4 ms·

I've worked at a big internet company where the culture was very toxic and not a good place to work, let alone be a normal human being. Pushy, rude and underhan

I've worked at a big internet company where the culture was very toxic and not a good place to work, let alone be a normal human being. Pushy, rude and underhanded people were plentiful and were willing to throw you so far under the bus at any given moment that you would never find your way back out. This became evident to me when I went on my lunch break after working there for about 4 months. Each employee was given 1 hour for lunch. I spent ~15 minutes walking to the local burrito place, grabbed a burrito which took about 10 minutes and then walked back. I was gone roughly 45 minutes. The next day I was called into my managers office because someone didn't like the amount of time that I spent on my lunch break. Lucky for me I had my receipt and logged my work time so I showed him how much precious company time I spent galavanting to the burrito place. I said something that I definitely should have. "Maybe the person that reported me should have been doing work instead of worrying about my lunch break. If this company can't treat its employees like humans, I don't plan on working here much longer" I got written up for insubordination. I was pissed. I went back to my desk and typed up my 2 week notice. Good riddance.

terabytest 11y ago
What sort of company is that?
- yrro 11y ago
  Even better... Which company?
  - MCRed 11y ago
    Yes, companies should be named and shamed. In fact, we need something like Glassdoor but where bad reviews don't magically disappear.
- astrowilliam 11y ago
  A company that hires douche bags, apparently.
stevewepay 11y ago
How much do you want to bet that "someone" was actually your boss, but they didn't have enough guts to say it themselves? That sounds like a terrible place to work, good on you for leaving.
- astrowilliam 11y ago
  Actually, I filed a report when I left. I had a great track record until that point. My work was spotless, I think I was nice to everyone. Within 1 week of me leaving my boss was promoted! Not because he was good at his job, but because he was a bad manager. He was promoted to a position that didn't require him to have a team under him.
chucksmash 11y ago
It's odd how similar actions can have drastically different effects. At one particularly bad job (my only bad job?) fresh out of college I had a boss who took a special interest in me and hounded me non-stop. Earnestly trying to address his concerns never seemed to improve the situation...what finally did it was when, after months of prodding, I completely lost my cool and snapped back: "This is bullshit, Larry!" A pretty similar act of insubordination with drastically different results. My situation improved after that for the remainder of my time in the group.
greggman 11y ago
I probably shouldn't post this but what the heck. I quit on the spot twice when a company was dickish. Once I had a friend, previous co-worker, that would visit. He'd come into my office and we'd play games (this was a game company). This had happened about once every month or 2 for a year or so. One time I had to go to the restroom. I came back and he was gone. The new boss had escorted him out of the office. I quit on the spot. Saw that boss at a trade show years later. He apologized. Another time a boss at a company that was flex and who and never missed a deadline decided it doesn't going to be flex anymore for the next project. I was late one day 45 minutes and he got in my face. I brought up that I'd been an hour and a half early the previous day. He didn't care. Claimed if I worked at "The Gap" I'd have been fired. It was like "this isn't the Gap, I'm not an hourly employee". Arguments escalated, I quit. Apparently he then laid now the law for the remaining employees with strict hours and strict lunch hours and that you were not to leave the building outside those hours and threatening to doc people's pay if they were late. Of course he probably didn't realized that's probably illegal, at least in the USA. If you dock salaries employees by hours worked they become non-exempt meaning by not letting them choose their hours they are effectively hourly employees that have to be paid by the hour and paid overtime. At least in the USA. Of course IANAL but that's my reading of the law. I'm not really happy with the way I handled things and it's a life long work in progress to not get heated but I am proud that I didn't take shit and moved on from those situations when I did.
