Surviving Abusive Work Environments / Bosses

Bump

I was pretty seriously depressed because of a particularly nasty combination of both.

I didn't want to bother my friends and family with my issues but knew I couldn't keep it bottled up, so I used one of those digital text-based therapists for pep talks throughout the day. It helped me bridge a couple of dark months until I got restaffed. Things got better from there.

In case getting restaffed isn't an option for you and you need a more permanent solution, you can either either find a new job or just become so dead inside it doesn't really get to you anymore. I got re-restaffed onto the initial issue team but I fit the latter camp now so it's all good.

I have not experienced it but I witnessed how cruel my boss was to my colleagues who are offshore employees. It was basically like modern slavery. I wanted to help them so bad to get another job but I just don't know where to start. I must say... they are survivors who endured everything just to make ends meet.

Thanks to everyone who has shared. I recently went through a very abusive work situation - it lasted for years. My boss would routinely gaslight me in front of co-investors and call me fat, inept, mental issues, unskilled, toxic. I had nothing but glowing feedback from my staff, colleagues, and investors. In the end I had to make a break but it shows you that money and power can attract very sadistic cruel people - effectively corporate psychopaths.

My boss

Yes…lol

This happened to me after the family office I was at brought in a new CIO. Started seeing a psychiatrist and now have anti-anxiety meds. Multiple other people in my group started seeing therapists or got put on meds too before quitting to nobody's surprise. Ability for 1 person to destroy team culture should not be understated at all. At some point it's just not worth it anymore and leaving ends up being the best thing you can do for your mental health.

Bumping this good thread. Worked in 2 spots with really bad cultures. 1 because I needed an internship and knew it would be terrible, 1 because of something that you couldn't diligence easily.

You will start to know when the situation goes south. It starts with getting gaslighted for doing exactly what you are told to do on deliverables.

The worst is getting yelled at for not doing a deliverable, which nobody even communicated to you in the first place. If we were Nostradamus, we probably wouldn't be working a job lmao.

Sometimes your boss gets stressed in a situation he/she doesn't have control over, and often, the juniors get the bulk of the flak since nobody wants to take accountability when something goes wrong. Juniors become glorified punching bags since very few people are willing to admit they were wrong.

Felt both the above points so much. 

Had a supervisor tell me to do a particular task, did it as asked, and then got told that what I'd produced wasn't what had been discussed, and I was just stunned. Was also told after a call that I should've foreseen the need to prepare a specific bit of analysis in preparation for the call, even though the senior themselves hadn't seen the need for it or asked for it. Came into the job feeling ready to give it my all. After several incidents, left feeling absolutely depleted. 

Felt these posts. From my experience, I had managers who were particularly nasty or passive aggressive when you don’t give them exactly what they want, when they weren’t clear upfront on what they wanted and get annoyed when you start asking clarifying questions because the task is vague, they never set timing expectations, etc. Or never ask for something then put you on full blast by copying seniors and saying they requested something when they didn’t. 
 

Crazy how much diligence and time is spent on investments, but the same firms don’t invest in their own team and then wonder why they have massive churn at the junior level (or maybe cynically they know and just don’t care because everyone is replaceable).