My dream growing up was to work on a particular TV show. A few years back I finally got the opportunity to work there as a team assistant.
On my very first day, my boss, who is the company manager, told me how much she hated everyone else in the office, how "shit" they were at their jobs and who I should be wary of. Obviously this wasn’t a great start at all but I was excited about starting so I tried to look past it.
Soon I realised the team I was working in had the same attitude. On occasion other colleagues would walk in asking my team for help with something. As soon as they’d leave some of my colleagues would claim how much they hated that person and would even call them a "dickhead" or a "fucking bitch" behind their backs loudly to the office. I had never ever heard anyone refer to their colleagues in this way so I was very shocked.
I began feeling really upset about being in the team. My colleagues would attempt to catch me out in any situation so they could tell the company manager I wasn’t able to do my job. For example, if someone came in to ask me a question, they would all go silent to make sure I knew the answer.
There were many times the company manager called all of my colleagues into the office except me so they could complain about me. I never participated in their rude behaviour, so I wasn’t considered "one of the crowd". Often I was left on my own crying at my desk. I know that other colleagues had complained about the company manager multiple times. Those who had done my job previously had left because of what they had experienced there.
I lived a very long way away so sometimes I would get stuck in traffic which caused me to be late. Despite the fact I always updated the company manager whenever this would happen, I would be told off so badly in her office to the point that I couldn’t sleep at night and I would get anxiety about being stuck in traffic. Even if I was as little as two minutes late she would call me into the office.
My working hours began at 9.30am but I would come in at 9.15 to eat my Weetabix. Despite this, the company manager would send me an emails saying "if you want to have breakfast then you need to come in earlier".
It was the most toxic work culture I had ever experienced. The company manager would always talk about people behind their back with the girls in my team. On one occasion I caught a colleague in my team messaging someone about me and quickly closing it when I went over to help her with something. Everyone else in the office noticed how I was bullied by the company manager and the girls in my team, and were very supportive.
The company manager even caused a colleague in a completely different team to leave their job because she was so nasty to him. It was one of the worst experiences of my life and despite her having been investigated multiple times due to various complaints, nothing has ever happened. This is mainly because she was is on the board that deals with the investigations and was one of the longest running members of the team. She is still there and I can only imagine many people have come and gone since I’ve left. It’s just such a shame that nothing can be done about it because she is in such a high position.
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