When considering whether to stay at your current company or move on, it's essential to recognize the red flags that indicate a problematic work environment. These warning signs can significantly impact your career growth, mental health, and overall job satisfaction.

Perpetually Burning Deadlines

One of the most significant red flags is consistently tight deadlines, where projects are always 'on fire'. Constant pressure to deliver projects quickly leaves little time for planning, thoughtful design, code review, and writing quality code. This environment often leads to poor planning, degraded code quality, stifled innovation, and high levels of stress. In the end, the blame is shifted to developers rather than the management, who fail to fulfill their responsibilities.

Ignoring Problems and Solutions

If a company ignores problems and dismisses suggestions for improvement, it definitely leads to stagnation and inefficiency. This frustrates specialists who want to contribute and solve issues, resulting in a lack of innovation, poor communication, and a sense of apathy throughout the company. As a result, talented employees feel undervalued and typically leave the company.

Unrealistic Deadlines

Another significant red flag is when management sets unrealistic deadlines without consulting the specialists team. This leads to improper planning, increased pressure at work, compromised quality, blame-shifting, and decreased team morale, similar to what happens with constantly burning deadlines. In such conditions, developers often suffer from severe stress and burnout, prompting them to seek a better working environment.

Dishonesty

For example, when it comes to salary increases, promotions, or any other promised benefits, and the employer does not fulfill those promises, it's a serious reason to consider changing company. Lying lowers morale and hinders professional growth, creating a culture of dishonesty. If a company has lied to its employees once, it will likely do so again. Therefore, it's important to raise an alarm and seriously think about finding a new job.

Remember: there is no place for dishonesty in professional activities, whether it comes from management, developers, or the company as a whole - it doesn't matter.

Manipulation and Toxicity

Psychological manipulation and toxicity in the workplace greatly affect mental health and career growth. Emotional manipulation, raising voices, playing on ego, a blame culture, and poor leadership create a hostile environment. It can also suppress ambitions and the desire to develop, to the point where you may become tired not just of working in the company but of working and growing in the IT field altogether.

High Employee Turnover

High employee turnover is another significant red flag. If you start noticing that most of your colleagues have been with the company for less than, say, six months, there is likely a serious underlying issue. High turnover often indicates problems within the company, whether it's poor management, unrealistic deadlines, a toxic work atmosphere, or something else. High turnover is at least a reason to consider the potential problems that may only become apparent over time.

Conclusion

Of course, these are not all the red flags that may indicate issues within a company. If you recognize your company in these signals, my advice is to consider changing jobs.

If you are part of the company's management, pay attention to what not to do and what to work on to create an excellent working environment.