What's the most toxic and pleasant environments you have worked in?

steddyeddy

Basically what's the best and worst work environments you have experienced? I work in a lab and the competitive atmosphere in the lab leads to more staff breakdowns than any other job I've worked in. I love my job but it's a tough environment and not many people know that. What work environments attract the most d1ckheads, breakdowns, ruthlessness and general crap?

Banjo String

steddyeddy wrote: »

Basically what's the best and worst work environments you have experienced? I work in a lab and the competitive atmosphere in the lab leads to more staff breakdowns than any other job I've worked in. I love my job but it's a tough environment and not many people know that. What work environments attract the most d1ckheads, breakdowns, ruthlessness and general crap?

Funny you mention labs, many years ago as a student, I was working part time with a local builder.

He was contracted during the summer months (school holidays) for some major renovations.

Anyway, one of the first things to be done was the complete gutting out of what was obviously the science department / lab.

Jesus, the smell that came from the drainage syatem when we were pulling out the sinks etc was one of the most putrid smells I have ever experienced.

Still hunts me to this day.

thegreatgonzo

I worked in the kitchen of a hotel in Galway for a few weeks after I finished college years ago. It was a bit like east germany, a throwaway negative comment about the job or about one of the millions of supervisors in front of the wrong person could have you sent up to the head office for interrogation. People whispered to each other in the staff room for fear of being overheard. The staff were the most unhappy looking bunch of human specimens I've ever encountered in the workplace. I've had other kitchen jobs in restaurants and hotels and enjoyed them so it wasn't the work, just this particular place.

One eyed Jack

Banjo String wrote: »

Funny you mention labs, many years ago as a student, I was working part time with a local builder.

He was contracted during the summer months (school holidays) for some major renovations.

Anyway, one of the first things to be done was the complete gutting out of what was obviously the science department / lab.

Jesus, the smell that came from the drainage syatem when we were pulling out the sinks etc was one of the most putrid smells I have ever experienced.

Still hunts me to this day.

You've clearly never had to gut a rubber seal making factory that had an animal meal factory just across the road from it

Ohh yes, the jokes about rubbers and firing blanks and pulling your wire and arm sheaths to protect your arms from the heat in the presses, combined with the unholy smell of shìte from across the road...

Anything really was pleasant after that experience tbh!

pauliebdub

Best - working in a beef processing plant as a teenager, long hours and standing all day in a refrigerated room but the place was full of characters and it was brilliant crack. I really enjoyed working there.

Worst- current job, nobody hardly speaks to each other, unspoken tension and hostility, annoying colleagues, sterile dull environment, no promotion or career opportunities. Looking to get out soon.

Letree

steddyeddy wrote: »

Basically what's the best and worst work environments you have experienced? I work in a lab and the competitive atmosphere in the lab leads to more staff breakdowns than any other job I've worked in. I love my job but it's a tough environment and not many people know that. What work environments attract the most d1ckheads, breakdowns, ruthlessness and general crap?

It must be a research lab you were in was it?

steddyeddy

pauliebdub wrote: »

Best - working in a beef processing plant as a teenager, long hours and standing all day in a refrigerated room but the place was full of characters and it was brilliant crack. I really enjoyed working there.

Worst- current job, nobody hardly speaks to each other, unspoken tension and hostility, annoying colleagues, sterile dull environment, no promotion or career opportunities. Looking to get out soon.

If it's anything like my job that translates into spoken tension and hostility.

SEPT 23 1989

pauliebdub wrote: »

Best - working in a beef processing plant as a teenager, long hours and standing all day in a refrigerated room but the place was full of characters and it was brilliant crack. I really enjoyed working there.

Worst- current job, nobody hardly speaks to each other, unspoken tension and hostility, annoying colleagues, sterile dull environment, no promotion or career opportunities. Looking to get out soon.

Jack it all in and go back

pauliebdub

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Jack it all in and go back

The money was terrible.

steddyeddy

Letree wrote: »

It must be a research lab you were in was it?

Yes. One person publishes and someone else resents it. People published before me but I don't see the point in getting hostile about it. The only thing I have control over is my own work.

pauliebdub

steddyeddy wrote: »

If it's anything like my job that translates into spoken tension and hostility.

