On mobile, sorry about the format. It was a bit longer than I thought it would be. Tldr at the bottom.
An hour ago I quit my job as a freight company customer service admin. When I first interviewed for the job I should have taken it as a red flag. They barely spoke about my CV or my work history, I think they glanced over it and saw that I had a forklift licence which made me a better candidate than some. In stead of talking about my work experience they wanted to inform me that they are a like a family, a rag tag bunch of kids who like to banter. They said if I had thick skin I would work well with them as customers can be angry. I slightly expected that having thick skin would also apply to the work place but wasn't 100% at the time.
I had my training day, it was a straight forward job. Inward and outbound calls to customers about their deliveries or booking in jobs. Super easy to pick up, the two programs used were probably on the more basic side of programming I've used in the past. It took less than a day to have the hang of it.
Of course there was the usual office banter for a small company, being Australian, swearing and name calling weren't a huge thing. It was embarrassing though when on the phone to a client, hearing someone boisterously yell out “fuck you” to another person in the office, and hoping the client didn't hear it. What caught my attention was one of the men jokingly being called a racist. I didn't hear the initial comment so I am not sure what he said, or if it was just the girls picking on the boys but I bookmarked it a red flag.
Next up was another male co-worker, when shown a photo (that I didn't see), decided to loudly respond with “what a bunch of f*****ts!”. There was a red flashing light going off now. He also included some choice words about a female co-worker who wasn't present. It's a shame because he seemed so kind before that. We had a few nights where finished at the same time.
Onto today, I was sitting at my computer making the usual calls to clients and our boss walked out and loudly exclaimed something sexist about a woman who had alleged that a AFL player had assaulted her. I honestly don't remember what was said as I simultaneously blocked it out as the anger and dusgust grew. I do remember the others in the office encouraging the sentiment, including other women, which was rather shocking but not surprising.
I quietly started to put all my things in my bag. Being discreet as possible. I didn't want to alert to anyone that I was packing up. I went to the office of my boss and flagged him down that I wanted to chat. He was busy at the time, so I went back to my desk and continued to quietly pack and inform my partner of my decision. I love them, their suggestion of staying and recording the conversation as evidence to destroy them were entertaining and very tempting but by this point I felt so sick being there that I just couldn't. They love antiwork, as do I. Making a post was a must. We have been dealing with a large amount of bigotry in our lives and it really gave me the confidence to speak out rather than suffer people who have zero respect or regard for anyone.
I finally met with my boss around 10 minutes later. I promptly told them that due to the behaviour of the office that I couldn't work there anymore. That the examples I have given above were disgusting and I wouldn't be able to sit there day to day knowing the people I were working for were okay with blantly exposing themselves to be the pieces of shit they are. That when I was interviewed and told to have thick skin it doesn't equal suffering through their bigotry for the sake of “family”. I informed him that his comments this morning where the last straw. He try to offer an explanation, calling it “not and excuse” that something had happened with his son and he wasn't in the right state of mind, I told him it was an excuse. If the situation with his son is bad enough that you can't filter making a sexist comment about a women who was assaulted that he shouldn't be at work.
I let him know that it was a sorry excuse for a work environment and maybe the next hire wouldn't be do easy to walk away without leaving a mess behind them as they go. He told me that he would take the matter seriously and follow up but I honestly couldn't believe it since he was happy to join in.
Am not happy to be looking for another job but I couldn't stay there and silently play witness to people being downright horrible. Here's hoping the next job is much better.
TLDR: quit job because thick skin apparently meant dealing with bigot behaviour not with rude customers. Peaced out an hour and half of work this morning.