by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: September 03, 2009   Last Updated: June 04, 2011

There are plenty of horror stories about terrible work places, but there are also plenty of people who say that they love would never leave their company. So what is that makes a company so bad that it qualifies as one of the worst to work for?

Some companies go from best to worst when cutbacks occur. When highly skilled or knowledgeable veterans are given the boot and newcomers step in to take over, the entire dynamic and culture of a workplace will go downhill quickly. Cutbacks in benefits and perks, such as tuition assistance can turn the mood from sweet to sour very quickly. Other efforts to cut costs can actually make normal work more difficult, causing more problems than are solved by the cost cutting.  

One major airline made persistently bad "top down" decisions and went from having a huge cash reserve that would have gotten it through hard times. But the company went into bankruptcy. Thousands of careers, 15 years on average, were ended and money taken out of pay for an "employee buyout" was lost. In addition, pensions were lost. The same company had overt and severe race relations, sex harassment and other issues that linger to this day.

Other companies go downhill in employee's estimation when senior management changes the corporate culture or introduces some less well defined form of negativity. Word was out that when Carly Fiorina resigned as CEO of Hewlitt Packard, the employees cheered. They simply hated her toxic management style. Some companies begin to engage in questionable or unethical practices, then compound the problems by retaliating against employees who resist going along with bad policies. The America Online debacles are a prime example of corporate ability to infuriate both customers and employees.

Many companies just offer dead end jobs. Management is not impressive or well educated. There is nothing that superiors know which could teach a young person how to move onward and upward. In fact, "onward and upward" at some companies is downright unappealing as a lifetime career option. Fast food franchises and a certain monster chain retail operation may not offer much in the way of lifetime career advancement. Certain aspects of farm labor can show up on the bottom of most people's lists when access is limited to training toward higher paying and more skilled jobs.

Another aspect of creating a worst workplace is incompetence and disorganization. No one wants to work in an environment where chains of supervision, work assignments and department structures are torn apart and restructured on an irregular but frequent basis. One company had a unannounced reorganization about every 4 months over several years. Supervisors would change overnight. Jobs would come and go overnight. Over time, even though the company looks healthy to the public, such mismanagement becomes a worker's nightmare.

Finally, some places are the worst because the work, by it's very nature, is the worst work to do. In the end, finding a desirable workplace involves more than benefits and money. Workers want a place where they can invest their best working years and leave without a bad feeling about the company.

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