The Joy of Quitting – My Experience At a Toxic Workplace

Remember, quit if need be. You always come first!

I am aware that it isn’t feasible for us to quit our jobs so quickly, but suffering through work is equally detrimental to our mental health. Here’s the story of my disappointing internship that taught me more about “self-worth” than social media.

Story time

After graduation, I took a year-long break to explore the world of social media. The day I got my results, “first class with distinction” was the same day I got a call for an interview at a hospitality marketing and designing agency. I used to feel grateful for having offered an intern position with no previous experience in social media. The stipend was a gracious 10,000 per month.

I was curious, excited, and eager to learn all that goes into branding, advertising, and marketing. I was told I would learn a little bit of everything- from ideating, strategizing, photography, videography, designing, content writing, analytics to client servicing. I found my seniors, to be welcoming, approachable, and extremely enterprising. The employees were pretty young, and I assumed they’d be easy to work with.

Since I was new and rather inexperienced, I was asked to assist a senior social media manager. I shadowed her, completed the tasks assigned by her, and observed how she strategized for her clients. It went well on most days until she said, “Your name’s Rijuta? oh, sounds like a typo!” Do you sense the frustration too? Anyway, she failed to delegate any real work, and I wasn’t learning much. I started managing reviews and responses for all their clients, an incredibly dull task, in my opinion.

So, I’d like to own up to all my mistakes, which sadly became a routine, and the fear of avoiding them invited tons of anxiety. I remember being reprimanded by my boss and social media manager once. It was the most horrible weekend; I kept crying and worrying. I also worked with a male colleague my age who was a social media manager. Any help he offered was garnished with condescending attitude.

As far as learning new things, approachable co-workers, and supportive bosses were concerned – was sheer disappointment. There were hardly 25 employees; yet there no clear communication. In my view, there were no team meetings, no systematic delegation of work to me, absentee bosses, employees quitting more than new people joining, and no safe space for redressal of issues due to favoritism.

Most of us have accepted and normalized such unfavourable work environments. Our female boss reminded me of Regina George from Mean Girls. Her tone with most employees and the clerical staff was quite demeaning. Her co-partner dealt with issues in a much calmer way until he lost his patience, where he’d humiliate employees in the presence of the entire team.

Positives

I made two new friends who understood my plight. They were always there for me. One of them was a content writer, so asked me to write captions. The other one was a designer, she stuck by my side since day one. We would have lunches together, gossip about and bond over our work situation. All of us had experienced the wrath of this company.

Even today we are in touch, and gradually they resigned as well.

What did I learn?

I learned importance of standing up for myself. I noticed increasing anxiety issues, self loathing along with a dwindling self esteem. Consequently, this worsened ties with my friends and family. The thought of quitting dreaded me for weeks. With time, I mustered up the courage to quit and after serving my notice period (during which I got the opportunity to work for a big client ) On my last day, my boss said “You grasped things well, you were good. We did not ask you to leave”. I am more than glad I did.

In conclusion

It is absolutely essential for companies to ensure a toxic free work environment. It increases productivity, improves communication, facilitates better synergy, encourages innovation and growth amongst employees. There needs to be a systematic and organised method to resolve issues in fair manner.

We must feel healthy, willing and happy to be working for someone else. Hence, apart from a good pay, fixed working hours, incentives or benefits – as employees, we look forward to a healthy working atmosphere.