I started working for this company back in 2019 and I saw so many red flags in the first few weeks but I needed the paycheques. I told myself I would keep looking regardless. When Covid became more mainstream in my city and cases were on the rise, upper-management and most of middle management disappeared overnight. We were told a lot of them were on vacations unrelated to the covid situation, or had doctor's appointments. Some wrote some emails about how their kids school were now closed and how imperative it was that we continue to show up and they were scrambling for a solution. The government imposed restrictions on businesses but they told us these restrictions didn't apply to the business as we were considered an essential service, all lies.
They started bringing us gift cards or buying us lunch to thank us for coming into work. The company essentially made us expendable until the company secured enough hardware to get us to work from home. Sporadically we would hear about plausible positive covid cases in the building. Keep in mind this company makes billions of dollars of profit every year and there's definitely money. Eventually we all were put on WFH and we saw some very rocky months at the beginning of Covid. Basically upper management had been WFH for at least a month before any of us were given the resources. The part of the business i work in doubled in sales and volume but I also saw half my floor quit. Micro-management intensified and everyone knew they spent so much time spying on us, private conversations were made public. The worse was how management delayed hiring to replace, I saw my workload become the workload of 2-3 people. And it got worse before it got any better.
Unironically, as time went by, the situation actually got better. When those people were eventually replaced I could still see myself doing 120-130% of my regular work load but it was significantly better. People were genuinely happy to work from home, whether because of no more commute and costs or the extra time. Employee turnover actually went down. But just before the holidays we got an email from upper-managment that sounded a lot like “we've heard you, we will start offering split shifts and evening shifts soon”. I honestly couldnt find a single person on my floor asking for this. In february they started forcing people to these schedules. In february I got an email saying I would be forced to one of those schedules very soon and not to share this email with anyone. At the end of February I got another email saying I would be forced back to the office 2-3 days a week. I knew it was coming, lack of transparency and accountability… If anyone made a list of what a Toxic Work Place environment looks like, I'm sure this place would meet 90% of all these criterias. But, since the holidays I had been applying for other positions internally that were to continue WFH. I interviewed and presented, shook virtual hands, talked to my manager and those managers, I wasted so much time trying to move within the company. My applications were all rejected. I called HR and basically forced them to tell whats going on, they explained to me “your department isn't allowing anyone to leave”. So three weeks ago I scheduled a 1-on-1 with my manager and wanted an explanation, I showed him my results, I showed him my work load, I showed him everything he wanted to see, all the goals and hoops he had made me do and how i had completed them all. How i showed up early to work everyday, how i worked through my breaks and ate my lunchs at my desk while answering emails and writing back to clients. I wanted an explanation as to why I couldn't move forward, his only response was how we didnt have the staffing levels to let anyone leave. I was outraged.
I gave them my two weeks, they scheduled four meetings with various managers to try to convince me stay, telling me how when things were back to normal where I could potentially go, how I was overeacting, how my name was circulating in inner circles and how everyone only had good things to say about my work. Unfortunately for them before giving my two weeks I reached out the person who had trained me there and they had given him the same speech, and how he had given them another six months but nothing ever came of it. I've been unemployed since the beginning of this week. My mental health has improved substantially in the last four days. I sleep better, i'm already eating healthier, I feel like I'm in a better mental space. and I only blame myself for sticking around in a shitty situation for so long. Time for me to grow and learn new things. If anyone is on the fence about leaving their job, leave your job you will find something else with better working conditions and with better everything.
TLDR: I ate dogshit for 3 years for a company that prevented me from moving forward so that they could force me into a horrible schedule that also included me returning to the office so i gave them my two weeks.