Stories About Real Toxic Work Environments People Have Endured

People work to sustain everyday lives, and it is never easy. A healthy workplace is an essential part of an employee’s life.

However, not everyone is granted a good environment workplace as toxic people exist, and these people from the Reddit Community are just some of them. You might want to check these out!

1. Badmouths

You can tell a lot about a company by how a company talks about its bad employees. 

My current company had someone who was let go for performance and they just kept it short and simple by saying “She’s a great person, some things just didn’t work out.”

Whereas at my previous company when there was someone who got let go for performance, it was non-stop badmouthing going on a tirade about how they were an idiot and messed things up. 

It was at that point I knew that I was now in an actual proper company culture with my new company.

OrganicHearing

When the manager no longer likes you. 

You can see it in their interactions with you, the way they deal with conflict, the way they talk to you and "manage" you (often the signs are subtle, but sometimes more overt signs slip through).

Sometimes you just have the ability to "read" the room and get a sense of what the vibes are like without much being said.

FastForward42

I was a manager of a department and one of my staff lost a parent. I approved 2 weeks of PTO so they could take care of stuff and grieve. They called and asked for another week which they had available but HR had to approve anything over 2 weeks and refused to do so.

About a year after this I lost my stepfather. 

I was also in grad school while working so deadlines were going to be missed all around because of this. I was told to just let us know when you’ll be back and handle your stuff. They didn’t even charge me pto.

I left about 6 months after as I couldn’t work somewhere that blatantly treated employees differently.

thrdroc

Me and a girl in my team both had the exact same medical treatment done at work. I got mine for free because the manager liked me… she had to pay 50% for her treatment.

When I asked why, I was given some roundabout answer about why the other girl had to pay. 

I asked another manager because I wanted to understand the staff discount policy… 

Turns out the other girl was charged purely because the manager didn’t like her.

iamavine212

My father had a heart attack, requiring surgery.

I was denied a day off for his day of surgery because "there's nothing I could do there anyway".

I shut down after that, disconnected, did the bare minimum, and got a new job a few months later. Dad's okay too thankfully. Family over job every time. 

Yes, I took the time off too. 

ThrowRA-454

When your boss makes you do his job.

Despite not training you, even for the things you are required to do and after you learn to easily do both jobs.

He hires his mistress, for higher pay and makes you do her share of work too.

[deleted]

Could it be when the owners verbally abuse each other in front of the staff? Or the complete lack of training I received? Or the fact that I was told “breaks are only for “the kids”? 

Or when three of “the kids” all quit a month into my time on the job? Or when the owner said that offering a bathroom to employees was a privilege that we should be grateful for?

 And in spite of all this, I was told “This is supposed to be a fun, relaxing job!” after an eight-hour shift on my feet without a break while constantly ringing up sales while my manager was nowhere to be found. 

When I started taking a Klonopin before my shift I knew it was time for me to go…

SuchMatter1884

I have been through the worst of it. 

You know it is a toxic work environment when you don’t feel comfortable asking questions about your job because you feel like you will get snarked at for doing so

When your manager compares you to other people. When your manager is overcritical of your work and there’s no such thing as pleasing them

It really a toxic environment when they use fear and intimidation to motivate you (for example: bringing up how a previous employee was let go for the job you’re currently doing because they couldn’t perform)

Holding previous mistakes against you when you’ve demonstrated that you have rectified them

OrganicHearing

The first sign was when I was warned not to use 'Cheers' as my email signature by another employee--my boss also happened to use this and it was 'her thing'.

This same boss later asked me to make changes to a newsletter draft our team was working on. The CEO hated these changes and tore into me in front of my boss and the rest of our team. 

She never spoke up or clarified that these were changes she wanted. This person was also in charge of my onboarding. It was my first job out of college, and a fully remote position. 

I barely lasted six months, lol.

jordan78745

I knew it was a toxic work environment when I realized people would just call me to vent about other departments. 

We'd get jo work done on the phone call. It was pretty soon into my working there - maybe 6 months. I should have seen this as a red flag. 

But I ignored it.

KaleidoscopeLucy

I knew it was a toxic work environment when in one job, my supervisor flew into a vicious, violent rage that left me terrified. All I’d done was ask him where the blank time cards were.

