Avoiding Red Flags at your Next Organization

I was walking the other day with one of my team members during our 1:1 and they asked me the question, “How many companies have you worked for?”. I stopped walking for a moment because I really needed to think.? If I count my contracting jobs, I answered 19. Wow, that’s a lot they said.? So I think I’m qualified to share some of the red flags that I’ve seen over the last 25 years and more importantly how to avoid them.?

I mean, If I gave you a DeLorean to travel into the future and see what your job would be like in 6 months you would use it right??

Before jumping into how to spot these red flags, let’s start by defining a few important ones.

Red Flags Defined

Red Flag #1: Micromanagement.? We’ve all heard the term and have probably seen some degree of this before.? It often indicates a lack of trust and insecure leaders.? I once had a manager sit over my shoulder as I worked on a critical customer bug stating that he was not going to leave until it was fixed.? I asked him if he could get me a coffee because this would be more useful, I didn’t get a coffee.?

Red Flag #2: Bad decision making. When the decision making process is unclear or decisions are simply not made at all, this kills confidence in leadership and causes frustration amongst the teams.? Another example of bad decisions is changing decisions frequently.? We’ve all been working on something, and the decision was made to stop the project.? But imagine this became the norm, or decisions were changing every few weeks. This sort of behavior usually reflects itself in the form of employees saying they do not understand the company direction.

Red Flag #3: Favoritism. I’ve been at organizations where there were clicks or groups that were considered to be above the law.? They were often at the company for a long period of time (sometimes part of the founding team) and upper management would often let them do what they wanted regardless of ability, competence, or experience. This creates a culture of inequality and resentment.

Red Flag #4: Lack of Accountability. I’ve seen this reflected at the IC level where their work would break in production, and they would not hold their peers or their own work accountable for the fault.? They would not jump in to help support and would often deflect with statements like “this is the support team’s responsibility”. This leads to all kids of bad behaviors including the inability to share honest feedback.??

Red Flag #5: Leadership not living by the company values. Leaders who preach one set of values for everyone but don’t live by them kills trust in an organization.?

Red Flag #6: Smoke and mirrors. When the company focuses too heavily on appearance like excessive spending on marketing campaigns, purchases for status, or a really fancy office, this is usually a sign that funds are not being spent in the right place.? Odds are they’re not investing in product development or employee well-being.

Red Flag #7: No Work-Life Balance. Asking employees to cancel their vacation, work on weekends, unpaid overtime to save their job, expecting employees to answer their phones all hours of the day.? You get the idea…

Red Flag #8: HR is not a Partner. I’ve been at organizations where HR was not a partner but rather an enforcer of upper management’s initiatives.? Employees did not feel heard or as if they had a place to turn with legitimate concerns.??

Red Flag #9: Resistance to Feedback.? I’ve seen this manifest itself in the form of leadership only wanting to hear what they want to hear. I’ve also seen leadership become very defensive when it comes to their own work, projects they’re running or performance feedback regarding themselves.?

After seeing these red flags, I think it’s important to remember that there’s no such thing as a perfect job, and so you must be prepared to tolerate a red or yellow flag from time to time.? The idea is to try and avoid these as much as possible since you spend a lot of time at work and you owe it to yourself to be in an environment where you enjoy coming to work everyday.?

As you may have noticed, many of these red flags are related to the impact of leadership.? I’ve seen amazing teams completely crumble under toxic leadership.? To the point where they needed psychological help.? Really not pretty.?

So how do you spot some of these red flags before it’s too late??

The harsh reality is that many of these red flags are really hard to detect during the interview process as companies tend to put their best foot forward. I’ve been fooled multiple times.

It’s often after you get your foot in the door that you start to notice questionable leadership and by then it feels too late.? You feel trapped and start to question how long you should stay.? You start to make pacts with yourself that you’ll tough it out for a year so it does not look bad on your CV.?

I said it was hard, but not impossible.? So here are some things you should do:?

