I need to vent sorry for such a long post, Tl;dr at the end of the post
I started working at an AML (anti money laundering) company 5 months ago. Even before I started, I noticed couple of red flags, but was desperate enough to take the offer. Boy, do I regret taking it.
Context: I live in Poland, which, as a “poor” EU country is more often than not utilized as an offshoring/outsourcing haven for western corporations. The company I work for is actually German but was acquired by an American counterparty and I work in a project for an American Bank.
Ok where do I even start with all the wrong things about the company. First of all they tell us to come for 8.5 hours but they don't pay for the 30 minutes break within that timeframe, this is not a standard in my country and frankly, before I started working here, I thought it was illegal. I was salty about that but it was a challenging time in the market so I sucked it up.
Then the remote work, we were promised to WFH whenever we wanted, well, they lied to everyone during the interviews. It turned out that, despite rapidly growing number of covid cases, our American client didn't want us to work from homes for “internet safety” reasons, meanwhile all of our American colleagues were not only allowed but often strongly incentivized to work remotely. The dynamic of them being better than us was felt by everyone. Poles already have a weird fetish for the USA imbedded in our culture (mostly because people here view America only through the lenses of Hollywood Blockbusters) and unfortunately it was somewhat emphasized in our work environment. Many of us already felt treated as unequal peasants, because we couldn't enjoy as high of a pay or possibilities as our American colleagues, but we also experienced a lot of patronizing behavior from some of them. They often came from the States to Poland to control us, they were writing people up and reporting to HR for bullshit (which is also a big no-no in Polish culture, as we experienced an authoritarian regime with snitching etc.), for example they escalated one poor lady from the Administration because some other dumb worker felt too hot and messed up with the thermostat (despite everyone being informed it's against the rules). Whenever they came we were not allowed to talk Polish in their presence as it apparently offended their ears because they couldn't understand it (I do understand that it is impolite to talk in a different language when you're hanging out in a mixed group, but for God's sake it was frowned upon even when we were just chatting by our desks or in the cafeteria). Do not get me wrong, I have nothing against foreigners and I always stood for multiculturalism, immigration, freedom of movement, accepting the refugees, etc. It just pisses me when the westerners come and think that Poland is just a shithole with untermensch apes as a population and you can do with us as you please. It pisses me even more when Poles are swallowing the western spit, calling it rain and licking their boots. They tend to put themselves in the position of servants before the Westerners even say anything. It is just sad that the only person the Americans treated semi-equally was a Canadian-Polish girl working in our office. Even though she was in the lower position, they often referred to her more than to our team leaders and supervisors.
To be honest though, Americans had it fucked up too, the company forced them to work in our time zone, but from America (meaning they had to wake up around 3AM and work until 1-2 PM their time), most of the people working there were nice (even if also patronizing), so I just felt sad looking at growing bags under their eyes.
Well besides that the company was also in a constant state of utter chaos. Poor management meant we were moved between desks and teams numerous times, I didn't know who my team lider was, I didn't know who I can voice my complaints to or where I can call in sick or report vacations etc. They made us sit through hundreds of hours of training, where some sections were repeated to us numerous times. Then they trained us how to do the reports for our alerts, then they changed the trainers and what they taught us earlier directly contradicted what the newer trainer was saying…
They have also conducted a thorough background screening on every one of us, this is also something almost unheard of in Poland. They asked us to write down every f.cking address we lived under in the past 10 years, every employer, they asked us to apply for criminal record ourselves, then apparently didn't believe us and asked us for permission to run it again on our behalf… Holy f.cking shit, this is insane, how the hell “the most free” nation on Earth, who loves privacy and hates invigilation so much allows such things and normalizes it?! It added up to a very bitter taste in my and my Polish coworkers mouths. At least the funny thing is that I used to study in Greece and Greek offices aren't very fast with providing information, so I was waiting more than a month for my background screening process to complete. By the client's procedures it meant I couldn't even participate in the trainings anymore, so I was sitting there and doing f.ck all, they got mad at me for not doing anything so they were forcing me to listen to the podcasts created by the CEO and his buddies, lmao. Btw the reasons the trainings took that long were that the company ordered laptops from abroad, forgot that UK is no longer in the EU and things like custom duty exist. So everyone was just forced to sit through various trainings, mock alerts and CEO's podcasts. When my background screening was complete, my laptop came and they threw me straight to the production, without even going over the stuff other people learnt when I couldn't be trained with them, so I was also being scolded on top of that for not following procedures I was never taught in the first place.
