People Over 50 Explain How Working Has Changed Since They Were Young
Reddit user LightningStrikes818 asked: 'Redditors who are 50+ years old, what has changed the most about working when you started working vs working nowadays?'
It feels like the workplace is constantly changing, especially since the pandemic, with more people working from home, more systems being automated, and more social pressure for workplaces to evolve.
But it's even more jarring to think of how much the workplace has changed for those who have been in the workforce for many decades and how seemingly every aspect of their work has changed... at least once.
Redditor LightningStrikes818 asked:
"Redditors who are 50 years old or older, what has changed the most about working when you started working vs. working nowadays?"
Dress Codes
"Skirts/dresses and pantyhose required of women in many offices through the 1990s."
- hhhmmm0
"Flipside: suits and ties, buttoned-up shirts. Brutal in summer."
- ridleyfiredome
"Pantyhose were high maintenance. I had to have an extra pair in my desk drawer in case of a major run. I had clear nail polish at home and work to stop any runs above the hemline."
"Pantyhose were expensive, I had nice department store hose for special occasions, and bulk mail order hose for daily wear. They had to be washed in mesh bags and hung to dry."
"In the summer I’d get swamp crotch when it was hot and humid, and heat rash on my thighs where they rubbed."
"Heels had to be polished and the heel tips replaced at the shoe shop. Most office clothes were dry clean only, and it was expensive, and yet another errand. Office clothes were expensive, I didn’t have many clothes, I had to plan what to wear and time the dry cleaning."
"I don’t miss the nightmare of heels and hose from the 80’s."
- phineasminius
Electrical Transfer, Who?
"Having to go to the bank to cash my paycheck."
- Cndngirl
"Oh my god, yes, and we needed to wait until after 3:00 PM to cash it."
- Big-Reflection-104
Work and... Strip Clubs?
"We took a company van with a logo on it to take out-of-town guests to a strip club. I don’t even think I can say that out loud at work today."
- scruffles360
"Strip clubs were standard practice. Especially in sales. Many deals closed in those places over my career."
- YOU_WONT_LIKE_IT
Smoking Spaces
"People smoking indoors. Clouds of smoke everywhere in the office and no way for a nonsmoker to avoid it. That was the norm so you just had to suck it up."
- andBobsyourcat
"Yes, at one stage I had the misfortune of sitting next to someone who used to smoke a pipe. I could barely see my computer screen at times for the clouds of smoke."
"Also, the IT support guy would come over to do something and he always had a cigarette dangling from his lips, dropping ash into my keyboard. Urgh! Different times!"
- MickSturbs
Office Parties of Old
"Man, in state government, all the older employees have similar stories of work parties in the 90s. Booze everywhere, smoking, people dancing, and having fun. Everyone brought their spouses, etc."
"Now you're lucky if you see a Christmas cake. People wonder why everything feels like it's coming apart at the seams and people are so unhappy. That aspect of being a human being fun, even at work is gone."
- t00sl0w
"I'm a millennial in industrial equipment sales, and it genuinely feels like you showed up to a party about an hour after everyone was gone."
"Nowadays, I can't even have a beer with dinner and expect to expense it."
- titsmuhgeeee
"Oh man, the office Christmas parties then, versus now?? Forget about it. Like comparing a wedding to a funeral."
- Schyznik
Safety Precautions
"I'm 42 but feel like I want to chime in."
"Health and safety has changed loads. You wouldn't get away with half the sh*t we did when I was 17."
- section4
Constantly, Always Sitting
"I watched office work go from sedentary to virtually immobile. We used to retrieve paper files, pass memos around, and consult with coworkers in other sections and floors."
"Now everything is available on the screen in front of us, everything can be shared with a few clicks. It’s convenient, but so unhealthy."
- MathematicianWitty23
What's a Pension Again?
"Hardly anybody has a pension anymore."
- whitewolfdogwalker
"That's where I feel really lucky to be in Australia, we have mandatory superannuation (a percentage of your pay plus employer contribution goes into a fund for your retirement) and most people will also qualify for an age care pension in addition to their super."
"The pension isn't really enough for our current seniors who don't have much super (due to the timeline of when it was introduced) but generations after that should be relatively well set up for retirement."
- TheGardenNymph
Work Availability in General
"I'm in the UK."
"It was a great deal easier to find work. You'd get vacancies posted in various places and could go down to the Job Centre, browse vacancies posted on postcards on boards, pick out the jobs you were interested in, and get a member of staff to arrange an interview for you. Just like that."
