People Share Their Toxic Workplace Stories

Welcome to the Theater of Workplace Whispers, where tales of resilience, humor, and sheer survival take center stage. In this hushed corner of corporate confessions, we invite you to share your toxic workplace stories—a place where the absurd meets the relatable, where coworkers become characters, and the drama unfolds in water cooler whispers. So, grab your popcorn, because these stories aren't just bitter; they're bittersweet, and they're waiting for their moment in the spotlight.

1. Public Health Chronicles 

I work in public health and it's just been a nightmare. For the past year, we've all been on call 24/7. Our head admin's way to show "appreciation" to us was to take away our OT Pay (got replaced with only comp time, we used to be able to pick what we got), but give our supervisor a $25k bonus for their "dedication to the company during these unprecedented times".   

Within my office, things have been steadily getting worse. It's such a gossipy environment that I know every time I leave a room, I'm being talked about. My boss micromanages the wrong things. 

For example, we have to BCC them in every single email we send so they can "monitor how we communicate with clients and the general public", but I have coworkers that come in 20-30 minutes late every day and disappear for hours at a time and no word is said to them.

I got a Master's degree which was supposed to come with an automatic $10k raise, but they refused to give it to me and I am in the process of getting our union involved (still could be up to a year before it is granted - my coworker went through this a few years ago). This is just scratching the surface of the issues. 

I'm just putting my head down, getting my day-to-day stuff done correctly and thoroughly so they won't say more bad words about me while I look for another job.

sluzella

There is a lady at my workplace who hates me. She double parks almost every day and every day that I can, I squeeze my little Ford Focus right in so she has to wait till I leave before she can get into her car or climb through the passenger side. She gets off 30 minutes before I do...because of this, she has started to treat me badly at work. 

I just stare at her until she left. Every time I see her coming I put my phone to record audio so I have quite a bit of her just being mean. Eventually, if she pisses me off I'll go to the office manager with it but for now, it's fun for me. 

iamacannibal

I worked at a restaurant in college and I was constantly being harassed by one of the cooks. One day he wanted to clock out but I was ringing up a customer on the POS and he shoved me out of the way in front of the customers so he could get on the POS and clock out. 

I went to my boss and told him that either the cook would go or I would go. The owner loved this freaking cook so he wasn't going anywhere. 

On the other hand, I searched for a new job for a month or two until I found a new one and I put in my two weeks and left. They deserved a lot worse. 

spaceglam

This was years ago. I had to work with this awful woman who was in an unofficial supervisor position over me after my bosses realized the job I was hired for was way too easy for me. 

My de facto supervisor was dismissive and impatient and would try to embarrass me in front of other people. I felt like I couldn't ask her questions about projects I was working on because I'd be met with some rude response. So instead of getting clarifications, I'd try to guess the nuances of the assignment. 

Sometimes this backfired and it pissed her off. I was truly miserable and felt belittled constantly. Before I was hired there, I had interviewed for my dream job and lost the position to a more educated candidate. 

A year later, I was deeply hating my job and I got an email out of the blue from the dream job asking me if I'd accept their offer, as the guy they chose over me was about to be fired. I gave notice and started working my dream job. It was super stressful but fulfilling and inspiring and I shone.

slay_me_999

My old Job was a training and hiring manager for a private research company.

It started well, I got on with most people and the pay was good. Then my boss would make me do his job, which was firing people. I had to give people the 'we wish you a great future and I'll give you a good reference but you are fired' speech once every Friday. If my boss didn’t like someone's yellow tie or something so trivial, he would find a legal way to fire that person. 

Of course, I had to give them bad news. So then the employees started hating me. I suppose I understand that they feared for their jobs, as I was afraid that if I said no to my boss he would also find a way to fire me legally. 

Then the rumors started that I was sleeping with the boss and that's how I got my job so young. In truth, I got the job because the boss was my previous employer's PhD supervisor a decade ago. So they had it all wrong. I was sleeping with the boss's son who was the boss's assistant. Which was enough to get me fried as employees aren't allowed to get together. 

Nonetheless toward the end I was depressed, the gossiping and lack of friends got to me. My boss was becoming weird, he was insisting on driving me home and after-work drinks. So eventually one day I went to work drunk and I quit. 

I don't regret it all. Surprisingly I still speak to my old boss. 

O-shi

I worked as a vendor for a Singaporean bank. and I was a "borrowed resource" for them doing software testing.

On my first week of joining one of our staff was found dead in the office due to stress on workloads.

The next day HR came to us and gave a speech about the so-called "work-life balance". 

And the following day everything went back to the way it was. The bank didn't even say a thing about what happened

Telixion_

I joined a mid-sized firm, and the head of the department is a workaholic, nearing 50s and unmarried. 

First day at work, I was welcomed by the HOD with a sweet smile. When I entered the office, there were already 2 people leaving the department, over the next 3 months a total of 9 people resigned. 

The workload was crazy, the newbie was assigned 30-40 cases (these cases tend to take at least 1 year - 5 years to close a file) and as a newbie, you are left with yourself figuring out what the status was and how far the case has progressed. 

Seniors will initially say you can always ask them when you don't know something, but most of them will just make you feel bad about asking, "Wow, I thought you have been here for 2 months, why are you asking me this?" "you know you shouldn't always ask people you should go find out yourself" etc.

After 10 months of trying to figure out the entire process, getting stressed from unhelpful seniors, angry clients, and a crazy HOD that expects everyone to be workaholics like herself, I was summoned to a meeting with the HOD, along with all the seniors (5 of them) to discuss my work performance.

All the seniors have been informed beforehand to prepare reports on all the mistakes I have made for a 10-month period, no matter how small, and present them during the meeting. I did not know I was up for a trial, sitting alone in the office facing the HOD with seniors surrounding me. I almost cried. 

The meeting ended with the HOD telling me, "You should reconsider your position in my organization"

I tendered my resignation the same day to my manager to which he said "Can't handle anymore ah?" I just smiled. Recently I heard the manager and many others left too.

stitch1294

In my first job, I was under so much pressure and didn't know how to handle scolding that I hid in the cleaner's closet to cry.

