How To Identify The Worst Companies To Work For

We’ve all been sitting at work bored out of our minds, wondering why the hell we even took on our jobs in the first place. But while these moments happen at even the best jobs, they shouldn’t be happening every single day.

If they are, then it might not just be the workday getting you down — it might be the work itself. And if that’s the case, then your company is probably to blame.

But just what is it that makes certain employers worse than others? How do you tell one from another? And most importantly, what do you do once you realize you’re stuck in a bad gig?

We’ve put together a guide to help you figure out just that.

Wait, Doesn’t Everyone Hate Their Job?

Contrary to popular belief, not all jobs are terrible. While it is admittedly tough to find work that isn’t often frustrating or difficult, those qualities don’t necessarily make a job bad.

Even when it causes issues, difficulty at work can actually make things interesting — there’s a reason video games have adjustable difficulty settings. But it’s one thing for a job to be difficult, and it’s another thing entirely for it to be toxic.

Not all employers are the same. Some are conscientious, offering constructive feedback to their employees while providing them with fair compensation and benefits for the difficult work they ask their workers to do.

Other employers…well, they don’t do that. Today, we’ll be talking about the latter kind of employer. The bad kind.

Signs of a Bad Company to Work For

So what is it that makes a company or an employer bad? And how do you separate the kind of complaints you might have about any kind of work you might find from the specific complaints that you might have working for your particular company?

Here are some things to keep in mind when trying to figure out whether your company is a particularly bad egg:

• Interview process. Your first sign of a bad company to work for comes early in your relationship — at the interview stage. If you’re treated like an expendable, possibly untrustworthy individual from the get-go, then you should count that as a red flag.

  Also, look out for companies that take a long time in responding to emails and don’t follow through when they say they will.

• No respect for work-life balance. Whether it’s expecting you to work 50 hours when you signed a contract for 40, making you work weekends without any sort of reward, or simply not allowing you to take vacation time or even sick days, a company that doesn’t respect its employees’ lives outside of the job is not a good place to work.

• Payroll deductions. Any company that does shady payroll deductions is not worth working for. This practice is basically charging you for doing your job, whether that means a piece of equipment breaks while you’re using it or you need resources to do your normal job. Don’t work for anyone who does this.

• Super hierarchical. Hierarchy is part and parcel of any professional environment, but when it’s so rigid that you feel like rank and salary dictate your possible relationships at work, that’s a sad state of affairs.

  We’re not saying every employee should be able to have casual chats with the CEO, but if upper management walks past entry-level workers like they don’t exist, that’s not a very nice place to work.

• Control and autonomy. If you’re not trusted to do your job the way you see fit, and supervisors are always jumping in and mandating practices down to the minutiae, it’s time to get out of there.

• Moonlighting policy. A company that tries to make any policy about what you do outside of work is questionable. But when you see a policy against moonlighting or working a second, part-time job, that’s a red flag.

• Disciplinary actions. If during orientation and onboarding, or even during the interview process, you notice a lot of talk around discipline, infractions, demerits, or any of that hogwash, your hackles should raise. Positive, progressive companies that achieve the best results don’t focus on the best forms of punishment to incentivize employees.

• Leadership. If when times get tough, the company starts to cut services offered to its employees before cutting bonuses or other benefits offered to executives/management, then its priorities might be just a tad out of whack.

• Vision. If the company is more focused on making money than on following through with a particular vision, then it’s very likely they’ll do whatever it takes to make their money — regardless of who gets hurt. Or, a company might not have any vision to begin with, and that’s equally troublesome.

• Communication. Maybe your job responsibilities are unclear. Perhaps departments fail to interface regularly. Or your team is horrible at updating each other. There are so many levels where communication can go wrong at a company, but if it seems endemic to the entire structure, it’s a real problem.

• Process. Good companies have procedures and protocols in place for the most important situations, without stifling creativity or efficiency. A disorganized company ends up wasting more time and resources through a lack of planning.

  And an overly bureaucratic one wastes too much time planning and fighting against the red tape to actually get work done. Balance is everything when it comes to process.

What to Do When You’re Working for One of the Worst Companies

Of course, finding out that your company is rotten isn’t the end of the story. After all, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to go through the trouble of coming to such a realization if you’re not going to use that information to make a few decisions about your career.

If you’re going to start down that path, you might as well go all the way.

Here are some things you could do after realizing your company isn’t that great:

• Talk to your manager. Don’t tell them that you’re thinking about leaving (if in fact, you are), but let them know that you aren’t happy. Maybe some of your responsibilities can be moved around so you end up getting more out of your job — but it’s always possible that nothing can be done.

• Start searching for a job. If things are especially bad and seem to be in no danger of changing, then you should probably head for the exit. Start sending out resumes while you still have a job, then get out of there as soon as you get a new offer.

• Take your mind off it. If your job can’t be improved and you’re not willing or able to quit, then try to find new ways to take your mind off work so you don’t end up going nuts. Give yourself some breaks to check your texts or social media accounts, and in your off time, try getting into a new hobby that you find fulfilling.

Final Thoughts

That’s all for this one! Just keep in mind: It’s not easy to start making changes, even if you know they need to happen.

And it can be easy to get stuck in a bad job, especially if the job’s so bad that the experience isn’t even useful for helping you find other jobs to replace it with.

But it’s important to remember that there are other jobs out there, if you know where to look.

Sometimes luck isn’t on your side, and opportunities are few and far between. But if there are any opportunities to be found out there that might help you get out of a bad company, you’re not going to find them unless you’re out there looking for them.

Author

Ryan Morris

Ryan Morris was a writer for the Zippia Advice blog who tried to make the job process a little more entertaining for all those involved. He obtained his BA and Masters from Appalachian State University.