My last job was working under optometrists in a private clinic as the pretesting and front desk staff.
During my interview the manager asked me how I handled conflict in the work place. I gave a typical answer but stated “the only thing I cant handle is being yelled at but this doesn't seem like that type of atmosphere”. Well let me tell you it was, and looking back the look on his face said that.
The doctors I worked under were inconsistent, irritable and just terrible people all around. The manager that hired me was the husband of the doctor that owned the clinic (so I learned quick i couldn't go to him for solutions).
The lady who trained me was hated by them and she left a few month after we came back from the shut down cause she was starting to have anxiety attacks due to the treatment she was getting (she had been there close to 10 years). I took over her position with maybe 2 months of verbal training. I thought I was handling it well but it just started spiraling.
I would clarify with one coworker how to do something and then I would get yelled at by the doctor for doing it wrong so I'd ask them and either they would tell me or be mad that I didn't know how they preferred it done. This way of learning maybe worked once or twice until they started changing their minds on procedure and not telling me. And this isn't like textbook rules, its personal preferences on how I interact with them.
Ex. I get there before everyone and test their patients and put them in their room before they arrive. To avoid issues I asked the owner “would you prefer the patient in your room or waiting outside for you when you arrive” she said in her room. Cool np. Fast forward 2-3 months of me doing it this way for her to come in one morning and scream at me for putting the patient in her room because that's where her medical masks are. I tried to defend myself saying we discussed this and you said thats what you wanted but I can change how I do things so we agreed on the latter option and she left in a huff.
I thought I was pretty good at the job but the doctors slowly broke down my confidence by screaming at me over nothing or things that I didn't do, telling people infront of me that I'm “lacking common sense”, talking about me behind my back etc. (On top of this acting like my friends on breaks and stuff. I started eating in my car to avoid them)
Most workers in the clinic were treated this way except two gossipy girls who could never do anything wrong but I swear I got the most hate from them. I was considering quitting for maybe 6 months before I left but stayed because I loved everything else about my job and the pay was good.
Well the plan was for me to be on contract for 18 months and maybe be hired permanently if the girl on mat leave didn't come back to work. Well surprise she didn't cause its a terrible work environment. I was under the impression I was staying so I would talk to my manager as if I was going to stay on longer than the 18 months. He corrected me and said “you'll be done in August when your contract ends” okay fine im good with that I dont need this job. 6 months later hes asking me if I had plans for after I was done working there and I said no (I saved enough money to be okay for a while so didn't line up concrete plans). He wanted me to stay now because they are short staffed (they had been trying to train people for 6 month and they kept leaving haha). I asked if they would give me a raise (which I should have already gotten as per our interview discussions but that never happened) he said they would bump me up a dollar. It wasn't worth the stress in the end so I declined and now I'm just so happy not to have to deal with their bs on a daily basis
But part of me wishes I would've left sooner and made it apparent how crappy they were treating me