HR found me, comforted me, and proceeded to end the conversation with "Don't tell anyone OK? Especially not your boss" 

Many years later I reflected on that moment. HR was just tryna cover his behind lol.

Plus-Natural2725

A very famous media company that runs multiple channels on YouTube was the most toxic place I worked post-pandemic. The boss is a snooty female who gives “cold vibes” if you aren't sassy, “cool” enough, or dressed well. 

The place had a culture of exploiting newbies, young people who have gained some experience but are directionless and are afraid to take up different gigs because of stability. Talking about the workplace the cacophony started from 9 AM on most days and went on till 1 AM. The boss had a habit of messaging late in the night and expecting people to push for deliveries ignoring they have a life. 

Working in media production, you’re exposed to working uncomfortable long hours but this was a place with inexperience and mismanagement. I started to have unnecessary bouts of aggression because I had no time for my personal life. 

I spoke to other colleagues about the situation and they said well that was how things rolled there and everyone was looking out for better opportunities but can’t if they don’t find it lucrative enough to make the jump. 

No one has called the boss out for the stigma people are going through there because it was a secret norm. I finally had enough and made an excuse and then I resigned.

Puskin1710

I work in a company that hires lots of foreign workers. The office was quite nice actually, but the foreign workers were treated quite badly (passports being held hostage, delaying salary payment, cutting hours, etc).

One incident I  remembered was when one foreign guy wanted to ask for an advance because his wife was in labor and in need of money to go to the hospital.

The HR was just making unnecessary delays until the evening before giving the money, the guy threw the money back at them and said "My wife and child died and I don't need the money now ". 

A few weeks later my friend took the passport and returned it to the guy and the guy immediately went back to his home country. Quite sad actually. Reality hit me hard that time. It happened 10-15 years ago.

Pale_Comfortable_51

This happened during my internship in digital marketing for a 996 Chinaman SME. I have always been targeted by my boss and one senior colleague due to my inability to catch up with a mountain of workloads in a one-man department.

They kept asking me if I did my job during my one day per week off on top of working for 12 hours every day. 

  Things got rough when the senior colleague had enough of my 'laziness' and tried to mentor me, effectively undermining the role of my real mentor, another colleague, from her.   

They got into a fight with me in the middle. 

I left the company as soon as my internship ended even though they begged me to stay. Didn't even collect the measly RM100 for 3 months of internship allowances they offered. Oh, and I got depressed from that till this very day.

squickwood

I was a fresh grad, learning everything from scratch in a digital marketing company. Top management were stingy people who wanted to keep clients at the expense of their employees, so when one of my clients decided they didn’t want to pay for a design, my bosses decided I would be the one to do the design. 

I was not a designer and had to do the photoshopping on top of writing the caption for Facebook, liaising with the client, doing the reporting, and answering community comments on posts too.  

I would spend every Sunday close to tears because I hated going to work the next day. Top management was also incredibly annoying.

 This also happened to one of my colleagues at the same company: after basically bullying her to resign because she didn’t get along with one of their fave employees, they still had to see her for 3 months due to her serving notice. 

They decided it was too much so instead of letting her go early, they transferred her to a sister company in a different building, different office, just so they “wouldn’t have to see her face anymore”. The resigned colleague had to spend 3 months in a completely different role, working with strangers as colleagues, just because the management didn’t like her.

Imnsatang

First day at work, no one asked if I wanted to eat, and no one talked to me. 2 years later, I still had no one to talk to, and still ate alone during lunch hour. It was such a depressing freaking company.

When a problem occurs, instead of taking responsibility they blame each other. 

Bad management, no teamwork, no communication. 

I already decided to quit. I'm going after I get my bonus.

jaeha99

When I was a video editor in a distribution company my seniors would always tell me to "be more hardworking" and don't leave 5-10 minutes after closing hours and to be more like them...They usually work till 9 pm sometimes even 11 pm, but, one of my coworkers calculated the time these seniors spent chatting in the office during work hours. It's around 3 hours every day so yea...

After that job, I applied to work in a bigger firm and they refused to hire me because I was asking for too much and "we know the Sabahan rate was not that high".I was asking for $3k with 8 years of experience.

Then, I went to another production company and I was only hired because I'm the token Chinese girl in a Malay company for some sort of political brownie points.

 I was supposed to be an editor but for some reason, I'm always on set doing continuity/production management jobs which I have 0 experience with so they keep scolding me when I ask questions. 

I swear the continuity girl was on some power trip when she scolded me every second she got. The boss' friend also likes to order me around like some errand boy. I don't want to think that it's a bunch of Malay bullying me because I'm Chinese but it's hard not to think that you know. I never got to edit a single video while I was working there lol

At least I was lucky enough to move to the US. Things are still pretty tough but I'd choose the US over Malaysia any day.

denegar69

Not in Malaysia. Many years before I migrated to Malaysia, I had a female boss back in Australia. She used to hold an executive position in the hospital I was working in and then for some reason she had taken a middle management position in the organization. 

She had a history of being quite intimidating as an executive and she was worried that would make her inaccessible to staff, so to establish herself in this new position, she went around to some of the senior staff who were immediately below her and asked them to question her in meetings.

She even told them to call her an "old hag" so that she could show everybody that she was OK with the criticism and that people shouldn't be intimidated by her. After said meeting, she fired every one of the people she had asked to criticize her. 

Beware that people with certain psychiatric disorders, most notably personality disorders, are often drawn to management positions.

Taqwacore

I worked at a newsroom that was all sorts of messed up. The executive editor was a screamer who would scream at his reporters for the minutest mistakes. 

The managing editor (whom I reported to) was a gaslighting snitch who would give me silent treatment whenever she was upset with me instead of telling me why she was upset and how I could resolve my mistakes.

When I asked her why she was giving me the silent treatment, she called me crazy and paranoid and said that I was imagining it. 

She also played politics by choosing favorites even if they underperformed, and she would also backbite and gossip among her favorite staff about her non-favorite staff -- basically, creating a hostile work environment. Once, she also angrily slammed my chair while I was sitting.

As for my colleagues, some were nice but 3 men harassed me. One particular editor kept coming to my desk to flirt with me and another young woman. One guy (a fellow reporter) said lewd remarks to my face to humiliate me. 

