Is your workplace becoming more unbearable over time?

In My Humble Opinion
1

When I visit with people about jobs, a common complaint is increasing misery and increasing workload. More schedule pressure, more demanding bosses, and decreasing perks (time off, benefits, etc.), along with infuriating rules handed down from above seem to top the list. I’ve been lurking on retirement forums recently, and it’s surprising how many retired early from their careers because they “couldn’t take another day of the f***ing corporate BS”.

For me, my work has changed to much, much faster production cycles, and smaller teams. Instead of 100 people on a 5 year project, there will be 10 on a 5 month project. Although I’m fine with it, a lot of older workers hate moving from project to project every few months, and they would definitely claim work has gotten worse. I would say it’s different, but not a lot worse.

My wife’s story is different. Her small company was bought by Uber-Mega-Corp and things have basically turned to shit. They’re mercilessly squeezing more, more, more out of every employee to the point that some have broken down in tears facing the mounting workload. She’s planning to continue for a short time longer and quit. She said she feels sorry for her coworkers who have to stay “in that hell” (to quote her).

So I’m curious how widespread this is. Is your workplace getting worse every year? What has changed about it? Or is yours actually getting better?

2

I took an early retirement in June because I could not stand my job for even one more minute. I was a public school science teacher. My reasons for leaving included but were not limited to
[ul]
[li]Unobtainable goals driven by standardized testing[/li][li]Wildly incompetent building administrators[/li][li]Antagonistic and disrespectful students who could not be disciplined due to the previously mentioned administrators[/li][li]Declining pay[/li][li]Assignment to a grade-level I do not like teaching and refusal to reassign me[/li][/ul]

It’s been a little over a month and I am job searching, but I have no regrets about leaving that madhouse.

3

Work in my field went from very fun and rewarding to burdensome and obnoxious, almost overnight, back in the 1980’s . This was, and continues to be, because the prevailing Business School dictated model for RUNNING a business, has declared that the role of all business leaders/owners, is to crush wages as low as possible, while demanding higher output from all employees, regardless of whether they themselves think higher productivity is possible or not. Since that time, the ONLY measure of success, has been profit margin. Nothing else, and that nothing else, includes product or service quality.

Since the late 19080’s, there have been small fluctuations up and down, depending on the overall state of the economy. Whenever profits were down, the lash came down harder, and more mindlessly. Whenever times were more or less comfortable, the lash would be placed back at the ready, and simply be pointed to regularly to remind us that we are chattel.

The big change that took place in the 80’s wasn’t in the hearts and minds of the business leaders themselves. The generation that took over from the World War Two generation, ALWAYS believed simply in following whatever the business “scientists” of the day said to do. From the 1950s to the 1980s, those “scientists” told them to treat employees as valued human resources (hence the naming of the hiring and firing section of every company to HR), so they did so.

If it seems EXTRA bad right now, that is because the people who America put in charge of the government have a decided attitude that ALL people who work for anyone else, should be treated with suspicion and resentment. The political game, of pretending that the reason for ALL economic distress is the demands of the working classes, is what is controlling both the political and business power centers of the nation. It’s a little complicated as to WHY that is so, because it isn’t entirely due to economic considerations, but since it is the prevailing and fundamental underlying viewpoint of those in power, there will continue to be a general and pervasive sense everywhere, that being an employee is a drag.

4

I’m in GIS. Same job for 25 years (as of yesterday). I say same job, but technology has of course changed dramatically in those 25 years.

Workload is an odd thing. Really hasn’t changed. I work in the government sector producing information/systems for the public, so I don’t make a product per se. And I really don’t have typical deadlines.

In some ways the internet has made it less stressful. Information on how to do something is always right at my fingertips. On the other hand, people expect my data to be at their finger tips now too. So I have to keep on top of things.

5

I left my last three workplaces because things deteriorated to the point of unbearable. At first I thought perhaps I was the common factor, but I’ve been assured by others that the problems actually existed. One person who was nearby in all cases has told me I have a talent for being the first rat off the ship.

In one of those cases a large part of the problem was not being able to hire qualified people, so things got worse for those stuck with the problems of under-staffing. Schedules became very rough.

In another it was a change of management over to people who clearly cared nothing for morale and saw it as their mission to ‘whip things into shape’. The people that are still there say things remain terrible, and the original problems persist.

The third case involved management feeling the need to change around a number of established practices that affected employees lives in a big way. They claimed these were necessary steps, but these changes were onerous enough that many people departed. The exodus continues, I’m told.

I’m not a manger. The few times I was in charge of others I was terrible at it, so I give some benefit of the doubt. I also appreciate people who are good at management. I’ve also never owned a big company and been responsible for a payroll with a lot of people on it. So I don’t know the pressures involved (and don’t intend to). But that said, I’ve seen some really short sighted decisions by people who run companies. Almost like they were trying to get people to leave, although the company was clearly hurt when they did. It’s puzzling.

