Are Smaller Companies Better to Work for? I've Become so Angry working in this Large Organisation.

[Horrace]

I've worked for a large bank/finance company for almost 29 yrs. Have mostly enjoyed it. But in recent years they have tried so hard to get with the times that it's gone overboard.
They celebrate everything and do everything in their power to make us celebrate with them whether we believe in it or not. And if we don't, well, you guessed it, we get pulled up on it for not sharing the banks values.
It's not just the company, it's the world in general. I've become an angry person and I want to get off.

I don't want to get into an argument about me being a dinosaur. I just want to go to work and do my work. I don't want to celebrate or be constantly reminded about every religious festival, pronoun day etc.

I still need to work.

Would a smaller company be more inclined to leave their employees to have their own political views and allow them to just get on with work.
It's a massive decision. But I'm so miserable and frustrated when I am. But it's all I've known.
Any advice is appreciated

No, smaller companies are just as bad. Gender woo, political correctness, combined with v entitled inner circle founders and hand picked employees. I m in a small company and it's an endless revolving door, with staff coming and going. It's extremely volatile and also has all the causes and the invasive Ness of modern culture. We were recently sent a personal questionnaire querying our gender, sexuality etc (diversity and inclusion bull poop).

If the money and benefits are good, stay where u are.

I work for a small business and we're so small we don't bother with Christmas dos or anything social together which suits me just fine! There's literally no celebrations for anything. No mention of pronouns, what is going on politically etc.

However, there is no HR, not enough employees and it feels like the boss breathes down your neck! I'd much rather have a fairly anonymous boss and just have a line manager.

So swings and roundabouts.

A smaller company is likely to have fewer HR systems in place, worse pension provision and benefits and you're likely to be much more at the mercy of the business owener or local manager.
So often on MN when posters talk about work problems, it transpires that they have no trade union rep, no HR, just the owner of the small company or a local manager and have nowhere to go without workplace difficulties.
The grass isn't always greener and after 29 years in a big company you might find it quite a contrast.

I'm getting redundancy in June but was going to look for another role in the group rather than take it.
Well that was my initial plan.
But I'm so tearful with frustration and anger in recent weeks that I'm changing my mind.
I'd get a good payout.
If I go elsewhere I know I'd take a huge pay cut but hope the quality in my mental health will be worth it.
But it could be a case out of the frying pan, into the fire.

Disengage. I work in a large firm, same industry. I find it easy to just ignore it all. I do have some prepared responses just in case. If anyone asked for my pronouns for example, I'd first ignore the question, then I'd say no thank you and if pressed again that they don't apply to me. If pressed again I'd say that I have politely declined and am feeling very uncomfortable with their insistence.

I've worked for large and small, public and private. They've all got pluses and minuses. At the moment I like the large for the perks and the flexibility, and I just don't engage with the nonsense. If anyone attempted to pull me up I'd either just nod and smile or just say that they are right perhaps I would be better off elsewhere where my work ethic and abilities would be a better fit.

Depends. I am in a small company where half the employees are from the same family and that comes with its own issues such as no internal HR and usually very few benefits, basic NEST pension. I do love it but it only suits a certain type of person.

The culture at every firm is different. For example, I've worked at very large organisations who have the sort of thing you describe... but because they're so big, you can literally just ignore a lot of it. Which is great. And I've worked with smaller organisations where it's in your face every 10 seconds.

I'm a bit thrown by the fact that you can't get away from it at all, even in a large organisation though. It might be that you nee dsome tips on how to let it roll past you? depending on how it's happening?

Other people seem to be able to ignore it. I think it's me.
Like I said. It's not just work. It's the world. I find that people have become increasingly stupid. I can't get my head my head around it. How do I ignore it.
At least at home I can avoid the news and social media. But in work, I have to open the intranet home page to access share points and it's their in my face every morning. Stupid articles from people who should know better, who get paid more than the PM probably.
Thick as shit

I suspect it is same shit different sandwich.

Small companies can be great to work for if you like expanding your horizons.

They can also be awful if they for example have untouchable family employees, or manager-owners that are more interested in using the business to pursue their extra cirricular activities.

I would say that job security is no better or worse.

In a small company generally what you do will be noticed, and promotion/improvement is there for the taking. If you want to cruise or are no good at your good there are few places to hide.

In a big company you might end up getting chopped because some accountant 7 levels above your pay grade has decided 10% of the workforce needs to be downsized. Not because you are actually shit at what you do.

This!

The trouble with small and medium-sized companies is that people get promoted because either they have been there for x years, get on with or are related to the manager/owner or get to a certain level, never move on or leave and block every one behind.
The current system of calibrating everything can be dealt with by being awkward. I was asked to lead a team to paint a community centre in a deprived area. I said I thought it was be better for the locals to paint it themselves and it would give them a better sense of ownership and that our company should just supply paint and materials. No I had to manage a team to do it. I pointed out that the area was predominantly afro Caribbean and our team would be 100% white so it would look like savour complex...they asked someone else.
I refused to dress up. Claiming it impacted my sense of self worth and mental health as I don't want people laughing at me
they soon learnt that I wasn't going to do the right on stuff.