"Dress codes were more formal and you actually had to go to work. If you worked in an office for the right company work finished Friday lunchtime when you'd go with your colleagues to the pub. You'd go back after the 'liquid' lunch hour and work Friday afternoon, but no sh*t got done and work piled up for Monday."
"You got paid either direct debit, cash or if you were unlucky by cheque. You had to deposit your cheque in the bank or building society and wait for the cheque to clear, usually four days, but sometimes 10 days. If you got paid cash you'd get it in a small brown envelope known as a wage packet which listed all deductions on the outside. It still felt good to tear open the wage packet and take out the cash."
- ElvishMystical
The Value of Employees
"That you chose a career, and you worked for an employee, and they valued your experience. You rose in the ranks of your profession, you became a valued team member, and you stayed until you retired."
"Changing jobs often is frowned on; if you make a job commitment, you follow through on it. People get bothered and quit/move/change really quickly now. That's not necessarily bad, but it has created a gap in expertise; everyone is new all the time, and there isn't any value in having experience."
"If you happen to be an elder in your field with some level of legacy knowledge; it doesn't seem to matter because your boss is likely younger than you and less experienced."
"There used to be jobs what you did to get paid and live, and careers, what you did because you wanted to invest time into being good at something, AND that was how you made a living."
"Moreover, you went to school to be in a career. So you put time and energy into attaining your job, therefore you'd want to stay in it and grow. In theory."
"I'm not sure anyone cares about being in a career anymore. Because we all feel so betrayed by the system; wages not keeping up with COL, inflation, (and inflation subsiding and prices staying high because it's what the market will bear), and when everyone is replaceable, then no one is an expert."
"I'm GenX. I work in healthcare. I work in a broken system that no one actually wants to fix. Those of us working in this system are now just grist for the mill. It's too bad because we spent a lot of time and money going to school to be able to work in our chosen field."
"In contrast, my mom was also a nurse. She had a career. She worked in it until she was 70 and retired. She worked with a team that mostly stayed the same, over decades. I don't work with anyone I started with at my job six years ago."
- bunnehfeet
Business Phones
"People used to answer their business phones."
- BornFree2018
"Oh my god, work landline numbers. I never see those anymore. I don’t even have a phone number in my email signature at work anymore."
"And business cards used to be such a big deal. I used to get really excited to see my name and title in print. I would always send my parents one when I got a new job. What a dork!"
- ptpoa120000
What Work-Life Balance?
"There was a lot more understanding back in the 80's and 90's that each employee had a life outside of work, and work would end at 5:00 PM. You could leave work and go do something that you liked, maybe a martial arts class or some learning workshop somewhere."
"There were no phone calls. Text messages and email hadn't happened yet. Pagers were rare. People were in better shape. They had time to workout and were encouraged by their bosses to go do something to keep in shape."
"These days, it's the opposite. There's no encouragement from your boss or your coworkers other than to just work around the clock. You're never 'off.' Emails, text messages, Slack messages, video calls, and 'tickets' from your company's internal issue tracking system come in at all hours of the day."
"You're tracked in every way possible these days. You're given impossible deadlines. It now takes incredible willpower to break free and 'sneak' away to go workout. You're exhausted all the time, so you lose the desire to workout. You just want sleep."
"Instead of meeting up with friends somewhere for dinner, you are happy to just get home, get something hot to eat from your microwave, and numb yourself by watching YouTube and Reddit."
"What you do now during your downtime is very low quality and is just done to unwind from the stress that follows you no matter where you are. They call this Flex Time, and its purpose is ostensibly to give you the ability to walk away from your work and go enjoy life. Funny."
- mhv64sj
New Measures of Success
"Working for a company for many years was seen as honorable and a sign you were a good worker."
"Now it’s viewed as someone complacent, scared of change, and stupid for not salary hopping."
"I don’t disagree, though; I’ve been at my company for a long time and it’s anything but complacent and always changing."
- MysteryMeat11
"This is why we in-betweeners especially (between gen-x and millennial) have been conflicted and confused about it all. We were raised by older boomers and heard it's best to stay with companies because it looks bad on resumes to not and can even affect your buying things like houses and cars."
"But then when we did, we were let go during times like the recession and cutbacks having to start all over again, on top of not getting raises like the new hires and then confused because we were told staying and being loyal looked good and led to success."
- fidgetypenguin123
A Literal Paper Trail
"Paper. Lots of paper."
