About shitjobs.org
Background
I had a very shit job. When I decided to move on, I realised how hard it is to evaluate company culture from the outside. Although most companies talk up their values and culture, these claims can be wildly misleading. I spent hours trawling through job review sites trying to figure out whether a new role would actually be better or if I’d end up somewhere even worse.
Even within a company, a culture of silence often prevents employees from speaking openly about toxic practices and systemic problems. This means it can be difficult to gauge whether cultural issues are widespread or just localised to certain teams.
This frustration inspired me to create shitjobs.org. The site is intended to make it easier to understand red flags in company culture and help people to find workplaces that won’t make them miserable.
While I’m a big fan of shitrentals.org and its mission, this site is not affiliated with it in any way. The name shitjobs.org is a nod to their work and commitment to transparency.
Why workplace culture matters
Anyone who’s had a shit job knows that workplace culture can have an enormous impact on your mental health. While companies might present culture as simply perks and polished values on their website, it runs much deeper than that. It encompasses how employees are treated, whether they feel valued and safe, and their sense of meaning and purpose at work.
A poor workplace culture can lead to burnout, frustration, and dissatisfaction, which can spill over into every aspect of life to affect relationships, health, and career growth. Toxic environments, unreasonable workloads and KPIs, bullying, and ineffective leadership can leave employees feeling powerless and trapped.
Understanding workplace culture gives you the tools to make informed decisions to avoid environments that could harm your well-being and choose workplaces that respect and support you.
Methodology
The insights here are based on publicly available employee reviews from 2022 onwards and focus on companies with at least 30 reviews to ensure meaningful analysis. To identify patterns in the negative aspects of workplace culture, we used advanced text mining methods to uncover common themes and employee sentiment across the reviews. The data is updated quarterly to ensure insights stay current and relevant.
This focus on indicators of negative culture rather than culture overall is deliberate; while positive experiences are important, they tend to be well-covered in company marketing and self-promotion. By concentrating on potential problems, the site aims to help users identify warning signs and avoid workplaces that might not align with their values or needs.
Although company reviews can be an informative source for understanding workplace culture, they have some limitations. Some companies encourage employees to write positive reviews, and unhappy employees may be more motivated to leave negative ones. Both extremes can contribute to bias. However, a company with a pattern of highly negative reviews may point to underlying issues that have driven employees to publicly voice their frustrations.
Always consider the insights presented here alongside other sources, such as personal research or conversations, and take time to read individual reviews for a deeper understanding. The resources page lists additional sources you may want to explore when evaluating a company.
What we measure
We measure the proportion of a company’s reviews that mention specific indicators of negative culture. A high proportion of reviews mentioning one or more cultural indicators may signal a red flag. To provide context, we also compare individual companies to others in the same sector and overall.
The indicators we measure reflect common problems in workplace culture based on what employees share in reviews:
Poor leadership: Ineffective management at all levels, particularly micromanagement from middle managers and disconnect of upper management.
Overwork and stress: Unsustainable work demands, including unrealistic KPI pressures, constant busy periods, and expectations that harm mental health.
Instability and high turnover: Organisational volatility marked by high turnover, chronic understaffing, and frequent disruptive restructures.
Organisational dysfunction: Breakdowns in internal information sharing, leading to silos, blame culture, gossip, and unhealthy office politics.
Toxic culture: Specifically cited toxicity in the workplace, where employees describe their environment, management, or colleagues as “toxic” in their reviews.
Inequity and discrimination: Discriminatory workplace dynamics, especially gender bias, boys’ club mentality, favoritism, nepotism, and cliquey behavior.
Bullying: Hostile workplace behaviors including harassment, abuse, and intimidation that create a toxic interpersonal environment.
Contact
If you have feedback, suggestions, would like to report an issue, or simply want to commiserate about terrible workplaces you can reach out via email. I can’t give advice on your individual situation or on specific jobs or companies, but I welcome your insights and discussions about workplace culture.