Bad Work Experiences

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I thought I'd share a bad work experience that occurred somewhat recently.

After finishing school, I was offered a position at a fairly small company. To keep it simple, my role involved performing routine tests in a laboratory. I decided to take the job since it was related to what I went to school for and it paid fairly well for something entry level. During the interview, my soon-to-be supervisor mentioned that the work was fast-paced, but manageable so long as you stayed organized and prioritized tasks. I took her word for it since I pride myself on being organized, making to-do lists, and meeting deadlines. Well, it turns out I overestimated my ability to handle stress and pressure in a fast-work environment.

The laboratory was set up such that there were three product types that needed testing and one lab tech was assigned to each area for a week at time. However, there was one product type that required significantly much more work than the other two areas. Due to this, the tech testing these products was allowed to ask their co-workers to help out when they had the chance. It helped cut down on the amount of multi-tasking involved, but working on this particular product type was very stressful for me. I'd come in at 8am with sometimes 20+ samples waiting for me since the plant ran nearly 24/7. My boss would come several times throughout the day with requests for results on samples I had just received moments ago. Oftentimes I'd end cut my lunch breaks short in order to avoid having to stay really late. Overall, I'd just become completely oblivious to the world around me because I was so focused on my work.

During one particularly busy time for the company, my co-worker ended up taking about a week and half off due to a family emergency. Since we were short a person, I agreed to test both the two lower volume product lines for a few days and then switch off to the more involved one for the rest of week. In the wake of this stressful time, the company decided to replace all of the glassware for the more involved tests over to plastic since someone had gotten cut by cracked glassware earlier that month. The plastic ended up being near impossible to clean, which just added another layer of stress to those particular tests. At the same time, we were getting record volumes of the two other product lines into the lab, so I couldn't spare any time to help my co-worker her tests. I was running around like a crazy person the entire day so I didn't even get a chance to see how she was doing.

Apparently my lack of help had infuriated her, and she decided to "sabotage" me when it was my turn to do the more involved tests. Long story, short she didn't offer to help me out at all with my tests when we switched roles. (To be honest, I didn't really mind since I figured she was also too busy to help. I just kept quiet and finished my work.) The next day I came into the lab and she immediately admitted to "not helping me on purpose" because she wanted me to experience what it's like to "not have any help with the tests". She also mentioned that I know should start helping her out before she even asks. I calmly apologized and asked that she try to just ask me in the future if she needs help. She proclaimed that she'd be helping me that day and told me to get to work. When I walked over to my work station, I noticed that she missed a few samples that she would be working on. I took them back to where she was working and asked if she was running both instruments for those samples that day. Again, she told me to just get to work, put her hand on my shoulder, and pushed me back several feet. I was so taken aback by this (pun intended) that I just went numb and did my work in a blur that day. It wasn't until I got home and away from all the stress that I realized they she stepped way out of line. I sent an email to my boss explaining what had happened as soon as I had calmed down enough.

Since I deal with a lot of social anxiety, I asked that my boss have a chat with her privately about this incident before I brought it up to my co-worker directly. I wanted to make sure that no one got too defensive or pointed fingers in the heat of the moment. I also wanted to avoid just conceding that I was in the wrong (like I usually do) since I'm a very non-confrontational person. My boss's reaction to this request was a statement involving the word "tattling." Ultimately, she suggested I go talk to co-worker about it myself. This didn't sit well with me at first, but I brushed it off. I decided to just wait a week to see if things got better between my co-worker and I.

They didn't. She'd try to initiate arguments with me over trivial matters and attempt to drag them out for a long time. I'd be afraid to take my lunch or leave work before her even though I take shorter lunches. She'd come up to me before leaving for lunch and ask me to take over her work for her even though I had my own stuff to work on. She also started taking longer than an hour.

I started dreading getting up for in the morning. I started having trouble eating and sleeping. I'd go through the motions at work in a fog. I stopped having friendly conversations with my co-workers. Eventually, I decided to look for another job and put in my resignation letter.

I'm sure most people experience a bad or even hostile work environment at some point in their life. Whether it lasted just a few months or several years, I'm interested in hearing your stories if you're willing to share. Did you quit? Were you fired? Did things eventually get better?

Thanks!

I'm sorry you have to go through this with this workplace bully.

If I were in your situation, I would sort of bite the bullet. But I would also write down the events when this person tries to bully you. Do you know if this person bullies others, too? I hope so. A multi-person complaint is much stronger than a one-person complaint.