"Before email, there were people (secretaries or admins) who would take a memo someone printed out on their computer, make physical copies, and either walk around to every executive’s desk, or put into inter-office mail. This memo could be to a few people, one person, or for a general announcement needed to go to everyone."
"For expediency, these memos would also be posted in public areas (lunchroom, messaging board) if it was a general notice. These memos were often routed from the head manager throughout the department if it was more for general information."
"We once had a wave of new hires (about 20 people in our company of 400) and each got their own announcement. So, 20 people and 50 copies was two reams of paper. Copied. Hand carried or inter-department mailed. For one set of announcements."
"Oh, and each department admin had their own routing slip (small piece of paper with each person in the department’s name) that was stapled to the announcement. When you got the memo, you read it, crossed your name off, and gave it to the next person on the list."
"That’s where 'they must not have gotten the memo' comes from."
- UncleGizmo
It's interesting to look back on how things have changed. While some things have definitely improved, like improved safety precautions and more relaxed attire, other things like a sense of work-life balance have certainly declined.
If people were able to choose their working conditions, it'd be interesting to see if they'd choose today's working conditions or a different work-life balance...
Rules People Have Tried To Enforce That Backfired Spectacularly
Most of us have worked somewhere or attended a school where there were some ridiculous rules in place.
Nothing might bring us more joy than to see some of those rules backfire.
To have a laugh, Redditor TabblespoonFarmer3 asked the sub:
"People of Reddit, what stupid rule at your work or school backfired beautifully?"
The responses their fellow Redditors came up with were simply glorious.
Micro-Managing the Clock
"A boss was worried we were 'stealing time' by using the bathroom for too long. So being the nutjob he is, he locked all the bathrooms in the building except the ones he could see from his office door, shut off water to them, put out-of-order signs on them, and he would sit there with a stopwatch timing us between walking into the restroom and walking out (these are all one-at-a-time restrooms) and then would call out the time."
"This was STUPID over the top and almost positive is illegal but he never made a policy officially restricting bathroom time... he just wanted to make everyone feel uncomfortable if they took too long."
"I discovered that with my height, it was really easy to go through the drop ceiling and over the half wall and I was the only other person using the men's besides my boss, who is short... so I went in... locked it from the inside and did my business and climbed out the ceiling leaving the door locked so my boss could not get into the bathroom when he needed to go and was forced to use the ladies... which led to our female employees complaining that he was taking too long in their bathroom."
"To this day, I don't know if he ever figured out how I was doing that."
- geoffbowman
"My boss started putting 'all staff required to start 15 mins earlier than indicated' on the roster. I started keeping track of my unpaid overtime and stung her for three paid days off. That’s not required anymore."
- muthaclucker
"I worked at this company that had mandatory 1-hour lunch breaks. Since we ate on the premises, our lunch break was often 15 minutes or so."
"We tried negotiating having shorter lunch breaks so we could leave earlier and beat traffic. The next day, an e-mail was sent from the owner stating the fixed work and break hours for the whole team, and they were to be followed with no exceptions."
"Cool! Next week, a big client called about halfway through our lunch, and nobody moved. It rang and rang until the said owner took the call, talked to them, and immediately came to scold us. 'Sorry, boss, as per your rules, we are off until 1 PM, no exceptions.'"
"A couple of weeks later, we did some work on-site for the same client. They were, to be honest, one of the coolest clients I ever had in my life."
"They took us out to lunch, and while talking we ended up relaying the owner's rule. They had a big chuckle over it, and while the project lasted, they made a point to always call while we were at lunch break just to annoy the owner."
- LGMHorus
"A place I used to work had a rule that executive-level staff needed to be contactable when on leave, so they had a section on the leave form for the address of where you'd be staying and a contact number."
"Some knuckle-shuffler in HR decided it applied to all staff and the shenanigans began. People would put down the address and phone numbers of sex shops, sports grounds, and medical clinics. I gave the latitude and longitude of the place I was going camping and the UHF frequency channel my radio would be tuned to."
- Flight_19_Navigator
"My company used to be a small startup. In my first year, I was the Project Manager and Architect for a global system rollout."
"I put in my vacation days for 'Burning Man' six months out (in February), and my PTO was approved. Then a few months later (~June) my boss (who had been head of the IT department) got a new boss (new head of IT)."
"With a month to go until 'Burning Man,' the new head of IT told me that my project rollout was too important for me to be uncontactable at all and that I would need to take a satellite phone to 'Burning Man' or my vacation would be canceled."
