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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?

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Widdershins

My first job was my worst job. It involved grading and packing vegetables. Very straightforward really, runty-vegetables, medium vegetables, big vegetables. The supervisor was a bit unhinged and volatile and would take random root vegetables out of the boxes I'd put them in and throw them around, shouting that they were all wrong. Anyway I left that job and soon after I found out that he had been sacked. Over the years I've often heard people talk about him and his mad outbursts.
I work for myself now and it suits me.

Samaris

Worst: Well, I'll be honest and say that I dislike shiftwork and supermarket work. I'm not amazingly keen on People (not in large quantities) or work where it's very..uh..what's the word. You don't really get to use your brain, it's just the same stuff over and over.* So I'm already starting a bit on a back leg with some of my jobs. Still, I can put up with it when the staff are decent. So I had one job where both it was deli work and the staff were, overall, crazier than a barrel of monkeys on acid. Nasty, cliquey attitude there. I stayed out of it as much as possible, although I did occasionally act as a bit of a wild card if I felt someone was being scapegoated (which happened from time to time, especially the more part-time staff).

Sure, it didn't entirely make me popular, but feck it, I'm not going to join in bullying.

Best: Current job. It's got rote stuff in it, of course, but there's plenty of opportunity for learning and using your brain, which is great. And the staff are lovely too.

*I suspect I would actually lose my marbles doing assembly-line work. No reflection on anyone who does it, mind, it's a good job, but I'm personally poorly suited to it. I don't have the patience.

sbsquarepants

Mine was in the same company too actually - it was great at one stage, endless craic, free nights out and weekends away and so on, then a new MD was appointed who knocked all that on the head eventually he brought in an operations manager who was basically the biggest chancer tosspot you could ever imagine, but also with an attitude problem.
He was a one trick pony, one of those assert your dominance types. Came in and picked rows with everyone from day one, but his strategy backfired totally and after a few nervous months (and several people jacking up and getting new jobs) people got the measure of him (he basically hadn't a fúcking clue what he was talking about, all buzzwords but no substance) and he was marginalised and stonewalled and after about 12 months he quietly moved on to a "new challenge"
Amazingly this crucial role has not been filled by anyone else in the 2 years since his departure. The free nights and weekends however have still not made a comeback, I don't think they ever will:mad:

A.mechanic

Best: Aircraft maintenence when I first started working in it. Most of the managers were foreigners and treated all us on the floor equally.

Worst: Same company 20 years on and the Irish in charge as all the old guys have retired. The amount of backstabbing and infighting going on is ridiculous

steddyeddy

One eyed Jack wrote: »

It appears I completely misunderstood the title of the thread and thought the OP meant toxic as in dirty jobs and pleasant as in clean working environments

Every job I've ever worked in has been great, one or two bad apples didn't spoil the barrel, but now I work for myself I can choose who I do and don't want to work with, which is great!

I'm not great with words so it was probably my fault

Turtyturd

Worst was my first proper job, money was decent and would finish early most days but the environment was toxic with all the workers trying to one up each other in avoiding work. Management treated employees like dirt and expected them to drop any plans if any unexpected work popped up. Eventually forced them into making me redundant and the company has since gone bust which makes me happy.

Best is my current role in a section of the Justice Derpartment. The autonomy you are given to just get on with your work is great, and the atmosphere in the service is relaxed and laid back, which is a credit to the director.

whatdoicare

Toxic: A certain popular kids jewellery accessory store. It was ten years ago and I'm still mentally scarred from it! The two managers running the three stores were absolute bitches! I started working in one store then they wanted me to move to another store way out of my way, so to force me they cut my hours down to the minimum they had to, (4 hours) kept making up random things to discipline me for and generally bullied me into taking the job.

when I got there the two managers were leaving, as was the assistant manager, so I ended up running a store by myself with zero training! I was pretty much by myself all day every day except when one of the college kids came on about five or six in the evening Thurs to Sunday. I was working nearly 65 hours a week with no breaks and no toilet breaks and one day off a week. I had to come in on my day off to give the girl who was from another shop my keys and come back in that night to collect them again. I was being "managed" by this pig of a woman who was filthy with the dirt. She worked in another store and luckily i never saw much of her. She would randomly ring me every day to abuse me though. As would the other two bints from the first store.

Eventually, i guess head office rand the bints and told them i was earning too much so i was to be promoted to assistant manager. They wouldn't tell me my salary and I found out why! I was salaried for a 40 hour week and anything extra was unpaid and I had to come in. So I was worse off straight away. I didn't even work a week as an assistant manager, the second I found out what was going on I finished up my day and went in the next day to the other shop and gave them the keys and told them where to shove them!

Best place: Factory I worked in about 15 years ago. We had some craic there. Horrible 12 hour shifts but great bosses and co workers! I was fast at my job so they left me do what I liked. Id be finished my quota about three hours early so I could feck off into the store room and have a nap. We used to race each other with pallet trucks and build forts out of huge cardboard boxes and pallets! One engineer used to be walking around with a clipboard all the time, he showed me once it was full of pages from a DIY book, he was teaching himself how to build a cabin! I used to find my line manager down the back of the machines fast asleep with a sandwhich in one hand and betting forms in the other, he was mad as a hatter! Hed call me into his office and pretend to be giving out to me for getting caught sleeping and really hed be wagging his finger at me and telling me what he wanted down the Chinese! Brilliant place!

