Disconnect between upper management and reality: senior leadership often has no insight into the daily mistreatment happening at the middle management level….!! Serious issues are consistently shoved under the rug.
Very low pay compared to workload: salaries are far below market standards, and job descriptions rarely reflect the full scope of tasks you end up doing. What’s on paper does NOT match your actual responsibilities (= quiet promotions happen all the time).
Very toxic (middle) management culture: gossip, bullying, and personal agendas dominate. Psychological safety is completely absent. Attempts to raise concerns with HR are discouraged, with some managers actively intimidating employees for even considering it.
No time or space for HR escalation: structural understaffing means people are overloaded, and there’s no realistic way to address issues without retaliation.
High turnover: many employees leave not because of the work itself, but because they are taken advantage of and see no improvement in culture or pay. By the time I left there was someone leaving almost weekly for reasons I mentioned (but they always stated other reasons to safe face).
Some managers use gaslighting tactics: turning issues back on their junior employees, denying previous statements, or shifting blame. This creates a psychologically unsafe environment where employees begin doubting themselves and feel mentally unstable/anxious. In my case, I resorted to recording meetings just to confirm what had actually been said. This type of behaviour completely erodes trust and morale. The only reason I stayed as long as I did was for points mentioned above under positive, and I would have stayed longer if not for the way I was treated.
