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What has your worst experience been working at a job?

Engineering Manager

What has your worst experience been working at a job?- Grapevine

Welcome to Product Managers's Private Community

I recently applied to Indian Fintech, first round went well. Got no response from HR for 3-4 days. Once I called her on 5th day, she told me that I had cleared first round and they will assignment next day. Assignment didn’t arrive for 2 more days. HR stopped picking my calls. After this I reached out to third party recruiter (who started the process initially). She contacted this company HR and they sent me assignment next day. 

I had to complete it in 48 hour strict timeline. Spent entire 2 days on it and barely slept. I submitted it on time. 

After this no reply from HR for 4 days. Finally I reached out to my interviewer from first round for help. He said he will remind HR. 

Next day I got call from HR that all open positions are closed and we will consider u in future. No feedback on assignment was given. Not even sorry for making u wait. 

Isn’t the only thing HRs need to be good at is people handling & professional communication?

What’s the worst interview process experience you had so far?

Product Designer

Since I’ve been working under a crappy management just wanted to know what others are going through as well. 

My manager takes a PL off my account everyday since I’m on notice period in the hopes this will convince me to rescind my registration and work under her 💀

Worst Thing Your Management Has Done

Assistant Manager

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

Happy almost Halloween! What have been your most horrific experiences at work? 

I’ll go first. My manager went on a week long holiday, all the while not replying to texts or calls and came back and yelled at me for going on without his approval :__

Job horror stories

I developed an API that basically took inputs from a webform and loaded it into Salesforce (I have oversimplified here).  
 While testing , one of the fields was "website", I simply typed "www.rk.com" which were the initials of my pet doggo. 
 The test went well, data got loaded into Salesforce. 
 I then get pinged by the multiple people that rk.com is a porn site and multiple people while verifying the test results ended up clicking on the link and got flagged by the IT security team for watching porn on office laptop🤣 . 
  
 It was an honest mistake nonetheless, but very horrifying for me🙈

Analyst

Database Administrator

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?

Consultant

I was done with a very shit project team. The client is notorious, ask anyone in EY GDS about a telecom provider project near Manesar that everyone dreads. They make you work night shifts and literally have nothing to do there. I know people who game there all night. It is just the worst and my health was being affected. I am being paid < 10L by the way. So it was getting very toxic. 

I decided to ask my manager but he said that it is not possible right now. I asked my friends in other projects and I came to know that the only way to leave the project is to leave EY. I also came to know about someone who left EY to leave the project and rejoined EY to join another project.

I am now done with EY. Who said that Big 4 is good? Only Boomers who think Big 4 has prestige ig because they pay peanuts.

What is the worst experience you've had at Big 4?

I’ll go first.

I was in a rut. No clients, no prospects and no jobs.

Someone saw my work, really liked it but didn’t have the budget.

I dropped my rate to about 40k to just pick up the project. They paid me 50% advance (20k). The project lasted 2 months with atleast 5 client visits (each round trip costing me a little more than 1k)

I made multiple design options over several weeks. After one of my presentations, I was about to hop off the zoom call when I heard one of the partners of the firm say “This is really good, very sharp work. Exactly what we wanted”. I wasn’t supposed to hear this because they felt I had dropped off the call.

I felt good that they liked the work. I wanted them to be super happy, so I went to print shops to get multiple color samples for them, made PPT templates (it’s really annoying and painful to make one of those), made tutorial videos on how to use different elements, how to use the templates without breaking them, getting on calls with his team to teach them etc (all of which cost me time or money or both).

I finally got to a place where everything was sorted. All the files were handed over along with proper documentation. Once done, I asked for the rest of the pay. And the client told me that he’ll only pay me if I get his visiting cards printed! 

This was never mentioned anywhere till now. I told him I could do it for an additional charge (what the printer would charge me, I even excluded my cost of going till the printer and back), but he just stopped responding.

I followed up multiple times but didn’t get any response.

Not only did I make a loss on the project, it was a project where the client was actually super happy with the work. Felt really bad and annoyed that I had gone out of my way to make the client happy and he couldn’t even do the bare minimum of paying me for the work I did (and that too the discounted rate 🙄)

The bittersweet ending: They are still using my work that was done about 5 years ago.

What was the worst client/boss experience you’ve been through?

Founder

What made it worst? The pay, the culture, or your manager?

What's the worst company you have worked for?

