What made your job unpleasant or toxic for you?

[HeyArnoldHey]

Leaving my job and handing in my notice tomorrow. Feel so relieved but still somewhat nervous. I feel this place will have really effected my mindset and hope it doesn't damage me in my next role .
I thought I'd start a thread of what made your job unpleasant or toxic to you and why you moved on or are planning to? So I know I'm not alone!

For me.......

• micromanagement to an inch of its life. Manager must know where we are constantly with high intense details of our personal life. Even wfh we have the message her when we go to the toilet Via messenger for no real reasoning . We must account for every task in our day and how long it took on a tracker . Multiple check ins a day even when off sick we will get a few texts , how are we? Are we back tomorrow? Have we been to the doctor?

• mixed feedback. Given feedback for x . Will action then told they no longer want me to do x . Then a month or two later. Why am I not doing x ?

• ideas are apparently encouraged but the minute you have one, manager will take over and tell you exactly how to do it until the fine detail allowing no room for your own creativity to flourish. It stopped me wanting to put forward ideas as you don't get to fully see through what you hoped.

There's more but I don't want to be too outing

One new colleague who was a nightmare to deal with and dangerous in as much as he used to try and trip you up, find perceived mistakes and could wait to tell tales to supervisors.

Management wouldn't deal with him, this is a man who had breached GDPR, committed offences and been caught out lying all of which are known by management and amount to gross misconduct but he's still employed.

I left before I physically assaulted him.

Conflicting priorities from senior management, also lack of respect and impossible workload, not able to actually do my job and late home every day, no opportunity for promotion due to cronyism. Awful, glad to move on.

A manager who was awful. A bully, a liar, arch manipulator and who definitely had a "your face doesn't fit" approach.

She's managed to bring a number of "friends" in around her do her stupidity is pretty much hidden.

There have been so many complaints about her, I'm baffled as to how she's still in the organisation. Thankfully we are in very different departments so our paths do not cross these days

The drama. We're told we need to do some work. Manager sits on it for days. Then 2 hours before it needs to be done is on your case to drop everything, urgent, urgent, this has to be done in 2 hours, when it's a 3 hour job that could have been done last week.

My forever job was ruined by the toxic Director - I was the manager. He would take you into his confidence, praise you for your excellent skills and express such earnest gratitude that you even existed, that you'd be floating along with your own magnificence.

And just as you reached peak self-confidence, he'd smash you down - suddenly being utterly vile and rude and/or trashing an idea or decision or piece of work, totally unprovoked and usually in front of someone else. The subsequent sending to Coventry lasted for a protracted period of time, to the point of falling silent and staring when you walked into the room he was in.

And then it was over and he was all funny and friendly and reliant on your brilliance again, insisting on cosy private chats about how shit everyone else was and how glad he was that you were there, and you'd be so relieved and confused that you'd be taken in and gratefully lap up his attention and the scraps he threw for you. He could make you feel like the most interesting and clever person he'd ever met, you were his right hand person.

But soon your punishment for an unknown crime would come back around, so on it went, round and round, building you up to tear you down. I lasted 3 years and lost count of the number of times I absolutely sobbed driving home. I ended up with zero confidence and it almost ruined me - but I didn't let the fucker beat me, I have a great job now and I know myself.

It's been 8 years since I walked away - I grieved for it like the end of a relationship, I still miss the job itself and what could have been - and he's still there, dishing out the same treatment to the poor bastards who will never have the confidence to leave because they have been conditioned into thinking this is all they're good for.

we too have to advise when we're at the toilet and explain why if they think we've taken too long. I get some people take the piss but they can see from records the ones that do and dont*

This made me laugh more than it should have.

Those pp working under this ridiculous regime, if you get another job do you use the notice period not having the camera on, not saying when you’re making a cuppa or going the loo ?

Some of these are so awful! How do people get away with treating people this way!

Also, I feel the really horrible colleagues , managers etc never seem to get their comeuppance . They seem to rise further to the top in most cases..... shame !

I was alone in a small office with a colleague who would not stop talking. Mostly personal stuff. It was like working with a tannoy - except that you can turn a tannoy off!

I would ask her to be quiet while I finished typing something or counting and a few minutes she would start up again. I felt like hitting her. I took to going to the student drop in center to complete my work.

When I asked the line manager to have a word she just kicked it into the long grass. The day I was blamed for "chatting" simply for answering this chatterbox I just got up and walked out of work. I sent the manager an email telling her why - because "Else" (not her real name) just would not shut up. Again manager failed to deal with it.