In another job, the lawyer I worked for screamed in my face so close I was covered in spit and called me a useless jerk. 

All because he lost a file in his pigsty of an office and decided to blame me.

In my last job, when my boss took advantage of me and my work ethic. I’ve been self-employed for decades now and will never be anyone’s employee ever again.

[deleted]

During my training, the girl who was teaching me the systems said, "Just a heads up, this is the most toxic place you will ever work."

Half a year later when I got promoted to being a training manager, I made sure to repeat her message to all the new hires.

berkeleyjake

When I got injured so badly from a manager messing around that I have and never will fully recover. I’ve been in pain ever since. I’m now disabled permanently and totally.

Even though I won my case, I also learned that workers comp is a freaking scam and literally no one is faking disability.

 I never get a moment off from the repercussions of that person’s behavior.

And I’ve never told her. She was young. The owner was goading her on. 

I figure why ruin two lives?

KarmaPharmacy

When you try to tell your boss some critical info they blow you off repeatedly. Then after months you finally are able to tell them, and they freak out, saying I should have told them sooner. 

When I pointed out I had been trying to talk to them for two months, the response was “It’s your job to make me hear you!”

Is it? 

YouKnowYourCrazy

If it helps in any capacity, we're all experiencing the same thing. And if you even slightly mention the difference in treatment between you and other staff everyone goes to the end of the earth to justify their behavior. 

The best advice I can give is to speak up. Say what you need to say professionally. And disagree if someone tries to discredit what you're saying. 

Reality will prove exactly what you're saying.

No_Albatross_7532

When I worked at a daycare my friend/coworker reported to my boss that she saw one of the teachers kicking a 2-year-old. My boss responded with “Maybe you should learn how to mind your own business and stop spreading rumors.”

They never looked into the case. I quit that same week. For different reports of abuse brought by parents, an investigator came in not long after I left. I do not know what happened. 

Worst place I ever worked for.

Admirable-Yam-4767

Day 1. My micromanaging coworker (team of 3) refused to acknowledge my existence. 18 months later she became my boss.

Our team of 3 became a team of 2 with me doing the work of a team of 3 because every time my boss hired someone, they would inevitably quit within the year. We went through 7 different employees in 2.5 years.

The nail in the coffin was when I discovered my part-time subordinate (him male, me female) was earning waaaay more money than me with less responsibility and zero prior experience. 

When I mentioned it to a coworker from a different department, they warned me not to bring it up to my boss, because it would be a breach of contract and grounds for termination. Instead, I asked for a pay rise. 

I ended up with a promotion... for 30c an hour more than I was currently getting, and it still didn't bring me even close to my co-worker's hourly rate.

At that point, I was done.

Momentoftriumph

The job was constantly short-staffed at this healthcare facility. Staff brought up multiple times that the workload wasn't sustainable and we needed the empty positions filled (we had a feeling she wasn't filling them on purpose). 

Close to the holidays, the manager emailed the staff and told us we should be thanking her for all the overtime everyone was doing and to stop complaining. I felt so defeated. 

A few months later a coworker tested positive for the flu and had to call in (if you didn't give over 24 hours notice you were going to be sick, you'd be written up). After he called, she went around the office bad-mouthing the sick employees for leaving us even more short-staffed. 

That place was so toxic and I'm ashamed I stayed there for so long.

TactlessNachos

CEO called an all hands to tell us that with the money he personally made from this company just this year he bought himself a beach house in cash. 

Awesome. The real motivation, man. 

This was the ONLY item on the agenda. He called a meeting to tell us this and adjourned it. Fudge that guy with a cactus. 

If you have a beach house good for you but don’t interrupt my day just to brag.

Fusional_Delusional

When their ego gets in the way of managing the company well. I worked for a company where the CEO thought he was amazing like Steve Jobs. He always shared these cheesy inspiration posts but basically ran a corporate sweatshop.

There were always bad reviews and turnover because of the toxic work environment but he tuned it out of most the time. One time he did throw a fit over it though and said we were replaceable. 

After the Pandemic hit, employees were quitting more often and thus less expendable. So he pretended to care more and begged us to submit anonymous reviews. 

