I worked for a medical device company for 6 years. It was my dream job. At first it was exciting and very fulfilling. Everyone had a “grind” sort of mindset, but we worked with honor and took pride in what we did, and shared the wisdom we gathered through experience. We felt valued, appreciated, and well-compensated. It was amazing.
Then, a bit over 2 years in, 49% of the company was sold to a private equity firm. And things became noticeably downright awful There were no more company-wide parties, raises didn't keep up with inflation, more demands from higher-ups, and worst of all – everyone became extremely jaded. Employee turnover skyrocketed. There was no more pride in our work. “Just do the best you can” became the mindset, while we were given targets that were impossible to achieve without sacrificing our mental health, and significant personal time.
And then covid hit. The president of this company stubbornly refused to acknowledge the pandemic at all, and refused to provide us any masks, while we employees were forced to continue working in operating rooms without any PPE provided by the company at all. The president had the gall to cite CDC masking recommendations, (which were for normal everyday people, not operating room/hospital personnel) as an excuse to continue working as though nothing had changed.
They fired me for raising concerns about the company putting us in blatant danger, and not following OSHA regulations about providing adequate PPE. This company became unrecognizable compared to when I was initially hired. It was devastating in a lot of ways.
My question is: what are the telltale signs you look for, when a company has become a private equity hellscape that starts to treat their employees like downright trash? More importantly, what's the best way to warn other applicants to stay away too?