Is a toxic and high pressure work environment the norm now?

[Wormysquirmy]

Is this the new norm? What are your experiences?

I have worked in different roles, as a professional, in one company for around 15 years. Usually busy, nice colleagues, and I have always been well thought of although am now part time. I am, I think, relatively desirable as an employee in as much as I'm flexible, a good team worker, efficient and get on with people. Perhaps not as ambitious as I could be but I have kids. I have made part time working work well so far.

In the last year or so, the place has become utterly, utterly toxic. We have a new manager who is not really a leader. Overall head is implicitly anti- part time working mothers, long hours and stress culture.lots of people off with stress. People not replaced. The message is "suck it up". I was given a workload that was not do-able and the chap who helped me went off in stress so I struggled. Rather than help make it work, I have been shunned and made to do work for a very junior member of staff.

We are going through a merger and redundancies are looming and I'm convinced they are trying to manoeuvre me out before then (to avoid paying redundancy pay).

Workload is simply unmanageable for the entire team given we are short staffed and have people off. Team head ignores me and cancels one:ones. Most colleagues are very stressed and struggling. I was humiliated publicly in a recent department meeting by ignoring manager who I felt should have raised grievances directly.

Is this the new normal in modern Britain?

My instinct is to leave but I feel like I should receive redundancy pay rather than be forced to go through miserable conditions. I feel if I raise a grievance through HR or similar I will struggle to get another job when a reference is required.

I am feeling very anxious and work now and my confidence is plummeting and I have been in tears since I left today. This is all new for me.

Any tips? Thanks so much. I feel a bit lost.

Public sector here and its dire.

Constant headcount reductions and restructuring;

Demotivated overworked staff - its really sad to see previously talented, efficient, dynamic staff become completely discouraged.

Poor (new-ish) management who have no interest in the long term future of the public services and are only interested in adding to their personal Linkd In profiles for a couple of years.

A third of our team have resigned over the last 9 months and none have been replaced.

Those still here work 4 days a week and are only hanging on until they can find another 4 day/week job. (Incidentally they all continue to manage a 5 day workload for a 20% salary cut.)

All this translates into failing public services.

Yeah. I used to love work and the ethos of the charity I've worked for for 16 years.

It's changed so much. My boss forgets one to ones, is wildly inconsistent and fell asleep at the wheel causing a car crash. This year I've been assaulted and spend much of my time with crying colleagues. Its rubbish.

@2ndSopranos -

FFS dimwit alert here!! - yes I get it now, sorry it should have been obvious!
And that's utterly ridiculous, I'm assuming that the audit will take a fair amount of time up and that you probably have a massive workload already. Classic example really isn't it? and for you to help you forget it and enjoy your Christmas!

My work has become a lot like this over the last six months. Prior to that, I've never loved a job more and felt valued, appreciated, stretched (in a good way) and like I was contributing to something important. Now, although my manager is fab and I'm lucky to have great flexibility, I hardly recognise the place. Everyone is pushed and harassed and snapping at each other as a result; workload is unmanageable, meaning nothing gets done properly; operational teams are under capacity and underperforming while the senior team recruits more directors on fat salaries. Worst of all, I feel like the integrity is gone and I'm starting to become complicit in decisions that are not in the best interests of our clients. It sucks.

2ndSopranos that sounds awful but is sadly so common, it's like they haven't literally thought what man hrs a decent time for the task would be, then looked at people's availability (in reality, 1 afternoon for an employee - say, 4 working Hours). How on earth, when they step back and think... Would that have been realistic or appropriate?
(And even then it assumes you just drop everything else to deal with it as it came in, and you had whatever resources you need to hand)

It's piss poor management at it's best.

I have so many similar examples that I should post an update on my own thread as to the result (hint: massive breakdown a work)

Thanks for link to the other thread - enlightening!

I am in financial services and I wonder whether it's a particular dreadful sector. Out company has hilarious seminars about work life balance and mindfulness and all sorts of concepts they don't give two fucks about.

I think i need to escape financial services.

Weird thing is that financial services is doing pretty well as a sector and I think PPs are bang on that since the recession they are greedy bastards who think they can still screw their staff.

OP - I bet your company is an Investor in People too!

