Hostile Work Environment

Yes, two. The first from age 19 through 30. The CEO was bipolar or something and had wild mood swings, and was cruelest to the vice president—his wife. He was really nasty to everyone else too, except one person, me. I was known as “the golden child.” I encouraged my boss, the VP, to leave her husband but she never would. So I told her no one would blame her if she pulled a Nine-to-Five and put rat poison in his coffee. She never did. I finally left.

My next job, which I’ve had for 11 years, was incredibly hostile for nine of those years. This time it was a narcissistic VP, a woman whose personality and behaviors and manipulations were EXACTLY like Donald Trump’s. She was constantly hiring people and they were constantly quitting. 70 percent of her staff quit within their first years and about 80 percent quit within two years. She was OK with me for about three years since I don’t report to her and wasn’t afraid of her, but then she started fucking with me and made me paranoid that I was fucking everything up. I started documenting everything I did and realized she was playing mind games with me and setting me up. I thought I had been paranoid, but it was all there in emails and documents. I printed everything and annotated it—about 400 pages’ worth—put it in a FedEx box and sent it to legal counsel with a grievance form attached. It didn’t change her, but it gave me documentation on file that she had been manipulating me and setting me up and from that point on she moved her target to other people.

When her staff quit, they always told our HR person how abusive the VP was. She just said she knows and wished them well. That was about eight years. Then, finally, one very nice woman who was the VP’s second favorite lost her shit and went running through the halls screaming “fire me!! Fire me!!” It was insane. But it was actually sane. She didn’t get fired. Instead, she gathered together all the people who worked for the woman and formed a “union” (about 15 people; we’re small). They made a list of demands and the woman confronted the CEO about allowing this to happen. His exec assistant told him that these people were legitimately abused and that they were not playing games: they will all go to the board if he doesn’t fire the VP. He fired the VP after almost 20 years. Since she left a year and a half ago, no one has been surprised to learn that she wasn’t only abusive but also reckless and we have been in a state of financial chaos as a result of her somehow even pulling the wool over the eyes of our accountants and our auditors.

It went on way too long. It was always incredible to me that not a single person who quit in a dire state contacted the board despite half a dozen threatening to do so, but no one ever did.

Yep. While I was there, gave 100%. Followed every rule, to the letter. Kept my nose clean. Collected my paycheck and went home, where I had A LIFE.

I now own and run my own (successful) business.

Stay low, OP, save every cent you can and move on as soon as you're able.

I say if you need the check and have no security or recourse process, do what R2 says.

If you have any wiggle room, or if you get a new job, do everyone you work with a huge favor and send a well-articulated, emotionally stable and reasonable letter of complaint to every member of your board of directors, openly copying all of them and make it clear that you’re doing it only in the interest of improving the working environment and productivity of the company/organization and reducing staff turnover, so they don’t assume you’re just someone with a personal grudge. Tell them who the problem is, with specific examples of incidents, and name names so that it doesn’t sound like a bunch of vague, potentially invented complaints.

R1 and R2 give good advice. Document everything and keep your head low. Protect yourself.

People who create hostile work environments obviously damage productivity and are financial liabilities because of costs associated with high staff turnover. But as noted above, those people often are immoral or amoral and unethical gamers, and are likely to be covering up negligence or even harmful or illegal acts. Employers really should take these people more seriously. People who cause havoc and chaos at work are risk takers, and risk takers pose all kinds of liabilities to any business.

I have worked in a very hostile work environment. I found another job and that was that.

in such an environment now, looking to move on desperately.

Get a couple of disgruntled coworkers to do this with you during a staff meeting.

YES and it was the WORST experience of my life. I wanted to quit but didn't and ended up getting falsely accused of sexual harassment by a woman (I'm gay male) and got fired. I always regret not quitting when my gut told me to. If you wanna leave, then LEAVE. It will all work out with another job. You will be fine. TRUST ME. GET OUT OF THERE. It's TOXIC and will only do harm.

Yeah, I'm hoping to get out this year after way too long. It's a soul-destroying experience, just trying to get through one workday. I kept hoping it would get better, but it never did.

^^^Good luck baby. Wishing you nothing but the best. 💙

The honest truth is that it will not resolve itself. If you can’t get out, then the only way it will ever change is to be a part of changing it. If you’re not the only one who feels it’s an abusive environment, join forces. Go to HR, to an executive. There is safety and power in numbers. Lay it all out in writing: the abuses and the resolution you want. Don’t leave ambiguity. Make it clear that if it is not addressed, your group will appeal to the board of directors because it’s a harmful situation to productivity, morale and the bottom line.

