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

Not in my experience. Owner managers are nasty. They see every penny as their personal money and want blood for it, and benefits are usually the minimum legal requirements. I'm sure there are exceptions but all the small employers I, DH and our DC have experienced have been miserable to work for.

I work for a mid sized employer and we have some great celebrations and learning opportunities, including all the religious festivals, pride, black history, colleague & customer engagement days/weeks… it’s lots of fun and almost everyone I know really enjoys it and imo it improves our working life no end!

Thankfully, the pronoun stuff has never been pushed which would be a step too far for me. We have trans colleagues and call them whatever they wish to be called and they’re treated with the same respect as everyone else. I don’t need to announce my own pronouns to validate theirs.

I moved from a large corporate to family run company a few years ago, and moved back pretty quickly. A lot of stuff in my current work (mid sized company) is nonsense but it's just big enough that my lack of engagement in the nonsense isn't really noticed. I can get away with the bare minimum involvement in parties, events etc.
The small company I worked for was actually mad. The office manager was appointed despite having no relevant experience, or line management experience, as she was friends with the owners wife. About 80% of people there were family friends, relatives or partners. The manager tried to introduce daily morning yoga sessions, hypnotherapy etc as team building initiatives.
The final straw was when she did a daily tally of fruit and veg consumption on a whiteboard to encourage a healthy team. I generally take fairly healthy lunches and snacks but on principal I started bringing in McDonald's!
Stick with the large company and try to block out the nonsense.

I work for a very small company in a professional services type role (less than 15 employees) and while I've been promoted quicker than in any other company there are quite a few downsides compared to a larger organisation.

For example,
If someone quits or goes off on sick the whole company is impacted as we need to scramble round to delegate their workload to others

There is a weird enmeshment with my colleagues and we are all in each other's business and I just can't be bothered with it anymore. There is always a drama, some people have been caught in an affair, someone got caught stealing etc and it becomes all consuming when something like that happens. We've also had a revolving door of employees whose face didn't seem to fit with the senior team and it's just too much nonsense if you are someone who wants to get their head down and work and go home at the end of the day.

This might just be my company, but a lazy owner who inherited the company and has no idea what his staff actually do or what it takes to do it which decreases staff morale

In larger organisations I have just got on with my work, excelled where I could and had pleasant and cordial relationships with colleagues but found it difficult to get 'noticed' and payrises were always a courtesy 5% or so rather than anything significant or meaningful.

Small companies can be good to work for in terms of your contribution being much more visible. However in a small team, cultural fit is even more important, if everyone is working closely together. That doesn’t mean everyone has to be the same, but just able to act collegiately and work as a team and able to challenge politely and courteously.

Do you do things you enjoy outside of work. So that your life is happy and enjoyable and work is part of it, rather than all of it. Work to live attitude? If you’re generally angry and frustrated do you exercise regularly, get fresh air etc, all things that could help. .

It could well be my age.
I do have other stress at home which doesn't help. No more than others so not looking for sympathy.
But I can't even drink to numb the pain after work.
I'd like nothing more than to have glass of something but I know I'd regret it. Any alcohol brings on migraines . 😬
So instead I rant

You've hit the nail on the head. No I don't.
Currently I do a lot of running around after work and weekends for my elderly parents.
It's what happens at this time of life I guess. Menopause, teenagers, elderly parents and the world gone mad.

Yeah sucks @Horrace , but really a small company everything is magnified. If you feel the rage now, it could be inescapable in a small company.

Earlier today I was ready to take the money and run but now you guys have made me U Turn.
I need to start looking for some bullshit role in the bank and start applying.
I'll be back for interview advice in the coming months ladies 😂

Well glad perhaps it’s given you an idea. Life is frigging hard with teenagers and elderly parents plus menopause, I hear you! You can’t do it all, if you can carve out any time for yourself, do try. I feel so so much better after a walk in fresh air, and try and go to the gym too, that all helps me stay sane-ish! Good luck.