ICICI Bank, they had a strict sign in timing policy where if you are late to corporate office, half day salary would be cut, It would be reversed only when manager approves. The sign out time used to be 5.15pm, but you would be made to sit till 8 pm by most of the managers even if your job is done for the day. A sign out at 6 pm used to be called as half day by most of the managers. 
 I heard now they donot have this dictatorial policy.

Data Analyst

Product Manager

Candidate experience is the first point of contact that shows the culture of the company. From recruiters ghosting to giving interview assessments that is actual work for the next quarter to  getting too personal about your life, what has been your worst candidate experience?

What are some horrible candidate experiences you've had? Name the company if you are able to

What is the worst boss you’ve ever had?

Software Engineer

For people who interview potential candidates for high level positions what was the worst interview you conducted?

What’s your horrible exit story? 👇🏽

Horrible exit stories

Lawyer

In my case - a person got laid off at work on the same day as their wife

What is the saddest thing that you have ever heard happen at your office?

Share your insights on any industry association or body you may have encountered with a less favorable work culture? This assessment should encompass aspects such as compensation, working conditions, opportunities for learning, and prospects for career advancement.

Worst Industry Association to work for? Share your take.

I personally haven’t quit from any of my previous jobs. I was laid off but that was for my own good to be honest. 

What’s your story?

What was the worst thing about your previous job that made you quit?

There is thread asking to vote for worst HR.  They are clerks. What is the worst thing they can do other than delay your final settlement.

What is " worst HR"?

Today, I had an interview for a job as a software developer. The person interviewing me started by asking if I could speak Hindi. I told him I could understand it but wasn't good at talking because I'm from South India. He gave me a mean smile, which made me feel really unsure of myself right away. 😔 We went on with the interview. He asked a question that was kind of a design question, and when I tried to answer, he didn't really listen. Even when I asked him some questions, he didn't give a good answer. He was busy with his phone, and it seemed like he wanted to say no to me. I'm feeling pretty down about it. 😞 I don't get why he acted like that, but now I feel dumb after doing the interview.

A bad interview experience 🤕

Team Lead

Ever since I have come back this week from Diwali break, it feels like I made a fucking mistake going back home and taking multiple days off last week.

My manager is intentionally putting too much on my plate, while other peers are just chilling and laughing at me.
Now, he is saying that we're running late on timelines because of me and I am a disgrace. He is laughingly mentioning to me that he will fire me.

I have a history of clinical depression and bipolar disorder, this is triggering me a lot and I can't sleep really well at night. I feel like ending it all and leaving this company for good. I have savings worth 12 months of living expense.

Is anyone else facing similar issues after coming back from Diwali?

Worst day at work today. Feel like ending it all.

Operations Manager

I had an interview today with a service-based company. The first round was conducted by someone who used to be a content writer but is now a community lead with no design background.

During the interview:

Interviewer: Asked me to showcase my proudest work.
Me: Presented a detailed walkthrough of a feature, explaining every design decision and inviting questions throughout.
Interviewer: Expressed high praise for my work and asked about my design system.
Me: Explained my design system approach, including the collaboration and cross-team communication it required.
Interviewer: Continued to be impressed.
Me: Thanked them.
Interviewer: Inquired about my salary expectations.
Me: Stated my expectation.
*Now things gets mad*
Interviewer: Criticized my design system as outdated and implied my work could be done by a beginner watching YouTube. Asked me to prove my worth was really upto the salary expectations.
Me: Pointed out that I had already justified my value through my work during the past 50 minutes.


It's disheartening that the interviewer discredited my soft skills and the experience I gained from two years of designing. They seemed to dismiss my achievements due to a lack of "full-time experience." It would have been more appropriate if they had asked follow-up questions about my portfolio. This experience felt like a waste of time, as the interviewer appeared immature and conducted the interview poorly, despite having over 8 years of experience. It's a disappointing and unprofessional approach to an interview.

Worst interview experience till date

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

Almost 50% of the org got no increments
People with "exceeds" rating got single digit increments
Only promotion cases have got early to mid double digit increments
Promotions have been significantly fewer this time, max people have been told to hold off their expectations of promotions for another year

The reasons cited were economic slowdown, other companies like Microsoft, Flipkart, swiggy, Amazon doing the same and cost cutting. I think things are getting toxic and the majority of employees have been left disappointed.

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