I’m 23 and recently I finished my first job experience. I graduated with Masters in Business Administration and been working in sales for 6 months. I absolutely hated the work environment. I was getting anxiety every day before work because my manager was an apathetic asshole. He would make me (and other girls too) feel bad for taking a sick day, asking questions like „are you sure you’re sick?”.
When I first joined the job I was full of enthusiasm and wanted to give my 100%. I proposed a lot of ideas but I was ALWAYS met with negation and rejection. But then, in 6 months when a new higher up manager joined the same ideas that I had were implemented and suddenly my direct manager thought they were brilliant. Things like this were happening constantly. He would walk over and look at what I’m doing on my screen, monitor my activity from home, send me messages „Enough chatting, go back to work” (but not to the other person).
Now I’m starting a new job which is on paper ideally aligned with my education and interests but I’m scared I’ll create this barrier myself. I feel like my opinions are not worth voicing anymore, I don’t feel like I bring any value. I’m scared of arguing because in my previous job my manager would go on a 2-3h rant and sometimes I’d stay an hour past my work day just because he misunderstood my question.
I feel like because I’m young, older people at work also were constantly making tons of assumptions instead of just listening to me. I don’t know how to appear more… with authority? So that people take me seriously (also bonus points, I’m a woman). I feel confident in my knowledge, I grew up with business people, I have a very good intuition when it comes to business / marketing decisions but because of how I was treated I constantly doubt myself… Help.
Sorry for the long rant, this community has always been my safe space when I worked in the toxic environment so I hope someone been through something similar…