Empty vessels make the most noise. Would suggest that you start looking for better roles

Growth Manager

Recruiter

Kyun apni khushi, sanity aur career mi mc raha hai yeh chewtiya jagah pe? Get rollin find a new gig

Didn't exactly get the full context due to Hinglish - sorry I am not conversant in that. But I got your point - I need to start searching for new roles. Thanks

Sales Leader

Why are you ruining your happiness, sanity and career over a toxic cesspool that doesn't deserve you.

Brand Marketing Manager

I work in a senior role at a small sized bootstrapped company. Due to health reasons, I have had to take multiple WFHs and Medical Leaves. In the past 3 months, these things have happened during my...

I work in a senior role at a small sized bootstrapped company. Due to health reasons, I have had to take multiple WFHs and Medical Leaves. In the past 3 months, these things have happened during my physical absence at the office:

1. Communicated to my team member that he is doing well and hence getting a surprise hike in compensation. I'm happy for him but I was working on his hike for the past several months and I lost the opportunity to announce it. The leadership was slacking on it for months and immediately when I took leave they announced it.

2. Full on micromanagement of my team bypassing me is now a daily affair.

3. Complementing my team for successes and blaming me for failures.

I have spent well over 10y in Corporate India. Isn't all this super toxic?

Every time I go on leave, Politics happens at the office.

Every time I go on leave, Politics happens at the office.- Grapevine

Welcome to Office Gossip's Private Community

What is the most toxic thing u encountered at work?

Product Designer

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

Share your employer toxic trait/policy.

I'll go first 👇🏻

- My employer hired me when it was Fully WFH, now they force me to join office after 8 months of joining.
- Attend 5 days/week
- No hybrid
- Biometric system to track attendance 
- Complete 180 hours in a month or pay cut
- No relocation support
- Less appraisal (~5%) citing market conditions.
- Removed unlimited leaves just a few days below announcing WFO.

FYI: I was named best employee for 2023 Q1

Toxic company traits

Software Engineer

Any PM or Dev from Navi here!!
I just saw it’s Glassdoor rating is 2.1,is it that bad?

Why is NAVI hated so much?

Product Manager

Start owning your leaves

This works only  with western managers. India managers will take it to heart and make it an ego issue. The effect will be felt on something else. If the manger is a man, he will let it go if you correct yourself next  time. If the manager is a woman, will never see the end of it. 

Always treat  Indian managers like street dogs. You dont pet them , but you dont throw stones at them either..

Consultant

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

Looking for genuine and non diplomatic answers since it will be anonymous. It is upto you to reveal the name of the company you resigned from.

Lets discuss!!! I will go first -

I quit my last organisation (a famous UPI company) in 2020 because, they still are in old technology. No cloud computing, no kubernates, no terraform. Their entire baremetal infra are in 2 DCs (Mumbai and Bangalore). Leadership ideas are outdated. I was very much bored and looking for a change.

Why did you resign?

Amount of effort i put and the salary i got was not proportional. 14 hrs to get 30k salary as a fresher. I had understood that I deserve better - thus i moved to get better pay and better wlb (which I got in swiggy)

Founder

DevOps Engineer

So, I joined this company located in Delhi last year from Bangalore as a permanent WFH employee. Initial 6 months were fine, even though I was aware they had pre-installed tracking software called "Teramind" while sending  the laptop! But in the last 3 months the work culture or environment has completely flipped and turned into Toxic.

First they made us install a remote tracking software called "Hubstaff"  which tracks keyboard and mouse activity and time, and takes 4 screenshots every 10 minutes.

Then they made it compulsory 8 hours a day excluding any break like lunch or tea.

This month they tied work hours with Salary and started deducting the entire day's pay even if you are short by like half an hour!  

Almost all employees know they need to leave but are kinda stuck due to the current job market situation.

I'M thinking of quitting without finding another job now, I'm just mentally tired and frustrated with the situation I find myself in. All my emotional energy is spent, I just don't know what to do😞

Toxic Remote Policy

Salesforce Developer

I just cant handle the pressure and the stress in this role. I am working so hard that I have ZERO work life balance.  The entire day just goes in meetings and meetings.  I think that I don't know anything and am extremely worried about my future. 

The work pressure is a lot here, deadlines are too tight and I have been vomiting from stress at night.
The worst part is, Deloitte never pays for over time.