Once he read all of them, he was indignant and offended, pouting during the meeting and saying that other companies are worse.

Hwanaja

I quit when my manager made it obvious that she saw me as a threat. She kept telling me I was, "intimidating." 

When I told other coworkers what she said they actually started laughing because I am NOT an intimidating person, but I could run circles around her and she hated that her boss liked me. 

She went after me like I was enemy #1 even though I was her top performer and yes I was the only POC in the entire dept and only one of three POCs in the entire organization.

peonyseahors

My boss always defends and sides with the outside salesperson, who literally does zero work yet makes a 10% commission off of every sale made under one of his "clients", when in reality my coworkers are the ones who do all the work.

And our boss knows this is going on. It's been brought to his attention dozens of times.

 During a major fight one day, that outside salesperson had the audacity to call my supervisor, who helps almost all of his clients when they come in, a "fat bum", a "pig", and told her that she needed to take Xanax.

My boss is literally spineless

jmertack1

You know it is a toxic work environment when you’re fresh in orientation and walk into the room where your preceptor is talking about you while laughing and says sarcastically, “Well it’s their license on the line, not mine!” after I unknowingly documented something incorrectly. 

This could have been a helpful teaching moment but instead, I realized I was on my own.

throwRA009090

You know it is a toxic work environment the moment you start hearing people make passive-aggressive comments…OR…the odd submissive behavior from coworkers who are hesitant to speak up. 

They’re like conditioned beaten-down animals. 

Both of these types are part of the problem until they either work to make changes for the better or leave the job.

kmookie

I lost the Halloween costume contest despite getting the most applause during the voting process.

I was fully dressed as a well-known cartoon character at the time complete with full face paint but lost to a guy wearing blue spandex shorts over a blue body suit with a rainbow-colored afro wig on his head.

He didn't even know WHAT or who he was but the manager in charge of awards gave the $100 gift card to him instead of me. I got a stress ball or some crap for second place. I don't even remember now.

I left a few months later, but that was the moment that made me realize that no matter what I did there it would never be enough and management would ALWAYS find a way to screw me over.

Legion1117

When employees in cliques would try to get other employees not in their groups fired. 

When your boss would bring something up she could only know if someone ratted on you. 

Also, when the same people you work with overly keep track of what time you come in, leave, etc. 

Employees who have been doing the most basic tasks for 10 years complain that other employees who have been doing a task for under a month don't understand it.

DiscussionLoose8390

When I am blamed for not doing my job since I don’t have the equipment to do my job, after I have requested several times to have my equipment repaired or replaced, the one blaming me is the one I had put in the request in with.

Holy crap can’t believe I burned my mid-twenties with that crap.

Helpmepullupmypants

I knew I was in a toxic place when I realized that work started going from before the morning rise to well after the sunset, then when I mentioned this was unsustainable and was worried about my mental health, I was told, "This is what we're all doing. I don't want to be working this late, but we have to". 

So yeah, when my mental health took a nose dive to the point where I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety I quit. 

Never looked back at that place.

CyndeXO

When you get a job they will tell you that you will be next in line to become manager when your boss retires but no one is preparing you for the job. My boss didn’t want it to be me. 

And then the district manager who told you that you will be next gives the job to her friend and claims she had more experience. That’s your friend, sis. Stop lying.

And your actual manager tells you that you drive her crazy in front of others instead of addressing any issues you have with me in private first. It was like a public roasting. 

And then when the meeting is over and everyone leaves she tells me “Oh by the way “we” won the contest.” Our store got a $200 gift card for my window artwork and she waited to tell me when others weren’t there. 

So she wanted to acknowledge my failures but not my successes around others. 

And of course, everyone got to share the money! But I never got a thanks or great job in 7 months.

When I got passed up for the manager spot I left in one week and got a new job. Went from 16 to 25 an hour. All she said was why didn’t you tell me you’re looking for a job!? 

And she asked where I was working and I told her and she said: “Never heard of it!” I don’t care…You heard of it now because that’s where I’m going. You suck.

Also, I stole the employee she just hired because she was the only person who worked there who actually did her job. So I have her working for me and I’m paying her more and giving her more hours! 