"We were still three months from going live but he decided that we were at a critical moment that I had to be available for."
"However, neither my boss or the new head of IT wanted to carry out the daily $18/minute satellite phone calls with me, probably because they knew it was violating some labor law. So they got one of the guys in the London office to call me in the Black Rock Desert each day."
"I said I wouldn’t take the calls before 1 PM, which was 9 PM for our man in London. Every day he called, he had had a few beers, and didn’t give a s**t about project updates, he just wanted to know what parties I’d been to and what art I’d seen."
- blue-mooner
Questionable Measures of Productivity
"Management decided that lines of code written per week were a good metric for determining software engineer productivity."
"You want a 3-line function stretched out into 50 lines? I’m your captain."
- smares21
"Not mine, but an old roommate of mine was a senior developer for a small company. It was an open secret that one of the other senior devs, a guy who had been there since the beginning, would sometimes spend time looking at plastic surgery photos, before and after shots, photos of active procedures, etc."
"He did it enough that people would poke fun at him about it, but he didn't seem embarrassed about it, and it wasn't harming anyone."
"Well, one day a project manager said something to the CEO about this guy's ongoing plastic surgery obsession, and the CEO flipped. He said that going forward, no one was allowed to use their work computers to access external websites AT ALL."
"Anyone who's ever been a developer knows that half the job is googling stuff, so this policy pretty much halted productivity in its tracks."
"It only lasted a day before the CEO retracted the rule, but let everyone know that their browser history would be monitored going forward. After that, no one really changed their behavior, they just started remotely accessing their home computers to browse instead."
- Salsa__Stark
"I worked at Starbucks for like 5+ years before and during undergrad and at one point our district manager thought it was a good idea to implement a 'just say yes' policy, where we literally weren't allowed to tell the customer no."
"It lasted for about three months and in that three months, our unaccounted product and waste went up over 300% because when the system didn't have a way to punch in a customer request we had to just do it anyway."
"We also got complaints from stores in surrounding districts because they had angry customers who were requesting things that were against local food service code, and told them that we did it for them at our store."
"I knew exactly how that policy was going to play out and I just laughed every time management was freaking out about the problems it was causing."
- yunglilbigslimhomie
"My spouse's workplace realized they didn't have a policy about sending sexual images or jokes as part of their email acceptable use policy, so they added it."
"Except they made it a firing offense to send or receive sexual content (I think the intent was to stop people from subscribing to such content). They also said that your access would be immediately revoked until a determination was made."
"So someone got fired for something else and decided to send their whole management chain a graphically sexual image, then report it using the anonymous tip line. IT got the report, concluded they did indeed receive sexual content and did as required: suspended all the involved email accounts, including the Senior Vice President's."
"The policy has since been reworded."
- loljetfuel
"The bottom floor of my secondary school was a square that had a corridor all the way around. After some incident where a kid got knocked over, they implemented a one-way system."
"Unfortunately, they were Very Strict on enforcing it. If you accidentally walked past your class, you couldn't just turn around. They seemed very proud of their new rule... until everyone started showing up late for class because they had to do extra laps of the bottom floor."
- FrosnPls
Saving Money
"My old workplace had a control freak bean (money) counter."
"At one point, she decided that any purchase of equipment must come with documentation showing that we had searched around the internet and could prove we got the best deal. Honestly, it was unenforceable, so our supervisor just told us to ignore it and that he’ll deal with the backlash."
"So one day, I had to buy some tools for the workshop, and I happened to come across a bunch of coolers on sale. It just happened that we needed coolers to transport stuff, so I bought one."
"I brought it back, we measured it and found it was the perfect size for what we had planned."
"It turns out that time, the bean counter was watching us. She came strolling into my supervisor’s office with a printout from Amazon and the boss in tow, saying that she had found a similar cooler for cheaper."
"My supervisor took a look at the printout. 'So you found a cooler that’s 2 dollars cheaper.'"
"'Yes!'"
"'How much time did you spend looking this up?'"
"'Just one hour of work.'"
"And you think [our employee] should have spent one hour of his workday shopping for coolers?'"
"'Yes!'"
"'You do realize we pay Rum $17 an hour? We needed three coolers. Right now, he grabbed those coolers while out on a supply run. And you’d rather have him spent an hour of his day, at $17 per hour... to save $6?'"