Anyone else feeling this in other Big4s? I want to switch ASAP or I will die here.

I feel like I have failed in life by joining Deloitte. Anyone else feel this way in Big4?

For context: Weekends are off. So just fri WFH. This is a Series B startup. I am not even asking for a leave but WFH for just 1 day. I joined recently. The only thing I did wrong was possibly informing a little too late.

Want to get opinion if I am overthinking or this classifies as toxic culture in startups where you are expected to push limits above and beyond regularly and sometimes weekends.

---

Is this toxic work culture or I am overthinking

Not a great culture, also you don’t have to give the actual reason, instead say due to some unavoidable work or family health reason you will need to wfh. Its a good way of seeing what kind of employer one is, when they also treat urgencies like that. Indians feel they need to give a detailed explanation as to why they deserve wfh or leave, whereas in international companies, you just have to inform the manager.

Senior Designer

A friend used to work as AVP at HSBC’s credit analyst team in Bangalore Office. Apparently, one of the female AVPs loves gossiping and went around the office saying our guy doesnt work at all and is shitting on a crucial project. When reported to the lead VP, he failed to take any action.

Upon threatening intimation to HR, the lady got wind of the whole situation and calls up our guy applogising and stuff. But the back bitching doesnt stop and this time our guy ends up leaving the toxic workplace.

No cookies for guessing who’s in line for promotion next.

Other reported incidents against which no actions were take
1) making juniors cry
2) deleting teams billable hours without informing anyone
3) not informing about leaves and then creating chaos over non completion of work

and the show is just getting started….

HSBC India shitshow

My manager is making thinly veiled threats about me taking all my allowed leaves. 

He took me on a 1:1 today and told me that I took too many leaves last year. Then he said that the leadership is concerned about this and added that while I can take more leaves if I want to, it won't be good for me. He then brought up my promotion. It felt like he was using a pending promotion to stop me from taking more leaves. 

Not sure what I should do. Is this even normal in corporate? I thought our leaves are ours to take but now I'm guilty to take a PTO even for genuine reasons.

Is this okay?

Data Scientist

Welcome to Fintech India's Private Community

Basis recent news article and interview of the founder, the company is in talks for external funding. Has the founder money run out, he is also talking about ipo in 2 years.

Navi looking at external funding?

Operations Manager

Joined a product based Company two months back. Company culture is great. decent pay. good policies like insurance, cab, leaves etc.
But in the department I'm working at, the work is very Toxic.
It's minimum 9 hours everyday (continuous stretch). and what's surprising is stress and hectic work is normalised here. No one talks about. no signs of change as well.

Company is Great, My Work is Toxic

Welcome to Ask Grapeviners's Private Community

Mine was okay, started managing a new product/platform (matured one), lots of moving pieces. 

Kuch samajh nahi aa raha hai 🤷‍♂️ Still leading the calls with clients 😬 and leadership 🫤

Living each day as it comes

How was the workday?

Welcome to Confessions's Private Community

It's getting dirtier by the day and sure some orgs are still up to their dirty tricks.

The models:
- Appraise and then Lay Off: Why bother putting bandaid on a stab wound? Anyways the folks are going to fight how to answer the ..why were you laid off war, and now you are adding another twist.. why were you appraised and then laid off?
- Low appraisals to force quit: Undervalue them so they leave on their own. It’s a leeches way to cut costs. Kill morale 100%. Severance penny spent $0.
- Trap them in PIP: Dress it up however you want - very very few escape this death sentence.
- Silent treatment: No assignments, No meetings. Watch them spiral into anxiety and leave to save their sanity.
- Workload overload: Drown them in work until they break. No need for layoffs list until they make it to your collapse list first.
- Strategic reorg: Re-organize them out of existence. Offer a demotion or a proxy role in a random team that you know they dont want as an alternative. 
- Sudden policy changes: oh! I have seen so many I can't keep up with this one. 
New policies that make their life hell. People leave to escape your pettiness.
- Mandatory relocation: Demand they move to an undesirable location. Then you treat remote employees like outsiders. Exclude them from key projects, conversations until they feel like foster care kids, second-class citizens. You know the outcome from there on.
- Use the "Culture Fit" excuse: Call out how they’re not a culture fit. Vague, unchallengeable, and forces them out without severance.

