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Probably the one where I was the first only female and dealt with annoying micro-sexual-harassment on the reg, to the extent that a sympathetic coworker pretended to be my boyfriend so the others would leave me alone. Later came unwanted sexual advances by the assistant manager, who was eventually fired, followed by relentless retaliation by him and his wife (who believed I made the whole thing up), until I couldn’t take it anymore and quit.
My previous job was an insane asylum. Management was utterly clueless about how to do anything effectively and we the employees suffered for it on a daily basis. It would take too long to list everything that was wrong, but here are a few examples.
We had a "big boss" who had very unrealistic expectations of how things should work, and he blew up on a daily basis over every little thing that went wrong. However, we also had senior managers who would bend over backwards to make sure he was happy, to the extent that no matter how unreasonable his requests, they'd say yes and we'd get stuck trying to pull rabbits out of hats. I learned much later that he might have been more reasonable had we been allowed to talk to him directly. Maybe.
Also, the owner and his top people were very fond of coming up with new projects (or radical changes to existing projects) on the fly and expecting us to jump through whatever hoops were necessary to make them happen immediately, no matter how much time was actually required. And we were expected to keep up with the daily workload while making these impossible tasks happen.
I could go on and on, but you'd get bored I'm sure. I finally got a job at a "real" company in 2016 and life's been a whole lot better.
First one was quite a few years ago when I was working as a production supervisor and fairly new as a supervisor. The manager I worked for spent most of his time trying to sabotage others, playing nasty little tricks like stealing their stuff and breaking it, calling in false reports on the ethics line. He was a real 'gem'. We had a payroll manager walked out in handcuffs because she had embezzled money for years using 'ghost employees'. The shipping supervisor was geeked up on speed most nights and one night he freaked out and drove a lift truck through the bay door. You would think that he would have gotten in trouble--nope, I was the one who got yelled at because apparently I should have been watching him. Blatant racism, sexism, and ageism--and multiple EEOC suits. I was so happy when I was able to turn in my 2 weeks for that place.
Second one was with a sociopathic plant manager. The quality manager ended up resigning without another job lined up after 20 some odd years of being there because psycho plant manager over rode the quality manager and shipped the product that the quality manager had said might not be safe. He did this repeatedly and the quality manager couldn't live with it. Psycho plant manager lost his mind over the quality manager walking out so kicked in my door and started to scream about the quality manager quitting and how I had better do something about it. The union came in and of course because the plant manager was such an arse-hole, they were voted in. From the get go it was miserable with constant labor disputes. Lots of incidents with the plant manager screaming at one of his supervisors out on the shop floor or screaming at an employee in front of everyone. Incidents with the plant manager getting right in my face. Finally told him that he couldn't keep screaming at people/antagonizing the union/getting in my face. He had a fit and fired me on the spot. Oh well, it certainly improved my health and stress level
I did a number of years managing in production facilities, including running night shifts. Fortunately I can't match your toxic examples but I can say it's a totally different environment than professional office settings.
What I saw on a regular basis- Gossip, rumors, backstabbing, undermining, great effort in doing as little work as possible, devil's advocating simply to be an a$$, sneaking smokes in non-smoking areas, product theft, lunch theft, time theft, and the stealing of my soul.
My last three gigs have been cut short due to insecure ****ty managers and leads. Got the best news ever today. My current manager decided to make a move to another company. The guy is an absolute micromanager with little to no clue about the space we are working in.
What is the worst, most toxic work environment you have ever worked in?> How did you get out of this work environment?
I'm working in a toxic environment right now. Was once a really fun, great place to work. Now, it's horrible and I am down right miserable. Luckily, I have another job getting lined up, so I will be leaving soon (hopefully on my own free will). But, everyday, I down right dread it.
There's only been one other environment like this that I had worked in before, and I eventually was forced to quit that job. Turned out to be a big blessing in disguise, and I'm sure this will as well, but why do people feel the need to turn a great workplace into something horrible?
Well, if I worked at a chemical factory or power plant, that would be the most toxic work environment I would have worked at.
My last three gigs have been cut short due to insecure ****ty managers and leads. Got the best news ever today. My current manager decided to make a move to another company. The guy is an absolute micromanager with little to no clue about the space we are working in.
Cannot wait until his exit.
Just caution that his replacement could be worse. Be careful don't celebrate pre-emptively....
Such an overused vague term; toxic. It could be anything from a superfund cleanup site (that IS ACTUALLY toxic) to a sharing a cube farm with someone who spends hours yelling on the phone. It usually takes more than one side to make a toxic situation. Your idea of toxic might not even register with someone else. Kind of hard to comment either way.
I'm curious, why do you believe it is a great observation? Do you think those who get bullied share in the blame or are they victims? Do you think when someone gets robbed or attacked, they share in the blame for that crime? Or those who are in abusive relationships? If the answer is no, then why do you think those who are victims of a workplace environment that has become toxic must also shoulder the blame? Because, that is what the poster of whom you 100% agree with is saying. If you are being mistreated at work by management, through no fault of your own, do you think to yourself, "Wow, I must've done something wrong." No, you stand up for yourself, especially when you know you've done nothing wrong - unless you have such an inferior complex about yourself that you have an inability to stand up for yourself. In that, case, that's a totally different issue.
As far as the term "toxic" being overused to describe a bad work environment, too bad. Most people understand the terminology. The term "toxic" is best used, because what is toxic? Toxic is usually something that is so unhealthy, it can cause major illness or in some cases, death. In a bad work environment, the stress can cause health issues - mental, physical, and emotional, and there are times in which it could also cause death. This is why people use the phrase, "toxic work environment", because it's really the most appropriate phrase to describe such an environment.
I work for an employer that has been around for 100 years. I don't know what they were like during the golden era. The way it is now is very much like being part of all the worst times during high school and middle school. My place of employment is also a morally bankrupt company. It's a company that is rife with misconduct with pseudo diverse environment. None of the women who work there are ever promoted to positions that carry any weight. It's nothing but a bunch of neanderthals who have been buddies since forever running the show. The practices where I work are best suited for clown school.
I did a number of years managing in production facilities, including running night shifts. Fortunately I can't match your toxic examples but I can say it's a totally different environment than professional office settings.
What I saw on a regular basis- Gossip, rumors, backstabbing, undermining, great effort in doing as little work as possible, devil's advocating simply to be an a$$, sneaking smokes in non-smoking areas, product theft, lunch theft, time theft, and the stealing of my soul.
Oh trust me, all of that stuff above (with the exception of smoking in non-smoking areas and product theft) goes on in many, many so-called professional offices, in fact most of the ones I worked in. I worked with plenty of CPAs and people with master's degrees who had the mentality of junior high students.
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