- kelukelugames 11y ago
  Kudos to boss#1 for apologizing. I hope he mellowed out.
- 67726e 11y ago
  To be honest, at this point in time if you are a good software engineer you really have no need to put up with toxic bullshit at work. I left a job back in January. The type of startup that likes to prey on youthful ignorance. The kind of place that will repeatedly remind you that you are exempt from overtime but shove added unrelated duties and obligations and make you use a time clock. When I was faced with my capitulate or quit situation I didn't hesitate to quit and tell them just how shitty they treat folks. I had a new job that afternoon. Don't be afraid to stick up for yourself. This is a golden age for developers. Learn your worth and don't ask, demand it. To do anything less is doing yourself a great disservice.
elisee 11y ago
Accidentally downvoted you, sorry.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
jaimebuelta 11y ago
The fact is that those things (small, stupid disrespectful moments) are the kind of triggers for quitting or to start looking other stuff. When I go back, the things that most angered me about managers or companies hasn't been "big stuff" (crunching time, low pay, etc...), but those kind of "stupid serious conversations" (not liking the amount of time spend for lunch, that's just "behold! I need to MANAGE because I don't have anything better to do!" of the worst kind) Even in good jobs, those things infuriate you in a way that may make you resign just on the spot... And the current situation in tech it's not like you're afraid of not finding something else... PD: Part of the manager's work is to say sometimes "Oh! Don't worry about it, I'll talk to him/her and take good care of that" and then do NOTHING.
- MCRed 11y ago
  The small inconsiderations are the reality leaking out and letting you know what they think of you. They don't respect you and they won't respect you when review time comes around or when raises and bonuses are handed out. Thus it's not really blowing them out of proportion to react negatively to them. They're honesty leaking out.
- autotune 11y ago
  From my perspective the job of a manager is 4 fold: 1) Manage schedules. 2) Set expectations for performing well and be motivational (optional in my case but appreciated). 3) Prevent corporate politics and bullshit from getting in the way and keep the team in the loop about potential bullshit that is bound to come our way. 4) Manage or help manage hiring/firing process and promotion process. A manager should act as a background process that steps up only if things are very obviously wrong or you directly ask for help related to the above. If they are in the foreground without it being required than they are creating the political bullshit that results in team members becoming weary and quitting.
  - dredmorbius 11y ago
    You're omitting a key element: providing the team with what they need to get the job done.
IndianAstronaut 11y ago
Please post about this on Glassdoor.
wpietri 11y ago
The "insubordination" thing is killing me. As a manager, one of my highest goals is to get people to be usefully insubordinate. So many people, thanks to controlling bosses or color-inside-the-lines education, will just do whatever they think powerful people want. But I think we all do our best work when we're thinking for ourselves about how to best serve our users and treat our colleagues. Good for you! I hope you keep being "insubordinate" wherever you go.

