Job Seeker Blog - Spark Hire

Tips for Identifying a Negative Workplace (Before You Sign on the Dotted Line)

Your company’s culture can significantly impact your overall happiness at work. Even the perfect job can quickly become torturous if you’re working in a stressful environment with little to no support from management. If you’re looking to find a job you’ll love, read about some of the major indicators that the company you’re checking out has a bad work environment:

  • There’s constant tension
    Whether you have managers fighting with each other or co-workers going at it during meetings, a place that is constantly filled with tension makes it hard to do your job well. You’ll always feel stressed, even if you don’t really know why.
  • The employees don’t actually use the product
    It’s a bad sign when you work in a company where no one actually uses what they’re selling. Whether you’re hawking pizzas or clothes, you want to know that the employees and the managers actually believe in what they’re offering to clients.
  • “Because we’ve always done it that way”
    The best companies to work for are those that support innovation and outside-the-box thinking. If your company continually does things that clearly aren’t working simply because “that’s the way we’ve always done them,” then it may be a sign that it’s time to go elsewhere.
  • You’ve got crazy turnover
    The best work environments foster talent and help employees continue to learn and grow. If you’re got top-notch talent that regularly leaves for another group, the company probably doesn’t provide the kind of support that these people need in order to enjoy continued success.
  • Recognition doesn’t make sense
    A company should provide recognition to employees based on merit, and not strictly on how long that person has worked there. Just because a worker has given two decades to that brand, doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily more influential or important than a newbie.
  • The place lacks unity
    If Manager X is telling you to do one thing and Manager Y insists on another, it will be hard to make real progress at work. A good company culture has employees and managers who are on the same page about what needs to happen in order to make the company a success.
  • Retention isn’t a priority
    While continually earning new business is important, it won’t do much good if you can’t hold on to the customers you get. A strong company focuses just on much on retaining customers as they do on landing new ones.
  • The workday is an endless meeting
    Meetings are important in order to keep everyone on the same page, but meeting just for the sake of meeting is a waste of time. You should feel as if all parts of your day are productive, and you shouldn’t be wasting hours upon hours in a meeting that serves no real purpose.

Have you experienced any other key warning signs that a company might be mismanaged? Let us know in the comments.

Lauren Levine

Lauren Levine is a copywriter/blogger who contributes to a number of magazines and websites including The Frisky, USA Today, and others. She also authors her own blog called Life with Lauren. She loves cooking, anything on the E! network, and is trying to convince herself that running isn't so bad.

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