I was hired by this company in April after a long job search which was preceded by a lengthy employment gap on my part. Therefore I was so grateful to this company and was determined to do the best I could.
During the hiring process which included two interviews and a background check I believe I had made clear what my talents were and I was certainly clear on the job they wanted me to do. After one week on the job, it was obvious that something was amiss.
The CEO of this company leans heavily on an operations manager. This operations manager was extremely unhelpful in my onboarding process, gave me the roughest of rough outlines as to how I was to progress during my initial probationary period, and then proceeded to give me no guidance as to how to fulfill their expectations and ignored many of my requests. This individual was curt, unfriendly and fostered an environment where asking them questions made you feel like you were an annoyance to them rather than a co-worker. At previous companies when I came aboard I was made to feel welcome and was given all the equipment I needed. At this position I was given a tiny laptop whereas everyone else had huge monitors, most of them had multiple monitors, and when I asked when I would receive a monitor it was viewed as somehow disrespectful on my part. I also had to ask when I would be given a keyboard and mouse.
By my second week the operations manager was giving me conflicting orders and conflicting requests all of which I had documented. Being new and out of work for a few years, I did not want to point out to them how they had changed direction and how they clearly were giving me contradictory requests. with vague direction and no resources. I tried the best I could. I even attempted to draft a calendar of milestones I wanted to hit for the position I was hired for and a list of objectives and projects I felt I could initiate if I was given access to the information I needed, which I was denied. Can you imagine a company hiring a marketing manager and then not giving them access to the online databases needed to do the job?! There was also an incident where I was denied permission to speak to a co-worker at another location to coordinate with them on a project I was asked to spearhead for a laughable procedural reason. I was denied access to a person who was supposed to be a colleague!!
By the beginning of the third week they had ceased truly speaking to me all together and my emails went unanswered. On Friday of the third week I was told that they would be letting me go. When asked for a reason all I was told was, "it's not working out," and "we need someone with a different skill set for this position." I had multiple personal interviews with this company where I laid out my skill set they had my resume. I left without incident and sent an email later that day thanking them for the opportunity and asking them if they would be willing to provide a recommendation or be willing to be named as a reference during my upcoming job search. This email was never answered.
I understand sometimes people do not click and I would not have been best friends with anyone there in real life. but we're all supposed to be professionals. The office is staffed with anywhere from five to nine employees at any given time. There was an incident when during my lunch hour I listened to all them engaged in what I believe to be extremely inappropriate discussions for a work atmosphere. They were discussing topics with which I had a complete opposing view and because of that I felt like I could not end my lunch break until the discussion was over lest I be dragged into a debate and be forced to disagree with an entire office (they were discussing a culturally sensitive topic which no person should have to make a stand about at their place of work). This company also fosters a culture of do as I say, not as I do. I was reminded a few times that my work day ended at a particular time of day, then I witnessed multiple employees not respecting that rule.
This company is disorganized, closed-minded, and antagonistic. Trust me, don't even bother. if you do the littlest thing to offend anyone there, they will find a way to remove you. and if you think this is paranoia I overheard discussions about them trying to remove one other person there who they thought was "annoying." Not that they did a bad job, not that they were incompetent, but that they simply annoyed them during conversation.
Stay away.