A job that taught me how dark people can be. - Anonymous employee Bright Start Academy Employee Review

Working here slowly changed the way I saw myself. I arrived believing that if things became overwhelming, I could reach out to the people around me. But whenever I tried to open up my difficulties, especially when I felt panicked or lost, I was met not with support, but with remarks that cut deeply. Some coworkers would say things like I had “no brain,” “should not be hired”or that I was “better off leaving,” as if struggling was a flaw instead of a human experience. There was one colleague in particular who seemed almost eager to push me out—reminding me day after day, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, that I did not belong, that I should quit, that the team would be better without me. It felt like being slowly erased while still standing in the room. When I finally worked up the courage to tell the manager that I was panicking, struggling, or simply drowning under pressure, nothing changed. She listened just enough to appear polite, but afterward my fears felt like they had vanished into a void. No follow-up, no check-in, no acknowledgment that I was falling apart. It taught me a hard truth: “sometimes people hear you, and still choose not to care.” The isolation became heavier and heavier. At some point, the environment didn’t just make me anxious, it made me depressed. I found myself questioning my own worth, wondering whether I really was as useless as some coworkers implied. Nights became difficult. Weekends became recovery. And I kept asking myself: Why is life already so hard and painful, yet somehow we still get placed in front of people who choose to be cruel? Why must we be reminded in this way of how dark human nature can be? If you are reading this because you are considering applying, I’m not here to tell you what choice to make. I hope you to remember that you deserve to be treated like a human being, even when a workplace forgets that.