I worked at the Seattle IT office of Expeditors for 6 months. No red flags went up during the interview process but I should have seen problems ahead. The company made the interview easy and complimented me on my interview skills even though I am not very good at that. They tried very hard to sell me on the company. They were friendly, in fact they were TOO FRIENDLY.
I accepted the first salary offer, which was too low (big mistake on my part.) On the morning of my first day of work my supervisor threatened me with all of the nasty things that would happen if I did not strictly follow the dress code. She didn't realize that as an adult man I know how to dress myself. In fact, I was dressed better than 90% of the men in the office. It's true that most men in Seattle don't know how to dress decently, but I am the exception because I don't mind dressing up. I didn't appreciate being talked down to, especially when it was obviously not necessary or appropriate. Things started to go downhill from there.
I soon began to realize that there had been a lot of trouble in my department just before I arrived. Only one member of the team had been there long term and he was the only one who really knew what was going on. My supervisor had just been promoted into her first management role and was clueless. Whenever my supervisor ran into problems she called on her supervisor, a younger woman. The two women supervisors regularly ganged up on me and the other male employee while praising the other new female employee. My male co-worker had let it be known that he was making plans to leave, so he got no respect from management. In fact, it was obvious that he was afraid of them.
My supervisor was obviously struggling to do her job. If she had trusted me enough to tell me what was really going on I might have been able to get on her side. However, her suspicious behavior made it impossible for trust to develop. She talked about teamwork constantly but never knew how to work with the team. Whenever something went wrong she immediately tried to blame others. But, since she the corporate type who did everything by the book I am sure she will get promoted anyway.
The work was routine and boring. It didn't take long for me to realize that the company was full of outdated technologies. My supervisors had no IT knowledge or experience from outside the company. They only knew what the company wanted them to know. Even my male co-worker was afraid of working with the Unix or Windows command line (very bad sign for any IT employee.) Eventually I got tired of being manipulated and being kept in the dark. The micromanagement and threats continued to get worse over time. When I began to realize that my trust was misplaced I started to make plans to leave.
My last conversation with the most bizarre. They tried to intimidate me into staying even though they made it clear that they hated my work. By quitting I made my supervisors look awful and hurting their image was the worst thing I could do. Keeping me there just a way of filling a cubicle and making themselves look good. My boss's boss (female) cried when I said I was leaving. It was the most awful and PATHETIC thing I have ever experienced at work.