After 9 months at the newsroom, I quit.

crueltyorthegrace

My last museum job had elements of a toxic environment.

A number of my museum friends have similar types of complaints (administration who doesn't know/care how to run a museum or non-profit; administration who think a museum shouldn't change or try to be social advocates; colleagues who think they are above professional standards and ethics; lack of autonomy; overworked and underpaid).

It's a field-wide problem, I know quite a few people from my generation (who finished our MA 8 years ago) and older who have left the field because of its problems.

I left the museum field and while my current job in humanitarian aid is stressful it's so much more manageable with understanding colleagues and they pay their interns.

Greenepony

I had to quit my first job after college even though it was in the middle of a pandemic because the environment was so toxic. I was paid hourly and expected to be available at all hours. 

  I was under qualified yet put in a management position that I was underpaid. 

They claimed I didn’t have enough experience to pay more... so I shouldn’t have had the responsibilities I had. 

Quit that place and got a much lower-pressure job in tech that pays more and has a way better work-life balance.

Cali368

My current workplace is known as a great place to work, but my last organization was unbelievably toxic, and my current organization, while worlds better, is still wildly political. The executive in my org cannot make their minds up on what our strategy is, and my work priorities change daily.  

Instead of dropping projects, we just kept adding them until everyone was working at 150% capacity. 

I get paid well and I like my direct manager, but I’ll probably start looking for another internal transfer soon.

I’m having a really hard time grappling with the idea of taking a pay cut if I move to another company, so I felt like I should see if another team is better first.

My only good coping mechanism is to care less. This has not been working out well for me though, since I’m pretty career-focused.

weasel_stoat

Moved for a high-paying job as a doctor’s assistant a few months ago. I knew there was a catch because the pay was extremely high and he hired me after just one Zoom Interview.

I came to find out he was extremely verbally abusive. There was no office manager, just him and another nurse and receptionist. Some college kids help out with scheduling. Red flags were everywhere on my first day of work when I heard him yell at the receptionist.

He then made me cry the second week on the job as he would get mad that I wouldn’t know something that I was never shown or taught. I thought I could stick it out for the pay and learn to dissociate from his verbal abuse.

The final straw was when I asked for Friday off for Mother’s Day to visit family and 2 days off in June for a bachelorette party since I was in the bridal party (I asked in April). I received a text from the doctor/my boss after hours Friday night saying he will have to “drastically decrease my salary” because I requested time off.

His reason was that his senior nurse doesn’t take time off so no one else can because she respects the business enough not to go on vacation.   

I told him I could handle his verbal abuse Monday through Friday but I will not tolerate financial abuse and I also told him that it’s messed up that I would quit the job and because he's not providing severance. 

He told me “You moved for your boyfriend, good luck”. My reply “I know I’m the 11th employee you’ve had in 4 months who had to quit or gotten fired. Good luck to you. It’s not advisable to be so stressed and hateful at your age.”

Luckily since he fired me over text on a Sunday night, it only took me 4 days to get a job offer elsewhere. I would rather scoop dog poop off the sidewalk than have a conversation with that doctor ever again

sara_comstock90

I worked at a major corporation for a chunk of time. I had anxiety and panic attacks daily and the people that I worked with lied about all kinds of interactions with me etc.  

HR got involved on numerous occasions - one girl even told the general manager of my division and HR that I was dealing drugs at work (which I was not).

My boss, who managed all of us, had full knowledge of what was going on and encouraged the mean girl's behavior.  

I thought about quitting so many times but in my industry, this toxic job was a real feather in the hat. Eventually, the division folded and I was the last person there ironically enough.  

Agreeable-Coach6985

My company gaslighted me for over a year telling me I was going to get promoted, and didn’t do it until the day I quit (I left anyway).

The leadership at the top was full of micromanagement and our CEO never communicated his expectations effectively. For example, once he accused me of “cheating” on an internal presentation exercise because myself and my counterparts collaborated and he never specified he didn’t want that. 

He also accused my coworker of sleeping with a client once because he complimented her work. Otherwise, the incredibly long hours and the “we’re a family atmosphere” just really got to me, especially this year. 

I just can’t believe I lasted 7 there. There’s so much more, but I’m only a week into my new role and there’s a vast difference in how people are respected.

pizzagirl1242

I was in one previously and just got a job offer some Fridays ago! The job hunt was an emotional rollercoaster and I was crying in the bathroom daily, worried I would never be able to quit my current job. 

Now I’m suffering from Stockholm syndrome and crying about leaving my company—the same one where the bosses scream constantly at employees, belittle and demean them, never hire or promote or respect women (there are 3 of us in a 30-person company), “no HR, no rules”, and also turn around and talk about how we’re all so close and family.

The sick thing was that from my perspective 80% of my coworkers do feel that way and they love their bosses. I’m so glad I’m getting out and trying to remember all the horrible things I’ve been through so I don’t feel guilty and sad about landing a new job!

The job search was much more draining than I expected, and I’m amazed anybody ever manages to do it at all.

HappyConstruction9

Currently in one and not coping well at all. It's also more subtle than outright toxicity. My boss is a gaslighter. She's been adding responsibilities to my job description while also belittling me and making me check in with her before doing anything for three years. 

I've lost all confidence and self-esteem and have become withdrawn at work and overwhelmed. Last week she essentially told me I need to get my mental health under control and start socializing with my co-workers or I'll lose my job because I'm creating a "hostile work environment". 

She runs off at least one employee every year because she targets them and treats them like a mess.

 I guess I'm this year's target. I ended up taking a whole week off work because of what she told me and I'm so anxious and distraught about going back the next day. 

I can’t leave because I need a job and hardly any place is hiring the $35k salary I need to keep paying my bills even though I have a Master's degree. 

Everything feels hopeless, I feel talentless and stuck, and honestly, pretty worried (but I won't do anything, so no one worries). I am starting therapy again soon and I'm just hoping something pans out so I can get out.

sufficientxsadie

I used to work in a small IT company in Santacruz East. Let's call it TheCTech. Their main business was laptop repair and data recovery. The main boss, let's call him JB, used to copy all the private data from the hard disk and laptops. 

