Nearly four years ago, I went in for a job interview I was a little skeptical about. It seemed like a good job that would utilize the skills I learned in my previous position, but the pay was much lower than what I had been getting. Still, I went in, hoping the other benefits would outweigh the low salary.
The first thing my interviewer asked me was how much I was making at my previous job.
Be warned that employers are NOT allowed to ask this question. However, I did know that and answered.
The next five minutes consisted of my boss very convincingly and enthusiastically telling me that my previous salary was very high, especially considering what kind of job the previous position was and the fact that it was my first job right out of school.
I took the job and worked at the company for two hateful years. By the time I left and started a different position, I realized something I wish I had known during my interview: my boss's little speech about my high salary was her way of getting me to settle for the low salary her company was offering, instead of negotiating for a better one.
Unfortunately, between some employers being really good at talking their "perks" up and potential employees being new to the workforce, a lot of things that are red flags don't register as red flags at the time.
That can lead to hated jobs with no benefits and little to no new skills learned.
Redditors know this all too well and are eager to share what should be taken as red flags to save the rest of us from this fate.
It all started when Redditor Redt_Wolf16 asked:
"What is a popular belief that is scientifically proven wrong?"
No Company Is Perfect
"You check out glassdoor and there are a bunch of overwhelmingly positive reviews from "anonymous current employees" that under cons list "no cons that I can think of!""
"Even the best place to work in the world has SOME cons."
– seanofkelley
"My last company did this. They fired half of the team over three months, they deliberately chose to fire whoever was cheaper to fire or who had kids etc because of course they missed work more than who doesn’t have kids (usually). They chose to fire a guy a couple of hours after he announced he was going to be a dad. They fired my boss because she was trying to get pregnant and they even asked her to quit instead so she would not get any compensation. The CEO told her he doesn’t think employees deserve it."
"After firing 30 people for economic reasons, they said they were done and asked everyone to relax. We all got extra responsibilities but no raise, of course. Two months later they fired 20 more (including me)."
"They asked the ones left to leave a nice review there since they were staying so I reported them to Glassdoor. Absolute trash."
"Edit to add: after they fired so many people most of the good employees left. They actually contacted me a month ago offering me my job back and it felt amazing to reject them."
– diabolikal__
Gossip Girls
"When management talks poorly about the other employees, it might make you feel included/special at first but guaranteed they’re going to be talking about you next"
– PhilMeYup
Work-Life Balance
"Another aspect is, it'll teach you what they really value. If they promote work-life balance but their favorite employees are those who "put in the extra work to get things done", it means they will not in fact respect your work-life balance lol. Learned this the hard way."
– Scarlett1993
"I interviewed at a company in San Diego and everything went really well. Because I have an annual fishing trip in july, and I was being hired first of June, I brought it up. I said I know I'm new and I am willing to skip the trip, I just need to know so that my friends can plan on me being there or not."
"Dude looks at me and says, "No problem. That should work fine. But in my experience, people who work here, will schedule a vacation, and then realize that the project needs them and cancel their time off.""
"I worked up until that trip. The week before I worked an extra 15 hours to make sure that my projects were all tracking to be okay with out me for a week. Two days before I am supposed to take a Time off, my boss calls me in and asks if I think I should go on this vacation. I said yes. He said what if I asked if you were willing to accept your last check? I said I would accept it. So he paid me out my time and I walked out the door."
"I worked my a** off to make sure that things would carry on without me, even though the company didn't have anything in place that helped that process. And the fact they think that people should cancel their vacation out of loyalty is such garbage. The company itself was pretty normal from the outside. But pretty bullsh*t from the inside"
– 444unsure
"What a piece of sh*t."
""So, just to be clear, you need me here so badly that you can't be without me for a week, but not so badly that you can't be without indefinitely? I call bullsh*t.""
– ohheyisayokay
Regulations Are Written In Blood
"Management who are willing to risk it and cut corners."
"Had an interview with a company. The guy interviewing me told me that he would be my boss if I got thr job. He likes his teams to be a strong and cohesive group and that we would all have an input as he values his team."