"'And while we’re at it!'" The supervisor pulls out a broken vice grip from under his desk. '... this is the Cheapo brand vice grip you approved. Now, this is fine for your regular at-home needs, but we’re a workshop and need some quality stuff. We have been using a Goodstuff brand vice for 3 years. Cheapo lasted six months. Do the math.'"
- Rum_N_Napalm
"I worked for a consulting company, traveling Monday through Thursday somewhere in my country. We had a pretty good hotel allowance (enough for 5-star hotels) and a great rule: if you stayed with a friend, you got an allowance (about a third of the hotel allowance) to buy gifts for the host."
"I got the rare treat of a 6-month project in the town of my best friend from childhood who was going to university. We made a great arrangement: I would crash at his place and spend the evenings drinking beer, watching movies, and playing video games. In return, I used the gift allowance to order dinner for the two of us."
"After submitting my first expense report, I was told by some HR drone that the gift allowance was supposed to not be used for food for myself."
"So I booked a room in a 5-star hotel, was upgraded to a junior suite because of my rewards status and invited my friend to evenings of beer, video games, and room service."
"After my second expense report, the project manager asked me about the tripling of the expenses compared to the first report. After explaining the situation and pointing out what sum of money it would mean over the six months, he got in contact with HR..."
"Two days later, the rule was rescinded. The project even got my friend (the then newly released) PS3 as a thank you for letting me stay with him."
- alphager
"I was working as a medical assistant at a private practice medical clinic. Our clinic manager wouldn’t allow the new receptionist to drive to the bank to deposit cash. Made her walk carrying the money bag so that she couldn’t 'drive away with the money.'"
"Bizarre. I know. That went on for a few weeks. Then the receptionist was mugged and over $1,000 in cash was stolen. She was allowed to drive after that."
- IndyMazzy
"The dealership I was working at decided they wanted to save money by not having the cleaning crew come in after hours. People started leaving the dealership to go home to go to the bathroom because they were disgusting."
"I lived pretty far away so I would just go use the General Manager's private bathroom."
- Jeheh
"We couldn't buy drinks at lunch with cash money, had to buy some vouchers. They were just cheaply made laminated pieces of paper."
"This was 2001, I was 13 and bored. Scanned the vouchers and printed them out on paper that kinda matched the color of the vouchers. and laminated them myself. They were horribly made and not even the right color on the backside. Also crudely cut out."
"I 'made' about a hundred of them and passed them out after I tried paying with them for myself and encountered no problems. Made some new friends and upped production."
"It took them about three weeks to find out but by then the fake ones had intermingled with the real ones and had already been resold to students via the student office. About half of the vouchers sold were fakes."
"Drinks were cash only from then on. They had no choice but to accept the fake ones for a little while longer though, as they had sold and charged for some of them."
- VloekenenVentileren
The protocols that are often set up at workplaces are questionable at best, but the stories told here are truly laughable.
Do you have any similar experiences with workplace or school rules backfiring? Sound off in the comments below.
I spent most of my adolescent and teen life making money from babysitting and tutoring, so I was really excited when I got a job as a hostess at a restaurant. Not only was it at a place my friends frequented, but I would finally be able to relate to all the people who had jobs at a real company.
I worked at that restaurant for a year and a half, but it only took me a month to learn that once I left, I’d never again want to serve.
Hosting is grueling. You have to be on your feet for hours at a time. The job also sours your outlook on people in general. Guests are rude, or they ask you to make a modification and scream bloody murder once you do it. They ask you to move to another table, and you accommodate them, but then the servers get mad at you for adding to their load or taking away the potential of tips.
Now that I’m removed from that situation, I mostly think of the good times. However, whenever someone asks me if I’d ever host again, I have to stop myself from laughing in their face.
Redditors faced the same plight with certain kinds of jobs, and were only too eager to share what those jobs were.
It all started when Redditor figinjosejospe asked:
“What’s a job or profession you’d absolutely never take?”
Ring, Ring
"I will never work a call center again."
"I did it for two weeks and quit."
"You essentially cold call people, and they hate it. 90% of the time no one ever answers, 9% of people that do just yell obscenities at you, and the 1% that actually talks with you will hang up after finding out you're selling sh*t."
– gowol46265
"Call center, I don't like to annoy people and be yelled at"
– Alaskina
"I did this for like 3 days and I quit. I was tricked. I thought I’d be an assistant and after 2 days they gave me a phone and headphones, list of people to call... worst few hours of my life. I of course immediately quit. I did not have a job for another 2 months but I'm so glad I quit."
