People Share 30 Workplace Red Flags That Just Scream “Working Here Would Suck”
Interview
Your first day at work is usually the most stressful one. You work hard to show your best side, you try to make friends during lunch, you do everything to leave a good impression.
And usually, we are so preoccupied with our own performance when starting a new job, we may actually not realize that the workplace is not doing a good job either. In fact, people in these threads (this and this) say that the first impression, not just of you, but of any workplace you enter, is the most important one.
So you have to stay alert and make sure you don’t spot any of these screaming red flags, either during the interview or during your first day at work, that show you that you gotta run, not walk out of there.
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Constantly having people leave. Constantly hiring people. No real training structure for new hires.
To find out more about what red flags you should watch out for when entering a new workplace, Bored Panda reached out to Gleb Tsipursky, the CEO of the boutique future-of-work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts. Gleb has been consulting Fortune 500 companies for 20 years and is the author of 7 books, including the global best-seller “Never Go With Your Gut: How Pioneering Leaders Make the Best Decisions and Avoid Business Disasters.”
“Some potential signs of trouble to look out for when joining a new company,” Gleb explained, “include a lack of transparency from leadership, high turnover rates, and a lack of clear communication and expectations.”
If you have to pay any amount of money in order to work for them it is a scam and stay away.
"We work hard and play hard"
translation: You'll have no work-life balance but we also all drink too much.
It's just an incomplete sentence. The full version is "We work hard and play hardly at all."
“Another red flag,” Gleb continued, “to be aware of is a toxic or negative work culture, which can manifest through gossip, backstabbing, and a lack of support among colleagues. Additionally, it's also important to be aware of any cognitive biases that may be present, such as the sunk cost fallacy, which may lead you to overlook red flags in the hopes of making the best of a bad situation.”
I always ask in interviews what the turnover rate is, or why the person I am replacing left the position. Definitely avoided some sketchy scenarios with those questions.
Treating you like a child- ie. monitoring the time you arrive/leave, timing your breaks/bathroom visits, dress codes that don't make sense for your role, and any other rules that make more sense for a kid than an adult.
If you're an experienced professional in an office setting, you should be basically left to take care of yourself as long as your work is getting done.
Obviously, these rules make more sense for jobs where you need to schedule breaks around other people, or service jobs, or jobs with lots of people with little experience - but still, I hear stories of places that give people warnings for being a minute late.
I always arrive late at the office, but I totally make up for it by leaving early.
If you constantly get “this is how we’ve always done it” responses to your suggestions.
Had that happen to me at the first company meeting when I made some suggestions. A year later they were repeated by someone else and implemented. Another year later I had a more rewarding job/management.
If you identify one of these red flags, Gleb argues that it's important to weigh the pros and cons before making a decision.
“On one hand, it may be wise to walk away if the red flags are severe and it seems unlikely that they will be addressed or resolved. On the other hand, it may be worth giving the company a second chance if the red flags are relatively minor and there are good reasons to believe that they can be addressed or improved,” the CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts explained.
People have either been there for decades or a few weeks. No people in between.
That could just mean that the company survived some difficult time before and now they are just bouncing back up. This can, but does not have to be a red flag.
You realize that all of the other people working there are related to the person who hired you or the person who is running the place. Run while you still can.
The problem with family-run business is when...you're not part of the family.
If everyone is trash talking everyone else, you don’t want to work there.
hahaha no but really, you're like the bonus I got this year, nothing! Ahahaha
Moreover, “checking with your gut is an initial step to evaluate whether to join a new company, as it can help you to identify potential red flags and to make decisions that are in your best interest.”
“However, it's also important to be aware of cognitive biases, such as confirmation bias, which may lead you to overreact or overlook red flags or to make decisions that are not in your best interest,” Gleb explained.
“Therefore, it's important to check with your head and use your head to overrule your gut when your gut and your head disagree,” Gleb concluded.
If they ask you to clock out and then keep working to finish closing or whatever, run away fast. It's never just a one-time thing.
In the UK when you clock out it not only sets your working hours, so you get the right pay, but it also doubles as safety so that in the event of a fire they can make sure everyone has got out. How can they make sure you are out when it says you were not even in?
Employers who bemoan the lack of “good employees who want to work”. If everyone who hires sucks then either you are the most unfortunate business owner in the world or you need to look in the mirror.
Just like in relationships, "all my girlfriends have been whackos".
