Employees have given examples of “red flag” warnings that a workplace is “toxic”, so workers can think twice before accepting a job offer.
These stories were collated from Reddit, a social news website and forum that describes itself as “the front page of the internet”, by Low Energy Savings, a UK energy price comparison company.
One Reddit user said that during the interview, his future boss told him he was planning to fire a salesperson and complained about the employee to him. He took on the role and left within seven months.
The Reddit user said:
It’s a symptom of being a very poor leader. The person they are complaining about will eventually be you, because they haven’t learned how to coach and develop employees. More so, it’s completely inappropriate and unprofessional to discuss your peers’ performance issues/personal relationships with you. Plus, it’ll sour relationships that you could form with those people as it makes you not want to be “guilty by association”. It’s literally team implosion.
Another user said it is always good to look at people’s faces whilst walking to the interview room and see if people are smiling or not. If there are smiles and jokes there is enthusiasm.
When a company treats its employees poorly, employees get that “look of defeat in their eyes. Their job have no enjoyment, it is merely about survival.”
Also, this particular Reddit user explained how the “work hard, play hard culture” tends to mean your job has no work-life balance and you drink too much.
A bad sign you may experience on your first day is your manager not being prepared for you and not even knowing your computer password.
Phil Foster, managing director of Low Energy Savings, said:
Some firms go the extra mile for their staff – others run a mile in the opposite direction.
It’s a sad fact that these experiences shared by Reddit users will ring true for a lot of employees here in the UK.
It’s also thought that around one in 10 employees experience workplace bullying – arguably the most extreme ‘red flag’ you could possibly encounter.
And it’s the responsibility of managers to protect and nurture their most precious commodity – the people who work for them.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.
