Hi everyone – idk if I’m posting to vent, seek advice or just to gain some courage to actually do what I need to do and that is to quit..
M24, got hired to fintech/legal firm startup in Central Europe during Covid, where I joined 3 people (owner, his right hand and one post grad). Started on a salary €700 per month and today I am on €1,300.
During this entire time, the post grad co-worker left due to toxic behavior from owner’s side and is still on a therapy till this day.
After that, owner hired 2 more people and that is the current situation. There has been too much toxicity and manipulation to my name from the owner, hidden in motivational bull$hit and empty promises.
There has been too many red flagged situations which I have unfortunately overlooked. I will give you few examples;
1.) I had just one actual vacation and that has been in 2021, where I got my a$$ busted because I wasn’t online all the time (went for a week vacation). After coming back from vacation, I had to be at the office as usual even my flight landed around 3AM and it wasn’t initial deal to come to work on that day, but the owner got crazy that I wasn’t working on my vacation so they had to deal with “that behavior” immediately.
2.) Need to communicate with customers on the weekends and till evening on the workdays even when not urgent at all.
3.) Insane micromanagement even after me being basically irreplaceable since I cover most of the company’s portfolio.
4.) Need to work on holidays, such as Christmas Eve, etc with no additional compensation.
5.) Almost zero possibility for working remotely at least few days in a week even though 90% of workload can be done remotely.
6.) Tried to quit early this year, but have been told that I am overreacting and surely love this job and that they can grant me home office day in a week, where I am predestined to feel guilty about it since I’m the only one granted this “privilege”. (besides the owner who hasn’t visited office for 2 years).
These are just few situations which happened to me personally. I would be here forever if I had to write down all the nonsense, unprofessional and rude behavior which I’ve seen happening there.
I knew from the start that working for a startup doesn’t go with the most healthy work culture, but manipulating your hardworking co-workers by saying we are co-owners, even we have never seen any shares contract and having no overview or idea about the company’s cash flow, nor owner’s salary – really doesn’t compensate the startup toxicity.
The owner has been always so ambitious and convincing, that I just got trapped and now I’m on my fault because haven’t stood up for myself enough and haven’t left earlier. Now I am just very desperate, tired and depressed and feel trapped more than ever. Simply can’t decide whether I am being delusional at this point.
Thank you to everyone who took time to read this.