Revenge is sweet.

itsalwayssara

When my boss called me into his office to ream me out for working at a different office one day a week - something that he and I had agreed on me doing because I had a member of my department there.

When I reminded him of that, he didn't believe me and said that people in the office were complaining about my weekly "absence".

Good thing that agreement was on my annual performance plan that he signed. He didn't apologize.

Later found out that it was one person asking about why I wasn't there once a week - and it was the office backstabber. I should have known. Unfortunately, she was excellent at her job and management couldn't bring themselves to fire her. I think she saw me as a competition.

Anyway, I knew then that things were not gonna go well for me. Started looking around and found a new job, and none too soon, as it turned out (but that's another story.)

jupitergal23

So many things. The worst was asking us (teachers) to pledge donations to the school's fundraiser and encouraging 100% participation from the staff. 

They would even "deduct from our paycheck to make it easy" for us. 

Many teachers were pressured into doing so and expressed regretting donating when talking one-on-one. 

Add in the "we're a family" bullcrap, cliques, and favoritism, it was all such bullcrap.

tauravilla

Lack of respect for boundaries. Had a job where I had become the "go-to guy" and it was a 24/7 operation. I didn't, and still don't, mind taking escalations in my off time for things that are legitimately important. Life safety, environmental concerns, etc. That's not what I'm getting at.

People would call me at 11 p.m. on a Saturday night to ask if I could find something in our ordering system they were curious about. The same ordering system they had access to. 

Essentially they were asking me to do something simple for them, when I'm in bed with my fiancee on a Saturday night, because they were too lazy to do it themselves.

Not just one or two people. This was a consistent thing for months until I had finally had enough. It wasn't like I was bending to their will, either--I'd tell them it was something they were fully capable of doing, but if it was that important and difficult then they could send me an email and I'd get to it on Monday.

I sent out correspondence to the entire leadership list informing them I would not do simple things for people on my days off, let alone my nights, and that all of those asks should be through email because they were the farthest thing from time-sensitive. 

Nobody, including senior leadership, attended to that minuscule level of respect I was asking for. That's when it was apparent it was time to leave.

As far as I know, that organization is suffering from a lack of effective leadership now. The people who get things done have all fled, because of the same lack of respect that drove me away. 

It was a great company with a cool vision that I'd hate to see go under for such a simple cultural fix, but we'll see what happens in the next couple of years.

Beautiful-Page3135

First day on the job. 60 y/o employee says about another employee, “Don't talk to that guy. He steals food and leaves coffee cups everywhere.”

Turned out, there was a faction of old people who didn't like one particular old person. 

That one old guy was pretty awesome to talk to.

dorluin

I'd been at this job (stage technician) for about a week and the Production Stage Manager (immediate manager) came back from vacation. Our crew was very small: PSM, Calling Stage Manager, me, and 1 A/V tech. 

She pulled me away from everyone else, put her hand on my shoulder so I couldn't move, and said verbatim "I am the ONLY person who can protect you. We are a family here. You HAVE to trust me." 

Immediately realized she was a toxic witch but I gave it a chance because I was loyal to the Artistic Directors.

She turned on me about 3 months later when I said I was getting burned out from being the only deck tech and having to learn everyone else's job to cover their days off while every request I put in for time off was denied. 

She threw my ADHD diagnosis in my face saying that's why I was having a hard time because I couldn't concentrate and I needed to try harder.

I put in my two weeks' notice on her desk the next day. She is the only person I would wish a painful death on.

Xerphyne8201

The weekend after my orientation for a large well-known hardware store. It was Saturday night, my orientation days were Thurs/Fri and I was coming back Monday for my first day on the floor as a cashier. No training yet, just videos. Saturday night they called me and asked me to come in and cover a call out lmfao.

Then literally my second day working on the floor I was scheduled an 8-hour shift. 

Some people had called out so the head cashier told me it was too busy to take a lunch today, don’t clock out, I’ll just have to work through my lunch.

Sorry???? I’m fresh outta video training that told me I’m REQUIRED to take at least 30 mins for an 8-hour shift. 

That place was a big yikes.

zootedzilennial

When a co-worker got angry at me for not saying good morning and yelled at me in the office. 

When I went to speak with my supervisor about it, she brushed it off like no big deal.