Many had private videos of the customers including a few intercourse videos. I knew all this because I was one of the few guys who was allowed to work on the sole "good PC" that was in his cabin, mainly for downloading and storing the latest ISOs and test software. 

JB portrayed to the world that he was a very religious, and enlightened person but he was an addict. He also copied and read through personal files and Outlook emails of his friends who gave their laptops to him for repairs. 

The worst part was he used to show bad films to young girls, interns who joined the company from ITI for experience. He also regularly abused the employee who he knew had to work there because he had health problems. 

I and a few others were hard techies and joined the company for some experience only so he never messed with us, but once we got to know about his psychotic behavior we quit the company. 

I recently came across his videos on YouTube, where he was giving some random doctrine and all comments on the YouTube channel were switched off. The freaking JB is an abuser and an addicted psycho.

flight_1901

I’m still working past my trauma from my past job and it manifested in so many ways. My new, much happier job trusts me to do work but I second guess myself way more than I need to because of how bad my old job was.

I was fired and it ended up being the best thing. I took six whole months before re-entering the workforce.

My former boss from when I was just 20 ended up hiring me without a real interview because she inherently trusted my reasoning and work.  

It was a boost of confidence I thought I’d never have again. Sometimes I’m still shocked I stayed in my toxic job as long as I did and it took them firing me for me to leave.

Primary_Asssignment40

I've worked with pathological liars, harassers, and people who blatantly forged client's signatures on contracts. I had 4 managers within 8 months and finally, my last manager was a nice, normal, reasonable person who shared his expertise and did not micromanage. 

I thought my experience of working in a Silicon Valley start-up was unique, but in speaking with others it's not the case.

 Young founders (who often have only had jobs related to their start-ups) can be so tunnel-visioned that they feel if they aren't working until 10 pm every night, living and breathing the company, they are not team players.   

I am so happy to now have a team of like-minded, smart, funny, conscientious coworkers. Anyone who tells you that is impossible to find, or you will "never" find is lying because I've had it in 4 different offices.

 Sadly, one bad experience has put me off ever working for a start-up again.

froggielefrog

I used to work in a highly toxic place in the mental health field. Not only was the work itself stressful and demanding (working with highly acute patients), but the management and leadership provided minimal support, horrible pay, and limited opportunities for upward mobility. 

We were constantly given more cases and increased responsibility and deadlines. Management was constantly throwing us under the bus to save themselves. I developed significant mental health issues as a result.

I left last year and I’m 100x happier now.

blueberryyyhill

I was working for a unicorn tech start-up and while it wasn’t like some of the stuff I’ve read here, it doesn't sound good working for 70 hr/week for low pay. 

I was constantly being told to change in hours which was right around the corner when it wasn’t. As it was a start, their systems were not fleshed out.

I was constantly critiqued for the pitfalls in the systems I was given with no time/support to separately fix it. Huge turnover even from before the first year was up (when 1st yrs equity vested.)

I left because it was meant to just be a gig while I waited out the cycle to be in medicine

Own-Meal-4419

My workplace is cush. However, my supervisor, who was formerly a friendly acquaintance that I originally hired, became my manager when I returned from an extended maternity leave. 

  And I’ve since had two babies. I realized immediately she despises me because I had kids and she has made my formerly amazing job nearly unbearable.

I hate to quit my job (and effectively my career) because of her and give her that much power in my life, but I consider it every day. She’s awful. 

She struggled with infertility, her marriage ended because of it, and since I became a mom (twice over) she’s treated me horribly.

Cleanclock

My last job was so toxic! It started with a boss who micromanaged me, which I hated. I was supposed to have some freedom to manage my project but because I took it over from her she didn’t like how I approached anything.

Eventually, one day I got frustrated because she turned down everything I wanted to do (I approached my thinking with why I think it would be better my way to see if that would help— and no) and I ended up just saying “ok well what do you want then?” in a snarky tone. I am pretty easy going but I just had it. 

Then, her boss was even worse. She would rip into each one of us by finding out what would hurt you the most, and pick on you in a group meeting. For example, the micromanager boss was highly organized and she said in front of everyone “You should read the schedule better because you don’t know how to manage time.” 

For me she was telling a group of people “the CFO didn’t think (stars and moons) was qualified for her job” after my interview, “but I believed in her.” lol, I told him because we are neighbors and he said that he would have never said that and she’s insane. 

I worked under her for a year before I had to start looking. I was sick going to work daily because I had to be 10 steps ahead of her or I sucked. She also had no focus so she was constantly being dragged to meetings on ideas that made no sense.

 Two people in my department took FMLA leave due to work-related anxiety. Had I stayed, it would have been the same. Funny story, a crazy senior manager quit without notice and just stormed out then hit me up on LinkedIn looking for a new job. I told everyone who knew her and we all laughed. 

My new job is so much better. Great support, help when I need it, a boss who believes in me, and a team that is generally happy.

starsandmo0ns

I used to work at a very toxic job in tech. My manager used ableist slurs against me. It was so bad.

It got to the point I second-guessed all the work I did so I just couldn’t work anymore. I quit in November and haven’t regretted it since. 

I’m now at a new job and still feeling the vibe out. I feel so scared that it might be the same but I now know how to take care of myself better in work situations, maintain boundaries, and get myself out of toxic environments.

balancingmyself 

Not me, but my mom. She's a receptionist at sort of an elderly care facility (except it's more that the elderly rent apartments in the building, as well as get some basic services like cleaning, food, medicine, care, etc.).

There are numerous directors, none of whom want to take responsibility for anything. There's an overall lack of management and communication; they don't even have a system for tracking who's working that day, when residents will be out or in, alerts that a new resident is moving in, etc. 

She said it's heartbreaking to not be able to help the elderly with any of their complaints, and the people to whom she redirects the complaints (caregivers, directors, staff) simply don't care. 

It sounds like there's a lot of neglect going on and they love to charge their residents for absolutely every little thing, on top of the $15k/month cost of living there.