– Dry-Comb5708
Ooops
"Anything with responsibilities that are too serious where if I f**k up someone dies or I ruin their lives (doctors, lawyers, politicians etc)"
– ceeyaz
"I quit nursing school over that same fear."
– InterestingMethod722
No Temperment, No People
"Teaching. Wouldn't have the patience for it."
– LucyVialli
"Similarly I couldn't be a Doctor. I wouldn't have the patients for it."
– skrilledcheese
Never Again
"I'll never go back to customer service"
– Caturix6
"Same here, worked for one year. Never lost so much faith in humanity in my entire life up to that point."
– deprimeradblomkol
"It’s a curse because no matter what I tried to apply for, the recruiter would see my past customer service skills and they’re like “I think customer service would be your best fit!”"
– utopicunicornn
No Rest For The Weary
"Anything in fast food."
"Workers get treated like sh*t by management and customers, and they're underpaid for the amount of work expected of them."
– Deleted User
"Leans against the wall for 3 seconds."
"Manager: Screeching."
– rockets-make-toast
The "Ick" Factor
"Sewage work. My disgust sensitivity is too high for that."
– Middle-Struggle3207
"theres a wall of sh*t coming right at you!!"
– karmagod13000
"My stepdad was an electrician at a sewage treatment plant and he used to tell a story that a colleague of his had to do a "dive" suited up in roughly scuba gear into the sewage to make some repair"
– randallwade
Life Or Death Homework
"Definitely would never be a lawyer, my parents are lawyers and have watched so many other lawyers die young because of the stress of the job. If you think about it, it’s like having homework for the rest of your life only some of the most important decisions rely on your ability to argue. It’s a bunch of paperwork and court dates, I don’t know anyone that enjoys being in court. It’s a glamorized profession but in reality it’s very hard to get rich in and it’s a even harder profession for women. Notice most of the rich lawyers you see are old white men. I would argue it’s one of the worst jobs."
– Reddituser0857
"Spot on. Been a lawyer for more than a decade. It is never ending homework assignments."
– WillSimp4Roast
Looking For A Purpose
"Security guard or some sort of a doorman / receptionist at a place where hardly anything happens."
"There aren't many things worse than doing absolutely nothing for 8 hours per day."
– Scuka1
"Can confirm. When I was 18 I worked in a place that paid amazingly well and all I had to do was show up and play chess and chain smoke cause there was never anything to do. It was awesome for about a month, after that I was so bored and felt genuinely useless. Like all I was contributing to society at large was taxes. Sucked after a while."
– Latter_Ostrich_8901
The Service Industry
"Waiter. I'm 100% sure I would break so many plates and glasses that at the end of the day I'd be oweing the restaurant money"
– SlashingManticore
The Truth Sets You Free
"I worked at a telemarketing place for less than a week. It was the worst job I have ever had (and I once worked at a dairy unloading and cleaning the delivery trucks after they were done, in August). It was in the '90s and there was a script specifically designed to trip people up and agree to changing their long distance provider. After the second day I'd just tell the people, "Yeah, I'm captain scammer, calling from Scammy McScammers long distance service, do you want us to rip you off and change your service without your knowledge". Still people would be ok with it."
– Comfortable_Life9173
Heartbreaking.
"Child welfare worker. My father did that as his third and final career and counted the days until he was eligible for retirement. He just couldn’t stand it. He was providing a needed service for the community, but got no love from any of the other players. Kids hated him because he was removing them from their (abusive) parents. Parents hated him because he was taking their kids, however justified. Lawyers were endlessly attacking him, and judges liked to crap on the social worker. It’s not as if the pay was any good either. That is a job I would never do."
rexep59959
Most jobs are thankless, but that last one really takes the cake!
Do you have any jobs to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.
When it comes to a job, you need to be happy. Unless you’re working part-time, the majority of your weekly waking hours will be spent at work. You’ll want to make sure you’re working at a nice place doing something you like along with people you can tolerate (or even grow to be friends with).
My first job out of college was wonderful. The office was gorgeous, warm, and inviting. My co-workers were fun and accepting. The fact that conference rooms were named after Harry Potter houses, a wall was lined with Pokemon plushies, and the kitchen was stocked with snacks and a high-tech coffee machine were just bonuses.
Those are known as things to look for.
My second job was the opposite. People quit as soon as possible, the remaining co-workers looked downright depressed, there was no work-life balance or open-door policy, and Glassdoor was riddled with bad reviews.