So many places that treat staff terribly, are.

my mum is one of those people who believes what is written in adverts etc

so there's been a few times she's said to me about transferring to financial services (she feels it's much more prestigious than my job) and says that she sees all these ads for how flexible they are and how much staff wellbeing means to them....she thinks I can make a boatload more money and leave on the dot at 5 every day. [sceptical]

Yes,,where i work there are so many cunts its unbelievable.

Apart from a stint in the NHS, which was hellish, and a brief foray in the City, I've been self-employed just about all my life, and when I read threads like this I realise why and give thanks. I don't really earn enough, especially considering the hours I put in, but the freedom to make the decisions, set the priorities, choose who I will and won't do business with, and be in control of the general direction it's all going in is priceless. I don't know how people in toxic work environments stay sane and keep going, and I take my hat off to you all.

Yes. All the OPs post. The worse thing, apart from the lack of good quality leadership, is the office politics. Perfectly decent people have turned into toxic pigs purely of circumstances. It is soul destroying and the worse thing is that you assume that even if you leave you will face the same crap somewhere else. I physically shrink when I go to work now. I am an assertive person but I am becoming frightened of opening my mouth for fear of being misinterpreted or the info used against me. One female manager is gunning for me. The passive agressive comments are getting me down. We also hot desk, so you don't get much chance to sit near a friendly face. We have been given lots of sophisticated hardware to keep us connected....connected at all hours! If anybody is reading this who loves their job, please appreciate it. I feel sorry for younger people. This crap is all they will probably know. And then they are doing it on short term contracts etc as well, living at home because they can't afford to rent/buy a property. All grim.

@Beltane18 no, it’s more like giving more online/self serve options to customers so they don’t call. Lower the call volume and lower the headcount!

Although I admit this keeps the tech guys in jobs it isn’t great for customer facing staff.

That's exactly how it is, I work in the NHS and the prison service and just go about at my own pace, I no longer give a shit. As long as you do the paperwork you are not noticed.

I know this isn't specifically about wages but ime they've got stagnated, they've gone backwards. 20 years ago a grad salary for the job I went into at 21 was the same as the starting salary for grads where I work now. My mind boggles.

Got= not

If this is how stressful it is for a massive number of people in the workplace on an ongoing basis, it's no wonder so many people are so rude at the checkout and so aggressive on the road (for instance), all of which affects daily reality for all of us. It's as though the profitmaking imperative has finally tipped the balance in relation to things like trade union politics, business ethics, market sector norms, and threatens to unglue society in all sorts of unforeseen ways. How do we resist this?

Yep, I've just been through similar. Pushed out of my managerial job and given junior tasks so I would leave. Been there best part of 20 Years. Doesn't take a genius to work out why they did it.

I had to leave as it was making me ill. Start a new job in the New Year. Is it going to be any better? Who knows?!

Civil service. Work is pressured but a nice environment. Supported and (I hope) supportive

May have had some wine on an empty stomach. Anyway, yes, this is familiar. I have a toxic boss, she is vile, a bully, unprofessional, the works. My fellow team members are fantastic, work flat out while maintaining their good humour and basic humanity.

I'm about to write out my resignation and put it in my handbag. May very well hand it in tomorrow for the sake of my sanity.

Private sector here and it's more pressured than ever before. When I started in banking 30 years ago, it was a doddle. 6/7 silk cut at your desk, pub for a couple of drinks at lunchtime and then again after. In at 8.30 hour lunch finish at 4.30. Piece of piss. It has evolved slowly since then but really accelerated in the last 10/15 years. No lunch of note, long hours, sales pressures, no pay rises, shite pension scheme (my bank one was superb)

Oh for the good old days!

I work in a university. Atrocious management (at all levels) and crappy politics feature heavily. As does expecting the moon on a stick but refusing to provide any resources to achieve that.

If I could think of a comparably paid career (in this area) suitable for one with such useless skills and expertise as I do, I’d be out of it.

Retail Management. Expected to do more on less and less staff, use tech that never works, stay open ever longer/work more hours. Colleagues in new job are unpleasant and the time pressure is insane. Having fought my way up to my current level, I'm desperate to drop back down before my nerves go.