17 Red Flags That Made Employees Realize It’s Time to Update Their Resumes

If you weren’t lucky enough to be born rich, then, just like the rest of us mortals, you need to work. So you may find yourself in 2 situations: you land an excellent job, where people are respected and valued, or you get one with a toxic environment. Either way, the important thing is to recognize the difference between a good job and a bad one, so you can understand the red flags in the workplace and start looking for other options. In the end, no one deserves to be tied to certain types of bosses.

• I worked in an aesthetics clinic as a receptionist and doing marketing as well. The owner yelled at me because a patient didn’t want to change her schedule and for forgetting to put the trash bag in her office. Plus, she filled me with duties, including giving aesthetic treatments to patients! And I was earning a receptionist’s salary. She even made me call the airline to wait for the flight she took, as well as pick up her daughter from school, and lie to the people she owed money to.
  In short, I dropped everything and didn’t give my notice period. It felt good. She thought that just because I was away from home, she was going to take advantage of me. On top of that, she sent me a message saying she couldn’t find some stuff. I was already busy setting up my own marketing company. © Raquel de Jesus Araujo / Facebook

• I once worked in a supermarket that closed at 8:30 p.m. So sometimes we stayed until 10 p.m. cleaning the sidewalk. I asked my boss why my salary was so low if I was the one who worked the most overtime in the company.
  He told me, “For starters, if you’re not registered, then you’re not entitled to overtime, much less to overtime pay!” I asked him to register me and, a week later, I was fired. Today, I only go to that supermarket if I really can’t find what I need in any other establishment. © Claudemir Joanita Pedro / Facebook

• My husband was hired as a graphic designer at a restaurant. Not even 15 days went by, and they needed a cashier manager. They put him in, against his will, claiming they were going to pay him more. He worked double time for 3 months, going to the restaurant in the middle of the night or even on Christmas Eve, to close the cash register.
  In the end, he resigned. They never paid him any of what they had promised. And they still contacted him to do design work for them, even though he had moved out of town. He never got back to them. © Denise Azevedo / Facebook

• I worked at a lottery agency whose owner loved to humiliate his employees. At the time, I already had a degree in P.E., but I needed a steady paycheck because the odd jobs didn’t pay my bills. One day, he came up to me and said, “I don’t have a degree and I own an agency. You graduated, and you work for me because you are not even competent to work in the area you’re trained in.”
  That same day, when I left the agency, I asked to resign, so I wouldn’t have to set foot there again. Anyway, the lottery agency closed after a while, and my former boss is bankrupt. The twists and turns of life! © Heriana B. Meschiati / Facebook

• I worked in a hospital as a receptionist and was promised the following: “You will be the right hand of the supervisor, she is the one in charge here since the headquarters is in another city.” As I had always worked as a clerk, I had experience. I stood out, and very much so, in my work. I had known this supervisor for years, and she even went to college with me.
  However, instead of seeing me as an ally, she considered me a threat. She made up a huge gossip about me and then placed me in another very precarious hospital to see if I would resign, but I did not. She insisted on this gossip created by herself and another employee and suspended me. She only became a supervisor because she had also turned against all the other former employees, and there was a mass layoff. But you can be sure that what goes around comes around! © Ká Fagionato Boretti / Facebook

• Exploitative, ignorant, and unreasonable bosses exist all over the world. Last week, my boss accused me of stealing one of her diamond rings. I asked her to look at the cameras to see if a thief had broken in and stolen the ring because I had a clear conscience. I am already looking for another job! © Chris Tiani / Facebook

• I worked in a huge multinational technology company for almost 9 years. During that period, I worked a lot of overtime because the demand was clearly much higher than the number of employees. That routine made me sick. I informed my boss that I was going to take some time off, following the recommendations of the occupational physician. She waited a few days and fired me. I found a lawyer and sued the company. © Carolina Morato / Facebook

• I worked in a store, and the owners wanted me to clean the whole store every day before I left. One day, the owner’s wife started to clean one side of the store while I was cleaning the other side, so we finished soon. He said, “Aren’t you going to clean the other side?” I said that his wife had already cleaned it, and then he said, “Clean it again.” I left without looking back. He still owes me my salary because I never went back there. © Raquel Alves / Facebook

• I worked as a “boss” for months without receiving a salary increase for the promotion. Months later, the position was formalized, and I did receive a raise. However, I didn’t receive a payment for all the previous months in which I had already performed the function.
  This also happened in another company. I was a boss without being a boss for about 2 or 3 months. Only, in that place, they hired an outside person who took over the position, and I, despite my good performance, was not promoted. © Marcos Jean / Facebook

• I graduated in journalism in 2015 and was unemployed. I was living alone, so I needed to work urgently. A friend called me for a temporary job in a perfume factory of an uncle of hers. The job was in production, and I was happy to be doing something, even if it had nothing to do with my profession. Everything was going well until the business partner of my friend’s uncle started showing up at the factory.
  She was an extremely rude, prejudiced woman who thinks that employees have to undergo any kind of treatment and listen to all kinds of insults. One day, I was rearranging some things, and she stood behind me and yelled. I freaked out and hit my head hard against a metal shelf. Of course, she didn’t apologize, didn’t ask me how I was doing, and scolded me for the fuss. Fortunately, I never saw her again.

• I worked in a bakery where I entered at 1:30 p.m., had 20 minutes for lunch, and left at 10:30 p.m. because, after closing, I had to clean everything. When they made my contract, they said I had to sign as follows: starts at 2 p.m., with 20 minutes for lunch and one hour for dinner, and leaves at 10 p.m. I immediately asked for my resignation. To this day, some 13 years after this experience, they still have a sign that reads “employee needed.” They’ve even laminated it. © Suelem Martins Lessa Alves / Facebook

• My 2-year-old son was feeling sick and, in the evening, I had to take him to the doctor. They suspected he had meningitis, but later they saw that it was a very bad allergic reaction. The next day, I took the day off, went home and stayed with him. When I went back to work, my boss said she did not approve the day off because it was my son who was sick and not me. © Sandra Sa Ferreira Ferreira / Facebook

• I left a relatively good job in a marketing agency, but one in which I didn’t feel very motivated. The problems already started on the first day, when I was still getting to know the internal processes and clients. The owner just wouldn’t leave me alone and counted how long it took me to write a text. From then on, it only got worse.
  I was working unpaid overtime, arriving at 8 a.m., and leaving at 10:30 p.m., with an hour lunch break, to keep up with the demand. One day, I had to renew my driver’s license and arrived at work at 10:30. The boss scolded me in front of all my colleagues and said he expected more commitment from me. I resigned after only 3 months.

• I worked at a law firm while I was finishing college. One day, after lunch, my coworkers and I found a report on our desks about how talking during the day affected work performance, and there was an e-mail saying we couldn’t talk in the office. Oh, I was also told that I went to the bathroom many times during the day. © Fernanda Lamy / Facebook

• My boyfriend was unemployed and very disillusioned with the city we lived in. So he started sending out resumes to other places. He was called for an interview in another city and was hired temporarily. This happened in October. I stayed in the city where we lived because I was working, and our home was there.
  After a while, they told him that they were very satisfied with his work and that it would be a permanent position, so they asked him for all the documents to speed up the hiring process. I started looking for a job in that city as well. I found one after a month. I resigned from my old job, returned the apartment and rented another one in the new city (where rents were even higher), put all my stuff in a moving truck, and left. At the end of December, my partner’s boss said they couldn’t formalize his position because they had lost a client.

Have you been lucky with your job, or have you had any unpleasant experiences? What was your worst job, and why was it so bad?