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What I find scary is that if you work in a sufficiently toxic environment/culture for long enough, that very behavior that you try to fight against and change b

by hysan 5y ago

What I find scary is that if you work in a sufficiently toxic environment/culture for long enough, that very behavior that you try to fight against and change begins to seep into your everyday actions. I've seen myself go from "positive and helpful" to "apathetic and helpful" to "not caring at all" to "chippy, negative and unhelpful" before. You hope that this is something you can pickup on, but when the culture of a work environment is like that, there isn't really anyone to give you feedback and catch you from sliding down this slope. Then when you do notice, the climb back up just feels so much more overwhelming.

ianai 5y ago
Yes, it's not a great situation and no body's perfect. But so long as we're alive we can change for the better, and change is arguably a constant in this universe until well off into the future (i.e. trillions of years, heat/entropy death of the universe stuff). What's even weirder, though, is surviving toxic situations can require all sorts of odd "contortions." So go easy on yourself and try to identify toxicity early.
BoonToobies 5y ago
This was definitely a part of why I left my previous job - after enough time that stuff really started to leak outside of the office too. After a day full of this type of "support" where nothing was enough ever the smallest request at home was a big challenge. I thought it was burnout (and it probably was a bit) and I needed to change careers, but after a few months at a new company things are going much better.
PragmaticPulp 5y ago
> if you work in a sufficiently toxic environment/culture for long enough, that very behavior that you try to fight against and change begins to seep into your everyday actions It can carry through a person’s career, too. I worked for a company that hired a lot of people out of a big tech company famous for being a grind, having a lot of PIPs, and generally keeping employees in constant fear of losing their jobs. Some of the ex-employees of that company were wonderful to work with and appreciated working with us as a breath of fresh air. However, a lot of them were clearly scarred by their experience at a toxic company. The worst of them were constantly in fear of being perceived as ranked lower than their peers (even though we didn’t rank!) and would make a lot of dumb moves to try to sabotage other people’s reputations. One guy went so far as to keep a long Google doc of what he saw as mistakes and missteps of his peers and managers, which he would then pull from as leverage whenever he thought someone might be a candidate for getting promoted past him. Another would have a emotional meltdown any time there was an issue with something he was accountable for and would rapidly write up a “post-mortem” that was really just a narrative that blamed someone else for the failure and demonstrated how he fixed it. We didn’t have these problems with high performers we hired from anywhere else. It was something about this company that chewed people up and left some of them scarred and defensive.
- sneak 5y ago
  Which company was it? Based on what little I know it sounds like this could be Apple or Amazon, but I am not in California and don't have any direct experience.
  - e-_pusher 5y ago
    Sounds like a company that is synonyms with a rainforest.
  - fouc 5y ago
    Sounds more like Amazon or Microsoft. People seem to enjoy working at Apple from the sounds of it.
dxuh 5y ago
I can relate so much. I have a coworker that is a lot like the coworker described in the submission and I notice myself behaving very similarly towards that coworker and it bothers me.

by hysan 5y ago

ianai 5y ago

Yes, it's not a great situation and no body's perfect. But so long as we're alive we can change for the better, and change is arguably a constant in this universe until well off into the future (i.e. trillions of years, heat/entropy death of the universe stuff). What's even weirder, though, is surviving toxic situations can require all sorts of odd "contortions." So go easy on yourself and try to identify toxicity early.

BoonToobies 5y ago

This was definitely a part of why I left my previous job - after enough time that stuff really started to leak outside of the office too. After a day full of this type of "support" where nothing was enough ever the smallest request at home was a big challenge. I thought it was burnout (and it probably was a bit) and I needed to change careers, but after a few months at a new company things are going much better.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

> if you work in a sufficiently toxic environment/culture for long enough, that very behavior that you try to fight against and change begins to seep into your everyday actions It can carry through a person’s career, too. I worked for a company that hired a lot of people out of a big tech company famous for being a grind, having a lot of PIPs, and generally keeping employees in constant fear of losing their jobs. Some of the ex-employees of that company were wonderful to work with and appreciated working with us as a breath of fresh air. However, a lot of them were clearly scarred by their experience at a toxic company. The worst of them were constantly in fear of being perceived as ranked lower than their peers (even though we didn’t rank!) and would make a lot of dumb moves to try to sabotage other people’s reputations. One guy went so far as to keep a long Google doc of what he saw as mistakes and missteps of his peers and managers, which he would then pull from as leverage whenever he thought someone might be a candidate for getting promoted past him. Another would have a emotional meltdown any time there was an issue with something he was accountable for and would rapidly write up a “post-mortem” that was really just a narrative that blamed someone else for the failure and demonstrated how he fixed it. We didn’t have these problems with high performers we hired from anywhere else. It was something about this company that chewed people up and left some of them scarred and defensive.

sneak 5y ago
Which company was it? Based on what little I know it sounds like this could be Apple or Amazon, but I am not in California and don't have any direct experience.
- e-_pusher 5y ago
  Sounds like a company that is synonyms with a rainforest.
- fouc 5y ago
  Sounds more like Amazon or Microsoft. People seem to enjoy working at Apple from the sounds of it.

dxuh 5y ago

I can relate so much. I have a coworker that is a lot like the coworker described in the submission and I notice myself behaving very similarly towards that coworker and it bothers me.