Might be a longggg rant.. Bear with me… I work in IT industry. Back in 2019, due to foolish management decisions our amazing company (with the best people and best workplace and best environment) was forced to sell-off leading to massive global lay-offs (albeit with lots of money to people who were laid off).
I was forced to look for a job as we were in the midst of selling off the old apartment and acquire a new one. Finally after 100s of applications got a new job.
It was a bit different than the old one but as the set up for the project(s) was totally new, it was a good learning experience, initially.
I was a mid-level employee, one step below the lead. All was going well and then we hit lockdown (Covid). We started working from home with rotational shifts. The work was amazing. The team started increasing as the workload did and I (and a dear friend) used to be right hand for the manager and leads for trainings and handling priority work.
Then came the micro-management, the horrible politics, undermining the capability of the team members. Not just from the leads, the manager, but the project head too.
We were asked to submit an email with what tasks were performed and how much time it took, at the end of the day. Had to sit to numerous rant meetings and listen to unnecessary escalations. Work started getting boring, useless and non-learning as we were forced to do the same things day-in day-out (btw this kind of work is not exactly what the team should be doing with our skillset).
Meanwhile, as I was due for promotion and was working really hard at whatever I was given, I was promoted to lead with another friend.
And then we got to know the real politics. I never mind doing any kind of work but we were expected to do literally entry level stuff (which an intern can do) just because we were the right and left hand for the manager and we were trusted a bit more than others.
Leaves (which are a part of contract) were questioned, sick leaves too. Moreover questions were raised if any of team member contracted covid and was hospitalized.
The work environment became so toxic that many employees were frustrated. We saw 4 back to back resignations.
My husband got to know about this and told me outrightly that if need be, I should feel free to resign without a job in hand if I want to. I had his full support to do whatever was best for my mental health. (I cried once or twice due to the work situation)
We were made to extend work hours by 2-3, sometimes 4-5, and still somehow the whole team got bad reviews. Our small breaks, lunch breaks were monitored from minute to minute (even when we had enough strength to not hamper work if breaks got extended by 5 minutes)
I made my decision to start looking out and gave a few interviews. Finally got an amazing opportunity and resigned. This came a blow to the team and many had already resigned and I was the most tenured in the project. My friend meanwhile moved on to a different role and we were free from the toxic environment.
This may not seem as toxic (after I reread my post) by my style of writing, but believe me, I still am in touch with my ex-team members and people who have resigned are really happy.
Btw happy human here — 3 more newly promoted leads resigned. Fireworks 😀