Recently, she's gotten into adult coloring books to help deal with the stress. She's already planning to quit, but it won't be for a while.

sweetpotatothyme 

I'm currently fighting management on returning to the office. They've decided that everyone who has been vaccinated must return to the office immediately. This was after they forced me to go to a lunch where I was exposed to COVID and subsequently had symptoms to the point that NYC declared me an open COVID case, despite testing negative.

They have taken only minor precautions in the office and we sit in an open trade floor style, so there's no buffer between me and other people.

 I have an underlying health condition that makes me particularly vulnerable to some of the nastier COVID-19 effects. 

The worst part is that I mostly enjoyed my job/the people I worked with up until the big boss decided that he was over all the COVID precautions. Now I'm talking to a recruiter and am going to reach out to my former boss to see if her current place is hiring. 

I'm tired of this mess.

claytimeyesyesyes

My former boss used to abuse us a lot. I hardly got bullied as I was quite young to the teammates there but him abusing them also created a lot of issues for me. I had issues with anxiety as a child and he caused all that to get worse- drove me down a very crazy path. 

I got hospitalized multiple times and I didn’t know what to do because I was too embarrassed to ask for help. My hormones started creating issues and I ended up getting (blood clots in my blood which led to a) stroke due to which I was close to dying. 

I lost my sense of balance for a few days(vertigo) and had to quit my job. This is how I got through it. This had a lasting effect on me and I still get GERD, and anxiety due to the issues there.

I kinda moved on rather than got out of it. 6 years later ended up with a psychiatrist and that’s on for the last 4 years. I was with the org from 2013 to 2015

yononmo

Was working for a really big and well-known company, and had been a fan of their products for a while so landing this job was like a dream come true. My interview process itself lasted 3 months, and when I finally cracked it I was over the moon.

It all quickly changed, the founders are micro-managers. They breathed down my neck every single minute. Blamed me for things that happened even before I joined the company. Within a week of my joining, I had to be answerable and clean up a lot of mess that people still working in the company had done. 

Despite showcasing really good results and upward growth, I was given a warning within a month of starting the job! The company was big on favoritism, politics, and nepotism. I would wake up with anxiety attacks in the middle of the night, and couldn't sleep out of fear of what the next day would bring.

I confided in my team (who was fairly new, everyone had joined a month or so before me). They weren't alone, they felt it too. They were all being unfairly treated. 2 months in, I put down my papers (without having a backup job).

 The tables turned, and the company realized they needed me. Begged me to stay, made multiple calls over the week, and promised me things would change(it only got worse is what I've heard). 

HR blamed me for not telling her what was happening (which was because I filled out all of this in the weekly reviews during my probation, they never bothered reading it). 

I stood my ground and left. Found a better-paying job. It's been 6 months since the entire team from there quit. They're struggling now without us. Serves them right.

Foreign_Yak157

First job ever. 20k salary. The company lied about its clients during the interview and then gave me a 15-year-old desktop PC to work on. My manager was given an equally slow computer. When she asked for an upgrade they “punished” her by giving her an even slower one.

Owners were arrogant. They had a separate fancy bathroom for themselves and other employees were made to use a bad one. The workload was 12-13h / day and of that, 5 hours would be spent just waiting for the freaking computer to keep working. 

When my salary came it was not 20 it was 18k. Why? The owner tells me- “we retain 10% of the salary for the first 18 months and we give it all to you in one go. Then you can go on a nice vacation and spend 36k”

A previous employee had made a legal case against the company for not paying her last month’s salary (for absolutely no reason).

I quit after 2-3 months. Got a much nicer workplace and a small pay hike.

69_queefs_per_sec

Right after graduation I was in a bit of a pickle and had to leave my job with a well-established IT firm for personal reasons. I found myself needing a job ASAP. Got a reference through a classmate to work at a small IT and UI/UX design firm.

They set up interviews for like 4 days in a row for almost 2 hours apiece. In this, the HR thought of himself as some Big shot and was bragging like anything and kept berating my knowledge and experience, while he didn't know crap about anything. 

After all the interviews he said you're not worth joining our firm. But then later extended an offer letter a week later. After a chat with the owner of the company, they decided to take me on but would need me to give them 50k as security if I leave before 1 year and all my original mark sheets. 

They later went on to say the salary was 12k for the first 6 months but after probation, it'll be 17k. I thought about it for a day and said screw you and your job and your messy attitude. The HR pointed out how ungrateful I was for giving an opportunity to my lost cause.

I then got a job at a Fortune 500 in a month.

LeBrownMamba

I haven't experienced such issues. But my cousin's brother did experience that in a company called Quantiphi. 

The management and WLB were an absolute mess. Working 14 hrs a day was considered normal there. The project was planned with very unrealistic deadlines. 

The hikes were poor for old employees. My cousin's brother was unfortunately in a similar project. 

The managers and clients were hell. He started his day at 9 a.m. and ended somewhere around 1.00 a.m. 

Lots of politics. Even HRs don't listen to doubts and forget about solving them. Initially, I didn't believe him, but later when I saw his chats and meeting schedule, etc. I was shocked.  He has left the company with a better offer.

RstarPhoneix

Sharing my experience of WFH since the lockdown began. I switched my job in Feb 2020 and after working at the client side for 2 weeks the lockdown was announced. Since then (i.e. March 2020) till September 2020 I have been working from 9 am to 1 am sometimes 2 am and on weekends I used to work from 9 am to 7 pm.

This messed with my habits, my health, and my sleep. I may have taken 3 weekends off but even then they used to keep calls which would take half of the day. Things got better in October. I worked from 9 am - 8 pm which was still not a good thing to do. 

From November the situation got worse where I was working from 8 am to 2 am including weekends and this continued till March 2021. 

  During this 1 year, I only got to take 5 days of vacation,  no compensation (extra pay or comp off) for working extra hours and on weekends and I got my full and final settlement 6 months after leaving the job.  

There were times when the user said that we could continue on Monday or they had a doctor's appointment. We could continue tomorrow but the project manager at the client side said we were almost done and we'd complete it today itself. And because of this, we used to sit till 9 pm.

