I was “let go” from a job I recently took despite my best efforts and in addition to being a horrific bait and switch, it was the most miserable workplace I've seen.
I was capable of performing the work – they made it seem like a project management team job in the interview and when I got there it was basically a glorified call center.
Some red flags, so you might notice them too. Some didn't seem like a big deal to me, until I realized that I was being made to feel different about them –
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On the pre-boarding phone call, my boss advised me to “not wear anything like I would to a nightclub”. It was an office job. I wore a suit to my zoom interview.
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My boss tried to get me to start immediately. I was still working and had a family vacation planned already. He asked me to reschedule my vacation, I politely said no. He asked me to start the day after I came back from vacation, I offered a few days later, which he refused and insisted instead on me starting much later 'for payroll'.
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In the interview, he described the job as if I would be a contributor on a PM team with minimal to moderate public interaction. When I got there, it was a glorified call center that was public facing all the time.
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Again, it was made to sound like a more complex job. The introductory email my boss sent to the team said at least 3 times that my role was 'administrative' and I would be doing largely 'administrative tasks' like ordering office supplies.
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I was told telework was possible, when I started I was told no telework for 6 months. The only person in my job classification wasn't allowed to telework but the rest of the entire office was.
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On my first day, I was told 'dont get fired like the last guy'. Not exactly a warm welcome. Turns out, he was fired for leaving 2 minutes early.
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Turns out my dept had the 2nd highest turnover in the organization. I can't imagine why, smh.
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Everyone but me had a commute of 1-2 hours. They were miserable about it.
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Half the women in the office got pregnant very young and treated that like an exclusive club. I love kids, but they're not for me. Saying this was met with silent glares and huffing.
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Most people were related or married to someone who worked for the organization. A point was made for me to state in my first week that I “didn't have anyone at the company”.
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Most of them had never gotten a job on their own or didn't have any qualifying work experience so much as they got pregnant by someone who already worked there and applied. Some of them were supervisors.
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The employee training me told me on my first day that “no one would see me as trans because I look too feminine”.
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I'm not trans, nor did I try to discuss my identity (NB) with her. She continued to use she/her pronouns with me and sigh and glare whenever using them. I don't use she/her but I would just shrug it off and say “it's fine, srsly don't worry about it ” because I didn't want to make waves.
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My manager refused to use my chosen name despite my request. It was posted all over the company directories on my first day. I asked the HR and IT employees to change it and they refused “because state law”.
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State law REQUIRES them to use my chosen name. When I politely pointed this out repeatedly and eventually had to involve higher ups, it was begrudgingly changed.
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People would still make a point to use my deadname or mock me when I introduced myself by asking if I was “sure” what my name was “because I read it was something different somewhere else”. I'd just play dumb and say “yes, I'm sure”.
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Everyone worked through lunch and considered that normal. They didn't expect 15 minute breaks.
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Several of the employees called the assistant supervisor “mom” – I did not. I found this creepy and gross.
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Everyone worked at least 1 hour late at least twice a week, often for free, and seemed mad when you didn't.
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Everyone except me and 1 other coworker was morbidly obese and denounced things like healthy eating, exercise, etc. If someone was trying to eat healthier, the assistant manager (over 300 lbs) would bring in donuts and wave them in front of the person.
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Again, their husbands worked for the company. They had no real relevant education or experience to the job.
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Weird racial things – insisting on having a manager 'inspect' or 'send a crew to check' on a construction project when the house was in a predominantly Black/POC neighborhood but smiling and glossing over shady renovations in privileged, White neighborhoods. I saw it so many times that I can't write it off as coincidence.
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To that point, any time donut manager would badmouth someone in another dept I would look them up in the work directory. Every time, the person she was badmouthing was Black or Brown. Again, not a coincidence.
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They did not listen, at all. Which is weird for a call center. They would just talk over customers and ramble a bunch of redundant contradictory phrases until the customer said ok and hung up.
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Unrealistic expectations – if I didn't say or do things EXACTLY as the person training me did or say them, I was told that they were wrong and I wasn't 'getting it'. However, my approach was proven effective and helpful to customers.
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The employee training me was MISERABLE, every day. She was very insecure, and would get mad at me for knowing how to do basic computer functions. Ex: if she was training me on a task and I pressed Ctrl+n to create a new email instead of clicked “new email” on Outlook, she'd get frustrated and make me start over doing it her way.
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That same employee openly talked about how no one wanted to work in the dept and how high the turnover was, etc. She would tell management to their face how she was applying to other jobs.
It was not a culture fit for sure, but they didn't have to drag it out like they did. I graduated high school quite some time ago, and had never felt like I was back there again until these past two months. Insane.