The production is fun too, they increase the targets each week, complain that we are not meeting them (although I somehow manage to do so) and also make it harder to meet the targets, as per agreement with the client we have to often complete trainings from the bank we work for. I shit you not, some of the mandatory trainings are just fucking ads for the bank's products! It is even funnier because that bank does not exist in Poland and we have no way of even using their services, even if we wanted to.
Finally the Covid in Poland became impossible to ignore with the overwhelming numbers of daily cases (we even had some people getting sick in the office), so they sent us to work from home and guess what?! They could have done it since the beginning but didn't want to! However now for whatever reason they threaten everyone who doesn't meet their targets that they will be forced to return to office if they don't keep up with the production (some folks have been punished already), there are constant talks about eventual return to office (for no fucking reason) and they even dare to tell us that COMPANY CARES ABOUT OUR HEALTH! I should also mention that the production goals are hard to keep up with also due to the fact that company's software is antiquated and often glitches and breaks (some of the apps use Internet Explorer exclusively ffs).
The most infuriating parts for me however were the paid leaves and pay inequalities. I shall start with the latter, I learned recently that some of my colleagues who aren't even close to meeting the daily targets earn more than me, I also earn more than some of my even harder working colleagues. I was furious, but there is no way I could ask for a raise as I know I would be laughed at or scoffed by the management immediately.
About the paid leaves, as a Pole I do enjoy the right to have 26 days off per year (public holidays and sick days not included), however the management makes it as hard as possible to go on vacation, because, and get this, THE CLIENT HAS THE SOLE RIGHT TO APPROVE OR DENY OUR VACATION, holy f.ck can you imagine going to Walmart, slapping a $100 on the table and telling the cashier that they can't leave until you tell them to? This is a terrible situation because the client considers the days off at the last possible moment, e.g. meaning that some people didn't know whether they could go on paid leave on Friday until Thursday. You can imagine how that may fuck with your plans as you risk having to try to refund tickets, hotels etc. I personally had to cancel my vacation plans because they took too long to consider approval.
Fortunately I interviewed and got a new job at a 36% pay increase and way better benefits, my friend works there and recommended the company to me and me to the company. Unfortunately I can start on 15th of March, therefore I still need to work in the shitty company for more than a month and meet my crazy targets or otherwise they will punish me by sending back to the office, plus they are gonna call and scold me everyday, which I can't fucking stand. I would survive without their pay, but I have some goals for this year and need money, so I am kinda forced to stay and suffer. What makes me smile though is that most of my colleagues are already looking for a new job and some have already put their notice in (if you look at LinkedIn many people who work for my company have #opentowork on their profiles, even my Team Leader XD), so I guess the company will be even more behind the stated goals and targets and hopefully they will pay a hefty fine to the client.
Thank you for reading my vent, here's a cake for you .
TL;DR Vent: I work for a shitty company, that treats us poorly and we were treated as just mere subjects to foreign masters, so I found a new job with much better pay and benefits. Unfortunately it starts in the second half of March, meaning I have to still work under my current employer and I am sooo not motivated to do that.
P.S. Sorry if the grammar is off, I don't care, I'm not a native English speaker.
P.S. 2 I am vaxxed and boosted but I know that nothing protects you 100% and you can still contract it, plus some morons in my office aren't vaccinated, that's why I was a bit afraid to sit there in the office all day, everyday.