I was asked by my boss to interview this person who he thought would be perfect in the open position I had. He thought the world of her. The interview was really good, I saw what he saw. She had said more than once that her team was like a family, which was odd but I didn’t know better yet.
We walked back to her office and passed by her team. We stopped at her top performer and she highlighted how great they are and proud of treating everyone as family and the look on his face said it all. She’s so full of shit and the contempt he had for her was barely containable. And she didn’t even fucking notice!
As someone who’s been in management for 3+ decades I can firmly tell you if your leader tells you that, RUN!
Or get them fired. This job market is a bitch so quitting may not be the best option.
Edit: I didn’t hire her. Less than a year later HR fired her after an investigation. I don’t know any of the details and wouldn’t share if I did. Dodged that bullet.
I also told my boss what I saw and he commended me for my choice.
Unrelated this boss (who I will think very highly of) was on vacation in Greece a few years later and was murdered in his hotel room. Still haunts me today.
There is a for-profit medical clinic near me where they told the workers that " we’re all just really cool and we love our jobs so we don’t take breaks" - they didn’t allow workers to take breaks as required by law so I created pamphlets about how to report and get compensation for wage theft and I passed them out on all the cars outside the clinic.
I once thought this was a good thing that meant I was safe and well taken care of while being treated as family. Then I realized this also applied to all of the people who were genuinely terrible at their jobs, making horrible decisions for the company, affecting not just my ability to do good work, but the company’s ability to provide. Nobody ever got fired and bad managers got promoted because nobody was ever critical of them. The rot spread and the company never reached the heights of their earliest success.
RED FLAG! RUN!
Usually means we expect to grift you into doing things for free
Criminal childhood indoctrination organizations like child armies and cults use the same tactics, I wonder how happy they’ll be to learn what great company they keep by acting like David koresh, Charlie manson, or Jim Jones while also insinuating you’re a child and are dumb enough to be manipulated by such bullshit.
Just leave it, you dont need to work in toxic space
gives that teacher who says “okay, friends!” and “And the most important rule is: have fun!” vibes
It’s performance review season. Boy am I hearing this a lot
But, they smile and try to make jokes. They put up signs, like, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” They seem friendly, and seem to care, and sometimes even buy pizza.
One mention of unionizing brings that illusion crashing down, though. They show their true face, then.