Redditors know even more things to look out for -- red flags warn candidates from taking a job somewhere -- and they’re only too happy to share.
It all started when Redditor Aviliuss asked:
“What are some workplace red flags that scream “don’t work here?”
Turn Back
"If all of the other employees look sullen and depressed. If you walk into the office area and feel like you've walked into a funeral service. Nobody's smiling, nobody's laughing. Nobody looks remotely happy or content."
"Just turn around and walk back to your car. That is not a good place to be working at."
– Jasons_Brain
Chug, Chug, Chug!
"“Work hard, play hard” = “You won’t have a life outside the office, but we’ll pump you full of booze!”"
– DefinitelyABot475632
"Not a drinker, but decided to give it a go after the place I worked at fired someone that regularly didn't show up for the "optional" binge drinking happy hours. He wasn't a team player."
– too__soon__
Everything Changes
"If a larger company buys your company out but says "Nothing is changing but the name and address that your paycheck is coming from" But then everything changes."
– Gbrusse
"Bonus points if everyone on all sides of the merger was promised different things."
– Heroshade
"It’s never true when they say nothing changes (obv). I lived through a merger (the company I worked for bought our main competitor) … they took ages to impose the brand name, change things operationally… to a point they thought that they were off the hook and BAM! They called them one fine morning to announce a restructuration and half of their staff was let go."
– TheMaddoxx
No One Stays Forever...Or At All
"Here's another one: everyone you've interviewed with has left by the time you start."
– singapeng
"F*ck. Yes. I just left a position at a company with 12 employees. 4 people had been there longer than 4 years. Of the remaining 8, none had been there more than 6 months."
– Anonymike7
It's The People
"Honestly, even though my previous job (warehouse) was aching, the sh*tty employees there were worse"
"Imo good coworkers in a hard-working environment >>>> bad coworkers in a chilled out working environment"
– JunketGuy
"On the flipside, if you have the opposite, Stepford-like culture where everyone has a facade on about how great things are, and they heavily push "company values" and pop-science communication techniques into every single email, meeting and conversation, it's also time to run."
"Where employees are not permitted to have their own identity or be critical, the company can't grow."
– seamustheseagull
"It's getting to the point where, if I walk into a business, and everybody IS cheerful, collaborative & the business is clean / running well, it is almost a bizzarre feeling. "Do places like this still exist?""
– goaelephant
Stop. Think. Decide.
"The hiring manager who brought you in quit."
– Sarged117
"I was brought in as an assistant to the manager of an allied health service. Within 2 weeks she quit."
"Until I turned up she had been too busy to realise how ridiculously swamped she actually was and how stressed and miserable it was making her. Once I took some of the load off her and she could actually stop for more than 2 seconds, breathe, and take stock of her situation she realised how sh*t her job and the organisation were. She quit."
"She actually called me a few days after she'd left, almost crying with relief and telling me how much better she felt already. Then she told me to make sure they didn't do the same thing to me."
"It's been 5 months. They have. I'm looking for a new job."
– Fit-Guava-5059
Criminal
"My manager got fired for embezzlement my first month of my first ever job at 16. That entire place was a sh*tshow of epic proportions, I was only there a year and I outlasted 4 managers."
– pigwigge
"Thats a run for the hills sign lmao"
– TheRed_Knight
"Classic"
– Whatsallthefussabou1
Nepotism Makes The World Go Round
"The owners' children are in high management/executive positions"
– secretbaldspot
"I've run into that a lot. In large companies, it's not necessarily the owner but some middle manager has several friends and family members who have gotten hired on as lower level managers and they're almost always worthless."
"I've also worked in a medium small company that was started by a man who was a super hard-working awesome owner but his kids were on the Salesforce and they were incorrigible pr*cks. I knew it was time to get out when the owner was going to retire soon and one of his kids was going to get the job and sure enough the place turned into a hell hole."
– Northman67
Read Between The Lines
""Were like a family""
""Be willing to work in a fast-paced environment""
"This is just code for "we will guilt you into doing things beyond your job, and we are poorly managed""
– Slawth_x
"“We work hard and we play hard”"
"I once asked for an example of some of the fun things they’ve done as a work team, and the answer I got was special cookies that were recently brought in. Yeah, I’m sure makes the 55 hour work week worth it."
– hungryjimbo
"If they use the word family at all, and the sentence doesn't start with "we like having enough time off to spend with our", then it's bad."