6

Unbearble? No. But I am quite lucky in that regard to be working for a company that places high value on its employees. But the company continues to grow and shows no signs of slowing down, bit by bit the number of rules increases, the growing number of employees results in less of the interpersonal relationships that made it so much easier to deal with the difficult aspects of the job. As I look at others in similar companies and our clients they seem to be under increasing pressure to meet continually less reasonable demands. In recent years we’ve had a number of employees leave to find better land to graze on and luckily for them the one time practice of not allowing employees who leave to return has been loosened and several of them are quite grateful for it. It doesn’t look good out there in the tech world from what I can see.

7

I spent my career as a professor. When I started, the prevailing attitude was the university was the professoriat and the administrators were our employees. It ended up with the administration running every aspect of our lives and we were their employees. I just read in my alumni magazine that the president makes $3.3 million. That must be 25 times the salary of the average professor. And much of the teaching these days is done by “adjuncts” who make maybe $15K per course and cannot hope for any permanent employment.

At the school where I spent most of my career, when I came in 1968, there was a principle (that is, president), five vice-principles, one of whom also wore the hat of graduate dean. No associate VPs at all. Now there are nine VPs (and a separate graduate school dean) and at least that many associate VPs, all with staffs. When I started teaching evaluation was done by colleagues. Now it is entirely based on student evaluations, which are verfy obviously strongly correlated with the grades you give. Give an easy mid-term and you get good evaluations; give a hard one and they are poor. At the beginning of the term you are required to give a course outline (that’s a good change) and tell exactly how you will mark and god forbid you try to make any change in that. When I started, graduate school admissions were carried out entirely in the department. Now secretaries in the grad school can reject applicants they deem unqualified. On at least one occasion in the old days we admitted a student who did not have a regular BA but was clearly entirely qualified and did well. Now, there is no way that could happen.

In every way, we have lost control of our jobs.

8

Well, yes and no. I work for a small management consulting firm (so called “business scientists”). Lately it feels like we don’t have much work to do and the projects themselves aren’t particularly interesting. But I seem to continue to get raises and bonuses, I don’t work particularly hard and I can work from home whenever I like. So as long as I don’t get laid off, things are actually pretty good. Although part of me misses the “old days” where I would travel 4 days a week and the team would go out and get drunk and go to strip clubs every other night, but that lifestyle isn’t really practical for me anymore.

I can understand that sort of thinking from wealthy business owners because they are voting in their best interests. I don’t understand it from middle Americans who seem to take on a political philosophy of “if poor people just did what they were told, they too could be good corporate underdrones and maybe get some of the wealthy people’s crumbs”.

9

Until recently, I hadn’t held a job for more than 2 years, most of them less than 6 months. I would leave after conditions became intolerable.

Food service is food service, so whatever on that front, but my experience with corporate restaurants has always been fairly miserable, low pay, no respect, poor working conditions, managers who actually short hours or steal from their employees (had some managers that would count down register draws, and if you were “short” would “offer” to let yo make it up.") Small employers were better, but usually lacked benefits or any real possibility of advancement.

When I worked for the cable company, that was truly an intolerable mess. I came out the gate running the best numbers of any tech there, but quickly learned to lower my productivity, as having higher productivity meant that you got sabotaged by your managers (being given faulty equipment, begin assigned jobs solo that required at least two or more in order to do right), and co-workers (I actually had a co-worker show up, offer to help, and cut down the drop I had just run to the house, costing me nearly any hour of lost productivity.), and support staff (I would turn in faulty boxes, only to get the very same ones, with the same faults, to be loaded on my van the next day.). After two years of that crap, I had to make a departure to save my sanity.

Retail is just a general nightmare, and I don’t desire to recall even a single minute of that, even though I spent a cumulative 3 or so years in various retail jobs.

The last nearly 5 years, I’ve been running my own place, and trying something a bit different. I try to make the place a better place to work every day. As long as I am not losing money, I am pretty happy with the productivity of my employees, so I have no problem giving them raise as they improve, not pushing them too hard most days (there are some days that get a bit busy, so everyone needs to throw down a bit, but I try to keep that limited), and I am told by my peers in the business community that I am doing it all wrong, that I am overpaying my employees, and that I should be getting more productivity out of them (of course, they are mostly in positions of losing money on their businesses, while mine is quite happily profitable). And I should, if the one and only goal I had was to improve my short term bottom line, which is the goal of pretty much every business owner, manager, or corporation out there. My goal was to create a work environment that I would enjoy working in, and in that, I think I have succeeded.

So yeah, my experience, any business who focuses on the short term bottom line will be a miserable place to work in, and will become more miserable over time, as being profitable isn’t enough, we need to be more profitable now. Unfortunately for workers, and the economy in general, that short term bottom line focus is extremely prevalent, and you will have a hard time finding work for anyone who considers working conditions to be more important that profitability.

10

I’m an older IT worker and consider myself adaptable to, if not eager for, new ideas and new methods. I like change and shaking up the status quo. Otherwise, you get too complacent and too stale.

