My story is pretty simple, and from the looks of it, far too common as well. I worked in a toxic work setting for about a year. I was originally brought in because of a reference and decided to make the move because of the better title than the job I held before this said job. I did take a very small pay cut to come to this company, but I suspected the new title would pay off in the long term.
From the very early weeks I knew the job would be problematic, with my boss asking me to miss my gfs birthday dinner on a Saturday (work hours m-f 9-6) because of a mistake he had made to one of our models. Throughout the year it only got worse. I actually really liked my boss and I think he shielded me from most of it, but it was still hell.My new hours became 9-9 on a nightly basis, with multiple 1-2am nights on a weekday, with the full expectation to show up to work a mere 7 hours later. Dinner at the office became a given. I had no life for about a year, to the point that I had to ask my gf every weekend how her week went because I was unsure what happened during the week. I gained around 30 lbs because I had no time to go to the gym and I was in a terrible mental state. I had never suffered from anxiety before but now even the most common of tasks would make me extremely anxious.
My breaking point came when one of our 2am nights we finally sent the finished product to my bosses boss and at 7am he replied with “the is unacceptable, please see my notes”. Not a single thank you, ever. The finished product was perfect, and every single one of his notes was cosmetic. This guy would argue against himself constantly and never know where he ended up landing on, which would then be “wrong” when we submitted exactly what he asked for. I showed up to work that day and told my boss I would be looking for other opportunities and that if he wanted I would stay on the team for the time being.
My boss promised me our hours would revert back to normal and gave me a promotion and a raise. I was asking for 20% more than he gave me, and he said he got the max he could for my new title. A week later another company in the area gave me an offer for 65% more than I made in that year in hell. I decided to leave and was questioned heavily by my bosses boss in my exit interview, with passive aggressive comments like “don’t you think we expected you to stay for longer than a year when we originally hired you? How do you think this will affect the company?” Not my problem.
To this day they have backfilled me twice, with neither candidate lasting more than 3 months. They call me on a monthly basis and ask me to come back for the same amount I am currently getting paid. Today I work half the hours I used to and have since been promoted and make almost twice what I used to.
Last week I spoke to my old boss and found out he actually quit himself and found a better position in another state. Some of my former colleagues mention that the guy I hated will mention that he used to have a good team but that they were quitters and gave up on the vision for the team. He’s probably going to get canned soon for completely ruining that department. One bad person in a high level job can single handedly ruin the organization.