And don't sell me "the org has got to do what it has got to do to survive" line. I don't buy that
If you have seen this being done, I understand your silence, but I don't value it.
If this has been done to you or someone close to you, I am sorry. Orgs and the people failed you. 
We could be 1000x better than what we are operating as.

dirty tricks played by orgs to Lay Off employees

Human Resource

Not sure how many anime fans are here, but I was recently watching this new anime called “Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead”, which basically shows how a corporate employee is so fed up with his messed up job, that the first thought he has, when zombie apocalypse hits is, “I don’t have to go to work anymore!”, and he’s out to do things that he always wanted to.

Anyways, in the new episode, its shown how a toxic leader/boss/senior behaves. And man, was that so accurate!! 

It shows how these leaders make you work like hell, belittle you, and misbehave with you. Even if you think of leaving the job, they make you believe how hard it is to survive without your current job, and how the work you’re doing is nothing, and that you can be easily replaced. 

And in the end, after fucking up your mental peace, they will come and show a little bit of sympathy, telling they how they just push you for your own sake. Acting like some wise old “mentor you never had”.

And you know, what the worst part is, since all your colleagues are living in the same environment, since everyday you go through the same toxicity over n over, it becomes normal for u. Your brain adjusts, and it seems to think that this is how the world is. 

Moreover, if you are a fresher, and you don’t have any prior experience of work culture, you seem to believe thats how work life is, and will always be. 

I’m ranting this out, since i wasted around 1-1.5 years of my life in such startup, and it wasn’t just the time that was wasted, it also took my passion, my energy, my motivation and my goal with it. 

To all the folks who might be in a similar situation, I just want to say, I know it’s hard and I know you probably can’t leave due to some financial situations or other issues. But BELIEVE ME when i say that nothing in this entire world comes above your mental health. Save that first folks. Be selfish, saving others can wait!

Traits of a toxic workplace

How did your personal life affect your professional life ? Share your positive/ negative experiences.

A lot. 
 Sister suffers severe psychological ssues. 
 Has been known since 4 years. Can't leave her alone. Trying to get her up on her feet has been a challenge since such people are not that socially acceptable. 
 We've had to juggle cities just so that someone is there to tend to her.  
 It drains the life out of your life. 
 Such things definitely affect professional life as you can't give 100% to your work when your mentally stuck at your home.

Software Developer

So I left my job at one of the big 4s few months ago. Will discuss the reason some other time.
But one of the issues I'm facing right now is that I never felt good in the corporate environment.
Bosses shouting at you for your mistakes, you feel threatened to stand up against your own boss since they unfortunately have too much power.

You need to take permission for leaves. People can be rude to you and you need to maintain your calm.
The corporate politics.

Then I left big 4 for some reasons. Took a short break.

And now I'm working in one of the Indian firms. They have such policies that your TAT cannot be more than 5 minutes. You cannot log off before 8 pm. If you login after 5 minutes of the actual login time, then you would be marked as absent. Sometimes you're given deadlines which are very difficult to manage and hence you remain stressed out with your work. You don't have the freedom in your work and need to do everything as it has been told.

So I don't really feel good in corporates. I feel there is too much pressure and it is just making me feel more and more sad. I don't feel myself anymore and I feel like a puppet.

Does anyone else feel the same?
How do I deal with this feeling?
It scares me to think about how I have just started my career 3-4 years ago and need to work for the significant years of my life and I don't want to wake up  and sleep with this feeling EVERYDAY.

I think this is the first time I'm talking about it. If anyone would like to share their thoughts, or guide me regarding how do I feel better, or anything you feel I'm doing wrong and could be improved, then I'm all ears. Let's talk it out.

I'm feeling sad in corporates

External Audit

It can be either a strange workplace policy, an altercation with a manager or absolutely anything else.

What's the most toxic incident you've come across at your workplace?

Welcome to IT Company Discussion's Private Community

I've been working in Accenture over 1.8 , I'm facing lots of toxicity, politics in my daily work now these days. I've been through a mental trauma as I was under the process of PIP ( Performance Improvement Program) , the clear reason behind it is boot licking, me & one of my colleagues both were into this process, I performed well enough & got 3.5/4 in tasks so they retain me , but she got 0/4 ...for that reason they terminate her. But after PIP in the office they're completely cornering me , they're not treating me as before.... I don't know what to do ,  I'm thinking to switch, but some says it's too early. I'm still under so much confusion.

If anyone help me in any way , it'll be thankful :)

Every time I go on leave, Politics happens at the office.

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