Increased demands as episodic events are a great way to challenge yourself. It gets your adrenaline pumping and tests your mettle. If it goes on for too long it becomes battle fatigue.

This is nothing new. People have been lamenting and complaining about their workload since I started working in the 1970s. That complaining has never stopped, let alone taken a break. It seems to be human nature.

Every now and then I ask myself if I’m up for this. The answer is still “yes”. Apparently my superiors do too because I get great performance reviews and generous bonuses. I’ve never shied away from work.

When people are feeling put upon, it’s usually because multiple demands come from different angles at the same time. There is a flurry of demands and activities, but those are usually transient and things settle down to a more normal pace after a while.

We have been doing more with fewer people, but I’m not sure that’s a bad thing. Tools have become better and we’ve become more productive. When we had extra people, they played a very limited role anyway. Plus, they were reluctant to change and were outwardly hostile to the changes that were coming their way. So they were let go when the latest wave of changes occurred.

There are times I get frustrated and think about the few years until retirement (I can see it from here), but it will probably take more than a fit of indignation to get me to retire unless I think I’m no longer up to the job.

Like Tripolar, my company increasingly makes life better for employees. More generous work-from-home policies, even for non-IT people, good benefits, more options for time off - just better all of the way around. It’s very civilized.

11

Nope.

I’m a University professor and scientist. Over the last 15 years, things have certainly gone toward the job being driven much more by external funding pressures (grant dollars) than teaching. Some of my colleagues who either couldn’t adapt or work in fields that don’t attract big grant dollars are certainly having a difficult time.

But by a combination of skill and exceptional luck, I’ve played the game just fine. Lots of money, and i’m a tenured full prof, so there is very little the University can do to me. I do what I want when I want, and no one tells me what to do as long as I keep doing what I’m doing.

I wouldn’t jobs for anything. I also recognize how extraordinarily lucky I am to be able to say that.

12

The “maybe” suggests the $15k might just be a random number on your part, but if it is a real figure I would love to know where adjunct professors make that kind of money. Here in NY state, I have done some adjunct work, and I have never made anything resembling that; my highest figure was about $7000, and from what I understand that is very high for the area…some nearby schools pay $2k or less. I think a lot of people I know would be very happy to have $15,000 as an adjunct!

13

My job’s pretty pleasant and not unbearable at all, and I realize how lucky I am.

That said, it has gradually grown less pleasant. I think many earlier posters are more or less right as to the reasons.

But I also wonder if any individual workplace tends to get less and less nice, with the worst ones vanishing and much nicer ones popping up only to follow the same course themselves.

14

I’m retired, so Yeah.

15

The funny thing is that this problem has existed since the beginning time and there even is a position in your business to address this: your manager.

16

I’ve worked for hundreds of managers in my life, and I would say that around half of them were actively making the workplace a worse place, a third were indifferent, and maybe about a sixth of them (optimistically) actually cared to ensure that their workplace was a positive work environment.

17

I can’t say it’s gotten worse. I never want to see the hell of 2008-2011 ever again. But, since 2012, it seems there’s been the usual ebb and flow of good things and bad things. We’re a bit short staffed, but some of that is due to the tight labor market. It’s a huge company, so the hiring process is always going to be slow.

The one good thing is that ever since the recession, all the pointless HR waste of time programs have been scrapped and haven’t returned. No more wasting time playing the lifeboat game or forced attendance at buzzwords seminars.

18

You are touching on why I said “It’s a little complicated as to WHY that is so, because it isn’t entirely due to economic considerations.” A lot of people, INCLUDING many business owners, have been essentially tricked into voting in support of processes and laws which go almost directly against their own best interests. The tricks used, include everything from racism, to fear of racism, to culturalism, to fear of foreign workers. The way the tricks are performed are always the same: emphasize ONLY the social issues during the campaigns, and vote in the economic damage quietly and in disguise, after the victory.

Other business leaders look for the short term results someone else talked well about, so they will vote into power anyone who promises high profits NOW, even though it’s obvious that in the long run, the business itself may even become untenable.

The fad over removing “government regulations” is an excellent case in point. Only SOME regulations are entirely badly conceived of or written, such that they are truly keeping businesses from maximizing productivity (and thereby profits). Many more of them are HELPING businesses to compete with each other fairly. But if someone runs on a platform of “doing away with all those horrid Democrat/liberal regulations,” many business owners and investors will ASSUME that they only intend to get rid of the immediately annoying ones that THEY can see. They don’t realize that their opponents will gain even MORE advantages over them as a result.

19

I own my own business. There are headaches, but over the years I’ve worked at increasing my efficiency so that instead of 50 hour weeks, I now work 25 hour weeks and am making more money than I was years ago.

But it is still “work”. I’ll be glad when I no longer have to work.

20

Yes but its all due to the current site-lead. This dude is such a megalomaniac that all but two of the leadership/managers and production assistants have left let alone rank-and-file workers. But since Seattle and the Front Office expects a high turn-over, no one is showing any surprise or willingness to do anything.