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Most were just garbage that didn't reveal themselves until the end, or I knew what they were going to do beforehand...

But there was one early on in my career that was this tiny little company that wanted their first outside hire. They weren't a startup, they had all started this business after working at a larger enterprise that was getting flaky. They had retained a recruiter because recruiter had called them, but the recruiter was a piece of shit. One of the worst pieces of shit I've ever met in the recruiter world.

The recruiter lied to me seven ways from Sunday, and I backed out and turned it down after I'd been made an offer. The company found out why and was sincerely apologetic about it (I still know the owner of the place,) and offered me the job later on - but the recruiter's agreements were in the way and it just didn't feel right anymore. I really believed that the recruiter would cut off their own noses to spite their faces over this - that's how big of pieces of shit they were. They wrote me some very angry love letters about the job.

We've both since moved on, and the company hired someone else. It was a great position with great pay but eh benefits. I wonder what would have happened if I'd taken it.

Most were just garbage that didn't reveal themselves until the end, or I knew what they were going to do beforehand... But there was one early on in my career that was this tiny little company that wanted their first outside hire. They weren't a startup, they had all started this business after working at a larger enterprise that was getting flaky. They had retained a recruiter because recruiter had called them, but the recruiter was a piece of shit. One of the worst pieces of shit I've ever met in the recruiter world. The recruiter lied to me seven ways from Sunday, and I backed out and turned it down after I'd been made an offer. The company found out why and was sincerely apologetic about it (I still know the owner of the place,) and offered me the job later on - but the recruiter's agreements were in the way and it just didn't feel right anymore. I really believed that the recruiter would cut off their own noses to spite their faces over this - that's how big of pieces of shit they were. They wrote me some very angry love letters about the job. We've both since moved on, and the company hired someone else. It was a great position with great pay but eh benefits. I wonder what would have happened if I'd taken it.

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[–] • 2 pts

Yes. I understand that completely, I was looking to leave a job like that as well.

[–] • 2 pts

True, I'm probably preaching to the chior. Most everyone in corporate bleeding edge tech was looking for a lucrative way out back in those days. That probably hasn't changed at all. I thank my lucky stars that I pulled it off, didn't go weak kneed and stay for 3 more years. I could be commuting to MA or working at Home Depot.

[–] • 1 pt

I stayed at a place far too long and predicted a mass quitting event was on the horizon and looked for a way out. They were moving toward "making the company employee owned", you would have more ownership depending on how long you had been there.

Then they split every product off into their own companies so you would only have ownership in the "original" company that was not worth a fucking dime to anyone. Don't kill yourself working for someone because you "might" get a payout and pay attention to what they are doing behind closed doors. I made sure everyone else knew what was going on too.

The boss was an abusive piece of shit but I and mostly everyone else put up with it because it paid better than what you could get in most of the town I was in.

I finally had enough and said fuck it. Ill go back to part time work and have 2 jobs rather than deal with this shit until I can find something else and get an out. (This was also senior level tech work, not moving boxes around a warehouse).

That boss ranted to the entire office the day after I quit that if they could find a way to ruin me and make me unemployable in town they would do it in a heartbeat. Too bad every place I worked with in town and everyone that knew me hated that boss/company and a lot of their business disappeared after me and several other people quit over ~3 months.

I will never put up with bullshit like that again. You want to try to rip my head off and yell at me for doing my job that you have no fucking clue about and put me down in front of my coworkers? You can find a new employee effective immediately. Ill figure shit out for myself but you can fuck off.

I might sound bitter still and maybe to a very small amount I am. Mostly because I let myself stay there so long. Otherwise, I have moved on. Things have been better. Still. Fuck that place and that POS boss.

[–] • 1 pt

I wouldn't say bitter, I'd say that you are quite rightfully pissed off because someone was attempting to stomp your personal boundaries.

[–] • 1 pt

After 20 years away from it my anger has virtually subsided (until I start recollecting the stories from back in the day), my bp dropped about 40pts in the first year out of there (with no drugs).

I believe they may have tried to blackball me within the industry too, I'll never know because I never tried to go back into the profession ... and I've made it across the finish line now so I'll never know. A friend was laid off a couple of years later and went out job hunting to no avail. He felt he had been blackballed (he had good credentials) and he was in a group layoff, he didn't quit. Lots of games get played in HR. We all assumed as soon as we hit 40 we had a giant bullseye on our backs. They certainly missed me after I left, I kept in touch with old colleagues. My capable replacement, an EE friend from Mil Aero design group that was disbanded about the same time I left, had their work was consolidated with a California design group, quit as soon as he could (a little over a year) due to the insane workload and expectations in my old group. He had a wife and kids, no way he could keep up my output. So I'm kind of a legend with the old crowd that knew me and the newer people there that have heard my story. I worked my ass off for 25 years and found that elusive escape hatch to freedom and prosperity. I truly had the last laugh.

I have no tolerance for verbally abusive managers. They are a huge negative in any organization. My manager wasn't verbally abusive, he just cranked up the expectations in a "nice way" each year until they were virtually impossible to meet or exceed expectations (perfection) in a +60hr workweek. The proverbial boiling a frog in a glass of water trick. That was essentially due to the plant manager not allowing the group to increase headcpunt to meet increased workload over about a 7 year period. My 1997 dream job working with bleeding edge uP's, SoC's, MCMs became a living hell working on less interesting product in great quantities 6 years later.