 That co-worker gives me looks and makes me feel uncomfortable going every day. 

Luckily I have a few weeks left until I give my 2 weeks' notice.

Few-Champion-4894

Hold my novelty mug of coffee.

I was literally forbidden to talk out loud. I don't mean we couldn't sit and chat for ages, I mean "How was your weekend" "Fine" was called disruptive. People would walk in and say it was creepy in our department.

We were to be at our desks and logged in at 8:00 a.m. We took breaks in 3 shifts of 15 minutes starting at 10 am and 3 pm. Lunches were taken in 2 shifts at 12 and 1. The next shift could not leave until the previous shift had returned. 

Our work was not time-sensitive, customer-oriented, or required coordination between people. These rules were entirely arbitrary. Any late time was to be made up on Friday evenings and arriving early did not change matters.

Bias was considered a valid decision-making method. I was advised that psychological manipulation was the only way to advance my career. By emulating the boss in subtle ways you carter their favoritism rather than teaching managers to objectively evaluate performance and talent.

I was outright told that refusing a transfer to another city was chosen to be excluded from consideration for all other promotions and raises. This was not part of an offer, this was part of a management training program so that we all understood the "effects decisions have on how people view you professionally."

If an employee turned in notice they were to be assigned the most demeaning tasks possible. This was under the guise of "protecting company information" but it was just a display of power for someone leaving.

I was taught to recognize signs that an employee was job hunting and advised to deny requests for time off, demand they come in if they try to call in sick, and try to interrupt phone calls they take on lunch/breaks (phone interviews).

We were not to give recommendations to former employees. The official stance was that a manager should refer questions about employees to HR to confirm dates of employment and nothing further. Anyone providing references was harassed and given menial tasks.

mike_d85

Working for a company in 2006. I had the most unprofessional boss ever. She addressed everybody with the attitude of "You dumb motherfudger, why are you even talking to me?" It was so uncomfortable. 

She'd ask me to leave if she didn't like my haircut, or if she thought I was 'dressed weird" (WTF?) 

Numerous calls to HR about this woman and I even saw a Glassdoors review where she was named by name. 

She called me about a month ago asking if I wanted to come back. I told her she was a repugnant individual and that I would never work for her again. 

Felt good, man.

[deleted]

Worked as a cashier at an international market near where I lived. It had a great customer-side experience, but management didn't give a damn about the employees. 

The owner never made any quality-of-life purchases and just kept making additions to the store to make it crazier. 

Registers were on an outdated system (same as the store that used to be there and went out of business 6+ years ago), schedules were frequently wrong, turnover was ridiculous, head cashiers basically bullied people, and so on and so on. 

It got super busy frequently with little-to-no support (ex. no baggers), meaning you had to close the transaction all by yourself while coping with the aforementioned slow system. 

Not very fun.

ninth9wonde

Worked for a famous Italian kitchen. We have 3 colleges in the location they opened, corporate decides the scale of the restaurant based on some model of projected sales over a quarter. 

They...uh undershot, and didn't anticipate the city population tripling during college season, and opened during Parent's weekend for each of these colleges, they exceeded the year's projected sales in 3 months due to volume alone, 

There were regular walk-outs from staff, hosts in tears, Adderall flowing through the place from management, just to keep things running. They tripled the size of their truck orders to account for the book, instead of doing multiple deliveries a week, so every Thursday and Sunday, the freezer and walk-in were stuffed to the point that nobody could get in, FOH was treated like royalty, so they always asked BOH to go into the walk-in and grab anything for them.

So we would lose a prep/pasta/soup person for 6-10 minutes at a time to get a freaking dessert.

 Managers were in charge of freezer pull so they could count products and show everyone how to sort, as soon as the DM left, this was relegated to literally anyone who didn't know any better.

So it was usually left until the last minute, and prep constantly ran late because of this. Garbage regularly piled up at the back door and typically blocked the fire exit, nobody but Dish ever did anything about it, and management (who are the only ones with keys to the rear exits) had to accompany anyone who wanted the backdoor opened.

FOH regularly stood in the door while trash runs were happening to talk to the manager about getting cut early and BLOCKED THE FREAKING PATH OF EGRESS WHILE PEOPLE WERE TRYING TO REMOVE THE MOUNTAINS OF GARBAGE!!! 