Once on a weekend I was out with friends for lunch and the client side manager gave me a call and asked to join a call (I was not informed that we would have a call on Saturday) I told him I was out and wouldn't join to which he replied "you should have told us if you're going out, from next time tell me when you'll go out and what time you will return home "

Sungkd

Intern at a start-up - they paid me super late and constantly berated me (even made a whole separate group). For not doing things properly without telling me how to do them the way they liked it, 

He brought in another intern and asked her to do the same things I was doing and did not give me a heads up, and constantly deleted the posts.

I was uploading on their social media even after approving them and then uploading a whole different idea that the other intern did. Bro these start-up people sometimes are too much 

SorryOrganization531

I had a famous MD who gave away cars on Twitter - Even when there was a lockdown we were threatened to come to the office with zero precautions taken, and no one from "management" came to work as usual. 

Many of us suffer from COVID-19 with lifetime effects now. I suffered 3X in all three waves. 

Even if you resigned there were no job openings due to lobbying within the industry. 

In the end, people who worked during COVID-19 were given performance remarks and made to resign. The management was given a brand new car called a 700.

headshot_to_liver

I worked for a start-up early in my career in sales. They would delay my salary stating that "your clients haven’t made payment. 10 months into the system", just when we were due a bonus.

They came up with a rule stating if we don’t achieve 100% of our target (which was unreasonable as usual), we won’t receive any sales incentives. 

After a year, they didn't give me any incentive, no appraisal, and threatened to kick me out if my clients didn’t pay on time. 

Fortunately, my friend helped me with a new job and I quit the company 14 months later.

mikhil92

Currently in a toxic situation.

I am a founding team member at a media startup, never treated as an "employee". Yet for the books, I am at a C level (tech department).

1.5 years later, we have a swanky business head joining. I was to "report to them" without ever asking me whether I'd like to. 

The worst thing was, that the person was a complete idiot who had no XP outside of their domain (sales) and now they take all the decisions in the company, as well as the tech department... 

All the while not even understanding the difference between an APK and a SDK.

And to add to it, they were stupid as they come, just have a lot of XP overall in their career which lured our other founders. 

Result - leaving before Diwali. Going back to work on my startup which crash-landed just before getting on its feet (thank you COVID for that).

Indian_Steam

1st job in 2020 salary was $10k, the position was front desk executive, call center handling 2 departments joined through a consultancy 

I later found out that our salary was 17k but consultancy and HR ate the 7k. There was too much workload like Inbound, outbound, mail, excel.

We were not given proper training or told what the actual job even other department seniors used to give us work. 

We were forced to work overtime at very low rates and even stayed late till 12-1 a.m. One day, I  stayed the whole night because it was too late for trains to move since it was a well-known semi-government company 

I just ground the heck out of fresher and 0 Benefits as well, worked 3 months and when the pandemic came I left

Adventurous _sex_life

I work in tech, and my first job was in a fairly toxic work environment. The misogyny was on a level that a male team member felt like it was ok to yell at a (very mild-mannered/quiet) female member of our team until she cried because he knew she wouldn’t fight back. 

Management didn’t care and did nothing. This led to another man on our team doing the same thing to the same employee. I was pretty shocked. I told her to talk to HR, but she was too scared.

Luckily, I didn’t personally experience anything that bad. Funnily enough, the same person who made my coworker cry actually gave me advice on how to buy a car and avoid getting pushed around by the salespeople shortly before that incident and was nothing but kind to me. No clue why.

However, due to my young age (and possibly gender), I was treated like I was incompetent, and I had to fight for respect. I eventually gained it after about 6-8 months, when I didn’t back down when given pushback, and it turned out to be correct almost every time. It was such a boys club, and I had to act like one of the “boys” to get anywhere.

My solution was to leave for a 20% pay increase after a year in that role. They acted shocked that I was leaving and practically begged me to reconsider. It was mind-boggling. 

I have honestly never been treated with anything but kindness and respect by my male coworkers in any role I’ve had since that first company, which I’m really thankful for because I know tech can be hit or miss.

[deleted]

I work in a very toxic environment, and it’s been like this since I started 2.5 years ago. It was my first “career” job out of grad school, and it’s also helping me break into my industry (UX) so I stuck it out for a while in earnest but started to look for a new job last year. 

Then COVID hit, and I stayed because it was secure, and I started looking again in December. I am still there, as I can’t seem to get a new job, though I am interviewing.

In the last six to eight weeks, we’ve had 8 women quit. It’s been awful because they were all people I got along with and helped make my days bright. Two of them were my managers- my first manager quit, and I got a new manager, and I found out last week that she quit, too.

The work environment is horrible. We are all told to work through our PTOs, company holidays, and weekends and just “take it” when clients are treating us terribly. We are an agency so we depend on client work which is why I think this culture is pushed by our leadership.

Our leadership team is awful- completely disconnected, and they are always adding on more work for us to do when we already have so much.   

One leadership person in particular works crazy hours and expects you to hop on a call with her at 11 pm just because she wants to talk through something (often non-urgent). 

She has asked one person to take calls from the hospital and asked another person to take calls on HER WEDDING DAY. This leadership person has caused me personally to have full-on panic attacks in the office, where I could do nothing but silently cry and calm myself down in my cubicle.

We would have these weekly calls for certain client teams, and we would raise the issues all the time- clients basically wanting us to work for free, treating us badly, asking for out-of-scope things, etc., and leadership would never do anything about it. 

Now everyone has left, and leadership all have Pikachu faces asking us what went wrong and how it’s our responsibility to tell them about issues so they don’t build up and lead to this. The gaslighting is ridiculous.

They also have huge pay disparities based on race and gender. Some very experienced, very educated Black people on the team make $20k less than white people who have less education/experience/are fresh out of school. It’s disgusting. I received $500 less in bonus amount than someone way more junior than me who is a white male.

laiiovlyvacuous

My current workplace is known as a great place to work, but my last org was unbelievably toxic, and my current org, while worlds better, is still wildly political. The execs in my org cannot make their minds up on what our strategy is, and my work priorities change daily. 

Instead of dropping projects, we just keep adding them until everyone is working at 150% capacity. 

I get paid really well, and I like my direct manager, but I’ll probably start looking for another internal transfer soon. 