It's more like passive aggression, which is just toxic to have to put up with.

GLaDOS

Work in a lab myself (PhD student) and thankfully have to say the environment isn't like that at all. Generally everyone works as a team and there isn't much issue with authorship or sharing results. Was it industry as opposed to academia?

Doesn't surprise me about the sink though .

sjb25

Worst job was in a call centre my god I hated every second if customers are not on your case management was over call times surveys etc hated it

steddyeddy

ScienceNerd wrote: »

Work in a lab myself (PhD student) and thankfully have to say the environment isn't like that at all. Generally everyone works as a team and there isn't much issue with authorship or sharing results. Was it industry as opposed to academia?

Doesn't surprise ma bout the sink though .

Well I'm a PhD student with a small group. It's academic and there's always backlash when one group gets money and another doesn't. I'm in biochemistry so maybe it's different to your area?

Red Pepper

thegreatgonzo wrote: »

I worked in the kitchen of a hotel in Galway for a few weeks after I finished college years ago. It was a bit like east germany, a throwaway negative comment about the job or about one of the millions of supervisors in front of the wrong person could have you sent up to the head office for interrogation. People whispered to each other in the staff room for fear of being overheard. The staff were the most unhappy looking bunch of human specimens I've ever encountered in the workplace. I've had other kitchen jobs in restaurants and hotels and enjoyed them so it wasn't the work, just this particular place.

can you name it?

GLaDOS

steddyeddy wrote: »

Well I'm a PhD student with a small group. It's academic and there's always backlash when one group gets money and another doesn't. I'm in biochemistry so maybe it's different to your area?

I'm biochemistry as well There can be some politics between PI's but we keep out of that and generally everyone gets along

The Strawman Argument

Worst: Family farm, don't think I even need to elaborate! There was also a shop with some really sexist attitudes toward overtime but, giving the way boards has been lately, I'm not even sure I should mention it!

Best: Volunteer work teaching old people how to use computers, felt great to be able to help some of them in reasonably significant ways with relative ease and I had some great conversations with a few of them too. I like that kind of one-on-one informal teaching type stuff a lot in general, can get very enthusiastic about almost anything.

steddyeddy

ScienceNerd wrote: »

I'm biochemistry as well There can be some politics between PI's but we keep out of that and generally everyone gets along

Yes that's the thing. The politics between PI's really gets annoying to be honest. You're not in UCD are you?

GLaDOS

steddyeddy wrote: »

Yes that's the thing. The politics between PI's really gets annoying to be honest. You're not in UCD are you?

Nah I'm in Maynooth

steddyeddy

The Strawman Argument wrote: »

Worst: Family farm, don't think I even need to elaborate! There was also a shop with some really sexist attitudes toward overtime but, giving the way boards has been lately, I'm not even sure I should mention it!

Best: Volunteer work teaching old people how to use computers, felt great to be able to help some of them in reasonably significant ways with relative ease and I had some great conversations with a few of them too. I like that kind of one-on-one informal teaching type stuff a lot in general, can get very enthusiastic about almost anything.

Think I experienced the same thing. I think Boards has an anti sexism policy so I don't see how anyone would mine you pointing one out? I worked in a shop at 16 (used to be s-quinn) and they sent the girls home at ten making the boys stay on. Also the boys did all the lifting.

steddyeddy

ScienceNerd wrote: »

Nah I'm in Maynooth

Phew you could have been in one of the ENEMY GROUPS!!! That could have been awkward :P

GLaDOS

steddyeddy wrote: »

Phew you could have been in one of the ENEMY GROUPS!!! That could have been awkward :P

We do have an enemy group as well, but they're in Germany :pac:

thegreatgonzo

Red Pepper wrote: »

can you name it?

Well I used to call it the Pr1ck House hotel which is pretty similar to its actual name:D

One eyed Jack

Red Pepper wrote: »

can you name it?

Sounds like a lot of hotels I've worked in tbh!


Another dirty job I worked in - a sleeper plant!

Not quite as exciting as it sounds, I'm talking the concrete sleepers that go under train tracks. I dreaded having to go into the vibrator moulds to clean the gunk off the moulds with oil, and then when they'd come out of the moulds they were lifted onto steam beds in stacks and covered for an hour.