My friend got hired at a place that called itself "the family".
Nahhh.
If they lure you into an interview for a management position, but tell you during the interview that the position has already been filled. Then they ask if you're interested in interviewing for the entry level position instead.
Having a guy saying in the 1st group meeting: this company IS NOT a pyramid scheme.
They like to micro manage you but then tell you off for not having enough initiative to do something.... then tell you off for doing it due to micro managing and the cycle continues
"I'm not micromanaging you, just advising how to phrase that sentence in your email"
My workplace has a sign in the employee bathroom that says, “The best way to appreciate your job is picturing yourself without one.” They also don’t pay benefits until after 2 years and have an incredibly high turnover rate.
They’re great..
I can't imagine how happy is the people working there! How awful 🫤
They don't ask you what your wage expectation is, but instead ask you what you were making at your last job.
"We don't "technically" have breaks. We just take smoke breaks and stuff here and there."
No, f**k you. I don't smoke. You can't deny me a meal break, I don't give a s**t how busy you are.
I used to work at Mr. Pickles and the owner would fire people if they took more than 15 mins for their 30 min lunch. I obliged until I got pregnant and had sciatica problems knowing I could raise hell if he fired me and he knew that too. All he could do was talk s**t behind my back 😆 he also once fired a young girl that was sexually harrased while she was wearing the pickle suit outside, just because he didn't want to deal with it. So tired of POS business owners
A side room to nap is probably the #1 red flag
Not necessarily... I worked at a place with an extra room. It was used for customer meetings that needed privacy, it was also used by employees that were breast feeding and needed a clean private place to pump.... And yes, some employees did take naps lol
Being hired for a specific job and then having additional duties tacked on after you are hired.
The company doesn't follow it's own employee handbook or whatever rules and guidelines they have.
Work hours and days change after you are hired.
Telling you which holidays you have off, then not giving you those holiday's off.
Every employee is talking s**t about every other employee.
Poor or non-existent training time.
Management with no management training or knowledge.
Better yet, their Handbook is a live document they edit on the fly.
If they tell you overtime is voluntary, then get mad when you never volunteer.
Places with truly great culture don’t have management teams constantly gushing about how great the culture is.
If management talks about the culture ten times in the first week you’re there, run. Don’t look back.
If they say they are family-friendly. It mean that as a childfree person, i will have to pick up the slack of parents. No thank you.
I am child-free in a mostly child-having environment and while I understand the strains that come with it...it is clearly biased when you hear in a meeting "well x doesn't have kids so x can...."
If you work in manufacturing, the company buys cheap and s****y machinery to save money.
If they don’t even value their equipment, they definitely won’t value their people.
Totally agree : in my best job ever the boss said : I'd rather have expenses (tools etc.) than make more profit.
The look of defeat on the faces of their employees.
When a place is good to work, their employees seem to be excited to be there. There are smiles, there are jokes, there is enthusiasm.
When a company screws over and abuses their employees? The employees get that look of defeat in their eyes. Their job has no enjoyment, it is merely about survival. When I say survival, I don't mean working to make some money to get food to eat, I mean that you are trying to make it to the end of the day, just to go home and repeat the cycle, each day a bit worse than the next. People don't joke and if they do, it seems to be morbid jokes about the workplace. People aren't social. You can feel the lack of joy. The company has managed to defeat their workforce.
Interviewed at a big health company for an IT position and as I walked through the work area with maybe 30 employees I noticed that there was no sound, nobody was talking. Not a good sign. Possible clue for it came during the interview when I was randomly informed "I don't care if your son has a soccer game, if I need you to work OT, I need you to stay". I don't do slave work, so informed him I'd be looking elsewhere.
They have literally everything in the building. I interviewed at a place where they had the cafeteria and a nurse station (not healthcare related) in the building. I was pretty desperate for a job so I overlooked this, but was glad they didn't call me back. They didn't allow missed days, and I was told by one of the ladies who let me listen in on her phones that she had missed a day of work so she didn't get any sort of raise that year. If you're sick, they expect you to be in there and doing the job. Worst case scenario you need to visit THEIR nurse.
I had accidentally rubbed a piece of cloth on my face that had little insect poison. I was already in office when the actual burning started. I went to the nurse at the office's medical room and told her everything. She asked me to go to a dermatologist for my white spots (I have vitiligo). I just rolled my eyes, went to the washroom to wash my face, applied some aloe gel and went back to work. Never went for medical assistance there again.