Puibo

I had to change a hydraulic hose in the back of a bin truck one day. I knew i needed a change then!!

One eyed Jack

It appears I completely misunderstood the title of the thread and thought the OP meant toxic as in dirty jobs and pleasant as in clean working environments

Every job I've ever worked in has been great, one or two bad apples didn't spoil the barrel, but now I work for myself I can choose who I do and don't want to work with, which is great!

TheBeardedLady

Saipanne wrote: »

Some people have no choice.

I know but I do (at the moment). I wasn't speaking for everyone.

Saipanne

TheBeardedLady wrote: »

Best jobs I have ever had were my two positions as a graduate trainee librarian in London (I'd planned on doing the master's in Dublin after). First job was for the Ministry of Justice and minimal work was expected of us. It was just me and my boss who'd grown up in a working class family in Essex to Irish parents, had converted to Islam 20 years previously, was married to a British Caribbean woman and had to severely autistic children....and read The Daily Mail. You couldn't make it up. Lovely, interesting man though who was actually very open-minded in spite of his chosen news source. We'd have great chats (and very heated discussions sometimes) and drank gallons of tea in that lovely, dusty old library. Good memories.

Second job (the previous one was on for a year) was in a corporate law firm with 4 of the nicest people I've ever met. I'd just broken up with my boyfriend and was very broken-hearted at the time and they were so sweet to me. My boss was the funniest man I met while living in the UK and was always taking the piss out of library life and librarians (i.e. us). We all used to go for pints a fair bit after work down by the Tower of London (we worked in the City). The lawyers there were surprisingly nice to.

I've never worked in a toxic environment, thankfully. I wouldn't put up with it.

Some people have no choice.

TheBeardedLady

Best jobs I have ever had were my two positions as a graduate trainee librarian in London (I'd planned on doing the master's in Dublin after). First job was for the Ministry of Justice and minimal work was expected of us. It was just me and my boss who'd grown up in a working class family in Essex to Irish parents, had converted to Islam 20 years previously, was married to a British Caribbean woman and had to severely autistic children....and read The Daily Mail. You couldn't make it up. Lovely, interesting man though who was actually very open-minded in spite of his chosen news source. We'd have great chats (and very heated discussions sometimes) and drank gallons of tea in that lovely, dusty old library. Good memories.

Second job (the previous one was on for a year) was in a corporate law firm with 4 of the nicest people I've ever met. I'd just broken up with my boyfriend and was very broken-hearted at the time and they were so sweet to me. My boss was the funniest man I met while living in the UK and was always taking the piss out of library life and librarians (i.e. us). We all used to go for pints a fair bit after work down by the Tower of London (we worked in the City). The lawyers there were surprisingly nice to.

I've never worked in a toxic environment, thankfully. I wouldn't put up with it.

Redser87

I worked in a shop where the manager went mad when I asked for a Friday off so I could go to my Debs. Eventually, after lots of tutting, he allowed me the afternoon off, but I had to be in at 9 the next morning. Apart from him it was a nice environment though, we'd have a good laugh between busy times.

Apart from that I've always been happy in work.

TOEJOE

worst Job: Worked in a chicken factory for the summer killing and cleaning out chickens good part got some free eggs!!!
best: Retirement!!!!

Grayson

I've had many random jobs over the years but I had a load in retail and I'm going to look at them.

Worst: Dunnes. It was just a depressing monotonous job. The management were idiots who took pleasure in lecturing you for 15 minutes on how to front off tins of beans. These guys believed you couldn't figure out where the front was and that they had valuable knowledge to share. The job itself was boring. I'd be given an aisle and have to restock it. I'd spend my day doing it and would only occasionally bump into a co-worker in the stock room.

Best: M&S were pretty damn good. I had a temp xmas job there years ago. They paid €2 more per hour if you'd worked in retail before. They rotated where you worked every hour or two and everyone worked both tills and shelves. So you'd never be sitting at a till for 5 hours without a break. They also paired people up. So you always had someone to chat to. They also didn't count tills. If you were a few euro short, they just didn't care.

Graces7

Where I am right now.. snug abed knitting for victory over starvation for tiny abandoned babies in India who my family rescue...and at many of the markets I trade at although they are a mixed bag!

The One Doctor

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 not make a great job.

Ah yes, I worked there too. It's great having it on my CV, but it was a terrible place to work. One guy came in at 7am and left at 11pm every day for less money than I was on. I went home on time. Backstabbing, passive aggressive managers too.

drdeadlift

Worked in boi for a short period in 2007/8.It was in an office.Im not sure if it was the people or the fact i wasnt suited for office work buy i hated it.Boring as hell and you could tell nobody liked it there.
A better experience was working alone in flight ops for an airline.Four twelve hour shifts left alone to over see the smooth running of an airline.Im not a big fan of the whole "office teamwork bs" so this suited me.