The steam when you'd lift the covers would scald you, and then you'd have to manually lift the steel stands out, about 12 of them in a stack weighing about 20kg each. Then they went on a conveyor belt where you'd have to shove steel rods through them, and if they were blocked in the middle as you were shoving the wire in, it'd stop dead and you could really do yourself damage (the belt was about the same height as me family jewels :pac:), drill it out then and go for a second attempt. 12 hours of that and you'd be in bits by the end of it, but one thing for sure it was a better workout than you'd get in any gym!

TheBeardedLady

The Strawman Argument wrote: »

Worst: Family farm, don't think I even need to elaborate! There was also a shop with some really sexist attitudes toward overtime but, giving the way boards has been lately, I'm not even sure I should mention it!

You don't have to tip toe about the place TSA. People had problems with the genuine misogynistic stuff, not people simply commenting on sexism in their workplace.

The Strawman Argument

steddyeddy wrote: »

Think I experienced the same thing. I think Boards has an anti sexism policy so I don't see how anyone would mine you pointing one out? I worked in a shop at 16 (used to be s-quinn) and they sent the girls home at ten making the boys stay on. Also the boys did all the lifting.

Yep, that was pretty much it.

Everyone was designated an aisle. Almost everything was stored upstairs so the male staff had to carry everything down at the start for everyone and, when they finished their section, they had to carry whatever needed to go upstairs (quite a lot on delivery days!). Male staff also had to carry bags out for anyone who requested it... it ultimately amounted to an additional few hours of overtime.
What really took the biscuit was that that manager kept giving better hours to a lot of the female floor staff too. Things got way better when he was replaced, mind.

TheBeardedLady

The Strawman Argument wrote: »

Yep, that was pretty much it.

Everyone was designated an aisle. Almost everything was stored upstairs so the male staff had to carry everything down at the start for everyone and, when they finished their section, they had to carry whatever needed to go upstairs (quite a lot on delivery days!). Male staff also had to carry bags out for anyone who requested it... it ultimately amounted to an additional few hours of overtime.
What really took the biscuit was that that manager kept giving better hours to a lot of the female floor staff too. Things got way better when he was replaced, mind.

Reported! :mad:
















Haha?

mickstupp

Worst - long time ago, working for a couple of years in Sandyford in the offices of one of the biggest software companies in the world. Incredibly soul-destroying environment. Nothing but bad memories of the place. Great money does not make a great job.

Best - currently, for almost no money in comparison, teaching first year students a few tutorials every week. Getting to see people learn and progress, seeing them fall in love with the subject I love, and helping them learn how to express their ideas in essays. Sounds silly maybe, but I'm far happier than I ever was with a tonne of money in that other place, doing work that meant nothing to anyone for people who probably couldn't even spell 'thank you'.

corner of hells

mickstupp wrote: »

Worst - long time ago, working for a couple of years in Sandyford in the offices of one of the biggest software companies in the world. Incredibly soul-destroying environment. Nothing but bad memories of the place. Great money does make a great job.

Best - currently, for almost no money in comparison, teaching first year students a few tutorials every week. Getting to see people learn and progress, seeing them fall in love with the subject I love, and helping them learn how to express their ideas in essays. Sounds silly maybe, but I'm far happier than I ever was with a tonne of money in that other place, doing work that meant nothing to anyone for people who probably couldn't even spell 'thank you'.

I worked as a contractor in that software company.I was employed there as an electrician.

We were not allowed drink water from drinking water fonts , you know the ones where you get the little plastic cup , the reason we were given was that the water was for the staff employed directly and not for contractors.
I can still see the piss stain of a manager standing in front of about ten electricians and apprentices telling us not to drink the water.

rob316

Dunnes stores was hands down the worst environment I ever worked in. Dickhead junior managers, even bigger Dickhead dept managers and one the biggest Dickhead of them all store manager.
Hated every minute of it there.

steddyeddy

rob316 wrote: »

Dunnes stores was hands down the worst environment I ever worked in. Dickhead junior managers, even bigger Dickhead dept managers and one the biggest Dickhead of them all store manager.
Hated every minute of it there.

Worked there too. A element of fear was used to keep people in line. I don't believe in treating human beings like that.