Everyone has their own best way to do something and they all tell you in private. It sounds like their helping, but it’s really a symptom of bad management.
Toxic work environment such as refusing to address issues and becoming passings aggressive about it.
Sometimes the toxic work environment is due to low to mid level management and if the company has ANY morals whatsoever, that management will be gone quickly after it's brought to their attention, even in large corporate chains. I've watched it happen at least a couple of times and it was SO satisfying! With enough formal complaints, there's a good chance the higher ups will listen, especially if a lot of complaints are from customers. I once worked at a hardware store and one of the managers was so bad that employees would run away whenever she came near them. One cashier was listening to customer after customer complain about her, so this cashier started keeping complaint cards at her register. It wasn't long after that that this manager was demoted twice over and transferred. Don't know why she didn't get fired, but at least we didn't have to deal with her anymore!
The person interviewing you doesn't seem to have any idea who you are. I don't mean your name, I mean the stuff in your CV/application. If they don't know who you are, that means they don't *care* who you are. They just want a warm body for as long as they can have you.
Also, an overly complicated bonus schedule based off a large number of metrics. That's the sign of a company that will be doing everything they can to screw you out of bonuses while simultaneously using the promise of future bonuses to retain people. I can guarantee you that at least 2 of those metrics are all but impossible to hit simultaneously.
That! Did a recent interview where my soon-to-be boss didn't seems to have any idea of who I was and what my job was about. When I started asking question about the job (technical stuff and turnover rate), she had absolutely NO clue about the basic technical stuff and never answered the turnover rate question. I bailed out and will stay away from that place. I felt she was looking for employees who will do their job and her job at the same time while she retains the salary and title of department manager. Also got an interview, where they tell me I can get the demanded salary if I count the yearly bonuses. Yearly bonuses depends on good faith of the bosses, so that's a no. Furthermore, the company, despite existing since 2016, had almost no exposure online (risk-management company). It was sketchy.
Disagreements on procedure. If the book says one way, manager tells you to do another, and a coworker suggests differently all on the same situation - red flag, especially in retail. I like working somewhere where there's consistency in rules and how things are done mostly because I don't want to look dumb doing it the "wrong way" for the same situation another time.
When it turns out you have more than one manager. And they have different ideas about what/how/why you should(n't) be doing.
Started a new job 6 months ago. Coworker took me out to lunch and warned me not to trust anyone. He repeated it again. **DON'T TRUST ANYONE**.
Turns out he was the one that I wasn't supposed to trust.
When the atmosphere really relaxes when the big bosses are gone. People start to actually talk and not just whisper to each other. People get up from their desks and walk around the room, not having a particular destination (bathroom or someone else’s desk). People stop pretending to work when they are waiting on stuff to do
Been there. Sometimes, but only sometimes, there's a lull where there really isn't anything to do. Relax, but stay alert in case something comes up. I call this active relaxation. You're still on the clock so stay alert, but go grab a coffee or whatever. Breathe! If upper level snotbags don't allow this, start looking elsewhere to work. You should be allowed to occasionally chill while on the clock as well as off. This is not slacking off. This is taking care of yourself.
A good one I heard was to check the state of the employee toilets. If they were well kept that meant the employees had a certain amount of pride in their work place, but if it’s pretty trashed looking employees don’t like their job or workspace. When I contemplated on this with my own employment experience it was fairly spot one
Along these lines I heard about a female CEO whose job was mergers with other companies, one of the things she did was ALWAYS check the women's restrooms. Free Sanitary Products? No? Then this company is cheap, and upper management is only interested in themselves. Not worth acquiring.
If your future manager insults the team in any way, run.
I once interviewed with a manager who made 2 very brief "jokes" with a bitter edge implying her current team was incompetent/lazy. It gave me pause, but I brushed it aside as "well, of course I'll be awesome!" and took the job.
It only took 1 week for me to see she cruelly berated her entire team and other staff on a daily basis, and within 2 weeks I was enjoying the same treatment.
That job killed my mental health. Never ignoring those screaming red flags again.
We had a VP once who did that. We ran HIM off. All of us complained to HR one by one and he was fired.