I've had some bad experiences at work.
I'll write a couple of them, and should probably include a warning, as one includes a rather nasty statement about suicide.

One of my last jobs was in a food truck, dish washing and prep. It didn't pay much, couldn't get enough hours, and the boss was a real jerk. It was like every shift with the boss was a long, drawn out fight with the boss. Trying to argue with a toddler or something. Every time. Sometimes it wasn't so bad, the subject matter wouldn't be too intense, or maybe we'd busy enough that he didn't have time to say anything. One day, one of the worst days, he showed up for his shift and the very first thing out of his mouth, before I'd even had the chance to say hi was "people who commit suicide are f@#king pieces of $h!t". Yelled at me on his way in the door. And it just continued for five hours non stop. I don't agree with that sentiment at all, and I certainly don't need someone barking a tirade at me about it all night while I'm trying to work for nine dollars an hour. It upset me for days afterward. And it was always that dramatic, that intense of an amount of energy, even if the subject matter was easier to deal with. The final straw was about three months in. We were doing the prep work for the week, him, me, and my female co-worker. I don't remember the exact words he said, but the basic idea was that he will not promote a woman, because women aren't capable of doing anything but looking pretty at the counter. I kind of snapped at him. Gave him four examples of women I've known who were clearly capable of doing whatever it is they wanted. It got a bit heated. (Honestly, I had to give up what I was trying to write). He ended up descending to some petty "oh I'll beat your___" statement.
So I walked out.
Just too much to deal with for a dead job. I think he has since gone out of business, unaware of details.

Another one was a few years ago. Worked one day as a telemarketer. Apparently we were selling cruise packages or something. Aside from the difficulties I had with the very poorly written script, and no information to answer questions with, it really felt like my job was actually ripping off old people. I felt pretty terrible. It just felt slimy. So I quit the first day.

One of my favorite jobs was working on a fishing boat out of Monterey, CA. The experience was amazing, I fought a sea lion with a milk crate my first day on the boat! Went out to sea on a seventy ish year old wooden boat. Fished through a pretty brutal storm. It was beautiful!
Couldn't get paid. I worked for about two months and earned some ridiculously small amount of money, maybe$200. The boat was always broken down. So we'd work 50 hour weeks on the dock fixing the boat in order to do 3-4 day fishing trips (that might consist of working more than 24 hours straight), in order to catch fish that weren't worth anything. The real deciding factor for me was the other deckhand, though. He was a likeable guy, but he wasn't very bright, he got seasick before the boat made it out of the harbour, and (the biggest thing) continuously put himself and the rest of the crew in danger. I mean just could not remember really basic instructions. Things someone would actually have to work really hard to mess up. And it was really lucky no one got hurt while working with him.
So I decided it wasn't worth it.

So those are three bad work experiences. The first things that came to mind. Although I'm sure I could think of more.
And a short recount of the fishing boat gig, because it's fun to talk about that.
I hope this post isn't too out of line.

I worked for 25 months doing floor-care at WalMart. The job was OK in the beginning but our department gradually became more & more short-handed. Management also kept changing & the newer managers wanted us to do more & more things that were unrelated to what we were supposed to be doing. I was working over 55 hours a week when I was allowed to make over-time because I wanted to help out & I was also on SSI & wanted to make more money when I could to better myself. After about a year & a half of working there a contract crew was hired to help us out but they kept screwing things up that we had to redo so they really weren't making our job any easier. Things just gradually got worse & worse & on my last day I was pulled off by a manager to work on another task that the contract crew was supposed to be doing. I was told by her to ignore all other orders that did not come from her. The head manger of the store had me paged to do something but she didn't make the page herself so I ignored it like I was supposed to. I got chewed out by her for not responding to it. This frustrated me so much that I decided I just couldn't take working there anymore & quit after my shift was finished & I was done with my other tasks for that day/night. Shortly after I left my department was dissolved into others & the contract crew took fully over. I would of had problems working in another departments due to my physical disabilities so I feel I was kind of forced out so they wouldn't have to fire me & risk consequences for firing a disabled person.

I had to quit my manufacturing job because my supervisor tried to write me up for not doing something that was insanely illegal...

I have had to leave a job on 29/11/2017 because my trainer bullied me out of my job. I am taking action against this person, not for myself but for anyone else he gets stuck with him and he takes a dislike to.