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

steddyeddy · 22-11-2014 02:48PM

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

A.mechanic · 09-09-2016 08:01AM

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

sbsquarepants · 09-09-2016 08:13AM

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:

Samaris · 09-09-2016 08:16AM

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.

Widdershins · 09-09-2016 10:31AM

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.

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

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