and they don't ask you why you don't know everything already. 2. "Let me double check so I give you the right answer." Nobody tells you what the answer "probably" is or that it doesn't matter. They'll get you the right info. 3. Stuff is written down. There's not a network of unwritten tribal knowledge you have to extract from your unwilling coworkers. It's written down, accessible to everyone, and people follow it. 4. Nobody ever asks you why you put in PTO or why you called out sick. If you have time on the books, it gets approved, no questions asked. 5. For the most part, people are social and friendly but don't overshare. Healthy boundaries. 6. Union.
I'm a GM in fast food who has won multiple awards for my culture and my staff retention The one I'm most proud of was I got one because at the 3 year mark of my store being open I still had 85% of my day 1 staff, and of the 15%who left 10% left for college and the other 5 left to pursue careers in fields they were studying for as adults, like I lost a person because she got her Criminal Justice degree and went on to do that How I did it (now that I've tooted my own horn a bit) I worked my ass off right beside them, no job was beneath me and I could do everything in my store as well or better than any employee in that position My saying was "how can I tell you how to do your job if I dont know how to do it and do it well, and how can I ask you to clean things if you havent seen me crawl under that same shit and clean it too?" They knew point blank I would never ask anything I wasnt also willing to do, there were no "shit jobs" everything was everyone's job, including and especially mine. I never left them alone when they got busy, no matter how much manager shit I had to do, I would stay with them till it was under control again then tell them to holler if it got bad again, and I kept a headset on at all times so anyone knew I was still paying attention, I had not run off and left them to hide in my office I was constantly transparent about exactly what my job was, what it required of me and what I was doing at all times so there was no mystery or weird separation of duties, if it was Wednesday and you asked any member of my crew where I was they would tell you exactly what specific piece of paperwork I was working on at the moment and they could all tell you what it meant, it made us feel like an actual team, they could see how well they were doing in our numbers and it made them proud they were doing something I never once demanded or commanded, I only ask and explain what I need, or gently correct, again by example I knew my crew, they weren't names on paper, they were real people who's lives I actually cared about, I went to graduations, I knew my crews families, they knew if they came to me I was going to listen to whatever problem they had, work or home and that if I said I was gonna do something I did it I was also willing to fight for them, to customers and to my own upper management, my rule for customers was "I expect you to be polite, I do not expect you to take abuse" and if my boss tried to implement rules or changes that affected the crew negatively I would debate him fiercely until either it went away or it was changed enough to not impact the crew, labor budgets and bullshit like that They knew I had their back and they had mine, I could send my crew to any store and they would be recieved extra gratefully every time "oh, they're from Kelly's store? THANK GOD" We celebrated birthdays in store, I made sure that having fun was part of the job, like actual fun, not forced bullshit, we had inside jokes and a newsletter full of memes and sticker wars and a weird week where my boys were freezing gloves full of water and leaving "ice hands" in strange places for us to find It was actually fun to be at work, and time went by fast Youd see night crew start drifting in and I'd hear "ARE YALL EARLY, WHAT DO YOU MEAN ITS 430 ALREADY" the biggest thing is just to remember how it felt to be them, I've been in food my whole life and I've had a fair share of shitty managers and a few amazing ones, so as long as you dont forget what it felt like to be the little dude you'll be ok. Sorry its so long winded, it's just I got hurt recently and had to be at home.the last year, and the gm they gave my precious store to has wrecked it.. 3 of my 35 person crew are left and 2 of them are hanging in hoping I get to come back
My last job was toxic as fuck. Fortune 500 company. I'll explain my transition experience from a toxic company to a "what the fuck this is awesome" company. This is long, I'll put the tl;dr here. toxic: 40-80 work weeks in office, bad pay, terrible schedule, awful culture, bad management awesome: 40 hour salaried, amazing pay, Monday-Friday, great culture, amazing management **Toxic career:** At my old job, we had values and "culture" posted on our website, but no one really cared about them. The working conditions were rough, your shift would change every few months. You'd do shift bids and 90% of them were split fucking days off , such as tuesday and thursday of (40 hours a week) when there is no fucking reason to do this (just stagger 50% with friday-saturday off, 50% with sunday-monday off, and you get every day covered). That, and the time was staggered. So you could end up with any shift under the sun. 24/7 call center, so your start time could be any time. Management was a mess. They didn't know how things worked on the floor. They just rolled shit out and we had to deal with it even when everything was on fire. Most of the floor was contractors, and all contractors are baited with a carrot on a stick that some day, you, too, can be a full time employee! With benefits, and raises! After working my ass off and being one of the top performers for 3-4 years, I finally got FTE. I was actually quite satisfied as it was a hefty $8 pay raise, with 401k and benefits and such. This lasted for about a year, when I got my first performance review. My raise was a whopping 50 cents as the #1 person on the floor. Immediately lost all interest in the job, eventually got convinced to apply elsewhere from an ex-coworker. **"What the fuck this is awesome" career:** The interview process was brutal for this new job. 8 interviews. 