I’m having a really hard time grappling with the idea of taking a pay cut if I move to another company, so I feel like I should see if another team is better first.

weasel_stoat

My workplace is toxic in the way that there is a lot of gossiping/talking behind the back, and I get paid little for what I do. 

I work in a factory, and it's a lot of physical work, constantly moving and lifting heavy things, and I get paid 7.80 euros/hour gross. 

My paycheck makes me cry.

Bestiolina92

I work in a similar environment. I have a 57-year-old female bully manager. The first week I started my job was a living hell from then out sense. Idk what her problem is with me. I was always nice, respectful, and hardworking. She never treated my other only female co-worker like crap. 

It’s weird she had even admitted I “messed up their work chemistry” somehow when I started.   

She’s always been so aggressive verbally and body language-wise to me as well as no one else.

I, too, do not get paid a lot or enough for this or the physical labor but it has health insurance, which I need since I have a chronic illness and depend on it.

sizzley_bacon

At one job, I started having daily crying sessions in the bathroom just to get through my day. My manager started a rant like this once, "Now don't go start crying or anything," and proceeded to rip into me about snail mail not getting to customers as fast as he wanted...Literally, something I had no control over!!! I quietly finished the work that I was paid to do already, and then that night, I drafted a resignation letter and never went back.

My most recent job was great until last year when I went through 3 managers in one year. My final manager made promises he clearly never intended to keep. He was also a micro-manager. Constant Slack messages and emails telling me how to do a job that I had been doing for several years and that he had NEVER done. 

When I finally quit a year ago, I blocked him on all social media including LinkedIn. I don't care if that bridge is burnt. I don't want to work at any company he is at. He was so manipulative he pitted people against each other on purpose. 

He'd play mind games. He'd get you to work extra hard, then take all the credit for it, turn around, and negate you into thinking you didn't deserve credit. It was, in some ways, more abusive than the previous job. That other guy was mean, but he didn't play mind games and didn't micromanage.

The final straw was not getting the promotion or raise I was promised AND having less senior and male members of my team get promotions and raises that surpassed me, even though literally one of them had just gotten back from extended paternity leave and the other was someone with 1 year of experience that I interviewed and trained, and who was still coming to me for help and guidance. 

I at least can write this all out without my blood pressure rising now. It used to be I couldn't think about any of it without devolving into a sobbing, angry mess.

Quitting is the only way to deal with this crap. As the saying goes, people quit managers, not jobs. It took me almost an entire year to recover from the burnout and the emotional abuse. I recently started a new job for almost 50% more pay and am very very happy now.

kitties_love_purrple

My boss loves to micromanage but is also...a terrible micromanager? Like, she’ll forget things I’ve told her the day before (sometimes even hours before), constantly gets off track/off task, and often drops the ball on things she says she’s going to deliver. 

Yet, she somehow always finds a way to blame her shortcomings on me.

I just feel like if she stopped spending most of her days telling me how to do my job and checking in with me, she’d be much more productive and effective in her job...

greenythings

My first job out of law school was toxic. 

Small firm. My boss was racist and sexist. I was expected to do jobs outside of my listed responsibilities and work on weekends doing office work not related to law without extra pay. 

I remember crying in my car during my lunch breaks. It was awful. The only long-term option is to plan your exit.

frenchfriesandsushi

I'm quitting my side gig due to how toxic it is. 

The owner furloughed/fired the entire team and then asked me, a part-timer, to adopt more job duties to keep our socials active for only $3 an hour more.

She tried extending my duties to include e-commerce distribution, so I put in my two weeks there and then.

aashurii

My former job and my 2nd job were both toxic. Nepotism seems to dominate a lot of businesses. I had some coworkers whom I was close with at my 2nd job, and I dealt with it that way before quitting.

I worked at a company in a small town where generations of families worked at the same place.

I recently got laid off at my former job and realized how miserable I was there. My much older coworkers already had established their clique. The owner also tried to influence employees on how to vote before the election.

nydelite

I love my job, but there’s definitely a lot of “we’re family, it’s different” bullcrap that makes people feel like they have to work overtime or they don’t care as much. 

I’m becoming Co-Director in October, though, and cannot wait to start implementing the healthy culture we pretend to have!!

neonpeg

I work in a donut shop, so by accounts, you would think it’s all sunshine and rainbows because what could possibly get you worked up when you work around doughnuts? Amiright?

WRONG! My boss is the most toxic human being I have ever had the misfortune of meeting, let alone working for.

They slam fridge doors and scream obscenities in front of customers or scream them from the kitchen and customers hear. I struggle with PTSD & these outbursts are a weekly, almost daily occurrence. When you ask what’s wrong, the response is usually along the lines of: IM PISSED OFF! This is followed by something being slammed for dramatic effect. 

When they finally realize they’re the owner of a shop, they will try and butter me up with some stupid conversation, and because I fear confrontation, I usually will be polite and make small talk, but I don’t know how much of this I can handle.

I am at my wit's end and dread coming to work; my back spasms from her freakouts, and I’m constantly in a state of fear for her next outburst. It’s the worst place I have ever worked, and I was once a telemarketer…

How does one tell their superior that they have worse tantrums than my 4-year-old nephew? That I don’t appreciate having to yell over her so customers don’t hear her outrageous behavior. When I told a colleague, they simply responded, ‘Just be glad she doesn’t stand on counters and throw milk like she did when she was pregnant. 

How is that a solution? I feel like there is no recourse for her crap behavior.

hellookittyy88

I worked for a year and a half for a family-owned business that was quite toxic and unprofessional. You would get yelled at, comments about people's looks and appearance, racial comments, comments to demean people, extreme micromanagement, etc.

  We had a lot of younger employees, and this was their first "real" full-time job post-college. I tried to coach them in that not all work environments are like this.

 I was always like, "Work here for a couple of years, then please move on," lol. Unfortunately, they were learning bad habits and how to interact with others.

I finally had enough and gave my two weeks. I found another job that paid almost 2x more and had an exponentially better work culture and environment. It's nice to work with a manager who, instead of trying to make you feel stupid and telling you you're unprofessional, says, "Let's figure this out together" or "See if you can figure this out and get back to me."