Oh, and because management didn't do their counts during freezer pull, anyone working closing shifts usually had to stay late so they could count product then, instead of when they were supposed to.

nahuatlwatuwaddle

Being the only guy in an all-women business is just awful. Especially when they're at the two worst ages, too old or young and stupid.

Every day went like this, one 50 y/o woman is witching about men, then all the gender studies major 18 y/os egg her on, then they all smugly look at me doing all the work.

I quit that job a day before the holiday rush so they'd have a terrible time.

TommF

We made IV pharmaceuticals. Every day we were behind schedule type of hectic. Scheduling was set for optimal no-down-time everything-goes-perfect schedule. It never ran that way.

Machinery required 125% uptime to get everything out, and some of the machines were twice as old as the high school graduates running them. Any time anything went wrong, somebody had to be blamed so there was a ton of finger-pointing between departments.

For the 3 years I was there we had no plant manager. For the year and a half I was in management we had meetings between every shift. At every meeting, one of the VPs called in and berated us for not meeting the goals for the shift/day/week. 

I was told that before I got into the group he would curse and swear at people until HR told him he had to stop.

Everything had to be documented, and all that documentation had to be reviewed. If something was awry it had to be corrected, which often meant a 40+ hour investigation as to why somebody didn't sign for washing the ceiling this week (even though they did). 

More often than not the answer was to let the employee go. This wasn't just grunt-level operators, I saw several supervisors canned because they wrote the wrong note, or used an incorrect adjective on some paperwork. 

Every day was terrifying to go in because you never knew if something you did the day before was going to get you fired.

VerbableNouns

I had just started with a new company and the girl who was training me kept giving me incorrect or not complete information. I wasn’t sure if it was on purpose or not so I just went to others for all my questions. When this girl found out, she started to weasel her way into everything I did. 

She complained to our boss (who was good friends with the girl's mom so our boss favored this girl more) and I had to have any document I made run by her first before I could distribute it even though I was a much more thorough editor.

This same girl tried to fight for a combined cubicle for me and her.   

I fought it (because her desk was always cluttered and she takes her shoes off to air out her smelly ass feet) and our boss decided to do a half wall between us. The girl would lean over the wall and watch what I did on my computer and critique it all day.

A couple of months after I left, they put the girl into part-time work and then found out she had been awarding federal grant money to some programs that had never applied. There were also incorrect spreadsheets on the grant distributions, which she was in charge of.

I had actually never had a lot of backstabbing experience until that job and now I’m pretty cautious of others.

[deleted]

I worked in loss prevention at a large retail store.

Now the way this store was structured, for each theft risk level, they could employ X number of LP and give them Y number of hours. So my risk level was pretty low so I was the only LP associate and was allowed 24 hours per week.

So after about 8 months of being there, we do the annual inventory and find that the amount of loss was less than the previous year. Job well done right?? Nope! That means our store is now at a lower risk, so let's cut down those hours!

So yeah, because I was good at my job, I had my hours cut. I quit about a month later.

YellowShorts

I worked at a thrift store for my first job. Ended up quitting after a month. My boss would never let me know ahead of time when she’d be changing my schedule, so I was constantly having to jump through hoops to keep up. 

She’d leave early every weekday and never, ever show up on weekends, so she was difficult to catch for any sort of discussion about my work (and I think she wanted to keep it that way.)

I was also being openly bullied by a coworker and no one would help me. This same coworker was in charge of my training for racks and dressing rooms and abandoned me in the middle of a rush with no help. 

She’d occasionally come back with remarks like “Oh, that’s not gonna cut it,” “I’m not walking that far, get someone else,” and “you need to do better, everything’s a mess.” Well, no joke, you gaping, soulless vacuum—you left the newbie you were supposed to train alone in a warehouse-sized store in the middle of the busiest hours of the day.

Later I had a back injury that slowed me down considerably, and she very pointedly mocked my limp, even as I was doing all of her work for her. Between the boss’s utter lack of communication, my coworker’s constant badgering, and the general unsupportive environment, I consider it a miracle I even lasted a month. 

I’ve since found much better people who give me the proper professional guidance I need.

Wraith-caller