4 ms·

My first job out of college was at a magazine. The two editors there were in their 70s and notorious for being bullies (although for what it's worth, one of the

by Gimpei 5y ago

My first job out of college was at a magazine. The two editors there were in their 70s and notorious for being bullies (although for what it's worth, one of them mellowed out after their editorial assistant committed suicide). There wasn't a day when I wasn't yelled at repeatedly, and the taint seeped down, with everybody lower down the rung yelling at anybody below them. It was easily the most toxic environment that I've ever experienced, and I've worked in academia! People were breaking down in tears all the time. Ex editorial assistants would send in letters written in crayon from insane asylums. The funny thing was that instead of resenting their tormenters, most people adopted a very protective stance towards these editors, as if they were children. Sadly, the impression that I got was that a lot of other publications had similar problems--smart but extremely neurotic bosses who regularly demeaned their employees. This was in 2000, around the time when "The Devil Wears Prada" came out. The one upside was that it permanently scared me out of publishing, which turned out to be an excellent career choice.

vanderZwan 5y ago
> for what it's worth, one of them mellowed out after their editorial assistant committed suicide Maybe it's just me, but I don't think "used to be super-toxic but once they tormented someone into suicide they got better" is worth shit.
- serf 5y ago
  so then no real reason for the terrible person to improve? Now that they've goaded someone into a suicide they're unforgivable, regardless of their remorse/regret/introspective consideration? i'd rather live in a society that gives bad people a motivation to improve, rather than one that condemns all people who commit bad actions as tainted forever by their previous regretted action. a terrible person who has improved through introspection and societal nudging into a decent human being is society's trophy for a job well done. It's exactly the desired outcome; to continue to condemn the apologetic and rehabilitated individual is useful for nothing except for petty vengeance between the victim's social network and the perpetrating individual - it serves little to no societal good.
Cub3 5y ago
My first job was also in publishing, I was hired as a "website designer / developer" to help them transition print magazines to digital. My experience was pretty much exactly as bad as you are saying, Constant bullying, people would be in tears every few days, several court cases and even had one of the editors take a swing at me because he thought I told the MD that he didn't clean up his desk (I didn't) and was fearing retribution from him. Hit a period of depression after 6 months of working there, I still remember how happy I was when I got my next gig, felt like the world was back in colour.

by Gimpei 5y ago

vanderZwan 5y ago

> for what it's worth, one of them mellowed out after their editorial assistant committed suicide Maybe it's just me, but I don't think "used to be super-toxic but once they tormented someone into suicide they got better" is worth shit.

serf 5y ago
so then no real reason for the terrible person to improve? Now that they've goaded someone into a suicide they're unforgivable, regardless of their remorse/regret/introspective consideration? i'd rather live in a society that gives bad people a motivation to improve, rather than one that condemns all people who commit bad actions as tainted forever by their previous regretted action. a terrible person who has improved through introspection and societal nudging into a decent human being is society's trophy for a job well done. It's exactly the desired outcome; to continue to condemn the apologetic and rehabilitated individual is useful for nothing except for petty vengeance between the victim's social network and the perpetrating individual - it serves little to no societal good.

Cub3 5y ago

My first job was also in publishing, I was hired as a "website designer / developer" to help them transition print magazines to digital. My experience was pretty much exactly as bad as you are saying, Constant bullying, people would be in tears every few days, several court cases and even had one of the editors take a swing at me because he thought I told the MD that he didn't clean up his desk (I didn't) and was fearing retribution from him. Hit a period of depression after 6 months of working there, I still remember how happy I was when I got my next gig, felt like the world was back in colour.