Eventually I was moved into another office - a much bigger and noisier one but at least I could get on with my work.

Current job and never had this issue before in similar circs.

Team was 3 blokes me. Great team got on really well. Worked together appreciated each others skills etc. Really good positive feelings all round. Frequent drinks together. Chatting about all sorts. A bit of women/ phwoar her on the telly/ football (yes plenty of women into it I'm not) but I'm used to that in career and no probs. Go on too much about something actually any of us might say anyway! After eg hot lady chat for a bit.

Anyway.

Two more chaps joined from related org and whole dynamic changed. 20 mins football start of meetings. One of them rude/ dismissive to me not quite obvious though for everyone to notice. Very much alright lads thanks chaps.

Just balanced changed and not their fault at all but it feels like a blokey team and I'm not invited iyswim.

Never ever had that happen before and career all male dominated etc.

Annoying.

One of my first managers who was permanently pissed all day, made a black coffee when he walked in the office first thing that never really went down despite him drinking it all day, he was topping it up with whisky or Vodka, he would pick on the member of staff who he thought wouldn't fight back, he started picking on me, I was one minute late (by his watch) coming back from lunch, I took too long doing a job (by that time I was so paranoid I was constantly checking everything twice) I hadn't said good morning, I didn't ask his permission to go home (I didn't have to) I was going home in tears most nights, my dad decided he had seen enough of me going home in tears & rang my manager's manager (I was only 18, it was my first job) My boyfriend waited for my manager to arrive in the pub next to work one lunchtime & had a quiet word in his ear, the next day I was moved & never looked back, the manager was sacked for gross misconduct, he had been fiddling his time records & several other things, he died not long after, he had drunk himself to death. I always say what comes around goes around, he got what was coming to him.

@BadlyFormedQuestion

The people, the ingrained toxic culture and horrific management.

This sums it up.

Toxic culture is so hard to overturn, it takes real effort.

Slagging of other staff. Trying to drag me into it. It's dragged me down so much, it's making my chronic pain worse and I have had to have time off. I just cannot stand that kind of person. Yet everyone can not do enough for her!

One particular salesman who disliked me because I am 'posh' - which, I think, meant I had a degree on my cv and he didn't

Briefing against me, lying, endless snide comments, pulling out of meetings and events at an hour's notice to wreck them.

The relief when I left was fabulous, like suddenly being rid of a big tadpole-filled headache.

A strange place where the husband was the (enter healthcare profession here), his wife was the manager, brother worked there too and most of the other staff went to the 'mum and dads' house for meals etc. So so strange. Basically we had to blow smoke up this guys ass like he was Charlie and we were the angels.
They didn't stock uniform over a size 12, comments were made that they had to order mine (16) in 'specially'. I had worked in a similar business for many years and this wasn't a business that provided essential medical care, this was a vanity project. They sacked me five days before Christmas as 'there wasn't enough work for me' and then readvertised the job a week later, I think my face didn't fit.

NHS setting but not acute. We had a rota for checking the crash trolley every morning before any patients arrived, always someone who was in first thing. Manager changed me to a later start, 2hrs later, but still gave me crash trolley check. I didn't check trolley as assumed it would have been checked by someone else 'before the first patient' 2 hrs earlier. Apparently it was now my job to check that someone else, not on the rota, had checked it 2hrs earlier. Her logic was laughable but we were not allowed to question or suggest. She was as thick as 2 short planks and sat in her office on the Internet while we ran about running the show.

It was procedure for the HCA to run the taps and check the fridge temperatures every morning. HCA was on holiday so I was given this task. Ran taps and boiler broke because HCA had not been running the taps, just signing to say she had. Checked fridge temperature and discovered one of the fridges had bern unplugged for several months but HCA had been recording fake temps on all fridges.

Brought this to the attention of said manager. "Oh you don't actually do it, you just sign to say you have" and bollocked me for "breaking the boiler" and recording different, ie correct temperatures to the fake ones the HCA had recorded for months. Just 2 of the many examples of her crazy management style.

Apparently I was difficult to manage.

Toxic cliquey young colleagues with no children who think they're better than everyone because they work full time (compared to a few part time working mums) and worked in office during the pandemic compared to others who WFH.

Being gaslit by management after an annual review where I was told I didn't have to do something then 2 months later questioned why I wasn't doing it.

My notice ends next week, I am so happy and my mental health has improved so much just knowing I'm leaving!

