Your workplace is toxic, and unless you have a few colleagues who are on your side, you should just leave.
If you surround yourself with like minded people, you will get positive feedback, even if it doesnʼt come from your immediate colleagues. It will help a lot, and if you can stay positive despite all the toxicity around you, your environment will change; positivity is contagious.
Even if you have some people with you, you might have no luck turning things to a positive. If you can convince a few people to leave the company together with you, it will have a strong message to management. Story time:
I was working for the local division of a Hungarian company. We were treated badly, worked much harder than we should had, and didnʼt get a raise for years. After negotiating for weeks without the smallest success, about 40 of us left the company. We all mentioned the same reasons during our exit talks. Few months later we heard from people who stayed that they are treated much better in a lot of ways, salary raise included. Even though my ex boss doesnʼt seem to recognise me on the street to this day (it was more than 10 years ago), iʼm glad we could do this for those people even if we werenʼt there to enjoy.
I had about 8 jobs since then, and now iʼm a CTO of a company that turned profitable without serious external (VC) money. We all respect each other, most of us even treating each other as friends, not just colleagues. But i truly needed all the bad experiences so now i know how to build a successful and emotionally healthy organisation.
Your honesty and story are both inspiring to me. I indeed recognise this kind of attitude as toxic and "not normal", even though I haven't been in that many companies.
I've always felt that people saying "just endure and stay" are wrong. If you feel you're not comfortable and that the situation won't change leaving seems the best option for me. As you say, if you're followed by others who feel the same way, it can turn out better.
I'll follow your advice, thank you so much for sharing this very pesonal experience, all the best in your career as CTO!
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Your workplace is toxic, and unless you have a few colleagues who are on your side, you should just leave.
If you surround yourself with like minded people, you will get positive feedback, even if it doesnʼt come from your immediate colleagues. It will help a lot, and if you can stay positive despite all the toxicity around you, your environment will change; positivity is contagious.
Even if you have some people with you, you might have no luck turning things to a positive. If you can convince a few people to leave the company together with you, it will have a strong message to management. Story time:
I was working for the local division of a Hungarian company. We were treated badly, worked much harder than we should had, and didnʼt get a raise for years. After negotiating for weeks without the smallest success, about 40 of us left the company. We all mentioned the same reasons during our exit talks. Few months later we heard from people who stayed that they are treated much better in a lot of ways, salary raise included. Even though my ex boss doesnʼt seem to recognise me on the street to this day (it was more than 10 years ago), iʼm glad we could do this for those people even if we werenʼt there to enjoy.
I had about 8 jobs since then, and now iʼm a CTO of a company that turned profitable without serious external (VC) money. We all respect each other, most of us even treating each other as friends, not just colleagues. But i truly needed all the bad experiences so now i know how to build a successful and emotionally healthy organisation.
Be brave to change. It will turn to better.
Thank you for your words, Gergely.
Your honesty and story are both inspiring to me. I indeed recognise this kind of attitude as toxic and "not normal", even though I haven't been in that many companies.
I've always felt that people saying "just endure and stay" are wrong. If you feel you're not comfortable and that the situation won't change leaving seems the best option for me. As you say, if you're followed by others who feel the same way, it can turn out better.
I'll follow your advice, thank you so much for sharing this very pesonal experience, all the best in your career as CTO!