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We really need to form some kind of a support network for people who work or have worked at places that feed such illusions about themselves. https://twitter.com/tobie/status/1387163991840116736
Yes, all places have their problems. And: when an employer with a great reputation treats people badly or otherwise fails to live up to their image, it can do a huge amount of damage to the people who work there.
I know people who've worked at such places who, a couple of successful jobs down the line, still melt down in fury and grief when they think about their time there. I get it -- they were treated abysmally by people they thought would do not just better, but well.
And what is hard is that the bad treatment isn't equally distributed at such places, otherwise they wouldn't have the reputation they do.
There are some people who get treated well who put it all down to their own merit; they are wrong, and smug, and I hate them, no matter how much shit they talk when it's "just us".
There are some people who get treated well who see that their good treatment is situational; those people can feel terrible sadness and guilt at seeing others treated badly.
And the people who get treated badly feel for the longest time that there is something they could do to make it better, because they see other people get treated well. Random reinforcement is mean that way.
I know people who had to smile and nod and be professional when people told them how lucky they were to get to work at a particular place or with a particular person, when the reality was that they were being treated insensitively and thoughtlessly.
All companies have their problems, but being treated like shit by a company with a fantastic reputation is its own weird form of gaslighting. And people who've (unfortunately) shared that experience should work to support each other. /fin