"Maybe three questions later he asks me: "if you had an unstable and unstable load that I told you has to be loaded this minute. You would do it." Me, "No, if it is unsafe and could potentially kill someone, I would not allow it out. Not until the problem is sorted (had a boss pull this one years before), i would tell him of the issue and try to get it sorted" him "and I tell you it must be loaded as is", me "Then it wont get loaded and i would bring it to Health and safety". He immediately told me how I was not the right type of person for that company."
"A large international company, willing to promote that individual. I consider myself lucky to have not been even offered the job. Saved me turning it down."
– Xib3
"I've seen some interesting things in interviews before, but never before have I heard a company so brazen as to flat out admit they don't adhere to major safety policies. If that's the case how many minor ones are overlooked enough where they're comfortable overlooking a major one? YIKES. Talk about dodging a f*cking bullet."
– Wizard4877
I Finished My Learning
"Offering to pay you a lot less than market rate because you will "Learn so much" or "Will be working with a great team". My bank does not take IQ points as a mortgage payment"
– _three_piece_suit
"I work in games. A lot of job postings end with 'Must have a passion for video games.'"
"Translation: Your pay is gonna be garbage, there's going to be a lot of overtime, and we don't care if you like it because there are hundreds of applicants"
– laehrin20
Lunch Is A Must
"“We don’t really eat lunch” f*ck you ive been working my a** off all day I’m gonna sit down for 30 minutes to and hour and eat my damn sandwich"
– ReporterWitty3616
"It also shows ignorance to some facts like ... Breaks are relevant and folks need calories to burn."
– deterministic_lynx
"At my current job, before she was demoted and relocated, I had a manager that I asked if I could take my (legally mandated 30 min lunch break) and she literally tried to manipulate me into not taking one. She goes, “well, x coworker and y coworker do 8 hour shifts without taking lunches”. As if that’s a reason I shouldn’t have taken mine. And I was sitting there thinking, “that’s not something to be proud of? As a manager that’s part of your job is to make sure your employees take their lunch. Also, that’s f*cking illegal? Why would you admit that?” Ignoring entirely the fact that both coworkers she named ALWAYS take a lunch on their long shifts, so she straight up lied for no reason other than to guilt me."
– RosariaRain
Work Family
"Paraphrasing from a similar comment."
"When you hear "We're like a family here", run and don't look back. The only "family" trait that'll come from that job is the dysfunction, gaslighting, and lack of accountability."
– Fake-And-Gay-Bot
"Get that where I am now. The gossip is ridiculous, I happened today to know who had brought in the cakes and how old she had turned - shock horror, I speak to my coworkers as people. Next thing you know, people are "teasing" I only do it to get in her knickers. .. Nope, one, if you talk to her, she has a boyfriend and two, not my type."
"Also, my favourite one was the big boss of the company gave a speech about how, he could replace us all with foreign workers for less pay and more productivity. So he can buy another expensive car. The talks with some managers shows they literally bathe in the company cool-aid."
"Family. Only in his inner circle, where he literally employees them."
– Xib3
Do You NEED The Job Yet?
"If they ask if you've turned in your two weeks to your current employer during the interview process. Had two short jobs fresh out of college that did this and realized too late that they were waiting for me to be desperate before hiring me, because the pay was actually much lower than advertised and the hours were much longer."
– the-just-us-league
There's Always A Limit
"“Unlimited PTO”"
– Shhh_Dont_Tel
"The first time I worked for a company with unlimited PTO, I ended up taking less time off than I did at my previous job because I wasn't sure how much I was "allowed" to take in practice."
– aggressivecalm
"I like my PTO like I like my pay - on the books."
– DogsAreOurFriends
"I had a job with unlimited sick time!"
"Two things to note:"
"There's a hidden equation that will trigger HR to investigate and ask for doctors notes."
"It didn't cover what traditional sick time at other jobs would. No planned doctors appointments or if a family member is sick. You use vacation for that."
– zerostar83
It's Your Job Now
"When an employee quits or gets fired from the job and the company doesn't hire anyone new to replace them."
"It can be hard to tell as a red flag at first, but the temporary workload they added to your own over that was left over after the person left, slowly becomes your new permanent workload, without any changes to your pay or benefits to compensate for the additional tasks. The further out it goes without the position being filled, the larger and more obvious the red flag becomes."
– Goatmanthealien
Yeah, I have personal experience with that last one!