Nope. I've only ever worked for smaller firms and every one has been awful, a total of 6! Every one was basically so small where you were working regularly alongside the owners, as well as typically 10-50 other staff. Owners all very much "hands on" and then really screws the dynamic of the firm as there's no separation between management and ownership, meaning no real "medium" when there are problems or salary negotiations etc. Even worse, usually the owner also involves family, such as employing their spouse, child(ren), parent(s), siblings, in-laws, etc., and usually they're useless and only employed due to nepotism rather than talent, ability nor knowledge. A very typical but awful situation is the owner's spouse engaged as the "chief" receptionist, HR manager, office manager, etc., despite having no experience nor skills/qualifications in management! After 6 firms over 20 years, I gave up and started my own business! My OH had similar employment background, again working exclusively in smaller owner-managed businesses and says exactly the same experiences!

One of the first things we told our DS when he was thinking about employment after Uni was to aim for BIG companies with proper systems, proper management, etc. Thankfully, he took that onboard, and is now happily working for one of the UK's largest insurance firms that has thousands of staff, hundreds of managers, etc., and he absolutely loves it!

Fully agree. That reminds me of a Christmas Party at one firm. All the staff had to choose from the "set menu", if they wanted to bring their partners, they had to pay, but the owners (and spouses who didn't have to pay) sat at a different table and chose from the a-la-carte menu. Too tight to pay for a-la-carte for their staff and too arrogant not to want to eat the set-menu themselves! That was a small firm of four very highly paid professionals who were the owner/managers. They were also incredibly tight in other areas too, i.e. insisted on a "uniform" but staff had to pay themselves, despite being barely on anything higher than minimum wage equivalent (and junior staff paid so little, they weren't even liable to pay national insurance even when full time!).

Noooo take the money and run!! Just run to another bank/large company. I dont regret a single second of leaving the large bank I worked for! There are some amazing companies out there. Feel free to PM me if you want anymore info.

How good is the payout? Maybe take it still?

After 29 years I'm guessing you're hitting middle age, and you tend to find your tolerance for bullshit drops. It can be very challenging in the corporate world not to tell everyone to fuck off.

Can you drop a day or so, and get some time for yourself?

Are you on HRT? That helped alot with the rage I used to feel.

Can’t you just ignore it?

Sorry, edit to add, taking redundancy could well be the right thing to do, you need to run the numbers but I can’t imagine leaving because the DV&I team encouraged me to join a few causes.

I went from large companies to a small one a few years ago (under 200 people) and I despise it, can't wait to lead. The ceo is a total narcissist who treats everyone like utter shit. Can't wait to leave

OMG u lot r confusing me and it doesn't take much these days.

Thing is, I've been coasting the past few years and I don't have it in me to learn new things. My brain has stopped working and my attention span is that of a gnat.
So whatever I do next, whether it be at the same bank or elsewhere, will be a lower grade job and therefore a massive paycut possibly if outside.

So take the redundancy money and a massive paycut job elsewhere

Or

Stay struggling when my brain can only coast

I run a small business and the only thing we celebrate is Christmas. The staff all get a Christmas hamper and a lunch. We have a Jehovah’s Witness who works for us who doesn’t celebrate so we said he could not come, or choose to celebrate it as an “end of year” hamper and lunch and he chose the latter!

If anyone else wants to celebrate anything else that’s fine by us as long as it involves some kind of treat. One of our employees is Czech and she brought in some sweet treats for a particular day and that went down very well.

Apart from that we do zero diversity stuff, gender, anything else, they just turn up and do their jobs.

@Horrace are you saying alternative roles are available instead of the redundancy? How many months pay will redundancy give you?

There r no alternatives. I have can look on the job board as can anyone for roles as and when they come up. So far, nothing.
I have no idea how many months pay I'd get. But I know how much I'd get. It's tempting. I'd never get anything like that again.
I believe the first 30k is tax free. I'd probably put the rest in my pension.

Sounds like you are on a decent salary - have you considered therapy?

This has made me laugh 😂
I do need something but another poster has suggested exercise and fresh air which I am going to attempt first

Can you give us some examples of the things that are making you angry (aside from pronouns, which you have already mentioned). Is it things like celebrating Eid, disability awareness, etc? I think that would say some very negative things about you. Why do these things make you angry?