This may not be something that bothers others, but for me I see red flags when there is a steep, obvious, and unquestioned hierarchy separating levels of staff. I've worked in places where the lowest-level staff had nearly no way to hold bad managers accountable. Led to some serious workplace bullying, harassment, and in at least one situation, sexual assault by a senior leader to his assistant. I don't want to work someplace where whole classes of employees are treated like shit, even if I'm personally not.
Christian company. God shouldn't be a selling point for their clients or employees.
Most the time it's horses**t to seem like they're going to treat you right or have some values. Instead they will use it to excuse pushy Chaplains as their HR reps and several fundi obnoxious employees who drank the koolaide.
Subtle religious stuff is fine but it shouldn't be "Hi we are X-Company, we're a christian company that does Y."
The last company that did this used $15,000 to put up some s****y looking painted metal boxes with bible verses on them. I wouldn't doubt that it cost them $250 bucks and the that CEO's nice Audi was just a gift from Jeebus.
Also, personal bias perhaps, but fat upper management. I mean obese, not just hefty. Something about the CFO at my last job just stank with "I indulge myself at every opportunity." When they were so gracious as to pay us a few dollars above minimum wage and ensured no one felt overworked by being fulltime.
Anti-union indoctrination videos...
Be concerned if they have outside consultants doing "analysis" and looking into departments, processes, systems, etc. They may be preparing the company for sale or bankruptcy and heads will soon start rolling.
Consultants can also be advising on a bigger transformation for the better. They are not always a bad sign on their own.
Hearing coughing. People should be encouraged to stay home with minor illness to prevent spreading contagious diseases.
When they want to know about private accounts or even some asking straight up for social media log in information.
Specifically the management's turnover rate. The employee's is important too, but in every job I've worked there's always people who think it's an unfathomable hell hole. Some folks just don't like working, so I take it with a grain of salt. Management is a different story. If you've got new bosses every few months, you know there's a real problem.
Had this with an apartment I lived at, management turned over 5 times in a year and a half. Red flag.
Pay is production based only with no base pay. Meaning if there’s no work available, you’re not getting paid.
The entire auto technician/dealership industry in the US...techs are paid flat rate. No work, no pay. And some (read many) service managers play favorites, giving their favorite techs more work/better paying work.
Group interviews. If you are being interviewed alongside anyone else then just walk out. Its a huge sign of massive employee turnover rate that they need to group interview to "save time" since they probably pull the stunt once a week. The group interview spells poor management, poor working conditions and poor company moral.
Depends on the role. I have done group interview sessions before for roles like team leaders or managers, where the role involved very close work with the team. Since they needed someone who could work well with others, handle opposing viewpoints etc, makes more sense to look at the potential candidates CVs, get a shortlist of those who could do the job, then get them in a room to do some group tasks before the individual interview stage
Lack of fire extinguisher and other equipment
Shows they don't care about laws and their staff. Same with dirty toilets/fridges etc.
How about this: your lunch time isn’t respected and cut short because “we’re too busy today.”
Yep. Had a decent boss once who chewed me out for not taking enough time off. Didn't réally know how busy I got so followed me an afternoon and ordered a few colleagues to take over part of my responsibilities.
I worked at a place where the guy training me wouldn't share any special tips or tricks. He gave the base training and anything else I had to figure out myself. I worked extra one night and the third shift manager showed me some magic and shortcuts. The whole place was like this.
Everybody hoarded their skills. Anything you said or did spread throughout the plant. Rumors mills, backstabbing and pitting production against the Q.A. Lab. Because of my skillset being an IT guy that could also get dirty in the production area, they called me a unicorn and praised me. Then constantly threatened to let me go - then back to slapping me on the back the next week.
12-16 hour days and - no s**t, seven days a week sometimes. I've never worked in a more toxic environment before, or thankfully, since.
I sensed something like that at a place a few years later. I told the manager I'd worked in a toxic environment before and wouldn't again. He put his head on his desk and asked if I would at least stay past lunch and I promised I would. I'll never forget how grateful he looked when I actually came back - but that but the nail in the coffin for me and I put in notice that night.
When I first started at my job before the one I’m working now, I saw tons of very talented, smart, qualified individuals working in roles that they excelled at. Normally you would think that this would be a good indication of a great hiring system and application process.
The longer I worked there, the longer those same people stayed right where they were when I was first hired. At first I just thought they liked what they were doing as these people always were very kind and helpful to me, which I appreciated because I was so new and the job really was a lot to learn
Then, as time went on and I got more comfortable in my role, those same people also stayed in their roles. Maybe they just have a long time frame before you can be promoted, or so I thought.
