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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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[–] • 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.

[–] • 1 pt

Sounds about right. At one point I was dealing with 100HR weeks. It was not always a thing but when it was it burned me out to the core. Never again.

[–] • 0 pt

100hr weeks ... exempt position or salaried non-exempt? ie were you compensated? I was exempt, compensated 40hrs for my +60hrs weeks. I did about a 6 month stint of 72hr weeks (6 days x 12hrs) and that wore me down. We used to joke around that we were only working half days, and laugh about it. That's about how worn out and delerious we felt. Not being compensated for the over and above sucked, complaints were met with "well, you still have a job". Later that changed to " You know, we could hire 4 Chinese Engineers for your salary".

Thank God I escaped that salt mine. It sure doesn't feel like it's been 20 years ago already.

[–] • 1 pt (edited )

Exempt. Fucking EXEMPT. That job should not be exempt but it is by federal standards and its fucking criminal. It was literally on the very border of what you could call exempt and non-exempt based on JD alone and not salary (Pay was shit, they had to pay 2.5x to replace me, More of my fault and not getting out sooner, that guy lasted 2 months and rage quit). I am smarter than that shit now. No, I was not even given flex or comp time. Sometimes, if the boss thought I was about to quit they would say "take a day off, paid, don't record it as PTO".

The only reason the boss probably never went after me is with how well I recorded my time and how much I backed up on my own with com's otherwise they probably would have thought they could go after me. I probably have a labor case that would end them but its been too long and I am over it. Never again though and I make a big point to try to help people understand when they are getting fucked and help them get out of those positions now.