– YossiTheWizard
The Countdown Begins
"Everyone you meet has been working there less than 2 years and it isn't a startup."
– LeeroyTC
"Or the flip side… I once worked in a place where everyone had been there 15+ years except one other person who had just started 8 months before me"
"Needless to say there wasn’t much career progression and the people there were just counting their years (or days) until they retired and didn’t give a sh*t about anything"
"Red flag was definitely the newest person training me instead of the ones who were there a long time"
– personofinterest18
I’m definitely holding on to my current job!
Do you have any red flags to be on the look out for? Let us know in the comments below!
People Describe Subtle Red Flags In A Job Interview That Scream 'Working Here Sucks'
Too many times I've sat in a job interview and knew in my gut I should be running for the door.
I'm not alone in this experience.
I didn't take all of those jobs, but I took more than I should've.
I never give my gut and the red flags enough credit.
That's why I work from home now with two dogs.
And even that isn't drama-free.
Redditor pbourree wanted to hear about the times they had an eerie feeling about the place they were thinking about working at.
"What are subtle red flags at a job interview that say 'working here would suck?'"
I once went on an interview that turned into a therapy/meditation session.
Generous
Bored Season 3 GIF by The OfficeGiphy"They told me all about their generous severance packages. In the initial interview. Turnover city."
takatori
sparks in their eyes...
"I always ask about training and learning curves. Every job I’ve had that went wrong- I notice that when that question came up they stumbled. The current job I have, when I asked the question they had sparks in their eyes as they explained the whole process from day 1 of shadowing to the transition to working solo. And even when Covid hit they managed to continue without skipping a beat."
ikogut
"leaving early"
"'Well, the overtime isn't mandatory, but most folks stick around after hours most days.'"
"Spoilers: The overtime is mandatory."
IM_OK_AMA
"The most terrifying thing is that in any places, the managers won't even need to encourage/threaten you to work overtime. Your coworkers will shame you for 'leaving early' if you leave right when your working time is over."
szofter
"'Overtime isn't mandatory. By the way, remember your performance review is coming up.'"
CJcatlactus
Broken
"Was interviewed by a Senior programmer and the department head. The department head was continuously making condescending remarks towards the other interviewer. Poor guy just sounded broken. Hope he's somewhere else now."
khanman504
"Years ago I was told by a manager that he needed some help with a technical interview. This manager was not especially skilled, so I ended up conducting the interview. When it was the time for goodbye the candidate offered me his business card and the manager commented in front of him with 'funny how he's given his business card to you, when you are basically irrelevant.' I could see the guy cringing so hard at that point and he was obviously right."
not-much
YES PEOPLE!
Yes Man Nod GIF by DEEPSYSTEMGiphy"Besides always hiring, they seem almost overly eager to say, 'Yes, we could do that!' to everything you ask. No job will have literally everything you want, and if your gut is telling you they seem to be promising a bit more than they can offer, they likely are."
Doobledorf
All I can say is "Been there/done that!" I've been on all of these interviews.
Lucky
Giphy"My favorite is 'there's a lot of people waiting in line to work here, count yourself lucky. Huge red flag."
The Final Capper
"I had an interview once, the owner of the company told me he was going to hire me, let the man in the office train me, then fire that man once I was up to speed. He also told me that sometimes employees have to hold their paycheck. And the final capper, (not that I needed it, I had already decided not to work for him) was he told me I looked like his nephew. I am female."
WildeAquarius
For Free
"Once an interviewer straight up asked me if I had any trouble working for free on weekends... I told them my free time is more valuable than anything and that the only way that I would work a weekend is if they are paying me and if I felt like working a weekend. She got really mad at me and ended the interview right away. Biggest red flag I’ve ever seen because they didn’t even try to hide it."
lempiraholio
What we Expect!
"We cater lunch and dinner for our whole team! Sounds like a positive, but what it means is, 'We expect you to be working past dinnertime hours, and there will be a lot of social pressure to never leave, and to socialize with the team well past working hours. We don't understand that anyone might want a life outside of work.'"
Less of a problem now, hopefully, but in the tech bro heyday, this was super common."
helava
Drama Free
Braxton Family Values Drama GIF by WE tvGiphy"At my current job, after my interview the manager said ‘just don’t get involved in the staff drama and you’ll be fine.' It has not been fine."
Pellt
Go with your gut. You always know at hello.
We all need a paycheck but we don't need that much drama to go with it.
Do you have similar red flags to share? Let us know in the comments below.