If you have worked a low paying job, it was a hostile situation. Management makes sure you feel as low as bug shit. If there is one part of your job that you actually enjoy, they will take that out of your job description.

Middle Management always goes first so that is one good thing.

At my job, going to HR, alone or in a group, would be a big mistake, as they are two-faced management shills who tend the toxic store.

R14 Glassdoor.

3 times- one temp job and one job for 5 years (quit) and another 5 and a half years - quit. It took me a while to recover from them, too.

I think more workplaces are becoming like this.

Find a way to be independent or find a rare sane place to work.

I can’t trust HR where I work. They only support the higher ups. For a while I had a very toxic environment due to a few coworkers and manager who micromanaged and found fault with anything. The difficult part was that I wasn’t perfect and DID have faults. Everyday was walking on eggshells. I was afraid to leave because there’s not much that I’m “good” at. I’m in my niche. She finally retired and I was moved to another department. I feel for anyone who’s miserable at work. Sometimes hanging on works. You shouldn’t be afraid to do something new, but it’s a BIG decision when you’ve gotten to a certain point at a place, your salary is set, you’ve got family to support. I also hate interviews and job hunting, so it’s like...what’s worse? Plus, if a showdown backfires, then you’re the troublemaker. This is why people put up with abuse. I find being gay makes things difficult as well, because even though we’ve made strides, I feel like there’s lots of places I wouldn’t fit in. All I can say is do your best, don’t take the bait, and keep your eyes out for something better. Don’t be a doormat or put up with bad abuse, but also pick your battles, and have a new job lined up before you leave. And obviously, protect your personal safety.

Never, ever say anything in a work environment that you don't want repeated. And certainly never talk derogatory about your work colleagues to other colleagues. Be neutral, don't take sides, put your head down, do your work, don't make friends, collect your wage and go home. Don't trust HR, they're always passive aggressive two faced arseholes. If a toxic workplace is affecting your health, it's time to go. Find another job to go to before you leave, tell no one you're going or where you're going to, give the legal amount of notice and not any more, and gracefully move on.

Not hostile but my department has been described as either a kindergarten or a psych ward.

HR is only there to protect the business not the employees

Can you be forced to show another employee the way you do your job? My only job security is that I make it so difficult for anyone to follow so that it would make it difficult of them to let me go without shooting thier foot. It's like when they give me an assignment or task that don't give me any instruction on how to do it, they have an mentally of saying you figure it out. This ability of my talent has help me climb the ladder in this company and they see it by providing me raises and recognition. It also shows how much they miss me when I take vacations, i occasionally provide some info of some stuff I do to make sure my leave doesn't cause that much disruption to a point that seem alright with them. But thing change when new owners take over a company and make changes for them to make more profit and to have thier own people taking over positions. They see people like me and think "Hey why are we paying this person when we can get someone else to do the same thing for less" so they try to get someone to shadow me and then say to teach this person everything you know. I dragged my feet on it to the bitter end then was let go of nit pick complaints.

^^^you sound like a cunt and probably got what you deserved

Right now. My boss sent me an email regarding a complaint against a coworker constantly disrespecting me. In the email she stated that not only is she not going to anything about it, but that if she did it would only get worse. Then she recommends that I not even bother going to HR about the issue. I have a meeting with a union mucky muck next week.

Some might laugh, but I worked for someone who reminded me of Dolores Umbridge, High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. Could be smiling and charming for senior management, but cold and cruel. Before she became my manager I was the top performer in the department and well-respected. Once she took over, she started to micro manage me and my work. She even had me on a performance improvement plan. I couldn't wait to find another job. I knew I was on the chopping block. The job I accepted at another company paid much less than what I was making, but I didn't care. "Dolores" said she was sad to see me leave and asked if we could stay connected via LinkedIn. I just said, "No. I don't think so."

R1, R2 and R4 have it right. Do what you need to do now while you have the job. Keep contemporaneous notes - calm, factual, detailed with names of both bad actors and witnesses -- when bad things happen. KEEP THOSE NOTES AT HOME, not at work. Do everything you need to do to get out as soon as you are able. These things don't get better.

R23 Oh my gosh! That's what happened to me when I went to my boss at the time and it was about multiple co workers. He said he didn't wanna get involved. I'm convinced they all joined forces and pushed the sexual harassment accusation about me. I'm telling you right now, GET OUT NOW. fuck them. Play along, grin and bare it, if you have to stay and keep the job but if there's anyway you can leave pronto, DO IT.

i endured multiple incidents today directly related to the hostile w/e, frustrating and demoralizing.

LOL.

R28 I am a teacher.

A civil service job where it wasn't really possible for them to outright fire me, so my two supervisors tried making my work life as difficult as possible so that I would quit. I went back to school after a while from that job.

r1 wow - trauma. Those people are so poisonous.