Then a few people were promoted, but it wasn’t the people you’d think it should have been. Many of them were people who refused to help us newbies out. A lot of them were people I’d hardly spoken to, or straight up didn’t know who they were or that they ever worked there.
People who seem to deserve promotions who stay in their roles isn’t always a bad sign. But when 95% of the promotions are people your entire department feels shouldn’t be promoted, it is a sign of a bad workplace.
Shortly after those promotions, a lot of people left. Upper management also changed. New policies were put into place that didn’t make sense for the work we were doing. Beloved managers were let go. I left shortly after being told for several weeks that I would be promoted, seeing other, less qualified individuals being promoted ahead of me, and then being told I would be part of a “new department” which would entail less work than I was currently doing (a demotion).
People being highly qualified in their roles isn’t always a sign of a bad workplace, but if you look for other indicators, like why so many people seem to excel in their roles but never move up, you can definitely see that it’s often an indicator of a workplace that doesn’t value loyal and hardworking employees.
Everyone is taking about high turnover, but I think you should check out corporate culture as well. If the culture is toxic, or otherwise incompatible with your lifestyle, you should find out asap. If 60+ hour weeks are the norm, and you want to raise your family, it might not be worth the paycheck/stock options/bonuses that kick in after 3 years.
Are you hearing this Elon ? You’re workplace is toxic and you’re working people to death.
Shoot.
I started a new career last spring and a month before graduation I Googled all of the companies in my area related to the field and brought them my resume in person.
This one particular company gave me a job offer without even looking at the resume and only asking a couple questions. It went something like this:
"So you're getting ready to graduate?" He glances at resume.
"Ok, I'm going to hire you. Where are you working now?" *"I'm working at X"*
"Alright. I want you to start immediately, can you come in at 6am tomorrow?"
*"Well no, I've got to put in my two weeks."*
"So you can't start tomorrow? That's fine. I don't even do the hiring, that's what Karen does but she'll be gone for a few days. We usually start people at $x/hr but I can probably get you going at something higher, how's $x/hr sound?"
*"Not sure, I've had better offers from a couple other places that called me back."*
"Well that's ok too, you can discuss that with Karen. She takes care if wages. I just really need someone to start immediately. **I had a guy walkout last week and my own son quit this morning.**"
Right there is when my gut extinct went into overdrive and I got out as soon as I could.
Your bosses bringing in “help” from overseas. Just to help the company get caught up on projects. Yet you are sitting there wondering what projects are you behind on.
I mentioned my mom had surgery and I would be using a vacation day to take her to the doctor for a follow up.
The owner of my company asked if she could have any left over pain pills.
"We're like a startup" is usually bad. Everyone has to wear every hat and is completely overworked
Passive aggressive sticky notes everywhere.
All the way up to framed glossy, similarly passive-aggressive “artwork”. Absolutely yells “Yeah, we’re abusive a******s, and damned proud of it.”
When they require a 2-week notice for days that you would need off but, once you place the request they say there is no guarantee. Insult to injury is when they schedule you on the day anyway with no reason as to why. They have a lot of people they can call in to cover (my favorite is when my boss does this and then complains that he scheduled too many people.).
I drew the line on Christmas day. I requested the day all the way back in October so that I could make the trip over to my mom's house and celebrate with her. Unsurprisingly I was scheduled for the day. I waited until 1am to call off so that he had no time to find anyone for my opening shift.
I hate this. I remember I had to have dental surgery not by a dentist but by an oral surgeon. I scheduled it three weeks in advance but I had to schedule my appointment three weeks in advance too. They kept dinking around and refused to give me confirmation of my two days off (rest the next day after surgery). I had 120 hours of PTO time and on my surgery day, they scheduled me to work, those twats. So I called them and I had an appointment scheduled. Scheduling said I never requested it to them in ample enough time. Emails in writing are gold. And when you have a back and forth chain of follow ups, made the scheduling dept look petty, malicious and vindictive. They were great about working days off for people they liked but not anyone else. Then they tried to call me the second day and ask me to come in because the appointment was the day before, what are you doing today? PRICKS ! (US)
- High Turnovers
- Bad mangement
- Coworkers seem annoyed most times.
- When you feel like you have to walk on eggshells so you don't get written up for the littlest things.
- When getting trained if you get a coworker that is showing you how to get through the day. I.E places to hide. That's a bad sign.
