For a long time, I avoided this topic. Not because I was afraid; but because of the vulnerability I felt from bringing up such negative memories from the past.
The company that influenced this post will remain nameless. I worked for them for a while, and to be brutally honest; the time I spent with them was the worst time period in my entire life.
Let’s go from the beginning.
Starting a new job is always an exciting, yet nervous time in your life. This role was supposed to be the one that catapulted my career — and in reality, it was the one that brought me to the darkest place I had ever been.
I remember walking in on my first day; and everything seemed great. We had a training week to begin with before before thrown in the deep end and everything that we were supposed to have learned in our first week was the complete opposite of what we actually did.
At first, it all seemed great, but I slowly began to realise that the people I shared an office with were some of the most negative and dull people one could meet.
There are a number of elements that I feel are key to your happiness in a job, and these I will discuss below.
Communication;
For me, communication in any job is vital. In this job, managers hid behind computer screens, using internal communications systems to make snide remarks about other staff members. They used emails to send vital information when you were sitting only a few metres away. They were robotic in a job that required so much more. The poor communication in this job made the staff unmotivated, shattered confidence and lowered morale.
Coaching;
When you are in a job that you anticipate will be long-term, you would hope that there would be a system in place to help coach and develop new staff members. In this role, the level of negativity is something that I cannot adequately describe. Weekly team meetings that didn’t begin with a ‘good morning’, but with a disappointing shake of the head and glare of the eye. When suggestions were made by regular members of staff, managers wouldn’t take us seriously.
Company Culture;
In most jobs that I have had, there has been some sort of team bonding activities on a consistent basis. In the time I spent here, there was one team night out, and only a few of us stayed out for the entire night. There were different cliques in the company, and this was evident when plans were made as there were only certain people invited. The company culture here was a shame, because the team I worked within had the potential to be such an incredible group with a special bond.
Salary;
Not necessarily the most important aspect of a job, but it cannot be overlooked. The salary we received in comparison to the work we actually did, and the effort we put in was simply disgraceful. It wasn’t simply a 9am-5pm job every week, and we probably accumulated at least an extra 10–15 hours of work per week, yet we were not rewarded for it, financially or personally. We could have earned the same amount of money doing nightshift in a supermarket four nights a week.
Management;
Ever been in a job when the management are absolutely clueless and let you take the fall for everything? Exactly what we experienced. The management team had a structure in which the people at the top enjoyed the finer things in life, and the people at the bottom were the ones who were royally shitted on every day. I have a firm belief that every person in a company deserves respect regardless of whether you are the CEO or the cleaner, and we were treated like second class citizens every day. There was a sense of dread when trying to approach management, and being in such a negative environment with such negative people effected your mood so much because you inevitably brought your work home with you.
Trust;
Everyone wants to feel valued, appreciated and trusted. Knowing that your managers trust you is crucial. The feeling of always being watched, and someone always keeping tabs on you is pretty crappy, especially when you have full faith in your ability to do your job well. Not being trusted makes you feel like you are not capable of doing your job properly, when you know that you are in fact actually the best person for the job.
I feel it is important to always look back on negative experiences and use them as fuel to propel yourself forward in the search for the ultimate job fulfilment, whether that is at home or abroad.
The most disappointing aspect of this experience for me was the fact that I had moved away from home to take a job I thought was the ‘dream job’. In reality, it was a living nightmare.
The last thing I would like to share as part of this post, is the importance of having a loving family around you in times of trouble and self doubt. In this job, I was surrounded by a group of energy vampires whose only purpose was to suck the positivity and life of out everyone. The atmosphere they created was one of complete negativity and being in that environment was something I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy.
The only positives I took from my experience there was my newfound confidence in my ability to stand up for myself and not be a walkover. And the most satisfying part of leaving that job was knowing that when I left, it was their loss, not mine. Always remember folks, people leave managers, not companies.
Originally published at mydiaryofaquarterlifer.wordpress.com on April 23, 2017.
Originally published at medium.com