30 Signs Of A Toxic Workplace That Many People Are So Used To, They Don’t Recognize Them

I really wish I had known about that before I accepted a certain job a few years ago. It should have been a red flag that they had so many open positions. I only lasted 6 months before I quit.

This used to be true but I work at literally the best place I’ve ever worked. Good benefits and pay lots of room for advancement, pretty good management and your honesty left alone as long as you do your work. I can literally go weeks without interacting with my boss if I choose. All that said the work is hard and the entry level position is honestly probably the worse but you have to start there. We only promote from within. I hate to bash on the “young people” but no one is willing to do the work/time. We get kids in that work for like 1 year and if they don’t get the first position they apply for they quit. This is honestly a job you can work 20-25!years at and retire. I don’t think younger people understand the value and rarity of that anymore. I have a pension in the US. That’s a unicorn. I’ve been there 8 years, been promoted 4 times and make double what I started at. Almost 4 of those years were at the entry level spot.

My boss yelled at me and threw me out of the company for something my predecessor f*cked up. I went home and re-activated my job-apps immediately. The next day a coworker called and told me that the boss wants me to come back. I went back the next day because I needed the money but kept looking for a new job the whole time. Now - two months later - I found a new job (more money, more vacation, no weekends) and put in my 4 weeks notice (Germany). He never apologised but did ask if he can pay me for not taking my remaining vacation days. I politely declined. :)

Yeah, in most cases I agree. Only moments where I can see it as acceptable is when the employees do something extremely dangerous, like turning up to work drunk and ramming their forklift into a shelf or something.

Happened only once, and I walked right out the door.

Find your state laws regarding wage discussion and quietly post them onsite. For instance in Oregon: “ORS 659A.355 Discrimination based on wage inquiry or wage complaint (1)It is an unlawful employment practice for an employer to discharge, demote or suspend, or to discriminate or retaliate against, an employee with regard to promotion, compensation or other terms, conditions or privileges of employment because the employee has: (a)Inquired about, discussed or disclosed in any manner the wages of the employee or of another employee…”

Got sacked when I asked for a raise

Ironically, I work in a school. After abiding my co-worker telling me I deserve a "gold star" for being proactive on things (she has the worst ownership of her duties I have ever witnessed in 40 years of work), I finally told her to knock it off. That at 58 years old I don't DO condescension well. Never got in any trouble, but made me a marked man.

Wow, that´s so true. the international logistic company I work for has two different warehouses directly besides each other. We receive, store and send out pallets and boxes for different clients there, and for each client we form separate teams that occasionally have different procedures, like one client-team only working the morning shift while the other client-teams work weekly changing shifts. I first worked in the newer one, but then the client we worked for there was moved to the older building to make room for a new client (that was a s**t show in itself). At first we kept our old procedure, working only from 8am to 4:15pm. Two months in we suddenly get told that no, from now on we work rotating shift too. And why? Because the coworkers from the other client were unhappy and complained that we only did the day shift 🙄

there are many non-union places that are not toxic and unions ones that are. Delta's flight attendants are not Unionized, but have a higher satisfaction rating than the other airlines (also Delta gives them more vacation, better hourly pay, and they get paid before the door closes as well). Unions are good, but not having one is not a bad thing, and some union shops are abusive and toxic, like there is a UFW chapter that since 2013 has voted many times to de-unionize so they can form their own independent union (over 90% of the workers voted for it each time), and UFW with the California Courts overturned the results every single time. In court filings they alleged theft of dues, abuse from the state level union bosses, retaliation against anyone who complained, etc. In fact since 2014 they stopped paying Union dues and negotiated their own contracts, defying the courts, and acting as if they are their own collective bargaining association, etc.

unions have drawbacks. if your the newest hire, your the 1st laid off even if you are the most talented

not having a union is a toxic workplace?

A well known US aerospace company used to remove toilet stall doors in men’s bathrooms. Don’t know about anything after 1998 as I changed careers

Do I have to scoot because of the crappy paper or?

Ace

Ace

Community Member • points

posts

comments

upvotes

FollowUnfollow

Premium

Premium user. Get details.

Sadly, change for the sake of change is a normal common feature of large corporations. It takes two or three years for a reorganised structure to start to be productive, but the average gap between major reorganisations is abut, oooh, three years or so.

CYA. Sounds like working in the public service. Spend so much time documenting things to justify your own existence, while real work is put aside. I know from experience.

i used to be the person to train people in my department. and one thing i always said at the beginning of training is ask as many questions as you want, because you just might have a question that allows me to learn something new; it allowed people to feel more at ease asking "stupid" questions.

That boss need to learn that complaints go up, not down.

My spouse was once fired from a bookkeeping job after giving the owner an accurate answer to a books-related question about the business that he asked. This was unacceptable according to him because he happened to have another member of management in there and the reality "embarrassed him" in front of the other person. What a vain little narcissist of a person. Karma got him though; her replacement screwed up his books AND embezzled from the company.

I worked in a clinic as a lab tech/phlebotomist. I was there only two months and then left because one of my coworkers (there were only three of us that worked in the lab) kept making me the scapegoat. She was a mess--never labeling samples right away, just throwing patient labels and tubes on the counter. Not paying attention to how she was bagging specimens that were to be sent to outside labs. A few times she tried to blame me when people complained about lost samples, late results, etc. It was always, "Oh, Amelia did that because she's new and doesn't know better." One of the MAs pulled me aside and said it had been going on long before I got there and they all knew it was her. But management loved her. My breaking point was when I was blamed when one of our doctors had to postpone a surgery because there were no lab results on the patient. The specimen had been sent to an outside lab instead of being run in house.

after a few no's they just stop asking.

You come in for an interview and the fire dept is called for a serious fire.

I have found the more you help, the more you are required to own. I REFUSE to help someone who will not at LEAST do the basics. If they ask? Fine, but it usually indicates poor time management on their part, and will be rare on my part.

Ace

Ace

Community Member • points

posts

comments

upvotes

FollowUnfollow

Premium

Premium user. Get details.

I'd be very disturbed if I thought there was any sort of "political landscape" in a workplace. I guess in modern US/Trump times that sort of thing may happen there, but I've never come across it in the UK and Europe where I've worked.

When I was training for my new job, I was told about a coworker who was so bad no one would volunteer to cover the branch I was going to work in. In retrospect, I wish I'd paid attention and never went to work for them. That coworker was horrible to work with. Just a L'il Miss Perfect 20-year-old snoot fest on high heels.

Managers are supposed to set goals/tasks then remove any obstacles that are between their reports and the goal. Quite often some believe the job is to put as many obstacles and themselves between the two.

Family vibe isn't always bad, especially in snaller places. It's not impossible to be close to their employees and having authority as the boss at the same time.

Just replace "family" with "cult" and you have it in a nutshell.