Before Joining a Company:

• Make sure you interview the company: This cannot be emphasized enough; too often, interviewing employees don’t interview the company.? They worry about asking tough questions that may jeopardize their chances. If asking genuine, relevant, probing questions jeopardizes your chances at employment, you don’t want the job anyway.? In my last role, I was not given enough time to ask questions and so I asked for 3 additional interviews. Remember to ask questions about the culture and try to dig deep.? All the way down to the team culture that is hiring. Leadership has a huge impact on an organization and so don’t forget to ask plenty of questions about why people leave the company and how decisions are made. At the end of the interview, you should have a feeling of what it would be like to work there.? If something feels off, make sure you ask more questions.?
• Due-Diligence: Research the company thoroughly, including its leadership team; perform background checks on the leadership team all the way to the CEO. Do they have backgrounds that fit the organization? Check employee reviews on platforms like Glassdoor (beware of staged Glassdoor reviews that have unrealistically high approval rates and uniformly glowing reviews that repeat the same points).Pay careful attention to how your questions are answered. Defensiveness, side stepping or avoiding answers can be red flags.
• Get Several Perspectives: Speak with current and former employees and if possible meet potential peers and direct reports, not just superiors. For executive roles, request relevant company documents (e.g. board deck, investor thesis, cap table), offering to sign an NDA. If the company does not want to share this information, this is usually a sign that they don’t have things figured out or want to hide something.
• Team Interactions: During interviews, pay attention to employee interactions with one another. Does it feel like people get along? Are there signs of domineering, stress or fear?

Trust Your Gut: If something smells fishy during the interview process it probably is.?

After Joining:

So you’re a few months in and you start to realize some toxic behaviours.? Before you freak out, here are a few things to consider:

• CYA and document everything. You’ve heard me say it before, but become a really good note taker. This includes problematic observations with facts. This will really help in those he-said-she-said situations, or if ever you need to seek legal counsel.
• Make friends and build yourself a support network both inside and outside the company walls.
• Make sure you set yourself clear boundaries to make sure you protect your well-being. This includes working hours, work-life integrations and setting clear expectations.?
• Start preparing an exit strategy.? In other words, start paving the way for your next job.? The harsh reality is that a lot of these red flags are not easily fixed and so you need to be ready to jump ship if they become too overwhelming. I once had a CEO that expressed during an all-hands meeting that if you’re not happy with the current company changes that you could “vote with your feet”.? This quote became a running gag in the next few months as the mass exodus started…?
• HR is not always your friend in toxic organizations. Be aware of this, I’ve raised issues at organizations before only to have this confidential information find its way to the CEO and later be used against the team as a “bunch of complainers”.?
• Growth mindset: no matter the role you have in the organization, you should always try and stay up-to-date on organizational culture. This will make you more self-aware and better at detecting red flags in the future.?
• Try and model the culture you would like to see in the organization within your own team.? Start small and the right behaviours just might spread within the organization.? I’ve seen great teams thrive in toxic organizations because they created their own microcosm culture that shielded them from the rest of the org. I’ve been a part of a few of these teams and we almost always succeeded because we had a strong manager that shielded the team and created a place where this could occur.
• Be a change agent. If you feel safe to do so, use appropriate forums to propose change.? Bring up issues and ask for help to change these issues.? You’d be surprised how asking for help creates momentum for change.?
• Lawyers can be your friends too.? Maybe it’s the bad lawyer jokes or the hourly rates that gave them a bad rap, but lawyers can be a tremendously useful resource when it comes to more serious topics like harassment, discrimination or retaliation.? I’ve seen this unacceptable behaviour before and oftentimes I’ve seen victims just take it on the cheek because they’re afraid to get lawyers involved.??

Conclusion

No workplace is perfect, but it’s important to recognize the difference between normal workplace challenges and a toxic workplace. ? Being aware, trusting your instincts, and being prepared to act can have hugely beneficial effects on your well-being.? The red flags and strategies I've shared come from years of learning the hard way. My hope is that this article can help you better spot some of these in the future so you can carefully consider them.?