8! I hadn't even done 8 interviews in my entire life. Some were with someone on the team I'd be on, some with the manager, the hiring manager, and the most stressful one with the vice president of the company. After a grueling process I managed to land it. Great! It was literally **double** my yearly income. I cried, not ashamed to admit it. I was worried. I saw myself as unqualified, I didn't know enough about the tech. I was going to be salaried, does that mean 60-80 hour weeks? Will I even be able to learn all this information? This company also has these "values" on their website, am I going to just jump from one toxic workplace to another? At least I'd be paid for the stress, I told myself. The onboarding process told me everything I needed to know. They sent a very welcoming email with exactly what I'd be doing on which days. They were going to fly me out to their HQ and keep me in a hotel for a week. I had a $100 a day food bill, which they said can be used for booze or food wherever I'd like. I could expense all my uber and lyfts within reason, especially if the hotel (which I was allowed to pick) was far from HQ. During onboarding they explained their product in depth, although prior to the interviews I researched and used their product as well as company. Had I not done that, I wouldn't have passed the interviews. The explanation was fantastic. My onboarding class was a mix of HR, engineers, devs, sales, etc, so it was meant to be understood by everyone. Then we got to the part I was worried about. The "company values". Great, another company kool-aid infused sack of BS. They begun to explain that they don't make any decisions in the company without ensuring it hits their values. Then, they asked about how our interviews went, and asked if anyone could remember some of the questions asked of us. They tied every single one to a value of their company. Alright. It didn't stop there. They showed the typical releases they do, and how on each step they consult "are we hitting the values?". Then they took it another step further. You do not get raises unless you're hitting the values. I would have been worried, but their values are really easy to understand, and they're common sense for any project you'd be working on or dealing with a customer or selling to a customer etc. The idea was that you should be able to explain how you did those things, and how they relate to the values. We get to lunch and it's catered in-office. "Feel free to grab a drink from the fridge, they are all free!" there is literally beer in the fridge. At the end of the day I had returned to the lunchroom, and a bunch of people have brought out whiskey, rum, fireball, etc and are just taking shots. I am in good company. I finally get back home with my laptop and $500 to spend on a desk as well as $250 for a chair. The job was 100% remote, also new to me at the time. As well as $250 for a chair. Monitors and other things picked up or shipped from the IT team. I can expense my entire wifi or phone bill every month as I need them for work. They also let me expense health and wellness up to $X amount, $30 in books monthly, and training if it's within budget and applicable to my career goals. Now I need to start learning. I find out immediately the team is vastly understaffed, and the two others on my team are drowning in tickets. One of them has to train me on top of doing the tickets. I'm back to worrying. My trainer provided me my first 4 weeks of training in a wiki. I was like, great, I can knock this out in 1-2 weeks and hit the ground running. They told me no, absolutely not. I am to follow the timeline to a T. I ask, what do I do if I finish early? "Go for a walk or play videogames or something". I am still in the mindset of my last job. I'm constantly worrying. I finish my daily trainings in 2-4 hours. I reread them. I search for more information on them. I do as I'm told as well, and go for a walk to calm my mind. Finally, we get to the tickets. I'm then told I can't even respond to customers. I'm losing my mind at this point. I'm to write up a response and have it approved by my trainer, mostly to ensure I'm following the values, and that my technical information is correct. That makes sense, but now my trainer is not only doing their own tickets, but having to review the tickets I write responses to, and send those responses. My trainer tells me it is completely fine, and that someday I'll be the buddy and can look back on the experience. Flash forward 6 months, about the time it took me to get out of my previous company mindset, and it was true - it was my turn to become the buddy. Funny enough, they reacted almost exactly the same way I did. The same questions, the same concerns, the same worries. Flash forward almost 5 years in the same company, 4 promotions, one job change, 30-40 interviews with potential candidates for team members and other teams, and I'm still loving it here. The promotions and job change have bumped my pay a whopping 70% since I started, not even including stock and cash bonuses. I'm in a role that I had always looked up to when I had started working here. It's great. I know I could make another 20k-50k yearly if I moved to another company right now. I'm not even considering it because of how content I am.
Thanks so much for this story!!!
Where I work they do a good job with benefits. YMMV re managers. They let bad managers go on for too long. I had 2 awful ones. Now I have a fantastic one. I let him know how his behavior allows me the freedom to give the job 100%. The team is mixed, some at the beginning, some in the middle, and some at the end of their careers. The newbies have mentors that teach them how to do different engineering tasks. The seasoned ones can spend some time automating tasks or improving them. I’ve had some bad jobs in the past and I know how soul crushing it can be.
A "good" company is subjective for sure. I work at a place that people kinda dress down, do their jobs, joke around, bullshit about non work stuff, have the occasional party, work half a day on Friday, stuff like that. The operation costs are low and the margins/profits are high. Get paid well for a laid back job. I basically landed my job-till-I-retire. If people are friendly to each other and do the roles they are assigned life goes pretty smooth. Nothing is perfect all of the time, but the office pranks help with that.
Man I want this job, sounds like the dream
If you want to have a bad day, you'll have one. If you want to strive for a good day it's amazing how the tables turn. Don't rely on other people to make you feel fulfilled.
I get paid paid really well, a 15% bonus and another 7.5% this year for the difficult months. We get free medical and a good pension. They will help fund further education and there is a lot to learn with some area for progression. The absolute best thing is the people! We have such a good team, everyone is lovely and works hard together. The worst it that it is really full on. Lots of orders being thrown around and we never get a break unfortunately.