I just managed to force an abusive narcissist into early retirement. I only save us all 2 years of hell, however, after 5 endured.

Sometimes no matter what you do, no matter how clever one is, how zen or lachez-prise, one can't escape the SHIT and bad energy that these people spread around.

There ought to be a law!!!!!

Not so much hostile but frustrating. Nothing is worse than having managers who are useless and can't really do anything except schedule meetings. We used to have managers and supervisors who could fill in and do the work if there was a backlog of anything, but now the new managers are being paid more money to basically do nothing except walk around and ask how things are going.

If I ever get an unexpected windfall and become independently wealthy, I’m going to dedicate time to publicizing abusive workplaces one company at a time.

You always have to do what saves your mental health. I struggled with the decision of leaving a temp job with a micromanaging boss who had major control issues. She made outlandish accusations against me that made it appear that I was being racist towards another employee whom I actually got along with. I contacted my agency the following Monday and told them that I could not return due to the increasing stress. I lost the agency as a job source but regained my ability to sleep at night. Agencies and HR managers are not your friends, but there are plenty of agencies out there, as well as fair supervisors.

And why is it that when upper management clearly have a problematic manager or supervisor, they won't do anything concrete to fix the problem?? We have a supervisor who was only on the job for a few months before she started telling employees how to do the jobs they've been doing well for the last 20 years. None of the changes she insisted on made any sense and it actually cost the business money.

It got so bad that the head of the department had to come in and reassure the employees but the only thing that happened is that they moved this woman to another department. Why not fire her since it was clear from day one that not only was she not qualified - her resume was a joke- but she had no idea of how to run a department like ours. Is it because management doesn't want to admit they made a mistake in hiring her??

We had to work with stinkfish once.

or that shes related and/or doing the boss?

[quote]where you are under intense scrutiny at all times; every word you say is documented, and people seem out to get you

Like being gay and working with straight people? Been there.

Just be good at your job unlike those lazy asses.

[quote]Erna

Fetid retard Nazi pedo shit eating cunt fuck

R35 when this type of low level manager is making people even lower, miserable, the people above this cunt are sometimes happy that someone is doing that. Because people are massive disgruntled cunts and they want people to stay in their place and be slaves.

Thanks to you all. I have taken your advice and am documenting everything.

.....

bump

What r40 said.

HR is never, ever your friend.

I'm surprised that some posters seem concerned that HR was unsympathetic or unhelpful.

I worked in a hostile work environment three years ago around this time. I reported a manager for sexual harassment, and was told not to speak about it. He was a male harassing me (also a male), and I knew for a fact he was doing it to other male coworkers. In warning the other males, I was called into a manager's office and reminded I shouldn't be speaking of it. I told the manager I didn't care, and that I was warning the others because I knew it was the right thing to do. Things quickly escalated, and I was pulled into HR for "gossiping." I refused to cooperate or sign any written warnings, and I had a list of grievances from other employees that HR declined to investigate. None of what I reported was taken into account, and the day I got back from a previously planned vacation, I was suspended pending investigation. I was given the option to quit, and I adamantly refused. (I even told the HR bitch she was using mob-era tactics to force me to quit, which obviously didn't help the situation.) 10 days later, I was terminated. The silver lining of the entire situation is that (A) I know in my heart that I stood up for myself and others the best way I could at the time; (B) I got Medicaid health insurance and food stamps for a year after my termination; (C) I now have the best job I've ever had, complete with no interoffice drama. Would I go thru the above situation again? No...but it made me stronger and I still know to this day that I stood up for what's right.

Good for you, r46. You did the right things while you were there, even though it was all deemed "wrong" by management and HR. I was in a shitty position two years ago, started working at a small resort. Family-owned. No board of directors or anything with accountability. Just a president, VP, a few managers. All had been with the company for decades, including HR. It was fucked up. The amount of verbal slander, fights (including a verbal screaming match between two managers, in front of guests), belittling, lying, was just shocking. I left after less than a year. I was supposed to train to be backup in an office that had one employee who had been there for years. He regularly smelled like liquor, was evasive and I had to push to get him to show me how to certain things (there was zero documentation for the role). Finally one day he told me to my face I was "fucking things up", didn't know "what the fuck I was doing" and should not touch anything related to his job. I told my manager, who was shocked, but nothing happened after that. I'm assuming no one told upper management. I realized at that point that there were a lot of things there that had been dysfunctional for years, and would never change. It would be pointless to air a grievance.

I know it's not a mature or helpful way to handle things, but a thumbtack on an asshole's chair can make you feel better.

Bypass HR and go directly to a lawyer.