Teyla Emmagan

Was on a project in limerick years ago in a factory where loads of people were being made redundant. We were putting in an some system that they were spending a fortune on. Had to walk through the main floor everyday with our little suits and laptops and through the canteen where the union met to get to our office. All these men in their fifties being laid off and there we are. Very uncomfortable atmosphere. Pure misery that project, felt like it would never end. I saw grown men cry, and that was just us, not the lads being laid off!

Saipanne

Worst: Security guard in a shop. My job was to stand in one spot for 12 hours a day. Also, the boss would pick on me in front of others. I was young, so too timid to stand up to him. I would love to run into him now.

Best: My current role. Great people there, relaxed atmosphere. I'm often offered interviews at better paying positions, but I'm reluctant to leave, because I like it so much here.

HardenendMan

The Strawman Argument wrote: »

Had no problem with the heavy lifting in and of itself, the problem was that the heavy lifting wasn't factored into our hours at all, there was no real consideration of how much extra work it was landing in on us and we were still expected to do the same amount on the shop floor itself (restocking, cleaning, facing, etc) as the female staff in conjunction with the heavy lifting while receiving the same wage.

I dunno, I think I've just said exactly what I said before... maybe it doesn't make any sense, I'm terrible with words!

Ah right I get you. I thought the guys did just the heavy lifting. But you clarified that guys also had to keep up with the other tasks too.

Brinimartini

The most toxic kip I worked in was Unidare/Tinsley Wire and Oerlikon in Finglas......full of working class filth and scum from the local area.

The Strawman Argument

HardenendMan wrote: »

Maybe I'm missing something, but does it not make sense to have the male staff doing the heavy lifting?

If your complaint was about unequal overtime then ignore me!

Had no problem with the heavy lifting in and of itself, the problem was that the heavy lifting wasn't factored into our hours at all, there was no real consideration of how much extra work it was landing in on us and we were still expected to do the same amount on the shop floor itself (restocking, cleaning, facing, etc) as the female staff in conjunction with the heavy lifting while receiving the same wage.

I dunno, I think I've just said exactly what I said before... maybe it doesn't make any sense, I'm terrible with words!

HardenendMan

Worst; part time job while in college working as one of those annoying retail salespeople who come up to you when you just want to have a look around!

We were always pushed to sell what was good margin wise. I couldn't do it. I would get great enjoyment out of genuinely helping a customer get what suited their needs. And I was too honest. I would never ram an add on down someone's throat.

Best; working for big multi national as a contractor in software development. Absolutely cut throat. But i loved that. I loved being pushed to the limit, but only because i believed in the overall vision of what we were doing.

ziedth

I worked on an assembly line for six months to pay bills. Min wage 8 hours a day standing putting various things in a box. The boredom was something i cant put into words, id try and think of anything to keep my brain functioning but the people who worked there were the worst. As if something had snapped in them after so long at it just strange strange Group of people. I was grateful to have the job but I'd find it very hard to go back.

Best: Worked for Superquinn back in the Fergal Quinn days in the butchery department. Real boys club, every day was a laugh as if hanging out with mates. Was decent money considering how easy the work was and I was sorry I left till the day I called in under the new name and saw it had all been changed.

HardenendMan

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.

Maybe I'm missing something, but does it not make sense to have the male staff doing the heavy lifting?

If your complaint was about unequal overtime then ignore me!

Sugar Free

Worst: supermarket job with managers who hated their life and ambitionless staff with reverse snobbery issues.

Best: Current role. Talented people, good managers and a good sense of camaraderie.

experiMental

steddyeddy wrote: »

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.

Wow, never knew that a lab could be competitive. What's the reason? Not many lab jobs, and lots of people want one?

Getting back to the thread....

worst : working in a recycling plant during a night shift. Had no appetite for a while, after enduring smells of horrible stuff.

best : a job in a software development company. Sometimes I can work from home.

suicide_circus

rob316 wrote: »

Managers went off the rails for absolutely nothing. You wouldn't talk to your dog they way someone of them did. A saw a couple of soft quiet fellas break down after a bollocking in my time. I worked there for 6 months the final month was a Christmas December I walked after it didn't even give notice. It's just not how people should be treated.

If you're dunnes stores management material you are almost certainly a complete cnut.

ShadowHearth

Worst: being engineer for a company who installs sky dishes and do service calls. What a ****y job. It was long hours, tom **** of paper work and dealing with customers was like dealing with rabid badgers who try to screw you as soon as you come in through the door. At one stage I just snaped, got back to hq, parked the van, walked in the office, threw the keys and said: I am out!

Best: Current job as a chef in a hotel. I work there very long time and I had rough patches, but now I just love the place. The people I work with are mostly the reason I love it. Some collection of characters and personalities just makes it some mad house, but very fun. I am there so long too, that management does not give me any **** just for the sake of it, they know what I do and how I do it, so they leave me doing my work in peace. I am getting a long with everyone very nicely too. So yeah, great spot!