Abbey-Roads2

“Whatever I feel like!  Gosh!”

From what I understand my resignation was announced today at my former workplace.  Not a few are waiting to hear the why and wherefore from me, but I’ve not answered the phone nor responded to emails.  As far as a job it was only a blip on the radar screen of my life.  It was fun in the beginning, yet being the company I worked for was a family business, I sort of got sucked into their dysfunction.  I’ve blogged about it before, numerous times, and pretty much got myself in trouble for it - only insofar as some people were not pleased by my candor - I never was reprimanded.

So what went wrong?

On some level, troubles began with my blogging, both for the company and on my personal blog.  I had a voice suddenly.  Although a couple of people did not like what I had to say.

I wrote about the negative culture in the workplace, inconsistencies of management regarding employees; benefits, hiring practices, as well as termination issues.  I for one was more or less obliged to terminate people with disabilities who, although they met my standards, they were not considered productive enough by management, or were disliked, either by management or some other employee who had their ear.

Recently, an employee had become a victim of discrimination, having been arbitrarily refused full benefits, mainly because he is disliked.  He was hired without my consultation, and I was expected to document his shortcomings for an eventual termination, if that came to pass.  He has been consistently mistreated by management, not always overtly, rather more through subterfuge.  He would be ignored, and in every situation when he approached the HR representative, he was treated with hostility.  Of course, that is just her personality.

Negative culture.

Sadly, management and HR, that is the family, have an attitude of total mistrust towards their employees, they look down on them, considering most of the employees to be losers or misfits.  The reference has been made innumerable times in my tenure there. Hence, the negative, or toxic culture I grew to recognize in the workplace, I came to realize was undoubtedly generated from the top.

For instance, in the six years I worked there I have never once had a conversation with the original owner of the company.  Since he does the banking, when I would have a calculation error on a deposit, rather than approaching me about it, he went to a co-worker to have her bring it to my attention.  It would be no big deal to have approached me, yet it illustrates the passive aggressive behavior in the family’s management style.

I cannot say they are dishonest per se, yet they are decidedly passive aggressive in their interpersonal relationships, with one another and their employees.  Rather than managing a couple of employees internet abuse for instance, they chose to remove one employee’s PC and replace it with an ordinary data entry terminal, without saying a word to the employee, yet exposing her to humiliation in view of all the other employees who knew the story behind the move.

In another situation, an employee who was abusing the internet privilege was blocked from internet use, although nothing was said to her by way of explanation.  She was never talked to about internet usage on company time, nor was she advised the privilege was denied.  An employer can do that, yet not to manage and direct employees, or to explain policy, let alone speak to the offender about the problem, not only contributes to the negative culture, it leads to mistrust and low morale, that in the end affects productivity and employee loyalty.

So what happened?

Monday night, I discovered my access blocked to the blog I wrote for the company.  I immediately thought access had been denied me because of a more or less controversial post I created.  I was shocked that my immediate supervisor had not advised me and asked me to take the post down, which had been our understanding.  I did not sleep at all that night.  I couldn’t believe they were doing to me what they had done to other non-exempt employees.  I decided I could no longer work for a company like that.  I could no longer work in an environment of mistrust, back-biting, gossip, and just plain subterfuge.

The next day when I arrived at work, I cleaned out my office of my personal effects, and I was pretty much Peter Gibbons for the rest of the morning.  I was paged repeatedly to go and see my boss - she’s actually the president of the company.  She has recently become this hyper-active, micro-manager, constantly checking on every little detail of minutae in day to day business - not just with me, but everyone else as well.  (Business is down, so that could be part of her problem.  Plus, her brother recently sold his share of the company and left, so it’s probably more a control thing between her and the other sibling owner.) 

The straw that broke… 

Finally I went to see her - since she wouldn’t tell me what she wanted on the phone.  It turned out to be an HR thing about time cards.  What?  I don’t do payroll.  Her daughter does.  (She’s the HR person with the attitude.)  She starts to scold me for an employee’s time records via the time clock not lining up with the schedule I created - despite the fact it is the emplyee’s responsibility to write up a slip if there is any discrepency.  I then asked, “Why couldn’t your daughter ask me about this since she does payroll?”

She muttered some excuse and I interupted,  “No!  It’s because she will not talk to me!  She doesn’t like me!”  (She doesn’t like anyone save for 1 or 2 employees.)

“I don’t know about that…”  the boss began.

And I said, “Oh yes you do.  You know what?  I quit - I’m out of here.”

I realize this incident sounds rather petty, but there had been a long build up involving multiple factors; inconsistencies, dissimulation, etc.  I got to the point that I had it with the manipulation - playing people against one another - along with the passive aggressive, dysfunctional behavior.  I left, as I had been thinking of doing if things got worse, but not without a bit of drama with the little princess in HR - I so wish she was held to some performance standards - or had to work for a real company.

Speaking of performance standards, did I mention I never had an appraisal for last year?  My review was due in November - although my hire date is August 16, and when I asked about it in January, I was told, “You can wait just like everyone else.”  They have always been late with my review, and the raises were never retroactive, as they would be in most companies.  Not a lot of incentive there when you’ve worked 10 or 11 hour days when necessary, sometimes coming in on Sundays and holidays.  Health issues of the past 3 or 4 months aside, which I was harassed about, I normally work at least a 9 hour day. 

But that’s it folks - that’s the story some of you have been waiting for - maybe some all day long.  I have to take care of myself right now.

Here is an interesting tidbit on the topic of toxic culture in the workplace:

Robert Bacal, noted author and management consultant, says that a toxic organization is like a dysfunctional family. It shows two specific characteristics: first, a history of poor performance and poor decision-making; and second, very high levels of dissatisfaction and stress that go beyond normal workload issues. Additional signs of a toxic workplace include:

• culture of fear, non-communication or miscommunication
• atmosphere of high stress and conflict
• inability to achieve goals
• disparity between mission statement and how the company actually functions (Huge issue!)
• bullying, gossip, malicious rumours, disrespectful behaviour (A daily thing.)
• increase in health problems and accidents
• more resignations/turnover/loss of talented employees (Another huge issue.)
• feelings of helplessness and indifference
• low productivity

In a toxic environment, employees are treated as expenses not assets (no matter how much rhetoric the organization puts forth). Employees are not supported, and are consistently under attack. They are burdened with unreasonable workloads and deadlines and unclear expectations.  - Toxic Workplaces

All of the above: Veritas!  (Especially the part, “In a toxic environment, employees are treated as expenses not assets” - That is certainly the case where I worked.)