[deleted]

Teamwork does not exist among colleagues. They prefer to escape from their routine tasks by taking leave on the days they are supposed to do them and the tasks are passed to others... Some colleagues produce low-quality work...

Those staff who performed well be punished with more work. So, only a few familiar faces will stay beyond working hours to do the work.  

Rubbish IT. Tell them you want system A, but they give you system B.

The company environment does not encourage staff to improve themselves. These are company-organized events, but you can only join after being approved by superiors.

Lyu90

A place full of a bunch of ladies and only one male boss. The gossip environment is most killing. Also, the MNC environment is super challenging unless you fit yourself into a group. 

If you like to mingle around, sure it won’t be a problem. The most annoying is when people play politics.

senxes

In my first job, I was under so much pressure and didn't know how to handle scolding that I hid in the cleaner's closet to cry.

After some time, HR found me, comforted me, and proceeded to end the conversation with, "Don't tell anyone, ok, especially your boss."

Many years later, after I reflected on that moment, HR was just tryna cover his face, lol.

Plus-Natural2725

First day at work, no one asked if I wanna eat, and no one talked to me. 2 years later, I still had no one to talk to, and I still ate alone during lunch hour. A completely depressing freaking company.

When a problem occurs, instead of taking responsibility, they blame each other.

Bad management, no teamwork, no communication.

Already decided to quit. I'm gone after I get my bonus.

[deleted]

I worked in a burrito chain that had terrible management.

They would never let anyone leave on time. If you told them you had to go because your shift was over, they would make you do some bullsh*t task like sweeping the floor before you left because how dare you try to pretend like you have any control over what happens. 

Then, of course, they would complain that they were over on hours, so they would send people home early and leave us short-staffed, then complain that we took too long closing, when the reason we took so long is that we didn't have enough people to get any pre-closing tasks done.

Also, most of the managers would spend half of the shift in the office, and when we called them out to line because we were getting slammed and needed help, they would berate us, saying that they knew how to do their jobs.

One time, I realized that they had scheduled me for a split shift. Basically, I would work in the morning, be clocked off for half an hour, then work in the evening. Basically, they were trying to avoid paying for my lunch break, which was against company policy. 

When I pointed out that, based on the length of the second shift, I would actually need to take a second lunch break, my manager accused me of trying to game the system. I just refused to clock out until I was actually able to leave.

Most of my coworkers were just as bad. One shift, we had gotten slammed with 2 large tour buses in a row, so everyone had been on the line, making burritos, and no one had had a chance to go out into the dining room and sweep.  

 So of course, the dining room floor looked like crap. 

Every single person for the next shift came up to me (as the dining room was my responsibility that shift) and told me that the dining room looked bad, but none of them decided to take the ten minutes to actually sweep it. They just sat in the back and chatted with the managers while on the clock.

I would get berated for telling my coworkers when they were screwing up, which I really only did when they were doing something illegal or incredibly unsanitary but I would get equally berated if the managers discovered that I saw someone screw up and I didn't say anything.

I kind of just shut down. I refused to correct anything unless it was something truly screwed up. We would do "check-ins" with the managers once a month, and I would always tell the truth, but I wouldn't argue with them about it, so it would normally go something like this:

Them: X, y, and z are what's wrong with this place

Me: Oh well, here's some excuse for why x, y, and z aren't actually what's wrong.

Them: Okay

I worked twice as hard as anyone else because I knew everyone hated me, so one step out of line and I would be out the door. In the end, I just grinned and bore it until I got a new job, and I didn't ask for a reference.

ephony5

Oh man, where to begin...was working at a company till May of 2022. Within 6 months of joining, the people who hired me quit and took 2 of the designers as well. The new HOD who came on board did not want anyone from the old team and so the slow torture began. 

I’m a marketing manager who was reporting to a stylist and getting feedback on copy. The work started to dwindle slowly, and any attempt by me to ask or find out from the HOD or reporting manager was met with silence or ghosting. 

Found out there was a parallel team that had taken all the work. Slowly, the rest of the people left in my OG team also quit. Reached out to HR and told him to move me to the parallel team. Literally had to share my resume with a bunch of people in the company again to show them my experience. 

HR ghosted me for a week, and when he finally picked up, I just let him have it. Finally, HR decided to "move me" to the other team and was again assigned a new reporting manager who literally made Dolores Umbridge seem gentle and caring.

This manager again was the biggest witch of them all. Made life hell. Micromanaged everything. She would give me hell for making simple PPTs and changing the position of a header.

The PPT had to be like she made it. 

Then they said I'd have to move. I said ok, but I was assigned Bangalore when I joined so gave a slight revision in salary. That was also met with not even a no. They just kept avoiding giving an answer. 

Finally, one of the decks for a collection I was making on Google Sheets, couldn't add some screen recordings due to a glitch. This was something completely not even needed as the deck, when presented, showed the demo of how the collection would look well enough. 

But nooo she wanted the screen recording to be also there. Told her this is the best I can do. She then proceeded to remove me from the collection presentation and delete the deck I made. Still, I attended the presentation and saw she presented my deck only. 

She openly gloated that she almost made me cry twice in front of a colleague. I reached out to the HOD, and all she did was oh.. I'll give you a new reporting manager. The only solace for me during this tenure was the design team. There are some amazing people there who saw what was happening, and we're supportive. 

If there is an actual hell, I'm sure it's this.

ethan301

From my ex-companies, start-ups:

The first was a service platform in Malaysia. Commission-based, however, commission calculation was never disclosed properly, and once I dug in deeper I realized the commission was given out wrongly. However, no compensation was made from the company to give us back what we deserved. 5 years ago, it was a startup with 5 years of life. Now, it still calls itself a startup and pooling up funds from crowdfunding.

The second one was an internet and advertising agent. 

The commission promised via WhatsApp was 20%, but when it comes to paying out, it is only half. Once, I went to the site to check on the advert that I sold, only to realize it was never displayed. 

I think they are using this arm to wash their black money. Bosses psycho you and ask you to work harder, "Focus on the business, not the problem."

Pivoted out of sales and probably would never go back. Unless I'm doing my own business

Cruxbff