Negative work place. Anyone ever experienced this?

[chocolatemousse7]

I've been in my current role for nearly 3 years now. Thought it was great in the beginning but things soon changed. The only time we hear from our managers is when it's a complaint or negative feedback. Our team works extremely hard, but sometimes we do make mistakes (doesn't happen very often, we're all human after all).

In the time that I've worked here I've never been given good feedback, not that we need daily praises but it would be nice every once in a while to be told we're doing a good job. Our managers will also complain about the most minuscule things. It's almost as if they wait for something to happen just so they can have a pop at one of us. It's quite draining really and makes us feel like we're shit at our jobs. One of my colleagues resigned a couple months ago and that was the only time that they showed any appreciation towards our team.

It's got to the point now where I'm looking for another job. It's such a negative place to work and the thought of spending 40hrs a week here for the next few years fills me with dread. AIBU?

YANBU - there are better companies out there. Sending you best of luck on your job hunt!

YANBU. I worked for an awful headteacher who, by the end, put the fear of God into me every time I saw them. It made me quite ill mentally. I was so pleased when she left.

Look for something else if you can. Life is too short.

Deffo YANBU - acknowledging good work and saying thank you is such an easy (and free!) way to motivate staff. As you have found out, only pointing out mistakes is so demoralising!

I moved teams recently and my new team has a culture of don’t ever say thank you and then take credit for other people’s work, especially if they are junior to you. So depressing and I’m looking to leave on the basis that life is too short!

In my previous team I was in charge so I could really set the culture. Amongst other things we had a 15 min wrap up the week meeting on Fridays where we would celebrate all the good work the team had done. I was genuinely always so proud when one of my team did something amazing/noteworthy and I made sure they knew and everyone else knew it - and I also made sure they knew how much I appreciated their dedication to their day to day work too. It helped me have a team of happy people who felt appreciated, despite the fact that we were working in a very difficult environment. If they made mistakes I dealt with it sensitively as “lessons learned” and made it clear I had their backs whatever the fallout. Their new team leader takes the same dreadful approach as you describe, and all “my” staff are now leaving ASAP!

There’s better out there definitely.

im in retail and my store has been like this for the last 4 years , constant nitpicking , nothing anyone does is good enough , but its a bloody miracle if you get a compliment , when there were redundancies last year due to covid not 1 person but 3 of our team asked for early retirement and 2 people are in the process of applying to transfer to another store , iv just held on because iv been there for so many years and it the thought of actually getting back into job hunting is so intimidating to me ,plus at nearly 50 im not young anymore so i feel like thats against me , we have had a change in managment recently so i will see how that pans out , plus im only part time so its bearable , . i used to love my job , there was so much to do every day ,we were allowed to think for ourselves , but now we are miro managed to death , i got told off the other week because id started doing something and i hadnt come to ask please teacher what do i do next like a 10 year old in school . i hate just walking in the place now and im always clockwatching to see how much longer iv got till my shift ends .

Oh this happens to me a lot. I deal with it now by pointing out what I HAVE done well every time I'm criticised. For example if I get told off for missing one thing out of 99 I say " oh sorry. What about the other 99 things were they on there". Crap example but you know what I mean

I once managed a team that supported lots of other teams, without that support the other teams would not have been able to do their jobs effectively. One year we were very short staffed over the summer period for various reasons, and my team worked flat out to cover everything, doing a great job but there was just too much work and inevitably I had to deprioritise something, making sure I explained why to the people it would impact. That did not stop me and my team being loudly and vocally criticised at a manager's meeting. This did not go down well with me, and I took the opportunity to point out that not one other manager had expressed the slightest appreciation for what we had actually done and could only find fault with the one thing we hadn't. I said how proud I was of what my team had achieved under the circumstances, so they had at least one manager who appreciated them. I was very professional but omg I made my point, causing a few red faces round the table and a few people suddenly becoming fascinated by the table itself . I started getting a few appreciative emails after that.

I now work in a place where we are constantly being praised, thanked and made to feel valued for our skills and contributions. It's not perfect - the work is intense at times but staff wellbeing is a huge priority , as is work life balance. Managers hold regular 1 to 1s and developmental conversations. My own line manager dropped a little snippet into our last one when she said my name is the one that crops up when certain subjects are spoken about as the 'go to' person and people want my input - that's such a small thing but it feels damn good to know and it's very motivating.

You are right OP, it doesn't have to be constant but a 'well done' or 'thanks for doing that' goes a long way. You get so much back. As PP says, there's better out there so good luck.

I worked somewhere like this and lasted about four months. The management were awful.
Anyone working full time these days anywhere have my complete sympathy. The work place is shit generally.
:(