Stay In the big company and take the money and forge a better work / life balance. Start meditating, regular exercise, walking, gratitude journals.

small companies are full of lunatics and you can’t escape them. I moved from a massive finance company to a small one, and would go back to the large if I could ! Teams of people doing stuff, always having a back up person, good IT depts.

seriously count your blessings.

I think there might be two issues you need to resolve rather than one.

Firstly, small vs big - I've worked for both and without a doubt much prefer big. Small ones tend to talk more about being 'a family' which essentially means they expect you to put loads of unpaid hours in to help them out but you are not rewarded with any HR protections including worse pay and pensions. On the flip side I've made very good friends at smaller ones.

Secondly, you mention others are able to disengage from the days/celebrations at work but they make you angry and in a follow up message say "It's not just work. It's the world". If everyone else is either fine with it or able to disengage, do you think it could benefit you to look into why you can't do either? Otherwise isn't there a very high likelihood you're going to have these issues wherever you go?

I have worked for a bank for 15 years previously and whilst it was a good job, I felt it was too sales driven and you were just a number as I found out when made redundant! Since then I have worked for 2 smaller firms. My current one now employs around 500 nationally and is good to work for with lots of flexibility. The one before that had about 15-20 employees and cashflow was tighter so not as enjoyable. Had to take a pay cut once to help them survive a downturn!

The bank was the best for pay, sick benefits and pensions though. Smaller companies often pay the bare minimum into pensions.

I work in a massive public sector org, having come from just working with an owner (do not recommend).

What I see is some teams are really full on, flags for this that and the other, and other teams are far more conservative or just get on with their jobs. It's a surprise sometimes as to which team is which, not always how you'd expect.

The intranet stuff would do my head in too, but perhaps a move to a different team would help?

Keep your eyes on the prize. That redundancy payment.

I agree with Otter, all have pro's and con's. I've worked for small to medium firms mostly, one massive corporate, and I've audited 100's and done accounts for massive, medium, tiny. so seen a variety. All employees have complaints about something!

Would a smaller company be more inclined to leave their employees to have their own political views and allow them to just get on with work

Not necessarily, OP
In a large company one maniac may have limited impact - unless they've infested the whole place with their silly ideas of course - but the same type in a small business can mean utter misery, and triple that if it's a family business where "outsiders" come a very poor second

I think I'm angry at the world.
Someone said it up post. I need to address my anger, state of mind.

OP are you perimenopausal? I’m also fucking angry at work and stupid shit. I know it’s hormones (I’m 51). I’ve been with my company 30 years. I’d leave in a heartbeat. Had a fuckful of working altogether. Just leave me be, to potter, do what I want when I want. Sick of being beholden to an organisation that wants to tell em what to do and how I should think and feel all the time.

Different homepage and direct sharepoint links are the key here! Medium size companies also peddle shite, but are much harder work in comparison to large. Small companies are too resource constrained, whereby one idiot brings everything to a halt and the best ideas can't be funded. Stay where you are, and learn to let it flow by. I had some fool say in a sizeable meeting "Oh, you don't have pronouns on your email"; to which I said "that's right, I prefer GRex in person and you can call me anything you like when I'm not around". I've also said "I use I, me and my" to get a laugh from the bystanders. Just move on to whatever the meeting is about, then the backchat disappears.

Not sure who you work for but having worked for 2 large UK banks you can tailor your intranet home page to whats relevant to you I.e untick every option so you literally only see the really important news flash stuff 😉 also I have spent 20 years in large banks then took redundancy and joined a small company and HATED it - I lasted 3 weeks. I've now joined a massive investment firm - similar to the large Bank but slightly different field and more relaxed and less of the 'ramming stuff down your throat' attitude. You'll get to where you want to be - enjoy your redundancy for a while first.

This. Changing jobs won't make you less angry at the world. Try to sort out your mental health through other means.

In my view big companies are way better than smaller.

I recently had gender training and ignored the question about my pronouns

I hear you! It’s the same at our place (big global company) and in the last couple of years it feels like we celebrate or acknowledge something every other day. The lunchtime knowledge forum talks used to be work and project related but now it’s just about anything. At least we don’t get pulled up for not partaking in “extra curricular” stuff but I feel like there’s so much comms noise that it’s too easy to zone from it all and miss the bits that actually matter!! I just want to do my job and go home at 5pm. I think it’s a peri menopausal woman thing too, I’m done dealing with extra shit!

im happy to celebrate just about anything, especially if there’s cake! I just think a lot of those things don’t matter to me but there may be someone they do matter to, so let them crack on!

Can you mute notifications on this kind of stuff at work so it isn’t bothering you? Can you have minimal input to show support like sending a thumbs up?

Separately, you do anything in your personal life to reduce your anger? Could your hormones be a factor?