- If you are the quiet type then you will be surprised about what you may hear from the other employees. I've heard so many things. I'm surprised HR isn't busting down the door.
Half of these comments are from people who have anxiety inducing jobs. No wonder our mental health is lacking. Hope none of these managers cause their employees to bring a gun in the workplace.
The owner or CEO doesn't have a long-term business strategy. During an interview, you should **always** ask where they see the company going in both the short and long term future. If they can't at least provide a simple answer, don't accept the job.
Seeing a department head fired on your first day and then having your job description nonchalantly changed completely in a group meeting 2 days later with no private conversation, explanation, or warning.
That’s scary. When I worked we had to sign a job description list or scope of service paperwork…beware when they don’t have you sign one and they just keep tacking on more and more responsibilities to your job description.
Getting chewed out for doing a good job but not going fast enough. Then when you speed up the quality consequentially goes down and then you also get your a*s chewed.
WHAT THE F**K DO YOU WANT ME TO DO!!!
They screw up your orientation/begin inconveniencing you before you've even officially started. I showed up for orientation at the 'corner of happy and healthy' only to be greeted by the store manager who cheerfully informed me there's some glitch with my name in the system and I'd have to come back the next day. It was because during the application process, I'd placed a period after my middle initial. So not only did they know this was a common issue that I could fix from home, they let me drive 12 miles instead of just calling me and telling me.
I gave it a shot anyways, and proceeded to get scheduled 10 hours a week, after being assured I'd get at least 28, and at a dollar less an hour than what was promised. Got the 'baptized by fire' treatment and was treated like a huge inconvenience when I had a question; they tossed me on pharmacy drive through with next to no training. Got called on almost every one of my days off and despite needing the hours, it was still annoying that they expected me to come in at the drop of a hat. Christmas eve with my family? They were calling wanting me in. Sitting on the couch heartbroken because I'd just had my dog euthanized? F*****g Walgreens calling me. They got mad when I quit without notice after getting a job that paid $6 an hour more.
I knew it was a Walgreens too. I got paid more working for a mail order pharmacy from home. Even though Humana is the epitome of not caring for patients…Walgreens is the 9th circle of hell.
No break room where you can sit down for a little if it's a standing job. Then again I dont have much experience with jobs but this seemed like a red flag to me when I was trying a 2nd job out. The other workers just stood around on their phones when there weren't customers. And as someone who faints easily I can't stand for super long without a break.
Lack of direction, either scope creep or being shifted onto new projects quickly with no direction. People either work all hours of the day or you never see them. Cliques and favourites trump ability and achievements
This may not apply to new workplace. If the contacts you make at work leave and are suddenly making lots of social media posts about how much better life is now. That huge red flag.
Workers are surprised you showed up for your second day.
Not always a red flag : worked as a garbage man ( before wheelie-bins, so picking up bags and throwing them in the truck ) during a high school holiday and was totally beat after the first day. They were pleasantly surprised, and after a month I was the most muscular I ever was before or since.
If during the interview they emphasize how things used to be bad, but they are so much better now. It most likely means they have a reputation for a bad work environment, and its probably still a s**t show.
Beware the dumpster fire workplace ! Can someone create a dumpster fire meme ? Lol
Their training you for your specific duties is limited to screaming at you when you have done something wrong.
You mean non-existent “training”, where you’re just dropped in it to figure it out for yourself. Or the “trainer” assigned to you says “Just tell me what you need to know”, then f***s off somewhere else where you can’t find them. FFS! I’m new here, I don’t know what I need to know. That’s why YOU were assigned to train me.
Being asked to create a presentation to justify my "high" wages... They hired me about 4 weeks previously. Lasted 18 months before getting the hell out of that place.
“Unlimited vacation” policy. It means they have structured their policies around the most cost efficient way to lay their employees off (no vacation payouts) and they also will likely frown upon you taking more than 2 weeks without raising eyebrows.
Can't speak for other countries where there are additional reasons, but in the UK and Europe when a company says unlimited holiday leave, the reason they do it is because it has been shown to actually reduce the number of holidays taken. If an employee knows they have 25 days holiday a year, they will will usually make sure to take the full 25 rather than miss out. If you have unlimited, majority of people will just take them when they need them, and on average it works out as a lot less
Vagueness, if you cant get a answer to a simple question then...
