I wanted to share an experience I had at my job that opened my eyes to some serious issues in the workplace.
My boss had limited technical skills and all he did every day was say yes to whatever his boss asked and then pass the tasks down to us. When we needed his support to coordinate with other departments, he would side with them, leaving us with no support. My boss lied about promotions and raises to the whole team multiple times during the performance review cycle. While other departments received financial recognition, no one on our team did. He promised me a raise if I worked hard on a major project, so I put in long hours and gave it my all. But after the project was completed, instead of receiving the promised raise, I was laid off.
This experience has made me realize that the hiring process is fundamentally flawed. Hiring managers can do extensive reference checks on candidates, but we have no way to conduct a solid reference check on our future managers. Sites like Glassdoor or Blind don’t provide the detailed information we need, and LinkedIn is often just a platform for mutual praise. I had no idea I was going to deal with this kind of manager when I first joined the company.
Has anyone else had similar experiences? How did you handle them? What steps did you take afterward?
Thanks for reading and letting me share.