If you don’t look and act a certain way, the 99% of the company who do not look like you will rob you of your promotion, talk about you behind your back, and passive aggressively make you feel like you are not worthy.
Although this company is a small startup with potential, it needs to overcome many ethical, organizational, and cultural barriers before it can see itself becoming successful. The people management aspect in particular is devastating.
I experienced severe Micromanaging - each hour, I received no less than 20 Slack messages - pages worth - of feedback from my manager, of which I would work halfway through only to be told to start all over because she meant to tell me to do it another way. When I told my manager that I had a bad weekend because my family member got sick, she smiled at me and said “that’s nice.” I felt uncomfortable bringing issues up to any other leaders within the company since it was so small, and my “team” seemed to be run by what I can only refer to as the Ivy League Mean Girls Club.
Expect to be reported for poor performance for:
- Not replying to Slack messages within 5 minutes
- Being 1 minute late to a video meeting
- Showing any ounce of your character or personality
- Asking questions when you don’t understand a concept, even when they tell you they encourage proactive learning
- Sounding like you’re “chewing on something” when you speak, when it’s just your normal talking voice