...means noone wants to take responsibility to make decisions. From my experience this is more an issue for large companies, where the (responsible) managers can send you on a totally useless merry-go-round tour: ending up with still having the same question/problem at hand but now having involved 5+ departments.
When you arrive on your first day and there are a lot of recently vacated desks. Or if there are a lot of junior people recently promoted to senior positions that seem a little beyond their reach.
At my last job this happened. Got there and my manager "generously" let me pick out any desk I wanted because we recently had several people leave and I could choose from any of those desks. Several of the people I was supposed to be working with directly (and I made sure to screen for competency before accepting the offer) had left so they then introduced me to the people who would be replacing them... and were *way* more junior.
My wife got a job selling art. On the first day they told her to show up "around 9." When she got there, most of the employees were drinking beer. Monday morning. She noped outta there in a hurry.
Somebody once told me to pay attention to the cars parked in the employee lot. Says a lot about A) what the pay is like and 2) what kind of people work there.
An old friend of mine worked for a certain coffee shop chain. One day he had terrible food poisoning and wasn't at all fit to work. When his dad called him in sick the manager threatened to "write him up." Needless to say, he quit not long after.
When I interviewed at that same location, they had to reschedule my interview because the manager had a personal emergency and had to leave. I can kinda understand, but a phone call would've been nice. When I interviewed at a different location, the same thing happened TWICE (see edit). Then when I told them I was 17, they immediately turned me away, despite my birthday being on my application.
I love the food and coffee there, but oh my god their management is just atrocious.
Edit: I don't think I was very clear. At the second location my interview was initially cancelled because they got busy all the sudden. That's understandable. The other time though, the manager took the day off!
Just started my new job. I swear to god, one of my new coworkers said, “My one piece of advice? Keep your friends close, but your enemies even closer.” I just blankly stared sort of nodded my head. I don’t think I’m going to enjoy the environment at work...
Imo I wouldn't trust the person that said that to you, on your first day...super sketch of the person, not necessarily the work environment or other employees.
The boss being 30 minutes late to an interview and/or going to the wrong building.
Depends : happened to me once, the bosses secretary came to me and took me for a walk around the company. And he apologized in person.
A lot of people telling you who you can trust and distrust, and asking your opinions on people you just met. They'll make it seem like they're just befriending the new person, but really they're trying to draw you into their side of the company's factions (or gauge if they should bring you into their faction), and get some dirt on you to turn others against you if need be.
That's not to say there's anything you can do once you see those red flags, except go ahead and figure out how to get out with as little damage as possible.
The first thing that's said is "Your only limit is how much you can sell."
Well some people are good at selling. Knew a guy so good at this, I swear he could sell a ketchup popsicle to a lady in a white coat.
An open floor office with rows and rows and rows of headsets.
Edited to clarify: "Rows and rows and rows" of headsets generally means call centre. Yes, there are cool places to work that have open floor offices. No that does not make open floor offices inherently good. No, there are no good call centres to work at.
Call centers need, at the very least, to have cubbies dividing work stations. FFS! Even with headsets on—-cheap headsets, of course, never the noise-cancelling ones—-it is f*****g LOUD! Too loud to not get distracted or even hear yourself think, much less hear everything the customer on your phone is saying.
In an interview I once asked my potential new employers, “What is your company culture like?/Can you describe your company culture?”
They responded, “What do you mean?”
HUGE red flag.
I did end up working there for six months and there was massive turnover but I left on a good note.
In many places “Company culture” has taken a quasi religious turn that verges on brainwashing cult-like behaviour. When I worked at a well known UK telephone bank, my warning bells rang loudly during a training day where we were told to close our eyes and think about what the CEO had said in the latest newsletter. This is not a prayer meeting, the CEO is not God and the company “values” are definitely not the f*****g 10 commandments. Run away - quickly!
Not being given a copy of the work contract you sign even after asking
Then again, many BP posts clearly demonstrate people don't read them anyway.
One of those inflatable tube guys in the parking lot
You mean Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm-flailing Tube Man? https://youtube.com/watch?v=rHXvMcLrLSY&feature=shares
When new coworkers as you "How do you like working for *new manager* so far?" and laugh and laugh. You don't get the joke yet, but you will soon.
If all of the employees are young it means there’s no opportunity for advancement.
I'm struggling to see the logic in this statement. It can certainly happen in VERY flat organisations. But then, they may be flat for a reason....
