I keep getting hired at toxic companies and I'm not sure what to do.
I (27/f) just put in my two week notice with my current organization. I am currently a Content Marketing Manager at a small marketing agency. I don't have another job lined up yet, but I do have savings and wealthy parents who offered to support me while I'm in my job search. I wouldn't have been able to take this step without the privilege of financial stability.
My current organization has a toxic work culture. I started to notice it in Feb of this year, but I ignored it until around May. It started to impact my mental health, to the point that I almost (probably should have) been hospitalized. I was suicidal and had a psychotic episode where I thought everyone except my husband (34/m) and I were replaced by robots. Below are a few examples of the toxic work culture.
Men are praised for the same things women are scolded for, such as putting in hours outside of traditional office hours. Women get asked, “why did that assignment take so long? Are you not able to complete your job during your allotted hours?” Meanwhile, men are praised for their hard work for putting time outside of office hours.
The company is having some financial trouble. Instead of the CEO talking about his poor business decisions, he said that this was because employees were not working efficiently. The CEO doesn't charge clients when we go over scoped hours, even if we went over because the client had ridiculous requests. In my case, I was blamed for not doing the assignment as requested, even though the major client requests/edits were nowhere in the original project brief.
A coworker I trained made a major mistake. He blamed the mistake on me, saying I never trained him on this. I went over this task with him in a meeting between the two of us months ago. I couldn't prove what was said in the meeting. However, I did have evidence that I emailed a Word document with step-by-step instructions, including screenshots, on how to complete this task. He said he never got this document. I had proof I sent it over. Despite this, folks said that it “wasn't enough” and I obviously should have gone into deeper detail in our training meeting. My coworker took no notes on the steps.
At my current job, I was put on a Performance Improvement Plan. The results were not measurable. I felt this was just a sign for me to leave, that I was going to be fired. I resigned so this way I can spin the reason for leaving how I want.
When I started at this organization, it felt like a completely different company. It felt like my department changed after my first supervisor left. Then, around the same time a member of the executive team passed away in an accident. It was heartbreaking, he was only in his 40s. Since then, I'm on my third supervisor. No one has filled that exec's position.
My previous job was alright. The reason I left was because I thought working at a marketing agency in a manager-level role would be a better step for my career. Plus, I was getting paid about 20% more. My last workplace was really nice, had a ton of work life balance, and let me be independent. However, I felt extremely underpaid for the amount of work I did. There was also no upward mobility, unless I transferred to a different department.
The job before that was my first job out of grad school. It was at the corporate headquarters of a nationwide retail business. They had no idea what they wanted out of this role, so the job responsibilities were revised several times often not in my favor. Eventually, I began to struggle with having different or new responsibilities basically every month. There was someone who was previously in the position who wanted to come back. So, they put me on a Performance Improvement Plan. They flat out told me, “This is a sign you should look for new jobs ASAP. We will be filling your position after you leave.” So I took the first thing that gave me an offer. Admittedly, I took this job because it was far away from my hometown (my university I attended for both undergrad and grad school was only an hour away from home). I wanted to leave and did anything to get out.
I've only lasted about 1.5 years at each of these organizations. I want a job that's more long term without a toxic work culture. How do I stop getting into these situations? How do I screen for red flags during the interviews?