I've been very fortunate that most of my jobs have been enjoyable and I have liked the teams I've worked in, however I did have one that I hated; it started to make me physically ill. The core of it actually was I think that my manager didn't have a clue what they were doing, which meant that complex tasks above my grade fell to me, I didn't get any help or support when I reached out, often I was left picking up their mess, and they were just awful. Kept changing my work location just because they wanted to move around themselves, wouldn't bother doing HR stuff properly which was an issue. I did try and escalate my concerns but no one was arsed, it was very much anything for an easy life for managers, so they would rather ignore stuff and do the if you don't like it then leave routine (which many of us did).

So I’ve left 2 long term jobs in my work life (on my third) and both times it’s been because of toxic behaviour from the people and/or manager.

First time, was micro managed, CEOs got shady with me when I asked to be paid in my bank rather than cheques (and this was a company making net million profit a year). Was worked to the bone, completing 4-5 practical tasks a day and if I made a mistake, I was shouted at. Wasn’t given any compassionate leave when I had multiple miscarriages. We all had to have break at the same time and the manager (man) would make snide comments if I spoke, such as telling me I pronounced a word wrong. Or butting into my conversation with a student when I was telling her to be careful walking down a particular road at night, and telling me not to be stupid and scare her because that road is safe 🙄🙄.

Second time was more recent. This was a lovely job until one woman made it toxic. She made ignorant racist comments from day one about every ethnicity. Would give you silent treatment if you challenged her. Spied on people and reported back to managers if she saw anyone talking. No one liked her. The fact she wasn’t given any kind of disciplinary from my managers for her antics because “that’s how she is and she doesn’t mean it” I couldn’t stay anymore. Shame because I liked the job.

She was as thick as 2 short planks and sat in her office on the Internet while we ran about running the show.

Yes. This seems to be a pattern in NHS. Too much management without any intelligence, some who’ve been in the jobs since they left school/uni and have settled in and made themselves comfy in band 7/8. Ive had the manager doing online shopping In the office whilst we run the show. It’s infuriating.

I had to leave my last job due to the toxic environment and bullying. I made a couple of mistakes when I was first there (nothing major and instantly corrected) However, I was hounded over them 5 months later and by the end I wasn’t being given any work to do yet being told I should be doing more. It meant I wasn’t getting the training I desperately wanted and needed. It was a huge, frustrating catch 22 situation. My manager would often say ‘I can’t find you’ And I would respond with, ‘when you can’t find me I’m either in the loo or with someone else trying to shadow them’ That was never believed and I was made out to be a skiver. I cried a lot at home and lost weight because of it. In the end I left and got a new job.

A line manager who was so unpleasant, gas lighting and bullying that i almost had a breakdown. Went to see gp and they advised me to leave immediately and gave me a very long sick note without me even suggesting/requesting it!

Poor management. Not only were they in the wrong position - had been promoted over and above their ability - they were also unable to properly manage the team.

The expectation that you could stay late/work lunchbreaks, etc, without letting you have time off for appointments. I regularly worked outside of my contracted hours - on one occasion working an 18 hour day when I should only have been there for 4 hours.

I had a very light workload which led to boredom - I was constantly looking for extra work. Many of the times I stayed after hours was to double-check something someone else had been working on during the day. Memorably, I was asked to manually check a spreadsheet containing the bonus calculations for 500 staff members. Not just one in 10, oh no. every. single. line.

I ultimately had a mental breakdown and had to leave. Work for myself now.

It’s all about the people. I’ve had jobs when my children were small that were a bit boring but because my colleagues were great I really enjoyed them.
Other jobs on paper are much better, higher salary, more interesting work, promotion possibilities etc. However incompetent managers and bitchy colleagues have made them terrible.

“ideas are apparently encouraged but the minute you have one, manager will take over and tell you exactly how to do it until the fine detail allowing no room for your own creativity to flourish. It stopped me wanting to put forward ideas as you don't get to fully see through what you hoped.”

Definitely this.

Alongside a hierarchical structure, which became more so as time passed, a toxic, blaming culture, and organisational politics conflicting with professionalism.
Also, the expectation that staff would work unpaid overtime constantly to deal with the excessive workload and understaffing.

I was micromanaged and belittled until I was so sick I was off work for 7 months. She divided the team so we were all isolated, lied, shouted, went mental over nothing. I felt like I was going mad. Whatever I did was wrong.

It took me years to recover and when I did my new line manager turned out to be a snake.

Now the sheer bureaucracy and resource inventiveness drives me mad. I'm a deliverer and patient but I'm tested with all this.