I used to work for a small law firm where all the employees and managers were all immigrants from English-speaking countries and the boss was from the US. She hired a new office manager on the basis of his MBA from some random university state side that I had never heard of. As soon as he arrived, he created such a toxic environment, demanding that people work overtime even though the pay wasn’t competitive, etc. Apparently, I went to the toilet too often even though my tasks were all done on time… He told me that since we didn’t have enough staff, I would need to take my lunch break at my desk in case someone calls… Legally they’re allowed to only give you 30 mins for lunch here, but it boils down to what as a skilled worker you’re going to accept. I got invited to a termination interview, which I think was solely intended to scare me into being compliant and accepting their conditions. Ultimately, I quit on the spot when they gave me the summons to the termination meeting because the work environment was giving me anxiety and with my skill set I could quite easily find a better job with better pay elsewhere. The office manager who fired me was suddenly scared that he didn’t have enough staff and told me that I legally had to work my 7-day notice, but luckily for me my doctor was quite happy to give me a sick note 🙂
The boss was seriously passive aggressive. At one stage she started blanking me, issuing me tasks in the 3rd person by CCing me on emails. She also incessantly made racists comments, for example everything that wasn’t as white/European/North American as us was “ghetto” in her words.
While I was working there, the other employee doing the same job as me was seriously unsatisfied with the job too and had mentioned to others in the work sharing place that he was looking to leave too. I don’t know if he ever did, but if he did the boss would be in dire straits as she’s far too obsessed curating her media presence (interviews, podcasts, social media etc.) and doesn’t actually know how her company works.
I have a job alert on LinkedIn for the company and I love seeing that after almost a year, my position is still vacant. Working there, I had become friends with the secretary of the worksharing office we worked in. The secretary told me that people in my job constantly left after short periods of time because the boss was completely bonkers and the environment was too toxic.
Now, when I interview for jobs I am extremely cautious about accepting a job where the manager is from North America. They seem to have this weird idea that they’re doing me an enormous favour by hiring me, even though my skill set is quite in demand…