THIS. There are so many companies that are just treated like glorified high school cliques by the owners/managers, and they're perfectly happy to run the business into the ground if it means sticking it to someone outside the cool kids' club. They'll burn the whole thing down out of spite before they'll let the pecking order get undermined.
I got lucky and have competent management. I've actually warned new employees who've never had other jobs, "No, look, you don't understand how lucky of a break you got here. Our manager knows what he's doing and is particularly competent at... management. That's fucking unheard of. Don't get used to this and think something like this will happen at your next job when you leave. He's a fucking unicorn. Take advantage of this and get your skills and experience up, then leave if that's what you're doing."
THIS. There are so many companies that are just treated like glorified high school cliques by the owners/managers, and they're perfectly happy to run the business into the ground if it means sticking it to someone outside the cool kids' club. They'll burn the whole thing down out of spite before they'll let the pecking order get undermined.
I got lucky and have competent management. I've actually warned new employees who've never had other jobs, "No, look, you don't understand how lucky of a break you got here. Our manager knows what he's doing and is particularly competent at... management. That's fucking unheard of. Don't get used to this and think something like this will happen at your next job when you leave. He's a fucking unicorn. Take advantage of this and get your skills and experience up, then leave if that's what you're doing."