terabytest 11y ago

What sort of company is that?

yrro 11y ago
Even better... Which company?
- MCRed 11y ago
  Yes, companies should be named and shamed. In fact, we need something like Glassdoor but where bad reviews don't magically disappear.
astrowilliam 11y ago
A company that hires douche bags, apparently.

stevewepay 11y ago

How much do you want to bet that "someone" was actually your boss, but they didn't have enough guts to say it themselves? That sounds like a terrible place to work, good on you for leaving.

astrowilliam 11y ago
Actually, I filed a report when I left. I had a great track record until that point. My work was spotless, I think I was nice to everyone. Within 1 week of me leaving my boss was promoted! Not because he was good at his job, but because he was a bad manager. He was promoted to a position that didn't require him to have a team under him.

chucksmash 11y ago

It's odd how similar actions can have drastically different effects. At one particularly bad job (my only bad job?) fresh out of college I had a boss who took a special interest in me and hounded me non-stop. Earnestly trying to address his concerns never seemed to improve the situation...what finally did it was when, after months of prodding, I completely lost my cool and snapped back: "This is bullshit, Larry!" A pretty similar act of insubordination with drastically different results. My situation improved after that for the remainder of my time in the group.

greggman 11y ago

I probably shouldn't post this but what the heck. I quit on the spot twice when a company was dickish. Once I had a friend, previous co-worker, that would visit. He'd come into my office and we'd play games (this was a game company). This had happened about once every month or 2 for a year or so. One time I had to go to the restroom. I came back and he was gone. The new boss had escorted him out of the office. I quit on the spot. Saw that boss at a trade show years later. He apologized. Another time a boss at a company that was flex and who and never missed a deadline decided it doesn't going to be flex anymore for the next project. I was late one day 45 minutes and he got in my face. I brought up that I'd been an hour and a half early the previous day. He didn't care. Claimed if I worked at "The Gap" I'd have been fired. It was like "this isn't the Gap, I'm not an hourly employee". Arguments escalated, I quit. Apparently he then laid now the law for the remaining employees with strict hours and strict lunch hours and that you were not to leave the building outside those hours and threatening to doc people's pay if they were late. Of course he probably didn't realized that's probably illegal, at least in the USA. If you dock salaries employees by hours worked they become non-exempt meaning by not letting them choose their hours they are effectively hourly employees that have to be paid by the hour and paid overtime. At least in the USA. Of course IANAL but that's my reading of the law. I'm not really happy with the way I handled things and it's a life long work in progress to not get heated but I am proud that I didn't take shit and moved on from those situations when I did.

kelukelugames 11y ago
Kudos to boss#1 for apologizing. I hope he mellowed out.
67726e 11y ago
To be honest, at this point in time if you are a good software engineer you really have no need to put up with toxic bullshit at work. I left a job back in January. The type of startup that likes to prey on youthful ignorance. The kind of place that will repeatedly remind you that you are exempt from overtime but shove added unrelated duties and obligations and make you use a time clock. When I was faced with my capitulate or quit situation I didn't hesitate to quit and tell them just how shitty they treat folks. I had a new job that afternoon. Don't be afraid to stick up for yourself. This is a golden age for developers. Learn your worth and don't ask, demand it. To do anything less is doing yourself a great disservice.

elisee 11y ago

Accidentally downvoted you, sorry.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

jaimebuelta 11y ago

The fact is that those things (small, stupid disrespectful moments) are the kind of triggers for quitting or to start looking other stuff. When I go back, the things that most angered me about managers or companies hasn't been "big stuff" (crunching time, low pay, etc...), but those kind of "stupid serious conversations" (not liking the amount of time spend for lunch, that's just "behold! I need to MANAGE because I don't have anything better to do!" of the worst kind) Even in good jobs, those things infuriate you in a way that may make you resign just on the spot... And the current situation in tech it's not like you're afraid of not finding something else... PD: Part of the manager's work is to say sometimes "Oh! Don't worry about it, I'll talk to him/her and take good care of that" and then do NOTHING.

MCRed 11y ago
The small inconsiderations are the reality leaking out and letting you know what they think of you. They don't respect you and they won't respect you when review time comes around or when raises and bonuses are handed out. Thus it's not really blowing them out of proportion to react negatively to them. They're honesty leaking out.
autotune 11y ago
From my perspective the job of a manager is 4 fold: 1) Manage schedules. 2) Set expectations for performing well and be motivational (optional in my case but appreciated). 3) Prevent corporate politics and bullshit from getting in the way and keep the team in the loop about potential bullshit that is bound to come our way. 4) Manage or help manage hiring/firing process and promotion process. A manager should act as a background process that steps up only if things are very obviously wrong or you directly ask for help related to the above. If they are in the foreground without it being required than they are creating the political bullshit that results in team members becoming weary and quitting.
- dredmorbius 11y ago
  You're omitting a key element: providing the team with what they need to get the job done.

IndianAstronaut 11y ago

Please post about this on Glassdoor.

wpietri 11y ago

The "insubordination" thing is killing me. As a manager, one of my highest goals is to get people to be usefully insubordinate. So many people, thanks to controlling bosses or color-inside-the-lines education, will just do whatever they think powerful people want. But I think we all do our best work when we're thinking for ourselves about how to best serve our users and treat our colleagues. Good for you! I hope you keep being "insubordinate" wherever you go.