My employer falls under a few of these, and every day that I work for them I am miserable. Every time an opportunity for advancement comes up I am passed up for it, even though any one not in management will say they are surprised I am in the same position 7 years later. Every time one of these post come up I comment, so i am sure you have heard me complain about it before. But I have tried to find a new job, but no one wants to pay me for my experience, they want to start me off lower than I started at my current job 7 years ago.
But wouldn't you rather look forward to go to work, than make the same amount of money, you do now and be miserable for a whole working day every day?
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Having to use your own tools, laptop or phone in order to fix equipment or effectively conduct company business has always been a big one for me. The company you work for rents your time - not your stuff too.
I have worked at EVERY SINGLE one of these places. There were several jobs I never started after meeting face-to-face. The one I was TRULY afraid of was a church, "E", who's director said to me " even though we are a church, does not mean that some of your coworkers won't be spiteful". Oh NO, you "warning" me tells me why you can't get good employees. If you won't rectify a situation, you will have a revolving door of applicants. It's expensive to train. They apparently liked the fact that they had someone on their staff who harassed everybody. Shame on you!
When I have gone for a jobinterview I make sure to go there early. My excuse is, that I use puclic transport. The time I wait is not wasted, but gives me a change to listen and look if the people working there seems satisfied as well as busy.
One of the worst jobs I ever had: 1) The person I was replacing trained me but left out information or gave me incorrect information & tried to discourage me by telling me that the reports she did were super-complicated & she didn't think I could do it (as it turns out, I don't think she ever had another job & asked to come back after a couple of weeks, so obviously she was hoping to get her old job back), 2) There were no official or professional company manuals for the job, only near-unintelligible in-house documentation, 3) The people & atmosphere were horribly toxic & unfriendly, 4) Anyone who could have helped me learn the reports had either quit, retired, or flat out refused to help, 5) I kept getting saddled with more & more work because the company was apparently trying to save money by not replacing employees, 6) The company sent out "surveys" that were supposed to be anonymous, but management would retaliate against anyone who put negative feedback on the survey
Oh Annie...did you work at the phone company too? I am so sorry. I always loved "there are no manuals so when you learn the job, you can write one". Hahaha!!
Load More Replies... My employer falls under a few of these, and every day that I work for them I am miserable. Every time an opportunity for advancement comes up I am passed up for it, even though any one not in management will say they are surprised I am in the same position 7 years later. Every time one of these post come up I comment, so i am sure you have heard me complain about it before. But I have tried to find a new job, but no one wants to pay me for my experience, they want to start me off lower than I started at my current job 7 years ago.
But wouldn't you rather look forward to go to work, than make the same amount of money, you do now and be miserable for a whole working day every day?
Load More Replies... Having to use your own tools, laptop or phone in order to fix equipment or effectively conduct company business has always been a big one for me. The company you work for rents your time - not your stuff too.
I have worked at EVERY SINGLE one of these places. There were several jobs I never started after meeting face-to-face. The one I was TRULY afraid of was a church, "E", who's director said to me " even though we are a church, does not mean that some of your coworkers won't be spiteful". Oh NO, you "warning" me tells me why you can't get good employees. If you won't rectify a situation, you will have a revolving door of applicants. It's expensive to train. They apparently liked the fact that they had someone on their staff who harassed everybody. Shame on you!
When I have gone for a jobinterview I make sure to go there early. My excuse is, that I use puclic transport. The time I wait is not wasted, but gives me a change to listen and look if the people working there seems satisfied as well as busy.
One of the worst jobs I ever had: 1) The person I was replacing trained me but left out information or gave me incorrect information & tried to discourage me by telling me that the reports she did were super-complicated & she didn't think I could do it (as it turns out, I don't think she ever had another job & asked to come back after a couple of weeks, so obviously she was hoping to get her old job back), 2) There were no official or professional company manuals for the job, only near-unintelligible in-house documentation, 3) The people & atmosphere were horribly toxic & unfriendly, 4) Anyone who could have helped me learn the reports had either quit, retired, or flat out refused to help, 5) I kept getting saddled with more & more work because the company was apparently trying to save money by not replacing employees, 6) The company sent out "surveys" that were supposed to be anonymous, but management would retaliate against anyone who put negative feedback on the survey
Oh Annie...did you work at the phone company too? I am so sorry. I always loved "there are no manuals so when you learn the job, you can write one". Hahaha!!
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